We’ve all got some big challenges to deal with these days: this wacky economy, maintaining cash flow, laying safety nets, building our companies, attracting more business, all while managing to stay sane and tenacious through these trying times.
That’s why we rolled up our sleeves and put ourselves to work on attacking this hairball of issues that literally can make or break your career…not to mention your spirits.

After months of all nighters and brutally long workdays, we’re finally ready to unveil a big new resource to help you find solutions to your biggest personal and professional challenges.

It’s called Fast Track to Success: 30 Days to Transform Your Life & Career.  Jam packed with perspective, inspiration and tips for leaping into action, this new tool is GUARANTEED to make a serious difference for you.  And you can take that to the bank!

How?  Fast Track is an online learning program that you can power through in as little as 30 days, 30 minutes a day.  Every lesson features online posts to read with full audio (read by me!) that you can download and listen to on the go if you’d prefer.  Then, once you’ve learned, it’s time to help you do.  Almost every lesson has a worksheet (or a few) designed to walk you though putting everything into action immediately.

Since this is all about getting to the next level, you’ll see not only your perspective, but outlook and opportunities evolve more and more every day!  We’ve even included a few videos to keep you fired up and opportunities every step of the way to share your thoughts or ask for help or advice from our team.  And again, we’re so confident this can help change your life for the better, we’re willing to guarantee it.  We’ll even send you a hard copy of our New York Times bestseller Secrets of the Young & Successful: How to Get Everything You Want Without Waiting a Lifetime as our gift.

To celebrate the launch of this new program, we’re going to spend the next 30 days sharing some of our best tips and tricks to take on this crazy economy on by storm, increase your opportunities, amp up your competitive advantage, and yes, make more money!

We want to share your best advice too, so keep your eyes peeled and we’ll offer plenty of opportunities on YoungandSuccessful.com, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to share your expertise and experience too!  So stay tuned and help us spread the word about anything you find particularly useful to your friends and colleagues.  We’ll all fare better and find the success we crave and deserve if we bond together and become a force to be reckoned with.

Here’s to all of our success!

First comes love, then comes a contract??? As part of YSN.com’s 4 week  series about achieving success in your professional and personal relationships, today we’ll discuss how creating a written contract can enhance any new partnership — and make it easier if you ever split.

Sign On The Dotted Line…

At the beginning of all personal or professional relationships, we never like to think about things coming to an end. However, it is possible, and while we aren’t advocating pre-nups here, think about it: When you join a gym, start a job, buy a car or download software, you agree to a contract, which ensures that everyone understands their responsibilities, liabilities and the consequences of not living up to the agreement. In business, romantic or even roommate partnerships, it is critical to be on the same page – literally. A written contract is vital in protecting everyone involved, avoiding dirty court battles, minimizing legal fees, and making it easier to end the relationship fairly and amicably.

For more information on protecting yourself in business partnerships, read Work.com’s Guide to Ending a Business Partnership. It also discusses the seven tell-tale signs that you are about to fly solo, including changing vision and competitive interaction.

For a sample roommate agreement, click here (pdf file).

Read this article from Divorce magazine about the “Myths and Realities of Marriage Contracts.”

And, of course, for a sample prenuptial agreement, please click here.

Jovie Baclayon is a communications associate for the Young Presidents’ Organization and a freelance writer based in Santa Monica, California.

Be Sure to Check Out the Entire Series!

Live By Your Own Rules: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 1)

Get Over It! YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 2)

It’s Time to Find Love: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 3)

It’s all in the Contract: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 4)

As part of YSN.com’s 4 week series about achieving success in your professional and personal relationships, today we’ll focus on finding the love to complete your career/life/love balance.

First of all, it has to be said that at the end of the day, you’re never going to be truly satisfied in a love relationship if you are not happy with yourself in the first place. Treat your time in the single zone as precious opportunity to really get to know who you are, what you want and improve life on your own. It will make adding someone special into the mix easier and can lead to a much sweeter partnership, too.

It also helps to just take a look around and truly appreciate your family, friends, possessions and accomplishments. Being grateful is the easiest way to stop feeling sorry for yourself in the romance department. Write down everything you appreciate in your life and memorize the list.

But if this love-what-you’ve-got notion is making you gag, let me throw in some practical advice to finding your one true love ASAP:

1. Go online — everyone else is doing it! Sign up for eHarmony, PlentyofFish.com, JDate.com (Jewish), Black Planet (African American) Christian Connection (UK) or any other reputable dating site.
2. Cruise Craigslist or any other classified ads, if you are daring.
3. Ask your friends to set you up with their friends, relatives or coworkers. What about their significant other’s friends, relatives or coworkers?
4. Try Speed Dating: Increase your odds by dating as many people as possible in a short amount of time! Check out HurryDate or 8 Minute Dating, and if you are outside the United States, try 25 Dates (Canada) or SpeedDater (UK).
5. Be proactive! Grab the bull by the horns and introduce yourself to as many people as you can! Your best bets include church functions, networking parties and volunteer opportunities, but if you must, bars, grocery stores and coffee shops will do, too.

Jovie Baclayon is a communications associate for the Young Presidents’ Organization and a freelance writer based in Santa Monica, California.

Be Sure to Check Out the Entire Series!

Live By Your Own Rules: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 1)

Get Over It! YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 2)

It’s Time to Find Love: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 3)

It’s all in the Contract: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 4)

So maybe Valentine’s Day didn’t go as well as you thought it would… or maybe you’re experiencing trying times in your career. In the second segment of YSN’s 4 week series about success in your personal and professional lives, we’ll focus on the painful art of dealing with rejection.

When The Going Gets Tough: Whether you experience a broken heart, failed business, layoff, termination or rejection from your dream job or school, being handed your walking papers is never easy to deal with. It can affect your self-esteem, make you feel depressed, or worse, cause you to stop dreaming all together – and we can’t let that happen. If you ever find yourself facing hardship, it’s important to try not to lose your perspective — and keep moving forward. Besides, you know the drill: time heals all wounds, and things will get better, even though that may seem impossible at first.

Some things to help you along the way:

1. Be patient, allow yourself to “grieve” (feel and think about all the negativity and emotions). Even if you don’t usually write, try taking a pen to paper and jotting down your thoughts – you might be surprised at what you discover. And by all means, do not be ashamed or think it is a sign of weakness if you need professional help. Who says anyone has to know?

2. See if there are any lessons you can take away from this experience. Maybe if you use a different approach or take a few extra-curricular courses and give it another try in a few weeks or months, you can have a different outcome. If you can turn it into something positive, you can get past the pain more quickly.

3. Keep yourself busy so you don’t fixate on what happened. Spend time with friends, keep searching for job opportunities, delve into more research, fix your resume, find a mentor — but when you want to be alone and do nothing, go right ahead. By continuing to think positively about the future, you will be less likely to become depressed.

If you or someone you know is going through tough times, there are a lot of resources available to help, including the “Guide to Grieving: Coping with a Divorce or Relationship Breakup” and “Grief and Loss: A fact sheet produced by the Mental Health Information Service.”

Do your best not to let “No” hold you back from success. Read this article by Coping.org on overcoming the fear of rejection or Psychology Today’s helpful hints on building your self-esteem.

Jovie Baclayon is a communications associate for the Young Presidents’ Organization and a freelance writer based in Santa Monica, California.

Be Sure to Check Out the Entire Series!

Live By Your Own Rules: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 1)

Get Over It! YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 2)

It’s Time to Find Love: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 3)

It’s all in the Contract: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 4)

Life, Love and Career – is there a way to find balance, happiness and stability?

With Valentine’s Day coming up this weekend, we’re pretty sure you’ll be thinking about your love life, your career, your level of happiness and maybe even a combination of everything. So we’re bringing back a phenomenal series created by our former editorial director, Jovie Baclayon. Every Friday for the next 3 weeks we’ll post Jovie’s articles on achieving success in your professional and personal relationships.

Loving yourself means living life by your own rules — not your parents’. While they may want what’s best for you, it becomes problematic if they they push you into a career, major or relationship that’s not at all what you want.

In part 1 of YSN.com’s 4 week series about achieving success in your professional and personal relationships, we’ll discuss cutting more than just the apron strings.

Here’s the inspirational story of one young man who started living his dream once he began living life on his own terms.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

Living Your Own Life: We know that cutting the cord with your parents can be a painstaking process; and it’s even harder if you are trying to break free from living out the dreams they created for you. All too often we hear from people who became lawyers or went to Ivy League schools just to please their parents. Some are incredibly unhappy later in life because even after all that schooling, they still dream of being an artist or entrepreneur but think it’s too late.

Scott knows exactly what it’s like to have to earn the right to define success and failure on his own terms. He grew up in conservative Wisconsin and his parents had his life planned out, from being in the right groups and classes to playing the right sports. Scott’s passion for culinary arts began when he was 6 and his mom gave him a Fisher Price oven, but he was always told: “Cooking is a hobby and it should stay a hobby.” His parents always embraced the qualities that made him different and unique (like his rock and herb gardens) but in terms of Scott’s career, they were determined that he was going to use his brain. He majored in linguistics and international business in college but in between semesters, he begged his parents to go to culinary school. Their response? He could go – as soon as he finished his undergrad (not thinking he would actually pursue it). But upon finishing the prerequisites, Scott was tired of living a life that wasn’t his and delivered the one, two, three punch: he dropped out of college, came out of the closet and told his parents he was going to culinary school!

Although financially on his own, Scott finally had his parents’ support. He saved enough money to head west, hoping to be accepted to the California Culinary Academy (of course he was). Now, Scott operates Chileco Catering, unveiled Chi Cuisine organic product line in fall 2007, and is consulting on a new restaurant/lounge in Central California where he will be the executive chef.

With his increasing success, the only thing his mom asks for these days is that she gets all the credit “when he makes it on Oprah.”

She gave him the Fisher Price oven, after all.

Jovie Baclayon is a communications associate for the Young Presidents’ Organization and a freelance writer based in Santa Monica, California.

Be Sure to Check Out the Entire Series!

• Live By Your Own Rules: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 1)

• Get Over It! YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 2)

• It’s Time to Find Love: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 3)

• It’s all in the Contract: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 4)