There was a time, not long ago, when you could sum up each company quite neatly: Apple made consumer electronics, Google ran a search engine, Amazon was a web store, and Facebook was a social network. How quaint that assessment seems today.

The four American companies that have come to define 21st-century information technology and entertainment are on the verge of war. Over the next two years, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will increasingly collide in the markets for mobile phones and tablets, mobile apps, social networking, and more. This competition will be intense. Each of the four has shown competitive excellence, strategic genius, and superb execution that have left the rest of the world in the dust.

Jeff Bezos, who was ahead of the curve in creating a cloud data service, is pushing Amazon into digital media, book publishing, and, with his highly buzzed-about new line of Kindle tablets, including the $199 Fire, a direct assault on the iPad. Amazon almost doubled in size from 2008 to 2010, when it hit $34 billion in annual revenue; analysts expect it to reach $100 billion in annual revenue by 2015, faster than any company ever.

Facebook, meanwhile, is now more than just the world’s biggest social network; it is the world’s most expansive enabler of human communication. It has changed the ways in which we interact (witness its new Timeline interface); it has redefined the way we share–personal info, pictures (more than 250 million a day), and now news, music, TV, and movies. With access to the “Likes” of more than 800 million people, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has an unequaled trove of data on individual consumer behavior that he can use to personalize both media and advertising.

1. The Road Map: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google do not talk about their plans. Coca-Cola would tweet its secret formula before any of them would even hint at what’s next. “That is a part of the magic of Apple,” says new CEO Tim Cook.

2. The Inevitable War: Hardware. Media. Data. With each company sharing a vision dependent on these three big ideas, conflict over pretty much every strategic move seems guaranteed. Amazon, for example, needs a better media tablet to drive more customers to its Kindle, MP3, and app stores. But how to avoid an HP-like disaster?

3. The Profit Game: Late in 2010, Jobs made a surprise visit to Apple’s quarterly earnings call. The purported reason was to celebrate Apple’s first $20 billion quarter, but Jobs clearly had something else on his mind: Android. At the time, Google’s free mobile operating system was beginning to eclipse the iPhone’s market share.

4. The Living Room: In the spring of 2010, Rishi Chandra, a Google product manager, took to the stage at the company’s developer conference to announce Google’s next victim: the TV business.

5. The Phone Barrier: One industry stands directly between the Fab Four and global domination. It’s an industry that frustrates you every day, one that consistently ranks at the bottom of consumer satisfaction surveys, that poster child for stifling innovation and creativity: your phone carrier. And your cable or DSL firm. For Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, the world’s wireless and broadband companies are a blessing and a curse.

Source: So, who will win in 2012?

Dell calls it the “Streak.” HP has their own version – the “Touchsmart.” Samsung has the Galaxy Tab. Apple of course has the iPad. There’s also the “Ideos” from a Chinese company called Huawei, and the “Edge” from a Virginia company called Entourage.

In some parts of India, they’re calling this technology the “Adam.”

Many of these versions of the “Chi–Tab” started hitting U.S. stores as early as last spring. Others are on their way…

Like the “Cruz” by a company named Velocity Micro…

If you haven’t seen one yet, just head down to your local Best Buy. Or check out the consumer electronics stores in your local mall. In most cities, you’ll already find them for sale.

In the U.S. – and everywhere else in the world – this trend is still in its infancy…

Mainly hard–core techies and research–intensive businesses have started buying into the trend…

Medtronic, Bausch & Lomb, Wells Fargo, Hyatt Hotels, the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Denver Fire Department, to name a few.

But the much bigger story, we believe, is China’s market… the world’s most fertile ground for a computer revolution like the “Chi–Tab”.

And, as I’ll show you in a few minutes, the Chinese Government may be putting a plan in motion that could turn this already phenomenal opportunity into what may be the biggest trend we’ve ever seen.

Who owns the ‘Chi–Tab?’

As I mentioned earlier, no one single person or company has claim to this technology.

How’s this possible?

Well, let’s consider another technology that has spread to China… and take another quick look at the mobile phone.

Sure, Chinese companies like China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom have their own patented phones and software… and are battling it out for control of the Chinese market…

But mobile phone technology is the application of an idea, which has and always will be up for grabs.

Likewise, right now, companies are battling it out for control of the “Chi–Tab” market… but no one single company or individual has sole claim on the “Chi–Tab” technology either…

So how could you get rich from this trend, regardless of who wins this market?

Well, big cell phone companies did do quite well in China…

China Mobile – the biggest cell phone company in China with over 500 million subscribers saw its stock climb 651%. And China Telecom is up 307%.

But the real winners – the companies that have made an absolute fortune in the Chinese cell phone market, are the tiny companies most people have never heard of, who specialize and control key parts of the technology.

Companies like Cypress Semiconductor, which makes microchips and touch screens for cell phones and holds over 700 patents on its technology.

Most likely you’ve never heard of this obscure company, and neither have the 650 million Chinese who use cell phones… but that doesn’t matter because early investors could have made 2,407% so far.

Then there’s Microsemi, a company that makes a proprietary filter–less audio amplifier for cell phones (to help you hear better.) So far, this stock is up a staggering 4,965%.

Or consider ARM Holdings, which designs microprocessors that are used in more than 95% of the world’s cell phones. Their stock has already shot up 1,213%.

My point is, the same thing that happened with cell phones is happening right now with the “Chi–Tab” market.

Source: Stansberry Research

* Words sell and words repel
* Words lead and words impede
* Words heal and words kill

Aspire will help you understand what words mean in their purest sense and unlock their importance as you develop a new leadership vocabulary.

From a fateful encounter with a wise shopkeeper in Vienna to a serendipitous introduction to an esteemed etymologist residing in a senior home, Kevin Hall discovers the secret power inherent in words, and invites us all on the journey.

Discovering your purpose through the Power of Words is almost an understatement to this book. Will you find your purpose? I don’t know, but what I do know is that you will be inspired to find your purpose and will have encouragement to turn to again and again as you struggle through the path.

The meaning of ten words:
1. Genshai (not treating anyone, including yourself, small)
2. Pathfinder (leader)
3. Namaste (respecting each person’s authenticity and uniqueness)
4. Passion (suffering for what you value)
5. Sapere Vedere (visioning)
6. Humility (being teachable)
7. Inspire (breathing life into)
8. Empathy (walking the path of another)
9. Coach (mentoring another)
10. Integrity (being congruent)

Source: Kevin Hall “Aspire”

It was an experimental wine that Thierry had been working on…

He thought it had potential, so he decided to share it with Guy.

He poured two glasses. They sipped it.

After they’d both appreciated it for a few minutes, Thierry declared in heavily accented English…

“Now zat iz what you call a phet best-ard!”

And so the wine — and Thierry’s winery — was named.
The point: Don’t be afraid of silly ideas…

That’s the advice Paul Arden gives in his book It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be.

And it’s advice that I agree with big time.

Fat Bastard wine is just one example of a silly idea that turned out to be very successful. I mean, who in their right mind would call a wine Fat Bastard?

Yet, it worked brilliantly…

In just six years, it became an international success, selling hundreds of thousands of cases. In fact, the brand was described by BusinessWeek as a “marketing phenomenon.”

I actually remember first seeing a bottle of Fat Bastard in a Tesco in Grimsby a couple of years ago. And I’m not surprised it’s stuck in my memory…

Imagine looking along your typical supermarket wine shelf. There’s Chateau This and Chateaux That — and then, right in the middle, there’s a bottle of Fat Bastard!

It’s an absurd name — almost juvenile. But attention-getting… and unforgettable.

Arden quotes John Cleese as saying:

“High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought.”

That’s what happened with the wine… Thierry and Guy weren’t thinking critically when they decided to name the wine. They just went with it.

I bet there was a lot of critical thought afterward, as various “suits” undoubtedly told them it was a silly idea. But they stayed with it, and ended up with a hit on their hands.

Using Silly Ideas to Solve Your Problems

Arden also talks about how “thinking silly” can help you overcome a mental block…

This resonated with me, because it’s something I often do if I get stuck. You’re faced with a problem at work and you need to come up with a solution, but your brain just isn’t firing.

It happens to us all, right?

You sit there trying to figure it out, but you end up going round in circles.

The problem remains.

One of the reasons your brain might not be firing properly is because you’re being too critical of yourself… You’re so concerned with coming up with the right solution, first time, that you’re blocking your brain.

As Cleese said, “creativity is responding to situations without critical thought.” So, you need to dump that critical thought and start thinking freely, start thinking “silly.”

Arden’s approach, here, is two-fold…

First, he recommends doing the opposite of what the solution requires…

And second, he recommends looking out the window and using whatever catches your eye — be it a man in the street, a television aerial, whatever — as a possible solution to your problem.

Both ideas sound strange, but it’s exactly this kind of illogic that shakes up your brain and gets it thinking about your problem — and its solution — in a different way.

So whenever you’re struggling to come up with a solution to a problem you’re facing…

Follow Paul Arden’s advice and start “thinking silly”… Your silly idea might just turn out to be the best one you ever have.

Source: Glenn Fischer ETR

I ran my first marathon after my fiftieth birthday. I’ve run nine more since then, including the New York and Boston marathons. I’m proud of that fact for a number of reasons, not because I ever came anywhere close to finishing first, but that I finished them all.

A marathon is 26.2 miles. It is as much of a mind game as a physical challenge. You train your body to keep going when you think you can’t take another step. You visualize the finish line and the celebration as you cross. The key ingredient is motivation.

There are more than 500 marathons held every year around the world. Most of the participants are amateur athletes, whose reasons for competing span the spectrum.

Training for a marathon is much like preparing for the challenges in business. The pace may be different, but endurance is every bit as important.

My good friend and marathon coach, Bill Wenmark, knows plenty about both running and business. Bill says: “If success in business, like a marathon, were easy everyone would do it. Whether you think you can, or whether you think you cannot, in either respect you are always going to be right. When you master this internal strength you will become a respected leader of others.

“People who start a marathon are not the same, and never will be the same, once they cross the finish line. I just finished my 100th marathon. It was just like my first: proud, strong and willing to take on any challenge. Confidence, character, integrity, grit, focus and determination go a long way in the marathon of life and define many successful people.”

Any business or career that wants to be around for the long haul can benefit from these marathon training tips that I received many years ago.

* Set your goals and share them with others. When you announce your intentions, you are more likely to follow through. Write down your goals and hang copies by your desk, on your bathroom mirror, in your car, on your smart phone, and anywhere else you will see them regularly.
* Keep a record of your training and progress. When you run, it helps to keep a log of the dates, distance, conditions, times and whatever else affects your performance. When you work, your record-keeping will remind you about project progress, expectations, agreements and factors that could determine outcomes.
* Remember that you are only human. As important as training and preparation are, there will be days when not even your best efforts are enough. Every now and then you need to recharge your batteries and give yourself a rest.
* Use the buddy system. Work out with a few friends to stay motivated and on track. Ask other friends to act as coaches and your support system. Do the same with your career. Use trusted friends as a sounding board, and develop your network with contacts whom you can also help.
* Take it a step at a time. Don’t think about the whole course — break it into doable segments. You’ve heard the saying, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Well, you can’t get to the end of anything if you don’t start at the beginning and work your way through each phase.
* Have some fun. Exercise or work that is all drudgery saps your energy as well as your spirit. Running a marathon is hard work, but hard work can be fun. Building a business or career is like a marathon that doesn’t stop at 26.2 miles. If you’re going to go the distance, you should enjoy the scenery along the way.

Running may not be your thing, but most all of us have to earn a living one way or another. The majority will work anywhere from 25 to 45 years. The average person will have three career changes and perhaps ten jobs before their fortieth birthday.

Statistics like these make a foot race pale in comparison to the treadmill so many workers must master just to bring home a paycheck. Good training and the right mental preparation will help you find a job you love, that challenges you and satisfies you, and makes you want to get back in the race every day.

Source: Harvey Mackay’s Moral

Something like that exists in the realm of wealth building.

I’m talking about something inside you that can transform you into a money-making megalomaniac (MMM).

As an MMM, you will never:
* have another sluggish moment
* feel confused about what you need to do
* doubt your ability to make money — or hesitate to go after it

I have used this secret (I call it the Junkie’s Secret) to fuel my entrepreneurial ambitions in the past and I use it now to motivate myself to write books and make movies. Today, I pass it on to you…

Consider the Humble Coke Addict

Take an ambitionless, aimless young man in his 20s. He’s a high-school dropout, which means he’s functionally illiterate. Having been deprived of a good family, he is also angry. To make matters worse, he’s no “Good Will Hunting.” He’s dumb as a dishrag.

Let me ask you: What is this young man likely to do for a living?

You guessed right. Nothing.

But if he were to work… if he could be forced to work through some amazingly successful government program… how much money could he make?

You guessed right again. Minimum wage — $7.25 an hour or about $50 a day, before taxes.

Now take that same stupid, lazy kid and give him a crack-cocaine addiction.

How much money could he make then?

You guessed it again. He could make a freaking fortune!

In the 1980s, I lived in what is sometimes referred to as a “transitional” neighborhood in Washington, DC. For several years, I had the opportunity to observe the incessant, almost compulsive, money-making activities of junkies. Day in and day out, these uneducated, drugged-out, degenerates would go out into a very unfriendly world and hustle.

They panhandled. They stole. They ran cons of every possible variety. And they made lots of money.

Many of these jokers, according to an article I read in The Washington Post at the time, were making $300 to $400 a day to feed their habits. (These days, they’d probably have to pull in $600 to $900.)

That made an impression on me. I mean, hell! They were making a lot more than I was. And I had two degrees and three jobs.

An Impressive Accomplishment

The more I thought about it, the more amazing it seemed.

These were total losers whose primary desire in life was to numb themselves into a stupor. Yet they were making more money on the streets of DC than anyone I knew who worked in a fancy office.

I had a good idea of how junkies earned their money. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where they got the emotional wherewithal to do it.

So I decided to talk to some of them.

It wasn’t hard. A dollar would buy me five minutes of conversation. A dollar and a cup of coffee would buy me 15.

I eventually befriended three of the neighborhood junkies. An old man named George who had once worked for the post office. A young man named Dean who had never worked a legitimate day in his life. And a mother of three named Desiree. (At least that’s what they told me their names were.)

They all “worked” on 14th Street, the main corridor for hookers and drug addicts.

Before I went to work every day, I would walk over to 14th Street and spend a few minutes with George, Dean, or Desiree.

Gradually, I figured out their money-making secret. It was a combination of three very old-fashioned and virtuous habits.

Three Habits of Highly Successful Crackheads

George, Dean, and Desiree worked even longer hours than I did. Back then, I was working 12 hours a day. These three worked every waking hour — 18 to 20 hours a day.

Each of them worked with a single-minded purpose. Although there were moments when they nodded off, 90 percent of their conscious time was focused on getting the money they needed for the next fix. I had a dozen interests and alternate ambitions. They had only one objective.

But the most important difference between them and me had to do with something deeper. Their addiction was much stronger than my ambition. They would do WHATEVER IT TOOK to achieve their goal.

If you study the lives of America’s most successful people, you will discover that they too:
1. worked long and hard
2. stayed focused on one goal
3. made sacrifices to achieve that goal

Read the biography of Andrew Carnegie and you will see these three habits repeated throughout his life. Watch a documentary about Warren Buffett or Bill Gates and you will find the same thing.

It’s something to think about, isn’t it?

Working long and hard is important to success. Having determination and focus is important too. But to achieve really big goals… to climb into a whole new category… you have to do more. You have to have the willingness to do whatever it takes, including things that are risky, uncomfortable, new, worrisome, or even dangerous.

Junkies don’t get the respect they deserve.

Imagine what the addict’s life is like. You wake up on a park bench smelling of urine. You stretch, rub the sores on your face and forearms, and say to yourself, “Up and at ‘em, boy. Today you are going to go out there — to that cold and unfriendly city — and get your hands on six hundred bucks.”

Could you do that? Day after day? I couldn’t. Not unless I was addicted to something.

How to Tap Into the Unappreciated Power of the Junkie

You can have the junkie’s gift. And you don’t even have to smoke crack to get it.

Somewhere inside you a fire is smoldering — the desire to break away from the past, start your own business, and take charge of your future. If you leave this fire alone, it will eventually burn itself out. Your life will slip by meaninglessly. When you die, your dreams will die too.

But if you fan the flames of your desire, the fire will grow. And that will turn you into a money-making megalomaniac.

As a wealth-building entrepreneur, you will be unstoppable!

It is damn hard to get a new venture going. It is difficult because it is different. And because it requires you to go beyond your “comfort zone.”

Take a look at your “to-do” list for today. There is probably something on it that has something to do with that business you’ve been wanting to start. You know it is important to your future. You have highlighted it. Yet you are reluctant to do it.

But if you want to achieve more than you have ever achieved, you have to be willing to do more than you have ever done before. You need to commit yourself, put in the hours, stay focused — and, yes, do those unpleasant but very necessary tasks.

So do this right now. Pretend for a moment that you ARE a junkie and that you absolutely, positively must achieve that goal.

Failure is not an option.

Set aside your qualms. Ignore your fears.

What is it that you would do to succeed?

Got it? Good.

Now ask yourself, “Why am I not doing that?”

Do you have a moral objection to what needs to be done? A fear of failing?

Face your feelings squarely. Think about how they are blocking you. If you do that fully and honestly today, you will have accomplished a lot.

Source: ETR Michael MAsterson

When Dean died in a plane crash in 1958, it’s said that among his personal effects was an envelope with nine life lessons scribbled on the back. These lessons aren’t about the law, or atomic energy, or foreign relations. Rather, they represent wisdom that should be shared and used by people everywhere. These are his superb lessons:

1. Never lose your capacity for enthusiasm.
2. Never lose your capacity for indignation.
3. Never judge people — don’t type them too quickly. But in a pinch never first assume that a man is bad; first assume that he is good and that, at worst, he is in the gray area between bad and good.
4. Never be impressed by wealth alone or thrown by poverty.
5. If you can’t be generous when it’s hard to be, you won’t be when it’s easy.
6. The greatest builder of confidence is the ability to do something — almost anything — well.
7. When confidence comes, then strive for humility; you aren’t as good as all that.
8. The way to become truly useful is to seek the best that other brains have to offer. Use them to supplement your own, and be prepared to give credit to them when they have helped.
9. The greatest tragedies in the world and personal events stem from misunderstandings. So communicate!

The reason I’m so impressed with Dean’s lessons is that — besides being written on an envelope – they apply across the board, to all ages in every profession. They are simple yet profound.

Perhaps you remember Robert Fulghum’s runaway best seller, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” which the author says reminds us that the most basic aspects of life bear its most important opportunities. Again, the life lessons contained in Fulghum’s book are not complicated. It is their simplicity that makes them universal.

You may have noticed that I end every column with a moral — a life lesson of sorts. Some of those morals resulted from experiences that taught me that I still have plenty to learn. We have all learned some lessons along the way, including plenty from the school of hard knocks.

Through the years I have offered more than 1,000 morals in this column and in my books. Naturally, I have some favorites which have universal applications. Here are my top 15:

* They don’t pay off on effort . . . they pay off on results.
* People don’t care how much you know about them once they know how much you care about them.
* Make decisions with your heart and you’ll wind up with heart disease.
* Pale ink is better than the most retentive memory.
* When a person with money meets a person with experience . . . here is what happens . . . the person with the experience winds up with the money and the person with the money winds up with the experience.
* No one ever choked swallowing his or her own pride.
* Sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck
* If you don’t learn from your mistakes, there’s no sense in making them.
* If you think you’re irreplaceable, try putting your finger in a bowl of water and observe the hole it leaves when you take it out.
* People go around all of their lives thinking: What should I buy? What should I sell? Wrong questions: When should I buy? When should I sell?
* There is a place in the world for anyone who says, “I’ll take care of it.”
* Failure is no more fatal than success is permanent.
* Anger is only one letter short of danger.
* Ideas without action are worthless.
* We are judged by what we finish, not by what we start.

Mere platitudes? No, these words hold real meaning for me. No doubt you have learned a few lessons too, and I’d love to hear them. I’m always ready to learn something new!

Mackay’s Moral: We are all students of life — pay attention and take notes!

Many good ideas have been discovered because someone poked around in an outside industry or discipline, and applied what he found to his own field. For example, Dan Bricklin took the “spreadsheet” concept from accounting and turned it into VisiCalc, the program that helped create the microcomputer software industry. World War I military designers borrowed from the cubist art of Picasso and Braque to create more effective camouflage patterns for tanks and guns.

Certainly no one would question Pablo Picasso’s creativity, and much of his inspiration came from his mother at a young age. According to the artist, “My mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll become a general. If you become a monk you’ll end up as the Pope.’ Instead, I became an artist and wound up as Picasso.”

If you are not born with creativity … then you have to cultivate creativity on an ongoing basis. Here are some ideas:

“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”
- Alebert Einstein

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
- Scott Adams

The Zero-State

In my own trading, I have found the essential state of mind I must be in to trade at an optimal level. I call it the “zero-state.”
For me, the zero-state represents an emotionally neutral condition that is neither happy nor sad, neither overconfident nor fearful. The adjective “calm” starts to come close to what I mean but the term lacks an important distinction. “Calm” is part of an adjective pair, whose partner has precisely the opposite meaning. “Stormy” is usually given as the antonym to “calm.”
The term “serenity” describes a state that comes even closer to describing the zero-state than calm. Serenity suggests a timeless eternity of “no-emotion,” where I am not connected to the outcome in a personal, meaningful way.
No conventional adjective, however, can fully describe the zero-state. An adjective describes a particular condition. I associate one adjective or condition as one half of a pair of opposites. Both words of the pair form poles on a continuum where I think of the exact center as “zero,” just as on a number line.
Conceptually, the Japanese term “mu” comes fairly close to this concept of center. “Mu” has been variously described as neither yes or no, a state in-between that does not acknowledge the question being asked as one that may be answered by either yes or no, with the answer existing in a different plane of reality.

Other Useful Mental States

Other traders I know have found different mental states useful. After all, trading from an emotion-free state (like the zero-state) may not be the best mental state for you. Consider the following options for your optimal mental state in your journey of self discovery and trading mastery.
I know traders who find it necessary and useful to achieve a state of emotional alpha male competitiveness in order to enter the “ring of combat.” These traders perceive the trading environment as combative and they interpret their role accordingly. They anticipate combat, they mentally prepare for it, and they experience trading in combative terms.

Another effective trader I know needs to see himself as a pure mechanical businessman, so he takes a different approach: that of disinterested observer. He remains so disinterested that he will not even watch the trades unfold lest he’s tempted to adapt his rules mid-trade.
His analysis showed that such behavior did not add value, so his optimal mental state was to be as far away from engagement as possible.
These are just two other examples of different mental states suitable for effective trading. There may be as many unique states as there are traders, which means that you must use introspection and self-knowledge to discover what works for you psychologically.
How will you know? Know thyself and consult with others you trust and respect. Above all else, however, make sure you trade with real money in very small position sizes. Doing so will help you assess the effects of market, system, money and self on your total trading performance. Without even a small amount of money on the line, you postpone the Day of Judgment. The sooner you get into the game, the sooner you will engage in real learning. In addition, you need to use trading strategies that suit your personality, time frame, risk profile and working hypothesis of market behavior. Trading in ways that fit you will help you maintain your optimal mental state for trading.
Now, let’s delve into my preferred state for effective trading—the zero-state.

The Zero-State Experience

For me, achieving the zero-state is a necessary precondition for trading at my peak. It is a place where adjective pairs of mental states cancel each other out, leaving only a moment of pure being. It is the space between the words that we know, a moment and a place of freedom, where all notes may be struck; the moment precisely before the next action occurs.

For a horn player, it is the moment where he has gathered his breath and is prepared to initiate the note—the pure balance point between inhale and exhale. A diver finds the moment of motionless serenity between ascent and descent.

Imagine a Cartesian coordinate semantic grid system with adjective pairs arrayed about the origin. Each word has its precisely paired antonym and the midpoint of the ray that connects them is bisected at the origin.

The pure form of the act of trading for me is to achieve a timeless correctness—to take actions or to refrain from actions in perfect balance with the needs of the market at that moment; to be nothing more or less than that which is required ideally.

When I trade from this moment, this place, my results generate neither joy nor sadness; they simply are what they are. This allows me to enter the next trade with no emotional charge. I find this state keenly important to my style of trading. I try to find the hesitation point in a channel trade or in a breakout, where price remains poised between fear and greed. At this point, bulls and bears are in timeless balance and the next leg of the move will begin just as the last leg ends.

When I am able, I stalk the price to that moment of harmony, that zero-state where momentum transitions so I can refine the entry point and the initial stop to be absurdly close. This enables me to minimize open risk and move to “no lose” trade conditions very quickly.

When I know (barring an interruption of connectivity or market discontinuity) that I will never do worse than break even, I enter an immensely freeing psychological state as a professional trader. Experiencing the zero-state provides spiritual nourishment and meaningful satisfaction of that moment provides a meaningful experience having had a brush with Truth and Perfection in a small way for a fleeting moment in my life.

In judo we speak of a moment in a throw where you and your partner are equally sure that the other judo player is throwing you with exactly the same force and skill as you are throwing them. In that moment the throws stop, time slows, and you are suspended in a moment of pure being.

My exercise of attaining the zero-state smoothes my equity curve and rewards my trading practice.

Source: Ken Long, founder of Tortoise Capital Management, www.tortoisecapital.com

But choose the penny, and on the 31st day, you’d actually have $10,737,418.24! That’s the power of compounding.

Darren Hardy, publisher of SUCCESS Magazine, has just written a remarkable book, “The Compound Effect,” that shows readers how to draw on that example in all areas of life. His premise is that everything you do in life exists because you started by making a choice about something. The ripple effects of those choices lead to your ultimate success or failure.

What’s most impressive about Darren’s formula is that he is living proof that it works. At age 18, he was earning a six-figure salary. The business he built was worth $50 million by the time he was 27. He hasn’t celebrated his fortieth birthday yet — imagine what lies ahead. He has studied success and human achievement all his adult life, and his magazine is fertile ground for research. The man not only talks the talk, he walks the walk.

He cautions that a few key disciplines are necessary for major breakthroughs, and not to expect overnight success. Instituting changes is hard work. Consistency in making changes and choices is the ultimate key to success, yet it’s “one of the biggest pitfalls for people who are struggling to succeed,” he says.

He credits our grandparents with having the qualities that create lasting success: grit, hard work and fortitude. We should adopt their strong work ethic, which “instilled discipline, chiseled their character, and stoked the spirit to brave new frontiers.”

And, he reminds us, “You alone are responsible for what you do, don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you. . . Luck, circumstances, or the right situation wasn’t what mattered. If it was to be, it was up to me. . . I was still 100 percent in control of me.”

Darren is a tough taskmaster, but at the same time, your biggest fan. He offers a lot of common sense wisdom that can translate to just about anyone’s situation. He also doesn’t accept excuses.

In fact, he says, “There is one thing that 99 percent of ‘failures’ and ‘successful’ folks have in common — they all hate doing the same things. The difference is that successful people do them anyway. Change is hard. That’s why people don’t change their bad habits, and why so many people end up unhappy and unhealthy.

“What excites me about this reality, however, is that if change were easy, and everyone were doing it, it would be much more difficult for you and me to stand out and become an extraordinary success. Ordinary is easy. Extra-ordinary is what separates people.”

“The Compound Effect” is a fascinating how-to book that’s adaptable to many situations. As I think about the very successful people I know, they have put these principles into practice every day. I don’t know anyone who started at the top and worked their way up.

But I do know people who have become very successful and then got a little lazy. They lost some of the discipline that propelled them to the top, and then they were surprised that things weren’t going as well as they once were. Darren addresses that issue as well, reminding us that what got us to where we are is what will keep us there.

Finally, he encourages us to share our success: “Whatever I want in life, I’ve found that the best way to get it is to focus my energy on giving to others. If I want to boost my confidence, I look for ways to help someone else feel more confident. If I want to feel more hopeful, positive, and inspired, I infuse that in someone else’s day. If I want more success for myself, the fastest way to get it is to go about helping someone else obtain it. The ripple effect of helping others and giving generously of your time and energy is that you become the biggest beneficiary of your personal philanthropy.”

“You make your choices, and then your choices make you.”
- Harvey Mackay

“To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.”
Benjamin Franklin

It’s not just the “experts” who flounder, of course. Life is one long lesson in humility. Our perceptions can deceive us. Trust gets misplaced. Knowledge grows and opinions change. Even when the truth is with us, there are often exceptions.

It’s natural to seek out experts who can guide us. But outside of physics and chemistry, predictions about the future are best taken with a whole shaker of salt.

We are all swimming in a vast sea of the unknown. The sooner we recognize this – and embrace it in our personal and business lives – the better our chances of staying afloat.

Source: Alex Green

Did you know that there are TEN Chinese education stocks listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq? Yup … TEN stocks.

• ATA Inc. (ATAI) provides computer-based training courses to pass professional certification exams such as banking, insurance and accounting.
• Ambow Education Holdings (AMBO) has a unique combination of hands-on personal tutoring supplemented with online training.
• ChinaEdu Corporation (CEDU) is the Chinese equivalent of the University of Phoenix, offering online college degrees.
• China Distance Education Holdings (DL) offers online education and test preparation courses specializing in accounting, law, healthcare, construction, engineering and information technology.
• China Education Alliance Inc. (CEU) sells ‘education resources’ online, a fancy name for a huge database of informative practice exams.
• ChinaCast Education Corp. (CAST) actually owns several Chinese universities and is expanding its enrollment with online degree options.
• New Oriental Education & Tech. Group Inc. (EDU) is the largest English and college entrance exam preparation school in China.
• TAL Education Group (XRS) is the largest private educational tutoring company in China.
• Noah Education Holdings Ltd. (NED) sells electronic education materials, and distributes its content primarily through handheld digital learning devices.
• Xueda Education Group (XUE) is also a private tutoring company but differs from TAL Education in that it tutors university students as well as high school students.

As you can see, there are several ways to profit from the Chinese obsession with academic excellence.

That doesn’t mean you should rush out and buy EDU or any of the other above-mentioned stocks tomorrow morning. The education sector has been hot, and most of these stocks have already had big gains. Your best strategy would be to wait until they go on sale before committing any new money.

Source: Tony Sagami

This investment news is brought to you by Uncommon Wisdom. Uncommon Wisdom is a free daily investment newsletter from Weiss Research analysts offering the latest investing news and financial insights for the stock market, precious metals, natural resources, Asian and South American markets. From time to time, the authors of Uncommon Wisdom also cover other topics they feel can contribute to making you healthy, wealthy and wise. To view archives or subscribe, visit http://www.uncommonwisdomdaily.com.

Apple will sell and host the ads, giving 60% of ad revenue back to developers, and Jobs says that developers can add ads to their apps “in an afternoon”. Unlike most mobile ads, which kick users outside of the application they’re currently using, iAd keeps users in the same app. In a jab at Flash, while showing an ad, Jobs said “Oh, by the way, all of this is done in HTML 5.”

It sounds like Apple won’t be too restrictive on who can build apps: Ad agencies will be able to develop these interactive ads, as will app developers. Though I imagine they’ll have to go through a review process similar to native apps on the App Store. Update: During a Q&A Apple said it would use a “light touch” and that there were obviously some ads they didn’t want to have shown, the same way a TV network doesn’t want some ads shown.

The obvious consequence of this new platform is that ads from other ad networks may well become second-class citizens, perhaps not just from Apple’s perspective but from a functional standpoint. Details are still scant, but if iAds are the only ads on the iPhone that can access the iPhone’s API, then ads from third party networks may be less interactive, and may not be able to as effectively determine the user’s location. Assuming developers embrace iAds and the iPhone continues its strong growth, this could have a significant impact on Google’s mobile ad efforts in the future.

Source: techcrunch

OK, now chuck out questions 1 and 3. They don’t matter.

If you scored below 7 on questions 2 and 4, you are likely broke and will likely remain so.
Seriously?!
Yes.

There are many billionaires who don’t even have a formal university education.

However, with a couple of rare exceptions, all billionaires score extremely high in Persistence and Self Confidence.
The billionaires who don’t score high in those areas inherited their money – and will invariably lose it as easily as it came to them.

Can these two skills truly be acquired?
Short of a brain transplant, this is the fastest route available for personal change.
The answer is an unequivocal YES.

Click Here <--

And there is finally a scientific way to verify it.

Source: Mark Joyner, Founder of Simpleology

Quiet your logical mind. Your mind’s intuitive aspect will not overpower the logical side because you currently give more credence to logical thinking and the feeling of being in control. You can encourage access to the intuitive side, however, by creating a tranquil atmosphere in which you remove stimuli for the logical part of your mind. In the process, however, be sure that your logical mind does not become involved analyzing the beauty or activity that is happening around you.

Sit in a comfortable position: one in which you can relax but won’t fall asleep. There is no mystery in meditation; you simply create a neutral situation which does not stimulate your logical brain. If you find it difficult to sit and meditate, try doing something you love such as gardening or walking. When faced with very difficult situations, I find it helpful to do something with enough physical effort involved to keep my mind busy. If this does not work, I increase my physical activity until I get tired. Then I sit down to meditate. One sure way to access your intuitive mind to place yourself in a situation in which there is no seeming logical solution. An example would be one of imminent danger. In such situations the logical mind gives up after running out of solutions, now the intuitive mind can be heard. As effective as it is, I do not recommend people pursue imminently dangerous situations as a meditation method.

Watch your thoughts as you meditate. Do not try to consciously stop thinking or try to block out thoughts. This will only raise your anxiety level. Close your eyes and watch your thoughts but do not hold on to them. See your thoughts as a moving billboard, observe them and let them move on. As you do this, you will eventually come to a place where you are not aware of thinking. A helpful adjunct to this practice is to watch your breathing. Inhale deeply and then let the breath out slowly. Repeat this procedure for several minutes remaining aware of the inflow and outflow of air in your body. If you get to the place where you see colors, hear sounds or buzzing in your ears, or are startled by the realization that you have not had a conscious thought for some time, you are doing very well.

Create a routine for your meditation. It is best to meditate early in the morning before the “busy-ness” of the day intrudes on you. You can start by meditating for just a few minutes and then extend your time to 10, 15, or even 30 minutes. It is good to keep a note pad beside you for both interrupting thoughts and insights. If thoughts occur to you as you meditate, write them down so your mind can let them go. You may want to follow up this meditation time with a few moments of writing in a daily diary. This can create a nice stream of consciousness for future reference. Read what you have written down the following day.

Read from a spiritual or personally meaningful book before you enter mediation. This helps to set your mind in a good place and to create a theme for your meditation that day.

Write down insights that you receive during mediation or later during the day. This gives the insights more validity in your mind. Whenever possible, act on these intuitive thoughts or at least take steps that will lead to their incorporation in to your life. Meditation will always be a game if you treat it as such. If you have questions that you want answered, write the questions down before the meditation and ask to have clarity concerning them. Do not let them become the only reason for your meditation as this can focus your logical mind on problem-solving. Your logical mind would love nothing more than to interrupt your meditation as it struggles to solve the problem.

Don’t problem solve while mediating. Meditation is for quieting your mind and creating a clean slate on which you can receive new information. The answers will come in their own time and in their own form. They may or may not come in meditation and you may or may not recognize them when they arrive. Have faith that intuition works and that solutions will come. Often it has been my experience that I receive an answer in a very different form than what I expected. For example, I often find that the problem for which I am seeking a solution is not a problem after all. I can assure you that intuition works very well. Most of the great discoveries and technical breakthroughs are the result of intuition and not logic or formal experimentation. As Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem at the level of the problem.” Intuition and creativity are ways of rising above the problem so it can be seen in a new light and from a different viewpoint.

Intuitive solutions are different from logical solutions. As I said before, intuitive solutions come in their own time and cannot be rushed. You may think you need to have an answer but intuition does not provide the solution until all aspects of the “problem” are ready. Intuition taps into universal knowledge and universal timing.

The intuitive solution is inclusive and universal—the information you receive includes everyone and everything involved. If you prefer, it is a cosmic or macro viewpoint. Logical thinking tends to look at the “problem” from your individual or micro point of view. Creativity looks at all aspects and all viewpoints and tends to see the total picture and not just one viewpoint. Logical thinking can seem much more appealing because it gives us the feeling of control while the opposite is true of intuitive thinking. Since intuition includes everyone and everything in the situation, you may feel like you are involved in something larger—something knowable but not controllable. The intuitive solution is quite different in form; it takes practice to recognize and utilize it.

Use your intuitive senses in small ways. As you put intuition to use in your life, you will begin to see the benefits it brings to you in terms of abundance and happiness. These benefits will increase your confidence in your intuitive ability. As you use and learn to trust this ability, it will become more natural for you to use it in more complicated situations. Again I caution you to not make this a game, a way of showing off, or a new form of behavior justification. Keep your intuitive sense to yourself and nurture it through application and commitment.

Be alert for intuitive information from all sources, all the time. I call this inner “listening” because all the time I am “listening” for messages, clarity, and insights. Discerning when you get these insights can be quite a challenge. The audio example I use is of an “Aha!” and the visual example is that of a light bulb going on. These are positive experiences as if one is suddenly aware of a new twist or dimension. They come as clarity or as all the pieces falling together in your mind. The information may be in a stream of meaningless material of which one part sticks in your mind or carries a very definite image. The source can be from what you may consider positive, but it also can arrive in a negative form. Inner “listening” is not the same as a fearful or cautious thought, though it may be in the form of taking care and not proceeding with a project. The hardest part is to differentiate between fearful or limited thinking and real intuition and insights. The first is based on past experiences; the source is your limited mind reminding you of potential pitfalls. Insights and intuition come from your contact with the unlimited source and leave you with a feeling of clarity and awareness. When I say be alert all the time, I mean while you are awake. Do not forego your sleeping time. If you have a strong or reoccurring dream, “listen” to its message. Make an effort to recall dreams in the morning and during meditation to ask if they held any messages.

Awareness is the key to inner “listening.” Honesty is required of all who choose to follow the intuitive path because most problems, while seeming to be outside of us, come from our own blocks to receiving the unlimited potential awaiting us. It is very easy to blame our problems on others or the current economic situation. If we do this, we will never hear the answers that come to help us change our thinking. We must also realize that we have the power to change our thinking and thereby our experience of any situation. Intuition and inner “listening” show us the mis-thinking that caused our problem, but only if we are willing to honestly assess how we created the results we have.

“Accepting” is an important step towards happiness and abundance.

Source: Listening, Accepting, Being, and Awakening by Lee Coit

Some of the things I took home from my Oscar run, that I also realize are just as important in my business:

. Never underestimate the challenge (and the competition). I thought that I would do ok this year without having to compete with a multi-billion dollar airline. I didn’t realize that this retail company was so damned aggressive in their pursuit of votes. They had 25 people with them at the awards ceremony … a sign of how serious they took it.

Looking forward, I know just what I would have to do if nominated next year … bust my ass getting votes! I see now where I went wrong … and would do my best to make sure it never happens again.

I have not failed.
I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
-Thomas Edison

. Are you missing an accountability partner? I was. I should have had my assistant managing my campaign for votes. She could be making sure I had promotions going out, links being posted, videos being distributed, and so on.

Do you work alone? Maybe it’s time you find a solid assistant that can help you stay organized and get more things done. Hint: I found my exceptional project manager through odesk.com.

I don’t know the key to success,
but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
– Bill Cosby

. Do you have a workable plan of attack in place? I didn’t. I winged it. Which I should have known better. This should’ve been treated like any marketing plan that had a chance at success.

The only way you can expect to succeed in your marketing is to have a day-by-day, week-by-week plan for what you will do, and how you will track the results of.

Basic? Yes.
Actually done? No.
As simple as this technique is, I would be willing to bet that seven out of ten entrepreneurs have zero actual marketing plan in place.
Do you?

You always pass failure on your way to success.
– Mickey Rooney

It can be as simple as a night out for dinner and dancing (well, you don’t want to see me dance, not a pretty site).
It can be a movie with my twin nine-year-old daughters (Avatar rocked!).
It can be a night out for a few cold ones with some friends.
They key is to make sure you have people who understand the life of an entrepreneur you can celebrate with. Then plan to celebrate … for good reasons or bad.

There is no failure.
Only feedback.
– Robert Allen

. No finger pointing allowed. That’s too easy. It always easy to find situations, people or places you can put the blame on. But that doesn’t help you out at all moving forward.

Take ownership of your actions and never lay blame when you could have learned a lesson.

Success in marketing and entrepreneurship IS about trying things, finding out what does and doesn’t work, then taking those lessons to the next phase of your business growth.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.
– Elbert Hubbard

You truly need to believe in yourself and your ability to achieve your dreams.
And you also need to understand and be prepared for many setbacks and failures along the way.
Just because an advertisement bombs, doesn’t mean advertising doesn’t work (like a lady I was talking to this week told me).
It means that the approach that was used didn’t work … and you are one step closer to finding an approach that WILL work.

Reward excellent failure. Punish mediocre success
-Tom Peters

One of your greatest assets you will have as an entrepreneur is the number of “tests” you did that didn’t work. The greater that number is, the closer you are to getting your next big winner.

Never forget that.

And get thicker skin along the way!

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
- Henry Ford

I realize this was more of a motivational post than the usual, but I think it holds the key to understanding why some entrepreneurs succeed wildly … and others fizzle out and disappear.

Those who are willing to tough it out and fail forward faster, are the ones that ultimately always find the big winners along the way.

Henry Ford once hired an efficiency expert to go through his plant. Ford directed him to find the nonproductive employees and, he said, “I will fire them!”

When the expert finished his evaluation, he reported to Ford that he was particularly concerned with one of his administrators. “Every time I walked by, he was sitting with his feet propped up on the desk. The man never does a thing. I definitely think you should consider getting rid of him!”

Ford was curious to know who was using company time that way. Then the expert identified him, and Ford shook his head. “I can’t fire him. I pay that man to do nothing but think, and that’s what he’s doing.”

Even in this culture of downsizing, right-sizing, and just plain streamlining operations, no company can afford to lose its thinkers.

Most small to mid-sized companies probably can’t afford to hire a “staff thinker,” but among the larger, and likely the most successful companies, I’ll bet you’ll find someone with a title like strategic planner, researcher, creative engineer, visioner, or some similar version. At Disney, they’re called “imagineers.” (At Microsoft, they’re called “millionaires.”)

“What a job!” you’re thinking right about now. No measurable goals, no restrictive job descriptions, no pressure, because nobody can tell if you’re doing your job. But you must prove yourself over time.

Guess again. Some people get lost in thought because it’s such unfamiliar territory. And then look around your office and see if you can identify the person you’d go to first if you needed a great new plan or idea. There’s the thinker. The job title may not be a tip-off.

Minds are like parachutes — not much good unless they are open.
Source: Harvey Mackay

Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You

Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition

Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt: Do What You Love, Love What You Do, and Deliver More Than You Promise

Because they affect every­thing in life and have an inter­est­ing rela­tion­ship with each other.

The 7 Prin­ci­ples are:

1. The Prin­ci­ple of Men­tal­ism
2. The Prin­ci­ple of Cor­re­spon­dence
3. The Prin­ci­ple of Polar­ity
4. The Prin­ci­ple of Vibra­tion
5. The Prin­ci­ple of Rhythm
6. The Prin­ci­ple of Cause and Effect
7. The Prin­ci­ple of Gen­der

I. The Prin­ci­ple of Mentalism

“THE ALL IS MIND; The Uni­verse is Men­tal.”

This prin­ci­ple states that the world, uni­verses, cos­mos… are sim­ply a men­tal cre­ation of God. This is a sub­jec­tive obser­va­tion of cre­ation that explains all the dif­fer­ent men­tal and psy­chic phe­nom­ena and the nature of energy, time, and space.

II. The Prin­ci­ple of Correspondence

“As above, so below; as below, so above.”

Accord­ing to this prin­ci­ple, there is always a cor­re­spon­dence between the phe­nom­ena of the var­i­ous lev­els of being and life.

III. The Prin­ci­ple of Vibration

“Noth­ing rests; every­thing moves; every­thing vibrates.”

This Prin­ci­ple embod­ies the idea that every­thing vibrates; noth­ing is at rest. Note that new sci­en­tific dis­cov­ery tends to ver­ify this. It explains that the var­i­ous man­i­fes­ta­tions of energy, spirit, mind results from vary­ing level of vibrations.

IV. The Prin­ci­ple of Polarity

“Every­thing is dual; every­thing has an oppos­ing point; every­thing has its pair of oppo­sites; like and unlike are the same; oppo­sites are iden­ti­cal in nature, but dif­fer­ent in degree; extremes bond; all truths are but par­tial truths; all para­doxes may be rec­on­ciled.”

This fourth Prin­ci­ple embod­ies the idea that every­thing has two oppos­ing sides. So, with that in mind, it explains that oppo­sites are really only the two extremes of the same event, with many vary­ing degrees between them.

Let’s take an exam­ple: “love and hate.” They look dif­fer­ent, there are degrees of hate and degrees of love, and a mid­dle point in which you use the terms “like or dis­like,” but their bound­aries are often blurred which can make it con­fus­ing as to whether you like or dis­like something.

V. The Prin­ci­ple of Rhythm

“Every­thing flows out and in; every­thing has its sea­son; all things rise and fall; the pen­du­lum swing expresses itself in every­thing; the mea­sure of the swing to the right is the mea­sure of the swing to the left; rhythm com­pen­sates.”

There is always an action and a reac­tion; an advance and a retreat; a ris­ing and a sink­ing.  This law is estab­lished in the cre­ation and destruc­tion of worlds; in the rise and fall of nations; and finally, in the men­tal states of humans.

VI. The Prin­ci­ple of Cause and Effect

“Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; every­thing hap­pens accord­ing to Law; Chance is just a name for Law not rec­og­nized; there are many fields of cau­sa­tion, but noth­ing escapes the Law of Des­tiny.”

This prin­ci­ple states that there is a cause for every effect; and an effect from every cause. It explains that “every­thing hap­pens accord­ing to law.” That noth­ing ever “merely happens.

VII. The Prin­ci­ple of Gender

“Gen­der is in every­thing; every­thing has its mas­cu­line and fem­i­nine prin­ci­ples; Gen­der man­i­fests on all lev­els.”

This Prin­ci­ple embod­ies the idea that there is gen­der expressed in every­thing — the mas­cu­line and fem­i­nine prin­ci­ples are always at work.

We will review 3 reports on three studies that recently came in.

In the first, you find out whether giving bonuses is more effective at motivating employees than giving them merit raises. (You can see how that maps over to things other than money, yes?)

In the second, you get to see if avoiding punishment is its own reward. (That’s one of the big keys in marketing and selling, right?)

In the third, you’ll read a fascinating report where one of my favorite researchers, Steven Reiss, says that there is no such thing as intrinsic motivation. (In future, we’ll talk about how important that is for you and me to “know”, or at least consider.)

Using Your Pay System to Improve Employees’ Performance

Giving a 1 percent raise boosts employee job performance by roughly 2 percent, but offering that same money in the form of a bonus that is strongly linked to a job well done can improve job performance by almost 20 percent (!), finds a new Cornell study on the relationship between pay and performance. By changing the strength of the pay-for-performance relationship [awarding bonuses], you can improve performance by up to 19 percent.”

In other words, giving someone a 1 percent raise is 1/10 as effective as giving them a one time bonus of the same amount of money. The raise would likely carry into the future, of course, and a bonus is a one time only deal.

Is avoiding punishment its own reward? …

To give your child an incentive to cut the lawn, you might offer to buy her something, or you might threaten to withhold her regular allowance. Does the child respond the same way to reward as she does to avoiding punishment?

Psychologists have evidence from certain kinds of behavioral experiments to believe that avoiding punishment is itself a reward. The IRS has built the world’s largest scam by promising to punish people who don’t pay the money requested. (You can’t really “owe” taxes. You did nothing to have a debt. You simply pay or experience pain.)

Avoiding negative outcomes and receiving rewards amount to the same thing for the brain: achieving a goal.
Reward serves as an external signal that reinforces behavior associated with a positive outcome.

Does “Intrinsic Motivation” Even Exist?

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money or grades.

While some psychologists still argue that people perform better when they do something because they want to — rather than for some kind of reward, such as money — Steven Reiss suggests we shouldn’t even make that distinction.

Individuals differ enormously in what makes them happy – for some competition, winning and wealth are the greatest sources of happiness, but for others, feeling competent or socializing may be more satisfying. The point is that you can’t say some motivations, like money, are inherently inferior.

For example, the argument is that children are naturally curious and enjoy learning for the joy it brings them. Grades, they argue, are an extrinsic reward that fosters competition and makes learning less pleasurable. There are many children for whom the important reward to them is the grades they get, the competition among classmates. This goes against what some psychologists say, who think competition is bad and a non-competitive attitude is good, and that learning and curiosity are intrinsic values that everyone shares. They are pushing their own value system on to everybody.

Source: The study, “Using Your Pay System to Improve Employees’ Performance: How You Pay Makes a Difference,” is available at no charge from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research