We all know that due diligence only goes so far, yet we still need to do the best we can to avoid hooking up with the wrong people.

• Do you find that although you’re honest, loyal, hard-working, committed, and conscientious, yet you’re not making money?
• You attend the seminars, read the books, and apply the principles, but nothing seems to work?

Don’t worry; there is a rational reason.

Your Values Determine Your Value

I heard Rika telling our cleaning lady that she wanted the kitchen closets done, and the cleaning lady replied, “Of course I can do that.” I chuckled.

When it comes top cleaning the garage, polishing shoes, cutting the grass, changing the car’s oil, or swimming across the lake, people seem to enjoy the challenge and brag about their accomplishments. “I lost ten pounds!” But when it comes to business, it’s entirely a different deal.

It Doesn’t Make Sense!

The Red Flags of Conmen

Conmen play the vague, politically-correct, altruistic games that call for “trust and respect” and “giving back”, while avoiding specifics, making elaborate promises, and never committing to anything in writing.

An outspoken and highly intelligent, perceptive, and prophetic blogger recently wrote,

“Obama has been b*tch-slapped by North Korea who has no fear of any reprisal. His naiveté and narcissism has damaged America’s global standing and put us and our allies in danger. Obama’s tough talk carries the significance of Boy George fighting in mixed martial arts.”

I would trust this blogger whom I have never met, more than many people whom I know.

What Business is All About

Business is not personal – it’s about the transaction of value, and it has nothing to do with “giving back”, your wife’s lumbago, or helping the poor.

1. I do what I commit to, and you do what you commit to, and if not, there are consequences.
2. If you don’t pay me what you owe me, I’m coming after you hard with a very nasty lawyer, of that you may be assured.
3. I’m not interested in the consequences of your personal choices or your lies or excuses.
4. And if we do good business, we may become friends. Maybe, but not necessarily.

That’s why we need to be very specific when setting up our Joint Ventures.

How Do Your Role Models Behave?

I have found that people who smile and laugh a lot and insist on hugging everyone in sight are usually adroit at back-stabbing, stealing, and lying. You don’t see the Donald giggling and tickling his way through life. I don’t want to talk hockey and discuss my family with you – I’m here to make money. If you want to be popular and avoid stepping on toes, you will soon find yourself in the company of other compromisers and snakes who will steal the milk out of your tea while recommending their personal psychic and asking you to sponsor their local free injection clinic for drug addicts.

“Tell it like it is” – there are millions of people, and just as many JV opportunities out there for a good Joint Venture Broker. I would rather be feared and respected than liked. And the same goes for real entrepreneurs who make real money – they’re not signing up for popularity contests or trying to win awards or titles. Model truly successful business owners – think of Ari Onassis and Jimmy Pattison. They are serious about business and they expect you to be so, too.

Your good JV partners will feel a lot more comfortable when you get serious about business, and the losers will run away for fear of being exposed for what they really are.

Leonard Peikoff said,

“The unphilosophical majority among men are the ones most helplessly dependent on their era’s dominant ideas. In times of crises, these men need the guidance of some kind of theory; but, being unfamiliar with the field of ideas, they do not know that alternatives to the popular theories are possible. They know only what they have always been taught.”

Most of us depend on our own limited, fear-based, scarcity-oriented frame of reference when it comes to our perception, interpretations, and choices. We’re unaware that we are dealing with a miniscule amount of information, and therefore severely limiting our choices.

Explore Fearlessly

My ex father-in-law, Peter, was a brilliant man, a real-life rocket scientist, and a crazy Hollander. He had an amazing brain and could read four books a day. Perhaps this explains my daughter’s high IQ, but I digress.

Peter’s mind eagerly leaped over boundaries and explored the unknown like a young collie dog off the leash in a forest. And because he fearlessly exposed his brain to every possible philosophy and insight, he continually expanded his frame of reference and deliberately questioned his own conclusions and interpretations. One has to have high self-esteem and loads of courage to do that.

Why Everything Looks Yellow

We are all conditioned by our education, environment, culture, past experiences, and families, and we are all locked in to one or another cult, and all this conspires to limit our awareness of the options and alternatives available to us. So we tend to operate and make choices within a very limited sphere of possibilities.

Like a goldfish in a bowl, compared to a fish in the ocean. Like a prisoner in a cell compared to a world traveler. Like the average person. Life and business is a magnificent buffet, with millions of exciting food options laid out before us, but the blinders we wear and the shackles we choose restrict us to a diet of broccoli and green bananas. We’re like people wearing sunglasses with yellow lenses – everything looks yellow.

How to start becoming aware of your limitless options and potential:

1. Read the right books especially books that disagree with and challenge your present philosophy. Free yourself from preconceived ideas and “hardening of the attitudes” by looking at the opposite. If you’re a capitalist, talk with a socialist. If you’re religious, talk with an atheist. If you love meat, talk with a vegetarian. Expand your mind.
2. Mix with the right people. Open-minded libertarians, freethinking rebels, bums, millionaires, artists, and outcasts will teach you more than college professors, mystics, and male schoolteachers (men amongst boys and boys amongst men). Learn from people who have already created what you want, and especially those who disagree with you.
3. Travel widely. It amazes me that people restrict their travel and repeat the same destinations, when there is a great, big, exciting world out there to discover.
4. Ask lots of “What if?” questions. What if everything you believe is wrong? What if the most important person in your life died tomorrow? What if you lost your main income source? What if you were suddenly paralyzed? What if you won millions of dollars? Play with your mind. Climb over the fence of reason and run around with brave and silly explorers in the field of the unknown and forbidden.
5. Challenge your present philosophy. Have the guts to start asking the hard questions. Why do you believe what you believe, and how is it helping you to live a life of joy, fulfillment, and adventure? What cults do you belong to? Start asking, “Why not? By whose authority? How can you prove that?”

It’s YOUR Life.

Freedom is a choice.

• We don’t fear failure per se – we fear the opinions of other people.
• The only one whose opinion counts, is YOU. It’s YOUR life. And you only get one.
• Stop allowing scalawags and parasites to steal your joy.

A free life starts with the attitude that makes it possible. Ayn Rand said,

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. Why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world – to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we REALLY want.”

Decide what you want out of life, discover what beliefs are stopping you, and break free.

In regards to money, wealth, and business, the best system I have found, and that which offers me the greatest potential and freedom, is to broker Joint Ventures.

Why do you employ people? For each of them to produce value, resulting in net profit in excess of the amount you pay them.

Why would you accept less than that? I know some of us are saddled with unions, relatives that work for us, people we’ve inherited and can’t easily get rid of, and many other excuses, however here are a few pointers that I think will help.

Remember, getting the job is the first job of someone who wants to be an employee. After that, every day, they have to prove to you why you should still hire them. and not give them the sack.

1.   Link their income to their production.

Work out what your real net profit is, your incremental profit, and a way to measure the output of every employee. This takes some analysis and a spot of Work Study (Organization and Methods), but it is well worth the exercise.

• Don’t be too generous, and remember you’re not a socialist organization. People should get paid according to what they produce, not what they need.
• Set traps to catch rats. Take a really good look at productivity, shop your own business, record phone calls, restrict Internet use, use Secret Shoppers, send one employee on leave for a week and see if the others cope. If they do, get rid of the worst one.
• Educate your employees about profit and business.
• Look after your champions, and remember that people change.

2.  Increase the production of your salespeople.

Teach your salespeople to sell, make them accountable, don’t accept excuses, have a sales meeting EVERY day, and fire your worst salesperson on a regular basis. Focus on results, not pipe-line, reputation, branding, market share – just the bottom line. Get them all onto a commission-only basis. Beware of  “sales trainers” – they usually can’t sell.

3.    Weed out the leeches and parasites.

Make their job unbearable if necessary; simply give them lots of work that they hate and micro-manage them. They’ll soon leave if you do it right. You’re in business to make a profit, and you don’t owe them anything.

4.   Learn to Delegate.

The best program I ever attended to learn about management was the Dale Carnegie Management Course. I learned a lot of valuable information about delegation, and I highly recommend it. Most “managers” have no idea how to manage, motivate, or discipline people. Your people need to set their own goals, report to you how they’re doing and how they will improve, and be accountable for their commitments. No excuses acceptable.

5.    Understand Joint Ventures.

In my business, everyone I deal with is a JV partners. I run my company with no employees, no risk, no cost, no overhead and little time. So I make a lot more profit and I don’t have to deal with losers and users. Lean and mean. Learn how JV’s work.

6.    Don’t hire socialists, smokers, or people who don’t need a job.

If you need an explanation for this one, you have a problem.

7.   Reward innovation, honesty, loyalty, and ambition.

These qualities are hard to find. Look after your champions and lock them in with residual commissions and long-term incentives.

8.    Familiarity breeds contempt.

Don’t be their “buddy”, maintain your distance, be strict, hold people accountable, and lead by example.

9.    Set up a “Dress and Grooming Code”.

When people look good, they feel good, and they do better work.  Set and maintain high standards in every area of your business.

10.    Train them, train them, train them.

Especially in the Joint Venture mindset.

Imagine an architect who meets with a builder/developer and a town planner. The developer wants to build a magnificent building. He says, “I have this feeling that I should build something – not sure exactly what it should look like, or what it would cost, or where I would find the money, but what do you think?”

To which the town planner replies, “Well, I guess we could find some space somewhere,  after all, it sounds like a noble cause – we’ll come up with a space, I’m sure…”

…and the architect pipes up, “Well, I don’t want to be too rigid, and the front of the building could look more or less like this, but I have a feeling it will just come together – I’ll check with my psychic…”

…Ridiculous, right?

Do You Have an Irrational Approach?

That’s how most people try to build wealth.

• They rely on the wrong people giving them spurious advice.
• They rely on “gut feel.”
• They have no discipline.
• They spend more time planning a party than their old age, and they live in the moment like animals.
• But the worst aspect of this lack of planning or thought is the real underlying motive –refusal to take responsibility or to be held accountable.

That’s why the masses follow the mystics and witchdoctors of our time, why they live vicariously through sports teams and film stars, why they join cults, and why they become “course junkies”, waddling from seminar to seminar and never applying anything they learn. Cults are great for people who don’t want to have to think or make choices. It’s easier to be a sports fan on your couch, clutching a slice of pizza in your chubby paw, than to actually go and play the game.

If You’re Serious about Wealth Building

If we seriously want to build real wealth, we can’t hide behind silly excuses like “fate”, “destiny”, feelings, gods, demons, angels, spirits, and chance; we need to be very specific and logical.

“Feelings come and feelings go, but feelings are deceiving; I build my life on rational choices – naught else is worth believing.”

The architect builds for the future – the archeologist (like an accountant) looks at the past. Winners look to the future and leverage their past experiences, good as well as bad, while losers blame their past for their slothfulness and use the past as an excuse. Like blaming your failure on slavery that happened hundreds of years ago.

Engineer Your Future

Architects, builders, and town planners are very specific, logical, and realistic about what they do. Engineers building a bridge don’t make decisions based on hope, feelings, fortune tellers, psychics, or mystical expectations. When you want to build a bridge from where to are to where you want to be, you had better understand that bridges can collapse if they are not built properly. There is time, cost, responsibility, and accountability  involved. Without work, persistence and perseverance, no building can be built, and nothing of any real value accomplished.

Your Philosophy is Your Foundation

The foundation on which you plan your future is your philosophy. If your wealth philosophy is wrong, you will end up like most other people – poor, frustrated, resentful, jealous, and bitter.

Rika and I rented a boat last week and spent three hours boating in Howe Sound. It was a wonderful experience. The boat was well prepared, maintained, and full of gas. We had life jackets, a whistle, food, water, a map, hats, sunscreen, and a cell phone with us. We took advice from the people who rented us the boat. We were well prepared for the trip, we knew where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to do, we paid for the boat hire and insurance, and it worked out great. We didn’t wander down to the water and try to cut down a tree with a penknife to build a raft to go boating. Success is not random or ethereal.

If you would like to build wealth, travel to your Treasure Island, and be assured that your philosophy will enable you to accomplish that, DollarMakers is here for you.

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 to Succeed in Business

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.