The most lucrative Joint Venture one can engage in usually involves a Center of Influence.

• This is a person who has the respect, admiration, trust, cooperation, and attention of a large group of people with whom he or she regularly communicates.
• This database of people is strongly inclined to follow the directions, instruction, advice, and suggestions of their leader, and they often do so blindly, as do most sheep.

And herein lies the challenge:

There are some dishonest and psychopathic centers of influence that misuse and abuse their power and their people, selling their loyal followers pigs in pokes, and taking advantage of their position of power to the disadvantage of their flock. One wants to identify and avoid these centers of influence like the plague.

You will be judged by your associations and the company you keep, and aligning yourself with con artists is financially tempting, but is as unwise as eating chocolate cake doused in strychnine.

The Most Valuable Activity of Any JV Broker

Seek out the honest and sincere centers of influence.

I would rather spend $2,000 working on a relationship with one genuine center of influence who has integrity, than reach hundreds of individuals who are not centers of influence. Those who have successfully Joint Ventured with good centers of influence know how valuable those relationships are. This is BY FAR the most valuable activity of any JV Broker: finding and pitching centers of influence.

7 Pointers for Gaining Top Notch Associates

Here are seven pointers that you would do well to be aware of:

#1 – Not everyone who has a large database is a center of influence.

There are characters lurking on the Internet who have plagiarized lots of information and built large opt-in databases under false pretenses – those databases are usually low quality, and your hit rate and conversion rate will be very low, while those you do convert will be low quality, too.

You want a high quality relationship between the center of influence and his or her people, and a high quality person in the database. Quality is more important than quantity.

#2 – Centers of influence can lose their credibility…

…with their flock as the products, services and investments they sold their followers prove to be scams at worst, and empty promises at best. The chickens come home, as it were, to roost.

Be on top of things and be current in your information about your target centers of influence. Things change, and there are a lot of posers and has-beens out there. Some centers of influence are on their way out.

#3 – All centers of influence are busy

…and what we hate more than anything else is an MLM type that sells lotions, potions, swill, and pills, snake oil and weight loss products, magic drinks, and overpriced vitamins and placebo effect products.

Realize that JV’s that involve the aforementioned and start-ups, unproven, miracle investments, gold mines in far-away places, and property/real estate “investments” in volatile, unstable third world countries are not JV’s most intelligent and honest centers of influence will even consider. We hear a lot of hype, and we have “BS Detectors”.

#4 – Don’t be intimidated by a center of influence.

They all want more money, and they all realize they can leverage their database. And they’re all looking for good, solid, lucrative, and viable JV’s that don’t involve cost, risk, or time.

#5 – Your Presentation:

Look, act, groom yourself, dress, and present yourself at least at the same level of professionalism as your prospect.

Showing up badly dressed, unshaven, covered in cat hair, answering your cell phone in the meeting, surreptitiously  glancing at your Blackberry or cell phone every few minutes (usually the sign of a lack of discipline and/or desperation), being unprepared, or smelling of tobacco, will simply irritate your prospect and end the meeting before it begins. And if you’re overdressed (glitzy, embroidered French cuffs, bling, big mouth, loud, ostentatious, aggressive and egotistical), you simply reveal that you’re intimidated, nouveau riche, or stupid. (Or all three.)

Be demure, professional, high quality, self confident, relaxed, and focused.

#6 – Your Offer and Approach:

Your offer has to be sufficiently financially rewarding to get the avid attention of your prospect.

• Get it in writing.  Click here for information about writing up an MOU, otherwise known as Memorandum of Understanding.
• Run it by your lawyer. I use Pre-Paid Legal and save a fortune on lawyers.
• Be very specific.
• Be concise and to the point, and remember that you have little time and only one opportunity to make a good impression. Talk about the bottom line and the time it will take to deliver the profit.
• Also mention who will control the money. This can easily be a deal breaker.
• Do your homework and position yourself.

#7 – This is a JV between equals.

…and you’re not a sales person or employee, so don’t act like one.

Be prepared to walk away from the deal. No center of influence wants to deal with someone who is in financial distress or under pressure to make money.

By seeking out solid, professional, and honest JV partners, you build your financial future on a firm foundation. Be selective, patient, and focused, and the sky’s the limit when dealing with centers of influence. DollarMakers is built on JV’s with good people.

“The foolishness of that comment is so deep, I can only ascribe it to higher education. You have to have gone to college to say something that stupid.”

– Dennis Prager, nationally syndicated radio talk show host and columnist, talking about a comment by a PETA representative.

There are many organizations and groups who have a vested interest in keeping the unwashed masses dumb, hungry, short of money, unhealthy, desperate, tired, and uninformed.

Academic and financial institutions, drug companies, the media, politicians, teachers and preachers in many forms, and your own boss (if you’re unfortunate enough to have one) provide information that is carefully designed to deceive, undermine, and manipulate people in order to achieve specific goals.

Anyone who watches CNN or attends meetings by “gurus” knows this.

Education Disinformation

If I took the advice of my:

• Accountant,
• Bank,
• Local politician,
• Neighborhood preacher,
• “Financial planners,”
• “Business coaches,”
• And itinerant seminar leaders,

I would be an uninformed, poor, guilt-ridden, hopeless, desperate smoker, and probably even a follower of Obama.

Just like most other people. I would be:

• In debt,
• Confused,
• Worried,
• Politically correct,
• Passive aggressive,
• And concerned about saving whales.

But I’m not, because my education is not disinformation.

Education That Sets One Free

Penn and Teller, Fox News, and the writings of the likes of Ayn Rand, John Stossel, and Robert Kiyosaki all provide education that sets one free mentally and financially.

As adults, we are free to question whether or not we are being hoodwinked by the cults we were pushed into by well-meaning but deluded parents and friends, whether the myths we accept as true are, in fact, true, and whether the information by which our choices are made is helping us or hurting us.

Are You Blissfully Unaware?

I’m not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch of the imagination, but dispelling myths about the creation of wealth is my life work, and when money is involved, one faces the strongest efforts by the powers that be regarding conditioning and coercion.

The mystics of mind and muscle put a lot of effort into blindfolding the average man so that their extortion goes unnoticed and is even welcomed, so a lot of the “education” we buy into is carefully designed to control and enslave.

The naïve, the stupid, the vulnerable and the slothful are blissfully unaware of what’s going on, and most of them can’t be saved, however those who have a decent IQ and the nerve and motivation to question and work are people whom we can help.

Get Perspective of How Things Really Work

The task is great, and the greatest tool I have found in my life to help people who are about to go over the waterfall into the bleak, churning waters of debt, despondency, and delusion is Ayn Rand’s masterpiece, “Atlas Shrugged” and we provide our own training, information, and support through our little business, DollarMakers.

We help people get perspective of the way things really work.

It’s smart to take a few minutes to give yourself a status check.

Get into a quiet place and ask yourself some serious questions.  Here are fifty questions that will make you think.

1. What does your life look like, right now?
2. What will it look like in five year’s time?
3. How happy are you?
4. What is stopping you from being happy?
5. Why not get happy sooner?

If you read Kiyosaki’s “Conspiracy of the Rich” and realize that the world has changed dramatically, now is a very good time to take stock of your life.

It’s Time To Get Rich and Have Fun

Those who stumble along blindly from paycheck to paycheck, sinking deeper into debt, numbing their senses with tobacco and booze, living vicariously through sports teams, avoiding reality, and channeling their passive aggression into liberal politics, are in for a sudden and rude awakening.

You don’t have to join them in squalor and servitude. It’s time to get rich and have fun.

It’s Not To Late

Most people only make changes in their lives when they exceed their pain threshold – the pain of remaining where they are is exceeded by the pain of change – or when forced to do so by external circumstances.

But the frog in boiling water never looks at the temperature as it rises, and he cooks before he can escape.

He misses the train to success. You don’t have to miss the train. It’s not too late.

When Is It Too Late?

It takes guts to leave the ruts, to walk away from the comfortable, the familiar, the “safe”. It’s easier to stay aboard the Titanic than to leap into a bobbing lifeboat in freezing seas. Easier to deny reality and “hope for the best”. Problem is, when it’s too late, it’s simply too late.

25% of the white population has left South Africa since 1995. When we left, friends said,

“We’ll see how it goes – we’ll wait a bit – we’re comfortable.”

Now it’s too late for them – they’re too old, their world is crumbling around them, and they’re stuck on the sinking ship.

Others viciously attacked us for leaving; they accused us of taking “the Chicken Run”, and stopped talking to us when they heard we were immigrating (this only happens in South Africa – not in other countries).

Now they’re living in one of the most dangerous third world countries and regretting their choices.

You Need Four Things to Change Your Life:

1. You need to objectively and rationally evaluate your options and circumstances. Get advice from people who have already created what you want, not those more screwed up than you are. Fat fish in small, stagnant ponds can’t tell you what it’s like to fly freely in the mountain air – in fact, they think it’s impossible. So talk to eagles. Life is short – you deserve the best.
2. You need to do due diligence before making changes. Take time to do this, but don’t wait until it’s too late!
3. You need mentoring, guidance, support, and a clear action plan. My support system was Rika, and hers was me. YOU are your best, ultimate support system, but the more successful people you have helping you, the better. Learn from their mistakes. Find people who are richer, smarter, and more motivated than you are.
4. You need serious motivation, which means you burn your bridges, close the back door, and commit unconditionally. Create a bulletproof mindset. The only South Africans who return to South Africa after immigrating are those who couldn’t make it in their new homes, and most of the time they kept property or money in South Africa – they “kept their options open” – they never really committed. Small wonder they failed.

Your Best Option is to Use Joint Ventures

Ninety-seven percent of our problems, pain, and restrictions can be solved with money.

When we realize how much we can achieve with money, and take into account the way the world is changing, the best option is to use Joint Ventures to acquire financial freedom.

Business Week tells us that the continuing job crisis is hitting young people especially hard:

“While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can’t grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.

Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.

For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of ‘lost generation.’ Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.”

We Work To Make Money

And yet parents continue to insist upon sending their offspring to colleges and universities to “get a good job”, thereby foisting their outdated, limiting philosophies on their children.

Now if the kid wants to become a doctor or lawyer or electrician, university is just fine, but I’m talking about those who really don‘t have any specific career in mind.

The fact is we work to make money. You can pursue your interest in marine biology once you’re rich and established – you don’t need to make a job out of it.

SOLUTION:

My dad always had money problems – I grew up poor.

So, much as I loved him, I never took financial or career advice from him – I’m just not that stupid. When I found rich people, I followed their advice to the letter.

Help your kids get rich – they might help you in your dotage.

Instead of wasting a small fortune on colleges and universities, buy them a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and get them some solid training that will have them earning  a lot more than you do in short order.

Fortunately, our kids are not as screwed up, conditioned, skeptical, and cynical as we are, so it’s a lot easier and quicker for them to make serious money in the new economy/world order through the use of Joint Ventures, with no cost, or risk, and regardless of their age, experience, or background.

Teach Your Children Well

For between $400 and $1,000, you can teach your kids to create a livable, passive, monthly income within a year of less.

No college can do that.

Academics don’t even know that it’s possible. And even if they did, they definitely wouldn’t tell you about it. Teach them to fish for tremedous tuna, not sickly sardines.

I believe teaching your kids to get a job is like feeding them poison, just because you drank it yourself. Teach your children well – save them from financial hell. They might just return the favor!

Are you being sabotaged by your socialization?

Blocked by your beliefs?

Trashed by your training?

Flummoxed by your philosophy?

Ultimately, your beliefs are your means to justify and organize your behavior, and therefore control your life. So, how are you doing right now? Got a great life? Future bright, or slightly brittle?

Most people go to meeting with one of three objectives:

1. Can I sell this fellow my product or service?
2. Can I get him to refer me business?
3. Let’s just meet and exchange business cards so that we know where to find each other in the future.

There is a much higher, more sophisticated, more lucrative path to take.

My Objective for a Meeting

People often make serious mistakes because they took the wrong advice. If you look back on your life, you will see that many failures and losses were the result of implementing bad advice. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind before you take advice that you should be avoiding at all costs:

Racing car drivers know that if they look at the barriers, they will hit them. We tend to move in the direction we look.

I know it’s true – I regularly race along a certain forest path on my trusty bicycle, and at one point I always had to slow down to avoid hitting a particular tree stump. Yesterday, I took my own advice, and instead of looking at the tree stump (where I didn’t want to go) I kept my eyes on the path beyond the tree stump (where I did want to go) and amazingly, I found I could negotiate the same route at twice my previous speed.

How They “Hit the Stump”