Everything in your life is a trigger of some sort – the things you see, hear, feel, taste, read, and touch, the people you mix with, the places you go, the things you wear, what you eat and drink, your car, your home – everything is affecting you, whether you know it or not.

Peak performers carefully monitor their input, associations, diet, and environment. They control their self-talk, and set high standards for themselves.

Making the Right Adjustments

• You know how you feel if you wear dirty or creased clothes, if you don’t groom yourself well, if you spend time with losers, or if you don’t get enough exercise or sleep.
• And you know how you feel if you associate with winners, wear smart clothes, look your best, and go to top restaurants.

When you feel good about yourself, it’s because you have systematically created that situation, and you will achieve a lot more. Simply making the right adjustments in your life will go a long way to improving your self-esteem, and we earn money in direct proportion to our level of self-esteem.

How We Learn:

• Taste 1%
• Touch 1.5%
• Smell 3.5% (yet it is the most emotional sense)
• Hearing 11%
• SIGHT 85%!

Because visual triggers are so important (ask any advertiser), I designed a few triggers you might want to take advantage of.

Carefully Design Your Environment

My office is very carefully designed to visually trigger motivation, work, belief, optimism, feelings of well being and success, joy, and peace of mind.

I remove anything that has a negative trigger for me. Photographs of people who hurt me get removed and replaced.

Everywhere I look, I see multiple triggers.  I surround myself with:

• Gifts from people I like, respect, and love.
• Reminders of past victories.
• Reminders of future promises.
• Symbols of success and strength.

Our entire home is like that. Rika and I are careful about our triggers, and we’re highly disciplined. Cleanliness, orderliness, and high quality are important to us.

Do Some Spring-Cleaning

Take a good look at the triggers in your life, from people to things, and do some spring-cleaning. After all, it is spring, and every day is the first day of the rest of your life. Create an environment that makes you happy, healthy, and successful.

Think of a specific amount of money that would make a dramatic and exciting difference in your life.

Now imagine that you knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that you and your entire family would be tortured to death in a horrible manner (think of the movie, “Saw”) if you didn’t achieve that specific, exciting financial goal within exactly three months.

What would you do?

Could you achieve that goal?

Imagine your beloved kids having their podgy little paws severed, and you’ll quickly start making new choices. (Did that get your attention?)

More importantly:

• What would you do differently?
• What would you change?
• What would you stop doing?
• What would you start doing?
• Who would you call?
• What would you suddenly be prepared to do under those circumstances that you refuse to do now?

Most of us are too lazy, content, comfortable, and timid to do things outside of our comfort zone, and we allow our low self-esteem and fear of embarrassment to keep us from the wonderful achievements that we could accomplish.

It’s About Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Instead of sending you to a shrink (who is usually even more screwed up than we are), putting you through a motivational seminar every morning of your life, or chasing you around with a large, spiky stick, I suggest the easier route is to take the time to imagine the terrible consequences of remaining in your comfortable little molehill of mellow, yellow mediocrity.

When you play this game, you start to see all sorts of real options you might not previously have had the guts to confront.

Is It You Can’t or You Won’t?

You see, our biggest barrier isn’t the fact that we can’t accomplish something, but rather the fact that we won’t, because of our fear of other people’s opinions. Scary, I know, but true. We don’t fear failure per se; we fear the reactions of others if we were to fail. “What would they say? I would feel so embarrassed!”

How much more embarrassed would you feel if you learned that you had six months to live (watch “Breaking Bad”), and you had been too bashful, self-absorbed, and apathetic to provide adequately for your family when you had the opportunity?

Try this one: Imagine you get hit by a heavy truck while meandering across a busy street in the rain, so you’re confined to a wheelchair and can’t speak, and your fifty-something, arthritic wife has to work as a shelf packer at Safeway in the day and a cleaner at MacDonald’s at night to support your pathetic asset? (Problem is, there are so many useless men already living off their wives…)

Consider Your Real Alternatives

Playing head games frees us up to consider our real alternatives, to weigh up our present use of time and resources, and to think outside the box. We need to mentally exceed our pain threshold in order to imagine the unimaginable.

Playing this “torturous consequences” game allows us to peek out from under our moldy old security blanket and realize that we’re using around 4% of our potential, and that the lies we’ve been telling ourselves about what we can’t do are really just self delusion.

Think of Ricky Bobby in “Talladega Nights”, when he convinced himself he was paralyzed – a hilarious hospital scene that has a serious ring of truth to it. We all suffer from self-deception. When he stuck a real knife into his thigh to prove his point to his friends, he had a painful awakening.

Make Your Excuse Irrelevant

Yes, you can achieve magnificent goals, and all the barriers are just in your head. DollarMakers teaches how you can achieve any financial goals with no cost or risk, so all those weak excuses are no longer relevant. If only you can believe it to be so. Hence the dramatic imagination game.

If you have a vivid imagination and take the time to really get yourself into this head game, you might be amazed at what you could accomplish. Suddenly, you would do things that you currently avoid like the proverbial plague, not because you can’t do them, but because you fear the opinions of people who really don’t give a damn, don’t care, don’t notice, and don’t matter.

Get over yourself, get over your mental barriers, and get down to the bank to cash in on your grossly underutilized potential. Some once said. “THINK and grow rich…”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery said:

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”

You probably wonder what has helped you succeed in life, and what has prevented you from succeeding.

Most people blame their environment, circumstances, parents, and others for failure, but mature, intelligent people look in the mirror.

Let me show you the only REAL secret to your past and future successes, and the only TRUE roadblock you ever have, or ever will encounter.

Your Self-image is the Key

Dr. Joyce Brothers said:

“An individual’s self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behavior: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change, the choice of friends, mates, and careers. It is no exaggeration to say that a strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.”

Wow! Read that again five times.

Your self-image is the key to your success and the cause of your failure. Not the systems, the governments, or other people.

You Earn in Direct Proportion to Your Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is the reason why two people in the same business, in the same town, with the same products and services at the same price, selling to the same market, can get very different results.

The reason why one goes bankrupt and the other becomes wealthy is their self-esteem or self-concept – how they feel about themselves and their worth, and what they believe about themselves.

Can You Change?

Here’s the question, though:

1. Can you CHANGE and improve your self esteem?
2. How long with it take?
3. If you change your self-concept, your entire life will change.
4. So how do you do that?

The good news is that there is a rational, effective way to dramatically improve your self-image. I am about to share the recipe with you right here.

Five Simple Steps

Here are Five Simple Steps to creating a great self-concept and ensure your future success:

1. Discipline yourself to honor your commitments. Do exactly what you say you will do, when you said you would do it, in the manner you promised to do it. Never quit – persevere and insist on success. You will admire yourself and start to believe in your abilities.
2. Tell the truth. Don’t try to be tactful, diplomatic, politically correct, and Mr. Nice Guy. Be real, even if people are offended. Live according to your own beliefs and values. You will get to like and respect yourself.
3. Only mix with positive, successful people. Kick the losers, posers, and parasites out of your life. Be like Atlas – shrug them off your back, even if it costs you money in the short term. You will be amazed how good you feel about yourself when you only associate with winners!
4. Make sure all your input (where you go, what you see and listen to, and what information you expose yourself to) is positive and encouraging. See these powerful videos.
5. Get mentored and trained by someone who already has what you want – don’t take advice from people more screwed up than you are.

Follow this recipe, and I’ll see you at the top!

There’s an old story of a man who heard about a flood on the radio, so he prayed to his god that he would be saved and continued to read his newspaper.

Then his neighbors came by to warn him, but he simply prayed again, and had lunch. The water rose and the cat climbed gingerly onto the cupboard, but the man refused to accept the fact that the flood had arrived. Eventually, he perched precariously on the roof of his house,  surrounded by surging flood waters, and a boat came by to rescue him, but he refused, stating that his god would save him. Then a helicopter came by to rescue him. Again, he declined their help. Finally, he drowned, bitterly blaming his god for his demise.

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” – Sir Winston Churchill.

The Benefits of Facing Your Fear

Ignoring reality and denying the truth might prolong your false sense of comfort and security for a short while, but the consequences grow exponentially over time. Dealing with festering conflict is not something the passive aggressive types like, but the benefits of facing your fear and confronting issues is increased self-esteem and the peace of mind that follows that brave choice.

Some questions to ask yourself:

• If I continue going the way I am going now, what will my life look like in two years?
• Am I moving in the direction of my goals, or away from them?
• Am I getting wealthier, happier, healthier, and more successful?
• What are the consequences of my current choices?”

Then, shout, “YAHOO!” (You Always Have Other Choices.) Winston Churchill also said:

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”

..But Beware Whose Advice You Take

And when you understand that taking action to change your direction is the way to go, be careful whose advice you take.

The blind are the first to step up and offer to lead the blind – empty men with empty promises, who wish to fill their empty pockets with your hard-earned money. Those parasites will lead you down the road to destruction while telling you how much they love you. They are the bloodsuckers and the looters who sell nicely wrapped, glittering garbage to the unsuspecting and naive.

“Don’t take advice from anyone more screwed up than you” is valuable information, but don’t confuse money and fame with integrity.

In a nutshell, wake up, smell the coffee, and turn your horse in the direction of the treasure.

I grew up poor, and I have made money. I have been on both sides of the fence. After 22 years in business and 55 years in life, I have arrived at some conclusions about money.

• When you have enough money, you relax, enjoy life, and focus on contribution, health, relationships, balance, and quality of life.
• When you don’t have enough money, everything is seen through the prism of money.

In my experience, money will solve, eradicate, or seriously reduce 97% of your problems. A shortage of money affects your health, relationships, self-esteem, peace of mind, choices, quality of life, and temperament. Enough money, or an abundance of money, makes a dramatic difference in every area of your life.

Why You Deserve to Be Wealthy

• You say we can’t buy time? You can. You can travel faster and in comfort and hire the help you need to do most things for you.
• You say we can’t buy health? You certainly can, with great food, medical attention, assistance, equipment, technology, drugs, and peace of mind. And you can “suffer in comfort”.

Money is extremely important, and most people know this, even though they don’t all admit it.

The problem is, how can we make more money so that we can enjoy the benefits?

The first and most important obstacle to making money is mental conditioning and attitude. For this, I wrote my book, “Break Free!” I won’t address that foundational issue here, but suffice to say it is an essential read, as is Ayn Rand’s book, “Atlas Shrugged” in order to clear away any mental barriers to becoming wealthy.

Don’t Shrink – Expand!

And so here we are. We decide that, instead of tightening our belts more and spending less, depriving ourselves of the things we want and need as we try to live within our income, we should go out and make more money.

And so we look at Robert Kiyosaki’s Four Quadrants:

The E Quadrant – Employee

The first one is the E Quadrant – Employee  – you have a job – that’s where you sell your time, which is your life, sacrificing yourself for a paycheck, compromising your values for a boss, making sure you won’t get rich. Your boss pays you just enough to keep you, and makes you work as hard as possible, with as little freedom as possible.

Real wealth is having more monthly residual income than you need to live comfortably – enough time to enjoy your money. So we won’t waste our time on that quadrant.

The S Quadrant – Self Employed

The second quadrant is the S Quadrant – Self Employed – you own a job. Here, you’re also selling your time, and most so-called “business owners” are really just broke, self-employed salespeople, and they would do better getting a “real job.”

• Very little security, except that you can’t be fired.
• Usually no time to enjoy any money you make.
• Very limited potential.
• One product or service, one geographical area, one focus.
• Big ego – “big hat, no cattle”.
• And if you’re making a lot of money, you have less and less time  and more and more problems as your business grows.

The B Quadrant  – Business

The third Quadrant is B – Business – you own a system, and people work for you.

Interestingly enough, this is where Network Marketing (MLM) fits in, except that it takes a long time to start making you money, and again, it’s all your eggs in one basket – a very dangerous place to be. Many MLM companies fail. There is only one that I use and endorse, after trying many over the years and making good money. But it takes time, and we want money fast, don’t we?

So we look at Franchising – very expensive and risky as well, requiring massive capital, and you’re simply buying a job. You have no freedom, no time, and it takes ages to make money.

Or we buy a conventional business – again, risk, overhead, no free time, massive failure rate (87% fail in the first five years of new ownership or start-up) and frustration.

The I Quadrant – Investing

And then we get to Quadrant Four – the I or Investing Quadrant, where we have our money work for us. You have to have money to invest, and many investments are not what they seem to be. We all know what has just recently happened to the stock market.

Joint Ventures – The Best Solution I’ve Found & Why

Let’s tie this up. After 22 years in business, conducting seminars for business owners, professionals and employees across North America and in Africa and the United Kingdom, and after working with tens of thousands of people and seeing many opportunities and options, the best solution to wealth that I have found incurs no risk or cost, no overhead, no licenses, leases, inventory, employees, or selling, and takes little time once it’s set up and working.

1. I run my business with no overhead, employees, inventory, or any other costs except my telephone (I seldom use a cell phone) and a computer connection.
2. Everything I earn and bank is 100% profit.
3. And 90% of my income can be maintained and grown in one hour a day from anywhere in the world.

This may sound too good to be true, but it is, and I am living proof of it.

• You don’t need education, resumes, the old boys network, connections, a database, or business experience.
• Your age, circumstances, background, and whether you have a business or not, is irrelevant.
• You can retire within one year of starting off as a Joint Venture Broker, with more residual income than you need to live comfortably on.

What You Need to Set Up

As a JV Broker, you simply link supply and demand and get paid an ongoing commission on all resulting business. You can be involved in multiple business transactions, products, services, and industries, in numerous geographical areas, simultaneously. You can have multiple income pipelines feeding money into your bank account while you sleep, as I do. And one of them can be Network Marketing.

Spreading your risk across many industries and geographic areas gives you unlimited income potential and security, peace of mind, and many options.

You can be as sophisticated or as mundane and simple as you please, but the more you learn, the more you earn, because your discipline and education improves your self esteem and confidence, and you attract larger JV’s and more money.

By cross promoting and linking your various JV’s, your income can grow exponentially.

Succeed from Anywhere

And you can do this from home if you like – you never have to set foot outside your door to get rich doing this. Stay in your pajamas or wear a $1,000 suit, or wear jeans for the rest of your life – your choice! You could even do this from a prison! And you don’t need to be computer literate or technically savvy – your JV’s can be high tech, low tech, slow tech, or no tech. There is no excuse not to succeed and make money, except your own beliefs and the amount of work you do.

As a Joint Venture Broker, you can use the JV mindset to invest, make money on other people’s money, grow your MLM business, and have other people doing all the work. I have successfully run my business remotely from Cancun, Hawaii, England, the US, Canada, Africa – no more barriers, no more restrictions – every resource you need is freely available through JV’s.

That’s Why I Made DollarMakers

DollarMakers was created to provide you all the training, connections, JV partners, ready-made JV’s, and support you need, from Members in 18 countries just waiting to write you a check, to conference calls Bootcamps, online training, newsletters, ezines, Members Meetings, Conventions, and much more.

We are the world’s leading experts in our field with small and medium sized businesses, professionals, and individuals, and we have the structure and systems you need to make it happen. We are your ladder to lots of money and your bridge to a burgeoning bank account. We are your way to wealth and your ride to riches.

How soon do you want to be financially free?

Say “Goodbye!” to scarcity, fear, insecurity, sleepless nights, and limited options, and say “Hello!” to freedom and joy. What you sow, you will reap, and we’re waiting to work with you. We agree with Zig Ziglar, who said,

“You can have anything you want out of life if you’re prepared to help enough other people to get what they want.”

Jump on board the DollarMakers Train to your Dreams!

We all have walls in our lives.

• Walls between us and our dreams.
• Walls between us and people we love.
• Walls between us and happiness, peace of mind, security.

A wall is whatever is between you and what you want. Much of the time, we like those walls, but in some cases, we want to tear them down.

Some Walls are Better Left Alone

Before we go any further, we have to decide whether we really want the wall torn down or not. The grass, they say, is always greener over the cesspit.

For example, do you really WANT that wall torn down so you can have a relationship with someone who resents your success and happiness, sabotages your peace of mind, badmouths you to all and sundry, and does their best to guilt you into their own, selfish agendas? That wall seems to be a good one – add a few brinks! You definitely want a wall between you and parasites, losers, and people with a burning victim mentality.

Release the Past

Next, let’s decide that it’s not important what or who built the wall in the first place. That’s history, and we’re dealing with the present and the future here. Casting blame and making excuses won’t tear down any walls.

WHY Do You Want the Wall Down?

Most importantly, you have to make a very clear and realistic list of WHY you want the wall down, the pros and cons, the costs and rewards. What is your real level of motivation?

Without a strong commitment, that wall isn’t going to come down, especially if it has been up for some time.

Take Responsibility for Your Wall… and What Happens with It

Finally, understand that “If it’s to be, it’s up to me” – you have to take full responsibility for tearing that wall down, whether it is a wall between you and financial freedom, a happy relationship, health, or emotional strength. Once you have decided that you want the wall down, you have to accept that only YOU can do it, and that you can’t lie to yourself or make excuses.

Here are the simple facts about tearing a wall down:

1. Accept that it will take time. We overestimate what we can do in the short term, and we underestimate what we can do in the long term.
2. Accept that there is a price to pay – emotionally, financially, or time wise, or all three. Valuable things are not free or cheap. Be prepared to pay the price and put in the work.
3. Get the TOOLS you will need to break down that wall – the jackhammers you will need are the right information, resources, tools, leadership, and support. Educate yourself. It’s no good having a map of New York City when you’re in Miami, or trying to use electric tools with no power. If you’re after financial freedom and you want to break down the wall of scarcity, fear, mediocrity, and shortage, DollarMakers has everything you need.
4. Realize that most walls stay up simply because people quit too soon. It is ALWAYS too soon to quit, and as long as you have the right advice, and the right tools, the right leadership and support, it’s simply a matter of time. Imagine yourself with a large hammer, trying to knock down a brick wall. It will take time.
5. CONSISTENCY is the key. Regular, consistent, focused action will tear that wall down. Every day, take action, follow your action plan, believe in your dream, and never quit. Nothing can withstand a consistent barrage – look at the Berlin Wall. It took years and many people to get to a point where it was torn down. A great price was paid.

Recently, we visited Cuba. They say over 53,000 people have died trying to get to America in boats from Cuba. Many others have crossed that “wall” of ocean to realize their dreams.

When we immigrated to Canada from South Africa in 1997, we had to break down a wall between us and a secure future in a civilized, safe country. Many people rejected that opportunity, and now that wall is too big for them to get over. DollarMakers specializes in tearing down the wall of financial insufficiency, and helps hard working, motivated people to break free into the land of financial well-being and security.

You CAN tear down those walls.

Paul J. Meyer said:

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

He wasn’t talking about a quick fix, instant gratification, fast food type of success – he talked about the reality of success. It’s not too late – start now.

From a perfectly objective perspective, it makes sense that one would rather spend $100 on each of ten carefully chosen and selected, high potential business Joint Venture prospects that one dollar each on a random selection of a thousand unknown people. Why is it, then, that we waste so much time talking with unqualified prospects, instead of the people that could literally change our lives? I’ll tell you why.

#1 – You Run Into More Losers Than Winners.

First, it’s easy to talk with losers.

When I had an 800 number, 95% of the people that called me were bored losers who couldn’t get anyone to talk to them.

I had two old women that would spend hours on the phone, purportedly discussing Joint Ventures, when in reality they were business has-beens with time to waste. I stopped the 800 number and saved a lot of time. Anyone who can’t afford a long distance call doesn’t qualify for my attention.

It’s easy to get appointments with broke, desperate people. They will rush to meet you, hoping to somehow make a quick buck off you. So lazy people take the easy way out and talk with the wrong people. Disciplined people won’t have any problem working hard.

#2 – Losers Seeks Out Losers

Second, people with poor self-esteem usually seek out people who are even more pathetic than they are – that way, they get to feel superior and they avoid feeling threatened. People with high self-respect seek out people who are more successful and driven that they are.

#3 – It Takes More Work to Approach a Winner

Third, you need a pretty compelling offer to get the attention of a winner, and that takes a bit of work and preparation. When you’re strategizing your presentation to a real center of influence, you know you had better have a real deal that is well packaged and credible.

If you’re pitching snake oil vitamins, questionable investments, property in third world countries, or start-up business deals, you know the winners will not waste any time with you.

When you want big results, you have to go after the big players. It costs money, it takes time, discipline, persistence, and preparation, but it takes less time (winners have the ability to make a decision and tell you what their decision is) and it’s a lot more fun than shaking the hands of broke salespeople who are convinced that their magic juice cures everything from Halitosis to Hypoplasia.

Get More Selective and Work with Winners

Every time my business has jumped to the next level, it has been as the result of a good connection with a big player. My Joint Ventures flourish when I work with winners. And the more selective I get, the more successful my business becomes. Learning to say, “NO” is crucial to your success. Spend more on less people, be focused on high class, high returns, and high standards, and you will bag the big game that brings you the big bucks.

January 9th, we have an appointment on a beach in Cuba.  In twenty-two years of business, Rika and I spend some time at the end of each year to set our specific, written, measurable goals down in writing.

Will You Fall Off the Wagon?

Every time we do that, we review the year gone by, and we always remark how many people fell off the wagon before reaching their goals. It’s sad, because we know how much they have lost by quitting too early. There is just one thing that will guarantee your success in 2009.

Success is Easier than Ever

In a world of compromise, mediocrity, and a significant lack of integrity and fortitude, success is easier than ever, since there is less than ever competition for those with this one attribute. Anthony Robbins said:

“I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret.”

Part time, hesitant, weak, fearful commitment makes failure inevitable.

What’s Your Success IQ

Fear and faith cannot co-exist. I’m not talking about mystical, ephemeral, witchdoctor faith – I’m talking about an unmovable, unshakable, adamant, and unwavering belief and faith in your own non-negotiable commitment to success.

• Your Success IQ (I Quit) has to be clearly defined and established, based on your purpose and vision.
• Your WHY has to be an impregnable fort, a strong castle that allows no doubt or fear to sneak in in the guise of saboteurs, posing as “friends”, or even family. Make your mind a castle.
• There is no scarcity in this world, only a scarcity of RESOLVE.

Winners Commit and Deliver

Winners commit and deliver.  Losers promise and make excuses.

It’s really that simple. And for those of you who are considering making a real commitment, here’s what Janis Joplin has, especially for you:

“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.”

The only person you can disappoint is yourself. You have to look in the mirror every morning – what do you see?

• A winner, who refuses to quit,
• Or a loser, who lives on excuses and blames his past, his family, and other people for his bad choices?

It’s time to step up and change. That’s called personal responsibility. The more you discipline yourself to do the hard things, the right things, and the uncomfortable things, the higher your self-esteem, and we succeed in direct proportion to our level of self-esteem.

True Freedom

Freedom means, according to Ayn Rand:

“To want nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing.”

This is my personal interpretation:

“To need or depend on nobody but myself, to expect nothing from others and rely on nothing from others, but to expect and insist upon only the best from myself.”

Your Key to Success

The key to your success in 2009 in total commitment.

• No distractions,
• No sidelines,
• No back door,
• No excuses,
• Whatever it takes.

Quitters never win, and winners never quit. Rika and I  will write out our 2009 goals sitting on the beach in Cuba, but we might as well write them in our blood – That is OUR level of commitment. If you’re totally committed, consider joining us, as we ride the DollarMakers wave to success in 2009.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke these words to a nation at the depth of the Great Depression:

“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”