Milestone Nobody Thought Possible

Dear High Performer and Visionary,

I have just passed a milestone that virtually no one thought or expected me to pass. No, it was not my first million, five million or 50 million. That was too long ago to remember. It was not me buying my first company. It was not the first time a board of directors threw me out. It was not the first time I took a company public.

When I was young my family, friends, and teachers didn't ever believe I would reach the age of 20, 30, or 40! Yet here I am just passing my 65th birthday. Albeit with a torn rotator cuff and bicep and to add insult to injury – a broken toe. I want to thank all who sent birthday messages via my social media sites and email. I appreciated it!

Coaching – Mentoring

I have been officially coaching, teaching and mentoring since 1993. It has been the best of times and with a very few instances the not so good of times. But through it all, I have kept in perspective trying to get people to expand their comfort zone is a very difficult task – very difficult.  Of course when I began, I thought given the facts of why we as human beings, greatly under perform – ALL would take the lead and charge forward into glory. Boy was I WRONG!

In a few years I gained enough data that showed about 10% can make BIG changes very quickly; 50% can make changes in a short period of time varying from 3 – 6 months, although these changes are relatively small. The other 50% showed progress over time, sometimes years. But the solace I got was almost all improved. Even though some where slow learners – in the end almost all moved forward. Having done a lot of comparisons, I knew few other personal and business enhancement programs showed any real lasting improvement. Hence, after 17 years of coaching/mentoring, I can say with my hand on my heart I have improved the life of many.

On a recent trip I saw a young man I met about 4-5 years ago who drove a limo. He wanted to be in the entertainment business. He subsequently got all my training programs and listened to them countless times. He listens to them even now – over and over again! I have seen him a few times over the years to get an update and give him a bit of encouragement. I saw him again recently and he related his fabulous progress and in fact he had made a low budget movie (not porn) and was working on several lucrative projects in Hollywood. Mike had come full circle from a young 25 year old with a dream to living his dream. The only advantage, if you can call it that, was he was 100% focused on his dream. As an aside, before he came to Hollywood he made pizzas in New York City. Now he makes movie!

I have mentored/coached a Global 20 CEO for 10 years who came to me with a goal and 7 years later he was CEO and countless other successful guys and gals.  My recent second edition of YOUR FIRST 100 MILLION talks about many of them, including the foreword by Klaus Kleinfeld,  Chairman and CEO of Alcoa, a Fortune 100 company.

In short, I am extremely satisfied with the people I have assisted in achieving their dreams! And I plan on coaching many more for the foreseeable future!

Giving Back

As successful as I have been in personal life I treasure my coaching experiences. And as an extension of giving back I started working with kids in orphanages here in Manila. I get a lot of satisfaction in working with the Nuns and girls of Holy Family Home. This weekend I am taking all the girls (ages 6 – 18) and nuns to the zoo for the day. We all eat dinner twice a month.

Honoring My Dad

As I have written my 91 year old father passed December 2009.  I had been planning for months a gift in his name to Lincoln High School, East LA, where he graduated from in 1936. The first Manuel S. Pena Scholarship was given to 5 worthy student athletes in June 2010. I took the kids to lunch recently and was moved by their sincerity and humbleness. My youngest son Derrick is acting as their mentor through undergraduate school. As an aside, Derrick has been in Shanghai since he completed his MBA last year. The level of questions from the kids (2 guys and 3 gals, 4 Hispanic and 1 Vietnamese) was a little strange to me. They focused on where I came from and how I excelled against the odds. Naively I came prepared to tell them how to structure their future.

It was a great lunch. The kids arrived early to be collected by a stretch limo. The limo driver arrived early thinking it would take 90 minutes to meet me for lunch. My limo was late due to excess traffic. The Italian restaurant I made reservations at closed down the week before (of course there is no recession) without telling anyone and the only place to eat nearby was a Mexican eatery; hence we spent the next 2 hours eating food at least 4 of the kids ate daily and the one Asian kid never ate. So as I told them this is a good lesson – MAN PLANS AND GOD LAUGHS! But my main point I emphasized was, "Man doesn't plan to fail – man fails to plan."

Next Seminar

As those who were attending the planned Castle Seminar next week, you already know I was forced to postpone it. I was injured while lifting weights a few weeks ago and underwent surgery to repair a torn Rotator Cuff and Bicep. I now am the proud owner of three Titanium anchor bolts in my right shoulder. This is in addition to my already Titanium bar and screws that replaced my shattered collar bone of 10 years ago I got as a consequence of racing dune buggies with my sons. . This in conjunction with my new steel hip from last year causes quite a commotion when I go through security at airports, LOL!

Seriously, I was truly sorry to have to cancel the Castle Event. It is now scheduled for 24 October when I will be back to normal. I am told I can't play golf till January 2011 and am seriously restricted for a few more weeks in any activity with my upper body. As part of this time out for my body, I postponed my trip to Galapagos islands and South America to coincide with my 65th birthday.

Due to the change in dates for the seminar there are a couple vacancies now available. You can contact my assistant Thelma thelmag@guthriecastle.com for information. We are extending the payment plan for this Castle Extravaganza. Again sorry for the delay.

Market environment

The stock market is still looking for a reason to justify a double dip recession. Only time will tell, but there continues to be great opportunities for doing things with Quantum Leap Advantage. From the entertainment industry to property and health care opportunities exist and are waiting to be exploited. Of course I still say, as I have, since the mid-80's, health care and telecommunications is going to be big in the worlds future for many decades. This is exemplified by Obama care and the internet which is telecommunication.

Mastermind Groups

A few devotees have approached me vis-à-vis mastermind groups. I have written before what it takes to have a successful group. Of course Napoleon Hill made this concept popular 75 years ago. As I recall he had Abe Lincoln, former President of the USA, and other luminaries in his mythical group. From this the group idea sprang to life with real live master mind group members. If you devotees, have an interest in this please let me know. I would put the interested in touch with one another.

Future travels

In a few weeks I am on the trail again. I will be in Newport, Rhode Island, Boston, Bulgaria, Transylvania/Romania, UK, and Hong Kong then off to South America (65th birthday trip), L.A. and the Castle Seminar.  As I used to tell my dearly departed Mother – No rest for the wicked or the goal driven!

Regrets

We all have them, but they mean much more as you grow older! I have said more times than I can remember when your are processing your last thoughts among them will be the things you didn't do – but wished you had! Hence, your regrets play a big role as you get older. But what you don't realize as you mature is they affect you from a very young age. We all have stuff in our past we would rather not have done! Most of us suppress them deeply. In your QLA journey these regrets will challenge you all the time! As I mentioned above Comfort Zone (CZ) is a key to success for ALL high performance individuals. The key is getting your CZ to expand faster than it would normally. And when it doesn't we all have guilt for the opportunity that passed us by. And that guilt manifests itself over time into BIG REGRETS!

Some of my regrets are of BIBLICAL proportions, of course this isn't the place to do an extensive description. But suffice it to say regrets affect our performance and we MUST be cognizant that our past actions Will affect our future actions! Just as some of us are afraid of the dark, etc, which is probably a manifestation of something that happened in our childhood. Business is just the same. We are products of our social and economic milieus and all the decisions we made while going through that personal history. We can be held hostage by our past more than we know. It becomes much more obvious as we get older. And I can speak from personal experience. These and other personal horror stories I discuss in detail at the seminar. In fact in the last castle seminar while relating such a story, I broke down and I had difficulty relating what occurred almost 25 years ago. The seminar attendees were stunned!

You may wonder why I mention something this personal? I do for two extremely important reasons:

1. It is these personal past experiences that keep us from achieving our goals
2. As Jack Welsh former CEO of GE says – candor and full disclosure are the true keys to success in business and life!

When asked my secret to success, I have often said I have been blessed with self esteem, since I was about 10 years old due to my Mom! But what I did with this self esteem was intricately tied to whatever success I have had. Early in my life I did not fully appreciate what an advantage having self esteem did for an individual! Hence, my candor to a fault at times, has always showed me in a vain that most could not relate to, but almost all admired! And this candor was manifested in my full disclosure covering virtually all aspects of life! And QLA's basic precepts were born!

To Your Quantum Leap,

DAN

P.S. The next QLA Live Webcast will be on Sunday, Septermber 5 at 5:00pm UK time

P.P.S. Here is a picture of our two new puppies and the puppies and my young toy poodle, barely discernable on my chest. This brings the count to 6 dogs and 2 cats which all live in harmony!

P.P.P.S. Sage advice I give to all mentees, protégés and students – "I can't help you out of a hole, if I climb in it with you."

P.P.P.P.S. People will never see past your short comings till you do!