Great people throughout history often fail, quite miserably, before finally reaching their goals, says international business strategist Dan Waldschmidt.

"Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime; Winston Churchill lost every public election until becoming prime minister at age 62; Henry Ford went bankrupt five times; Albert Einstein was a terrible student and was expelled from school; Sigmund Freud was booed from a stage," says Waldschmidt, author of "Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Achieve Outrageous Success," (www.EdgyConversations.com).

"Ideas, brilliance, genius - they all mean nothing without the guts, passion and tenacity necessary to make your dream a reality. But often, people fall back on excuses and give up on trying to reach their goals."

Most of us have dreams, and many of us have big ones, but few of us actually see them through, he says.

He offers six tricks for jumping off the excuse train and forge the path to your goals.

•  Avoid the need to blame others for anything. Mean, small-minded people know that they suck. That's why they are so cranky and eager to point out others' mistakes. They hope that by causing others to feel inadequate, everyone will forget about how woefully off the mark their own performance is. Don't blame anyone, for any reason, ever. It's a bad habit.

•  Stop working on things that just don't matter. Not everything needs to be done in place of sleep. If you work for a boss, then you owe them solid time. You can't cut that out. You can, however, cut out television time, meetings and anything else that gets in the way of achieving your goals. Replace entertainment with activity toward your goal.

•  Refuse to let yourself wallow in self-doubt. You're alive to succeed. Stop comparing your current problems to your last 18 failures. They are not the same. You are not the same. Here's something to remember: Your entire life has been a training ground for you to capture your destiny right now. Why would you doubt that? Stop whining. Go conquer.

•  Ask yourself, "What can I do better next time?" And then do it next time. If you spend a decade or two earnestly trying to be better, that's exactly what will happen. The next best thing to doing something amazing is not doing something stupid. So learn from your mistakes and use the lessons to dominate.

•  Proactively take time to do things that fuel your passion. Exercise is a great example. Living in the moment requires you to live at peak performance. A huge part of mental fitness is physical fitness. A sparring or running partner is a great way to refresh physical competition. Physical activity accelerates mental motivation.

•  Apologize to yourself and those around you for having a bad attitude. Do this once or twice and you'll snap out of your funk pretty fast. When you start genuinely apologizing for being a bad influence on those around you, you learn to stop whining and start winning.

About Dan Waldschmidt

Dan Waldschmidt is the author of "Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Achieve Outrageous Success," (www.EdgyConversations.com). He is an international business strategist, speaker, author and extreme athlete. His consulting firm solves complex marketing and business strategy problems for savvy companies all over the world.

Ends Free Parking for Many State Officials to Save Taxpayers $100,000

CHICAGO - As part of his ongoing budget review, Governor Pat Quinn today directed state agencies to cut 80 paid parking spaces for state employees in downtown garages - more than 30 percent of the total spots reserved. The move will save taxpayers more than $100,000 annually and follows yesterday's announcement that the state will save taxpayers an additional $55 million this year in reduced lease costs for state buildings. The cuts are part of Governor Quinn's agenda to make state government efficient and accountable to taxpayers.

"As part of my budget review this year, we will reduce paid parking spaces in downtown Chicago by more than 30 percent," Governor Quinn said. "By eliminating these parking spots for many state officials, we will save taxpayers another $100,000 annually and continue our work to make state government more efficient than ever before."

Governor Quinn has directed department heads to cut back on spots for employees in positions that do not require frequent fieldwork or involve public safety. While taxpayer-financed parking spots are appropriate for state employees whose posts require them to travel frequently to state prisons, juvenile detention centers or social service offices, they are not necessary for employees who spend the majority of their time in the office.

Unless their job involves frequent fieldwork or public safety, most agency directors, chiefs of staff and other high-level officials will now lose their free parking spots. Today's announcement also includes a reduction in the number of shared "pool" cars that are stationed in downtown Chicago garages and available to state employees.

Yesterday Governor Quinn announced that the state of Illinois had again cut property leases. The state will save an additional $55 million by continuing to downsize the space it leases in the upcoming fiscal year. Since taking office the Governor has saved taxpayers more than $220 million by consolidating or eliminating more than 2.5 million square feet - roughly equivalent to emptying out Chicago's Trump Tower.

Since taking office and inheriting decades of mismanagement, Governor Quinn has enacted major reforms that are saving taxpayers billions of dollars. The Governor has saved taxpayers more than $3 billion by overhauling Illinois' Medicaid system, cutting Medicaid spending and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. He also passed comprehensive pension reform that will save taxpayers more than $140 billion over the next 30 years.

Additionally, the Governor negotiated a historic contract with Illinois' employee unions that includes $900 million in savings for Illinois taxpayers. The Governor also enacted comprehensive worker's compensation reform that has saved state taxpayers more than $40 million to date. The state workforce is the smallest it has been in decades, with 4,000 fewer state employees than we had five years ago. All things included, over the last five years, Governor Quinn has cut state spending by more than $5.7 billion.

To build on this progress, Governor Quinn is proposing a five-year blueprint to secure the state's finances for the long-term and invest like never before in education and early childhood. The blueprint includes a historic $6 billion increase in classroom spending over the next five years, doubling the investment in college scholarships for students in need and increasing access to higher education through dual enrollment and early college programs. The Governor's plan was lauded by all three bond-rating agencies for its comprehensive approach to paying down bills, stabilizing the state's finances and enacting spending restraints.

For more information on Governor's Quinn's budget cuts please visit: http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/budget/Documents/Cuts_to_Budget_FY09-FY15.pdf

7:00 PM Wednesday, October 8th

Adler Theater

Davenport, Iowa

On Sale this Friday!

Contemporary Christian musician and songwriter Jeremy Camp, will perform at the Adler Theatre on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets ($20, $30 & $40) will go on sale Friday, June 27 at 10:00 a.m. at the Adler Theatre Box Office (136 E. 3^rd St.), Ticketmaster.com, charge by phone at 800-745-3000 and Ticketmaster outlets.

Tickets for groups of 10 or more are $18. Print and fill out the Group Tickets order form here: Group Order Form.

Send form via fax or email to contact on the form, or call 563-326-8526, for group tickets.

The Come Alive Tour will also feature special guests Kutless and Adam Cappa.

See the flyer here: Come Alive Tour Poster

Brought to you by Echo Ministries

After the economy crashed in December 2007, nascent online peer-to-peer lending platforms quickly grew. They've since evolved into an increasingly popular investment alternative to Wall Street and other traditional options.

Peer-to-peer lending isn't new and it's no passing fad, says P2P pioneer Brendan Ross, president of Direct Lending Investments LLC, (www.dirlend.com), which runs a short-term, high-yield small business loan fund.

"It's a rebirth of the simplest and oldest way of making money: one individual loaning money to another and getting paid back with interest," Ross says.

What makes this new incarnation different is accessibility.

"Online lenders like IOU-Central and Prosper.com make it easy for prospective lenders to find and fund borrowers through a website," Ross says. "These platforms have automated the underwriting process, including checking credit and looking at applicants' bank accounts, so they can vet borrowers based on reliable information."

Each online lending platform operates differently, but all vet applicants. The lender posts qualifying requests on its website, and private investors decide which to fund, either in their entirety or in part. At Lending Club, for instance, investors can choose to lend the entire amount requested by a borrower, or as little as $25 to multiple borrowers, which adds protection if one defaults.

Investors can manually choose which loans to fund, or they can ask the platform to choose within certain parameters. Yields on a portfolio of loans can be 10 percent or more, Ross says.

He offers these tips for investors in three tiered financial levels:

•  Investing $10,000 to $24,000: Visit the Lending Club and Prosper.com websites, and choose the one that most appeals to you, Ross says.

"Open an account in a tax-deferred IRA and shift a portion of your investments out of stocks and into lending," he says.

The reason for that is interest income is taxed at a higher rate than the capital gains from stocks. Deferring those taxes until you begin spending from the IRA will help keep a lid on your current tax bill.

•  Investing $25,000 to $100,000: At $25,000, you have enough money to start getting professional advice about which loans to choose and how much to invest in each.

"I recommend going to www.lendacademy.com/invest because it's run by Peter Renton, who's very knowledgeable," Ross says. "You choose between a conservative or balanced portfolio - I recommend balanced for higher yield -- and they'll choose the loans for you and put them in your account."

The fee is just 0.95 percent.

•  Investing more than $100,000: Accredited investors have privileged access - they can shop around for private fund pools, Ross says.

"As P2P matures, borrower categories that have always had the highest yields, such as small businesses, become available as private fund pools that are managed to deliver the highest yields," he says.

These pools form mutually beneficial relationships with the P2P lending platforms, allowing the platforms to serve a larger volume of borrowers. The private funds get well-vetted borrowers from the platforms and manage the funds to the maximum benefit of all their investors.

"Everybody wins," Ross says, "including the borrowers, who get fast loans at reasonable rates."

About Brendan Ross

Money manager Brendan Ross is a peer-to-peer lending first adopter who has become an expert in this non-traditional transaction. The president of Direct Lending Investments LLC, (www.dirlend.com), which runs a short-term, high-yield small business loan fund, he previously ran a number of other companies, including ReserveAmerica, the world's largest outdoor recreation reservation company.