He was walking slowly with his cart full of groceries along Lex and 86th.

She was walking briskly with her dog. She look determined just to walk fast.

When they passed each other comedy ensued. The dog stuck his head into the cart and started chewing his way through one of the bags until he got to the bread. How he managed to get his head through the small square in the cart still boggles my mind, but that’s neither here nor there.

This poor guy who can’t walk more than 1 mph is just standing there looking at this dog as he mauls his bread bag. Meanwhile the woman is smacking the dog’s head repeatedly, but this dog is determined. Crumbs and dog slobber are flying all over the place and yet all this guy can do is look at his food get destroyed.

When the woman’s smacks finally get through to the dog and he pulls his head out of the cart she jerks him by the leash and starts walking away. The guy bends down and picks up his bread bag. By the looks of him he wasn’t the richest guy in the world and that was probably the food he had for the next week. Yet, despite the fact that this woman’s dog destroyed his food she didn’t even offer to buy him a new loaf or toss him a few extra dollars to get a loaf himself.

Whenever our activities produce an undesirable result we have to be the ones to correct it. When we do something that leaves someone worse off then they were before we came into the picture then it becomes our responsibility to make up for it, so long as it is within our power to do so. But this woman didn’t rectify the problem her dog created.

But the beautiful thing about life is that what goes around comes around.

Imagine this woman as a woman you know – your mother perhaps. And imagine that she is talking calmly. Like there isn’t a thing wrong in the world.

Mother: There are these things in your body called hormones and they can do lots of things. They can make you happy, or sad, and even angry. They’re everywhere in your body – and they can even make your hair change color.

Son: Really mommy?

Daughter: Nuh uh!

Mother: Yes baby, they can. And even you have them. When you get older they are going to play a really big role in your lives. And you even have them in your body now. When I was pregnant with you – when you were in mommy’s tummy – I had a lot of hormones in my body. And they did a lot of things – like make my hair change color.

A brief pause…

Mother: So that’s why mommy’s hair is grey – because of you two.

What she was really saying:

Mother: There are these things in your body that can make mommy go craaazy – they’re called hormones. Sometimes they make me so angry that if you even look at me I will probably yell at you or even throw something. They even made my beautiful black hair turn grey.

Son: Really mommy?

Daughter: Nuh uh!

Mommy: Yes baby, they do. And they are in your body too. And when you get to be teenagers I’m going to be angry a lot because all you’re going to want to do is defy me and go have sex – and there’s no way that’s going to happen, because I’m just going to lock you in your rooms.

And  when I was pregnant with you all those hormones stressed me out and because of that my hair turned grey. That’s why mommy’s hair changed color – because the stress of carrying you in my stomach for 9 months did it. It was aaall beeecause of you two.

Now, this mother’s voice sounded as sweet as the first warm day after a long winter, but her kids are going to be suffering with passive aggression issues for a loooooong time.

It seems the prime minister of China, Wen Jiabao, is suffering from the same approval ratings that Bush enjoyed during his time in office, because during a speech at Cambridge an angered protester threw a shoe at him. Fortunately for Mr. Wen, the shoe landed “well away from him”.

This naturally brings me to the conclusion that these protesters just aren’t practicing enough. Because if they were, Bush wouldn’t have been “praised” for his cat like reflexes and the shoe thrown at Mr. Wen wouldn’t have landed “well away from him”.

So, for all those angry protesters out there, I’ve put together an easy plan for you to increase your accuracy:

1. Set up a target in your back yard. Make sure it looks like the person you will be throwing your shoes at.
2. Gather up whatever shoes you have and test them all out to see which pair has the best aerodynamics. I think a pair of Usain Bolt’s Puma Complete Theseus racing shoes will do the trick here.
3. Start throwing. Now this will require you to practice from multiple distances and angles – you never know where you’ll be seated at the speech or press conference. Get a chair and place it at 2 meters, 3 meters, etc. until you get to about 10 meters away. Place it at different angles around the room.
4. Start seated. Then practice sliding off your shoe slyly so no one notices. Then pop up out of your chair into the ready position – knees slightly bent with your arms out in front of you. Make sure your left shoulder (if you’re a righty) is pointing at your target.
5. Bring your throwing arm back with your shoe hand pointing to the ceiling. And lift your left arm so that it’s triceps is parallel with the triceps of your right arm (elbow to elbow should be parallel with the ground), with your left forearm being parallel to the ground, but perpendicular to your triceps. (email me if you need a drawing)
6. Lift your left leg up slightly and begin twisting your torso as tight as you can – Here you will be twisting your body so your left shoulder goes to the right.
7. Once you’re body is tightened like a spring, uncoil and let the shoe fly – making sure that you follow your lead shoulder (which, at release, should be pointed at your target).

Now for the tricky part. Once you release, you need to get out of there FAST. With only 1 shoe on this may pose a problem. So I would suggest getting a pair of those socks with the rubber on the bottom – you know the ones that I’m talking about. Make sure that they are fastened to your legs – you don’t want any traction problems when you’re pulling a juke move out of Madden ’09. And then book it.

Finally – don’t stop practicing until you have at least a 75% connect rate.

And remember, if you’re gonna do it, do it right. And when the day comes the headlines will read: “Prime Minister Assaulted with Barrage of Shoes. 1 Man is Arrested”.

BBC: Shoe hurled as Chinese PM speaks

Most recently, about 1 week ago, I decided to dedicate part of my commute to work to visualize business improving. I work in property management doing short term furnished apartment rentals – kind of like a hotel. I decided I wanted to do $10,000 in bookings. Today we did about $9800.

Now, this isn’t a new idea. This has been around since Jesus. Yea, that’s right, since 33 A.D. That’s 1,976 years. Jesus said “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”. Napoleon Hill wrote a book called “Think and Grow Rich” and proclaims that you have to visualize, a.k.a pray, as though you’ve received it. The list of teachers goes on. But the truth can only be determined by you.

Focus

We all know those people who are driven to succeed – sometimes no matter what. Their focus is so singular that nothing crosses their mind if it isn’t their goal. So everything they do is related to achieving the object of their desires. And guess what – more often than not, they succeed.

Have you ever heard of the Tibetan monks who can place a wet towel on their backs and boil the water out of the towel? They’ve learned to control their temperatures via a special form of meditating – by focusing. I kid you not – look it up.

Is there something that you want? A goal that you haven’t achieved yet? Well, what are you waiting for? It’s not just going to come to you. You have to work for it. But know what you want. See it in your mind. Imagine every little detail – down to the electrons. Because when you can see it clearly in your mind you know exactly the path you must take to get there. And when you know the path the next phase begins – walking the path.

Desire

The story goes that a young man approached Socrates telling him he wanted to learn philosophy and Socrates’s reply was to take the young man and dunk his head into a fountain. Just before the poor boy lost consciousness Socrates pulled him out and said that when he wanted truth as badly as he wanted air that he could return. The young boy was Plato.

In order to succeed you must have a purpose – a driving force behind your actions. They can’t be guided by some half-assed desire to do something. If you’re going to dedicate yourself to doing something give it 1000%. Never, ever, ever, EVER half ass it. What’s the point if you do? You’ve just wasted time

Urgency

We are all granted a certain amount of time on this earth. The exact length is uncertain, but for the most part we know that if we wake up in the morning we’re going to have 24 hours in that day. Most of us take it for granted, but it’s the one commodity that can’t not be renewed, whose price cannot be fixed.

Understand, and I mean really understand, that you won’t get any more of it and you’ll see just how precious it is. So on your path to success act as if though there is no time – continue moving and take consistent actions every day – because a wasted moment will never be returned.

And most importantly – believe in yourself so strongly that if you were a rock no amount of water could whittle you down.

- E

2/3/09

Ben Popken, over at consumerist.com has a great article titled “Confessions of a Cash4Gold Employee”. Definitely worth a read if you have any family considering sending them their jewlery expecting to make a nice chunk of change. You can check out the story Here.

Now I’m not saying that Cash4Gold is a bad company or that it’s illegitimate or anything negative about them. I’m guessing that they are doing pretty darn well in this recession. With a lot of people strapped for cash – pawning their jewlery is a logical sacrifice to make when you need to put food on the table. Great business model for the times. However, until a little while ago I had never heard of them.

But it wasn’t only Cash4Gold. There were commercials for furniture companies!!! Furniture? Now, don’t get me wrong – it’s one of the most watched sporting events in the country and the exposure would be great. But coming from a business standpoint there are certain industries which carry a very high barrier to entry. And in the marketing/advertising world, getting into the superbowl adspace is one of those industries/ecosystems/whatever buzz word you want to use, that has a tremendously high barrier to entry. In exchange for a couple of million bucks you get 30 seconds. That’s just a hell of a deal if I ever heard one.

So as companies continue to fail, and as the layoffs keep coming, our debt keeps piling, and the dollar keeps diving, we will see prices get driven down further as more and more people fall into the “I’ll take what I can get” mindset. And while I laughed this year at some of the ads, the concentration of those laughs was heavily diluted. The amount of investment in marketing has dropped precipitously and major networks are taking whatever they can get.

No longer are the days of exclusivity and being able to sell to the highest bidder. These are scarce times and they will continue for some time. And this saddens me because next year I really really want to laugh so hard that I start crying. But I won’t, because this recession is going to be deep and prolonged. The numbers just aren’t there yet. The bottom is on its way and as we get there we’ll see the pace of the recession slow down – but until then, hang on for the bumpy ride. Cause we’re still on the economic equivalent of a vertical slip’n'slide.

Whatever it is that you want to do you need a plan. Whether in business, in war, or in life – you need something to guide you along the way. The old metaphor of a ship without a destination is a dead horse, but it’s still relevant.

Let’s say you want to start a business, the first thing you need to do is figure what you want to do with that business. Do you want to make clothing? Do you want to make the newest, greatest, coolest gadget the world has ever seen? Ok, that’s great. But how are you going to do it?  This is where a plan comes in handy

After you’ve established what you want to do it’s a matter of the how. There are essential parts of any plan.

1. WHAT: What exactly do you want to do? Are you going to make a physical product or will it be less tangible? In either case you need to clearly define what exactly it is that you want. Whether it be $5 million or to make the best selling iphone app of all time.

2. WHO: Are you going to go at this alone or is this going to be a collaborative effort? If it’s going to be a team effort you need to pick your team so that each person complements each other. You can’t have two people who are experts in the same thing – they’ll just end up butting heads. Remember everyone has weaknesses and strengths, and it’s your job to see those and put people together so that there’s seamlessness (or at least as  seamless as possible).

3. WHERE: Is this going to be done online or in the real world?  If you’re setting shop online, take the the time to learn everything you need to know about internet marketing, website development, etc. This will make your life easier once you get rolling. If you’re going to be out in the field, then that requires a similar skill set, but with important differences – you will be dealing with people. If you want to succeed, then I highly recommend that you go and read Dale Carnegie’s – How to Win Friends and Influence People – it will make a big impact if implemented.

4. WHEN: Are you going to start right away or wait till later? This is the WHEN. In my opinion, there is no later, only now – so get off your backside and get moving before you wake up and you’re 80 and wondering why you never did all those things you wanted to. Go! Get moving. – wait, finish reading then go.

5. WHY: Last, but certainly not least – why?. This is more important than the others. If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re going to fail. You absolutely need to have a purpose that is clearly defined in your mind. Without it, it’s like the ship that has its destination but forgot the damn compass at port.

A Note on Goals

Have you ever been to a new city to visit a friend and they gave you directions? If your friend is an ass he’ll tell you to turn down a bunch of streets you’ve never heard of or even seen before. If he’s a good friend his directions will be based of landmarks – a 7-11, a unique stop sign that’s bent in half, etc. In the same way, you need to have landmarks along your path to success. Ask yourself: Where should I be in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, & 5 years? Fill these questions out in detail so you know exactly where you are along your plan at any given moment.

By knowing where you are you know if you need to change direction slightly or make a major change. In the same way that ships must make continual tiny changes in course due to the ocean’s tendency to do what it wants, the same is in life. Change course if you have to, so long as it gets you to your destination.

Finally, don’t worry if you fail. It’s bound to happen. We all fail. But it isn’t the fact that you failed that matters – it’s that you got up. In highschool I played baseball – I wasn’t the best, but I loved the game. One summer I tried out for the best team in the league – The Bonnies. At the try out they had us running sprints. After puking I got to the back of the line and waited for the whistle to blow. When it blew I was off man, running as fast as I could go. About halfway down the hallway I stepped on someone’s sweat and slipped. The next thing I know I was flying through the air like Superman.  I hit the floor and actually slid 3 feet before coming to a stop. Needless to say, I was in pain and embarassed. But I got up and went to the back of the line and finished the sprint. I never made the team – like I said, I wasn’t the greatest, but I gave it my all. I ended up playing for a team one notch below and we won our division.

Good luck on whatever it is you’re doing. I hope with all my heart that you actually succeed. Take care.

E

Granted, things will be taking quite some time to get back on track. We’re losing jobs, there’s no credit, we’re at war and occupying countries whose people want us gone, home values are on the decline and aren’t showing of letting up, and all in all people are afraid of what’s to come. This fear leads to even further conservative measures, not only on the individual level, but on a national level as well. And all this does is fuel the fire of the recession

It is well established that the stock markets are driven by expectations – it’s the same with inflation. The problem is when expectations are in the gutter, there really isn’t much the markets can do but languish.  When I first learned that expectations drove the market I was immediately boggled.

If expectations drive the market, then couldn’t a collective effort to believe the future is going to be bright help?

Nope. Not gonna happen. Not never.

The current economic crisis helped us to see the truth of the matter – that there was no real productivity. Because if there were, this many firms wouldn’t be going out of business and we wouldn’t be suffering the type of losses that we are. All bubbles, all major upswings, are based on expectations. We saw it in the dot com boom when analysts were giving extraordinary valuations to companies that made no money. We saw it now, most recently, in the run up in home values – the problem was there was no value there to begin with. It was all imagined, borrowed from the coffers of our very own expectations.

So the question naturally arises – how do we clean up this mess? The answer is staggeringly simple. It’s been staring us in the face for eons: Create Value.

When you create something tangibly valuable you are on the right path. How do you know something is tangibly valuable? Here’s a handy equation:

Cost to produce: a

What people are willing to pay: b

If  b>a for all a then you have created something valuable.

It could be something physical, something emotional, something financial – it doesn’t really matter as long as the numbers are there. And that’s all it really comes down to – numbers.

We aren’t getting out of this mess any time soon, so the best we can do is buckle down and start getting creative. Forget the proverbial box – there is no box – there never was a box. Just the limits you’ve placed on your mind. Remember – “there are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge” (napoleon hill).

So go out there and get your creative juices flowing and together we’ll clean up this mess.

- Inner Light

Now snatch the bag out of the air and concentrate its form into a ball and again throw it into the air. See how it is less affected, but comes undone and reaches it’s intended destination only part of the time.

Now grab the bag off the floor and open it. Take a handful of sand and pour it into the bag. Wrap the bag around the sand and tie it off so no sand can escape. Again, toss it into the air. Observe how easily the bag now reaches its destination.

When you want to accomplish a goal you have to concentrate on your desires and back them with emotion and faith. Otherwise you’ll be blown off course by even the slightest challenge.