One of the major tragedies of life is to not learn from mistakes. I’ve learned from some, but continue to this same day many others.

That is why it is so important to review your life on a daily basis using a journal. By doing so, you can remember how you managed and mismanaged life. The next time around, the same mistake – if not learned – could cost you a job, a marriage or even your life.

There may not be anyone able or willing to save you from a mistake in judgment down the pike. Parents do the best they can to forewarn us that we can’t have a baby’s reliance once we leave the crib.

The judge rules…

“I would rather die standing up, than live life on my knees.”  ~Emilano Zapata~

Amen.  If you have been living your life as a sacrificial lamb and a victim, it is never too late to take the reigns of your life back from those who could never have your best – notice I said best – interest in mind.

You were meant to be you, not someone’s caricature of you.  Draw your line in the sand once and for all.  Become the divine creation you were always meant to be.

The judge weighs in…

Whether you live under a bridge off an interstate highway or in a 20-room estate overlooking the French Riviera, your life is still a work in progress.

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or misfortune which lay before you could yet turn the pauper into king and the king into a stink-pot prisoner on death row. Only time will tell.

One definition of wealth is “a great amount.” We all have a great amount of life – a wealth of it – by the time we reach our 60th. It is our duty to bring – to at least a precious few – our wealth experience and subsequent wealth philosophy. They in turn can pass forward our weighty thoughts about how to approach life successfully or how not to approach it.

Listen to the Judge as he chimes in on this touchy subject:

I understand the rage and impotence that rules the world. We are often raised by caring people who haven’t a clue how to parent their precious charge.

You must be gifted in creating ways to solve challenges with your children and only use tools of the last resort when absolutely required or necessary. John Kennedy’s father, Joe, said this to John…and it will serve so many ways.

Here’s what old Joe Kennedy said: “If it is not necessary to change, it’s necessary not to change.” If it’s not necessary to scold, then it’s necessary not to scold. If it’s not necessary to use sarcasm, then it is necessary in the rest of your speech to use sarcasm.

Controlling that temper is the first step toward reigning in the wild horses that move your life. The judge weighs in…

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 word adore comes from the French aourer meaning “to adore, worship” and from the Latin adorare meaning “speak to formally, beseech, ask in prayer.”

In our modern world of relativism, it becomes increasingly difficult to adore anyone or anything very much or for very long. Most images implanted in our minds are fueled by Hollywood fantasy or meant by advertising executives to sell us things we don’t need in the name of unbridled capitalism and consumerism.

Where have all our heroes gone? A good question to put to the adoring Judge…

A man complains because he has no shoes until he meets a man with no feet. I have that sentiment in motivational chatter again and again, but whatever your tear-jerking rap about “Poor me!” may be, there is always a path to the finish line.

It is believed by politicians and do-gooders that legislation can change minds and root out meanness, bias and blatant bigotry. It can’t. We mock and deride what we don’t understand or haven’t experienced…and that’s an awful lot.

I came across Nick Vujicic about a year ago. He was in a video featuring his God-inspired vibrancy and determination to do much more than just survive. He lives to inspire and wipe out all excuses for accepting failure with grace.

Watch this debut movie of Nick’s. He is a saint!

Many people are petrified of their intuition and hunches. They instead follow the stars and the latest trendsetters to decide their destiny. When they arrive where they think there going, all they see is a heartbreaking ghost town with tumbleweeds blowing hither and thither.

Is your heart broken because you feel trapped in other people’s dreams and expectations? Then I propose you take your life back before you are a tombstone.

You gotta have heart and grit to live a life of your own design. The message which follows may give you some perspective.

Wait. Don’t flick or flip me off.

Please! For you – please focus for a moment on what you are doing. My wife changes channels faster than the speed of light. People surf the net for opportunity after opportunity, sometimes having ten browsers open simultaneously looking for the Holy Grail of marketing riches and getting poorer by the minute. Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.D.) is no longer a disease; it’s the norm!

Is it any wonder that 95 percent of the wealth in the world is controlled by less than ten percent of the population?

So take a deep breath, close all browsers other than this one, listen to the audio, and then get serious about laser-focused success on your own terms.

Remember: Don’t have other browsers going. Turn off the info-overload button and get truly serious about your present and future.

When finished listening, go to the PerfectBizFinder and start to live your life on purpose – your purpose – from this day forward.

What happens to a person when they travel through life with no self-confidence? Well, pretty much everything of perceived importance seems to pass you by. You often hear that ringing in your ear: “Poor me! Why me? There’s no God and not even the Second Coming can save me from my wretchedness. My birth was a mistake and my death can’t come too soon.”

Feeling in that stream? Then climb on this audio steamer, and let’s move one ocean away from despair…

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.

What was the highlight or lowlight of my day?

What did I learn from today?

Did I achieve my goals or tasks for the day?  Why or why not?

Which areas of my life require the most immediate attention?  Finances?  Temper control?  Relationship with my boss?

Did I overeat, drink to excess, or knowingly poison my body or mind?  What triggered the excess(es)?

How can I gain greater balance when faced with the same challenge in the future?

What one activity could I do tomorrow to take me a step closer to success, as I define it?

What are five things which I can be grateful for today, as I am about to fall into a restful sleep for the night?

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.