Gordon, your analysis please

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

drooling..waiting for Gordon's answer..because
he has lots of good insight...

But Jack..how do you know it's your attitude
and not something else? when you went to college
someone told you all you had to do was enroll,
go to class , get the degree and you'd get the
jobs: right?...you did what you were told and
it happened...

Is it possible you are in need of good advice
and a mentor to take you to a new level...

What's the difference between what you've achieved
so far and achieving your new goals? lack of
information, lack of a plan, lack of knowledge
about what to do next?

I'm wondering...because the answer to this dilemna
will probably help us all....

ok Gordon chime in...and the others too...
lets keep this thread going...

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 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

Hi,

If you're a clever person, it's possible. Clever means deep knowledge, a knowledge of how things really work, and the ability to reason with that knowledge.

If you're not a clever person, it's not possible unless you luck into it.

Hope this helps,

- Boyd

Boyd,

Thanks for your response.

In your opinion, can "cleverness" be acquired? When I first read your response, I saw it as either a "you've got it or you don't" type thing. Is this what you mean?

I ask this because a common "formula" for success is to find a successful mentor or model and do what they do. While certainly prudent, this formula doesn't seem particularly clever to me.

I, for example, can give you my formula (it worked for me) to make over 70K per year. Its like this:

1. Move into a cheap apartment with your wife and pets so you can afford to work as a grad student.
2. Study hard and get a masters degree in Computer Science.
3. Go to work as a coder for your local software company.

This model worked for a while (until the dot bomb) and thousands of people did the same thing.

Now this requires a certain aptitude for computer science (or medicine, or whatever your field of choice is...) but I never saw myself as being particularly clever for doing it, just willing to work hard and sacrifice a bit.

I tend to think that people fall into patterns that are not conducive to success and that it takes a kick (maybe from Gordon or someone else on this forum) to adjust your thinking and get you pointed back at the target.

That's why I posted and Gordon gave me a different perspective that I hadn't considered.

Your thoughts?

Regards,

Jack

> Hi,

> If you're a clever person, it's possible.
> Clever means deep knowledge, a knowledge of
> how things really work, and the ability to
> reason with that knowledge.

> If you're not a clever person, it's not
> possible unless you luck into it.

> Hope this helps,

> - Boyd

Hi,

You wrote:
> In your opinion, can "cleverness"
> be acquired?

I hope it can, because I'm trying to aquire it. Aside from the fire burning in my inner core to succeed in business I'm rather unsuited to be an entrepreneur. I'm shy, I don't like talking to people, I'm a terribly slow learner and I make more mistakes than anyone alive.

I'm almost at the point of knowing what I want to do in business (I'm going to spend the rest of the day just contemplating because it feels like an idea is trying to hatch). But I still don't know exactly what I want to do. (When I do decide I'm going to market it relentlessly!)

By cleverness I meant something like:

OK, you want the house. Maybe you can do a syndication deal with investors to buy the land and set up a high-end golf school (I heard Brad Richdale--he of infomercial fame--is charging $7000 a weekend at his golf school). The investors put up all the money and there's enough room on the land for you to build your house there, and your 20% of the golf school lets you build it. You manage the golf school, the investors get a great return on their investment plus they can participate in the golfing, and you don't even have to commute to get to work.

Instead of a golf school you could start some kind of franchise and do the same kind of syndication deal.

The people here on the forum can and will help you and the only advice I have is there is no "magic pill" you can buy from anyone that, if you take it, the next day all your problems will be gone. My other advice is to trust yourself, trust your intelligence, and believe you can make the right decisions.

You wrote:
> I tend to think that people fall into
> patterns that are not conducive to success
> and that it takes a kick (maybe from Gordon
> or someone else on this forum) to adjust
> your thinking and get you pointed back at
> the target.

Some people have a hard time getting into gear, and for some people it's effortless. I'm one of the ones that have a VERY HARD TIME GETTING INTO GEAR. Gordon and a bunch of other old-time forum people know this is true: for five years I literally DID NOTHING. I remember times when I was sitting in my office realizing an idea would work and make money, and I'd be sweating and I could not make myself get started actualizing the idea. I even experimented with herbs and supplements (the legal kind!) to try to fix whatever was wrong with me. I was even hearing music playing in my head like my own personal radio station, and sometimes the music was very distracting. In 2000 over a short period of time all my hangups disappeared THANK GOD and now if something needs to be done I can smoothly get into gear and do it.

You wrote:
> That's why I posted and Gordon gave me a
> different perspective that I hadn't
> considered.

I think Gordon's honest and he knows a lot.

Hope this helps!

Best,

- Boyd

You make a good point Sandy. Good advice from those who've done it before (Gordon et. al.) can certainly help things in the right direction.

I blamed attitude b/c I tend to let the negatives prevent me from taking action which is a problem shared by many I assume.

> drooling..waiting for Gordon's
> answer..because
> he has lots of good insight...

> But Jack..how do you know it's your attitude
> and not something else? when you went to
> college
> someone told you all you had to do was
> enroll,
> go to class , get the degree and you'd get
> the
> jobs: right?...you did what you were told
> and
> it happened...

> Is it possible you are in need of good
> advice
> and a mentor to take you to a new level...

> What's the difference between what you've
> achieved
> so far and achieving your new goals? lack of
> information, lack of a plan, lack of
> knowledge
> about what to do next?

> I'm wondering...because the answer to this
> dilemna
> will probably help us all....

> ok Gordon chime in...and the others too...
> lets keep this thread going...

> Gordon (and others),

Hi,

I don't know why I wrote that my hangups went away in a short time in 2000. This actually happened gradually in 2001.

If anyone's wondering how to reconcile my statement that we're building sites with my statement that I don't know what to do in business, here's how it makes sense.

Our site building is one stream of income, and we look at it like people used to look at stocks: buy and hold. But it's not going to be our main stream of income.

Best,

- Boyd

Hi Jack:

You do some coding...Do you freelance? and in what languages?

I have reasons for asking...you can email me your response if you prefer.

Thanks.

Cornell