30. Power comes from stripping away appearances and seeing things as they really are. Socialism appeals to psychological and intellectual weaklings. Identify and replace all external authorities with internal strength and competence. Take full control of, and responsibility for, your conscious mind and every aspect of your life.
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Dave Kekich: Yeah, I really do, but it takes work and it takes willpower. But the stakes are so much higher now, where 30 or 40 years ago, where our parents and grandparents 50 years ago, were alive, sure they could live longer. They could take care, they could read SALADS™, the information was available then, not all of it, but most of it, and they could have added ten years to their lives.
They would have felt better and would have suffered less at the end. They still would have died from some biological condition. Well, now that might not be the case. Now the opportunity is not just for an extra ten years, or fifteen years.
Now the opportunity could be for more years than you could possibly imagine. We have a company called Stem Cell Products, by the way, and we are coming out with our first product about at the end of February, and that, we think, as do some people in the industry, think it is one of the biggest breakthroughs in years and years in the health supplements technologies.
It is a master antioxidant that is so much more powerful than anything out there now that it is not even calculable. And there have been 70,000 pages of public studies on this compound, and up until now, nobody's been able to take it effectively without it breaking down in the digestive system.
And people know it is effective against things like AIDS and Parkinson’s and Lymphoma. And there have been studies, 70,000 studies, for years and years and years, pointing to the benefits of this compound, which we finally have been able to put into an oral form.
People will be able to take this soon, so there are things like that that are going to extend your lifespan. And one example is that people were getting some benefits of this through IVs, through injections, and doctors’ use of them, but we believe we have even surpassed the results that you would get from IVs.
That is just one of many things coming up that we are developing. We do have about five or ten products in the next year or so. But we are not the only ones; there are people like us and people in other areas who are doing some incredible things, a lot of things I know about, which will be hitting the market in a few years.
A lot of things, of course, I don't know about, because you can't know everything. Five years from now we are going to have things that we couldn't imagine today that are going to be adding even more years to our lives, so I would say the best thing you can do right now is just take care of yourself and start with SALADS™.
Ralph Zuranski: Ah, that is great. I will go to the site today and download that, and I will start applying that today. So thanks for the good advice.
Dave Kekich: Sure. Then stem cell products, if you have any--it is bare bones right now, but we are going to get bigger and better. It is www.StemCellProductsLLC.com.
Ralph Zuranski: Okay. I will have to search that out, too. I will put that in your report.
29. Most accomplishment (and problem avoidance) is built on clear persuasive communication. That includes knowing each other's definitions, careful listening, thinking before talking, focused questioning and observing your feedback. Become a communications expert.
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Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, boy! I fully agree with that! Well, Dave, I really appreciate your time, and I just am excited. I hope I can live long enough so that I can live indefinitely.
Dave Kekich: Well, how old are you know, Ralph?
Ralph Zuranski: Fifty-seven.
Dave Kekich: You are fifty-seven? If you follow the rules that I spell out in SALADS™, and I am going to have to have an expanded version in a month or so, so check back in a month or so because there will be more there. I don't see any reason, barring an accident or bad luck.
You could come down with a bad disease or something, but if you take your normal life span, which is you could probably be expecting to live to at least 80, at 58, that gives you another 23 years.
However, if you take care of yourself and the average lifespan accounts for all the people who died young, so that means you should actually live longer if you take care of yourself, if you account for people who don't take care of themselves, that should put you well above 80.
All of the things that we are developing now, between now and the time we are able to control aging, are going to add more and more years to your life, and there is going to be a point--right now, we are adding a couple of months to a lifespan, a couple of months or so, every year, and it is growing more and more.
There is going to be a time when, every year that goes by, we would have learned enough to add more every year to people's life- spans. So if we hang in there long enough, we are going to be living well beyond what is considered to be our expected lifespan today.
So do I think we are going to be able to reverse aging in 23 years? No. But maybe not too much after that. And there is no reason, if you take care of yourself now, and if you don't have a disease or condition that will shorten your life, or some terrible genetic condition that we won't be able to reverse in the near future, there is no reason we couldn't live to 100.
I think that would give you plenty of time, Ralph, to make that milestone.
27. The choice to exert integrated effort or to default to camouflaged laziness is the key choice that determines your character, competence and future. That critical choice must be made continually - throughout life. The most meaningful thing to live for is reaching your full potential.
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Ralph Zuranski: You know, it is funny, when you have interviewed so many heroes, everybody related that the book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, was one of the most powerful books in their lives.
He believed if his theories were taught to young people, that it would cut their learning time in school by half. I wonder why his theories and this information hasn't been passed down to them?
Dave Kekich: I thought about that over 30 years ago, when I first read that book, and it is actually criminal that it is not taught in schools.
Ralph Zuranski: Or taken and put into the super learning format so kids could find it in a format that appeals to them, to make it easy for them to assimilate the information and then look at heroes like yourself and their lives, and see what it has taken to be actually successful, because it is not so much of a twist.
But it is about the eternal process, and about what you think is the major thing that is going to make the difference in how healthy you are, and how long you are going to live, and how successful.
26. Religiously nourish your body with proper nutrition, exercise, recreation, sleep and relaxation techniques.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, what do you think about the In Search of Heroes program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Dave Kekich: Oh, it is empowering, especially to young people. And by going through a program like this, Ralph, especially with young people, it can shave years of painful trial and error from people’s lives.
It can set them on a positive track they might never have discovered on their own. I stumbled across these ideas, mostly late in life, and I just wish I could have had something like this when I was young. It just could have changed my life dramatically.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. That is the reason I created the program.
Dave Kekich: Yeah, my hat is off to you; this is a great program. I just hope you can spread it far and wide.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, with people like you helping out, there is no reason why we can't and just spreading the knowledge that has been around for all of eternity, as it seems to be the same all the time: personal responsibility, believing in dreams, seeking a different path rather than one that is well-traveled.
Dave Kekich: In this there aren't many new ideas; there are new slants on these ideas, but the core values have been there for thousands of years, and for some reason they are not passed on. They are not learned early in life, and I think people get so busy working in their lives that they just don't have enough time to work on their lives or on their children's lives.
25. Working for someone else gives you little chance to make a fortune. By owning your own business, you only have to be good to become wealthy.
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Ralph Zuranski: So personal responsibility is probably the core thing that people need to address?
Dave Kekich: Very much so. Yeah, very much so.
Ralph Zuranski: If you could have three wishes for the world that would instantly come true, what would they be?
Dave Kekich: Well, that is an easy question for me because I have given this a lot of thought, and one would be that everyone would have complete control over their lives and property without interference from anyone or anything. And in one word, you can call that freedom.
And two, perfect health and longevity for everyone; that is something we work on every day. And three is opportunity for anyone who wants to do it, to better their lives.
I’m not saying that anyone should have to do anything, but for anybody that wants to do it, anywhere in the world, to have the opportunity to put food on the table, to get as much education as they want, to create as good a life as they can for their families, and their neighbors and their loved ones, and the rest of the world.
Where are Heroes located?
Ralph: They are located everywhere. They are every person that you come in contact with. I actually believe that angels walk this earth and there are good angels and bad angels. I believe that angels are there to miraculously help you.
They are like the ultimate spiritual Heroes that step in and intervene in the most miraculous ways. I believe that people can find miracles occurring in their lives on a daily basis, if they just look for it and realize that when they do good things without expectation of good in return, that God actually rewards them. People don’t believe in the Christian God, just the universe will reward them.
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Sharif Khan: Heroes are all around us. They are among our friends and family and relatives. They’re in different parts of the world in different cities. People are doing small random acts of kindness every single day. And the media doesn’t go out and video tape them. So when we pick up the newspaper we see all the tragedies and the harm and wars that are going on around the world. But we don’t recognize that heroes are all around us and we don’t have to look far.
With all your world travels would you say that people in different cultures look at heroes differently?
I think so, because people have different connotations of what a ‘hero’ means. For example, in Australia they talk about cutting down the ‘Tall Poppy,’ and so any one who gets to be too ‘heroic’ or too big on themselves, they like to cut down, because they feel that person is trying to be too self-indulging.
People have very different attitudes as to what heroism is and what a hero actually means and who they look up to as heroes. It’s really interesting to see the different world views. I don’t think they share necessarily the common elements because of the different connotations they have about heroes.
With the world the way it is, especially the war against terrorism, you’ve lived in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, do people in Middle Eastern countries look at heroes differently like the bombers or Al Qaeda?
That’s a very difficult question because unfortunately there are some people out there that,. I’m not talking about the Middle Eastern culture, the Iraqi culture, or the Pakistani culture in general…but there are some people who have a twisted mentality and see the terrorist, or the Osama Bin Laden’s as heroes.
For example, when Hitler was running Germany, so many German youths had been through propaganda at a very early age, having been set up to view Hitler as a Hero, as a God to be looked up to. And where I find there is a problem is many of these terrorist operations that are occurring in these countries are sending out this type of propaganda and setting up schools and infiltrating young minds with a lot of garbage and a lot of nonsense about who are heroes and who are not heroes and what are the requirements of heroes.
That’s something that myself, being a South Asian, and having lived in some of those countries, I’m trying to change with my work with The Hero Soul, to let people know that there are options, there are ways of looking at what a true hero really is, where the origin comes from is the Greek root to ‘serve and protect’ and I’m hoping to change perceptions.
28. Keep an active mind, and continue to grow intellectually. You either grow or regress. Nothing stands still.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, do you have some good resources on www.MaxLife.org that young people can access?
Dave Kekich: For the young people, the best thing they can enact on there is SALADS™. And SALADS™ is the report I mentioned to you. It is an acronym, by the way. It stands for things you need to do in your life, and it doesn't stand for the things you find in salad bars. But part of that is about salads, the D is for diet, and the S is for supplements, and the other S is for stress--stress reduction, for example.
But they can go to www.MaxLife.org, and there are three icons in the middle of the home page. Just click on the one in the middle that says, "How to Live to 120 and Still Remember Where You Left Your Car Keys." That will take you to some pages that will give you some resources.
Right at the bottom of that page, just click on SALADS™, and that will take you to a downloadable version. Now children are probably not going to pay as much attention to that as adults would, because we all kind of feel like we are immortal when we are young.
We all kind of feel like we know it all, and we can get away with a lot of things, physically, that we can’t get away with when we are older. We can get away with a bad diet, although kids are getting much better now, and they are actually seeing Type II Diabetics, millions of cases in children, where you never saw that--you just never saw that 20, 30, 40 years ago.
Now it is rampant. But they still get away with it. I mean, they can get away with lack of exercise more than adults do. The older you get, the harder it is to do some of these things, or at least you think it is harder. It really isn't. But we actually need these things more as we get older.
We need to exercise more, and the older we get, the more we need it, not that we need to get more and more and more as we get older, but the more we need it, because we start to break down. When you are young, your body is pretty forgiving, and it can take a little abuse.
However, if your goal is to live a long time, and feel good and look good, then the earlier you start in life, the more these things are going to help you. Teaching children that is the challenge and it is up to the parents.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how are you making the world a better place?
Dave Kekich: In the short term, and I call the short term the next immediately, of course, I am trying to reach people, anybody that will listen to me. I will show them how they can live longer and healthier lives with today's technology.
And again you can go to www.MaxLife.org to find that out in the more immediate term. We are making the world a better place by solving aging and being able to cure diseases and conditions that lead to biological death, and that is raising a lot of money, and making people aware that these things are really possible, and getting the technologies off the ground and managing them, and building management teams.
There is a lot to it. In the long term I have some ideas that could, in my humble opinion, make the world a better place to live through technologies and philosophies.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse, and violence among young people?
Dave Kekich: Well, that is a pretty big challenge and a bit out of my scope and anybody's scope. But I just think that my best solution would be to work toward a system that would be where everyone is 100% accountable for their actions. And mostly where everyone would get exactly what he or she deserves.
And that eliminates a lot of forced social programs. That is on a personal level and on a corporate level. This is not a very popular idea, and it is hard to implement, but I think the solutions are basically getting to the core of the problems and not fighting symptoms.
24. Enthusiasm covers many deficiencies - and will make others want to associate with you.
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Ralph Zuranski: How do people become heroes?
Dave Kekich: In my mind, by establishing a strong code of ethics and sticking to it, no matter what. And especially if no one is looking.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how does it feel to be recognized as a hero?
Dave Kekich: Well, it is nice to know that someone thinks of me as a hero, Ralph. I don't, so I just really don't.
Ralph Zuranski: I think Joe Polish considers you to be a hero, and why do you think you were selected for this honor?
Dave Kekich: Again, I don't know. You would have to talk to Joe.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how will being recognized as a hero change your life?
Dave Kekich: Oh, kind of like the peer pressure scenario, I think. Anytime you go public with your opinions, and your goals and ideas and your philosophies, it puts more pressure on you to make sure you are right, and it also puts more pressure on you to do something positive with it.
23. Incalculable effort and hardship over countless generations evolved into the life, values and happiness we take for granted today. Every day should be a celebration of existence. You are a masterpiece of life and should feel and appreciate this all the way down to your bones. Aspire to create, achieve and build onto the great value momentum taking place all around you.
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Ralph Zuranski: What is something parents can do to help their children realize that they, too, can be heroes and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Dave Kekich: I never had children, so I am kind of preaching from Mount Olympus now. But I think just based on my observation, of basically my friends and family who did have children - and I am kind of an uncle to, a real uncle to some and a not-so-real, but an uncle in spirit to others - I think it starts with home education, because the things I think children should learn are not typically taught in schools, like entrepreneurship and rags-to-riches stories, great biographies, but especially values. You just don't seem to find those things in schools.
Also, you will never find the relationship between effort and reward, especially productivity and reward. That is something that has to be instilled in children at a very early age. I think that is going to make their lives so much easier to cope with, and it is going to make it so much easier to grow, to prosper, to walk on the right side of the road if they learn that early in life.
Understanding money is important and its value, because basically in economics, I think young people don't really see the value in money and don't really appreciate what it took to create it. And then the physical things: diet, exercise. Our children now are overweight, more overweight than they have ever been.
They are more out of shape than they have ever been, and a lot of that has to do with the fast food industry and processed foods. A lot of it has to do with the technology that I love so much, because a lot of kids are gamers and are not getting out and running and playing soccer. They are playing soccer with their video games.
I think that another thing that children should share in, that young people should share in, is self-development programs. I think that parents should participate with them in a lot of programs that are available today, and I think that would bond the parents with the children, and parents would learn a lot from it, too. Most parents don't really understand what children need to learn.
22. The value of any service you have to offer diminishes rapidly once it's provided. Protect your compensation before performing.
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Ralph Zuranski: Yeah; I can imagine so. Well, who do you think are the real heroes in our society today who are not getting the recognition and rewards that they deserve?
Dave Kekich: I think while generally entrepreneurs and business leaders are becoming a little more popular, they are still being more vilified than glorified, in the entertainment industry, especially. And in the press.
You get a lot of bad press; people attack them, and when people rise to the top, they tend to get attacked, but the entertainment industry seems to glorify more villains, more drug dealers, and when they portray business people, they often portray them as evil, conniving, destructive, greedy people.
In reality, sure, every field has those kinds of people, but most successful business people and entrepreneurs are exactly the opposite.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, I really believe that is true. Well, why are heroes so important to the lives of young people?
Dave Kekich: Young people are impressionable; the most impressionable times of your life are when you are young. That can be good or bad, and other people are just going to sway them, and that is why it is important to have heroes sway them rather than some of their peers and the media who are at the opposite end of the spectrum, and don't forget the media.
Don’t attack the media because a lot of it is great, but it is entertaining, and business and entrepreneurs maybe aren't very entertaining. Maybe killers and thieves and drug dealers are more entertaining than entrepreneurs and business people.
But the media impresses young people's peers, your children's peers, and they, in turn, impress your children, and often in a negative way, so I think many of the wrong people are emulated, and that is why it is important when people are at their most impressionable ages, they are given heroes, real heroes, to emulate.
21. Always have lofty explicit goals and visualize them intensely. Assume the attitude that if you don't reach your goals, you will literally die! This type of gun-to-your-head forced focus... survival pressure mindset, no matter how briefly used, stimulates your mind, forces you to use your time effectively... and illuminates new ways of getting things done.
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Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to have trusted friends and a mastermind group to bounce your ideas off?
Dave Kekich: I don't think it is essential, Ralph, but it is a huge advantage. You need to select very carefully who that mastermind group is going to be, though I think you want people who have been selected carefully, who are in tune with their goals, not necessarily their skills, or their experiences, because you want to have a wide variety with different disciplines in there. I think those people do have a huge advantage.
Ralph Zuranski: How do they make a positive difference in your life?
Dave Kekich: For the amount that I have done, they validate or correct my ideas, people to bounce ideas off of, and then I get ideas and inspirations off of them. And I think mostly they give me someone to answer to, and that is a very big, overlooked advantage to mastermind groups.
You basically come out in public and you expose your ideas and dreams and aspirations and your goals to other people. And there is a certain amount of peer pressure to implement your ideas at that point.
It is real easy to have goals and ideas and to keep them to yourself and die with them. But when you start sharing them with other people, it puts a lot of pressure on you.
Did you believe your dreams would become reality?
Ralph: You know, I do believe my dreams will become reality. I look back to 1992 when I first started the Heroes program. I realized that was something that God wanted me to do. I just saw the huge amount of work it would take, and the massive amount of investment of time and money.
I’ve been funding it with my time and money for almost 13 years now. Just the sacrifices that I have had to make, during those times I’ve had to basically live out of my car because in pursuing my dream and doing everything I could to work with people that are ethical and have integrity.
A lot of the people that have taken advantage of me, I have had to break those connections. Even though it was a way that I was making a living, I had to cut back on my life just to pursue my dreams. But I always believed they would come true and I was willing to pay the price to make them become true.
Sharif Khan: It is very important! I believe you have to taste and feel and smell your dream as if it is a reality right now. I’m a big believer in seeing the reality and the vision and dream right up front, right now, the way it is. If you can’t visualize and see the tears of triumph running down your face when you win that award or get that promotion, nothing will happen.
It doesn’t matter how many goals you set, or how many affirmations you say till you’re blue in the face, if you don’t have that feeling or that knowing that this is going to be a reality, then nothing is going to happen.
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20. Rationalizations are generally convenient evasions of reality and are used as excuses for dishonest behavior, mistakes and/or laziness.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, what is your definition of heroism?
Dave Kekich: It is probably a couple of things. Facing your fears and acting in spite of them would be one. Standing up for your convictions when faced with adversity would be another one. You talked about being wiling to die for your principles, and that would certainly be one: one I hope most people won't have to take.
I say walking the talk, when you have a lot to lose. Doing the right thing when it is not popular. I would say that all those things go into making a hero.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helps you with life's difficulties, especially after you had your injury?
Dave Kekich: No, no. I never did.
Ralph Zuranski: Who are the heroes in your life now?
Dave Kekich: My heroes are almost all dead. But there are so many of them. Giordano Bruno was one of them. He was burned at the stake for heresy, and he was a scientist.
Thomas Jefferson was one of them for me, and Thomas Paine, and Sir Isaac Newton, who is probably the most important person who ever lived, who based his work on his breakthroughs and his work on the amount of property that has been affected. Basically everything that is electrical or mechanical stems from his integrations, and Einstein.
There are a lot of people who are alive today, without naming them. Basically they are people who rise to the top with humility and integrity, and people who set positive roll models. And my heroes tend to be scientists and business people.
Well Ralph, what’s next for “In Search of Heroes™?”
Ralph: Well, next is to do the In Search of Heroes book that I’m working on right now, the answer to In Search of Heroes on the Internet. The second book will be In Search of Heroes in Medicine with all the answers kids need to realize, and parents too, that can help make such a big difference in the health and lives of themselves and their kids.
If we can teach kids how to love themselves, how to utilize their brains to their full power, how to be healthy and successful in business and actually provide a vehicle that they can be successful in publishing and promoting the eBooks they create about the Heroes in their community, we should be able to generate enough income to help people in the communities fund their own programs to make their communities better than they could ever be.
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19. Use leverage with ideas (the ability to generalize is the key to intellectual leverage), work, money, time and people. To maximize profits, replicate yourself. Earning potentials become geometric rather than linear.
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Ralph Zuranski: That is amazing. Well, how important is it to believe that your financial dreams will eventually become reality?
Dave Kekich: Most of what I want to accomplish depends on wealth generation, and huge wealth generation. I know I am not going to be single-handedly solving aging; I am going to make an impact on it though, and I know I don't need to do all the research, but I do know what needs to be underwritten now that isn't being funded.
And that is going to take an enormous amount of money over time, and I believe that will happen, so that is very important to me.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, why is it valuable to know exactly how much money you want to have in your bank account, by when?
Dave Kekich: Getting back to focusing on raising money, my focus is on a venture fund. We have a foundation, and we have a venture fund, and we have a roadmap, a scientific roadmap on aging, and we have costs involved.
And in order to follow all that roadmap and reach our goal, we have to know how much money we have to raise by a certain period in time, and how much after that to raise in a certain period of time. Just looking at these goals and writing them automatically makes you visualize them, and you have got to make them explicit.
But when you visualize explicit goals, it really helps you to bring them to reality, at least much more surely and much faster.
18. Find out what works, and then do more of it. Focus first on doing the right things, and then on doing things right by mastering details. A few basic moves produce most results and income.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, was there anyone who gave you the will power to change things for the better in your life at that time?
Dave Kekich: Not exactly at that time, but right around that time. And his name was Wallace Ward, and he had a publishing company, and it was interesting. I read a lot of things he published, and they were very inspiring, but the most motivating thing to me was a questionnaire that their company sent to me.
And one of the questions on there was, "Do you still get regular aerobic exercise?" But it might have been just exercise, but I think it was aerobic exercise. And I hadn't been working out, and I used to work out six days a week, and usually seven days a week, and I lifted very heavily three days a week.
I ran very hard and very long four days a week. Then I went from that and getting hurt into doing nothing. But in my mind I was a long distance running, body building fanatic. In reality, I hadn't worked out in a couple of years.
So, I didn't know how to check that box. So I knew if I put down no, it would be something that I don't see myself as. If I put yes, I would be lying, so I checked yes and started working out that day. And I haven't quit since.
Who helped give you the will power to change things in your life for the better?
Ralph: Well, back when I was thinking about committing suicide, even though I had material possessions and money, drugs and sex, it brought no happiness. If it wasn’t for God offering me that free gift of salvation, eternal salvation and giving me the grace that I needed to make the right decision, I would be dead.
I would be dead or in some alley like you when you were going down that trail. So first, I have to say that God gives me the willpower to change things in my life because I’m selfish and I want things for myself.
It’s so hard sometimes just to sacrifice your life for others, especially if it’s a big sacrifice of wealth and material possessions when you have to take care of others who are sick in your family. I think the other person who has given me will power is my wife, even though we have been through a lot of difficult times over the past ten years because she’s had severe health problems herself.
It has taken ten years to find out why she was going through premature menopause, with all the hormonal problems that she had. We met Dr. Borkin over the last five years who is an expert in hormones and understanding how the hormonal process works.
If I just would have known when I was a kid, and if I were a parent and knew about the hormones in my kids and how major the impact is, and how you can balance those things out, it would have made a huge difference.
So I say that first God, and then my wife supporting me no matter what and dealing with the problems in her life, but always saying, “Yes, Ralph, I know that you can do it” and always having faith that I could do it. Dr. Borkin coming into my life and showing me what I needed to balance out my hormones so I could have victory over the hormones to cause depression..
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Debra Berg: My new husband, my mother, and my extended family were all very supportive. I know I couldn’t have marched as quickly toward my goals without their encouragement.
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Sharif Khan: My father passed on a lot of wisdom and guidance and encouraged me to study the lives of successful people and read successful biographies. My father was a PhD. in Psychology. Ever since I was 8 years old he immersed myself in the classics like James Allen, Wayne Dyer, Shakti Gawain, Dale Carnegie, and all of these personal development greats I started learning at a young age. So he was an inspiration to me.
Another person that was a real inspiration to me is a gentleman by the name of Jim Ross, who I dedicated my book to. He is the founder of the Canadian Academy of Method Acting, and he taught me a lot about the psychology of the hero and psychology of the villain. He was a mentor to me, a messenger, a carrier of truth. He is definitely a hero in my life.
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17. Life operates in reverse action to entropy. Therefore the universe is hostile to life. Progress is a continued effort to swim against the stream.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, when was the lowest point in your life, and how did you change your life afterwards to win a victory over the obstacles you were facing at that time?
Dave Kekich: Well, the lowest point was my injury. I lost basically everything I had, emotionally and physically, and relationships. Well, they actually endured over time. I lost my business, and my attitude. Primarily, that was the worst part. But there really is no magic bullet or quick fix to overcoming obstacles.
A lot of people talk about, well - this is a life-changing event and so forth. And when you see a life-changing event, usually a lot of things have led up to that to lay the groundwork for it. And when you see a certain breakthrough, they almost always follow slowly building a foundation for that breakthrough.
Now, if there was one breakthrough in my life that changed my life and got me back on track, it was when I decided to hold a fundraiser for spinal cord injuries. And I was working with the Spinal Cord Society at that time; I had a local chapter.
I held a drug-free power lifting event back in Pennsylvania, a small town in western Pennsylvania, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We called it, or I called it, the Eastern United States Power Lifting Championships. And it was the first positive thing I had done in a couple of years.
I mean, I pretty much vegetated after my injury, and I put together this event, and it turned out we had people from all over the East Coast, and some people from the Midwest came to this relatively small town, and we got local newspaper coverage, all local, lots of local radio coverage, and sponsors.
And after it was all over, I realized my brain still worked. And that yes, it got me back on track. And I didn't go from stagnation to being in the stratosphere that day, but gradually it got me going, and I had ups and downs after that, but mostly ups. Overall I am way ahead in many ways now than I was when I was hurt, or before I was hurt.
When was the lowest point in your life, and how did you change your life path to one of victory over obstacles?
Ralph Zuranski: I decided to turn away from my faith. I still remember the first day that I didn’t go to Mass. I decided I would go surfing instead. I was sitting out in the ocean and it was the time of the movie Jaws and I just kept on thinking about this big giant shark opening up its mouth and just consuming me, like the whale consumed Jonah.
Sitting out on my board as punishment for turning away from God, and when nothing happened like that, that sent me on a spiral on getting involved with sex and drugs and rock and roll, and psychedelics.
It completely evolved into a situation where I was smoking pot all the time. I was living with a guy that was into coke and all the horrible things involved in freebasing coke and I saw all that. Ultimately it led me to a point where I was just so depressed and I was ready to kill myself. I still had that problem with depression. Even though I had money, sex and drugs I was just so depressed.
The idea of training a child in the way they should go and when they are old they won’t depart from it. I know my parents were praying for me and spontaneously at the lowest point of my life when I was ready to kill myself, out of the blue, subconsciously I started saying the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary.
That seemed to put me in a situation where I was able to find my relationship with God as either accept the free gift of salvation or just kill myself. Thankfully God gave me the grace and the faith to make the right choice.
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16. Competence starts with guaranteeing your work.
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Ralph Zuranski: Would you experience service to others as a source of joy?
Dave Kekich: Yes, I do. But I actually try to do it profitably. And the reason I do that is it is more durable. One example is the life extension pursuits I have. We believe we have a pretty strong team, by the way, and have a really strong group of scientists on our board, and we have a very strong management team and a really strong team as advisors.
And things aren't just automatically going to happen, because of the law of accelerating returns. Well, they will happen, but they will happen when people make them happen if it is not something that is on remote control.
And we think we are going to make it happen a lot sooner, and by doing that we believe we are going to be able to save millions, if not tens of hundreds of millions of lives of people who were dying prematurely. Now, if you try to do something to save yourself, and try to extend your own life, you just aren't going to be able to pull it off.
There is just, you don't have enough resources. In order to make this work you have to make it work for the world. You better make it work for humanity. And that is what I mean by durability, and that carries over to all kinds of other things.
You have heard the old adage over and over about you can give a man a fish and you can feed him for a day, and you can teach him to fish, and you feed him for life. That is a philosophy I like to follow. It is more sustainable, and again, it is more durable.
A lot of people want to be a martyr. They stand up and they say, "Well, gee, I am servicing others," and often that is self-defeating, because you run out of resources. In order to give you have to create, because if you are not creating, you won't have anything to give.
15. If it's not proprietary, it won't work. Pay only on performance. Proprietary interest is one of the most powerful forces ever known. Whatever you reinforce or reward, you get more of.
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Ralph Zuranski: Are you slow to reverse or revise an important decision?
Dave Kekich: I am slow, but I am willing. Once I make a decision, then I have thought it out. Hopefully, I have thought it out, if I do what I say I should do. But once you make a decision, if you do it the right way, it is probably right, but it is not necessarily right. You should spend more time changing it than you did making it.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how were you able to overcome your doubts and fears? It must have been pretty catastrophic when you got paralyzed.
Dave Kekich: Well, it was, and I didn't overcome it at first. I ended up just facing them. But not just fears from being paralyzed. It was fears from making a sales call, or fears from asking somebody out on a date. There are a lot of fears we face in our lives.
I mean, you just have to face them. But when you do, you are going to find most of your fears are over-hyped. They really weren't that bad.
Ralph Zuranski: Would you readily forgive those who upset, offended, and oppose you?
Dave Kekich: I think for the people who upset, offend or oppose me, there isn't anything to forgive. There is always somebody that is going to oppose you. You have different opinions, and people feel just as strongly about theirs as you do yours.
So just because they are opposing you doesn't mean there is something to forgive, and people offend other people all the time. It is just their nature; I don't think it is anything to forgive. People upset you from time to time. I think the thing that is a forgivable offense is when you are cheated, you are lied to, you are stolen from, and you have physical harm.
Or when someone does those things to somebody you love. That is a whole different category. And in those cases I try, but I have to say it is very difficult.
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What were or are the qualities and attributes of your secret Hero?
Ralph Zuranski: My secret Hero was positive all the time. My Hero was always telling me, “You can do it! Don’t give up! Even though you failed, never give up! Everything is going to be okay! Don’t focus on the negative. Just continue to be positive and just try. You are only a failure if you don’t get back up and try again. You are going to fail a lot, but if you learn from your failures, you continue to find how to have a better and more successful life.”
So, my character really gave me hope and said, “You can do it!” There is that one piece of life that always was there to keep me going in times of difficulty and depression, fear and self worthlessness.
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Sharif Khan: They had a dream, they were determined, and knew exactly what they wanted and they had a larger than life vision. They went out there with courage and did what they wanted to do and didn’t take “no” from anybody and were able to accomplish their dreams; and so I look up to these role models knowing if they can do it, I can do it.
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Debra Berg: Mom surmounted incredible odds and obstacles to become successful, and mostly she did it while she was a single parent raising me. She was a secretary to generals and college deans. She also headed up a large organization that helped thousands of women achieve a better financial situation. Perseverance was her battle cry. Now, whenever obstacles come up for me, I just remember her example.
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14. The primary purpose of business is to create and keep customers. Marketing and innovation produce results. All other business functions are costs. Prospecting and increasing the average value and frequency of sales are the bedrock of marketing and business.
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Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it takes courage to pursue new ideas?
Dave Kekich: Oh, yeah, sure; it is not very easy because the tendency is to go with the flow, and inertia is hard to overcome, but it is very important to keep from stagnating. The world is changing so quickly, and that gets back to the Law of Accelerating Returns, that if you don't, you are not going to keep up. It is exciting. There are a lot of exciting things happening.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, were you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dreams?
Dave Kekich: I wish I didn't have to but yeah, you have got to. We all have comfort zones; at least, perceived comfort zones. And if we just try to stay in those, we are going to guarantee stagnation. Usually when you get out of your comfort zones, you will find the effort that you make to get out of your comfort zones and be uncomfortable, really leads to more long term comforts.
So I think people are kidding themselves when they say, "Well, I am comfortable here now, and things are great, and I don't need to do anything," they are going to find that they are sacrificing comfort as well as other things for short-term gratification.
Ralph Zuranski: Was it beneficial to make decisions quickly?
Dave Kekich: Not necessarily. I admire people who can make very quick decisions that are right. I find that when I act impulsively it is almost always wrong. Now, having said that, I think it is important to make decisions quickly once you do your homework, and once you get all of the facts, or most of the facts. Or at least enough of them. But make sure, once you get the facts, you look at them and then make a decision. At that point, it doesn't pay to vacillate.
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How will being recognized as an Internet hero change your life?
Cameron Johnson: Well, hopefully it will change the life of others and of the people listening. But also it changed my life just by thinking about the questions we have talked about today, and I hope that further discussion on these questions will not just help me, but help everyone who is listening.
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Ralph Zuranski: You know it already has changed my life. That other people think that I am a Hero confirms and reaffirms all the years and all the sacrifices that I have ever been through since I created Captain Biorhythm back in 1976.
It’s been a hard road, and I can’t tell you how embarrassing it was to wear my costume around. For one year, I lived as Captain Biorhythm. I wore my costume to work every day, the costume I designed went through a series of evolutions. Ultimately it became a test of people’s brain integration, whether they were right or left brained dominant.
So when I was director of a chain of health spas in charge of health research, family fitness centers, I wore my costume to work every day to test people’s brain hemisphere. I had my car painted up as the Biomobile and it had Captain Bio on it.
Everybody kept asking me, “Gee, who is Captain B10”, just this thing that I did had the reverse consequences. I was ridiculed, but still, I persevered and went to the comic conventions in San Diego and went up on stage.
I remember one time when I was doing the first Heroes program, I had a young man, stay with me and we went on In Search of Heroes in the comic industry, the comic convention at Sea World and Disneyland. I was up on the stage; I was going to have three stages where I had Ralph Zuranski on the outside.
Underneath that costume I had Captain Biorhythm, and underneath that costume I had Captain Bioman, where you integrate the right brain and the left brain. Bio means two, so when you join your hands together that integrates both your right brain and your left brain, and people do that naturally when they put their hands together in great joy or great sorrow. Some people pray, it’s like integrating the person instantly.
At that time the people that were running the convention turned the lights off when I took my first layer off. They thought I was probably a pervert and that I was going to expose myself. I intended to expose that there were three aspects of human beings, there is your right brain, your left brain, and anybody can be a Bioman or Biowoman when they join hands together and they form a circle of completion and become friends with themselves. Both brain hemispheres are working together rather than trying to destroy one brain hemisphere.
Most of the time our worst enemy is ourselves, and our dominant brains, either the left brain that is the logical, judgmental, mathematical, verbal skills. It’s the one that’s competitive and the judgmental one. It internalizes all the negative stuff that people have told us over our lifetime and a lot of times, destroy our self image and make our lives the worst ever.
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Sharif Khan: It already has changed my life. I know if I were to pass away right now, that I have already done something that will leave a lasting legacy and a gift to humanity with the work that I’ve already done. And it gives me a great sense of peace. And what really gets me going, the drive, is thinking what will be written on my epitaph when I die, how do I want to be remembered.
That’s what allows me to want to serve as best I can using my God-given abilities to help as many people as I can within the shortest time frame that’s left because life is really fragile. Life is so short. I heard about Cory Rudl (world-renowned internet marketing expert) who recently passed away in a car accident, I think he was racing with a buddy, he was such an inspiration teaching people about the internet. Life is really fragile and short and we need to make the most of it right now.
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13. Protect your downside. The upside will take care of itself. Cut your losses short - and let your profits run. This takes tremendous discipline.
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Is optimism valuable?
Dave Kekich: Oh sure; absolutely. I am a long-term optimist. In fact, a lot of people think I am overly optimistic and too optimistic, but I don’t think that is possible, unless it becomes a way to avoid reality or depression. Some people may get so optimistic, they may say, "Well, everything is all right,” and they don't take any action because they are hoping against hope for the future.
So you have to be careful about optimism. Actually I am a short- term pessimist in a lot of areas. There are a lot of things I don't like going on in the world, and I don't see them turning around very rapidly, but I think in the long term, things are going to be fine.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Dave Kekich: I try to. It is not always easy, but I try to. If I don't, I try to catch myself.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and your dreams?
Dave Kekich: Sure. Sure. In the mornings, I go over my goals and my dreams. And in the evenings before I go to sleep I think about them. We all have, some more than others, counter-productive thoughts, and I know that when I have them, I try to catch myself.
And when I do catch myself, I try to substitute those thoughts for something that is more positive, or take a positive slant on those thoughts.
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Why do you think you are selected for this unique honor?
Cameron Johnson: I think through interviews and through talking and everything, I think there is just so much value that can come out of just a conversation.
By sharing a conversation, just as we are having right now, Ralph, with an unlimited number of people, I just think so much value is created for them, and so much value is created for you and me by having this conversation, that I think it just creates value and gives back to society.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know, I was selected because I honored other people first. I honored other people as Heroes first and looked for the good in them, and the good things they were doing. I was doing it without trying to get money or make money in the whole process. I was doing it for the pure joy of trying to make the world a better place by focusing on the good that people do rather than the negative, and realizing that if you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want too.
My ultimate dream would be to generate enough money with this program that I would be able to do this full time and be able go to every community and help people set up a program “In Search of Heroes™” in their community and honoring all those people that deserve to be recognized.
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Sharif Khan: I believe that early in life, because of the unique situations that happened in my life, and the tragedies which I suffered, I connected at a deeper level, at a spiritual level, and found out at a very early age what my calling in life is. And my calling, my purpose, is to enrich the lives of as many people as I possibly can, using my God-given talents, writing being the main one. So I think I’ve been privileged because I saw my calling at an early age, and I took action and decided to pursue my calling regardless of what others were saying around me.
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Debra Berg:Perhaps because I’ve made some difficult decisions in my life that others might not have made which ultimately resulted in helping others.
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12. Success comes quickly to those whom develop great powers of intense sustained concentration. The first rule is to get involved by asking focused questions.
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Ralph Zuranski: Was it useful to you to take a positive view of setbacks, and misfortunes, and mistakes? I know that you had quite a few of those, but yet you have bounced back.
Dave Kekich: Well, yes I have. I have had setbacks both physically and personally, and I have made my share of mistakes, and of course, the misfortune. You have to deal with these things. It is really not what happens to you so much.
It is really more how you react when it happens to you, Ralph. Sure, it is useful and helpful to take a positive view of everything, and not just setbacks either, but everything in life in general.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, do you think if you don’t get out there and start making mistakes that you are not going to get anywhere, because you learn by your mistakes?
Dave Kekich: Oh, exactly. You hit the nail right on the head. You learn way more from your mistakes than from successes or from other people. Now, it is an unusual person, in fact, who learns from others’ mistakes. That is part of one of my Credos. It takes a genius to learn from other people's mistakes.
You know, we read other people's books, and we hear talks and lectures and know mistakes that people make. But until we make them ourselves, we really don’t learn them, and I wish that weren't true with me, because I would have saved myself a lot of pain. So if there was one lesson to be learned, look at other people's mistakes and try not to repeat them.
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How do people become heroes?
Cameron Johnson: Well, I think the only thing you need to do to be a hero is to help someone else. So if you can give back to anyone, then you are being a hero.
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Ralph Zuranski: It’s similar to what you say, serve and protect. It’s the people that sacrifice part of their time or their money. I think the most important thing is that they sacrifice their time. It’s the most valuable thing that they have. They help others, whether it’s people in their family, community, I don’t care who they help. When people help others, they are basically making the world a better place.
I really love your analogy as far as the darkness that society is trapped in, seeking after greed, the darkness of pornography, of lust, of power, of material possessions. Most people get so caught up in that. We look at our politicians and we look at a lot of the people, sports stars, movie stars, all those people are the worst examples for young people.
The sooner they realize that there is a Hero within themselves, that they just learn what Heroes do. They can be a Hero every day. Just look at their moms and dads and people within their family, and the good things they can do. Not be so concerned about themselves, the hardest thing in the world for people to overcome is selfishness. Being depressed, being upset and not choosing what you have, just being in a state of always wanting other things.
The only way that you can overcome that is serving others. It’s so crucial to not be concerned about yourself, but be more concerned about the people around you. I think that’s where you overcome depression, unhappiness and sorrow by helping others, because it’s such a great joy to help others.
You can see how paying it forward, by doing random acts of kindness, like you said, it can be so transformational in this world. If you help one person, you are helping yourself and you are helping the entire world.
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Sharif Khan: That’s a very good question. To start, self knowledge is really important. On the Greek temple of Apollo there is an inscription that reads, “Know thyself, and you will know the gods and the universe!” To know your strengths and weaknesses, your deepest desires and your deepest fears, really being able to understand where you begin and where you end and beyond.
Self knowledge is so important because through self knowledge we learn what it is that we really want to do, what our calling in life is, what our blessings are. By pursuing those blessings, by following our bliss, and doing what we love doing in service to others, we automatically become heroes.
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Debra Berg: I believe people become heroes when their character qualities intersect with an unexpected opportunity to act or to make an important decision that will save or improve the lives of others.
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11. Never enter into nor invest in a business without a solid, well-researched and well thought-out written plan. Execute the plan with passion and precision. Plan and manage your life the same way.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, are your actions and goals consistent with your beliefs?
Dave Kekich: Yes, I believe they are. I work really hard on following the Credo, and that is why I wrote it.
Ralph Zuranski: Was it valuable to have highly charged emotions about reaching your goals?
Dave Kekich: Oh, absolutely. The more emotional you are, the more the goals mean to you, the more of a personal chord they strike, the easier they are to achieve. They burn themselves into your whole psyche, your whole being. Here’s an example.
If you have an experience that is really a deep emotional experience in your life, the chances are you are never going to forget it. But we have hundreds of thousands of experiences in our lives, and for the most part, we forget most of them.
It is the same concept when it comes to goals. The more highly charged your emotions are, the more sure you are going to be able to accomplish them.
And you can do that; you can guide your own emotions. You can make these highly charged by visualization and repetition, and just basically getting in and believing those goals have already happened, or by visualizing those goals have already happened.
Many people who are listening to this have seen a lot of information other people have put out about goals. Anyway, another long-winded answer, but I would say the answer is absolutely.
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Who do you feel are the real heroes in our society today that aren’t getting the recognition and rewards that they deserve?
Cameron Johnson: Well, when you just read me this question, on of the first things that just came to my mind was that Warren Buffet just gave $43 billion to charity and he made the news for three days. He didn’t do it because he wanted his name on the cover of every newspaper for a certain amount of time, or anything else.
But he is clearly a hero in that every value that he created his entire life, almost every penny, has been given back to charities. With Bill Gates’s foundation, a large portion of his donation went to Bill Gates’s foundation, and that is exactly what Bill Gates’s passions are now.
He has already set a time frame for when he is leaving Microsoft and how he is going to be less involved. He is going to be working with the charity full time because that is where he gets value, and that is where he gets rewards.
I think those are true heroes, those that give back in every way possible through the creation of these successful businesses that they have built. They are now able to give back to our entire nation and the world. They are there for the long term through their donations.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, of course it’s the moms and dads first of all. The moms and dads are laying down their lives for the kids. The kids don’t even realize just how much sacrifice it takes for the moms and dads to go to work every day, and buy food, clothes and love the kids, and take a lot of the guff that kids give them.
Anybody who takes care of somebody that’s sick in their family is not only a Hero, but a saint. The teachers, the coaches, the spiritual leaders, the priests, the pastors, all the different faiths, all the people that take that time and sacrifice fame, fortune and material possession and free time to make a positive difference in the lives of others.
The real Heroes are people that help others. My acronym for a Hero or actually Heroes is somebody that Helps Enthusiastically, Responsibly, Optimistically, Exceptionally, Socially and or Spiritually.
Anybody can do that at any moment in time. Anybody can step up to the plate and help somebody, and instantly become a Hero. Gregory Alan Williams was one of the first Heroes that we did who was the black cop on Baywatch.
He actually saved an Asian man’s life in the L.A. riots as he was being beaten to death at an intersection. Gregory Alan Williams went out and pulled the guy out of the car even though the mob was there trying to kill him. They were getting ready to turn on Gregory Alan Williams and the Asian guy and a Mexican guy stepped in and took the beatings so he could get that man that was injured to the neighbors. They were able to get him to the hospital, and he survived.
Gregory Alan Williams said there is a little bit of good in the worst of us, and a little bit of bad in the best of us. No matter how bad a person is, they can step up to the plate and become a Hero. Even in a moment in time they can change somebody’s life by doing good. I think that there are Heroes all around us. Anybody can be a Hero, no matter what their status in life is, no matter what their attitude is.
Just as you believe that it is important to give people a good example of what real Heroes are. Those are the people that lay down their lives for others, that aren’t so focused on material possessions and fame or driven by green or lust. They are just experiencing the pleasures of life, trying to make the world a better place by helping people that are in their lives.
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Sharif Khan: As I mentioned before, many of the teachers, many of the coaches, many people who are training and teaching young entrepreneurs, these people are not getting the recognition they deserve because we are all focused on the celebrities or the actors or the sports heroes that we tend to forget our friends and families and the people around us who are making a small difference in people’s lives on a daily basis.
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Debra Berg: I really believe they are the civic entrepreneurs I’ve written about. The reason being that the social ills of poverty, at-risk youth, neighborhood decay, housing shortages and a host of others were escalating and not being addressed in an effective way by our large institutions. Otherwise, these problems would have been solved long ago. The civic entrepreneur in our society is having much greater success at solving these tough issues at a fraction of the cost of government programs. They’re doing it in such a way that is more compassionate, inclusive, and engaging of people in the community (to become volunteers and donors).
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10. Learn the other side's needs, offer as little information as possible, never underestimate youropposition, and never show weakness when negotiating.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, we are going to be posting that with your interview also, and parts of your presentation on the In Search of Heroes blog, so people can take advantage of that. What is your perspective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?
Dave Kekich: Oh, that is extremely important in my life. I mean, those are the bases of enduring civilizations and relationships and business success. If you don’t have that, you need to go back to the drawing board.
Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Dave Kekich: In my life, none. I am not religious. Therefore, I don't pray. I do a little meditation, but I really don't pray personally.
Ralph Zuranski: What are the principles you are willing to sacrifice your life for?
Dave Kekich: Well, that is a choice I hope I never have to face, since my whole essence is centered around longevity and not death. But one thing I will say, and I don't know what my life to me is worth, what everybody's life or most people's lives are worth. You can't calculate what it is worth.
But many people who are sacrificing their lives for their principles today would probably not sacrifice their lives if they knew they had an open-ended lifespan. Let's say we have already achieved my goal, and we all had an open-ended biological life span.
Accidents and things are still going to happen, but let's say we have control over the biology, and we have peace and prosperity in the world, and we at least have hopes and things in abundance, I think people would think a lot harder before they would lay down their lives for their principles.
And principles are not necessarily positive, you know. We see people all over the world today, terrorists, for example, who are laying down their lives for their principles, and is that good or bad? Well, no, I think it is bad.
I mean, they can do with their lives what they want, but they are taking other lives with them, and I think they are misguided, whether they take anybody else's lives or not. Now I applaud people who will lay down their lives for moral principles, and maybe I would, and maybe I wouldn't; I just never want to be faced with that choice.
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How did your heroes make a positive difference in your life?
Cameron Johnson: I think they save you a lot of time! They save you a lot of time from trial and error. You can read books about things that have worked and things that haven’t, and you can also ask people that have been in that exact same situation.
You can see what decisions they made and whether they would agree that they were the right decisions or the wrong decisions. You can use that advice to move forward, and hopefully to make better decisions in your life, and to save time.
Because we are only here for a certain amount of time, so we need to be as effective as we can be. So I think that is exactly how they can make a positive difference every day.
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Ralph Zuranski: Just by their example of sacrifice, love for others and compassion. It’s something that, I’ve never been a real emotional person, and I’ve always been sort of a right brained person and goal oriented. I don’t have many emotions.
Learning and seeing what emotions are, and how powerful they are in a person’s life and how good they are. They give you peaks and valleys. They make life interesting other than just totally dedicated, “I’m on a mission and I’m going to succeed.”
It forces you to look at the people around your life and I think the most important thing that you can do is minister to the people that God puts in your path. The only way you can really do that is by showing your emotions and experiencing your emotions, and having those emotions of love, hate and anger. Just be willing to go through that.
9. A little caution avoids great regrets. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Keep fully insured physically and materially and keep hedged emotionally. Insurance is not for sale when you need it.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, what specific philosophy or philosophies guide your life and guide your decisions?
Dave Kekich: Specific philosophy: I guess you could call me a soft-hearted objectivist.
Ralph Zuranski: I haven't heard that one before.
Dave Kekich: Well, I just made it up.
Ralph Zuranski: What does that mean?
Dave Kekich: Objectivists are looked at as pretty calculating and cold, but objectivism really is a humanitarian-type philosophy, but it is not perceived that way. But I also have a personal code of ethics and rules that I use to guide my life. I call it Kekich's Credo.
Kekich's Credo is basically a summary of the most important things I have learned in my life, and I boil those down to 100 rules or Credos.
How important is it to have trusted friends or a mastermind group to bounce your ideas off?
Cameron Johnson: I think it is so important that you have trusted friends. First of all, if you have friends you can’t trust, then you can’t bounce an idea off of them. You have to be able to trust your friends, and your friends also need to be able to trust you, likewise.
I think a mastermind group is so rewarding, because it is not just rewarding to you to be the center of that group, but it is rewarding to everyone who gets to participate. I am a participant in several mastermind groups, and I have one myself.
It is so rewarding to just bounce ideas off for each other and help all of us move forward and be more successful. I think it is also probably one of the most important things you can do, and the most cost effective, to bounce an idea off of someone before you spend the money or go out and write the check to do it. So I think mastermind groups are so rewarding and so valuable.
Debra Berg: I believe we go through many transitions in our life, and it’s critical to have like-minded friends and mentors who can help keep you steered in the right direction.
The members of the Mastermind group may change over time and should be chosen carefully. Sometimes they’re there for a reality check. Many times you need them to help you out in a creative way. Still other times, you need them to help you think on a completely different level from your usual way of looking at things.
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8. Learn from the giants.
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Ralph Zuranski: So that is the dreamer vision that sets the course of your life?
Dave Kekich: It is.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how important is it for you to stay focused on your primary goal?
Dave Kekich: Well, it is extremely important. It is paramount. All the successes I had in my life were when I focused on one thing, and most of my life, my focusing abilities were pretty inadequate. I was scattered all over the board, and I can attribute, looking back, almost all the failures in my life, and I have had them, I can attribute almost all of them to lack of focus.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, do you follow your hunches and intuition?
Dave Kekich: Yes, I do, it took me a long time to learn to do that. Ignoring my hunches and intuition has cost me in the past. And it has cost me big time. Most of the big losses I took, most of the big hits, the failures, the big financial losses, cost me because I did not follow my hunches and intuition.
By the way, hunches and intuitions improve over time. The more, and the better the education you get, and the more experienced you get, the better your intuition gets.
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Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Cameron Johnson: Well, fortunately, going back to the previous question, I have lived a charmed life and I have had very few difficulties, other than some arguments with my parents when I was growing up.
I always admired successful business leaders, and I would read business book about the Donald Trumps and the Michael Dells, Bill Gates, and Richard Bransons of the world. That kind of always helped me stay motivated, because I had my dreams or my goals set on being a successful business leader myself. So that kind of helped me along.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know I really did as a child. I had tremendous health problems. I was born three months premature and it just seems that I was addicted to sugar, and I was eating crap all day. My teeth started rotting in my mouth at an early age and every time that I went into the dentist, I would have to get four or five fillings. It got to such a point that I absolutely would bear the pain of having the dentist drill on my teeth without going for the Novocain shots.
Sharif: Oh boy!
Ralph Zuranski: Just because it was so painful. To help me deal with that, I created a character in my mind; I didn’t know who it was but just a character. I was always hearing him say, “You can do it! You can do it!” because eating sugar all the time, I was extremely depressed.
Plus, I was having severe problems with my hormones because my blood sugar was constantly going up and down and I was using up all my cortisol to basically just keep my blood sugar level up, so I didn’t die and go into a coma. In the process of doing that, what happened is that my body was utilizing all my sex hormones, especially the testosterone just to keep my blood sugar level up and burning it into cortisol.
So what happened is that I was the 99 pound weakling. I was like the midget in the class. I was sick all the time, I was depressed and suicidal. I just hated how I looked; I had a big nose and big ears. I was of Polish heritage, so I got all the Polish jokes.
I would look in the mirror and tell myself, “I hate you! I hate you! I wish you were dead!” It was that special character that I created that helped me get through life. It was all the way through high school and college that I was depressed. I didn’t know why, and it was just because of a hormonal problem. There was always that super Hero there that kept me going.
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Sharif Khan: Very interesting question. I have a Council of Light or imaginary team of heroes if you will. I got the concept from Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, where he talks about creating a team of heroes in your mind, where you go deep within your mind and choose your greatest heroes to sit on your round table and council you. I actually go to a secret place in my mind in meditation where I have a council of these people.
Some include greats like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Sinatra, Jodie foster, Oprah, Einstein, and an eclectic mix that changes from time to time. I actually talk to them in my dreams and imagination and they give me answers encouragement and advice. It may sound strange, but that’s how I’ve developed my own ‘wisdom council’ if you will.
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Debra Berg: My mother is probably the best role model or hero anyone could have had. I didn’t need to create a hero because she was right in front of me most of my life.
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7. You're successful when you like who and what you are. Success includes achievement… while choosing and directing your own activities. It means enjoying intimate relationships and loving what you do in life.
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Dave Kekich Shares Amazing Advances in Longevity and Health Research
We also have some pretty good ideas as to how much it will cost. And when we spend the money on it, we can speed it up a little bit by putting more money into it, and that is what we are all about. We are all about raising money for this project. And that is why aging is going to be solved.
That is why heart disease and cancer and every other disease are going to be solved. That’s why we’ll get control over biology and over the aging process.
So for the few of you who don't think I am a total crackpot at this point, I think this is going to be very profound, and whether you believe me or not, or even understand the concepts, the Law of Accelerating Returns is going to have a greater effect on your lives than anything you have ever heard of before.
Things are going to happen so much faster, and so much more dramatically in the technology world and in biology that it is going to make your head spin pretty soon. So hang on for a good ride, and take care of yourselves now.
My main message to the people who are living right now is take care of yourselves, because the technologies that are going to be happening in the future are going to benefit you in ways that you couldn't imagine. And you are going to benefit from those if you are alive.
If you are not, of course, it is going to be too late for you. And that is why taking care of yourself right now is so important, and Ralph, we have some information at www.MaxLife.org. If you click there on the icon in the middle it says "How to live to 120 and Still Remember Where You Left Your Car Keys."
If you click on that and scroll to the bottom, click on SALADS™ and see how to increase your chances to live a long, long time with today's technology and today's knowledge. Basically, it is a how-to report to add more years to your life and more life to your years.
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Why is it valuable to know exactly how much money you want to have in your bank account, and when?
Cameron Johnson: I think the first question to ask is why do you want that amount? What is that amount of money going to do for you that you don’t already have now? Is it going to buy you things you don’t have, or is it going to pay off debts, or make you more financially stable and make you happier that way?
But why do you think any amount of money will make you any happier than you are now? So I think that is kind of the first question to ask yourself. Then, if you actually put a dollar amount on that, then I think you need to put a date on it, too, and then use that as a goal to be there by that certain time.
But the first question I would say is, “Why do I want this amount of money? Why do I think I am going to be a happier person? Why do I think I am going to be healthier or love my family any more, or anything else? Or my family is going to love me any more?”
Why would you think that is going to happen, just because you have that amount of money in the bank? You know, money does not buy happiness, by any means. So I think that is an important question, too.
Debra Berg: It’s part of the goal-setting process. If you are not specific about what you want, your brain doesn’t know what it should strive for. Your subconscious mind is very powerful, and once it knows what it should target, it works day and night to help you achieve it.
6. Produce for wealth creation and accumulation. Invest profits for wealth preservation and growth. Produce more than you consume and save a minimum of 20% of all earnings. Pay yourself first.
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Dave Kekich Shares Amazing Advances in Longetivy and Health Research
And we had experts all over the place; the people who were nay- saying this whole program from day one, people who jumped on the bandwagon and started doubting, and halfway through the project we had accomplished one-tenth of the entire human genome project that could be identified with mapping.
We had experts all over the place; the people who were nay- saying this whole program from day one, people who jumped on the bandwagon and started doubting, and halfway through the project we had accomplished one percent of mapping the entire human genome.
The experts were using this as proof that they were right, and that it would take a hundred years, or a thousand years to do it. There is not enough money to do it; it is impossible, it is not going to happen. And so forth and so on.
But the scientists who were working on this project kept working. Ralph, not knowing how it is going to turn out, take yourself back seven and a half years through this project, and you will find it one percent accomplished, and all the experts saying it is not going to happen.
From that perspective, would you believe it was going to happen or not happen?
Ralph Zuranski: I would believe that it would not happen.
Dave Kekich: That is what most people thought. But the people working on this project were familiar with the concept of exponential growth. They knew they went from one ten- thousandth of the problem being solved, to one percent of the problem being solved.
That means they progressed by one hundred times. The technology and the knowledge had increased by a hundred times. And they knew they were right on schedule, because if they did that again, over the next seven and a half years, a hundred times that one percent would be one hundred percent.
And that is exactly what happened. It actually took place quicker. And under budget; by the way, part of the law of accelerating returns shows the price of technology falls in half every year. Roughly falls in half. So it was no surprise to them that they came in on time, ahead of time, and under budget.
But it caught the rest of the world by surprise, because they were not familiar with the Law of Accelerating Returns. They knew what they had to do; they just knew they needed more powerful technology, they needed more time, and they needed more money.
We have the exact same situation now in extreme life extension, in that we have a scientific roadmap. We know what needs to be done. We don't have the technology to do it. We know what the technology needs to be, and we know how powerful it needs to be. And we know how long it basically will take until that technology happens.
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How important was it to believe that your financial dreams would eventually become reality?
Cameron Johnson: I think, in order to set a goal, or set a dream, you have to actually understand that this has to be a realistic goal. So I think it is almost crucial that we are able to believe that we can make our dreams come true, if we just take the necessary steps in achieving those goals, and accomplishing them.
So I think it is crucial. It is hard to set a goal or have a financial dream for yourself if you are not going to believe that it has a chance of being real. So I think we need to set realistic goals, and then I’d say that is 100% valuable.
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Debra Berg: It’s very important.
5. Always show gratitude when earned, monetarily when possible.
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Dave Kekich Shares Amazing Advances In Anti-Aging and Health Research
So if you take this same concept and apply it to our technology, which is doubling in power and this is basically information technology, which is driving everything including biotech right now, that means in ten years we are going to have tools that are 1000 times as powerful as we have today.
That means in 30 years, we are going to have tools that are one billion times as powerful as the tools we have today. And these are the tools that are going to help with cancer, avoidance and cure, heart disease, you name it, all diseases, and at the end of this, let's talk about aging.
I have spoken about this with a bunch of people who say, "That sounds awfully interesting. Yeah, it sounds good in theory, but does this really work in your life?" I am going to give you an example in real life as to how this works. In 1989, we started studying the human genome, mapping the human genome.
Then, only one ten thousandth of the human genome was sequenced. And some people got together, some very smart scientists, and the government, and some people in the public sector rivaling the public sector’s efforts, and they formed a thing which we all heard of by now, which is called the Human Genome Project.
Are you familiar with that, Ralph? We know what the result was, but it was a 15-year project, and we had one ten-thousandths of the genome sequenced when we started this thing, or when they started this thing. And halfway through the project, seven and a half years later, they had one percent of the human genome sequenced.
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Are you slow to revise or reverse on important decisions?
Debra Berg: Usually, unless I see good reason to change it and a quick response is needed.
Cameron Johnson: Typically, when I make a decision, I don’t look back and I move on, no matter what that decision is. I went to a boarding school in high school and I left the sophomore year.
I came home at Christmas break and I didn’t want to go back because actually, to make a long story short, I met this girl and I didn’t want to go back to an all boys’ school, and I’d just gotten my license. But my dad said, “You are going back; I’ve paid this amount of money for your tuition.”
So I said okay, so I went back to school. A week later I called back and said, “Dad, I will reimburse you the tuition. I don’t want to stay here.” And he said, “Okay, if you want to write me a check for $25,000, then you can come home.” This was when I was in 10th grade, and I said, okay, that was fine.
I paid my dad $25,000, which was a big decision at the time. But I never looked back; I never regretted it, and I never, of course, tried to reverse it.
I have made several decisions since then that, once I make them, I just move on and accept it, and hopefully you don’t have to reverse or revise a decision. So I think that it is important, especially on decisions we can never change, that there is no use fretting over them or second guessing, or anything of the sort.
We have to move on. So I would say I normally don’t revise or reverse decisions like that.
Ralph Zuranski: Sounds like you make decisions very quickly and stick with them. [Laughter]
Cameron Johnson: Often times we buy in with emotion, then we try to rationalize later from facts and reasoning.
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Click on each name to listen to the heroes interviews of Sharif Khan, Author of "The Psychology Of the Hero Soul," Debra Berg, Author of "The Power Of One," Cameron Johnson, Author of "You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way – And Live the Life You Want", Robert Channing, the World's Greatest Mind Reader and Mental Motivator and Ralph Zuranski, the Creator Of the In Search Of Heroes Program.
Sharif Khan is President and founder of Diamond Mind Enterprises, an organization devoted to transforming coal minds into diamond minds through the applied pressure of higher knowledge, wellness education, and leadership training. His vision is “to inspire the world with hope, faith, love, respect, excellence, and the courage to dream”. He is the author of the inspirational book about Promoting Heroes in the Workplace and Everyday Life in his "The PSYCHOLOGY OF THE HERO SOUL."
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Cameron Johnson started his first business at the tender age of nine. By age 12, his company was selling Beanie Babies™ over the Internet and he profited $50,000 that year. At the age of fifteen, he became an advisory board member of a Tokyo-based company and published his autobiography in Japanese which became an instant best-seller.
At the age of 21, he has founded and sold more than a dozen businesses and has been featured in more than 250 media outlets worldwide including Newsweek, BusinessWeek, the New York Times, USA Today, CNBC, and MSNBC. He’s served as a consultant to several Fortune 500 companies and is a frequent speaker to a variety of audiences including high schools, colleges, and corporate executives.
In January, 2007, his new book titled You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way – And Live the Life You Want – With the 19 Essential Secrets of Entrepreneurship is being released by Simon & Schuster. Cameron Johnson lives in Blacksburg, Virginia. Visit his official website http://www.cameronjohnson.com.
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Debra Schweiger Berg is an author, researcher, and public speaker. She holds both a B.A. in political science/economics and an M.P.A., (public administration) degree from the University of Illinois. As an undergrad, she staffed the Watergate hearings in Washington, D.C. Post-college; Debra was one of the first women to serve on the staffs of the Illinois, Kentucky, and Minnesota state legislatures. In all three states, she served as a finance analyst for billions of state agency dollars and led studies on special education, welfare, and education. Following that, Minnesota’s largest HMO recruited her as a senior financial analyst.
Then, in the mid-eighties and early nineties, she founded a successful international marketing and training company, TeamNet, Intl., in which she trained and mentored entrepreneurs. That success led to her eventual recruitment by Amdocs, Inc. and Gcom, Inc., both software industry leaders.
In 1995, Debra launched a 10-year personal quest during which she interviewed 130 of America’s new civic heroes, civic entrepreneurs. Her interviews exposed a hidden trend in America, which she chronicles in her book, The Power of ONE: The Unsung Everyday Heroes Rescuing America’s Cities. Debra speaks to a wide range of audiences and captivates them with tales surrounding her 10,000-mile quest and the heroes who’ve invented eye-opening, working solutions to America’s toughest social problems.
She’s received acclaim by the Pew Foundation and cited by the Chicago Sun-Times for her groundbreaking findings. Debra is presently the President of Power of One Publishing and of PowerQuest, a leadership training company that empowers leaders of all ages to realize a life quest.
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Ralph Zuranski is the creator of the The “In Search Of Heroes" Program. It is a local franchise business opportunity for individuals with high integrity. The purpose of the business is to train young people how to be successful in their personal lives and business.
The goal is to teach high school and college students how to generate income for their local ISOH Program, themselves and community businesses by spreading the “Good News” about local heroes and their businesses, if they have one. Students learn how to promote people, products and businesses on the internet and through local newspapers, TV and radio, using the latest techniques and technology.
Students learn the importance and value of spreading “Good News” in their communities about heroic individuals who deserve recognition for their service to others. This valuable information inspires everyone. It helps each person to take pride in their community and the good people that live there that are making a positive difference in the lives of others.
The businesses that deserve recognition for their integrity, service and generosity are also promoted. This increase in income allows local business owners the opportunity to give back even more to their community. With their increased financial independence, they can invest more time and money into worthwhile community programs.
The students become interns for their local “In Search Of Heroesä” Program. As they learn copywriting, online and offline marketing, website design and how to create audio and video programs, they provide these services to local businesses at a discounted price.
Many small local businesses need skilled help in marketing their businesses, but cannot afford high priced companies. Students are the perfect choice to use their developing marketing skills to help these businesses become more successful. As these businesses increase their revenues, the local community can afford to do more to help local community programs. Everyone benefits!
4. Real regrets only come from not doing your best. All else is out of your control. You're measured by results only. Trade excuses and "trying" for results, and expect half-hearted results from half-hearted efforts. Do more than is expected of you. Life's easy when you live it the hard way... and hard if you try to live it the easy way.
Dave Kekich Describes Amazing Advances In Longevity and Health Research
And most in the twentieth century. Yep. It is because of the Law of Accelerating Returns and the rapid growth, and accelerating growth. We would accomplish in 20 years what we accomplished in the entire 20th century if we were to use the rate of growth that we had in the year 2000.
And we would see that same growth by the year 2014, we are going to accomplish by the year 2014, from 2000 to the year 2014, as much as we accomplished and as much as we learned in the entire 20th century. And then we will do it again in the next seven years, by 2021.
Now as you can see, the time frame is getting shorter and shorter, and if you take this calculation forward, and I am going to back this up with a real simple explanation after I give you this next projection, we are going to accomplish, by the end of the 21st century, in those 100 years, 1000 times as much as we have accomplished in the 20th century.
And that rate of growth would be 20,000 times the rate of growth that we saw in the year 2000. So we would see a thousand times more progress--a thousand times--in this century than we saw in the 20th century, which was the most amazing century in history.
Now, here is a real life example for you; here's a common sense example of how and why this happens. Let's say, well, we are all familiar with compound interest, so let's take a dollar. Let's say we take a dollar and we double that dollar every year.
We double it in value every year, and after the first year we have two dollars, after two years, we have four. And eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two. And if you carry this forward for ten years, you have about a thousand dollars. A little bit over a thousand dollars, but let's call it a thousand dollars.
Then, if you take it forward for 20 years, you don't have two thousand dollars, but you have a million dollars. And then you go 30 years, you’ve got a billion dollars. And on and on into a trillion, quadrillion and so on and so forth.
Is it beneficial to make decisions quickly?
Cameron Johnson: I think that can depend on the situation and also the decision that you are making, depending on how big the decision is and what kind of results the decision might have, negative or positive.
You know, I definitely try to think through every decision. Before I make a decision I like to think about the consequences, so I think it can be beneficial to make decisions quickly but I’d also say that I like to think through everything very thoroughly first, as well. I think that is very important.
Debra Berg: Yes. Otherwise opportunity can walk right on by.
3. Think carefully before making any offers, commitments or promises, no matter how seemingly trivial. These are all contracts and must be honored. These also include self-resolutions.
Dave Kekich Exlplains Amazing Advances In Health and Longevity Research
They will see the day when diseases are a thing of the past, or are instantly or readily curable, and almost always, in most parts, avoidable. There will be a day where serious injuries are going to be easy to repair, and where life spans are going to be basically open-ended in young, healthy bodies.
Now that I have sounded like a complete, off-the-wall quack or idiot, let me explain my position and say why this is going to happen. And we even have a good idea as to when it is going to happen, but why is more important. There is a law called the law of accelerating returns, and that was formulated by Ray Kurzweil.
He is one of our foremost thinkers and futurists, engineers and inventors and one of the leading minds in the world right now. And Ray has thousands of pages of calculations and documents leading up to his conclusions. And by the way, we have a foundation called Maximum Life Foundation.
Ray has kindly agreed to join our Board as one of our most valuable advisors. But the law of accelerating returns basically says that things are growing. Technology is advancing at a faster and faster pace, and it is growing exponentially, but again, at a faster pace as time goes on.
He calculated that all the progress we made in the 20th century, which was an amazing century for progress, I mean if you look back at the beginning of the 20th century and then see where we ended up, then we had life extension where people were living on average to average ages, 47 years old in this country, and not even that old in many parts of the world.
Now people are living to almost 80 years on average. People born now are expected to live to over 80, if you are a woman; men are a little bit less. But if you take a look at things like telephones and airplanes and cars, and on and on, computers; I mean, virtually none of that existed in those days - everything that we take for granted today.
All the technologies, almost all of it was developed, with the exception of the basic things like electricity, rudimentary communication equipment, crude automobiles, almost all the technologies we take for granted today, or at least 95% of them, were developed since then.
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Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals, and your dreams?
Cameron Johnson: I try to. I try to take time every day to forecast and look at my progress and just have some positive thoughts. I like to just have some down time every day and it’s just not possible. But I would like for it to be, and I try to make it so that every day I have time to do those things.
But sometimes with traveling and business and everything else, and personal life, and trying to be in three places at once, it can be difficult.
But the down time is probably the most enjoyable and relaxing, because I am able to reflect on whatever it is I am working on, and to, hopefully, also help me push forward with new projects.
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Debra Berg: I do this through prayer off and on throughout the day. Some people may perceive this as telling God what to do, but I don’t see any harm in asking. I believe worry is prayer for something I don’t want, and affirmations are a prayer for what I do want.
2. Cherish time, your most valuable resource. You can never make up the time you lose. It's the most important value for any productive happy individual and is the only limitation to all accomplishment. To waste time is to waste your life. The most important choices you'll ever make are how you use your time.
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Dave Kekich: Well, ten words or less is a little bit tough, but at the risk of sounding like a fruitcake, I am going to explain this after I tell you what I expect out of life. Actually expecting and wanting are two different things, and I both want and expect these.
Number one is an open-ended life span. Two is a free and peaceful world for us all to live in. And I think we all want the free and peaceful world and many of us work in some ways toward that. But when I say open-ended life span to people, they go, "Oh, my God; you are talking about immortality.”
“What are you talking about? Are we going to be old, decrepit people living for a long, long time?" Gee, pretty much everybody has always died on time or died on schedule. It can't be any different for us; aging is too complex to solve.
And I had those same questions. I had those same concerns when I got a real strong interest in life extension, which by the way goes back to before my getting hurt. It goes back to when I was in my 20’s.
And there are some very good, plausible, scientific reasons why open-ended life span will become a reality for many people alive today, and probably most of the people listening to this. Because I assume that your audience is a little bit younger, many are going to have an opportunity for having bodies that don't age.
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Do you feel that optimism is valuable?
Sharif Khan: I am a perpetual optimist. I am always looking at the glass half full versus half empty.
Ralph Zuranski: Not all the time. I know how important it is to have positive thoughts, but just in being a situation where you are taking care of your mom and dad and they are both near death. You don’t know what is going to happen today.
You have to change your parent’s diapers and do all kinds of stuff that you wouldn’t normally realize you had to do. Just how much you have to sacrifice in your life. My wife and I can’t go anywhere by ourselves anymore, because somebody always has to be there. It is hard. Sometimes it can be depressing.
Debra Berg: It’s crucial. In all the years I trained entrepreneurs, the one thing I found that kept people from persevering despite obstacles was their own negativity. How they’d read the situation made all the difference in whether they were willing to get out there and keep going. If they couldn’t generate a good level of optimism …see things from a positive perspective, there wasn’t anything I could teach them that would help them succeed.
Cameron Johnson: Of course. I think optimism is so valuable because you have to have a positive outlook, and you have to be able to be optimistic about what it is you want to accomplish.
If you can’t be optimistic and be positive, then it is very difficult for you to wake up each morning and get out of bed and go do whatever it is you are doing. You have to be able to be positive and be proud of what it is you are contributing.
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1. People will do almost anything to stay in their comfort zones. If you want to accomplish anything, get out of your comfort zone. Strive to increase order and discipline in your life. Discipline usually means doing the opposite of what you feel like doing. The easy roads to discipline are 1) setting deadlines, 2) discovering and doing what you do best and what's important and enjoyable to you and 3) focusing on habits by replacing your bad habits and thought patterns, one-by-one, over time, with good habits and thought patterns.
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Ralph Zuranski: Hi, I am Ralph Zuranski, and I am on the phone with Dave Kekich. He is one of the most amazing people I have ever had the opportunity to talk with. How are you doing today, Dave?
Dave Kekich: Fine, Ralph. Thank you very much for the nice compliment. It might be an overstatement, but thank you anyway.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, my friend, Joe Polish, who I did one of the Heroes interviews on just speaks very highly of you, and told me you went through some amazing things in your life, and triumphed over some major difficulties. And I was wondering if you could share that with us?
Dave Kekich: Sure. I would be happy to, Ralph. A long time ago, 28 years ago, or more than 28 years now, I had a sudden spinal cord injury, which paralyzed me from the top of the chest down. And prior to that I was very, very active; not just in business but extremely active physically.
I was a long distance runner and an avid bodybuilder, and more. But I lost that in an instant. As a result, I ended up losing my business, my home, my girlfriend and everything that was important to me. I had a beachfront home in Southern California.
It was a great life, and it suddenly changed. I thought it came to an end at that time, but it didn't. It actually in some ways got better as time went on. But it was very devastating at that time, and it took me a long time to get through it emotionally.
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Well, do you have courage to pursue new ideas?
Cameron Johnson: Yes. One of the things I have always been able to do ever since I was basically nine years old was to have the courage, whether it was to start a new business or whether to buy a lot of inventory when I started the Beanie Baby business.
It started because I took my sister’s Beanie Baby collection, and she was six years younger than me, so she was about six years old at the time, and I sold it on eBay when eBay had just started, and I sold it for $1,000. I gave her $100, so I was happy to have made $900, and she was happy to make $100.
What it taught me was that I needed more Beanie Babies. So I went out and became a retailer for Beanie Baby manufacturers, and I basically took my life savings at the time, which was several thousand dollars, and I purchased several thousand Beanie Babies.
But I had to have the courage to do that, and the courage it takes to take calculated risks is a lot better than just taking irresponsible risks, but I think they pay off in the long run. Being able to have the courage to do that has always rewarded me very well.
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Ralph Zuranski: Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. It’s really hard sometimes to know when you change the direction that you are going and to pursue new ideas. There is going to be a lot of people that will try to prevent you from doing it.
So you know that you are going to experience a lot of pain in the process of doing that. Some of the time it’s the people that you really love and love you that don’t want you to change, because they are comfortable with the way that you are.
When you strive to overcome the negative aspects, it’s really difficult to make those changes, because those people get angry and they are going to punish you for doing that. It’s so crucial just to make those changes and to have that courage, because you are going to have to pay a price to change your life.
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Sharif Khan: Yes it does. It takes a lot of courage because typically, in the new development stage of an idea, people tend to bring us down and want to put us at their own level. So having the courage to succeed and not taking “no” for an answer and going beyond is important. Including myself.
Writing has been a passion of mine since I was probably 8 years old, and people around me, especially in South Asian culture, and even sometimes within my family, were admonishing me not to be a ‘writer’ because I’d be a struggling artist all my life and telling me “why don’t you be a doctor, or lawyer, or accountant, or get an MBA, so you can make money.”
It took me courage to say “no” this is what I’m passionate about, this is what I love doing, and this is what I’m going to do and I stuck to it. I disciplined myself to write two hours every day and ten hours on the weekends (not including research) and in a period of about two years, I had a finished book, Psychology of the Hero Soul, which is an inspirational book and awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential.
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Debra Berg: Yes. I’m a sponge. If there’s an idea that’s new that might help, I give it serious consideration. Occasionally, I go too far the other way assessing more new ideas than I have time for. But I’d rather error on the side of too much information than miss an option that might make my goal come about faster.
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What do you think about the "In Search of Heroes" program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Debra Berg: I think your program is a valuable concept because it brings together the hero role models of parents and communty leaders with kids who are our future. Through role models they learn important life and vocational skills. Many kids are missing both good heroes and the skills. The result is that they end up floundering throughout the rest of their lives. It’s tough enough out in the real world, even with the best training. Many schools are lacking what the In Search of Heroes program offers.
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Robert Channing: I think everybody in the world should benefit from this and will benefit from it. I think the word has to get out. I think I mentioned to you before that I want to do something with you Ralph, with my Power Performers and I’m going to promote "In Search Of Heroes" in everything that I do. That’s one of my life goals.
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Ralph Zuranski: Yes, that really does. Robert, I just really appreciate your time. I know how incredibly busy you are. I was just so impressed with your presentation and just the humor. It still blows my mind on how you can read people’s minds. I don’t know how you do that, but it is incredibly awesome.
I just really encourage you to do the Power Performers and do interviews on those guys to just spread the knowledge that they have. Excellence is such a fine thing, it’s such a great role model for young people, for those that are giving service above self, that are providing quality and integrity in the fields they are in.
That’s what young people need to know, they need to find out how these people that are attaining the level of success they want to attain, and listen to the people that they become. I’m sure that you would agree with this, you have to become a person that is worthy of incredible wealth and fame before it ever shows up, or it will completely go down the drain.
Just like a lot of people feared success, once it arrived they completely dumped it down the drain by their actions. You’ve had a lot of impact with very famous people. What do you think about that idea?
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Robert Channing: What I think is you are absolutely right. When I was younger, just to make a point back to what I was doing was I did very well when I was 18 or 19 years old and I was at the top of my field performing in what I did. People used to say to me, “This guy is going to get involved in drugs, he’s going to do this or he’s going to do that.”
But I didn’t do that. You have to pay your price. You have to do your diligence. You have to learn. There’s a way, yes. You can go from to zero to one hundred and cut out that curve. But most of the time you have to go through the bumps and bruises. Once you go through those bumps and bruises and you do obtain your success, you will learn how to keep it.
If something is given to you, if somebody gave you one million dollars, there’s an old expression, you can spread out all the money in the United States, put in one lump sum and spread it out between all the people in the United States equally. At the end of the year, 10% of the people would have all the money back.
That’s because they learned how to control their emotions their life and learn by their actions. Meaning, having their goals, accomplishing them, going through the struggles. Going through struggles is good. When you go through a struggle, you are teaching yourself a lesson in life.
When you do that, if something was given to me, you won’t appreciate it as much as if you worked for it. So work for what you have, appreciate what you have, and here’s something else too.
Teach your children to work for what they have, because you as a person, if you decide you want to build your life up to make a fortune in wealth and riches with everything that you do, don’t give your children everything because that generation will lose it.
The next generation, their children will have nothing, and they will have to rebuild it themselves. So teach the children that you do have, and the young people listening today, or reading this interview, is that you don’t get something for nothing. Work for it. When you work for it, you will appreciate it, and you will keep it. That’s all I can say on that.
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Sharif Khan: I think it’s the greatest thing Ralph! I’m so glad you were able to find me on the web somehow. And when I took a look at your “In search of Heroes Program” and what it’s doing for the youth, as well as for promoting local heroes, and helping their businesses, which will allow them to further give back to their communities and further be mentors to the youth and students, who in turn can learn more about writing and more about becoming heroes; it’s a wonderful positive cycle that you’ve created and I really admire what you’re doing and respect you. You are a hero in your own right.
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Cameron Johnson: I mean, just imagine if every single person in this great country and in the world could hear all of these interviews, and what they would take away from them. You know, the people that we can touch are really the people who are normally seeking out help.
They are actually the ones who have the ambition and motivation to take the first step, though, and actually go and find positive influence such as the “In Search of Heroes” program. But I think its impact on youth, parents, and business people is only positive. I think that anything that is positive is good.
I think positive cash flow is good! So I think positive impact is so powerful, and I think that I am thankful that you have spent so much time doing these interview and creating this program, because there is so much value in it. So many people can learn so much from all the different people you have interviewed.
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Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals?
Cameron Johnson: I think it’s crucial. I get so excited and so fired up when I am achieving my goals, and I think having so much energy and everything else just helps you move along and helps you push forward in the hard times or in the slow times.
I think being able to motivate yourself is one of the greatest abilities, and one of the most crucial abilities for an entrepreneur to have. I definitely feel it is so valuable to have highly charged emotions.
Debra Berg: I think it’s critical otherwise, it’s too easy to lose focus. If I didn’t have a strong desire to do what I’m doing, I wouldn’t have invested 8 years of my own money and time pursuing dozens of interviews with civic entrepreneurs across America. And I wouldn’t have quit my job to write the book The Power of One either. I think a person must have a strong desire to overcome personal inconvenience, which would otherwise block their success.
What are the things that parents can do that will help their children realize that they too can be heroes and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Robert Channing: Giving, learn that it is better to give than receive. Don’t you feel better, I feel better, anyway. I know that a lot of people love to get gifts. I love to get gifts but it’s always hard for me when someone gives me a gift to say “thank you.”
I would not feel like I deserved it, I don’t know why, something in my psyche but I have learned to say thank you and to appreciate it. By them giving them a gift, you are giving them a gift. So be giving, you will receive 100 fold.
Teach your children to give, to help, to praise and to praise them. Just something that I learned by some statistics, I think there is a lot of validity here, is that if you are a parent and you have a daughter, you as the male person will influence your daughter’s life, her emotions and her self confidence more so than the mother will.
And it’s true of the opposite sex, meaning the mother will dominate and influence the child’s psyche because it’s the opposite sex. If you learn this when you are growing up, if you have children, to also compliment, to support, to bring them up, not in a false way. Of course you have to correct them, but in a delicate way. Does that make sense?
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Cameron Johnson: I think our society has become so disconnected, parents and young people. It is not that young people are just trying to be rebellious and not connected to their parents, although there is a time period when young people do that.
I think that it is just that there is a disconnect on the relationship, and whether it is because parents don’t talk to their kids about what it is they do on a daily basis in their job, so that means when kids get to college and they have to choose a major, they really don’t know anything about any industry and they don’t really know what they want to do.
I read a statistic the other day that more than 70% of college graduates enter a field other than the one they graduated in. Or they end up going back to school to major in a different field, which means they just spend more money on education, which is great.
I am a huge fan of education and a great supporter of education, and believe that education is the key to success. But we have to look at these things from a younger age and an earlier standpoint, like they do in so many other countries that are getting so much further ahead of us. That’s because we have this reverse mentality of not setting goals earlier in life on what it is we want to do.
I think parents can be a huge influence on their children and on their nieces and nephews and on society by being more involved in trying to help their kids find out what it is they want to do. Get them involved in internship programs or sports in high school, or even earlier. I think it really pays off in the long run.
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Ralph Zuranski: The thing that they can do is first love themselves, love their kids and give a good example of what parents should do just by showing their kids through example on how it is to live a life that serves others.
They are laying their lives down for others by feeding and clothing the kids, making sure they get a good education. Just by being that example and being willing to be the parents, to provide discipline and show the kids that selfishness is not the way to go and that there are certain things that they should actually do.
So the parents have to provide discipline, they just can’t be their kids best buddies and want the kids to be their friends. They have to be willing to accept the anger and a lot times hatred of the kids and teaching kids the right way to go.
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Sharif Khan: The #1 thing that parents can do is to be role models for their children by living their own dreams and doing what it is that they love doing; encouraging their children when they have ideas, goals, and aspirations, and instead of putting them down and saying it’s not realistic or that your vision is ‘too big,’ to actually encourage them, and give them hope and inspiration and give them an avenue to go out there and do what they love doing.
Sharif Khan’s website for his work in developing heroes is at www.herosoul.com. He also has a success blog at www.sharifkhan.blogspot.com. His book, The Hero Soul, is available at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Indigo bookstores. To reach Sharif directly, call (416) 417-1259 or email: sharif@herosoul.com.
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Debra Berg: Parents can introduce their children to good role models and support them in the pursuit of activities that build their character. Your In Search of Heroes program is a great venue for this.
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If you had three wishes for your life in the world that would instantly come true, what would they be?
Robert Channing: Three wishes. One would be to the drug industry, first of all, not to have so many drugs to fix people but to have holistic solutions and the world to be a better place. This is going out on a limb here, our government, whether people want to believe it or not is one of the biggest mafias in the world.
We control the world but we do it for a reason because we have to protect ourselves. But I would love to have the world be a utopia like John Lennon used to sing about, that would be my wish to have a utopia. Almost like heaven.
The second wish would be that the young people in this world could be educated and know how to model success when they are younger.
And the teachers that are teaching them will learn how to teach them how to manage their life, not so much as how to do the sciences and mathematics but how to manage their life with the relationship with themselves their family, financially, emotionally. I think they don’t teach that in school now, Ralph.
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Cameron Johnson: This is kind of a tough question, because I could probably think on this for several weeks and still not come up with an answer that hits me and strikes me a special.
But I want people to be happy, and that sounds like such a cliché or a beauty pageant answer. But I want people to be happy and to be able to help others, and to get satisfaction out of that.
So many people and so many young people are depressed, and they live these very difficult lives, and there are these huge pressures from their parents and from outside sources to make the best grades possible. I think making good grades is very important, and it helps you get into a good school, or get a good job and everything like that.
But when people go so far as to go on antidepressant medicine because they are so depressed because of their grades. Or at the high school I attended there was a young guy who was a few years older than me. He was literally stressing out about his college applications, and he committed suicide.
That story will stay with me for the rest of my life, because there is really no reason to let things—nothing is that bad. One wish would be for people to be happy and help everyone else.
Number two would be to try and do whatever it is you want to do, and that sounds like a cliché, also. But if you want to start a business, find out what the first step to starting a business is, whether it is an Internet business and you need to come up with a name and register the domain name.
Or that’s a brick and mortar business, and you need to go sign a lease and move into your small location. Every business should start small.
Then third I would say, a very strong wish I would have would be for young people and families and adults and everyone just to have a stronger relationship with their families, because I think that strong family relationships and connections really help give back.
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Ralph Zuranski: First would be that people would love themselves and love others. The second would be that there would be peace on earth. The third would be that people would realize that there are alternate ways of attaining incredible levels of health and well being rather than the conventional pathways of chemicals and drugs.
People would realize that we don’t have to pollute the world to basically achieve the wealth and leisure that we have in the United States and other countries. If people would just realize that there is a natural way to learn, a natural way to heal, and a natural way to take care of our world.
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Sharif Khan: My first wish would be to have people in the world live in harmony and for people to find ways to be prosperous doing what it is that they really love doing. I’d love to see a world where we can actually accommodate that and help people to do what they love doing and prosper.
I see so many people and see so may youth out there who have all these aspirations and dreams, but they’re not finding an outlet to be able to live those dreams. And they are really perishing inside. It’s so sad to see so many people who don’t find a direction or calling in life and are thinking of committing suicide. That is one wish: to see everyone living a prosperous life doing what they love doing.
My second wish, if there was a magic wand and it was a utopia, to end the wars and famine and disease, and have a world where there is just peace and love and respect for each other.
And finally, my third wish would be to have a world with people dedicated to EXCELLENCE. Because God is Excellence! Being the best of the best, holding ourselves to high standards and to quality. We would really have a paradise on earth if were committed to excellence – towards truth, and nobility, and something grand.
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Debra Berg: #1. For the Power of One to be a New York Times and Amazon bestseller so that the word can spread.
#2. For my stepdaughters and husband to have greater success in their chosen professions.
#3. For the Center for Civic Entrepreneurs to be established. And to network thousands of CE’s nationwide so as to share techniques that solve a wide range of social problems.
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Do you have any good solutions for the problems facing society today, especially racism, child and spousal abuse and violence among young people?
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Debra Berg: YES! That’s exactly what The Power of One: The Unsung Everyday Heroes Rescuing America’s Cities is all about. The solutions to all of these issues, and more are in its chapters. Civic entrepreneur heroes of all ages have invented these solutions. And most of them are still involved in cities nationwide. They need our support, both financial and emotional.
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Robert Channing: That’s a tough question, Ralph! Because there are so many stereotypes, there is so much racism still. To solve that, the solution would be to do what you are doing right now. To give the young kids in this world mentors, heroes to emulate themselves by.
Let them know that if anything they are going through now, there are people in the past that have gone through things as bad, if not worse and they have made themselves through it. They have grown stronger and more successful in their lives because of that persecution in their life.
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Cameron Johnson: I think that it is just a lack of positive influence, and a lack of heroes in the country and in the world. I don’t even enjoy watching the news anymore, because anytime you turn on the news, the only things you see are the number of shootings that occurred today, or car accidents, or anything else. It’s almost impossible to find a good, heartwarming story.
Or if you do, it is on page 12 of your newspaper. So I mean I feel like we are doing it to ourselves, and it is ridiculous, and it’s disturbing, and I don’t know how you change that. Because we, as a society, only get to see whatever it is the media brings out to us.
There are so many hundreds of thousands of positive stories that we never hear of, that we would really rather hear about, because it motivates all of us to try and do things like that rather than go out and commit crimes.
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Ralph Zuranski: Absolutely. That’s what the Heroes program is all about, to help people become friends with themselves and learn how to love both of their personalities, their right brain and their left brain. That’s the idea of creating the Bioman and Biowoman, to get people to realize they truly have the ability to become Heroes by first realizing that they have two personalities in their brain and becoming friend with those personalities.
Then just loving both of those personalities and accepting that once you become an integrated brain, you can do tremendous things in teaching kids and everybody how the brain actually works to process information. In our schools, it’s mostly left brain teaching that destroys the creativity, and suppresses the creative part of the brain that has super memory and super creativity, that’s just suppressed in the schools.
My goal is to teach people how to find their own Hero within, to become friends with both of their brain hemispheres and become Biomen or Biowomen. Then to learn how their brain processes information, and present that information in a way that people can become successful and teach them the aspects of business.
They will know that by working correctly, by using their God given abilities and being able to process information in the right way, that they can be incredibly successful. Learn how the tax system works so they can save the money that they have and pay the least amount of taxes and basically give back to society by becoming successful financially.
I think that that’s part of our society’s and our country’s fault, but I don’t know how we are to go about changing it. But it needs to happen.
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Sharif Khan: Our own image is reflected in every single human individual around us. What we do to others we are actually doing to ourselves. And if we mistreat somebody else, or if we call somebody else names or harm somebody, we are actually harming ourselves, because what goes around comes around and the law of motion says, ‘for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ If you want to be respected and treated with love and compassion, then you need to treat other people with love and compassion and respect – and you’ll get that back ten times over.
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James Malinchak taught attendees many of his hidden secrets so they too can be some of the most sought after motivational speakers and corporate trainers in the world today.
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VIP Audience Members
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Alex Carroll, Author and Radio Publicity Expert
Audrey Hagen, One of the Top Seminar Consultants
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Well, how are you making the world a better place?
Robert Channing: Making the world a better place, I’m providing my experience of how to get into the industry. For example, when I book somebody in my company, or my sales reps book somebody, we are doing a service to our client by giving them something they want.
We are doing a service to the speaker, because all we have to do is call the speaker and the speaker picks up the phone and says, “Hello.” We say, “Hi, we have a date for you!” So it makes their life easier, it makes my life easier, and our client is happy when they experience a stellar performance.
Also the people that work in my office, I try to give them an opportunity to improve themselves with goals. I also try to build people, not just teach them how to make money but build them. If you can teach them to fish, they will do that much better in the future.
You can show them how to do something, but if you don’t teach them and implement the information in their minds and take consistent action with that information, they are not going to be able to do it on their own.
I guess what I’m saying is that I provide an atmosphere to the people in my life to benefit from what I can do in my own experience. I hope I made sense with that, I tried to.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, I’m doing it through the “In Search of Heroes program™”. I’m looking for people like you to create a Mastermind group of people that want to make the world a better place. Ones that actually are good examples that have overcome trials and tribulations in their lives and have basically sacrificed wealth, fame and finances just to basically make a difference in the lives of other people.
I firmly believe that God is not going to judge us for how much wealth or material possessions, or how much power that we gain in society, but how we treated the people that He put in our paths. As we went through our lives, we either do good or evil to those people.
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Cameron Johnson: I am trying my best! I have a book coming out that is not a book I wrote to try and sell and become a best selling author. That is really not one of my goals.
But one of my goals is to help young people and parents and adults and everyone, business leaders and small business owners make smart and educated business decisions. I think my book can help do that, and I think the book will definitely help change society, maybe in a very small way, but in a way.
Also, you know the non-profit organizations I am involved with, and the speeches that I give, I get so much reward from that. So that is definitely how I get so much satisfaction these days.
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Debra Berg: Right now, I’m taking on the roles of a stepmother, wife, and researcher/writer about America’s civic heroes. I hope I’m adding value and encouragement to all existing and future civic entrepreneurs. There’s an adage by Edith Wharton that goes, “There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” I view myself as a mirror, reflecting these incredible solutions.
Many of the kids in your program may become civic entrepreneurs one day if they have these role models to follow. And if they have the financial resources, a network of friends, and the desire to help others, they could help reverse a major social problem in our society. I also see myself as the front and center cheerleader for all of these inventors, now and in the future!
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How does it feel to be recognized as a hero? I know a lot of the people that I have interviewed don’t consider themselves heroes. But I think it’s important to accept the good that you are doing and the benefits that you have in the lives of others and not be ashamed to be recognized for the good things that you do.
Robert Channing: I’m very flattered, first of all. It’s flattering to even be considered being a hero. The place I always thought I was a hero was in raising my family. I never thought I was a hero in anything else, other than I love doing what I do.
I’m passionate about what I do, and I try, whoever I come in contact with is bring and build them up. So if that’s being a hero, thank you for knighting me a hero, Ralph.
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Ralph Zuranski: It feels great. I created a character Hero when I was in the skate board industry called Captain Biorhythm. I was so impressed with biorhythms and how I charted the ups and downs of life. Everybody does have ups an downs and to know that there are cycles that you can actually watch and you prepare yourself with your attitude and just never give up when you see different events occur, because that’s part of life, ups and downs.
I was doing research on accidents and injuries in the skateboard parks and in the top skateboarders back in the late Seventies. I saw there was a real correlation in accidents and injuries, just as the researchers in Japan saw that you can cut accidents and injuries by at least 70% by just warning people to be more cautious on certain days.
I created my character Captain Biorhythm in a slalom race, where you can go down a steep hill through cones like skiing on a skate board. I had never done it before and I thought for sure I was going to kill myself and have a severe injury.
It was on Halloween, all my friends told me, “Yeah, yeah, why don’t you do it Ralph? You can do it.” I decided I would create a Hero called Captain Biorhythm that was able to overcome his fears and realize that there was a potential for accident and injury.
I got one of my girlfriends to create a Heroes costume out of a woman’s velour dress, it was like a tunic. It said Biorhythms on the top and had a big blue cape. I was trying to get the idea of wearing skateboard safety equipment across to the skaters because I saw so many horrific accidents and injuries.
So I got all kinds of elbow pads and knee pads out of the motorcycle industry. I had a helmet and I had a big giant blue cape, and I showed up at the skateboard event. Unfortunately on my way up there my car conked out and so I had to change in my car and I hitchhiked and got a ride from a girl named Robin Logan who was on the Logan Family skateboard team.
She gave me a ride up there. I showed up there and I was in my costume and unfortunately the skaters had lied to me and nobody else was dressed up in a costume but me. So, boy did I feel pretty stupid and on my first skateboard run, it was in a costume and it was a day when the wind was blowing incredibly strong and my cape billowed out behind me.
I had this chain that was around my neck. As I started going down the hill, the cape acted like a parachute and at the same time the chain was strangling me as I was going through the course in slow motion. All the skateboarders were standing on the side and I stopped and they thought it was the funniest thing that they had ever seen.
From then on, I was Captain Biorhythm no matter whether I was dressed in my costume or not. I got a lot of guff for that, a lot of ridicule and people recognized me as a Hero then.
But now just being recognized as a Hero for trying to make the world a better place and doing something about it, it really is a great joy. I’m very grateful that people think that I am a Hero because ever since I created that character back in 1976, I’ve been using that character as a way to overcome disappointments, sorrow and health problems and setbacks.
Captain Biorhythm is my alter ego. He’s my right brain, he’s the spontaneous, intuitive, the emotional. He’s the one that is the character that brings balance to my entire life.
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Sharif Khan: It’s a really rewarding feeling. Coming from a stage in my life, having grown up in Scarborough here in Ontario, Canada, where I was suffering so much low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness that I never took any leadership roles at all in school and in my young adulthood; to now come full-circle and be respected as a ‘leader’ as a ‘hero’ training entrepreneurs, executives, and educators and students alike on the qualities of leadership and being a hero…it really is a very rewarding feeling to be held in respect and esteem. Words can’t describe it.
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Debra Berg: It’s humbling anytime someone refers to me as a hero.
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Cameron Johnson: Well, I don’t know that I would go that far, but it is an honor to get an e-mail from one person saying I have motivated them in business in any way, or helped them try to find success. I probably get 100 e-mails a month just like that, and that is motivation for me. At the same time, it’s extremely rewarding and surreal, and almost unbelievable, so I totally can’t even put words to it.
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Why are heroes so important in the lives of young people?
Robert Channing: Well, first of all, a hero, people look up to different heroes nowadays. There are some bad examples of heroes meaning there are some sports celebrities and stars that are smoking cigarettes and doing drugs and anti-depressants, things along this line.
I remember watching Tom Cruise, a few weeks ago being interviewed by Matt Lauer on the Today show, talking about psychiatry and how he thought it was a pseudo science and all this. I believe a little bit of that, but I believe heroes are people that have done it before you that are successful.
You want to model success and duplicate results. That’s the reason you have heroes in your life. You see something that they are doing that you would love to emulate, that’s a positive in your life that you know if you could attain, you would be happy.
How you do that is just model what they are doing. You become that much successful in your learning curve. You will get there that much faster. Does that make sense?
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Cameron Johnson: I think young people need someone to look up to. I was able to make a connection, for some strange reason, with business leaders that are 40 and 50 years older than I was.
But I think heroes, whether it is a neighbor or a parent, a local business leader or a sports star or an athlete, I think they are so important because they give young people the drive and ambition to say that, “There is no reason why I can’t do that, also. There is no reason why I can’t be a professional athlete. There is no reason why I can’t be a business star.”
I think they are crucial to young people, and I think if young people had more people to look up to, more positive influences, then they would be that much more successful.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, young people, everyone was young at one time or another. When you hit that flood of hormones, it’s such an interesting time when you have different peer groups based on physical ability, financial wealth, just appearance that everybody gets stuck in a different category.
From my experience of being sick all the time and just being a 99 lb. weakling and one of the smallest kids in the class and being a nerd, it was an incredibly hard time in my life. So, the real Heroes in my time were the people that I read about in books, people that had overcome incredible difficulties and trials and tribulations.
I was so rejected as a kid that I spent most of my time reading books. I loved the stories about average, every day people that became Heroes by doing something that nobody thought they could do. The only way that young people can live lives of Heroism is by modeling their lives after people that are successful, people that have done great things.
If they can find those people in their family or in their neighborhood or church, or at school as a coach or a teacher, or if they don’t have access to that, some of the greatest people they can read their biographies.
They can become Heroes just like they are for you in your secret group of Heroes that you have chosen that are in your dreams, that when you meditate that they are there giving you good advice. I think that if you don’t have real life Heroes in your life that you can find them in books, you can find them in comic books like I did. You can find them virtually everywhere.
Without those examples and those models, they just don’t know what to become. They don’t know how to get there. They don’t have a path charted out. I know for myself, I was just wavering in the wind. I didn’t know which way to go.
A lot of my Heroes were fictional characters and they were good at killing evil invaders from space and horrible creatures and stuff like that, but they didn’t have a way of telling you how to be successful in life.
Unfortunately, in a lot of our Heroes in the comic books these days, there is no black and white, no good and evil any more. A lot of the Heroes that are promoted these days, I would say they are tragic characters because they don’t know what is good and what is evil. They have all these self doubts, but the good thing is that a lot of the time they do the right thing most of the time.
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Sharif Khan: Heroes are so important in the lives of young people because there are not a lot of role models out there. And some of the role models give a very negative impression. So when we see someone in movies or even in school, when we see gang leaders who are profiting from criminal activity and wearing nice clothes and driving a Mercedes, these people have a negative influence on younger people.
I think the younger people really need to see heroes and leaders who are not only making a difference in peoples’ lives but also prospering themselves so they can look to those people as examples and follow in their pursuit. Our children and young ones are going to be the future leaders of tomorrow. So it’s very important to have the right heroes and the right leaders impacting their lives.
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Debra Berg: Without good role models in society, children have no vantage point for how to respond to others or to be good citizens.
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Well, what place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Cameron Johnson: Well, I am religious and I think prayer is so important, because there has to be a higher power that we all look up to. It helps guide us in the tough times and it is very important to me.
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Ralph Zuranski: I pray every day. The first thing that I do in the morning is I go through all my prayers and I pray for just about everybody that I know. It takes about a half an hour to do all that. Then I say the rosary and contemplate just the Stations of the Cross and the Mysteries of the Rosary.
I just think how incredible it is that an entire almost supernatural event changed the way humanity looks at the world and looks at others. I think that the reason I love Christianity is the power that God puts in the lives to cherish every human life and every person no matter what their faith.
Just the commands He has, to love others as ourselves and to lay our lives down for others. It’s beautiful because Christianity doesn’t put individuals at odds with others, even if they don’t believe the same way that they do.
It’s the idea that you love others no matter what. You have to love first and accept their beliefs and walk a mile in their shoes just to find out what they believe. So many people just out of hand reject others, condemn others and want to kill others because they don’t believe the same way they do.
I believe that it’s time for compassion, it’s time for love, and it’s time for being longsuffering. It’s time to look for the reflection of God in the lives of every other person. I don’t care where they live or what they believe. I believe there is humanity in every person. Every person is made in the image and likeness of God and that we need to respect that and cherish that.
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Sharif Khan: The power of prayer has really changed my life a 180 degrees. I believe at the time when I was at a low point in Queens, NY and had nowhere to turn to, if I had not prayed to God and asked for guidance and intervention, I would definitely not be here today; I would have probably been in an alleyway somewhere with a knife stuck in my back or ended up being a criminal. So prayer has been an important and daily part of my life.
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Debra Berg: Prayer is a regular part of my day and is not set aside for just one part of the day or day of the week. I prioritize some meditation and quiet time, even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time at my desk or wherever I am. It makes me more productive and easier to be around.
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Are your goals consistent with your beliefs?
Debra Berg: As I achieve goals, I set new ones, but I work to keep them consistent with my beliefs. If they’re not, I get too focused on the wrong things. So I make adjustments. Otherwise, I simply don’t have the energy to fuel a successful outcome.
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Cameron Johnson: Yes; I like to think so, at least. I try to act on them. I set my goals based on where I want to be and where I believe I should be. I try to act accordingly to get there. So I totally believe that those two things are in line.
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What specific philosophy or philosophies guide your life and decisions?
Debra Berg: I am a Christian and was raised that way. My goal is to put God and others first before any selfish interests. Interestingly enough, when I do, I’m more balanced and focused on my personal mission. It also helps me to remember that I can’t control everything. God has his timing and ways for things to happen. Instead of getting uptight over my personal agenda, I’ve learned to relax.
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Cameron Johnson: Well, I was raised by my parents, who are both entrepreneurs. My dad owns a Ford dealership back home in Roanoke, Virginia, that my great-grandfather started back in 1938. And my mother inherited a very successful business as well, that she sold more than 20 years ago.
But they both raised me on the principle that you have to work for things you want in life, and that nothing is going to be handed to you. That’s what motivated me to get started at an early age, and to choose a career path that is different from the traditional path of graduating from high school, going to college, going to work for a company and moving your way up ten or fifteen years down the road.
So my philosophy has always been to create whatever it is I want, and I work for myself, and that is kind of what I have enjoyed so much, is the instant reward and gratification of working for yourself and motivating yourself to do great things.
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How important is it for you to stay focused on your primary goal?
Cameron Johnson: I think setting goals is the first step in being successful, and in order to reach those goals you have to stay focused, and I think it is the most crucial aspect of succeeding in life; setting one goal in life and then reaching it and setting another goal.
So I believe in short term goals in addition to long term goals. But the short term ones are the ones that help you get through, and I think it is so crucial for you to stay 100% focused all the time.
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Debra Berg: It’s a critical but very challenging skill. It’s so easy to get off on tangents and to think, “Who am I that I think I can actually achieve this huge goal?”
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Who are the heroes in your life?
Robert Channing: The heroes in my life, one that comes to my mind is Reverend Russell Little. He is a gentleman that taught me how to do magic and a little ESP and mind reading when I was a child. I used to walk to school in the morning and pass his house.
He used to use magic in his sermons to get attention, to make people pay attention to the Word of God. He used to make his thumb disappear. He would put sugar in his hand and make it disappear as I was on my way to school.
He’s the one that I had to write a report about, that my teacher gave me in third grade. What did I want to be when I grew up? I didn’t know. I want to be a magician. I went and I did some research, I went right to his house and said...
That’s the key, Ralph, anybody that wants to know what they are doing, don’t be afraid to ask for advice, because people will give it to you. Ask and you shall receive information that you are looking for. Remember to ask.
So that’s what happened, I asked, and he brought me up to this room upstairs, I remember to this day, I walked into his house, up the stairs, and this whole room filled with magic props, magic cool stuff, and my eyes, it was just unbelievable.
He was a mentor of mine. He was someone that I respected. He put a foot in the door when I was leaving his house. Robert, he said, “See my foot?” He opened his door and put his foot in the door and said, “What I just did for you, I put your foot in that door, now it’s your job to open it for yourself.”
From that point forward, I’ve been opening it for the rest of my life. It’s brought me to meet spectacular people. It has brought me all over the world to see different people and different cultures. To do what I wanted to do, perform, entertain, to make a great living performing, and have a great speaker’s bureau and entertainment agency.
The reason that I opened that was I had my second child; I was on the road a lot. I told my wife I need to make some more money not being on the road so I can spend some time eating popcorn with you at home and still make some money.
That’s what I did, I opened a bureau and I book people and at night, when I’m on the road and not at home, I’m still making a decent living and booking people that I respect and admire.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you feel are the real heroes in society today that aren’t getting the recognition they deserve?
Robert Channing: The mothers, the teachers. You and I were speaking before that in a school, the teachers are phenomenal. They are teaching how to have a job, and to go in the world and work for somebody else.
But I think the Heroes program that you are working on now is going to bring a different dimension, a different philosophy to the schools and to kids that don’t work for somebody else.
Although it’s a great opportunity, try to work for yourself and try to grow yourself to rely on yourself. For example, you can rent a lifestyle, meaning you can have a job at IBM making $100,000 a year, have a beautiful home, a BMW, a car, two children and all of a sudden BMW lays you off, I mean, IBM lays you off.
Who are you working for? Now you are scraping, trying to find a job, minimum wage, a lot less than you made. But when you work for yourself, you have investments; you invest in yourself in your mind, and your opportunities.
Meaning real estate, your business meaning when you go out and work, you are being compensated for your own mind, not by working for somebody else to make them a millionaire. Work for yourself to make yourself get ahead in this life. Does that make sense?
Ralph Zuranski: Boy, that’s good advice, that’s what all the other heroes have said. It’s so important to become an entrepreneur and be the captain of your own ship and direct it to where you want to go. Just working for other people, you never will be able to attain the dreams that you have, maybe retiring down in Florida when you get to be 65.
And you forget all the things that you could have done that you wanted to do that you should have done. It’s the difference between having a dream and having a life.
Robert Channing: I agree. Robert Kiyosaki in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I learned this from him by reading his books. Books unlock the secrets of the universe, Ralph, and I know you know this. I teach my children this.
My daughter, I ask her all the time, “Gabrielle, tell your teacher what we talked about!” She says to the teacher all the time, “Books unlock the secrets to the universe.”
They really do, the books, they have studied different subjects. If I have an ailment, I’m not going to go to school to be a doctor to find out how to fix my own ailment. I’m going to go to the top surgeon or top doctor in the world and I’m going to get fixed.
Robert Kiyosaki has studied how to become a successful person by investing in real estate, and investing in yourself.
Here’s the point I wanted to bring across. Even if you have job and you are in the job right now, and you are sitting and working for somebody else, that’s okay. You can be wealthy, and have a comfortable lifestyle.
I think it’s a great lifestyle sometimes Ralph, because my friends are teachers and they make a comfortable living. They have summers off. But also what you want to do with your time off. When you go to work, that’s your time to work but that’s your living.
But when you come home, if you are going to work every day, that’s when you make your life. That’s why Robert Kiyosaki says, that’s when you go out and you find real estate, or you find your business that you can open. You can have the best of both worlds.
I’m not putting down going to work for somebody else because 95% of the people in this country do that. The top 10% of people, entrepreneurs, they are doing for themselves and providing these wonderful experiences and jobs for people.
But you can do both, that’s what I’m saying. I’m not putting them down, I’m giving the opportunity to open your mind that if you work for somebody else on your off time, when you go home instead of watching television or doing something not productive, go and look at a property. Invest in a property, invest in real estate. Study commodities; study how to be a marketing person for internet products. So that’s my point with that.
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Cameron Johnson: The heroes in my life now are people that are very close to me, and of course my dad is a hero to me, and my mom, and my family. But in the business world it is very similar to what I grew up with. Michael Dell and several people in the technology industry serve as my heroes.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know there are a lot of Heroes in my life. There are so many Heroes, just the people that I have met on the Internet that I interviewed as Heroes, like yourself, who are making the world a better place.
I think that both my mom and dad are Heroes, struggling with the difficulties that they have right now with their poor health. I think probably one of the greatest Heroes is my dad, even though he’s pretty much paralyzed on one side.
He’s trapped in diapers, and trapped in a world where he has no control over his life. I’ve never heard him say a negative thing or complain, or get angry at anybody. How embarrassing it must be not to have any personal privacy and to be totally dependent upon others, and not just be upset at that, but be kind and compassionate and accept it. Being able to accept that situation and do it graciously, just having a positive word to say, and having a smile. That’s so incredible.
I truly believe that my wife is my other greatest Hero after my mom and dad, because she is here helping to take care of my parents. She’s changing the diapers, sacrificing her life being here helping my family when her family back in Dallas is going through their own trials and tribulations.
How hard it is for a mom to be away from her grandkids and from her family. Talk about sacrifice, that’s what I really believe sets Heroes apart, serving and protecting others. A lot of times sacrificing what they want to do in their lives for the benefit of others.
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Sharif Khan: My father was a hero. Jim Ross, who I dedicated my book, The Hero Soul, has been a hero to me because he was a teacher and a mentor, a messenger, a carrier of truth. I think the people out there making a difference in peoples’ lives, teachers, coaches, entrepreneurs; I think all those people who are serving people or helping solve problems and showing people how to overcome their own problems are the real heroes; and it’s unfortunate that the media doesn’t pay enough attention, which is why I really like your “In Search of Heroes Program” because it’s really unique.
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Debra Berg: The people I consider heroes today are those I’ve written about in The Power of One. I’m in awe of their sacrifices, generosity, persistence, lack of fear, and concern for others.
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"How do you experience service to others as a source of joy?"
Robert Channing: Oh yes, there’s nothing more than going in and for me, if I can bring it back to my ESP mind reading show, I go in and read people’s minds. I make them laugh, I’m a comedian. One thing that I do is I always surprise my clients with doing more.
When they see my program, my ESP Robert Channing show, motivational talk, I will deliver to them an experience that they will never forget. How I do that, here’s one of the things that I do, Ralph. I’m the only one in the world that does this. I’m known as the world’s foremost mind reader and motivator.
I will mail you a prediction at your event of what three people, including yourself, will be wearing the night of the show. I will mail it out a month in advance; you give me the names that are going to be at your key event. This is the climax of the whole show.
I’ll mail it out; you will hold it in a sealed prediction. I’ll never touch it again. At the end of my show, I’ll say, “Ralph, do you have the envelope that I mailed you a month ago?” “Yes, I do. Robert, I have it right here.”
You are 100 feet away from me. “Ralph, would you stand up a few minutes? Would you hold the envelope up? Ralph, have we pre-arranged anything?” You are going to say no.
Because I give $100,000 away to anybody in the audience who proves that I used stooges, meaning that I planted people from the audience to help me out. I don’t do that. I’ll say, “Ralph, just to prove that, I want more people to randomly stand up in the audience. They are going to randomly stand up, doesn’t matter who they are, four people.”
I’ll also say I also predicted in an envelope what these four people are going to create in their minds as a dream vacation. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a show. It’s entertainment. I’ll say, “Sir, if you were to go anywhere in the world on a dream vacation, where would you like to go?” That person might say Hawaii, or Bermuda, or Tahiti. Whatever it is, I’ll say thank you.
The next person, I’ll say, “Young lady, if you were to go with a special person, give me the name of the person.” They can make a name up, or they can say their husband, wife, or boyfriend. They’ll say John. “Okay, John, terrific!”
Next person, day month and year. “When would you like to go?” “March 28, 2098.” “Fantastic.” “Young lady, how much money would you like to spend? You like to spend money, I can tell.” They will laugh a little bit. She’ll say, “$10 million?” I’ll say, “Make it something really cool up. They will say $10,000,428.67. “Terrific. Ralph, would you open that prediction?”
You open it up and it will say, “Hi, this is Robert Channing. I’m sitting in my office in Hartford, New York in July 21 writing this prediction for Ralph. The conference is coming up in January of 2006. I predict the following to be true. Four people will create a dream vacation. Given this chance, they will select the following.”
And you are reading this, I’ve never touched it. It’s live on the spot. It will say, first person will say Tahiti. The second person is going with John. The day month and year is March 28, 2098 and will cost $10,000,437.67. Whatever they said, people just drop their drawers, jaws. Not their drawers, their jaws! You’ve experienced it at the conference.
Ralph Zuranski: It was incredible. I almost dropped my drawers there.
Robert Channing: And on the back of that, I’d say Ralph, turn the piece of paper over and I predicted what those three names that you have given me, maybe the VIP of the conference, or the medium that I am performing for a corporation or association. They will say, “Jane Reynolds will be wearing a red blouse with polka dots and she will have on gold shoes with a gold ring.”
Whatever it is, I get right to the details. If I don’t get that prediction correct, down to the color of the sock or stripe in the shirt, I give my whole fee to them, my whole paycheck, which is substantial.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s amazing; I don’t know how you do it. I was impressed when you bent that spoon just by running your finger over the top of it. I thought, oh my God; don’t let him near my mother’s silverware.
Robert Channing: That’s funny.
Ralph Zuranski: That is astounding. I’ve never been more impressed with a presentation than your presentation that I saw at Joe’s. It was one of the highlights of my life of being at your presentation. It was incredible and working with you at Joe’s, I ran the computers and photos.
Robert Channing: You did a phenomenal job Ralph; and we became instant friends.
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Cameron Johnson: Yes. I have always enjoyed giving back. I am involved with several non-profit organizations now, and I serve on the board, and I try to give back and donate my time to high schools and other local events that I can try to help at.
I really do get a joy out of it, and one would say since I live such a successful or very busy business life, how could I actually get such a joy donating my time and doing stuff like that. But one of the most rewarding things I do is that I am fortunate that I am successful in business so I can have the time and have the money to be able to give back, and I really appreciate that.
My parents introduced me to that when I was just ten or eleven years old, and I started giving money to our local church. I really got satisfaction out of it.
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Ralph Zuranski: I look at Jesus Christ as the greatest example of laying his life down for people that didn’t deserve it. I pray the Rosary every morning and just think about the Stations of the Cross. I’m just so amazed at what He did for us and so grateful for the great gift of eternal salvation that I look at the suffering and pain that He went through to gain that for us.
Just awestruck, and I’m so amazed to know that there is nothing that I can do to gain eternal salvation. That everything that I do now is basically just in gratitude for the great gift that He has given me. So yes, I do experience service to others as my greatest joy.
I do want to be one of the greatest servants of all because I know that’s the only way that in the afterlife that I can be one of the greatest in the Kingdom.
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Sharif Khan: Yes I do. I sincerely believe the hero’s journey is about following one’s bliss and doing what one loves doing in service to others. That is what really brings the most joy, and that is what really brings the most success as well, because the only way to get what we want is by helping enough people get what they want first.
I’m a big believer in serving. If you want to increase your wealth and influence by ten times, just ask yourself the question, “How can I help ten times as many people as I am helping right now?”
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Debra Berg: Yes. I think people fundamentally enjoy feeling needed and that’s a good feeling. Even when people don’t appreciate the help, I try and remember the bigger picture of why I’m doing it.
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"How important do you think that forgiveness is?"
Robert Channing: Very, very important. That was my second challenge. You asked me before, what was one of my toughest challenges? Well, the company Power Performers, I hired a few people to help me out, top sales people in my industry and I hired consultants to come in and train them in my office.
I respected them. They asked me to be in their weddings, they asked me to be part of their families, and I have generously given to them. Over given. I would buy them lunch every week, almost three or four times a week.
I would take them on trips, give them bonuses, and buy them color televisions because they did so well. What they loved to do was selling entertainment and speaking to celebrities, and I gave them bonuses them because we would have monthly goals, weekly goals, yearly goals, they would hit all the goals.
After three years, they decided to, two of them, I won’t mention their names because I don’t want this to get out, but two of them actually stole all my business. They stole my company and downloaded all my information. They put up a website while they were working for me.
They came in on a Friday afternoon and both gave me their resignation and said, “Bob, we loved working here. Thank you so much for the opportunity. It was the best job that we have ever had but we are going to go work for my father in another industry.”
This other gentleman who was a friend of his left as well. They gave me this big story Ralph. I found out a week later from one of my clients who said, “Did you know, Robert that they have their own website and they are in competition with you?”
At that point I had a 24 page employment agreement that every word in the agreement, Ralph, they went against and they just totally raped and pillaged my company. I was depressed. I was down because these were friends of mine that I lived with for three, three and a half years, every day.
We laughed, we cried. We went through 9/11 together. Different things, one gentleman had eye problems; I went to the hospital to see him. Two weeks before this, the other gentleman was having a baby and I brought gifts to them. You can tell, it hurts me right now talking about it, but that was about a year, a year and a half ago.
Since then, Ralph, my business has tripled. I’ve hired more people, and I’ve learned that these people were planning and plotting against me and I had that faith. I believed in them. I gave. I was blind.
What I learned form that was yes, give, but to leave my eyes open a little bit, to protect myself. Like I said before, when people say I can do something that’s what inspired me to motivate this business, to move higher and further.
I’ve gone further, and it’s going to go further. I’m going to build this so that people who work for me can benefit from the fruits of my labor. I hope that answers that question.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you actually forgive those people for what they did to you?
Robert Channing: I have forgiven them. It’s a challenge, because from day to day I’m in competition with them. Although we are in a lawsuit because my attorneys, friends and mentors said you can forgive them but it’s like, for example, Ralph, if you had a child, or if my child, God forbid, got hit by a drunk driver and was killed, I could forgive the drunk driver.
It would be hard but you have to serve due diligence and justice, so they wouldn’t do it again. That’s the reason for the lawsuit. That’s to hopefully stop them or make them feel…
Ralph Zuranski: What they did was wrong.
Robert Channing: Exactly.
Ralph Zuranski: There are consequences for actions. You always need to stand for the right thing. If people promise and say they are going to do something, they need to be held accountable and you can forgive them for the offenses. But still, they are consequences for actions that don’t have integrity, that’s for sure.
Too many people that should be held accountable are not. I respect that you are doing that, because people that do that, if they continue to do it and nobody calls them to accounting, they just continue on and on. They do it to more and more people, that’s what I’ve found.
Too many people, once they get screwed by somebody they don’t say anything and people that they know wind up getting screwed by that same person. It’s hard to tell the truth about people that aren’t doing their jobs with integrity and honesty which is what the Heroes program is all about.
It’s to show people just from asking hard questions what type of attitude and what type of mind process the people that I recognize as heroes actually have. The neat thing about those heroes is a lot of them experience service to others as a source of joy.
By forgiving, everybody has their own sins that they have committed, if you want to call it that, or the mistakes that they have made that they need to be sern for.
So what you forgive, you can’t expect to be forgiven for some of your things that you have done if you can’t forgive the people who have sinned against you. It’s a double edged sword.
By forgiving, you do two things. You help yourself by forgiving them and you help them, because they need to be forgiven too. You have to forgive yourself for things that you have done.
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Were you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dream?
Robert Channing: Oh, sure, Ralph. I remember when I was getting out of high school, my father told me, “Why do you want to make a career out of this? Go out and get a real job!” I understand that he came from a narrow minded search, because that’s how he was brought up. He was brought up to go to work, work hard, come home and feed his family and provide.
I thought to myself, I was working, in the summertime I worked at a drapery company in Newport called Reynolds Draperies. They are still there. They service all the east coast for stage and scenery curtains.
I was working there. I probably earned $150 a week and I probably worked 50 hours. I would go out and do a show and earn $150 for a 45 minute show and I would say to myself, “Why would I work 50 hours a week if I could just do a show?”
That was my dream, that was what juiced me too was saying, “This is my passion. This is my dream.” No matter what, if anybody said stop to me, it gave me more juice to keep moving. I’m the type of person if someone says you can’t do it, I want to do it even more. I love it, I like when people say it to me.
I guess it was the way I was brought up. My mother was always supportive, my father was always trying, he was a supporter, but he tore me down a little bit, and I think that was a good thing. That’s what created who I am today.
So, you are going to have times that people knock you down. You are going to have it during the day and during the nighttime. You are going to have it when you are on the road, you are tired, you are exhausted, and you don’t want it to happen.
At that point, you have to look at yourself and say, you know what, here are my goals, and read them every day. Write them down. Put them in front of you, put them on the mirror.
Read them before you go to bed, when you wake up in the morning. At lunchtime, when you are just relaxing, you are going to feed your subconscious mind the direction you want to go in.
It’s going to move you. Ralph, you and I spoke before about the four principles that you went over, how the mind works. The mind works on what you concentrate the most on. You will get that in your life. So if you can plant positive seeds and positive emotions, you will reap those.
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Cameron Johnson: Sure. I think no one appreciates or no one likes discomfort, but it is necessary, and it happens to all of us. There is nothing we can do about it but to accept it and to deal with it and continue pursuing our dreams, whatever they may be.
We have to understand that it is not, we are not going to be floating on cloud nine all the time, or floating in the clouds. I think we have to be able to experience discomfort and move on, and deal with whatever the problem or issue it is. Then go from there.
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Ralph: Zuranski: I was and it seems that I’ve been ten years ahead of my time as far as researching health at the age of 13, and telling people about vitamins and exercise. I’ve been there just trying to get people to realize that Heroes are our moms and dads and people around us.
It seems that a lot of the time people aren’t interested in your dream because they’ve got their own dreams. It’s hard to get people to realize that you’ve got a dream, and you are trying to do things. Most people seem so wrapped up in sex, drugs and material possessions and personal power.
Just having what society says they should have makes them happy that they see on television and all the advertisements. It’s so frustrating sometimes just to realize that most people don’t share your dream and that you just have to continue on with your dream and never give up.
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Sharif Khan: Yes. That is something that is necessary because it takes a lot of hard work and effort. Nothing really comes easy. Anything worthy of great achievement requires hard work, effort, persistence, and perseverance.
Sometimes things don’t work out the way we expect, but if we let those things bring us down then we’re not able to move forward. For example, in the book publishing world, only 5 % are making it, and 95% aren’t. The reason is the 95% give up within the first year or two, and so it requires continual effort and continual perseverance.
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Debra Berg: Success is seldom easy or convenient for most people. In my case, I gave up large amounts of personal time and, in the pursuit of the interviews I did for the book, found myself in a couple of scary situations. In one case, I was in LA at night and had a flat tire just at the time a gang came through the parking lot. Were it not for a helpful stranger (I often refer to as “the angel”), I’m not sure what might have happened. I also left my job to write the book for a year and I invested considerable resources out of my retirement fund to make the research and book a reality.
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Everybody has doubts and fears. It seems that’s an inevitable part of life. How do you overcome your doubts and fears?
Robert Channing: Also I have a confident in my wife. I ask her some things and she is my psychiatrist/psychologist sometimes. I have friends like you. I have mentors, peers and coaches. Also, I go inside myself, because education means you learn from the outside, but you bring it in. You translate it and it comes out of yourself as a process.
So, by learning to be with myself, to pray, to ask God to take my concerns, my heartaches, my wishes and give them to Him, that’s the release process that you have to do. It comes back to you, just pray and have faith. Does that make sense?
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Cameron Johnson: Well, I try to use the same principle that I just shared; I don’t really think about it and try to second guess it. When I was in college at Virginia Tech, I started an Internet company called CertificateSwap.com, and I took my second semester off of college to go out and raise ten million dollars in venture capital.
We were subsequently offered ten million in capital, but I actually turned the offer down, and we ended up selling the company instead.
Now that offer, had we accepted it, we might have grown into a hundred million dollar company, and it could have been one of the biggest or stupidest decisions I’ve ever made. But I still don’t question the decision and I have moved on with it.
I still to this day think we made the right decision to sell the company. So I am able to overcome doubts and fears just by accepting and, like we were talking about earlier, trusting my intuition.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, that is rare for most people to do that. A lot of people are afraid to trust their intuition.
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Ralph Zuranski: That’s a daily effort to overcome doubts and fears. Every day I wake up, I have both doubts and fears. I have doubts about what I’m doing, if it’s ever going to become successful, whether I will be able to do this full time, or whether it will generate enough income so I can give the program life and have it go to every community. It takes money to be able to do that. It’s hard to generate income when not everybody has accepted your dream as ready to be supported.
Fear, everybody has fear. Fears are things you perceive that aren’t real. I think that people that are really true to what’s going on realize that those fears are something that are part of every day life and every body has them.
The most important thing you can do is do the things that help you over come fear. Do those things that you do fear. There is a certain aspect to that you can fear a rattlesnake. Fear is good to a certain point, but the idea of fear of failure and fear of loss and fear of rejection, those are things that everybody experiences. Those are things that you have to take a positive view and just think, “I’m going to do this because it is part of attaining my dream.”
I know that a lot of times that it’s not personal when people reject me, when the things I hope will happen don’t happen. It’s just a part of learning how the way things work. It’s like Thomas Edison, how many times he tried to find a way that worked, to create a light bulb. He did it thousands and thousands of times.
I think that as you continue on, ultimately you build a momentum and you start doing small things better. You start doing things right and associate with people that are doing the right things and you learn from them and they become your mentors. They teach you the right ways to do it. Your fears diminish because you have greater success in doing things the right way.
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Sharif Khan: One of the ways I’m able to overcome my doubts and fears is using a technique which I learned from Tony Robbins, where I conditioned myself to feel pain whenever doubts and fears entered my mind.
I put a rubber band around my wrist and every time I had a little inkling of doubt or fear of the little voice saying, “Sharif you can’t do this,” I just snapped that rubber band and it produced pain. There are two things that motivate human behavior: the desire to gain pleasure or the desire to avoid pain; the desire to look good or avoid looking bad.
Another way of overcoming my doubts and fears is having a vision for myself of the future and where I expect to be. This would actually be a really good exercise that anyone could do: on a single sheet of paper in the present tense, write down where you want to be ten years from now.
What type of an income level would you want to be making? How would you be perceived and treated? What type of clothing would you be wearing? What type of lifestyle would you be living? Write it all down and then start being that person right now. Start commanding that presence right now and you will attract the circumstances and the people in your life to be able to accomplish that vision. Those are the two ways that I overcome my doubts and fears.
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Debra Berg: I still work at this. Mostly, I overcome them with action. Long ago I learned the adage “action cures fear.” Whenever I feel paralyzed by something, I take some type of action. It may not be the best action, but any action is better than doing nothing and fretting over something you have little control over.
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Is it important to take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Robert Channing: They are like a ship without a rudder. If they don’t have a rudder, they are just going to wash up upon the shore or the rocks. If you have a rudder, you can steer your ship. You can steer your way through the seas and as you coast along, the winds blowing your sail, you have learned to work for that. Then you are going to get into some rough waters again and you steer your way through there.
Ralph Zuranski: I absolutely agree. I’m just listening to Earl Nightingale in The Strangest Secret of the Mind of Man. That’s what he says, 95% of all the people who strive when they are young to become a success end up failures because they never set any goals. They are not working for anything or in any direction.
Robert Channing: It definitely is. Believe me; even the most positive person in the world has their setbacks. You can be a positive thinker but you have to take control. You have to say to yourself, you need time to grieve if something happens.
I forget the steps in the grieving process, but you need to get back off the floor. If you get knocked down, you’re into martial arts, Ralph, and I have been too. When you get knocked down, you need to pop back up.
It’s going to take some time after you get the wind knocked out of you to get back up, but the reason you have to get back up is if you don’t, you stay down. You’re going to lose.
Don’t ever give up. Always get back up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward. You will get ahead, you will. You will learn. You will take the bumps and bruises.
Just study as well. Keep the positive, motivational talking coming through your mind. All the videos and audio courses that I have taken in the country meaning like Dreams Don’t Have Deadlines by Mark Victor Hansen, has a great audio course. Where you are reading right now and listening to Ralph now, is phenomenal as well. "Think and Grow Rich."
There’s a lot of information that you need to keep filling your mind with, and the top 1% of the country, the people who are top in their field keep trying to get better, better and better. CANEI, Tony Robbins says the acronym for CANEI is Constant and Never Ending Improvement. You just have keep working and moving ahead.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know that is so true. A lot of times I sit down, I wake up in the morning and sit down at my computer and just think, gee, how many new software programs do I have to learn today?
It’s hard to do it. Sometimes you just don’t feel like doing it. I know that you probably agree with this, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to pursue new ideas. What do you think about that?
Robert Channing: I agree. I would say there is another way to look at it. I get excited about new ideas. I’m excited, I know we spoke before this interview about a marketing plan that I’m working on. I’m so excited about it. I think that if you work up that fire in your belly and the excitement about it, it is challenging. You get a little afraid sometimes.
But once you get into it and you see it starting to work and the fruit comes off the trees that you planted, that’s what makes me move. That gives me juice, Ralph. It makes me feel like what I’m doing is working.
But also, Ralph, I study the top people in their industry. If I know someone in marketing, if I have to learn marketing, I will go and find the best marketing people in the world. I’ll call them up and go to their conferences, just like you do, Ralph. That’s what we are doing right now on the phone.
If I need to know something in the medical industry, well, you just told me today a few doctors that could help me out with some blood pressure problems that I have. So I’m going to go and search them, and track them down, the top 1%.
So always strive to find the answers from the top in their field. You don’t want to learn from someone that’s just starting out, although you can learn by their mistakes. You want to take that learning curve and cut it in half, if not more and learn from the top people that have been studying all their life. Would you agree?
Ralph Zuranski: I know that you have done a lot of different things in your life. A lot of the time it’s very uncomfortable to pursue your dreams because of people in your peer group, your life and even in your family that don’t want you to change.
They don’t want you to make transformational decisions in your life that may leave them behind.
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Cameron Johnson: Definitely. I have always tried to learn from my mistakes or learn as I go along, and each of my businesses has built on the previous business. So each business is a little bit bigger than the previous business and that is just because I have learned as I have gone along.
If you make a mistake, that is okay. But to make the same mistake twice, there is really no excuse for it. So I have always tried to learn from my mistakes and to always move forward.
A setback is just something that slows you down; it is not something that is supposed to turn you away or tells you to quit trying or quit following your dreams. So, definitely.
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Ralph Zuranski: No, I don’t always do that. I know I should, but having suffered with depression for so many years it seems that every day I am always battling fear, doubts, thoughts of mistakes that I’ve made, the misfortunes that I’ve had, and the setbacks that I have had are almost paralyzing. It’s just incredible.
The only thing that I found that can help me do that is by using a rubber band on the wrist and snapping myself big time. The other thing is praying to God and asking Him to remove those. I see those as temptations from satan that is trying to destroy my path and doing the work that God set out for me.
Sharif Khan: Absolutely! I think it was Mr. Thomas Watson Sr., founder of IBM, who said, “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.” So failures and setbacks and mistakes are stepping stones towards greater and greater success. We need to ask ourselves: “What can we learn from this experience? How can we grow from this experience?” Because nothing really is a failure; everything is a learning experience.
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Debra Berg: No one likes to think that they can make a mistake, even the most humble of us. It’s easy to get your ego tied up in whether you’re right or why something failed. What I make a point of doing is to remind myself that I’m a spiritual being have a human experience and that I can’t always make perfect decisions. I work to forgive myself first, then others, and then make any necessary course corrections before going on.
What is your dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
Robert Channing: My dream and vision that sets the course of my life would be to create, plant seeds, grow trees that I could shade my family and friends with when I pass on. So they can live off the fruits of my labor.
Also to provide information and success and knowledge to people like you are doing. That’s why I’m on the line with you as well, is for the people that struggle all their life, not knowing where they want to go.
I’ve performed for hundreds of colleges a year. People come up to me after my program and always say, “What do you see in my future? What should I do with my life?”
Tony Robbins always says, “If you don’t know, pretend that you do know.” What would you do? And most people will come up with the answer. At that point, that’s the toughest part in the world is trying to find out what you want to do with your life. Once you know, you can plan your course of action.
So, by planting those seeds in these students’ minds or the minds of people that are listening today, it’s probably one of the toughest questions. Wouldn’t you agree, Ralph? What do you want to do with your life?
Ralph Zuranski: You know, I do have a dream or vision and that vision is to make the world a better place, especially for young people. I know my childhood, teenage and college years were so miserable because I didn’t know why I was so depressed, and why I had so many health problems and I was sick all the time.
I was plagued with one problem after another problem. It had to do with my mindset, as far as what my thoughts were and just my health problems. So I spent the last 30 years researching why I felt so bad and what was wrong with me.
I finally found out at the age of 13 when I started taking vitamins and working out. I went from being a C and a D student to an A student almost overnight. I got a scholarship to Catholic high school. It was at 13 that I dedicated my life to the study of health and human awareness, and trying to discover what are the ultimate limits of human performance in all areas.
It took me 30 more years of studying alternative medicine and learning about all the great leaders in alternative medicine that it created incredible therapies that helped people overcome all the types of diseases and health problems that I was suffering from.
My dream and my vision is the “In Search of Heroes™” program, to share that health knowledge and share the mental processes that people have that will help them become such great successes, a lot of times over unbelievable odds, even like you.
When you are addicted to alcohol it’s basically self suicide or making a change in your life. My goal is to help people realize how they too can be Heroes in their own life and make a real difference in the lives of others within their life and within the society.
Sharif Khan: Absolutely. My vision is to inspire the world and make a positive difference in peoples’ lives. To help create a global culture of heroes and responsible citizens dedicated to promoting peace and prosperity in the world. That is a vision that’s larger than life. It gets me going and energizes me whether I’m having a good day or bad day; it gets me up every morning and allows me to stretch and grow.
Do you follow your hunches and intuition?
Debra Berg: I usually do because the hunches are almost always right. It’s the “noise” of other’s opinions or multi-tasking life priorities that sometimes gets in the way of listening to yourself…some might call it intuition. But the older I get, the more I heed it and it’s served me well. Sometimes it’s also a matter of one door closing and another opening.
Cameron Johnson: Yes. You can say I am guilty or one of the best people at following hunches and intuition. But when I believe in something, I totally act on it right away. Of course, I go through and do the necessary research and due diligence. But I very much act on my intuition.
Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend, and oppose you?
Cameron Johnson: Yes. I try to be very good about forgiving people. I always like to think that I might remember things and look at a person differently, but I forgive them for whatever actions or words or anything else that they say or do to me.
I think it is important that we forgive, because we are all going to have bad days, we’re all going to make mistakes. So I think we have to be able to be quick to forgive. But not necessarily quick to forget, you know?
Ralph Zuranski: Well, again, what you have to realize is that, what you said earlier, the consequences of their actions and their personal integrity. They are providing service to their client, realizing that you only succeed to the level of quality of your products and your service to your customers. The greater the service, the greater the quality, the greater your success.
When people strive to spread evil or not spread good, that has its own consequences because it’s their thought process. If you have negative thoughts, it’s going to ultimately generate negative in your life and it’s the seeds that you sow.
Negative thoughts, negative actions will always reap a horrible harvest somewhere down the line. Positive thoughts and positive action, you get rewards but it might not be from the source where you actually did those positive things.
But the universe is impeccable, it never fails and good will always be rewarded with good, somewhere down the line or maybe immediately. Evil will always be rewarded with evil; it’s an exponential type thing.
I would like to say that I do but it’s easy to hold on to hurts and people that oppose you all the time, especially when they are in your family and a lot of times, it’s on a daily basis. It’s so hard to be forgiving and forgive people instantly and just not hold grudges. I know I really find that in my relationship with my wife…
Sharif: Your wife is your life!
She is my life. I think everybody has battles in their marriage. Satan is always warring against the marriage and the family, because it’s the foundation of our spiritual life and society. There are so many things at war against marriage and doing the right thing. Loving your wife as if she were your own body and not harming her in any way.
It’s so easy when you have all these things going on; financial problems, health problems, just all the things that can go wrong and do go wrong. Everybody tends to hold the people they love the most responsible and just blame them.
I do my best. I would love to say I forgive people instantly but thank God for the rubber band! Snapping my wrist, it’s better to give myself pain than to give others pain.
Robert Channing: I agree. It just came to my mind that when I was a child, when people got mad at my mother, when people had something against her for some goofy reason, or somebody said something, she would always wave to them. She would always say hi. She would always have a kind word to them. My mother, I call her a saint, she was phenomenal, and she still is. She always does well.
And that’s what I’ve learned to do, even when these people are trying to tear me down in some way, I’ve always come back by being nice to them and have a kind word for them. Even though, in the back of my mind, I’m like, I’d really like to do something.
But by forgiving them and having peace with yourself, you’re actually helping yourself as well as them. Because they don’t have anything to go back on, they can’t keep their momentum going with trying to get feed off of your emotions. Just let it go and keep working with it.
But what I learned from that experience is to keep moving ahead. I became stronger from that, and I got into Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It says; don’t ever mind what they’re thinking, because they don’t know what you can do. You only know what you can do.
Don’t mind the people that are pulling you down or are trying to. Just ignore them and have your own schedule of events. Schedule your time. Schedule your goals, what you want to do in this life.
They can pull at you all you want, but at the end of that, if you draw a line from here and 100 yards from now and saying that’s the end of your goal, in between you are going to have all the obstacles. But remember; keep your eye on the target, at the end, because you will get there. It makes it easier.
Sharif Khan: It is absolutely critical to be able to forgive people that have offended or harmed us in any way. It’s a very difficult thing to do, but if we really think about it, harvesting the anger and hatred inside against the other person is not doing anything for that person.
It’s only harming us and creating toxins and bad energies in our bodies which is going to ruin our health. I think there was some study where they said that even ten minutes of feeling angry had enough toxins in the blood to kill a guinea pig.
Can you imagine half an hour or an hour or many years of feeling anger and hatred to somebody and what kind of damage that can do to our health and mental well being? So it’s very important to forgive others and be able to let go and move on.
Debra Berg: I try to. It’s not always easy, but if I don’t forgive, I find that I waste too much time fretting over the situation. Replaying offenses takes away from the energy I need to do important things.
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When was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life path to win a victory over obstacles?
Robert Channing: The lowest point in my life? You know what? I’m an optimist. There were two low points in my life. One was when I became a professional entertainer, and I was very optimistic. I studied all the best people in the world, and then I performed my show and I had another gentleman that was jealous.
I was probably only about 18 years old and this gentleman was 36. I was in the same market that he was in. He would try to shut me down and put me down, because he saw how strong I was when I was performing. People were attracted to me and they loved what I did.
It was the same type of mentalism that he did. Although it was different, it was my personality and he had a different personality. He was jealous. Actually, it hurt me. My own true feelings, I didn’t want anyone to feel bad about me. I didn’t want anybody to look down and say this guy was bad, or this guy is doing something wrong.
I almost felt guilty because I was doing so well for myself that people become jealous of what I’ve done. Ralph, have you ever dealt with that before? Have you done so well that people get jealous? How do you deal with those people?
Cameron Johnson: This question is kind of unique, because I am only 22 years old, and have lived only a very small portion of my life. I have yet to experience some of the many things many people would cite as the low point in their lives, whether it is family issues, wife, kids; whatever the case. Health.
I have been very fortunate that my family is very healthy and I have been very healthy, and my siblings and parents, and I pray that that continues. But I really don’t know I could say what the lowest point is. I am very fortunate. I am glad I could answer that question that way, though.
Ralph Zuranski: My lowest life point was after I turned away from God in high school. I went to a Catholic high school, and there were no girls there. Most of the time, I just thought about girls and sex. It was right about the time that Playboy came out.
I started taking vitamins and working out when I was 13 and that completely changed my life. It actually started my path from being a 99 lb. weakling to becoming a muscle bound anomaly in the universe. I was your typical nerd with a big nose, horn rimmed glasses, and plastic pen carrier, but I had muscles.
When I started taking vitamins and working out I suddenly had this huge surge of testosterone. So I was thinking, “I have to get a date! I have to go out with girls! I’ve got to find a girlfriend! I’ve got to have sex!”
So that was in direct opposition to what I had learned in Catholic school as far as being a virgin until marriage. So I went to UCSD which is sort of a revolutionary college. It had a lot of communist on the staff. You had to take a socialist program, Humanities, that talked about the reason why you were screwed up is that you needed to rebel and you need to get involved in mind expanding drugs and sex.
Just to rebel against what your parents told you and what society was telling you. It was the time of the Vietnam War and so I was disillusioned with what was going on and so I figured, “The reason why I’m screwed up is because I’m not having enough sex, drugs and rock and roll!”
Sharif Khan: As a very young child I grew up with a lot of racial hatred and prejudice because of the color of my skin and being a South Asian. I grew up with a lot of low self-esteem and low self-worth, and carried it all through my young adulthood. There was a tragic time in my life when my father passed away when I was 18 while I was going to high school in the States at that time.
That was a devastating experience for me because my father was my best friend and a beacon of light and hope for me, and he encouraged me to excel and be the best I can be. When my father passed away in a car accident, I fell in to a spiral of deep depression.
Because of my low self-esteem and low sense of self-worth, I didn’t see any way out and I was immersed in darkness and didn’t know where to turn. At the time, my father didn’t have any life or car insurance. I had to pay my way for my last year of high school (a private boarding school).
I ended up corking and uncorking blood specimen test tubes, working in a lab, and separating urine and stool samples all day long. Not the most exciting summer job for a student. Within a very short period of time, I became an alcoholic at 18 and I was passed out drunk on the streets of Queens, NY and on the subways and didn’t have a hope in the world.
That was the lowest point in my life and also a turning point in my life, because that was a point I decided. I knew where I was heading and I didn’t want to end up like another statistic. I wanted to get myself out of that situation. For me personally, it was turning to God. Letting go and letting God and saying, “Let Your will be done. I need Your help and guidance.” And God intervened in my life. That was an incredible turning point in my life and turning to faith and the Higher Power in me was what gave me strength and got me out of that situation.
Debra Berg: The ending of my first marriage of 17 years was my lowest point. At the time, I was running a business with lots of responsibility to others. And I was a role model to a number of people. It was hard not letting my personal life and struggles get in the way of being there for them. I
learned from the experience and went on to acquire a whole new career, which involved a steep learning curve in the computer industry. If I had not learned those skills, I would not have been able to produce my book the way I did nor earn a good income in the software industry. While I was single for 10 years, I had the time to do the research for my book and to take care of an ailing parent. I also met my new husband.
What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
Ralph Zuranski: I think, like you, that I’m willing to sacrifice my life for those who I love and I’m willing to sacrifice my life for freedom. If there’s an opportunity to sacrifice your life, to lay your life down for somebody that you don’t know, I think that I would be willing to do that because I trust in God.
I know that by living my life and trusting in Him and searching for what it is that He wants me to do, that if there is a situation where I had to sacrifice my life to save even one person, that I would actually do that because I know it’s a part of God’s plan.
Rather than trying to figure out from day to day just having the positive attitude which I think is important, I just trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all my ways and know that He will direct my paths.
My paths are completely different from His, and it takes a lot of faith each day to wake up and having no idea what God wants you to do. But just living from moment to moment and allowing Him to guide you with events that occur completely out of the view of what you had going on in your own mind of where you want to go, and doing it willingly, gratefully and thankfully.
A lot of times you don’t really want to do, but thanking God for that, and knowing that you are serving a greater purpose rather than serving yourself.
Sharif Khan: FREEDOM! Freedom is worth sacrificing my life for. Freedom to live our dreams, freedom to imagine, to hope and prosper from doing what we love doing, that is worth giving up our lives for. In North America, we do have economic freedom and political freedom, but that is not normal. We are blessed and privileged because more than half the world does not have the same opportunities.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, it’s funny that you’d say that about the 90% doing good and the 10%. One of the heroes that I interviewed is Gregory Allen Williams. He’s the black cop on Baywatch; he actually saved a man’s life during the L.A. riots. He said there is a little bit of bad in the best of us, and a little bit of good in the worst of us.
When anybody steps up to help someone, they too can be a hero at that moment in time. So he was willing basically to sacrifice his life if he had to, to help others that were in difficulty during the LA riots. What do you think are the principles that you are willing to sacrifice your life for?
Robert Channing: The principles that I’m willing to sacrifice my life for? I’ve been struggling with that. Only because I give so much; I give, I give, and I give, Ralph. It seems a lot of the time that it doesn’t come back to me by the people I give to.
I’ve learned that you should not ask for it back. Or expect it back from the people you give it to, although you would love to have that back. I’ve learned from studying different books and the Bible as well is that if you give it to someone; don’t expect it back from them.
It will come from somewhere else. It could come from a baby’s smile that you just had, a newborn baby of yours. It could come from, someone gave you a kind word on a plane or a smile or a thank you. Maybe you just won the lottery, you don’t know. But it’s going to come somewhere else.
Cameron Johnson: The principles that are of the most interest to me are helping others. Right now with this new book I have coming out I want to help young people and parents and the education system and everything, and also America, just improve and become better.
Financial literacy is something that is very, very much of interest to me, and one of the founding principles of my book is teaching financial literacy in the school systems, because they don’t do that.
They don’t teach it in high school; they don’t teach financial literacy in college unless you’re really in a business school or business classes.
I think that is so important, because debt is at an all-time high across America and the average college student graduates with more than $20,000 in just student loans, not to mention their credit card debt as well.
So I think those are some hot topics that need to be discussed more and need to be shared, and that is one of the reasons I wrote this book.
Debra Berg:Both my faith and the safety and health of my family are the things that I’m willing to sacrifice for.
What is your perspective on goodness, ethics, and moral behavior?
Robert Channing: I know everybody has struggled with that. I have. I would say that I’m 90% ethical and moral. There’s that 10% where sometimes you get tempted by money or greed or temptation of any kind.
Sex, drugs, rock and roll, whatever you want to call it. I think my integrity is up there with the top people in the world.
I think integrity is very, very important. If you cheat someone, you are cheating yourself. It’s a multiple effect. If you want to track that in business, if you do something well for someone, I’ve heard this, they are going to go out and maybe tell one or two people.
But if you would hurt them in any way, or take advantage of them, it’s going to multiply over 100 times backwards. You can track that as well, Ralph.
A friend of mine, Scott Holm that I hired as a business coach taught me that and we tracked it one day. It’s better to do well than it is to do badly. I’ve learned that all my life, you learn by trial and error as well. I think integrity is the number one pursuit of happiness in a balanced life.
Cameron Johnson: Well, I think being in the business world, especially after the Xeroxes, Anderson Consulting, and WorldComs of the world, I think business ethics and business morals have never been more important than they are today.
They are now teaching them in schools, whereas ten years ago they never even thought they would have to teach these classes, because they just assumed people knew these things.
But after the exploits of those companies, it has become such a hot topic, and I think business ethics are just the ability to run a successful business and to go home each night and sleep peacefully. I have always said that, and I believe it is the cornerstone and foundation for which successful businesses were built, were business ethics and strong morals.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s a good question. That’s a hard one, because there is a spiritual aspect to that which is so great. I think it has a lot to do with what type of faith a person has. That determines a lot what their ethics are and what they consider is moral behavior.
As a Christian Catholic, I read the Bible a lot and I basically follow the teachings of Jesus, as far as laying down your life for others and doing good to others. My favorite quote is, “How do you turn evil to good?” By loving your enemies and doing good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and praying for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. I think that’s the only way that you can really turn evil to good, is by providing good first, rather than by returning evil for evil.
Sharif Khan: I think that in every culture and every faith, of all the great teachers, that was the idea, the Golden Rule of doing good to others as you would have them do unto you. Doing it first, rather than expecting the world to do good to you first. It’s like priming the pump, you have to give first. You have to put something into the system before you will ever get something out of it.
That’s a very important question. We need to be able to ask ourselves, in business or in life, “Is it going to be a win-win situation for everyone involved? Is it going to harm anyone?” If it’s going to harm other people or negatively influence and impact other people around us then we should not pursue that avenue.
It simply comes down to: are we positively impacting other people, are we making a difference, and is it in line with our vision. A lot of people yield to the greed factor and try taking short cuts for immediate gain without consideration of others which leads to lots of problems.
Debra Berg: All of these are critical for a successful working society. Without the greater majority of citizens taking values and ethics seriously, our society would crumble. We’re in danger of this happening without people, like yourself, making a statement about their importance.
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What is your definition of heroism?
Robert Channing: I just spoke to my wife about that this morning; because I told her I was going to be on the line with you, Ralph. She said, and we agreed, it’s the people that make a difference in one person’s life.
If I can make a difference in my neighbor’s life that morning or that afternoon, maybe once a day and bring somebody up that’s been down or helped somebody, like I know you are doing with your family, that’s a hero.
To me, if I can change one life, I don’t know who quoted this before, but it’s a quote from somewhere. If you can change one person’s life, and make them happy, make them feel better about themselves or help them in any other way, you’ve actually helped humanity itself. That’s my definition of heroism.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so true.
Robert Channing: Helping one person at a time.
Ralph Zuranski: I totally agree. Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s problems when you were young?
Robert Channing: Yes, I did. Well, God was my hero. I was brought up Catholic. I was an altar boy for 11 years.
Ralph Zuranski: So was I.
Robert Channing: I remember sitting in a small church. I came from a little town called Newport, New York. There were probably around three people in our little town, one blinking light, one Catholic Church and one Methodist church.
I remember doing my services in the evening, the Stations of the Cross. There were maybe like five or six people in the church. I’d be there myself before the mass would start. I’d be there, present with a Being and that’s what I believed that yes, there is a God, there is some Higher Power.
I think that by being by myself in that big open church and just thinking and being open to thoughts in the Universe and to God, is what opened my mind to reality and what I could do. I can’t describe it any more than that, it was just a feeling that I had come over me.
Ralph Zuranski: My definition of Heroism is similar to yours. It’s somebody that serves and protects, somebody that sacrifices their life in a way that enriches the people in their own family as individuals, or groups of individuals.
You look at some of the great spiritual leaders like Gandhi or Mother Teresa, or John Paul, the pope who just recently died. Those people gave up their own personal sacrifice of wealth, material possessions and fame to serve others.
I firmly believe just as you do, that it’s those people who serve and protect those in their community, that make a great sacrifice to make a difference, a positive difference in the lives of other people. They are continually working to make the world and other people’s lives better, the best that they possibly can by actually giving action on their part and showing that it’s not “do as I say” but “do as I do”.
Sharif Khan: It stems from the original word ‘hero’ which comes from the Greek roots servos and heros, which means to serve and protect. So self-sacrifice for the higher good and betterment of humanity is at the heart of being a hero. And what that implies is that the seeds of greatness lie within us all because we all have that innate capacity to serve. Martin Luther King said it best: “Everyone can be great, because anyone can serve. You don’t have to have college degree to serve. You don’t even have to make your subject and verb agree to serve…You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Debra Berg: Doing what most people won’t do to help others because of difficult decisions that need to be made or obstacles that have to be overcome.
Cameron Johnson: I think a hero is someone who helps others and gives back. I think that is the simplest definition that I can give you. I know there have been so many heroes in my life that have served as mentors to me in the business world.
They have guided me along, and anytime I have ever asked anyone for advice, I have always been greeted with open arms and have been able to get great advice. A lot of those people have turned out to be my mentors, and a lot of my success is thanks to their credit.
So, I think those are the true heroes, those that give back more than they take from life. I think that is the definition of hero to me.
Robert Channing is one of the most amazing people that I have ever met. I met him at Joe Vitale’s seminar Spiritual Marketing Super Summit. He had coordinated the entire seminar, complete with the speakers and virtually everything that you could possibly imagine that goes with a seminar - maintenance and just creation.
Robert also is one of the most impressive people that I have ever seen, using his mind to bend spoons, to remember things and to know what people are thinking. It was incredible. I’ve never been more blown away by somebody’s presentation than Robert’s when he did a special presentation at Joe’s seminar. So Robert, how are you doing today?
Robert Channing: I’m doing phenomenal, Ralph, and thank you very much for inviting me on this. I’m very honored and I really appreciate you having me on today.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, your company is called the Power Performers and I know that you work a lot with scheduling movie stars, business leaders and some of the most important people in the world today to speak at conventions and events. Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about your company.
Robert Channing: Power Performers was created around nine years ago. How it came to fruition is I have been a performer since I was five years old. I started studying magic, mind reading, ESP and hypnosis. I studied with David Copperfield, Harry Blackstone Jr., some of the top mentalists and magicians in the world. I learned by actually watching them do what they do.
I learned from the best and I learned from the worst. I made it my life’s goal to be a performer, to be a mentalist, a mind reader, ESP motivational person. I studied Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
The first book I ever read on motivation was by Glen Bland. It was called the Glen Bland Method for Success. It just taught me how you can change your life. You draw a line in the sand and by just taking that step over; you can change your life by changing your attitude and your strategies with your mind.
When I was a child, Ralph, I learned how to do magic tricks and it brought attention to me. I didn’t have that; I didn’t crave that. My mother was fantastic, my father worked all the time and I never saw him. He was a great guy, never made a lot of money but I never knew that. I was a happy guy who played Army and Cowboys and Indians.
But as I grew older, I was into sports, and I was always into magic, how the mind worked and I became an entertainer. I performed at birthday parties for $15. For my first birthday party when I was 11 years old I performed for $15 and I learned I could make money doing it and people loved what I did.
Then I began to performing all over the world. I performed for different Presidents. I performed for corporations and for a lot of colleges and organizations. At that point, the people at the organization said to me, “Hey, Bob. Your mind reading ESP show is phenomenal. Do you have anybody else that can entertain at our event or speak?”
At that point, I said, “I have a friend of mine that can do human calculations. I have another friend of mine who is a rock star, Alice Cooper. He can come in and talk about, for colleges, drug awareness. He can perform.” Then I created the company Power Performers. So that was my unique selling proposition.
These were powerful people but are the best in their industry, just like you are doing, Ralph. You’re interviewing the heroes in different industries that are the best at what they do, the top 1%. And that’s what I did.
I created the speaker’s bureau, or an entertainment agency which is both. I promote the top speakers, entertainers, sports stars, and business leaders in the world to corporations, associations, colleges, private functions and organizations throughout the country. So hopefully that answers your question.
Ralph Zuranski: What is the dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
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Cameron Johnson: My dream is to remove all obstacles and become as successful as I can be, but along the way helping plenty of other people find their dreams and goals, no matter what that is; whether it is in the business world or any other facet of life. But that is kind of my dream and what I am focused on for my life.
Debra Berg: My vision is to create a broad awareness of America’s civic entrepreneurs and what they contribute. These people are altruistic, innovative citizens who have sacrificed much to create successful solutions to major social problems. My ultimate goal is to create an American Institute for Civic Entrepreneurs where these people can share their knowledge with their counterparts in other cities who are working on the same social issues. It will also be a place where they can acquire additional fundraising and promotional skills for their ideas.
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Click on each name to listen to the heroes interviews of Sharif Khan, Author of "The Psychology Of the Hero Soul," Debra Berg, Author of "The Power Of One," Cameron Johnson, Author of "You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way – And Live the Life You Want", Robert Channing, the World's Greatest Mind Reader and Mental Motivator and Ralph Zuranski, the Creator Of the In Search Of Heroes Program.
Sharif asks question Ralph Zuranski: Let me just ask you, tell me a little bit more about your “In Search of Heroes™” program.
Ralph: It’s a program that I created back when I was a writer and photographer for the Coronado Eagle. I was disgusted by the Heroes like the rock stars, the sports stars, the movie stars or people that are basically just into money and fame. They don’t really give kids a good example of what it is to be productive human beings.
When you focus on material possessions and fame and the people’s lives are broken, they are in shambles, on drugs, involved in illicit sex; it is such a devastating aspect of people’s lives. I just thought we really need to look at who the real Heroes are.
From my experience, over my lifetime of being involved in professional sports, working with movie stars and working with incredibly important people, I’ve found that the real Heroes are the moms and dads. They are the people in their families that take their time and sacrifice to help and protect and serve those that they know that are in their family circle.
My mom and dad just recently had catastrophic illnesses last year, and I was the only child that decided to drop what I was doing, come back and live with my parents and help take care of them. I’m thankful that my wife came with me.
Now that I see how hard it actually is to step up to the plate and take care of your parents when they have catastrophic illnesses and how great are the sacrifices, I realized that the real Heroes are the people that are making a big difference in the lives of the people within their own families.
I thought that people really need to know this. That’s when I created the Heroes program, to take high school kids in search of local and national Heroes to just ask them, “Who are the Heroes in their lives?” Almost to a person, even the movie stars and important people in the community all said it was their moms and dads, or the coaches and teachers.
Ralph Zuranski: Cameron, What do you want out of life in ten words or less?
Cameron Johnson: Well, I think there are a number of different ways I could answer this, but most importantly, what I want out of life is that I want to leave the world a better place, and I want to motivate young people to do the best that they can do.
Ralph Zuranski:That’s pretty impressive. I was just looking at your bio. I was wondering if you could just share with everybody the stuff that you have done and a little bit about your unique book, The Power of One: The Unsung Everyday Heroes Rescuing America’s Cities.
It sounds almost like my In Search of Heroes program.
Debra Berg:Yes, yes. Well, that’s how I found you. I was searching on the web for heroes and I found you.
I’ve had a kind of interesting career. It has led me to what I do today. I’ve been an entrepreneur; I’ve worked for, as you mentioned, the legislature, I’ve worked in corporate America and so I understand all the different industries in this country.
As I was a business owner I ran into a very interesting couple from Romania who had helped overthrow Nicolae Ceausescu and we became good friends.
They ran across a Harvard study called Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital and they were demoralized by it because it maintained that people were no longer interested in their communities. My friends came to learn about democracy here and to take those insights home and teach their grassroots leaders. Their reaction to the study bothered me.
So that ten years of working for the legislature and doing studies on social policies caught up with me and I just couldn’t believe that people weren’t interested in helping others and in helping their communities. So I went on my own personal quest to find out what was really going on out there.
I came across an amazing new trend. I call it the New Civic America. It’s about people, everyday Americans, women and men from all walks of life, who are sacrificing big incomes, personal lives.
One man has even sacrificed an NFL pension to go and create a solution to major social problems like poverty, at-risk youth or crime.
That’s what I do. What I do is I get out there and I talk to people about what is going on and I encourage others to do the same.
Ralph Zuranski:Wow, that’s really amazing. That sounds like a wonderful work.
Debra Berg:It’s really fascinating and it’s so humbling to talk to these heroes. They are very altruistic, not in it for personal gain at all. They are out there to make a change, to make a difference in the world.
Their ideas are so good that they are now replicating across the country and in some cases all over the world.
Ralph Zuranski:You know, that’s funny. I just found an article in the newspaper about young people that came up to the one gentleman, Mr. Strickland. I think you are going to be speaking with him at a seminar for Mark Lewis down in Dallas?
Debra Berg:Yes.
Ralph Zuranski:He basically had people, especially young people, come up to him and tell him how grateful they were to have the opportunity to work with him and do something that mattered and that helped other people.
Debra Berg:Yes. And these people have drawn in lots of volunteers, lots of youth, and they have set a fabulous example, especially for the youth. And the stories and spin-offs from what they have encountered with these heroes and what they have ended up doing with their lives is also very inspiring.
Ralph Zuranski:I can imagine that it is. I’d like to go ahead and ask you a couple of the Heroes questions.
Ralph Zuranski:What do you want out of life, in ten words or less?
Debra Berg: Health, wealth, a successful marriage, and a network of friends helping others.
Continue reading ""The In Search Of Heroes Master Mind Core Team Answers the Heroes Questions"" »
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
44. What do you think about the In Search Of Heroes Program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Mike Filsaime: I think we are blessed to have people like you in this world Ralph that get heroes together out there to work and speak and to help young kids. We need more things like that in the world and I’m so glad to participate in a program like this. I know that you’ve created some butterfly effects that will change people’s lives and young people’s lives.
They’ll look back and one day they’ll do an interview with a successful radio show or television station. Someone will ask “What was it that changed your life?” They’ll say it was a program called In Search of Heroes and they’ll talk about it.
I think you are leaving a legacy here Ralph and I want to commend you and applaud you for what you are doing for young kids. It’s the most selfless act a human being can do. I am very proud of you.
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Paulie Sabol: I appreciate it, and I especially appreciate the diversity that it represents, that there is a place at the table for everybody. There is a hero that you can identify with. Even if there is a hero that you don’t fully identify with, you can grow in that identification with heroes that you might not even considered at first.
I know you’ve used the word acceptance a few times, but I think acceptance is a wimpy position. People don’t want to be merely accepted for who they are, they want to be celebrated for who they are. And that is what In Search of Heroes does. It celebrates the unique and consistent communications of success by different people.
Ralph Zuranski: That is probably the major paradigm of the In Search of Heroes program. It is the Help Enthusiastically Responsibly Optimistically Exceptionally Socially and/or Spiritually that stands for what heroes really are. They are the people that step into that moment in time and are self-sacrificing to help somebody else. They do it without any expectations of return.
I think that is what is truly needed in the world today. No matter who you are or what you believe, no matter what your sexual persuasion is, if you step out and help somebody else, at that moment in time, you rise above your own self interest and make a difference in the world and also eternally.
Paulie Sabol: Thank you for the experience Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: Paulie, thank you for your time and how much you shared with us. I know it will resonate with a lot of people that need that assurance that what they are doing is at the right time and the right place.
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Donna Fox: I think the In Search of Heroes Program is truly phenomenal. That you are able to see the hero in everyone and allow that heroism to trickle down and seed of heroism gets planted at a very young age.
Whether that seed gets the water and the soil and the nutrients it needs to grow is really up to the lessons that we teach young people as they grow. The seed is there but do we feed it? Do we nurture it?
The In Search of Heroes Program is going to do exactly that by telling every story of every person who is phenomenal, and every person is phenomenal. It builds and it grows.
If there is one person out there who hears this interview and thinks, “Donna is not all that special and look what she did. Now she is pretty successful. I can do that, too.” That is priceless.
Ralph Zuranski: That is very special. I wanted to ask you just one parting question. Do you have a life goal that you want to achieve before you die?
Donna Fox: That is a great question. It’s kind of the funny thing about goals, that once you make them there is another one right around the corner. My life goal is that there is always another goal right around the corner.
I don’t want to ever be done. I don’t want to ever retire. So that’s my goal, to have another goal.
Ralph Zuranski: Again Donna, I am so appreciative of your time and the incredible value of your answers. I’m so excited about being able to interview successful women that I have met at the internet conferences and women who are tremendous role models to the young women coming up.
There are a lot of men on the internet who are successful and it’s been hard finding women who are as successful as the men. It just is so critical to have female role models like yourself. So I really thank you for your time.
Donna Fox: Thank you so much, Ralph. It’s really important that we recognize that society recognizes success in dollar figures and success isn’t always about the money.
As much as we like to think it is, and as inspirational as it is because we imagine that our lives will be different if there is money in them, but really some of the greatest successes are like Mother Theresa. She didn’t have money. Absolutely she is a success story. She is truly a hero in anyone’s book.
I think when more people realize that heroism comes from within and isn’t about your checkbook or your bank account or the car that you drive but about the people you touch, suddenly those female heroes will start popping out of the woodwork.
I hope that for you, and thank you so much for having me be a part of this. It’s been truly my pleasure and a lot of fun, too.
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TOM BEAL: I was real excited to hear about it in March 2005 when you first told me about it. I was really excited to hear that you were putting these things together for years. The wisdom that’s going to be shared I think is going to dramatically impact people’s lives.
Similar to when Napoleon Hill studied all the top experts of the 1900’s. I think the wisdom you have captured and are willing to share with the youth and society as a whole will positively impact future generations.
RALPH ZURANSKI: Tom, thank you so much yours was an astounding story.
TOM BEAL: Thanks for the interview. I appreciate it. Talk to you later, bye.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
43. If you had three wishes for your life and the world, that would instantly come true, what would they be?
Mike Filsaime: I just want to live a long healthy life. I want it to be prosperous. I want to leave a legacy by helping as many people as I can along the way.
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Paulie Sabol: Cool question. My first wish would be for a complete end of parochial and provincial paternalism, and to have it all replaced by a sex positive, body positive, diverse open and full panoply of the human expression. In other words, I would have the completion of the civil rights movement and the joyous expression of it for everyone.
Ralph Zuranski: Basically you’d like to have everybody accepted for who they are?
Paulie Sabol: That’s right. We don’t need to be burning witches. Second, I would wish for a totally healed globe and environment without wars of aggression and unlawful wars against sovereign nations. I wish we could just replace all those government tribalism with an anarcho village. Go right into true communities being autonomous and independent. It would be a beautiful thing in my view.
Then of course, in the spirit of fundamental abundance, my third wish would be to wish for three more wishes.
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Donna Fox: I wish for more discipline to be able to really use my powers for good. I wish for more patience to really be able to impact and create those “aha” moments in the people that really need them. I wish for a receptive vessel in humanity because there are so many people who have so much good to do.
I think that sometimes we get closed off from being open to good because of media messages and just all of the trouble out there. So I wish that people were more receptive.
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TOM BEAL: I wish that everyone could have the inner peace that I’m searching for. Or at least make the choice to begin that journey of inner peace. Have the faith knowing that everything does work for good.
Also, to boldly live the life to fulfill the destiny that they each have. I see a lot of people living half lives and walking sheepishly forward instead of boldly forward in their lives. I think that would be a tremendous thing to witness.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
42. Do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse and violence among young people?
Mike Filsaime: Yes, I will say a statement that will shock a couple of people. Racism will probably be around for a long time. I don’t see how you can have so many different people that can grow up in different cultures and unfortunately there’s negative energy in this world and those people are going to see differences in other people as fear unfortunately.
I would hope that one day as Martin Luther King had this dream that everybody can let go on the differences and understand that those differences can bring us closer together.
If we understand that there’s racism in this world just as we understand that there’s hate. There will probably always be hate and there will probably always be love. Of course there will always be love.
As long as we know the right thing to do. If we focus too much on the racism and look at these leaders that are fighting for racism lets go back to the 1960’s. There were two major leaders out there.
It gets very tough when you start talking about faith, religion and politics and things like that. I’m not going to talk about the one leader that spoke about racism and did it in terms of anger.
I’ll talk about the one that did it in terms of love and that was Martin Luther King. What he did is everything that we are talking about today. If you have debt and you focus on how I can get out of debt then you are just going to get more debt.
If you have debt and focus on how I can have more success then you’ll have success and you’ll get out of debt. So it’s the same thing that Martin Luther King realized is that there is racism in this country. But don’t go out there and focus on the problem and say “There is racism. We need to do this and to do that and they need to recognize us.”
No, talk about the positive things like love and talk about getting together. Then all those things will automatically go out. To answer your question a little quicker is not to dwell on the negative things.
There is racism out there and a lot of bad things out there. All these kids are seeing it in their schools. There are bad kids in every school.
Some have it worse than others. But if you focus on the positive and align yourself with the positive students in the school and you can overcome it. Focus on the good and you’ll have good in your life. Don’t focus on solving the problems by looking at the problems. Focus on solving the problems by looking at the solutions....
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Paulie Sabol: Good solution is such an interesting question because if good means practical, easy, simple, ready to implement immediately, I’m not sure that I do. I think I am lacking in that. I’ve shared with you before that from time to time when I see the scope of the problems I get discouraged and uncertain.
I will tell you that I absolutely believe that fundamental abundance is the solution to most all of those problems. If you look at things like racism, what a lot of people don’t know is that racism has often been used in history, for example, to thwart the labor movement. While racism will be incited as the way to say, “Look, those people over there, those different people, are coming over here to take your good jobs.”
Sexism has been used in the same way to thwart the labor movement. There is a great movie out right now about a woman coal miner in Colorado and how she had to break down the all boys network, and even the labor unions were being played against her, and the fears of difference were made.
We don’t even need a labor movement if we have fundamental abundance. The labor movement is designed to protect laborers from management. But if there is fundamental abundance, we don’t even need that, much less with management and what I like to call small capital, not because they don’t really fall into the category of big capital, but because they are small minded.
What small capital tries to use when they use the race card, when they use the violence, and this isn’t suggested to be an excuse Ralph, but very often people would have a behavior pattern that might include violence, fall into that behavior pattern because of financial struggle.
So fundamental abundance would reduce the number of triggers. Now they still want to work on the inner work, but fundamental abundance would decrease the incidents. It would put somebody in a resourceful position.
So that is my solution – help me do it.
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Donna Fox: Whew! Now I feel the burden of being a hero right there! Wow! There’s a lot of weight to that question.
We all have needs and the needs for food and shelter, clothing, warmth and love is so profound and so strong that we can’t think past it if those aren’t met.
I don’t know the cure for hunger. I don’t know how to clothe or house everyone on the planet. But I do know how to love them. That’s the one thing I can pretty much figure out.
Nothing is going to be wrong with the world where there is more love. And from love other things get figured out. It’s from a position of love that charities are created.
It’s from a position of love that someone finds the hero in themselves and goes on to do extraordinary things. Without that basic emotion being met, all of the evil in the world, all of the pain and the bad stuff, the spousal abuse, the child abuse, it all comes from a place that is other than that.
So much like I say, almost jokingly but actually quite serious, I make the world a better place by being nice, we would all make the world a better place if we would just have a little more love and be a little more nice.
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TOM BEAL: Yes I think that goes right back to what other heroes have told you, start with yourself. There’s nothing we can do, not one thing can I change in another person.
I can only change things in me I can only choose within the spirit of influence I have which is through me. If I can be that light house making the right moves and making the right choices and setting an example then that’s the best I can do.
If everyone were to take that responsibility and to choose to set an example in their own sphere that would solve most if not all the problems.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
41. How are you making the world a better place?
Mike Filsaime: By helping others. Teaching people what I know and teaching people how to take action. I know that these butterfly effects that we are having with other people like Jason, Dennis, James and Keith is making them able to become heroes to other people.
That butterfly effect is now becoming a ripple effect and those people they are helping will become heroes for other people. It can go on for years and years to come and that’s leaving a legacy.
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Paulie Sabol: I am making the world a better place by focusing on creating opportunity for the disenfranchised. First, I run the original entrepreneurial internship program that I have seen a number of the mentors and experts that I have in my mastermind recreate and respectfully imitate.
That is changing lives. It is giving an alternative. The statistics says the number of individuals graduating high school who really have no appropriate place, they are not college bound, they are not wishing to tie themselves to the tyranny of a time clock. They are looking for something more.
But they are looking around and not finding anything. I saw this burden and I responded to it. It has been profoundly effective. Multiply that, I am creating a foundation called the Eagle Foundation which is Economic Assistance for Gay and Lesbian Entrepreneurs. I am basically creating a virtue capital, instead of venture capital, opportunity for gay and lesbian people who want to start their businesses.
Those are the ways in which I am helping.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, that’s a great way to provide opportunities for everybody no matter where they’re at, that they know they too can do good things not only for themselves and achieve their dreams, but also help society at the same time.
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Donna Fox: I try to make the world a better place just by being the best “me” I can be and really just trying to touch people from the position of light and from a position of good.
Life is way too short and we don’t know when our last day is. We don’t know when we are checking out. It’s too short to be burdened by problems and negativity and stress and angst and all those negative feelings, that while it’s important to recognize and feel them once in awhile, not to dwell on them.
Being nice is the way I make the world a better place.
_______________________
TOM BEAL: I think by choosing to be in the game and by choosing to put this energy out. Also choosing to tell my story. And as you heard choosing to tell some situations that may make some people feel uncomfortable.
That goes back to being uncomfortable. Some people have actually asked me, Tom why did you tell that story? Why did you tell about your wife and the car wreck?” I feel it’s a story that needs to be told because someone out there needs to hear it. My hope and my prayer is that it is out there and it’s going to open up someone’s heart.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
39. Why do you think you were selected for this unique honor?
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Mike Filsaime: I look good in photos. (Laughter)I think that you and I Ralph had an opportunity to build a very good friendship over the last year and a half. We’ve had an opportunity to see each other and we both know that we want to do what’s right in the world.
I think everything we spoke about in this call about attracting negative and positive energy is that you and I both put out positive signals. I think it was just a matter of fate that we had an opportunity to meet and do this call today.
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Paulie Sabol: Before I answer that, let me say one other thing about your being the modern Earle Nightingale, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, or whatnot – this is an important point that I’m going to make. What excites me even the most, if I had the choice to be a part of the Internet In Search of Heroes as an Internet hero, or to be a part of Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, I would choose the Internet heroes.
The Internet is global. It is worldwide. It is truly democratic. Information on it seeks to be widespread and free. There is nothing wrong with paying for information, too, but for the most part, this is going to transmit to people that it could actually be illegal to give somebody a book about positive thinking, but they can get on a web page about it.
So in my mind, it is actually cooler because the Internet is worldwide. It is diverse and it includes everybody.
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Donna Fox: That’s not an easy question because I truly don’t know why you asked for this interview. I could make lots of guesses. I could make lots of guesses based on things that I would like to be recognized for.
You didn’t know about my adversity when you asked me, so it wasn’t that I had overcome adversity. You knew hardly anything at all about me, actually, when you asked me to be a Hero.
So what I can guess you noticed is that I show up, and simply that I’m there and that I’m making an effort and hitting some balls out of the park every once in a while.
That I show up to the practices and I think that’s what you noticed.
_____________________
TOM BEAL: By choosing to be in the game. Just by choosing to attend seminars your life can and will be changed. By getting in the game and going out and being with other people who accomplishing great things. That’s the simple answer.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Why Do You Think You Were You Selected To Be Interviewed as a Hero?
Mike Filsaime: As long as I can realize that I can continue to help people then my life gets changed as I see other people’s lives get changed by any influence I have about it.
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Paulie Sabol: Yes, it will. I did want to explain why I thought you selected me for this unique honor. I really do hope and believe that it is important for me to do this because as a gay man, it is essential for that on average one out of ten young people who are gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered, and even more than one out of ten who are questioning, wondering and curious, because of the high incidence of suicide in the disenfranchised.
Look at the number of gay teenagers who commit suicide. In some estimates, the percentage is a whopping 300-500% increase in the likelihood of suicide just because of the difference in sexual orientation. I am here to say to those individuals that there is something to live for. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is even a love at the end of the tunnel.
So just make it. Correspondingly, that is how it is going to change my life as well. My life is going to change because I’m going to have a place, a very easy place to send somebody. I’m going to be able to send them to In Search of Heroes.
When I know when they express that they want a more intimate, personal and profound experience of who Paulie Sabol is, and who the other mentors and heroes in their life are, I have a place to send somebody simply.
That is going to change a lot, because I have a choice to either not respond to that question, and use the time on something else, but now I have the ability to respond to the question every time. There will never be a lack of time or ability. So that’s how it is going to change things for me.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, that is what the Heroes program is all about. It doesn’t matter what your sexual orientation is, or what your philosophical orientation is, or what your religion is, that at any moment in time, you can be a hero if you just reach out to help others.
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Donna Fox: I’ve always wanted a cool title. Now there was a time in my life when I wanted to have business cards printed up that said, “Donna Fox, Intellectual Gumshoe.” I thought that would be a great title.
But now I can have business cards that say, “Donna Fox, Hero” and how cool is that?
Jokes aside, I think that it’s a tremendous honor to be recognized as one of your heroes. But with all do respect, it is life as usual. It’s not about how it affects my life. It’s about how it might affect somebody else’s life, and that’s what makes it a great honor.
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TOM BEAL: Hopefully it will fulfill my burning desire which is to assist the people and understanding that there are steps you can take today to achieve your dreams and goals.
Hopefully my story has been inspirational to someone whether they’ve gone through similar circumstances or have heard something in my story that would trigger them to strengthen their power of choice muscles and their decisive muscles and willingness to take action.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
38. How does it feel to be recognized as an Internet HERO?
Mike Filsaime: Oh I’m honored. It’s something that’s difficult to put into words. I am honored to be on this call and as long as I know what I keep on doing what’s right in my heart I know I can be an example for others & not let anybody down.
If I do let anybody down it’s because I’ve made a mistake I can acknowledge it and apologize for it and move on. You can’t live the perfect life because you want to be the perfect life for other people. Along as you go out everyday with good intentions most of the time you’ll end up doing the right thing.
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Paulie Sabol: Naturally, of course, it is a terrific honor. Not only is it a joyous experience in and of itself, it would be if there were no other heroes in the entire collection. But the ability to be among this who’s who of heroes you’ve assembled. It is kind of like if I were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame that would be a great honor.
But the real honor is being among people like Pete Rose, and all of these other individuals who have touched back all through time, and will continue to touch forward through the rest of time. Yes, it is a tremendous honor.
Ralph Zuranski: It is amazing to stand in the hall of heroes and the great men of our time. It is interesting to basically accept people on the way that they are and look at them according to what they are accomplishing and what their attitudes are and how they treat other people. It is kind of neat to sort of be like the Earl Nightingale or the Napolean Hill of my era to be able to ask people that are successful on how they did accomplish the dream that they set forth in their lives.
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Donna Fox: That’s a great question Ralph. I remember when you asked me to do a Hero’s interview and I was tremendously flattered and tremendously touched.
I didn’t for a moment think that I didn’t deserve it, though, because who am I to say whether or not I’m a hero. It’s not my role to decide if I’m a hero or not.
You saw something in me and I love you for that. That’s great. Maybe somebody else won’t, but heroism is very personal. You may like Superman or you may like Batman. To many people Batman is nothing because he didn’t have any special powers. But he had great toys, so maybe that makes him a hero to you.
The real-life heroes, not the super heroes, they are the same way. It’s very personal whether or not you decide someone is a hero or like we like to think everyone is a hero.
It feels wonderful that you recognized that in me and it’s very special and I am so appreciative.
__________________
TOM BEAL: Humbling. I’m just a normal person. The funny part is dealing with all these other people I’ve been able to be ok with that because they are all normal people too.
Whether it’s Jim Kelly or Jeffery Gidemer they are just doing the best they can with what they know how. I feel that’s all I’m doing and that’s all anybody that’s listening to this is doing.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
37. How do people become heroes?
Mike Filsaime: By just living a good life. People look up to you when you do things right. That’s a simple answer for a complicated question. How to become a hero is simply just living the life that you know is right. Then people will look up to you.
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Paulie Sabol: The first answer is a day at a time. You become a hero one day at a time. This is the other part of it. Do you know how you become a villain? One day at a time. You become a hero or a villain one day at a time.
So let me tell you what the difference is. If the path is the same, what’s the difference? For your case, we will brand the hero’s edge. The hero’s edge works this way. Today there will be a challenge. You will respond to that challenge with the simple discipline of heroism or you will respond to it with the simple neglect of villainy.
I may have said this once before, but I want to be clear. When I am making this hard juxtaposition, of course there are shades of gray. But for the purpose of this, let’s just say the only thing that it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.
Our only choices are heroism or villainy. So today when that challenge comes, we are either going to respond as a hero, with heroism, or we are going to respond with neglect which is villainy. In doing that today, we won’t notice a big difference. It is sort of like if you had the choice today to read a book on a subject area that you’d like increase your strength in.
If you read it today, a chapter, you may not know a whole lot more, right? You may not notice the difference. But what happens if you read a chapter a day a year from now? Now you’ve read maybe ten different 36 chapter books. That’s a huge amount of information. That’s going to make a huge difference.
What if you do that for the entirety of your junior high years? You do that for three years. You’ve now read 30 books. In many cases, that is as many authoritative books as there are on a subject. You are really an expert at that moment. It is the same way with heroism.
The act of making the decision to act like a hero right now – in the action of doing so will seem to make no difference at all, but the compound effect of making the simple decision of discipline to act like a hero rather than the simple act of neglect, villainy, over time will make all the difference in the world.
That is why the ability to move into your destiny as a hero is assured. That is why you can trust the truth. That is why it must happen. All it takes is the little act of discipline. It is not hard to do. Is it hard to read a chapter today? Is that extraneous and take hours and hours of time to read a chapter? No, just a little bit of time.
But the compound effect over time assures greatness. That is how you become a hero today.
Ralph Zuranski: That is one of the things that has been so outstanding in doing the Hero’s interviews, is that the majority of the heroes that I’ve had the opportunity to interview have said that is has been all the great men that they’ve read stories about, and become their mentors in their mind, their virtual heroes, because they didn’t have people that were heroes in their lives.
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TOM BEAL: By choice…choosing to build a foundation of ethics, honesty, belief and faith. There’s a quote and let me see if I can get this right, “I’m going to improve myself for you. I love you so much I’m going to improve myself. To choose the best you that you can be is all it takes to be a hero.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
36. What are the things parents can do that will help their children realize they too can be HEROES and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Mike Filsaime: The first thing a parent needs to do is lead a life by example. You can’t be a hypocrite and tell your kids they shouldn’t smoke weed when you indeed smoke weed. Kids are smarter than what parents give them credit for.
Even if they don’t consciously see it subconsciously they pick up on things. A parent needs to live their life by example then they need to let their kid know how much they love them. They need to share that and express that and let that kid know that they are the best thing that’s ever been put on this earth.
When the kid starts to understand that they need to instill the properties in these kids of the laws of reciprocity to know that when you have what you want or when you’re going through that point in your life & trying to achieve what you want you have to always make sure you help other people get what they want.
As you are always a student looking up to your hero there is always somebody looking up to you. So you have the dual role of the student and the hero. When people look up to you as a hero you have to be there for them.
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Paulie Sabol: I think that the number one thing that parents can do is get out of the kid’s way. Very often, as you’ve talked about, we want people to be as much like us as possible. You see this with very young children, where it seems to be a requirement to say which parent the child looks like. “Oh, he really looks like you,” as if the child would be rejected and abandoned if they looked different.
This is what is so subtly corrosive about those comments. They come off of our lips almost like blinking, a reflex behavior. The very best thing that parents can do is get out of their kid’s way.
We get a lot of young people who are interns with us. I in fact have a MySpace dedicated to that process, www.MySpace.com/internship. You can actually see a number of the young people who have become interns. Not one of them came to me in a way that I could describe as really having had a perfectly nurturing, care-giving parents.
And I’m not sure that any of us will have that perfectly. But what I can tell you is that when those parents made the decision to get out of their kids way, let them go on this internship experience, let them move to another State, move into another place, learn all about entrepreneurship, and many of these parents were really employee minded people.
This was not a value system that they understood. They only understood working hard for money, not working smart and working the system. But when they got out of the way, not one of these interns has had anything less than a dramatic transformation. In almost all cases, except for two that I can think of, have created substantial amounts of wealth, and in two cases, more wealth than their parents.
__________________
TOM BEAL: Exposing them to the proper things. Not letting them watch the movies that have all the violence and the bad things occurring and the TV programs that have the same things.
But, exposing them to the empowering books and videos that can show them heroes. That can also give them hope and give them people and things to aspire to look up to.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
35. Why are HEROES so important in the lives of young people?
Mike Filsaime: We need people to look up to. Part of the human spirit is knowing that we can’t do it alone. Having a negative person in our lives can be detrimental.
Having a hero helps us to block out everything. We want to work with that hero because a hero believes we can achieve our best. The hero sees us with crystal clear glasses. They can see the future. They don’t judge us. They love us and they see the best part of us when a lot of people don’t.
They bring out the things in us that we don’t even see. So it’s very important for a young kid to have a hero to work with because sometimes that hero is all they’ve got and can bring the world out for them.
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Paulie Sabol: Heroes are in that list. We talked about those two lists that there are going to be. There is going to be the list of heroes and examples, and the list of have-nots and warnings. The reason heroes are important is because I think a lot of messages out there try to tell young people, “You’re young, you don’t know anything. You’ll never amount to anything. You’re view is unimportant. You’re concerns, the things that you care about are fleeting and trivial and moving on.”
But here is what is powerful – when young people, like those who are listening right now, go ahead and start to collect from history, from all over, use the Internet and search. You will find heroes in your areas of interest. What they will realize is just like I did, that I wasn’t alone.
When I was at that place where I was being chucked out of the church, they will realize they are not alone. They weren’t the first to face these indignities. They won’t be the last. And they will also be among those people who overcome them and have that joyous community to support them.
Again, in my viewpoint, we were all born to be these heroes, to discover our secret destiny and our secret lives, as these kings and priests. This is important because there are leaders of the way when we understand the heroes.
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Donna Fox: I think heroes are the first time when we as young people learn to think big. When a little boy puts a towel around his neck and pretends to be Superman it’s the first time he is thinking beyond his abilities. He is hoping to be something amazing and incredible.
When we start little with the heroes in our imagination, and now we are talking about heroes in the traditional sense, the people who are truly amazing or super heroes, they teach us to stretch.
When we talk about heroes in our sense of it that everybody is a hero it’s really important for us to be heroes for children because they need to learn how to be adults.
Everyone will teach them, so it’s important we know what they are teaching them.
______________________
TOM BEAL: Heroes give hope. I think people especially children need hope. Especially in my circumstances reflecting on my childhood, I needed some hope thinking is this how it’s going to be? As a child you don’t know any better.
You only know the circumstances you are surrounded by so I thought everybody was going through the difficulties I had until I reached a point where I thought I was the only one who thought these circumstances were occurring. I feel hope is something as a society as a whole needs.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
34. Who do you feel are the real heroes in our society today that are not getting the recognition and rewards they deserve?
Mike Filsaime: The teachers and the pastors and the kids that are working with the youths in the YMCA & the Big Brother Program and things like that. Those are the real heroes out there today.
One thing I really want to talk about is those people that are serving this country over seas. Some of them are so young they don’t even realize how important they are or even what the cause is that they are fighting for. But they are real heroes.
As a mastermind unit together they build up and defend the strongest country in the world and give us the freedom we might take for granted.
___________________
Paulie Sabol: The people who are the real heroes who are not getting the recognition they deserve are the people who are speaking out boldly and with their conscious. They are concerned about wars of aggression and rumors of additional wars. They are very concerned about your privacy and your rights being eroded, besmirched and generally trampled upon.
They are worried about a system of government and a system of elections that can be flawed and tampered and can be frankly stolen. These people who are speaking a truth that we are even afraid to hear and they continue to do it boldly.
They are using the Internet, and they’re making Internet videos, and they are educating. They are going directly to the people. Those are the heroes. Not only are they not getting the recognition that they deserve, quite often and quite frankly, they are being torn apart, torn down, and chewed up by the system that usually has the power and all the methods and means of communication and mediation.
Ralph Zuranski: Sometimes we look at the politicians. We look at the leaders of business. We see that they’ve lost honesty and integrity, and the only sin is being caught in the evil things that they do. Thank God for the people that are willing to speak out for what they believe is true.
___________________
Donna Fox: We could be here a long time for this list. It would include teachers, parents, teenagers, mothers, single mothers, single fathers, and children. There are amazing heroes who are children out there that don’t get the attention they deserve.
Now because sometimes being a hero is really just about moving forward and doing something for others and even doing something for you in the process, every child that lends a hand to another child and children can be pretty cruel. A child that is kind is a hero.
Nobody rewards them. We don’t reward our police officers and our firemen, the people who are saving our lives, nearly as much as we should be. Or the pilots and the stewardesses that make airplane travel great.
Or the staffs in hotels that keep the bathrooms clean for us. Or the ticket taker in the subway station. Or the people who keep the roads clean. Everyone does something to help us.
We don’t realize how many people touch us all day long. There aren’t nearly enough sung heroes in this world. There are far too many unsung heroes. There are just far too many.
_______________________
TOM BEAL: Oh boy. The heroes would be the firemen, police, teachers and all those people are creating so much impact. The military are in some cases taking a lot of heat yet they are protecting the freedoms we embrace. Also those teaching the kids proper things whether its teachers, firemen, police officers, those people I feel are a little under appreciated.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
33. How important is it to have trusted friends or a master mind group to bounce your ideas off?
Mike Filsaime: It’s extremely important. In the terms of the Napoleon Hill mastermind I don’t know if it’s that easy to structure a mastermind that well. The closest you can get to that the better.
Like I said before your income is the average of your four closest friends. If you want to give yourself a raise you have to start associating yourself with people at higher levels that you want to be like.
That’s what happens with the mastermind. You don’t want to associate yourself with the mastermind of losers because you will become a loser to the tenth degree. If you associate yourself with a winner in a mastermind and that’s not really the scope of this call, to talk about what a mastermind really is.
But, just so if any young kid is listening if I could explain the power of the mastermind. The mastermind is a result of what happens when two or more people get together. Ralph I could have one idea that’s a very good idea and you can one idea, so together we have two ideas.
When you and I get together and we talk about that idea we can say “You know what we should add?” You say “How about we do this?” and we are working together. What results in that is a third idea. Now two people can achieve a third better idea than the two we had by ourselves.
That’s the power of the mastermind. It’s the result of what happens when two or more people get together. When you get 8 to 10 people together in a mastermind that exponential formula I just gave you is what makes the results become exponential.
___________________________
Paulie Sabol: I’m going to alter your question. I think to just bounce your ideas off, it is not essentially important. I think to truly respect the power of the mastermind; you should come to it with a little more complete a position than just an idea you are bouncing.
I actually believe that the mastermind, the group of partners with whom you can develop what you are working on, is essentially important. The way you do it is you focus on enhancing what’s working.
Very often in our lives, and we talked about this, you might look at your report card, and on your report card you might have an A in English, an A in Mathematics, and maybe somewhere on that report card you got some other grades, but maybe Social Studies or Civics, and you got a D.
Very often in our life, we spend the rest of our time trying to focus on getting that D up. In fact, sometimes we’ll get our message from our parents saying that this report card is pretty good, but this D – you’ve got to get this up. Even our caregivers will focus on the weakness.
One of the things I’ve found in the mastermind is the power is that you can focus on your strengths, your ability to enhance somebody else’s idea with your strength. They bring their strength, so you don’t focus on becoming average at everything; you focus at becoming excellent at some things.
That is why I think it is important and really important to select how you use your mastermind and your mentors.
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Donna Fox: Napoleon Hill on his deathbed said that the mastermind was the key to success. It was the element, the surprise, the secret of the rich. I couldn’t agree more.
Especially as internet marketers, it is so easy to stay alone in front of our computer. There is so much busy work we could be doing. But ultimately nothing really happens when you stay at home.
You have to get out. You have to meet people, because people are who we learn from. We learn that we aren’t alone in our process. We learn that somebody has been through everything before.
As individual as adversities may seem, and as individual as problems may seem, people go through them. People pave the way for us and we need to be out and around people constantly.
One of the things, as I teach real estate investors, we are told that we need our teams: our accountants, our attorneys and lawyers. I say throw out the idea of needing a team because you already have one: the whole world is your team.
Everyone out there is available to you as a team member. Most people are willing to help you if you are just willing to ask. Absolutely masterminds are the most valuable thing.
When you open up your mastermind from a tiny little group to the idea that the world is your mastermind, then there isn’t anything you can’t get the answer to.
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TOM BEAL: Master mind is extremely vital to success. I talk about Jim Kelly. In his Hall of Fame induction speech he didn’t get up there and flex his arms and say “I’m Jim Kelly and I made it to the NFL. I deserved it.”
He gave credit where credit was due. He gave credit to his coaching staff, to his linemen, his team mates, his receivers who were able to run the routes and catch the ball and his running backs. In life you need to have your team.
One of the lessons I learned in studying all these success things at an early age was how to become a self made millionaire. I think that’s a total fallacy. I think it probably can be done but it takes ten times longer than if you were to choose to be a team millionaire. How can you assemble the proper team to assist you in accomplishing your goals much more quickly?
RALPH ZURANSKI: How does the master mind team make a positive difference in your life?
TOM BEAL: The master mind is there to help you in times of difficulty, to overcome adversity and also pushes you and holds you accountable with some of the goals and stride to achieve your goals.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
32. Who are the HEROES in your life now?
Mike Filsaime: Yes, the marketers that I have great respect for. I almost don’t want to name them because I’ll probably forget some. I guess if I have to name some they are some of my good friends like Tom Beal, Paulie Sabol, Donna Fox and Stephen Pierce and Armand Moran. Frank Kern was an early hero of mine.
Brad Fallon is a very good friend of mine. If anyone is hearing this I probably could list another 50 but those are some very good friends and heroes. Chuck Smith is a very good friend of mine. A young man coming up that really has a good heart and I like what he’s doing is Sterling Valentine.
I think he’ll be a hero for a lot of young kids for years to come. Those are just some to name a few. As I said there’s probably another 50 I could name.
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Paulie Sabol: The current heroes for me are people like Elle Whizell because of his ongoing and consistent fight against anti-semitism. Similarly, Dan Savage, whose helping to overcome homophobia. Michael Moore for fighting ignorance with such humor.
Really, true progressives anywhere, true individuals who realize that we don’t want to go back to the days when we didn’t have running water. Progress is a good thing. It is not the only thing, but it is a good thing. Who really believes at the heart of their heart that tomorrow can be better than today.
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Donna Fox: I truly see heroes everywhere. My finance is my hero. He takes care of me. He keeps my life light. Where I am prone to be a workaholic he brings levity and simple things.
My business partner is my hero. He keeps drive and motivation in me, and inspiration and brilliance. I am constantly amazed at Paulie’s brilliance. So he is one of my heroes.
Ralph, you are one of my heroes for putting this site together. This program is incredible. If there is one little thing that I can say that can help inspire someone to find the hero inside them, then you are amazing. You are the hero.
Everyone around me is my hero. If I can just figure out what lesson they have to teach me. That is the real trick.
We have all been in this situations where we are like, “This person has nothing for me. I’m just going to get out of it.” Try to remember that they have something to teach me or they wouldn’t be in front of me.
Everybody has something to teach me. I just have to figure out what it is.
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TOM BEAL: Right now there are a lot of heroes I’m fortunate to be working with. I’m actually working with some of my heroes, people I looked up to and still look up to. Best selling author Jeffrey Gidemer, I work with on a regular basis. He’s a hero. He has certain qualities that I’m looking to emulate.
A person I’m working with right here in this office, Mike Filsaime and just the attributes he has in assisting others in accomplishing their dreams and goals. Jim Kelly, the NFL Hall of Fame quarterback.
In fact I’m the president of the company I formed with him. To see the life of faith and how to truly overcome adversity, the adversities I’ve stated are nothing compared to Jim’s story. I did interview him and you can see that at jimkellylive.com and he talks in depth about a lot of adversity and how he was able to overcome it.
So seeing someone who puts my adversity to shame on a scale and here’s the fun part, it’s not a competition everybody has their own. It’s all relative but how are you dealing with it?
How am I dealing with it? That’s all that really matters. It doesn’t matter how anybody else is dealing with it wrong or right. How are you dealing with it and how can you make it better.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
31. What were the qualities and attributes of your secret hero or your real life heroes when you were growing up?
Mike Filsaime: I guess what I always liked about Superman was
that he was the most powerful super-hero out there yet but what was great about it was he had his Achilles heal which was kryptonite. As powerful as he was there was always a way to take him down and he was able to overcome it.
With my dad he was just my dad so I had that unconditional love from him. He’s still around today and we talk all the time and we have an incredible friendship.
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Paulie Sabol: One thing about the Knights Templar that were so encouraging, is that they had a belief that said wherever you are, adopt and understand the people who are the local people. The Knights Templar gave people aid. Pilgrims who were making a journey to a place where they were going to have a peak experience, a life experience, perhaps once in their life they would make this journey.
The Knights Templar would help along the whole way. They adopted a procedure to help protect their fellow travelers by looking like the locals, by blending in, by knowing that they had a gift and a secret message, but realizing that the way in which you showed that you are gifted is not outwardly, but it is inwardly.
It is through the process of protecting the pilgrims who are on their journey. That is one thing that I totally admired and loved about them. Then of course they were truly noble heroes in almost King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table, sense. How could you not like them?
Ralph Zuranski: It is funny. I think the world is waiting for people that are willing to accept people where they are at on their journey for their self-realization of who they are and why they were put on the face of the earth. I think those people are real heroes who are going to accept people on who they are and what they are and willing to travel with them and help to encourage and support them in their specific path along their life journey.
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Donna Fox: I truly see heroes everywhere. My finance is my hero. He takes care of me. He keeps my life light. Where I am prone to be a workaholic he brings levity and simple things.
My business partner is my hero. He keeps drive and motivation in me, and inspiration and brilliance. I am constantly amazed at Paulie’s brilliance. So he is one of my heroes.
Ralph, you are one of my heroes for putting this site together. This program is incredible. If there is one little thing that I can say that can help inspire someone to find the hero inside them, then you are amazing. You are the hero.
Everyone around me is my hero. If I can just figure out what lesson they have to teach me. That is the real trick.
We have all been in this situations where we are like, “This person has nothing for me. I’m just going to get out of it.” Try to remember that they have something to teach me or they wouldn’t be in front of me.
Everybody has something to teach me. I just have to figure out what it is.
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TOM BEAL: Helping others, being a servant and proper decision making.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
30. Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Mike Filsaime: When I was a kid I was a Superman fan and I don’t know if Superman helped me deal with any difficulties but I used to put the towel on my back and run around the house in my underroos and fly around. I had my little Superman expressions and things like that.
It was good to have those fantasies but I think the real heroes I had was my dad. He’d get home late like 11:00 pm at night. He’d sometimes wake me up and I would be there sitting there at the kitchen table.
He’d be putting cheese & jelly on saltine crackers and we’d talk. Any problems that I had I’d talk to him about.
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Paulie Sabol: I did and it is very interesting. The hero that I created at the time when I was a youngster was a knight. You can see that this medieval theme has been fairly consistent in my life. What really fascinated me the most was when this knight would come and allow me to know that from now on, I would be protected during the nighttime.
I have a very clear and vivid sense of even the visual appearance of this imaginary, secret hero. What totally blew my mind was later in my life I began studying like I mentioned before people like the Knights Templar and Jacques DeMolay who was the grand master of the Knights Templer, I had no idea that the exact outfit and the exact way that I had fitted my knight, the symbols that were on him, were all the symbols of an actual Templar knight.
It has always fascinated me because I’m not going to suggest to anybody that it really was a Templar Knight, or that my memory didn’t alter as I continued to study, but whatever it is I feel very much as if that group and organization which is so consistent with my sense of what is important now, including the importance of having more light, it doesn’t seem coincidental to me.
Even if I pulled it out of the collective subconscious that is who my secret hero was
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Donna Fox: I have always been a huge fan of Wonder Woman. From the time that I was a little girl till now, if you go and look at my computer my desktop on my computer is a picture of Wonder Woman.
I sometimes open my seminars with Wonder Woman as my opening screen, like the title screen. Where my name would be I have Wonder Woman because she’s my alter ego.
Not only is she beautiful and amazingly powerful, but she has that great lasso of truth so she can always get to the bottom of things. She can always find out the ethical, the integrity, the truth in any situation.
Those being my highest values I really honor the honestly of the lasso and kind of wish that I had it all through my life, to be able to have that lasso of truth.
Just the concept of a wonder woman is someone that causes awe, that causes wonder, amazement, and that can be so many things. For me every mother is a Wonder Woman.
I’m not a mom and I don’t deal every day with what it must be like to raise children and to have a household. I am in awe of every mother that manages to manage their business of their home as well as, in most cases in this world, some other type of job or career or business on the side.
They are all wonder women to me. All women are Wonder Woman because they are all amazing.
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TOM BEAL: I had a period when I was younger and I named myself like Batman, Superman and my name was like 10 super heroes in a row. I wanted everyone to call me that. I tried being that but I love the American Legion cartoons and stuff like that.
I would always have little toys and create conversations with some of these super heroes. Also kind of like I explained “What would your mentor do?” I’d think well what would superman do or batman do in this type of scenario? I’d have fun with it as a kid but also there would be some wisdom.
I feel in some of those things there would be some wise choices being made. If it was a superhero that was being portrayed normally they were for good and making good choices.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
29. What is your definition of heroism?
Mike Filsaime: A hero to me is a mentor, a person that has unconditional love for the people that they are working with. I don’t see heroes necessarily in terms of Babe Ruth. Those are icons.
I don’t want to tell people to change the way that we can talk in this country. You can have sports heroes but the true heroes need to be the fathers and uncles and the teachers.
Those are the heroes of this world and people like you with what you are doing with young kids. I think a hero, has to do with some type of adult figure working with a young child.
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Paulie Sabol: My definition of heroism is the person who takes the hero’s journey. This is the journey that will include going to Chapel Perilous. You are going to face some of the darkest parts of yourself and the darkest parts of the rest of the world. You are going to encounter naysayers.
You are going to encounter jealous people. They are going to try and sabotage. Sometimes the messages you’ve internalized are going to come in and sabotage. If you want my sense of the ideal experience of heroism, I would encourage you to read the book Percival.
You will understand this message that gets me so excited, this idea that you were born to journey, you were born to discover something magical about yourself. That is what heroism is, taking the journey often means giving up some stuff along the way. It also means finding mentors, travel companions, your pals, and even an occasional betrayal.
However, in all of these mystic stories of the hero’s journey, the result in the end throughout history has really been godhood, being raised up to the highest places and into the mysteries.
I’m not meaning to suggest that anyone become God or doesn’t, that’s not what I’m talking about. But what I can say is this – the best books in the world are filled with examples of heroes and have-nots, examples and warnings.
My wish for you, right now as your listening, is to be listed amongst the examples and the heroes.
Ralph Zuranski: It does take a lot of courage to be able to seek and be the best that you could be and embrace the journey that the universe has in store for you, and know that there will be ups and downs, there will be challenges, they will be unimaginable, but also the excitement of being better than just a mediocre individual that experiences the dullness and boredness of life.
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Donna Fox: I think a hero is someone who does something that is amazing. Whether that be the tiniest little thing, if it is amazing to me then they are my hero. I try to see the hero in everyone, like see the Buda in everyone. It’s very similar.
Everybody has something about them that sparkles, something about them that is incredible, and it’s just finding that gem, that little diamond inside everyone. Everybody is a hero.
So that’s my definition of hero: it’s everyone.
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TOM BEAL: Whew, heroism. I think my definition of heroism is going back to that other statement. Someone who is doing the best they can and has a goal and is committed to being better tomorrow than they are today. I feel like that’s a hero.
Kind of like the definition of a goal like Earl Nightingale said, the pursuit of a worthy goal or ideal. So anyone who’s in high school and going to class and doing their homework is a success because they are pursuing that worthy ideal or goal.
As long as anybody is committed to being better tomorrow than they are today, in my min d that’s a hero.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
28. Why is it valuable to know exactly how much money you want to have in your bank account and when?
Mike Filsaime: You need to have specific goals. The more abstract something is the harder it is to envision it. There are people that have taken a $100.00 bill and written three zeros at the end of it and they have taped it to their roof of their bed so every time they woke up they would see that they wanted to make $100,000 a year.
They take their bank statements and they white it out and they type in the number they want to see in their bank account. It’s just envisioning what they want and by doing that they manifest it.
It can come true and I believe it will come true if you start living the life that needs to be lived in order to achieve those things. You just can’t say “I want a million dollars.” and continue to work at the bakery and not do anything about it.
I will tell you that when you start focusing on those positive things you will attract those opportunities into your life. When you are decisive in nature you will take action on those things.
I actually remember losing a deal because it was the very first time we had heard of this, a check taking up to two weeks to clear. So those are things that you cannot have any control over, no matter what I believed, that was just the way it was now.
I really was inspired at my core that I had no choice but to figure it out. The more my results, the more my belief and confidence increased. I am really much more of an act first guy, believe later.
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Paulie Sabol: Again, I am probably going to sound like the contrarian here, and say for me it is not particularly important. For me, whether I had the belief or not, I had no choice but to take action. I had taken on and really believed that it was required of me to meet certain responsibilities.
And some of those responsibilities that have and do and continue to require financial freedom, financial abundance. So I really believed I had no choice but to figure it out, to make it happen, to do whatever I had to do.
Even at that time when I was investing into that coaching program, I had to put that on a credit card, because it wasn’t the best time. Especially, in a lot of the kinds of businesses I do, like real estate. It is very cash intensive. I might have on a given day, five million dollars worth of real estate that I own and have equities in, but I may not actually have two thin dimes to go make a telephone call with.
Because it is all in the property. It is all waiting for a check to clear. I promise you I won’t get political here, but when you add in things like the Patriot Act, which are allowing my financial transactions to be delayed and slowed down and looked at with a hermeneutic of suspicion, when you add in factors like that, it sometimes completely changed our business.
I actually remember losing a deal because it was the very first time we had heard of this, a check taking up to two weeks to clear. So those are things that you cannot have any control over, no matter what I believed, that was just the way it was now.
I really was inspired at my core that I had no choice but to figure it out. The more my results, the more my belief and confidence increased. I am really much more of an act first guy, believe later.
Ralph Zuranski: Was it valuable for you to know exactly how much money you want to have in the bank and when?
Paulie Sabol: Yes it is. It is valuable to know and here’s the reason why. When you know this, what you want, when you want it, how much, then you have a way to evaluate if your systems are working.
Or if it is time to go back to the drawing board, go back to the educational tools that are out there, and re-tool up, if you are not meeting those points. No matter what number you pick right now, no matter what amount you want in your bank account right now, somebody will have it.
The big question comes – will it be you? The reason that it will be you, is again, I submit to you, not because of the beliefs, not because of the clarity of the vision exclusively, but because of the systems, the resources, the friendships that you establish, and that you bring into bear in alignment with that vision.
If you don’t get there, then you know that it needs tuning. It is kind of like if you want to come and visit me in Chicago, Ralph. You got into your car and set out to drive, you knew the terrain, and you knew how long it would take, and the fan belt or the drive shaft breaks down to make it not work.
You aren’t going to get there on time because the system doesn’t work; the vehicle you selected had a problem. It is important because it lets you evaluate that.
But there is one way in which it is not technically important, Ralph, and that is that it does not make anyone a failure because it took longer.
Ralph Zuranski: That is the truth. I know that personally in my own life. I’ve had to defer my Heroes program for two years because I had to take care of my mom and dad. I did it by choice because I loved them, and realized that people are more important than any goals or any amount of wealth that you can gain.
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Donna Fox: Goal setting is an interesting thing. I once read that people who set goals, and they set one-year goals and five-year goals and ten-year goals, they always fall short of the one-year goals.
They are usually about right on with the five-year goals and they blow away their ten-year goals when the tenth year comes around. That being said, the study seemed to show that all the people that make goals are far better off than the people who don’t make goals.
So I think it’s important to have a number in mind, something that you are shooting for. Whether it’s the right one, don’t get bogged down on the right one. Just decide on one so that you have something that you are moving forward to.
You won’t make it in a year because we don’t make our one-year goals but we make our five-year goals and we exceed our ten-year goals as long as we set them.
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TOM BEAL: Setting parameters like that are pretty important I feel. Because just saying I want a lot and not putting a time frame on it doesn’t quantify it and doesn’t give it the proper energy to create that or manifest it. I think taking an exact figure in a time frame is one of the smart things you could chose to do.
I want x amount, pick whatever x is for you because it’s all relative. What’s a lot to me are pennies to others and vice versa. So what is your x and by when do you want it? And how are you going to do that?
Just by stating it, you better have a plan because how are you going to do that? I’m going to provide value. Ok, who are you going to provide value to? Pick that crowd. What am I going to provide that is of value that they are willing to part with their hard earned finances to invest in?
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
26. Was there anyone who helped give you the willpower to change things in you life for the better?
Mike Filsaime: Yes, my dad. My dad’s nick name for me when I was a kid was top shelf. I wrote about that in Butterfly Marketing. My dad is my hero and my mentor. My dad always used to talk to me in positive ways.
He brainwashed me a little bit. He never told me I was better than anybody else. He told me I could be the best and I can run with the best. I never realized what a difference that made until someone that you look up to in your life says negative things to you.
Maybe holding a beer can and saying “You are nothing but a piece of garbage. You are going to turn out to be nothing just like your grandfather on your mother’s side.” Kids are impressionable.
I watch some of these movies these days where you are a hero to run around with a gun and drive a Hummer and talk about “popping caps”. And sayings like “get rich or die trying” and other things. Again these kids are impressionable today. As much as those things may be entertainment they are really poisonous to the youth of our society.
Get rich or die trying is a terrible, terrible thing for people to look up to. And these young kids actually look up at these stars and say I want to be like this person.
The messages in those movies are horrible because those people end up having success at the end of the movies. So it’s telling you that you need to be a thug or die trying. Man, it just bothers me. There are so many better heroes out there to learn from.
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Paulie Sabol: Yes, actually. Not necessarily connected to all the difficulties, but in the overall sense, there is one person that I actually alluded to earlier. I said I had hoped to get a chance to say more. Without a doubt, it is Mr. Robert Allen, who is the best selling author of Nothing Down. It is a real estate book.
He provided a path that both influenced me financially, but he also was the person who I was mentioning to you that I joined a $30,000 club to be able to hang out and be mentored by him. In the course of just the first year of doing that, he has opened up for me both by specifically spending time with me, but also by just allowing me to see somebody who was given a higher performance operator.
I had the ability to see for myself. The gift of letting me start to connect with my intuition is something that if he would have told me that would be the benefit I would get, I would have passed on the opportunity. I wouldn’t have made the investment if he had told me that was the reason why.
And my failure to have done so, would have prevented so much of the change that is making my life even better and better. So we just can’t even imagine what we are going to get when we connect with the very best people on the planet.
______________________
Donna Fox: I really wish that I could say there is this strong mentor in my life at those times, that there was a driving force and somebody to lean on. But I think in hard times, more than any other time, you feel alone.
When I think back on those times the only person I leaned on was me. It was the only person I had the ability to lean on at that time because I felt like the only person in the world.
In hindsight when I was a teenager my mother was there. She would have helped but I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t reach out. When I was going through a divorce, my family could have helped. My friends could have helped. But I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t reach out.
I got a little bit better later on as I was going through financial troubles and feelings of fraud and at those times I shared those feelings with my business partner and my fiancé who mostly couldn’t understand them because they saw the me that I see now.
They saw the me outside of the adversity and I think that is important to remember when you go to people to help they are going to see the positive in you because people do that. They see the positive in you.
At the time when you are really low you may not be ready to hear that. So ultimately during those down times I turned to me and I still think of myself as being the only asset that I have that no one will take away from me.
Really try to focus on improving “me” and building “me” and growing “me.” If I am all I have, then I still have something pretty good.
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TOM BEAL: Oh boy. Books, tapes, mentors and my grandfather. My grandfather was probably the stable rock I had in the chaos as a child. My mother was 17 so he was at an age where people his age were having kids.
Through all the adversity I lived with him a lot. He owned a business, a hardwood flooring business. I would go with him when I was about 7 or 8 or 9 years old with him and lay some hardwood floors and he taught me.
He’d say “Tom go clean up that room up we were just in.” I’d go clean the room. He’d say”OK everything is good but you didn’t clean this room over here.”
I called him ‘Papa.’ I’d say “Papa we weren’t even in that room.” He’d say “Exactly, Tom the lessen in life is to leave a place better than when you got here.” And if we could all do that, leave this place better than when we got here I think that pretty much sums it up.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
27. How important was it to believe your financial dreams would eventually become reality?
Mike Filsaime: You set your goals and I have to be honest with you, I’ve been setting goals all my life and never achieving them but it sent me in the right direction. I set a goal years ago that I wanted to be a millionaire.
Sometimes you say to yourself “Well that’s a great carrot to go for.” What ends up happening is that when you get there you have to re-evaluate and set new goals. You have to start thinking bigger and thinking more philanthropic.
You want to start thinking how you want to affect lives and help people achieve success and dreams they want out of life. Of course I can still make money doing that. There is nothing wrong with charging money for mentoring programs.
If you believe in what you are doing and that people will spend $5,000 a year and it can bring them from making $5,000 a mo nth to a$100,000 a month, well they’ll pay you 10 times for what it is.
Sometimes you have to pay for information. Like I said before you have to be a student of learning. So those are some of the things we are doing right now. I believe in higher learning. When you ask that question about positive thinking and achieving goals, I think it all boils down to having a positive attitude.
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Paulie Sabol: Again, I am probably going to sound like the contrarian here, and say for me it is not particularly important. For me, whether I had the belief or not, I had no choice but to take action. I had taken on and really believed that it was required of me to meet certain responsibilities.
And some of those responsibilities that have and do and continue to require financial freedom, financial abundance. So I really believed I had no choice but to figure it out, to make it happen, to do whatever I had to do.
Even at that time when I was investing into that coaching program, I had to put that on a credit card, because it wasn’t the best time. Especially, in a lot of the kinds of businesses I do, like real estate. It is very cash intensive. I might have on a given day, five million dollars worth of real estate that I own and have equities in, but I may not actually have two thin dimes to go make a telephone call with.
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Ralph Zuranski: I know you have been very successful in the last couple of years after you overcame the credit millionaire, sort of like epiphany, that you were the right person at the right time because you were experiencing exactly what you were writing about.
It seems that a lot of people teach exactly what they need to know at the time that they need it and that’s why they are the best teachers because they are actually going through it at that time.
Donna Fox: The whole time I was really struggling to be an entrepreneur, living off of credit cards, I only looked at the job ads three times. I quickly remembered what I was running away from, the fear of being stuck in a job working a lot of grueling hours for somebody else and making a living instead of making a life.
That kept me focused and it kept me motivated. So yea, I did kind of turn to the dark side and look at the want ads every once in awhile when I though it would be nice to go out for dinner once in awhile for a change.
But ultimately it was that I knew that the best thing for me would be to make it successful, and in 2005, which was really a pivotal year for me, I made a decision not to renew my law license.
I took away my safety net. Instead of swinging from trapezes and knowing there was a net underneath me, I took the net way and I grew tremendously.
Once I was willing to get rid of that safety net and know that I had to catch the other trapeze that was coming, that there was nothing saving me but making it work and being successful.
Ultimately I believe that that moment was my tipping point. At that moment I told the universe that I was serious about it, and it’s made all the difference.
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TOM BEAL: Financial dreams, here’s the thing, through all that adversity and poverty as a child there was a lot of brainwashing as far as what people who were wealthy did and how they did people wrong. All the normal stuff people hear like money doesn’t grow on trees and all the other negative stuff.
But knowing and having faith in the law of sowing and reaping and the law of cause and effect, knowing that if you’re able to contribute value you will be compensated. If you’re doing the best you can just like when I was in the marine corp. Circumstances are the way they are but if I can just continue to provide value I’ll be rewarded.
I was rewarded with promotions and such. In the free world the more value you are able to contribute to more people you’ll be rewarded. It’s just a matter of how much value you are providing. You can do a check by taking a look at your bank account. That will tell you exactly how much value you’re providing people at this particular point in time.
It doesn’t mean you can’t change it or improve it. Recognize where your starting point is and then see how you can contribute more value. There’s a quote by Zig Ziglar that says basically all your dreams can come true by the amount of people you help their dreams come true.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Click Here to listen to Donna Fox's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Mike Filsaime's heroes interview and read the entire transcript.
Click Here to listen to Paulie Sabol's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
Click Here to listen to Tom Beal's heroes interview and read the entire transcript
25. When was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life path to one of victory over the obstacles you were facing at that time?
Mike Filsaime: I’ve been fortunate Ralph that I haven’t had, knock wood of course, and I will (Knock, knock), any deaths in my immediate family. My parents got divorced when I was in my mid-twenties so that didn’t affect me the way it could have.
Maybe it would have affected someone who was 8 years old. I lost my grandfather. We knew each other but we didn’t know each other well. So “knock wood” again there hasn’t been any type of tragedy or anything like that.
However, I had financial tragedy and stress back in 1998. I was in the car business. I left the car business for 6 months to get involved with a real estate investor who turned out to be nothing more than a con man. He took me and about six other people in on this con. It was a con by driving a Mercedes and having a house that wasn’t his and all these other things that we believed were his.
His intentions were good. His intentions were to use our credit and our money to buy houses and repair them and flip them. What ended up happening, remember what we said about taking on too many projects, he was trying to buy too many houses at a time.
While he was trying to put all this construction in and collecting the mortgage payments and when the cash flow went negative he started keeping the mortgage payments and putting it in his own pocket.
Several months later we found out that the whole project went bankrupt. Since it was our credit and our money he lost nothing. We had him arrested and we filed charges and put all that stuff behind us.
What it left me in 1998 was $70,000 in debt and 3 foreclosures and 3 repossessions. One was for a Mercedes Benz and one for a Ford Exhibition and a Harley Davidson. I had signed for all these things for him under the business name.
Also the credit card machine and three foreclosures were in my name so I had no choice at that time but to file bankruptcy. They were coming after everything I owned. If you look at all these successful people out there like Stephen Pierce, Mark Victor Hansen, Armand Moran and Joe Vitalie there’s one thing you can be comfortable in knowing.
The school of hard knocks happens to all of us. So we must stop with the self-pity. Everybody’s got their own story. I heard recently that everybody is going to tell you “My parents left me when I was three years old and I was put up for adoption.” Ok, well so what, everybody’s got a story.
Let it go. Stop holding on to it and let that be an inspiration to people when you’ve overcome it. Start thinking positive and stop dwelling on it on that. Eighty-five percent of the people in the US have grown up in a dysfunctional family.
You are not alone. So stop thinking about that you were given these bad things. I think that 9 out of 10 successful people that are multi-millionaires in this world have gone through major tragedies or bankruptcy or financial tragedy.
It’s ok to let those things happen. You can’t be embarrassed and say “Oh I don’t want anybody to know that I went bankrupt.” Hey, it happens. We’ve made mistakes in our life. We have to learn from them and move on.
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Paulie Sabol: I was an active member of a church at a point and time. I began to read and understand different truths from our common sacred text, our common basis of our seemingly shared belief systems.
My views changed very, very dramatically in those periods of time. Even though I could make my case of where I felt like this was my inspiration, where I felt like it was soundly based doctrinally, that group of people rejected me.
They rejected me in a very formal way. There is actually this kind of secret language within this worldview. Basically the language is that they cast me out of the church in the name of Jesus.
What that was communicating to me and to every other member of that community that was full of friends and people that I cared about, is that they were basically saying and treating me like I was in their mind, an evil, malevolent spirit, just because I saw things differently.
Just because I believed, for example, that from my reading of their text, there was no eternal hell that anyone went to, because I didn’t see any reason that somebody could not be a person who expresses their sexual orientation as a same-sex orientation and be a servant to many, and in this case, at that time I would have said a child of God.
It was a very, very difficult time because at that point in my life, that was about 70 or 80 percent of all my social relationships, all my contacts, all of my sense of identity and importance and self-worth, not to mention all the residual fears I had at that time, because it was a place that really saw the universe and God as an angry, spiteful, demanding authoritarian, patriarchal, sort of character.
So it was very, very difficult. It thrust me into a lot of uncertainty. The way that I was able to turn it around was simply through time. I found new relationships. I found other people had believed the same thing I had at other points and time.
I found out that some of the others were treated much worse than me. Jacques DeMolay, the head of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake for similar beliefs. So the first thing I started to realize was that I didn’t quite have it as bad as some others had had. I wasn’t alone, and it was huge to realize I was not, in fact, alone.
Then finally I was really able to turn it around because of something that happened very recently. I was very resentful. I was very oppositional. I had a lot of struggles with people who were members of organized religion.
One day, a person who was actually a minister of a church, we’ve had discussions, and he certainly challenged and took some exceptions, and had some questions about what the role of homosexuality is as it relates to spirituality, as it relates to blessings, and all of these things.
He lost his luggage on a plane, and we were at the same place. He asked me if I would pray with him? I will, but you’ve got to know I’m not really a prayer person, I don’t really believe the same things you do, I would actually consider myself an atheist, an agnostic, but I can certainly call upon my overall belief systems and your language patterns and pray.
I sat down and prayed for him. I prayed what I knew were some of his scriptures. I prayed that he would have a peace that passed all understandings, and keep his heart and his mind through these tribulations. I did the whole thing.
Afterwards he came up and talked to me. The cool thing was that he hadn’t been able to get through, he couldn’t even talk to anybody who could find his bag, or would even acknowledge that it had been on the plane. Right after our prayer, he picked up the phone, he got through to the airport, and one hour later he had his bag.
But even before he had his bag, he told me he had a lot of rethinking to do because your prayer bore witness to my spirit. For me, that was like coming full circle. You have to understand what it was like to be in this environment that you considered your social and protective cocoon of making it as a young adolescent.
Here they are basically saying you are a child of Satan, not a child of God, and sending you away so that at the end you might be saved as though by fire. Now here we have this person who is a religious leader, and he’s saying, “Your prayer bore witness to my spirit.”
May I share one other down time with you, too?
Ralph Zuranski: You bet.
Paulie Sabol: Because this is another one where it shows that sometimes the way you overcome takes a little bit of time. That story took a little bit of time. That closure story really only happened two years ago.
Here’s another case. My best friend when I was a youngster died way too early in his life. He died when he was 18 or 19 years of age. He was coming home from college for Thanksgiving, and as you can probably guess, in all the cliché ways, got hit by a drunk driver and he died.
It was interesting because he was my best friend when I was a little kid, from four to eight. When I got the news, I hadn’t really seen him any other times than that. We both moved, but I got this news that he had died because his parents were in the same community that I had grown up with, and my grandfather was in this community.
I was invited to the funeral. I want to tell you, Ralph, I couldn’t go. I couldn’t bring myself to go because in my mind, as I was even envisioning what the funeral would be like, I mean I had this little child’s casket, and I realized this was really emotional for me right now.
I would go there and what I would see would be out of alignment with what I was experiencing inside. I was losing my little buddy. So I couldn’t go. But then another thing happened. About one year later, two of my other friends were actually murdered by a third friend. We used to get together and play cards and play other games. We were in this gaming group together.
This one friend actually murdered two of my other friends. Now if you can imagine something putting you into turmoil, that’s going to do it. That really does it. You’ve got murder cases going on. You’ve got funerals. You’ve got friends not knowing what they’re going to do.
Again, I was invited to the funeral. I talked to another friend of mine and let me tell you this story about when my friend Johnny died. And I explained why I didn’t go. Now I’m feeling even more like I’m uncertain. I had never gone to a funeral yet by this time, by the way.
She worked in hospice, so she was actually around people who were dying of terminal illnesses all the time. So I thought she would have some good advice. That is definitely one of the things I’ve found out in my life that help you, is to find a coach or a mentor who can give you some guidance because they have specialized knowledge.
So I asked her about it. She said something to me that totally changed my life. This is a case of where a message did it. She said, “Paulie, you don’t go to the funeral as much for you, but you go to the funeral for the survivors, for the people who are remaining who have lost something.”
So I went. Now, remember, we had a Saturday gaming clique. We got together once or twice a month, pretty much did only one thing. I don’t want to suggest it was an insignificant relationship, but it only was what it was.
I go to the funeral. I introduce myself to the father of the husband (these two got married at a young age together – and they were both killed). He says that he remembered one time when you guys first met. We had first met when I 16 or 17 and didn’t even drive yet.
So this dad had driven the son over to my house when we had one of our first gaming experiences. He said, “I just want to thank you. You were such a good friend to my son.” He gave me this big hug and he started crying and I started crying. I totally got it.
For awhile I was actually feeling depressed again about not having gone to Johnny’s funeral, because of me. But I realized, Johnny was the one in this case who died. He was the one who I wasn’t going to have another chance with. But I was able to go to his parents and go another time and connect with them and say, “You know, Johnny and I had such a good time. I’m so disappointed that he was taken from you and the rest of the world so soon.”
Again, able to come back and make up for it and give them that acknowledgment that he was special and important to me. Even after I had seemed to miss the first opportunity. But it is because I had additional learning.
Ralph Zuranski: One of my dear friends that was on the frontline of alternative medicine just died last week of an unexpected heart attack. I just wrote his eulogy today. You think about how powerful it is, the people that have impact on your life, and how life and death can make such a big difference in your perspective on what’s going on in your life at this moment and particular time.
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Donna Fox: There have been quite a few low points in my life. I’ll just work reverse chronologically until you decide to stop me because it’s too depressing.
As early as two years ago I had just published a book From Credit Repair to Credit Millionaire and I was broke. I had left my job in 2001 to start a business and I had some savings.
My ultimate goal was to start a business and go back to work but then September 11th happened, the marketplace changed, and when it was time for me to go back to work there were just no jobs available in my field.
So I decided to keep working on my business a little big more and that is actually when I started and got involved in the internet and got involved in speaking and training and found that I loved it.
But at that time, right when I had published that book, I hadn’t had income for two and a half years. Not a dime in income for two and a half years. I was living on credit cards, Ralph.
I was literally living on cash advances on credit cards and shuffling them around, and almost ironically practicing my credit millionaire strategies to keep my head above water while I’m trying to build a business teaching other people how to make millions of dollars by borrowing money.
So there is just this very interesting time in my life where I struggled with feelings that I was a fraud. Who was I to tell people about wealth building when I have $40,000 in credit card debt because I’ve been living off them for years?
Then I realized that is exactly why I am the right person because I’m teaching people about how to use credit. I may have $40,000 in credit card debt but it’s basically business debt because it’s money that I was essentially paying to myself as a salary.
I could have loaned it to my business and then paid myself a salary if I wanted to do it that way.
It’s kind of hard to think about the low points because after you get over them you tend to find the positive in them. Another low point in my life was right after I graduated from law school. I was also getting a divorce.
It was just a terrible time in my life. My husband and I loved each other so much but we just could not be married. It turns out we never really should have been married. We should have just been friends.
Now he is a great friend of mine. We are practically best friends. But at that time it was so low and I felt scared because I had just gotten out of law school, I didn’t have a job so I was job hunting, I was going to be alone, I had tremendous debt over my head from my student loans, and yea, there were days when I hid under the covers.
It was just a tremendous low point, but it passed. If it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger. It made me stronger.
The last one I want to talk about is not something I have ever said publicly before, ever. So this is a first. It’s a first for In Search of Heroes.
I got pregnant when I was 16 and in high school. I first thought about an abortion but that didn’t feel right. Remember I said I like to check my decisions based on my feelings. Nothing felt good about that.
But I had plans in life and a baby was not part of the plans. So I made the decision to give the baby up for adoption. I’m not going to get through this without crying. I went through an open adoption so I actually interviewed and picked the parents for my daughter.
Probably the lowest point in my life, and the hardest thing I have ever done, was actually handing my daughter over into the arms of her new mom. I just thought the world was going to end. Nothing could be good after doing something like that.
I remember it was really the way to give her the best life I possibly could and also give me a chance, because I was still a baby, too, and I needed to give myself a chance. So yea, it was a tremendously low time.
As this knocked-up teenager I felt like a screw-up. You would not believe, but now because I did an open adoption and actually my daughter turns 18 this year, so there is a chance she might come back into my life.
Because I’ve done an open adoption, every year I get pictures. Every year I saw this wonderful little thing that cost me so much pain, grow into this amazing individual. And I think that is what adversity in life is about.
Real change doesn’t happen until there is adversity and real growth. She could go on to change the world. Maybe it’s not my job to end poverty. Maybe it’s her’s.
If I hadn’t experienced that adversity, that amazing life wouldn’t have happened and I wouldn’t be who I am now. I got so much growth and so much strength from that experience. If I had just kind of skated through my high school years I don’t know if I would be here today.
So gosh, yes, adversity sucks when you are in it. There is nothing worse than when you are at the life lows. But when you can look back and realize how far you have come, and you will come far because you can’t stay low. The human spirit is too strong to stay low.
When you look back and think about the amazing things that have happened you just have to embrace those adversities, you have to embrace the low times in your life.
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TOM BEAL: Wow, the lowest point. That’s a good question. Here’s one and it’s a weird one. I was the number one honor graduate in boot camp and had three merit choice promotions in 4 years, I was the man. I was like the kid on the block. I was like the epitome of a marine.
I was up for MECP, Marine Enlistment Commissioning Program. They were going to take me out of the enlistment and put me in college and have me come back as an officer. At the same time we had just been transferred from Cherry Point, North Carolina to Yuma, Arizona.
Little did we know there had been a circumstance there with hazing. This was right around the time of the movie with Tom Cruise called “A Few Good Men”. So hazing is like what fraternities do and all that fun stuff. But we didn’t know that since that event occurred they said the next time something occurs like this we are going to set a precedent.
We didn’t know that. We picked up a couple of dead beats that got passed over to our platoon and everyone wanted to get this one kid. I didn’t and wasn’t for that stuff. Basically I was there to make sure it didn’t get out of hand.
To make a long story short, I made sure it didn’t get out of hand but everybody that was there was busted including me. So I went in the matter of one sentence from being the top person in that whole base basically to being demoted.
Internally to be at the top of your game and have the carpet pulled out from under you and have the package ripped up was probably the toughest point in my life.
Because, I knew that I had done good and physically stopped this from getting where it shouldn’t have been. But I also chose to be there. I own the fact that I was there and also own the fact that I did make sure this kid didn’t get harmed in any way.
But, I chose to be there. By choosing to be there I chose to be demoted. It took me a long time to own that. So that was the lowest point. I was able to overcome it and getting meritorially promoted once again.
It took me a couple of months to work through that. I had to learn it is what it is. I was worrying about it but knew there was nothing I could do about it other than be the best that I can today. I decided to be the best that I could and I ended up getting promoted again after that.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
23. Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
Mike Filsaime: I am so forgiving to a fault. I think that’s the Scorpio nature in me. I was born October 26. I almost go into everything that I do with the expectation that I’m going to do everything I can right. I hope this person does too but if they don’t then so be it.
I try not to hold a grudge. I’ll kick and scream sometimes and say “Oh man I can’t believe this guy did this to me.” But you have to get over it. If you are going to dwell on the negative things and in the past think instead of what you could be doing if you are working on a project and moving something forward.
I’ve been burned so many times. I could basically tell you on a weekly basis how I get burned. But look where I am in my life because I let it go.
I say “Ok you know if that happened and this & that got shut down or this person did this & that then I hope in my heart this person changes their ways so they can be a better person. Because if they don’t they’ll only have bad things happen to them.”
I don’t wish that upon them. There was a person recently that we didn’t get along with each other in Butterfly Marketing. Remember I said you may have fire your bad friends, well this guy wasn’t behaving. I had to fire him as a customer and refund him.
So he now is going around in forums and tongue & cheek beating me up a little bit. I’m not going to play down to that game. I sent him a very polite email and apologized that we got off on the wrong foot.
I said “We can do better things in this world if we both put positive energy out there. I give you my word I’ll never say anything bad about you regardless of what you continue to do to me.
However, maybe one day we’ll meet and let’s not have any uncomfortable feelings when that happens. I always believed that if you don’t have anything nice to say about people then don’t say anything. And right there, do I have faults with that? I’m sure I do.
I’m sure there are times I may have a cup of coffee or a drink with somebody and a topic will come up and I’ll probably talk in ways that I shouldn’t about somebody. But publicly you should never do anything like that. Without a doubt you have to be able to forgive people and forgive yourself.
You have to know when you’ve made faults. You have to say I’m sorry and apologize to people and reach out to them before they reach out to you if you believe that they may be upset. You have to let it go and don’t associate with those types of people but you can definitely forgive them.
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Paulie Sabol: I do think it is important. I think it is exceptionally important. First, we wouldn’t spend so much time thinking about what others think about us, Ralph, if we knew just how little they did. One of the areas where I’ve had great success and wealth is in real estate.
In real estate we have tenants. That’s where I found what a lack of forgiveness to be like. It is like somebody being a tenant inside your head. So I do make it an effort and a habit of mine to not long hold upon grudges. But I do want to be completely candid and frank and transparent with all of your listeners.
I still get hurt very easily. I do get offended at times when people don’t intend it or mean it. That is the other good reason to forgive them. Very often, it wasn’t even what they were going after. Some of your smartest listeners, who catch more nuance and subtlety, some of your marginalized listeners who are aware of hatred and bias and different aspects of judgment and prejudice, they are going to have moments when they get hurt and offended.
People oppose them. I don’t think that is a failure by any means, but it is an opportunity to get quickly back towards your future through forgiveness.
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Donna Fox: I think forgiveness is really kind of crucial to my business sanity. I have had those moments where just recently somebody is infringing on one of my trademarks. That is huge! I am angry with that person.
But I’ve come to forgive them and it’s relatively recent. It’s still going on and he is still infringing on my trademark even now as we speak. But forgiveness is important for me, not for him. He doesn’t care if I forgive him. He really doesn’t.
It’s kind of the process of letting go of the anger, letting go of the hurt. When I got started I used to get mad at people who opted out of my list! Now I rejoice in it.
Now I look at it as good. I don’t want somebody who doesn’t want me. So it’s just a process that we go through where we get these little small hurts and then we realize that they are just that, small hurts, and we don’t have to be hurt by them.
So we kind of forgive them globally. I have forgiven everyone who ever will in the future opt out of my list. It’s just not a hurt any longer.
I think it helps us grow to be able to forgive but if I was still now, years after starting being an internet marketer, getting upset every time somebody opted out of my list, I wouldn’t move forward.
Forgiveness really helps us learn from an experience and take the next steps forward.
Ralph Zuranski: That is kind of an interesting perception. I don’t think I ever got mad at the people who opted out of my list, I was just thankful that somebody opted in.
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TOM BEAL: The person that’s hurt the most by not forgiving is you and me. If I’m willing to hold that energy and not forgive somebody and hold that inside its only self-limiting. They are living their lives and they have no clue.
It’s one of the most important things I had to overcome. I thought “How could my family do the things they did?” But in reflection I can look back and say they did the best they could with the time and place they were. No one was out to get me.
People make decisions and they did the best they could or the best they were able to at that particular time. They probably made wrong choices just as I have made wrong choices.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
19. Were you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dream?
Mike Filsaime: Absolutely! Again that’s the frame that you define yourself for or align yourself with. In my opinion I don’t think that somebody should just quit their job today even though their job is creating pain in their life. You can’t just quit your job and say “Well I’m going to go out and be an entrepreneur.”
That’s good if you have $50,000 in the bank. If you have nothing in the bank then you have to morph into the next thing. You have to work at your current job and leverage that income and time where you’re not working there into building the new business that you want so that you can walk away.
As an example, when I was in the car business I was making good money. I was making $150,000 plus per year. It was killing me but I knew I had to stay there in order to build the foundation of my business that I wanted to build on line.
It was difficult to run both. It was very, very difficult to run both. Then when the time is right it will come. It came to the point where I was talking to the owner and we just decided one day it was time for me to move on.
I took the leap. It was the scariest thing that I’ve ever had to do Ralph. I actually cried outside of the dealership. My other sales people came up to me and said to me “Hey don’t worry about it. Everything is going to be ok.” I couldn’t believe he gave me an ultimatum saying “You work for me or work for yourself.”
I took the choice and stuck my hand out and said “Thanks it’s been a great five years. The other people were saying “How could you walk away from this making $150,000 a year?” I was so emotionally upset that I was one of the best managers in the auto group and that he would actually be so upset that I was trying to better my life in a non-conflictive way that he made me choose. I was so emotional I couldn’t talk to the guys. I was saying “I don’t care this is…”
One of the reasons I was crying is that the chains just let go. It was an emotional charge. They saw the tears as me being upset but more than anything it was that anger and that happy emotion that came out. It was that happy anger of breaking free of the chains.
I was saying, and in not so polite of words so I’ll tone them down, “Screw that. He doesn’t understand what he just did for me. He doesn’t understand that he gave me a choice. I didn’t have the strength to ask him myself. This is a celebration! This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Then I had to get home and tell the family that I no longer have a Toyota Forerunner demo. I no longer have medical benefits and an income or all these things. But to me it was liberation. Because of that I was able to go from $150,000 to making $850,000 last year.
So far this year I’ve made over $3,000,000. Sometimes you have to be able to be willing to “break or cut your wrist” or almost shave the skin off your arms while you are pulling your hands out of those things that bind you. _______________________________________
Paulie Sabol: Willingness is a curious word. I suspect we’ll have the discomfort one way or the other, however, the ability to have comfort is significantly more dependent upon pursuing our dreams than it is upon…in other words, we will assuredly never be comfortable if we give up on our dreams.
We will absolutely experience the worse kind of discomfort, the discomfort of regret, Ralph, is much stronger, is much longer lasting, than the discomfort of being outside of what we know and having all the answers and taking the action to pursue our dreams.
I really point out that we’re going to have the discomfort one way or the other. So we might as well be willing to experience the discomfort in pursuit of our dreams, because we will have no choice but to endure the discomfort and regret if we don’t.
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Ralph Zuranski: I know a lot of people are paralyzed by fear and they are afraid to do things or make changes in their life. A lot of times they are actually constrained by the people that are a part of their peer group.
They know if they make any changes that they are going to be rejected and they are going to go ahead and suffer a certain amount of punishment from their family and friends. I know a lot of people they are just trapped in their relationships and they can’t get out. How do you get out of the relationships or how do you deal with that because I know it is sorrowful, not only for you as a person but also the people that you do have to leave behind.
Donna Fox: It’s a great question and I would love to say I had some kind of magical system that I use or way of looking at it. But frankly, Ralph, what I found is mostly I don’t notice.
Just all of a sudden I realize, “Hey, I haven’t spoken to this person in a while” and realize that I’ve moved on or maybe they have moved on. Who knows, maybe we’ve each moved on in different directions.
But when we get caught up in our day to day activities sometimes those big changes we don’t notice. They are big changes for the good or sometimes big changes for the worst.
I know we’ve all had the experience where suddenly we are ten pounds heavier than we used to be and we certainly didn’t see them going on ounce by ounce. So I don’t really notice that loss enough to be able to comment on the occurrence of it.
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TOM BEAL: Discomfort? I put my self in discomfort because the more you become comfortable I feel the less you are moving forward. If you are not uncomfortable many times a week your life is too complacent and you’re not going to reach great things. I deal with top people.
I deal with Hall of Fame quarterbacks, movie stars, singers, and top marketers. Not everything works for all these people. They make mistakes. They have things that fail. But they don’t quit, they just keep going.
Ok that one didn’t work out, how can I learn from it, how can I get better results? You’ve heard about all my accomplishments but we don’t have time to hear about all my failures. That would take 3 or 4 days if not 3 or 4 weeks.
I’m just too darn stubborn to quit. So put yourself out there. The more uncomfortable position you can put yourself in, obviously ethically and honest and following those proper guidelines, you’ll get used to it and work your muscles up. Then you’ll be able to choose more wisely on projects where a couple of years ago you may have turned that project down.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
21. Are you slow to revise or reverse an important decision?
Mike Filsaime: That’s correct. Yes I think that when you believe something is right in your heart, don’t listen to everybody. Take everybody’s advice into consideration. That’s a good question. You see we are on a ship and we are going to the new world. We don’t know exactly where it is but we know it’s there.
We have our captains and other people that are helping us and telling us “Our calculations show us that the wind is blowing us this way. We need to shift our direction two degrees.” That doesn’t mean you have to stand firm with your feet dead in cement once you’ve made your decision.
You want to stay along the same path and make small changes along the path that you believe is right. But don’t just do a complete 180 degrees because at that point you are going to get lost in the ocean and just sink.
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Paulie Sabol: I am slow to do so. In fact, the universe is slow to do so. There is the natural law of inertia that tells us that a body at rest tends to stay at rest, while a body in motion tends to stay in uniform motion unless acted upon by an outside force.
So this is the way that I apply it. I am slow to change a decision until there is an outside force. Now my recommendation is if you can get the outside force in a feather, if you can get the message way ahead of the game, and you can adjust and course correct, do so.
Because very often, if you don’t get it in the feather, you’re going to get it in the Mack truck. The outside force of the Mack truck, which is kind of metaphorically saying, you will continue to make the same mistake, and more of the same results, and perhaps higher impact from those results, until you do change.
So while it is valuable to stick with long term, even through the downsides and the occasional disappointments of a system that works, it makes good sense to quickly change your mind, and as quickly as possible when the results are not fulfilling and are not what you want.
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Donna Fox: Gosh, such a great question! I like to think that I can recognize when I’m being fearful of a decision that I’ve made the wrong decision versus knowing that I’ve made the wrong decision. But who really knows?
I think it’s important to have flexibility. Thankfully, as internet marketers, we have a lot of flexibility built into our lifestyle. We have this phrase in our business where we start to vacillate abut a decision. We simply say, “It’s testable.” That is ultimately what it is about.
Who cares if I have made the right decision? It’s more important that I have made a decision to go forward. And if I want to question the decision, in most cases it’s something that I can test and let the market decide who is right.
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TOM BEAL: It changes with information. For instance I can make a decision right now based on the information I have and believe it whole heartedly and would die for that decision but then new information may come up. If new information comes up that turns the table on it then you can decide again or choose differently.
But obviously for ethics, beliefs and honestly you have to have a foundation on those. Otherwise if new information arises I’m open to hear. If I’m walking this way and somebody says I can walk this way and get different results I’m willing to hear them. But based upon that I can continue to walk in the direction I’m in or choose to go off a little bit.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
20. Is it beneficial to make decisions quickly?
Mike Filsaime: Yes absolutely Ralph. As you’ll see you’ll be talking to a lot of people and we all quote famous people and successful people. Especially quotes from Napoleon Hill.
Napoleon Hill teaches that one of the habits that he notices about all the successful people he interviewed was that successful people are decisive in nature. Successful people make decisions very quickly. And they change them slowly.
Unsuccessful people make decisions very slowly and they change them very quickly. I saw that in the car business. What that means is if I ask you “What color is a blue shirt?” You say it’s blue because you know it to be true.
Sometimes we know the right answer but we were brought up to say “Never make a decision right away. Always sleep on it. Always think about it.” That’s a bunch of nonsense but we have to look at the people that taught us that. They were people that lived their structured life where they made $472.63 a week
Those are the people that are teaching our kids today. I want the kids listening today to know that when they know something is right to make the decision. Stick with it and make it through and focus on that decision you made because you knew it was right.
If it turns out to be the wrong decision then we go back and we talk about what we learned from our mistakes. I will venture to say that 19 times out of 20 your gut instinct is right and you know the right decision. The mistake that people make is they say I’m going to sleep on it.
It’s like me saying “Here you give me $5.00 and I’ll give you ten tomorrow.” Then you say “Well let me think about that.” And the next thing you know you end up saying “I remember when Snapple came out. My friends bought it but I decided not to buy it. I remember when Google came out and I was going to but the stocks but I didn’t.”
Because they knew it was right but they didn’t act on it. What ends up happening is that when they do end up making a decision they say “Everybody bought Google. I waited a year and half and I’m going to buy Google now.”
They buy Google for $110.00 a share and tomorrow it goes to $109.00 a share. Remember unsuccessful people make decisions slowly and change them quickly. It took them a year and a half to make the decision then all of a sudden they say “Oh wow, I just lost a dollar. Let me pull my money out of the market place.”
Next thing you know as they pull their money out of the market place it goes up to $115.00 and they lost the opportunity when they had the right decision to begin with. So that’s an example that I can give you.
To answer question in a nutshell when you have a decision should you act quickly? I believe the answer is unequivocally yes.
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Paulie Sabol: Historically, it always has been. I think the benefit of making quick decisions is becoming even more clear now, and I would encourage every one of your young heroes to read a book by Malcolm Gladwell called Blink. Blink shows us that even if we are amateurs at something, if we don’t have degrees, if we haven’t become fully immersed in an area of study, the fact of the matter is, our quick momentary intuitions are often more right than the experts are.
So the ability to make a decision, to realize you’ve made a decision, and then to put motion behind that decision is exceptionally valuable.
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Donna Fox: I think that it is definitely a major success principle to be decisive in nature. Quickly is relative. You might decide what you want from a restaurant menu in 15 seconds and that could be quick.
You might take a minute and that would still be quick to some people. You might decide about moving into a new home and making a decision about a home. That could take months.
So “quickly” is relative. I think what is most important is to decide and if, as you are listening to this, you are having trouble making decisions in your life, start with the small ones. Start making decisions with a menu.
Sit down and say, “I’m only going to look at this menu for 30 seconds” and then make a decision. Just force yourself to make decisions that don’t matter because ultimately most decisions in life really don’t matter. They are small things.
What’s that book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff? Being decisive does help.
You also asked about procrastination and I have found the key to overcoming procrastination, because you are right, we all do it. We all procrastinate, especially we internet marketers because it’s so easy to start our day and start reading email and the next thing we know we are surfing the web and reading people’s blogs.
All of those things are valuable things to do but they don’t build out business’s bottom line. I took a tip from Brian Tracy. He has a book called Eat That Frog.
What he says is if you have a number of frogs to eat, if you take the biggest, ugliest frog first then all the other frogs seem easier. I like to call that concept “kiss the frog” which is a bit more palatable and sometimes when you kiss the frog you get a prince.
So each day I have my frogs and I line up four or five frogs each day that are the things I will most likely procrastinate on. But I try to make them things that generate revenue for my business, that actually move me forward.
If I take the biggest, ugliest one that I am most likely to procrastinate on and get at that first thing in the morning before I open an email, before I do just about anything other than drink some coffee, suddenly my whole day is better because I have got something done right away.
It’s just that simple restructuring of my day, making it the first thing that I do, that makes all the difference. Again, it’s back to that idea of little tiny improvements, kaizen.
My friend would call it the butterfly effect. How one little thing that you can do right now can make a tremendous difference in the future. It also makes a tremendous difference in procrastination.
Ralph Zuranski: It sounds like you make decisions fairly fast but take a fair amount of time deciding and making sure that you do make a good decision. You never know what the outcome of the decisions is.
I guess that’s the weird thing about decisions. You don’t know which way they are going to turn.
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TOM BEAL: Oh, 100%! Napoleon Hill had an egg timer to answer the question whether he was willing to pursue the study of success not compensated by the richest man in the world. That doesn’t sound like a pretty logical choice to make but he took it on.
But he had an egg timer and little did he know that Andrew Carnegie, he found out later, as soon as he posed the question to him & after a couple of days of downloading what this would require & how Andrew was going to make the correct contacts, he had an egg timer.
The ones that said “Let me check with my wife, let met me do this.” they didn’t make the cut. You have to be decisive based upon full information. Once you have full information then make up your mind, yes or no. The more you can flex that muscle of decision making the more quickly you can rise to the top.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
18. Do you have the courage to pursue new ideas?
Mike Filsaime: Oh yes. The easiest way to get your family to get behind you is to prove them wrong in the first place. When they start telling you, “Enough already! You have a job already & that’s where the food comes from. Why don’t you go out and get a real job instead of chasing these Mickey Mouse dreams and blah, blah, blah? I’m sick and tired of hearing about these names you keep talking about.”
That’s negative energy and you have to put your force field up. You have to do what the entrepreneur spirit inside knows you can do. Then all of a sudden when that check comes in of $34,000 then you’ll see how quickly the friends or people in your life say “Oh wow, that’s great! How can I do something like that? Can I have that to go buy something?”
You just have to do what you know is right and they’ll come around when they see the success or they’ll get out of your life. Sometimes you need to fire your negative friends & fire the negative people in your life. If you are married to a negative person you have to understand that you can’t change people.
I would never endorse people to fire the negative people in their life when they are their kids and their spouse. All you can do is be who you can be. Be the best you can be and what will happen is that hopefully they can see the type of person you are and want to be more like you.
You can’t change somebody and keep trying to change people from who they are. They can only change themselves. They do that when you stop batting heads with them. You just have to sometimes say “This is the life I want to live.” Either they are going to come along with you or they won’t. But you can’t forcefully try to change them.
We are talking about everything we’ve spoken about on this call. It’s about honor, ethics, faith and knowing what’s right & believing what’s right. Sometimes we get into a position where we did get involved with the right person in the beginning.
That doesn’t mean it’s over. It means they have to realize that you are the right thing in their lives and they have to walk towards you. Sometimes you can’t force them to do that.
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Paulie Sabol: Absolutely. I think it does. One thing that I would also like to say about this, it also takes courage sometimes to continue on a path and pursue old ideas. Really, I think pursuit is what requires courage, whether the idea is new or whether the idea is true and trusted.
In fact, sometimes it would be a mistake to pursue an idea simply because it is new, because your current path, your current idea is working for you. So what I would add to that is one small little point. One of the best ways to be courageous, even if you are feeling a certain amount of fear, and you’re wanting to test a new idea to see if this is one of the keys, one of the elements, that will maximize the probability of your success.
Remember we talked about that you want to have the highest probability of success as possible, and that is what you want to act toward. Well, when you are trying a new idea, try it small first. Don’t bet the farm.
If you want to discover if a spiritual path is for you, don’t give up all of your belongings and run away from home. Test it small. Grab the sacred text and read them in the quiet places over weeks at a time. Don’t just rush out and entirely change everything, because you might throw away the good along with eliminating some of the negative things that you want to eliminate through the process of change.
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Donna Fox: There is no question that it takes courage to pursue new ideas. Not one single question in my mind.
But courage isn’t the absence of fear. Courage is preceding forwards in the face of and in spite of fears. It is said that you are most like the five people you hang out with, so if you want to improve yourself hang out with better people.
The natural consequence of that is that it leaves the old five people behind, and it’s kind of sad. If you think about it, to think that I might leave the five people that are closest to me behind as I grow it is very, very sad.
But you can’t bring them with you. They have to come on their own. What I have found as I move through these people as I grow and friends come in and out of my life.
Like my friends from high school. I don’t talk to any of them any more. I still love them all dearly but they aren’t close friends any longer. They have moved out of my life.
People move in and out of your life at all times. But what I have found is that the people who are moving in my life are always really amazing and really interesting and fascinating people.
Some of them can move onto the next level with me, and that is what you really hope for. You hope to find those people who can continue to be the five people in your life that you would most like to be like.
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TOM BEAL: It’s like a muscle; the more you work it out the more easily it will come to you. In the beginning as in anything when we had to learn how to peddle a bike it was a very difficult task. When we learned how to walk it was a very difficult task but the more you do it the more you get used to it.
You need to exercise that muscle. First you need to exercise your power of choice and your power of decision. Then once you get that muscle worked up then you can choose quickly and correctly.
You can decide on good manners fast. Then you’ll also be able to take action upon your ideas. Everybody has good ideas. People listening to this have probably had many $1,000,000 or plus ideas.
But the fact of the matter is not many of them have taken action upon it. So it’s a matter of choosing. It’s a matter of narrowing it down.
You talked about focus. Take all your ideas and see what’s the most fulfilling and satisfying one that you could choose to become real. Act as if it’s real all ready then take steps to make it and implement it.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
17. Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and dreams?
Mike Filsaime: That’s something I believe I should do and something I believe everybody should do. But I can’t tell you that I do that. I think it has become so conscious that once you start living a life of positive thinking you are just on auto pilot and thinking g positively all the time.
However, I believe that meditation is good. I think you should have some type of time where you are doing meditation. Whether you are doing sub-conscious learning programs, any types of hypnotic programs or subliminal programs or anything like that.
I think those things are great to super charge the mind. I don’t actually do it, Ralph. I do research into it. That’s one of the things I said before. Do I actively do everything I know that’s right? No I don’t. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not right. I don’t do as much as I’d like to.
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Paulie Sabol: I don’t have a specific portion of the day that I carve out for that. Sometimes in my life I’ve done what my mentors have called the Golden Hour. I’ve taken the first hour of the day to really feed myself.
In my case, what I’ve really done, is to remove a lot of the conscious corruptors of my thoughts. I’m not saying that everyone has to do this, or necessarily even should do this. But, for example, I don’t watch the television. I don’t go and read the news the first thing in my day, because I find it to be all nasty, ugly and disgusting.
Instead what I do is more or less throughout the day I am being aware of the messages that I’m saying to myself. If I catch myself saying a message, like responding to, “Hey, fatso,” I’m going to take a moment, and at that point, consciously cancel that thought and reaffirm my new thoughts.
I don’t have a specific time of day that I do that. I may go around and test that and see if there is a best time of day for me to actually schedule it.
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Donna Fox: This is a great question because I do this all the time. I’ll give you an example. Just last week I was doing an event at a seminar at a hotel and the hotel manager, who was handling our account, we came to heads.
We had a disagreement and I was angry, I was fired up. I’m a little bit Italian so when I get angry I get really angry. So I’m irate and I’m storming around and I snapped on some poor couple who said that the seminar room was cold.
I snapped on them and I thought, “I have to walk away.” I walked away and then I thought I’m just going to take all this anger and put it here in my hand. I held my hand out and kind of cupped it open so that all this anger is sitting right here in my hand.
I felt the anger move from my body and land in my hand and I thought, you know how easy it is when you have something really heavy in your hand and it’s a burden? You just tip your hand a little bit and let it go.
With that I tipped my hand and I threw my anger into the garbage can. That quickly it was gone. It was gone from my body and it was gone from my day.
My conscious mind is saying that is just silly. But my unconscious mind got rid of the anger. So I do stuff like that all the time to keep me going. It’s amazing how quickly you can change your perspective.
It’s not enough to say, “I have to get over it.” You have to actually go through the ritual
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TOM BEAL: Yes, through self-talk and through reading the proper material & watching programs like www.whatisthesecret.tv. I’m looking at the library of success I have over here. I’m looking at this one, you may or may not have seen this, and it’s called The Master Key to Success.
It was one of the first Nightingale Conant products that are actually a two VHS tape that’s over 3 hours of Napoleon Hill talking in black and white as if you are sitting there at his desk. He says “Oh, it’s a pleasure to see you today. Please be seated.” He talks like you are sitting there across the desk from Napoleon Hill. And things like that.
Also listening to Brian Tracy, Jim Roan and Tony Robbins and attending live events. Getting around people who are like minded. You heard my one trait, identify and align. Find someone who is doing what you desire to accomplish and do your best to get close to them.
You can do that through reading books, listening to tapes, watching videos and more importantly going to live events and meeting with these people one-on-one. I’ve been able to meet and work with my heroes and that is the quickest way to get pulled from where you are to where you want to be.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
16. Do you feel it is important to make positive statements about yourself...the type of person you are and your goals?
Mike Filsaime: Yes, those are affirmations. You need to not only say the affirmations but you need to envision the affirmation. Like I said before it’s been proven and it’s a fact that when your mind and in your imagination & you think in terms of the past & look back in your memory bank & you imagine things the mind looks in the same exact place that it does for memories.
The mind cannot distinguish between imagination and reality. So all you have to do is imagine the results that you want & you will suddenly start to live that life. I know I keep on saying that same thing but I believe so strongly in those things that we are talking about right now.
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Paulie Sabol: I do. In the Old Testament it says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Ever since the first time that I heard that line, it became a goal of mine to always speak and seek to always speak life to myself, to others, to the planet, etc.
So I think it is an eminently important. I want to say this one thing about this matter of speaking life, because very often we can feel as if…
When I was in junior high and high school, and being at the age of a lot of your listeners, I was the fat kid. That’s who I was. I spent most of my time feeling bad and internalizing and absorbing those attitudes. When I was at my best health, when I really shed a lot of the weight, I was running.
I heard a passerby say, “Hey, fatso.” I turned to look even though that wasn’t even who I was in the physical form anymore. I had shed the weight. But get this, my sense of identity, because I hadn’t changed that internal language, was still that I was the fatso.
So this is why it is eminently important. It is as if I failed to do that change of the internal view, I ended up having an auto accident shortly after I was at the best level of health I have ever had. With the results of that accident, it became impossible for me to continue with my healthy lifestyle.
Then my career changed in such a way that I couldn’t continue my healthy eating. Originally I got up above my highest level of extra weight, and now I’m back on the path I started first, before I started to lose the weight.
Before I started to lose the weight, I started to say things to myself. I started to change that programming. I believed this time, that when I overcome and continue to overcome the weight, as I already am, that I will have the permanent result. This is what I was saying about the issue of saying something when it is not true.
That was one of the reasons I was not willing to first program myself and say, “You are healthy. I am so happy that I am a happy, vibrant, perfect, ideal weight.” I was uncomfortable with that was because I somehow believed that I was lying. It didn’t make any sense to affirm something that wasn’t true.
Then I found another piece of the puzzle, out of the very same sacred text, that I had found the quote that death and life come out of the power of the tongue. It said, “Let the poor say I am rich, let the weak say I am strong.”
Again, I’m not saying that anyone has to believe that there is anything special or uniquely true, or differentially, philosophically important about the Old Testament book as opposed to any other sacred text. But it is the wisdom of all times and it is there for us.
And the wisdom of all times said, “Let the poor say I am rich.” I suddenly realized, just like with the finger, and my willingness to look beyond the immediate goal, or the immediate need, or my immediate contributions, or my immediate life, I am going to do the same.
What I am doing is not lying, Ralph, but I am affirming in the future what I know will come about necessarily so. As we learn in physics, that there is only one thing that time moves both forwards and backwards, and is largely a convenient illusion for our own purposes, so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
Guess what Ralph? I am at that ideal weight, ideal health, and the best I’ve ever looked, now.
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Donna Fox: I do think it’s important to keep your dreams and your goals, specifically statements about them like incantations about them. Tony Robbins said, “Even more powerful than affirmations is incantations.”
If you say something rhythmically and you add body motion so you have the audio, you have a visual maybe in your head, and you add a body motion to it so you have a kinesthetic component as well.
Now if you get them all together it’s total body learning. The only slight tweak, Ralph, is you said positive statements about your future goals. I like to make positive statements about my present conditions, even if it’s not my present reality at the time.
If every cell in my being starts to believe it, then it has to come true.
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TOM BEAL: Yes as a matter of fact go to Zig Ziglar.com and he has a little piece you can download. It’s a little PDF report that I suggest you print out. It’s an affirmation called “A Life Changing Process” which it is.
I just took it out of my wallet. I go through spurts where I’ll read it for months. I’ll read it in the morning and read it in the evening. It talks about “I AM” and all these positive attributes. When you are not congruent with them it’s hard to look yourself in the eye in the mirror while you’re reading it.
For instance it says “I am sober”. There was a time in my life I wasn’t sober. If you are incongruent with it, it’s weird how your mind is a self regulator. When you start reading those affirmations you will take on all those traits and characteristics. I just feel that’s a natural law.
If you can boldly state those looking at yourself in the mirror you will attain those i.e., I am timely, I am responsible, etc you will pick up all those positive attributes and begin living them and you will be the embodiment of them. Going back to Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill told Andrew Carnegie this one statement, “Andrew Carnegie I’m not only going to equal your accomplishments I’m going to surpass them.”
This was back when Andrew Carnegie was the only billionaire on the planet. Napoleon Hill said “There was a time I couldn’t look myself in the mirror. I was laughing. I had my fingers crossed. I said who am I kidding he’s a billionaire. I will never equal his accomplishments.”
But he ended up believing it and he’s created more millionaires and continues to do so to this day. He passed away in 1973 or something like that. In those future generations he will still create millionaires and he passed away a couple of generations ago.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
15. Do you invest time into daydreaming about what your life will be like when you attain your goals?
Mike Filsaime: Yes I do. I tend to night dream or day dream at night before I go to bed. I’m sure you’ve had that Ralph. Some of the people listening may be racing in their mind and get to bed at 11:30
pm then all of a sudden they look up and the clock says 12:50am. They saw “Wow! I’ve got to get to bed.”
Or you may say “Wow, if I can get this site up tomorrow and get this interview up.” Then you look over and its 2:30am and it’s like you can’t shut your mind off. But that’s healthy. That means that you are thinking in the right terms. Again whatever the mind can conceive the mind can achieve.
That is why Ralph it is so important that people don’t daydream on the negative things. So it’s best they don’t say “Oh my goodness I didn’t do my taxes yet and my car payment is 60 days behind.” You are attracting that negative energy.
If your car payment is 60 days behind and that’s all you are thinking of then you are thinking in wrong terms. You need to think in terms of “I want to gain financial success.” When you think in terms like that you will attract those things and the car payment issues will go away.
Yes I do tend to daydream quite often about my business and always think in terms of positive ways. Sometimes the negative things work their way into your thoughts and there is nothing you can do. You can’t shift on positive things so just don’t think of them at all
Just start thinking of clown feet (Laughter) or something like that. But if you can’t think of anything that’s positive at that time then almost go into a state of denial and just block it out because it’s not going to do any good to dwell on it or the negative.
_______________________________________________
Paulie Sabol: I really don’t. I do, on the other hand, daydream about what the world can be like. You see, I will effect the world change that will outlast me, Ralph. So just like with the experiment with the finger, where I hold into view what is beyond, and in that way I know that my efforts are multiplied. That is the same situation for me.
I don’t spend so much time imagining what my life will be like when I attain my goals, because my goals are bigger than me. It is not about me. It extends beyond me. I want a legacy.
So imagine in a vision that world, that harmonious place with a heal environment, those are the things that I envision.
_____________________
Donna Fox: Not as much as you might think. I am actually really happy with my life. I am really happy with my day-to-day life.
Sure, I have goals that I would like to achieve but I think once you reach a level that you are comfortable with you stop wishing and dreaming.
Now there was a time in my life that I was constantly striving for something else, and it’s not even what I have now. It was just something different from what I had then.
I think once you reach a point where you are not striving any more and you find a place where you fit, then sure, you think about the future and you think about your goals and you hope for them, but you don’t dwell on them or daydream about them in the say way because you don’t need the escapism any more.
___________________
TOM BEAL: Absolutely! I’m living my dream right now. I’m doing exactly what I dreamed. It doesn’t happen over night but when you have that and it’s a reality no matter what situation you’re in, and I’ve already envisioned this.
People ask “Tom when were you successful?” I was successful when I was homeless. I was successful when I was living in my car. I was successful when I didn’t have but $60.00 in my pocket.
I’ve been successful it’s just a matter of the material world manifesting it around to make it a reality in this time. It’s just a time difference.
RALPH ZURANSKI: Do you think that goes back to having a worthy ideal as expressed by Earl Nightingale?
TOM BEAL: 100%! I spend most of my time daydreaming because my life right now is a daydream even though I am still having tremendous adversities. Other people still look at me and say “Tom how can you be happy?”
It’s difficult but from that experience I had I truly feel I’m doing the best that I can. I have a second chance right now. This is my time. I’m living life full steam ahead and taking one bold step after the next enjoying every step ethically and honestly.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
14. Do you maintain your sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Mike Filsaime: Oh absolutely! Probably too much. You know Ralph when I was in the car business I was the joker. I knew when it was time to be serious but even at the most serious points like if I was getting mad or if we had a meeting or something like that I would always throw in a tidbit of humor.
I think it keeps us real. I think it bonds people with you. It’s one of the best qualities you can have is to have a good sense of humor and a good wit. Being able to laugh at yourself but still knowing when business is business and how to put business together.
I think it’s important to create a work environment where people have fun. There’s no place they’d rather be than working with a group of people that they are with. If humor is not somewhere in there then I think the workplace will suffer.
_________________________________
Paulie Sabol: I don’t know. What I think for me is a more direct question is how do I maintain any worthwhile position in the face of uncertainty? A lot of people say to me that I come across to them as being humorous. I think my humor is fairly dry and almost very British in its form.
I don’t know how I maintain it, or even if I do, or if it is just something that pops in. What I do believe that it is useful for me to act as if the following statement is true when it comes to this question of uncertainty and serious issues in life.
I believe, and it is useful for me to believe this, the universe itself, and all of its power and complexity, will actually conspire on the behalf of me. It will actually move in a way to help me, will actually use that area of uncertainty itself, that area of serious question and challenge and differential result to produce the results that I imagine, desire and attract to myself into being through my actions.
______________________
Donna Fox: I think that sometimes humor is the only thing that we can fall back on in sad times. My father passed away a couple of years ago and I felt driven, something I had to do, was to give some remarks at his funeral.
You probably don’t know this, Ralph, but I have a terrible fear of public speaking. I’m a speaker, but I face that fear because I also love to teach and I love to educate, motivate and inspire people.
At my father’s funeral I decide that I want to motivate and inspire people. He was just a great man in his simple way. Like many fathers he started in the Boy Scouts when my brother was young.
But unlike many fathers he stayed for 40 years and really devoted much of his life to influencing and guiding young boys and men to grow up into really amazing adults.
He gave so much to so many. He was a teacher. I’m a seminar speaker and a trainer and a teacher, and I like to think that I’m following in my dad’s footsteps. He was a teacher, too.
At his funeral I decided that I wanted to deliver a humorous presentation. We actually closed the event with me mustering up the best courage I could with my fear of public speaking and all of the emotion that went into the day and delivered a humorous speech about my father.
People still talk about it today. It’s the humor in times of sadness that provides the optimism, really, to go back to the last question. It provides the optimism.
You kind of face the Murphy’s Law and you face the sad times in life but there is a glimpse of hope and future in humor. Laughter is the best medicine. It sure is.
_____________________
TOM BEAL: You have to. At least I have to. I choose to. I have the optimism and I have the positive thinking but there are things that others might interpret as “bad things happen” and I say “WOW! I didn’t see that one coming. Wow!” but you have to laugh and as I mentioned in the fifth step, you have to have fun.
When you enjoy doing what you love there’s going to be other people that interpret things as a problem and things like that. There are all challenges. It makes life more exciting. The more you progress up that level of consciousness the more other people would see these problems get bigger but your capabilities to handle them are more so.
If I was up to bat and there was a major league baseball pitcher pitching to me I’d strike out for sure, if not be shaking and pee in my pants cause that would be scary. But you know to jump from not knowing anything to jump up to the major leagues you have progressive steps.
Just like school has 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, you graduate to different levels of how you can handle communication skills and how you can handle adversities.
You will never be given a major league baseball pitcher problem if you are only in the minor leagues or only at the tee ball level. You are only given the obstacles and challenges that you are capable of handling in life. Sometimes I feel like there’s a major league pitch and I’m not ready for it.
But it wouldn’t be happening if I wasn’t ready for it. As we are speaking right now I’m going to share some personal things. There are a lot of people that already know but my wife and I have been married for five years but we are currently separated right now.
You’ve been talking to me for awhile and you can tell I still have optimism and I still have happiness. Here’s my belief on that. I know that everything is going to work out exactly the way it needs to work out. I don’t know what the end result will be but I know it’ll work out exactly the way it needs to.
Here’s a little history. My wife and I have been married five years now. On July 10th, 2002 her father passed away. On July 13th, she spoke at his funeral. On July 20th at the same church we had our wedding, a Greek wedding. So that just puts things into perspective.
I had a conversation with her father prior to this saying “Look man this wedding is ridiculous at this time.” He told me “Tom I don’t care if I die.” That puts things in perspective.
Let’s talk about something you may or may not know Ralph. On Sept.11, 1998 I was in a car wreck. My car rolled four times and I was ejected from the sun roof and laid there with severe head trauma and had a “near death experience”. The car wreck was about 10:00pm. I had severe head trauma and it was a miracle I lived through it.
Just laying there I thought “No one is showing up.” Then it hit me, I’m going to die here in this field. I was out in the field and during the roll my battery flew out so my car was laying in this field way off the road. People were driving by and no one knew someone‘s laying there dying.
So it hit me, this is the way it’s going to end. Next thing you know I’m laying there and I see someone in the field and I’m up in the air. I’m like “Whose that?” I focus in and see that it is me.
Next thing you know I’m pulled up in the sky. It’s just like you see on TV, the bright lights. I’m standing there and I’m really confused. I’m trying to figure out what’s happening.
Then someone comes up and puts their arm around me and it was so comforting and I just felt like everything is ok. Then we turn around and we’re facing this big huge door and we start walking towards this door.
I stop and am shaking my head and I said “I know this is not how it’s supposed to end. I know you had more for me to accomplish. Send me back.”
Next thing I know I woke up and had been Mercy Flighted, which is a helicopter lift. A couple of hours later they got there. I had been lifted to a hospital and woke up with respirator breathing for me in Intensive Care.
I was in the hospital for just less than a week and the Dr.’s were telling me and my family “Tom will never walk and talk again properly. I wouldn’t accept that. The Dr.’s were getting real upset. I said “NO, I’m walking out of here.”
They had a meeting with my family and said “We are really upset. Tom does not understand the fact that he may never walk or talk again properly the rest of his life.” My family sat down with me and said “Tom this is serious and you may not walk or talk again properly.”
I said “I’m walking out of here” the best I could. I had to learn to speak and everything and there’s a whole weird story behind that. But you think I’d say “I’m going to walk out of here” but cat, red, blue, car would come out of my mouth. It was really weird.
I checked myself out. I signed a whole bunch of release papers against Dr.’s orders and left the hospital because they were trying to tell me I would never walk or talk again and I didn’t want to hear that. Thankfully I didn’t hear that because I am walking and talking.
There were a couple of years where my leg dragged. I had what was called “drop foot” and they never knew when that nerve damage would go away or if it would. Now I can walk, you’ve seen me, Ralph I walk and talk. I wrestled Russell Brunson a couple of times. I ended up going back and winning a couple of wrestling tournaments after that car wreck.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life and for the world that would come true instantly, what would they be?
Joe Vitale: Holy smokes! Well, the very first one, which is almost a cliché, I would ask for peace. No war, just peace; I would ask for peace.
The second one that comes to mind is maybe tied to the first, but I’m doing this spontaneously. I would say peace in our hearts. Of course, peace in our hearts would probably lead to peace on our planet permanently.
But I’ll go with that. The first is peace with wars stopping; all the violence that is going on. And the second one is peace in our hearts.
The third is I would love for people to connect to the universe through their heart. I would love for them to just instantly wake up to the connection to the universe through their heart that is virtually already there, but they haven’t maybe acknowledged it.
Ralph Zuranski: You’ve written a lot of books. What would you recommend as far as say your five best titles for young people to read to help them achieve the same level of success that you have?
Joe Vitale: Well, the most obvious is The Attractor Factor. The Attractor Factor is, hands down, the manifestation handbook that I worked very hard on to be clear, to be easy, to be effortless in helping people achieve their dreams.
The subtitle says “Five Easy Steps for Creating Wealth or Anything Else from the Inside Out.”
So The Attractor Factor is the number one book.
I wrote another book called The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History. It’s all about giving and I find it inspiring. I mean, I wrote the book so it is a little uncomfortable to say I find my own book inspiring. But I do, so I would really encourage people to check it out. It’s a thin little book, The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History.
Then, of course, I have many books on copy writing. So I would say probably get Hypnotic Marketing. Hypnotic Marketing is an ebook at HynoticMarketing.com. It talks about publicity. It talks about my three-step formula. It talks about hypnotic writing. I think that would be a nice primer, a nice introduction.
Even though you mentioned books, I’m going to mention my audio program with Nightingale-Conant, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing.” “The Power of Outrageous Marketing” has been a best seller with Nightingale. It’s at www.Nightingale.com. Just search for it by my name or by the title, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing.”
It’s been a best seller for six years. It has been transforming businesses. I recorded it maybe seven years ago and it was the best of everything I knew about marketing at that time.
Probably the only thing it is missing or weak in is internet marketing. It is all about marketing in general and about the ten things the tycoons did throughout history to create businesses from dirt, from nothing. They were born with nothing and still created empires. That course shows you how to do it.
Then, I guess if I had to mention one more book, I would say my P.T. Barnum book, There’s a Customer Born Every Minute. It’s a little hard to find now because it is out of print. It does come with my home study course, “Hypnotic Selling Secrets,” which is at HypnoticSellingSecrets.com.
So I would say, Ralph, that those are the titles that come to mind.
Ralph Zuranski: I bought your copy writing program, the software, “Hypnotic Writing Wizard,” and it is spectacular because you have all the different swipe files in there that you can choose from to put into the text you are creating.
I use it all the time and it really has made a big difference in stimulating my imagination and having all the great headlines in there.
Joe Vitale: It also has in it Hypnotic Writing, my first ebook and Advanced Hypnotic Writing, the second ebook. Thank you for acknowledging “Hypnotic Writing Wizard.” That is available at HypnoticWritingWizard.com.
Ralph Zuranski: That was a great program.
I really appreciate your time Joe and your ability to open your heart to everybody in this interview. I was wondering if you could leave us with one parting thought.
Joe Vitale: Yes, I can.
State your intention for what you want in your life and go for your dream, not allowing anything to slow you down or stop you. Always pause to reflect that if something seems to be stopping you or slowing you down, there is a good reason for it.
Take a look with faith, with trust and keep going forward.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s a beautiful thought. Thank you so much for your time.
Joe Vitale: Thank you, Ralph.
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13. Is optimism valuable?
Mike Filsaime: Yes. It’s all in that circle Ralph of positive thinking. If you are pessimistic you will achieve pessimistic results. If you are optimist you will achieve optimum results. All going back to the power of positive thinking, the energy you put out there comes back to you in the same way. The entire universe is built on energy.
The reasons why you are sick or if you’re healthy are based on energy. So when you put out positive energy that’s what that is, is optimism. When you put out positive energy it will come back to you in positive ways.
If you are pessimistic, that glass is half empty. I know entrepreneurs and I know you. We believe that the glass is half full. A lot of people believe that the glass is half empty. When people start thinking half empty the sooner or later the glass will be completely empty.
___________________________________
Paulie Sabol: To an extent. If you are optimistic that others will contribute and make things better, and thus you are liberated from the responsibility to make things better yourself, it is detrimental rather than valuable. If your optimism is the measure by which you see success, then it may not be self serving because you may not move to the point of results.
You may just be remaining optimistic always despite the feedback that you’re getting. So it goes back to this question about setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes. If, for example, you don’t tie your shoe well, you have a setback with regards to your shoe tying system.
Because you don’t tie your shoes well, they come undone and you have the misfortune of tripping on them, and you fall and you hurt yourself. You become optimistic that next time, when you tie your shoe, it is just going to work out better for you.
But you do the same system, you do the same process, you don’t add the feedback, the lesson that came out of the result that you got, and you are just optimistic, you are going to optimistically fall and hurt yourself.
Optimism is important because it is another one of those emotions that gives us the energy. But the reason we should be optimistic is again because we selected a system that gives us the highest probability of success, we are taking consistent and conscience action, and we remain optimistic because we know the philosophy of trust the truth, that eventually because we are destined and designed to do something great, and we are great stuff, we are going to get great results.
Ralph Zuranski: That is so true. It is amazing how many people follow the pathway of insanity that do the same thing everyday and think that by doing everything the same way, they are actually going to change their lives and have a different output.
Paulie Sabol: And on top of that, they may try and do the same things as somebody else. They try to do that in efforts to perhaps maybe be liked or feel like they are trading it for some love, affection, or community. But the real fact of the matter is, they don’t like the results that the other person is getting.
Maybe they’ve been mean to them the whole time, but they want to be like them. It just doesn’t make sense. So we fall into that very often.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s a fuel source of insanity. When we are dealing with insanity and psychological aberrations, do you believe that it is important to maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
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Donna Fox: I think optimism is important. I also think that pessimism and realism are important. Any time you have too much of anything you put life out of balance.
It’s good to have optimism because it’s what gets you through the rough times. It’s good to have pessimism because it keeps you grounded and most of the time it’s good to have realism so you are aware of all of the influences everywhere.
So yes, I think optimism is equally as important as pessimism.
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TOM BEAL: Optimism, man life will get you down if you read the papers and watch the news. You think the sky is falling. Chicken Little is a movie that just came out in cartoon but I tell you what if you watch the news and read the paper you’ll think the sky is falling and everyone is out to get you. You would lock yourself in your room.
You have live boldly. Stuff is going to happen. Back to that Attraction Factor here’s something that I personally, internally know, there is a conspiracy. Everything is conspiring to help me, assist me in accomplishing all my goals and to attract everything that I desire.
That’s a spin, yes there’s a conspiracy, but it’s a positive one if everything is working exactly the way it needs to assist me in fulfilling dreams and desires that I have. I may not understand why things happen but I know that all things work for good.
There are certain times I can’t interpret or understand, like my friend Jim Kelly whose son passed away at eight years old was born with life threatening illness. Why does that happen? Jim even says why me? I go to church and I’m a good guy so why me?
There have been studies and in the short eight years that Hunter was alive that disease he had is going to save thousands of lives and lives of kids that haven’t been born yet. That eight year old life impacted more lives than people who lived to be a hundred years old. There are things we aren’t meant to know or we can’t understand.
And all we know is what can we do? Do the best you can do. If you do the best you can do and everybody takes that upon themselves to do the best they can then the world’s problem would kind of dissipate.
There wouldn’t be any problems. If everybody’s being the best they can then that’s all we can be. We can’t be any other thing than that.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that that is the thing that separates the greatest copy writers from the also-ran’s is their ability to really care about the people who are going to be reading the copy and also be involved in high integrity and just truthfulness; telling these people the truth about what is in it for them rather than lying to them?
Joe Vitale: I would say that is absolutely it. The only addition, and it is the smallest part, is the ability to communicate with words in a clear and direct way.
Ralph Zuranski: It seems that you and Ted and Joel are creating a very powerful dynasty of interactive seminars where the people that attend actually become a part of the internet marketing family that you guys are creating.
Joe Vitale: I love that. You know I put on the spiritual marketing super summit that you attended a year ago January, a year and a couple of months ago, and I still hear from people who attended it.
This is really an important distinction. The people who went there were not attendees. They were becoming part of a new family. That is what is going on in the best of these seminars, even the one with Ted.
I feel like I’m a stepson or brother or something of Ted Nicholas now. Of course, I feel like a relative of Joel Christopher and I feel that way with you.
That is what is happening. You create these relationships that become deeper connections than, in many cases, with your own blood relatives.
Ralph Zuranski: I know when we go to these conferences it really is. You spend an intense amount of time learning and just emoting. I have to say I have never been to any other seminars where people actually cry on stage.
Joe Vitale: I would say the same thing. That’s an important point too. When I do my spiritual marketing seminar, at the end of it I ask people to come up and tell what they got. Several people came up and were balling. I did not expect it. I still get shivers thinking about it.
The same thing happened at Ted Nicholas’ event and I’ve seen the same thing happen at Joel’s other event. It’s breathtaking. People are moved not on the intellectual level. Certainly they are getting the intellectual information they came for, but their heart is being opened.
Ralph Zuranski: And you think that is incredibly important to help them transform who they are and where they are going?
Joe Vitale: Well, it is the ultimate goal. That is the best way to put it. It is the ultimate goal because opening our heart allows us to open to our connection to the universe and the universe is trying to guide us all along to our better good and our greater riches.
I firmly believe that as the optimist that I am; that is the direction we are all going in. We resist that connection when we are locked into our brain and we’re closed off from our feelings.
So opening our heart opens us to the richness of the human experience. It opens us up to new relationships, but it opens us up to that connection to the universe that guides us to what I’ll call the ultimate goal.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that when we go to the conferences that it is the connections we make with other people that are the primary factors that determine our success in the future?
Joe Vitale: That’s exactly it and very few copy writers mention that when they are trying to sell a seminar. I think that is a mistake.
When we go to promote a seminar almost everybody, myself included because I’ll fall into this trap, will focus on who is going to speak and what is their topic. We almost forget that what is more important than who is going to speak and what their topic might be is the meeting of new people, the interaction, the networking and the new family. That is more important.
Ralph Zuranski: Look at the cost of the seminars. I think the one that is coming up is the marketing cruise where millionaires are going to be on there and it is going to be expensive, something like $10,000. People are sitting there and thinking, “Gee, that is an incredible investment.”
Do you feel when you have a higher price for a seminar that people actually put a greater value on going to it than what they learn there; that it is more ingrained in helping them to use that material to be successful rather than something that they get for free?
Joe Vitale: Believe me, if somebody pays $10,000 to go somewhere, they are incredibly alert the entire time they are there.
If they pay $5 to go on it, they are going to goof off, they are not going to go to all the events and they are not going to network much. They are going to play more. They haven’t valued it.
If they pay $1,000, they will do a little bit more in valuing it. If they pay $10,000 and they are not an independently wealthy person so that $10,000 isn’t pocket change they just throw away, if $10,000 is important money to them, they will look at it, like you just used the word, as an investment. They will look at it as an investment and they will be acutely aware of every opportunity that takes place.
So it is profoundly important that they go to these kinds of events because it forces you to pay attention, to open your heart, to make the connection, to do all the things you should do at these events anyway.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. With the “In Search of Heroes” program, one of the primary goals is to help kids find their own hero within and then go in search of local heroes and publicize those individuals.
It is the people who are really giving back to the community who deserve to have their businesses elevated in the community for people to come where they know they will get good value.
What advice could you give young people about writing about heroes in the local community?
Joe Vitale: I would say to definitely write about them for a couple of reasons.
First of all, they can all use the publicity. When somebody is doing good out there, tell other people. Let’s pass it around like the old pass it forward type of thing. Let’s get attention to the good that is going on in the world because the mass media, for the most part, focuses on what isn’t working. Let’s focus on what is working.
So this is a contribution to the universe itself. It is a contribution to the planet to write about the people who are making a difference, who are influencing you, who are influencing others.
When I say write about them, write about them. Write an article for a local magazine. Write an article for the newspaper. Write an article for your ezine or your blog or your web site or whatever that happens to be.
You can also even distribute news releases which I’m a great fan of doing. I learned it from one of my heroes, P.T. Barnum and, of course, another one, Paul Hartunian.
You can get the media directory from any big city; whatever the biggest city is close to you. I’m near Austin and San Antonio. I would call the chamber of commerce in both cities and say, “I would like to have the media directory or the media guide for the city.”
They usually cost under $15, sometimes $50 bucks, but it is still affordable. It will list all the media contacts: radio, T.V., newspaper, the weeklies, the monthlies, and the whole bit.
Send them news releases and say, “I’ve found a hero in my area. This is what they are doing and I’d like to do this story.”
Or even propose they do the story. This will serve you because you are going to feel good. You are going to become a hero to the community, maybe in a quiet way, but you’ll feel good because you’re giving to the community.
The person who is already giving to the community about whom you are doing the story is going to feel good and it will reinforce their continuing to do good. And when the story is broadcast, printed or distributed even more people will hear about the good that is being done.
This is the kind of ripple affect we want to go out into the world. Let’s create more heroes by talking about the heroes who are already out there.
HypnoticLibrary.com
By Joe Vitale
This is a complete collection
of Joe's most popular products.
HypnoticMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale,
This ebook book shows you
techniques on how to make your
publicity, emails and websites
hypnotic. It also includes Joe
Vitale's 3-step marketing
strategy called "Guaranteed
Outcome Marketing," which can
increase your business by 70% --
in less than 90 days
HypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This course, by Joe Vitale
(recognized by many as the best
copywriter in the U.S.), shows
you how to use "hypnotic" tricks
in your writing to get people to
more easily agree with you. A
must for anyone who wants to
write persuasively.
AdvancedHypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This ebook is the unparalleled
sequel to Joe Vitale's
blockbuster "Hypnotic Writing."
It reveals how to use the
phenomenon of hypnotic
suggestion to turn your words
into cash.
HowToWriteHypnoticArticles.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook tells you how to get
free publicity by writing
hypnotic articles for e-zines
and Web sites -- in 7 minutes or
less.
HowToWriteHypnoticEndorsements.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook shows you how to
write persuasive endorsements
that can help you increase
sales.
HowToWriteHypnoticJointVentureProposals.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
An ebook that tells you how to
get free advertising for your
business by writing hypnotic
joint venture proposals.
HypnoticSellingTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to influence your
prospects' subconscious minds
with these 1739 hypnotic words,
phrases and sentences.
HypnoticWritingSwipeFile.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This is a collection of over
1,550 copywriting gems that took
Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
years to compile. This is their
personal swipe file that they
use to create world famous sales
letters responsible for
generating millions and millions
of dollars of revenue.
ImpulseInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Dr. Scott
Lewis
This ebook tells you how to use
49 psychological tricks Las
Vegas casinos use, to make your
business pay off like a slot
machine.
SubconsciousInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to bypass your
prospects' unconscious minds and
get them to buy anything you
sell
CreateAdvertisingThatSells.com
By Joe Vitale
An interactive online video
advertising course featuring
book, workbook, and video
instruction that has been one of
our bestsellers. And since we
can all learn from the masters,
it also features several
reproductions of hugely
successful ad campaigns.
HypnoticTrafficTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
HypnoticSellingStories.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
12. Is it useful to take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Mike Filsaime: Oh yeah. To answer that directly I think we all need to learn from our mistakes. What I was talking about before about being a student of higher learning I would rather learn from other peoples successes than learn from my own mistakes. We all have to know that being an entrepreneur is that we’re going to have more failures than we do successes.
We need to be able to understand that when we have a failure that negative people are going to welcome that. Saying “Oh you see that, you tried to join that thing and it didn’t work. Well you’re still stuck here in blue collarville.”
The true entrepreneurial spirit will not allow those negative people to effect us. It will understand that we made mistakes and we can ask “What did we do wrong?” Let’s look at the success principles and see what we did and find out where we went off the tract. Then get back on the horse and try it again.
________________________________
Paulie Sabol: It is useful for me. That much I can say with absolute assurance. The reason that it is useful for me is twofold. It is the point that I made earlier about progress being my goal rather than perfection. Here’s why: if I set perfection as my goal, two things happen to me.
One, I make myself get more nervous. So the emotions, the energies that I put into place is nervous energy. It is uncertain energy. I know when I’m putting that energy out into myself, I’m decreasing the probability that I’ll have success.
It is kind of like I am combating myself. So the first reason is because setbacks are going to assuredly happen. If you try to avoid setbacks, then you’re going to strive for perfection and that is going to sabotage you.
If you are going to have setbacks, you’re going to have some misfortunes; you’re going to make mistakes anyway. You might as well view them as feedback. You might as well view them as a positive experience. You might as well view them as increasing, giving you new information to make your next plan even more probable to succeed.
Otherwise, the very worse thing might happen, which is that you might stop. Here’s what another one of the great thinkers said in this case is that the difference between someone who is unable to read, illiterate, and someone who doesn’t read is very little.
In fact the person who knows how to read and doesn’t is probably in the worse place. That’s what happens if we try to view setbacks, mistakes and misfortunes as something that isn’t positive in our life, we will be less inclined to move toward it. If we are less inclined to move toward it, we will be less inclined to move at all and we’ll miss all the opportunity.
____________________
Donna Fox: I can tell you that I have spent a lot of money at the University of Adversity over the years. Those lessons from life’s little lessons, the hard ones that you pay with your pocket book or you pay with your pride are critical, really.
I don’t think that we change as individuals or we progress as businesses without the adversities thrown in. I don’t think we improve without the road blocks.
The trick is to figure out which things are actually adversities that we need to then react to and what are what I call obstacle illusions because they are not real. They are just fears that get in the way.
Once you master the real adversity from the obstacle illusions then you have found your key to grow as a person.
-----------------------------
TOM BEAL: There is a quote from Napoleon Hill that says “Every adversity carries with it the seed or an equivalent or greater benefit.” Those aren’t comforting words when you are going through adversity. They aren’t even comforting to me and I live by that quote.
But as I described some of the adversity I went through as a child I thought I was the only one going through that. As we grew up we noticed everybody has that type of stuff. Guess what, there is no such thing as a functional family, they are all dysfunctional.
Everybody has their problems. Now working with best selling authors and working with top athletes, I’m working with the “cream of the crop”. I even asked a NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, “Just because you have reached that success does that mean you don’t have any problems?” He laughed no problems? His son just died at eight years old because of a terminal illness. Try handling that problem.
One of the people I work with here is Jason Dinner. He said and which is very true “If you are in a big room with all these people and everyone throws their problems in a big pile you are going to want to get your problem out because you don’t want what the other people are going through.
Until you put it in perspective and just recognize that you are going to do the best you can with the circumstances you’re going through right now. That’s all you can do. You can worry about two things.
You can worry about things you can control or worry about things you can’t control. If you are worried about things you can control, control it and don’t worry about it. If you are worried about things you can’t control then what’s the point about worrying because you can’t control it.
So the point is if that doesn’t make sense, go get a book by Dale Carnegie called “How to Stop Worrying and How to Start Living”. Dale Carnegie wrote that in the early 1900’s because he had a lot of people coming to him that just had tremendous worry problems. If you look at society today, look at all these people on these pills to diminish the worry that they have.
I recommend reading that book. Then you understand that’s there is two things to worry about and neither one of them is not worth worrying about. It’s an awesome book! That one and “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.
You can get the double book by Dale Carnegie and it has both those in it, “How to Stop Worrying and How to Start Living” and How to Win Friends and influence People.” Those should also be recommended learning material for anybody who’s serious about becoming the best they can be in this life the brief time that we are here.
When I didn’t have much I was a student of life and going to the library. You can go the library for free. Unfortunately only about 3% of the U.S. population has library cards. But you can get all this information free. You don’t need anything.
There are stories of Og Mandino living on the park bench that went to the library and started studying and ended up becoming a multi millionaire many times over from learning. If you want success, study success. If you want happiness, study happiness.
If you don’t want to worry study how not to worry. Just like Napoleon Hill had his virtual Master Mind. He had a Master Mind with all the big wigs, F.W. Woolworth and Henry Ford. You can have all these people virtually like Abraham Lincoln and you can consult with them.
You’ve seen these bands today that people are wearing that say “WWJD?” what would Jesus do. Some people can’t grasp that but “What Would Abraham Lincoln Do?” What would your role model do in this situation?
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Ralph Zuranski: In copy writing I think the word is mightier than the sword; the pen is mightier than the sword. Being one of the top copy writers and just having unbelievable success and generating income for yourself and for others, how important do you think having a concept of yourself as a hero is when you are actually doing writing?
Joe Vitale: Interesting. I don’t know that I’ve ever looked at that question before. As I sit here and kind of think about it, I am aware when I am sitting down to write that I’ve got a built-in fan base.
And I don’t mean that as an ego trip saying, “Oh, Joe’s got a fan club.” I mean that my work influences people. That is profoundly powerful and that makes me pause and realize, “Joe, be careful what you write.”
Not that I’m going to write anything negative, but I am going to write something people are going to read and they are going to be influenced by it. Knowing that guides me to be sure that I write the most inspiring, informative and, hopefully, noble words that I can write.
My book, The Attractor Factor, I hope is going to make a difference in people’s lives. As I was writing it I kept thinking, “These are the secrets I wish I knew 30 years ago when I was homeless and starving and struggling. This is the material that I want people who are looking around for answers to find.”
So as I’m writing my copy, my books, my ezine, my newsletters or my emails, I’m very aware that I have a certain amount of power here. I don’t know that people look at me as a hero; I guess some of them do. But I am aware that I have that certain level of power and I want to use it wisely.
Ralph Zuranski: I know in life that people come across our path, and I’m thinking especially of women. I know that recently one of your best friends passed away and I’m also thinking of your good friend, Nerissa.
I wonder if you could share a little bit about just how important the female element or the quality of having a female friend is.
Joe: Well, we all need to have support. The friend who passed away was my wife of 25 years. We’d been separated over the last six years, but we were still best friends. I totally took care of her and supported her. She had been in a near-fatal car accident several years ago and never really recovered from it.
She had gone through a tragedy of her own that I talk about in The Attractor Factor. And she also, of course, being married for 25 years and friends for six years, was part of the journey that I went through when we were in poverty. She was right there with me.
And that’s important. She was right there with me. We supported each other. Those were not easy times. I’m so sad that she’s gone because the loss is profound, but also because she can’t benefit from the success now. She was with me during those poverty years.
Having that support is incredibly profound because without it you really feel like you are one person against the world. That’s not the case, but that is what it feels like.
So having support from a loved one is priceless. I don’t know how to put any more words to it than that. Marian totally supported me; I totally supported her; it was this win-win relationship that created an extra set of energy or more additional strength than even two people together.
Nerissa is the same way. Nerissa and I are supporting each other. We love each other and we are together out here in our country estate now. She knows what I do for a living.
This Saturday as we make this phone call, this interview, she would probably prefer that we go do something fun because we’ve been working night and day. We just got done with that seminar that you were also at in San Antonio.
Ralph Zuranski: That was intense.
Joe: But here we are. She’s totally supportive and she nods her head and says, “I know you are going to go do the interview. Go do it; go break a leg; go have a great time and inspire people. And say hi to Ralph while you are on the phone.”
It is amazingly beyond comprehension how important it is to have support from a loved one.
Ralph Zuranski: I think that people who go to the internet seminars are looking for people they can model their lives after, people who have had extraordinary success like you. Are there any people in the internet industry at this point in time that you look up to?
Joe: Interesting. I love the internet because there are so many good people doing good things. There’s a lot more sharing that goes on through the internet than it does off line.
That’s one of the things I learned from Mark Joyner many, many years ago. Mark Joyner introduced me to the whole world of ebooks when I didn’t think anyone would buy an ebook. He talked me into selling my first one and I tasted blood because it sold so well.
I’ve ended up coming out with 15 ebooks and digital products and digital video and a home study course called “Hypnotic Selling Secrets” at this point.
Ralph Zuranski: I know when I saw you do that I was very impressed that you guys put that project together. That basically cemented my respect for you guys as heroes and you were one of the first people at the big seminar in Dallas, the first one, when I told you about my project you volunteered to help. I’m extremely grateful for that.
Ted Nicholas is also one of the great heroes. I remember I was at his seminar on May 23rd when my dad had a catastrophic stroke and was paralyzed on one side. I didn’t find out until later in the day.
Ted had just recently said that you can’t be a great copy writer unless you can cry. That really struck home. I just wonder, do you feel that this is true, that you really have to be able to cry, to express your emotions, to be a great copy writer?
Joe Vitale: You need to feel. You need to feel.
We heard Brian Keith Boyles give his talk at the double birthday bash. Did you hear that by the way?
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, I did.
Joe Vitale: It was incredibly moving. The man stood on stage. I guess I should say for people who don’t know, Brian Keith Boyles is a very famous copy writer. He gets paid $25,000 and up to write sales letters for Gary Halbert and Jay Abraham and many other people who are legends in their own right.
So he is the quiet copy writer behind the scenes. He is a big guy; he’s like 99% heart. He’s all emotion; he’s all feeling; he’s all giving.
And he got onstage and was basically crying 90% of the time. He was saying it was so incredibly important to love your customers, to feel for your customers and to express your concern for your customers in your copy.
I totally agree. He sent shivers through a whole bunch of people in that audience. He got some people to cry. He got me choked up listening to him. It was a very moving speech.
But the whole thing came down to what Ted Nicholas said. You have to be able to cry. I say you’ve got to be able to feel. You’ve got to feel your own emotions and you’ve got to, by extension, feel the emotions of what your readers are going through.
So when I’m writing copy, I’m incredibly sensitive to what people are going through in their lives when I’m writing to them. Too many copy writers write a letter that is just trying to sell something. I’m trying to write a letter that is trying to make a difference in the reader’s life.
I’m trying to share something, not just get their money. Ultimately, they are going to be paying me something if they see a connection, if they see the value in it. But my focus has to be what is in it for them? How does it help them?
The best way for me to do that, the best way for me to communicate that, the most hypnotic way to do that is for me to feel it first. So you must be in contact with your feelings in order to touch the feelings of somebody else.
HypnoticLibrary.com
By Joe Vitale
This is a complete collection
of Joe's most popular products.
HypnoticMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale,
This ebook book shows you
techniques on how to make your
publicity, emails and websites
hypnotic. It also includes Joe
Vitale's 3-step marketing
strategy called "Guaranteed
Outcome Marketing," which can
increase your business by 70% --
in less than 90 days
HypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This course, by Joe Vitale
(recognized by many as the best
copywriter in the U.S.), shows
you how to use "hypnotic" tricks
in your writing to get people to
more easily agree with you. A
must for anyone who wants to
write persuasively.
AdvancedHypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This ebook is the unparalleled
sequel to Joe Vitale's
blockbuster "Hypnotic Writing."
It reveals how to use the
phenomenon of hypnotic
suggestion to turn your words
into cash.
HowToWriteHypnoticArticles.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook tells you how to get
free publicity by writing
hypnotic articles for e-zines
and Web sites -- in 7 minutes or
less.
HowToWriteHypnoticEndorsements.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook shows you how to
write persuasive endorsements
that can help you increase
sales.
HowToWriteHypnoticJointVentureProposals.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
An ebook that tells you how to
get free advertising for your
business by writing hypnotic
joint venture proposals.
HypnoticSellingTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to influence your
prospects' subconscious minds
with these 1739 hypnotic words,
phrases and sentences.
HypnoticWritingSwipeFile.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This is a collection of over
1,550 copywriting gems that took
Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
years to compile. This is their
personal swipe file that they
use to create world famous sales
letters responsible for
generating millions and millions
of dollars of revenue.
ImpulseInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Dr. Scott
Lewis
This ebook tells you how to use
49 psychological tricks Las
Vegas casinos use, to make your
business pay off like a slot
machine.
SubconsciousInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to bypass your
prospects' unconscious minds and
get them to buy anything you
sell
CreateAdvertisingThatSells.com
By Joe Vitale
An interactive online video
advertising course featuring
book, workbook, and video
instruction that has been one of
our bestsellers. And since we
can all learn from the masters,
it also features several
reproductions of hugely
successful ad campaigns.
HypnoticTrafficTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
HypnoticSellingStories.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
11. Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals?
Mike Filsaime: Oh yes! Absolutely! And those are exercises that you can do. I recently saw a great movie. It’s really a documentary that I recommend to everybody watch it. I’m sure some of the past speakers mentioned it and some of the future ones will as well.
You can see it at thesecret.tv. That documentary talks about the power of positive thinking but you need to be a visionary and you need to envision these goals that you set. There are certain things you can do. You can have a cork board that you call a vision board.
You can cut out the home that you want or how you see yourself looking professional in a suit or the watch that you want or the car that you want. Or the family type of icon that you want or a picture of your church to see where you want to be associated with. Group photos of people you love and family and friends.
If you start to put these exercises into place then that’s how you can start setting up exercises to attain your goals. I think one of the mistakes people make when they make a goal Ralph is they say things like “I want a million dollars.” No you don’t. You really don’t.
Ralph if I gave you a million dollars what does that do? That is just a means to getting what you really want. What you really want is to help children. Or what you really want is to have better health or raise your kids the right way or send them to the right schools.
So setting a goal on money is ok. I know a lot of people do that but you really need to realize that the money is just the means to what you really want. You have to really ask yourself “What do I really want?” I even caution people sometimes when they say “I want a million dollars.” or “I want this business or I want do this type of business per day for a month.”
Sometimes you have to say to yourself “What will I have created if I say I want an Ebay business that makes me a million dollars a month?” Do you really want to be shipping boxes out of your house? Sometimes by really defining what it is that you really want I think you can have a more clear understanding of what you want & how to get there. Rather than putting up an abstract and saying “I want a million dollars.
__________________________________
Paulie Sabol: At the risk of sounding redundant, I believe that emotions act as an energy, just like you were just saying. Now having highly charged emotions without a highly probable plan of action is a fine way to get nowhere fast.
On the other hand, having highly energized emotion often is the key necessary to run the race as though to win. When there are others out in front of you, even when you seem to be behind, there’s no question that emotions are the fuel that allow us to move forward, even when, as I know you are going to ask about in short order, when there are setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes.
The last thing I want to say about emotions is, especially for our listeners who are in the earliest stages of their adolescence, or moving through their adolescence, 10 to 18 or so, you are going to have highly charged emotions as it is. From time to time, they might be emotions that really feel like they are bringing you down.
Other times they might be emotions that are making you feel like you are impenetrable and immortal in your nature. In either case, remember to always focus for just a moment on the high probability plan that is before you. Really engage not only the power of the emotion as energy, but the power of your rational, thinking mind to give you good guidance and good decision making powers.
Ralph Zuranski: That is funny that you would say that. I still can’t remember at what point I realized that I didn’t know everything and was the ultimate source of all knowledge in the universe. That’s kind of a humbling experience, that I think probably was the misfortunes, mistakes and setbacks that I had that sort of humbled me.
____________________
Donna Fox: I think emotions are invaluable. Sometimes they get in the way. Sometimes fear, sometimes anxiety. Those are all negative emotions that get in the way.
Emotions move us more than a to-do list. If there wasn’t emotion behind a to-do list we wouldn’t get anything done. But it’s emotions that drive us towards something.
It’s because we want to attain something. It’s because we want the emotions of pleasure and success and happiness. And emotions drive us away from something.
They drive us away from fear and loneliness and poverty and hunger. Without that emotional response I think we would be much less effective as people. So they are absolutely, super, highly, highly important. And I don’t just say that because I’m an emotional woman.
__________________
TOM BEAL: Emotions are extremely vital to achieving your success. There’s a movie out now, that if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. As a matter of fact it should almost be required in my opinion for teenagers, for kids growing up and adults to watch. It’s called www.whatisthesecret.tv. That’s an awesome documentary. Have you seen that yet Ralph?
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Ralph Zuranski: Who are some of the heroes in your life? I know that you’ve had some tragic times and some difficult times. Were there any real heroes other than the coach you’re talking about and who are the heroes in your life now?
Joe Vitale: There have probably been dozens of them.
One name that comes to mind is Bob Bly. He is an author and a copy writer out of New Jersey who mentored me without fee, without obligation, and without asking anything in return when I was first starting out.
That was back in the Houston days when I wanted to be an author and he was coming out with a lot of books. Presently he’s written 50 books. He had a dozen or more books at that point.
This was before the internet, of course. I would write him snail-mail letters and ask questions. He always answered them. He gave of himself totally, freely.
Today we’re friends; today we’re colleagues; today we’re peers. In fact, when he wanted to go on the internet, he came to me and asked for advice. This was so comical just because I was able to give back to one of my heroes.
I finally met him one time when he came to Houston and I came to hear him. I told him it was like meeting one of my super heroes because Bob Bly had so influenced me. He was one of the heroes and still is in my life.
Paul Hartunian is another one. Paul Hartunian is the guy who sold the Brooklyn Bridge. He is a publicity expert and a fan of P.T. Barnum. He sat down with me 12 or more years ago, again, back in Houston. I was starting to come up for air and publishing books and doing fairly well.
He spent a three-and-a-half hour dinner with me in Houston. He was giving a speech and he invited me to come over after he was done. I met with him, we went out to eat and I spent three-and-a-half hours with him and all he did was give.
He gave of himself; he gave information; he gave advice; he told me what I should be doing; he told me what I needed to change. I took pages of notes and I implemented almost everything the next day.
Paul Hartunian gave and we’re friends today. I’m going to see him actually next week. I don’t see him very often, but I do see him from time to time. So he’s another one who has greatly helped me.
There’s a whole long list of them. And many who are heroes to me are long gone, people whom I’ve never met.
Bruce Barton, whom I wrote about, is one. Another one is P.T. Barnum, the great showman, the great circus promoter. I so think he is a hero in my life that he is like a spirit guide for me.
He’s somebody looking over my shoulder all the time. I wrote a book about him entitled There’s a Customer Born Every Minute. I went to his grave site; I went to his home; I went to his old stomping grounds, and I did research on him. I feel very much akin to that man. I haven’t met him, but he is still one of my heroes.
So I greatly believe in having heroes. They help pull the best out of you. They help inspire you to go forward. This is one of the million-dollar tips that people don’t talk about very much, but having heroes is one of the ways to dramatically change your life.
HypnoticLibrary.com
By Joe Vitale
This is a complete collection
of Joe's most popular products.
HypnoticMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale,
This ebook book shows you
techniques on how to make your
publicity, emails and websites
hypnotic. It also includes Joe
Vitale's 3-step marketing
strategy called "Guaranteed
Outcome Marketing," which can
increase your business by 70% --
in less than 90 days
HypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This course, by Joe Vitale
(recognized by many as the best
copywriter in the U.S.), shows
you how to use "hypnotic" tricks
in your writing to get people to
more easily agree with you. A
must for anyone who wants to
write persuasively.
AdvancedHypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This ebook is the unparalleled
sequel to Joe Vitale's
blockbuster "Hypnotic Writing."
It reveals how to use the
phenomenon of hypnotic
suggestion to turn your words
into cash.
HowToWriteHypnoticArticles.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook tells you how to get
free publicity by writing
hypnotic articles for e-zines
and Web sites -- in 7 minutes or
less.
HowToWriteHypnoticEndorsements.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook shows you how to
write persuasive endorsements
that can help you increase
sales.
HowToWriteHypnoticJointVentureProposals.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
An ebook that tells you how to
get free advertising for your
business by writing hypnotic
joint venture proposals.
HypnoticSellingTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to influence your
prospects' subconscious minds
with these 1739 hypnotic words,
phrases and sentences.
HypnoticWritingSwipeFile.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This is a collection of over
1,550 copywriting gems that took
Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
years to compile. This is their
personal swipe file that they
use to create world famous sales
letters responsible for
generating millions and millions
of dollars of revenue.
ImpulseInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Dr. Scott
Lewis
This ebook tells you how to use
49 psychological tricks Las
Vegas casinos use, to make your
business pay off like a slot
machine.
SubconsciousInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to bypass your
prospects' unconscious minds and
get them to buy anything you
sell
CreateAdvertisingThatSells.com
By Joe Vitale
An interactive online video
advertising course featuring
book, workbook, and video
instruction that has been one of
our bestsellers. And since we
can all learn from the masters,
it also features several
reproductions of hugely
successful ad campaigns.
HypnoticTrafficTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
HypnoticSellingStories.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
10. Are your actions consistent with your beliefs?
Mike Filsaime: These are all great questions and I’d like say yes. But I’m not perfect but I try to be. I know my faults and I try to work on them and I try to be humble. I’d like to say Ralph that yes I try to make most of my actions as close to my beliefs as I can. We know everybody has sometimes lazy tendencies.
Some of the things I struggle with are living normal hours as most people in the world would see as normal. I tend to go on these weird patterns where I’m working normal hours then the next thing I know I start working till two, three or four in the morning then get up at 11:00 am. Then the next day I work until 4:00 in the morning and then the next day get up at 12:00. The next day I work until 4:30 in the morning then I end up sleeping until 1:00 in the afternoon. Then I have to hit that reset button & say “Wait a second.”
I can’t even get up and get to the bank on time and get my hair cut. (Laughter) So those are some of the faults I have. To answer the question some of my actions are not 100% of what my beliefs are but I try working on them.
____________________________
Paulie Sabol: Now that is a different question. That one is much easier to be in alignment with. Let me tell you the story of an electron. I mentioned that I have a physics degree. Many of your heroes and future heroes who are listening right now, they’ve probably seen an electron drawn in their science class.
The atom is drawn as having a big thick nucleus in the center, and the electrons kind of going in these circles around. For the longest time we believed that. That was what we believed the model was. Over time, our model, our beliefs improved.
Now we know that these electrons have the ability to sometimes be places that it doesn’t seem to physically. We are shocked that it seems to be somewhere that it is. We also know that the electron moves instantly from being in one place in space to another place in space. It doesn’t actually go through the space in between. It teleports, it jumps, it transforms in just a moment.
In fact, when it does so, it emits light. That is my test. I know that my actions are consistent with and my beliefs are finally catching up with the power of my actions. I have more light in my life. I believed and for the most part, it is a useful belief, that fire is going to hurt me or burn me.
But, you know what, Ralph, I’ve walked on fire.
Ralph Zuranski: That is interesting that you say that, because I spent 24 years in alternative medicine, studying biomedical currents and the energies that are within the body, and came to the conclusion that we are all energetic beings and that we are limited by our five senses on what we can see.
But ultimately, we are all energy.
Paulie Sabol: Now, in addition to walking on fire, which seems like it is impossible, I’ve broke boards with my bare hands. Another thing that at one point would have seemed impossible to me. I’ve lain on a bed of nails. All of these experiences remind me that very often my action has to precede my belief. Very often I need to take action even when I’m in a state of doubt.
Here’s the cool part, and here’s the ultimate answer to your question. As I take action and I get results, the results transform and change my beliefs, just like the experiments that scientists do, transformed and changed their beliefs and their understanding of the electron and gave them a better understanding and ability to harness the power of this energetic universe that we are in.
In that same way, my actions are increasingly in alignment with my beliefs, but action always leads my beliefs, not the other way around.
______________________
Donna Fox: Not at all. Every single day I step out on a limb. You have to go out on a limb because that’s where the fruit is. Every single day I do something that scares me.
There are days that I wake up and this whole business of being an entrepreneur is terrifying. At the same time I can’t imagine doing anything else right now.
When I think about going back to a job it crushes my spirit. So no, my actions aren’t consistent with my belief because I act every day in spite of my limiting beliefs.
_______________________
TOM BEAL: Emotions are extremely vital to achieving your success. There’s a movie out now, that if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. As a matter of fact it should almost be required in my opinion for teenagers, for kids growing up and adults to watch. It’s called www.whatisthesecret.tv. That’s an awesome documentary. Have you seen that yet Ralph.
RALPH ZURANSKI: I have not had a chance to yet.
TOM BEAL: I feel it’s a “must see” for everybody that is serious about achieving any type of goals. What it talks about is the secret obviously. When Dr. Joe Vitalie was telling me about this on the cruise last November he and I were on and a few other marketers I asked and he wouldn’t tell us what the secret was.
He wouldn’t tell us what the movie was. I said “I know what the secret is. From Earl Nightingale he had the strangest secret in the world; we become what we think about most of the time. The thought that is most in your mind is what will fulfill or manifest.”
That’s exactly what it is about but it goes into more detail about what’s called “The Attraction Factor” which is a book by Dr. Joe Vitalie. Your thoughts mixed with emotions, mixed with enthusiasm produces the end result that you’ll manifest into reality.
Because you can have a thought but if you don’t have emotions to back that thought it’s like an impotent thought. You need to have that potency by having the emotions to back it up. That’s where you will begin to see you are what you think about most of the time.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Ralph Zuranski: So you believe that it is important to take an immediate positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes that happen.
Joe Vitale: Absolutely, without any doubt, without any hesitation that is true. You know, you and I heard Ted Nicholas speak recently at the event, and he was talking about all the experiences, these failures or what people call failures. He looked at them and saw that they were the most educational experiences of his life.
It isn’t the successes for the most part that teach you things, it is the failures. If that is the case, then a failure really isn’t a failure. A failure is an educational success.
So it’s looking in each moment for the good, realizing it is always there. It is your eyesight that needs to be cleaned, your glasses that you’re looking through, your mental lens, your perception.
You see that there is positive in this moment. You may really resist looking for that because in the moment your ego is saying, “This isn’t going the way I want it to go; this isn’t what I had in mind; this isn’t the plan.”
But that’s your ego. Step aside from that and kind of look at it from a universal perspective and say, “Oh, maybe this is part of a puzzle and I don’t see the whole puzzle yet. But I’ve got to trust that it is a really good puzzle.”
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that it is good not to be judgmental about the things that are happening in your life, whether positive or negative? Just accept them for what they are and try to react to them?
Joe Vitale: Absolutely, and respond to them is more the word. We often react unconsciously to events that happen to us. If we respond to events that happen to us, we are much more aware of our choices.
I have a ring that I don’t wear all the time because it is priceless. It is a ring that is 2,000 years old. It’s from ancient Rome.
On the ring is inscribed the word “Fidem.” That word is Latin and it translates to faith. I wear it as a reminder to me that no matter what is going on, have faith or have trust that this is all happening for the good.
Again, if you had told me this when I was homeless in Dallas and I was in poverty in Houston, I would say, “Yeah, that sounds great, but where is the catch?”
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to be an optimist?
Joe Vitale: It is incredibly important to be an optimist. And it is important for me to explain something about that because I am today an optimist.
I remember being in college in the early ‘70’s and a friend of mine at the time said I was a natural born pessimist. Today people look at my life, they look at my writings, they look at my web site and listen to my audio program and they say, “Wow, Joe’s a natural born optimist.”
Which is it? Was I naturally born a pessimist or was I naturally born an optimist?
The truth of the matter is you’re a choice. You choose which one you want to be. I have now chosen, because learning from experience that it is a wiser choice, to come from optimism. Look for the sunny side.
Who wants to go through life being depressed? You don’t see your opportunities; your energy is low; nobody wants to work with you; nobody wants to be around you; you drag.
But if you come from optimism, then you start going in the direction of fulfilling your dreams.
HypnoticLibrary.com
By Joe Vitale
This is a complete collection
of Joe's most popular products.
HypnoticMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale,
This ebook book shows you
techniques on how to make your
publicity, emails and websites
hypnotic. It also includes Joe
Vitale's 3-step marketing
strategy called "Guaranteed
Outcome Marketing," which can
increase your business by 70% --
in less than 90 days
HypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This course, by Joe Vitale
(recognized by many as the best
copywriter in the U.S.), shows
you how to use "hypnotic" tricks
in your writing to get people to
more easily agree with you. A
must for anyone who wants to
write persuasively.
AdvancedHypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This ebook is the unparalleled
sequel to Joe Vitale's
blockbuster "Hypnotic Writing."
It reveals how to use the
phenomenon of hypnotic
suggestion to turn your words
into cash.
HowToWriteHypnoticArticles.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook tells you how to get
free publicity by writing
hypnotic articles for e-zines
and Web sites -- in 7 minutes or
less.
HowToWriteHypnoticEndorsements.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook shows you how to
write persuasive endorsements
that can help you increase
sales.
HowToWriteHypnoticJointVentureProposals.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
An ebook that tells you how to
get free advertising for your
business by writing hypnotic
joint venture proposals.
HypnoticSellingTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to influence your
prospects' subconscious minds
with these 1739 hypnotic words,
phrases and sentences.
HypnoticWritingSwipeFile.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This is a collection of over
1,550 copywriting gems that took
Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
years to compile. This is their
personal swipe file that they
use to create world famous sales
letters responsible for
generating millions and millions
of dollars of revenue.
ImpulseInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Dr. Scott
Lewis
This ebook tells you how to use
49 psychological tricks Las
Vegas casinos use, to make your
business pay off like a slot
machine.
SubconsciousInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to bypass your
prospects' unconscious minds and
get them to buy anything you
sell
CreateAdvertisingThatSells.com
By Joe Vitale
An interactive online video
advertising course featuring
book, workbook, and video
instruction that has been one of
our bestsellers. And since we
can all learn from the masters,
it also features several
reproductions of hugely
successful ad campaigns.
HypnoticTrafficTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
HypnoticSellingStories.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
9. Are your goals consistent with your beliefs?
Mike Filsaime: Yes they are. I think they go hand in hand. Again I think when we talk in the terms of the power of positive thinking you are talking about your beliefs and your goals. When you set your goals you need to believe that you can achieve them.
Then talking abstract about all the different beliefs in your life like your faith and things like that I believe everything needs to be congruent in order to have symmetry in your life & to achieve exactly what you want out of life.
_________________________
Paulie Sabol: Thankfully, no, they’re not. Let me explain why. My beliefs are naturally limited, where my goals are fundamentally unlimited. Because my key goal for myself and for everyone is fundamental abundance, and while the desire of that may approach a belief, and perhaps in believing it more, I can see it more, however, it is unquestionably my goal.
My goal is fundamental abundance for everybody, where all of their needs are exceeded. The fact of the matter is, when I look just to my beliefs, sometimes I believe something like this.
I’ll believe, gosh, I’m not sure I can change that; I’m not sure I can help that situation. This lack is so big. Sometimes my beliefs will be limited, but I don’t let that lack of believing confidence dissuade me one moment from the measure of the realization of my goal which is fundamental abundance for all.
___________________
Donna Fox: The first answer that comes to mind is, “I don’t know how my goals could be inconsistent with my beliefs.” I don’t know if I would set a goal that was inconsistent with my beliefs.
But as I think a little bit further I realize that I have some goals that I can’t imagine accomplishing. And if I can’t envision it then I do not believe it. So I guess I do have some goals that are inconsistent with my beliefs.
Not from an ethical or moral standpoint but because I’m not big enough for them yet. They are bigger than me right now. They are there. I guess the process of growing as an individual is growing into your big, hairy, audacious goals.
______________________
TOM BEAL: Yes, and many times as a child my walk didn’t equal my talk or vice versa. I feel the people you see achieving the great results, and there are exceptions to the rule, but the majority by far, people’s walk equals their talk. I feel that’s a goal. To be congruent you need to have your thoughts, words and actions be congruent with the beliefs that you have internally.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Ralph Zuranski: I know that a lot of times when people have low points in their life, when they start serving others and start focusing on others the lowest point in their lives seems to dissipate on its own.
I wanted to ask you the question of when was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life back to one of victory over all obstacles?
Joe Vitale: Wow! Well, to confess my own past history, at one point I was homeless in Dallas. I struggled in Houston and was in poverty for almost 15 years.
I was just telling friends yesterday when we were meeting for a Mastermind meeting and totally supporting each other. The lifestyle I have today and the lifestyle I had then are so incredibly, dramatically different that it almost feels like it was a different person that went through each one.
In many ways it was a different person. So the lowest points for me were probably those struggling years in Houston when I starved at times. I took on jobs; I was a car salesman for a while; a reporter for a while; a cab driver for a while; a laborer for a long time; worked for a big oil company for quite a few years doing work I absolutely hated.
I would drive to work crying because I was so unhappy and drive home crying. I remember being on the freeway in Houston with tears coming down my face. This was repeated. It was a very turbulent time; very unhappy time; a starvation, strife, struggle type of time.
How did I get through all of that? I kept looking forward. I kept going for my overall dream which in my case was to be an author. I wanted to be a writer since I was a teenager.
I met Rod Sterling, the creator of the “Twilight Zone” series. I met him when I was a kid and it was a turning point in my life. I realized he was human and I was human and if he could do it, I could do it.
I started to pursue this goal of being an author. My God, it was not an overnight success by any means whatsoever. The scratching and worrying and crying and concern, all of it took many, many years.
I kept looking forward. I would read the positive thinking books. A book that really changed my life was a book by Claude Bristol, The Magic of Believing. The Magic of Believing is still in print. It came out in the ‘50’s and it is still a classic book.
I read books by Catherine Ponder. I was feeding my mind positive information; in a way trying to brainwash myself into being much more positive and optimistic in my life.
I also found ways to listen to audio tapes. I was a big Nightingale-Conant junkie. I was listening to Nightingale-Conant audio productions long, long, long ago.
When I was driving in my car making those long rides in Houston on the freeway it was a university on wheels because in that car I would listen to those tapes. I would borrow them from the library. If I could afford them I would buy them. I would find ways to get them. Again, I was feeding my mind with all of this positive stuff.
Then I would look for the role models. I’ve had role models since I was a kid. I mentioned some of the comic book ones. I mentioned Harry Houdini.
But whenever I was interested in something I looked for role models there. For a while I was interested in boxing. I was a big fan of Floyd Patterson and James J. Corbett and, even for a while, Muhammad Ali.
I was interested in being an attorney at one point. This is during teenage years when you are trying to find your way and I was fascinated by Clarence Darrow, one of the most famous attorneys.
I studied him. I actually drove and went to his birthplace in later years and did some research on him trying to absorb his best traits and put them within myself.
Then, of course, the biggest and final thing that helped me to come out of the quicksand that I was in was having a coach believe in me. I tell about this in my new book, The Attractor Factor. That is coming out in a week or so.
I worked for about ten years for a healer by the name of Jonathan and he really supported me and encouraged me. He even worked for me without charging me for a long, long time knowing, of course, that I couldn’t pay him at that time. I was just totally in poverty.
So all of these things were things I was doing to pull myself out of this poverty mindset that was a quicksand that was keeping me dragged down. I was trying to pull myself up while also being pulled down and I had to use books, tapes and support in order to get out of it.
Ralph Zuranski: Was your hating what you were doing and not seeking after your dreams the impetus that sent you down that trail to being homeless and having nothing and hating your life?
Joe Vitale: Interesting. I would say that focusing on my goal to the exclusion of all other things made it difficult for me to proceed.
What I mean by that is that there are opportunities around us all over the place. I wrote a book about Bruce Barton who was the founder of a big advertising agency, B.B.D.O., and the book is called, Seven Lost Secrets of Success.
In it there’s a quote that said, “He’d been out of work many times in his life, but he was always able to find work as long as he was open-minded about what he was willing to do.”
So by being so focused on, “I only want to be an author and that is the only way I want to make my career; that’s the only way I want to make money,” I was dismissing a lot of the good that was around me.
Today I can look back and say, “Wow! It is fantastic that I was a car salesman for a while.” I mean, I hated it. But I look back now and I think I had the best training in human psychology you ever could have had.
I look back and hated that I was a cab driver for a while. That was a job I despised. And I look back and think, “Wow, it was wonderful that I was able to learn the city of Houston and got paid to do it for a while because I was driving a cab and was forced into knowing the streets.”
Now I can look back and see the positive in what looked like a very negative experience. So having a bit of blinders on probably kept me from realizing the positive that was right around me.
Ralph Zuranski: So when there are difficult things going on in your life and you just don’t know what to do or how to handle it, you believe that there’s a silver lining around every dark cloud?
Joe Vitale: Yes, absolutely and, again, I didn’t know that a long time ago. It is absolutely true.
One of my phrases, and I wrote an article about this that is on my web site at MrFire.com, is “turn it into something good.” I write about this little phrase in The Attractor Factor.
No matter what happens to you that seems to be throwing a wrench in your life or it seems like Murphy’s Law was at work, look at it and say, “How can I turn this into something good?”
There’s a quote from a book that I like by Kurt Wright; I forget the title of the book. I also mention it in The Attractor Factor. I’ll paraphrase it and it is so profound.
He said, “Have you ever noticed in your life that you’ve gone through periods that were really bad, really down, really unhappy; and they were experiences that you just wish you could get out of? But a year later you look back at that experience and you were able to see the good that came out of it?”
Almost always that’s the case. If we are really open-minded, if we’re conscious and aware, we can look back after a year or so and say, “Yeah, I can see the good that came with that now. I can see that whatever took place that I thought was nasty at that time lead to something that’s truly wonderful.”
Well he said, “If that’s true, when something happens to you at the moment that looks like negative, look for the good in it that you’ll see in a year.
HypnoticLibrary.com
By Joe Vitale
This is a complete collection
of Joe's most popular products.
HypnoticMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale,
This ebook book shows you
techniques on how to make your
publicity, emails and websites
hypnotic. It also includes Joe
Vitale's 3-step marketing
strategy called "Guaranteed
Outcome Marketing," which can
increase your business by 70% --
in less than 90 days
HypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This course, by Joe Vitale
(recognized by many as the best
copywriter in the U.S.), shows
you how to use "hypnotic" tricks
in your writing to get people to
more easily agree with you. A
must for anyone who wants to
write persuasively.
AdvancedHypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This ebook is the unparalleled
sequel to Joe Vitale's
blockbuster "Hypnotic Writing."
It reveals how to use the
phenomenon of hypnotic
suggestion to turn your words
into cash.
HowToWriteHypnoticArticles.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook tells you how to get
free publicity by writing
hypnotic articles for e-zines
and Web sites -- in 7 minutes or
less.
HowToWriteHypnoticEndorsements.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook shows you how to
write persuasive endorsements
that can help you increase
sales.
HowToWriteHypnoticJointVentureProposals.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
An ebook that tells you how to
get free advertising for your
business by writing hypnotic
joint venture proposals.
HypnoticSellingTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to influence your
prospects' subconscious minds
with these 1739 hypnotic words,
phrases and sentences.
HypnoticWritingSwipeFile.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This is a collection of over
1,550 copywriting gems that took
Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
years to compile. This is their
personal swipe file that they
use to create world famous sales
letters responsible for
generating millions and millions
of dollars of revenue.
ImpulseInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Dr. Scott
Lewis
This ebook tells you how to use
49 psychological tricks Las
Vegas casinos use, to make your
business pay off like a slot
machine.
SubconsciousInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to bypass your
prospects' unconscious minds and
get them to buy anything you
sell
CreateAdvertisingThatSells.com
By Joe Vitale
An interactive online video
advertising course featuring
book, workbook, and video
instruction that has been one of
our bestsellers. And since we
can all learn from the masters,
it also features several
reproductions of hugely
successful ad campaigns.
HypnoticTrafficTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
HypnoticSellingStories.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
8. What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
Mike Filsaime: If you truly believe in your heart that the soul goes on then our time on this earth is so miniscule that it can’t even be measured if we talk in the terms of eternity. I think we have a purpose here on earth to do what’s right and to live a life in the way that God would want us.
So what that means is that anytime you are faced with a situation and deep down, sometimes it’s very subconscious & you don’t know what to do. Your subconscious takes over and you just do what’s right. I believe that anybody listening on this call would go into a house and save a child if they knew there was a life in there, a precious life that needed to be changed whether it was a stranger or their daughter.
I think that’s I inherent in all of us. I love to see those types of stories where you see average, ordinary everyday people do great things. That is something I think is unique to the human spirit. I think that it’s blessed to see those things. ______________________________________
Paulie Sabol: The idea of dying for something bigger than yourself is very attractive. And at the very same time, I do believe the world has had enough martyrs. I would much rather live for things than die for things.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. It is easier to die for things than it is to live them.
Paulie Sabol: But with that stated, if I were to die in the service of helping to organize against an oppressive, corrupt government, if I were to die in the service of extending rights to the most marginalized and disenfranchised of people, if I were to die in that, again, medieval value of the pursuit of true courtly love, then it would indeed be a noble and heroic death.
So that is my answer. I would much rather live with all those things.
Ralph Zuranski: It is harder to live – it is easier to die. It is much more difficult to take the burdens you have in life and helping others, and pursue that and have the right attitude of love and gratitude for having that opportunity to serve.
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Donna Fox: That question really touches me. I think if I were a mother it would be a very easy answer. I would sacrifice my life for my children.
To some extent I feel like I would sacrifice my life for my family members, my fiancé, the people that I love, and my business partner. But who really knows when it comes down to it, and when you are really asked to give your life?
I would love to be able to say, “I would sacrifice my life for free speech” because I think it is so important. I would sacrifice my life for the freedoms that our country provides us. But who really knows.
I should hope that I could live up to that. But I also hope that I never get tested on it.
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TOM BEAL: What’s right? I have a scar on my knee and on my eye because while I was in the marine corp. Mike Tyson had a comeback fight and we had a party in our apartment. When we went outside there was a group of people, because he fought McNealy, and I remember it because there was an event that occurred afterward that I’m leading up to.
Mike Tyson knocked McNealy out very quickly. We went out to our car. There was several marines and a couple of there wives. There was a group of other people who were apparently not satisfied with ending of the fight so they all circled up from different apartments.
They were having ultimate fighting championships and they were fighting one another. It happened to be right near our car. We stop and all of a sudden they start picking on us. Saying “You guys think your tough?” We said “NO, no everything is good.”
But then one of them pushed my friend’s wife. Without even thinking I just grabbed that guy and my wrestling came out and I took him down. What I didn’t think about was that we were out numbered at least 5 to 1. So what I would sacrifice?
I would stand up for what is right. If I have to have surgery a couple of times afterwards so be it. I was kicked in the head and had to have seven stitches in the eye and had to have knee surgery and all that fun stuff. But what’s right is right.
The guy chose to push my friends wife and I had to stick up for what’s right. I’ve since hung up my fighting shoes. There was a lot of testosterone going on back in those years. I try to talk things out.
Hopefully I am able to communicate things a little better than choosing physical aspects like that. But I will not sit back and keep my tongue tied if someone is doing wrong to someone else.
Actually just recently at one of the seminars I saw you at we were in the back of the plane and one airport was shut down, Chicago/O’Hare and this guy was just going off on the stewardess.
Saying “This is unacceptable. This is why your airline is going out of business, blah, blah, blah.” She said “Sir I apologize. It’s out of my control.”
He’s saying “I’m so disgusted with this!” I said “Sir I’m disgusted with the way you are talking to the stewardess. You need to put yourself in check here and give her some appreciation.”
His wife agreed. I’m just not the type to sit by if someone’s being treated wrongly I will communicate that.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Ralph Zuranski: Did you create a secret hero of your own based on the qualities of those heroes; one that you actually internalized in your own mind that you could always rely on that secret hero for help.
Joe Vitale: I created a version of that. I don’t think it would be in the comic book area, but I pulled qualities and traits from them and from a lot of people that I admired. This goes back to the other thing I did and that was read a lot.
I was reading biographies like Harry Houdini who turned me onto magic. For the longest time as a teenager I thought I was going to be the world’s greatest escape artist just like he had been.
I even had a name. “Harry Excello” was my stage name when I was 15 or 16 years old. This was a major thing for a teenager to be going through.
So I would look at these heroes. I would look at Houdini and Superman and Batman and Flash, and I would look at their qualities to try to create a version of that in me. I don’t think I created an individual character who was somebody I then idolized.
I think what I did was idolize a lot of these different super heroes, the living ones as well as the fictional ones, to pull out the qualities within me that I admired within them. That’s really the important statement.
Ralph Zuranski: What were those specific qualities?
Joe Vitale: That’s a good question. Boy, okay, one of those was serving. I’m looking at this now being 51 years old looking back on what was turning me on as a kid and so forth. I don’t think I would have said serving at that point.
But I can say it now because that is what these people were doing. When I looked at Superman, Batman, Flash and even Houdini, these people were providing a service in one way or another.
The comic book heroes were, of course, trying to save the world and save the day and save victims and all of that
Harry Houdini was providing people with entertainment which is something I’ve learned that is profoundly important to the world.
I’ve done books on P.T. Barnum and research on a lot of people who lived through the Civil War and the Great Depression and very turbulent, sad times. They were able to find ways to entertain people and to serve people and to help people.
That was a big quality that I really admired because, and again this is me speaking today trying to reflect on when I was a kid and growing up, they were getting out of their ego. Of course, their ego was still involved in all of this. I mean, they are human and I’m human.
But they were doing something bigger than their ego. They were doing something bigger than self-gratification. It was trying to be gratified by helping others. And I would say that is the number one biggest trait that I recognized and have tried to idolize and use.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that those characteristics come from the non-dominant brain hemisphere of individuals? I know you are well aware of how the brain works with the left brain which is the logical, the judgmental, the mathematical and verbal skills orientation and time, competition and judgment; where the other side is the creative side.
Do you feel that the ability to serve comes from the emotional side of the brain?
Joe Vitale: What a wonderful question. I think it actually comes from something deeper.
Let’s look at this for a second. Yes, there is the brain and it does have both halves and both of them are assigned different duties even though research shows that there are crossovers in those duties.
But something deeper than that seems to be the heart. And the heart is more like the soul, it’s more like your spirit, it’s more like your connection to the divine, your connection to the universe. It’s where we are all connected.
It goes deeper than the brain. It goes deeper than the thought process. It goes deeper than the conscious mechanism that is keeping us going, or even the unconscious mechanism that is keeping your blood pumping and regulating your body temperature and doing things that, consciously, would drive you batty. You cannot handle it all.
So I would say this desire to serve is coming from this deepest soul connection of the universe itself. I don’t know how to explain that in more specific, scientific terms. I actually believe that the research is still probing in that direction. They are not going to come back with conclusive evidence for a while.
But I’m really talking about the spirit. I’m really talking about coming from deeper than what we would get on a brain x-ray.
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7. What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Mike Filsaime: Well you know Ralph this something that I’ll talk from the heart and say this in a way as to not offend anyone or any faith. I will say it in some generic terms. I believe in a higher place and a higher person.
I do have a God in my life and have a very good relationship with him. In terms of quote “religion” or would I say I am a religious person? No and again I don’t want to offend anybody but I’ll speak my heart here for a second.
I think sometimes people get confused between the difference of the words faith and religion. I believe everybody should have faith. I also believe that what is religion? Religion means doing things religiously. Sometimes those rules were given to us by man not by what we believe our God is or the book that was written by God.
I believe in faith and having a relationship with God. As I said before, you know what’s right and you know what’s wrong and you know what God wants from you. So I think you need to walk that life as close to the way they wanted it as best you possibly can.
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Paulie Sabol: I think I’m going to be in the minority of some of your heroes, and that is a very good thing. What it means is that there is room at the top for all of us. I am one who experiences prayer typically as the last refuge of the wicked. As when somebody whose got some results coming in their life because of the habits that they’ve formed, the thoughts that they’ve acted upon, and they’re just not happy with those results, in a last ditch effort, they move to prayer to improve it.
On the other hand, there are some traditions which expand prayer to a broader form of communication with something you believe to be out there, rather than a living contribution to what’s around us. That is what I don’t participate in. But in the cases of where there is a communication with nature, or the communication to the power of knowing, which has historically been called Gnosticism, prayer still plays a small role in my life.
However, and it does, because I do believe in communing with those forces, I do believe in opening myself up to messages and invitations, and other than natural forms of knowing.
When people do say they are going to pray for me, I thank them with a nice smile. I’m happy to have prayers; I’m just not a very big doer of prayers. I want to respond to the question of the power of prayer.
From what those who do use prayer say it does for them, I see them as being plugged into a power. Again, I don’t know the means, and I don’t know the mechanism, but what I do know is that we learn in Physics and higher science. I do have a degree in Physics.
We are all fundamentally connected. There is only ONE sense, and you and I, we’re it. You and the listener is it. We’re all one. So the ability of prayer to bring people to the awareness of that oneness, and plug them into that oneness, I very much believe can occur through those particular rituals.
I just happen to use different ones.
Ralph Zuranski: I think if everybody realized that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, and that we are all a part of the same family, that anytime we do something evil to somebody else, or we do something that is hurtful, we are affecting the entire universe; we’re affecting everybody on the planet.
If people realized that all the great leaders, spiritual leaders, they all thought that love was the most powerful of all the emotions. A lot of people are willing to sacrifice their life or love for other people. What are your principles and are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
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Donna Fox: I’m not a particularly religious person, Ralph. That being said, I think you could call what I do prayer, by some people’s definitions.
I really make a conscious effort to think every day about the things I am grateful for in my life and the wonderful things that have come into my life. And to be sure that I am open for more wonderful things to come into my life.
If positive thinking and gratitude is prayer then I am all for it. I think it’s highly important to do it every single day.
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TOM BEAL: I pray pretty much all day long. I have an inner talk and am always communicating and just try to be in touch with myself and God and the universe. While I’m driving and while I’m sitting I’ll try to have conversations. I feel it’s very, very important part of my life.
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Ralph Zuranski: This is Ralph Zuranski and I’m interviewing Joe Vitale, one of the most famous copy writers in the world.
Joe, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions. Did you ever create a super hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Joe Vitale: Well, first of all, I love the question because nobody has ever asked me that before. The reality is yes, I have, and that was something that helped me get through a rather difficult childhood.
I haven’t written too much about it because it was unpleasant. You often turn inside and you often turn into your own mind looking for comfort, looking for solutions, and looking for inspiration.
I did a whole lot of that. Yes, I did. I was, like many people, into comic books and that was my first introduction to super heroes. And then creating a type of super hero for myself to be inspired by or to try to model was something I secretly did.
Just like I’ve never been asked the question before, I’ve never talked about this before. But yes, indeed, I did. I mean, do you need to know or would like to know what some of the super heroes were?
Ralph Zuranski: I would love to.
Joe Vitale: Obviously, Superman was there because I would imagine that every kid growing up admired him and wanted to be him. I also knew that being Superman was a bit of a challenge. He was actually from another planet.
So it was more realistic for me to follow Batman because he was human and just had a lot of gadgets, a lot of talent, a lot of persistence, a lot of will power and a lot of commitment to making a difference in the world for doing good.
Then the lesser super heroes that were still important to me were ones like Flash. Flash was one of the super heroes who was able to run around the world in eight seconds because he could do it in a flash. I always thought you could be incredibly productive if you were able to do what Flash could do.
So those were some of the ones who come to mind.
6. What is your perspective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?
Mike Filsaime: Again, those are life principles. Those aren’t things in my opinion that one person can say “Well that’s your view on ethics.” Fundamentally there is a difference between right and wrong. If you are even questioning it then in some cases it probably can be wrong.
We know deep down in our hearts what the right things to do are and what the wrong things to do are. I believe that in anything that you do it will attract that same thing to you. If you live an ethical life you will find yourself surrounded by ethical people.
You will have an ethical business and you will have ethical customers working with you and everything like that. Anything that you try to kid yourself with or try to resist is going to push back at you in the same way. If you’re working and you are doing things unethically it will come back to bite you. It’s just a terrible way to have a mindset to think that you can take advantage of people. You really need to just cleanse your soul and know the right things to do and live your life in that direction.
____________________________________
Paulie Sabol: This is an interesting question that you ask. There is much to be said. Here is my answer. I will actually take them in reverse order with your permission, because I believe taking them in that order actually illuminates a key issue.
I may be in the minority here, but I grow weary and tired of discussions for morality. Nichi said that morality is the best tool for leading humankind by the nose. He also called it the herd instinct of the individual. Morality in my view of the definition is outward focused.
It is usually used to censor, attack and divide. Ethics on the other hand, Ralph, is the thinking part of goodness behavior. Ethics is when logic, your intuition, and this understanding of value all meet together. That point, that thinking activity, is what ethics, ethical dilemma, ethical understanding, and ethical reasoning is all about.
Thus it is fundamentally personal. It is situational. It has a much higher ideal than can be comprised or codified into a series laws, commandments, or moral dictates. I think that ethics is the day to day activity of us walking through our heroic journey, whereas morality is very often a case of somebody else’s result of their heroic journey being imposed or imbued or endowed on somebody else.
In anticipation, or before, and sometimes unfortunately preventing them from making their own hero’s journey. That leaves us with goodness. Well, goodness is the doing part of ethical thinking. So through our ethical process, our understanding of value and situation and personal identity, we then act in accordance to that, and that is goodness.
Ralph Zuranski: We know that is so true. It is amazing how many people want to impose their moral beliefs on other people. You have so much catastrophe and so much death dealing and so much war based on what people hold religiously. If they actually looked at what the philosophers that they are following actually say, they would see that loving others is the primary foundation of the teachings they had that they wanted to spread to the world.
It is sad that so many people are so divisive and so willing to just judge others because they don’t believe the way that they do. I see that is probably the most and the greatest divisive factor in humanity today, is just people trying to impose their beliefs on others and wanting to try and change others and realizing that others can only change themselves.
________________
Donna Fox: That’s interesting, Ralph. A couple of years ago I took a values quiz and there were 30 or so values on a sheet of paper. We were told to pick out the 15 that were the most important to us.
So we automatically crossed off 30 from the list and then we had to go backwards and we asked ourselves the question, “What one value could you live without if you had to” and cross it off.
You got all the way down and you basically put in reverse orders from your value. It’s like if you had to live without a value, which one is it going to be?
Well, if I had guessed my values I would have said my values were education and family and fun, maybe. But I was so surprised to learn that my values were ethics and integrity.
Those were my top two values, and I had no idea. But those were the ones that I couldn’t get rid of if I had to get rid of everything else.
I had to get rid of my family. Ultimately it came down to who I was, my ethics and my integrity. That’s the primary value that I have and I try to do everything from a position of, “How do I feel about myself after this action?”
I don’t like the idea of somebody else giving me his rules or somebody else telling me what to do. When it comes to morals and ethics I don’t think there are black and whites.
There are always times when things are going to be different for people but if I check with myself and follow a code and make sure that I’m always consistent with myself, then I’m being the best person I can be. The best person I know how to be.
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TOM BEAL: I feel that every person has an inner thermometer about what’s good and what’s bad, what’s right and what’s wrong. But I also know that we also choose whether we want to partake in things that are good or things that are bad, or things that are right and things that are wrong. It all boils down to the power of choice.
No matter where you are in your life you can continue walking that path or you can choose to take a different route.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
5. What specific philosophy or philosophies guide your life and decisions?
Mike Filsaime: I believe in principles so certainly that are a lot of things I’d like to do to be a better man, to be a better husband and be a better marketer. One of the specific things that I like to do is to let go and stop thinking or ever believe that I know everything.
I’m a big believer in continued learning. Again Stephen Covey & another one of the seven habits, Habit #7 says “You must continue to sharpen the saw.” So even if you start to learn and you sharpen that saws & it’s the best saw in the world what ends up happening is that months or years later that same saw built on great knowledge becomes dull if you continue to use it every day.
You must continue to sharpen the saw. I recommend that everybody be a student of learning and learn from the masters, those people that have blazed the trail. Sometimes and in most cases you have to pay for that information. But you’ll find that anything you pay for when learning from the best will come back to you tenfold.
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Paulie Sabol: When I prepared for this question, I misread it Ralph. I thought you were asking about the philosophers who had impacted me. So let me first share some of that, and then I will talk about a couple of specific philosophies that do guide me.
I did want to share that Oscar Wilde is one of my biggest guiding philosophers. He had some great things to say that I think are illustrative and important for all of us. One of his quotes is that, “A cynic is a person who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.”
This difference between value and price I thought was so very important. Very often we want to try to create numbers and let numbers be the way in which we rank one another, judge one another, experience one another, and even consider our traits, whether it is a social trait like hanging out with somebody, or whether it is a financial trait.
However, he said the cynic understands the price of everything. They understand only the price, but the value of nothing. The fact that there is a difference between what something may cost us or its price and its value is dramatic.
Think about it this way, what is the price of a marijuana joint? It is whatever it is – it is some number of dollars. That is the price. But what is the impact of developing a habit where we are consuming drugs, we’re giving up some of our passions and giving up some of our control to an outside substance.
The impact, the real cost in that case is large. That is the difference between price and cost. Now look at it the other way. What is the price of eating in the most healthful way possible – avoiding some of the fast food choices that are out there, avoiding some of the fried foods, and instead eating the healthy, nutritious live foods.
They might even have a slightly higher price than a lot of the fast foods, but the value to your body, the composition, the power, and the wellness that it gives you, is quite a bit greater than that little incremental price difference.
Ralph Zuranski: It is pretty exponential, that’s for sure. I spent 24 years in that field and I know the value of good nutrition and doing the right things for your body, so I totally agree with you.
Paulie Sabol: One of his other quotes that he said that has meant a lot to me is, “An idea that is not dangerous, is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” That is a heroic statement, because it is talking about the fact that if you are going to get yourself behind something, you’re going to say, “I have a great idea,” it should make you tremble in its awesomeness.
You should be thinking to yourself, “If this idea can be pulled off, it is going to transform and change the world for the better.” I like that Oscar Wilde really reminded us that sometimes we treat any little notion that happens to pop by like it has the value of an idea.
But we’ve been told nothing is as powerful as an idea that has come at the right time, or whose time has come. I think it was Victor Hugo who said that. This is the same thing Oscar Wilde is reminding us. If an idea is truly great, is worth the title of an idea, it should really be just awesome, make us almost quake with the humility that we’ve been able to think it and receive it.
Ralph Zuranski: It is a little scary to indulge and also embark on journeys for great ideas and things that are going to make a dynamic difference in the world today.
Paulie Sabol: So with that, I will share a couple of my core philosophies. So this is 100% me, as opposed to my influences. One of my core philosophies, Ralph, is this one. It is called trust the truth. What I mean by the philosophy of trust the truth, and it is the profound number one reason why I agreed to accept this honor of doing this interview with you.
If we understand what a hero’s journey is, if we understand what that process is, then there are going to be times when things don’t go perfectly our way. When we do feel like we are about to be dashed against the obstacles, like there is just no energy to carry on. In fact, if we are in a relationship with a best friend, a boy friend, or a girl friend, perhaps even a mentor relationship, or a coach, and we’re trying to excel.
It is very important to be kind to ourselves as learners. Very often we want to punish learners. You’ll see some young person learning to do something and they behave in way that the parents or caregivers are objectionable to it, and they might reach over and slap them. We’re punishing the learner.
In the heroes’ journey, what I have found is that we just have to trust the truth. Know that the path of progress is just that. It is progress and not perfection. If we trust the truth and trust ourselves and know that over the course of all time, no caterpillar has ever turned into anything through metamorphosis except a beautiful butterfly.
They’ve never turned into a worthless pile of dung. They’ve always turned into a butterfly, every time. That’s what I mean by trust the truth. You see, I have a lot of interns; young heroes, like you are reaching out to, 18-24 years of age category, who come into our business as interns to learn how to achieve more and have more financial independence.
But I always trust the truth and I find that they get so much more than a revenue stream or income or work experience opportunity. They grow and transform as people just like the caterpillars into the butterflies.
_____________________
Donna Fox: One of the many philosophies that I live by and continually practice is the Japanese philosophy of kaizen. It’s actually a manufacturing term. It is continuing small little incremental improvements and how when you measure something in your life, just a teeny little bit, eventually all those improvements add up.
So I really spend every day going, “What little thing can I do to improve myself, to improve my relationships, to improve my business today? Just one little thing.” It’s amazing what one little thing will do.
Everybody has time for one little thing. One little bitty improvement every day makes such a tremendous difference in the long run.
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TOM BEAL: In the marine corp. I learned 14 principles in leadership. Real quickly here they are judgment, justice, decisiveness, integrity, tact, initiative, enthusiasm, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty and endurance. That’s a quick run down of those 14 traits but I feel that if I’m doing the best that I know how today and I can do a little bit better tomorrow; that’s all I can ask for.
I try to do everything honestly and ethically I try not to cross any of those lines. In my mind I know what’s right and what’s not and I try to do my best every single day. My goal is to be a little bit better tomorrow than I am today.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
4. Do you follow your hunches and intuition?
Mike Filsaime: Yes I do. Pretty much like you just said, you have to be careful with your ideas. That’s where out sourcing comes in. If you can find people to manage the projects you can put other ideas out there on the back burner and move them a little bit closer to the front burner if you understand how to out source.
There’s a great expression that says “money likes speed” and I agree with that. If you do decide to take action on something, do it very quickly. Because money likes speed and money attracts speed. When you work fast you can get into this great zone where you can start bringing things to the market very quickly.
______________________________
Paulie Sabol: Increasingly so, Ralph. I entered into a mentorship program with a person who I am hopefully going to be able to share more with you about as we continue on. This is going to be shocking to some people, but the access to this mentorship program has an exclusive, not in the racial or gender sense, but rather an elite club.
It costs $30,000 a year to be a part of. When I heard a fellow here, and partner of mine, who is also in that program, is going to be on a long flight with our common mentor, I asked her if she would get a chance to deliver a message for me. My message to my mentor was to thank him for giving me the permission to depend upon trust, and act based on my intuition.
I had no idea, and I still have no idea, what the mechanism, or process of intuition is, I don’t even know if it is real or like a byproduct, that it could be something we trick ourselves into, because we have these magnificent, marvelous brains, that are able to take in and understand so much more, so much faster, than we could ever put words on.
So I don’t know what intuition actually is. I don’t know if it is something from inside of us that we get a glimpse of. I don’t know if it is something totally biological, ordinary, and natural. What I do know is that the more that I have allowed myself to be guided and to connect with these intuitive insights, and trust them, and act based upon them, the results that are coming to me are occurring with greater regularity, greater reward, and greater relaxation.
It is becoming effortless effort for me to act in a heroic way that has the rewards of heroism.
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Donna Fox: I was never very good at this until recently. I am actually very kind of left-brain and focused. I like facts and figures and numbers.
As we sit here talking it’s 2006. One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2005 was to listen to my intuition more and really trust my gut when making a decision and check it.
Every major business decision I kind of checked and said, “How does this feel?” In my inexperienced way that’s how I have checked my intuition. “Now how does this feel?”
I must say 2005 was the best year so far and I can only imagine that 2006 is going to get better.
Ralph Zuranski: I think intuition is an area that a lot of people don’t really trust but it’s an incredibly important area because it becomes a part of your body and brain working together and telling you the stuff that you really need to hear.
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TOM BEAL: (Laughter) Yes I do. There is a fun story here. I mentioned I dropped out of college. I partied too much and went there for the wrong reasons. I was 17 years old in college and ended up dropping out.
For the first time my mother and I agreed. She agreed she was kicking me out and I agreed I was leaving. So that was our mutual agreement. I got in my car. It was a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit with 180,000 miles and I had $60.00 to my name and I was 18 years old.
The intuition or hunch that I had was, I got in my car and really had no where to go. I can’t stay here and I really have nowhere local that I can go.
My intuition and my gut said drive to New York City. Keep in mind that I didn’t know anybody in New York City and I didn’t have any destination but I followed my gut and my intuition.
In this Volkswagen Rabbit I drove the six hour trip. I left my house at 9:00pm EST and arrived in Manhattan not knowing the exact directions but just knowing that’s what my gut was telling me at 3:00 am in the morning.
All the way there I didn’t have a radio and at this time I didn’t have any spiritual background or upbringing in the church or anything like that.
On the 6 hour drive I said “You know what God, it’s me and you. I don’t know why I going to New York City. I don’t know where I’m going to stay when I get there. I don’t know what I’m going to do.
If I’m going to have to live in my car and that’s what you have in the cards for me then that’s what I’ll do. If you want me to live on the street that’s what I’ll do. If I’m supposed to die in New York City that’s what I’ll do.
I’m just going there on intuition, on my gut. That’s where I feel I need to be going.” So I did that. I talked for 6 hours to nobody but to the universe, to God and it was in his hands. At 3:00 am I get to Manhattan.
I’ve been there like once before and didn’t know where I was going. I was going from the high numbers like from the 180’s down to the lower numbers. On the way I saw a Chinese restaurant. I said “Well I’ve nowhere to go so I’ll just pull in and have a little bite to eat.”
I didn’t have much money so at the same time when I walked in I looked at my money and I had $60.00 minus some gas I had to pay. It was a diesel Rabbit by the way. The waitress came and I said “You know what I’m just going to have a bowl of rice.”
She looked at me and said “We have no rice.” Like a movie I looked around and said “This is a Chinese restaurant right? You don’t have any rice. That’s what you do, right?” She said “Yeah we are out of rice. Anything else?”
I said “Well I guess not. Do you have a restroom I can use?” I went into the restroom and washed my hands and splashed water on my face. I went back in my car and went one block and came to a red light.
At 3:00 in the morning my ex-stepfather was walking across that intersection. I couldn’t believe it. I rolled my window down and I’m yelling out “Hey Cliff. Cliff!” and he keeps walking. I yelled his full name out and he turns around and says “What the heck are you doing down here?”
I said “What the heck are you doing walking the streets at 3:00 in the morning?” Now keep in mind I hadn’t seen Cliff in a couple of years and had no clue he was in New York, none the less in New York City. But the circumstances that lead to that was he said “Where are you staying?” I said “You are looking at it.”
“I just left the house, me and my mom got in a fight and I’m here.” He said” You are staying in your car?” He says “No your not you are staying at my house. I’ve got a place right around the corner.” So I stayed with him for three months in Manhattan. That is a long winded answer to “Do I follow my gut and my intuition.”
That’s a story from a few years ago obviously. But I do feel strongly that when you have that burning desire that you know this is what your supposed to do then take that step boldly. And just one step after the next. I do consider it a miracle.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
3. How important is it to stay focused on your primary goal?
Mike Filsaime: Staying focused is something we’ve been talking about a lot lately and I’m going to give credit to a very good friend of mine Stephen Pierce. I’m going to give an example that I saw him talk about in Australia. Basically what Stephen says is “Imagine if there was a young child that you knew very well and you were standing at a garage maybe at a bar-b-que. In the street was a young child maybe playing with marbles or something right at the corner of the driveway on the street.
Between you and the child were several of your friends and relatives holding a drink in their hand and behind them was a wagon wheel, a big wheel, a bicycle and other kids playing. You noticed up at the top of the hill that somebody just parked their car and didn’t put it in park and didn’t put the emergency brake on.
It was very slowly running down the hill towards this young girl. So I’ll ask you the question, Ralph, if you saw that car coming towards the girl and you had all these people in front of you but you knew you had to get to this child, what would you do?
Ralph Zuranski: I would do what you would do Mike. I would do anything it took to get to that girl before the car got there.
Mike Filsaime: Anything it took, right? What about that bicycle that’s in your way?
Ralph Zuranski: I would leap over it and knock the people aside and not let any obstacle stand in my way.
Mike Filsaime: Exactly. It’s what bicycle at this point. You have a goal and you’re not going to let anything get in your way. Now here’s what happens when you turn that scenario around. As Stephen mentions, you take that young child and you turn it into a car. Now at the top of the hill coming down in stead of a car it’s a shopping cart.
You see the shopping cart coming down and you still have all these people in front of you. So now you’re entire intention shifts. Your perception has just shifted So what you are going to say as you see that shopping cart coming down as you’ll probably have a little of the deer in the headlights look, you’ll probably say “Hm, this is going to be interesting.”
I think that’s what happens sometimes with people with the project they are working on. They don’t have that serious focus where they put the blinders on like a horse in horse racing. They say “That’s my target goal. I don’t care about the bicycle or the people in front of me. There’s nothing that’s going to stop me from getting to my target goal.
If you start looking at that with the product that you are working on it’s pretty much the same thing. I think what happens is people get stuck in this syndrome of “Oh I’ve got another great idea.” A great idea is probably the biggest poison that anybody could have when they are working on a project or trying to focus on something. What I tell my students and people that I work with is to take their ideas and put them into a separate book.
Write down that idea in a little paragraph then put that book back in the drawer. When you are done with your current project open up the idea book and find the ideas that you can work on that you can immediately leverage quickly and bring to the market place or whatever you want to do to complete it. Brad Fallon, a good friend of mine talks about working on four different projects at the same.
Let’s assume that each project takes you one month to do and you’re working on all four of them at the same time. Simple math would tell you that it would take 4 months to get these projects done. So what ends up happening is that you work on one project one week, the next project the next week, the next project the following week and you’re moving each project along kind of like pushing up all these little magnets up on a board.
But what ends up happening is if you had been focusing on one project, in one mo nth you could have that project making money for you after 30 days. Then you can fully focus on the next project. Then after 30 days your 2nd project is making money so now you have two incomes coming in.
After the 2nd project is done you work for 30 days on the next project you complete it because you were focused. Now you have three projects that are making you money. After that you start the 4th project and all the while you’re working on the 4th project the other three projects are making you money.
Not only are you in a position that you are working on projects, you are completing projects that are making you money. The mistakes that people do are trying to work on all these projects at the same time are that none of these projects are making money because it’s being spread out over 4 months. So it will take you 4 months to create one single dollar. Then that poison comes in again right before you’re about to finish the project and says “Oh I have another great idea, and another great idea.”
So you start getting to 90 & 95% on all these other projects then you start another project and move them up to 90 to 95% then project #7 comes along with this great idea and you never complete anything. One more thing, assuming you were working on 4 projects at the same time, as I said at the beginning of this conversation about this, that simple math would tell you it would take 4 months to get these projects done.
What happens is that when you are multi-tasking and not focusing, you can multiple that factor times two. It will actually take you about 8 months to get 4 projects done because you are multi-tasking and not able to focus on one thing at a time.
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Paulie Sabol: I’m so glad you asked this question. I believe there is actually a paradox, or a mystery, or a puzzle when it comes to focus. The way I like to do it is experientially, so I’m going to encourage you Ralph, and the young listeners to do this with me.
Think about your own two eyes, which are the source of your visual focus. If you put up one finger, like you are making the number one sign, and you put it about six inches from your face at eye level and focus on that finger, just on that one finger.
I want you to notice as you continue to hold that focus, that everything behind and beyond your immediate focus is now distorted, doubled, and fuzzy. However, if you have a primary goal, that one objective and you focus beyond it, let your eyes naturally rest, I’m not focused entirely on the prize at the moment, but look beyond it.
You are more relaxed. Your eyes are now where they are designed to be, on what’s ahead, on the future, on what is coming. Your primary aim is now what’s been doubled. Rather than becoming like an obstacle right in front of you, causing you to lose your sense of what’s beyond you, it’s doubling has made like a gateway, an archway, that you see the future right through.
While it is very important for me to focus, I like to focus beyond my primary aim and goal. In fact, to call it important is somewhat misleading; since I believe it is the natural state, and thus the easy one. Often we think of important things as things that require struggle and travail and challenge.
Whereas, since this is the easy way, it is not so much important to do, as if there is a doing in it, but rather it is a state of being. It is a way to be. Naturally looking forward and seeing your primary aims as the gateway, archway and the path to that clear resolute future before you.
Ralph Zuranski: I think that is really true, because Earl Nightingale and Napoleon Hill talked about having that worthy ideal, about having faith in yourself, having belief that you can possibly achieve your goals, and having that self confidence in being able to do it, that it makes all the difference in the world.
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Donna Fox: I think even more important than the primary goal is to stay focused on the reason why. Sometimes our goals change, and even our primary goal changes over time.
But usually the reason why you want to achieve the goal doesn’t change. Now whether that be so you can take care of your parents when they need it or your children or you can send your grandkids to college or whatever that goal be for you and it’s different for everyone.
The big “why” is the thing that doesn’t change. That is what is really important to keep in your narrow sights.
Ralph Zuranski: You know Donna, I’ve done a lot of interviews with a lot of the male heroes that I’m met on the internet and it’s funny but it’s rare that men have the ability to communicate as well as women do.
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TOM BEAL: Focus is very important. In all those stories I shared, in bicycling for example, I lived, breathed, walked, talked and everything I did revolved around bicycling. Hence I was able to go from not knowing how to do a single trick like you see on the X Games to becoming a National Champion with 3 years.
It’s that focus that allows you to reach the top in your game. For awhile I wanted to be everything to everybody. Then I started to really understand and appreciate the power of focus.
Like a laser beam, the more you can focus and instead of trying to be everything, be the best that you can in that particular area.
That’s when you will pull yourself much farther and much more quickly instead of being distracted by other things. Focus is very important.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
2. What is the dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
Mike Filsaime: The dream that sets the course? I would probably say the power of positive thinking and trying to keep all the negative poisons out of my mind. Napoleon Hill says “Whatever the mind can conceive it can achieve” and I’m a big believer in that. I believe that the things you dwell on you are going to pull into your life.
I think that the mind cannot distinguish between imagination and reality. That’s why the mind doesn’t know the difference between what you’re thinking and past memory. If you can envision something and not just set a goal that says “I want to make a million dollars” but actually envision you have with that. Like what you’ll be wearing, what you’ll be smelling, what your house will be like and what it’s like to drive that car. Also what it’s like to be with the person you love. If you can truly envision that in your mind I believe that you will actually attract that into life very quickly.
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Paulie Sabol: One of my mentors, a fellow by the name of Hakim Bay, said, “When we sleep we do not dream of a democratic state, we do not dream of a communist community. Nay, when we sleep we dream of anarchies and monarchies, where every person is a free king, queen, prince or princess.”
The dream and vision that propels me is almost a practical medieval pursuit, if you will, of the lost message, a lost bloodline, a sometime ago lost and then eventually found place and territory with no boundaries and no names, where the order that is there is really the order that comes out of the dynamic chaos that is created by itself.
A self-creating community of self-responsibility. What does all of that mean? It is kind of artistic language. To me, the dream that I have, the vision that I have, probably comes out of my having been adopted. Many, many adopted children have at some point and time in their life have a romantic, thoughtful connection to who their birth parents might have been.
In my case, I created this entire fantasy of this French/Jewish king lineage from which I came from. My original birth name is Boudreaux. I had studied and found what the Boudreaux crest looked like.
Still to this day, even though at one point I met my birth father and brought closure to a lot of those needs, I live and dream of that image of being the children of kings and priests and great heroes that I believe all of us have at the core of who we are, that sense that we were born of good, great stuff, to be good, great stuff.
Donna Fox: I actually have really very simple dreams. I don’t have a big grandiose dream. I don’t dream of a huge house or really effecting thousands of people’s lives or changing the world or ending poverty. Those things would be nice.
My kind of dream life is very simple. It’s waking up, eating healthy foods and having a healthy lifestyle full of activity. It’s yoga in the morning, swimming in the afternoon.
It’s living in some place warm. It’s having friends over for dinner. It’s really just very simple and very basic. It’s about enjoying people and relationships and living in the moment.
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TOM BEAL: Focus is very important. In all those stories I shared, in bicycling for example, I lived, breathed, walked, talked and everything I did revolved around bicycling. Hence I was able to go from not knowing how to do a single trick like you see on the X Games to becoming a National Champion with 3 years.
It’s that focus that allows you to reach the top in your game. For awhile I wanted to be everything to everybody. Then I started to really understand and appreciate the power of focus.
Like a laser beam, the more you can focus and instead of trying to be everything, be the best that you can in that particular area.
That’s when you will pull yourself much farther and much more quickly instead of being distracted by other things. Focus is very important.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
1. What do you want out of life in ten words or less?
Mike Filsaime: Oh boy, that’s a good question. I want to live a long healthy life and I want to change lives. As I said I want to leave a legacy. I don’t want to be something a thousand years from now where you’re not even a mark anywhere even in a record book. I want to put a nice legacy on this world and really change lives. And leave a pattern that can be duplicated for centuries to come.
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Paulie Sabol: Before I answer that, I do want to bounce back on one other thing that you said. I really want to reach out and be heard by those one in ten of your youthful heroes, who are themselves are in that questioning phase about their own sexual orientation, and sexual identity.
This point about change that you are making could be misunderstood by some of them. That is you are talking about changing one’s life and changing their habits, and changing their thoughts all into a direction that is aligning themselves in that powerful way with honesty and integrity with regards to their highest values.
I believe, and I certainly would say that I’m not expecting anybody to change, or think it is a good idea to change their sexual orientation or the way in which they are at a core physical nature. All of us can rise up against any physical limitation we have, but your sexual identity isn’t one of those physical limitations, it is one of those celebrations.
With just that point made, I will go ahead and answer your question Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: The idea is that everybody needs to be accepted where they are at. I think too many people hold a particular perspective that everybody has to conform to what they believe is right, and what their perspective of life is.
I found in my own life that is one of the most devastating things that people can do is to try to force others to believe like they do, and it is basically unfair. No matter where anybody is, no matter what they believe, no matter what their particular sexual persuasion is, you have to realize that they are all human beings, they are all made in the image and likeness of God, and they bear the image of God, and they are all lovable.
We need to love others, not hate them. We need to seek for unity, rather than separation. There is no good thing that can come out of hating others, and disavowing others and suppressing others. The whole goal of the heroes program is realizing that any person, no matter who they are, when they do good for somebody else, can be a hero. It is an ongoing thing.
You can be a hero everyday if you are helping others. I know that you do that Paulie. I know that you strive to help others, and that is one of the reasons why I chose you.
Paulie Sabol: Thank you. In the challenge to reduce my life mission into 10 words, I think this is it: It is to have high achieving friends worldwide with fundamental abundance for all.
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Donna Fox: My goal in life is really to live every day with child-like abandon. You know how children just see such freshness and newness everywhere they look and in everything that they see? I really try to capture that youthfulness and that innocence every day, just the happiness and the ability to take pleasure in seeing an ant on a blade of grass.
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TOM BEAL: The best way for me to answer that is what I stated earlier, to assist people in understanding that it doesn’t matter where they came from or where they are now, they can take steps to reach their destiny.
When Mike created the The "Butterfly Marketing Program" that is worth it's weight in gold, his joint venture partners were ready, willing and able to recommend the program to their loyal mailing listmembers. In five short days, there was over $1,000,000 in gross sales. It was time for Mike to reap the rewards promised by Earl Nightingale because of the quality and value of Mike's "Butterfly Marketing Program."
Nothing happens in business until a sale is made. Marketing is simply about getting new customers and keeping them. If you’re not doing something everyday to market and promote your business, your competitors are. Here are ten easy-to-implement tips to effectively market and grow your business:
Nothing happens in business until a sale is made.
Marketing is simply about getting new customers and keeping them. If you’re not doing something everyday to market and promote your business, your competitors are. Here are ten easy-to-implement tips to effectively market and grow your business:
1. Partner with large email database list owners and offer to cross promote each oher. The list owner will advertise your event, product, or service to their email database and you’ll offer to do the same to your list.
2. Create your own blog which is an online journal with frequently updated posts to entertain and excite existing and potential customers. It’s more personal and immediate then a website and keeps people engaged and hopefully coming back for more. You can even create one for free at www.blogger.com.
3. If you want to increase word-of-mouth fast, do something beyond normal industry expectations. For example, Mr. Lube offers fast and affordable tune-up service to customers right on the spot, without having to leave the car, while offering coffee, cappuccino, and a fresh newspaper.
4. Always ask happy clients for endorsements or testimonials and put them on your website and other marketing collateral. They’re worth their weight in gold. Try to get some recognizable names in your community for additional cachet.
5. Put a special offer or product advertorial on every invoice and statement you send out. Likewise, you can also negotiate a deal with another company to advertise your product or service on all their invoices for a percentage of revenues from placed orders.
6. Make your business cards stand out and be natural keepers. Offer important information on the back such as emergency phone numbers, a map, or special dates to remember. Have a slogan that offers a powerful benefit statement to your prospective customer.
7. Offer special bonus packages with your product or service offering. Get corporate sponsors to give away products as part of the bonus package in exchange for free exposure.
8. Align your business with a cause or charity. Give back to your community. Customers appreciate doing business with companies that are bettering their communities and the environment and being good corporate citizens.
9. Find an angle that makes your work controversial. The banning of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, reviewed as "trashy and vicious," was a blessing in disguise. Twain made a poster advertising the ban, which significantly increased sales.
10. Post frequently in online message boards/forums relevant to your business or expertise. Include your signature and offer tips and valuable advice. Eventually you will begin gaining word-of-mouth exposure as a leader in your field. Posting messages with your company information also helps to increase your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your site.
[Excerpted from Sharif Khan’s new ebooklet: "101 Ways to Market Your Business," http://tinyurl.com/m2nsf ].
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is a motivational speaker, freelance writer, coach, and author of "Psychology of the Hero Soul," an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. To contact Sharif Khan directly, call: (416) 417-1259.
Continue reading ""10 Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs" by Sharif Khan" »
Key to Success: a recipe for success in business and life. Includes critical success factor for high-achievement.
First off, I would echo the voice of 18th century French philosopher Voltaire, made popular and relevant in today’s leadership lexicon by "Good to Great" author Jim Collins, who said, "Good is the Enemy of Great."
1. "Good is the Enemy of Great." Get rid of the good to make room for the great in your life. Instead of keeping the main thing the main thing, we major in too many minor things. In other words, many people do a few things that are good, a lot of things that are mediocre, but nothing that is GREAT.
Find the ONE thing you can be the best in the world at and focus unrelentingly on improving that one thing, polishing it to perfection.
Choose great over good in ALL areas of your life! It is far better to have a few great things than a lot of good or mediocre things.
Instead of having six cheap shirts that you don’t feel so great in, have one fine quality shirt that you can feel proud to wear and that makes you feel like a million bucks! Instead of having five or six ho-hum paintings to decorate your walls, invest in ONE magnificent masterpiece that leaves you breathless and enriches your soul every time you look at it! Instead of going to the usual cottage retreat every long-weekend, save up your money and go on one GREAT vacation that you’ve always dreamed of like going on a European boat-cruise, snorkeling in the Red Sea, or taking an art class in Paris. Instead of many mediocre friendships, have a few great friendships that energize and inspire you and that you can spend quality time fostering deeper relationships. You get the point.
Greatness is a choice! And choice is the democratic equalizer of all people. Everyone, regardless of their rank, social status or income level has the power to choose great over good.
2. Commit to an annual theme. Instead of making and breaking a number of well-wished but half-hearted New Year’s Resolutions, commit to an annual or lifetime theme. Pick a theme that defines your singular life purpose or what you are most passionate about and stick to it.
For example, my theme is: "Write First!" I have this theme posted right in front of me above my computer. My purpose is to write.
I write first and ask questions later. I focus on writing (or things related to developing my writing) first and then worry about the urgent but non-important interruptions (paying bills, answering calls and emails, responding to invitations, etc.) that plague everyone. This theme takes precedence over everything else except my spiritual relationship with my Creator. The only exception to this rule would be a genuinely important priority that falls in one of my top values in life or attending to a family emergency.
Your main theme for 2006 could be "Family First!" or "Health First!" or "Listen First!" or "Service Above Self." Just pick one and commit to it.
Beside your main theme, make a list of your top values such as love, health, giving, peace, wealth, etc. to ground yourself and distinguish between important and non-important but urgent matters. In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin listed thirteen virtues (Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility) to which he governed his life and gave a week’s strict attention to mastering one virtue at a time repeating the list in order every thirteen weeks.
3. Practice a policy of planned neglect. In other words, once you have established your theme or singular purpose (the one thing you can be the best in the world at) get into the habit of practicing your main habit FIRST before anything else.
Everything else that’s non-important can get neglected and keep getting put-off. In other words, your daily to-do list will keep changing around your main theme which will remain constant – with very few exceptions.
4. Make a stop doing list. I’m not sure where I first heard this idea, but I borrowed it most recently from Jim Collin’s book, "Good to Great." Too many people have important to-do lists that keep getting longer and longer. But very few people have ‘stop-doing’ lists. Make a list of everything you are doing that is not contributing to your core genius or main purpose and core values – and stop doing it! Forget about your image and what other people will think, and STOP doing what’s not great in your life.
5. Be Simple. Get rid of the good to make room for the great. Literally! Get rid of the junk in your basement and file folders!
Anything you haven’t touched or looked at in a year you probably need to get rid of it. Donate books and magazines you haven’t read and clothes you know you’re never going to wear. Empty your mind and physical space of unnecessary clutter and make room for abundance! (Daily meditation is a great way to empty the mind and allow new inspiration).
6. Make HEALTH a priority NOW! Get a full physical check-up at least once a year. If something’s bothering you or you don’t feel right about something, get it checked out IMMEDIATELY! Don’t wait, until it’s too late. Take a proactive approach to your health by taking preventative measures, eating healthy and exercising regularly. And make LOVE a top priority. If you haven’t taken the time to tell your loved ones how deeply you value and love them, then make time for it now.
Are you still reading this article? WHY? Pick-up your phone, right now, and call your doctor to make that appointment! Call your loved ones now and book some real quality time together. Life is short and fragile. You may never get the chance again.
7. Dreams. The dream is a window into your soul, a gateway into the unseen world, giving access to the unknown and revealing the invisible behind all that is visible. In my book, "Psychology of the Hero Soul," (http://www.herosoul.com; Chapter 14; pg. 77)I mention the importance of dreams and how to harness your dreams to awaken your creative potential. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get into the habit of jotting down your dreams and making an effort to interpret them. It is a great way to develop self-awareness and self-understanding and will enrich your life in many, many unforeseen ways.
Self-awareness and self-acceptance is so important in developing your self-esteem. Take the time to seriously ask yourself, "Who am I and what’s my purpose in life?" Write down your strengths and weakness, your highest ambitions and deepest fears, and make a list of everything you enjoy doing and all your hobbies. Take some personality tests to gain deeper understanding of who you are.
8. Face the brutal facts! Never hide from reality. Always get the hard facts about any situation you are facing. It doesn’t matter if you have a Harvard MBA and are the world’s greatest optimist if you pick the wrong location to open up a retail business!
Likewise, face the brutal facts about yourself. If you haven’t even come close to achieving your dreams and goals, you need to honestly ask yourself why you haven’t reached your goals and figure out what has been preventing you. A great way to accomplish this is to ask a few friends you trust and who know you the following question: "How do you see me limiting myself?" (I have Jack Canfield to thank for this great question).
Once you have the facts and fully understand the problem, spend over eighty percent of your time focusing on the solution.
9. ASK for help! If you need help, ask for it. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Ask for the sale, ask for the date, ask for support. Stop worrying about your image, reject the rejection, and ASK!
But don’t just be a taker. Please also give. Earn the right to ask by being a giver. Be a generous giver because whatever you put out into the world will return multiplied. The hero’s journey is about following your bliss, and doing what you love to do in service to others. "Service above self," is a great motto to adopt.
10. Take Action! In my Hero Soul book, I have dedicated an entire chapter on taking action. The great succeed by taking continuous and concerted action toward a singular objective. And they continue to take unrelenting, consistent action for a period of years before becoming overnight successes.
If you do just five new things every day towards achieving your biggest dream, you will one day be living your dream and as Thoreau once said, ‘meet with a success unexpected in common hours.’
But if you aren’t going to take action on the advice in this article, why the heck are you reading it? Move on to something else!
One of my favorite movies is "The Shawshank Redemption" (based on Stephen King’s short story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption) about a successful banker, Andy Dufresne, who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife. I’m sure many of you have seen it.
For nineteen years Dufresne quietly chips away at his goal to escape by literally chipping the wall in his cell – a little bit every day – until one day he reaches his goal and escapes.
His jail buddy, Red, comments that all it took "was pressure and time."
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any movie replayed so many times on TV. It really intrigued me. So I did some research and found out that according to IMDB, The Shawshank Redemption is the second most popular movie of all time with The Godfather taking first place! That’s quite the accomplishment given how long The Godfather has been out.
Why is this movie so popular? I don’t really know the answer. But I think it’s because many people feel like they’re living in a prison and have been given a life sentence to doing work they really hate. They want to break free from their shackles.
More than anything else, they want FREEDOM! And Shawshank delivers that moment of freedom. It’s a beautiful story that makes the soul weep with joy and provides the hope and promise of being human.
The great thing about Shawshank is that it also provides a solution: by quietly chipping away at your main goal and consistently taking action everyday, you will achieve the success and freedom you have been longing for. With ‘pressure and time’ you can take the darkest coal and turn it into the most brilliant, most magnificent diamond the world has ever seen.
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is a motivational speaker, freelance writer, coach, and author of "Psychology of the Hero Soul," an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. To contact Sharif directly, call: (416) 417-1259.
Continue reading ""Key to Success: 10 Success Tips for Maximum Achievement" by Sharif Khan" »
Orchid collector kidnapped and held hostage for nine months in the South American Jungle realizes dream of creating world garden. How you can learn from his example to make your dreams come true.
BBC News recently reported the story of horticulturist and orchid collector, Tom Hart Dyke, who was kidnapped in 2000 in the Darien Gap in Panama by Colombian Guerrillas and held hostage for nine months in the South American jungle. He was on a plant collecting expedition with his friend Paul Winder when captured.
They experienced a horrific kidnapping ordeal and were both threatened with being beheaded. During this dark passage, in order to stay sane, Tom spent his time jotting down plans in his dairy and dreaming of a map garden containing exotic plants from around the world.
The original plan took root, he recalls, when he was threatened with execution: "My guards kicked down the door on June 16, 2000, my sister’s birthday, and said: ‘You’ve got five hours, mate.’ I started scribbling in my diary, drawing the shapes of my garden. It took an AK47 to focus my mind. It was: four walls, start drawing. The whole garden started with that threat. Five hours later the guards came back and we had iguana and armadillo for supper as usual; there was no more mention of being shot." [Taken from Times Online, Aug. 4, 2006]
After his miraculous release, Tom set about building his dream garden and worked hard on cultivating a neglected two-acre garden at his family’s ancestral home in Kent. His dream garden is now a reality. Like something out of a fairy tale, Tom’s magical walled garden is situated in the historic Lullingston Castle grounds. He calls it "The World Garden of Plants," which is divided into four continents and is now an award winning tourist attraction open to the public.
Think of this article as that AK47 to focus your mind on your dreams. Okay, so this article might not be as threatening, but it’ll spare you the nine months of captivity in the heart of darkness -- sans iguana and armadillo.
But seriously, since most of us don’t have guns pointed to our heads and we live in a predominantly free society, there should be no excuses for not living our dreams. Take the time now to concentrate your thoughts and focus on your dreams:
* Write out your plans for your magical dream world in a diary as Tom did.
* Re-create your plans by sketching them on paper. Use colors to make your drawing memorable.
* Visit your nearest Staples and get a pin cork board to create a Vision Board. Tack pictures, quotes, magazine cut-outs, and drawings that represent the dream lifestyle you want to live or the BIG goal you want to achieve. Look at that board every day and see yourself living that lifestyle.
* Create a replica ‘vision board’ by putting similar pictures on your fridge with fridge magnets as a further reminder.
* Put another reminder photo near your bathroom mirror; create a screensaver of it on your computer; and discreetly, or not so discreetly, put that dream sketch or photo somewhere near your workspace where you can look at it daily. During your breaks, you can focus on these pictures with intensity and daydream about what it would be like to actually live out your fantasy.
* Kidnap yourself! Take yourself hostage and go into captivity for a while to focus only on your dream world and the new reality you want to create for yourself. Go on a two day or week long retreat (or longer) to refresh and renew your mind, body, and soul and use this quiet time of solitude to reflect on your dreams.
* Watch the DVD movie The Secret which provides a powerful and visceral experience of the magic that can happen when you concentrate your thoughts on what you want, visualize your dreams, and feel the excitement of what it would be like to actually be living your dreams right now!
Become obsessed with your dream! Write down all the steps you need to take, all the goals you need to accomplish along the way, and list all the resources you need to tap into to recreate that Shangri La in your mind.
By immersing yourself in an oasis of dream thoughts, your heart will overflow with positive energy that will seep through and permeate every pore, cell, and molecular structure in your body. This is the timeless Law of Attraction that The Secret movie makes so vividly clear, where what you want, wants you, and you attract the very thing that is top of mind. You can use these dream thought projections to penetrate the far reaches of space and literally create your own Garden of Eden on earth.
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is a copywriter and communications specialist, inspirational keynote speaker, and author of the leadership bestseller, "Psychology of the Hero Soul." He publishes his monthly Hero Soul ezine for cutting-edge advice on leadership and personal growth. To contact Sharif Khan about his business writing and motivational speaking services, call: 416-417-1259.
Continue reading ""Garden of Eden: A Jungle Captive's Lesson in Dreams Come True" by Sharif Khan" »
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost
Enlarge ImageI watched Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, a very controversial film on Hitler’s 1934 Nuremberg Rally put on by equally controversial Toronto film connoisseur, Reg Hartt, at the Cineforum (a make-shift theatre in his home). The movie blew me away. It was a powerful, real-life portrayal of Hitler’s propaganda machine and the horrifying consequences of mass media manipulation. An eerie chill went through my spine as I saw aerial footage of column after column of endless soldiers marching through the streets of Nuremberg. Little German boys and girls hailing the Fuhrer with innocent smiles and outstretched hands of youthful idealism. Little German youths beating the drums of death. Hitler parting a sea of loyal soldiers. And watching a nation mesmerized by the spell of this diminutive, unassuming, and rather plain looking monster.
What really hit me though was Reg Hartt’s commentary after the movie ended. A lady had kept coming to the viewing of that movie, over and over again. She had attended the viewing over sixteen times. When he asked her what she found so fascinating about the film. She told him that she was the young smiling girl in the movie looking down from a rooftop at Hitler’s parade. She was with her Mother, Father, sisters, and brother. They were waiving the Nazi flag and cheering Hitler on. They were Jews. She was the only survivor in her family.
What flag are you waiving? What herd mentality have we accepted without further thought, without scrutiny? I challenge you to take the road less traveled by. It is uncommon knowledge that gives rise to uncommon leadership.
Do something uncommon. Go to the library and pick out a book that you would never touch in a million years. Watch a film in a genre that you rarely see. Attend a lecture on a topic that would make most people go, "Huh?" What is one thing you can do or experience this month that is uncommon? Go do it.
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is a freelance writer, motivational speaker, coach, and author of "Psychology of the Hero Soul," an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. To contact Sharif directly, call: (416) 417-1259.
Continue reading ""Take the Road Less Traveled" by Sharif Khan" »
Book report on creating transformational leadership and high levels of organizational performance by developing a heroic work environment.
A Journey into the Heroic Environment: A Personal Guide to Creating a Work Environment Built on Shared Values, 3rd Edition
Rob Lebow (SelectBooks, New York 2004 1590790618) $21.95
REVIEWED BY SHARIF KHAN
Living in what Alan Greenspan called an era of "infectious greed" with corporate titans facing serious jail time, Ex-WorldCom CEO, Bernard Ebbers, leading the way facing life behind bars, and sobering laws in place such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act making ethics and values increasingly important components in every organization, it would do well to learn how to help organizations create heroic environments based on higher standards of excellence. Mr. Rob Lebow, former Director of Corporate Communications for Microsoft, with over twenty years experience helping companies implement his Shared Values Process to create what he calls, a Freedom-Based Workplace, attempts to do just that for readers in his book, "A Journey into the Heroic Environment."
Resurrecting an abandoned, ‘failed,’ 1972 study, undertaken by graduate students from the social psychology department of a major United States university, with over 17 million survey responses from workers and managers in 40 countries and over 32 Standard Industrial Codes, that was not able to reveal any conclusive connection between job satisfaction and individual or organizational performance, Mr. Lebow’s research team started their own investigation. Bringing a fresh perspective to the study, Lebow realized that the key to solving the mystery of overcoming cultural challenges to create exceptional levels of performance, was not going to be found in the hard numbers and statistics of the survey, but in the actual, literal comments of all the participants. Using this creative intelligence, Lebow indexed the most often addressed topics in all the discarded surveys by country. And the revelation was that all the surveys from the different countries mentioned the same subjects. This became the Lebow Company’s 20th Century Rosetta Stone that finally cracked the code to the secrets of unlocking high performance that were embedded in the previously undecipherable 17 million worldwide surveys that the original research missed.
Under the scrutiny of this new lens, the Lebow research group discovered that it was Values, not job satisfaction issues, which resided at the core between performance and what managers and workers were really looking for. Lebow’s research suggested that there were eight values that all people respected throughout the world regardless of race, religion, nationality, industry, gender, educational level, or organizational status. Furthermore, the Lebow research group concluded: "that these eight Shared Values…represent the major factors that contribute not only to job satisfaction and employee morale, but to an organization’s performance, competitiveness, speed to change, innovation at every level, willingness to learn new things, and overall operational success. [That] this was the universal Cultural Return On Investment (ROI) linking people to performance."
While the author does not mention exactly how he came to this revolutionary conclusion, he claims that the correlation between organizational performance and these Shared Values has been tested and validated with over 2,300 organizational sites. These universal Shared Values which Lebow calls The Eight Principles of the Heroic Environment ® are as follows:
1. Treat others with uncompromising truth.
2. Lavish trust on your associates.
3. Mentor unselfishly (and be open to mentoring from anyone).
4. Be receptive to new ideas, regardless of their origin.
5. Take personal risks for the organization’s sake.
6. Give credit where it’s due.
7. Do not touch dishonest dollars. (Be honest and ethical in all matters).
8. Put the interests of others before your own.
So that’s the Big secret? Sounds like the everyday sage advice that a Corporate Yoda would give to his executive team of Jedi knights. Admittedly, this is something we all know and have heard before. They are timeless principles – psychic energy patterns memorialized in the collective unconscious - embedded in human experience itself. But how many of us actually practice these principles?
What makes this work significant is not the list of values which are bandied about at boardroom meetings and showcased on fancy plaques, but the Process ("acting Heroically is a process") that the Lebow research group has engineered in implementing these Shared Values company-wide through stories, examples, illustrations, charts, graphs, ways of communication, and sequential steps to follow. Lebow provides readers with practical tools they can use to actually practice these principles in transforming their corporate culture into a heroic environment.
So what does a ‘heroic environment’ look like? Lebow gives us a model, a vision, to look forward to: "Imagine what would happen in a work environment if people were given the freedom to act the way they really wanted to act – with courage, creativity, and independence from fear of criticism, or worse. And when people are respected and appreciated, they want to contribute even more, to rise to their true potential. I call that kind of place – a place where people act heroically – a Heroic Environment."
I was skeptical at first with this rather rosy picture – feeling that employees given too much freedom would slack-off or go into their own little dream-world. But after finishing the book, I felt Lebow had pulled it off, in terms of providing tools that managers, employees, and consultants can use in transforming corporate culture for the better. After all, people don’t get up in the morning wanting to fail; they want to feel significant – knowing they’ve done a job well-done.
One of the main tenets of the book is that the traditional corporate approach of solving problems from the top down is the kiss-of-death. Frontline workers need to be given autonomy, responsibility, and accountability to solve problems themselves, letting the customer’s needs, rather than the company’s policies, drive each transaction. To accomplish this, ‘only hire people you trust, but once you’ve hired them, trust them.’ Management’s role is simply to encourage people on the frontlines to experiment and explore new ideas on their own. The best way to manage is to let go and let great, not stepping in to fix problems or criticizing, but to examine the breakdown of the workflow and empowering frontline workers to make their own decisions and changes by providing them with the necessary resources.
According to Lebow, this is the only way to bring back respect to the phrase, "Made in America." He recounts how Toyota’s plant workers average 50 changes every two and a half shifts, which would give most American managers a nosebleed. In America, Lebow states, fixing problems is management’s job! In contrast, by empowering its frontline people to experiment, fix problems, and make continual proactive changes without fear of failure, Toyota is now financially worth more than Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler-Mercedes all put together. To put things in perspective, Lebow goes on to point out that it took Ford about nine months to make a change to their production line, while it only took Toyota three and one-half hours!
Overall, A Journey into the Heroic Environment, accomplishes its main purpose in serving as a guide to creating a Freedom-Based work environment built on Shared Values. This is not an academic book or scholarly read, nor is it a scientific journal. Use the information and The Personal Work Style Assessment™ (included in the book) to formulate your own hypotheses and come up with your own conclusions. The book itself, from start-to-finish, can be considered a case study in corporate transformation told in the form of a business story with a chance meeting between John, a disgruntled assistant plant manager of a telecommunications company, and Kip, a mysterious, senior executive mentor figure. The book is simple in its approach, but not simplistic; easy-to-read, but certainly not easy to implement. I highly recommend this book as a path to a rewarding journey that will open up the soul to a brave new heroic world.
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is a freelance writer, speaker, and coach. He is author of, Psychology of the Hero Soul, an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. Khan provides inspirational keynotes and leadership seminars to help people live heroically.
Continue reading ""Book Report: Creating a Heroic Work Environment" by Sharif Khan" »
"If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate." --Thomas Watson, Sr. Founder of IBM
"If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate." --Thomas Watson, Sr. Founder of IBM
Before the Breakfast of Champions – there was the Breakfast of Failures:
• C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) had over 800 rejections before he sold even one piece of writing.
• Oprah Winfrey was not deterred when she got fired from her television reporter’s job being told, "You’re not fit for TV."
• Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World) had lost his family to drink and became a homeless person before becoming an inspirational bestselling author selling over 30 million books.
• Marie Curie, recipient of two Nobel Prizes once said, "I tried out various experiments…and the results were sometimes unexpected. At times I would be encouraged by a little unhoped-for success, at others I would be in the deepest despair because of accidents and failures resulting from my inexperience…I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy."
• Bill Gates and Michael Dell were college drop-outs.
• Babe Ruth had more strike-outs then any other baseball player of his time. He also had the most home runs.
• Ann Bancroft, the first woman to travel across the ice to the North Pole, reminisced later about not reaching a goal to cover 2,300 miles across Antarctica (bad weather forced them to be airlifted off) on an expedition with her sister: "Once again this [expedition] is another successful failure."
• After auditioning for his band, musician Eddie Bond told a young Elvis Presley to "Stick to driving a truck, because you’ll never make it as a singer."
• Abe Lincoln lost his job and his sweetheart, failed miserably in business, was defeated for state legislature, had a nervous breakdown, was defeated for nomination for congress, lost the renomination, was defeated for US Senate, defeated for nomination of Vice President, and again defeated for US Senate, before being elected as the sixteenth President of the United States.
Forget about living a ‘comfortable’ life. I’m not interested in the items you’ve crossed off your to-do list today. I want to know: have you failed – I mean really FAILED lately?
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is a motivational speaker, freelance writer, coach, and author of "Psychology of the Hero Soul," an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. To contact Sharif Khan directly, call: (416) 417-1259.
Hospital patient undergoing surgery recounts how Hero Soul provided strength, inspiration, and hope during recovery
"I used to look in the mirror and only have time to take a quick glance to ensure that I looked acceptable for a full day ahead of me. At 32, I am a mother of two and a wife of 8 years. I work full time and after putting in a days worth of work, I come home to my next full time job. Dinner, clean up, soccer practice, dance class, homework, baths, laundry… I have a fully hands-on devoted husband that equally shares in the daily responsibilities but even then it is still so busy at times.
I recently ruptured my Achilles tendon. I needed to have surgery and knew that my recovery period would take several months. Anxious the morning before surgery I began reading, "Psychology of the Hero Soul." It was given to me to read by a friend at work. I began reading the book and it had a calming affect on me. I knew I had to face my fears and deal with my reality. The night after surgery I had trouble sleeping so I continued to read "Psychology of the Hero Soul." When I finished, it rejuvenated my outlook on life.
After reading this book I can now look in the mirror and see so much more of myself. I can surpass my physical "self" and look beyond to my mind, soul, and spirit. I have forgotten about my passions, ambitions, and the true person that I am. I have neglected what it is that I want to be remembered for in life and what I want to pass down to my children. I have learned that I need to enjoy the moment because life is passing by quickly. I also need to take the time to accomplish my goals in life and not say that I just don’t have time. I have to take actions to achieve my dreams.
I have learned that I need to maintain my soul and spirit by cleansing it from stresses, jealousies, and overall negative energy. Once the mind is cleansed it can be replenished with love, tranquility, passions, and dreams. With a positive outlook anything is possible.
I believe that "Psychology of the Hero Soul" is a well-written book that provided me with many examples of people whose extreme focus, determination and good virtues resulted in greatness. I was pleasantly surprised by the analysis of Perseus in the book. The Clash of the Titans has been one of my all time favorite movies as a child and Greek mythology has always fascinated me.
I have been so inspired to make myself a better person in every aspect of my life, as a mother, wife, co-worker, friend, daughter, and sister. During my recovery period this book has provided me with "food for thought," tools to make my dreams a reality and enable me to keep a positive attitude during my healing process." - Krupali Prevete
Psychology of the Hero Soul is an inspirational book on awakening the Hero within and rekindling people's passion for greatness. It is based on author, Sharif Khan's ten years research to the field of human development and was recently mentioned in USA Today. The Hero Soul is availble to order in most major bookstores including Borders, Barnes and Noble, Chapters, Indigo, and Coles bookstores. To order online visit: http://www.herosoul.com
Psychology of the Hero Soul, by Sharif Khan, ISBN 0973192208, Diamond Mind Enterprises, 160 pages, $14.95 US, trade-paperback, Self-help/Inspirational, distributed by Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and University of Toronto Press.
For more information on special quantity discounts call (416) 417-1259 or email: inspire@herosoul.com
Continue reading ""Letter of Hope from Hospital Patient" by Sharif Khan" »
Enlarge Image"The miracle power that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance, under the promptings of a brave determined spirit." - Mark Twain
Many motivational experts like to say that leaders are made, not born. I would argue the exact opposite. I believe we are all natural born leaders, but have been deprogrammed along the way. As children, we were natural leaders - curious and humble, always hungry and thirsty for knowledge, with an incredibly vivid imagination; we knew exactly what we wanted, were persistent and determined in getting what we wanted, and had the ability to motivate, inspire, and influence everyone around us to help us in accomplishing our mission. So why is this so difficult to do as adults? What happened?
As children, over time, we got used to hearing, No, Don't, and Can't. No! Don't do this. Don't do that. You can't do this. You can't do that. No! Many of our parents told us to keep quiet and not disturb the adults by asking silly questions. This pattern continued into high school with our teachers telling us what we could do and couldn't do and what was possible. Then many of us got hit with the big one institutionalized formal education known as college or university. Unfortunately, the traditional educational system doesn't teach students how to become leaders; it teaches students how to become polite order takers for the corporate world. Instead of learning to become creative, independent, self-reliant, and think for themselves, most people learn how to obey and intelligently follow rules to keep the corporate machine humming.
Developing the Leader in you to live your highest life, then, requires a process of unlearning by self-remembering and self-honoring. Being an effective leader again will require you to be brave and unlock the door to your inner attic, where your childhood dreams lie, going inside to the heart. Based on my over ten years research in the area of human development and leadership, here are ten easy steps you can take to awaken the Leader in you and rekindle your passion for greatness.
1. Humility. Leadership starts with humility. To be a highly successful leader, you must first humble yourself like a little child and be willing to serve others. Nobody wants to follow someone who is arrogant. Be humble as a child, always curious, always hungry and thirsty for knowledge. For what is excellence but knowledge plus knowledge plus knowledge - always wanting to better yourself, always improving, always growing. When you are humble, you become genuinely interested in people because you want to learn from them. And because you want to learn and grow, you will be a far more effective listener, which is the #1 leadership communication tool. When people sense you are genuinely interested in them, and listening to them, they will naturally be interested in you and listen to what you have to say.
2. SWOT Yourself. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Although it's a strategic management tool taught at Stanford and Harvard Business Schools and used by large multinationals, it can just as effectively be used in your own professional development as a leader. This is a useful key to gain access to self-knowledge, self-remembering, and self-honoring. Start by listing all your Strengths including your accomplishments. Then write down all your Weaknesses and what needs to be improved. Make sure to include any doubts, anxieties, fears, and worries that you may have. These are the demons and dragons guarding the door to your inner attic. By bringing them to conscious awareness you can begin to slay them. Then proceed by listing all the Opportunities you see available to you for using your strengths. Finally, write down all the Threats or obstacles that are currently blocking you or that you think you will encounter along the way to achieving your dreams.
3. Follow Your Bliss. Regardless of how busy you are, always take time to do what you love doing. Being an alive and vital person vitalizes others. When you are pursuing your passions, people around you cannot help but feel impassioned by your presence. This will make you a charismatic leader. Whatever it is that you enjoy doing, be it writing, acting, painting, drawing, photography, sports, reading, dancing, networking, or working on entrepreneurial ventures, set aside time every week, ideally two or three hours a day, to pursue these activities. Believe me, you'll find the time. If you were to video tape yourself for a day, you would be shocked to see how much time goes to waste!
4. Dream Big. If you want to be larger than life, you need a dream that's larger than life. Small dreams won't serve you or anyone else. It takes the same amount of time to dream small than it does to dream big. So be Big and be Bold! Write down your One Biggest Dream. The one that excites you the most. Remember, don't be small and realistic; be bold and unrealistic! Go for the Gold, the Pulitzer, the Nobel, the Oscar, the highest you can possibly achieve in your field. After you ve written down your dream, list every single reason why you CAN achieve your dream instead of worrying about why you can't.
5. Vision. Without a vision, we perish. If you can't see yourself winning that award and feel the tears of triumph streaming down your face, it's unlikely you will be able to lead yourself or others to victory. Visualize what it would be like accomplishing your dream. See it, smell it, taste it, hear it, feel it in your gut.
6. Perseverance. Victory belongs to those who want it the most and stay in it the longest. Now that you have a dream, make sure you take consistent action every day. I recommend doing at least 5 things every day that will move you closer to your dream.
7. Honor Your Word. Every time you break your word, you lose power. Successful leaders keep their word and their promises. You can accumulate all the toys and riches in the world, but you only have one reputation in life. Your word is gold. Honor it.
8. Get a Mentor. Find yourself a mentor. Preferably someone who has already achieved a high degree of success in your field. Don't be afraid to ask. You've got nothing to lose. Mentors.ca is an excellent mentoring website and a great resource for finding local mentoring programs. They even have a free personal profile you can fill out in order to potentially find you a suitable mentor. In addition to mentors, take time to study autobiographies of great leaders that you admire. Learn everything you can from their lives and model some of their successful behaviors.
9. Be Yourself. Use your relationships with mentors and your research on great leaders as models or reference points to work from, but never copy or imitate them like a parrot. Everyone has vastly different leadership styles. History books are filled with leaders who are soft-spoken, introverted, and quiet, all the way to the other extreme of being out- spoken, extroverted, and loud, and everything in between. A quiet and simple Gandhi or a soft-spoken peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter, who became president of the United States and won a Nobel Peace Prize, have been just as effective world leaders as a loud and flamboyant Churchill, or the tough leadership style employed by The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. I admire Hemingway as a writer. But if I copy Hemingway, I'd be a second or third rate Hemingway, at best, instead of a first rate Sharif. Be yourself, your best self, always competing against yourself and bettering yourself, and you will become a first rate YOU instead of a second rate somebody else.
10. Give. Finally, be a giver. Leaders are givers. By giving, you activate a universal law as sound as gravity life gives to the giver, and takes from the taker. The more you give, the more you get. If you want more love, respect, support, and compassion, give love, give respect, give support, and give compassion. Be a mentor to others. Give back to your community. As a leader, the only way to get what you want, is by helping enough people get what they want first. As Sir Winston Churchill once said, "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is a freelance writer, motivational speaker, coach, and author of "Psychology of the Hero Soul," an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. To contact Sharif directly, call: (416) 417-1259.
Business leadership development interview with Dr. Stephen R. Covey sharing transformational leadership insights from his latest book, 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. Dr. Covey is Vice Chair of FranklinCovey and author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, named #1 Most Influential Business Book of the twentieth century.
The call and need of a new era is for greatness. It’s for fulfillment, passionate execution and significant contribution." - Stephen R. Covey, from The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
Making a rare public appearance in Toronto at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre, world-respected leadership authority and author of the international bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, named the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century, Dr. Stephen R. Covey spoke on his latest book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness to a packed audience.
Having taught principle-centered leadership for over four decades, this living legend and world icon, with his quiet energy and grace, epitomized a call to greatness and earned the respect of the audience -- standing as a grandfather figure for unleashing human potential in many generations.
A hero to millions, Dr. Covey is known the world over for his landmark work around helping people take profound ideas, philosophies, and principles and distilling them into easy-to-use daily habits that anyone can apply. In his inspirational presentation at the Living Arts Centre, he conveyed simple yet very powerful gems of wisdom that I found practical and useful. For example, if you want your children to develop a love of learning and never have to rag on them again for not doing their homework and not getting better grades, simply ask them when they return from school, "Teach me what you’ve learned today." By using this one simple habit, Covey claims he’s never had a problem encouraging his children to learn because teaching is the best way to learn.
Another gem he talked about is the habit of seeking to understand before being understood through empathic listening. In the audience of over 800 people, he asked how many people had any formal training on listening; only 13 hands went up revealing just how ego-centric of a me-me-me culture we live in. Covey related how many Native Indian tribes use what’s called the Talking Stick which is used in all meetings where the person holding the Talking Stick is the only person allowed to speak until he or she feels understood; when the possessor of the Talking Stick feels completely understood, then, and only then, is the Talking Stick passed on to the next person. This creates an incredible understanding and synergy among the team. Every business would do well to have a Talking Stick!
Covey then went on to the crux of his message which is the 8th Habit of becoming an island of excellence in a sea of mediocrity by finding one’s voice and helping others to find theirs. According to Covey, the main problem is that businesses are still trapped in the old paradigm of Industrial Age thinking even though we’re well into the Knowledge Worker Age. What’s required is a new paradigm he calls the "whole body paradigm" of integrating body, mind, heart, and spirit which he respectively equates to the principles of discipline, vision, passion, and conscience. The Industrial Age is still very much focused on the body (things, systems, structures, procedures, efficiency, bottom-line). But Covey estimates that approximately 80 percent of all the value added to goods and services now comes from knowledge work versus things. Twenty years ago that number was the inverse: only 20 percent.
So the key is not behavior – it’s the map. The key is the accuracy of the map. Once paradigm shifts the behavior will also shift. Covey clearly illustrated this point by asking everyone to close their eyes and point "North." When he asked us to open our eyes and look around, I noticed everyone was pointing in different directions! In a similar vein, the majority of organizations have their people pointing in different directions; sighting a recent Harris Poll, Covey states that "only 37 percent of workers say they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why." No one knows where true "North" is. There is no moral compass, no conscience, no guiding spirit.
Part of the solution, according to Covey, is to have a transcendent goal, what he calls a WIG or Wildly Important Goal, that serves a greater purpose. Only once this goal is clearly communicated to everyone in an organization can quantum improvements begin to happen in the workplace.
Here is my interview with Dr. Covey revealing his latest insights from his most recent book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness:
What sacrifices have you made to be where you are today?
I have worked very hard to dedicate my personal and professional life to principlecentered living. I am driven by a passion and conscience to spread understanding for principles and how to apply them to reach greatness. To that extent, there is no sacrifice – only a passionate, relentless commitment to my work, family, community and church to make a lasting difference.
What in your opinion is the most important attribute of a leader and why?
I believe the most important attribute for a leader is being principle-centered. Centering on principles that are universal and timeless provides a foundation and compass to guide every decision and every act. I’ve based my life’s work on promoting principles and teaching the power that resides in principle-centered leadership. Principles are not my invention; they are self-evident and are found throughout the world. If you look at all enduring philosophies, religions and thoughts, you will find principles such as integrity, compassion, trust, honesty, accountability and others at their core. I simply translated these principles into a framework of habits, which when followed with consistency and frequency transforms one’s character and allows one to earn the moral authority necessary for enduring leadership.
I must also clarify the definition of leadership, which is sadly and narrowly defined as position, title, status or rank. This is formal authority and not necessarily leadership. Through years of study, teaching and working with people all over the world, from all walks of life, I have determined that leadership is: Communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves. It is the influence we have with others to help them discover their own voice, to find their own purpose, to make their unique contribution, and to release their potential, that truly defines leadership. Thus, leadership extends to the many personal and professional roles we play – as workers, parents, children, teachers, students, swamis, you name it – and the choice we make to live by principles to help others find their voice.
In your book, 8th Habit, you talk about finding one’s voice and developing one’s "unique personal significance." How does one begin doing that?
To achieve greater heights each person must be challenged to find their voice – their unique personal significance and purposeful meaning – and help others to find theirs. Voice lies at the nexus of talent, passion, need and conscience. When anyone engages in work that taps into their talent and fuels their passion – that rises out of a great need in the world that they feel drawn by conscience to meet – therein lies their voice in life. The 8th Habit is all about how to find your voice and help others to find theirs.
What leader do you really admire and why?
One immediate leader who comes to mind is Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank. His story is one that illustrates the path to finding one’s voice and helping others find theirs. Muhammad saw a need, felt his conscience move him to try and fill that need and applied his talents and passion to fill it. In the process, he found his voice and helped others to find theirs.
Muhammad wanted to help his impoverished fellow citizens in Bangladesh. He met a woman who made bamboo stools only to make two U.S. pennies each day. He inquired about her work and found that the woman had no money to buy the necessary bamboo, so she was forced to borrow money from a trader on condition that she sell him her finished product at a price he dictated. This poor woman in essence was held hostage by this trader.
This woman was not alone, there was an entire village of 42 hard working people working in unbearable circumstances and Muhammad calculated that it only required $27 U.S. dollars to help them out. He immediately gave the money to the people and told them it was a loan to be re-paid when they were able.
Muhammad even went further to ask the local bank to loan these villagers additional money and offered himself as a guarantor. Much to the skepticism and surprise of the bankers, the villagers paid every penny back on several loans.
Muhammad eventually expanded this loan program by creating his own microcredit lending institution called the Grameen Bank, so he could help numerous villages.
Grameen Bank now works with more than 46,000 villages giving micro-loans, lending approximately half a billion dollars a year to empower the poor (96% of whom are women) to produce and sell their goods and build housing. So far, the bank has assisted 3.7 million people. The micro-credit movement has now spread throughout the world.
What advice would you give youth who will become future leaders of tomorrow?
In my 8th Habit book I share the idea that everyone chooses one of two roads in life, whether you’re older or younger, man or woman, rich or poor. The most traveled road is the one that takes us to mediocrity and the other less traveled road takes us to greatness and meaning. The first road limits us and prevents us from realizing our full potential. This road is often the quick-fix or short-cut approach to life. It often lures us to it when we don’t take accountability for ourselves or see ourselves as victims. My advice to the youth is to avoid the road of mediocrity. It’s probably hard for them to see into the longterm, but if they will try to see themselves as human beings with vast potential, and see that next to life itself their greatest gift is choice – they can choose their responses to whatever comes to them in life, and take responsibility for their choices, their behaviors, their feelings and choose to create their future.
My son, Sean, wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens to help [young people] become their best selves. He speaks wonderfully to the youth (much better than I), and I would recommend his book to anyone wanting to start good habits at a young age.
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is a professional speaker, freelance writer, coach, and author of "Psychology of the Hero Soul," an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. To contact Sharif Khan directly, call: (416) 417-1259.
Continue reading ""Leadership Development Interview with Stephen Covey" by Sharif Khan" »
Success maker formula, success strategy, for achieving goals and living victoriously.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain
FOCUS + FEELING + ACTION = ATTRACTION
While I don’t believe in pat formulas for success, I’d like to share some ingredients for attracting more of what we want in life. It goes like this: whatever we FOCUS on, FEEL, and ACT on, we ATTRACT. Call it ‘a recipe for success’ if you will. (Not "THE" recipe, but "A" recipe). If any of these ingredients are missing, there’s less chance of manifesting what you want.
If you have the mental focus (i.e. you write down your goals/objectives, put them in a visible place, say your daily mantras/affirmations) but lack the feeling of what it would actually be like to accomplish your goal, you can say your affirmations till your blue in the face and nothing would happen.
Likewise if you have powerful feelings and are doing lots of activity but are lacking focus and direction, you will burn out fast without accomplishing much. In fact, if you’re focus is misplaced, you could end up courting disaster. Take a look at professional race car driving. Some of the deadliest accidents occur right when drivers are rounding the curve. Some of the inexperienced drivers, as they are rounding the curve, will stay visually focused on the curve they are trying to clear. And guess what happens? You got it…they end up smashing right into the curve! More experienced professionals will immediately shift their focus in the opposite direction of the curve and thus get past it. Are you focusing on your problems or solutions?
If you have the focus and feeling down pat (your doing your mantras, writing your goals, developed your plan, are experiencing passionate feelings of reaching your desired objective) but are not taking daily and consistent action towards your goal, again you will always be coming just short of your desired outcome.
There are some extras that I’d like to add. If after you’ve done everything humanly possible, you place your FAITH and trust in the natural process that creates all things, and stop worrying and fretting, you will attract more of what you want in abundance. Think about it, would you plant a flower seed in the soil, and after a week of waiting, watering, and giving it lots of love and sunshine, dig it up and yell, "WHY AREN’T YOU GROWING! YOU’RE USELESS!"? Well, isn’t that what we do with our own dreams sometimes?
Finally, if you add the HERO ingredient of SERVING others, of reaching your dreams by also helping others and creating value for other people, you will live a much more fulfilling life. We can certainly attract the stuff we want in life, but without giving back to the community or helping others along the way, we can often be left with a shallow, empty feeling inside.
Sharif Khan (http://www.herosoul.com; sharif@herosoul.com) is freelance writer, a motivational speaker, coach, and author of "Psychology of the Hero Soul," an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. To contact Sharif directly, call: (416) 417-1259.
Continue reading ""Secret Success Strategy" by Sharif Khan" »
The unexamined life is not worth living." – Plato
Whether leading yourself toward a higher path, leading a family, community, congregation, or an entire organization, this is a good time to reexamine your leadership effectiveness. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself as a leader? Leadership effectiveness, what I like to call LQ or Leadership Quotient, is primarily determined by a combination of Physical Intelligence, Mental Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, and Spiritual Intelligence. These four areas (Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit) are essential toward the making of a whole leader. Let’s explore the key leadership factors that bring wholeness:
1. Inspire with Integrity (Spirit or Conscience)
2. Initiative and Innovation (Body and Mind)
3. Impactful Influence (Heart)
An easy way to remember this is LQ = 6I (Inspiration, Integrity, Initiative, Innovation, Impact, and Influence). This exercise will only take about fifteen minutes in which you answer some questions and honestly rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 for each factor.
1. Inspire with Integrity (Spirit or Conscience)
Are you energized with a larger than life vision or transcendent goal that serves the greater good and inspires others, or is your focus limited to only your own immediate needs? Are you aware of your highest purpose?
Great leaders subordinate their ego to their spirit or conscience by putting the needs of others before their own and finding a cause or purpose that’s greater than themselves. This gives a leader the moral authority to lead others.
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself for * Inspiration _________
(*In my book, The Hero Soul, www.herosoul.com, pg. 117, I provide deeper reflections on ‘inspiration’).
Do your actions reflect your vision, beliefs, and values? Do you do as you say and honor your word? Andrew Carnegie once said, "As I grow older, I pay less attention to what [people] say. I just watch what they do."
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself for Integrity ___________
2. Initiative and Innovation (Body and Mind)
Once you know what your highest purpose and core genius is, how well do you execute on your vision and key priorities? Are you focused on doing the right things, what’s important, or are you spending too much time on urgent but not important activities and doing things right?
Leadership is about doing, taking initiative, and getting things done. Do you usually wait for things to happen and wait for others to initiate, or do you make things happen and initiate things on your own?
Additionally, the body is the temple of the spirit. Are you taking care of your body by exercising regularly and eating healthy so you have enough energy to take lots of action, or are you often succumbing to whims of the day?
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself for Initiative ___________
Are you continually growing and innovating as a leader in the never ending pursuit of excellence, or are you settling for mediocrity by being comfortable with the status quo?
Are you using your creative problem-solving skills and imagination to become a change-agent by experimenting with new ideas, solutions, and technology, or are you continually in fire-fighting mode by being frequently blindsided with change?
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself for Innovation ___________
3. Impactful Influence (Heart)
Are you reaching out to people and making an emotional impact in their lives? Are you getting to intimately know people in your circle of influence and taking the time to find out their fears, desires, challenges, and goals? Are you touching people’s lives by serving? The old adage, "people don’t care about what you know, until they know you care," applies here.
The hero’s journey is about following your bliss and doing what you love doing in service to others. Interestingly, through the heart, by making an emotional impact in people’s lives and serving, the spiritual dimension is tapped. Rabrindranath Tagore once said, "I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." In other words, service is spirit.
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself for Impact ___________
Finally, influence is a measure of your character that comes with time and experience. How wide and impactful is your influence? Are people seeking you out for your leadership, mentorship, and guidance? What is the quality of people you have attracted in your work and life?
We are in many ways the sum total reflection of the people in our circle of influence. Look around you. What type of people have you attracted in your sphere of influence? The majority of people you attract in your life, whether negative or positive, bright or ignorant, are mostly a reflection of your own character. If you’re not happy with the quality of people in your circle of influence, it’s time to work on yourself.
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself for Influence ___________
After you’ve rated yourself for all six factors (Inspiration, Integrity, Initiative, Innovation, Impact, and Influence), add all the scores and divide by six. This indicator will give you a rough idea of your total LQ and where you need to make improvements. Make it a goal in this year to raise the bar in every category.
We have now come full circle in the leadership cycle starting with spirit (call it whatever you want) and ending with spirit; for everything rises and falls on leadership, everything comes from the spirit and returns to the spirit like the dust in the wind. Our highest purpose comes from spirit and returns to it in the form of service.
By subordinating our vision to the spirit, our conscience, our highest purpose is revealed. If you are not sure about your purpose, ask your higher self for guidance. A great way to do this is to ask a question before you go to sleep fully expecting an answer to be revealed in a dream or when you wake up. It might take several tries, but that’s okay, keep at it -- and the answer will be revealed to you. A question you could ask might be, "What is my highest purpose?" or "How can I use my core genius to serve the greatest good?"
Personally, I’ve found prayer to be the most effective means and have recently adopted a prayer that Oprah Winfrey has used for several years, "Use me God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself."
May your own hero’s journey meet with the crest of the rising sun.
Continue reading ""Leadership Skill: What is Your LQ: Leadership Quotient?" by Sharif Khan" »
Wow! The San Diego Comic Convention was filled to the gills with social heroes. There were armies of volunteers doing so many different things, it was mind boggling.
Needless to say, the Comic-Con volunteers who collected tickets, controlled crowds, manned the registration booths, delivered water and babysat the comic industry stars, writers, artists and publishers were real heroes. It would take an entire day to detail all the great services of the volunteers.
Most went unnoticed by the attendees...just as it should be. Any awesome event is distinguished by how smooth it runs and how much enjoyment attendees experience. A flawless event is a tribute to all the dedicated Comic-Con volunteers.
True heroes are always helping others in the background. Most people don't even realize the secret heroes are there, in their midst, serving others quietly, unassumingly. They don't crave publicity or rewards.
Social heroes are just happy to help others. They realize the true joy of living is doing something special for others.
These random acts of kindness make the world a much better place for everyone. These are the heroes that should be recognized. They, along with the fictional characters we all know and love, should be emulated by young people.
"Rise up heroes and heroines! The world needs you now."
Captain Biorhythm
One group of volunteers I specifically wanted to honor are those who participated in the annual "Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive. In 2005, the Comic-Con was the second largest donating organization in San Diego. Only the San Diego Chargers blood drive harvested a greater quantity of blood.
Captain Biorhythm decided to be a real hero and donate some much needed blood. There were so many people donating it was staggering. Since the Marriott Hotel and Marina provided a much larger space than in 2005, there is no doubt the Comic-Con will beat all records and become number one for blood donations.
Vampires Rejoice! There will be more than enough blood to go around this year. You can have as many blood cocktails, chilled and slightly shaken as you want. You don't need to bite any necks this year.
While giving blood, I caught glimpses of the white fanged, incredibly pointed canines of individuals who moved at lightening speed. You noticed them appearing and disappearing out of the corner of your eye, on the periphery of reality. They were the San Diego Blood Bank volunteers, doing a great job, sucking blood, herding donors and rewarding everyone with a huge smile and caring attitude.
After all, the San Diego Blood Bank and Comic-Con volunteers served and inspired many people. Every one who donated blood was a hero.
There was a big bonus for donating blood. Generous Comic-Cons exhibitors provided some very awesome goodies as a reward for those who were willing to step up to the bar and provide a few pints of life-giving, precious fluid. Who knows how many lives this generosity will save in the near future?
To be continued...
Click Here to be amazed by David Frey's In Search Of Heroes interview. It was one of the best ever. His knowledge and thought process is nothing short of astounding, amazing...incredible.
Last week I wrote about Dr. Neil Baum who sold over 120,000 books with one phone call to Bayer company.
I want to tell you about another great example of this particular strategy.
A fellow named Jason Oman and his partner Mike Litman wrote a book called "Conversations with Millionaires."
You've probably heard of this book.
It became an immediate hit, selling over 145,000 copies in 76 days and then sold hundreds (possibly thousands) more on the backend with a bounceback offers.
Here's a peak at their now-famous book.
http://www.cwmbook.com/
But That's NOT The Most Interesting Part of the Story
If the story ended there, it would be incredible enough. But there is a Part II to the "Conversations with Millionaires" story.
Jason and Mike were approached by one of the largest Network Marketing companies in the nation with an idea to extend their book to that niche.
The company is called Excel Telecommunications and if you pay attention to business talk, you've certainly heard about this company.
It was the fastest growing telecommunications company in history.
So as a spin-off from their first #1 best-selling book they created another book that was specifically written for ONE company and their reps ONLY.
It was created purely FOR them based on what THEY would want most.
The book was fittingly called, "Conversations with Excel Millionaires."
The Excel Company Ended Up Buying 130,000 Copies!
Mike and Jason also sold around 15,000 copies directly to their distributor base.
Not to mention, they sold hundreds of hundreds of tape sets with the same title to their reps as well.
Here's the real shocker.
All of this was done without a single penny spent on marketing or advertising.
All told Jason and Mike made somewhere around a 1/4 million dollars from doing this simple deal.
And all it took them was about 25 days of work, which included creating the book, the cover for the book, the tape set, and the cover graphics for the tape set.
Amazing.
Imagine Taking This Model and Applying It to Your Business...
If you're a service company you should consider taking this clever marketing idea and running with it.
For example, suppose you were an accountant and you wanted to get more business from local independent auto dealerships.
What would stop you from calling up the top 10 independent auto dealers in your city (or in other cities) and interviewing them.
This would do two very important things....
1. It would be a great non-threatening way to introduce
yourself to local auto dealers and get to know them on a one-to-one basis.
and...
2. Compile a book or report (or audio CD) and use it as
a "get in the door tool" that you can give as a gift to other auto dealers in town.
You could call it "Conversations with Superstar Auto Dealers."
Then what I would do is send a simple letter to all the independent auto dealers in town and offer them your information product.
When they request it, instead of sending it to them, hand deliver it to them personally so that you can meet the dealer face-to-face.
I can think of a dozen other promotional program you can use with this simple marketing tactic.
I hope this gets you thinking a bit outside of the box about your marketing.
Have a great week.
David
David's Training and Educational Programs are Phenomenal
The Make Straight A's in School Program
The Small Business Marketing Bible
The Instant Referral System
The Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp
Click Here to be amazed by David Frey's In Search Of Heroes interview. It was one of the best ever. His knowledge and thought process is nothing short of astounding, amazing...incredible.
Last year I was asked to give a seminar to a group of prominent business executives in Nairobi, Kenya.
Seeing as how I'd never been to Kenya, or anywhere close to that part of the world, I agreed to give the seminar.
It was a great experience.
While I Was In Kenya I Was Asked a Great Question
A CEO of a soap manufacturing and distribution company attended my seminar. We landed on the subject of creating a Unique Selling Proposition.
This soap CEO asked me...
"David, we make soap. It's not fancy. They make bars of soap and cut them into small blocks that are sold in retail stores. What can I do to differentiate my product from the other soap that's being sold?"
He pulled out a bar of soap to show me.
Indeed, it was a simple, no frills bar of soap.
He mentioned that his competitors have continually undercut him in price, which frustrated him.
And he didn't know of any way to set his soap apart from the other brands and he asked me what he should do.
Here Was My Advice to the Soap Executive...
Simply package your soap in a bright fluorescent yellow wrapping with a picture of a sun and rays of sunshine on it and call it, "Sunny Fresh."
He was silent for a few moments and then it seemed as though a light bulb went on inside his head.
"Yes, that's it." he said.
Well, I don't know if he ever took my advice or not, but I DO know that packaging can certainly create a perception of difference in the mind of consumers.
A great example of that just popped up the other day.
How a Little-Known Fertilizer Became One of the Fastest Selling Plant Growth Supplements In the World
This week my wife planted three new trees in our backyard. She was looking for some soil fertilizer and was presented with a bunch of options down at the local nursery.
After scanning the shelves, one product jumped out at her like a sore thumb.
The packaging was so compelling that she immediately purchased several bottles of it.
The product is called "Superthrive."
Would you like to see what it looks like?
--> Here's the front of the package
http://url123.com/zhxrm
--> Here's the back of the package
http://url123.com/zhe2p
Here's What Makes This Product Packaging Stand Out
Notice on the front cover how the package uses the following techniques...
1. A very bold headline
"#1 Extra Life"
2. Very powerful words
"World Champion", "Greatest Guarantee", "Proof",
"Vitamins-Hormones", "Science Miracle."
3. Bold colors
Bright yellow, red, and green.
4. A variety of large fonts
5. Photos of healthy plants and trees
And Did You Take a Look at the Back of the Package?
If you examined the back of the Superthrive package you would have noticed that it's as compelling as the front of the package, but in a different way.
There's no bright colors or photos.
It's all text.
But the text is very compelling.
On most bottles of something, the back is filled with cautions, directions, and ingredients.
The back of Superthrive is filled with additional sales copy. Notice how the back says, "EXTRA LIFE for YOUR..." and it lists 10 different things to which Superthrive provides extra life.
Basically the front of this package gives you all the emotional reasons for buying and the back gives you a lot of logical reasons for buying.
It's no wonder that Superthrive has taken the fertilizer world by storm (even though they don't claim to be a fertilizer).
Could Your Packaging Sell Better?
Mine sure can.
A good case in point is my http://www.MarketingBestPractices.com website.
It's ugly.
It doesn't sell as well as it should.
That's why I'm about to roll out a brand new site in about a week from now.
It will look 100% different and will include a lot of my best material - - but it will be packaged in a way that will sell.
So stay tuned.
Take a second look at how you package your products and services. Look at your...
1. Company vehicles
2. Uniforms
3. Website
4. Graphical depictions of your services
5. and especially your packaging if you sell hard
products.
Ask yourself if your packaging is exciting and eye catching. Would it stop the eye if it was sitting on a shelf side-by-side with your competitor's products?
If not, do something about it.
David
David's Training and Educational Programs are Phenomenal
The Make Straight A's in School Program
The Small Business Marketing Bible
The Instant Referral System
The Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp
Click Here to be amazed by David Frey's In Search Of Heroes interview. It was one of the best ever. His knowledge and thought process is nothing short of astounding, amazing...incredible.
About a month ago I was sitting in my 2nd floor office doing some work when I heard a knock on my door.
I said, "Come in" and in walked a handsome young guy who introduced himself as Andrew. He handed me a small, plasticized black card.
As I took it from him, he mentioned that he was the sales guy for a local car wash and lube place and wanted to share with me as a free gift a 20% off discount card.
I took the card and said, "Thank you."
Here's what the card looked like...
http://url123.com/eb8wh
It was a very simple discount card. It's actually called the "Preferred Customer Card."
That very day, I drove over to the oil and lube business and had my oil changed and car washed.
It was great.
The beauty is that I get to use this, my Preferred Customer Card, over and over again. I put the card in my glove compartment and I intend to use it every time I need my oil changed.
It's a brilliant little low cost marketing tactic but...
...Here's The Referral Tactic that Exploded His Sales
After Andrew gave me my card he then asked me how many employees I had.
I told him how many employees I had and then he handed me cards for all my employees and said, "Would you like to share our Preferred Customer Card with your employees? They make great gifts."
I replied, "Sure."
So I ended up giving the 20% discount cards to my employees and they loved them.
It turns out that Andrew has done this same tactic with close to 30% of the businesses here in my home town.
1. He finds out who the owner of the business is.
2. He offers the owner the Preferred Customer Card.
3. He then offers the owner cards that he can give out to all his/her employees.
In essence, he gets the business owners to "refer" his business to all of his employees.
Now Here are the Live Actual Results...
This simple direct marketing referral strategy has produced astounding results. Here they are...
Month 1 - 89 New Customers
Month 2 - 180 New Customers
Month 3 - 273 New Customers
And the best part about this marketing strategy (for this specific business) is that in Month 4 the new customers from Month 1 start returning.
So this tactic starts to compound on itself.
This referral tactic can be used with a LOT of different businesses. One of the keys that makes it successful is the card itself. Since it is a physical card, they are more likely to value it as compared to a simple paper coupon.
Would You Like to Discover More Unusual Referral Strategies?
Do theses situations apply to you...?
1. You have a lot of customers.
2. Your customers enjoy your product or service.
3. You're frustrated because, even though your customers know you and like your products and services...but they DON'T TELL anybody about how good you are.
If that describes you then you might be interested in the Instant Referral Systems program.
In this program you'll learn how to get your customers to S-Y-S-Y-E-M-A-T-I-C-A-L-L-Y send you referrals.
By that I mean, you'll learn how to motivate your customers to send you referrals on a consistent basis (rather than on a whim.)
To learn more about this program visit the site below...
http://www.InstantReferralSystems.com
David's Training and Educational Programs are Phenomenal
The Make Straight A's in School Program
The Small Business Marketing Bible
The Instant Referral System
The Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp
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About a month ago I was sitting in my 2nd floor office doing some work when I heard a knock on my door.
I said, "Come in" and in walked a handsome young guy who introduced himself as Andrew. He handed me a small, plasticized black card.
As I took it from him, he mentioned that he was the sales guy for a local car wash and lube place and wanted to share with me as a free gift a 20% off discount card.
I took the card and said, "Thank you."
Here's what the card looked like...
http://url123.com/eb8wh
It was a very simple discount card. It's actually called the "Preferred Customer Card."
That very day, I drove over to the oil and lube business and had my oil changed and car washed.
It was great.
The beauty is that I get to use this, my Preferred Customer Card, over and over again. I put the card in my glove compartment and I intend to use it every time I need my oil changed.
It's a brilliant little low cost marketing tactic but...
...Here's The Referral Tactic that Exploded His Sales
After Andrew gave me my card he then asked me how many employees I had.
I told him how many employees I had and then he handed me cards for all my employees and said, "Would you like to share our Preferred Customer Card with your employees? They make great gifts."
I replied, "Sure."
So I ended up giving the 20% discount cards to my employees and they loved them.
It turns out that Andrew has done this same tactic with close to 30% of the businesses here in my home town.
1. He finds out who the owner of the business is.
2. He offers the owner the Preferred Customer Card.
3. He then offers the owner cards that he can give out to all his/her employees.
In essence, he gets the business owners to "refer" his business to all of his employees.
Now Here are the Live Actual Results...
This simple direct marketing referral strategy has produced astounding results. Here they are...
Month 1 - 89 New Customers
Month 2 - 180 New Customers
Month 3 - 273 New Customers
And the best part about this marketing strategy (for this specific business) is that in Month 4 the new customers from Month 1 start returning.
So this tactic starts to compound on itself.
This referral tactic can be used with a LOT of different businesses. One of the keys that makes it successful is the card itself. Since it is a physical card, they are more likely to value it as compared to a simple paper coupon.
Would You Like to Discover More Unusual Referral Strategies?
Do theses situations apply to you...?
1. You have a lot of customers.
2. Your customers enjoy your product or service.
3. You're frustrated because, even though your customers know you and like your products and services...but they DON'T TELL anybody about how good you are.
If that describes you then you might be interested in the Instant Referral Systems program.
In this program you'll learn how to get your customers to S-Y-S-Y-E-M-A-T-I-C-A-L-L-Y send you referrals.
By that I mean, you'll learn how to motivate your customers to send you referrals on a consistent basis (rather than on a whim.)
To learn more about this program visit the site below...
http://www.InstantReferralSystems.com
David's Training and Educational Programs are Phenomenal
The Make Straight A's in School Program
The Small Business Marketing Bible
The Instant Referral System
The Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp