It’s like sugar in your gas tank, poison in your pop, the worm in your apple – the one flaw that can cripple even the best Joint Venture, and something to be avoided at all costs.

The reason why many newbies to Joint Venture brokering fail is their choice of Joint Venture partner. Because of their low self-esteem and confidence, along with their limited belief and low aspirations, they approach people by whom they don’t feel threatened. (This is the same reason why network marketing newbies try to recruit losers.)

Think about it:

When you try to set up Joint Ventures with copycats, counterfeits, wannabe’s, and “managers”, you’re not dealing with real decision makers.  Sycophants, sidekicks, mimics and morons cannot make a JV work – they don’t have what it takes. If they did, they would be the head honchos, the chiefs, the principals. But they’re not. They talk the talk, but they can’t walk the walk. They’re just parasites and pawns, and they with frustrate you and fail you.

Deal with the Top Guy

Smart JV Brokers know that the higher you go, the more you grow. Deal with the top guy, the president of the company, the real deal, and you will find your Joint Ventures flowing and flourishing.

• They make good decisions, which they make fast, and they can pay their way.
• They have a track record of success, and that is a clear prediction of their future with you.

Winners are generally generous and upfront – they will tell it like it is and practice what they preach – that’s how they got to be the owner of the business. The posers and pretenders will sabotage and scuttle your lucrative JV.

How to Access These Winners

The way to get to the top people is to create a really good, complete, professional presentation that requires no money, no risk, and little time from the other party, and pushes all the right buttons. It should be logical, short, and sweet, understandable, and concise.

Most of all. It needs to have high, residual potential. After all, the JV is about money, leverage, and results – it’s not about you, so don’t get your self-esteem or lack of experience slow you down and lower your expectations.

Go to the top dog, not the concierge. Pitch your JV with the focus on the bottom line and his or her interests – not your own. And stop trying to sell yourself – successful people don’t have to convince others that they are successful.

Here are a few red flag words that will chase off any winner:

• “Integrity” the bigger the loser, the more often he will use this word!
• “I am honest”
• “I will try / do my best”
• “If”
• “I hope / I guess”

If you have done your homework and you have the right training and support, you will speak easily and as an equal.

You may feel important by dealing with losers, but you will become important by dealing with winners.

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.

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.

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.

Many people are suffering in this recession, but they’re digging themselves deeper into the hole by the way they choose to respond to financial problems.

My friend’s wife told him to stop spending his time visiting banks to borrow more money to survive the financial downturn, but rather to spend that time MAKING money.

Usually, wives have to read this and put their husbands onto the right track, since they generally seem to have a better handle of the response to financial strife.

Here’s what won’t solve your challenges:

1.    Hiding From Your Creditors

…that just makes them angry, and you don’t need angry creditors. Communicate and make token payments if necessary – be on time, whatever the amount of the payment, and don’t make them run after you – you will lose.

2.   Blaming Others

Stop winging, whining, complaining, blaming, shaming, and naming other people and the government for your financial problems – you’re just irritating people, alienating winners, and using up time that might otherwise have been used to make some money and solve problems. Bewailing your fate will further deteriorate your resolve, belief, and self esteem. We tend to believe what we say, so talk positive.

3.   Taking Advice from Just Anyone Who Gives It

Don’t take advice from people who are more screwed up than you are, those with a hidden agenda, or those who don’t already have what you want.

4.   Making Desperate or Hasty Decisions

Take a rational, financially secure person with you if you assist on attending “money-making seminars”, and don’t make quick decisions – desperate people do desperate things, and you should realize that you could make bad decisions when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

5.   Hiding from Your Responsibilities and Pain Through Addiction and Diversion

Stop hiding with dope, cigarettes, drink, video games, food, and movies – confront your options and get to work. If you say you can’t find work, work as a commission only salesperson. There is no excuse not to work while you play at home like a child.

6.    Cutting Back in the Wrong Areas

Don’t cut the wrong costs – the first things to go should be the television services ($80 per month), booze ($100 per month), cigarettes ($300 per month), and movies ($60 per month), and other wasteful things.

7.   Continuing to Do What Does Not Work

Stop doing what doesn’t work – stop wasting your money on MLM (network marketing), Lotto tickets, gambling, and anything else that doesn’t make you money.

8.    Spending Time with Losers

Stop spending time with other broke, self-employed / unemployed losers and start mixing with winners. Associate only with positive, successful, optimistic people.

9.   Not Working on a Commission Basis, While Looking for a Job

Analyze what activities are providing you with an excuse not to get out and work on a commission-only basis, and remove them. You’re job, when you are unemployed, is to get a job, and while you are looking for a job, to WORK on a commission-only basis. Women, stop allowing loser men to live off your income and force them to work.

10.   Tuning Into Hopeless Media

Stop reading newspapers and watching CNN. The media won’t give you any hope.

11.   Waiting for Someone Else to Save You

Stop waiting for Obama or any other politician to solve your problem. Say, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”

12.   Limiting Yourself

Finally, stop thinking there is nothing you can do. The best advice I can give you is to use Joint Ventures to create financial freedom. You can start earning real money, fast, IF you will work hard and do whatever it takes.

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt.

Winners say, “Talk is cheap. Your past actions predict your future choices. Show me, don’t tell me.” I agree.

Sailors beware! Pirates, storms, and rocks! Let this short article be your lighthouse.

Save much time, money, frustration, disappointment, and even bankruptcy, while speeding up your progress and making a lot more money by sailing your ship past these sandbanks and dangers. Avoid these ten risks, landmines, and pitfalls in business, and you can navigate a successful voyage to your Treasure Island.

After 22 years of working with thousands of business owners, I have discovered that you can definitely learn from the mistakes of others.

Risk #1 – Things Susceptible to Undercutting or Short Life-Spans.

Avoid fads, trends, gimmicks, and products that can be duplicated, knocked off, reengineered, and produced cheaper. Remember, the Chinese provide no patent law protection. “Today, it sells for a fortune – tomorrow, it’s in Wal-Mart.”

Look for long-term stability and growth.

Services usually provide higher margins and more stability.

Risk #2 – Selling Your Time.

Selling your time is not smart, unless you’re a famous film star or sports star. Remember that time is your most valuable, irreplaceable resource.

Be a general and work strategically, not a soldier in the trenches. Use your head, not your hands. Use leverage. DollarMakers teaches people how to use leverage through Joint Ventures.

Risk #3 – Bad People.

Jim Rohn famously said that:

“there are only eight bad people in the whole world, but they get around a lot.”

Sociopaths and scam artists are usually very friendly and convincing. Do your due diligence and work on referral.

DollarMakers Joint Venture Broker Club Members that are dishonest get fired when we discover them. Your reputation and fortune are at stake. “When my enemies become your friends, you, too, become my enemy.”

Don’t choose the wrong people to work with. Evaluate them carefully.

Risk #4 – Buying a Franchise or a Distributorship.

We teach our students how to get the same benefits, and more, at no cost whatsoever!

Risk #5 – “Investing” Schemes.

Avoid “Investing” in “Foreign Currency” schemes and other spurious, “Tax Break” schemes and dreams – don’t let urgency and greed blind you to obvious rip-offs.

Risk #6 – Start Ups.

Avoid buying mass-marketed real estate properties that aren’t built yet, especially in third world countries, is very risky.

The same goes for business start-ups and new inventions – I don’t even consider them. Their failure rate is extremely high.

Risk #7 – Having All Your Eggs In One Basket

Keeping all your eggs in one basket is probably the most risky thing you can do in today’s business world.

As a Joint Venture Broker, you can build multiple income streams and diversify across different industries, products, services, economies, and countries.

Risk #8 – Being Lead by the Blind.

Taking advice from the wrong people  is just plain silly.

Never take advice from someone who is more screwed up than you are, and always learn only from someone who already has what you want. Poor people can’t tell you how to get rich, and more than a bank manager can.

Risk #9 – Poor Thinking.

The wrong philosophy about life and money will sink your ship faster than ten giant torpedoes. Maintain the right attitude and mix only with winners.

Risk #10 – Quitting.

Quitting too soon is the mark of a loser. Most people give up three feet from the gold.

Avoid Risk by Becoming a Joint Venture Broker

In spite of warnings, the best motives and intentions, and well-planned strategies, the future is unpredictable, and things go wrong in the real world.

DollarMakers teaches people how to create unlimited wealth, financial freedom, and peace of mind through the use of Joint Ventures regardless of your background, age, experience, or circumstances, and whether you have a business or not.

Joint Ventures is the best way I have found to create financial success.  I run DollarMakers with no cost, risk, overhead, employees, inventory, or risk. This is a great business to be in.

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.