Live in the world, work in Cyberworld

When you go out with friends, you're usually going to a real restaurant or movie theatre or amusement park etc.

Because of this, most people naturally assume that "work" should also occur in the "real" world and not in cyberspace.

This is why people (automatically) assume that a job is a place you go to (e.g. a building or cubicle).

More and more, however, people will not "go to work."

Work will come to them! (No matter where they are on this planet).

In other words, people will still live in the physical world (and have a social life in the physical world), but they will work in CYBERSPACE.

In particular, people whose jobs are knowledge-intensive.

Broadly speaking, there will be 3 kinds of workers:

PROLETARIAT - Manual workers or workers doing mostly physical tasks (in a manufacturing plant, in retail stores, etc.)

PRODUCERS - Knowledge workers working in offices; white-collar workers like professionals, managers, etc.

PROGRAMMERS - Elite workers who don't "work" but create "labots" that work for them (labot = robotized labor)

You're probably thinking that I drank too much coffee today and the last type of worker doesn't exist yet. :)

Yet, by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_de_Garis, you'll see that "brain building" is already an industry.

The basic thing to know about PROGRAMMERS is that they code. They don't work.

They then sell their source code and finished programmed products to the world.

This is how smart people will make a fortune in the Cyber Economy.

You might know the following "programmers": Rich Schefren, Katie Freiling, Eben Pagan, etc. They are known as Internet marketers, but one can also consider them to be "programmers" who program the Web to capture people's attention and then convert that attention into INTEREST, DESIRE AND FINALLY ACTION.

That's how you get rich: you convert attention into interest, then into desire, and finally into action (i.e. a purchase).

Notice that all of this is happening in the MIND of people.

So the Cyber Economy is, practically speaking, the "mental economy."

This means programmers are elite workers who program people's minds. More often than not, people cannot escape from those programs, which is why their lives are repetitive, not creative.

Facebook, TV news and advertisements, magazines, newspapers, etc. are various forms of programmings from which most people cannot escape.

The ONLY way to escape from such programmings, is to become a programmer yourself.

(to be continued)

Autoseminars -- The next big thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60nUiTrMvU

Since the summer of 2010, I've been studying and playing with a programming language in order to create an "autoseminar."

As the word implies, this is a seminar that runs "automatically."

In the above Youtube link, you can see how it works.

Before I explain further, I must say that you can benefit GREATLY from learning about how to program (and it's quite easy, will tell you more about it) because information technology is a POWERFUL way to LEVERAGE your expertise, assets, career, experience, business, etc.

In other words, you can only choose between LABOR and LEVERAGE.

Most people are "labor", that is, they work for a living. Nothing wrong with that.

I worked hard in my 20s for Fortune 500 companies and learned everything I could from them.

But most people eventually realize that you can't get LEVERAGE when you're LABOR.

Leverage simply means "doing a little to accomplish a lot."

Employees (that is, "labor") experience the opposite: they do a lot but cannot accomplish as much.

In fact, in today's competitive economy, employers will force employees to work harder and harder -- all for the same pay.

No wonder that I read in the news yesterday that according to a survey by Mercer Consulting, half of employees (in Canada) are "disengaged" from their work. They are actually looking for job opportunities elsewhere.

Since capitalism is a global phenomenon, I assume the same proportion of people are dissatisfied from their work in other countries like the US or Europe.

Yet, looking for another job is not the solution since chances are, the new employer will apply the same pressure. It's not that bosses are evil or malevolent, it's just that under the rules of capitalism, BUSINESS OWNERS MUST EXPLOIT LABOR.

That is the only way to continually increase profits (which is what business owners and shareholders want).

If you're an employee, you want to shift from being "labor" to creating "leverage."

I understood this since June 2000, when I quit corporate Canada for good (I was 31 years old).

So during the following 10 years, I searched for ways to create LEVERAGE in order to ensure my economic survival.

I thought of talent (my own and other people's talent), knowledge, skills, etc.

But ultimately, in 2010, I discovered -- in large part thanks to Ray Kurzweil's ideas about exponential growth through information technology -- that artificial intelligence and expert systems and computer programming are THE ultimate leverage.

It is no accident that 7 out of the 10 biggest firms in the US are related to software: Oracle, Microsoft, etc.

Now, to get back to the Youtube video above, what I wanted to show you was that I used a simple scripting language to create an executable file.

Then, as you can see in the video, I opened that file (named "bmwseminar$20.exe").

Next, as if by magic, a stream of text, strategically timed, appears on the computer screen.

Notice that this streaming text is NOT like a page of static text: because the text is flowing continuously, you are driven to read fast and not read in a leisurely, idle manner.

This executable file is called an "autoseminar" because the seminar runs automatically on the client's computer screen.

This file is literally a product I created, which can be sold or given away. It took me one day to write it.

More details about the principles behind the BMW seminar can be found at http://businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com.

What do I wonder whether "autoseminars" are the next big thing?

That's because the New Economy will be extremely competitive, and training/education will be products very much in demand.

So your ability to create or resell (other people's training products) will be key to your success.

Don't worry at all if you don't know how to program, I will teach you. It's quite simple, I learned in a few days.

Once you know how to program, you can create executable files of increasing sophistication and be able to sell them for up to $500 or even more (on sites like freemarket.com).

Do your passion (I can die in peace now)

http://youtu.be/2DVkT50UOjc

If I had to summarize the nearly 1,000 posts written so far on this blog, it would be "Do your passion!"

In the above video, that's what I tried to explain.

The principle is that "passion is ALWAYS sustainable," financially and in other ways such as resources, people, encounters, luck, etc.

This is what I've been telling all my clients and workshop participants in the last 6 years since I co-founded Talentelle with my sister Zoonie: Do what excites you!

People often have a hard time believing that they can just DO WHAT THEY LOVE TO DO and be paid for it.

That's because they (unconsciously?) define "work" as "doing something you'd rather not do, so you get paid."

The NEW work is all about "doing what you LOVE to do and get paid good money for it."

If you disagree with the above statement and you believe that "work" is something you MUST do (in order to pay the bills, the mortgage, support your family, etc.), then THAT is precisely the experience you will have (till you retire at age 65).

But you will have that experience BECAUSE that is how you define things, how you hold certain beliefs.

Change your beliefs and your experience WILL change!

I did change my beliefs and my whole experience has shifted, so that now I do exactly what I love to do every day and get paid good money for it.

Things were not always like this since, as you might expect, I had doubts about "doing what I love to do and get paid good money."

So if you have doubts -- that is, you don't believe that you can do what you LOVE to do and get paid for it -- I totally understand you.

I've been there, I know what it feels like.

Now that I'm on "the other side" and have absolutely NO DOUBT about doing what I love and getting paid good money for it, I can help people who still have doubts.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that you suddenly quit your daytime job and forget about your financial obligations!

But I am suggesting that you start to do more often the things you LOVE to do.

The more you do things you LOVE to do, the more love you will feel for yourself. That is true wealth: to love oneself.

As you FEEL this wealth inside of you, you will naturally and effortlessly attract wealth opportunities into your life.

Here, a word of caution: opportunities WILL come to you but they will usually not have the label "opportunity" on them! So you gotta pay attention to what's coming to you!

Yes, I mean opportunities to make more money WHILE doing what you love to do.

The trick, and this is REALLY important, is always do what excites you.

So for example, at any moment of the day, you will have certain options available to you (about what you CAN do). Of all those options available, CHOOSE the option that feels most exciting to you.

Keep doing this as a matter of reflex, and it WILL lead you to your passion-based career.

This method has worked wonders for me, so that's why I'm recommending it to you.

For instance, in the last few weeks, I have suddenly become a Camtasia expert, creating and producing tons of training videos while also developing my expertise as a strategic AI specialist (I create executable software applications that will be sold worldwide).

These apps are not like Excel or Word, which do nothing for people.

These AI-based apps actually contain expert systems and artificial intelligence (including inference engines, which I'll explain in a future post) that DO something concrete for the user.

These apps will generate six-figure incomes not just for me, but for my affiliates and resellers as well -- of that, I'm pretty convinced.

All of this just because I "followed my passion."

The other "path" is to do what you think you're supposed to do. That is, repeat your daily routine more or less like what you've done yesterday.

If that works for you, keep doing that.

But I suspect that more and more people are awakening to the fact that today, they can do much more than what they used to do.

However, this insanely great life is reserved for people who follow their heart and who don't think too much.

As a society, we are overly rational, overly logical. We rarely listen to our hearts.

Our lives simply cannot change significantly and become better significantly unless we start listening to our hearts and start acting out of joy and passion and creativity.

A very powerful spiritual principle states that life is nothing but the mirror of your choices, beliefs, assumptions, and expectations.

So if you want your life to change for the better, you must choose AGAIN. Choose with your heart and your whole life will change.

It's taken me a couple of years to understand this, but now I fully understand it (I guess I'm a slow learner!).

But it doesn't have to take you so long. As you practice this habit of doing what excites you, it WILL lead you to your ideal career -- one based on your passion and natural talent.

And like me, you will discover how easy, natural and effortless the process is! You just have to let go of your logical mind and let Life guide you.

As Oprah said in her last show, "Embrace the life that has been calling you and use your life to serve the world."

Transcendent Man + Share and become rich

If you wish to know what the future will look like, I highly recommend watching the Transcendent Man, an hour-long documentary on the life and ideas of futurist and inventor Raymond Kurzweil.

Kurzweil basically argues, in his book The Singularity, that as soon as 2029, technology and artificial intelligence will be so fast and sophisticated that it will "fold on itself" and dramatically accelerate its own development.

Bill Gates himself acknowledges that Kurzweil is the best at predicting technological trends, so it would be rather unwise to dismiss his ideas as being too farfetched.

From my own experience, having delved into artificial intelligence research since last summer (2010) and various technologies like video capture and editing (using Camtasia in particular), I tend to believe Kurzweil.

What does this mean for you, practically speaking?

How is Kurzweil related to success?

Well, no matter how you define "success" and in what areas you wish experience more success, one thing is for sure: you can benefit greatly by learning to use technology STRATEGICALLY.

Technology is, in the end, only an amplifier; an accelerator; a multiplier.

It must have something to amplify, accelerate, or multiply.

So if you concentrate your efforts, energies, ideas, abilities, strengths, etc. and create VALUE, then technology (which, as Kurzweil correctly mentions, will grow EXPONENTIALLY) will amplify, accelerate and multiply your VALUE.

Yes, this means you can become very rich very fast.

This is not something historically new: Henry Ford took a while to become rich through the automobile industry, Bill Gates took less time, Jeff Bezos (Amazon) took even less time, and pretty soon, smart teenagers can become super-rich by floating a new product or app via Facebook or similar social media.

Teenagers or young people in their 20s will be more fluent in the usage of cutting-edge technologies, thus they will only have to create some value (product or service) and be able to market it, technologically, to millions of people.

I say "market" but perhaps that word is no longer accurate. "Sharing" one's products (and of course giving away the early versions for free -- this is called beta testing) is a better term.

The current issue of Harvard Business Review has an interesting article on how making your product "shareable" (by inserting a Share button) will multiply marketing effectiveness by 400%!

This is incredible when you think about it, because business has traditionally been about "exploitation." A business owner exploits the labor (the services that workers provide) in order to maximize profits.

In the New Economy (which, again, will be run by and through continually evolving technologies and AI, as Kurweil points out), it is by SHARING that you will become rich.

Think about this for a minute.

It means that the more of a caring and generous person you are, the faster you will achieve financial freedom and wealth.

(to be continued)

Obliquity, by John Kay

Achieving success is what we all want. But are we going about it in the right way?

And what is the "right way", anyway?

In his book, Obliquity, John Kay explains that often, one can achieve one's goals by being INDIRECT.

The author argues that often the most profitable firms are not profit-driven; the happiest people do not (directly) seek "happiness" but engage in "flowful" activities (which totally absorb their mind).

Note: He refers to "flow," a body of work pioneered by Mihalyi and summarized succinctly in his book, Flow - the psychology of optimal experience. (It's the best book I ever read about DESIGNING fulfilling activities that lead to happiness in life. I've used the book to design experiences that totally engage my mind. This total loss of oneself in a flowful activity, enables a person to turn her passion into a talent. After 5-10 years, they become the best in their field.

That is, they have a talent that can now be turned into a career or a business.

Often, people have a passion but do not know how to design the environment (physical, psychological, social, material) that will drive them to "flowfully" develop this passion further and further. Thus, the passion fails to become a talent, and the talent fails to become a fulfilling career or small business.

The process I created to capture this all-important imperative of "following one's bliss", as famed mythologist Joseph Campbell put it, has four phases:

- Fear
- Freedom
- Flow
- Fortune

From the above, I tend to agree with Kay's premise, that our goals in life (or visions, dreams, objectives, no matter what we call the objects of desire that we aim for) can be best achieved INDIRECTLY.

So first, a person must acknowledge she is afraid. She feels, consciously or not, the fear of deviating from societal norms and even norms set by parents, consciously or not.

Then, she can be free to explore; free to be herself TRULY and AUTHENTICALLY.

Next, she learns how to design environments where she can experience "flow", almost by default.

For example, at home I have notebooks and pens everywhere, including calligraphy pens, so this deliberately designed environment enables me to practice the writer's craft (and my calligraphy) often. Every day, in fact.

Finally, and this is the easy part, she creates a FORTUNE for herself, having diligently gone through the previous phases.

Eat pill, get rich

I just saw this movie yesterday, Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper and it just blew my mind!

The story is pretty interesting: a struggling writer is introduced to a "magic" pill that supposedly will enable him to use parts of his brain that he normally doesn't use.

This results in his being not only ultra-rational and lucid, but extremely creative and physically powerful in life-threatening situations.

The idea of a magic pill might be difficult to swallow (pardon the pun), but the logic behind how the process of cerebral enhancement is not farfetched: the person is pharmaceutically induced to become hyper-activated, neurologically speaking, and thus can access memories stored in the brain.

He's also able to "connect the dots" very fast, giving him the necessary background information to reach correct conclusions and make all the right decisions.

This magic pill enables our hero, Eddie Morra, to learn the finance game and turn $12,000 into $2.3M in 10 days!

Obviously, that part was highly interesting to me as I position myself as a wealth creation innovator.

I'm looking for ideas and technologies that can help people to create more wealth more effortlessly.

This movie gave me tons of ideas on how people can use their brain, as well as publicly available information in order to create value, products, services, wealth, etc.

The real-life person who comes closest to this ideal of being able to think extremely fast while making accurate judgments, is billionaire Charlie Munger, who often talked about his "secret": he continually creates new mental models and links them in what he calls a "lattice of mental models" which enables him to conjecture, think, conclude and validate his hypotheses, assumptions, and reasoning.

In the end, whether such a magic pill exists or not, and whether it can be invented one day, is not as relevant as the hope that it provides to viewers. The hope that we CAN become smarter every day, if only we spent some time to think consciously, and even think about how we think so we can correct ourselves all the time.

Note: If you like this post, share it with a friend! :)

Eat pill, get rich

I just saw this movie yesterday, Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper and it just blew my mind!

The story is pretty interesting: a struggling writer is introduced to a "magic" pill that supposedly will enable him to use parts of his brain that he normally doesn't use.

This results in his being not only ultra-rational and lucid, but extremely creative and physically powerful in life-threatening situations.

The idea of a magic pill might be difficult to swallow (pardon the pun), but the logic behind how the process of cerebral enhancement is not farfetched: the person is pharmaceutically induced to become hyper-activated, neurologically speaking, and thus can access memories stored in the brain.

He's also able to "connect the dots" very fast, giving him the necessary background information to reach correct conclusions and make all the right decisions.

This magic pill enables our hero, Eddie Morra, to learn the finance game and turn $12,000 into $2.3M in 10 days!

Obviously, that part was highly interesting to me as I position myself as a wealth creation innovator.

I'm looking for ideas and technologies that can help people to create more wealth more effortlessly.

This movie game me tons of ideas on how people can use their brain, as well as publicly available information in order to create value, products, services, wealth, etc.

The real-life person who comes closest to this ideal of being able to think extremely fast while making accurate judgments, is billionaire Charlie Munger, who often talked about his "secret": he continually creates new mental models and links them in what he calls a "lattice of mental models" which enables him to conjecture, think, conclude and validate his hypotheses, assumptions, and reasoning.

In the end, whether such a magic pill exists or not, and whether it can be invented one day, is not as relevant as the hope that it provides to viewers. The hope that we CAN become smarter every day, if only we spent some time to think consciously, and even think about how we think so we can correct ourselves all the time.

Note: If you like this post, share it with a friend! :)