Dementia

Here a person tends to forget things happened hours back though they may appear absolutely normal. They can`t properly comprehend the situation. This generally happens wit people in their late sixties or after. If left untreated, such persons can have problems even in performing their essential daily chores gradually. The commonest form of dementia is the Alzheimer`s disease.

How to Use the Simple Magic of Mantrams to Command your Superconscious Mind

"There is a slight difference between the words mantra and mantram. Both are taken from a Sanskrit word meaning instrument of thought. The difference is this: a mantram is a vocalized instrument of thought, while a mantra is silent."

Whether you realize it or not, you create and shape your life with your thoughts. All things that become part of your physical reality are first created in the mind from the raw material called thought. Because it is an instrument of thought, a mantram is a tool which you can use to help shape your life as you wish it to be.

Now, in order to use mantrams to your advantage, you need to first understand the mind and how it works. Nowadays, the term subconscious mind is one that's frequently heard but seldom understood. Instead of subconsciousness, the lamas use a word that could be translated as superconsciousness -- consciousness of a higher order. The job of the superconscious mind is to take thought, which is pure energy, and give it physical shape in the material world.

Whole books could be written on the subject, but just now the important thing for you to remember is this: your superconscious mind is a willing and eager servant whom you command by way of your thought patterns.

When you think a thought, you issue a command. Your servant obeys by manifesting the thought in the physical world where it becomes the things and events in your life. Thus, physical reality is a mirror of your thought patterns. Change your thought patterns, and you change the reflection in the mirror. In other words, you change your life.

This concept, as simple as it is, is a stumbling block for many people. They point to some unhappy or even tragic event in their lives and refuse to believe that they could have created it with their own thoughts.

But if you examine your thoughts closely, you're likely to discover negative patterns competing with positive ones. In one breath you'll say, "I want to achieve happiness." But in the next breath you'll give yourself a thousand and one reasons to be unhappy: your job is stressful; the weather is unpleasant; bills are piling up; you're overweight; the neighbors are noisy; you are late for an appointment; and on and on. So while your stated goal is happiness, your thoughts are working overtime to create just the opposite.

A mantram is something you can use to unify your thought patterns and bring them into alignment with your highest and best desires. To start using this powerful tool, you must first clearly identify the rewards which life is to deliver to your doorstep.

A Very Simple Exercise to Unify Your Mind

There's a very simple mental exercise that can help you accomplish this. It takes only a few minutes, so I suggest that you repeat it every month of so. Sit down and make a written list of the things you desire most. Don't reason as to what you ought to want. Instead, jot down your desires quickly, including everything that comes to mind.

Now examine your list carefully and ask yourself what rewards each of your stated desires must bring you. The rewards are what you're really after, so write them down also. For example, if you wrote, "I desire a better job," what you really want are the rewards of a better job. Maybe you want the fulfillment that comes from putting to good use special talents and training you have. Perhaps you want a bigger paycheck and the feeling of security that comes with that. Or maybe you want the pleasure of working in a friendly, relaxed environment.

The rewards you want should always be expressed in terms of feelings. Feelings, both bitter and sweet, are the fruits of your lifetime experience. They are the prize. When you depart this world,you leave behind your material treasures. But your feelings remain with you always. So choose with care those which you wish to have as lasting companions.

Now review your list of desires and the rewards you wish to achieve. Read it top to bottom, and as you do, search for just two or three words or phrases to summarize everything. This may seem impossible at first. But once you look closely, you'll see groups of seemingly different desires and rewards all aimed to a common goal. Separate your desires into two or three such groups and find a word or phrase to capsulize each one. To use a simple example, if you desire a better house, an expensive automobile, and a new wardrobe, the fundamental goal behind all three is abundance or prosperity.

Create a Short, Simple Command For Your Superconscious

By now you should have a clear picture of your fundamental goals, so put them all together and state them in a brief command. Make the command positive, short, and to the point. For example, "I demand happiness, power, and prosperity right now." And there you have it. When your command is spoken aloud, it becomes a mantram, or plainly stated, a device you can use to stimulate your superconscious mind into action."

The word power is a good one, because it will help bring about health, strength, and vitality in your physical body. And on a mental level, it will empower you to become master of your own destiny. "Right now" at the end of your command tells your superconscious mind when you want things to happen: NOW. It tells your superconscious mind to get busy immediately manifesting your desires

How to Use Your Mantram

Now that you have a mantram, putting it to use is as simple as can be. All you need to do is speak it aloud with conviction. Don't be timid. Feel the power of your voice and speak as if you are commanding a magic genie who will bring you whatever you desire. Once you have spoken your mantram aloud with unwavering conviction and resolve, you've done all that's needed.

Speak your mantram just before going to sleep at night and upon waking in the morning. Then form the habit of repeating it at regular intervals throughout the day. If you find yourself in front of a mirror, gaze directly into the reflection of your own eyes and repeat your mantram with firm confidence.

Then, as you go about your daily life, pay close attention to all the things you think and say. Be alert for negative thoughts or words that will send conflicting commands to your superconscious mind. They will undo the positive force of your mantram, so when you detect them, stop, take a deep breath, and cancel the negative thoughts or words by speaking your mantram with steadfast resolve.

Of course, if you are in the presence of other people, you can't all of a sudden blurt out, "I desire happiness, power, and prosperity right now!" In such a case, I would suggest that you use a mantra. All that's needed is to repeat your mantra inwardly and contemplate the meaning of the words. Since it isn't reinforced by the power of the voice, a mantra isn't quite as effective as a spoken Mantram, but it will get splendid results nevertheless.

Focus on the End Result

Whether you're using a mantram or a mantra, an important thing to remember is this: when you command the superconscious mind, you must focus only on the end result which you desire. Never try to dictate how superconsciousness will accomplish its miracles.

The superconscious mind is far more clever and resourceful than you can possibly imagine. If it is headed off in one direction, it is not discouraged and does not give up, for it knows that there are ten thousand other ways to achieve a desired goal. If, through your own thoughts and preconceptions, you try to tell the superconscious mind how to do its work, you will only limit its options and restrict the magic which can unfold.

The superconscious realm of your mind is a magnificent thing. It takes great delight in working to accomplish literally anything you desire. Desire is a very strong force, and when you use it to stimulate the superconscious mind into action, it will be thrilled to bring you your heart's desire in ways you never dreamed possible.

Another thing you should know is this: the superconscious realm of the mind does not judge your thoughts before it responds to them. It does not differentiate between pain or pleasure, sorrow or happiness, grief or joy. A better way to state it is, no feelings or emotions are pleasant or unpleasant to the superconscious mind. Its job is to transform thought patterns into matter -- all thought patterns. And it couldn't possibly do the job it is meant to do if it were to first judge your thoughts good or bad, happy or unhappy, worthy or unworthy.

In short, the wonderfully simple secret which can help everybody achieve whatever they desire is this: change your thought patterns, and you change your life. If you think thrilling thoughts, the superconscious mind will flood your life with thrilling things, instead of the miserable things in life.

Five Deadly Sales Letter Mistakes

To be effective your sales letter must be opened, read, believed and acted upon. In order to do this it must attract attention, warm the interest of the reader, create a desire for your product or service and cause your prospect to take positive action.

An effective sales letter, not surprisingly, achieves the same objectives as an effective salesperson. And just as there are certain mistakes a salesperson wants to be sure to avoid in the selling process, the same holds true for the writer of sales letters.

So today I present Five Deadly Sales Letter Mistakes. Eliminate one or more of the common blunders described here and it's a good bet your response rates will improve.

Deadly Sales Letter Mistake # 1 -- Writing Your Letter For the Hundreds or Thousands of People You Will Be Mailing It To Instead of One Special Person. One sure way to generate an apathetic response to your sales letter is to write for the group or list of people you will be mailing it to.

Approaching your letter with a "crowd mentality" instead of focusing in on a single, real, living, breathing prospect will greatly impair the ability of your letter to make a genuine connection with the reader.

The sales letter is the most personal, one-to-one form of advertising there is. As is often said, it's the only form of advertising that begins with the word "dear." So it should read like one person sitting down writing to one other person. And here's a crystal clear example of exactly what I mean by that statement. It's from a letter by the brilliant copywriter and non-pareil advertising man, Maxwell Sackheim:

"Thank you very much for having written to me for my latest catalog. A copy is being sent to you in another envelope and should reach you in a day or two.

"When my catalog arrives I hope you will give it as friendly a welcome as if I were visiting you myself. I've tried to put into it just the words I would say to you if you were to come here personally, or if I were to come to your home and spend an evening with you."

Deadly Sales Letter Mistake # 2 -- Thinking that Your Prospect Won't Read a Long Letter. The key question is, what makes for a long letter? To which the answer is, any letter that is uninteresting is a long letter! Even the one-page letter that many salespeople and amateur marketers arbitrarily limit themselves to can seem long.

For example, a number of years ago Kevin Costner made an interminably boring and bloated movie entitled Waterworld that the critics panned and audiences ignored. On the other hand, Stephen Spielberg's inspiring and unflinching film about the Holocaust, Schindler's List, was more than three hours long and it was a huge critical and financial success.

Here's my point: People read long books, take long trips, and watch long movies and plays. And evidence abounds that people read long letters. But people won't read boring letters, dull letters, obviously self-serving I-me-we-product-oriented letters.

Offer the right product or service at the right price to the right audience and if you have enough to say and say it interestingly enough…you can make a five-page letter pull a better response than a two page letter.

Deadly Sales Letter Mistake # 3 -- Being a Slave to the Formal Rules of Correct Grammar. When you were in school, teachers and professors were paid to read your work and they dutifully corrected your writing according to the formal rules of grammar.

In the real world it's a different story. When writing a sales letter you want your work to have a conversational readability to it. And in most instances that means writing in an informal style. Because that's how the vast majority of buyers and sellers communicate with one another.

As a result, you'll break a number of formal grammatical rules. You'll start sentences with "and" or "but." Instead of complete sentences you'll sometimes use a sentence fragment. But that's OK. And every now and then you'll dangle a participle or end a sentence with a preposition.

If all of this seems totally against the grain consider this true story. Winston Churchill, a Nobel Prize Winner for literature, was corrected by one of his proofreaders for ending a sentence in a preposition. To which Mr. Churchill replied, "That is the type of nonsense up with which I will not put!"

Your objective is to generate a lead or advance or close the sale. Not one of your prospects is getting paid to read your letter. This time your "grade" will be determined by how well people respond.

Save Yourself! How to Stop Being a Martyr-preneur

One of the pitfalls of being an entrepreneur is trying to run the business entirely on your own. While only you may be able to get the job done to your standards of perfection, you will eventually burn out if you keep trying to do it all yourself.

Entrepreneurs are notorious for doing everything themselves. They—I should say, we—stake our lives on our businesses. Overriding all other mottos and mantras for us seems to be “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”

And how often we prove ourselves right on that one. We hire assistants or employees and entrust certain tasks to them, only to discover sooner or later that their work just didn’t meet our standards of perfection. We end up redoing the work ourselves and ruing the day we turned the job over to someone else to begin with.

This is the definition of a martyr-preneur: The entrepreneur who practically kills themselves doing everything on their own to meet their standards of perfection.

What’s wrong with that? you may be asking.

What wrong with that is the “practically killing yourself” part.

If your business can’t survive without you, then how do you expect your business to survive without you?

I know that question is filled with redundancy, and the answer seems so obvious. But most of us entrepreneurs are so focused on our business that we miss—or choose to ignore—this most obvious paradox. Our businesses rely so much on us that we are willing to do anything for our businesses, even at the expense of our own health and wellbeing.

Some people take pride in being a martyr-preneur. They don’t even have to have their own business to be one. You know who I’m taking about: the person who constantly has to one-up you on how much work they have and how stressed they are. The more work they have and the more stressed they are, the more important they feel. But they’re usually not very happy. And, with all that stress, the work they do usually isn’t so great.

For actual entrepreneurial types, it’s even easier to become a martyr-preneur. Our standards are so high, and we are so motivated to make everything “just right” that we often slip out of entrepreneurship and slide right into martyr-preneurship. We insist that our high standards are the only possible standards. We are quickly frustrated by other people’s opinions and timetables. We can’t tolerate any deviation from our own mission and objective.

And so we try to do it all.

Until we just can’t anymore. That’s the thing about being a martyr-preneur: By definition, you burn out. You burn out physically, mentally and possibly even financially.

But you don’t have to be a martyr-preneur. You can save yourself!

The two most important things you can do to stop being a martyr-preneur and avoid entrepreneurial burnout are taking care of yourself and getting help.

1. Take care of yourself

As much as we take care of our businesses, we entrepreneurs are loathe to take care of ourselves. It often feels like a waste of precious time to do something for ourselves at the expense of our business. But it’s not at the expense of our business! Ignoring our own physical, mental and spiritual needs causes the greatest expense to our business.

Here is a fun and easy way to take care of yourself every day: Create a self-care jar. Take a dozen or more scraps of paper. On each piece of paper, write down a fun and/or relaxing activity that you can do in 15 minutes. Put all the scraps of paper into a jar. Now here’s the tough part: Every day, draw a piece of paper from the jar and do that activity.

If you end up not liking that activity, get rid of it. If you enjoy it, put it back in the jar for another day.

Here are some activities you might want to put in your self-care jar:

Read a non-work magazine
Take a walk
Meditate
Drink a cup of hot tea in silence
Read a fluffy book
Call a friend (and don’t talk shop!)
Dance
Watch a silly video on YouTube
Read a comic book

The point of these activities is not to boost your brain but to reduce your stress. So pick activities that are calming and relaxing or else silly and funny. Laughter is a great way to reduce stress!

2. Get help

Deep down, you know that you can’t do it all yourself. So get some help!

As an entrepreneur, you need to focus on strategic planning and on doing your actual job. You don’t need to be the one to do every job associated with your business. And you don’t need to be the only one responsible for every household job. Maybe you’ve hired employees in the past and had a bad experience. If you want your business—and yourself—to survive, then you’re going to have to hire some help. Hire a virtual assistant or an actual employee. Delegate the tasks that drain you. Hire someone to clean your home. If you don’t have the cash flow to hire actual people, then find freelancers or barter with other people.

To make the experience a good one this time, be very clear with yourself and with them about the job description and your expectations. Remember that no one is as invested in your business as you are. But you can still get good people to do great work for you. You just have to be clear and direct. Write down a job description, as well as milestones and metrics.

Share them with your new hire. Then stick to them!

I hope these ideas have inspired you to avoid becoming—or stop being—a martyr-preneur. Taking care of yourself does not take away from your business. Taking care of yourself helps expand your business.

How to Create an Offer Your Prospects and Customers Can’t Refuse

Do you know what the two most important parts of any marketing or advertising piece are?

The first one is easy—the headline. But the second one is tougher. Because unless you’ve studied copywriting, you’d be hard-pressed to guess. Yet it can make or break your entire promotion…

The second most important part of your marketing and advertising is the offer.

Think about it. If you want to tons of sales, you really do have to make people an offer they can’t refuse. Because even the most powerful call to action won’t work unless your offer is practically irresistible.

Let’s look at a few examples...

Which one is the better offer?

OFFER A – Sign up for our Free newsletter.

OFFER B – Sign up to receive your Free copy of “The 7 Deadliest Small Business Marketing Sins…Are You Guilty?” and have Bright Ideas for building your business sent to your inbox each week.

OFFER A – Call 867-5309 for your complementary consultation.

OFFER B – Be one of the first 10 business to call 867-5309 and receive a no-cost “Smart Business Tax Strategies Review” (a $500 value) that shows exactly how you can save up to $5000 on your federal taxes.

OFFER A – Just click on the button below to buy your very own Garden Mole today.

OFFER B – Try the Garden Mole for FREE. If you’re thrilled with the results, keep it and we’ll bill your credit card. If not, just send it back within 30 days and you won’t be charged a penny.

Anatomy of an offer they can’t refuse

Regardless of what you’re selling—and even if you’re giving something away—there are four things that go into creating a really effective offer. If your offer doesn’t have any one of these, chances are it’s not going to generate the results you’re after.

1) You need to offer something your client wants, not just something you think they need (or something that’s easy for you). Keep in mind, of course, that what people want and what they need are rarely the same thing.

2) Prospects must to be able to understand, right away, why they would want it (This is that “What’s In It For Me?” or WIIFM factor us marketers talk about all the time). After all, if there’s no clear benefit to them, why would they bother taking the time or spending the money?

That’s why just offering a free consult or a free newsletter isn’t very effective anymore. We’re all far too busy to go for those generic offers. You need to promise something more compelling (see #1).

Besides, these days most people think ‘free consult’ means ‘time-sucking sales pitch’ anyway. So that offer is pretty much a waste of space.

3) It has to have more value then risk. Part of this is price. But this is also where bonuses, free reports, cost comparisons, free trials, and money-back guarantees come in. They all either add value or reduce the risk. And they’re all part of the offer.

4) They need a good reason to take action now. People are super busy. So if they don’t take action right now, they’re likely to procrastinate then forget all about your offer. That means you need to give folks incentive to act immediately. Think limited availability, limited time offer, early bird rates, special bonuses, emphasizing why waiting would be worse, etc.

Just make sure if you do a promotion with limited availability or a limited time offer that it’s true. If you don’t stick to the promise made in your offer your credibility will go out the window. And the next time you say you only have five available it’ll be like the little boy who cried wolf.

A classic example of a highly effective offer...

Remember the old Ginsu knives commercials? Those knives seemed like a pretty good deal all on their own…But wait, there’s more. For one low price you also get the knife holder, the sharpener, the insta-chopper, and the kitchen sink.

And, if you act right now, they’ll even throw in a special salad spinner as a special bonus.

As if that wasn’t enough to convince you, they also included a money-back guarantee.

Talk about a lot of value for little risk, and a good reason to act now. If you were in the market for a new set of knives, how could you resist?

So next time you get ready to promote a product or service, don’t just stick your contact info in there and hope for the best. Make ‘em an offer they can’t refuse!

Seven Surprises for New Managers

Surprise One: You Can't Run Everything, in Detail
As a new manager, you first need to realize that you can't be directly involved in every detail of every project that your team is working on. Otherwise, work will bottleneck around you, you'll become exceptionally stressed, and your team's effectiveness will plummet.

So your perspective has to shift from getting things done yourself to getting things done through other people. (This sounds obvious - but many new managers struggle with this!)

To avoid the problems associated with this surprise:
Learn how to delegate effectively.
Only attend meetings that you really need to attend.
Question whether you need to participate in tasks, or simply be informed of their outcomes.
Be careful not to make too many decisions for people; when people come to you with a question, ask them what they recommend.
Give people the guidance and resources that they need to do their jobs themselves. This frees you to do the job of managing and leading your team.

Surprise Two: Giving Orders is Costly
As a manager, you need to work towards a situation where you don't need to tell people what to do, and can, instead, trust them to make the right decisions.

Some people may doubt their ability to make decisions. When this happens, they're likely to come to you for approval of everything. This creates "manager dependency," and can make you a decision-making bottleneck, potentially stalling your team's progress.

In a similar way, overruling decisions or making last minute changes can waste a great deal of time and resource; and it can also undermine your people's confidence.

To avoid the problems associated with this surprise:
Communicate your organization's vision and values, keep people informed, and train them so that they have the confidence to make decisions, based on what's best for the organization.
Create systems and structures so that your people understand what needs to be done.
Endorse robust decision making tools, and teach people how to use them.
Let people know that mistakes are part of the development process, and that you'd rather they take some risks than be indecisive. (Clearly, this may not be suitable in all types of work, so use your best judgment.)
Recognize how placing trust in people can improve your team's performance.

Surprise Three: It's Hard to Know What's Really Going On
No one wants to give his or her boss bad news. So, the reality is that by the time you get information, it won't necessarily be reliable.

However, you need accurate information to manage effectively, so you'll have to gather information from as many sources as possible.

To avoid the problems associated with this surprise:
Use Management By Wandering Around. This keeps you in contact with your people, and allows you to see and hear what's going on first-hand.
Talk to customers and suppliers on a regular basis, and build strong relationships with these people.
Analyze all of your stakeholders, and communicate with them often to ensure that you know what they're thinking.

Surprise Four: You're Always Sending a Message
As a manager, your words and your actions hold a lot of weight. People may speculate about why you said or did something; and they'll try to interpret whether your words or actions contained any hidden messages. Your mood will also affect your team, and everything that you say will be analyzed.

Managers lead by example, whether they want to or not. You need to be careful about the example that you're setting, and be fully aware of the messages you're sending - deliberate or not.

To avoid the problems associated with this surprise:
Use simple, clear language when you communicate with people.
Double check that people understand your message, and don't assume that people have grasped the real meaning of what you're communicating.
Think about your body language, and learn how to use it to convey the right message.
Use storytelling to communicate the messages that you want people to hear.
Be a good role model for your people, and lead by example.

Surprise Five: You Aren't Always the Boss
While you might be the boss of your team, you aren't the ultimate boss. (Even a business owner is accountable to his or her customers.) There will always be someone that you need to report to, so you can't allow yourself to get caught up in your own importance.

As a manager, you should know who you need to keep informed, and you should work hard to gain the support of people around you. You will also need to manage upward, and be aware of how you stand with the people you report to.

You also can't let the flow of information stop with you, just because you're the manager.

To avoid the problems associated with this surprise:
Learn how to develop effective relationships with powerful people in your organization.
Find ways to collaborate with people that you report to, and to gain their trust.
Remember to share information and resources on a regular basis - both with your team, and with others.

Surprise Six: Pleasing Shareholders is not Always the Goal
Shareholders typically have a short-term perspective, and may be profit or performance oriented.

However, there are other longer-term considerations that can be more important than the goals of shareholders, and you need to be aware of these.

For instance, should company profits outweigh safety concerns? Should you push your team to finish a project unfeasibly early, because your boss is putting pressure on you? If an executive is behaving inappropriately with one of your people, when should you decide that enough is enough?

Making this type of decision requires knowing who you are ultimately accountable to.

To avoid the problems associated with this surprise:
Take some time to understand your personal values, and how they fit with company values.
Understand the vision of the company and what it stands for. Make decisions based on that vision and those values. Reward team behavior that promotes these values.
Develop a clear strategy for your team, and ensure that it's aligned with corporate strategy.
Attract and recruit people in your team who fit the vision and values of your organization.
Understand Value-Based Management - the idea that you should be chasing the best long-term value of your business, not sacrificing the future just to boost this quarter's earnings.

Surprise Seven: You're Still Only Human
As a manager you must remember that your position doesn't make you better or more capable than anyone else. You'll continue to make mistakes, and people around you will still have opinions that are different from yours.

However, being a manager does make you more responsible, and you need to demonstrate this responsibility.

To avoid the problems associated with this surprise:
Be humble and thankful, and reward the people around you who make you and your team look good.
Be accountable to yourself.
Use your emotional intelligence to remain connected with colleagues, family, and friends.
Create your Wheel of Life, and remind yourself to find the balance you need to be the best you can be.

Transforming Your Hobby Into A Career

Starting a business? Are you eager to turn your hobby into a money-making business? Running your own business can be rewarding in many ways, but before you give up your day job, be sure you are realistic about what you'll be doing when you become the boss. Here's a good look at some of the realities you're likely to encounter in your startup years.

Are You Realistic About What You'll Gain? -- One of the main reasons that people leave the corporate world is a desire to "be my own boss." Being your own boss is highly overrated. I am by far the most demanding boss I've ever had. When you're self-employed, you don't get the luxury of checking out when you leave the office. Your work takes up some portion of your mind space 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Your business, your customers' experience and your employees' livelihoods live and die on the decisions you make. That's a lot of pressure, and you'll make demands on yourself accordingly.

For example, I have friends who work at corporate jobs and complain about a meager 6-week maternity leave policy. That's pretty skimpy, I agree. When my second daughter was born at the beginning of our busiest season of the year, I took four days off before I had to come back to work. Four days. I couldn't blame it on an awful boss. It was my fault -- poor planning, in the first place, coupled with bad hiring. My staff couldn't function without me, and had I not come back so soon and spent many days that December working 12-16 hours, my business would've collapsed. You may not be answering to one person in particular, but that doesn't mean you're not answering to anyone.

Other major drivers for starting your own business can be money, quality of life, fame or expertise. All of these are good reasons to switch careers, but most of the time you won't be able to achieve any of them overnight. Be realistic about how much time it will take to achieve your goals.

Are You Ready to Start at the Bottom? -- You may be extremely good at your hobby, but when people start paying you for it, you are subject to a new set of standards. Your age and experience in your first career won't necessarily give you a head start in your new career. Be open to gaining experience through internships or apprenticeships, even if they are unpaid, and expect that many of your co-workers and even your bosses may be years younger than you.

If you use your maturity to your advantage determination and a willingness to succeed can help you move forward. At Tribeca Treats we have had interns of all ages ranging from teenagers to people into their 50's. Regardless of age, they all start with the same level of tasks, and their ability to take on greater responsibilities is judged by demonstration of skill, a good attitude and reliability. Most often, older interns are more reliable and have a great attitude, but occasionally we have an intern whose attitude is clouded by a sense of entitlement or resentment at having to perform menial tasks. Don't be one of those people.

Do You Really Want Your Hobby to Become Your Job? -- Hobbies are typically things you enjoy as a distraction from work -- you can pick them up and put them down at will. So what happens when your hobby is work? Will it make you enjoy your work more or your hobby less? Chances are it will lead to a little bit of both.

Say cake decorating is your hobby. You love making cakes, and you make them all the time for your friends' and family's birthdays and special events -- maybe once a week. Each time, everyone oohs and aahs and tells you "you should do this for a living." It feels great; why shouldn't you make money doing it? Well, fast forward and think about doing it for a living. You have to make 20 cakes a day to pay the bills, but then you have to hire people to help you make 20 cakes a day. Then you have to spend your time managing those new people you hired, and you have to try to build your business to 30 cakes a day to afford those new hires. You may enjoy your work more than your old job, but I'm guessing you'll find a new hobby.

Be Prepared for an Emotional Rollercoaster. -- As with any job, there will be highs and lows. The more passionate you are about your job, the more personal those highs and lows get. When you pour your blood, sweat and tears into building your dream business, each accomplishment can put you on top of the world, but each criticism can be equally devastating.

Working for "the man" is definitely the safer route in life. For the thrill seekers among us, straying off on your own to pursue your dream can be incredibly rewarding, albeit challenging and scary at times. Just be prepared for what you're getting into, and enjoy the ride.