This will take some courage and deflating of my ego to say I have been wasting more than two weeks of my life searching what to do next. I love the Internet and know in my heart part of my success would be derived from this medium.
However, I have to admit I have spent too much time following a thousand white rabbits running in all directions throughout this ocean of information. Indeed, I have found a couple of jewels and treasures along the way. But as one of the important advices I have just found, the most significant factor to succeed is take action and focus. This is by far what separates losers from winners.
My difficulty, for one, lies in having read too little of too much but never took time to apply one approach before moving on. I need to focus as much as everyone who needs to succeed and have succeeded.
In my most recent haphazard search and journey, I was very lucky to find a few essential points:
From “Other Side Entrepreneur"
If I want to make real lasting money from the Internet I must get into "Information Publishing and Marketing".
In relation, the important concepts are:
There is already too much information out there.
People want advice not information, advice how to succeed, feel good, be healthy and wealthy.
Any personal hobby and interest, no matter how specialized, can be turned into a million dollar business if it is developed with an "Information Publishing and Marketing" strategy.
In the same manner, any business, however small, can profit hugely by augmenting its business with this strategy.
Make Up Your Mind Already By Rich Schefren found in a "Early to Rise" newsletter:
1. Take action and focus. Crystallize your goals. Organize your thoughts to daily actions and do them daily and consistently. Close the laptop and do what you must do today.
2. Rise above fear and doubt. Its ok to make mistakes but learn from your mistakes.
3. Keep it simple. Stop mulling and dabbling with thousands of ideas. Learn and master an approach, only then you move to the next.
4. Know where the money is. Open your eyes and learn to take the pulse of your market.
That all for now, I'll close my laptop and decide which rabbit to chase.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Stop chasing a thousand rabbits
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Speed Wealth
Another great book. Short and sweet, "Speedwealth: How to make a million in your own business in 3 years or less" by T. Harv Eker summarizes business essentials in clear cut language. Contrary to its title, Eker promotes thinking and habits for a long term financial growth rather than common get rich quick schemes.
He also concludes, which echoes many prosperity books I'm reading, that money is just part of wealth and that you won't get far if you don't address self-development and have a will to be happy .
For more on Eker, check out his company Peak Potentials and other related websites millionairemind and harveker.com .
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Science of Getting Rich
I've been so swamped with dozens of books on wealth creation that I have been jumping from one to another. But suddenly this book "Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles caught my attention and so far I think it will be the focal point of my small library. Written in the early 1900s, its lessons and ideas seem to have reverberated to every other related texts that I have been reading.
And there's something about the tone and usage of words that is so alive, hypnotic and mysterious yet somehow so undeniably truthful.
You have to read it...
Some links to check out:
http://wallacewattles.wwwhubs.com/
http://www.wallacewattles.com/
http://www.scienceofgettingrich.net/wally.html
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Overload
Sometimes a part of me misses the age before Internet. I could focus on an actual book, read and reread it for the information I need, and thereby really being able to absorb the content. Reading and researching now with the Internet works much the same way the conscious part of the brain works - associating bits and pieces to no ends - especially with Google search.
It may have been a waste of my time but today I did free association, brainstorming through the Internet. I browsed through and jump from one topic to the next and whatever led me to whatever pages of blogs, wikis, etc etc...
Among the things I researched: Internet Marketing in the Philippines, Why Ken never mentions in his works a spiritual giant like Osho, winners of the 2007 Ateneo Art Awards, where Shiloah Matic' old blog is, Squidoo, Alexa, Credit Card Processing, Blogging for Money, Adi Da, Public Domains, MLM, NLP and so on...
I need more discipline of the mind lest I become just a floating pandit wannabe.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Filipino Books on Getting Rich (Part 1)
Today I spent hard earned P280 on a book "Negosyo: Joey Concepcion's 50 Inspiring Entrepreneurial Stories". It is the first Filipino book I've bought in a long time, not so much as I'm not impressed with Filipino authors but more because printing is usually of lower quality despite almost same prices of foreign counterparts. Lousy excuse, I know.
In any case, like so many aspiring entrepreneurs, I felt that even with access to books by Trump, Kiyosaki, Buffet and the like, there is something so very unique with Philippine economy that someone like me would need a more accurate map to navigate within our own business territory.
Indeed, there are universal rules of business (whatever they are, maybe in a future post) and obviously they should be applicable in any time and place - for example selling higher than what goods or services cost you. But for specific strategies, especially if an entrepreneur wants to apply the solid approach of "modeling", it is important to know how people who are more or less like you, a Filipino, succeeded in the Philippines.
There were lots of choices in the bookstore, but I wanted something light and inspiring to start. "Negosyo" was my pick as it would also help me in my subproject to choose and focus later on one particular Filipino businessman I can research in depth and maybe meet some day.
Too bad though, Sandy Javier who created the super successful Andok's Chicken franchise wasn't among the featured entrepreneurs. His, I heard, was a real classic rags to riches story.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Can't do it all alone
Almost a decade ago, when I was feverishly immersed with books of Ken Wilber, Robert Pirsig, Fritjof Capra and such I was in a Romantic state of mind similar to what they sometimes described as "going hermetic" - wishing to find a place of solitude to drown myself in books, study like mad, and emerge with a Magnum Opus or discover something big.
Nowadays, with my interests in business, investment, marketing and a broader concept of self-development I have realized I really have to go out there in the real world. I can't imagine now the wealth of information and education I have been shrugging off just to be "different". I see now every person as someone I can learn from and even a source of joy when I contribute something to them.
It takes a certain kind of maturity to face the fact that other people are also looking and interested in same things I am. The angsty person that says I am alone on this, a kindred spirit must die.
I should have realized this when I graduated college and a most unlikely stranger approached me who learned from someone I am into Osho or less commonly known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I was thrilled and at the same time I was disappointed that I wasn't so special. It's foolish thinking.
So now I want to attract and already attracting (and it's not hard) people or groups in Philippines with my same current interests:
- Wilberian Integral thought systems
- Online Marketing
- Productivity/Human potential studies (Tony Robbins, David Allen)
- The Secret
- Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow
- Entrepreneurship
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Neuro Lingusitic Programming
Funny, with my interest in Psychology and self development all the way back from High School and ever since, I never came across Neuro Linguistic Programming. At least from what I have seen so far, too many established schools of Psychology violently reject NLP as being without scientific evidence and research. Another thing is, no one can really define it or agree with a definition for it.
I came across NLP first from hearing it a lot from Anthony Robbins (and later he used the term Neuro Associative Conditioning, his own brand of NLP). Often he talks about this when he reasons out that people do or do not do things because of the automatic "gut feelings" they get whenever come across situations that their mind and bodies associate with a familiar situation. So if we want to improve ourselves we must get into the bottom of behaviors, replace those meanings behind them with those that would help us behave in a positive way that we want to behave. Something like that.
For believers, the results they say about NLP are astounding as it can permanently cure anything from neuroses to addictions in a few sessions and sometimes instantly compared to years of therapies of traditional schools of psychology.
Strange thing is it makes a lot of sense without making much sense. At the heart of it, and how some described it, NLP is the focus of whatever works and the hell with the theories. Other may have same experience that when I read certain techniques of NLP I was reminded of times I effectively communicated with people but took it for granted.
An example is whenever I get a cue (non-verbal)from girlfriend that she wants (unconsciously) to relive an awful argument we had years ago (she widens her eyes and starts with a distinct voice and phrase), I interrupt her pattern of thought by suddenly kissing her or tickling or reminding her how much I love her while she is in mid-sentence. It works like a charm and I feel it's not manipulation because a big part of her knows what I'm doing and I think she appreciates that I actively save the both of us from a useless fight.
Another example is whenever I tutor my niece and nephews, I start out preparing them for a tutoring session by asking them why they need to study (outcome focus) and what good feelings they can have if they get high grades (associating pleasure to studying). I also do very simple pattern interruptions when I see them starting to wander in their heads.
I'll read more about NLP as soon as I finish Robbin's Personal Power tapes.
