Gudmundur Sigurdarson was born in Iceland in 1977, raised in Denmark and moved back to Iceland in 1993. He also lived in the United States from 1995 to 1997. After 1997, he then moved back to Iceland, where he currently lives.
Gumdundur is an NLP master practitioner. He is working on getting his NLP trainers certification, in addition to having read several books on self-help, self-motivation, psychology, and human behavior.
After running a few businesses on his own (that have either been sold or are no longer operating), he switched his primary focus to sales. He has worked his way in four years from selling restaurant supplies for a wholesaler to being a VP of North American operation for an international franchisor. He also holds the position vice president of training and education for the company and held the position of vice president of marketing for two years before switching departments and taking over both the training and education responsibilities (along with the VP of North American operations position).
He also owns three companies that are privately operated, CVinteractive, GDK Marketing and Mindformula. All the companies are operating in the USA as consultants, coaches and various other services to companies and individuals all over the country.
Mindformula is specifically a consulting and coaching firm for individuals and companies in various industries. Mindformula works for marketing and advertising agencies all over the world, does training for salespeople and helps directors and senior executives as an advisory company, does motivational speaking and has seminars for those who wish to attend such seminars. In addition, Mindformula gives students in high schools in America free speaking sessions every year. Those high schools have been chosen by teachers, or friends and family of the employees of Mindformula. If you know a school that would like to get Gudmundur as a guest speaker, you can contact Mind Formula at www.mindformula.com.
DesignEuropA was founded in 1997 and has today become an international franchise. For more information about DesignEuropA visit www.designeuropa.com.
"A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering."
-Buddha
For your first step in wanting to improve yourself, it can sometimes be hard to know where to start. That is why I decided to write this little book. It is meant to be short and effective and hopefully make you want to proceed with what you were thinking when you picked up this book. I have talked to teenagers and adults about how to get control of their lives and have helped them find direction. Touching the hearts of youths can give you more than anything else in your life; for me, this is one of the most fulfilling experiences I do. You can never prevent people from being lost, but you can always point them in the right direction and that is what this book hopefully will do for you: point you in the direction of improvement, of control, of joy and fulfillment in your life.
When I started working on myself, the reason was that my boss at work sent me to a seminar that teaches NLP (NLP is Neuro Linguistic Programming, a model originally designed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler, for more information we suggest www.its.co.uk.). This was my inspiration to start doing more research and eventually to get into this field. Originally, the reason I was sent to this seminar was to improve my sales skills. Little did I know how much this seminar would change my life, improve it in so many ways and make it more enjoyable. Above all, I today have the opportunity to help other people to improve their lives. I know one thing: without attending that seminar, I would probably still be doing the same things over and over again without really getting or being the person I always wanted to be. It takes so little to do so much. If I would have known how little it takes to make big changes, I would have sought out this information a lot sooner.
The first advice I will give you in this book is simple: stand up straight, put your shoulders back, and start smiling. Up until this point, I am pretty sure you have not needed a reason to slouch, be depressed, or keep a straight face. So here is no reason whatsoever to smile and start making the little things make you smile. Be thankful for all those around you (even those who annoy you). Be thankful that you are not one of them, and that instead, you are walking straight and smiling. Keep your focus on those special things you have that they do not:
This book — and the fact you are taking the first step!
Congratulations on this, you have earned my respect by starting this process.