Customer is King — NOT!
Anybody who's ever had a job has probably heard the saying "Customer is King", and the sad thing is that many bosses act like it. Many business owners will do anything to make that one sale, focusing solely on the customer at the cost of what's really his most valuable asset: his workers.
I've just returned from a business seminar in Austin, Texas hosted by Keith Cunningham. He taught and mentored Robert Kiyosaki and created most of the original content in the best-seller book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
The four-day seminar had about 80 attendees, most of whom were business owners earning in the 7-figure range, so I figured that if they came to learn from from Keith, then he must have something worth learning. Keith's background is: entrepreneur, multi-billionaire, business mentor and educator.
We learned about accrual accounting, measuring the health of a company, finding trends, demystifying financial statements, and a host of other subjects pertaining to good business practice, not from a textbook standpoint, but from the voice of experience.
The grande finale however was not some magic formula or silver bullet secret to ultimate success theory, but a lesson focused on building the culture of your company. He cited Jim Collins book From Good to Great, and stressed repeatedly the importance of building and maintaining culture within the workplace, ensuring that your workers feel a sense of responsibility, respect, honor, and dignity both from you and from each other.
This culture will filter down to your customers, which will in turn result in better business results for your company.
Again, Customer is King -- NOT!
Making Money Online
I know that I told you all before that I quit affiliate marketing because I did not like it one bit. At the time that was true, as I really had no desire to continue on doing something that I wasn't enjoying, or seeing enough success in.
Then something happened.
I did some research and found the source that many gurus base their affiliate marketing training programs on. It turns out that the creators of the various materials are members of a company called Wealthy Affiliate University.
I checked them out, and found that they were expensive! ($97 a month) I figured that I already wasted enough money on so many other programs, so why not one more? (Pretty intelligent reasoning, no?)
Anyhow, I signed up for one month, just to check it out and was initially overwhelmed by the huge amount of information there, but felt a little bit more stabilized when I found the action plan as a good starting point. I already knew a lot of the information in the beginner parts, but I went through all the lessons anyhow.
Fastforward to present day:
I signed up six weeks ago, and am only only on week 3 of the action plan putting in an average of 2 hours a week, I know, I have a lazy streak. But amazingly enough, I already have a monthly passive income that exceeds my monthly membership fee by more than double. There are people who signed up at the same time as I did who are putting in a full day's work and already making over $200 a day!
I was about to cancel my membership, hoping to save money, but seeing the progress made me start to love it, and to want to put more effort into it, making it work for me even more, though stopping now wouldn't stop my income stream.
The reason I'm bringing out this subject is that I know that as a friend, I would be holding back from you if I were to not share this with you. When going through changes in our lives, securing a stable income can be challenging, but I know that if you put in the effort and have enough persistence (with the right tools), you can and will make money. The importance of skills are far below the importance I would put on faith and persistence.
If I had given up when I felt like it, then I would never have seen the income that I'm getting now, as little is is it, but I have proven that the system works, and now that I know how to do it, I just have to multiply my efforts in order to multiply my income.
Pareto, anyone?
Ruthlessly evaluating your own work habits is never a fun thing to do, but boy does it feel good to work smarter! With a change in my work schedule, and much more self-managed time on my hands I've sometimes felt a little lost as to what I should be working on next, what comes first, and most importantly, what I shouldn't do at all!
Sorting out my schedule, I turned to something I learned a while ago that just took on a greater meaning: The Pareto Principle. Some Italian guy named Pareto discovered that 20% of the population had 80% of the wealth in his country. Then other experts in their respective fields starting seeing that same pattern all over the place.
20% of the workers produce 80% of the result .
20% of the drivers cause 80% of the accidents.
20% of your clients make 80% of the complaints.
20% of your purchases account for 80% of your spending.
20% of my time at work produces 80% of my productivity.
So the next logical step here was for me to identify the 20% that I want to maximize. For me it was the time I spend at work right after checking mail, reading news, updating my social statuses. So in a seven-hour work day, this would come to about an hour and a half per day. That's when I first start my real work, when I still feel fresh and alert, and my objectives are very clear.
Now knowing that this is my daily 20%, I guard it and nurture it much more than I used to, letting it take priority over all else in my day.
What's your 20%? Finding it may help you to better establish your daily schedule and find your own peak zone-Give it a try!
Ps. 20% of this blog post contains 80% of the content. 
So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore
I recently read the book "So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore" by Jake Coleson, except Jake Coleson does not exist, but is a pseudonym for the combined work of Dave Coleman and Wayne Jacobson.
Although this work of fiction creates a story which most people would agree is the epitome rather than the norm, it does so in order to very clearly illustrate the points the author wants to bring across. As I read the book, it sometimes reminded me of the very simple parables that Jesus used to illustrate his teachings.
In the story, Jake Colsen, a disillusioned pastor of a dysfunctional church meets someone who he believes may be John the Beloved from the New Testament. He repeatedly meets this man throughout the story and discovers new truths and observations comparing what Jesus had taught in the Bible versus the way most churches operate and teach their parishioners to live today.
If you haven't read this book yet you just might want to, because it's helped me to formulate so many of the thoughts that have been floating around in my head lately.
As many of you know and may be experiencing yourselves, I'm facing some pretty big changes in my lifestyle and the future of my personal family. As a Christian I want to be effective in my life and service for the Lord, while at the same time successful as father and financial provider for my wife and children.
This is nothing new for Christians worldwide, and I deeply respect those who have gone on before me and successfully found their balance between the two. I believe that I will find my balance by becoming financially successful with my business endeavors and through this new level of success I will be able to, as a peer, reach those who I would previously not have had access to.
Community, friendship, and support are some methods through which we modern-day Christians can demonstrate our love for our brethren and neighbors and at the same time show our love to Jesus.
"In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid!
It's funny that in life it happens so many times that just when you think you've finally got things figured out, something happens and everything changes.
I've been trying out affiliate marketing for some time, learning all the ins and outs about it, and decided to focus mostly on article marketing. I spent some good money on programs to help teach me more advanced methods, and even a software package that would automatically spin my articles so I could recycle them to save me work.
Things were going okay, but a bit slower than I had anticipated. I was spending time daily writing articles, SEOing them, submitting them, pinging, more optimizing, bidding for keywords, etc.
Then something clicked in my head.
I don't enjoy doing this one bit!
It all came back to me, the whole reason I was looking for change in my life is so that I could focus on what I loved doing, not enduring something so that I can earn money and then go on to what I love during my spare time.
I was digging my own grave, and at the same time proclaiming to others that I was heading into some "Major changes in my life". It seemed I had lost sight of the goal, the whole reason I had started out in the first place.
So then I asked myself: "What do I love doing?"
I love helping people. I really, really actually get a tremendous amount of satisfaction when I feel that the effort I invested in someone has helped them in a profound way.
Why not become a life coach? I'll get job satisfaction by helping others, I'll be able to support myself financially, and I'll also be doing what I love doing second best: learning something new--constantly! Because each human is unique, I will never get bored of it.
Time to start learning again. I'm going to be attending Speed Coaching seminars in Tokyo starting next weekend, and I'll count that as my first step in the direction that I want to go.
Wish me well, and pray for me.
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