The business environment is changing from “making money” ( a linear, goal-centered, misuse of human-resources) to “making relations” ( a linear, goal-centered, better use of human-resources).   For the last century, business books have discussed many beliefs of money, not about relationships.   Modern business books are beginning to write about “making relations.”   Yet the new books are still entrenched with the old principles of “making money” in which “making money” is still held as the primary focus and purpose of a business. Probably the new writers were trained through the “making money” system.

 

Shama Kabani, a 26 year old CEO, wrote a small pamphlet about relations … and money.  Her story, “26 Lessons from a 26 Years Old CEO,” takes 6 pages (if you read at 200 words per minute, it takes about 5 minutes).   One lesson, of 26 lessons, is about “making money.” Her business is not just for “making money,” rather (lesson #9) making the “aiming for joy,” or perhaps (lesson #18) is about “having a pet at the office.”

 “On April 25th I turned 26, and a few weeks later my Web Marketing agency turned two. What started as a single person mini-business, has turned into a 26 person global Web Marketing firm in just two short years. I’ve been immensely grateful for the opportunities life has presented me with. And, as I look forward to the future, it would only be fair to look back as well. Here are 26 lessons I have learned as a young entrepreneur and CEO.”

http://www.symbiosis4u.us/eBooks/eBooks.html at the eBooks menus, in the left column.

People form beliefs about money and relationships, both consciously and unconsciously. Many are formed in childhood and influenced by the people around us. Many beliefs stand steady and true over many years and should be retained and strengthened. Others are revealed as false and should be abandoned and replaced with a new and healthier belief.

Many authors have written about commonly held beliefs about money and relationships. Below is a list of common beliefs, some of which were once mine and now abandoned. Examine the list and reflect:

·       People are the root of all evil.

·       Money is the root of all evil. 

·       Only dishonest people get rich.  

·       Rich people have “un-real” friends.

·       Only poor people can be trusted.

·         You cannot trust a person who has no friends.

·       It takes money to make money. 

·       It's not what you know, it's who you know.

·       The best way to wealth is to get a high paying job.

·       Unless you have the right connections, you'll never succeed.

·       There's only so much money in the world, and the rich have most of it.

·       Relationships are limited in both quality and quantity.

·       You can only expect to improve your situation a little at a time.

·       You can only expect to improve with the assistance of your “friends”.

·       If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

·       If a relation is too good to be true, it probably is.

·       There's no such thing as "get rich quick".

·       Free stuff is as good as stuff you have to pay for.

·       You have to pay for relations, but not with money.

 

If you "checked" on some of the items above, that could be the reason(s) why you're not earning as much money, or creating the relationships, that you want.  Some distant day, I will write on how to find and fix the un-good beliefs (I am still finding and fixing mine).

 

That’s my list.  I wish you may absorb some un-beliefs or perhaps a new idea about a belief.  Still, some beliefs are not easy to stop.  For example, I believe it is possible to “get rich quick.”  I may also believe, “The man who gets rich in a day, will be hanged.”  Which is the stronger belief? 

Mouth Running Over Your Ears

Is your mouth running your ears?

Here are three signs of talking to yourself, instead of the customer: generalities, techo-babble, and hype.

1. Generalities
Generalities do NOT have your attention, and, therefore, no one gives attention. If you have say something, and the client answers, “Oh that's nice." They not listening. They are thinking they had for lunch, they bunions hurt … not what you want to hear.

Generalities are words and phrases that is good for the office, not for the general. If the words you use are not directly to anyone, who will respond? “I hate the paper.” Or you could reply this generality, “If you did not have papers, you will not a job.”

Did you lean closer to the seller to hear more? For example, "I am an businessperson." Instead, “I used to get a headache that hurt you thought you will die. So, I have a medicine that stops all headaches.” (Might be hype, too.)

Did you hear anything that caused you to perk up your ears?   Or "I am a internet tech."

Instead, “When your website go dead, well, I fix the dead websites.”

And you moved right on to something else more relevant, like "What's for lunch?"

2. Techno-babble
Techno-babble is jargon, or "shop-talk". Like "patented, scientifically proven nutraceuticals". They're words a 13-year old would not understand. How many of you would go to a store and say, "I want a proven, unique, patented nutraceutical, please?"

Doctors, and MLM distributors, are techno-babblers. Names of diseases are techno-babble, unless the hearer has the same techno-babble. Instead, give the symptoms of how you feel.

 After using the symptoms, then use the techno-babble term of the disease. For example, most people don't know what fibromyalgia is or feels like. They might identify, though, with achy muscles and being too tired to get out of bed.

3. Hype
I know you has any intention of using hype. But what if you don't know you're doing it?

If it is unbelievable, it is un-believe. Unbelievable claims, that sound inflated, excessive or extravagant. Watch your client has “un-believe” written on his face.

Hype is believable for a person story, unless the product sells. Say you feel like, “You got your life back after taking your product.” You can say anything you want to anyone, and it won't be perceived as hype because you're not making any money on it. This is like recommending a restaurant you don't own. However, once you decide to go into business and sell the product, the same things you said before now come across as hype.

Think of how you react to someone you're having lunch with, who's gushing about something to you, and afterwards you discover they're selling it. How do you feel about their gushing now?

"Used."

"Manipulated."

"Lied to."

"They didn't really care about me. They just wanted to sell me their product."

If you don't mention up front that you are marketing the product, when they finally find out, everything you said about its wonders will come into question. Even if everything you said were true, the truth is suddenly suspect.

I talk about my products, and it seems like a hype. My son-in-law mother was listening to me as “hype” … until I said “you have not pay until you use the RedOx machine, with some health has shown improvement.” She said, “Well, you mean that I will not pay any money until I am satisfactory.”

I have a suitable hype for my products. RedOx triple conditioned water machines, do not pay any money at least until one month (six weeks). When using a RedOx machine, you know the machine is good, before you buy.

I make RedOx triple water conditioners and I also sell Nutrilite’ concentrated plants. I was a Nutrilite Nutrition distributor for 17 years. All Nutrilite removes the hazard of “trying” a product. Everything Nutrlite sells is has a one guarantee … your personal satisfactory. Nutrilite has every products (about 250 products) as a prepaid returned. If you are not satisfied, you give send pre-paid form and on a box and give it to the postal carrier.

Now the Nutrilite is with RedOx machines. Nutrilite removes all wood material and water of the plants. All RedOx replaces the water on all Nutrilite “green of the plants.”

Death By Aspirin

Suppose you have a headache, and your pharmacist hands you a bottle of white tablets while saying …

"Do not take this medicine if you have an ulcer, ulcer-like symptoms, bleeding problems, diabetes, gout, or some forms of arthritis. Do not take it if you have asthma or are in the last three months of pregnancy. If you develop heartburn, ringing in the ears, bruises on your skin, a skin rash, wheezing, this may lead to sudden death. If you experience any of these symptoms, stop taking the medicine and get in touch with your doctor immediately."

Those fear inducing statements (particularly “sudden death”) are all appropriate cautions for taking aspirin.

Statistics on aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen (the three biggest non-prescription NSAIDs) indicate 16,500 people in the United States die each year from taking NSAIDs.  The American Journal of Gastroenterology (2005) 100, 1694–1695; doi:10.1111/j.1572-0241.2005.50565.x

What if each time you opened a bottle of aspirin, the pharmacists voice would come out of the bottle telling you all the terrible things that could happen?  Would aspirin tablets be flushed down the toilet?  Possibly.  It all depends on the expectation of the person taking the aspirin and level of pain being experienced.

The real question is not whether there is a risk in taking aspirin, but do the benefits outweigh the risks?  Risk to benefit ratios, in business as well as medicine, have to be weighed carefully.   

The greater the pain, the greater the willingness to assume more risk in order to get rid of pain … in business and in medicine.  If the pain is moderate, and the risk of “sudden death” is even slight, the pain becomes more tolerable. 

Now, apply the concept of “risk” from medicine to our current economic condition, at the personal and corporate levels (the federal government responds differently to a recession). 

Could withdrawal from economic activity (recession) be a natural occurrence whenever a perceived pain associated with taking a risk appears to be greater than the perceived pain of NOT taking the risk? 

Did the stock market get flushed down the toilet because the risk of buying stock exceeded the risk of not buying stock? 

For the past fifty years, stocks have been sold based NOT on the profitability of the company but on the potential increase (or sudden death) in the perceived value of the stock. Does this mean that we should not buy stock?  No, it simply means that we have to weigh the risks. 

In my opinion, risks are minimized when stock is purchased based on products with good market value supplemented with good business practices resulting in cash flow from dividends (Warren Buffet uses this concept).  That definition is decidedly different than buying stock based on the expectation of selling it at a higher price.   Here’s an audio slide show illustrating why sudden death could happen to the vast majority of stocks. www.symbiosis4u.us and click on the link “Why Stocks Fail.”

If doing nothing is more traumatic than the total potential loss of taking a risk, the risk will invariable be taken.

Did the housing market collapse because the risk of subprime mortgages appeared less when diluted with standard mortgages?  Or, did the wannabe home owner perceive the possibility of a mortgage default to be less risky than the probability of never owning a home?

Until the immediate effect of a recession becomes worse than the risk of applying the corrective action, the corrective action will be ignored.

Conundrum: While in grammar school, my dad asked me, “Why did the chicken cross the road?”  I answered, “To get to the other side.”  While that was a good answer for a grammar school kid, perhaps a better answer would be “Because the risk of crossing the road appeared to be less than the risk of not crossing the road.” 

For the past one hundred years, personal economic risk has been minimized using a specific protocol called …

the formula for success.

“Go to school,

get a good job,

work hard,

save money,

retire in comfort.”

 

The formula for success worked so well that life time employment was both predictable and expected.  IBM even had a no layoff policy.  Once a person was hired at IBM they may have to change location (IBMers say IBM means I’ve Been Moved), but they had a job for life. 

 

Then around 1990, IBM began layoffs.  During the next two decades, millions of other jobs were lost, including high school dropout blue collar workers and white collar executives with PhDs, in a variety of industries. 

 

The formula for success … was failing.

There have been many ideas suggested as replacement:

My think tank came up with this idea http://www.Symbiosis4u.us/FLV/CurrencyOfFuture2.html

My older brother, a retired government employee living in Mexico, proposes “Learn Chinese.”

Tony Robbins suggests, “Model successful people.”

Michael Gerber offers, “Work on your business, not in your business.”

Jim Rohn would probably suggest, “Add more skills to your repertoire.”

While all of these ideas are viable, including the value of learning another language, none of them have been able to replace the old formula for success.

May I suggest a new formula?

 “To be successful, create multiple streams of income, including at least one income from some kind of passive or residual source.”

Allow me to illustrate.

Until I retired, my primary source of income was from my contract manufacturing business.

A second income came from my two patents in archery.

A third income came from dividends.

A fourth income came from everything I purchased to run both my home and my business.

A fifth income came from people buying “stuff,” similar to a Costco Membership with compound profit sharing.

When I retired, I turned the contract manufacturing over to my three sons.  Each developed a different aspect of the business, and all three are making a comfortable living. 

When I retired, I collapsed the archery business due to extensive travel requirements … plus, none of my family members wanted the business.

When I retired, I began receiving maximum level Social Security checks.

Consequently, retirement eliminated two streams of income from conventional business, and gained one through social security.  Even with four streams of income, my income is not what it had been, nor is my income what 95% of people over 65 experience.

According to the Social Security Administration, 30% of our population die before age 65.  95% of people upon reaching age 65 will choose to continue working, be dependent on their children, or try to survive on less than $24K a year.  McDonald’s graying employees have a new motto, “The first and last place you will work.” 

How you might create multiple streams of income depends on your skills, experiences, and risk tolerance.  A variety of ideas are on my websites.

Most people can create a small income stream at minuscule risk with an Accidental Business. www.symbiosis4u.us/Intent2Profit/intent1.htm

You might want to just evaluate the mega-businesses that supply products and services for a secondary income stream www.symbiosis4u.us/Think3/think3.htm  You may be surprised to see companies like Sears, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, and hundreds more, participating in profit sharing with consumers.

If you are just curious, try be-bopping around this part of my site www.symbiosis4u.us/Info/Benefits.htm

And, make sure you do not fall into this trap.  http://www.symbiosis4u.us/FLV/Ninja.html    

Creating secondary income streams includes some risk … just like taking aspirin for a headache … or crossing the street.  You have to evaluate the risk to benefit ratio, which will be different for each person and each income stream.

Of course, you could take the risk that your 201K will re-inflate into a 401K, and taxes will be reduced, and Social Security will provide a comfortable retirement … or … you will continue to have your current earning power when you are ninety years old.   

That’s too risky for me.

Praxis and New Entrepreneur

Every year, the Milken Institute does a study to see which cities are the best in terms of employment, housing, and business growth. For the past years, Silicon Valley was among the top ten “best places to work” in the USA. Here is the latest new statistics … Silicon Valley is not shown.

Best-Performing Cities 2010: The 2011 top 10 performers (with 2010 rankings) of the 200 largest metros:
Leaders in this year's index, which ranks U.S. metros based on their ability to create and sustain jobs, are cities that most benefited from renewed investment in business equipment; have diversified technology bases, which also drive growth in business and professional services; are exposed to America's booming energy sector; and are home to a large military presence. (study done by the Milken Institute www.milkeninstitute.org )
1. San Antonio, TX (14)
2. El Paso, TX (9)
3. Fort Collins- Loveland, CO (50)
4. Austin-Round Rock, TX (2)
5. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX (1)
6. Salt Lake City, UT (49)
7. Anchorage, AK (8)
8. Huntsville, AL (3)
9. Provo-Orem, UT (25)
10. Kennewick-Richland-Pasco WA (5)

The Best Performing Cities index includes both long-term (five years) and short-term (one year) measurements of employment and salary growth. There are also four measurements of technology output growth, which are included because of technology's crucial role in creating good jobs and driving regional economies.

The index ranks 379 metropolitan areas, grouped into large (population of more than 200,000) and small (population of less than 200,000) metros.

Why is not Silicon Valley among the top ten “best places to work” in the USA? I suspect two elements: a new praxis (developing a good business habits) and a new entrepreneurism.

1. Since the sixties by the Silicon Valley (when I came) had one business praxis. The first praxis was that the business end goal, or intention, was revealed at the beginning. This praxis one was “always starting with the end.” To do things, every day, that moves you for your objective. The first praxis could describe a simple picture.


For example in the first praxis, the famous Mona Lisa is seen as her “smile.” We see Mona Lisa’s smile, the whole background basic is apparently before Mona Lisa … only the picture is her smile. The first praxis has a ethical supplication, to always the fulfillment with the end the starting end point … not the second praxis.

On 9-11-2001, Silicon Valley started the second praxis, integrating with the first praxis. (The first praxis is alive today.) The second praxis has the constant awareness, what happening to changes which were to not work on the first praxis. The second praxis being covert acting to anticipate the un-expectable that would not work with the one praxis. The first praxis could not fill the economic which followed the 9-11.

The second praxis is the definition, the “overview” picture. The frame surround is the completion of the picture. Second praxis is not a simple picture like Mona Lisa, but an complicated canvas with every inch is incorporated, even the frame.

I chose the “Forest The Eyes” to understand the second praxis. Bev Doolittle is an artist of the camouflage. Her paintings, inherent the effective, has a double meaning. (http://www.bevdoolittle.nt)

Look at the picture and what is the first thing to see?


“Forest The Eyes” is drawing into a mountain man with two horse. One horse is riding, and a horse is a pack, in the middle center of the picture. When you first view is the man and two horses (like Mona Lisa’s smile) using the first praxis. “Forest The Eyes” has the obvious … at first seeing.

As you view Bev’s picture, you will find the faces on the forest, which an addition to the rider and horses. The at least twenty human faces hiding about the trees, rocks, and inside the snow. (If you use a small video phone, copy you look with a standard computer screen, http://www.symbiosis4u.us/images/ForestHasEyes.jpg )

Bev painting is not a picture of a mountain man with two horses. This painting is an covert, foreshowed, a new look at seeing on the forest. The picture is a example of the second praxis.

Silicon Valley to will have to learn second praxis, and also the new entrepreneurism, to become by the “ten of America’s cities.”

2. The Silicon Valley is always has been the entrepreneur. The market place is … not the entrepreneur of the 1960’s … a new entrepreneurism in the 21st century. The new entrepreneurism is work more like a family, not job people wanted to have to make a paycheck. The new entrepreneurism is another employee, not a person with a number or job. Richard Branson (including Virgin Air and about 400 over business) is the entrepreneur as paramount of the new entrepreneurism.

Branson watch three questions for the “Advice to New Entrepreneur” (a 4 minute video).
1. What is a business … not it is money.
2. How does Branson running for the 400 companies.
3. If Branson died, if he died the companies would also?
http://www.symbiosis4u.us/FLV/Branson.htm

Next have listen (40 minutes) to Branson, when three Piranha entrepreneurs asks difficult questions. (More is too long listen for a email, so I left a link which the MP3 will down load for your iPod, or CD to listen while at the car.) http://www.symbiosis4u.us/FLV/Branson.htm

Branson’s answers may be a prologue of the second praxis, and in the new 21st business … of the second decade of the second millennium.

In years the Silicon Valley, we can linked against to the “Ten Cities Of The USA,” … when we have learned at the last second praxis and entrepreneurism.

Be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise,
Tom Van Drielen
Symbiosis Enterprises
Box 18907
San Jose, Ca. 95118
http://www.symbiosis4u.us
Home Office 408-723-4777
Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/tvandrielen


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