Walk into any store and look at the “Humorous” birthday cards about how people are getting old, their boobs are dropping, losing their hair, and can’t remember anything.

Notice how women, especially, have a “thing” about getting old or mentioning their ages, which sells lots of Botox, hair dye, and all sorts of contraptions and systems to make people look younger. Mutton dressed like lamb.

Men are getting just as bad with their pathetic comb-overs, pony tails, and hair implants.

Even worse than regretting one’s age or even fearing birthdays, is the fact that they tend to have people looking backwards instead of forwards.

“When I was younger…” We need to be architects of the future we can create, instead of archeologists looking back into a past we cannot change.

Birthdays are about Beginnings

A birthday should be an exciting time of new beginnings, new horizons, and the celebration of success, survival, and wisdom. It is, after all, the first day of the rest of your life, pregnant with powerful possibilities, a launching pad of wisdom, experience, understanding, and the acknowledgment that we have no limitations.

Right now, do yourself a favor. Watch this amazing video of Jim Stovall, whose life really only started when he went blind – the Christopher Story. Also see this video of his.

Give Birth to the New

We can rise like the phoenix out of the putrid swamp of our past hurts, bad choices, and failures. What doesn’t kill us does, indeed, make us stronger, IF we allow it to.

Every day is a potential birthday – the day you give birth to a new, “Can Do” attitude that says,

“Enough of the past – I am creating a wonderful new future, starting today. I have unlimited potential and I won’t drive my car looking in the rear-view mirror.

Your Medal of Honor

Wear your age like a medal of honor – a reflection of your learning and wisdom, experience and understanding. Birthdays should be like graduation ceremonies, not funerals.

Only Mix with Winners if You Want an Exciting Future

The best way to remember “YAHOO” – You Always Have Other Options – is to hook up with people who are successful, excited about their futures, and busy creating wonderful, new lives.

Mixing with losers who spend their time talking about the past, their kidney stones, their grandkids, and their problems is like drinking poison served up by a granny in a greasy spoon diner, wearing a miniskirt, with dyed blond hair, tramp stamps (tattoos), and a cigarette behind her ear. You’re as old and vulnerable as you want to be.

Mix with winners, set new goals, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and grab life by the horns. The best is yet to come, and the opportunities to make money and have a great life have never been better.

“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” ~ Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

One thing that stops most people from achieving their goals is the fear of failure, embarrassment, loss, or anything that they currently have and don’t want to lose.

This fear will prevent them from moving forward – the perceived threat and pain – until the pain of their present condition or their approaching condition exceeds the potential danger that they fear.

By examining the things you fear, you might get perspective and change your mind about whether or not that fear has the power you currently bestow upon it.

• What do you fear?
• How can you diminish that fear?

Fear Failure?  Try This.

For example, if you fear failure, think about this: If there was nobody else in the world but you, no other people – would you fear failure? No, you wouldn’t. Because you don’t fear failure per se – you fear the opinions and ridicule of other people.

And anybody who likes you and cares about you would not ridicule you if you failed – they would help an support you, so why worry about the opinions of people who don’t like you or care about you?

Fear Loss?  Try This.

If you fear loss:

• What do you have to lose?
• What is the risk factor?
• Specifically, what would happen if you incurred that loss?
• Could you cope with that loss?
• Is the reward of facing your fear worth the risk?

Think objectively, not emotionally. Write down the pros and cons. Be rational.

1. How can you reduce or prevent the risk?
2. How can you change the situation, protect your assets, or shift the risk?

Fear is usually illogical and based on our conditioning and self-esteem, instead of hard facts. We assume a whole lot of things that are generally not true.

How a Professional Evaluates Risk

Imagine an engineer, and architect, or a scientist evaluating a risk. Would they cry, wring their hands, get angry, shout, hide, or rant? Probably not – they would get out their calculators and have meetings with other analytical people, draw diagrams, make plans, discuss the situation, and find a solution.

The architect doesn’t start whining, “But what if the bridge falls down? What if the floor collapses? I’ll be so embarrassed!” Analyze your fear, get the input of experts, talk with people who have been that route before and succeeded, and then make a logical, adult decision.

The “What if?” Game

Play the “What if?” game. It works well if you write things down.

• What if that person dies?
• What if this project fails?
• Exactly what would I do?
• What steps would I take?
• What would happen?
• Whose advice I need?
• What would I do?
• What could I do?
• Why would I make that choice?
• What would my alternatives be?
• Exactly what would this cost?
• How do I arrive at that number?

When you view life like a monopoly game or a chess game, you can override your conditioning, bias, self-talk, beliefs, and fears.

When you align yourself with successful, mature people who have experience in the field, it gets even better, hence the Mastermind effect of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Club and the DollarMakers Women’s Club – create a support system that will help you avoid the pitfalls of emotionalism, mysticism, and negative conditioning. Together, we can do amazing things.

Most Fears Never Even Happen!

The things you fear are not always all they’re cracked up to be. Several recent studies indicate that over 85% of all that we worry about never happens. Our minds tend to make mountains out of molehills.

Fear is not bad – it’s a warning light that we should consider, and when the warning light goes on in your car you don’t start crying, get paralyzed with fear, or sell your car; you take it to the shop and get an expert mechanic to check it out, or you take the time to read the manual.

• Sometimes,  an inexpensive item or a small adjustment is all that is required.
• Sometimes, it’s more expensive, but less expensive than a seized engine.

Consider the situation calmly and you will find that all you have to fear, as a smart man once said, is fear itself.

Entrepreneurs often spend too much time worrying.

Statistically, 85% of the things we worry about will never happen. Those things include:

• worries over our past that can never be changed,
• worries over which we have no control,
• irrational concerns or fears,
• and worries about the future.

Worrying about something never solved the problem or affects the final outcome in any way.

The Futility of Worry

Excessive worries cause negative emotions that release chemicals into our bodies which wreak physical havoc – high blood pressure, headaches, heart conditions, and more. I loved Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”.

Worry can ruin relationships, make your face drawn and ugly, and affect every aspect of your life negatively. Leo Buscaglia said:

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”

The more attention you pay to worries, like plants, they grow bigger and stronger, until they control you. Someone once said:

“People gather bundles of sticks to build bridge they will never cross.”

Dealing with Worry Effectively

How do we deal effectively with worry? Action. Pat Schroeder said:

“You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.”

Face you fears. Shine the light of intelligent, rational, and balanced evaluation on them, and the shadows of fear and emotionalism will retreat.

My Personal Recipe

Here’s my personal recipe for handling worry. I have a very vivid imagination, so you should know that I have to carefully manage my tendency to make mountains out of molehills and elaborate expansively on the smallest concerns.

Cutting to the Core of Fear with Self- Talk

I was walking from a business meeting to my car in a parking lot when I realized that I was in a constant state of worry. I knew I had to take control of things right away, so I took advantage of the fact that there were no people anywhere close and I could have a good, long talk with myself.

I have found this to be very therapeutic, talking out loud to myself. I would literally ask myself, “OK, Robin, what is your biggest worry?” I would answer myself. Then I would ask:

• “Why do you worry about that?”
• “What’s the worst that can happen?
• “What if it does happen? What would you, or could you do?”
• “What do you fear losing?”

…and answer all these questions.

Picture This & Deal with Fears One Step at a Time

I would then mentally put each of these worries in a tin can on a big shelf. I would name my five biggest worries (or more, if necessary), put them all in cans on the shelf, then one by one, in my mind, as I walked around that parking lot, I would take the can off the shelf, open it up, examine it in detail, and create an action plan.

For example, if I needed to write a letter, make a call, set up a meeting, or whatever action was necessary, I would resolve to do that, put it on a mental “Action List”, and take the can of the shelf.

If there was absolutely nothing I could do to alleviate that worry, remove it, or prevent that which I feared, I would realize that there was nothing I could do, and I would take it off the shelf, too.

The Last Step is Taking Action

I waddle around that parking lot for about an hour, until I had mentally and emotionally dealt with all my worries in this way. I talked myself through everything. I had an action plan, I was relieved, I had perspective, I was calm, and I was ready to attack again. I thanked myself, got in my car, drove home, and diligently went to work on my Action Plan.

When you confront yur fears and take action to diminish your worries, remove them, or set up contingency plans, you take control of your mind, and therefore your emotions and your life.

You are bigger than your worries.

Nelson DeMille said:

“Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.”

You are bigger than your worries. You have a lot more strength that you think you have. You can choose how to deal with your worries – fight, or flight. You can let your worries dominate you, or you can decide to b the boss. Change your self talk, change your attitude, take action, and win.

How many times have you said, “I don’t feel like it”, but you go ahead anyway and do it, and you’re very happy you did?

In life and in business, feelings are not always the ideal indicator, especially when they involve a spot of sloth or discomfort on your part.

Dive In & You’ll Find You love It

Recently, my amazing daughter urged me to go for a ride with her on a wild-looking machine at the fairgrounds that whirled people around upside down, high above the ground. The last time I rode on one of those things, I was a teenager. Now I’m 56, but I agreed to accompany her. I didn’t feel like it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

My wife persuaded me to go to Disney World for the first time. I certainly didn’t feel like that, but I did it, and I loved it. After that, we visited Disneyland as well!

Yesterday, my two friends suggested we jump off the boat and swim in the cold waters of Howe Sound off Horseshoe Bay. I didn’t feel like it, but I dived in, and it was great.

Quitters Don’t Win Gold Medals

• Do you think athletes feel like training for hours every day, in all kinds of weather, enduring constant pain?
• How about that awful food they eat on their special diets?
• Don’t you thing they feel like gobbling fatty burgers or lining up at the trough for ice cream?
• How often do they feel like quitting?

Those who do quit don’t win the gold medals. The same goes for entrepreneurs. Someone once said:

“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.”

Note, in the above quote, that the author says, “Reached and KEPT” – it’s OK to win once, but to keep on winning, you have to discipline your feelings and urges.

…And Once You Get There, Keep On the Gas!

Ross Perot said:

“Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment.

As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment.”

Beware – pride comes before the fall.

Lee Iacocca said:

“I learned to keep going, even in bad times. I learned not to despair, even when my world was falling apart. I learned that there are no free lunches. And I learned the value of hard work.”

Consciously Cultivate Habits that Get GOOD Results

And Jim Rohn said:

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. One discipline always leads to another discipline.”

That’s good news – doing the right thing instead of the easy thing becomes a good habit.

Small habits that get good results need to be developed and maintained in order to reap long-term rewards. Those who quit easily and seek the fast buck never get anywhere, and they develop a reputation for excuses and for not being reliable. James Allen said:

“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set.”

That self-discipline to do the right thing in spite of what you feel, is what separates the men from the boys.

Earmarks of a Winner

Champions don’t make excuses, and they fight on, regardless of their feelings, comfort zone, or the opinions of others. When losers tell them, “Don’t work too hard, take it easy, rest more, dress down, don’t be so aggressive, don’t upset people”, winners simply go deaf. They associate with other winners and hear only their mentors and coaches.

Do the right thing, continuing in good and bad times to do the right thing, in spite of what you feel.

Conquer yourself, and you can reach any goal you wish.

Read this fascinating information from www.Sheep101.info and decide for yourself if you’re a sheep, or dealing with sheep.

Follow the Leader, Wait for Me

Sheep have a strong instinct to follow the sheep in front of them. When one sheep decides to go somewhere, the rest of the flock usually follows, even if it is not a good “decision.” For example, sheep will follow each other to slaughter. If one sheep jumps over a cliff, the others are likely to follow. Even from birth, lambs are conditioned to follow the older members of the flock. This instinct is “hard-wired” into sheep. It’s not something they “think” about.

Safety in Numbers

Sheep are gregarious. They will usually stay together in a group while grazing. A sheep will become highly agitated if it is separated from the group. It is the banding together in large groups which protects sheep from predators which will go after the outliers in the flock.

Social Animals

Sheep are a very social animal. Animal behaviorists note that sheep require the presence of at least 4 or 5 sheep which when grazing together maintain a visual link to each other.

Flocking Together

Flocking instinct is strongest in the fine wool breeds, but exists in all sheep breeds, to some extent. It is the sheep’s flocking instinct that allows sheep herders to look after and move large numbers of sheep and lambs.

Flee, not Fight

Sheep are a prey animal. When they are faced with danger, their natural instinct is to flee not fight. Their strategy is to use avoidance and rapid flight to avoid being eaten.

Safety in Numbers

After fleeing, sheep will reform their group and look at the predator. They use their natural herding instinct to band together for safety. A sheep that is by itself is vulnerable to attack.

Never a Straight Line

Sheep tracks are never straight. The winding of trails allows sheep to observe their backside first with one eye, then the other. Sheep can spot dogs or other perceived forms of danger from 1,200 to 1,500 yards away.

Pain

Sheep have an amazing tolerance for pain. They do not show pain, because if they do, they will be more vulnerable to predators who look for those who are weak or injured.

Leaders are not sheep.

• They are eagles, not ducks.
• They take responsibility and control.
• They lead the pack.
• They fight for their rights, and make no apologies for their values, beliefs, or choices. They confront issues and tell it the way it is.
• They have no need for the endorsement of others and they refuse to work with sheep.

Eagles don’t flock. They don’t live in fear and compromise, and they don’t sacrifice themselves or allow themselves to be taken advantage of by predatory mystics, politicians, parasites, or bureaucrats.

If you wish to be a leader, adjust your philosophy, remove the sheep from your life, and learn from eagles. You can soar to unprecedented heights and enjoy a good lamb stew with mint sauce.

When you’re in a deep, dark hole with slimy, steep, slippery sides, and the water is pouring in, you usually only admit that you have a problem when the water touches your nostrils. Until then, you:

• live in denial,
• hope for the best,
• write pathetic “business plans”,
• hide,
• and make weak excuses that nobody believes.

Many flock to “business networking meetings” where they desperately try to sell stuff to other broke people, or dig their hole even deeper with ineffective advertising.

Worse still, they hire unemployed business failures who label themselves “Business Consultants” or “Coaches” and charge an arm and a leg to steal the last money you can borrow. (They’re also in a debt hole!)

Some people have lots of money, but they have no time and their debt is time.

How a Bad Situation Turns Worse

Either way, when your money, credit, or time is flowing out faster than it is flowing in, the murky, smelly water rises until it’s high enough to get our attention. At that point, we try to make a logical business decision while in a state of panic.

That’s when we start to understand the old saying, “desperate people do desperate things”. Situational Ethics kicks in faster than a speeding bullet.

And I am now addressing the people who are in this very situation, or who have the courage to see that it is approaching like the proverbial oncoming train.

What Do You Do?

When you see you’re finally about to drown in the hole you so carefully dug, who do you call?

• A three-year-old with a pink, plush toy?
• Do you call over to the “life coach” in the hole next door?
• Do you invite an advertising salesman over to pour a few extra barrels of water into your hole?
• Or sign up to sell real estate or life insurance?

I know this sounds familiar to some of us, since I have been there myself. How did I very narrowly avoid certain bankruptcy on one scary occasion? Not by doing what I had always done, I assure you. Not by second-guessing people who were capable of saving me, and not by resorting to the arrogance born of fiery fear.

Here’s What I Did

Here’s what I did, and what you might want to consider if a few lungfuls of water is not your cup of tea:

1. Find the most successful, competent, insightful, straight-talking people you can, and give them a vested interest in helping you out of your hole.
2. Follow their instructions to the letter, or they’ll throw you back like the minnow you are, faster than you might imagine.

My Story

I was in bad trouble. I was about to lose everything, and those I had expected to help me (family) were not coming to my rescue, in spite of the fact that I had never approached them before (and never will gain.) The bank was about to pull all of my credit, and things looked darkish. My panicked decision was to sell my house and rent in order to get out of debt, so I called in on my smart, successful friend and asked for his advice.

Help at Last

Gerald Voutsas took an objective, relaxed look at my ridiculous plan, showed me that it definitely would put me deeper in the hole, and offered an alternative solution as quickly and easily as passing me another ginger biscuit. I did exactly what he told me to do, and he saved my asset.

It took a few months, and lots of hard work, but I learned my lesson and I never put myself into that situation again. I avoid those dark holes like the plague, and the way I teach Joint Venture Broking is based in part on avoiding that kind of deep, dark hole.

“But where do I find these experts?”

OK, I know you’re going to ask me, “But where do I find these experts?”

That’s why we created DollarMakers. I wanted a decent financial planner, so I went to a very good friend who is also my Joint Venture Partner, very wealthy, and a successful lawyer, and asked him whom HE uses for his financial planning (insurance). Now we use the same insurance guy. Birds of the feather. Successful people know other successful people.

And only someone who is happily not in a hole can help you out of the hole. “The blind leading the blind” is an everyday occurrence in business, masterminding with the mindless…

Bottomline

Elicit, then follow the expert advice of real experts to the letter. And don’t you dare second-guess, question, or slack off. I listened to Gerald, and I didn’t drown.

Your Future

Your future will be whatever you decide it will be. In four years time, you will look back on today and know that your decisions determined your destination.

It is YOUR future. You can have whatever future you want; you don’t need to beg, plead, manipulate, or make excuses. You don’t need permission.

Your future is like a buffet table with a huge selection of foods – take what you like. You are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul.

Exactly what do you want your life to look like in three or four year’s time?

It’s Cheaper to Pay for the Perfect Lifestyle

When I am in a strange city and I have a destination, I call a taxi and tell the driver where to take me. Then I sit back and relax.  I do have to pay him, though – there is always a price to pay.

What price will you pay for your goal life?

Guess what? You’ll pay a price for NOT achieving that lifestyle, too!

So either way, whether you design and create a wonderful lifestyle or submit to a life of compromise, pain, and frustration, you will pay the price.

So you decide what price you will pay, because it’s cheaper to pay for the perfect lifestyle. Why? In four years, after paying the price and achieving the lifestyle, it gets much easier. If you don’t, and your life stays boring, painful and scary, you keep on paying!

Which Rower are You?

Think of the man sitting in a rowing boat, working hard, rowing around in circles, going nowhere fast. That represents the average person in this world – 97% of people, statistically. In four years time, he’s older, weaker, and even more depressed, but he’s working just as hard, if not harder, to keep on going around in circles.

The other rower in the other boat heads for his Treasure Island. He works just as hard, but in four years he is resting in luxury.

Your choice. This can be your defining moment, if you want it to be.

A Blueprint for Reaching Your Destination

DollarMakers is designed and continually evolves and improves, to offer people around the world the means and the guidance to reach their financial life goals. I know that 97% of your problems will be solved or severely alleviated with enough money.

We have the blueprint, the systems, and support, and the tools necessary for you to use to reach your destination. Where will you be in four years? Your taxi is waiting…

• Do things often, inexplicably, fail for you, while working for other people?
• Do you feel that you’re climbing an impossible, icy mountain, while others seem to skip effortlessly to the top?
• Does everything you touch turn to grime or to gold?

Does Guilt Have It’s Hooks In You?

Do you have relatives that put a “guilt trip” on you when you succeed? “How dare you sail the Caribbean while your family needs money?”

Do you feel guilty when you do well, while others are suffering?

Do you self sabotage to prevent that feeling? “How can you drive that smart car while your brother doesn’t even have a car?” Does this sound familiar? “How can you live in that nice house when millions are homeless?”

Is Wrong Philosophy Robbing You?

We earn money and succeed in life in direct proportion to our self-worth, or self-esteem.

When your philosophy tells you:

• that you are worthless, bad, undeserving, and greedy because you like to enjoy the money you earned,
• or that money is bad, and that you should, in fact, sell what you have and lower your standard of living so that you can give your money to others,

you have a rotten philosophy.

Guilt and the wrong philosophy rob millions of people of success, wealth, and happiness.

It’s ALL How You Look at It

The way you INTERPRET your life, circumstances and opportunities, is what will determine your success or failure in life, and your philosophy or world view is that filter by which you interpret your life.

You have built the life you have brick by brick, whether it is a good or a bad life, by the choices you have made. The same applies to others.

The “Robin Hood” philosophy of robbing the rich to give their hard-earned money to the “poor” parasites out there who made bad choices, is the seed of socialism. Tax the rich to pay for the sloth of the poor.

Are You Letting the Past Undermine the Future?

The bad choices you made in the past don’t have to continually undermine your future. Guilt is a rope that wears thin.

You can Break Free from guilt, self-sabotage, and disappointment by changing your philosophy. When you change your philosophy to one that empowers, one that is based on personal responsibility and objective reality, you will find your life changing dramatically for the better. The anchor of guilt is cut away, and you can soar to unprecedented heights.

What Works Best for Me

Of all the philosophies and options out there, the one that has worked best for me is that of Objectivism.

• It provides me with the tools for freedom, success, happiness, and self-fulfillment.
• It sets me free from false guilt and the attacks of the looters, moochers, and parasites.

Self-discipline and the right philosophy improve your self esteem, you feel you deserve the best and you realize you are entitled to the life that you create. Altruism, collectivism, and mysticism will rip your happiness from your hands, steal your joy, and rob you blind. In fact, those philosophies are designed to blind you to the potential you have for love, success, wealth, and creativity.

Build the Life You Want

• You can build the life you want and be free of guilt and condemnation.
• You can be free and happy, and when your philosophy changes, you will find things falling in to place – fast.
• You can live with virtue and integrity, and make all your dreams come true.

It’s not too late to break free.