The proliferation of affordable mobile phones has created a global paradigm shift that will give investors with vision innumerable investment opportunities.

As I discussed in an earlier article, you don’t realize it but there’s a fortune in your wallet right now. Mobile wallet technology will make you rich.

Let me explain.

Traditional wallets and purses are being replaced with smartphone “mobile wallets” that incorporate cameras, Internet connectivity, thousands of “apps” and increasingly, banking, credit and payment transaction technologies.

Knowing who the winners and losers will be in this world of tomorrow is the stuff investors’ dreams are made of.

This report is the first in a series of four articles. Consider it your first reality check. Or better yet, your wake-up call.

From it you’ll learn why the world is moving to mobile wallets, how we’ll all get there, and when.

More importantly, you’ll be primed for making investment decisions on hardware device makers, on network providers, and on what software solutions will be most in demand.

You’ll be able to weigh the future of banks and banking, credit and debit card issuers, and their love-hate relationship with powerful non-bank commerce facilitators.

You’ll be able to picture how some merchants will profit more than others, and what impact social media will have on commerce and payment schemes.

You’ll understand what the singularly most important question is that hangs over our digital future: who will own, control and profit from the data that drives everything.

You will be able to glimpse what the big security issues will be and how to profit from them as well.

You will recognize who the giants are now, who are the up-and-coming giants, and who will be the likely giant killers.

You’ll understand the importance of interoperability and what that means to creating economies of scale.

And you will be able to see how an evolving regulatory environment will change fortunes.

Above all, you will be tuned in and abreast of the changing dynamics and investment opportunities in this brave new world.

At its core, it is about change.

Source: Capital Waves Strategies

Since the transistor was invented at Bell Labs in New Providence, NJ, back in 1947, the U.S. has vaulted ahead of the rest of the world at every major high-tech milestone.

In the 1960s, for the first time people started using basic electronic calculators to perform addition and multiplication functions.

According to early reports, Google could hit the market with these glasses by the end of 2012. But let me be blunt about one thing. Cynics have blasted Google over this project. They note that the Web giant has made no promise it will ever release the glasses.

That’s true. But it misses the big-picture view.

Even if Google shelves its “Project Glass,” I predict that someone else will quickly step in to fill the void. And that option could turn out to be the better bet for investors.

After all, with its $200 billion market cap Google is such a big company that these glasses, as cool as they are, may not move the stock’s price all that much.

Either way, however, we win.

If Google Glasses do hit the market in time for the holiday, then we can all go out and grab a pair. If not, then we can look for a small-cap leader that’s gearing up to bring them (or something similar) to market and then invest in that company.

In that case, what we hope for as tech investors is a firm like InvenSense Inc. (NYSE: INVN).

This is a small-cap leader that makes motion sensors used in a wide range of electronics, including smartphones equipped with Google’s Android operating system.

Even after a huge recent sell off, the stock has returned more than 35% so far this year. Compared with Google’s year-to-date loss of about 6%, InvenSense is on fire.

As it turns out, there are two small companies on my radar screen with products in the same space as Google’s glasses.

Source: Money Morning

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

At TEDIndia, he demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.” In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.

Pranav Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. Before his studies at MIT, he worked with Microsoft as a UX researcher; he’s a graduate of IIT. Mistry is passionate about integrating the digital informational experience with our real-world interactions.

Some previous projects from Mistry’s work at MIT includes intelligent sticky notes, Quickies, that can be searched and can send reminders; a pen that draws in 3D; and TaPuMa, a tangible public map that can act as Google of physical world. His research interests also include Gestural and Tangible Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, AI, Machine Vision, Collective Intelligence and Robotics.

Source: Pranav Mistry

Book two covers the difference between amateurs and professionals. An amateur is somebody who does whatever they do for fun. A pro is somebody who does what they do for fun, and a living. It is amazing how this reliance upon personal finances has a peculiar way of focusing the mind.

Book three covers the invisible physic forces that support and sustain us in our journey towards ourselves.

Just read about Resistance and then Do Your Work
01. Resistance is invisible.
02. Resistance is internal.
03. Resistance is insidious.
04. Resistance is implacable.
05. Resistance is impersonal.
06. Resistance is infallible.
07. Resistance is universal.
08. Resistance never sleeps.
09. Resistance plays for keeps.
10. Resistance is fueled by fear.
11. Resistance only opposes in one dierction.
12. Resistance is most powerful at the finish line.
13. Resistance recruits allies.
14. Procrastination is the most common manisfestation of Resistance.
15. Resistance can become a habit.
16. Geeting ourselves into trouble is a sign of Resistance.
17. Self-dramatization is a sign of Resistance.
18. Self-medication is a sign of Resistance.
19. Victimhood is a sign of Resistance.
20. Resistance influences our choice of our mate.
21. Resistance feels like unhappiness; addiction; and then, clinical.
22. Resistance causes you to criticize others.
23. Resistance can take the form of wild self-confidence.
24. Resistance is experienced as fear.
25. Resistance is directly proportional to love.
26. Grandiose fantasies are a symptom of Resistance.
27. Workshops and support groups are Resistance.
28. Rationalization is Resistance’s right-hand man.
29. Resistance can be beaten.

Source: “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield

Today, for a change, let’s talk about what you don’t need to succeed.
- You don’t have to be smart.
- You don’t have to be good-looking.
- You don’t have to be thin.
- You don’t have to be nice.
- You don’t have to be right — all the time.
- You don’t have to be even-tempered.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be kind, sympathetic, and patient. You should try to be all of those things, because those qualities will make you a better and happier person.

But in remaking your personality into that of an automatic wealth builder, focus on enthusiasm, diligence, and determination. Set goals. And take action.
Now, this is a book that I strongly recommed to improve our efficiency at whatever we do: The 168 Hour Week by Kevin Hogan

Here is your current life script:
1. You want some thing or some stuff in life. You want to feel something good, get rid of feeling something bad, and you want to have meaning and significance. No one ever told you about breaking orbit.
2. You generally can point to what those things are that you want and have a hint of what would give your life meaning and significance.
3. You can generally write down those things (and we will in the future).
4. You can generally devise a plan or strategy to move in the direction of those “things.”
5. Then things go wrong in various parts of life.
6. Some of it is your fault. Some is the fault of the person you live with. Some of it is your boss’s fault. Some of it was a random act of “God.” But the key fact is BAD STUFF or UNPLANNED STUFF, HAPPENED.
7. Now you have COMPETING COMMITMENTS. The Daily Planner says to do X but life has just thrown a Q (Someone decides to invite you to their wedding) or a Z (someone dies, gets sick, the neighbor kids egged your car, or you get sick perhaps) at you and you either have to let X go, or you have to do it while navigating Q or Z.
8. You’ll have to clean the car, get well, go to the wedding (or not) AND get X done.
9. That causes OVERWHELM and STRESS.
10. That raises levels of anger, resentment, hostility, frustration and generates feelings of blame, guilt, shame and all kinds of other nonproductive …stuff.
11. You become difficult to work with/live with and your relationships are compromised.
12. It now takes additional time to repair what your emotions AND the emotions of others have mixed into the life cocktail. Now X doesn’t get done and neither does Q or Z.
13. You all but toss the Daily Planner aside and recognize that Time Management in it’s traditional sense, simply doesn’t work. (And it doesn’t.)
14. You go through life day by day, then month by month and YEAR BY YEAR missing out on number 1 and 2 above. There is very little meaning, very little significance. There is a minimum of good feelings and sadly plenty of stress and angst.
15. That’s how your life works.

And I’d like to change that now…if it’s OK with you…
What no one tells you, but you really do need is…momentum.

MOMENTUM
Remember those old pieces of footage from when NASA would launch an Apollo rocket to the moon? That big Saturn rocket that carried the teeny tiny lunar module on top…the one with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Jim Collins….that Saturn V rocket was over 350 FEET tall.

I’ve stood next to the lunar module that came back from the moon and it’s about 10 feet high and it’s hard to believe you could squish a few people in that little thing.
Back to the Saturn V, though.

I am not a rocket scientist but these missions fascinated me. Those huge rockets were actually built in three different parts (stages). The first stage was the big one. It was the base. It was what gave the initial burst of oomph to get the rocket and it’s passengers in the air.

That first stage was 138′ tall.

It burned 4.4 MILLION POUNDS of fuel in just 150 SECONDS.

That took the rocket a grand total of 42 miles on it’s 250,000 mile trip to the moon.

42/250,000…the first 42 miles and it used 80% of the fuel for a HALF MILLION mile trip!

Then the stage was ejected and it fell back to earth somewhere in an ocean. The rocket was now flying at over 6,000 miles per hour. Then stage two kicked in.

Stage two was 81′ tall and used 1 MILLION POUNDS of fuel in just 6 minutes and pushed the rocket another 109 miles to a speed of 15,000 miles+ per hour.

So you have this 350+ foot rocket and in the first 9 MINUTES 96% of all the FUEL was used to gain momentum were used for the first 109/250,000 of the mission TO the moon. (Remember the passengers had to get back home too!)

Stage three was 58 feet tall and this stage was a little more complex and I frankly don’t get how it all worked but basically it pushed the remainder of the rocket for about 6 MINUTES (as little as 2.5 minutes and as much as almost three hours) to get the rocket really rocking around the earth so it could “slingshot” out of earth’s atmosphere and off to the moon, then it would bring the passengers into orbit around the moon. (All of the science is beyond my comprehension.)

This final stage used 250,000 pounds of fuel, or about 4% of the total FUEL for 99.9% of the remainder of the trip there and back! That boggles my mind to this day.

When I was a little kid, my grandparents lived in Huntsville, Alabama and my brothers and myself would visit them in the summer time. One of the “stages” of the rocket(s) was kept in Huntsville at a NASA facility. We got a chance to see it and it triggered even further fascination into the idea of MOMENTUM.

When it ALL Happens
EVERYTHING HAPPENS in the first few SECONDS or MINUTES. If you break earth’s gravitational pull, inertia, then you can accomplish anything.

You have to get started, and CONTINUE. It’s hard at first then you break gravitational pull and the orbit of the STATUS QUO and you are OFF and the rest is almost easy.

Momentum is SO important. If you dedicate 10 hours per day, 7 days per week, to your project X for six weeks, it will be almost a sure thing that you will succeed over the next 10 YEARS with Project X. Your life will COMPLETELY change. You will be COMPLETELY transformed. You will be CAPABLE of just about anything that is humanly possible. But only a teeny tiny percentage of people will be willing to be that uncomfortable for say, six weeks.

Because most people can’t get past discomfort for any period longer than moments, few people accomplish…anything. There is no meaning to be had because there is no discomfort, there is no sense of unfamiliarity.

Am I Making You Uncomfortable?
Meaning comes when something is not comfortable.

You can use 95% of the energy on a project and fail, exhausted with the remaining third stage falling back to earth…or you can use the 96th% and break free from gravity…which is really just getting past inertia and started and then it’s not unfamiliar or uncomfortable anymore. Then it’s simply a wise use of time.

The great life lesson, perhaps the greatest and most important lesson is knowing this in advance: The danger is that you WILL feel unrewarded for the energy you expend on a project with no return.

People are used to getting a paycheck every two weeks and no table top business will return a dollar in the first two weeks but you’ll work two or three times as hard at the Coffee Table business as you are at work.

Your family will be upset with you because you are grumpy. You will be tired and have nothing to show for your work. The TEMPTATION to QUIT is OVERWHELMING ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE DOING WHAT WORKS… which is why it takes 5.5 MILLION POUNDS OF FUEL to go 109/250,000 miles and only 0.2 MILLION POUNDS OF FUEL to go 249,881 miles….AND BACK! No one knows that…except you.

Obviously this could be a relationship, a business, anything. All of the hardest work on your part is early when everything is unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

All of the smart work is the rest of the project.

A Daily Reminder
So isn’t it worth planning your day, your life so that you are constantly REMINDING YOUR SELF DAILY to CONTINUE if you are in the first 109 miles AND challenging yourself to do things that you would be proud of yourself for?

That is one of the fatal flaws of almost all (perhaps all) time planning systems in existence.

Nothing is more important than the advance reminder that the unfamiliar and uncomfortable is anticipated and prepared for. But no matter how much preparation or planning you do it WILL BE UNCOMFORTABLE & UNFAMILIAR.

You will feel like you want to jump back into your comfort zone. Period.
Much of the rest of this book is about fixing that!

Source: The 168 Hour Week by Kevin Hogan

Brain wave training has been found to yield excellent results in facilitation of human memory, attention span, and relaxation (Hutchinson, 1994). Furthermore, this research has been demonstrating brain-wave training as an effective intervention in impaired levels of functioning due to ADHD, learning disabilities, physical brain trauma, & psychological trauma (Ochs, 1993). Source: An Empirical Investigation into the Effect of Beta Frequency Binaural Beat Audio Signals on 4 Measures of Human Memory by Richard Kennerly. http://brain.web-us.com/bbmemoryindex.htm

Entrainment is the process of synchronization, where vibrations of one object will cause the vibrations of another object to oscillate at the same rate. External rhythms can have a direct effect on the psychology and physiology of the listener. Source: www.peyote.com/jonstef/brain.htm

“They (mind devices) are being used by scientists, educators, physicians and psychologists for everything from accelerated learning & athletic peak performance training to remediation of chronic medical and psychological problems. And all of these applications are based on the simple premise of making the brain more mentally fit – promoting awareness and control of the basic cycle of cortical relaxation and activation and the flexibility to move within the cycle at will. Source: Exercising Your Brain for Peak Performance by Dennis Campbell: Total Health, Aug 96, Vol. 18, Issue 4, pg. 34.

“Harold Russell, Ph.D. – reported research that showed L/S at Beta frequencies 18-21 Hz appeared to improve the cognitive functioning of ADHD children.” Reported at the Association of Applied psychophysiology & biofeedback annual meeting in Dallas, Texas – 1991. Source: The Clinical Guide to Sound & Light by Thomas Budzynski (see reference).

“The device [mind machine], with appropriately selected stimulation protocols has been observed by us to be an excellent neuropathway exerciser. … Furthermore, the long-term effects of regular use of the device on maintaining and improving cerebral performance throughout life and possibly delaying for decades the deterioration of the brain. Robert Cosgrave Jr. Ph.D., M.D. Source: Time Flashes: A Short History of Sound & Light Technology by Michael Hutchison, pg. 6

Audio Visual Stimulation

Audio Visual Stimulation (AVS) Technology plays a large role in the cognitive revolution that is sweeping through the 21st century. Although the use of sound and or light for healing, relaxation and achieving altered states of consciousness (ASC) has been used for centuries, it’s only recently that the scientific community has reawakened to its phenomenal potential.

AVS Technology is related to EEG Neurofeedback and Biofeedback technology. While EEG Neurofeedback is more of a precise system of brainwave stimulation (BWS) reading and delivery, AVS provides a more general application of BWS. EEG Neurofeedback is also much more complicated of a system to work with and as a result it requires specialized, extensive training for usage. Not to mention EEG Neurofeedback is also a much more expensive system to work with. The good news is that you can achieve similar results, though more general with an AVS system and if you decide to go into the field of EEG Neurofeedback, you will have learned much of the information through your study and experience with AVS technology.

There is a difference between biofeedback and AVS. Biofeedback is used to condition the nervous system, while AVS stimulates specific patterns of activity in the brain. With biofeedback you become aware of processes normally unavailable to conscious inspection. The awareness includes understanding how it feels to increase or decrease the selected process (a state of relaxation or arousal). In the end, both will get you to the same destination but the journey differs.

Benefits of Using AVS

Although results vary with the individual, the results on a whole have been favorable. Some of the benefits of sound and light brain entrainment reported are:
- Increases in I.Q. especially in children with ADD
- Improved memory and attention span
- Reduction of stress
- Better results in meditation (deeper trance achieved)
- Pain management and relief
- Addiction relief
- Replace lost sleep, reduce fatigue
- Higher scores on tests
- Improved cognitive ability
- Accelerated learning
- Easier access to hypnotic state

The more control you can acquire over your brain states, the more emotional and mental control you acquire over your life.

Brainwave Frequencies overview

A brainwave is an electrochemical rhythm which occurs across the surface of the brain known as the cerebral cortex. This rhythm measures cortical arousal which reflects a corresponding state of mind.

A brainwave is measured on the surface of the scalp where all the bioelectrical activity occurs. The cerebral cortex makes up 80% of the brain’s mass.

This biochemical electricity is produced in the brain through frequencies measured in hertz. “Hertz” is measured as beats per second.

We categorize groups of these frequencies according to the range that is associated with various states of mind.

These frequencies correspond to normally four measurable groups of frequencies – Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta. Note: High Beta (24 – 70 Hz) is referred to as “Gamma”. Low Beta (12 – 15 Hz) is referred to as “SMR”.

Even though all four frequencies are found in the brain at all times, there will always be one or two dominant frequencies. Through entrainment, our goal is to make the desired frequency a dominant frequency at the desired time.

When creating a program, it’s best to use the range of frequencies in the target area instead of producing segments focusing on one frequency because A) habituation easily occurs when you only use one frequency, thus making the treatment less effective, and B) not every person responds the same way to a frequency. For example, while 10 Hz may produce the desired result in one person, 11 Hz will produce the same in another person.

Discover what BrainWave Evolution System can do for you today. Free Trial for 20 days!

Relaxation, meditation, learning peak performance, stress reduction and deeper sleep; these are just a few reasons why so many individuals worldwide are discovering the benefits of Audio Visual Stimulation (AVS) devices or light and sound machines. Also known as “Mind machines” these devices can gently guide your mind into desired states, such as helping you relax, sleep better, reach meditative states more quickly… and more.

Whether you are a long time follower of neurotechnology or are just discovering its powerful possibilities, we have something for you here. Light/Sound synthesizer Photosonix machines have made it easier for many to reach that elusive few minutes of calm.

Source:
MindPlace Photosonix InnerPulse Light Therapy Sound Machine
Photosonix Nova MindPlace Pro Light & Sound Machine Sensory with Colortrack Glasses

The book consists of an introduction and eight chapters, each of which is focused on different factors that can attract or repel people.

1. The conspicuous flaw factor
2. The visual preprogramming factor
3. The reptilian comfort factor
4. The sacred cow factor
5. The jackass factor
6. The biology of language factor
7. The biotuning factor
8. The mental real estate factor

One issue I have with the book is that it doesn’t have a lot of documentation for its theories. To quote Publishers Weekly, “Unfortunately, Kunkel’s evidence of these universals is vague and speculative.” But that’s probably because Kunkel is a communications consultant and not a researcher.

However, I realized I was getting tired of reading books that just went through research study after research study. Besides, a lot of the anecdotal evidence did ring pretty true. So here are the few that stood out to me.

The conspicuous flaw factor

I liked the section on “Ugly as a Design Element” because, when you think about it, most of the world’s favorite websites: Google, craigslist, eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn, mySpace, Twitter, etc. are all pretty lame when it comes to design and navigation. In many cases, they break all the standard rules. Kunkel posits that as a society we can be turned off by “slick websites,” as it gives us the impression that big companies are behind them. This is why we prefer the ugly ducklings.

The reptilian comfort factor

I found the discussion of “The principal of least effort” interesting because it stated that a more appealing sales pitch is not that a certain blender would help YOU chop, dice, etc. at the speed of light, but that the BLENDER chops, dices, etc. at the speed of light. We are basically lazy and do not want to do the work. This is why we are more likely to buy a blender that does the work for us.

I think this section hit home because at the time I read it, we were in the midst of choosing a new slogan, and I was reluctant to include the word “effortless” when it comes to networking. I know that networking is not effortless. However, according to the book Made to Stick (which makes a similar argument), as well as Instant Appeal, I should have gone with “effortless.” So this week, I’ve started including that word in our Google ads as a test. I’m curious to see what happens.

It’s funny: As I was reading this section, I kept thinking . . . this is the secret to The Secret. We don’t want to work for results. We prefer to just think nice thoughts. Sure enough, on the next page, that’s exactly the example Kunkel uses.

Another comfort factor that struck a chord with me is where she talks about the difference between the career application pages at Microsoft and Apple. The former is rather technical; the latter is user-friendly and more appealing in its design. Both are meant to cater to the audience they want to attract and hire. In this economy, where companies that actually have positions are inundated with applications, it might be worthwhile to see if you can weed out a few through your website alone.

The sacred cow and jackass factors

Unite around a common enemy. Kunkel defines “sacred cows” as protected ideologies that attract like-minded people; and the “jackass factor” is defined as the intentional repulsion of a portion of the audience by being unapologetically yourself.

“To gain supporters, you have to create enemies because, when you do that, you at the same time energize your base of loyalists and give them an external force to combat.” In some sense, this takes Seth Godin’s tribes a bit further. Not only do like-minded folk follow a charismatic leader, they are more solidified if they have to battle a common enemy. Looking back to our presidential election, one only has to think that Sarah Palin helped unite the Democratic Party behind Barack Obama.

This is an interesting thought for a company, one you can definitely see it at play between Microsoft and Apple. I was about to write that, as a company owner, I’m not ready to go there. But in fact we do market the Downtown Women’s Club as a fun and inclusive alternative to stale, bureaucracy-laden, exclusive and traditional networking associations. Over the years, we’ve had women denounce us as not being professional because we have spa nights and horoscopes or that we were focusing too much on technology and online networking. I used to try to find ways to engage those detractors, but then a few years ago I stopped because I stand by our fun factor, and our business model is proving that technology is key.

Who ya gonna turn off? This is the question Kunkel apparently asks clients to help them define their market better and increase their appeal. I have to agree here, as you can see from the above paragraph. I made a conscious decision to stand behind fun and technology when it comes to networking, and I really do not want to attract people who tell me that I need to “be more like other groups.”

Corporate individuality. This was a small section, but I think it has a lot more meaning in the social media era. “For a corporate personality to be believable, individual leadership personalities within that organization must be believable, too.” I’ve always felt that companies that slap a logo on their twitter personalities and then review everything their “social media representatives” say don’t do much to attract people. As Kunkel writes, “we’re in a creative economy now where the focus is on participation.” I would add that transparency and authenticity are big, too.

The whole section basically boils down to the following paragraph:

“The real appeal of a strong . . . leader boils down to one thing: confidence. We are drawn to people who know who they are, know what they want and go after it, and are so independent and self-assured that they don’t need or want the approval of anyone. They are comfortable in their own skin. They have found their own voices. Their strong and assertive nature is intoxicating and makes us feel safe in their company because we get the feeling that they can overcome anything.”

The biology of language factor.

Apparently popular books, songs, tv shows, etc. use “comfort language.” That is, most of the No. 1 songs include the same words at high frequencies. And best-selling authors like Dr. Seuss and Agatha Christie use very few words in total and a lot of repetition. I’m not sure I’m buying this one but, when thinking of corporate slogans, it might be worthwhile to keep it simple.

The mental real estate factor.

In this factor Kunkel also advocates keeping it simple because our brains can only function in so many different ways at one time. For example, it’s often the most basic, least creative commercials that get us to buy. The humorous and highly creative ones distract us from the core message.

In addition, audiences will only see the parts in a commercial that resonate most with them and will subconsciously ignore the rest. She has some interesting examples about kids and commercials. But this reminds me of a comment a friend made recently. “I know I just joined Facebook, so maybe that’s why I’m suddenly noticing how much it’s in the press. Yet maybe it was there before, and I just never noticed it.” She’s probably right. Clearly, coverage of Facebook and Twitter has increased in the recent past as more and more journalists use them, too. Yet it probably remains background noise for anyone who doesn’t use them.

Another small but good point in this section had to do with why it helps to dumb down your PowerPoint presentations. Too much info or special effects are distracting and detract from your message.

Source: “Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors that Create Blockbuster Success” by Vicki Kunkel

Once you understand exactly how the brain works, you will be able to condition it to focus on reaching your dreams.

Ninety-eight percent of everything scientists know about the brain has been discovered since 1996. So even though I have degrees in biology and chemistry, I had to do some heavy research to be able to give you the latest findings that will help you
reach your goals.

The latest findings scientifically prove that by regularly writing your goals down, visualizing your intended result, and passionately saying affirmations you actually physically change your brain’s neurons and hard-wire your subconscious mind to focus like a guided missile on reaching your dreams and goals.

I love the fact that modern science has finally proven what successful athletes and entrepreneurs have known all along. That there are ways we can change ourselves to become the type of person capable of achieving our dreams.

This means that no matter how bleak you past has been, you can make a choice to have an unbelievably successful future because if we can change the wiring in our brain, the past does not have to equal the future.

If you are not into science and if you already buy into these findings and if you are already living the life of your dreams, don’t read any further. But if you really want to understand the nuts and bolts of how your mind works and how you can program it to work for you, read on.

How to use your subconscious mind to win more.

At the base of the brain, where it connects with the spinal cord is a region called the Reticular Activation System (RAS).

The RAS acts like a filter that decides which thoughts to focus on at any one time. We need this filter system because every second, there are about 8 million bits of information (subconsciously) flowing through our brain. There has to be a way to filter out the noise!

The RAS decides which messages will arrive at the brain. Once a message gets past the RAS filter and enters the cerebrum, it can turn into conscious thoughts, emotions, or both.

Even though the cerebrum is the center of thought, it will not respond to a message unless the RAS allows it. The RAS is like Google – there are millions of websites out there, but you filter out the ones you are not interested in simply by typing a keyword.

You can think of the RAS as the brain’s gatekeeper to conscious thought. It’s critical to your future that you learn how to get messages past the gatekeeper.

So what causes some of the messages to get through the RAS and others to get blocked out?

Whatever is important to you at the time and whatever you are currently focusing on gets through. If your focus is to buy a house in the Rockies, your RAS will automatically filter in thoughts that will help you get that house – people who might help you, opportunities to make it happen, or resources that you might need.

What that means is that the more you keep your goals “top of mind,” the more your subconscious mind will work to reach them.

That’s why writing your goals down every day, visualizing your intended outcome, and regularly saying affirmations is so important! Because doing those things help you focus your subconscious mind on what’s important to you.

Visualization taps into the creative powers of the subconscious mind. It gets the subconscious mind working 24/7 on helping you reach your goals.

Unless you visualize, you miss out on resources that are available to help you out. And by the way, five sixths of your thoughts are subconscious thoughts. You don’t want to ignore five sixths of your resources, do you?

If you want massive success, you need to learn how to get your subconscious mind to work for you. Visualization focuses your subconscious mind to look for those resources. It draws you to the people, resources, and opportunities that will help you reach your goals.

That is also why you need to trust your hunches, your gut feelings, and your intuition. Whenever you get a hunch, what has actually happened is that your subconscious has just detected that your outside circumstances are favorable to take action. The sum total of your subconscious memory has spotted an opportunity favorable to you. Don’t ignore your intuition or gut feelings!

Once you learn how to learn how to get your subconscious mind working for you, your life will start changing dramatically. You’ll find yourself waking up in the morning filled with great ideas that will help you reach your goals. You’ll start meeting people that can help you realize your dreams. You’ll be like a magnet that attracts favorable conditions. People will start saying
you are lucky!

Did you know that you can actually physically change your brain cells to help you realize your dreams?

Whenever you repeat an affirmation or visualize something using a lot of passion and emotion, new neural pathways are formed. Intense emotional experiences actually stimulate the growth of additional spiny protuberances on the dendrites of brain neurons, which result in more neural connections and stronger memory and retention of that thought.

That’s why people can remember what they were doing when JFK was shot, when the Challenger exploded, and on 9/11. Because those events were so emotionally charged, that new mental pathways were created. You want to create strong mental pathways that will help you realize your dreams. Doing so will turn you into a dream realizing machine! What you think about and act upon comes about.

But focus is the key.

If you focus on only one goal and don’t quit, you have a 95% chance of achieving it. If you focus on two goals, your chances drop to 65%. Focus on three, and you’re down to 25%. See why it’s critical to be single-minded?

By the way, this is a software I use to help me become laser focused on my dreams www.SuccessVisionBoard.com

Would you like to believe more in yourself? Beliefs are developed in the subconscious mind. If you don’t believe you can succeed, you need to change those beliefs by programming your subconscious mind.

The newest brain research shows that passionately repeating the same statements over and over forms new neural pathways that can eventually fire as “belief,” and when this belief fires, it triggers you to take the actions that will help you reach your dreams.

This is why your self talk and who you associate with are so crucial to your success. What you say to yourself and who you hang around with will determine what kind of neural pathways you are developing. What kind of neural pathways are you making? Will they lead you to success or to failure? It’s all up to you…

So get started right now. Schedule time daily to write your goals, to vividly imagine what success will be like for you, to get in front of a mirror and passionately tell yourself that you WILL MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE! And you will!

Make it an Olympic Day!

Source: TheOympicSpeaker

Ruben Gonzalez is the author of “The Courage to Succeed,” and the co-star of the personal development documentary “Three Feet from Gold.” His experiences as a three-time Olympian, business owner, and professional keynote speaker give him a unique perspective on how to conquer the corporate struggles of today.

But your own books belong to you; you treat them with that familiar intimacy that annihilates formality. Books are for use, not for show; you should own no book that you are afraid to mark up or afraid to place on the table, wide open and face down. A good reason for marking favorite passages in books is that this practice enables you to remember easily the significant sayings, to refer to them quickly, and then in later years, it is like visiting a forest where you once blazed a trail. You have the pleasure of going over the old ground, and recalling both the intellectual scenery and your old earlier self.

Everyone should begin collecting a private library in youth; the instinct of private property, which is fundamental in human beings, can here be cultivated with every advantage and no evils. One should have one’s own bookshelves, which should not have doors, glass windows, or keys; they should be free and accessible to the hand as well as the eye. The best of mural decorations is books; they are more varied in color and appearance than any wallpaper, they are more attractive in design, and they have the prime advantage of being separate personalities, so that if you sit alone in the room in the firelight, you are surrounded with intimate friends. The knowledge that they are in plain view is both stimulating and refreshing. You do not have to read them all.

There are, of course, no friends like living, breathing, corporeal men and women; my devotion to reading has never made me a recluse. How could it? Books are of the people, by the people, for the people. Literature is the immortal part of history; it is the best and most enduring part of personality. But books friends have this advantage over living friends, you can enjoy the most truly aristocratic society in the world whenever you want it. The great dead are beyond our physical reach, and the great living are usually almost as inaccessible: as for our personal friends and acquaintances, we cannot always see them. Perchance they are asleep, or away on a journey. But in a private library, you can at any moment converse with Socrates or Shakespeare or Carlyle or Dumas or Dickens or Shaw or Barrie or Galsworthy. And there is no doubt that in these books you see these men at their best. They wrote for you. They “laid themselves out,” they did their ultimate best to entertain you, to make a favorable impression. You are as necessary to them as an audience to an actor, only instead of seeing them masked, you look into their inmost heart of hearts.”

Source: Marine Corps Generalship by William Lyon Phelps

Discovery Session 1 Webcast
October 29th, 2009

• Michael Bosworth
• Stephen MR Covey
• Bert Decker
• Russell Granger
• Kevin Hogan
• Joseph Jaffe
• Jack Trout

1. What’s the single biggest strategy for moving from distrust, dubious, and suspect to seismic credibility and what’s the single biggest action our members should do first and why?

2. There are 2 aspects to credibility – quick fix and long term remediation – What actions would you recommend that can be taken quickly and what actions would you recommend that are more long term and self-sustaining?

3. Most Entrepreneurs do not think of themselves as not being credible, trustworthy or believable – so what’s the best way to get an unbiased viewpoint of what we are really conveying to the marketplace and how do we develop thick enough skin to see ourselves as we really are ?

4. Let’s talk about specific tactics – How would you suggest our members make each contact point with their market – more effective? Whether it be customer service, marketing, advertising, or simply describing the attributes of their products or services?

5. If you were to give each of our members an exercise that would constantly put them on the path to growing their trust, believability, and credibility, what would you recommend? What benefits will accrue by doing it and why?

6. Of all the things you’ve researched, written, and presented on what’s the single biggest distinction, realization, insight that you need to get across to this group that hasn’t been covered so far, and why?

7. Through the lens of your expertise; What one question do you wish we would have asked you, that we didn’t, that relates to helping members on this call make their business more profitable, more successful, more competitively advantageous right now and into the future? Why is it an important question? And had we asked, what would your answer be?

The answers and secrets these experts reveal during this 90 minute event will completely blow you away! Fortune 500 companies pay these guys tens of thousands of dollars for information like this that Jay and Rich are extracting for you for FREE!

“The higher your aims and vaster your desires, the more energy you will have for their fulfillment. Desire the good of all and the universe will work with you. But if you want your own pleasure, you must earn it the hard way. Before desiring, deserve.”
- Nisargadatta Maharaj

It’s a serious mistake to allow yourself to get caught up in the “what-if” and “how-to” trap before taking action. The reality is that no one can ever hope to know all the problems in advance, let alone all the solutions.

Further, most of the things people worry about never even come to pass. Or, if they do, they end up being not nearly as bad as envisioned. Even better, some of the most minatory circumstances often turn out to be nothing more than disguises for great opportunities.

When you really want to do something — but are apprehensive because you see so many “problems” on the horizon — do it anyway! Don’t worry about it. You won’t bat 1,000 percent. But if you continually fail to take action, you’re guaranteed to bat zero.

And even when things don’t work out, you’ll find that, in a vast majority of cases, the fallout won’t be nearly as bad as you’d imagined.

The many wonderful, unexpected things that will come into your life as a result of taking action will more than offset any pain you might endure from your few missteps. So, just go for it!

Where are you with your great moneymaking idea?
Are you “ready” to take action on it?

The most important knowledge about any business is invisible to outsiders. You can pick it up only when you are actively involved in the business on a day-to-day basis. You can’t know it any other way.

That kind of knowledge will determine your ultimate success — whether you keep going and become rich or stop at the starting gate and do no more.

If not, take a few months to acquire the knowledge you need. Spend some money to educate yourself. But buy how-to books and programs only from people with proven success in the field, not from those who make money only by selling advice.

Then “fire”! The sooner you get going, the sooner you’ll succeed.

“So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don’t sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we’ve satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.”
- Lee Iacocca

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it and the work will be completed.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Source: ETR, Michael Masterson and Robert Ringer

You simply plug into one of these detailed maps… follow along from point “A” to point “B” all the way to “Z” and beyond… and your business just continues to grow.

It’s quick and easy, which means you spend less time reading, and can begin implementing these winning strategies right away!”

Simpleology Cashmaps by Mark Joyner

Simpleology Cashmaps are developed for several internal processes that face any entrepreneur and business owner to systematize and automate procedures that can be delegated or outsourced with simple steps to follow.

You get the high level strategy cashmap free, often with a video or audio walkthrough up to an hour long but if you want the detail action cashmaps, you have to buy on the one-time-offer upsells or pay more later.

1. Traffic through Viral Marketing Contests & Bonus: Making Money with Squidoo Cashmap Packages + Traffic Explosion Cashmap Club $37

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3. Conquer Your Competition with Competitive Intelligence & List Building Cashmap Packages + Traffic Explosion Cashmap Club $37

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Source: Nightingale

These are the questions The Future Is Wild Set out to answer, by involving the world’s leading scientists in creating a fully animated vision of what we might find, if only we could travel in time. See it all began with Science.

From the beginning we wanted The Future is Wild to be about more than simply guesswork, so we recruited 16 scientists from top institutions around the world to provide the scientific basis for the project.

They’re experts in fields such as geology, climatology and biology, and together they painstakingly projected where evolution and planetary events might take the Earth 5 million, 100 million and 200 million years from now.

By blending good science with real imagination our team has created three very different worlds along the timeline; exotic places you can explore through animatronics, films, theme parks, books and even Manga comic books.

Whether you’re 8 or 80, we’ve an exciting adventure to share with you – so welcome!

Source: BBC – The Future is Wild

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While he spends a lot of time outlining what he calls the “Five Stages of Decline”, I was particularly motivated by his thoughts on what those who fall, and then recover, have in common.

I certainly want to understand how to avoid a fall in the first place. (Or should I say, avoid any more “falls” than I’ve already experienced!) But since it’s a given that stumbling and falling down is a necessary and inevitable experience of life…I’m motivated by examples of those who get back up and recover.

Here are some excerpts from How the Mighty Fall that I found of particular interest:

Xerox. HP. Nucor. IBM. Merck. Texas Instruments. Pitney Bowes. Nordstrom. Disney. Boeing. What do these companies have in common? Each took at least one tremendous fall at some point in its history and recovered…in every case, leaders emerged who broke the trajectory of decline and simply refused to give up on the idea of not only survival but ultimate triumph, despite the most extreme odds.

The signature of the truly great vs. the merely successful is not the absence of difficulty. It’s the ability to come back from setbacks, even cataclysmic catastrophes, strongter than before. Great nations can decline and recover. Great companies can fall and recover. Great social institutions can fall and recover. And great individuals can fall and recover. As long as you never get entirely knocked out of the game, there remains hope.

The path out of darkness begins with those exasperatingly persistent individuals who are constitutionally incapable of capitulation. It’s one thing to suffer a staggering defeat–as will likely happen to every enduring business and social enterprise and (individual) at some point in its history–and entirely another to give up on the values and aspirations that make the protracted struggle worthwhile. Failure is not so much a physical state as a state of mind; success is falling down–and getting up one more time–without end.

So much of what he covers is extremely relevant. Especially today.

In times of uncertainty it’s much more difficult for people to hide under the radar or just “skate by.”

Whether in a job, running a company, looking for new work, or starting a new business, those we deal with have a heightened awareness of what’s going on around them. Who can they trust? Who are the most valuable players? Who’s for real? Who’s genuine?

In times like these, one of the best ways to stand out in the crowd and rise to the top of the ladder is to have a solid, trustworthy foundation.

Those who are trusted have a massive advantage.

Here are some very powerful points Covey makes that stood out to me:

“There is one thing, if removed, will detroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.

“On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to createe unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time.

“That one thing is trust.”

“Trust undergirds and affects the quality of every relationship, every communication, every work project, every business venture, every effort in which we are engaged. It changes the quality of every present moment and alters the trajectory and outcome of every future moment of our lives–both personally and professionally.

“While corporate scandals, terrorist threats, office politics, and broken relationships have created low trust on almost every front, I contend that the ability to establish, grow, extend and restore trust is not only vital to our personal and interpersonal well-being; it is the key leaedership competencey of the new global economy.

“I am also convinced that in every situation, nothing is as fast as the speed of trust. And, contrary to popular belief, trust is something you can do something about. In fact, you can get good at creating it!”

Mr. Covey’s message is powerful to me for two reasons. First, it’s simply an enlightened and timely truth (and his book goes on to explain exactly how trust can be built and restored). Second, I’m imperfect and have broken trust at times. So, knowing that trust can be restored, even rapidly, is encouraging to me as a leader, and as an individual.

Are your to be trusted?

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What If the ‘Coach To The Stars’, who has acted alongside Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Tim Matheson and coached many ‘Stars’ revealed to you:
- How to Learn Empowering Behavior
- How to Master effective body language in your business and life

There are an overwhelming number of “victim characters” in our society — if you aren’t one of them, you’re probably in the same room as one. Or, you’re casual — you’re not driven to achieve your goals. If you’re casual, you’ll become a casualty. Take ACTION to redefine your destiny. That ACTION is the lifeblood of success. You will learn how to model excellence by utilizing the Creative Wheel of Behavior, the Enlightened Triangle, and the “I AM” personality to create a positive attitude, bust out of comfort zones, and change limiting beliefs. This book will encourage you to build strength where strength lies and will constantly inspire you toward your desired goals.

Acting For Real is a system – a positive Behavioral system. Your behavior will not change unless you do something to change it. How much would your effective body language expand if you could overcome fear, anxiety, worry and self-doubt?

How much more success could you have right now if you could believe in yourself and your capabilities to act naturally.

Yes, fear and a lack of self-confidence are the major blocks to your succesful acting performance, freedom and happiness.

Source: Acting for Real by Tom McFadden

This spellbinding documentary vividly captures my struggles and triumphs in the 2009 Badwater 135-mile non-stop foot race across the Death Valley desert.

We use this unique format to inspire you with many life lessons that are applicable to your life where you will learn to:

* Overcome fear
* Gain the courage to take responsible risks
* Persevere through life’s debilitating moments
* Apply “relentless forward motion”
* Set seemingly impossible goals – and achieve them
* Execute and “close the loop”
* Find then organize your winning team
* Apply beneficial introspection
* Have patience in the face of emotion
* Execute smart-bomb focus on your big goal
* Always reflect your personal integrity
* Make social responsibility (feeling “The Tap”) an important part of your life
* Celebrate, and much more!

There is no other life experience I have had (and I have many) that has taught me more about success and perseverance than finishing Badwater, the toughest race in the world, 4 times.

Consider our Life Lessons Learned DVD for yourself, friends, family, relatives, co-workers, employees or anyone you would like to encourage with these valuable insights.

There really is no other learning tool quite like this.

If you are unaware, Badwater is the toughest race in the world according to National Geographic.

It’s an invitation only (17 countries/ 90 entrants) 135-mile footrace that starts in the Death Valley desert in July where air temperatures exceed 130 degrees, and ground temps are 200+ degrees.

It traverses 135 miles through the Mojave, over three mountain ranges and is run on blacktop pavement.

The race is run in the most brutal conditions imaginable.

The start line is -282′ below sea level, the lowest point in the western hemisphere (hell), and the finish line is nearly 8,500′ above (heaven).

The race is run non-stop and must be finished in less than 60 hours to avoid disqualification.

There are no aid stations. Each participant must bring a support crew of up to six team members to care for them.

On average, only 60 or so of the 90 invitees are able to finish, many who don’t, end up hospitalized.

Since the inception of the race in 1977, only 42 have officially finished the race 4 or more times.

I recently became the 43rd.

To put it in perspective, over 1,100 people have reached the summit of MT. Everest.

Life Lesson #1: When undertaking a significant challenge, start slow, then slow down. Don’t let emotion spend energy that will be needed later.

Life Lesson #2: When prudent discretion is called for in challenging or dangerous circumstances, if your efforts are exceeding your expectations you are better off to castoff caution.

Life Lesson #3: Sometimes what is perceived as being an easy coast downhill is actually tougher than a slow plodding ascent to the top.

Life Lesson #4: Gain perspective in time alone.

Life Lesson #5: Psalm 121, verses 5 and 6: “The Lord is your guardian, the Lord is your shade; he is beside you at your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.” A prayer I repeated often in my darkest hours.

Life Lesson #6: Trust in your initial gut feeling, that intuitive sensation that existed before all thought, contemplation and research.

Life Lesson #7: No rationalization can take the place for your personal integrity.

Source: Frank McKinney