The TWO most important words in my business life have been...

[GordonJ]

Two words changed everything for me.

Two words.

Once I had wrapped my head around them, embraced them, understood and applied, I wish I would have had these two words decades ago.

Common, ordinary words...but they became a BEACON to whatever I was doing.

Curious? Well, here they are.

SLOP & MESS.

Once I understood these, and Harvey Brody really showed advanced understanding and another light bulb went off...

I could clearly see how I got sucked into doing things, WASTING TIME, and fiddle-farting around.

In retrospect, I could see it in my golf business, in my resume business, in my singing telegram business, in fact, in my life in general.

So, I ended up full circle, a 360 degrees, almost, from standing on porches and knocking on doors selling fresh picked flowers door to door. NO slop or mess in that. Only Magic words (Spiders, snakes and Mice).

It really led me back to the AUTOMATIC PRODUCT VENDING sites, which I credit Bill Myers for showing me the way on that.

Offline, real vending machines have limited slop and mess, two guys I know who have done it for years, have people to fill up the machines, collect the money and they basically count it and spend it. Now, there are several more I know who have gotten into the business and slopped it all up. Making it difficult.

About nine years ago, EDDM was just taking off and several people got in on the "ground floor", some guru types with a lot of hype about easy money...but many experienced guys from BULK MAIL, who knew what they were doing and adapted their businesses to EDDM.

The guru types told people it would be easy to make thousands, filling up Co_op postcards with ads that EVERYONE WOULD WANT...there was a guy I talked to, who quit his job to get into the so called 9x12 money making machine...and he did do 5 of them, before he had to go find a new job.

Some guys were trying to put 18 ads on a 9x12 postcard, you wanna talk about slop and mess, go try that and see what happens.

I had a lot of s & m in my menu boards, (and thanks to Don Alm for the good idea) see one doesn't have to be creative, just adjust ideas to suit yourself.

Run around Sue, made a great song, run around GORDY, very off key noise.

Selling ads, collecting money (what a run around pain in ) getting proofs approved, those guys were taking weeks to sell 18 ads and the first guys on the card were getting antsy. Anyhow, most of us saw the S & M in that, and we scaled it to 6, then 3. Even with the latest menu boards, which died with Covid 19 lockdowns, there wasn't much to it, only 3 ads made it possible to be profitable.

Today, I see the S & M of people using WordPress, with plugins, add ons, or websites in general, or with multi funnels, or all that. Not saying you can't make some decent dough with any of it, I am saying, FOR ME, it is all too much involvement.

As I was going over some of Bill Myers' checklists recently, I saw he was very good at eliminating much of the S & M that bogs so many down.

I got out of affiliate marketing because of it. Just too much of my time for not enough return.

So, maybe some of you younger people will consider these two words and take a long hard look at what you are doing and see if you can locate the quick sand, the bog down, the places you need waders...maybe take a moment and look for the slop and mess before you get started, and it could make your life and business much easier and more profitable too.

Gordon

PS for you Planners, be able to see the dogs on Elm street from the rooftop.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Two words changed everything for me.

Two words.

Once I had wrapped my head around them, embraced them, understood and applied, I wish I would have had these two words decades ago.

Common, ordinary words...but they became a BEACON to whatever I was doing.

Curious? Well, here they are.

Gordon, you're a dang smart guy...

Sometimes, I think I've got it figured out... Then, kerplop, a missing piece - often which I learned from you years ago - falls into place. (I often learned it from you before, but it didn't quite "click" into place yet, then suddenly it does - I have that experience a lot!)

I'm never going to understand it all, or be able to do everything... But I love that I (believe I) keep making progress...

Thanks for all you share (and have shared)!

I was thinking the other day... the gold in those forum archives...

Best wishes,

Dien

[GordonJ]

He was a Korean War veteran, he taught expository writing. His first class I can never forget it.

He came in late, wrote three words on the board.

Revise. Revise. Revise.

Then he started up front, made every student stand say their name and read the board, all 25 of us. Then he MARCHED up and down the isles pointing to random students, shouting READ, and the response was Revise. Revise. Revise. This went on for maybe 20 minutes, then sat at his desk and stared at us, one by one. Glaring.

It was freaky, not a noise in the class. Right before the bell rang, he announced there would a quiz the next day on what we learned. We left and half started to laugh, others wobbled. It was surreal.

Sure enough, next day, we had a quiz, and put our name on a piece of paper and he asked us one question. What was written on the board yesterday.

So, some 30 years later I run into him at Chapel Hill Mall, and I approached and said, "Mr. Cosgarea, I was one of your golf students."

He looked at me said I was mistaken, he never played golf, and I said: Well every time I came off the 18th green I thought of you.

Looked at my score card.

Then Revise. Revise. Revise.

He gave a hearty laugh. Guess what our second lesson was?

This: In order to revise, revise, revise you must first WRITE, WRITE, WRITE.
One of the best dang teachers ever.

Gordon

PS. Well, but there is a different lesson, one which he also taught us, as soon as you learn something new, DO IT, PUT IT INTO PRACTICE.

In 1996-7? Melvin Powers introduced me to Charles Prosper, Charles told me to lock myself a way for a weekend and learn html, and I did.

Throughout my life, whenever I've learned something, I've tried to use it, to reinforce the lesson, by applying it. It was the foundation of TOTAL CONSCIOUS AWARENESS (in archives), it is important to bring the knowledge to the surface to make it available to USE, OTHERWISE, we just forget what it is.

Thomas Russell made me go out on the streets of San Francisco and apply the day's lesson, including finding a certain restaurant just by asking subconscious for directions. And the scariest thing was a half hour later I was eating lunch in the exact spot he talked about, all the way across town, two street car rides and a walk. No name. No address, just a description of how it looked and what it would be like.

Anyhow, I forgot what I was writing about, guess I'll have to back over and ______ ________ _______

Gordon

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Gordon, you're a dang smart guy...

Sometimes, I think I've got it figured out... Then, kerplop, a missing piece - often which I learned from you years ago - falls into place. (I often learned it from you before, but it didn't quite "click" into place yet, then suddenly it does - I have that experience a lot!)

I'm never going to understand it all, or be able to do everything... But I love that I (believe I) keep making progress...

Thanks for all you share (and have shared)!

I was thinking the other day... the gold in those forum archives...

Best wishes,

Dien

[Millard Grubb]

Gordon,

Thank you for the great lesson.

Once again you have made it easy to choose to mine for gold here in the archives.

People just don't realize the WEALTH and TREASURE you offer.

Warm regards,

Millard

[GordonJ]

Thanks Millard.

I wrote a poem a long time ago called THE JOURNEY, and the key point in it was..."you often find what you brought along".

I'm not one to address the value of so-called "wealth and treasure", if any given person finds value, that's great. One of my favorite pieces of advice to give comes from my junior high football coach who told me:

"Where your head goes, your body follows."

And after 55 years, I think it apples to mental and spiritual journeys as well as physical ones AND financial ones too.

For me, at least, Ah Ha moments come when my head goes to the right place. If looking for acorns, deserts are not the place to take your body.

Thank you for your comments and participation.

Gordon

Originally Posted by Millard Grubb

Gordon,

Thank you for the great lesson.

Once again you have made it easy to choose to mine for gold here in the archives.

People just don't realize the WEALTH and TREASURE you offer.

Warm regards,

Millard