Mar 12

“But, Robin, please! What does this have to do with Joint Ventures and business? Enough of the philosophy, already!”

As long as we’re dealing with people and money, philosophy is the basis on which we have to base our assumptions, predictions, choices, and evaluations.

This article may go a little way to illustrating my point.

What is Mysticism?

Ayn Rand writes,

What is mysticism?

Mysticism is the acceptance of allegations without evidence or proof, either apart from or against the evidence of one’s senses and one’s reason. Mysticism is the claim to some non-sensory, non-rational, non-definable, non-identifiable means of knowledge, such as ‘instinct,’ ‘intuition,’ ‘revelation,’ or any form of ‘just knowing.’ Reason is the perception of reality, and rests on a single axiom: the Law of Identity. Mysticism is the claim to the perception of some other reality—other than the one in which we live—whose definition is only that it is not natural, it is supernatural, and is to be perceived by some form of unnatural or supernatural means.”

Mysticism to Conceal Real Motives

I was recently copied on an e-mail from a woman who intended to join the DollarMakers Club, but had problems understanding how to use PayPal. When it was resolved, she jumped to the confusion that Outlook Express had somehow caused an issue with her credit card not working, and this was her response:

“I am taking the mishap as a signal that perhaps my application to Dollarmakers was not meant to be at this time.”

When we use our ineptitude and normal daily frustrations to justify a change in mind, we’re using mysticism to conceal our real motives.

Red Flags

We all seek evidence to support our dominant beliefs – that’s quite normal. Many people use their children and families as excuses to disguise their real values and motives, but that’s usually easy to determine. When it comes to mysticism, however, a huge red flag goes up. But wait! Perhaps this is what the color red might really signify!  See what I mean? Ridiculous.

Easier to Choose Blame Then Taking Responsibility

“The universe is trying to tell me something” – amazing.

Visit your local Theosophical Society or Science of Mind meeting, and see how many successful business owners you find there, (apart from the ones running the meeting – they have a special agenda.)

It’s easier to blame your Spirit Guide, karma, numerology, or astronomy than to take responsibility for your own bad choices, laziness, or lack of commitment. I know – I have been involved in and studied many kinds of mystical organizations, and philosophies – they’re all basically the same.

Here’s The Bottom Line

If you want to do business with someone, you need to establish that you’re working with an adult who is

  • sane,
  • responsible,
  • rational,
  • objective,
  • and mature.

Or be prepared to have them disguising their dishonesty and slothfulness with voodoo nonsense and justifications.

Cloaking one’s real agenda is mysticism and only works for those who share the illusions and delusions.

Get Real

Instead of talking chakras and essential oils, let’s talk numbers, ratios, and profit. Let’s stop fooling ourselves and get real. Evaluate your future business associates carefully, and avoid the mystics at all costs.

The:

  1. psychics and swamis,
  2. fakirs and fakers,
  3. gurus and grifters,
  4. posers and prophets

will simply waste your time and steal your peace of mind.

Finally, many years ago, I attended a wonderful business seminar with a friend of mine. The seminar leader was a brilliant entrepreneur who has made a fortune for himself and others. He was talking about one’s context, cognizance, and perceptions in business, and my friend was angry that

“this arrogant man spends his time philosophizing.”

Well, your philosophy will ultimately determine where you end up in life, and it is the basis of all your choices and the results you create. Many years, my friend’s philosophy has brought him to where he is, and mine has brought me to where I am – a world apart.

Work With Like-Minded People

For me, Capitalism and Objectivism work well. I suggest all business owners read “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand – it’s the best book I ever read. I am responsible for the circumstances I create and for my reaction to those circumstances. I don’t make excuses, mooch off others, or blame ethereal causes or other people for my choices. And I work with like-minded people.

Carefully evaluate the people with whom you propose to do business: what do they read and believe? Alternatively, leave it to your Spirit Guide to do the work for you, while you zone out with incense and nonsense. It’s easier, until you find yourself living under a bridge with other evolved beings.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for Email Updates below.



Mar 10

We’ve been taught that if we just persevere and persist, we will ultimately win.

Like the man who is told there is a million dollars behind a thick brick wall, and he is given a small chisel to get to it. His hands bleed and he persists day and night, breaking a way through the wall.

He seldom sleeps, never quits, works as hard as he can, denies himself rest and entertainment. He persists until finally, after months of backbreaking work, he gets through the wall, only to find that he was lied to – there is no money there.

Persistence Works When

Before you start on a mammoth task, make sure there is money behind the wall. Do your due diligence.

But when you are convinced that you’re on the right track, that your goal is legitimate, and that it’s up to you to achieve it, persistence is the way to get there.

It’s not about intelligence or who you know or some silly college degree – the hallmark of champions is persistence. The only time it doesn’t work is when the goal is wrong or you quit.

Persistence separates the men from the boys, the talkers from the champions.

Motivation and Support From Family

Cordell Parvin writes in his blog, “Last year I had the chance to see Terry Fator, who was performing at a resort in Hilton Head. He had just won the America’s Got Talent television show. Fator, a ventriloquist, had labored for many years here in Dallas.

According to one report, in May 2007, before appearing on America’s Got Talent, Fator was performing at a fair near Houston, Texas and only one 12 year-old boy was in the audience.

Discouraged, Fator contemplated pursuing another career, but his family encouraged him to hang in there.

Fator says that he never dreamed he would actually win. After winning, opportunities arose. As you may be aware from the news, this year Terry Fator signed a five year $100 million deal to perform nightly at The Mirage Casino and Resort in Las Vegas.”

Your Greatest Asset is Persistence When?

When you’re using the right information and you’re aligned with the right people, and when your goal is legitimate and real, your greatest asset is persistence.

When you persist, you will experience resistance and attacks for the losers of the world. The tall trees catch the wind. Ask Fox News. Ask Microsoft and Wal-Mart. Ask Churchill and Patton.

Losers hate winners. Envy, resentment, jealousy, and fear of being exposed will cause others to try to undermine you, but as long as you persist, you will win.

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night” – remember that.

And Then There Are Warriors

In 23 years of business, I have consistently found that the big talkers with the big egos seldom achieve anything. They substitute hot air for results, and one by one people see through their bluster and posing, until they settle for mediocrity and servitude, along with the other weak people who never amount to anything.

Warriors:

  1. Don’t always talk a lot, but they take massive, persistent, audacious, fearless action.
  2. Answer to themselves.
  3. Take full responsibility for their commitments.
  4. Never even consider the option of quitting.

When you’re on the right track, persistence and consistency will guarantee your success.

A Proven Success Recipe

Having said that, let me ask you this: If you knew, without a doubt, that if you were to work hard consistently and persist for just one year, following a proven success recipe, you would be able to retire with more residual / passive monthly income than you needed to live on comfortably, would you go for it? That’s exactly what we offer at DollarMakers.

Feb 12

Ayn Rand wrote,

“All work is an act of philosophy.”

For innovators, produces, and creators, our work is our lives – our businesses are simply an extension off our philosophies and values.

We take our work very seriously, and we take full responsibility for being the best we can be. We don’t do it for other people – we do it for ourselves.

A writer must write, a painter has to paint, and a dancer is compelled to dance, since what they do is an expression of their minds. Entrepreneurs are also artists. Musicians create symphonies; business owners create businesses.

Producers Vs Parasites

I have heard from many people that they have been told by other workers not to work too hard and embarrass their slothful co-workers.

I have witnessed utility workers and government laborers slacking off to stretch the work to earn more money. They take no pride in their work, have low self-esteem, and little or no self-respect. These people accept the terms. They are basically paid slaves, moochers, who will take the most possible and give the very least acceptable.

A producer would walk off the job.

A World Where We No Longer Exist

The History Channel has a fascinating show called, “Life After People” – it predicts what would happen to the world if all the people suddenly disappeared. It investigates consequences from pets, to zoos, to wild animals, to nuclear waste. Very mind-expanding.

In her life-changing book, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand predicts what would happen if the

  • prime movers,
  • producers,
  • and innovators

Left the world to the

  • parasites,
  • mystics,
  • looters
  • and politicians.

Why Read “Atlas Shrugged”?

So that we can recognize creeping collectivism and socialism, avoid it, and protect ourselves from being flung onto the sacrificial altar by those incompetents and leeches who would rule us and steal our creations. This is the Big Brother of the future:

“from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. One can avoid a thief only when one identifies a thief.

A Cause and Effect

Without those who build and invent, produce and innovate, the world would collapse. Look at the “new” South Africa – the new government decided that the maintenance of power plants, mines, and other major components of the country’s infrastructure didn’t need to be fixed, maintained, or improved. The resulting rolling black-outs and the descent into statism is evident for all to see.

Cuba is another simple example. When Russia withdrew her funding, they had to run to new milch cows. While the Socialist Cuban government decries capitalism, it is itself using Capitalism to make money from wealthy Capitalist tourists.

People live in hovels that they call houses, just above the poverty line – after all, what do they NEED? They don’t NEED swimming pools and smart cars… And medical doctors work as waiters in the state-owned hotels in order to make more money.

“From each according to his ABILITY”?

It simply doesn’t work.

Learn to Be an Aware Thinker and Rationalist

The Western world has been and is being programmed for massive socialism, and because it doesn’t truly understand the implications, it sits like the frog in a pot of water on a stove – the water increases in there slowly until the frog boils to death.

Liberals flirt with the naughty boy of socialism, playing with the tiger until they get eaten alive. They elect leaders who will imprison them.

We who are the thinkers and the rationalists have to be aware of what is going on in this new world order.

We have to be able to identify the slave owners and witchdoctors who demand our self-sacrifice in order to avoid them. Atlas needs to know when and how to shrug.

Feb 01

Few people have guts to tell it the way it is. Robert Kiyosaki, in this incredible video, says things like,

“Four things make 90% of the people poor: taxes, inflation, debt, retirement plans.”

And then he provides solutions. He says,

“America will become a third world nation – rich and poor. That’s it. Tell me something money does not affect. Most guys are just wimps. Pussies. Cowards. They don’t have it. so they should get a job. It takes discipline. Most people would like to have a great body like Charles Atlas, but they’re at Burger King wolfing down a Whopper with fries. I don’t know how you can expect to get anything you want without some degree of long-term commitment. Quitting is the easiest thing to do. That’s why most people don’t make it. Everybody has doubts and fear of failing. But look at Tiger Woods or any great athlete: when the going gets tough, that’s when they turn into geniuses and most people turn into wimps. Get off your butt. If you want to be a mechanic, you go hang out with mechanics. If you want to get rich, hang out with rich people.”

3 Things You Need to Succeess

When it comes down to it, you need three things to succeed in business:

  1. The RIGHT financial education.
  2. Connections with the right people.
  3. GUTS. The guts never to quit, make excuses, or run away.

Let’s talk about these three.

1. Financial education.

Kiyosaki points out in his four quadrants that you can be:

  • an employee (quadrant 1),
  • or a self-employed salesman / solopreneur (quadrant 2),

… and never get rich,

or you can be in quadrants three and four.

  • Quadrant three is big business (500 employees or more),
  • and quadrant four is having your money work for you.

Most people who don’t have money think it’s impossible to play in quadrants three and four, whereas DollarMakers shows you how to participate in big business through Joint Ventures and to make money from the investments of other people – anyone can do that. We don’t have money problems; we have thinking problems.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Why? Because the rich keep doing the things that made them rich, and the poor keep doing the things that made them poor.

2. Connections with the right people.

DollarMakers has hundreds of Members, many of whom have a great understanding of Joint Ventures, in 19 countries – all looking to do a deal with you. And we FIRE dishonest people who don’t abide by our Code of Business Ethics. We are constantly weeding the moochers and posers out.

Winners will link you with winners, and losers will introduce you to their loser friends. We provide various platforms and options for connecting with the right people. We’re not a networking group full of broke wanna-be’s.

3. GUTS.

If you are a weak, politically correct, passive-aggressive, excuse-making wimp, don’t join DollarMakers. Our Members have to take full responsibility for their own success – we’re not socialists or quitters, and we don’t carry passengers or pamper parasites. We’re excited, determined, motivated, and disciplined. Our goal is to MAKE MONEY. That’s why we’re called DollarMakers.

If you’re serious about success and you’re tired of watching your wealth go down the drain, join DollarMakers. Right now.

Jan 22

Here are some real life illustrations for you:

Fake Leads

•   A long time ago, I attended a business networking meeting where only one person from every industry is allowed, (big red flag) and everyone is under pressure to give our leads / referrals every week. They actually COUNT the leads, and nobody gets a commission! Anyway, I received a LOT of fake leads, because people were too gutless to admit they didn’t have any leads to give out, and they feared losing their place in this group of broke, desperate, self-employed salespeople.

No Intention of Ever Co-operating

•   I asked someone to send out an e-mail to their database to promote one of my events a few years back. I “salted” their database (entered it anonymously, using a fake name and e-mail address) and the e-mails were never sent out. They didn‘t want to tell me that they never intended sending it out.

People Who Can’t Say “No”

•   People promise to show up at places, do things, make calls, promote stuff, attend meetings – and they never do – they offer weak, transparent excuses, because they can’t say “No”.

Sounds familiar, does it?

In our gutless, politically correct world of passive aggressive, anal-retentive, wanna-be entrepreneurs, it’s hard to find people who don’t fear “rejection” by simply saying, “NO.”

(It’s even harder to find people who actually do what they say before their laziness and stupidity overcomes them, but I digress).

So What’s the One Fear?

The one fear that will sabotage your business life more than most others is the fear of saying, “NO.”

You don’t have to explain and say, “NO – I don’t want to deal with you. BECAUSE

  • I don’t like you”
  • I don’t trust you”
  • Your offer is ludicrous and one-sided”
  • You’re an idiot”
  • You’re cheap”
  • You dress like a second-hand car salesman cum trailer park manager”
  • You stink of tobacco…”

Just say, “No, thanks, this is not for me – I don’t see a fit.”

Instead of wasting your time trying to make losers happy and justifying things, instead of trying to be popular with wankers.

Just, say, “NO.” You don’t have to explain.

The Frog Prince Analogy

You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. You can’t marry every frog because you’re afraid of “rejection”.

The more selective you are, the more distinct your criteria for accepting business offers is, the more sophisticated your approach, and the more successful you are, and the better known you are, the more offers you will have to reject, so get used to it.

So far, we have rejected 24 applications to our $20,000 DollarMakers Certified Business Mentor Training program, which meant we turned down and rejected $480,000 in sales. We are very proud of that. Few people would do that. But we see the big picture.

If the fit isn’t right, we say, “NO.” And everybody wins, because we’re honest.

Tell the Truth

Think of it this way:

“I am not in business to make other people happy, to build their egos, to be accepted and feel important, or to become popular. I am not here to please other people. I am in business to make the maximum amount of net profit with the least cost, risk, time, and effort, and I only work with people whom I like, trust, and respect. I don’t have to do anything, and I will tell the truth.”

Fearlessly, audaciously, courageously, tell the truth.

Your self-respect will increase as you discipline yourself to be honest, and, as a result, you will make more money, because we earn money in direct proportion to our self-esteem.

How can you even look at yourself in the mirror when you’re controlled by the whims and opinions of others, keeping up with the Joneses, and trying to impress losers?

Realize this: NOBODY CARES. Get real and get honest; say “NO.”

Consider What is Important

Here’s the good news:
It’s more important to be respected than to be liked.

People know that I don’t give a damn whether they like me or not, and I refuse to conform to this climate of slimy, politically correct, dishonest, back-stabbing hypocrisy.

I don’t care if the truth offends people or if they’re uncomfortable. And people know that they can trust me because of my approach.

The more selective and direct I become, the more money I make. It works. Try it. Thicken your skin.

Instead of “Got Milk?” how about, “Got GUTS?”

Jan 20

Is it “Nature or Nurture”? Michael Shermer, talking about his excellent book, “The Mind of the Market”, said,

“Since I was a teenager, I’ve been a libertarian. I noticed that there are not so many of us and that most people find us a bit strange. Most people have a hard time with the idea of so much freedom in the market place. Now, why is that? When I started applying evolutionary thinking to the process, thinking about folk intuitive notions of things and why people get so many areas of science wrong intuitively, it began to make sense to me. With folk astronomy we have an intuitive notion that the world is flat, celestial bodies revolve around the earth. That’s the way it feels. The planets are wondering gods that determine our future.”

“In folk economics, we have an intuitive notion that excessive wealth is wrong. Economic systems must be designed from the top down. We misunderstand and mistrust ‘the invisible hand” of the market place (note: Charles Darwin also read the work of Adam Smith). The reason why folk science so often gets it wrong is that we evolved in an environment radically different from the one in which we live. We still have a sweet tooth and biological inclination to eat fat, because food was always scarce. That’s why we have an obesity epidemic right now. Our senses are geared for perceiving objects of middling size, between say ants and mountains.”

“Not bacteria, molecules and atoms on one side of the scale and stars and galaxies on the other end. We live to short to witness evolution, continental drift or long-term environmental changes. That’s why we still have an inclination to want products now, versus products later at a considerable discount. It is human nature.”

Working On Our Perceptions, Beliefs, and Limitations

Whether the cause of our small, limited, scarcity, fear-based thinking is the result of our socialization, education, and the people we mix with, or indeed, as Mr. Shermer suggests, far deeper, those who wish to make it big in the world of business need to work on our perceptions, beliefs, and expectations.

The good news is that we can change and break free of our limited thinking, and that very few people will take the time to analyze and acknowledge their limitations, let alone take steps to correct them.

That means that we have very little competition, and that the world is, indeed, our oyster.

Add a working knowledge of Joint Ventures, and you’re ready for great accomplishments!

Jan 18

I’m not talking about sales training (most sales trainers can’t sell for the life of them), closing techniques, product knowledge, dress and grooming, sales material, or pricing.

I’m talking about the one thing that ultimately separates the

  • Masters from the mongrels,
  • the Eagles from the ducks,
  • the Champions from the chumps,
  • and the Closers from the creeps.

I’m talking about the difference between getting rich and getting by, and that difference is created by BELIEF.

Believing in Yourself

When you truly believe in yourself and your product or service, it shows.

You become

  • self-confident,
  • strong,
  • relentless,
  • audacious,
  • and unstoppable.

You become a

  • straight talking,
  • proud walking,
  • King of the Kool Kat Klan.

You have pep in your step and a glide in your stride when you believe.

When you’re absolutely certain and focused,

  • you’re circulating and percolating,
  • making the contacts and writing the contracts,
  • and moving and grooving.

The One That Makes The Sale

Believers don’t doubt for a single second that they will make the sale.

They don’t apologize or agonize – they have that killer instinct that makes them close like a bear trap on a sickly kitten. They are the steel fist in the iron glove, the warriors, the closers.

If you’ve seen the movie, Glengarry Glenross, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

When two people are belly to belly, one is always selling. You’re either buying your prospect’s lies and excuses, or you’re selling, baby.

And the one that is convicted at the deepest level is the one that will make the sale. That’s just the way it is.

Believers Win Big

You can’t fake belief – people instinctively recognize if you’re a poser or a Player.

And you can’t be a part-time Champion.

You can, perhaps, fool a few fools at a time, but

in the long run, the believers win big.

Immersed, Convinced, and Convicted – 24/7/365

True believers are

  • totally immersed, convinced, and convicted – 24/7/365.
  • They are passionate about what they do.
  • They eat, sleep, and drink their product.
  • They are a “product of the product”; you can’t drive Hyundai and sell Lexus.

You can’t sell what you’re not, and people buy YOU before they buy what you’re selling, because, ultimately, you’re selling yourself.

Part-time, sideline, half-time clock watchers are never sales champions.

You can’t serve two masters. People won’t by from timid, tentative, trembling types –

they buy from people who are absolutely uncompromising in their belief.

True believers are not

  • rough,
  • disrespectful boorish,
  • or loud.
  • They don’t
  • talk over others,
  • pressurize,
  • or hard close, because they don’t have to.

Their power is in their belief, and they attract sales like a powerful magnet. If people are not buying from you, it has nothing to do with your product or service, the pricing, the competition, the weather, the holidays, the recession, demons, or your skanky ex-wife.

The reason why people are not buying from you is because you don’t BELIEVE in yourself and your product enough.

So stop whining and start winning. Stop making excuses and start making money!

Get yourself some serious belief and watch your closing ratios soar like an F18.

Jan 15

We were enjoying a BBQ in the back yard of his house outside Johannesburg, when my late friend and army buddy said something that has always stayed with me.

Kobus had been telling me how he got rich. And his statement at the very end of his story is one I will never forget.

After we left the army at the end of our conscription, he didn’t know what to do with himself, so he became a psychiatric nurse. I remembered it well – we use to have drunken parties at his apartment on the very grounds of the mental institution, and anyone who observed our intoxicated, wild antics have assumed we were patients.

Then he married a female nurse who turned out to be gay. Then he became a medical sales representative and did very well.

Getting Rich is Akin to Getting Physically Fit

While Kobus was a sales rep, he started a plastics company in his garage, making desktop penholders to sell to the doctors along with the drugs, then he manufactures basins and bathtubs, and then bought a women’s clothing store, and so on. We remained good friends and played squash and sailed together, and here we were reminiscing.

I asked him, “Koebs, when did you become a millionaire? It must have been a very exciting day for you!”

And here was his answer: “Rob, I didn’t even realize it when I became a millionaire – it sort of creeps up on you – money starts flowing naturally when you’re in the right head space.”

I later experienced the same thing, but the way he described the process of getting rich is akin to getting physically fit. Like the day when you suddenly realize you have just pedaled three kilometers without even realizing it, because you were so busy thinking about other things.

In the beginning, every turn of the pedal is a concerted effort, tiring, and even exhausting. But if you persevere, one day you realize that you’re finally fit.

Are You A Quitter?

Ninety-seven percent of people quit so easily that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad. There is such a dearth of self-respect, self-discipline, and self-esteem out there that it is frightening.

People seem to have got to a point where they have even less shame than manners. I would be mortified if I had to cancel a meeting at the last minute or show up late for an appointment, but most people hardly blink.

Winners are tough on themselves, and they will endure pain, blisters, rejection, and difficulty without complaining or making excuses, UNTIL they succeed.

Not As Scary as it Seems

One night, Kobus and I were camping in the bush after leaving the army. I had my dad’s .38 special snub-nosed revolver, and he was armed with a hunting knife. In the middle of the night, we heard someone approaching our tent.

I cocked the revolver, Kobus unsheathed his knife, and we sprang out of the tent to confront our attacker, who turned out to be a large frog that was hopping around and bumping our cooking utensils.

Often, the threats we perceive in business are not close to as scary and dangerous as we think they might be. There are scarier things out there.

The Measure of A Great Man

Kobus died a few years back, but I have wonderful memories of him as a man of character and substance – a real man, whether we were fighting for our lives in Angola in the army, doing business, or having fun. He was a man of his word who had my back, and men like him are few and far between.

Clicky Web Analytics