can you read like a samurai?

according to japanese samurai Miyamoto Musashi, the very first practice is not different from the very last one. the beginner is not different from the master. the prime and elementary doctrine or lesson is by no means different from the highest insight or enlightenment.

that’s why a practice like, say, running, serves a teenager as well as a senior executive or a retired priestess.

that’s why a practice like, say, reading, will gain it’s value only if we read the important information, wisdom, or book over and over again. one read is no read. it’s simply beginning. or simply ‘reading’ without practice. the master always will read the same stuff with a deeper insight.

how come that Gandhi read the 5,000 years old Bhagavad Gita during a 3-year stay in jail over and over again? how come that as a president of India, he refused to read newspapers? think about it when you tell us and yourself you need to read and surf the net …

remember the showdown in the movie Casablanca?

“round up the usual suspects.”

do you know your usual suspect? it’s your habit of superficial reading.

the substance of a good book, script, or wisdom (even a movie) ALWAYS goes far beyond the primary understanding of the reader.

but before we have the opportunity to understand, we are already surfing away to the next blog, wiki page, newsflash, chat forum, free information, data cemetery …

some time ago, i came across an internet marketer who was proud of ordering books at amazon for a total of $2,000 dollars per month. nothing wrong with that because he does read them and absorbs important information he actually uses for his business. he EARNS money with information products. most people PAY for them.

gaining knowledge for our professional or business life is crucial. but the important “information” that changes our lives is packed in words, images, signs, and phrases, and has to be unfold, processed, digested, demystified and be meditated upon over and over again. and in some instance it’s not that much important what realm you are in. it’s important to exercise.

the highest wisdom is NEVER found in the news but in the oldest scripts. will you use it ?

Musashi: “if you have achieved perfection following the way of the swordsman, there will be nothing that you will not understand.”

“you will recognize the Way in all things.”

that’s why japanese businessmen even used Musashi’s script effectively as a manual for the planning of their sales campaigns.

it can be a manual for your life campaign as well.

will you use it?

if you had to write a book for every book you read, how would your life change?

what do you still have to achieve?

Yamamoto Tsunetomo wrote his famous Hagakure (Behind the Leaves), also called the Book of the Samurai, which many may know because it was featured in Jim Jarmusch’s movie “Ghost Dog”.

Yamamoto explains this warrior philosophy:

“the way of the samurai is found in death. when it comes to either/or, there is only the quick choice of death. it is not particularly difficult. be determined and advance. to say that dying without reaching one’s aim is to die a dog’s death is the frivolous way of sophisticates. when pressed with the choice of life or death, it is not necessary to gain one’s aim.

we all want to live. and in large part we make our logic according to what we like. but not having attained our aim and continuing to live is cowardice. this is a thin dangerous line. to die without gaming one’s aim is a dog’s death and fanaticism. but there is no shame in this. this is the substance of the way of the samurai. if by setting one’s heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he pains freedom in the way. his whole life will be without blame, and he will succeed in his calling.”

despite the fact that this was written under completely different historical and cultural circumstances than we are living right now, and with another goal in mind than most of us have, these words make sense. if we could die right now, our life would be a success.

so, what are we actually aiming for?
and why do we feel we are not yet prepared to leave?

what do you still have to achieve?

advice on buying planets

my advice for you on buying planets:

be cautious, some are heavily overrated …

it’s mandatory to compare quality and prices.

mind the price level. if the price is less than 1 trillion euros, buy immediately, it’s a bargain.

in order to understand the dimension, look outside of your window: the area of buildings before your eyes, that’s roughly 1 billion euros in value. expand this to the small urban region of your neighborhood, and you will have an idea, what 1 trillion euro is. not that much. rebuilding this area including all necessary infrastructure on the moon will be more expensive. expand this area to the horizon, that’s roughly 10 quadrillion euros. you definitely need a financing model.

you better get smart. consider not buying a planet but secure yourself of it: grab it, snag it, before somebody else does. that’s how our forefathers came into their estates. buying is for the latecomers, and it’s definitely more expensive …

how to achieve the impossible

Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 1976, decided to move from bodybuilding into acting. being huge and awkward, with a noticeable austrian accent, nobody would have believed that he would achieve his goal of becoming Hollywood’s number one box office star.

to make things worse, his first movie at this time was considered a failure.

asked how he was planning to achieve such an impossible goal, he answered that he was going to use the same process that made him Mr. Olympia:

“what you do is create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture as if it were already true.”

acting as if is not the same as “fake it until you make it”.

it’s about acquiring the confidence that you deserve what you want to be.

think about your goal and make sure that it’s not something that would be “nice to have” or something that others imposed on you.

ask yourself if your goal comes from your heart. on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you desire it?

if it’s not a 10, tweak it a little bit, until it becomes a 10.

otherwise, choose a goal that is more worthy of you.

the good, the bad, and the ugly

we constantly draw conclusions from outer appearances of people to their inner state or motivation.

but how often are we right with what we conclude?
and how often are we wrong?

good motivation might be disguised in bad actions.
and evil motivation might be disguised in good deeds.

as human beings we possess creative and destructive forces as well. the important thing to understand is that they “complement each other and cannot be judged by common standards of good and evil.”

let me explain.

if good motivation yields in good actions:
that’s GOOD.

obviously.

if evil motivation yields in bad actions:
still GOOD.

why?

because the inner and the outer worlds fit, and we aren’t prone to wrong conclusions.

if good motivation yields in bad actions:
can be GOOD, can be BAD.

it depends on the situation.

killing an assassin who is to kill your daughter is a BAD action with a GOOD motivation, and the outcome is GOOD for you and your daughter, and maybe even for society. and who knows if the outcome is even good for the assassin who is not an assassin any more? (maybe his mother will see it differently.)

if evil motivation yields in good actions:
can be good if the result is not what the actor intended.
but usually, it’s UGLY.

why?

because in this case, the evil man rules. and it’s becoming very hard to fight him.

(it’s how Hitler started his career)

.

do you agree?
and what did you learn?

why you don’t need approval

if you’d ask someone: what do you fear, the most probable answer will be: fear ? no, i don’t fear …

we even fear to admit our fears. not only to others but also to ourselves.

honesty pays.

i’m perfectly certain that my biggest barriers in life are my fears.

fear to rise, fear to fall, fear to fail, fear to succeed without knowing the consequences, fear that i will remain on the same place …

it’s just an emotional machine built into our mind and body.

what would change if we wouldn’t have any fear of success ?

and as we are meditating on this, let’s also take the fear of failure in one go …

so, what would change ?

i guess we would do some weird things …

wouldn’t it be really thrilling?

i remember a quote from a book:

even though people think they are trying to succeed, they are simply going through the motions.

sounds familiar ?

in case, we still are wondering, this is fear of success.

we have to admit that success means change, and change means the risk of failure.

there is a very interesting kind of failure that makes us uncomfortable even when we only think about it:

the fear of disapproval.

failure can mean many things, and disapproval is one of them.

so, as we are reading this, let’s pretend that we do fear not being approved.

maybe, we even do not need to pretend that …

isn’t the fear of disapproval a true barrier for us in some realms of our life?

i have a simple solution :

if we start to think independently, the probability of people disapproving us, will increase.

social disapproval often is a perfect measure that we are on the right track.

approval doesn’t mean anything.

Hitler was approved.
Jesus was not.

choose wisely.

what is your trade?

are you sure you don’t make a fundamental mistake the way you present yourself to the world?

what is your brand? if “you” are a company or a product, ask that.

otherwise: useless question.

now that everybody is talking about brands and even considering oneself as one, it’s time to realize that the future is not about “brands” but trades. and i don’t mean trade marks.

what is your trade? you will realize that most entrepreneurs and small businesses don’t know to give a compelling answer. this is a hint that they don’t have a brand but another faceless job.

today, you can know very well what customers want in 5 or 10 years.

but you believe you have no clue?

if you realize you nod your head, it’s probably wrong.

for decades, companies have marketed products, now they sell services & “solutions”.

in order to sell “solutions” you have to find “problems”.

where are the new businesses that prevent problems?

are you going to create one?

in the long run, consumers expect business to supply them with socially responsible products and will leave them if they don’t.

large lobbying old-industry corporations will fail, because they don’t have a true vision for their customers. General Motors still hasn’t turned itself around, and i don’t mean their financial bottom-line.

but please don’t think you are smarter because you went digital and read self-help books and business blogs.

faceless solopreneurs are crowding the web with small sites and Facebook accounts. in 3 to 5 years, Facebook (and MySpace) will be outdated. the web is ever evolving. profile page sites and social media hypes will not last forever.

what is your calling?
what is your trade?

what is your … LAST FOR EVER?

do you have the attitude to become rich?

the story i am quoting below was passed on to me by business mentor Daniel Peña:

“An unemployed worker applies to Microsoft for the position of Janitor. After going through tests and interviews, the H.R. manager informs him that he is selected and request for his email address to which he wanted to send the employment contract and details of the day and time to start work. The man is distraught and answers that he has no computer and therefore he has no email. The H.R. boss tells him that if he has no email address he virtually does not exist and therefore cannot hold a job. The man leaves in a desperate mood without knowing what to do, with his last $10 in his pocket. Finally he decides to go into a supermarket and to buy a 10 lb box of strawberries. He starts selling them door to door by the pound. He manages to double his capital in 2 hours. He repeats the deal 3 times more and goes home with $60 in his pocket. He comes to see that he can survive this way. He starts every day earlier and come home every day later. So he triples or quadruples his money every day. A short time later he buys a wheel barrow, that he exchanges later into a truck and sooner or later he is the owner of a complete fleet of delivery truck.

5 years go by…..THE MAN IS NOW THE OWNER OF ONE OF THE LARGEST FOOD CHAIN STORES IN THE U.S.A.

Now he starts thinking about the future for him and his family and decides to buy a life insurance policy. He calls an agent and selects a good policy. At the end of the negotiations, the agent asks him for his email address to send him a confirmation of the policy. The man tells him that he doesn’t have an email address!!! That’s strange says the agent, you have no email address and nevertheless you built this large empire. Can you imagine where would you be if you had an email address?? The man briefly thinks and answers: I WOULD HAVE BEEN A TOILET CLEANER WITH MICROSOFT CORPORATION.”

in your opinion, what is the moral of the story, for you?

would your answer be: “well, nice story, but money is not important enough to disrupt my life”?

if so, that’s okay.

finally, you know your attitude.

BTW, i received this story by an email from Dan. i conclude: having an email address is not bad. neither is knowing your attitude, won’t you agree?

you can change your password if you know it.

( Dan’s website: www.danpena.com )

how to make money offline

stop reading long sales letters.
stop hunting for free information.
stop buying a lot of information products.
stop following links in your email or twitter stream.
stop checking your email all day.
stop reading a lot of blogs or newspapers.
stop watching TV or surfing porn sites.
stop trying to win an iPhone or an iPad.
stop following celebrities and gurus.
stop living your life as a CONSUMER.

start to become a PRODUCER, a marketer.

start to care about your business.
start to create a unique offer.
start to focus on hot emerging markets.
start to understand what people in your target groups want and desire.
start to create a demand.
start to pre-sell before you sell.
start to sell to a large crowd of consumers.
start to create customers.
start to create products and services that deliver.
start to innovate.
start to leverage your time and energy and get quality support.
start to follow through.

don’t stop marketing.
scale up your offerings.

you even might repeat this process online.

thank you for reading free information on the net.

now what?

tired of being tired

recently i realized i was tired of being tired.

literally.

it helped.

i guess i don’t need to explain in depth, it’s common sense how to overcome fatigue, isn’t it?

how to overcome anything … is not.

what about you?

what are you tolerating in your life, in your business, in your relationships?

what are you still tolerating that you’d love not to have in your life any longer?

(your answer here)

get rid of it.

stay awesome.