To achieve financial freedom, learn cosmic justice

"Cosmic justice" is an expression I coined to refer to the fact that you cannot reap unless you first sow.

Practically speaking, it means that if you want to increase your INCOME, you have to increase your OUTCOME (that is, what you PRODUCE for your clients).

Many people who go into business in hope of achieving financial freedom, do not care at all about their clients. They don't think about creating customer value. All they want is to sell whatever they have, whether it's a product or a service.

Other entrepreneurs, on the other hand, want to know EVERYTHING about the people in their strategically chosen target market. They want to know the struggles, challenges, aspirations, concerns, needs, preoccupations, fears, dreams, etc. of their customers. These entrepreneurs succeed almost effortlessly.

Why? Simply because in business, if you've got real solutions to real problems, then real money will flow to you.

Once again: the more OUTCOME you produce for your customers (or employer), the more INCOME you will have. It's almost mathematically predictable and rationally inevitable.

Indeed, that is the genius of capitalism: it rewards people who use their creativity and initiative to create MORE value for customers.

If you go into business with that firm mindset (that cosmic justice will reward you handsomely, IF you truly care about your customers and do everything in your power to continually INCREASE the value you offer them), then there is NO DOUBT in my mind that you will become fabulously rich.

Classifying wealthy people

In his book The Rich, William Davis describes how Great Britain's wealth management industry classifies rich people:

1. The mass affluent people: have US$300,000 to invest, over and beyond the value of their home.
2. The high net worth people: have $1,320,000 (over and above the value of their home)
3. The ultra-high net worth people: have $13.2M
4. The super-rich people: have $120M

Note: the numbers were originally in British pounds, I just roughly converted to US dollars by multiplying by two.

Davis' book is worth reading, if only for inspirational purposes. It talks about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos -- you know, the usual suspects.

A lot of interesting stories about these folks who, after all, started from very modest positions in life.

Did you know, for instance, that Steve Jobs discovered, at age 49, that he had only six months to live, due to pancreatic cancer? However, they eventually discovered that his was a very rare kind of cancer that was amenable to treatment by surgery.

This has led Jobs to develop a philosophy of "I don't worry, I know I'll be dead soon" which enables him to do things fearlessly.

Of course, I don't recommend that you tell your friends, who may be stressed and worried about their jobs or money: "Oh, don't worry! You'll be dead soon enough! Just relax, take it easy!"

But in fact, that's the underlying message I try to transmit to participants at the three flagship workshops we give at Talentelle. I tell people that there is ONE piece of knowledge that they should NEVER forget: "Life ends."

This is singularly the shortest, yet most meaningful sentence that I have ever come up with. (I should pat myself on the back for this discovery).

Here's how I use that expression:

• Given the fact that life ends, should I be sitting here, on this sofa, and watch formulaic sitcoms? Or even CSI? (Trust me, the REAL crime is that those TV shows are killing people's lives one hour per day! Horatio Kane will never investigate THAT!)
• Given the fact that life ends, should I (again) postpone the implementation of that idea I had yesterday? Or should I just take a risk and email it to friends and family, then make a go of it and see what happens?
• Given the fact that life ends, should I take a chance and call that pretty girl and ask her out?

Note: I did precisely that 2 years ago, around this time, and asked an incredibly beautiful girl to go out on New Year's Eve. Oh, this is too good, I have to share this story with you.

She said something like: "Sure."

I was surprised. For a moment there, I thought I heard angels sing!

So anyways, a few days later, I walked into that French nightclub called "Cabaret" and everybody, absolutely everybody, was staring at the breathtakingly beautiful girl in the red dress who was walking beside me. The amazed looks on people's face said something like: "My God, what a goddess! This guy probably has a Ferrari parked outside, to have a girl like that!"

Well, I don't have a Ferrari, but I've had, since age 7, a marked preference for dating extremely beautiful girls. I can't tell you my secret, because it would cost you an arm and a leg. :-)

I should probably stop here since this is a family blogzine, and also, I'm too afraid my mother might somehow discover this blog.

That romantic experience, as well as numerous business experiences I've had in my entrepreneurial life since 1990, taught me one thing:

"When in doubt, go all out!"

500. People operate from fear or from faith

If you look at people you know, you can easily see who operates based on their fear, and who operates based on their faith.

Fear people hang on to the past, and seek security. They avoid risk. They rarely do anything new. Their lives are based on routine, because routine is comforting and seems safer. They operate usually within the box. They don't think outside the box. Most likely, they've not had a new idea in the last six months. These are not the people who will succeed in the new economy.

Then, there are faith people. They are spontaneous, they always have new ideas, they talk about new things, they search for new knowledge and new insights. They like to meet new people. They embrace change, they welcome the future, even though they know it has a lot of unknowns. These are the people most likely to succeed in the new economy.

Note: I recently noticed a new section at the Indigo Bookstore: Ideas & Trends.

If you study the lives of the rich and successful, as I have, you will notice that they are usually bold and daring. They are risk-takers, but equally important is the fact that they continually seek ways and methods to identify, measure and reduce the risks.

Take billionaire Richard Branson, for instance. At age 17, he launched a student newspaper called Student. With 3,000 pounds of advertising money, he tried to make it work but it flopped. He later said it was an incredible learning experience, and that he could not have learned that stuff at any school or university.

He says: "If you sit down with a bunch of accountants and bean-counters, they will manage to tell you why something won't work. I've found that the best way to learn is through trial and error."

Branson explains that the name Virgin reflects his naivete in business. Obviously, Branson operates from faith -- faith in his ability to figure things out as he does them.

Here's an interesting saying I came across recently: "Ignorance can pay off. If you're smart, you already know it can't be done."

My own business philosophy has changed dramatically in the last few years. I was so cautious before. Now, I shoot first, then aim afterwards!

This requires a lot of confidence, and a bias toward action. This is something my father told me when I was a kid, but I never really understood it. He said: "Aide-toi et le Ciel t'aidera." (Help yourself and God will help you).

Some people might say, "You need to have faith in yourself in order to take action decisively."

I say: "Often, you just need to be stupid temporarily and just do it."

It was IBM founder Thomas Watson who said: "To double your rate of success, double your rate of failure."

Unless you're a surgeon operating in the emergency room, I would say that you have everything to gain by being bold and daring and taking chances. Take a risk. Just do it! Ask for it! Just put on the table your best offer, and see how the other person reacts. Learn as you go. Roll with the punches. Emerge from each experience with greater wisdom and greater self-confidence.

Here's a line from the movie Driven, produced by Sylvester Stallone and obviously containing the insight that catapulted him into Hollywood stardom: "When you risk nothing, you risk everything."

Automated service inventory buildup

"Service inventory" is a mysterious concept, yet a powerful one.

(I tried to search for it on Google, but couldn't find anything).

It basically refers to the idea that as you provide a professional service, you naturally (or proactively) create objects, tools, utilities, etc. that allow you to serve FUTURE customers better, faster or more effectively.

Here's one of the secrets behind the incredible Amazon success story: as visitors and customers browse through the website, they CREATE valuable content that FUTURE visitors and customers can benefit from:

• Customer reviews
• "Customers who bought this item also bought" feature
• "Rate this item to improve your recommendations" feature
• etc.

Now here's the mistake that most careerists make: they work for cash, not for wealth. If they were working for wealth, they would be building tools, objects, utilities, etc. that would allow them to do their work faster, better, cheaper, more effectively and, ultimately creating greater value for their employers or customers.

The reason for this is that most people do not understand, nor even suspect the existence of this concept of "service inventory."

This is why they pursue a cash career as opposed to a wealth career. But what's the difference between these two?

Here's an analogy: James Bond vs Francisco Scaramanga. This excerpt is worth studying:

James Bond: You live well, Scaramanga.

Francisco Scaramanga: At a million dollars a contract I can afford to, Mr Bond. You work for peanuts, a hearty well done from her Majesty the Queen and a pittance of a pension. Apart from that we are the same. To us, Mr Bond, we are the best.

James Bond: There's a useful four letter word, and you're full of it.

Scaramanga appreciates the special talent that Bond has, because he has the same talent. However, Bond cannot appreciate the financial genius and the political dexterity of Scaramanga, who does work for the Chinese government in exchange for his private island.

In short, Scaramanga is what James Davidson calls a "sovereign individual" who masters and controls his own financial destiny (I highly recommend Davidson's book, also titled "The Sovereign Individual").

Scaramanga has a wealth career, whereas James Bond, for all his sophistication and charm, has only a cash career. Bond does not create nor build any tools that allow him to secure his financial freedom (can you imagine double-o-seven at age 55 and still chasing bad guys?).

Of course, I might be wrong about the British agent. Perhaps Bond has accumulated vast wealth and has been steadily building a secret stash somewhere in the Cayman Islands. Also, because of what he knows, he could earn a fortune selling secrets about foreign governments and non-state agents (without harming England).

Indeed, in the shadowy world of intelligence, counterintelligence and covert agency, nothing is what it seems. Perception is deception: if you see something, it is because somebody WANTED you to see it. If you infer something, it is because somebody DESIGNED the evidence so you infer exactly what you just inferred.

In the end, maybe this is what caused Bond to triumph over Scaramanga in the final shootout: Bond masters deception better, and was able to deceive Scaramanga by posing as one of the mannequins.

Bond figured out that Scaramanga is probably a better shooter and probably has a sharper eye and a faster finger; however, Bond had a better mind, one that is trained to deceive in order to gain the upper hand in mano a mano combat.

However, this is just a movie and in the end, Scaramanga is probably a better "role model" when it comes to pursuing one's financial independence.

The success secret here is that a person should work hard, yes, and try to negotiate the best salary given current job market conditions. At the same time, a financially savvy professional should ALSO create tools, objects, utilities, etc. that will enable him/her to work faster, better and cheaper, so as to capture the surplus value and become, as quickly as possible, a soveveign individual who no longer needs to work for anybody else.

3 billion new capitalists

In China, 75% of the people believe that capitalism is the way of the future, compared to nearly one third of French people and 65% of Canadians.

As the creator of a highly popular workshop that teaches capitalism and HOW to succeed in it (details at www.businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com), I must say I'm worried about people who don't understand capitalism and don't realize that failure to understand it will severely impede, if not make impossible, their realization of financial independence.

Thomas Friedman, in his best-seller The World is Flat, warns North Americans that Chinese and Indian workers are using the Internet to level the playing field and access jobs that were formerly protected by time and space barriers. Friedman's message seems to be: Wake up, your job is at risk!

Prestowitz's book, Three Billion New Capitalists, is more technical (a good review is provided below), but it's the title that shocks me. It seems to suggest that Chinese and Indian workers are adopting capitalism faster than North Americans and are, indeed, becoming entrepreneurs -- not just workers!

A worker looks for a job, whereas an entrepreneur looks for workers. Indeed, an entrepreneur doesn't look for jobs, he CREATES them.

Here's another fundamental difference: There is no leverage in a job -- in other words, you won't get rich by working for someone else. But there IS leverage -- in fact, multiple sources of leverage -- in the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Read my free blog to learn more on the differences between entrepreneurs and salaried workers here: www.economicdestiny.blogspot.com

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Strategic, Economic Fundamentals, Compelling, Cannot Ignore, June 25, 2005
Reviewer:

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews

Before writing this review, I reflected carefully on the thoughts of those who say that the author, who is known to me, was wrong about Japan, that he emphasizes the best points of the new competitors (China and India) while neglecting our best points. There is certainly something to what they say, but as one who studies the entire world for our US Government clients, with a special familiarity with Chinese operations in Africa and South America, and a business familiarity with what is happening in India, I have to say that on balance, the author is more correct his critics will admit, and this is a book that we simply cannot ignore. His most important point is made in one line: America does not have a strategy.

America does not have a strategy for winning the global war on terror, it does not have an energy strategy, it does not have an education strategy, it does not have an economic or competitiveness strategy. The government is being run on assertion and ideology rather than evidence and thought--a media cartoon has captured the situation perfectly: as the VP tells the President that we are "turning the corner" the two walls behind them are labeled Incompetence and Fantasy.

As a moderate Republican and a trained intelligence professional with two books on the latter topic, I have to say that this book by this author, a Reaganite businessman and senior appointee in the Department of Commerce is right on target. We *are* out of touch with reality, and we do not appreciate, at any level from White House to School House, the tsunami that is about to hit us. The author makes two important points early on in the books: first, that information is the currency of this age, replacing money, labor, and physical resources; and second, that the best innovation comes from the right mix of sound education across the board, heavy investment in research & development, and a co-located manufacturing bases that can tinker with R&D and have a back and forth effect. America lacks all three of the latter, and is not yet serious about investing in global coverage of all languages, 24/7.

There is a great deal of commonality between this book and Tom Friedman's "The World is Flat," both written and published in the same time frame. Both authors agree that the Internet has put an end to time and space constraints, and both agree that American labor is very much at risk because our basic education is flawed and we have no strategy for demanding continuing education from employers. The author excels at drawing the connection between poor education, "it's been twenty years since anyone at Bell Labs received a Nobel Prize," and the massive increase in outsourcing of knowledge work, not just scut work.

I do have to say, having called Friedman's latest book a massive Op-Ed in my review of that book, that this author is more thoughtful, provides more historical context, and delves into more basic important detail that Friedman--put bluntly, his book is more serious and more valuable than Friedman's, as in this is the meat, where Friedman is the sauce. Prestowitz addresses the core issues of the value of the dollar, the central place of energy, the role of demographics, and the fundamental macro-economic and structural imbalances that will weaken America, that are weakening America, over the passage to of a century of time--this is not a "snap-shot," this is a *deep* look into the soul of America. Chapter 12, the author's recommendations, is alone worth the price of the book and should be required reading in every comparative economics and national security policy classroom.

I won't list these recommendations but will highlight just a couple that struck me as immediately actionable: declaration of energy independence; DoD as a catalyst for socio-economic recovery by taking the lead in energy, education, and intelligence, learning how to wage peace; end to subsidies (the author uncharacteristically fails to note that we can increase government revenues by $500B a year if we not only eliminate subsidies, but stop import-export tax fraud and demand that corporations pay taxes on the profits they declare to their shareholders rather than the falsified and manipulated balance sheets they present to the IRS); join Japan and India to NAFTA--this is an outrageously brilliant idea.

Clyde Prestowitz is one of the most insightful, balanced, *sane* voices on national competitiveness today. He would make an excellent Secretary of Commerce in the bi-partisan McCain-Edwards Administration.

Deal or No Deal (valuable lesson on Bayesian inference)

Deal or No Deal is a popular TV show, packed with suspense but also with valuable lessons on how Bayesian inference can help a person make better decisions. From Wikipedia:

The basic format of Deal or No Deal consists of a number of cases (usually 26, but varies in some countries), each containing a different amount of money. Not knowing the sum of money in each case, the contestant picks one case which potentially contains the contestant's prize. They then open the remaining cases, one by one, revealing the money they contained. At predetermined intervals the contestant receives an offer from the bank (run by "The Banker") to purchase the originally chosen case from the contestant, the offer being based on the potential value of the contestant's case. The contestant must then decide whether to take the deal from the bank, or to continue opening cases. If the contestant decides not to take the deal and reveals low value cases, then the next bank offer is likely to be higher (as the contestant's case is proven not to contain these low values). Alternatively, there is risk in revealing higher values, lowering future offers from the bank. The aim of this system is to try to make an exciting and suspenseful game. Each offer from the bank is typically significantly less than the expected value of the player's case.

===

Bayesian inference simply means that you update your degree of belief in light of new information.

Here's an example: I ask you to state a number while I roll a dice. If the number that comes up is the number you have voiced, then you win $600. Oh, I forgot to mention that to play this game, where you could potentially win $600, you have to pay me $100.

Question: Is it worth it for you to play?

Answer: You have to calculate the EMV, or expected monetary value, which is:

Probability X Payoff = (1/6) X $600 = $100.

Since this is EXACTLY the price for playing the game, you probably should not play the game.

However, if the price for getting the right number is $800, then EMV = (1/6) X $800 = $133.33

Since $133.33 is higher than the price of playing the game, or $100, then you should play the game. The odds of winning are in your favor.

Maybe this is not new to you, so here's a twist on how games are played in REAL LIFE:

Someone asks me to play the same game, but the stakes are higher: $1,000 to play, and $5,000 if I get the number right.

Using the above EMV equation, I get an EMV of $833.33, which is lower than $1,000, so logically, I should NOT play (because the odds are against me).

However, I'm quite rich, so I accept to play just for the fun of it. BUT I tell the person that he should throw the dice FIRST, and then I would state the number. My "official" reason for this request is that I have psychic powers and can read his mind AFTER he sees the number that comes up.

My real reason, in fact, is that my beautiful girlfriend is standing behind the man. If the number is odd, she would touch her lovely chin -- therefore, I would voice one of these numbers: 1, 3, 5.

If she doesn't do anything, then I know the number is even, and I would voice either 2, 4 or 6.

Either way, the odds of success for me has changed from 1 in 6, to 1 in 3.

The REAL EMV, therefore, is (1/3) X $5,000 = $1,666.66 (which is higher than the price of playing, which is $1,000).

Someone might say: "Well, Peter, you're cheating! Your girlfriend gives away information that you're NOT supposed to know!"

That's true. The only thing I can say is that it was HER idea! (kidding).

But seriously, there are tons of ways to get information so that you can, using Bayesian inference, update your calculation of the odds and, therefore, determine the REAL EMV.

This is the whole idea of the movie Wall Street, starring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen. The great financier Gordon Gekko recruits Bud Fox, a young stockbroker, to work him as a sort of spy.

He tells Fox: "Information is the most valuable commodity I know, wouldn't you agree?"

It's a great movie, but I don't think that you have to resort to illegal methods or ploys to get insider information. Read the fantastic book The Intelligence Edge, by George Friedman, to learn more about intelligence-gathering techniques (that are worthy of the CIA!).

The success secret here is to understand that every time we make a decision, we are in fact gambling. THE MORE WE KNOW, THE LESS WE GAMBLE.

(This is reminiscent of Gekko's quote from Sun Tzu: "Every battle is won BEFORE it's ever fought.")

If information is key to effective decision-making, how come the Internet (or Google, for that matter) doesn't seem to improve people's decision-making?

The answer is that information is just raw material. It is human intelligence that turns information into knowledge. This knowledge is what allows a person to clearly see the payoff as well as the odds of success, and then to decide accordingly.

There are two kinds of knowledge, when it comes to Bayesian inference: systemic knowledge and situational knowledge.

Systemic knowledge is universally applicable, often regardless of the situation at hand, whereas situational knowledge refers to the circumstances and details surrounding a particular decision.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger can be said to focus on systemic knowledge. For instance, they believe that a good business to invest in must have strong brand equity, good and solid management, high barriers to entry, etc.

Gekko, on the other hand, focused on situational knowledge which, of course, requires spies. This is not to say that he did not also master systemic knowledge. It's just that the movie focused more on the illegal ploys to uncover situational knowledge.

Google Groups!

This is cool!

I just used Google Groups to create a club for participants who came to the Ideal Career workshop we give in Montreal.

Whether you're a careerist or business person, Google Groups is great to keep your people in the loop. As owner of the club, you can decide whether members can post or not. All messages sent to clubname@googlegroups.com are automatically sent to all members.

Of course, mailing lists have existed for a long time. The only thing new is that Google makes it so easy to create a mailing list, and keep everyone informed.

This is great because it's part of a bigger trend in business that I call "social marketing."

Social marketing can be used to advance your career, or to increase sales for your business.

The key (or success secret) is to avoid selling, which turns people off, and to focus on being useful by sharing relevant, useful, usable and practical information through mailing lists like Google Groups.

The AVERAGE career vs the LEVERAGE career

In the old economy (pre-Internet), to have an average career was okay. Everybody was pretty much average. It was the mass society, the mass economy.

Today, with the Internet and micro-payment mechanisms (like Payloadz), to have an "average" career is not good enough. The challenge for increasingly more and more people will be to transition to a "leverage" career.

Leverage means using a system, and S.Y.S.T.E.M. means Save Your Self Time, Energy and Money.

Linkedin is one way to leverage the Internet in your favor. But it's not easy, which is why I created www.linkedinusermanual.blogspot.com

Another way to leverage your (hard-earned) expertise and experience, is to create and maintain a blog. Ideally, your blog should contain a piece of code from Feedblitz so readers can subscribe to it. (It's free to create an account at Feedblitz.)

Since a career is basically a body of expert and practical knowledge, it means that if nobody subscribes to your blog, that might be an indication that your career is not focused enough to generate the kind of expertise or specialized knowhow that is useful.

This brings us back to the difference between an average career and a leverage career.

A leverage career is based on unique, specialized, and highly valuable knowledge. If your career does not contain unique, specialized or highly valuable knowledge, then your career competitors will gain ground in the knowledge-based economy while you lose ground.

You might still have a job, but you won't have the bargaining power (vis-a-vis your employer or clients) that comes from having unique, specialized and highly valuable knowledge.

Fortunately, developing specialized knowledge is not very difficult, given the huge amount of information available today. However, it takes commitment and discipline, which most people lack.

It's not that people are lazy or not committed to developing specialized knowledge; it's just that people tend to learn a little bit about everything, instead of focusing their energy on becoming the BEST at one thing or in one field.

Think big, start small, improve fast

M: "Any thug can kill. I want you to take your ego out of the equation and judge each situation dispassionately."

James Bond: "So you want me to be half-monk, half-hitman."

---

Vesper: "It doesn't bother you, killing those people?"

James Bond: "Well, I wouldn't be very good at my job if it did."

===

Conclusion: Bond is superior to Vesper physically, but inferior to M intellectually.

In other words, he can do what Vesper cannot, but M can think and infer what he cannot.

So here we have the two keys to success: being able to think clearly (without passion, without feeling), and being able to act decisively (without passion, without feeling).

Of course, this is easier said than done. Most people think emotionally, not rationally. After all, we're human beings, not robots!

However, people who do take the time to improve their thinking so that they make decisions RATIONALLY, usually succeed in life. Warren Buffett admits himself that during his formative years and especially after meeting Charlie Munger, he began to constantly correct his thinking. From his success, we can safely infer that the rate at which he corrects his thinking is much faster than the rate at which the market corrects itself.

George Soros, the billionaire investor, also believes in "the pursuit of truth through a critical process."

They both are masters of rationality. They don't make decisions based on emotions, the past, the crowd, popular opinion, or sunk costs (which is an investment you made in the past, but which has no relevance to the decision that you have to make today), but on knowledge, facts, reality.

So why is it that most people don't make decisions rationally?

Probably because, as Soros suggested in his book The Age of Fallibility, we are involved and, therefore, subjective. We no longer see reality objectively, but through our colored, subjective lens.

It seems to me that the more objective you are in decision-making, the higher the likelihood that you will be correct, especially in business.

This is why I recommend to entrepreneurs that they present a brief business plan to a group of experienced friends and family, and ask this group to invest in their business. If nobody will invest in the business, then the following may be possible reasons:

1. The business plan has not been communicated clearly enough
2. The business plan is not valid, therefore the entrepreneur should not launch
3. The business plan is too ambitious
4. The business plan is not complete

If the group agrees that the business plan is complete (4), is not too ambitious in terms of goal-setting (3), has been communicated clearly enough (1), but that it's simply not a good plan or the entrepreneur is not deemed fit to execute the plan, then the entrepreneur should seriously reconsider whether to launch the business.

Through the exercise above, a person can really "take his/her ego out of the equation" and begin to think critically, without any delusion.

Of course, as we all know, success -- especially great success -- is not so logical. Often, at the beginning of a great project, a person might engage in what is called "fertile fallacy" and think that something is true while in fact it is false.

However, fertile fallacy can be useful sometimes: because he/she believes it to be true, he/she will start a project. This is what I call the magical aspect. Goethe is often quoted as saying that "Boldness has magic in it."

However, there always comes a point where the person has to take off the "magical" hat and put on the "logical" hat.

If quasi-magical belief is not followed by logic and rationality at the implementation phase, then the project will fail.

JFK's vision, for instance, of putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade was an almost magical belief. However, the science and technology of NASA were subsequently used to deliver the goods!

Similarly, the founder of Sony one evening had the "magical" idea of creating a Walk-Man (a tape player that he could wear on his belt, with earphones), after he was annoyed that his niece's noise-making prevented him from listening to his favorite music. He just proposed that idea to his engineers and told them to "make it happen." The rest, as we know, is history.

My conclusion: both magical thinking and logical thinking are necessary to succeed.

People who engage in magical thinking without taking the time to monitor their performance and obtain real data/stats about their performance in order to improve them, eventually fail.

Similarly, people who are good at measuring performance and calculating costs, but do not have the imagination to think big, also fail.

The success secret is to use and leverage both sides of the brain.

The best sequence that I've found so far, and I do use it in managing Talentelle, our little strategic training company for women, is to:

• Think big
• start small (so you can experiment and track results)
• and improve fast.

Powerful, FREE ebook on knowledge

http://www.knowingknowledge.com/book.php

At the site above, you can download for FREE a copy of the powerful book by George Siemens. I recommend this book especially to knowledge workers, business leaders, and parents (so they can guide their kids as they grow up in a knowledge-based society).

Siemens wrote: "As goes knowledge, so go organizations."

I could just as well say: "As goes knowledge, so goes success." In other words, knowledge has become so central to the new society and the new economy that success in one's career (or in one's business) necessarily requires that a person have a clear, consistent, effective and easily implemented knowledge strategy.

• What knowledge MUST you create?
• How should you process it in order to improve its value?
• How should you store it?
• How, when and with whom should you share your knowledge?
• How, when and with whom should you sell your knowledge or expertise?

These are questions that are central to success in the new economy, and I think Siemens has done a good job of providing a framework in which to discuss important issues related to knowledge discovery, management and capitalization.

I will write more on the book later on.

Games people play

Life in society is filled with deception, and that is so for a very simple reason: people play games.

There are only two cases where no mental games are being played:

• when you are alone in a room, and do something by yourself (play solitaire, take a bath, etc.)
• when you are with your soulmate (especially your wife or husband)

In all other cases, there will be games being played mentally between you and other people. Eric Berne wrote about these psychological games in his book "Games people play." From Wikipedia:

Games People Play is a famous 1964 book by psychologist Eric Berne. Since its publication it has sold more than five million copies.[1] The basic premise of the book describes life as a game in which people interact through a patterned and predictable series of transactions which are superficially plausible but actually conceal motivations and lead to a well-defined predictable outcome. Presently, more than 10,000 people around the world define themselves as transactional analysts. The book originated such sayings as “Boy, has he got your number” and others.

Robert Cialdini wrote a less technical book that is perhaps more practical, as he describes the specific ways that society or institutions will try to deceive you (or persuade you). More details HERE.

This posting would not be complete if I didn't add that deception is not always bad. Sometimes, you have to create a situation that will "force out" the truth. It could save you a lot of trouble in the future.

Here's an example: You're watching the evening news on TV, and suddenly you realize that you are holding in your hand the WINNING lottery ticket for $5,000,000!

A normal reaction would be to call your friends and family, and tell them ecstatically that they are actually talking to a new millionaire!

A not-so-normal (yet strategic) reaction would be to call your friends (and maybe a few family members) to ask for a $1,000 loan.

That's right. You just won $5,000,000, yet there you are, asking for a loan of $1,000 from every friend of yours.

Why? To know the truth.

Note: you can actually change the amount to $500, or $2,000, depending on the socioeconomic situation of your friends.

My point: those who readily agree to lend you $1,000 are the friends you probably should be generous with, after you cash in on the $5,000,000.

Now I'm not saying that the other folks are not true friends! Or that you should penalize them. I'm just saying that a simple ploy can reveal the truth: that some friends will be there for you and that when a person suddenly becomes a millionaire, it will be MUCH MORE difficult to find out who is really your friend AFTER you are rich, than before you become rich.

Indeed, what I've noticed is that most people use their mind to get OUT of trouble when instead, they should use their mind to predict where trouble will be, then AVOID getting into that situation.

Chess players naturally develop this reflex of calculating several moves ahead. I will write more about "economic chess" but you can glimpse some of my slides at www.economicdestiny.blogspot.com

Dot Pro Revolution

I recently discovered a rising star on the Canadian media landscape: www.oliviacheng.com

Olivia is a good example of a professional leveraging the Web for professional exposure.

Her website is only the tip of the iceberg of things to come. I call it the "Dot Pro Revolution," by which I mean professionals using the Web to organize, produce and distribute valuable content in order to advance their careers or monetize their career assets.

Society is deception

Sun Tzu, the master Chinese strategist, wrote that "all warfare is based on deception."

The same can be said of society, especially today's overly mediatized society. In a recent research survey, nearly 70% of Americans admit they no longer know WHO to trust.

Indeed, all information sources have a deceptive component. Even institutions have agendas to promote and protect.

I've studied and worked in media (journalism) and marketing, so I know at least two major fields where deception skills are actually taught and practiced.

Journalism students in their third year, for instance, are taught how to rewrite a passage by Tolstoy in the style of Hemingway. Why? To train them so they can create more captivating stories which will lure more readers. Of course, this helps advertisers since great story-telling boosts ratings and readership.

The elite, of course, doesn't rely on news media. Karl Lagerfeld, for instance, admits he has cultivated his own network of spies, with whom he communicates via fax (he's of the "old" generation who prefers actual handwriting to email).

Every U.S. President since Pearl Harbor also relies on a daily document produced by top CIA analysts, called the President's Daily Brief. This 12-page document, "For the President's Eyes Only," is written to inform him of the top international issues of concern so he is fully cognizant of threats and opportunities.

So what is the success secret? See and study society and all events in society with your mind, not with your eyes or ears.

The eye and the ear are easily deceived. The trained mind is not so easily deceived.

Steps of knowledge

In the previous posting, I mentioned "steps of knowledge."

Such a step can only be made IF:

1. You know precisely what to do
2. You do precisely what you know

In fact, it's little more complicated because it takes a while before you develop perfect knowledge of what to do, and perfect faith in the knowledge to do exactly what you KNOW you should do. However, the following are five phases that you can go through in order to develop precise knowledge and disciplined action:

1. Focus on one task to do.
2. Implement it. Just do it.
3. Reflect on the results you get.
4. Seek feedback from wiser and more experienced people on the results you got
5. Transfer your lessons learned and distinctions acquired to the next activity.

Notice by the way that step 4 is critical in acquiring useful experience. Many people neglect that step and, as a result, they often misinterpret the results they get. Therefore, they learn the WRONG lessons and this keeps them going perpetually in the wrong direction.

God is online

"God is dead!"

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"No, God is online!"

- Peter Nguyen

The Internet holds so much wealth waiting to be seized, that all you need to do is create a systematic method of LEARNING how to use it strategically in order to build YOUR own fortune.

However, making a fortune from the Internet is not something you can do with a single leap of faith, but only with thousands of steps of knowledge.

Yes, many so-called gurus sell all kinds of seemingly magic formula and "proven" techniques for making money online. However, no business is sustainable unless it is aligned with your values, talent, passion and biographical path.

By "alignment with your biographical path," I mean that a new business has to seem to flow naturally from your own life experience, and from the strengths that you've built in the course of your life.

In the same way that an apple tree can only produce apples and not oranges, the person you have become can only produce a certain kind of results. To think otherwise is to entertain severe delusions. Failure, in such cases, is quite inevitable and, in fact, predictable if only the person cared enough to ask for objective feedback from other more experienced people.

This is why I always encourage first-time entrepreneurs to explain, in detail, their business plan to investors and seasoned entrepreneurs, and then to ask them to estimate their chances of success (success being defined as being able to achieve the business goal they set for themselves).

This being said, the Internet somehow changes dramatically the odds of success of ANY entrepreneur who learns how to use it and leverage it. This is why I say that "God is online."

Starting a new business is already an extremely difficult thing to do, and highly risky. Not leveraging the Internet would be highly unwise, especially given the proliferation of so many free-of-charge applications like Blogger, Slideshare.net, Youtube, etc.

Society is stupid

Don't worry, I'm not angry or anything like that! :-)

But the heading above is the simplest and most direct way of expressing the idea that most of what you see, hear and read in society is really stupid. "Stupid" sounds a bit aggressive, so perhaps I should say "Society is intellectually naive."

Brian Tracy wrote that 80% of a person's success (how far he/she will go in life) is determined by his/her social environment. This makes sense: we tend to (unconsciously) adopt the standards of most people around us.

In fact, research has shown that when a person KNOWS a successful business person, the likelihood that he/she will launch a business is double that of people who do not know a business person.

So what is the success secret?

Ignore society. Ignore the opinion of the crowd. Ignore the news media.

Spend time with friends and family. Spend time reading good non-fiction books. Spend time discovering and developing your unique talent. Spend time practicing a principle or AT LEAST one of the 7 habits proposed by Stephen Covey!

For your convenience, I created the acronym PEPWEST to summarize those 7 habits:

1. Priority (clearly set priorities -- what is important to you, NOT what is urgent)
2. End in mind (start with the end in mind)
3. Proactive (if it's to be, it's up to me!)
4. Win-win
5. Empathy (seek first to undertand, then to be understood)
6. Synergy
7. Train and develop yourself

Making money

"Making money is not about making money."

Perhaps the most common mistake of first-time entrepreneurs is to think that business is a way of making a lot of money. It's not. It's a system for creating a LOT of value for a LOT of people. More accurately, you can either create a LOT of value for a few people who have a LOT of money, or you can create a little value for a LOT of people who have a little money.

That is, you can either go for margin or volume.

The money comes naturally as a RESULT of that, in the same way that a shadow can only be created by a source of light.

If you create a better life for customers (that is, if you create for them a sunny environment), then you will naturally become comfortable financially (that is, you have earned the right to be in the shade).

Income, really, is just a natural result of outcome -- the valuable outcome you produce for customers.

The physical universe is my greatest career challenge!

Did you notice that the richest and most successful entrepreneurs make their fortune by AVOIDING the physical universe? The entrepreneurs behind Yahoo!, Microsoft, Hotmail, Netscape, Amazon, eBay, and recently YouTube, all made their fortune REALLY FAST by avoiding the physical universe.

They all made their fortune in cyberspace or, in the case of Bill Gates, in computing space (inside computers).

This is why I say that the physical universe is my (and possibly your) greatest career/business challenge.

Here's another way to put it: if your career model requires you to be personally present at the office or in front of the client, then your income will be SEVERELY limited. It makes sense: you can't be at two places at the same time.

So here's what you'll see happening more and more: people you know (professionals, free agents, entrepreneurs, etc.) will be either offering "personal-attention" services (e.g. nurses, massage therapists, hairstylists, etc.) or "media-leveraged" services (e.g. coaches who offer services via Skype, consultants who help businesses via email or Web-based collaboration, etc.).

Look around you and identify the media-smart people: those are the people who will get to the top and become rich. Those are the people who take the time to learn and master new media like Blogger, YouTube, Slideshare.net, etc.

In my case, I've already made plans to translate my instructional materials into foreign languages for worldwide export. But to do that, I need Slideshare.net, YouTube, Odeo, etc.

Take my advice, learn about blogging, vlogging, and all the new media applications that used to be associated with geeks. If you don't, you might regret it in the future as thousands if not millions of people begin to use new media technologies in order to leverage their production and marketing capabilities.

The Seecret

http://www.thescienceofgettingrich.biz/ has a free 90-minute video on The Secret, view it before it's too late.

From the comments I've read, some people believe it, others don't. Both sides are extreme.

My take is that magic (belief, faith, visualization, etc.) is necessary, but not sufficient.

Magic is necessary, especially at the beginning since the undertaking of any great project requires tremendous faith. But logic is also required. Most people either believe in magic or logic. Few believe in both.

"Magic people" say: "Ready or not, here I come!" This is in fact how miracles happen: you know intellectually that you may not be ready for something, but your heart tells you to do it anyway. Success here simply means getting started.

"Logic people" say: "Income depends on outcome." They believe that you are paid ONLY in proportion to what you produce. They believe in rationality.

Magic opens up the universe, so your mind can fill it. In other words, something is only doable if it was first thinkable. If it's unthinkable to you, then it's impossible to you.

I know some of you may be thinking: "Peter, come on. Do you really believe in magic?"

All I can say is: "Reality obeys superior willpower." An author put it this way: "The world will make way for the man (or woman) who pushes past them." In other words, if you think something can stop you, IT WILL STOP YOU. The mere THOUGHT of that something will STOP YOU!

If you think that nothing can stop you, then nothing can stop you.

I've always thought that nothing could stop me. I don't feel superior to anyone else, because I believe that ANY person can feel the same way and achieve similar results.

Before I reached the age of 18, I already had 4 standing ovations. From my experience, I can tell you this: you need to believe BIG, but also act SMALL (on a daily basis).

In other words:

1. Think big
2. Start small
3. Improve fast

Step 1 requires great belief and faith. You first have to SEE it in your mind (this is why I titled the blog www.theseecret.blogspot.com).

Step 2 requires that you design small tasks, so that as you accomplish those tasks, you feel more and more confident in your powers.

Step 3 requires that you carefully monitor, ON PAPER and with NUMBERS and STATS, your daily performance, so you can improve FAST.

But the absolute first step is to SEE the global picture and to think BIG.

Check my new blog on The Secret HERE.

The woman is a psycho! (and my career mentor)

Have you seen her on TV? She's crazy. She's fearless. She scares the heck out of me.

Her name is Judge Judy. She gave me some of the best career management insights! More on that later. From Wikipedia:

"Each show is introduced with the statement: You are about to enter the courtroom of Judge Judith Sheindlin. The people are real. The cases are real. The rulings are final. This is her courtroom. This is Judge Judy.

The show features the former family court judge Judith Sheindlin, Esq., as an arbitrator hearing small claims cases with an award limit of US$5,000, the maximum in most U.S. states. She is notorious for berating litigants for the bad choices they make in their lives. Through cross-examination, she frequently exposes the lies the litigants tell and humiliates them for doing so."

---

Most people have not yet realized this, but in the new super-competitive economy, companies only hire the best. And the best reveal themselves through their work (NOT their resume!).

Judge Judy often stressed the importance of proof and evidence: "This is a court of law, I don't care about your opinion! Show me the proof!"

I've always found it easy to compete for jobs in the 90s. I always showed PROOF of what I had done for previous employers, as well as PROOF of what I plan to do for the employer after he hires me (in the form of a detailed work plan for the next 6 months).

That's my success secret.

I often advise people that "employers have absolutely no reason to believe anything you say, until they have a reason to." In other words, provide plenty of evidence, rational arguments, proofs, etc.

Unfortunately, many people still look at the job interview (or the sales call) as a question-and-answer thing. It's not. You have to present your case -- a case made airtight through rigorous planning, analysis and value design (more on value design later). You have to speak and act almost like a lawyers in front of a jury.

Here's a neat reminder about the importance of concrete evidence presented in order to sell yourself: "People don't believe anything that comes out of your mouth, but will tend to believe most of the things that come from your hand."

Professional knowledge export

One of the top ten millionaire occupations is newsletter publishing.

This should not surprise anyone, since knowledge really is power. A newsletter is an easy way to publish valuable knowledge, and to charge people for it.

In the past, newsletters were published via fax or regular mail. Today, it's even easier, thanks to the Internet, email and this powerful technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). RSS is what allows you to receive my postings right in your email inbox, a few hours after I post them.

I strongly recommend to anyone who's interested in making money on the Internet: Learn and master the art of blogging and the RSS technology. This is probably the easiest and fastest way for professionals to create a second income (without quitting their daytime job).

You can either:

1. write a blog about the increasing knowhow you are acquiring in your daily work (just make sure you don't write about proprietary methodologies or confidential secrets that belong to your employer)
2. write a blog about a subject that is not related to your daytime job, but in which you've developed a fair amount of specialized knowledge

Either way, your knowledge has to be professional, and you have to ultimately export that knowledge to people who could use it (and, hopefully, would be willing to pay for it).

The steps are simple:

1. HEAD TO PAPER. Sit down with a nice cup of coffee, put a blank sheet of paper on the table, and then write the BEST and most valuable knowledge that you have.
2. PAPER TO BLOG. Next, transfer what's on the paper to your blog (create an account at Blogger).
3. BLOG TO TARGET AUDIENCE. Finally, find a way to reach your target market and invite them to subscribe to your blog.

Of course, many people don't go through this systematic process. Most likely, they hear from someone about blogs:

• "Yeah, you should have a blog. Everybody today has a blog!"
• "I read in the news that a blog can help expose a professional for career purposes. Do you have a blog?"
• etc.

So after hearing these comments, a normal person goes to Blogger.com, creates an account, and writes something like "Testing, testing. I really don't know what to write about. But please, come back soon!"

Eventually, the person abandons the idea of blogging. And this is when ECONOMIC TRAGEDY occurs!

People completely misunderstand the POWER of the blog.

Yet, by following a more systematic process, people can create something valuable on the Web that not only helps them to consolidate their expertise and knowhow (which other people will value), but also they can monetize their knowledge and create a second income.

The success secret is to do one step at a time, as explained in the above 3 steps.

Join my team and make $$$

If you've been reading my 480+ postings so far (since January 2006), and appreciate the value you're getting -- for free, by the way! :-) -- then I invite you to introduce yourself to me via a short 200-word description of who you are, what you currently do, what your goals in life are.

Why would you do this?

Because you want to learn all my business secrets, culled from hundreds of the best psychology, business, technology, management and futurism books out there. Because you want to make a lot of $$$. Because you want to take control of your life by learning self-mastery.

Why do I do this?

Because, as planned since the beginning, I want to recruit you (if you're interested) to become business agents working with me in order to capture new markets.

I've developed secret, proprietary methodologies for RAPIDLY and EXPONENTIALLY developing new success secrets and methodologies (which I'm teaching at www.cefq.ca and www.tyark.com and, soon, at several universities). I just DO NOT HAVE TIME anymore to do the online marketing. Yet, millions of people want to grab my valuable instructional materials and intellectual capital. And they are willing to pay for them!

R$$ (short for "real-time success secrets") is currently being read in 18 countries. But I want to develop new versions for special segments (teens, mothers, entrepreneurs, free agents, consultants, executives, HR professionals, etc.).

The fact that you're a subscriber to this blogzine shows that you are serious about learning success secrets. Congratulations. Not many people are as serious as you are. Now, the next level is to MAKE MONEY from what you've learned.

I know, you're thinking: "Okay, Peter, I'm interested in making money. But how much is this going to cost me?"

$0.00. Zero. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Is that a good price to you? Of course, it is. (I really tried to make the price even lower, but my accountant frowned at me, so I let it go!)

I'm basically a success intellectual. Yes, I graduated from McGill University (with distinction) in marketing, but I enjoy writing more than marketing.

This is why I need you. You need me because you want to learn everything you can about business (that is, the art of earning more and more money while working less and less).

However, there's just one catch: I only recruit the best. The best of the best. I only want to work with the elite. (In fact, over the last 12 years, I have only worked with the elite, and with best-of-breed companies like IBM, CDI Corporate Education Services, Abbott Laboratories, American Express, Cossette, etc.).

At the same time, I remember a time when I was confused and struggling, and many executives and business leaders gave me a chance. They gave me the opportunity to prove myself, and to shine, and I never disappointed them.

So I'd like to extend the same courtesy to people who REALLY, REALLY, ABSOLUTELY want to succeed and are WILLING to do whatever it takes to learn what they MUST learn in order to succeed.

Conclusion: if you think you are the best (and can prove it to me), or if you believe that you have the unstoppable go-getter attitude to get the job done no matter what obstacle or whoever stands in your way, then contact me at superscribe@gmail.com There is a LOT of money to be made, and we will make it together. (Remember: please write a 200-word description of who you are, what you are doing now, and what your goals in life are).

Together, we will capture all the wealth-making opportunities that the Internet is unleashing today!

Here's an idea I believe will take off and make a LOT of people richer: www.whoisjeffmills.com/tss.html

Make money with skill, skull or scale

The following is not meant to be comprehensive, but illustrative of the different TYPES of ways to make money.

People will make money with their:

• skill
• skull or
• scale

As we all know, skills can be picked up fairly quickly, especially with e-learning. Skills, therefore, are no longer a source of competitive advantage in anyone's career. This is why Indian or Chinese workers can and will catch up quickly in the global economy and will do the jobs that were formerly done in North America.

Making money with your skull (that is, your specialized knowledge, knowhow, expertise, etc.) is the next level. Because knowledge is more flexible and can be deployed non-personally (for instance, you can coach someone via Skype), there are more opportunities to leverage it in order to create more value (hence, more wealth). Not surprisingly, people in knowledge-intensive professions tend to earn more than their corporate counterparts.

For instance, a consultant specialized in manufacturing will earn TWICE as much money as the manager of a manufacturing plant.

Lastly, people who make money via systems that allow them to scale upward their operations, will likely be the richest.

Notice, by the way, that Bill Gates built a company that leverage BOTH the skull of his employees (who actually own stock options -- he's made 10,000 millionaires so far) and the scale of his operating systems and global marketing clout.

Most people are probably at the "skill" level. Even a knowledge worker (attorney, accountant, graphic designer, marketing VP, etc.) who uses and applies knowledge in his/her line of work, but does NOT share his/her knowledge, has not yet reached the "skull" level.

Most professionals and managers that you know, in fact, might have a lot of useful and expert knowledge in their head (called tacit knowledge). However, they might be trapped by old ways of thinking, where people associate "work" with "making money."

In the new knowledge-based economy, knowledge = money. More accurately, knowledge = BIG money.

This is why Robert Reich, in his book The Future of Success, says that "People who do not export knowledge, do not become rich."

Fortunately, it is never too late to learn how to package and export one's knowledge. There is an abundance of free tools on the Web to allow a person to do so: Gcast, Odeo, Blogger, Feedblitz, geocities, Slideshare.net, Bubbleshare, etc.

If you'd like tips and advice on how to market your knowledge, drop me a line at superscribe@gmail.com

How to survive and thrive in the new economy

Thomas Friedman, in his best-seller The World is Flat, talks about the "untouchables" -- people whose jobs will not be outsourced or automated or digitized (captured in the form of expert systems online or semi-automatic diagnostic software tools).

These untouchables can be summarized by the 4 S (this is my invention, not Friedman's):

1. Special talent (Bill Gates, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jordan, etc.)
2. Specialized professionals (surgeons, attorneys, etc.)
3. Site-specific (hairstylists, massage therapists, nurses, etc.) or system-specific (civil servants)
4. Self-learners and serial skillers (people who learn fast and adapt quickly to new conditions)

If you're in categories 3 or 4, your job might be relatively safe; however, it is likely that you won't be paid a lot. That's because of the low leverage potential.

For instance, workers in category 3 can only serve people one at a time. Workers in category 4 don't build a valuable base of knowledge or core competencies, since they are too busy learning new skills demanded by new market conditions.

People in categories 1 and 2 have more chances of being successful in the long term.

The Future of Success, by Robert Reich

We live in a free society (I'm writing from Canada), and there are obvious benefits. But there are dangers too: everyone is free to say things that are not true, and worse, to say things untrue in a way that is so convincing that even educated people will believe them to be true.

The influential intellectual Alvin Toffler has written about this, mentioning that we live in an age where where the means of deception are proliferating faster than the means of verification. In other words, the majority of information that comes to you is more likely to be false and misleading, than true and accurate.

Even journalists, who are trained to be accurate and objective, write and broadcast reports that are too fragmentary and/or momentary to be of any use or to have any practical value. I have nothing against journalists, I think they're good and honest people. Several of my friends are journalists and even anchor persons reading the news at six o'clock.

But today's society requires "intelligence", not information. Intelligence is information that you can use to make better decisions. A decision is good if it brings you closer to your goal.

Unfortunately, most news and cultural media don't offer any useful information for making better decisions in life.

Given the above, I would say that the book The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, is an unusual book because it forces people (at least those who are serious about their future) to face reality, and to make decisions RIGHT NOW about how they should proactively manage their career so they can succeed in a globalized economy where 3 billion new workers have just joined the workforce, via Internet. Note: read my next posting, which summarizes what you can do to survive and thrive in the new economy, according to Friedman.

A second book I highly recommend is Robert Reich's The Future of Success. It is smaller than The World is Flat: 250 pages vs 600 pages. Also, Reich used to be Secretary of Labour for the U.S., so his writing addresses more directly your concerns and priorities as a worker, as opposed to Friedman who is essentially a foreign affairs columnist who "stumbled upon" the concept of a flat world (i.e. one where the Internet is leveling the playing field for people living in the developing world).

Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina's blog is quite good, you can read it HERE.

The Secret!

Thanks Sandra for the tip regarding The Secret! I invite subscribers to view the video HERE.

It's a dramatized documentary whose main message is, "We become what we think about."

(This same message has been written about in a little book titled As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen, written over 100 years ago.)

I like the dramatic approach of The Secret because I've always felt that valuable knowledge is often ignored by people, because it sounds and looks so boring! I mean, who would pick up a copy of The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, or any book by Ralph Waldo Emerson?

However, there is the danger, in watching this movie, to fall into the trap of believing that wishing something to be true, will make it true. If that were the case, life would be just too wonderful to be bearable! :-)

For example, there's a scene where a man rubs a magic lamp and a tall, handsome genie with finely sculpted muscles appears. "Your wish is my command," says the genie.

My wish would probably be: "Hey, I want a fabulous body like yours!" (The unspoken expectation, of course, is that I want that body WITHOUT having to go to the gym!).

For people like us who live on planet Earth, we all know that wishing is not enough. Hard work is required. And yet, hard work CAN produce miraculous results!

I mean, think of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Here's a man who spent YEARS just lifting heavy objects. The worse part is, he never MOVED those objects to a better location! He just lifted them, then put them back down on the floor, at the EXACT same spot! Yet, he became Mister Universe, and recently, governor of California!!

I'm being facetious, of course, but my point is that hard work can become a habit that we can actually enjoy. Then, over time, the compound effects of hard work are shown as seemingly phenomenal results and feats. This is a success secret I've always used, which came from a quote by Seneca: "Little by little, does the trick."

(Of course, if the producers of The Secret had interviewed me, I would have put it in more dramatic terms: "Folks! Little by little, creates karma magic!")

To conclude, I believe positive thinking (especially in the form of clear, detailed and compelling visualization) is absolutely necessary, but also absolutely NOT sufficient.

Without positive (and sustained) action, positive thinking will yield no result.

People who want the BEST results, usually recruit a coach to help them. The coach is like a mirror: he/she shows you your results immediately, and there is no illusion or denial as to how well you are doing (or how bad!). You can then take corrective action to improve, right there, on the spot.

If you can't afford a personal coach, you could become your own self-coach, but for that, you need something which I call "the D.O.S.E.," for Daily Objective Self-Evaluation.

More on that later.