Yesterday I went to the supermarket, I was standing next to the fresh veg deciding whether to have broccoli or cabbage with my dinner. Next to me was a guy I had just seen a few minutes earlier at the newspaper stand. This guy came up to me, he didn't introduce himself but he had a name badge on that said TOM-£100K-in-2Days.
"Hi, thanks for following me" he said(I didn't realise I had - I thought it was just coincidence) "let me help replace your income in 10 days just like I did". He thrust his email address into my hand and walked off to speak to someone else.
How strange I thought. I decided cabbage was better than broccoli and off I went.
Whilst choosing some wine a young lady with a very pretty face dressed in a bikini approached me. "get 19,634 followers in 3 days" and then said something about a tiny url??? - cheeky!! But the strange thing was this very pretty lady was actually a man. Whatever he was doing seemed to work because lots of guys were following him around the shop.
Then I woke up and realised I was caught in a twitterland nightmare where people started acting in real life like they do online.
No one would consider doing anything like that for real. No one has ever come up to me and offered to replace my income in 10 days - never.
Sometimes friends have shared with me investment tips or programmes that worked for them and suggested I had a look and decide whether it is for me. Sometimes I have taken the investment they suggest, I have got involved in a programme they have suggested. I will have done my research and due diligence.
The biggest factor in deciding whether to commit to it has been not the suggested quality of the programme but the quality of the person suggesting it. If this is a friend who I like, admire and respect then I am more likely to get involved than if it is someone I know but don't respect. If it is someone I don't know it is unlikely I will even take the first step but if I do I will use extra caution.
So why is it any different in social media? Why do people think that sending someone a message offering them easy money will entice people into their programme?
I believe that you will put more people off by making something sound too easy than by making it sound like hard work. Which appeals most? - "Make £10,000 a week doing nothing but replying to this with £100" or "I am looking to work with 3 people who are prepared to work hard, invest £100 and within 12 months be earning £3000 per month?"
The first sounds too good to be true and as my dad always says - "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is"
If you make it sound too easy who are you going to attract? People who want something for nothing, who aren't prepared to work - do you really want that sort of person in your team?
Why do some people on Twitter think that in 140 characters or less they will convince me to get involved with their get rich idea?
Social media is about building relationships, I have helped people start their own business via social media. Some I have met face to face, some I have spoken to on the phone and some I have just corresponded by email but all of them took some time to get to know, for me to be sure they were right for me and for them to be sure I was right for them. Hmmmmm bit like life really huh?
I truly believe social media - Facebook, Twitter etc are good ways to meet people. I believe in them 100% if used properly. Sadly like the guy who's message I got first thing this morning a lot of people use them wrongly and give it a bad name.
Friday, 20 February 2009
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Victories are Measured in Seconds and Inches
I love sport, pretty much any sport. It is one of the few things I watch on TV, I love to see people at the peak of their game, true champions.
It has occurred to me often how similar sport is to life. My favourite sport is football and I have long thought that the difference between players at my local club who are currently playing in the non league and players like Christiano Ronaldo, world player of the year is smaller than people would think.
Sometimes you watch a game, any sport and one team wins by a comfortable margin. It is said they are miles better than the other team but in truth they aren't - they are inches better.
Last week Manchester United beat Derby County 4-1, were they 4 times better? If you look at each goal you see that in fact they were better by inches and seconds, not by miles. The goals are made up of individual actions. A player will get the ball for the attacking team, the opposing team approach him to tackle but he passes, the tackle was a second late, the pass goes to his team mate despite the effort of the defender who was 2 inches away from the ball. The player with the ball runs and is chased by the defender who is a second or 2 too slow, he crosses the ball. Attacker and defender jump together, the attacker gets 3 inches higher, he heads towards the goal, the goalkeeper dives but misses it by 2 inches GOAL!!!!
As so on, in last weeks case another 3 times. Each time the winning team are just inches and seconds ahead.
We sometimes look at winners in life, in business and think that we could never emulate that success but the truth is that often they are not that much better than us, it's just that time after time they take the action that gets the results. A successful recruiter makes 5 calls, the loser quits after 1, the winner does this every day the loser takes a few days off. The winner spends his lunch break reading 30 minutes of a book or article that will improve him. The loser sits in the next office with all his friends criticising anyone who is achieving. Not much difference but day after day it makes a difference.
What are you doing today (apart from reading this awesome blog ;-)) to be a second better than the competition?
It has occurred to me often how similar sport is to life. My favourite sport is football and I have long thought that the difference between players at my local club who are currently playing in the non league and players like Christiano Ronaldo, world player of the year is smaller than people would think.
Sometimes you watch a game, any sport and one team wins by a comfortable margin. It is said they are miles better than the other team but in truth they aren't - they are inches better.
Last week Manchester United beat Derby County 4-1, were they 4 times better? If you look at each goal you see that in fact they were better by inches and seconds, not by miles. The goals are made up of individual actions. A player will get the ball for the attacking team, the opposing team approach him to tackle but he passes, the tackle was a second late, the pass goes to his team mate despite the effort of the defender who was 2 inches away from the ball. The player with the ball runs and is chased by the defender who is a second or 2 too slow, he crosses the ball. Attacker and defender jump together, the attacker gets 3 inches higher, he heads towards the goal, the goalkeeper dives but misses it by 2 inches GOAL!!!!
As so on, in last weeks case another 3 times. Each time the winning team are just inches and seconds ahead.
We sometimes look at winners in life, in business and think that we could never emulate that success but the truth is that often they are not that much better than us, it's just that time after time they take the action that gets the results. A successful recruiter makes 5 calls, the loser quits after 1, the winner does this every day the loser takes a few days off. The winner spends his lunch break reading 30 minutes of a book or article that will improve him. The loser sits in the next office with all his friends criticising anyone who is achieving. Not much difference but day after day it makes a difference.
What are you doing today (apart from reading this awesome blog ;-)) to be a second better than the competition?
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
What drives me.
It's 11:00 at night, I started work about 15 hours ago and I will be working for another hour. I need to contact Australia and Singapore before my day is done.
This isn't how it was meant to be.
Residual income was meant to be easy, they told me I would work 10 hours a week and that's all.
Residual income isn't easy, residual income is where you put the work in first and then get the rewards many times over for the work you did. Like writing a book say, you do however many hours writing it then sit back and the money comes in.
Now I'm not interested in writing a novel, they 90% of people are - I was, I did of sorts and that was it. A couple of friends read it, I deleted it and there ended my desire to write.
I do want to do what I do, I want to help people get a better life, a better income. Thats why I am up now waiting to call a guy in Australia to arrange a meeting with a guy in Singapore who wants to earn more money.
Sure I could have sent an email and hoped for the best and that would work sometimes but no matter how many people tell you that there is a new way to run a network marketing business (which is the income stream I am working on this second) the fact is that it is a people business. A relationship business, I am working with people I have never met but to get the numbers I have to be a real person. We have a good lead capture system that we use for us and the team but at the end of the day they want to talk to us. I have soent 3 hours on the phone to South Africa today some people in South Africa may have joined just by emails but not many.
Most people who tell you there is another way have a system to sell. That's how they make their money not by network marketing. Talk to anyone who is making over a $million a year in this industry and they talk to people, or did when they were building their business.
So why don't I work the percentages, do 4 hours a day get maybe 25% of the sign ups I do and settle for that?
This is why - in 2 weeks time I will be a father again. Of all the things I have done in my life being a father to Gemma for the last 16 years has brought me the most pride, pleasure and sense of achievement. Sadly I missed most of Gemma growing up.
That isn't going to happen again.
I reckon I will have about 17-18 hours a day awake (probably more like 23 when Aspen is born!! :-))
I could work 12 hours a week at this and retire in 16 years time or I could work 12 hours a day and retire when Aspen is not yet 3.
I still get to spend 5 hours a day with my family, when I choose. How many dads working for the man trying to keep their family afloat can say that?
This isn't how it was meant to be.
Residual income was meant to be easy, they told me I would work 10 hours a week and that's all.
Residual income isn't easy, residual income is where you put the work in first and then get the rewards many times over for the work you did. Like writing a book say, you do however many hours writing it then sit back and the money comes in.
Now I'm not interested in writing a novel, they 90% of people are - I was, I did of sorts and that was it. A couple of friends read it, I deleted it and there ended my desire to write.
I do want to do what I do, I want to help people get a better life, a better income. Thats why I am up now waiting to call a guy in Australia to arrange a meeting with a guy in Singapore who wants to earn more money.
Sure I could have sent an email and hoped for the best and that would work sometimes but no matter how many people tell you that there is a new way to run a network marketing business (which is the income stream I am working on this second) the fact is that it is a people business. A relationship business, I am working with people I have never met but to get the numbers I have to be a real person. We have a good lead capture system that we use for us and the team but at the end of the day they want to talk to us. I have soent 3 hours on the phone to South Africa today some people in South Africa may have joined just by emails but not many.
Most people who tell you there is another way have a system to sell. That's how they make their money not by network marketing. Talk to anyone who is making over a $million a year in this industry and they talk to people, or did when they were building their business.
So why don't I work the percentages, do 4 hours a day get maybe 25% of the sign ups I do and settle for that?
This is why - in 2 weeks time I will be a father again. Of all the things I have done in my life being a father to Gemma for the last 16 years has brought me the most pride, pleasure and sense of achievement. Sadly I missed most of Gemma growing up.
That isn't going to happen again.
I reckon I will have about 17-18 hours a day awake (probably more like 23 when Aspen is born!! :-))
I could work 12 hours a week at this and retire in 16 years time or I could work 12 hours a day and retire when Aspen is not yet 3.
I still get to spend 5 hours a day with my family, when I choose. How many dads working for the man trying to keep their family afloat can say that?
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
How not to be a millionaire
It has been said that you should become a millionaire not for what it gives you in terms of money but for what it forces you to become as a person.
Earning a lot of money can be relatively easy, and certainly getting a £million is sometimes easy if you win the lottery but becoming a true millionaire is not easy. People who get the money easily normally lose it very quickly, we have all heard stories of lottery winners becoming bankrupt within a short period of time.
Why is that? Why do lottery winners almost always lose their money and yet entrepreneurs who have been self made make more money after becoming bankrupt?
The answer is that money easily obtained does not prepare you for wealth and does not make you ready for wealth. You haven't grown enough to handle that money. Your unconcsious will invariably tell you that you don't deserve it and you will unconcsiously work to get rid of it.
There is a lot of talk these days about the law of attraction and it certainly has it's place if followed properly. The problem is that it is often misunderstood and people think that all they need to do is put a picture of the house (or car, or boat etc) of their dreams on the wall and wait for it to arrive. What a load of rubbish, common sense tells you that that can't possibly be true.
Those that misunderstand the law of attraction are often the most evangelical about it. Tell them that you have a picture of a house up for 3 years and you still haven't got it and they will tell you that you aren't doing it properly and that the universe works in strange ways.
The truth is that the Law of attraction is very powerful but you have to take action, you have to be ready for what you want to receive. That takes time and takes effort on your part. Nature knows this, the finest grapes used for making wine aren't given lots of water, despite growing in maximum sun the water is kept to a minimum. The grapes grow on the borderline of survival, almost dying, creating stress for the grapes because the grapes that survive the test make the best wines.
There is a metaphor for life there; don't wish life was easier, wish you were better.
Earning a lot of money can be relatively easy, and certainly getting a £million is sometimes easy if you win the lottery but becoming a true millionaire is not easy. People who get the money easily normally lose it very quickly, we have all heard stories of lottery winners becoming bankrupt within a short period of time.
Why is that? Why do lottery winners almost always lose their money and yet entrepreneurs who have been self made make more money after becoming bankrupt?
The answer is that money easily obtained does not prepare you for wealth and does not make you ready for wealth. You haven't grown enough to handle that money. Your unconcsious will invariably tell you that you don't deserve it and you will unconcsiously work to get rid of it.
There is a lot of talk these days about the law of attraction and it certainly has it's place if followed properly. The problem is that it is often misunderstood and people think that all they need to do is put a picture of the house (or car, or boat etc) of their dreams on the wall and wait for it to arrive. What a load of rubbish, common sense tells you that that can't possibly be true.
Those that misunderstand the law of attraction are often the most evangelical about it. Tell them that you have a picture of a house up for 3 years and you still haven't got it and they will tell you that you aren't doing it properly and that the universe works in strange ways.
The truth is that the Law of attraction is very powerful but you have to take action, you have to be ready for what you want to receive. That takes time and takes effort on your part. Nature knows this, the finest grapes used for making wine aren't given lots of water, despite growing in maximum sun the water is kept to a minimum. The grapes grow on the borderline of survival, almost dying, creating stress for the grapes because the grapes that survive the test make the best wines.
There is a metaphor for life there; don't wish life was easier, wish you were better.
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