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GreggJ

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Thank you MJ. I'm almost done with the book, and for me it's almost the only money book I will ever need lol.
Just kidding, but the book does set the CORRECT foundation to get to the millions of dollars.

You have caused an impact over here, all the way from Panama City, Latin America.

Cheers,

Abe.
 

hedgehog757

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Thanks, that was a great post. I think we all focus on wanting to make money in he beginning before ever learning that if we fulfill someone else's needs, the money will follow.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Mocha

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This is one of the best posts I've read on building a successful business. No one quite tells it like MJ.

MJ, you certainly lead by example. I loved your book and it's clear that you wrote it to serve a basic need. I'll admit I started my business for all the wrong reasons - now having read your book, I'm much better off. I always chose event over process and I took a major beating during the meltdown. i wouldn't have lost my hair, weight and mind if I had this information earlier. Your book should be made mandatory reading in all business schools.
 

PatrickP

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Do You Have a Successful Entrepreneurial Premise?

The most common mistake aspiring entrepreneurs make is to approach entrepreneurship with the wrong premise. You've heard the doom-and-gloom statistic that 90% of all new businesses fail in 5 years. While this stat is disheartening, it can empower you to become the minority 10% who don't fail by understanding why most do.

Quite frequently I read posts from people, albeit well-intended, with grandiose goals of making a fortune by starting a business. You've heard the countless questions repeated dozens of times:
  • How can I make money starting a business?
  • What business can I start with $200 and still make $5K per month?
  • What home-based business can I start?
  • I have a friend who manufacturers widgets; you think I can make money selling them?
  • How can I make a passive income?
  • What's a good product to sell on Ebay?
  • What's the best business to start on a shoestring?
If you find yourself sitting around asking yourself these types of questions, your entrepreneurial premise more than likely will lead you into the 90% failure category. Why? An entrepreneurial premise predicated on money is like building a house on sand; it's likely to come crumbling down. Start with a weak foundation in any task and your odds of failure increase.

Fastlane Principle: Selfish premises do not make good, long-term business models.

Businesses should not be created to make money. Businesses should not be created to satisfy your desire to “do what you loveâ€. No one cares about your selfish ideas about dreams and making money. The world doesn't care about your business, your desire to make money, and your dreams of owning a business “doing what you loveâ€. Again, no one cares!

What people DO CARE about is what your business can do for them. How will your business help me? What's in it for me? Will it solve my problem? Make something easier? Provide me with shelter? Save me money? Educate me? Make me feel a certain way? Tell me why should I give your business money for your product or service?

The problem with new business owners is they create businesses based on the faulty premises; faulty premises that don't lead to profitable business.
“I need a new income streamâ€
“I’m an expert in [blank] so Ill do that"
“I read a book and it says to start a businessâ€
Wrong. Wrong. And wrong.

Fastlane Principle: You begin to attract money when you STOP BEING SELFISH and turn your business focuses from the needs of yourself to the needs of other people.

Businesses don't attract money -- businesses that solve needs do. If your goal is to attract wealth ethically and with integrity, selfish motives, albeit a powerful motivator, won't serve you well to attract great wealth.

Money is a like a mischievous cat; if you chase it around the neighborhood, it eludes you-- hiding up a tree, behind the rose bush, or in the garden. However, if you ignore it and focus on what attracts the cat other than the cat itself, it will come to you and sit right in your lap.

The foundation of all highly successful business is the satisfaction of consumer needs as reflected by sales in the marketplace. The marketplace-- people, not you-- determine if your business is viable. If you sell 10,000,000 of Product XYZ, 10,000,000 people have voted that your product will help them, or satisfy one of their needs. People vote with their money.

Fastlane Principle: Focusing on the needs of others is the only entrepreneurial premise that improves your odds of business success.

Growing wealth germinates by solving needs on a massive scale, or in a highly impactual way. It could be as gigantic as starting a software company like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, or something seemingly minute like putting a new spin on something old. If you own a website that services 10,000 people daily, you're making an impact. If you own real estate company that provides housing to 1,000 people, you're making an impact. Make a freaking impact!!

Is this an all-inclusive rule? No. Exceptions exist. Many profitable businesses are founded on greed -- however profit in the name of greed and selfish interest usually lands those companies on the television or in the Better Business Bureau complaint files. Consumer greed also exists and greedy business owners can serve this demographic well (The all too popular consumer mantra: "We want the best price" often ends up as a scam or services rendered poorly.)

The objective of this post is to increase your odds of business success. While you can chose to ignore this advice and continue moving forward with selfish interest, I'd speculate your failure odds are inline with the stats -- 90% -- whereas moving to an unselfish premise might increase it to 50%.

EXAMPLE
Joe was an expert in martial arts and he loved his craft. Following the advice of gurus, he set out to "do what he loved" and opened up a martial art studio. Within 10 months, his studio closed down as he could no longer support his family on his $21,000 year business profit.

Before starting, Joe was destined for failure due to a faulty entrepreneurial premise based on selfish needs: "I'm an expert in martial arts and love the art, therefore I should open a studio".

The correct premises are: Is there a need in my neighborhood for a martial art studio? What are current martial arts studios doing wrong? What are they doing that I could do better? What better services and value could I provide to the martial art student? What do I bring to the table to this community?

Had Joe analyzed and answered these questions first and foremost, his odds of business success would have increased dramatically.

My advice to aspiring business owners is this: Quit looking around for money-making opportunities -- instead, look around outside of yourself, stop being selfish, and help your fellow man solve their problems.

If you can make 1,000,000 people achieve any of the following:

1) Make them feel better
2) Help them solve a problem
3) Educate them
4) Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup)
5) Give them security (housing, safety, health)
6) Arise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence)
7) Satisfy appetites of all kind, from basic (food) to the risqué (sexual).
8) Make things easier
9) Enhance their dreams and give hope

Do any of the above and I can guarantee you this: You will be worth millions.

So, the next time you hear yourself trolling around for opportunities to make you money, sit back and ask yourself this ...

"What do I have to offer the world?"

Offer the world something of value and the money will be close behind.

MJ



GREAT stuff MJ. Really hits the nail on the head.
 
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Yussef

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MJ what you do here is EPIC. You are like the Yoda of success:cheers:
 

onialex1

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Excellent post. Always focus on what you can provide to your fellow man NOT what you can charge him for.
 

apexstrat

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While my business has not failed, I do understand why it hasn't taken off like the rocket I had envisioned.

BlackHollow, I finished reading Lean "startup" recently and one of things they point out is the misconception that running a business is like building a rocketship. i.e. you do all the prep before hand, invest all your time and energy into the planning and building and then launch and expect to get to the moon. They say that building a business is a lot more like driving a car, even if you've got a perfect car, you still have to keep your hands on the steering wheel and continually make adjustments to avoid the potholes in the road.

It helped me a lot to make that mindset shift, knowing that you will have to change things to get to where you want to be and not expecting everything to go right first time.
 
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Superman

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BlackHollow, I finished reading Lean "startup" recently and one of things they point out is the misconception that running a business is like building a rocketship. i.e. you do all the prep before hand, invest all your time and energy into the planning and building and then launch and expect to get to the moon. They say that building a business is a lot more like driving a car, even if you've got a perfect car, you still have to keep your hands on the steering wheel and continually make adjustments to avoid the potholes in the road.

It helped me a lot to make that mindset shift, knowing that you will have to change things to get to where you want to be and not expecting everything to go right first time.

I'm reading that book right now - Lean Startup. To put my two cents on this discussion...I just learnt, break down your idea into its elements. From those elements identify the assumptions. Then find a way to test those assumptions to make sure you are OK. Once all assumptions are tested then based on the results of those tests you create a MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT (MVP) and launch that. It doesn't have to be perfect and you get a few people (probably the ones you run the assumption tests on ) to try it. This is the absolute best approach to implement an idea.

The ASSumptions are killing everything and everyone. ASSumptions are the idea killers. I was working on a neat idea, after reading this part just today morning I began this process. Spent a few hours breaking down my idea into elements and identifying ASSumptions and oh boy were there some serious assumptions. I also found how to test those assumptions and will proceed before spend a fortune on developing and marketing my idea.

2 cents
 

NetMecca

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Passive Income and the Internet

30 years ago things like passive income were only driven by the power of the wealthy. They could invest and earn interest, own real estate and rent, buy stocks and earn dividends, and many more things outside of the reach of everyday people.

Fortunately in our wonderful age of technology a number of things happened, which I think is well worth a mention.
• The internet arrived and has since grown into a global community of people, creating endless ideas, innovation and opportunities for those who pay attention.
• The scale of these opportunities have reduced in size significantly, and it is now less expensive than ever to participate in these opportunities, making these significantly more accessible to all. Even opportunities that have previously only been available to the wealthy are now available to all, by virtue of sharing approaches. (eg. Stock exchanges are now accessible to anyone with a little cash)
• It is possible to build passive income with hard work and dedication and in no insignificant measure. And having a lot of cash is helpful, but not essential.
• It is possible to build something utilizing efforts, interests and thoughts of others. In fact true success is directly connected with how you do this.
• The scale of possible collaboration has increased significantly, by virtue of access to simpler communication, and sharing of common interests and goals.

Unfortunately as the scale of the opportunities reduced, it also had a direct correlation on the possible returns to be had, and so it has become harder to build passive income from one simple source. And for most to succeed, it requires a combination of several opportunities and work on all of them simultaneously, growing them simultaneously, to actually get anywhere.

The significant amount of opportunities have also made it harder to find the good opportunities. It is no longer a city mall that you could walk through, find all the stores, and pick the one you wish to shop from. It has become an ocean, with molecules, and for the most part, very difficult to locate really well paying ones.

So when considering this it is important to recognize that the digital world is not just a bunch of 0s and 1s, but rather driven by real people. Most of whom will likely share your need for personal freedom and financial security, in varying degrees of course, but nonetheless.

And a lot of these people will also be driven by things that even you have not thought of and considered, which means that for you to succeed, it may prove essential to open your mind, and think outside the box.

When all is said and done the reality is that your pursuit should be people. Find the people. Find their interests and then develop something around that. Only the people will bring you what you desire...
 

MJ DeMarco

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how did i miss this thread.

Probably because it's nearly a decade old, ha ha. Anyway, it's in the book if you missed it here.
 

teabag

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Probably because it's nearly a decade old, ha ha. Anyway, it's in the book if you missed it here.

Currently re-reading it. I think the first time I did was too excited and hyped about starting, thus missing the most important bits :p
 

arpeggiomeister

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Passive Income and the Internet

30 years ago things like passive income were only driven by the power of the wealthy. They could invest and earn interest, own real estate and rent, buy stocks and earn dividends, and many more things outside of the reach of everyday people.

Fortunately in our wonderful age of technology a number of things happened, which I think is well worth a mention.
• The internet arrived and has since grown into a global community of people, creating endless ideas, innovation and opportunities for those who pay attention.
• The scale of these opportunities have reduced in size significantly, and it is now less expensive than ever to participate in these opportunities, making these significantly more accessible to all. Even opportunities that have previously only been available to the wealthy are now available to all, by virtue of sharing approaches. (eg. Stock exchanges are now accessible to anyone with a little cash)
• It is possible to build passive income with hard work and dedication and in no insignificant measure. And having a lot of cash is helpful, but not essential.
• It is possible to build something utilizing efforts, interests and thoughts of others. In fact true success is directly connected with how you do this.
• The scale of possible collaboration has increased significantly, by virtue of access to simpler communication, and sharing of common interests and goals.

Unfortunately as the scale of the opportunities reduced, it also had a direct correlation on the possible returns to be had, and so it has become harder to build passive income from one simple source. And for most to succeed, it requires a combination of several opportunities and work on all of them simultaneously, growing them simultaneously, to actually get anywhere.

The significant amount of opportunities have also made it harder to find the good opportunities. It is no longer a city mall that you could walk through, find all the stores, and pick the one you wish to shop from. It has become an ocean, with molecules, and for the most part, very difficult to locate really well paying ones.

So when considering this it is important to recognize that the digital world is not just a bunch of 0s and 1s, but rather driven by real people. Most of whom will likely share your need for personal freedom and financial security, in varying degrees of course, but nonetheless.

And a lot of these people will also be driven by things that even you have not thought of and considered, which means that for you to succeed, it may prove essential to open your mind, and think outside the box.

When all is said and done the reality is that your pursuit should be people. Find the people. Find their interests and then develop something around that. Only the people will bring you what you desire...
You bring up a lot of interesting points. One point I would like to elaborate on though is that the cost of entry has been reduced thus the ability to build passive income has somehow been reduced along with it. I do not think this is true.

MJ gives us a very simple formula that has been one of the most valuable tools I have ever seen:

Scale x Magnitude = Wealth

Scale is how many you can sell and magnitude is the price that you charge for it. When talking about passive income on the internet the first thing I think of is some kind of subscription based business. You want something that you can charge people for again and again instead of something that sells once and that is it.

I chose my business based on the things listed above. I teach gambling strategy. I went through a lot of things to find my business but having this formula was able to guide me.

Scale: are there a large amount of people who want to learn how to get an edge over the casinos? Yes, there are millions.

Magnitude: Will they pay a decent amount of money for this information. Yes. Sports Betting Professor sells for $197. Blackjack Apprenticeship 1 day bootcamps sell for $1,500. The Golden Touch Dice Control Seminars sell for $3,000.

Is this something that can be sold on a subscription basis? Yes. There are several touting services that range widely in price. The Sports Cash SYstem charges $70 a month, Offshore INSIDERS is $350 a month, Precision picks is $50 per pick for Ray Franklin's picks, which would average $5,000 a month for anyone to follow him.

If sell a touting service for $350 per sports season and did the MLB, NFL, and NBA I can have massive passive income. Look what happens with just 1,000 customers.

3 x $350 = $1,050

1,000 x $1,050 = $1,050,000.

That is a million dollar business that is residual passive income. There will be attrition to deal with, but once customers are acquired, and they are happy with the service, they are likely to stay for a very long time.

This formula can be used to analyze virtually any business within seconds. If a business does not have the potential you are looking for then it either does not appeal to enough people or the problem your business solves is not compelling enough to command a decent price tag. The more desire there is to fix a problem the more money you can charge for it. Gamblers want to win. The desire is huge. That is why I can charge so much.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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You bring up a lot of interesting points. One point I would like to elaborate on though is that the cost of entry has been reduced thus the ability to build passive income has somehow been reduced along with it. I do not think this is true.

MJ gives us a very simple formula that has been one of the most valuable tools I have ever seen:

Scale x Magnitude = Wealth

Scale is how many you can sell and magnitude is the price that you charge for it. When talking about passive income on the internet the first thing I think of is some kind of subscription based business. You want something that you can charge people for again and again instead of something that sells once and that is it.

I chose my business based on the things listed above. I teach gambling strategy. I went through a lot of things to find my business but having this formula was able to guide me.

Scale: are there a large amount of people who want to learn how to get an edge over the casinos? Yes, there are millions.

Magnitude: Will they pay a decent amount of money for this information. Yes. Sports Betting Professor sells for $197. Blackjack Apprenticeship 1 day bootcamps sell for $1,500. The Golden Touch Dice Control Seminars sell for $3,000.

Is this something that can be sold on a subscription basis? Yes. There are several touting services that range widely in price. The Sports Cash SYstem charges $70 a month, Offshore INSIDERS is $350 a month, Precision picks is $50 per pick for Ray Franklin's picks, which would average $5,000 a month for anyone to follow him.

If sell a touting service for $350 per sports season and did the MLB, NFL, and NBA I can have massive passive income. Look what happens with just 1,000 customers.

3 x $350 = $1,050

1,000 x $1,050 = $1,050,000.

That is a million dollar business that is residual passive income. There will be attrition to deal with, but once customers are acquired, and they are happy with the service, they are likely to stay for a very long time.

This formula can be used to analyze virtually any business within seconds. If a business does not have the potential you are looking for then it either does not appeal to enough people or the problem your business solves is not compelling enough to command a decent price tag. The more desire there is to fix a problem the more money you can charge for it. Gamblers want to win. The desire is huge. That is why I can charge so much.

I think you are proving my point, not disproving it.

You can have reasonable control (or access) over both variables. And 1,000 subscribers is not a small number, in fact, its a great multiplier if you're charging a price with magnitude.

Great post and analysis. Rep+
 

arpeggiomeister

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I think you are proving my point, not disproving it.

You can have reasonable control (or access) over both variables. And 1,000 subscribers is not a small number, in fact, its a great multiplier if you're charging a price with magnitude.

Great post and analysis. Rep+
I totally agree with you. The quote I was debating is "Unfortunately as the scale of the opportunities reduced, it also had a direct correlation on the possible returns to be had, and so it has become harder to build passive income from one simple source. And for most to succeed, it requires a combination of several opportunities and work on all of them simultaneously, growing them simultaneously, to actually get anywhere." from NetMecca.

I think he used scale when he meant magnitude so I interpreted it to mean price of entry. The main point I wanted to get across is that even though you can start an online business for well under $1,000 now due all this great technology, the ability to create passive income has increased. It may be harder to find the opportunities now because there is just so much out there. It is hard to sift through it all if you just flip through an opportunity magazine, but if you apply the formula it weeds them all out like magic.

I just picked up a copy of "Small Business Opportunities" sitting on my shelf. I can weed through opportunities in seconds. Here are a couple of ads. "Own a business with little or no competition!" "Not a Franchise, Keep what You Make!" This is an ad for the BBQ Cleaner. I can tell you straight up this opportunity sucks because you are selling your time for money and thus it is not scalable. Another ad is for Decorative Floor Coatings. Same deal. You would be selling your time for money. Bad deal. A third ad, Reseller Dynamics, offers website building business. If I were to go this route I would get educated on designing my own, not do it through a company like this, but the main point is that I can immediately tell that this opportunity has more potential then the other two. Everybody and their brother is trying to create an online business these days. The demand is there. Templates can be set up so that they can be quickly set up, you can even set it up so the customer builds the sites themselves using the templates thus taking your time out of the equation. Nothing will compare to creating your own business and thus having a unique angle, but if I had to choose then the web design business has far more potential then the other two.

The Scale X Magnitude formula cuts through all of the hype and exposes the business for what it really is. I have read hundreds of books and that formula is probably one of the best things I have ever learned. Every new aspiring entrepreneur should learn that formula before they even consider any kind of business. It is priceless. Thanks for showing me.
 

AllenCrawley

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Do You Have a Successful Entrepreneurial Premise?

The most common mistake aspiring entrepreneurs make is to approach entrepreneurship with the wrong premise. You've heard the doom-and-gloom statistic that 90% of all new businesses fail in 5 years. While this stat is disheartening, it can empower you to become the minority 10% who don't fail by understanding why most do.

Quite frequently I read posts from people, albeit well-intended, with grandiose goals of making a fortune by starting a business. You've heard the countless questions repeated dozens of times:
  • How can I make money starting a business?
  • What business can I start with $200 and still make $5K per month?
  • What home-based business can I start?
  • I have a friend who manufacturers widgets; you think I can make money selling them?
  • How can I make a passive income?
  • What's a good product to sell on Ebay?
  • What's the best business to start on a shoestring?
If you find yourself sitting around asking yourself these types of questions, your entrepreneurial premise more than likely will lead you into the 90% failure category. Why? An entrepreneurial premise predicated on money is like building a house on sand; it's likely to come crumbling down. Start with a weak foundation in any task and your odds of failure increase.

Fastlane Principle: Selfish premises do not make good, long-term business models.

Businesses should not be created to make money. Businesses should not be created to satisfy your desire to “do what you love”. No one cares about your selfish ideas about dreams and making money. The world doesn't care about your business, your desire to make money, and your dreams of owning a business “doing what you love”. Again, no one cares!

What people DO CARE about is what your business can do for them. How will your business help me? What's in it for me? Will it solve my problem? Make something easier? Provide me with shelter? Save me money? Educate me? Make me feel a certain way? Tell me why should I give your business money for your product or service?

The problem with new business owners is they create businesses based on the faulty premises; faulty premises that don't lead to profitable business.

“I need a new income stream”
“I’m an expert in [blank] so Ill do that"
“I read a book and it says to start a business”

Wrong. Wrong. And wrong.

Fastlane Principle: You begin to attract money when you STOP BEING SELFISH and turn your business focuses from the needs of yourself to the needs of other people.

Businesses don't attract money -- businesses that solve needs do. If your goal is to attract wealth ethically and with integrity, selfish motives, albeit a powerful motivator, won't serve you well to attract great wealth.

Money is a like a mischievous cat; if you chase it around the neighborhood, it eludes you-- hiding up a tree, behind the rose bush, or in the garden. However, if you ignore it and focus on what attracts the cat other than the cat itself, it will come to you and sit right in your lap.

The foundation of all highly successful business is the satisfaction of consumer needs as reflected by sales in the marketplace. The marketplace-- people, not you-- determine if your business is viable. If you sell 10,000,000 of Product XYZ, 10,000,000 people have voted that your product will help them, or satisfy one of their needs. People vote with their money.

Fastlane Principle: Focusing on the needs of others is the only entrepreneurial premise that improves your odds of business success.

Growing wealth germinates by solving needs on a massive scale, or in a highly impactual way. It could be as gigantic as starting a software company like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, or something seemingly minute like putting a new spin on something old. If you own a website that services 10,000 people daily, you're making an impact. If you own real estate company that provides housing to 1,000 people, you're making an impact. Make a freaking impact!!

Is this an all-inclusive rule? No. Exceptions exist. Many profitable businesses are founded on greed -- however profit in the name of greed and selfish interest usually lands those companies on the television or in the Better Business Bureau complaint files. Consumer greed also exists and greedy business owners can serve this demographic well (The all too popular consumer mantra: "We want the best price" often ends up as a scam or services rendered poorly.)

The objective of this post is to increase your odds of business success. While you can chose to ignore this advice and continue moving forward with selfish interest, I'd speculate your failure odds are inline with the stats -- 90% -- whereas moving to an unselfish premise might increase it to 50%.

EXAMPLE
Joe was an expert in martial arts and he loved his craft. Following the advice of gurus, he set out to "do what he loved" and opened up a martial art studio. Within 10 months, his studio closed down as he could no longer support his family on his $21,000 year business profit.

Before starting, Joe was destined for failure due to a faulty entrepreneurial premise based on selfish needs: "I'm an expert in martial arts and love the art, therefore I should open a studio".

The correct premises are: Is there a need in my neighborhood for a martial art studio? What are current martial arts studios doing wrong? What are they doing that I could do better? What better services and value could I provide to the martial art student? What do I bring to the table to this community?

Had Joe analyzed and answered these questions first and foremost, his odds of business success would have increased dramatically.

My advice to aspiring business owners is this: Quit looking around for money-making opportunities -- instead, look around outside of yourself, stop being selfish, and help your fellow man solve their problems.

If you can make 1,000,000 people achieve any of the following:

1) Make them feel better
2) Help them solve a problem
3) Educate them
4) Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup)
5) Give them security (housing, safety, health)
6) Arise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence)
7) Satisfy appetites of all kind, from basic (food) to the risqué (sexual).
8) Make things easier
9) Enhance their dreams and give hope

Do any of the above and I can guarantee you this: You will be worth millions.

So, the next time you hear yourself trolling around for opportunities to make you money, sit back and ask yourself this ...

"What do I have to offer the world?"

Offer the world something of value and the money will be close behind.

MJ

It's likely been a couple years since I read this. Great refresher.
 

Andy Black

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Thanks for the bump. Great post.

I love this analogy:
Money is a like a mischievous cat; if you chase it around the neighborhood, it eludes you-- hiding up a tree, behind the rose bush, or in the garden. However, if you ignore it and focus on what attracts the cat other than the cat itself, it will come to you and sit right in your lap.
 

jon.a

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mws87

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This has to be one of the most useful forums on the Internet. It amazes me how many people waste time jerking off or watching cat videos instead of educating themselves.

One of the many take aways I've gathered from working sales is WIIFM. What's in it for me? (the customer, not you).
 
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