One Easy Way to Beating Procrastination! (How to Do Better Work and Beat Deadlines Too!) - And Some Funny Stuff!

Do you find yourself fighting procrastination? I do everyday of my life. But, I can say, that (I think) I have a reputation for being very fast. For always getting good work done well and on time. I see far too many people who procrastinate all the time and become their own worse enemies. Procrastination causes much stress and I think that stress causes poor work quality in some cases and I know for a fact that stress causes poor health!

My secret to getting things done; preventing procrastination and alleviating stress? Well, it's not much of a secret, but it's more of following some common sense advice my mom gave me long ago whenever there was a huge job ahead of me. She said, "Whenever there is a big job, if you wait until near the deadline and then sit and decide to do it all at once, it is such a giant undertaking and will cause much stress and worry. Start early, and do it a little by little. Doing so will allow you to take your time and you will do better quality work and be on time. You will greatly lower your stress."


My mom told me this because when I was a student in school, I would never do my summer homework. I got terrible grades. Were you that way too? I'd get an assignment to do over the summer holidays. I'd figure at the start of summer, "I have 3 months. No problem!" I'd do nothing. A month later, I'd think, "I still have 2 months summer holiday left. No problem!" More playing.... The nagging worry would begin in the back of my mind. Still, a month later, "I haven't even started on my home work. Oh well, still 1 month. I'll start next week. No problem!"


That "next week" would be ignored. Then it would be, "Uh, oh, two weeks of summer vacation left. I'd better start." But I'd still be having too much fun. Then one week. Then 6 days. Then the worrying at night, before bedtime, would really kick in...


Then 5 days until school starts. Still no work on the homework. Then 4 days. The pressure is on! Then 3 days! STRESS! FREAKING OUT! TERROR! No homework at all... Then, with only 2 days left, I'd open the assignment and see the mass volume of the task...


"Wow! This is a big assignment. Oh, well. There's only two days left before school starts. There's no way to finish this work!" So, I wouldn't even start!... Did I ever mention that I got bad grades in elementary school? I did? Maybe this procrastination could be one of the reasons why? (If the above few paragraphs make you nervous then I know you can relate!)


Even though my mom had always given me the advice, I didn't listen. That is, until many years later when I started my own business. So now that's what I do. I always start early and do a little by little.


A week ago or so, I had a deadline for a 50 some page business document... Worrying about it was stressing me out! But, well before the deadline, I started and worked on it for a few hours a day, everyday instead of waiting until the last day and having to spend all day and night doing it. As a result, I was one day ahead of the scheduled deadline and was complimented on doing quality work. 


The entire point of this? Folks, waiting and doing poor quality work is all a part of procrastination. Procrastination offers you no benefits whatsoever. It causes worry and stress - and that can't be good for your health. I see sick people at work all the time. Guess what? It seems to me that the people who don't procrastinate are happier and healthier.


I believe there is a connection.


So, take my mom's advice whenever there's a deadline: "Start early, and do it a little by little. Doing so will allow you to take your time and you will do better quality work and be on time."


It does greatly lower your stress!

And, on that note, to help you lower your stress on this great weekend, here's some funny stuff I found on a wonderful website named Rocket News. The post is entitled: “Procrastinate”? “Calm Under Pressure?” Take a Page from the Pros

Time limit, cutoff, due date. AKA “deadline”. Of course the concept applies to any number of jobs. But let it be said that the real experts on the subject are cartoonists / comic book artists.

These professionals truly know the possibilities of pre-deadline behavior. Today, we present to you 99 ways comic book artists find themselves approaching, or avoiding, their day of reckoning. See if you compare…

*You have flashbacks of elementary school and the day before going back to school after summer break. 

*You know for a scientific fact that the true deadline is 11:59 of that date.

*When your editor calls you for a status update, you tell him “80% done”, but you haven’t even picked up your pen yet. But the math works out because you’ll only put in 20% effort.

*You mutter to yourself, “So, the time has come…” and finally pick up your pen.

*You go on Twitter and Facebook seeking reassurance by checking what your fellow artists are doing at the moment.

*You have a few drinks to see if it’ll help. And discover (again) that it doesn’t.

*The thought occurs to you, “That deadline leaves a lot of room for error, doesn’t it?”

*You stop responding to your editor’s calls with any actual numbers, like “I’ll be done with this page in the blink of a jiffy lamb’s tail”.

*You try chanting, “Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate!”. And 3 seconds later you’re playing with your iPhone.

*You decide to pretend it’s all a bad dream.

*You think to yourself,  ”If I were my editor, I wouldn’t hire me.”

*You procrastinate to the end, and you beat yourself up about it.

*You tell yourself to work nonstop and you’ll be able to finish by 5am, but 20 seconds later you’re surfing the net.

*And you repeat it all again for the next issue.

These are just a few of the hilarious comments from these cartoonists geeks... To see more click here.


Have a great day! It's the weekend so you probably can procrastinate a bit, but, on Monday, GET TO WORK! Have a great weekend!

How to Stop Worrying So Much and Be More Successful at Life!

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” - Mark Twain

In today's world, there are plenty of things to worry about and the list seems to grow everyday. There's war, the safety of the food we eat, nuclear accidents, car accidents, "Will our children be safe?" There's diseases, pollution, taxes, will we still have a job next year? The list goes on and on. There' a million and one things to worry about. Take your pick.

You want to be a worrier or a warrior? Take your pick.

I have plenty of friends who seem to worry constantly. The biggest thing they worry about is work. I think it is pretty safe to say that they are their own worse enemy. 

The funny thing is they think I don't worry about work or these other things at all. But I do worry! I am a "worrier" for certain. They just don't know! I think, up to a certain point, worrying is perfectly normal human behavior, and we all do it. But my friends think I don't worry because I've found a good way to control it and I'm glad I did. It's easy to do and just takes 3 minutes every morning. That's a better deal than worrying all day, right?

Many years ago, I used to worry so much that I wouldn't sleep well at night. The funny part is that I'd be worried about work! Think about that! I'm worried about work so much that I cannot sleep well. Then, the next morning I go to work and I'm tired. I'm so tired that I don't do a good job. So I worry so much about losing my job that I lose sleep and then, on the job, do a poor job because I'm sleepy because I didn't sleep well because I was worried about losing my job! What an idiot I was!

Doesn't make any sense, does it?

Worrying all the time is a proven cause of unhappiness and stress. Stress is a proven cause of a wide array of physical and mental illnesses and disorders. Life is rough enough as it is without our own thinking placing a heavier burden on our shoulders than we already have.

Think about it, is there any one of us who can do our best and achieve to our capacity - or even higher than that - when, in the back of our mind is this crawling negative fear - a worry - that binds us? Of course not.

So why do we do this to ourselves?

Today I want to give you two really good tips that can help you control your worrying. First off, I'd like to recommend that buy yourself a $1.00 pocket notebook and that you write down your top 5 or 10 goals first thing in the morning when you wake up everyday. Do it like religion or brushing your teeth.

Writing down your goals will help your subconscious mind to focus better on what is really important to you in your life and it will also allow the Law of Attraction to work in your favor. (There are several links at the bottom of this post to other articles with more details that you might enjoy reading).  

Here's how I do it: I wake up and sit down and think about what is really important to me. Do not cheat by looking at what you wrote the day before. Think. Really think about what is important for you and write it down. If you do this everyday and do not look at the previous day's goals, the things that are important to you and your life will naturally flow to the top. I used to write things about money and business as my top goals, but after doing this for so many years, I came to realize what is truly important in my life is not that. It is my family.

These are my recent top four goals (and I always add today's date at the end):

1) I am a wise and patient father and husband. I am a kind person.

2) Thank you god for all the wonderful things I have and am about to receive today.

3) All my loved ones are healthy and prosperous today.

4) I am a very successful businessman and 2012 is my best year so far. 2013 is even better!

Recently there are another 4 on the list, but those have to do with my work and financial goals. Everyone would be different, of course.

Actually, writing these things down is not my original idea. It is the method of success in life and business for many extremely wealthy people and the basis for a best-selling book: "Goals! How to Get Everything You Want - Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible" by Brian Tracey. May I suggest that you do yourself a great favor and read that book and apply some of the simple rules to your life? 

By the way, one of my dearest friends read this book and later I asked him about it. He said that he does write down his goals in his iPhone. Folks, the advice of millionaires say to buy a handy pocket notebook. It is extremely difficult for any computer or hand held device to be faster than a pen and paper. Why ignore the advice of these people who have succeeded and are rich for the $1.00 it costs to buy a pocket notebook? 

Also, I find that having a handy pocket notebook is great for lowering stress in that I never forget anything. Anytime I have a good idea or something that I must remember to do, I jot it down. It's so much faster with a pen and paper than any electrical device could ever be!

The second good piece of advice I have for those of you who find yourself in a serious pinch whereby you are worrying so much that it has engulfed your entire being is to realize that your brain can only think about one thing at a time. Seriously. It's true. The human brain can only process information about one thing at a time.

There will be people now who think I am wrong about this, but I am not. Just because you can multi-task at work doesn't mean that your brain can think about more than one thing at once. It cannot. Your brain can switch back and forth quite quickly so that the skilled person can multi-task but that doesn't mean that the brain can focus on more than one matter at any given moment.

Here. Let me prove it to you. Here is a sentence. Read it and them repeat it over and over in your head. You will see that, as you are repeating it, you are unable to think about anything else, unless you switch off the repetition. Here is the sentence:

"I am a positive and hard working person and today is the best day so far this year and tomorrow is going to be even better!"

Read it and memorize it. Now, repeat it over and over in your head. Do it many times. 

See? Your mind can only focus on one problem at a time. This is why constant worry is so dangerous. Because if you are only worrying, you will begin to make things worse as you will focus your entire being on that worry. It is a vicious cycle.

Stop it right now!

Anytime of the day, if you catch yourself starting to worry, stop. Take a phrase like the one I have given you above and repeat it in your head over and over until the worrying goes away. If the worrying (or panic) comes back, then start up the phrase and repeat again until the fear and worrying subside.

Some astute readers will recognize what I have written here as a form of meditation, chanting, or prayer. Call it what you want, it will help you to defeat the worrying that is destroying your health and your life. 

I hope that, if you start to worry, that you'll try these these two simple exercises that will help you set your mind free and help you to relax. They've helped me greatly. I know they will help you too.

I do recommend the book, "Goals! How to Get Everything You Want - Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible" by Brian Tracey but, if you are a cheapskate (like me) and need more evidence, I've written extensively about it here below:

One Easy Step To Becoming a Better Parent and More Successful at Life

Pocket Notebooks: The Secret of Millionaires and People Won't Listen!?

Vacation is a State of Mind - How to Get The Truly Wonderful Things in Life

Need More Time? Too Much Stress? Stop Drinking!

Sometimes work just seems to get out of hand and, no matter what you do, it seems like there's not enough time in the day to get done all the things you need to. I've had this experience many times.

In fact, from the middle of 2011 to the end of the year, I felt this way constantly. I was carrying a heavy schedule and also had serious stress from dealing with partners and investors. Sometimes it seemed that I had no one to talk to.


I was doing my best to go out and make sales for my new company and, due to the nature of the business, that meant going out at night and drinking with clients and potential customers. That's really where the problem begins; I like to drink. Sometimes I like it too much.


In Japan, it is very common for business deals to be worked out, not at the office, but at a drinking establishment. I've concluded hundreds of deals this way.

I've concluded so many deals the good old Japanese drinking way that I don't even remember them all.


I also don't remember, often times, how I got home after making those deals. I just woke up the next morning, in bed, with a massive hangover. That's the problem with drinking; it's hard to be a social drinker for me. I like to drink and I like the feeling I get when the alcohol "warms me up." Especially if I am at a rock concert or dealing and meeting with music industry related people.


Even so, I've gone periods when I drank every night for months. I've also gone periods when I didn't drink at all for months. Alcohol is a very powerful drug and your body will still feel the effects of it long after you've stopped drinking. I noticed that, in the times I'd go for months without a drink that if I had even one beer, I'd feel tired the next morning. Really! Even one drink at night will have a sedative effect on you the next morning when you wake up.


If I don't drink for about three or four days, the tiredness feeling starts to go away. Seriously, that's how long it takes; three or four days. If you go without a drink for about a week or two, then you will have completely flushed the alcohol out of your system and start to feel much more energetic.


So, if you are a regular drinker, try that: one day without even a taste of alcohol will make you feel better the next morning. Two weeks will make you feel much better and younger. If you go on a raw food diet and don't drink for six months, you will lose 20 kilograms (44 pounds) and feel like you are 17 years old again. I know, I've done that. (Actually doing that again is my New Year's resolution - that is starting today!!!!)

When I stopped drinking and went completely raw food for six months, I lost 17 kilograms.

This photo was two years ago.

I want to do that again. But I digress....


This is a post about creating more time in your day by abstaining from alcohol. You really can lighten your work load and create more time by doing so.


Last year, in the middle of November, I went to work and saw an old friend of mine who was the founder of a multi-million dollar company and retired a millionaire before 50-years-old. We had a nice talk and I told him that I was extremely over worked, tired and hung-over (funny that, being tired and hung over is not conducive to efficient work and time usage). I told him that I was out with a business acquaintance of ours that we've both known for years. That business acquaintance's name is Ray.

My image of Ray Hearn as a father just kidding, of course!

Ray is a world famous concert promoter. He founded Beatink in Japan. That means he does live the life of "Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll" (no drugs in Japan, of course). Ray is a wild one. Wildly successful and wildly crazy sometimes. The night before I had dinner with Ray and we started at 5:00 and by 9:00 pm we had drank a few cocktails and (I think) four bottles of wine. After that, we went back to Ray's house and watched Japanese sixties Sci-Fi Horror flicks. There we drank at least another six bottles of wine. I lost count. The next thing I knew it was 3:30 am and I told Ray that I just had to go home. Ray started yelling,


"Mike Rogers you wimp! Get back here and let's drink some more wine!" 


He was still yelling when I crawled out of the house and I am sure Ray and his girlfriend drank some more (well, actually she doesn't drink that much - Ray drank more)... Like I said, I stumbled out the door and slithered down the stairs to the street. I don't remember how I got home.... Typical.


The next day I had a hellacious hangover and four important meetings to attend to.


That brings me back to meeting and talking with my retired at 50-years-old millionaire friend in the middle of November. I told him about drinking with Ray and he laughed. He knew too well what drinking with Ray was like. I told my friend about how I was burning the candle at both ends and I asked for advice on how I could open up more time for myself. He smiled and laughed and said, 


"Stop drinking."


I protested. How can I stop drinking in Japan? A country that has a culture of sales and personal business relationships built on deals made over drinks?


My friend smiled once again. He said,


"I know another extremely wealthy president of another company who had the same problem so he went to a retired businessman he greatly respected to ask for advice. The retired businessman told him to stop drinking. The wealthy president claimed the same as you do, 'impossible to stop drinking because of the ways of business in Japan.' The retired businessman said, 'Yes. That is true. But drinkers will also understand the sufferings of other drinkers. Tell your friends that you have some sort of illness that prevents you from drinking.'"


That was like a light going off in my head. It's true. I know from experience. When I had a terrible gout attack, and had to stop drinking, none of my friends pressured me to drink: they all felt really sorry for me! Really!


Trust me. Many (most?) guys who drink who are in their fifties or later have had drink-related problems or know someone very close to them who has. We do feel sorry for you if you don't want to drink.

Being a teetotaller has had a very uncool image for years! 

The moral of the story? If you want to feel better and be more productive and wake up fresher, stop drinking. If your peers pressure you, I gave you a good excuse just now: Just say you have gout or border-line diabetes. They'll stop bothering you (or they're not your friends!) By feeling better and being more alert and alive, you will get more work done in a much faster and more efficient process. You probably can't cut down all those meetings, but you can help yourself to get a better rest and to feel younger and more energetic and clear-headed if you stop drinking for a few weeks.


Now, that's how you create more time and less stress for yourself.

Nah. I stopped that three years ago.

As for me, I'm getting ready to start working the new year in earnest from this Tuesday. It takes a lot to get myself ready and mentally prepared to go out and do my best. But I have decided to do it. I want to do it for work, for my health and to help me spend more time with my family. 


I am going to eat raw foods only for a few months and stop drinking starting today. Wish me luck? Any readers out there who wish to join me for a cup of tea?


Thanks to: my dear friends Ray Hearn and Koji Kamibayashi

Holidays and In-Laws Driving You Crazy? "Find Your Center"

Just came back from a vacation and wanted to relate a story that happened when I just arrived on a southern Pacific island. 

Buddha on Tumon in Guam

From past experience, and my feelings of irritation, I knew that at the moment when we arrived on the island, my in-laws might drive me crazy. You know, it was the typical story with old people; forgetting things; worrying about unimportant nonsense; taking 15 minutes to do something that most people could do in 20 seconds....


We arrived at the island airport after midnight. Everyone was tired and sleepy. We checked into to the hotel bus service which would drive us all to the hotel for free. 


We had two luggage carriers with three pieces of luggage on each. I received the six luggage tags from the limousine service to put on our bags for the bus.  I started putting the luggage tags on the three pieces of luggage on my cart and handed three luggage tags to them to put on the three bags on their cart. I finished attaching the tags. I stood up and, of course, there was some confusion at their cart. The tag numbers were wrong (?) or were they? No! There weren't enough tags.

Oh Lordy! I thought, "How hard could it be to properly attach three tags to three pieces of luggage." I walked over to calmly investigate. Sure enough, they were two tags short. 


"What happened to the three tags I just gave you?" I asked.


"Oh? We put two of them on your luggage." I rolled my eyes. I looked at my cart and sure enough, they had put two of their tags on my cart's luggage. Why? Hell if I know. For 1/2 a second steam came out my ears.... I caught myself and I smiled. Then I removed the tags from my luggage and put them on theirs... I won't go into details of how they started using a pen to alter the numbers on the tags for some reason. Once again a simple 30 second process took over fifteen minutes of time.


I turned back to the nice young man at the service counter. He said, "First time in Guam?"


"Nope!" I answered. Smiling I said, "First time with the in-laws and the entire family so all I have to do is try to be patient and keep calm...." I scrunched up my face and whispered to the guy like I was going nuts and said, "BECAUSE, BLESS THEIR HEARTS, SOMETIMES THEY DRIVE ME CRAZY!"

It was then and there, the Great Buddha who lived within the heart and soul of that young man came out and spread wisdom to me he put his hands together and smiled knowingly at me and said,


"Find your center, man!"


I really laughed. What wisdom. That's right. "Find your center, man!" All I had to do was to find my center and take it easy. I couldn't allow these things to irritate me... Oh, and trust that there were many things they did that irritated me. But, by remembering what that young man said,  I was able to stay cool (for the most part) and chill out. I was able to expect these things would happen and so, when they did, they didn't bother me.


Fifteen minutes to decide whether or not it is cold or hot enough so that they need to take a sweater with them when we are driving in our own car anyway? No problem. Calling a hotel to make special dinner reservations for a dinner that always gets sold out yet calling the wrong restaurant? No sweat (I knew I should have called myself anyway). Wanting to take a hour to shop in a clothes store that doesn't seem to have 50 pieces of wardrobe in the entire store that is the size of 1/2 a convenience store? Sure. Knock yourselves out.


Hell, I wasn't going anywhere.


Another thing that helped me to have a better and more relaxing time was to write in my notes as my daily goals every day as my number one priority was:


1) I am relaxed & patient & having fun 12/23/11


I wrote that as my #1 priority goal first thing when I woke up every morning while on vacation. It helped my subconscious to remember it and it helped me to forget about work and problems at the office.  

  


I also wrote at the top of my notes every morning,


"In Guam. Find your center." It helped me to relieve stress and have more fun. I think whether you  re in a south Pacific island or not, writing your goals and finding your center can help you to be happier and more productive and stress-free. Try it everyday in 2012.


NOTE: Write down your goals everyday for a better, more successful and happier you. http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2011/06/pocket-notebooks-secret-of-millionaires.html

The Millionaire Blogger?

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” - Charles F. Kettering

"The Millionaire Blogger." That's what my friend had told me that he was going to call his blog pretty soon. "The Millionaire Blogger!" pretty cool, I thought. "Ron" figured that by March of 2012 or so, he'd have a million reads and his new business would be worth at least about $5 million-plus US dollars to him by 2013. So, he figured that he could be one of the very people who is a millionaire and blogs. Ron was hoping that he could blog and help others make money and live better... I liked his idea.


Well, now, he figures that he can hit the million reads mark, but the $5 million-plus dollars might have just gone up in smoke. Poof! 

You read that right; I've said before that I have some very rich friends, but I also have many almost rich friends. One of them is my friend Ron. 


Ron and his partners (and investors) started a new company that they had  estimated that would have sales of about $20 million dollars annually by end of 2013 and, if Ron sold his founding shares in the company, he stood to gain anywhere between $3.5 to $10.5 million US dollars. Not bad for four years work.


Ron told me yesterday that things seem to have not turned out that way at all. I had warned him.


Ron said that some very disturbing facts have come to light, so he had gone through serious bouts of worry, desperation and stress... Sometimes Ron  says he spends an entire day depressed and starts drinking early in the day (I know, he'd been calling me and ask me to come over many times up until six weeks ago). Ron said his wife thinks that he shouldn't get depressed, but I understand Ron. I would imagine that most people who spent nearly two years working without pay on a brilliant project and then started up that project to great success only to find out that they'd been screwed by their investor, would be depressed. 


Some people would want to kill themselves... Or the investor. I might fall into the latter category. 

I can't go into too much detail, but, just two months after starting up his new company, Ron and crew were such darlings and big news in the media that they drew attention from some of the biggest investment firms in Japan. Soon, they were able to have one of the biggest and most famous companies in Japan become a strategic investor. People were blown away. I was. I said to Ron, "You guys just started up! How in the world did you manage to get that company to invest in you?" Ron just smiled.


I think most people might be depressed when they found out that the strategic investor wasn't actually interested in their company and their idea as a separate, mutually beneficial entity but were only interested in stealing that companies ideas and technology and using it for themselves.


It looks like they did that too... In spite of my efforts to warn Ron and his partners what I thought the real motivations of their strategic "partner" were. Ron listened to me. But Ron's parters were all on seventh heaven when they concluded an agreement for investment. This deal was big news all over Japan.


Ron told me about negotiations and I gave my advice. Things he told me just  didn't sit right with me and I warned Ron. Ron tried to warn his partners, but they wouldn't listen. They were convinced that the partner was interested in them as a mutually profitable partnership. I suspected that they were only interested in using Ron's idea for their own ends. I convinced him of the same.


Soon, though, Ron and partners only saw dollar signs in their eyes, I was still suspicious of the investors motivations... In fact, at the only meeting I attended, I felt that I could read the investors motivations like a cook book sitting open right in front of my face. The thing on the menu? Ron's company.


I was right. But, as a mere advisor, I can only do as much. Ron and his partners took the bait; hook line and sinker. They refused to listen or even be suspicious.  They signed the contract, the partners got their way,... So, now Ron's company  lost. 


Ron's company lost the battle. But they haven't lost the war. 


Like I said, Ron told me that he had been depressed and seriously stressed out, but something happened to him six weeks ago. We met and I recommended to him that he change his mind and take it easy and not to stress out about it anymore. I told him to read a blog post by James Altucher who talks about how he lost MUCH more money, $20 million dollars to be exact, and, instead of lying on the bed getting depressed, he decided that he was going to "surrender."


Yeah. That's it. He surrendered. Surrendering didn't mean giving up, it meant that he allocated his fate to "whatever happens, happens." 


That's what I told Ron to do a month and a half ago too. To give up. I have always believed that everything happens for a reason and, if you look for the positive, you'll find it and out of any bad experience, something good will come.


I told Ron to decide to let his life go to fate, faith, God, nature, the spirits, fortune, whatever you want to call it. I told him to decide that he wasn't going to stress and fret. I told him to decide that he was going to keep on going and not let this negativity stop him. He had to keep going and doing what he does best.


I told him to remember that the company that stole his companies idea and technology may have won the battle for now, but they haven't won the war. There is still a huge opportunity sitting there and I ask that he consider picking up the pieces, assessing the situation with a calm and collected frame of mind  and figure out how to put them back together into something even better than before.


Just because, say, a convenience store across the street comes out with a new  cash register, that doesn't mean Ron's convenience store on this side of the street is going to lose all their customers and close up shop. Nope. 


This might sound contradictory, but here's the way I would see it if I were in Ron's shoes. I told Ron that I would think: 


"I may have lost everything already, so I haven't anything to more to lose. They can't do anything to damage me anymore at all. So there is nowhere to go for me but up." 


Things can just only work out for the better that way. 


They can't damage me anymore, but I can do damage to them. Great ideas come from great minds. They have stolen an idea, but they haven't stolen my minds. Positivity will create more great ideas. If they had great ideas, then they wouldn't have needed to steal mine. So, this incident just proves that they cannot create innovation, but I can. I will. Time is on my side."


I asked Ron that he and his CEO and staff come up with some new ideas. Ideas that they would have never imagined had they not been forced to think of a different way and a different angle though this experience.


It worked like a charm! I saw Ron yesterday and we had lunch together. He was a changed man.


He told me, 


"Mike! I have given up my fears and given up my stress and worries. I have, like James Altucher recommends, given up my future to "the Force" (Star Wars) and, no, that doesn't mean that I am going to lay down in my bed and pout all day, that means that I am going to think, plan create and grow.

I believe that, from this experience, my company and I can be taken on a different plane and a different path towards success... In fact, since we have come up with a new brilliant plan we are more convinced than ever that the new way is better than the last. Now, instead of grief and despair, I can see how we can make an even better project and make even more money. Thanks to you.  


But, as with all things in life, nothing is certain and it is a bit of a gamble. But isn't that what's exciting? After all, what is a successful business? It is not a breakthrough technology or just a plan. There have been many companies that had excellent plans and totally new and breakthrough technologies that have failed. But the successful business or plan is created by having great people; the right people. I know we have the right people riding on the bus and we are going in the right direction.


I'm thinking now that our new plan will greatly upset our "partner" because we've set it up so that they are left out. They took from us what they thought was useful. But, the problem is that, if they knew what they were doing in the first place, they would have never needed us. They took what they wanted but failed to recognize the future of this business. We were in it longer than they were and have already seen from the streets the results of our efforts, we had already been evolving the process. They have just kicked off their system (that is a mirror of ours several months ago) filled with all the things that we realized were wrong a long time ago. We certainly are not going to point out the error in their ways.


Several months may not seem like a long time, but in the Internet business, several months is a lifetime.

I won't look to our strategic "partners" as "criminals" - what one of my founding partners called them - but will look upon them as the competition... 

They might be the competition but we were the originals and we are the ones who are the leaders and the creators and the ones who will always be the innovators. They won't. They will always be the copy machines. Drones without new ideas."


I was so happy to see Ron back to his old self. Ron's always been one of these super go-getter guys. You know,  ready to climb Mount Everest by lunchtime and at a dinner meeting in Paris by 7 pm.


There's a lesson here from Ron for you, me and all of us.


I don't want to get depressed, stressed or mad. You shouldn't either.


In my case, everyday, no matter what, I have decided to keep doing the best. I won't get sad and I will keep going out and meeting people and talking about and promoting my business. I will keep reading books and sharing new ideas. 
We all need to take a total assessment of our situations at all times. Things might seem bad at this very moment, but look at the situation overall. That there are troubles and difficulties are expected and obvious. Rome wasn't built in a day. We all must use our way of thinking to create good self-fulfilling prophesies and not negative ones. 


Regardless of your situation, you can do the same thing too. Do not fret about your situation, but use it as a lesson in life. Use it to learn and to better yourself. Falling into a state of worry, fear or depression, will only make the situation worse. Remember the story about "self-fulfilling prophesy." You can create a better situation for yourself but you must first create that situation in your own mind. 


That's what I am going to do... As well as giving myself up to fate and faith and knowing that, if I always do right by myself and others, good things will surely come to me. And they can come to you.


Like they say, the best revenge in life is success.