Young man needs direction.

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Hi Gordon,

Wow, great question!

We started Sowpub when I was a little over 30, and now I'm almost 50 (!)... I've learned a lot along the way on this awesome adventure!

Some of the best advice I ever got was from you... Which was to get sales experience. If someone was starting out, and didn't have sales experience yet, I'd give them the same advice! (All businesses need to make sales, no matter what the business is...)

I ended up getting a job cold-calling people out of a phone book (!) to sell them hugely discounted comedy tickets. The whole reason my employer did that was because, the whole night seems funnier if the comedy club is full (laughter is contagious). So they'd sell discounted comedy club tickets to make sure the venue was full every night. The only way to get the discounted tickets was if we called you at random. If you wanted to buy a ticket, and we didn't call you, you'd pay full price...

Anyway, it was a great experience! I ended up doing pretty well (compared to my colleagues)... They wanted to even make me a manager of the sales team. I turned it down (because I was there for the sales experience - if I was managing the sales team, I wouldn't be selling any more).

I've used the skills I developed so many times since then... Not only when selling, but even when just meeting people. I'm a lot more comfortable talking to strangers than I was before. I believe it's made a big difference in my life, and opened up many doors...!

I think it's good advice for any age, for those without that experience. Even a few months of sales experience can make a big difference...

As for different stages of life, as you said, Gordon, I think when you're younger, you have a bit more freedom to explore. As you get older, you may have a partner, who you also have to please. You may have kids, who you have to feed. All these things limit your choices, and you have to go for the money...

At a later stage in life, it's hard to decide what to do. Here's a method I developed, which might be helpful in deciding...

I ask myself, of each potential opportunity...

* What is the minimum amound of money I need to make? What is the likelihood that I'll make this minimum amount, doing this business?

* What is the amount I'm highly likely to make doing this? (Not if pie-in-the-sky miracles happen, but try to be more realistic.)

I think how you answer the first question will differ depending on your "stage" in life...

When you're younger, you might be happier "shooting for the moon" - making very little money at the start, living off of instant noodles, while you go for a long-shot startup...

If you're older, your answers might lead you to go for something more solid. Maybe a service business of some kind, where it's easier to get the work. (Consulting can be lucrative.)

After this, I'd start looking at - what is the demand for what you're planning to do? Is there a "toll position" you can get for what you're planning to do?

That's my (a bit lengthy) answer...

Best wishes,

Dien

Thanks Dien.

The added pressures of relationships, eh? I may be wrong, but like you, I think where you at on your lifeline goes a long way toward the choices you have.

Opposing view: law of attraction. Never too late or too early to manifest your destiny. So THEY say.

They are: old fart Bob Proctor. Young stud Jake Ducey.

Both preach the same message, the Universal mind responds to you fulfilling your every desire, when you do what needs (according to them) to be done.

Bob has been around forever, like Joe Biden {really? that's the best the Dems can do????} and he is low key compared to YouTube sensation Jake Bucey.

MY problem, and I acknowledge it is my personal problem, with LOA practitioners is IF, IF they got rich, or attained financial freedom selling how to manifest moolah stuff, well, isn't it just a circle of jerks? I don't know, just my opinion.

Older guys might have some trouble with Jake's energy, style, and his never blinking. Creepy? Maybe. Younger people would snooze with Proctor, just looking at him talk could be used as a sleep aide.

But stages and ages of life, do bring with them certain self restraints.

And there is sexism too. Many women, and millennials especially, would prefer a female voice telling them how to be all they can be. Sure Jake Bucey is a YouTube phenom, but OPRAH, that is THE voice, eh?

So, age, relationships and sex all play a part in finding out the optimal opportunity for today. Choices, choices and more choices. Maybe it really does come back to; What do you want? And Why?

GordonJ