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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Newton's laws...What?

      Today I want to talk about how the most fundamental laws of physics relate to life and how the will help us improve our lives and businesses. I know it might seem a stretch, but it is a fact that quantum physics apply in almost every aspect of life and much of life can be expressed so. Lets get into it, shall we.

      I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. 
           Actually one of the easiest to explain and easiest to understand. Simply put, a body at rest tends to stay at rest, a body in motion tends to stay in motion unless an outside force is present to change that state. Closely related to Galileo's law of inertia, basically saying that if we, as people, are in motion, we tend to stay in motion. If we are at rest, we tend to stay at rest. Ever notice that the most successful people you know have a tendency to not sleep as much but always get the sleep they need? Or that they schedule themselves for just about everything? They know their time is precious and they use it wisely, time management being a very important part of their lives. If a person goes home from work, plops on the coach and watches TV till its time to go to bed, how successful do you think they will be?

      II. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector. 
          Simply put, the aforesaid object in motion, stays in motion along the same course (vector) as it was moving in. If you are moving in a positive direction, keep going. A body at rest requires the acceleration force to stop it from being at rest. If you were ever in the military, you know during basic training you learned a real simple version of this. If you werent moving in the direction or vector that the drill instructor wanted you to, he put a boot in your rear. That was the acceleration you needed to get on the right path. All of us at times require a little nudge to get us on the path that we need to be on and we have to get that force from somewhere, whether we do it from inside ourselves, whether an outside force exerts itself on us or what. Something has to exert a change in vector on us. 

      III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. 
           The easiest to explain. For every effort or action you put out, you get a return action. And the greater action or effort, the greater return you get. If you make a point to smile at everyone you meet, that smile will be returned to you. If you put great effort into your business, that effort will be returned to you by the actions of others. As others see you putting that effort into everything you do, the greater will be the reaction that you are a person they want to follow. And they will want to send that effort back to you. 

      Obviously these laws are not intended to predict human behavior. There will always be an exception here and there. Maybe Newtons first law is acting on someone already so the third law doesn't have any effect. All of the laws are subject to outside forces and wont always predict the reaction you receive from others. But just maybe, if you follow the laws, and the next person you sign up sees you and the efforts you put out, maybe the second law will come into effect and you will be that force to create a new vector for them. And then they will do so, and then the people they sign will do so, and so on and so on. The reaction to your effort might end up coming back to you 30 fold.
 

Monday, November 1, 2010

One of lifes laws

      Theres a lot of programs out there that help you deal with life. They tell you how to rearrange your life to make it more positive and productive. Indeed, the basis of all self-help books and life mentoring deals with this idea in one form or another. If you spend your life trying to read these books, youll read a lot of different ideas and concepts that seem very different but really very similar. So similar in fact that I can boil almost all of them down to one  simple, easy to remember phrase or acronym: GIGO.

      For those of us who were familiar with computers back in the day when they crashed into the home world and everyone was trying to invent new phrases to go with all that was happening your familiar with the term. If your not then Ill explain it. GIGO stands for garbage in= garbage out. It was a term that originated with computer programmers who were trying to tell normal people why a program wouldn't work and trying to explain that computers weren't thinking for themselves, they had to be programmed. It simply meant that if there was a faulty program to start with, then the end result would be faulty.

       If you have looked at the life coaching programs out there, youll understand that the underlying concept is that you need to control the forces and thoughts acting on your life ( garbage in ). By allowing the negativity in our lives we are creating an environment that duplicates what we allow in it ( garbage out ). By breaking the cycle of negativity, we allow our "programming" to catch up to where we desire to be. Its a really simple concept to apply and live by. When you think of something or someone tells you something to do or think, simply think "GIGO?" and see if its what you want to have in your life. If it isnt, deep six it and move on. If there is a negative person in your life, no matter who it is, remove them. You will never succeed with negativity. Look for more positive people  to talk to and grow ideas with. Another old saw that comes to mind is " Its hard to soar like an eagle when your surrounded by turkeys."

       So by breaking down the influences in our lives we are able to see what is positive or negative and apply GIGO to it and allow us to "reprogram" our lives in the direction we wish to go.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Believe

      This is one of the most talked about, argued about, written and blogged about subjects in mentoring and coaching today. The fact that someone who believes in themselves, no matter if they are at a disadvantage, will prevail over someone who knows what to do but has no faith in themselves. The fact that we believe that we are capable of doing makes us capable of doing, no matter what it is. Now, I mat only be 18 years old (with 20 years experience) but I have seen this happen time and time again personally, and have seen the stories, articles, highlights and blogs on this subject over and over.

      What I want to do is try to talk about it a little bit differently. We see many, many things written about this subject, but how many time shave we seen this faith expressed in mass media, namely movies? I can actually think of a few and I want to go over a couple and point out how they relate. So if you have never seen Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Kung Fu Panda, you might want to go rent them now and watch them. Some spoiler action is going to be happening in a minute. I will skip down a few lines so you dont accidentally see it.



      Star Wars. We all know the character Yoda was a Jedi master responsible for the teaching of the Jedi Knights and responsible for the training of Luke Skywalker. Something I think a lot of people miss is the actual things that Yoda brings up. When he is talking how to tell the difference between the dark side and the Jedi way, hate, anger, greed and jealousy lead to the dark side. Calm, paece and happiness all lead away from the dark side. That calm and inner peace comes from the absolute faith in ones self and in your ability to understand what your environment is telling you. If your faith is complete you will not feel anger at slights, hate at others, greed for what others have, or jealousy for what others feel. You will know that what you have is what YOU have and no matter what others may have they dont have what you do. And you wont want what they have. That faith will allow you to get past all these things and allow you to get what it is you want.

      Kung Fu Panda. While it is a cartoon movie aimed at young children, it has many of the same points as Star Wars and in a simpler format. The main character, Po, voiced by Jack Black, is an overweight panda who dreams of being a Kung Fu expert. When the valley's master announces the Dragon warrior, he picks Po instead of the other masters who are already there training. By finding a way into the ceremony by strapping himself into a chair attached to a lot of fireworks, he shows the first step to absolute faith: finding a way to change his environment. As Po's training progresses, he shows that he is willing to accept all that anyway can through at him to continue that progression. And when he finally attains the Dragon scroll and it is a blank mirror showing him his reflection, he doesnt understand at first. His father naming the secret ingredient in his noodle soup as nothing allows him to see the truth. That all of our power comes from within ourselves.

       All of our power and strength comes from our inner self. That absolute faith allows us to absorb what happens to us and redirect it back in a positive way. Every disappointment becomes a learning experience, not a failure. Every thing that happens on a day-to-day basis is just another way for the days to pass and more learning. We see the things inside we dont like and strive to make ourselves better, not to impress others, but to form us in the image we hold in our heads of ourselves. We are all formed in a forge of triumph and heartache, how we apply the lessons learned is what makes us different. All of the great men we have admired in history had multiple failures, some lost everything they had, time and time again, and kept going because of their faith in themselves and what they were trying to do.

       So the next time you have something happen, think to yourself and see how you react to it. Do you react in a positive way, accept what happened and move on and learn from it? Or do you react in a negative way, hate the people that caused the problem and wish harm upon them? These are the things we need to look at. It is easy to have faith when everything goes well. It isn't so easy when things are going wrong.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

OPO

      A long time ago I got involved with my first MLM. I didnt stay with it long, I was looking for something to help make more money on the side and just didnt work out well for me. But I learned one of the most important rules about MLMs through one of the leaders. He told me one day," Whatever you do in this company or any other, you have to watch out for one thing: OPO. It is the deadliest thing to any of us in business or in life." And what is OPO? Glad you asked.

      OPO stands for Other Peoples Opinions. All the "advice" your friends and family give you. All the hey bud, I know your wanting to do this but.... All the times that someone said you shouldn't do what your doing because..... Any time you call someone to share your opportunity and they say its a load of cow manure. When you go to your reunion and everyone asks what you doing for a living and then tell you that your stupid... You get the picture.

       So how do you treat the dreaded OPO syndrome? Real simple. Ignore it. Have nothing to do with it. Walk away from it if you can, and smile and nod your head if you cant ( keep in mind that your smiling because you know next year youll be making an extra $4000/ month and it wont be hard to keep that smile!).
Whatever it takes for you to ignore it and get through it. People mean well, and your friends and family probably are trying to give you good advice but at the end of the day it all comes down to what you feel. Its your life, you have to live it the best way that you can. No matter what everyone else thinks.

        At the same time, you need to remember what it is and try not to do it to anyone else. Be supportive of those around you and they will be supportive of you. If someone comes to you with something and wants you to look at it, look at it. Give them ideas on how to make it work for them. You don't have to tell someone your happy that they just won the UK lottery or Microsoft just messaged them about the global Microsoft lottery and their going to enter. You can use your judgment. But if someone comes to you from another MLM, take a look at it. If it doesn't fit in with what your doing, tell them so. And then give them ideas about what type of people it would fit in with. Both of you will be happier and your relationship will be much stronger.

       At the end of the day, all we have in this world to build on is our reputation. If everyone knows your a negative do nothing, no one will want to talk to you. If everyone knows that your honest and objective, they will break down your door to see what you can help them with. And when you have that opportunity, you can create more and more opportunities for yourself and them.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Top Level Position

        I must say I had heard the name a couple of times on Facebook and other sites. A lot of hype over a new MLM that will change the world. I had never paid much attention to it until earlier tonight. I of course have a lot of marketers on my Facebook friends list and receive ads for MLMs constantly. I received one earlier that stated that "tell me what other network marketing company pays you for every person that enrolls after you even if you didnt personally sponsor them thats right theres none besides this one". Now, that struck me as kind of false as that is exactly what one24 advertises and has written up in their comp plan. So just to check it out I went to toplevelposition.com and looked around the site. And you know what I found? Zero. Zilch. Nada. Not a single word to back up their claims.

      Their comp plan? "Our revolutionary compensation plan is being touted by experts as a complete game changer. There are no legs to balance and no structure requirements. You have the ability to make money off of every single person that enrolls after you, for life! Top network marketers across the world have named our compensation plan as the "fairest and most lucrative plan in the industry today". 


      Their products? "Our products are powerful, life changing and not carried by any other company in the world. They are endorsed by some of the most well known and respected doctors and scientists in the world. You will will feel their impact immediately and notice a drastic change in your life. We have multiple products to choose from, all formulated by the best in the business. These are products that will end up affecting millions of lives across the globe. Now is your chance to profit from every single unit sold."

      Now, thoroughly disgusted, I do a Google search of the company. I find a lot of articles written by the company  themselves, all claiming the same thing. Any evidence? Nope. Any truly independent sources of info? None. I did, however, find several articles and news stories about someone from top level position stealing someone's e-mail address and sending spam with the address. So, being the kind of person I am, I respond to the original post stating the claim that Top Level Position was the only comp plan out there to pay someone for every one signed up after them and said " You really ought to change that statement. There is another one and it has already launched."

      A couple of minutes go by and I receive an indicator that someone has posted to that thread. I click on the indicator and read a post saying that I am a liar. Now, we all know in this business, and in life in general, our reputation is everything. I private message the person and say " what did I lie about". He responds that there is no mention in the comp plan that everyone gets paid for the people who sign up after them. I redirect him to the plan page and tell him exactly what to look for. Again in a private message. He then posts on the thread on facebook that there is nothing there and reiterates that I am a liar. And then states that I am a spammer commenting on others posts. Now, this was the second time that night that the same post had been posted on my wall and each time I had commented that it was false advertising.  


      I bring up the point that Top Level Position has no info on their website for anyone to see and no way of seeing the directors, founders or even a name drop of anyone joining. I am then informed that he is a top leader in Top Level and he know's what the products are.When I state that a leader in any industry would not flame other companies like that I was told "ok james i can tell by looking at your profile that you aint nothing your just another network marketer doing last years shit people like you make network marketing look bad"

      Now, this conversation continued for awhile. I pretty much kept to the fact that it was false advertising and what were you advertising anyway with nothing on your website and this "top leader" continued to tell me I was stupid, knew nothing about marketing, I was a liar, and basically everything he could find to slander me by. I seemed to have ended the conversation by pointing out the fact that by saying the things he was in a public forum, he was indeed slandering me.

      Now, I know that companies have their .... "black sheep". But, seeing as their is no public info on the company that has not been released by the company, no encouraging reviews about the company that are not biased that I found in a google search, and that there is the possibility that someone like this is a top leader in the company, I would definitely think twice about it. The only factual accounts I could find and double-check were the news stories about the spammer spamming the company from a stolen e-mail address. All quotes directly related to the statements of the company were directly pasted from the company website. I welcome anyone to correct me if they find a non-biased review for the company. If any one is interested I did save the pages containing the original spam thread and all the comments and messages that were directed at me.

Friday, October 22, 2010

The doughnut of life

      Yesterday, October 21, 2010, will be one of those days I dont forget anytime soon. Woke early to get the kids to school and go to court as I had a child support hearing against my ex for failure to pay her child support. So I drove the half-hour drive to the courthouse, walk the half mile from the parking area to the courthouse, in my brace of course, and get settled in to wait. About 20 minutes later a clerk calls my name and tells me that they have canceled it since my ex had made payments the last two months. Im thinking " What about the year she didnt? " but dropped it and went home. Major disappointment.

      I got back home and got on the phone with my friend and mentor Steve Hawk and talked for a long time about whats going on in the business and what  Ive already done and I needed to do. I came away from this talk feeling happy and confident that I had gotten a good start. Major happiness.

      About 3pm i got a call from my mother asking if I could take her and her oldest dog Nikki to the vet. Nikki had been having a hard time walking the past few weeks and my mother was worried that she may need another surgery on her leg. At about 8pm last night we had Nikki put to sleep. Turns out the reason she was having a hard time walking was that she had a malignant tumor in her leg and in the past 2 weeks had spread to cover her entire leg and started to spread into her body. With her being two weeks short of 13 they didnt think she could survive amputating her leg AND still having to go through chemotherapy.

      I did not look forward to telling my kids that Nikki wasnt coming home. I walked out of the exam room and called my kids over and told them that they needed to tell Nikki goodbye. All three held it together until they got in the room with Nikki. My oldest daughter, who has said since she was 4 that she wanted to be a vet and still maintains idea that at 10 and is very passionate about animals, burst into hysterics and couldnt stop. She had literally learned to read books laying on the floor at my mothers laying her head on Nikki's stomach for a pillow. Nikki was a very large Husky and weighed in at about 90 pounds and was very gentle with the kids. As my daughter was crying on Nikki's shoulder, Nikki reached up a paw and laid it on her arm to comfort her. When my son went to hug Nikki, she reached out to lick his face and comfort him. When my youngest daughter reached down to pet her she put her big head on my daughter's leg and rubbed up against her leg. When I reached down to pet her and say goodbye, she laid her head in my hand and looked up at me with her big blue eyes and just looked at me for a minute.

       When we had finished our goodbyes we went out in the waiting room and waited. They wouldnt put her under until after my stepfather had gotten there. When my mother came out again, Nikki was gone. We lost one of our best companions and my kids lost a constant in their lives. Even after having both of  her rear knees replaced she loved to play with the kids and looked forward to their coming. As she was getting older she still tried to be a puppy and was always roughhousing with the kids or my mother's other dogs. She was a constant terror to all the squirrels and other small animals that came in my mother's yard. And she always was happy whenever I saw her, even to the last minutes of her life.

       I said something to a couple of friends last night when I finally got home and let them know what had happened. I wondered why we do it to ourselves by having pets knowing that we will almost always outlive them. One friend said " You cant stop loving and caring just because a person or a pet dies. You have to move on and love again. " I agree 100%. I'm sure we will have other animals and I'm sure that there will be other heartbreaks along the way. But I am also sure that I have never run across a dog like Nikki and probably never will again.

Nicolette ( Nikki ) Connor    November 11, 1997 - October 21, 2010

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Having trouble with leads?

One of the biggest problems with network marketing is leads. Finding good, qualified people to help you advance in your company can be a hassle. You can find people all day long who are excited, but are they going to be you to the platinum level? Does Harry Homeowner next door know how to SEO his blog and help himself to some money while at the same time helping you to some money?

Most people outside of the industry thinks its knocking on doors and showing people your Acme briefcase full of Acme products. Now some MLM's may still be that way and may require active selling and volume retention to grow in the company, most of them have gotten away from that. And I for one am glad that is so, it is next to impossible for anyone to continually grow a business like that if you have any other demands on your time like kids, a husband/wife, a life.... Anyway, there's several good programs out there to help with your marketing skills and help you generate those leads. And on top of the programs there are several excellent pages on Facebook where you can find some very good help and training for free.

One of my favorites is Network Marketing Pro which is Eric Worre's page. Eric is a long time marketer who's been around long enough to see the changes that have occurred and has grown with them and is full of incredible advice for anyone. Whether your a long timer yourself just looking for a fresh idea or if your a marketing newb...( back office?  Whats a back office and do I really want to be in there?!? ) I would start with his site and take a good look. I believe he is up to 400 or so videos deep in his free videos and he has a complete program for sale also if your really serious about getting into it. Take a look and tell him I sent you!

http://www.facebook.com/NMPRO?v=info