JAXTR for selling and making $$$

The Greeks have known for a long time that persuasion depends on ethos (who you are; your credibility), logos (how logical your message is) and pathos (how much empathy you show; your emotional connection to the audience or person).

JAXTR, by masking the identity of the caller and the recipient, basically eliminates Ethos and Pathos. Only Logos remains. That is, the quality of your knowledge or information will determine whether you will be able to sell (whatever it is that you are selling) via JAXTR.

In other words, it doesn't matter who you are and it doesn't matter who you are calling. What matters is the knowledge being transferred from one anonymous human being to another anonymous human being.

If the knowledge being transferred from Person A to Person B is good, then Person B might accept to transfer cash (via PayPal, etc.) to Person A.

Alternatively, Person B might decide to "pay" by sharing her valuable knowledge.

JAXTR, therefore, becomes a global tool for mutual empowerment through knowledge-sharing.

Let's get a bit more technical.

If A (a man) convinces B (a woman), after 20 minutes of conversation, that he has valuable knowledge and expertise she could benefit from, she might then decide to reveal more details about herself, so that he can customize his knowledge to HER situation.

As he does so, the value of his knowledge will rapidly increase because it is now customized to fit her particular problems, challenges, priorities, etc.

The same thing could happen between a professional and a potential employer. For obvious reasons, they might not want to reveal their identity until they become reasonably confident that they could strike a good win-win employment deal together.

JAXTR

This is an interesting service: JAXTR (www.jaxtr.com).

It allows you to connect to people by phone (and, by the same token, to be reached by phone) WITHOUT revealing your identity.

There's an explanatory video on the site, it's worth checking out.

This (free) service is particulary useful to people who have something to sell, such as their expertise, products or services. Of course, it's also useful for dating purposes since you get to screen incoming phone calls and the caller does not know your name nor your phone number (Jaxtr does the intermediary phone connection and masks all personal data).

Best of all, you can call anyone no matter where they are on the planet -- international phone calls are FREE.

However, it's good to remember what Emerson said when the telegraph was first invented. "We can now connect Maine and Boston. But Maine and Boston may have nothing to say to each other."

In other words, the success secret is to have something VALUABLE to share or trade or sell. That something is usually knowledge.

A lot of people have already started to share their knowledge via a blog or an ebook or a podcast.

However, JAXTR is different in that it's interactive. Concretely, this means the other person can actually help you develop your knowledge, by simply asking you questions.

For example, I can call strangers and say, "I know lots of stuff about how to start a business, how to develop a new product, how to boost your creativity, etc. Now ask me all your questions!"

Then, the other person might ask a series of questions, and I would answer to the best of my knowledge. However, there will be questions whose answers are extremely valuable, so I won't give away those answers. I would instead offer to sell the answers at a certain price. The other person just has to pay me via PayPal, say, $100, and I would then reveal the answers via a PDF document or a podcast or a Jaxtr-mediated phone conversation.

Are you losing or winning?

John McEnroe is famous for saying "Winning or losing doesn't matter... until you lose."

Nobody wants to lose. It feels wrong. Winning, on the other hand, feels great.

The fact is, most people are not losers. Most people, I think, are doing their best so as NOT to lose.

However, the fact that you are not losing doesn't mean you are winning. It's like most team sports: the fact that the opponent hasn't scored against you, doesn't mean you have scored against them.

So most people find themselves in a zone where they are neither losing nor winning. If they were in fact winning, they would be writing a book or giving seminars and workshops.

The question "Are you winning or losing?" can more appropriately be rephrased as "Are you moving in the direction of ultimate victory?"

To answer that question, you first have to determine WHERE you are right now.

To help you do that, I created the following "pyramid" of victory. Please note that a similar pyramid can be used for evaluating one's social life, romantic life, etc.

I also make the distinction between "work" (what you do to pay the bills) and "Work" (your calling or the special work you were meant to do in this life).

1. Employed in Work and helping others find their Work --> Winning big!
2. Employed in Work where one controls economic drivers (that is, one can increase income by increasing outcome; this is Work-BMW!) --> Winning more and more!
   
3. Employed in Work --> Winning!
4. Employed in work that falls within Work --> Not losing, and preparing to win
5. Unemployed but engaged in search for Work --> Not losing (if have sufficient savings) and preparing to win (coach required to speed up the ICF and NPP processes)
   
6. Employed in work that falls outside of Work --> Not losing (but also not winning) DANGEROUS SITUATION! Could be an addiction lasting a lifetime!
   
7. Unemployed but packaging one's human capital & searching for work --> Losing, but preparing calmly to get OUT of losing
8. Unemployed & searching for (menial) work --> Losing and wants a quick way out (premature commitment, too few options)
   
9. Unemployed and happily watching infomercials --> Permanently losing DANGEROUS SITUATION! Must act urgently!
   

Level 6 is a dangerous level, because people who reach that level are often well paid to do a job that is not really aligned with who they truly are. Sometimes, the more boring or "lifeless" a job is, the higher the pay. It's called "differential compensation": the higher salary doesn't reflect the value of your services, it's only there to prevent you from quitting the (boring and lifeless) job.

At levels 7 to 9, there is "negative pressure" to do something. People don't want the pain (lack of purchasing power, low social status, etc.) so they are naturally driven to move up the pyramid.

At levels 1 to 5, there is "positive pressure" to do something. People want the pleasure or the payoff, so they are motivated naturally to do something to move up the pyramid.

Level 6 is the only level where there is the great danger of losing one's life. Indeed, many people get so comfortable with their professional routine that they don't notice the passing of years until it's too late. One day, they wake up and realize they spent the last 10 or 20 years at a job they hate or don't feel any passion for.

It is better to look ahead with foresight, than to look back with regret.

The thing with many people at level 6 is that unfortunately, they have stopped their personal growth. The only thing growing is their bank account.

These folks definitely need help. If the help doesn't come from a friend or relative or colleague who cares enough to ask a blunt question ("What are you trying to achieve in life?"), then it will come from Life itself. For instance, one day, something major will happen -- the death of a loved one, an accident, a medical diagnosis, etc. That's when the person realizes that there is one truth that permeates all of life, one truth that human beings should keep in mind even though it's not a pleasant truth:

Life ends.

The above statement is deceptively simple. It has a simple subject and a simple verb. Yet, anyone who remembers that truth will always live every moment fully, and will always seek to have the best in life. He/she will not just do everything to avoid losing, he/she will ALSO do everything it takes to win.

Ultimately, life is short. It should be sweet!

Yet life is only sweet for those who dared to think big and dream big. Indeed, the best in life is reserved for those who have decided, once and for all, that they will not settle for anything but the very best.

Your knowledge is your economic salvation

Summary:

Your knowledge is your economic salvation. Focus on developing it, and you will achieve financial freedom.

Details:

Below is an email I sent to friends over three years ago. I talked about how a person should focus on developing valuable knowledge that he/she could sell via the Web. Today, there are free applications like Mediamax, where you can get for FREE 25 Gigabytes of online storage space. There's also Payloadz, for getting paid for your digital content.

The problem, of course, is the same as when Gutenberg first invented the printing press: people have the POWER to disseminate knowledge, but do they really have VALUABLE knowledge to disseminate in the first place?

Indeed, one of the BIG reasons why you have to work every day to make someone else richer, is that you haven't clarified what it is that you know best which could be productively or profitably applied to improve the quality of life of someone else.

In short, what you know is not useful to others. If it were useful, they would buy it from you (in which case you would be a consultant delivering your knowledge via a personal service, or an author delivering your knowledge via a non-personal media such as a book, an audiobook, a video presentation online, a DVD, etc.

To be more accurate, what you know is probably useful to other people, but the problem is that your knowledge is NOT in a form or format that others can EASILY and CONVENIENTLY USE (e.g. book, audiotape, etc.).

Of course, it's possible also that a person's knowledge is so little or of such low quality or accuracy that it is useless to other people. People who read fiction, for instance, cannot realistically expect their market value to increase, since fiction is, well, not true!

Reading fiction and expecting to become financially free one day, is like eating ice cream and expecting to win the gold medal at the Olympics!

Let's assume that a person is serious about becoming successful in life. She starts to read a lot of books. She reads the usual suspects, like Brian Tracy, Stephen Covey, Anthony Robbins, etc. After she is done reading 200 books, does that mean she is better off in life?

Not necessarily. It's not enough to have a lot of knowledge in one's head. It's critical to also be able to apply them and implement them in real life. This requires that the person put herself in situations where she will be DRIVEN to use her knowledge. That is, in situations where she MUST make decisions within a reasonable time frame.

Here's an analogy so you understand the distinction between "knowing the path" and "walking the path."

After tons of martial arts programs have been directly downloaded into his brain via a neuro-port behind his head, Neo (in the movie The Matrix) finally opens his eyes and says: "I know kung fu."

His mentor leans over and says: "Show me."

The "show me" part (or "prove it to me") is the knowledge application part. It is the true test of whether you really know and master a subject.

The person who reads 50 books, and is applying the knowledge content of one book, is in the same situation as the person who reads one book and is applying the knowledge of that book. Of course, the second person gets a better return on (time) investment since she did not spend time reading the 49 other books!

That is, her return on investment is 100%, whereas for the other person, the ROI is more like 2% (1/50).

Another analogy to illustrate the critical difference between theoretical "knowledge" and practical "competency" is that of learning a foreign language.You may have attended all classes, learned a great deal of vocabulary and understood the grammatical rules. But until you find yourself in a REAL conversation with another person who is a native speaker, you cannot "perform." In other words, there's knowledge acquisition and there's knowledge performance.

(Actually, it's a little more complicated, since there are many "steps", from information to instruction to integration to implementation to inspection. I will write more about this later).

Knowledge performance -- such as teaching, training, writing, etc. -- is where money is made.

Knowledge acquisition is where money is lost (that is, you have to pay for tuition, or you have to pay for a consultant or trainer to teach you).

The success secret is to learn as fast as possible, so you can get to the "knowledge performance" part, where you make easy money.

Look, even Donald Trump is now going into the business education industry!

Wealth in the new economy comes not from physical things, but from instructional things.

Mon, 23 Feb 2004 13:43:07 -0800 (PST)
From: Peter Nguyen
Subject: Sex management
To: Friends

Note: Important email. May I respectfully suggest you print it out, and read it carefully. Your future is in it.

--

Ah, these management people!

One day, they might find out that sex improves productivity at work, and is the basis for building a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Immediately, all sorts of self-proclaimed "gurus" would coin the word "sex management" and tons of books would be dedicated to it -- a new field of managerial expertise.

This is why "knowledge management" is so misunderstood today.

Knowledge, and how you create, manage, use, leverage, capitalize on it, is the ONLY hope for people to create better careers, multiply cashflows (yes, absolutely: a person can have a full-time job, and also manage a few other websites or audiosites, and earn significant money "on the side"), live more fully, interact with new people, make new friends.

The reason I decided to start giving free seminars on knowledge management, every Wednesday, is that I want to share my first-person research findings (experiments I performed on my own brain) as well as tons of research materials that could make a difference in a person's career or business.

(A career is just a stationary business, and a business is a fast-moving career).

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?

Why should you spend one hour, Wednesday, to hear me babble about knowledge management?

Because I'm an undercover federal officer (UFO) working for a secret, highly funded government agency, whose aim is to leverage kwowledge capital and maximize the strategic advantage of all Canadian citizens, so that together, as a "team", we can compete more effectively among G7 players.

Just kidding. Too much coffee.

You should come to this KM seminar because your future is at stake. Oh, I'm not saying you wont' find a job or earn a good living.

I'm just saying that the best salary, in the future, is free time.

A guy on his deathbed rarely wished he could have more money or a higher return on his investment. He probably wished he had more time to live.

This is ultimately my goal, through the seminar: to inform you of the latest research in human
performance, learning, training, KM, etc. so that you can FREE yourself. How?

- by being so good at what you do, that employers will agree to let you work from anywhere (like John Cage, of Sun Microsystems)

- by packaging (in CD-ROM, DVD, paper, mind map format, etc.) your hard-earned know-how and selling it to millions of people, who wish they knew what it is that you know (search for "robert allen" on the Net for more information). By making yourself into a "product", you can free yourself, and let other people "market" your product.

- by creating expert systems, on the Web, which capture everything you know or master, so that you can consult for clients, via Internet telephony, from anywhere on the planet

Story: When I was 19, I worked as data entry clerk for the Centre d'education des adultes. I programmed a macro that could automate lots of data entry activities. But I didn't tell my boss about it. Just asked her, "Rosalie, if I could finish the 50 cards (which was the daily average or quota), can I go home afterwards?" She said "yes." So every day, I finished by lunch time, and had the afternoon off!

Same thing at a law firm I used to work for. I created macros that DID MY JOB! I was proofreader, but the computer could more easily detect mistakes than I did.

I had a LOT OF FREE TIME, sitting in that nice office in downtown, daydreaming, while the computer worked for me.

That's not how it works in today's workplace. You finish your work? No problem. They'll give you MORE work. Result: everybody's trying to "stretch" their work so as to finish by 5 PM.
(Believe it or not, some people will purposely leave a stack of "dossiers" on their desk, to "signal" to the boss that they have plenty of work, thank you very much).

Work doesn't pay. The more you work, the more work they give you. Result: People work JUST enough to avoid being laid off, and employers pay JUST enough to prevent workers from quitting (for a better-paying job).

Nobody cares about becoming the best. It's "just a job."

This is why the country is becoming dumber and dumber. Don't believe me?

KPMG recently released a report saying that Canadian workers are the cheapest!
Labour here is so cheap, they say.

If that were not enough, the government is taxing us and misspending our money (federal sponsorship scandals).

Apparently, there's a guy who's paid $100 million for carrying a check, from a federal office to a
communications firm. I would love to get his job.

CONCRETELY SPEAKING

I began to create a form of 3 pages, that seminar participants can fill out. Based on your answers, I can give you a diagnostic on how well you manage your knowledge. SEE BELOW.
In the same way that every professional could use a financial planner, we all could use a personal intellectual capital planner and strategist (yes, that would be me).

Anyways, call me and let's get together for the next KM seminar. Tons of stuff I need to share with you, you will not believe it!

I'm selling these consulting sessions to corporate employees for $100 (but HR pays for it), but you get it for free! Places limited, call me today! (514) 931-7879
===

File: KM services - client profile

KNOWLEDGE INPUT
at work
at home
while networking
magazine
newspaper
technical publication
white paper

KNOWLEDGE PROCESS
how do you add value at work
which tool
which methodology
which teamwork
which individual work
workstation
software used
_ MS Project
_ PowerPoint
_ Excel
_ Access
_ Visio
_ CAD
_ QuarkXPress
_ Photoshop
_ Illustrator

KNOWLEDGE OUTPUT
report
proposal
procedure
memo
plan
book
intranet document
methodology
advertisement (copy)
graphic design piece
blog
white paper
article
press release
flowchart
ISO document
do you have a personal intranet
how many contacts do you have
education
training on the job
employers to date
writing capability
French, English?
public speaking
seminar leading

knowledge of KM
_ none
_ beginner
_ intermediate
_ advanced

Palm
_ memo
_ agenda
_ other : _____________

laptop

Internet
_ regular
_ high-speed

personal website
belong to professional association
coaching experience

If invited to speak for one hour on your profession,
you can do it
_ easily
_ with 5 days preparation
_ you can't do it

File: KM services - client profile 3

the best thing you learned which significantly increased your earnings
your learning style
_ reading
_ interacting with people
_ seminars
_ coaching
_ e-learning

Familiar with:
_ K curve
_ CIA techniques of collecting, analyzing information
_ memory techniques (e.g. Harry Lorraine)
_ mind mapping (Tony Buzan)
_ speedreading techniques
what is the most important knowledge you have, which
your employer values
what is the best skill you have, which your employer
values and pays for
in your opinion, what are your knowledge gaps
Your action gaps?
do you have a strategic plan for developing your
career?
belong to a mastermind association
headhunter
placement agency
strategy for job hunting
read
_ fiction mostly
_ non-fiction mostly
_ psychology
_ business / management
_ marketing / sales
_ technologies
_ investment

house or appartment

car value:
_ 10K
_ 10-20K
_ 20K +

If knowledge is power...

Knowledge is power, therefore he who controls knowledge controls power.

The above picture shows the many levels of knowledge. At each level, there is a fair amount of "misknowledge," that is, "what you think is true yet is NOT true."

Why would people think that something is true when it is not true?

That's because other people have agendas of their own, and want to control your mind and your decision-making process.

In a dictatorship or Communist state, force is the law. The state police can knock on your door in the middle of the night, and drag you out and bring you to prison without any explanation.

In our democratic society, no government can do that. However, the coercion or the oppression is subtler. Force may not be the law, but knowledge is.

Society (mass institutions, the ruling elite, etc.) controls your mind by using subtle levers buried deep inside your psyche. The system is so sophisticated and refined that most people don't even realize they are being manipulated on a daily basis.

The late John K. Galbraith, in his little book titled The Economics of Innocent Fraud, refers to this as "managed public response."

The only way for people to regain control of their mind and their thinking processes, is to critically re-examine HOW they are thinking and the very sources of information on which they rely.

The following are sources of "misinformation": job boards, the news media, magazines. They may have some good information, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

All information coming your way can be treated as a piece of "advice."

A general rule of thumb that I follow is to examine the "agenda" before I even consider the "advice."

If your parents are giving you advice, you can usually assume their agenda is the same as yours. They have your best interests and happiness at heart.

The next step is to rationally examine the validity and quality of their advice, keeping in mind that they grew up in a different time period and, therefore, things might have changed completely so that their advice might no longer be relevant.

In the end, if knowledge is power (and I believe so), then success comes when you develop a way to systematically VERIFY all the information that comes your way, whether from magazines, books, other people, TV, etc.

Most people don't verify the information that comes their way. It's not because they are lazy, it's only because nobody has ever taught them HOW to do a proper knowledge verification.

Billionaire Charlie Munger has created a powerful concept called "lattice of mental models," a sort of constellation of interlinked concepts that allows him to rigorously verify the validity of new information and to integrate new knowledge into his way of thinking.

Because most people lack this kind of rigorous system, they rely on emotion to make decisions. This is where people run into trouble. When fear and greed control the decision-making process, nothing good can come out of it.

The success secret is really to search for knowledge while developing a system to verify the information coming your way. The information that a person should look for is the kind that is important, and that can be known.

Indeed, there is a HUGE amount of information that is:

• important, but cannot be known (winning lottery numbers!)
• not important, but can be known (news from CNN, etc.)
• not important, and cannot be known (what will happen to you in three years -- don't listen to fortune tellers!)

The information that is IMPORTANT and CAN BE KNOWN usually comes from non-fiction books. Therefore, the "rate of empowerment" can be easily calculated from the number of non-fiction books that a person reads.

If Person A reads 3 books per week, and Person B reads 1 book every two weeks, then the rate of empowerment of Person A is 6 times that of Person B.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there, because Person B also reads fiction and lifestyle magazines and gossips quite a bit on the cell phone. In other words, a lot of misknowledge and deception gets into the mind of Person B.

What about Person A? Since she's keenly interested in personal development, it is likely that she's also going to workshops and getting involved in career activities or business associations to increase her knowledge. Therefore, her rate of empowerment is probably more than 6 times that of Person B.

In as little as six months, Person A can jump way ahead of Person B, and can have knowledge that allows her to make better and better decisions in her personal and professional lives.

Person B, unfortunately, is still struggling, trapped in a web of deception and misknowledge. As a result, her life doesn't seem to improve and she keeps making the same mistakes over and over again -- but in different areas of her life.

There are basically two steps if you want to engage on the path of knowledge.

First, you have to identify the BAD sources of information and kill them. You have to identify the BAD knowledge that you have in your head, and get rid of it. These are called bad "BRIQS" (as in bricks), and the acronym stands for Beliefs, References, Important Values, Questions and States. I will write more about them.

Second, you have to proactively and aggressively seek the GOOD information and knowledge in books, experts, coaches, trainers, associations, schools, etc.

The first step helps you to AVOID being a loser, whereas the second step helps you to BECOME a winner.

"work" vs "Work"

The distinction between "work" and "Work" is huge, yet it is missed by most people.

John K. Galbraith, the late famous economist, wrote in his little book The Economics of Innocent Fraud that it is a pity that the word "work" is so ambiguous. He bemoaned the fact that it refers both to the brutish, manual and repetitive work of a janitor as well as to the exquisite, masterful and fulfilling performance of a top surgeon.

The surgeon obviously gets a higher salary, but he also gets what the janitor does not: psychic income. That is, he feels psychologically fulfilled because his work requires talent AND is meaningful at the personal level.

In my Ideal Career workshop, I insist on the fact that today, ALL of us can find "Work" and not just "work."

"Work" is what you were born to do. It has to do with your natural talent and your natural love of something (i.e. your passion).

On the other hand, "work" is just a job to pay the bills. It doesn't mean that "work" should be boring or not enjoyable. You can be very good at your job, and enjoy doing it, and STILL feel that ít is not what you were born to do.

Many young people (in their late teen years or early 20s) ask me for career advice.

I often advise them to pick up marketable skills so that they can get a job. A job allows you to be financially responsible and to pay for your living costs.

The good news is that marketable skills are not hard to pick up: punctuality, reliability, people skills, communication skills (written and oral), work ethic, etc.

These skills, once habitualized, make you a better person.

Then, after you take care of your "financial survival", you can then search for your "Work."

This "Work" has four major dimensions: passion, talent, need and meaning.

Every great career in the history of mankind has included these four dimensions. Oprah, Bill Gates, Pope John Paul II, Peter Drucker, Joseph Campbell, etc. have had or still have a great career that includes their passion, their talent, a real need in the world, and meaning.

I should add that "Work" is not something you need. A job ("work") is what you need. "Work" is what you WANT.

In fact, you can live an "okay" life without "Work."

A G.O.O.D. job is all you need (Get Out Of Debt).

But if you want the ultimate in life, if you believe you are "worth it," then you have to search for your "Work."

An ideal career is when you get the chance to do your "Work" every day and get paid fairly for it.

There are many reasons why people are seduced into doing "work" all their lives, without being given the opportunity to find their "Work."

One reason is that sometimes, the "work" pays so well that it seems to shut people's minds to other possibilities in life.

They might think: "Look, Peter, I have a good, well-paying job. I'm saving money for my retirement. I get to travel once in a while. I have a good life, why do I need to search for my ideal career or my "Work"?"

I would answer that in searching for your "Work", you will be engaged in a mysterious process that allows you to find yourself. Your true self.

In the end, your "work" is about what you do, whereas your "Work" is about who you are.

How the Internet can make you rich

Technically, the Internet is a network of networks. It basically links millions of personal computers into a global web of communications.

However, the above definition is commercially useless.

Instead, it's much more profitable -- and instructional -- to think of the Internet as your DIRECT CONNECTION TO SOMEONE'S BRAIN.

That's right: whatever I'm currently typing on my keyboard will have a direct chemical impact on certain neural connections in your brain as you read these lines.

If that's not power, I don't know what is!

It's as if the Internet allowed you to whisper something into the ears of MILLIONS of people.

Of course, WHAT you whisper into their ears, and HOW you whisper it, will determine how rich the Internet will make you.

By the way, it's not about selling -- at least, not the traditional type of selling where a representative "pushes" a product or service and tries to "close" the sale through various psycholinguistic techniques.

Sure, there's a bit of selling and even a bit of seduction, but mostly, you will be successful if you teach people something valuable.

People value knowledge because there is so much junk information out there. The only constant in society is deception, so indeed, most of the information around us have a clear agenda and seeks to influence us or sell us something.

The Montreal Gazette, the daily newspaper in my city, for instance has an average of 98,000 words per issue. Yet, 99.999% of those words have absolutely no impact on my education or my bank account or my career.

People are getting smarter and smarter. They want REAL information that will enable them to lead better lives.

Steve Pavlina's website reportedly generates $40,000 per month, and I'm not surprised. People want information that will help their personal development.

So what can YOU do to get rich through the Internet?

Find a way to teach people something valuable. You can set up a blog with texts or audio posts (like www.successsecretsradio.blogspot.com).

You might say that you don't have much material to share with people. Well, it's never too late to start gathering useful knowledge!

As you focus on learning more and more about a particular field you're interested in, you will find that writing about it gets easier and easier. Soon, people will recognize that you are the expert in that field, and many job or business opportunities will suddenly open up to you.

You will feel more valuable, and this will definitely boost your self-confidence so that you feel you can do anything.

The following is really a powerful success secret: by seeking to share valuable knowledge with other people (through a blog, for instance), you WILL be driven to read more books and study them seriously, and THIS process in itself will allow you to tap into intellectual faculties that you never thought you had before.