• Are we affected by the people with whom we associate?
• Do we learn and lose by “osmosis?”
• Can it be that we earn within 10% of the people we spend the most time with?
• Have you noticed that the level of success of a person determines the level of people they attract into their lives?
• Are we, in fact, mental magnets?
• Is it true that we are being contaminated by our surroundings, input, and associations anyway, whether we like it or not, and that we get to choose our contamination?

Of course it is true.

Like Attracts Like

Like attracts like. Opposites repel. We are rightly judged by the company we keep, because your friends tell me who you are.

When someone hosts a Bootcamp, the people in the Bootcamp are a reflection of the quality of the host. People recruit people like themselves – the automatic mirror effect.

The Dangers of Third Hand Smoke

My wife is allergic to nicotine. She sat in the front seat of a car being driven by a friend, and a smoker got onto the back seat, still stinking of smoke from her last fix. Rika’s eyes were red for two days. Even though the smoker wasn’t smoking in the car, it was enough to contaminate the other passengers.

See this article about the dangers of Third Hand Smoke, and ask yourself if you will allow your children into the home of a smoker. Probably not, if you love your kids.

Input Influences EVERYTHING

I am contaminated by the books I read, the movies I watch, the people I meet, and the communications I handle, whether or not I want to believe it to be so.

• Positive contamination propels me like rocket fuel towards my objectives.
• Negative contamination poisons the well, dilutes my efforts, sabotages my work, and drags me in the opposite direction.

When I spend time with winners, I leave feeling buoyed up, motivated, inspired, and enthusiastic. After spending time with losers, I feel like I need ten hot showers and a mouthwash. Purge your life of leeches.

Do These Two Things

Monitor your input / contamination for a week, then do two things: remove bad stuff and replace it with good stuff.

That simple. Not rocket science. Not hard to do.

• Resign, as I did, from organizations, clubs, and fraternities that don’t share your philosophy and aspirations.
• Break relationships off with losers, whiners, parasites, and victims.
• Seek out champions and producers, and build strong relationships with them.
• Read good books.

Before you know it, you will feel like a million bucks. You’ll have more energy, bigger goals, and less frustration. Atlas, don’t hesitate to shrug when it’s appropriate.

Winston Churchill said:

“I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.”

There are two kinds of people in the world – the prodders and the prodded.

• 1% are prodders – those who make it happen and sometimes feel like they are pulling a train when prodding others.
• The 99% are the employee type who are much like lazy donkeys – if they are not continually prodded, they stop dead and vegetate, wallowing in putrid justification.

Winners…

Winners take the initiative and strike out, whether followed or not.

• They don’t have to reminded, supported, woken up, encouraged, cajoled, tempted, threatened, bribed, begged, or motivated.
• They are internally motivated.
• They will succeed regardless of the circumstances they face.
• They don’t rely on other people.
• They don’t make excuses.
• They don’t need prodding.
• They like this quote: “For every person who doubts you and  tells you that you will fail, try twice as hard to prove them wrong.”
• They succeed in spite of the losers that let them down and attack them, and they never quit. They are like the little engine that could. They persist in the face of adversity.
• They are the optimists, the creators, the producers, the pioneers.
• They make things happen.
• They don’t wait for permission, support, or the best circumstances.

Winners make the world go round.

They hate prodding the prodded, but they understand it’s a necessity of life, like cleaning the oven.

Losers…

Losers constantly look for excuses to retreat, rest, and relax.

• They quickly run out of energy, ideas, resolve, and hope.
• They love quitting and then blaming other people, their circumstances, and the weather.
• They need prodding to breathe.
• They are the parasites, the leeches, the stone in your shoe.
• They are not in charge of their emotions or thoughts, tossed this way and that by the popular fads and fixes.
• They run with the herd, and are loyal only to comfort and instant gratification, much like animals.

The Prodders versus the ProdDEAD

Winners are loyal visionaries. They remember who helps them (and who hurts them.) They attract like-minded prodders into their lives. They tolerate the prodded only to the extent that they have to in order to accomplish their goals, but they have only disdain for those who choose to be victims instead of victors.

Winners are reliable and professional. They don’t compromise or sell out, and they create wealth, health, and happiness for the world. They are the prodders – the true champions – and they shrug off the vilification of the prodded who benefit from their creations yet attack them out of jealousy. They interpret PROD as:

Produce  Results  Or  Die

They are goal-oriented, creative, and self-motivated.

Be the Prod

If you are a prodder, you will relate to this short article. My purpose is to remind you that you are not alone, and that soon, Atlas will Shrug, and you should strongly align yourself with other prodders to be well positioned for that exciting time. Tolerate the prodded for now – they are necessary for the moment. Galt’s Gulch is waiting. Be the prod – the producer.

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!

Scouts say their motto is “Be Prepared“, and we know that success occurs when preparation meets opportunity. Yet too many Joint Venture Brokers wing it and fail – very predictably.

General Orlando Ward said:

“One of the biggest reasons for failure on the battlefield is not knowing what to do next. This is the result of not having been trained thoroughly in what to expect on the battlefield.”

Let Me Save You Some Frustration

Joint Venture Brokers look for clues and use their experience to detect warning signals and red flags in order to avoid sticky situations. After 21 years in this business, I have developed a sixth sense that usually works, however not in every case. Yet the better prepared I am, the less likely I am to get ripped off or taken advantage of.

Soldiers who are rushed through their basic training and pushed onto the battlefield prematurely are naive and vulnerable to an established, hardened enemy.

While honing your skills and your understanding of JV’s is very important, let me save you a few years of frustration with some pointers right away.

Tip #1 – Watch for Those with No Intent of Reciprocation

One of the things to look out for is people pretending to be loyal, open, and committed to a clean, reciprocal JV, when their true motive is simply to push their own product or business into your organization and database. They’re simply leeches who have smelled some juicy blood, and they hug, promise, smile, and joke their way right into your sleeping camp where they reveal their real agenda of rape and pillage.

The clue here is:

• the fact that they do very little due diligence on your business,
• ask few questions,
• and talk a lot about themselves and their business.
• They’ll tell you anything you want to hear, because they never intend to reciprocate.

We had one like this last year – he ended up spamming our database for ages, and never delivered on his promises. We warn others about you, Larry. Once bitten, twice shy.

Tip #2 – Do You Due Diligence EVEN on Those Who Are Recommended

Another situation that inexperienced or inadequately trained JV Brokers face is people who have no success record, no database, no ability to produce what they promise, and no integrity, yet they have have been recommended by someone you trust. Instead of doing your proper due diligence, you skim over it, touch on a few points, and overlook some important warning signs, to your regret. I did this with two people whom I shouldn’t have touched with a twenty foot pole.

Now, no matter who recommends people to me, I still do my own full due diligence, and the character that recommended these two fools will never get close to my database again. Learn from my mistakes!

Tip #3 – Downsize Those Who Consistently Fall Short

And we all know that people who consistently don’t produce what they promise on time and offer ever weaker excuses are headed for the proverbial scrap heap.

Reduce the business you send them, and replace them as soon as possible. They’re losers pretending to be winners.

Tip #4 – Look Closely for “Contaminated” Partners

Also, look out for contamination.

• A bad home life will affect people’s choices and actions in the workplace.
• Financial stress will skew their business decisions and can cause erratic and unreasonable responses.
• Certain religious affiliations will impact their values and can trigger situational ethics and justify unethical behavior.

Their levels of desperation, confusion, and conflict will impact your JV’s in irrational and sometimes dangerous ways.

Tip #5 – Be Leary of “All Hat – No Cattle” Men

And the worst of all red flags, dear Reader, is the egotistic, pushy, conceited type:

• snappy dresser
• runs his mouth
• lots of flash and show
• bad listener
• usually single
• interrupts you and talks over you
• makes big promises
• talks on his cell phone during meetings
• spends a lot of money on himself
• usually makes little eye contact
• pushes you to make decisions, as well – always a bad sign.

This is not the type of person you want to JV with. If you sit back and let him talk, he will talk about himself and his business for hours, at the end of which he will have forgotten your name. Usually, they’re all hat and no cattle, but conmen have never let that stop them. Voltaire said:

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

DollarMakers:  Where Preparation Meets Opportunity

DollarMakers Members are encouraged to continue to learn, practice, hone their skills, and select only legitimate JV partners. William Shakespeare said:

“All things are ready, if our minds be so.”

When you’re well prepared, you’re far more likely to succeed. Abraham Lincoln said:

“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first hour sharpening the ax.”

Have you ever joined a health club or started a diet or exercise program, and given up after a short while? I have.

Muscle, Mind, and Motivation

I was once approached by a publisher friend to co-write a book with another friend, Lionel who was the country’s number one bodybuilder. The book was to be called, Muscle, Mind, and Motivation.

Lionel would write about health, exercise, and nutrition, and I would write about motivation and self improvement.

We would market the book through the eighteen health clubs that Lionel owned at the time and through my database and my talks and seminars – a lovely Joint Venture.

“I won’t start writing until you get into shape.”

We set up a lunch to agree on the terms. Lionel hadn’t seen me for a while, and when he did, he said, “Robin, I won’t start writing until you get into shape. You’re fat and unfit. Here is a Gold Membership Card to my Club. Come train with me, lose some fat, add some muscle, and then we’ll write the book.”

You Get Results Quicker When You Work with the Best.

I had been going to gym before in my life, but this was a new experience. When you train with the best in the country, it’s a whole new ball of wax, I assure you. I worked really hard and found out what makes a champion bodybuilder! I was in a bodybuilding Joint Venture with Lionel! I lost weight and fat, put on muscle faster than ever before, looked great, and we wrote the book, which was a roaring success.

The Best Laid Plans

The best kind of plans have three components:

1. You team up with champions, winners, and successful people only, not with undisciplined losers.
2. You both commit to a measurable, time-related, specific action plan that makes you both accountable for exact results.
3. You diligently and regularly monitor your progress and make adjustments as you go. And because you’re working with a champion, quitting is never even a consideration.

To this day, I remember the power of teaming up with champions, and I am privileged to know some real business champions with whom I Joint Venture.

In factories and manufacturing plants, they have sophisticated testing equipment that tests newly manufactured pieces for flaws and weaknesses. They test candy, car doors, neon tubes, you name it – everything that gets made gets tested in some way.

…And what do they do with the flawed rejects? They throw them away. They don’t try to fix them. They discard them and carry on making new ones.

You CAN’T Change People

The most important lesson I have learned about people is that you can’t, as my Dad told me, make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

You can’t motivate dumb, lazy people, and you will waste precious time if you think you can turn losers into legends. (Many women have found this out about the men they married and expected to be able to change.)

But you do have to keep on kissing frogs if you want to find princes.

Finding the Real Deal

In today’s world, people have learned how to dress like, act like, and talk like princes. They lease prince cars and talk prince language, and they appear like princes on the Internet. But in reality, most of them are frogs. It’s frustrating, and some people become cynics, but the warts are worth the wait.

The princes you find (and the princesses) are worth putting up with the posers. Realize that 97% of people are just average, and that you’re looking for the three percent who can really make things happen. Focus on the 3%, and you’ll be fine.

5 Tips for Relationship Success

Businesses depend on solid relationships with good people. Bill Gates once said that if he lost his top people, he would lose Microsoft, and top entrepreneurs know it’s all about attracting and keeping the right people.

1. Instead of focusing on all the parasites and losers you have had to deal with, be grateful for the diamonds you have found.
2. It’s a numbers game, baby. That’s all.
3. Keep on recruiting and searching for winners.
4. Don’t waste a second on the quitters and whiners.
5. …And when they leave, forget about them, and never make the mistake of taking them back.

Kiss More Frogs!

Business is all about two basic things: relationships and results. You have to keep on looking for good people, and they way you know if they’re good or not is by the results they create. By your fruit, you will be known.  Paul J. Meyer said:

“What’s behind this door, I cannot tell, but this I know, and know it well; the more I open, the more I sell!”

Savvy entrepreneurs know that persisting in finding good people and focusing on results will ultimately ensure their success. You can’t get results without good people, so kiss more frogs!

• How many times have you heard employees complain that they don’t get paid enough, while their bosses drive smart cars and get perks?
• Haven’t we all heard the complaints about company CEO’s receiving large bonuses?
• How about salespeople who complain they don’t get enough commission, or people who whine that they’re not paid what they are worth?

Why do you earn what you earn?

It’s All Relative

A relative of mine complained that she was paid a lousy salary and worked too hard while her bosses drove beamers and worked shorter hours. I asked her,

• “Were you forced to take the job, or did you apply for it and sell yourself at the interview?”
• “And did you agree to the salary you accepted, or were you forced?”
• “Can you resign any time you wish?”
• “If you were capable of doing your boss’s job, and qualified to do it, would you accept the higher salary and perks?
• “Do you think you are paid what you are worth TO the company, instead of what you WANT FROM the company?”
• “Who determines what you are paid, what qualifications you have, and what you are worth to a business? Isn’t it YOU?”
• “Are you free to work wherever you can get a job? Can you choose to start your own business?”
• “If you owned the business, would you pay people more than you had to?”
• “Is the purpose of business to pay employees whatever they want, or to make a profit?
• “What or who limits the amount of money you can earn in a free, capitalist society? Isn’t that YOU?”

The Destruction of Socialism

Karl Marx said:

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

That’s called socialism, redistribution of wealth, collectivism, and communism.

In Cuba, people all earn an average of thirty American dollars a month. Education is free. So doctors choose to work as waiters in hotel restaurants in order to earn more money, and the black market and the underground economy is huge.

Are You Taking Advantage of Your Opportunity as a Capitalist?

Two people join the same Network Marketing business, or the same life insurance company, or start the same kind of business in the same town. One goes bankrupt and blames everybody else. The other one gets rich and take credit for his success.

97% of people fail or achieve mediocre success. 3% soar like eagle, because they have a different philosophy of life.

Why Most People Aren’t Brave Enough to Be JV Brokers

You can start your own Joint Venture Brokerage business with no cost or risk, with no earning limitations, regardless of your qualifications, background, education, age, or circumstances. No more excuses.

Why don’t people jump at the opportunity to do this?

Because suddenly, they would be responsible for the amount of money they earn, and they would be exposed for what they really are.

Business is like a nudist colony; you will be exposed.

And that’s why, when people fail as JV Brokers, they blame me. They conveniently forget that other people with the same opportunities, tools, support, training, and access, are making a lot of money. They can’t deliver on their promises, to they cast blame instead of accepting responsibility. Then they get a job and whine that they’re not being paid enough.

Create More value to make More Money

You get paid in direct proportion to the value you create.

Money is simply a scoreboard. That’s the way it works.

If you’re not making enough money, take responsibility, grow up, and make the necessary changes like an adult.

You have created what you have today, whether you want to accept that or not, and your future will be whatever you choose to create. If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, perhaps it’s time to join the winners who get rich, because they refuse to compromise, quit, or curl up under their beds and whine.

Why Winners Win… and You Can Too!

Winners win because they insist on success, they believe in themselves and their goals, and they take responsibility for their lives. You only get one life, so decide what you want your future to look like. Then take decisive action and persist until you get what you want.

This fall, my daughter, Sacha, took me horse riding in beautiful Langley, British Columbia.

My horse’s name was Drifter, and when we trotted up to a lane that led alongside a large field, the stables owner warned me that, as soon as we cantered or galloped, Drifter would… drift.

She said he would veer right into the field, and that he always canters at an angle – side on.

She said they had found that the easiest way to curb his drifting away from the beaten track was to rein him in on the left, while giving him some heel on his right side.

Sure enough, as soon as we started cantering and picked up speed, Drifter started drifting quickly away from the rest of the horses towards the center of the field, and, as predicted, a firm left rein and some good, solid kicks on his right side brought him back into the fold.

Frankly, I would have liked to have given him the freedom to break into a gallop across the field, but one has to stick to the rules.

We had a wonderful morning, and look forward to another outride soon. (I still bounce when we canter, but that hasn’t changed since I first rode at the age of ten, so I guess I’ll always be a “bouncer”.)

Are You an Unconscious “Drifter”?

Many people drift away from their goals, veer off target, get sidetracked, and don’t know how to get back on track.

Now drifting away from the pack is a great thing if the pack is heading in the wrong direction, and we know that the seething herd usually is heading the wrong way, but if you’re working with winners and you’re part of a winning team, here are a few pointers:

1. A strong, successful team will be aware when you drift off course, and they will bring it to your attention.
2. When you’re moving fast, you need to take more drastic, focused action than if you’re ambling along. I had to be strong with Drifter, not whisper sweet nothings in her furry ear.
3. Be aware of where you’re headed, where the rest of your team is, and keep perspective. Horses don’t have a reverse gear. And don’t spend the rest of the ride apologizing and beating yourself up; just don’t repeat the mistake, and if you find yourself drifting again, correct fast. (Like when you’re scuba diving: “equalize early and often.”)
4. Take advice from people who are experienced in dealing with your challenge. Drifter’s owner knew and understood both the challenge and the remedy, and she had the solution for me. Jim Stoval said:

“Never take advice from anyone who doesn’t already have what you want.”

By the same token, when you see that you’ve linked up with a bunch of losers, find yourself a winning horse that drifts easily, and gallop as fast as you can away from them.