In 1975 I was standing on the Golden Gate Bridge after eating some magic mushrooms for the first time.

Looking down at the flowers growing from the water below, I turned to my ‘room partner and said somewhat flippantly, “If one was to jump from here or the Empire State Building, they would never hit the water or pavement if one condition was met.”

My somewhat concerned mate looked at me and asked what that one condition was. My response was something to the effect: “The only reason we die is because we look back and regret the leap. If you can jump with joy and not a flicker of doubt, then you will surely pass through to the other side.”

Those somewhat peculiar beliefs have come full circle, and now many individuals not taking an hallucinogenic or being marched away in a straitjacket would concur. I ad my conversations with God long before the book arrived. Listen…

The best things in life are, indeed, free. Maybe some great experiences happen because money bought us a chance to experience simplicity, but that simplicity has always been available. From Cheerios to intense board games in a park to a tickle fight…life is a ball. Listen to my judgment…

Years ago there was a group of brilliant young men at the University of Wisconsin, who seemed to have amazing creative literary talent. They were would-be poets, novelists, and essayists. They were extraordinary in their ability to put the English language to its best use. These promising young men met regularly to read and critique each other’s work. And critique it they did!

These men were merciless with one another. They dissected the most minute literary expression into a hundred pieces. They were heartless, tough, even mean in their criticism. The sessions became such arenas of literary criticism that the members of this exclusive club called themselves the “Stranglers.”

Not to be outdone, the women of literary talent in the university were determined to start a club of their own, one comparable to the Stranglers. They called themselves the “Wranglers.” They, too, read their works to one another. But there was one great difference. The criticism was much softer, more positive, more encouraging. Sometimes, there was almost no criticism at all. Every effort, even the most feeble one, was encouraged.

Twenty years later an alumnus of the university was doing an exhaustive study of his classmates’ careers when he noticed a vast difference in the literary accomplishments of the Stranglers as opposed to the Wranglers. Of all the bright young men in the Stranglers, not one had made a significant literary accomplishment of any kind. From the Wranglers had come six or more successful writers, some of national renown such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who wrote The Yearling.

Talent between the two? Probably the same. Level of education? Not much difference. But the Stranglers strangled, while the Wranglers were determined to give each other a lift. The Stranglers promoted an atmosphere of contention and self doubt. The Wranglers highlighted the best, not the worst.

Until you have that burning desire embedded in your eyes through finding a vision, you will sit on the sideline of life.

This fatalist philosophy leaves the poor poorer and the rich ever richer. Perhaps, however, the real missing link between the haves and have-nots in our universe is plain-and-simple passion. And passion is built on incremental success.

The problem lies in having no vision of what the good, successful life could look like for us. If you had or have it, then putting yourself in the picture and letting the subconscious mind find the path to a goal line becomes a breeze.

Until that point, there is nothing to anticipate other than spinning wheels’ of self-doubt and balls’ of confusion.

Hear Ye Hear Ye…the judge has a verdict —

The audio above was created in response to an observation that a person mustn’t fake it till you make it.

My observations – in relation to my site, SuccessInJapan.com – are important for the billions of people across the planet who worship others and put themselves down. They are the silent majority and they need not live in the shadows.

It was written to the Life Without Limits site whose webmasters, Heather Vale and Barry Goss and their staff, have written disempowering commentary to me about my notion that the “not walking the talk” crowd deserve air time and slack.

After all, if only the enlightened and the affluent have something worthy to say, I’d like to hear about their journeys to the other side or their fireside chats with God Almighty about righteousness.

The bare minimums. That’s always a great place to begin. If you know next to nothing about Internet Marketing but want to bungy jump in on all pistons, I pray for you. But if you want more than a prayer while you’re dropping thousands of dollars down the proverbial drain, then I’m a prayer for you.

A superb entrepreneur and masterful speaker, Jim Rohn once said: “Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.“

If we are not successful in any meaningful way to ourselves, then frankly speaking we are not yet of a millionaire caliber. To get there we must make great effort to learn from our mistakes and become people of value. And once we are people of value, we mustn’t rest on our laurels. What we do today is the determinant of what we will become down the road. Everything and everyone counts!

Throwing money at an internal conflict – the belief in your unworthiness – will change virtually nothing in your favor. The best marketing program in the world won’t transform you into a man or a woman of high character and integrity. And without those abstractions working in your favor, money will continue to drain you to your gnawed bones.

My goal in these blogs is to share with you my passion for the power of the Internet and to generously offer tips and programs which can save you money and shorten the learning curve to online marketing success.

I will cover the rhymes and reasons of cyber millionaires of all stripes, and the programs and software marketed by these so-called gurus. It is my firm belief that we all need mentors to lead us to the Promised Land. The programs, systems, seminars and software applications to be reviewed here will be chosen according to their ease of application and degree of necessity.

The quickest way to get turned off to the boundless marketing opportunities online is to be presented with systems, software and theories that are far beyond the grasp of most of us comparatively-speaking beginners. I have spent seven years online peeling away the layers of onionskin separating me from the success lane. My lessons learned and the information I have gleaned are gifts to you, everytime you visit this blog or my website.

It is easy to quickly dismiss online millionaire marketers as scammers and schemers, but I intend to reveal to you that there is a science to marketing that is both accessible and do-able to us all. And there are teachers and professionals who offer quality training and software to make our online experience a profitable one relatively quickly.

Some of this training offered is free through teleseminars, streamed seminars, and video- and audio-on-demand programs. Additionally, there are what is called eBooks and eZines, ranging from free to very pricey and from illuminating to rather dull and uninformative.

I will introduce you to the jargon, the programs that you need, the programs that may be helpful to you, and the people you would benefit by knowing.

Cheers to your newfound wings. Let me be your guide through the Internet swamp so that you can have a chance to become an entrepreneurial success and an independently wealthy man or woman of high integrity and admirable character for as long as you live.

And That Ain’t Bad!

My first domain is focused on fostering creativity.  Believe or not, we are born with brains that function well.  If, over the years, our brains have withered and rotted, likely that deterioration was self-inflicted.

With absolute certainty, however, you can switch on the mental lights at any stage of your personal development and achieve remarkable greatness through this shift in thinking.  From any wheelchair, from any park bench, from any easy chair in front of the boob tube – it’s up to you to make the most of affairs from this point forward.

We must make a habit of stretching the brain muscle, from lobe to lobe, in order to remain resilient and resourceful throughout life.  Frankly speaking, to settle for a brainless, rote, rigid lifestyle based on knee-jerk actions and reactions is much more than a travesty and personal shame… it’s a crime against humanity.

I have studied those who I feel lead successful lives in most of the essential ways, and to a person they are thinkers and doers. Both elements, thinking and doing, are built into their stealthy souls and are side by side in every activity they undertake.

They don’t idly think and remain inert; that is called mental masturbation, a deadly disease of the information age.  You see such deadbeats everyday:  their thoughts are cogent, well-packaged and oftentimes romantically beautiful to the ear or the eye.  But nothing ever gets done because the music of their words and their pinpoint logic lulls them into a sleeping narcissism.

A carpenter may see the world as a nail to be hammered down or a screw to be fastened firm.  A banker may see the world as divided into assets and liabilities.  A doctor may see the world as a disease with a cure or a possible treatment.  But a person of success must remain extremely flexible and never locked into one metaphorical box to fit all.

Flexibility in thought and in action are essentials, if we we wish to influence people to give us what we want in our lives.

The online marketer has two or perhaps three choices, if he or she hopes to touch their target audience and reach their purse strings.  The first choice is to become flexible and discard metaphors which are too rigid or too incongruent with the mindset of the target audience.  The second choice is to build a niche business around your inflexibility and intolerance, always luring like-minded people to join you in your intolerant crusade.  The third choice is to broaden your thinking and learn to feel comfortable with and talk the language of a great number of people you presently have no connection with in life or ideology.

Thinking, learning and doing are the ingredients for success.  Everyday you should challenge yourself to become a bigger person.  To become a bigger person, you must shuffle the cards of life everyday.  Never rest on laurels, smarminess or lethal arrogance.  None of the three is a viable alternative to thinking and broadening one’s perspective.

What follows is a simple daily mind/body exercise that can put your brain back on the throne.  I recommend that for a fifteen- to thirty-minute interval each morning you throw yourself into these exercises.   No psycho-babble here, folks.

The Mind Flexor

Search for something/anything! in your physical world.  For example a ruler.  Try to first imagine and then write down how many unorthodox uses the ruler could have.  Jot down a minimum of ten.  Then, as a follow up go online to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit and a great source for niche businesses and keywords, and type in a search for “ruler“.  Fascinating how the simple and commonplace have stories and histories which can keep one spellbound and thinking.

Immerse yourself every morning in such a manner.

And, I almost forgot one thing.  Mind aerobics are not a fraction as effective as they could be if you are not keeping your physical body in shape.  The first fifteen minutes should be spent on thinking and the next fifteen spent increasing the blood flow to the brain through a fast walk or some muscle stretching activities.

Indulge yourself every single day in activities which foster thinking and action.  You are born to think and become more until the casket is lowered.   There is no better day to commence than today.

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.

Not all of us were born into wealthy and happy families.  A fair number of us never felt loved or appreciated as children or young adults.  Many of us never learned to love and nurture or to accept love and nurturing.  A sizable number of us have made some bad life choices which have led to divorce, firing or even a prison sentence.  The economy must also be added to our customized “blame” formula of reasons and excuses for our failures and shortcomings.  And don’t forget the politicians, the greedy capitalists, the conniving relative who got an inheritance you thought was in the bag, or the friend who stole your lover.  We have all been jilted, tilted and wilted.

When you get tired of listing everyone and everything that has gone wrong and will go south in you life, I’m ready to talk with you.  My first paragraph is a rough road map of most of my life.  Yet there was something still stirring in me as I reached my forties.   Unsuccessful in every meaningful way to me, I secretly dreamed of being a hero and standing before a million people in love.  That something whispered to me that I am resilient, extremely intelligent and on the verge of greatness.  Some called my dreams delusions of grandeur.

Nothing in my world seemed to justify my hopes and aspirations for greatness.  Now I am in my fifties, 90 pounds lighter and fit.  Everyday I am writing and trying to touch lives with honesty, hope and action.  At 56 years old next week, I want to stand before you and say that life ain’t over until you stop trying.  I want to stand before you and say you are special – maybe spectacular – and nobody or nothing is standing in your path other than your own shadow of doubt.

With great reverence for the uniqueness and divinity in you, please accept my ten-step formula for finally standing tall and throwing away the crutches of failure and despair:

1) Read or learn to read.  Anything and everything you assimilate can stimulate your mind and put you into a problem-solving trance.

2) Walk on the other side of the street.  This activity will help to give you a new set of eyes.

3) Look to the heavens three times a day.  Rejoice that you are alive, that a day has been granted to you, and that the heavens, just like your life, are expansive and breathtaking.

4) Respect people by letting them finish their thoughts.  The quickest way to isolation is to be a dominant, know-it-all who chops off other people’s sentences and imposes your values and viewpoints in order to look smart and intelligent.

5) Find the lesson rather than dwell on the failure or failing.  To dwell means to live in a time warp which leaves you powerless and unable to make necessary adjustments for success.  Be aware of this trap and avoid it at all costs.

6) Breathe.  Hello?  Most of us are shallow breathers.  We don’t bring in sufficient oxygen to the brain for maximum alertness.  Breathe deeply…and deep thoughts and revolutionary concepts will appear from within and without.

7) Refrain from eating foods which make you sluggish and provide scant nutrition.  Would you pour sugar into your car’s gas tank?   Methinks not.  Put high octane food into your body.  I call it the 80-20 formula, eighty percent water-based foods and twenty percent healthy, solid foods of any variety.

Try one new activity every week.  If you can’t draw, start today.  If you can’t build a website, get on it.  If you can’t find a mate, ask someone for dinner.  Open your world to the delicious realm of possibilities.

9) Keep a diary of your accomplishments, your thoughts, your doubts, and your dreams.  Watch yourself grow from day to day.

10) Write down your goals in very specific terms.  If a pilot says he wants to go to North America, that’s a start.  But if he doesn’t have a destination, he will likely crash.  Goals are the road signs as we march toward our divine purpose on this planet.  Trust me, you do have a special purpose waiting to be discovered.

There has not been a day in my adult life when I felt comfortable supporting police sting operations. They are often fraught with abuse of power and violate the intent of law.

Most laws and law enforcement officials in the United States spend trashy tax dollars creating a criminal class and then trapping many many innocuous victims whose sole crime is being human and flawed.

The American prison system is disgusting and criminal. No arrested and untried person should ever be stuffed into a small cubicle with more than one other person. I speak from experience. For nearly two weeks before my release and subsequent acquittal from the King County Jail in Seattle many years ago I was forced to sleep inches from the base of a toilet with four others in the holding cell.

The reason why those cells are jam-packed is because American laws are meant to entrap rather than protect their citizens. Drunk driving kills, yet we allow bartenders to serve until the patron pukes. Drinking gets a wink, unless we kill someone in our car or in a drunken rage.

Marijuana possessors, on the other hand, can be sent to jail for twenty years for mere possession, although statistics clearly prove that a) marijuana does not lead to stronger, more lethal drug usage nor violence even remotely approaching that of the arbitrarily legal drug of alcohol and b) marijuana overwhelmingly tends to make a person more passive and less likely to commit a crime other than smoking the stuff or sharing it with some friends.

Prostitution – the oldest trade in the world – is also demonized when it should be made legal and regulated. The “criminal” once again may be flawed or desperate to put food on the table, yet if fornicating pays the bills, that means one less welfare mother or vagabond. The pimp is unnecessary when we stop creating laws that cover up the inability of the government to take care of those unable to do so. Quite often the law enforcer or legislator is or has participated himself in the illegal solicitation of sex.

The tragedy of 2001 also brought out a series of abusive laws which entrapped people who happen to have the wrong skin color or country of origin. The Bush Administration and law enforcement officials horrifically violated the human rights of countless innocents under the pretense of homeland security. The abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq were just a continuation of the excesses of law enforcement officials in the United States domestically and through proxies throughout the world.

This is all about the Gotcha gestapo mentality which is all too prevalent in the United States and countries which follow America by creating zillions of totally unnecessary laws which put flawed yet harmless individuals behind bars. These imprisoned people – perhaps eighty percent of them – pose no threat to society other than being guilty of stupidity or carelessness.

Laws should only be made to protect us from thieves and violent individuals who act out their aggression. Everything else should be forgivable, and mandatory counseling or community work encouraged over jail time. Putting non-violent people in jail creates a new, totally unnecessary flock of angry, aggressive people wanting to exact revenge on an unforgiving, gotcha society.

Paying taxes is another pet for the gotcha gestapo.  The codes are so complex and so lengthy that the poor and middle class alike cannot afford to understand their legal rights and obligations. The tax authorities audit us for the gotchas and then fine us like hardened criminals or put us behind bars so that we will become like them.

In a world that preaches the Sunday gospel of Christ and redemption, why is it that we want to entrap each other because we don’t like what others do or don’t do. We wave our Bibles around as a just cause for human rights abuse and penning law after law that reflect our moral upbringing and current mores, yet does nothing about getting the violent sickos off the streets.

Ayn Rand was right 50 years ago when she wrote: “There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”

Let us finally evolve from preying on the weak. We want to balance budgets more than balance laws. My sense is that 80 percent of the laws on the books should be reduced to a book of common sense. The gotchas are for primitive people.

From the time we are able to talk, we unconsciously want to impress others with our superiority.  Men especially love to compete.  They want to run faster, drive better cars and get laid with more regularity than the next Joe.

And that’s where so many people – secretly humiliated by braggarts – begin to develop defense mechanism of inadequacy.  I can remember when I was sixteen there was this eighteen-year-old braggart, Fred, who always talked about is felatio with a woman I never met.  Regardless of whether or not he had actually done what he said, I, a virgin, had to nervously laugh at his alleged exploits and behave as if I knew what he was talking about intimately.

Feelings of inadequacy shook me to the bone.  I wondered how he got laid and had women crawling to be on top of or underneath him.  But I was too embarrassed to ask him how he attracted women and got them to disrobe voluntarily.  My fears haunted me until my late twenties.  I never became a Don Juan, nor was that in my DNA.

Not too long ago, I reread Napolean Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.”  In one chapter he implied that to become rich you must have or develop sex appeal.  No wonder, I surmised, it was so difficult for me to accumulate wealth.  Napolean Hill,  as a young man, was clearly verile and extremely handsome.  He probably didn’t have to work at being sexy and verile; everyone just assumed he was and treated him as such.  His self-confidence soared.

When people are unquestionably handsome or pretty, they attract people without effort.  In attracting others, they build self-confidence – sometimes ungrounded – that they can seduce anyone at anytime…and they usually can!  On the surface of it, life does seem quite unfair.

Most of the world’s wealth is controlled by less than five percent of the people on this planet.  There is no scientific way to verify this, but I would guess that ninety percent of the five percent are sexually attractive either through looks or endowment or inheritance.  The remainder struggle mightily to find the confidence to believe in their own self worth.  They have to manufacture sexiness through becoming mavens or artisans in some field.  Most don’t have the perseverance to rise above the rabble.

A great majority of people secretly wonder why they don’t have sex appeal.  They dress for success and buy cars and toys beyond their means because they feel like naked eunuchs or hags inside and want to cover up their inadequacies.  What they often attract is not success and wealth, but a cheap imitation of it.  They are frauds and know deep down inside – if they dare take a moment to reflect – that they feel sexually inadequate and frustrated despite outward appearances.

In writing this raw piece I hope to wake up people to the naked truth.  The first step in changing for the better is to admit rather than cover up our inadequacies.

The ninety percent of us without natural gifts and talents and money must learn to challenge the more verile and sensual to a duel of the heart.  That is where each of us with less natural endowment can win against the beautiful-looking and silver-spooned crowd.