“You get the feeling plenty of Atlases are shrugging these days, in part because their tax burden is getting heavier. It’s interesting to compare sales of ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ provided by the Ayn Rand Institute, to Internal Revenue Service distribution tables.

In 1986, a year when ‘Atlas Shrugged’ sold between 60,000 and 80,000 copies, the top 1 percent of earners paid 26 percent of the income tax. By 2000, that 1 percent was paying 37 percent, and ‘Atlas Shrugged’ sales were at 120,000. By 2006, the top 1 percent carried 40 percent of the burden.

Yet President Barack Obama has made it clear he would like to see the rich pay a greater share. Anyone irked at that prospect can find consolation in Rand’s fantasy, in which the most valued professionals evaporate from the work place because of such demands.”

Others hire people to do the

• pumping,
• filling,
• carrying and selling,

so they create a real business, but they have lots of

• overhead,
• problems,
• limitations,
• and costs,
• and they are at risk, despite the fact that they earn more money.

Depending, of course, on the demand and their competition. These are real entrepreneurs.

Investors

The next level of intelligence brings us people who use other peoples’ money and bank loans to build a water pipeline.

They have very low costs and overhead, few employees, and far less limitations.

The Middleman

And then we find the Joint Venture Brokers, who

• make no investment,
• carry no overhead,
• have no limitations,
• are not at risk,
• and everything they earn is 100% profit.

They are intermediaries or middlemen, who simply link the water suppliers with the users and take a piece of the on-going action.

They create multiple Joint Ventures, which all run simultaneously.

They will use Joint Ventures and arrange numerous other products and services to be sold to the same people who buy the water.

Boost Your Profits

In a recent Tweet on Twitter, I urged people to watch this video, and encouraged them to stop playing at making money and start making it. Instead of silly seminars where they break arrows on their throats and walk on fire (tricks revealed in said video) for a short-lived, false high, they can learn how to use leverage to boost their profits and create wealth, whether they have businesses or not.

Think strategically, piggyback on existing distribution and access, and you will enjoy the time and money that results from brokering Joint Ventures. Work smart. Use your head, not your hands.

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.

Moving Towards Success

How does one move from the apathetic, comatose, paralyzed, unconscious state of suspended animation so common to the sheeple, to one of frenzied, happy success?

How do we become like those bold and audacious, excited, and unstoppable winners?

What will it take to shift from being baffled and bewildered to fierce and fiery, irresistible and irrepressible? Is it even possible to become a manic money missile?

Taking Action

People make changes when the pain of staying where we are exceeds the pain of change.

We take action when we truly believe that we can achieve our exciting goals, and that peak is, indeed, attainable. And the more action we take, the easier it gets!

Here are a few simple steps that will make it easier for you to break the chains of frustration and limitation and enjoy the abundance that is available to all of us through Joint Ventures:

1.   Belief:

Build your belief with an authentic action plan and surround yourself with winners and achievers. And know WHY you insist on nothing less than success. Paul J. Meyer said,

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon, must inevitably come to pass.”

2.   Specifics:

Measurable, specific amounts and steps, like road signs along the way, are essential.

Your action plan is your Success GPS.

3.   Time:

By what exact date will you commit to achieving this specific goal?

Commit yourself publicly – put yourself on the line, so that there is a consequence to non-performance.

4.   Leverage on Yourself:

Be aware of the consequences on failing to achieve your goals. Remind yourself of the pain and suffering that comes with failure!

5.   Training and Support:

The more you learn, the more you will earn. DollarMakers provides superb training and support through our Membership, events, training, seminars, conference calls, and online information.

6.   Monitoring:

Monitor your progress daily. Adjust, tweak, and realign yourself like a guided missile. Confront issues, don’t get side-tracked, and only work with winners.

Communicate regularly with your team.

7.   Motivation:

Control your input and self-talk.

Only expose your mind to positive input that is aligned with your goals, values and beliefs.

Kick the losers and parasites out of your life, and design your information flow carefully. The best way to predict the future is to create it – your success won’t happen by accident.

8.   Celebration:

Celebrate small successes along the way. This builds self-esteem and belief and reinforces your commitment and self-confidence.

“Picture the typical entrepreneur and Herculean pictures come to mind: a man or woman standing alone, wind-blown against the elements, bravely defying insurmountable odds, climbing sheer faces of treacherous rock–all to realize the dream of creating a business of one’s own. The legend reeks of nobility, of lofty, extra-human efforts, of a prodigious commitment to larger-than-life ideals. Well, while there are such people, my experience tells me they are rare.” – Michael Gerber

I agree with Micheal Gerber that this image is absolutely absurd!

As long as you are a solopreneur, working on every facet of your business, you will be your business’ number one problem!!! As Gerber explains in his book, there are 2 kinds of businesses:

1) People-depedent businesses

2) Systems-dependent businesses

How do you know which one you are? Well, simply ask yourself this:

“If I (or anyone else in my company) were to leave my business for 6 months, would the business still exist when I came back?”

If you answer YES, then you have a systems-dependent business.

If NO, then you likely have a person-dependent business.

A System-Depentent Business

So what IS a systems-dependent business?

Consider this:

McDonald’s can deliver the exact same promise – the exact same food and customer experience – whether you are in Edmonton, Toronto, New York, or Kalamazoo. And it’s delivered by disinterested, teenage kids – some of the least qualified employees on the continent. And they do this BILLIONS of times every single year, at thousands and thousands of locations from sea-to-sea.

…and yet you can’t ever deliver that level of consistency to one set of customers of your one business, located in only one city or town. What’s the difference?

The difference is SYSTEMS. Your business depends on you (people-dependent) while McDonald’s depends on systems – the people can be swapped in and out.

On Your Own?

I will now ask you: why is it that you are taking care of making sales calls, balancing the books, dealing with inventory, answering calls, cooking, cleaning, and doing all of this ON YOUR OWN?

The true entrepreneur sets up a system, then delegates it.

Once that’s taken care of, then they create a system for another area of their business, and delegate that out. And they do this with every area of their business until they ARE able to walk away for 6 months or more.

Refocusing – The More Important Things

And the funny thing is that it is often the mundane, monotonous, pressing / urgent, and repetitive tasks that distract an aspiring entrepreneur from actually doing the “big-picture” items that will actually take their business to the next level.

Build a SYSTEM for these mundane, monotonous, and repetitive tasks, and DELEGATE. Then get re-focused on the MOST IMPORTANT things…

• building your business,
• learning new skills,
• ideas,
• and strategies,
• and maybe even spend more time with your
  • kids,
  • spouse,
  • family,
  • and friends.

And What if You Don’t Own a Business?

Well, in your family life you likely DO have many mundane, repetitive tasks that take time away from being with your family.

• Perhaps processing application forms for a charity you volunteer for.
• Perhaps calling all of your relatives for the forthcoming family reunion.
• Perhaps it’s really a pain for you to balance the family cheque book at the end of the month.
• Or maybe it’s a hassle to always be coordinating the parents for Johnny’s soccer team.

Any of these items could be systemized and delegated.

So Many Routine and Mundane Tasks…

1. WHAT IF you could get someone else to do any or all of this?
2. Would that make you extremely happy?
3. Would that give you more time to be with your family, kids, and friends?
4. Would your life experience be better if you just didn’t have to deal with any of that boring, productivity-killing, repetitive brain-freeze?

Well, having your own Virtual Assistant (VA) may or may not be a fit for you. To find out if and how a VA would help you in your specific circumstance, contact Tina at 1-877-977-4776, or Info@SaveTimeBoostProfits.com to get a FREE 30-minute consultation.

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?”

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.

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.