2/19/2010

Why people rob banks.


On October 12, 2006, a 20-year-old woman entered a bank in Washington, D.C. She patiently waited her turn in line and then stepped up to the next available teller window. While she calmly spoke on her cell phone, she persuaded the teller into giving her $14,000 in cold, hard cash.

She believed thathaving the cold, hard cash in her hand made it HER money. Her beliefs about money would have prevented her from understanding what Leonardo Di Vinci meant when he said, “A man who would be rich in a day, will be hung in a year.”

Shortly after her capture, the woman reportedly gave a tearful apology to the bank teller she robbed, but that didn't stop her from being sentenced to twelve years in prison for her crime.

Think about it. Can you fathom working twelve years to earn $14,000.00, which is slightly more than $100.00 a month? Robbing banks is obviously not an efficient way to earn a living. Since that is true, then why do criminals continue to rob banks?

Because they believe that's where the money is … and if they can grab the money, the money will be theirs.
That may have been true a century ago. But banks are not where the money is now.

So where is the money now?

Paul Pilzer PhD, economic advisor to two presidential cabinets, multi-millionaire, and best selling author of many books, commented in his book “Unlimited Wealth” that our nation has a gross domestic product (all the money earned in the nation) of about $14 Trillion. About 60% of that $14 Trillion is the result of “casual” consumer spending (what is left after paying income taxes and housing), which is about $8.4 Trillion. Since $8.4 Trillion of “casual” consumer dollar goes through the distribution system (getting “stuff” to where the consumer can buy it), and the distribution system’s inefficiency takes 80% of the consumers “casual” money, then about $6.5 Trillion are being siphoned off through the distribution system.

$6.5 Trillion is a lot of money, isn’t it. Can you even imagine that much money? I can’t.

And here’s the really weird part. Bank robbers don’t even attempt to rob this money. They can’t because the money is not just “sitting in piles” in a bank vault. The money is more like a fast moving river of money. Distribution money is not static, it is dynamic.

Distribution money never stays in the same place, it keeps moving. Distribution system money is like a river … you can never step into the same water twice.

Perhaps that explains why criminals rob banks instead of the distribution system. Banks have a pile of money that can be picked up and moved. Distribution money can only be re-directed, much like a river can be redirected by digging irrigation ditches which channel the water to where the water can cause things to grow.

Since distribution money is “cash flow”, not the cold, hard cash that bank robbers like, a person, who wants to grow financially, could ask themselves …

How can a person create some “cash flow” from distribution money?

If you think back to my previous newsletter, I explained that the internet positions manufacturers to sell directly to the consumer. This has never been possible on a large scale at any time in history. Consequently, the distribution system, as we know it, will experience a dramatic change in the next decade.

Per Paul Pilzer’s book “The Next Millionaires”, our anachronistic distribution system is going to become the source of the money for the greatest re-distribution of wealth this nation has ever seen. Dr. Pilzer actually projects that the re-directed flow of distribution money will create ten million new millionaires in the next ten years. That’s 2,740 people a DAY, EVERY DAY, FOR TEN YEARS becoming millionaires. (Drop me an email and ask for Pilzer's ten million millionaires audio.)

Dr. Pilzer’s concepts require some explanation.

For over one hundred years, our distribution system has minimally consisted of manufacturers, regional wholesalers, area wholesalers, retail outlets, and consumers.

In 1962, Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, looked at this distribution system and thought, “If I can just eliminate one of those links in the distribution chain, I will be able to reduce costs to my customers.” The rest is history. Last year, Wal-Mart did $350 Billion in sales from a highly diversified product line.

In 1984, while still a college student living in a dormitory, Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers, looked at the bloated distribution system and asked, “What if I could eliminate ALL of the distribution system and sell direct to the consumer?” Twenty years later, Michael Dell had a personal net worth of about $15 Billion from selling just computers and peripherals.

In 2000, Michael Dell spoke at the Detroit Economics Club. In his famous “Three Cs” speech, he said that any business has to have three components to be successful: content, commerce, and community.

Content refers to a product or a service which is intended to be sold. Content can be anything: an e-book, some music, a new car, a house, or a pair of shoes.

Commerce is the ability to receive payment for the product or service and get the product or service to the customer. Commerce can be driving to the local Shopping Mall in your car or clicking on Pay Pal at EBay with shipping via UPS.

Community is a group of people who want to buy the product or service. According to Michael Dell, between “community”, “content”, and “commerce” … community is the most difficult to create … especially online. There is very little loyalty online.

A brick and mortar store services the “community” of people who live within five miles of the store. The three most important elements for a conventional store are “location, location, location.”

The internet has NO LOCATION. A person will “switch” location from San Jose to Florida with a twitch of their index finger. The three most important elements for internet stores are “community, community, community”.

Suppose a store near your home offers a “widget” for $100.00. A store ten miles away offers the same “widget” for $95.00. Would you drive twenty miles, round trip, to save $5.00? Probably not.

If you were shopping for the same “widget” online and found one in California for $100.00 with free shipping, and also one in Florida for $95.00 with free shipping, which would you choose? Probably the one from Florida.

This shift in shopping attitude is causing a crack in the nation’s anachronistic distribution system. That crack is like a small fracture in a dam that holds back a large river … a large river of money … $6.5 trillion of distribution money.

Distribution money is beginning to leak out of that crack faster and faster every day. We are witnessing the early stages of the re-distribution of $6.5 trillion by those who are capturing the early trickles with buckets while digging ditches to re-direct the steadily increasing flow of all that money … into their own lives and the lives of people who understand and take action.

My company teaches people how to capture distribution money with a cup, then a bucket, and then digging ditches to capture an even greater flow. Of course, we don’t call it “digging ditches”, we call it building communities … communities of shoppers.

To build communities, we use a new business model (FTC approved) called “team building”. Team building is what Michael Dell referred to as “building a community”. Team building is organizing individuals, and small groups, into co-ops of consumers … which compound their buying power.

One consumer can easily catch a cup full of distribution money every month.

A co-op of a hundred consumers can catch a few gallons of money every month.

A co-op of a thousand consumers can create a significant stream of money flowing from the distribution system into the bank accounts of those who dug the ditches.

How is it working?

To answer that question, we need some comparisons. For example …

It took Wal-Mart, building brick and mortar stores, 40 YEARS to produce $100 million in sales in one single year.

It took Amazon, selling only online, 4 YEARS to produce $100 million in sales in one single year.

It took a co-op of 500 nation wide stores selling online (for which my company is a registered marketing agent) … 100 DAYS to produce $100 million in sales ... because small companies nation wide (like mine) built communities offline.

Last year this co-op moved over $1 BILLION in sales. Now that is not a lot compared with Wal-Mart’s $350 BILLION in sales. However, the co-op paid out over $300 MILLION to the consumers who created the volume in the first place. Wal-Mart paid out ZERO. http://www.symbiosis4u.us/MP3/ZipNada.mp3

So, what are you thinking?

Perhaps you imagine yourself holding a cup under a leak in the distribution system and filling that cup with your own money? After all, your money created some of the money flowing through the river of distribution system money. Since it is YOUR MONEY that’s in the river of distribution money, and your money that is leaking out of the distribution system, then doesn’t it make sense to make money with your money? We can show you how to do that in a couple of hours.

Perhaps you see yourself with a bucket in each hand, gleefully scooping up bucket after bucket of distribution money. We can teach you how to do that too, but it will take a couple of hours a week for a few months.

An entrepreneurial minded person may easily imagine digging a ditch that overflows with distribution money. However, like most significant achievements, including becoming one of those ten million new millionaires, irrigation ditches filled with money will take time.

A person could be wondering, “How much money does a cup hold?” That depends on who is holding the cup. People have different incomes, buy different things, have different budgets, with different skills, different motivations and ... different sized cups.

For illustration, suppose a person is married with one child and earns the average W-2 income for Silicon Valley of $67,000.00 a year per family. Their cup would probably catch between $4,000.00 to $8,000.00 a year. You can learn more by reading my free mini-e-book http://www.symbiosis4u.us/Newsletter/AccidentalBusiness.pdf

Does that give you an idea of how much distribution money a cup can hold?

Now, here comes the mind boggling part. Sit back in your chair and take your hand off the mouse because this is too good to be true.

Guess how much my company would charge* to teach a person how to fill up a cup with distribution money?

Nothing. Zip. Nada. Squat.

My company was formed as an Information Age business. In the Information Age, information is free. The free information causes changes which produce cash flow. The cash flow causes more free information to flow, which causes more cash flow.

Surely you can imagine a few drops becoming a trickle, then a rivulet, then a small stream, then a small river, then a large river of distribution money … flowing to the vast sea of consumers. And the first step is filling up your own cup.

Got a cup?