Entries from June 2009 ↓

Jay Abraham is a legendary businessman, consultant and joint venture specialist.  He had been doing his thing for decades and has sold hundreds of millions of dollars of audio/visual products, seminars and consulting services before the Internet went mainstream. His seminars are astronomically expensive, but his legion of successful, faithful venture partners swear by him. New or business-expansion-bound entrepreneurs and businesspeople alike, looking to grab every dollar on the table, line up like groupies for his next “big” event or product release. He has a huge reputation to uphold.

So when I just received an email from him stating that he had surrendered to the forces of the Internet and had abandoned his newest affiliate venture, I wanted to know why he had thrown in the towel.

The most telling statement in his letter was as follows:

“Online marketing is not my prime skill set. It’s helping business owners of every kind maximize everything they are doing.”

The messages we should hear from Jay are that even the richest and most successful entrepreneurs have no guarantee of marketing success. We can also learn that once you discover your strengths and apply them with heart and intelligence, others will see benefit in you. Other people’s ideas can help you fortify your business, but the selling point and sustenance for your enterprise must be centered on your unique brush stroke.

Hot air is everywhere these days and I am pretty disgusted with the income-claiming crowd trying to reel in uninformed newbies. Quick-buck artists are searching for suckers and there are millions burning with desire to be rich, rich, rich! All you need is a guru and a system.

I notice that other phenomenally successful entrepreneurs from a bygone era such as Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, and Brian Tracy seem to be steering clear of this hype crowd of mostly young and brash marketing wizards. Each of these veterans has a fairly strong presence online, but they don’t want to get caught up in the wind of the blow hards. I believe they are staying away from forming JVs with these go-getters because they can sense – being well grounded – just how shallow and ugly some of these vultures are.

For the time being, I won’t name names. Rest assured that my business and my site will be premised on the idea that we live in a world of bounteous opportunity and that there is no need to fudge for a sale or a mailing list.

Little by little, day by day, learn how to be independent and effective. Do not look for messianic rebirth from some self-proclaimed guru who wants to sell you the cyber version of the Brooklyn Bridge. Do listen to others, but first ground yourself.

Discover who you are and what you need for health, happiness and prosperity from your vantage point. Once that is accomplished, it is easier to be more discriminating and put your money and time to good use.

I leave you with the words of the legendary William Faulkner: “Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

Remember: Only you can prevent cyber crybabies.

A preposterous amount of time is spent creating laws in every nation in this world. Most of these laws are laced with bias and are totally unnecessary because civilized folks can learn to teach their youngins common sense.

When we do make laws that are intended to enhance democracy or protect our citizenry from criminals, then we absolutely must enforce the law fully and equally. Otherwise, the law is arbitrary and should be scrapped before the ink dries.

For example, in my town in Japan (and in many others nationwide) there are many narrow roads which, if not cleared during an emergency, could pose a threat to rescue vehicles. A side street about a block from the station is just such an emergency road and parking is prohibited.

However, several times a day big, private tour buses are allowed by the police to park on this street for an hour or so at a time to gather passengers. Illegal! I have pointed this out to the police officers but they do nothing. Moreover, when these buses park there they totally block the peripheral vision of the driver passing by them and cars could (and do) suddenly turn onto the narrowed narrow street as I’m approaching the corner. No doubt this has caused and will cause more minor and not so minor accidents leading to bodily injury or even death.

At times when those buses are not there, the bank customers want to park on that street to briefly go into the bank. Since there is NO bank parking, they stop their much smaller and less obstructive vehicles, put on the emergency blinkers, and rush into the bank to complete their business transaction.

Meanwhile, the gotcha traffic cops mark your tire and if it takes you more than ten minutes, they will tow your car away and give you a $300 ticket. Now that is a lesson in how we are being abused with arbitrary laws which are arbitrarily enforced.

Does the logic that the bus is big or is doing business make the supposed danger of parking on this side street disappear? Absolutely not. The bus is breaking the law and endangering passing cars, yet the police give them a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card. On the other hand, the common citizen gets the full arm of the law for a short-term stop.

Many cities in Japan now have dozens of NO SMOKING WHILE WALKING signs painted into the sidewalk. Japanese are very obedient people when pressured, but these signs are another joke. While the city hires retirees to remove bicycles from in front of the station (which they do religiously), the brash and uncaring smokers don’t give a damn about the rule (that is not a law).

In this case, the intent is very positive: keep the streets clean and don’t force non-smokers to inhale toxic side smoke. Yet the money these cities and wards are paying to paint these signs into the sidewalk don’t mean squat because the law has no bite and the police don’t want to actively enforce it.

Wherever you may live on this planet – whether a free nation or a fascistic state –politicians are undoubtedly taking their prejudices and biases to the street. They think that their job is to create laws to insure law and order. Our duty as citizens is to make sure politicians are held accountable for unfair or unenforceable laws.

Writer Bertolt Brecht got it right when he penned: “The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don’t understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it. “

Laws for the hell of it in no way elevate democracy. It is only the tool of a police state or one in the making.

Nobody wants to fail. Judge Posner discusses how to get the passion to succeed, even when evidence seems to indicate you are a failure. This is the first in a series of audios extemporaneously produced a few years’ back.

Are you a complainer and a whiner? Whenever something goes south in your life do you find blame in others? When a merchant rips you off, do you say “That S.O.B. is going to pay for this!”?  When a natural disaster or tragedy happens to you, do you sit and sob for years? Are you always saying “I didn’t do anything?” when others are angry with you? Do you wallow in self-pity because others have money and you don’t? Do you still blame mom and dad for your adult shortcomings?

Ouch! Reality hurts….at first. But the sooner each of us takes responsibility for our results and outcomes, the sooner we can claim our “proper” place in the scheme of things. Unfortunately, until that time, we will continue to frame our lives as being the victim of circumstances and unfairness, and we will continue to fail or come up short in all we attempt to do.

Here is a stark reality to chew on:  Most people don’t care about you and your outcomes. And if you don’t care, you will sink into obscurity and not a soul with miss you. Maybe you are already experiencing that.

Let’s move from pain to gain, shall we?

Here are ten empowering activities you can start today, so that you can reclaim autonomy over your life and its results:

1) Find a new road or neighborhood to explore. This activity will enable you to see life from another perspective – that of the neighbor.
2) Find a book on your own bookshelf that you bought months or years ago because you thought it would be useful but never bothered to read. Finally put those hidden word treasures to use!
3) Find a book on your same bookshelf that you have read and were touched by some time in the past. Read through it again and begin to understand how the words have changed in meaning as you have changed over the years.
4) Spend a whole day asking only questions and listening. See if that activity doesn’t make you exceedingly more popular and hugely wiser. If you can do it one day, do it each day.
5) Smile until it doesn’t hurt. This activity is guaranteed to make others much more receptive to you, what you say, and what you want.
6) Hold your tongue when you are angry or when you are cock-sure you are right about something. The most dominating people in the world understand the power of keeping their emotions in check when a crisis arises or tension mounts. Try using this affirmation all day long: “I am cooler than a cucumber.”
7) Walk tall and briskly. If you are slumped over and shuffling, your mind follows your posture and gait. People don’t follow sluggish underachievers; they look for a source of energy and inspiration every time!
Start to believe that you are worth at least a million dollars…because you are. The difference in life results is often a matter of making a plan and working it through. How many well-meaning plans have you shelved in the past years?
9) Think now, and leave the past and the future alone. What can you do right now, this moment, to start taking control of your destiny? Put down the cigarette or éclair? Attend a seminar in your field? Converse with a long-neglected wife or child? The possibilities for starting are infinite.
10) Clean up the clutter in your life and paint the walls. No need for explanation. If you are multi-tasking you more than likely have too many loose ends standing in the way of your success.

Congratulations. You have taken ten steps toward mastery. Just keep walking steadily and you’ll get there…eventually. In fact, if you are taking these ten steps you are already there. Double congratulations.

I confess: Money IS important.

One of the first ways to attract it is to wonder how it could help you in your life to do all the altruistic things you claim you would do if you had some.

A second way to attract it is to imagine money as a scorecard of how excellent you are becoming in your work and in your character.

A third way to attract it is to reflect upon the people and situations in your life which caused you to have a distaste for it or to mistrust those who do have an abundance of it.

Mind you, I have been conflicted about money for most of my life, and I was always dreaming up reasons why I shouldn’t or couldn’t have it, or why others should not.

Literally and figuratively, money became something I got – like a lottery win – rather than something I earned by meticulously designing and executing a plan.

The Internet is for many of us the first chance to earn enough money to live out our dreams rather than to surf them away. There are so many people becoming fabulously wealthy online, and yes, many more who are pissing their money into the wind.

Even for negative people holding a limiting belief system about the green stuff, the possibilities are astronomically in your favor of building an ethical, residual income using the Internet. I am speaking of an income which can easily surpass the the minuscule wages you presently earn from your nine-to-five drudgery.

I fervently believe that there are many earnest people online, teaching others to become independently wealthy SOHOs, who truly believe in you and your worthiness. Yes, they do and will make money through selling their products and collecting consulting fees, but the bottom line is that they can introduce you to the tools and strategies which will bring to you an exponential return on investment over time.

My pledge to everyone I touch is to separate the hypsters from the marketers who deeply care about your success in addition to their own. Unfortunately, the former group largely outnumber the latter. Due diligence in choosing who to listen to and who to buy from is an absolutely necessary for online success.

Many marketers will sell you software and ideas which may be sound and useful for an advanced netrepreneur, but for you, a relative beginner, the same tools will sit idly on your desktop screen collecting cyberdust.

For example, keyword or Google Adsense software tools are totally worthless until and unless you can at least make a simple, operable webpage. Yet the unscrupulous marketer will use a takeaway sales strategy to create an immediate need for you, a relative beginner, to purchase this or that tool. Little by little you become frustrated and totally cynical about all net marketers and their intentions.

Professional marketers should feel good about making money by providing powerful information, strategies and services with a smile. They should be overwhelming concerned with bringing true value to the marketplace. Embedding an affiliate link for a product you endorse is not unethical or bush-league, if the product or service is relevant to a discussion, has been reviewed by the embedder, and, when possible, comes from a highly trusted source.

In conclusion, money is neutral. When you provide value to the marketplace, you usually will attract more of it. If you have more of it, you have more chance to effect the world for the better. To get more of it, you must first make a decision to want some and to stop living day to day on a survival level.

Frankly, I support George Bernard Shaw when he said, “Lack of money is the root of all evil.”

Overcome your ambivalence towards it and you will most definitely thrive. It is your right and duty to claim money for a job well done.