Success with women

*** WARNING: This post contains adult material not suitable for minors. If you're a minor, then young man, get back to your homework RIGHT NOW! ***

A blog about success is not quite complete without specific, proven and brilliant advice about how to succeed with women.

So here's my advice to all men out there.

NOTE 1: This advice has been kept secret so far, only revealed to my close disciples who are so loyal to me that if someone shot at me with a pistol, they would jump out and try to catch the bullet (at least, that's what I'm hoping for). So because it is so original, you might be shocked when reading it. SO PLEASE, DO NOT HOLD IN YOUR HAND ANY HOT BEVERAGE OR YOU MIGHT SPILL HOT LIQUID ON YOURSELF AND BURN YOUR SKIN!

NOTE 2: If you are a woman, please consider carefully the fact that what women say and how they respond are not always the same. What women say often has to do with what they THINK they're supposed to say in civilized society. What they feel, especially subconsciously, is beyond society and culture and other external artifacts which exert an influence on the mind. In other words, women publicly speak with their intellect and act as "social beings" whereas they privately feel and situationally react with their heart, as "female entities." No woman can escape the biological implications, constraints and drives of her female apparatus. Another way to put it is that "women can do what they want, but they cannot want what they want." This line is so brilliant that I'll be writing a best-selling book about it!

Okay, let's get straight to the heart of the matter: How to pick up women? Because if you can't even do that, then you'll be spending the evening alone.

My secret about how to pick up women is that... I don't. I create situations where they are dying for me to "pick them up."

The secret sauce has to do with what I mentioned earlier: "Women can do what they want, but they cannot want what they want."

And most women want a superior male. A high-value male. A male that offers them what they are most desperate for, subconsciously. Of course, this depends a great deal on what their current stage of life is.

A simple implementation of the above, is to make sure every information you release about yourself to the woman, constructs -- one step at a time -- a "high-value image" that she has of you. This means you have to focus on yourself as you speak, move around, express facial expressions, etc.

In other words, do NOT focus too much on her. She's "just" like the audience in a movie theatre. You are the movie director, so focus on making the movie one that will entertain her, and excite her imagination.

Fortunately, women have a lower threshold of excitability when it comes to their imagination, and that's the great thing about them. They will easily let their mind wander into MagicLand, if (and this is a big "if") the story-teller is good enough.

Before I forget, keep in mind that story-telling skills are important because women are seduced through the ears and not through the eyes (as with men).

So let's get back to the movie metaphor. It's easy enough to go to the movies with a girl, but it's much harder to CREATE a movie in real life that she can experience and feel good about. Speaking of "feeling", here's how women feel about "feeling":

The good: Feeling good
The bad: Not feeling good (or feeling bad)
The ugly: Not feeling anything

So guys, whatever you do, do NOT bore her! Do NOT be predictable!

Understanding the above can help you create conversations and tactics that will make women feel TRULY GREAT.

For instance, you could flatter her on something, and she will feel good.

But even better is when she feels bad about something, and you say something or do something to make her feel good. (But to do this, she's got to trust you enough to share with you, as a friend, times when she feels bad. This is why it's a good idea to be a friend and don't let the famous "John, I like you as a friend" be a deterrent to further romantic advances).

Indeed, the "emotional distance" from feeling bad to feeling good is much greater than feeling okay to feeling good.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Another example about "emotional distance" is when men compliment women. If a normal-looking guys compliments a woman, she will feel good. But if a highly successful guy (who looks like he's highly successful) compliments a woman, she will feel EVEN BETTER.

This brings us to the topic that I call "social exaltation." Women ALWAYS appreciate the presence or attention (preferably both) of men who have distinguished themselves from the crowd of undifferentiated, look-alike men. No offense to the latter, but they just all look the same. The elite always stands out from the crowd and actually stands OUTSIDE the crowd!

Thus, superior males are what I call "socially exalted entities." They exercise what I call "masterful seduction." Their mastery IS their seduction. Thus, they don't have to engage in many seductive ploys. They show up and all women turn their attention to them.

Look at Tiger Woods, for instance. He's the master of golf, a game I really don't understand. He's making millions of dollars and married a former Playboy playmate. Women, especially beautiful women, dig mastery.

Keep in mind that "se-duce" comes from the Greek, and it means "to draw to self."

However, it is far easier to obtain attention than to sustain it. Only a person who has achieved eminence or superiority, in some way, is able to sustain the attention of women.

This is another reason why success is important: it draws the attention of beautiful women.

Okay, here's something I don't get: SeekingMillionaire.com (this website was advertised by Google on PowerKnowledge.net, a site I created to help men succeed). If you're a millionaire, why would you need a "dating site" to attract beautiful women?

My theory is that those men succeeded at something that is not really their passion. Anyways, I will write a separate post on it, where I'll discuss the issue of "holistic happiness" - that is, how to make ALL the various areas of one's like work together, and not "tackle success" in each area separately.

Where was I? Yes, I was talking about seduction as "drawing attention to oneself."

Every man must strive to become excellent at what he does, for that is the only way to achieve a "socially exalted status."

Most men I know are too boring or too predictable. So even if they paid me $10,000 to find them a date, I wouldn't know where to start BECAUSE I do NOT know what they're excellent at! I can't sell what is not sellable!

In the past, I've introduced beautiful models and actresses to male friends of mine who stood out as entrepreneurs or investors. But these men are the rare exception.

That being said, you don't have to be a business man or even a rich man to attract women's attention. You just have to be darn good at what you do.

How do you become the best at what you do? Focus definitely helps.

But what could help even more is to STOP caring about what society thinks or how it dictates that a man live his life. You know, study hard, get a job, buy a house, start a family, etc.

That's boring stuff. I'm not saying it's not good. Those are things you want and deserve in your life.

But you gotta be more daring and take more risks if you are to attract women's attention. The ultimate risk perhaps is to be who you truly are, inside, and to live the life that you KNOW you were meant to live.

Many men believe that by having a car or house, they can attract more women. Perhaps a women will be attracted to your material possessions, sure, but she is as likely to be interested, later on, by another man with a bigger car or a bigger house.

By being truly yourself, and pursuing a career that reflects who you truly are, it might take longer to attract women but when you find your soul mate, she will love you for who you are, not what you have.

Most men care more about what they have than who they are, and there are reasons for that. I will write about this in a separate, upcoming post.

The funny thing is that by focusing on who you are, you incur a great deal of risk. Yet, it is the "risk" element that is exciting to women, especially young, beautiful women. Risk is titillating, predictability is not. Risk makes women feel alive, predictability makes them feel they don't even exist.

There's actually a part in the brain of a woman (and all human beings) called Broca's area, where unpredictability plays a role in exciting the whole brain.

Speaking of the female brain, there are also two areas that are closely linked: the area that regulates humor or laughter, and the area that regulates sexual receptivity.

In concrete terms, a women is more sexually receptive after she's had a good laugh.

In other words, a successful joke is part of foreplay. I'm not kidding you! After I learned about this from my own research, I began to buy and memorize LOTS of joke books!

Just kidding.

By the way, women often say that they like guys who have a sense of humor, but that is not accurate. What they want are men who have a sense of comedy, because comedic skills are pre-erotic skills. Women want to laugh because that predisposes them to, well, you know.

(This post is getting SO HOT that I'm really, really afraid that one day, my Mom will read about this and whack the back of my Catholic boy's head!. My only excuse is that I'm only trying to help fellow men find romantic happiness. I can't help it, I care about other people's happiness. Sometimes, more than I care about my own happiness.)

Okay, back to business.

If you doubt the link between laughter and sex, then notice the structure of jokes: there's the setup, where the tension is built, and there's the punch line, where the tension is explosively released. In short, setup = foreplay, and punch line = climax.

Am I saying that by studying comedy, you can become a great lover? Yes, absolutely.

It's not just the tension/climax insights you will get, but also the sharper linguistic abilities you will gain. It takes a great deal of literary and/or linguistic mastery to become a good comedian. Indeed, if brevity is the soul of wit, then linguistic skill is the heart of brevity.

Best part is, comedy is something you can study by yourself. Anytime. Anywhere.

This reminds me of the Woody Allen movie where he makes love to a Dutchess, and she says afterward: "You are the greatest lover I have ever had!!" He replies: "Yes, well, I practice a lot when I'm alone."

The lesson is that if your goal is to attract the women you want, you have to practice techniques of seduction and especially techniques that will inevitably make women FEEL GOOD about THEMSELVES.

Let me share with you, in my next post, my own romantic success stories, some of which were complete disasters and some of which were masterpieces -- yet I learned from both types of experience, for there is no "failure" per se, there is only a path of evolvement toward greater understanding and appreciation of women.

Mike Dillard & Magnetic Sponsoring

WHO IS MIKE DILLAR?

Mike Dillard, once a surgeon recruiter for many hospitals quit his job and became a table waiter in order to pursue his career in network marketing. After discovering the proper use of positioning, and "sellucation" his term for the art of self-selling through education, sponsored 35 personal reps. and grew his organization to over 500 within just months and averaged over $500,000 dollars per year in volume sales.

Today he spends his time and efforts teaching network marketers the proper strategies of marketing and magnetic sponsoring, as well as serving as a marketing consultant to industry leaders.

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ABOUT MAGNETIC SPONSORING

One of the biggest problems with network marketing is that the reps who are supposed to be marketing the products and the opportunity are not very clear what marketing is all about.

They go everywhere pitching their offers to all sorts of people around them but they wind up annoying, irritating or pushing these prospects. After awhile, these network marketing reps give up because their 'name list' runs out or they get discouraged because nobody wants to buy their products or join their downline.

Magnetic Sponsoring strives to change the way network marketing reps go about building their business by tapping into a familiar concept called attraction marketing.

What Magnetic Sponsoring does is that it teaches the reps how to develop the posture of a true leader and to become a sought-after expert in their field. What this does is that it turns the rep from being the hunter to being the hunted.

That is the way attraction marketing works, because human beings are naturally attracted to leaders and people who are better than them. They prefer to listen to an expert and turn a deaf ear towards people who do not promise them value (what most network marketers are like). In other words, attraction marketing teaches the rep to 'magnetically sponsor' downlines by attracting them by the charisma of their leadership.

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I resonate with Dillard's master philosophy and in fact, I would even go further: Become a black belt master at what you do, and you will never have troubles attracting clients, leads, employers, even women!

All women want an alpha male, that is, a socially elevated male who has achieved some distinction in his field.

Clients and employers are no different: they want the very best out there.

And so, we see here that Jim Rohn's advice is eminently on target: "Success is something you attract by the person you become."

In other words, don't pursue success because you won't get it. Rather, aim to be TRULY excellent at what you do, and success will pursue you!

Everybody will be naked

In the New Economy, nobody can hide anymore. Everybody's productivity will be in full view. In short, everybody will be "naked."

In other words, income will be solely determined by outcome -- that is, by what you actually produce.

To put it more bluntly, it will be useless to show up at the office. Rather than show up, you have you show results.

A new book by Cali Ressling and Jody Thomson drives this point home:
http://www.culturerx.com/downloads/ROWE_Overview.pdf

This is a RADICAL change in how people normally view "work."

Indeed, in the past, all you had to do was compete for a job, get it, and then do whatever was on your job description. You didn't have to "manage yourself" since that was, essentially, the job of your boss.

Today, however, there are no bosses. You are your own boss, and you have to manage your own productivity, whether you're a receptionnist or a VP of marketing.

All employees, in effect, have to learn to operate as "business units of one."

Ressling and Thomson, in their book, reveal an unconscious formula that most corporations seem to operate under:

Time + Physical Presence = Results

That equation might have been true in the previous era where "labor" did not know much, and where the central management paradigm was "command and control." Sort of like an army. Workers were soldiers who MUST execute the procedures as written by higher-ups.

Today, however, there are more and more knowledge workers who work with their brains, not their hands. And creativity is a funny thing: it follows its own schedule.

For instance, you can't tell a programmer or a marketing planner to be creative next Monday morning at 9:00 AM sharp. All an employer can do is create the right conditions for such talented professionals to be creative.

Beyond the time aspect, there is also the space aspect. Forcing workers to show up at the SAME place, every day, five days a week, is NOT a recipe for boosting creativity.

So what will replace the Time + Physical Presence = Results formula?

Mind X Passion X Talent X Values X Desire to serve = Business Outcome = Personal Income

I will write more about that.

Tell me what you want me to write about

The following are posts that I plan to write in the next few weeks. If you see one that particularly excites your imagination, please feel free to email me while writing the number (e.g. 505) in the subject heading, and I will write that post first. No need to write anything in the email.

This is what I call "on-demand blogging" and it enables me to write about what you want to read. Thanks for participating!

501 - An imperfect product is better than a perfect job. This is because only a product can be distributed worldwide through Internet, thereby enriching you so you can become financially free.

502 - Income depends on outcome, and outcome depend on process design, the right talent and the right environment.

503 - The first step to wealth is to email all your knowledge, tacit and explicit, to all your friends and connections. You can also use the PKI format (professional knowledge index, in mind map format).

504 - "Work Once Liquidate Forever" economic doctrine. This doctrine says that you should only do work that you can reuse or leverage the following day. "To do" lists therefore are not as useful as "to create" lists. It's best to create "digital currencies" which you can trade or sell to others. A digital currency is any digital document that has value and that you can email to others.

505 - Compounding intellectual capital doctrine. This doctrine is about how to create intellectual capital (i.e. valuable and marketable knowledge) in a way that allows this capital to grow almost automatically, so that you can get rich in a seemingly automatic way.

506 - The richness of your life depends on the degree to which you have mastered the art of seduction. It's about seducing others, but mostly about seducing oneself. Se-duce means "to draw to oneself," and it is best to first have a keen awareness of one's best or highest self. One can then allow oneself to be drawn to this ideal self.

What is failure?

Someone asked this interesting question on Linkedin Answers. I thought I'd share my answer with you.

Failure - An important factor to build success?

Failure is part of success, and certainly makes life more interesting. Indeed, most people will admit that they have learned more from failure than from success.

The concept of "failure" itself might be misleading, since it has a negative connotation and is something that most people try to avoid. This avoidance limits the richness of experience that life offers.

Men, for obvious cultural reasons, are more "afraid" of failure than women. The male ego has something to do with it, but it would be inaccurate to blame men for having this ego since it arises in a culture that overvalues performance -- often at the expense of authentic experience.

Women, for reasons that I have not yet fully understood, value experience more than men. They are willing to step outside the familiar path in order to experience life. However, I believe both experience and performance are possible and lead to a rich life.

I mean "performance" in the sense that we make progress in controlling ourselves and achieving self-mastery. Not performance in the sense of satisfying some external or societal standard, and winning medals or awards as a result.

For example, it is possible for a person to "fail" in his career or business, yet this apparent failure gives him a great opportunity to evolve by understanding more things about himself, his life and his ultimate purpose on Earth. Indeed, nothing starts a serious reflection and serious self-examination than failure.

Some people need to have a serious medical crisis before they sit down and think seriously about their lives. Others only require a certain non-threatening illness to halt the mindless momentum of their hectic career, and begin the process of self-examination and contemplative inquiry.

In most cases, it is quite useful to adopt the following attitude toward failure: "Oh, I now have the opportunity to explore another dimension of life and of myself! Great!"

Those who take advantage of such opportunities for meditation and for re-examining the meaning and purpose of their lives, often re-emerge into society with a powerful sense of alignment with who they truly are. It is as if they were born again, and were given a second chance at life. Many such people are destined to become teachers, for they have gone through the experience and can speak about it with credibility.

But back to the concept of "failure." At the mere thought of possible failure, many people recoil and take the beaten and familiar path -- they seek security instead of experience and adventure.
The ultimate success might be to realize that failure doesn't exist in reality, and is only a concept we have been conditioned to focus on in our society and culture. A second illusion is the fear of failure, and this fear often paralyzes people who otherwise might have expressed or exercised their natural talents.

Let's not forget that even Pablo Picasso, the great artist, feared how the world would react to his first cubist painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. He hid that painting in a closet for two years before finally showing it.

Indeed, every person is engaged on a personal path of evolution, and cannot fail. If he is moving forward on that path, he is then evolving. If not, then he needs time to reflect and absorb earlier lessons and experiences. In either cases, he is not failing at all. He is simply deciding, consciously or subconsciously, to evolve on his own timetable, without comparing himself to others at the material level.

It is useful to remember that life is a school and that the same lesson, in different yet fundamentally similar forms, will keep coming to us until we absorb and master the lesson. This is necessary for our own personal growth and evolution. Yet there is no "failure" at all. Life is a process of self-perfection, and we are already perfect on the spiritual plane. Our "higher self" is already perfect. It's just that in this physical life, we have the extraordinary opportunity to taste and experience this exquisite process of perfecting ourselves.

Peter Nguyen
Principal and editor in chief
PowerKnowledge.net

Finally, here's the ultimate wealth secret!

I wrote several posts before on The Ultimate Wealth Secret, and have challenged you to come up with one word to summarize that wealth secret.

Well, here it is. Are you ready? It's...

SELL.

Indeed, sales ability is a secret art that most people have not been taught at school or at home.

Not only that, but we have been conditioned to view "selling" negatively. This is perhaps due to several bad experiences with "pushy" salespeople.

Yet, when you understand the proper function of selling and master the art of selling, you will know why some people get richer while others do not.

It's because selling is a certain strategic mindset. The savvy and skillful sales star is always thinking strategically and speaking strategically. Since thinking and talking are activities that we do almost all the time, then this accounts for the fast rise to success of people who are skillful at selling.

In other words, people who are trapped in poverty (i.e. can't find a good job or can't succeed in business), usually do not think very strategically nor do they speak strategically. It doesn't occur to them, in a conversation, to help the other person figure out his or her precise need and to help that person fulfill that need.

For instance, you might think of the salesperson as a selfish person who is always "pushing" his products in order to get someone to buy something. But in fact, a professional salesperson acts according to "enlightened self-interest": he will ask skillful questions in order to find out what the other person really needs, and then will try to help that person fulfill that need through a product or service that he offers, or that another company offers.

In other words, the professional salesperson doesn't sell as much as he is buying. Buying what? Trust.

Trust is the holy platform upon which your fortune is built.

A great salesperson shows so much care, concern and compassion that everybody instantly trusts him -- and will buy whatever he's selling.

Everything I share with you here is only 0.0000001 % of this vast field of selling.

Yet, most people do NOT explore this field because they have negative perceptions and feelings about selling. These negative perceptions and feelings KEEP THEM POOR.

Indeed, there are few activities that are more enjoyable and profitable than selling, because basically, it's just a conversation where, at the end, the other person hands over his money to you!

Some people are skillful conversationalists, so they can sell by simply talking. Most people, however, will succeed only if they complement their words with real, concrete actions. If you want to master the art of selling, read the book The Trusted Advisor, by David Maister. (I read it several times).

Jeffrey Gitomer is also a great author to read on the art of selling.

The bottom line is that selling is simply a skill -- not a talent. And the extent to which you master that skill, and turn it into an art, will determine your level of financial success.

This is so because (economic) power comes from your talent, and selling ability MULTIPLIES that power.

It is because employees lack selling ability that they are trapped and are forced to work for someone else. An employee may be the best in his field, yet if he cannot sell, he will not likely achieve financial freedom.

Let's take a mathematical look at this to fully understand how selling ability MULTIPLIES your economic power.

Imagine John and Jane, two professionals. John has a greater talent than Jane, so let's say his talent has a value of 9 whereas Jane's talent has a value of only 6.

However, Jane is better at selling than John and has a selling ability of 3 while John has a selling ability of 1.

So the score is:

John: 9 X 1 = 9

Jane: 6 X 3 = 18

Jane gets more opportunities or contracts because her selling ability multiplies the power of her talent. She is also more balanced than John in that she can both CREATE value and SELL that value. Hence, she is more likely to be able to launch her own business and achieve financial independence while John will be forever stuck in an office or cubicle (unless he learns how to sell).

Private Strategic Education and Training

0:09

I was reading yesterday in the newspaper that there is a significant rise in the number of private schools in Quebec, Canada. Parents are now willing to pay up to $20,000 a year so their child can attend 100% privately funded schools.

This trend will also happen in workplaces, where employees will seek coaches and trainers who will train them so they get an edge in the job market. Same thing with entrepreneurs: they will seek the best coaches and trainers to give them the skills they need to succeed.

It's a trend I call "private strategic education and training."

This is happening because the world has become an incredibly competitive place. The new economy is, in fact, the "Olympic" economy, where the best in any one country will have to compete against the best in other countries. The Internet indeed eliminates geographic, temporal and spatial barriers.

At GM and Ford, managers have on their computer screens two dashboards, one showing the wages and productivity of their own workforce, and another showing the wages and productivity of workers from China, India, etc. As soon as the second dashboard looks more profitable than the first, the decision to lay off workers will be made.

Unfortunately, most people work at their jobs without knowing the above. Until, of course, they get the pink slip.

Then, there are people who are looking for a "home business," and the reasons are quite obvious: they want flexibility, freedom, etc. They want to be their own boss.

Yet, the very expression "home business" is misleading. As mentioned earlier, what is important to survive economically is excellence. So whether you work at home or not, doesn't matter.

What matters is whether you work "at hone": that is, are you honing your skills and competencies all the time? Clients really don't care where the provider is, physically speaking. They only care about results.

And the best results -- that is, the ones that will enrich you -- are produced by your mind, your imagination, your creativity.

Yet, these are not exactly what we have been taught at school. So because there is this huge gap in what the educational system is teaching us, and what the new economy requires of us, there is the emergence of institutions or companies that provide "strategic education and training."

The recipe for success, then, seems to be: 1. Choose a line of work where you want, desperately, to become the VERY BEST. 2. Practice daily until you DO become the best at it.

You have the right to remain silent (and poor, alas!)

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, recently said that there are about 120 million blogs on the Internet, and that the average blog has a readership of... one.

It's not only funny, it's true!

Most people get excited, create a blogging account, and then find out that they don't have anything interesting, let alone valuable, to share.

I have exactly 264 subscribers, and although that is a very small number, may I share with you some of the practices that have worked for me.

1. Life is short. Start with the dessert. In plain English, give your readers MAXIMUM VALUE and give it NOW! Don't hold any information back. Who knows, you might get hit by a truck tomorrow and your valuable information will be lost to the world forever! You don't want people to go to your funeral and say something like: "He was a really nice and smart guy, and it's just a pity he didn't share his valuable information. It's a tragedy, really."

2. Write your blog like as if your family and closest friends were reading it, every day. In other words, write for people you really care about, and give them maximum value.

3. Many people hesitate to start a blog because they think they are not good writers. The trick is very simple: write ONE sentence per day. I really mean it: write ONE sentence. Not a paragraph. Not a post. Just ONE sentence. You will soon pick up steam and ideas, and you'll be writing prolifically like me. I don't know how to explain that phenomenon, but it's like compound interest: the more there is, the faster it grows. Effortlessly.

The bottom line is that a blog is truly your "mini media empire." You won't become Rupert Murdoch any time soon, but the blog does give you visibility (or audibility, rather).

In other words, with a blog, you can begin a relationship with a lot of people, and you can then sell stuff to them later on.

Of course, as I mentioned in the heading, you have the right to remain silent. That is, you have the right to refuse to blog.

But keep in mind that rich people are those that keep selling ALL THE TIME, and poor people are those that NEVER SELL ANYTHING.

Rich people sell all the time by acquiring and developing mass media like television. Oprah, for instance, last year made $275 million (compared to Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling's $300 million). Notice that Rowling is using a different format (book) and is selling to a different audience (kids mostly).

So why do so many people resist the idea of selling? Probably because we all had bad experiences with pushy sales people in the past.

But that was then, this is now. The Internet enables you to sell, whether it's your own products or somebody else. The Internet REALLY exists so you can sell MORE and make MORE money.

Here's my take on selling. Selling means giving $100 worth of value to people, and asking them $10 in return. Sounds fair, doesn't it? Selling is really that simple.

Once you understand and master that concept (that selling means giving $100 and asking for $10), becoming wealthy will be a piece of cake. In other words, if 10 out of 10 people accept that deal (and who wouldn't, really!), then you can use a mass media to reach 100,000 people and make 100,000 X $10, or $1 million.

Can you see that wealth is just a mathematical formula, once you get the value/cost ratio right?

If the value/cost ratio is 100/1, then it's even better. Your products will sell even faster. In such cases, the value is often intangible.

you must become You in order to become wealthy

I'm not sure if all readers will understand the following, but for those who are ready to receive this knowledge, it might make a huge difference in their lives.

Here's the secret: "you" have to become "You" before you can access extraordinary powers.

In other words, you have to reconsider your true identity. You have to re-examine who you TRULY are.

Put differently, you are only a role that you're playing out on this planet. Life is a stage, and you are currently only playing a role. You're an actor.

Roosevelt, the former U.S. president, thoroughly understood this. He once said to Orson Welles: "We are the two greatest actors in America!"

Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM and perhaps one of the greatest capitalists of the 20th century, also said: "You should clearly visualize the ideal person you want to be in five years, and start, RIGHT NOW, to act precisely like that person."

In other words, play the role of the person you want to become. Play that role with enough authenticity so that you -- and not only the audience -- will truly feel it.

So when I say, "Become You," I mean become the writer and director of your life-movie. Your life is very much like a movie or a theatrical performance.

In other words, if you don't like your current role, write another one. And this time, write it with precise details so you know EXACTLY how you're going to act it out.

This reminds me of a question that my sister Zoonie once asked me. "Do you ever feel doubt or uncertainty when you make decisions?" Almost as a reflex, as CEO of Talentelle, I immediately replied: "No. I always feel supremely confident."

I meant that as a joke, but in truth, that's precisely how I feel. You can't lead an organization, whether it's a small business or a large multinational consortium, if you don't realize that the top executive must play his role with overflowing conviction and unquestionable authority.

And this is not testosterone talking. Women like Martha Stewart or Oprah or the late Mother Teresa, play their role with utmost conviction. Like any good actor.

Angelina Jolie plays her role as Lara Croft, the aristocratic heroine, with unquestionable authenticity.

Similarly, it would help if you could write out, in detail, the leading role you wish to play in your life, and then start rehearsing that role so you can deliver a performance, every day, worthy of an Oscar!

Now, I have to tell you that there are good news and bad news.

The good news is that there are 6.5 billion people on this planet, therefore there are 6.5 billion plays or movies. This means there are 6.5 billion heroes or heroines who are the stars in their own movies.

The bad news is that most people have not yet realized this.

They haven't yet realized that they ARE the star in their own movie! They are also the writer, director, producer and audience!

So as a woman, you are the star in your own movie. As a mother, you are "only" a supporting actor in your child's life. As a wife, you are "only" a supporting actor in your husband's life.

But as a woman who has her own dreams and aspirations, you are THE star in your own life.

Many women do not realize this, and play a supporting role for 10 or 20 0r even 30 years, before they finally realize, one day, that they've got to life their own life. Oprah calls it "the disease to please."

Many men also have not realized this. They have become "organization men" and sacrifice themselves for the benefit and success of their employing organizations.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with playing a supportive role. They even give out Oscars for best supporting actors!

But the whole point of each life is that it be lived from the point of view of the star, that is, from YOUR point of view.

And to achieve this, you have to move from a "you" identity (which is just a role that, somehow, almost by accident, you fell into) and a "You" identity (which is a powerfully creative identity composed of a talented actor, writer, director, producer and audience).

The "you" identity is, in most cases, a victim identity: you find yourself in an environment that conditions your responses and "forces" you to think and act in certain ways. Most of the time, you don't know exactly which lines to deliver with conviction.

The "You" identity, on the other hand, is one where you have supreme control over your life experience, because you KNOW that you can create it exactly as you fantasize it to be.

Since wealth is a matter of economic creativity, then shifting to a "You" identity will give you the immense powers you need to create value which, once compounded, will result in enormous wealth.

In plain English, it means you have to grow aware of the fact that you are the creator, instigator, driver, writer, initiator, etc. of everything in your life. You have to take responsibility for everything that happens in your life.

Even a wife who's being, say, abused verbally by her husband, has to acknowledge that she bears some responsibility in creating that situation. In other words, as long as she thinks of herself as a victim and plays out that role, the situation will continue exactly as before.

Same thing with an employee who feels that his boss is exploiting him. He has to stop thinking of himself as an "exploited employee" and rewrite his new role.

Duality exists everywhere. There cannot be an oppressor if there is no oppressed. There cannot be black if there is no white.

Similarly, if you want to receive ideas from the universe, you've GOT to start acting and behaving like creative people. For example, creative people ALWAYS carry a notepad and pencil everywhere they go. Picasso carried a notepad, Leonard Da Vinci carried a notepad, and I also carry a notepad.

(Notice how I elegantly inserted myself into such distinguished company, haha!).

So my number one advice to people who want to become wealthy is: "Generate ideas!"

Every day. Next, test your ideas. Create a prototype and put it in people's hands. I often do this on Linkedin Answers. I reveal a LOT of product or service ideas, and get instantly feedback from dozens of very smart people.

In other words, stop intellectualizing. Stop thinking. Stop complaining. Stop justifying why you're doing something or not doing something. Stop watching the news.

Just generate ideas so that eventually, you can select a good idea and develop a product from it.

A product is absolutely critical if you want to become rich.

I will write more about it, I call it the Productism Doctrine. Briefly, this doctrine predicts that all professionals will, one day, become Product Managers. And this "product" will be created through the strategically orchestrated reengineering of their human capital.

My strange yet powerful secret, part 2

A reader asks the following questions, after reading my post titled "My strange yet powerful secret."

PETER: Here's what I want to tell you: I have the incredible feeling that this year, I'll be getting super rich. Just as I wanted and actually predicted at the beginning of this year. Things just happen so fast. The manifestation process is truly working.

READER: Are you really going to become a millionaire this year?

PETER: It looks like it. Here's a clue to how I will do it: Iron Man. Just watch that movie, and you'll understand.

READER: What do you mean by "manifestation process"?

PETER: Read the three books written by Esther Hicks. Read also Harv Eker's Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. They're talking about the conscious (and unconscious) design and engineering of the manifestation process. The process whereby your feelings, thoughts and actions turn into reality.

READER: You wrote: "My fortune will happen in the information and advice publishing industry, although I plan to launch businesses outside of that industry." Why did you choose the information and advice industry?

PETER: Information is what publishers or teachers supply. Advice is when the information is APPLIED to a specific client situation. That is PRECISELY where the value of the information comes out. In other words, advice is what clients pay for, while information is what customers pay for. Another way to put it is that clients pay for solutions while customers pay for products.

READER: So customers buy a book, which is a product, but clients don't want to buy a book. They want to buy an actual recipe or an actual solution, like a step-by-step process that they can use to get RESULTS and solve their problems.

PETER: You totally understand it, hombre!

READER: You wrote that "There is a mysterious flow of incredible, powerful and highly profitable business ideas that keep coming to my little brain!" How did you achieve that?

PETER: A person can only look in ONE direction at a time. Try, for instance, to look at the sky while looking down at your feet. You can't, right? Same thing with your mind. You CANNOT point your mind in two directions at the same time. Wherever you point your mind, that is where your life is going. Let me repeat that super important principle: WHEREVER YOU FOCUS YOUR MIND, THAT IS WHERE YOUR LIFE IS GOING. And since what we focus on expands, then it becomes harder and harder to change direction once our mind is set in one direction. This is why it will be much harder for baby boomers to become entrepreneurs than for members of Gen Y. But don't cry for the boomers, they have enough money to take care of themselves! Gen Y may have less capital, but once they get into business -- and trust me, they WILL -- they will financially accelerate faster than anything imaginable. Just look at how the Youtube founders did it, or what the teenager Ashley Qualls did it with Whateverlife.com.

READER: Aren't they rather exceptional? I mean, can we really use those extreme examples when it comes to ordinary people?

PETER: Any person has the capacity to create enormous wealth. We are born wealthy. Before I forget, grab a free copy of Bob Proctor's book, You Were Born Rich, on the Internet. Email me if you can't find it. He's giving it away for free.

READER: If we all have the capacity to create enormous wealth, how come most people haven't achieved it?

PETER: They are stopping themselves. They are psychologically resisting the idea that they are truly millionaires inside, even 8- or 9-figure multimillionaires. I'm coaching many people, and I can feel it when my clients have internal resistance. I can't help them much on that score. At the same time, I'm also consulting for entrepreneurs that have absolutely NO resistance to the idea that they deserve to get super rich. They're really fun to work with.

READER: You talked about your having "a simple digital product which can sell for as little as $10 and can be sold worldwide via Internet." Here's what I don't understand: how do you actually reach all those people on the Internet? The fact that they CAN be reached, doesn't mean they WILL be reached, right? Unless you have a huge database of millions of emails?...

PETER: I don't have such a database, you're right. But we live in a world where Facebook has over 70 million users, and Linkedin has over 21 million users. So the key is simply to create an affiliate program whereby people who sell your products, will get a big reward -- at least 30% in commission. Some people even give away 100% of the commission. Why? Because afterwards, they are in touch directly with the customers, and can sell back-end products. Back-end is where fortunes are made. Remember, "Give up the rook to capture the king." I will write more later on about that strategy, which is based on the game of chess.

READER: You mentioned the portal PowerKnowledge.net. What is your big goal for that portal?

PETER: Are you sure you want to know? Okay, here goes: The goal is to make the content on PowerKnowledge.net as easily accessible as electricity. That is, every household and organization will be able to "plug" into the PowerKnowledge... warehouse, or whatever the name will be when we get that big.

READER: You think really big...

PETER: As I mentioned before, all humans can think big and thus access an inner world FULL of millionaire ideas. Most people just don't do it. They turn their gaze outward, they watch the news about what is going on in countries they've never visited and will most likely never visit in their lifetime. People forget that real power lies within, inside of us. Most people read or watch the news, and are filled with fear. If a person is serious about becoming wealthy, I recommend that he/she watch TV no more than one hour per day. He/she should also read at least one book per week. You don't even have to read the WHOLE book. Just browse through a book, jot down the best idea that you can implement, and then go implement it! If the results are not good, the book is probably not worth reading in its entirety. In other words, use things and objects and technologies to reach YOUR goal. Don't read a whole book just because the author says you should! Same with Linkedin. Most people use it for networking, which is a very unprofitable use of that social networking site. I use it to discover leads. Once again, we go back to people's resistance to making money and getting rich. It's quite ridiculous, because you cannot get rich unless you provide value to people. So resisting the idea of getting rich, basically means you refuse to help as many people as you can.

READER: Wow, a lot of valuable material here! I'll stop and reflect on it. Thanks!

PETER: You're welcome.

Selling ability is key to success

http://www.markschnitzer.com/

I came across the site above, so I thought I'd offer you my analysis of its marketing strategy. There are many important things to be learned here about business strategy, and if you are serious about achieving financial freedom, it's critical to understand basic strategy.

Strategy means "doing what you have to do to win." It's really that simple. I subscribe more to George Stalk's school of thought (he wrote the book Hardball) than Henry Mintzberg's approach, although I recognize that the latter may offer useful insights for large corporations.

In other words, when I'm hired as a strategy consultant by startups -- and I prefer startups that are aiming at high six- or seven-figure sales, I tell them what they need to know to WIN.

The most important thing to remember in business is that it's a risky environment, and that to DERISK that environment (thereby maximizing one's chances of success), one MUST be close to the client and give him EVERYTHING THAT IS IN OUR POWER TO GIVE HIM.

Do not hold back. I even recently hired "Mad Max," a VP whose sole concern is to push me to give AS MUCH VALUE AS POSSIBLE to my clients for FREE. I will write more about that uber-strategy later on.

So let's take a look at the site above, where they are trying to recruit networking marketing people.

First, they seem like nice people, and they are courageous. You have to be courageous to embark on any business. Most people are too scared to do that.

Their main mistake is that there is a lot of promise on the page, but not a lot of evidence. The key in recruiting is to show evidence of success -- proofs, testimonials, arguments, facts, case studies, demonstrations, diagrams, stats, etc.

In other words, don't sell to people. Serve them.

How? Give them USEFUL and CREDIBLE information so they can make up their own mind about the business opportunity. Treat them as intelligent adults. Don't use emotionally charged words. Speak in a calm, controlled, composed manner. This shows self-mastery.

In my life of work, many people do ask me my opinion about network marketing. I believe it's really about selling. "Network marketing" is an expression that conceals the real task, which is to sell.

I recommend Jeffrey Gitomer's books if you're interested in mastering the art of selling. He's the real deal. We're talking about corporate sales, the tough kind.

Whether you're looking for a job, a promotion, or a first client for your new business, you need to learn about selling. And selling is really serving. It's really that simple.

Another way to put it is that selling is a conversation with a win-win goal in mind.

So from that perspective, you can basically practice your selling skills every time you talk to another person. If you have nothing to sell, then practice by selling that person to herself. That is, encourage her to do something that is clearly in her interest.

Another great book I recommend is Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people." His idea of getting people to talk about themselves is not as innocent as it sounds, because the more people talk, the more they reveal their hot buttons. It becomes much easier to sell to them afterwards. In other words, it becomes easier to gently move them in a direction where BOTH parties will win.

Find the seed of WEALTH within you

People seeking financial wealth and freedom often -- and I mean, most of the time! -- think that wealth is something external that is "out there" and so, they venture forth into the world to seek "opportunities."

But the outer world is only a reflection of the inner world. If you feel wealthy inside, and are deeply grateful for the (amazing) wealth that you ALREADY possess, there will be more wealth in your life. Opportunities will come to you effortlessly, as if by magic.

Concretely, it's important to search within and find, within oneself, the "seed of wealth."

This seed could be your irrepressible passion for something (what Richard Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute, calls your "field of fascination"). For instance, some are passionate about cars, others are passionate about jewelry, yet others are passionate about graphic design or interior design or, in my case, calligraphy (Western calligraphy).

Your seed of wealth could also be a talent that you have. Read Tom Rath's Strengths Finder 2.0 book, to find your five top talents. Then, make them work together synergistically to create your "super-talent."

Also, your seed of wealth could be a type of client that you feel a really, really, really great connection to, and want to work with absolutely. I feel a strong connection to graphic designers because I like the way they think. They always try to make the world a more beautiful place. Being a calligrapher, I also understand some of their visual language.

I can't really say whether your seed of wealth is about your passion, your talent or your connection to a certain kind of people, but I DO know that whatever it is, this seed of wealth lies within you.

But it is hidden. You cannot easily find it. Sometimes, people find it by accident but then ignore it, dismissing it as just some seed. Of course, they don't understand that great things grow and flourish from a single seed! They don't understand that with the exception of the lottery, all wealth is first created in a very small way, but that it grows effortlessly and in a compounding fashion, like the compound interest on a savings bank account.

The tragedy is that most people go out in the world looking for wealth while completely ignoring their major source of wealth, which lies within.

By careful introspection, one can find this seed of wealth within, and begin the exciting process of cultivating this seed until one becomes extremely rich.

If you are currently working as an employee, you can be sure that a person, a long time ago, did find his or her seed of wealth. That's how your employing organization was born.

There's nothing wrong with being an employee while you are searching for your own seed of wealth, because you can learn from your employer how business is built, developed, refined. Everything that you learn as an employee, will be useful to you as an entrepreneur -- should you choose to become one later on.

Sometimes, it can be greatly beneficial to work for free for an entrepreneur that you believe will make it big. This way, you learn from the entrepreneur how to align with your true self -- this alignment is where incredible power is found and unleashed.

In fact, Robert Kiyosaki did precisely that. In his formative years, he worked in Hawaii as a volunteer for Anthony Robbins, and learned as much as he could from the famous personal development guru.

Once you've found your seed of wealth, the next step will be to "plant" it in a fertile environment where it can grow.

My strange yet powerful secret

This post will sound a little strange, so I just thought I'd warn you ahead of time. But don't worry, it won't be too weird! (I've been weirder before in my life, haha!).

Here's what I want to tell you: I have the incredible feeling that this year, I'll be getting super rich. Just as I wanted and actually predicted at the beginning of this year. Things just happen so fast. The manifestation process is truly working.

My fortune will happen in the information and advice publishing industry, although I plan to launch businesses outside of that industry.

How do I know for sure that I'll be a millionaire soon? Simple: There is a mysterious flow of incredible, powerful and highly profitable business ideas that keep coming to my little brain!

If you came to my place, you'd see boxes and boxes containing notebooks and notepads all FILLED WITH MILLION-DOLLAR IDEAS. I'm not kidding.

I don't mean "million-dollar ideas" in the sense of an invention like Google or a similar technology, but rather, a simple digital product which can sell for as little as $10 and can be sold worldwide via Internet.

Why am I telling you this? Because I'd like to encourage you to review all the posts I've written so far. Some of them contain the secrets that have enabled me to create such powerful fortune-making ideas.

Also visit PowerKnowledge.net, where I share many more ideas and will keep sharing until I die (at around age 120). :-)

Another thing I want to say is that if you want to learn the MAXIMUM from me, I invite you to email me all your questions. As a guide and teacher, I simply cannot give answers when the question has not been asked.

It would be like a parent ramming food down the throat of a child who is screaming, "But... but... I'm not hungry!!"

People who don't ask questions, are not curious. That is, their minds are NOT open (even though they may say that are "open-minded"). They really get nowhere in life, because they somehow think they already know everything.

Obviously, as a subscriber to this blog, you value knowledge. And you know that I freely share my knowledge as soon as I get it (hence, the blog name "real-time success secrets").

So go ahead and ask me anything about new product creation, entrepreneurship, marketing, business, finance, management, women. Wait, don't ask me about women, I'm still clueless! Women are fabulous creatures who also happen to be blissfully complex. Give me ten more years of studying them! :-)

Anyways, my strange yet powerful secret is that I act like as if every thought I have will become reality, and that nothing in this world can stop me. If you act the same, you will realize -- as I did -- that you have vast and incredible powers to create any life you want.

FreeConferenceCall.com

I wrote previously that by teaching valuable stuff, one can become rich.

Now, there's a FREE service on the Web where you can have free conference calls: FreeConferenceCall.com.

Many people on Linkedin have provided positive testimonials, so I guess it works.

You can have up to 96 people participating on any given conference call, and the maximum duration of each call is 6 hours.

FreeConferenceCall.com is part of a "free Web services" trend where technologies enable human beings to communicate with one another with greater ease and convenience. Skype, Youtube, Slideshare.net, Blogger, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. are part of such free Web-based communication services.

The success secret therefore lies in having knowledge worth sharing.

Indeed, you can be connected to 6.5 billion people via the Internet, yet if you don't have valuable knowledge to share, you won't receive a dime.

How do you start to capture your valuable knowledge?

One way is to complete this sentence: "If I only had 48 hours to live, then I would like to tell the entire world about one thing that I discovered in life, and that is ............................"

In my case, I would write in that blank something like: "In order to succeed, you have to decide what activity to become excellent at, and then practice it every single day without fail."

And from that one statement, I would try to write a 2-page article. From the article, I would try to write a chapter of a book, and then write the whole book.

My point is that sharing valuable knowledge is one of the easiest ways to become rich.

But writing out your knowledge won't be easy at the beginning. However, I can guarantee you that it will get easier and easier over time. But you've got to start now.

Just buy a notepad and carry it with you everywhere you go. And start writing down all your ideas.

Before you know it, you'll have enough material to set up a workshop and charge people for it.

The important thing to understand is that most of your powerful and valuable ideas will not come from you, the conscious you, but from a mysterious, universal Subconscious that somehow communicates with your local subconscious AFTER you have activated your subconscious to be receptive to new ideas.

This is precisely what happened to me in the last few years. I decided to write down ALL the ideas that come to me, and I usually get dozens of powerful ideas every day! And it's not because I'm smarter than other people. It's just that I understand that ideas are the foundations of wealth.

That is, an idea could very well be the seed of your multimillionaire empire.

Of course, not all ideas will result in riches, but still, you've got to plant those ideas in actual environments and watch them grow while taking care of them.

The success secret is quite simple: the more ideas you have every day, the faster you will get to financial freedom.

A person who has no idea, will always be forced to work for someone who has ideas.

Yet, nobody has a monopoly on imagination. Everybody, without exception, has imagination. It's just that so few actually use their imagination.

Why? Because school taught us to value intellect, not imagination.

Yet, without imagination, there can be no new ideas. And without new ideas, there can be no new value created. And without new value created, there can be no wealth.

So the rich and poor should not be called the "haves" and have nots", but "those who imagine" and "those who don't imagine."

Reconceptualize your fears to overcome them!

In the mid 90s, I was studying management at McGill University and had to do several oral presentations of group projects.

I've never been afraid of public speaking, but it was not exactly an activity that I enjoyed doing. So one day, I stumbled upon an insight: what if I "conceptually reengineered" this activity and turned it into something that I love doing?

This is when I decided to treat oral presentations as opportunities to use my comedy writing skills and to launch my mini-career as a standup comic.

For instance, during a presentation in my Services Marketing course, I talked about a dental clinic: "You know, a dental clinic is not exactly a destination resort. Nobody looks forward to the experience of going to the dentist because it might involve PAIN! You just want to go in there, get the job done, and get out as fast as you can. It's basically like university."

Not only did I enjoy the laughter I got from the audience (and, of course, there are many pretty girls in all my classes), but I also enjoyed the process of precisely scripting the presentation so as to properly set up the joke and powerfully deliver the punch line.

I mention this example because public speaking seems to be Fear #1 for most people.

Unless a person masters this fear, which is quite irrational, she will always fail to realize her full potential.

No matter what you fear is, there is always a way to mentally reengineer a way to look at it so that you enjoy the activity.

Indeed, in life, the fear never comes from other people or situations or events or objects. It comes from you. From your own mind. Fear is created by a certain way of thinking.

In short, your thoughts -- when mismanaged -- are creating the fears that resonate all over your body and make you tremble. Master your thoughts and the fear disappears.

Anthony Robbins came up with this acronym to explain what F.E.A.R. really is: False Evidence Appearing Real.

Fear appears real because our minds make it real! Fear doesn't exist per se, it's just a projection of a person's mind onto a screen.

Selling is another activity that most people, somehow, are afraid of.

So a good way to "conceptually repackage" selling is to view it as "helping someone to buy."

Give the prospect detailed, accurate and factual information. Make her feel good about herself. Show support for her goals. Give her options. Casually demonstrate your capabilities while gently proposing ideas that could help her experience more out of life -- more fun, more pleasure, more money, more satisfaction, more fulfillment.

Wait a minute, this sounds A LOT like what I usually do on a date! ;-)

Come to think of it, selling is a lot like dating. When a woman accepts to have dinner with me, she is implicitly saying: "Peter, you're very persuasive so I accept to go out with you but you realize, of course, that my sharing food with you in an atmosphere obviously designed to put me in the right mood, does not in any way, shape or form, imply that we'll necessarily end up naked in bed at the end of the evening."

It is thus my "job" to build up momentum so that she, well, ahem, you know. :-)

Anyways, my point is that there is always a way to reconsider and reengineer how you view life, and specific situations in life, so that you feel empowered -- not fearful.

In an upcoming post, I'll talk about "conscious fears" vs "unconscious fears."

Reasons for business failure

I am sometimes asked for the reasons why a new business would fail, and the answer is quite simple: the person only has to look in the mirror.

Strangely enough, the main reason for failure is also the main reason for success: the person in the mirror!

This is what Jim Rohn meant when he said, "Success is something you attract by the person you become."

Here's how I put it: "The main reason for failure is the failure to reason."

In other words, the population is not divided between the "haves" and "have nots." Rather, it's the "thinks" and "think nots."

Those who do not think for themselves, are forced to follow the train of thought of someone else. And usually, that someone else doesn't have your interest at heart. Why should he? He has his own goals, and he has a plan to achieve them. If you don't have goals and are not interested in thinking for yourself, then you will have to follow his orders until you retire at age 65.

Perhaps I'm being a little harsh. After all, children are not really taught how to think for themselves at school. They are "taught" the right answers which should be regurgitated during examination periods.

One movie I highly recommend, if you are serious about success, is The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington and produced by Oprah.

The acting is superb, and the main message I got is, "Learn how to think and how to argue. Be ruthless in your reasoning and you will succeed."

Most people's thinking is quite vague, and this is why they do not succeed. I have friends who are CEOs of small companies and large companies, and I can tell you that their reasoning is quite ruthless.

To achieve financial freedom, you've got to prepare your arguments, and then be willing to share them in a (friendly) debate with an opponent whose sole mission is to DESTROY all your arguments.

A few months ago, I was invited to sit on a panel of investors and entrepreneurs in order to evaluate the business plan of men and women who had just completed 12 weeks of intensive entrepreneurial training.

About 1 person out of 20 did a rational presentation. The other 19 were so vague and so unfocused in the presentation of their business project that I felt they would do better as employees in the corporate world.

It seems strange to me that most people have not yet realized that the only thing they need to become wealthy, is that little round thing that sits on their shoulders!

So few people use their brains. In fact, children and young people who are at school or university, use their brains more than working adults!

Of course, they are engaged in superficial learning because there is no context in which they can apply, verify and thus integrate their learning into a permanent and habitual way of thinking. But at least, there is much activity in their brains.

Deep learning, as opposed to superficial learning, means "reflection in action." It means you are doing things, and are at the same time reflecting on what you are doing. It means "learning in context."

In short, the following sequence seems to capture what happens to many, if not most, entrepreneurs:

Business failure --> Reasoning --> Business success

For example, I failed in business in 1995. I learned from it. And have succeeded in business ever since.

Sometimes, you don't need to fail in business in order to succeed. But you definitely need to learn how to reason. How to argue and win arguments. And the best way to do that is to share your plans and arguments and sales pitches with friends and associates, and ask them explicitly to DESTROY your argumentation.

If you have the courage the expose your thinking and reasoning to ruthless criticism from others, then you will learn and improve. And as you learn and improve, you will maximize your odds of success.

Eventually, you will be so good at reasoning that you will succeed at ANY venture you undertake.

Such is the awesome power of reason, yet most people have not yet realized this. So now, you are way ahead of most people. But only for a short time.