PayPerPost

I just signed up at http://payperpost.com/blogger_signup.html

Will keep you posted on how it goes.

But if you like to write, this might be a good opportunity for making money.

In any case, the existence of that website is just proof positive that companies today are looking for soft-sell ambassadors to help sell their products. In other words, they're looking for non-sales people to sell their products.

And it's not just companies. I expect future websites to pay bloggers and ambassadors to sell the services of free agents as well as independent consultants. In many ways, these folks need marketing help even more since they tend to be one-person operations without marketing expertise, let alone a marketing budget or plan.

The success secret is that you NEVER lose when you learn to sell other people's products. That's because one day, you will create your own product or service, so it will pay big time to have learned and acquired selling skills.

Gen Y Financial Freedom

If you're a member of Generation Y (aged 18 to 30), I invite you to join a new community I created online where I'll share all the resources and instructional materials for achieving financial freedom.

Instructions for joining at http://genyfinancialfreedom.ning.com (membership is by invitation only).

Two key questions to ask yourself for financial wealth

Powerful advice by Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7gxUZYoCQ0

Second chapter of the book Systematic Wealth

http://www.slideshare.net/superpeter/systematic-wealth-chapter-2

The second chapter of my book Systematic Wealth is now available at the link above.

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to write at omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com

To save you time, you can use this protocol: Just write your question in the subject heading, preceded by an asterisk (*). No need to write anything in the body of the email.

For example:

Subject: * What did you mean by "natural wealth creation system"?

Fill your mind with knowledge and your mind will fill your purse with gold

http://www.slideshare.net/superpeter/do-you-want-to-become-rich

I uploaded a presentation at the link above and slides 28 and 29 are the most important. They reveal a secret that most people don't know. As a result, people spend their entire lives without being guided toward happiness, success and wealth. Check it out!

Free first chapter of my book Systematic Wealth

http://www.slideshare.net/superpeter/systematic-wealth-chapter-1

The first chapter of my book is FREE at the link above. Please follow the instructions (on the last slide) to receive subsequent chapters. Thanks.

Stop surfing, start serving

1. To make money from the Internet, one has to serve others.
2. Unfortunately, most people use the Internet to surf, not serve.
3. Therefore, most people fail to capitalize on the greatest wealth creation opportunity of our times.

When you look at Yahoo!, eBay, Hotmail, Skype, Amazon, Googgle, Youtube, etc. you realize quickly that these folks have found a way to use the Internet to SERVE people. Millions of people.

The founders of Yahoo! in fact have asked themselves a million-dollar (billion-dollar, rather) question: "How can we constructively alter the daily lives of millions of people?"

In that single question, you will find enormous business wisdom for the Internet age.

Applied to a single individual such as yourself, that question might be: "How can I constructively alter the daily lives of millions of people?"

One simple way is to share what you know. You can create a "slidecast", that is, a slideshow with voiceover, at Slideshare.net.

Think of a slidecast as a mini-seminar where you "teach" what you know.

Some people might say, "Well, I don't know enough to teach."

No problem. Then start reading books. Non-fiction, that is.

But chances are, you have ALREADY read many non-fiction books. All you have to do is review those books and start summarizing them into a neat 10-slide PowerPoint presentation which you then upload on Slideshare.net.

The more you summarize books, the more you MASTER their knowledge content.

Most people merely "read" books, then proudly display them on their bookshelf. That is not the profitable way to leverage knowledge.

The profitable way is to read a book, then review it, then summarize it, then share it and teach it and become an EXPERT on it.

Every book is like a little pond or lake. Merely reading it is like tipping your toes into the water, then walking away. I recommend something more profitable: plunge into the lake and start "swimming" in the knowledge environment created by the author. Reverse engineer his brain and acquire his mental reflexes and intellectual sensitivities.

Only after you've done that, will you realize that "knowledge is power."

Just "reading" a book without thoroughly processing it (through summarizing, taking notes, drawing diagrams and mind maps, discussing it, analyzing the key points, etc.) is like putting food into your mouth, and then spitting it out!

A book can only feed your mind and make it more powerful IF and only IF you thoroughly digest and assimilate its content, through conscious and strategic processing of its content.

The secret of prolific and best-selling authors

Here's a concept most people might not have thought about: No human being, not even Ernest Hemingway or Victor Hugo, has ever written a book.

All authors, no matter how inspired they are or talented, started with ONE sentence. Indeed, writers write sentences. They don't write "books."

Over time (and a lot of black coffee and white nights), those sentences are made to work and stick together into paragraphs. Next, the paragraphs are made to work together and become chapters. Finally, the chapters are put together and, voila, the intellectually exhausted author now has a book.

Of course, this is not the end of the story since the book will probably be rejected (politely, one hopes) by a few hundred publishers before a crazy publisher decides to take the risk.

And it goes without saying that not all authors become billionaires like J.K. Rowling.

But my point is that a book can only be written one sentence at a time.

This is something that the late prolific writer Isaac Asimov has thoroughly understood and even mastered. In his lifetime, he wrote about 300 books (both fiction and non-fiction).

His secret was that he used a typewriter (not a word processor or PC). This drove him to write and write and write. He would only edit at the very end. In fact, he mentioned that he wrote as simply and as clearly as he spoke. This is why his prose is so clear.

My point is that no matter what you plan to do, the first step is probably 50% of the effort overall.

And the mysterious thing is that once you start a project -- one that you are truly excited about -- all kinds of coincidences and resources and encounters enter your life to help you along the way.

But you must NOT stop. Once you do stop, it's over. The momentum is dead. Your project will fail.

Entrepreneurs will often face obstacles, but they must not stop. One way to make sure you do not stop, is to pay someone to monitor your output. For instance, you can give a friend $500 and tell her that you commit to producing a certain document every Monday for the next 10 weeks, and email it to her. It could be 5 pages of your 50-page business plan, or a plan, or a procedure, etc.

If you miss your deadline one Monday, then your friend gets to keep $50. This will be easy money for your friend! And it will be "punishment" for you for not keeping your commitment.

This may sound like a strange ploy, but trust me, it works. If a person is not willing to put out $500 to stay on course for the next 10 weeks, he/she simple is not serious about a project or startup. Whether you decide to go with this ploy or not, it will give you an idea of how committed you are, as well as how confident you are in your own self-discipline.

Without self-discipline, one cannot succeed.

Efficient processing of requests

I created the following "codes" so I can more rapidly process requests from hundreds of connections and subscribers. Please feel free to use them. Just put the code (e.g. "001") in the subject heading of your email. No need to write anything in the body of the email. Thanks.

001 Please send me information on all your current business / affiliate opportunities

002 Please send me detailed information on your coaching and consulting services, along with case studies and success stories

003 Please send me the business books that you recommend, so I can learn more about financial freedom

004 Please send me a list of all your blogs so I can check them out

005 Please send me a list of all volunteering and internship opportunities at your various business and social organizations

006 Please send me a list of all your e-products for sale on the Web

007 Please send me the list of topics and subjects on which you are an expert, in case I wish to retain your services for an hour or more, as a coach or consultant

008 Please send me the procedure to follow for introducing ICF at my workplace. I understand that ICF fees (workshop and consulting) will be paid by HR at my company and that as an employee, I will not have to pay anything

009 Please send me the procedure to follow for introducing BMW at my workplace. I understand that BMW fees (workshop and consulting) will be paid by my employer and that as an employee, I will not have to pay anything

010 Please send me information on how I can become a presenter of information sessions for your various workshops, books and digitized products (DVDs, subscriptions to SaaS (software as a service), etc.)

Preview of the book Systematic Wealth

http://www.slideshare.net/superpeter/preview-of-systematic-wealth
You can read a free sample preview of my book Systematic Wealth at the link above!

3 reasons why people fail in life

1. They don't know the rules for success

2. They know the rules for success, but they don't know how to apply them properly to their own situation in a timely fashion

3. They don't believe there are rules for success, so they wing it every single time. They "go with the flow" without realizing that the flow rarely goes in the direction of their dream. Or they "take it one day at a time" without having a plan or a system for ensuring effective performance at whatever it is that they are doing.

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm trying to move from "sharing the rules of success with readers" to "training readers to apply the rules of success properly."

In other words, in the last two years, I've been trying to help people in category 1 above. Now, I'd like to help people who are "stuck" in category 2. (As for people in category 3, I can't be of much help, unless they move into category 1!).

If you print out this entire blog, and study it, it's a fair bet that you can learn a great deal about the rules of success. In any case, I'm planning to summarize all of the 606 posts into a neat, elegant 20-page document. Probably ready in about three weeks.

In order to "train readers to apply the rules of success properly," I will need to interact with you quite often, since feedback is key to correction and improvement.

I will explain more about this program shortly.

How can I help you?

If you've subscribed to this blog, I assume you're getting (sometimes) good ideas and insights from my writings.

But I'm always wondering, "How can I be MORE useful to my loyal readers?"

Specifically, how can I be more useful to YOU? (Yes, you, sitting right there in front of the computer screen and reading these words written by somebody who cares about your success in this life!). :-)

One way would be for you to ask me questions on any of the 606 posts I've written so far (1,000 more to come!). In fact, by asking me to clarify a point I made or an idea I shared, you would help the other hundreds of readers. Indeed, if a post wasn't clear to you, you can bet that it probably also wasn't clear to other people.

You can ask me any question, don't be shy. Here are samples of questions to ask me:

- "Peter, in the post titled _______________ , you mentioned the idea of ____________. Can you explain it further?"

- "Peter, I'm currently in this situation where I ___________________. How would you suggest that I proceed to solve this problem?"

- "Peter, I'm a young beautiful woman of fertile age and I am quite impressed by how brilliant and charismatic you are. When can we get together and discuss matrimonial possibilities?"

Well, okay, maybe not that last question (call me).

Several readers have in fact asked me questions, and I found that by answering them, I was inspired to create more knowledge. So thank you to all of you inquisitive readers!

The above is not just a standalone effort to be more useful to you. I'm trying to create a platform, based on the knowledge created so far on this blog, that would allow me and all future certified consultants and coaches to help people by sharing success secrets AND by making sure that they do apply those success secrets properly in order to succeed in life.

Indeed, there are three main reasons why people fail in life. I will discuss them in the next post.

"Talk" vs "'Work" Internet technologies

If India has been successful in leveraging the Internet to get jobs in other countries, it's because they have understood something that few people have understood: the Internet can be used as a "talk" medium or as a "work" environment.

The key to getting rich in the Internet era is to learn to use the Web as a "work" tool, not only as a "talk" tool.

Sure, talking is important when building a new relationship, whether it's for career purposes or business purposes. But eventually, somebody has to get down to the "work" part, where value is created. Indeed, if no value is created, no money will come.

Millions of bloggers have failed to realize that important point: they talk and talk and talk (or write, rather). But there is no value created. Most bloggers eventually give up after a dozen posts.

Those who make money actually use blogging as a way to work. www.mayitpleasethecourt.com, www.mobiletracker.net and www.stevepavlina.com are just a few examples.

I would even go further: the Work/Talk ratio in your life is a good indication of how fast you will become rich (or how difficult it will be for you to become rich).

For instance, if you work (i.e. create value) 35 hours a week, then that's how fast you will build wealth.

The key is to turn your "talk" time into "work" time, and the best way is to hang around or talk to people who can teach you valuable skills or attitudes or insights.

This is not easy because we live in a consumerist culture, where the default activity is to "consume" information, goods, services, etc. We are culturally condictioned to be passive consumers: kids sit obediently at school consuming whatever the teacher is providing; people go home from work and sit quietly on the couch consuming whatever is on TV; even people at work sit at their cubicle and consume whatever appears in their email inbox.

So there will be challenges to a person who's trying to move from a by-default mindset of consumerism to a by-design mindset of producerism.

Producerism is a new word I coined to refer to the reflex or philosophy of trying to create as much value as possible, as often as possible, for as many people as possible, with as much enjoyment as possible, using as much of what already exists as possible, leveraging as many of one's talents and skills and natural strengths as possible, as soon as possible and as surely as possible.

This is not hard when you consider the fact, as Einstein said, that most people only use 5 % of their available intellectual faculties.

Concretely, this means that if you're currently making $50,000, you could making 20 times that amount.

The key is to switch from a "talk" mentality (which is, alas, all too common in our "cell phone" culture where people talk and talk and talk without creating any value) to a "work" mentality.

Join me and start to build your wealth too

Dear subscribers,

I've been writing this blog for about two years, with over 600 posts written so far. I hope the ideas and information have been of use to you, or have provoked some clarifying thought.

About half a dozen people have joined me now, in a contractual or associate capacity. I'm always looking for high-quality people to join my various business organizations, which can operate in any English- or French-speaking country in the world.

I mention this because I'm on the verge of creating IMMENSE wealth, and I would like you to benefit. This wealth is due partly to the original and proprietary (copyrighted) instructional materials I've created to help people launch their ideal career or startup business, but also to a new array of cyber-based products that can be exported easily to any country via Internet. Since these products can be marketed automatically via pre-programmed autonomous commercialization systems, I expect to become extremely rich very soon.

If you look at the 500 million people in India who are under 25 years of age, you can begin to appreciate the enormity of the business opportunity I am contemplating.

I will need a lot of reliable and trustworthy managers and entrepreneurs to run my various business units. If you are interested in learning about business and build your own wealth in order to achieve financial independence, please contact me asap to receive further instructions.

My standards are exceptionally high, so if you think you have what it takes in terms of proactiveness, professionalism, leadership and an unbeatable attitude, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks.

Peter

Society teaches poverty -- relentlessly

Society is ruled by, and actually IS, a group of mass institutions such as the news media, the government, the educational system, the advertising machinery, etc.

Mass institutions, by definition, manage masses of people. They are programmed to treat and "process" people efficiently, and this therefore requires that they quickly put people into categories for swift bureaucratic processing.

In short, society treats people like numbers. As a citizen and consumer, you are not special. You are just like everybody else. This is the message that society sends to all citizen and consumers on a daily basis.

Because people actually believe this -- that they are NOT special and are more or less like everybody else -- they begin to think like everybody else. Worse yet, they stop thinking and just follow the herd.

This is why it's not very difficult to surpass most people. To the extent that you realize how society is manipulating your mind to think like the masses, you can detach yourself from the herd and begin an exceptional life.

Indeed, it is easy to create wealth and become rich once you start thinking originally. Edward de Bono has been teaching systematic creativity for the last 3 decades. All you have to do is read his books, in particular the Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking.

It is not possible to create wealth without thinking. Since the majority of people do not really think, it is fairly easy for you to surpass them and create value that they never thought of creating.

My assertion that most people are not thinking, might sound insulting to some. Yet it is true and I can prove it. Just review mentally the last few conversations you've had with people, and try to come up with an idea that someone uttered that was original. Or try to remember a conclusion that somebody shared with you that you thought was insightful.

You'll soon realize that most people are not thinking. They are merely repeating someone else's opinion. Or they are merely expressing how they feel in a particular moment. Or they are just expressing an arbitrary point of view or a comment on an item recently in the news.

This is not because people are stupid. It's simply because society creates a dumb environment. There's nothing really new in the news. Magazines and newspapers also do not offer any real knowledge. It's just spin upon spin, clever PR and endless self-congratulatory corporate rants.

Indeed, society teaches poverty. The more you watch the news, the more you consume popular media, the more you surf the Internet -- the poorer you become intellectually. Eventually, you become INCAPABLE of uttering an original thought. This, in turn, severely cripples your ability to voice new ideas, create new value and build new wealth.

The success secret is to stop watching TV and to stop blindly consuming any media that does not offer any valuable knowledge. Without knowledge, you cannot think productively. Without thinking productively, you cannot create wealth. As a result, you will be forced to work like a slave for someone else for the rest of your life.

Since society (advertising, educational system, cultural and news media, etc.) only teaches poverty, it is up to every individual to teach himself / herself how to create wealth.

The first step toward wealth is to stop reading fiction, and start reading non-fiction.

Only by reading non-fiction can you begin to empower your mind.

As Brian Tracy wrote, "Pour knowlede into your mind, and your mind will pour gold into your purse."

Global community for career women launched

I created a special network worldwide to provide the best learning, training and self-coaching solutions for women who want to succeed in their chosen career or startup business.

If you wish to join and receive free support, please visit http://talentelle.ning.com and enter your name and email address.

Welcome to your Dream Career!

(If you are a gentleman, please forward this information to your lady friends!).

People must choose: consumerism or capitalism

Consumerism leads to debt, capitalism leads to wealth.

It's really that simple. University graduates in the U.S. owe, on average, $2,000 from their credit card. That's just the beginning. People get more and more into debt as they "progress" through life.

Why? It's mostly a lack of self-control. But it's also because the system is so powerful that it can easily overpower (seduce, persuade, convince) average people.

But first, let's examine consumerism vs capitalism. The insight is this: the more you consume, the less you capitalize. For example, if you spend $20,000 on a car, then that's $20,000 that will never work for you. If you took that $20,000 from your bank account, then you have effectively "decapitalized" it. That is, you have eliminated its capacity to work for you.

Any item that you buy for personal consumption will make you lose money FOREVER. Remember Warren Buffett's first rule of investment: Never lose money. (His second rule: See Rule #1).

For you to recuperate the money that you spent buying a car or any consumer item, you would have to resell the car or the item. It's not easy. Even if you did resell it, you will only get a small fraction of the original amount of money you spent.

Capitalism is quite different. It's about putting your money to work. It's about making sure that you NEVER lose your money, and that you actually earn a satisfactory return. The simplest example is putting money in a bank: you have "security of capital," and you earn a small percentage in interest.

The truth of the matter is this: Society makes it easy for you to do the wrong thing, and makes it difficult for you to do the right thing. The wrong thing to do is buy stuff, even with money you don't have (credit card, etc.) and that you actually have not yet earned! This is like trying to get the reward before you work hard to deserve it.

The right thing to do is invest your money into as many investment vehicles as possible. By "investment vehicle," I mean money machines. The most powerful and prolific money-producing machine known to man is your mind.

As the saying goes, "Pour knowledge into your mind, and your mind will pour gold into your purse."

In the end, people usually choose either one of two paths: consumerism, or capitalism. These two paths are highly addictive. Once you start, it's hard to stop. This is why "the rich get richer, the poor get poorer."

The rich simply chose the path of capitalism (that is, they are extra careful WHERE they put their money, and they make sure they NEVER lose their money). The poor don't care where their money goes: they tend to indulge in instant gratification.

The rich use every single dollar they have as a soldier whom they send into battle to bring back MORE money. The poor easily and often mindlessly give up money in return for material things to indulge their senses or give them a temporarily pleasant experience.

What is your Value Creation Cycle?

Examining carefully your Value Creation Cycle will give you an idea of how productive you are. By extension, it will also give you an idea of how rich you can become.

But what is a VCC?

It's made up of three important quantities: How much value do you create? How soon does the client benefit from it? How sure is the process by which you create and deliver (or help the client extract) such value?

In short: How much? How soon? How sure?

As you might have guessed, rich people have MASTERED -- and I mean, TOTALLY MASTERED! -- the art of preemptively, programmatically controlling those three important indicators of wealth creation.

That is, they know that to get rich, a person has to create MAXIMUM VALUE, in the SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME, and with the GREATEST (STATISTICAL) RELIABILITY.

Think for instance about how Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, Hotmail, Microsoft, SAP, Dell, Youtube, Google, etc. became multibillion-dollar corporation. Specifically, think about how much value they produce; how soon they deliver the value to their clients; and how sure or reliable is the process used to create and deliver customer value.

I'll stop here because I think that the above contains a great number of wealth secrets, but you will only understand them fully if you think about these three powerful indicators of wealth: how much, how soon and how sure.

Wealtion creation is a scientific process

In this reply to someone on Linkedin who seems to link religious values to wealth, I tried to explain that wealth creation is scientific and that mixing religious beliefs with it will only muddle one's thinking and interfere with one's getting rich.

---

Hi,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I agree that giving to others is key to happiness. In fact, it's impossible to give without receiving. There's a saying I like: "You can never outgive the universe." In other words, whatever a person gives to others, he/she will receive in return many times over.

However, I don't think that pursuing wealth has much to do with one's religious beliefs or cultural / personal values. I see wealth creation as a very scientific process: some know it, others don't. There are all kinds of millionaires: Muslim, Christian, atheist, etc. This is proof that getting rich is a question of knowing how to, not a question of what one believes. Of course, self-belief (self-confidence, etc.) is important, but this is very different from religious beliefs or ethno-cultural beliefs.

I believe in God myself, but I also believe he gave me vast intellectual faculties (which I've yet to develop to their full potential) so that I can become as wealthy as possible. It's unfortunate that the book The Science of Getting Rich has a title that sounds like it's focusing on money. It does not. It focuses more on how to use one's imagination (which Einstein said was more important than intelligence) to create more value. The money comes naturally as a result. This, in fact, is the "scientific" principle of Wattles: the more value you produce, the more money you will receive. He even precisely defines "value" as the "use value," 
that is, value as determined by the client, NOT the provider. This is the most rational economic principle I've come across. I call it "infinite economic justice."

Cheers,
Peter

Why people are poor? Mental traps set up by the elite

I wrote this question on Linkedin and one response was interesting. My comments following the answer from Bart Leahy will illustrate some reasons why I think most people are poor: because they WANT to stay poor! (However, they have been tricked into thinking a certain way by the elite).

QUESTION: Have you read the mysterious yet powerful book called The Science of Getting Rich? It's a free ebook on the Web. If you read it, what did you think of it?

Note: The book was written by Wallace Wattles. Bob Proctor, the renowned wealth coach, says he's been studying it since 1968, when he first came across it. I stumbled upon it two years ago, and I am still reading it because it contains mysterious yet (or so it feels to me) powerful principles. Wattles is not exactly talking about a science the way we understand it in the West, but a more mystical sort where you bypass the traditional "scientific method" and imagine the final outcome, by using nothing than sheer strength of mind and sincerity of heart. I'm interested in people's opinion because I'm trying to translate this "science" into a technology that would allow people to systematically create wealth. It is fascinating how he mentioned, over 100 years ago, that the way to create wealth won't come from production, as did Rockerfeller and Carnegie, but from "distribution." Assuming that the Internet and FedEx can handle worldwide distribution, is it possible that the only thing that separates people from wealth is a misunderstanding, perhaps culturally inculcated, about the process of creating wealth?

Clarification added 2 days ago:

Eric, to answer your question as to why I recommend the book (which is free on Wikipedia and quite a short read) and what sets it apart from other books, I would say that it talks about a science that could help serious seekers of wealth. This mysterious science is quite UNLIKE the scientific method that we, in the West, have adopted and keep practicing. That is, we use the Socratic method of trying to discover what is false or what is wrong, and we try to correct it or remove the cause of error. In short, we always focus on the negative. Wattles says that by focusing on the super positive, that is, what you really want in life, you can get it faster, sooner (as opposed to people who never realize their dreams at all). Here's my ultimate interpretation of what he's saying: Your world is shaped by your thoughts. But what exactly is shaping your thoughts? Until you know the answer to that, you are not in control of your world, for the simple reason that you are not in control of your thoughts. Most people, in fact, are not in control of their thoughts. As a result, they are not creating anything new. Consequently, not creating anything new means not creating any value or wealth. Therefore, being uncreative, they have to compete against everybody else in a limited-money world. He provides a (very summary) theoretical framework for moving your mindset from a limited world to a world of unlimited wealth (the only limit being your imagination). I've read over 800 books on management, business, philosophy, psychology, and other such non-fiction books including, yikes, all the personal development authors like Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, etc. What sets The Science of Getting Rich apart from all those books is that it seems every sentence contains far more knowledge that I can extract or decode in one sitting. Every time I read the book, I understand something further. It stimulates my imagination like no other book.

ANSWER (from Bart Leahy):

I browsed through the Wiki pages. This reads a lot like "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne, which espouses similar principles: to be rich, think rich; control your thoughts; express gratitude; expect that you deserve to be wealthy, etc.

Wattles seems to be a little more advanced than Byrne, who says the same thing over and over again with very little new to add. I have no objection to wealth. I plan to get wealthy myself at some point in my life. To me, there's not much mysterious about it except to do what you love to do, and believe in your abilities and that, given enough striving, the money will come.

I follow the American Protestant work ethic, which includes the need for humility, good works, a firm understanding that all gifts come from God, as well as an acceptance of the fact that "you can't take it with you" when you die. I am a Lutheran, and so cannot speak to the animism of Wattles or the free-floating me-centricity of Byrne. Nevertheless, the new "gospels of wealth" bother me. Many of the books I've seen are very much self-centered justifications for individuals to pursue whatever they want as long as they get what they consider "theirs."

Regardless of what one thinks about figures like Carnegie, Rockefeller, or Ford (or their descendants), each of them took thought to endowing their nation with charitable gifts, libraries, and foundations for the furthering of good works. I see very little of that joyful giving in these books and too often a desperate grasping for more things to please the SELF.

To round off my philosophical take here, I'll just remind any reader that the Bible did not say "Money is the root of all evil," but "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil." I take this to mean that if all of your energies are bent toward obtaining things that satisfy your physical needs and desires here on Earth, there's little energy left for meeting the needs of others. If more individuals were instilled with this sort of ethic--the value of joyful giving--there would be less need for government to confiscate and redistribute wealth to others for us.

===

I agree with Bart that we have to be good human beings and give to others. But I fail to understand or see the connection between one's values or religious beliefs, and wealth creation.

To me, wealth creation comes from knowing fundamental principles about business, economics, management, etc. Wealth creation is a science. You either know it or you don't. It's like 2 + 2 = 4. A child either knows the answer or doesn't.

Same thing with financial freedom. You either know how to achieve it, or you don't. Expounding on one's values or religious beliefs is quite irrelevant. The proof that wealth creation has nothing to do with religious beliefs or cultural values, is that there are all kinds of millionaires: Muslim (Osama bin Laden for instance made $300 million from running companies after he graduated from Saudi Arabian university in economics and public administration), Christian, atheists, etc.

Wealth creation is more mathematical than most people think. Unfortunately, the elite and the ruling class have indoctrinated most people into believing in the "work ethic" and working hard. Working hard for whom? For capitalists and business owners, who are not really working hard. They just create wealth-creation systems comprising equipment, capital and machinery (and, of course, secret or proprietary business processes).

The Internet has broken down two major barriers to wealth: time and distance. I suspect the only remaining barriers to becoming wealthy are barriers in a person's mind. This is why a person has to be super careful and rigorously re-examine HOW he is actually thinking about matters such as wealth and money and value creation.

If you think the right way, becoming wealthy is possible. Whether it's hard or not depends on a wide range of factors that I will discuss later. However, if you think about money and wealth in a narrow-minded way and confuse matters further by mixing religious beliefs and cultural values, then becoming wealthy is impossible.

Only people who have clarity of mind (of the 2 + 2 = 4 variety) have a chance at achieving financial freedom. People who refuse to see that wealth creation is largely a matter of leveraging mathematics and that it has little to do with one's religious beliefs or cultural values, will remain as economic slaves of people who do have mental clarity about wealth.

Use the Internet, don't let it use you

Above is a screenshot showing my connections on Linkedin. If you're interested in creating wealth and becoming wealthy, I highly recommend Linkedin as a way to start conversations with people and networking. 

I can't reveal my top secret plans, but you can see from the way 
I've been building connections
that I plan to launch several cyber-businesses by leveraing the trust and relationships built with my 
online associates.

In Silicon Valley, there's a saying: "Never bet against the Internet!"

Even the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, changed his mind about the Internet on  December 7, 1995. Before that date, he was saying that the Internet won't change things so much. On that December day, he woke up and changed his mind, and refocused all of Microsoft on the Internet. The following years were some of the most profitable for Microsoft.

Professionals have to make a similar turnaround switch in the way they think. They have to integrate the Internet into how they work and how they manage their careeers.

Linkedin is a great way to start. I even created a blog dedicated to showing people how to use Linkedin: www.linkedinusermanual.blogspot.com

What is an ideal career?

We're all losers

We're all losers! Yes, you're a loser. But please don't be offended, because I'm a loser too! The person you met yesterday is a loser, your brothers and sisters and parents are also losers. Your friends are losers. Even your best friend is a loser.

You might not agree with my verdict that we all belong to the Club of Losers, so here's my proof:

What is it that humans have that is of the highest value? Life.
And what is it that, no matter what we say, think or do, we ALWAYS lose and KEEP losing? Life.

In short, every second of every day, no matter what we think, say or do, we LOSE the most precious thing known to human beings: Life.

Bill Gates may be the richest man on Earth, yet every second, he loses one second and you also lose the same second.

So although we all lose time, all the time, there is some justice in that the rich as well as the poor lose the same amount of time. Death is the ultimate equalizer.

Okay, now that I have proven that we are all losers and that you're probably demoralized, I should quickly mention the good news so as to avoid having hundreds of subscribers unsubscribe from my blog!

The good news is that for every minute that you lose, you could gain one minute or even two minutes.

The ultimate challenge in life, therefore, is to create life -- that is, to create time for ourselves.

You might say, "Peter, that sounds crazy. How can I create time?"

Think, for instance, about how you spend your time every day. Where do all the minutes go? Are there things that you currently do that you can eliminate?

My test is very simple: If I had only 2 years to live, would I STILL be doing that thing? If the answer is no, then I stop doing it or I delegate it to someone else.

A second way to create time, is to make sure that whatever work you do today can be REUSED tomorrow to make you more productive.

Here's a metaphor to help you understand what I mean.

Most people spend their entire careers "doing" something. It never occurs to them to create something that would "do it" for them. The analogy is that of a person walking and walking and walking, never thinking about building a bicycle so he can get there faster and sooner.

(Of course, the biker should be thinking about how to insert an engine so his bike become a motorized vehicle such as a car. And the car driver should think about installing wings so his car becomes a plane to help him get there sooner!).

The ultimate is to stop doing, and to start teaching. After you teach others, they can start "doing" for you. Ah, that's when the sweet life begins!

Here's another example: I used to work for a law firm as a technician. I worked as a proofreader and quality control specialist. Since legal documents must absolutely be error-free, I had to find spelling mistakes and correct them. However, I decided one day to write macros that would automatically find and replace certain errors, This saved me several hours per day! Of course, I didn't tell my boss because I knew she would give me more work! I just sat back and enjoyed my coffee... for two hours!

I did the same in two other offices.

My success secret was that I learned, early in my career, the power of computerized automaticity. I call it "compucity." This has been my secret weapon.

Here's another powerful secret paradigm: don't compete. Let your PC compute!

In other words, delegate AS MUCH of your work, decision-making, research, effort, etc. to computers as much as possible.

Why people are poor

The main reason why people are poor is that they have nothing to sell.

To be more specific, they "have no thing to sell."

Millions of people, every day, go to work to sell themselves -- their time.

If they had something to sell, they could basically be sitting at home and ship their "things" to customers worldwide.

Note: Today, you can even "sell yourself" over the Internet. Indian programmers or even tutors, sell their services over the Web by using Skype and PayPal.

However, the thing about making a fortune is that you've got to focus on... the thing.

In other words, you've got to create work that keeps working for you!

For instance, an author creates a book. Subsequently, that book becomes like a robot worker, working for him indefinitely!

Youtube even has tools online so you can create remixes of videos. I predict that people will make a lot of money by creating training videos that are innovative and entertaining. Some call it "edutainment." I call it "knowledge marketing."

The key message is that unless you can create this thing which people want and are willing to pay for, financial freedom will remain a dream. The good news is that this "thing" doesn't even have to be pricey. The Internet and the social networking phenomenon enable an ordinary person to gain extraordinary marketing leverage.

Of course, I'm talking a lot about financial freedom in this blog, because I assume that people who are dreaming of financial freedom have already mastered all the basic, prerequisite skills such as effective communication, good working habits, technology proficiency, etc.

I will cover those skills in a future post.

We're going after Google!

If you're interested in business opportunities online or offline, I invite you to read what I just posted at http://ceoneedshelp.blogspot.com/2007/07/talentelle-vs-google.html

We are indeed officially going after Google!

I'm currently building an army of men and women to help in this super-struggle.

The first step was to get into the same business as Google, that is, the "search" business.

However, the depth of the search is shallow for Google's customers, whereas for members of Talentelle, it's much more profound: searching for your true self and your true career cannot be performed by algorithsm, no matter how smart those algorithsm or the engineers behind them.

A different sort of algorithm is required, something Google has not yet figured out. LVA is a researcher whose work might allow me to create this kind of super-algorithm to help people find their true self.

Anyways, after a year as CEO of Talentelle, my "secret" is that one should think big, really big. It doesn't mean you will succeed in realizing your big vision, but one thing I can guarantee is that your thinking will be dramatically improved. Your fame and fortune might be improved too.

After all, nobody would have known about David if he had not decided to face and fight Goliath.