I recently had a jumped up seminar junkie once again disgorging his unsolicited advice about how to run my business. One flower of success in the midst of a murky myriad of failures has convinced him that he is the business oracle before which mortals such as I should gratefully prostrate ourselves. One swallow does not a summer make, my young friend. Buying overpriced business courses does not make you a Donald Trump - it merely makes you a customer of the Donald. The smartest people I know only offer their advice when asked, and even then they humbly qualify their contribution.

Taking advice from people, as Mr. John Addison says, “who are more screwed up than you are”, is not one of my many failings. I am acutely aware of the limits of my knowledge and experience, but I have never benefited from the advice of someone who is clearly inexperienced, arrogant, and stupid into the bargain.

When I discovered the Average IQ was 100, I was Appalled (and then relieved!)

When I discovered that, on a bell curve, the average person has an IQ of 100, I was at first appalled, then relieved, when I found forgiveness in my icy heart for the average plebe who disguises himself as an entrepreneur and doles out his noxious counsel to other equally inept pretenders - the blind blissfully leading the blind, and laughing all the way to the bankruptcy court.

When Jim Stovall said that we should only take advice from people who already have what we want, he should have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Wisdom. Imagine an entrepreneur taking advice from an academic, a bank manager, or a socialist. Ridiculous, I know. Yet the sheeple continue to be sheeple, and we don’t have to follow them over the edge of the cliff.

Seek out TRULY SUCCESSFUL Mentors and Follow their Advice Carefully

Let us carefully select a good pair of effective earplugs and install them as soon as we are approached by one of these tormentors. Let us not confuse the symbol for the real thing. If I was a detective looking for a psychopathic conman, the first suspects on my list would be religious leaders, seminar presenters, consultants, and coaches, suffering from delusions of grandeur and fed by brainless sycophants who pay too much to join their cults.

I seek out truly successful mentors and follow their advice carefully, all the while retaining my reason and a good dose of skepticism, and cautiously weighing their recommendations before grabbing my wife’s checkbook. Empty barrels do, in fact, make the most noise. And still waters run very deep.

The Buddha said,

“Don’t hurry to believe in anything, even if it has been written in the holy scriptures. Don’t hurry to believe in anything just because a very famous teacher has said it. Don’t believe in anything just because the majority has agreed that it is the truth. You should test anything people say with your own experience before you accept or reject it.”

Let me add this final piece: When you find yourself in any meeting, seminar, or presentation where group dynamics and mass hysteria, group-think and emotional manipulation are at work, do not spend more than $500 or commit yourself to any amount over $500. This will prevent you from waking up with a terrible, haunting question the next morning: “WHAT HAVE I DONE?” The offer will still be there the next day, believe you me, and it might look very different.

Everything that impacts your mind, perception, choices, or awareness, has only one of two effects: Good or bad. The lukewarm amongst us will jeer at that declaration and allege that there is a “gray area” - losers LOVE that idea. Remember that our limitations are Self-Imposed, and so are our successes.

The fact is that if you are seriously committed to success, everything that you are exposed to will either help or hurt your progress en route to your objective. Winners cannot afford any dilution or distraction. Cyclists shave their bodies. Champions measure their speed in thousandths of seconds. EVERYTHING counts: diet, environment, input, association.

Contrasting Experiences To Learn From

I received an unsolicited phone call today from a fellow who wants me to participate in a public conference call. He asked me what my criteria were to participate or not. My answer was, “When I know whom the other participants in this project are, I will make my decision.” I will judge him by the company he keeps.

I once unexpectedly had to impose on someone with whom I had a business meeting to give me a lift home in his car. Before and during the meeting, he had impressed me with his stories of success and achievement. Until I got into his filthy van, that was. Cigarette butts clogged the ashtrays, papers were spread all over - dirty disarray, a reflection of his real nature - no congruency. End of relationship.

Nourish your success by elevating your standards, expectations, systems, and consciousness through the carefully selected association with people, ideas, input and environment. Exorcise the mundane, the tepid, the feeble, and the inconsistent.

Find mentors and heroes, both dead and alive, who will inspire, uplift, and challenge you.

Adhere to and create environments that are aligned with and congruent with your values, beliefs, aspirations, and expectations. Everything you read and watch, see, hear and perceive, has a consequence. The people in your life either take you towards your goals or away from them.

Nourish your success by paying whatever price is required. Invest in your goals and future. Discover the Real You and regain your old belief and excitement. Read only that which will fuel your ambition and inspire you on your journey. Churchill will trump Stephen King. Associate with those whom you wish to emulate. Practice that which you wish to perfect.

Read the thoughts of the great ones, if you wish to think the thoughts of the great ones, for their words ARE their thoughts. Align your philosophy with that of your heroes. Carefully and diligently remove all obstacles, detractors, and distractions from your path. Fuel your enthusiasm with stories about the accomplishments of winners. Everything counts, and everything matters. Contamination is real. Replace poison with power. You don’t eat donuts if you want to win the marathon.

Many entrepreneurs have a love/hate relationship with their businesses. They love the freedom it gives them, but they hate the fact that it steals all their time and energy. They love the fact that they can earn an unlimited amount of money in their own business, but they hate the fact that they constantly have to slave to create enough cash flow. It’s almost as if they got the new car, but it doesn’t have an engine.

Something is missing in your business, and I know where you can get it.

There’s the old story of the Indian Chief who saved for years to buy a car. When he got his shiny, new automobile, he sat in it and traveled slowly down the main street, waving to all the passers-by, well pleased with himself, and proud of his new toy. He had had six horses pulling the car along, because he didn’t know how to start the car or drive; two hundred horses under the hood that weren’t being used. Sounds like a lot of business owners I have met: they work far too hard and earn a a small percentage of their potential profits.

Why buy an airplane and learn to fly, when you can simply buy a ticket on someone else’s plane? It’s infinitely cheaper and easier, takes no time, and there’s no risk. Oh, you knew that? Then why don’t we do that in our businesses? Instead of buying and leasing and owning and risking, why not simply rent, borrow, or share something that is already paid for? Instead of working for minimum wage in your own business while your kids play ball, why not hire somebody and go watch the game? Do you think Donald Trump cleans the floors in Trump Towers? I was there, and I didn’t see him cleaning…. Oh, you’re not Donald Trump, you say? Well, you certainly won’t get to his level of accomplishment by being a laborer. You can read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, all day, but until you start acting on it and doing what rich people do, you’ll stay poor. I know people who’ve organized more cash flow games than I’ve signed checks, and they still work for a boss.

In order to turn that time vampire you call a business into a DollarMaker that spits out money while you sleep, you need to start learning about five things: Leverage, Duplication, Joint Ventures, Profit, and Value. That means that your dear ego needs to take an extended holiday while you take a good, hard look at the real situation in your business.

I told one of my clients, once, that his employees were stealing from him, and that he should start recording phone calls and set up CCTV. He was appalled. He was disgusted, shocked, and indignant. How dare I imply people would be crazy enough to steal from him? His brother turned to me and said, “We have caught a number of people stealing from him.” His ego was so out of control that this fool lived in denial and kept his brain pickled with alcohol over the weekends. You have to face facts if you want to change things.

Pretend your business is a Monopoly Game, and evaluate exactly where you stand. Look at all your resources, options, risks, costs, profits, ratios, and statistics. Look at the return on investment derived from your advertising. Be objective. You’ll be amazed at how many options you have available to you.

When you stand back and look at the amount of money you stand to make over a year from a Joint Venture or sale, you can decide objectively what you are prepared to invest in order to make sure your offer is accepted. For example, if you stand to make $20,000 conservatively, and you know that you have a high degree of certainty of closing the deal with enough leverage, is it worth investing $4,000 to close that deal? I would think that’s a pretty good return on investment.

For example, could you inform your future, proposed JV partner that you have paid for him and his wife to attend the DollarMakers Cancun Convention in November, and covered their flights as well? That small investment gives you enormous leverage for five and a half months! They’re locked in.

On a smaller scale, sending a nice limo around to his house with a huge bunch of flowers for his wife, with tickets to a great show in town and then a limo ride home afterwards, doesn’t cost much, but it’s very impressive. As long as he is available and likes the show, that is.

You could avoid being perceived to be manipulative by offering these perks as a bonus for an early decision to participate in your JV:

“BillyBob, if you go ahead with this deal, I will pay for a three day holiday in Vegas for you and Candy at New York, New York.”

How do you find out what they REALLY want? Ask them the right questions and LISTEN to them.

Unashamedly and ethically bribe people to buy. We all love fun and toys. But be sure what you’re offering is something BillyBob really, really wants, before you make your offer. My bank manager once offered me expensive tickets to a Canucks hockey game. I gave them back. He assumed I like to live vicariously through sports teams like many other sheeple, and he was dead wrong.

Give people a wonderful reason to do business with you. A free meal or a T Shirt don’t really impress people much. How do you find out what they REALLY want? Ask them the right questions and LISTEN to them.

“So, tell me, Elvis, if you had $2,000 cash in your hand, and you absolutely HAD to spend it on some fun toy or experience or game or gimmick or trip within the next six hours, what would you buy?

“Why would you choose that?”

“Tell me more…”

Sometimes, a $5 gift for their dog does more than a $100 bottle of single malt Scotch whiskey. Find their “Hot Button” and push it. Invest to get interest. I would rather spend $100 on one person and make an impact, than $10 on each of ten people and insult them. Think strategically.

Think about it: are you more inclined to accommodate someone after they bought you an expensive lunch and handed you a nice gift, than after a latte at Starbucks? Do you feel like reciprocating after a nice boat trip, more so than after being handed a cheap company calendar?

Pay HIGH commissions - 50% gets peoples’ attention. Pay peanuts, and you get monkeys, with due respect to primates. “Buy a house from me, and I’l buy you a big screen TV” - it works.

Robin J. Elliott
www.JVWisdom.com

It is said that duplication and leverage are the two most powerful forces in the world. Think of a virus or compound interest, and you will understand how a mail carrier can earn a million dollars a year through Network Marketing and how a simple Joint Venture that took an hour to set up can turn into tens of thousands of dollars in pure profit. There is a hard way and an easy way to make money, and I think it’s better to go the easy way.

I am thoroughly enjoying Ray Kroc’s book, “Grinding it Out” – written in 1977 about how he built McDonald’s. It’s an inspiring read of courage, vision, risk, sacrifice, and success, as well as a revelation of how dishonest some people are and how Mr. Kroc survived them. It’s very gratifying to me that I can show people a better way to wealth, a path that is not inundated with risk, sacrifice, fear, and chance. This route is the means I have chosen to build wealth – it requires no selling, risk, sacrifice, or sleepless nights.

Mr. Kroc succeeded against all odds, but he chose a business model that is extremely difficult. Joint Venture Brokering allows me the freedom of time and money, and I can operate in many areas, in many industries, and at many levels simultaneously. While franchising is definitely leverage, I choose to leverage multiple resources in many different ways, all at the same time, with no risk, overhead, leases, royalties, inventory, capital investment, or employees, and little time. I can be a creative and as adventurous as I like, without investing a blue cent.

Am I as wealthy as Mr. Kroc was? Of course not, but it is definitely as possible to attain the same level of wealth, faster, with none of the risk or costs involved, using Joint Ventures. Most entrepreneurs work too hard and earn too little. The average business, in my estimation, can easily double and quadruple their profits with no cost or risk using Joint Ventures. One JV that I got into took a profit center in my business from $4,000 per month to $20,000 per month in four days. Leverage: it’s an amazing force that is available to all of us, whether we have a business or not, and regardless of our circumstances or background. Life can be a grind, but I prefer the beach. You don’t have to sacrifice, sweat, and grovel anymore, once you discover the magic of Joint Ventures. Replace fear with fun, sweat with skiing, and risk with reward.

I sat and watched vulnerable, desperate people running - running to the back of the seminar room to waste money they didn’t have on junk that didn’t work and that they would never use.

A woman in front of me burst into tears and told me that she had spent $1,200 the previous day on material that explained how she could buy properties all over North America with no money. She had been whipped up into an emotional frenzy by the smooth taking con-man  that posed as a caring mentor in the front of the room. She couldn’t afford what she had bought, she was in her fifties, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and earned minimum wage as a security guard, and she was a single mother with two dependent children.  Disgusting.

Here’s the worst part: some of these “seminar leaders” actually sell courses on how to manipulate peoples’ minds and emotions and have them spend money on overpriced rubbish, get them running like idiots to buy stuff at the back of the room,  only to regret the purchase for years afterwards.

Intelligent, well grounded people will not rush to be ripped off, so the victims are generally less intelligent and hard-up for money, with poor self-esteem. THINK before you leap into an investment scheme or a tax saving deal. Get solid advice first. Don’t believe the discount stories and the scarcity pitches.

In Business Do You Due Diligence - It’s Worth It.

Ayn Rand said,

“Rationality is the recognition that nothing can alter the truth, that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise - that the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind. Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgement, that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life - that the vilest form of self-debasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertion as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middleman between your consciousness and your existence.”

Do your due diligence before getting into a Joint Venture. Check peoples’ motives. Read between the lines. Don’t sign ANYTHING before taking the contract to your lawyer. When you DO, i recommend a simple Memorandum of Understanding. Do not buy expensive things without sleeping on it first (Use the 3 Sleeps rule).  Things look different the next day. Instead of crying, “WHAT DID I DO? I must be crazy!” Be glad that you had enough self control to consider the facts. And this manipulation is far more widespread than most people realize. Take control of your mind, be an independent thinker, and demand freedom.

The best way to maintain your rationality and objectivity in an increasingly manipulative world that operates sans conscience and sans consequence, is to pour realism into your mind by reading the right information, immerse yourself in the philosophy of Objectivism, and connect with like-minded people.

Over at the website ‘Shape Up America‘, they compiled a list of 198!! Self-Improvement articles found around the internet.

Now, I don’t know about you, but 198 articles is ALOT to wade through.  But if you think about it - finding the good articles yourself is even MORE work.  I’d be willing to wager they read 5 to 10 times that amount on the topics they list, that just didn’t cut it as far as their requirements went.

Here is the general categories they have sorted them into:

• Self Improvement
• Productivity
• Health & Fitness
• Food & Diet
• Brain Power & Memory
• Sleep

And inside those topics is SCADS of valuable tips, tricks and advice in regards to genuinely improving yourself in so many areas of your life.

The Most Incredible Ways To Improve Thyself

I’d recommend you bookmark that page and whenever you’re bored and about to browse YouTube or waste time on FaceBook - you instead go read 1 or 2 of those articles and improve yourself immensely!