[GordonJ]

Over the next few weeks, we'll be posting some ARCHIVE material, along with updates re: the topic.

This is #1. The idea we started with:

You don't get paid for doing nothing.

A simple enough concept, but like a lot of what is here, it is the lily pad floating on the pond, and IF you stick your head in, you'll see a lot more.

I've been called CRYPTIC, and that is a fair evaluation. I have found over the decades, the straight to the point idea seldom reaches its target.

So here we go sticking our head beneath the water.

IF you accept the premise, you don't get paid for doing nothing, then it should set off a whole chain of QUESTIONS, AND answers, which may suit you.

WHAT do you get PAID for? Well, we all understand work. Do a job, get paid.

A n d i t is MY OPINION, the majority should have one because they are not suited to Entrepreneurial pursuits, except for some side hustle gigs.

We'll start with the simple and obvious.

First what is PAID? It is an exchange of an agreed upon value for either a service rendered, or a product sold, or some sort of dividend on assets.

A service means you DO something. The mundane curb address painter, the trash collector, the deck cleaner, the Creative Marketing Professional. The consultant, the performer, the computer repair gal.

A product is usually (but not always as in the case of Software, apps, etc.) something which can be touched and and passed along. Sure, there could be a debate on whether or not software is a service or product, but it is a debate I'll skip. I feel it doesn't matter.

DIVIDENDS on assets, could be as simple as the cash back and or the interest earned on your checking account. It could be returns on stocks, bonds, real estate and other property holdings.

You can make a living doing any of these things. But if your aim is toward a financial freedom the masses don't attain, then you learn how to LEVERAGE your activity, no matter where it fits in.

If you sell a service, say rug cleaning, or moving...you can create leverage through other people. Just one way. You could develop a repeatable system and offer it to others (like headlight cleaning), or you could even set up distributorships and maybe franchises.

Lots of local movers, but TWO GUYS AND A TRUCK have become a major franchise. One franchisee could have several trucks working because he controls a territory. He makes more money with the leverage and control.

The bigger money made is probably by the franchise owner, who sells and collects a recurring dividend in the form of fees and percentages of business.

If you offer a product, you leverage that through distribution, proprietary positions, and contacts. We celebrate Harvey Brody here, who for over 60 years has sold and controlled ONE product (although he owns others) which is the ZOOM SPOUT OILER. He controls this via patents, processes, procedures, manufacturing.

He leverages the distribution by having over 100 major specialty chains who have it on their shelves. Instead of one at a time, his customers may order 10,000 at a time.

Harvey also uses the secret of CONTROL, and has built many a TOLL position for his products, if you want it, you have to go through him.

We've seen scores of business ideas here, in fact, Dien's great newsletter had hundreds of business ideas fleshed out and ready to be put to use, if you were a subscriber, find those old issues and dust them off, some solid gold in them.

The basic of an EXCHANGE OF VALUE, is the TRANSACTION. You could do a single transaction as Dien does when you subscribe to his newsletters or your transaction could be like Harvey's, where a single entity buys thousands of your products.

This is basic stuff, eh? We are looking right beneath the lily pad, but there is a lot more depth below each of these basic concepts. So now, what lesson have I learned from the last 20 years of SowPub.

Well, first, ideas are truly a dime a dozen, or less. There are people reading this who have had good ideas, maybe even million dollar ideas, but they are, as old friend Joe Karbo said: 'too busy earning a living to make any money'.

I've learned most people who think they want to be an Entrepreneur and have freedom, are better off with a job. Along with this, many GIVE UP too soon in their quest. For whatever reason, they stop short of the goal line.

I've learned that too many of us don't take control of our time. We don't set goals, have a system for achieving them, and get too distracted with greener pastures, until the step on all the cow pies and become a Judge, as in the poem MAUD MULLER, by John Greenleaf Whittier who pines for missed opportunities.

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”

Twenty years later. Here we are. Still standing. So I'll dive into the archives, like Robert Ballard, the deep sea treasure hunter, and shine some light on those deeper ideas hidden in the sands of time that have polished SowPub to a repository of useful, practical and profitable information.



GordonJ #1 Fini.