Gordon (and others),

What the heck, i'm going to take a risk and put my true (really) thoughts out there. I confess. I think like the "average man in the street" you mention in the post above. Consider me a case study ;-)

What do I want? Here goes:

I want to live in this house on this lake.

I want to work for myself.

I want to read to my child every day.

I want to take weekends off.

I want to earn $250,000 yr. (that's an expensive house ;-)

I want to work < 50 hours per week. ( roughly $200000 / (50 hours * 50 weeks) ) = $80/hr.

I want to be able to leave my house on the lake and drive to the coast to see the ocean when I feel like it.

I want to have decent health insurance for my family.

I want to have time to go fishing on that beautiful lake.

OK, now that I've established what I want and I look at the list I get a sinking feeling that says "it'll never happen". This is the thought process of the average "Man in the street" that you refer to. I realize its a defeatist attititude.

If you read first page of the article in the 1st link above, you'll see that that is a VACATION home. It's not even the guy's primary residence!!!. Yet I think about that house every day...

Is attitude the only difference between me and that guy? Heck, I've got a graduate degree in Computer Science, a great GPA, i've been told i'm smart, easy to talk to, a good teacher, blah blah blah. Yet in spite of all these positive attributes, I'm no closer to the dream above then a billion other average joes...

My question (for you and the others): how do you overcome your own bad attitude? Have you suffered from this "disease" before? What did you do to shake it?

Fire away, be honest, I can take it...

BTW, I appreciate all you do for those on this board.

Regards,

Jack

> Let me reframe the question I'm known for
> (what do you want?) to:

> HOW do you want to spend your time?

> Then break that down a little, OK?

> How do you want to spend your WORK time? Or
> how do you want to earn your living?

> Several years ago at a virtual place known
> as Compton College I "taught" a
> class on business.

> And my final exam was the question, What do
> you want?...a question that stumps more
> people than you can imagine.

> NOW I ask about how you want to spend your
> time...and what do you want in exchange for
> it?

> Some say dollars for hours...so how many
> dollars do you want for your hour? I've
> always thought that the end result was
> important, call it a goal or a target or a
> destination.

> It is the REASON, the motivation that keeps
> you working. What I've found to be
> repeatedly true these last 10 years on-line
> is that we have a tendency to fulfill our
> expectations.

> Which is why I think having a specific
> stated monetary goal and an hourly figure
> for what your time is worth is important.

> Last week I mentioned the guy who made
> $4,000.00 in 10 days at eBay, with only 10
> hours of work.

> Some thought that to be incredulous and that
> the "man in the street" wouldn't
> accept that, it would be beyond the average
> person's belief.

> I contend that is EXACTLY why they are
> average, and are the proverbial man in the
> street.

> There is nothing spectacular about earning 4
> grand in 10 hours, for many people it is
> routine. I don't find it a stretch of
> believability at all.

> What I do find remarkable is how many people
> are willing to exchange their precious work
> hours for such a lowly amount, and in far
> too many cases they hate what they are
> doing.

> If you've read me for any length of time, I
> have a very steady and certain mantra...that
> you are UNIQUE and you have
> "stuff" (not chattel, but stuff
> inside of you) to offer to the world which
> could be the very answer to your dreams.

> But, alas, I've seen very little of this
> "giving"...and what a shame that
> is, cause when I do see someone giving what
> he/she has got inside, I see either success
> or success in the making.

> Selling has as many different methods as
> there are religions. And in every religion
> you'll find splinter groups and affiliates
> that seem to preach opposite sermons.

> In selling, the truth is...what works.

> Because the "pros" do it this way
> or that doesn't mean you can. Sure there is
> body of work that is based on human
> psychology that will work en masse, but fail
> miserably one to one.

> I have ONE attitude about sellling and this
> has remained consistent over the years, and
> I've proved the effectiveness of it in door
> to door selling, retail and in-home with a
> wide variety of goods and services.

> MY sales method is this:

> I DON'T sell...I educate.

> And I am aware of timing. Knock on a door
> and face a young mother with a two year old
> at her knee and a baby on her breast...and
> unless you're giving away diapers or
> vacations, it's going to be hard to
> "sell" this person anything.

> In some neighborhoods you'll encounter
> similar types of people, for example, a
> MATURE crowd might be in one block and young
> couples in the next.

> WHO is in those homes is more important than
> what is in your briefcase.

> As a "problem solving partner" and
> a "life easing consultant" (those
> are IN my head as I knock on doors)...I'm
> prepared with several different
> introductions depending on who answers the
> door.

> Being DYNAMIC gives you a chance to meet the
> person's needs at your intersection...static
> presentations are purely a numbers game.

> But even with door-to-door sales, you need
> to have a target...what is your time worth?
> How much do you need to make? How many
> knocks produce a presentation? How many
> presentations produce a sale?

> All in all, it is a tough row to hoe, but
> some people thrive on it. And the fact they
> do, and have a method or an ATTITUDE about
> it, doesn't in any way shape or form mean
> you can do it too.

> The best sales method you can learn is...be
> TRUE to yourself.

> Stammer, stumble, be handicapped, or smooth
> as silk doesn't really matter. What matters
> is that you VALUE people and their time, and
> GIVE value to people and in so doing you'll
> get.

> OF course there is method and technique and
> psychology. But before and after all that,
> there is YOU.

> So what do YOU want to represent, to stand
> for? That is your sales pitch.

> It doesn't matter if you WANT to sell, or do
> the Internet, or take dictation...what
> matters is that you DO what you want to do
> at a dollar amount you want to do it at.

> So, HOW do you want to spend your time?

> Answer that, then find a role model,
> simulate and check. Why make your life so
> damn difficult?

> Gordon Alexander