Wealth Tips for Everyone

Title: Trump – Think Like a Billionaire

Author: Donald J. Trump, Meredith McIver

In a nut shell:

A book about how Donald Trump thinks, act and lived.

 

In a paragraph:

A 288 page book, which outlines the importance to have the right kind of thinking, and the right kind of attitude to manage your assets, in this case, a real estate. This book shows anyone who reads it the kind of life Donald Trump leads, which might surprised someone who had preconceived ideas about how Donald Trump lead his life.

 

Full review:

It is by pure luck that I had picked up this book from the library. I had to finish this book inside the library. I was planning to just grab any book and go, since I had no particular book in mind. The blue background of the book really stood out, and Trump’s name was an impact to the eye.

Just as the introductions and the content pages described, the book is about how Donald Trump thinks when he approach his daily life with regards to his business, his friends, his marriage and so much more. Although one thing is evident immediately, the fact that he is very rich, there are some things which he will do, as he emphasized that “every single cent counts”.

Similarly, to him, every details counts.

He will personally inspect every detail of his assets and make sure that everything is in good condition. Donald Trump will make sure his contractors do a good job, and that his projects are finished timely.

And he signs every cheque, so that he knows where his money is. This is something very lacking for the rest of the population, and we take Donald Trump as an example.

The book also devoted a chapter to “The Apprentice”, the reality show which made Donald Trump’s face appeared on the television, which in turn, made him a common household name. His “You’re fired!” became the way his fans on the road say hello to him, when he happened to appear in the public.

Within the book contained some colored pages which showcased photos from Donald Trump’s life, some of which were taken with well-known figures from around the world. To catch a glimpse of Donald Trump in his glory, go get your hand on the book.

I watched a Christmas Carol the other day in 3D, and was quite please with the visual effects created by Disney for this piece of film. Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol had spawn a series of films, both long and short, and are told by different authors, in different ways. One thing in common, however, is the lead character, Scrooge.

For those who had yet to see or read this piece of literature marvel, Scrooge is the, well, THE scrooge of the story.

Although he is quite well to do, all that he desires in life is to spent as little money as possible. In this particular film, he went as far as to take back the coins on his partner’s eyes just before his coffin is shut.

 The story went on to describe how he refused to make any form of donation to anyone. He went to the extreme of refusing an invitation from his nephew to have his Christmas dinner at his nephew’s house.

It makes little sense, as any miser will not miss any chance to take advantage of another person. But Scrooge prefers to have as little contact as possible with other people as possible.

His house, being very big, is extremely underutilized.

Normally, when a person have a big house, we will normally think that his house will be full of people, or at least full of butlers and maids.

But, no. Scrooge’s house is very empty. Even though the house features a huge stairway in the middle of the house, except for the cleaning lady, the house is very much empty.

 Yes. Very, very empty.

To highlight how stingy he is, the author portraits Scrooge as eating a plain bowl of…. Brown cereal or something that looked like cereal that, at the eve of Christmas.

Then, at that very night, he met the Spirit of the Christmas Past, the Spirit of the Christmas Present, and the Spirit of the Christmas Future.

With the Spirit of the Christmas Past, he met, well, himself. He, as if, his past. He was taken back for a ride to his past, which is not really rosy. He spent most of his Christmas eves alone, in the school.

Next, came the day from his past where he met his beloved, as well as the day when he broke off with his beloved. Although Scrooge cannot stand to look at his past, the Spirit of the Christmas Past reminded him that, all he is seeing are just fragments of his past.

Next, came the Spirit of the Christmas Present. The Spirit of the Christmas Present took Scrooge for a ride at the present time. What awaist Scrooge is a view of impeding disaster. He saw his own clerk’s son, who was crippled in one leg, awaiting death. Although Scrooge tried to reach out to that improvised family, he was reminded that he had not reached out to help anyone, even though they came knocking on their door.

Lastly, the Spirit of the Christmas Future came and shown Scrooge a possible future, if he had carry on his way of life as it was.

One which is so lonely, that no one will go to his funeral, unless lunch is provided.

Well, long story short, he was really freaked out of his mind that he became the most well liked person in the whole town.

 So, that was a glimpse of the marvel written by Charles Dickens. For the immediate lesson I learn, ironically, is to be well off to a certain degree.

 Yes. There are many things you cannot buy with money. But money can buy a lot of things.

In the movie, Scrooge could do everything he could after meeting with the Spirites of the Christmas was due to the fact that he is, very well off. Then again, I do not encourage anyone to start off your life like how Scrooge started his. There is also no reason spend all your time and money on helping everyone else such that you did not leave anything at all for yourself.

Moderation is the key, I guess.

 Then again, I do not know what moderation is. In fact, the term “moderation” is very different from everyone, since everyone of us come from a different background.

Only the person in question will be able to know what is his “moderation”.

Then again, the people around us will constantly remind us, what is “moderation” as felt by them, and they will try every means to stuff them down your throat.

It is also strange, but true, that it is the rich, that are able to provide a lot for the needy, in terms of absolute amount.

We hear about them all the time. We see their names appearing on foundations all around the world. Their names are all over the walls in schools and institutions.

Many of us aspire to put our names on the walls. Many of us talk about how our names will appear on the walls when we die as well. But most of us do not have the means to put our names on the wall, even if we die trying.

Liabilities, debts, and the sweet burden called families usually dragged us down. Then again, these same liabilities are often the motivation for the rich to become richer. Except sadly, the poor usually find time to complain about them, rather than using them as a tool to help themselves to succeed.

You do not believe me? Okay, let us do a simple test here.

Imagine that you are walking to the letter box. You opened it, and presto, there is an envelope inside the letterbox.

What is going in your mind when you saw that envelop?

Do you think that is it:

a) A bill and complained about it?

b) Just another envelope?

c) Another surprise?

Well, many people will have chosen a or b. A lot of people will in fact, have chosen A. It is simple. It is just a normal reaction. It is just like the way I was conditioned to be able to tell what was inside the envelope just by looking at the return address on the envelope.

Since most of us have a lot of debts, we will constantly receive letters from the banks, the mobile company, the Internet Service Provider or the government to remind us of our unpaid debts. As only a small group will use the snail mail to deliver their thoughts to people they know, the only reason someone will receive something from the postman is when the debt company wants their money back.

People who had chosen c, are either very positive, or they had previouly received strange packages which led them to their fortune.

 For myself, I usually just stare at the address first. If I can’t figure out who send it, I will open it straight away, hoping that it will at least be a discount coupon or something like that. Guess I still have a long way to go myself, isn’t it?

Okay. What is the purpose of this test? Well, this test actually describe to you your state of mind as you approach an unknown object. While most people dislike taking risk, it is the Rich who take risks, and many of them did fell down a few times before they make it big.

Well, let us come back to my point of this post.

YOU NEED A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF EXTRA MONEY TO BE ABLE TO HELP SOMEONE ELSE

Yes. That is right.

It doesn’t matter how much you have extra.

If you have extras, you can help other people.

Then, what happened to the old stories, which people gave up everything they have to help others? Aren’t they the greatest people in the world?

Well. I am not denying that. I am not denying the kindness within these kind and helpful people. I am not condemning them at all.

In fact, I do not have any problem with people who donate their money to charitable organizations.

Yes. Continue to do your donation. Continue help the poor. Continue to help that old lady across the road. Continue your monthly donations to the community chest.

What I am suggesting to you here is, isn’t it true that if you have more extra money, you can provide more help to more people?

Yes. It is true that money cannot solve all problems in this world. In fact, money cannot even compensate for the time you waste while staring at the clouds.

Then again, money CAN solve a lot of problems. It is money that brings food around the world. It is money, make that C130 transport aircraft move, and transport the latest emergency relief to earthquake hit areas. It is money, that transport money people to the nearest flood hit area to rescue people from the waters that destroy their houses.

Then, you may argue that, every time something bad happens, money will appear on their own. But many of us will always lament on the fact that you could have given one more blanket, or one more packet of biscuit to the emergency relief effort.

Then again, isn’t there a saying that says, every effort counts? That saying which means that, even if you not enough money, by showing that you care for others by being a volunteer, you can also heal others?

Yes. I agree. In fact, I will fully support any effort to help disasters hit zones.

 Well, after all, part of everything I earn does go to charitable organizations, although I did not do what some people do, who will pour every extra penny in to help others.

What I am doing, I feel that, is not enough.

Then again, could I have done more?

So I shall build more assets and build more muscles, so that I can help more people with my wallet and body.

And I ask you to join me in this quest, since one person can only do so much.

Many of us called these slots machines, “the one arm bandit”. Others, simply, the slot machine.

No matter what name we gave the slot machine, there is only one thing in common all of us who played with it: we lost some money.

Unless, of course, you are that bloke who happens to accidently inserted that dollar into that machine and won the jackpot, most of us will feed the casino more than we gain from it.

So, how do you make big money with the slot machines? You may ask.

Well, I am going to tell you how easy it is to win at the slot machine. That is, if you dare to read on.

As usual, I will give you a few choices here. Either you can scroll down directly to the section which explains how easy it is to win on a slot machine, or you can continue reading, or you can simply navigate to other sites.

Yes. Go on. Leave this site. There is nothing new to what I will be writing in this page. Then again, how many will choose to not listen to me, the gurus, or anyone on the matter?

If you are still here, congratulations! You have just another step closer to the decade old truth, which most of us chose to ignore.

But first, imagine this:

It is that time of the year again. You just received your paycheck and you are looking forward to buy what you had saved up for 12 months. You have just barely enough to buy that item, which will mean that we will be broke after our purchase. However, it is the hope of buying this very item that kept you alive for these months.

The thought of purchasing this item is so great, that it blocked off all the pain and sufferings you endured for so long. The picture of that item is so strong that the customer who never bathe for 3 months suddenly smelled nicer. That lady who farts all the time suddenly wears perfume. That kid who insults your mother every time you see him suddenly speak in an ancient language which you do not understand for some parts of your conversations.

As you are walking, something flash across your mind. You tried to shake it off, but it kept coming back. You try to ignore it. But it kept coming back. In your mind, you saw an image that is so captivating, that you wish that you had not thought of it in the first place.

You saw yourself winning the jackpot at the slot machine.

Then again, the thought of losing everything frightens you as well.

At this point, most of us will have to make a choice: either to enjoy losing that money, or buy that item with your meager savings.

A group of us will buy that item at this point.

Another group will go feed the slot machines.

Yet, another group will just simply save that money and not do anything at all, since they could not make up their mind at that point in time.

Yes. For those who do not choose, you have made a choice.

Yes. That age long saying it true. You cannot deny that things will still happen if you choose not to do anything. In fact, many of us will ENJOY waiting for things to happen, instead of deciding what to do. Many of us will rather let the world push us around, rather than do something about it.

Well, it is after all, easier to do nothing.

For those who chose to enjoy losing that money, some of them will buy the lottery. Some of us will try their luck at the casino. And some of them will then end up at the slot machine.

“Ooooo”, you are trembling when you put in the first coin. With all your might and concentration, you pulled the lever.

The reels spins…

The world seemed to disappeared from you very senses. Everything feels less important than the reels that are now slowing down.

The first reel stopped. Your heart missed a skip.

The second reel stopped.

You scream in happiness as it is the same picture as the first reel.

As the third reel slows down, your heart simply stops beating.

And when the third reel stops, you saw that the third picture is different from the other 2.

So, at this point, what do you do?

Do you,

1) Stop playing

Or

2) Continue until you win the jackpot?

Either way you choose, you will win big.

Yes. You hear me right. Either way, you will win big. Either way, you are right.

STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before you can run to the casino with the thought that you will win big just by reading about 800 words from my article, you should continue just few more lines to prevent yourself from throwing your hard earned money down the drain.

 

The truth is, most people who play the slot machine will walk back empty handed.

Most of those people who won anything on the jackpot machine will insert most of them, back into the slot machine.

Those who won the jackpot won it due to luck. Pure luck. Or another reason is, they had been spending too much money and time on slot machines.

Errr, hey, isn’t this something everyone knows about? You may ask.

Then, let me ask you this question in return.

Why are there so many people throwing their hard earned money down the drain, if everyone knows about what I had written a few lines above this?

Why are people still jumping off the building to escape from people whom they owned money from?

Why are people still homeless on the street when they are unable to pay off their mortgage, after they spent each and every penny on the slot machine?

Why are people still reading this article, if they already knew what I am about to write?

The reason is very simple. They chose to ignore everything that they feel is not correct, even though their bank accounts are empty every day.

They ignored the fact that, the casino must be earning something from those who enters the casino.

By now, some of you might be thinking, “No. You are wrong. The casino is a good place to multiply your money!!!”

Some of you might be thinking ,”John won the jackpot last time. Surely I can win the jackpot also.”

Some of you simply close this browser.

Well, congulations to those who continued to read. Either you exhibit the ability to accept the fact that there are something you might not know in this world, or you are someone who is trying to critic my article.

Let us look at how the casino works first.

 

The payout percentage exists

 

Similar to the lottery company, the casino needs to keep people happy. They are forced to give the minium pay out to create the image that the lottery/casino is the only way to richness.

Casinos have a payout percentage.

Yes. You did not read wrongly.

They do have it. If not, they will be unable to pay for the wages of their employees.

And the payout rate is always in favor of the casino.

They do. You do not have to believe me. You can do a search online. You can ask someone who works in the casino. The payout percentage is always there. After all, I, personally, will tell you to verify everything you gave read and heard, before making a life of death decision.

Putting the payout percentage aside. How easy is it to win on the slot machine?

Well, the section below is dedicated to it.

 

How easy it is to win on the slot machine

 

Let us consider a jackpot machine with 3 reel, and on each reel, there is only 5 different symbols first. This is the same reel used very first one-armed bandit.

Using the law of probability, the chances of getting symbol 1, is 1/5, assuming that there is only 5 different symbol on the reel, with no symbol being repeated. In another words, you will have a 20% chance of getting symbol 1, each time you pull the arm.

Next, let us consider the 2^nd and 3^rd reel.

Since both of them have the same reel, you will have the same percentage in getting symbol 1 as well, which is 20%.

Some of you might be already thinking. “Hey, 20% + 20% + 20% = 60%. So, I will have a 60% chance of getting the jackpot!!!”

Sadly, probability do not work that way.

First, the chance of getting symbol 1 on the first reel is 1/5, isn’t it? Well, the chance of getting symbol 1 on the 1st and 2^nd reel is 1/5 x 1/5, which will give you of about 1/25. In another words, about 4%.

Errr, hey, isn’t that percentage a little too little?

Have I calculated wrongly? Shouldn’t you try adding them up?

Well, if I use the WRONG way to calculate probability, even if I add up the two probability, it will only amount to 40%.

Now, since when did you win the jackpot every 4 out of 10 tries?

Huh? No one had done that, you said? Well, it is true. No one have won the jackpot prize 4 out of every 10 tries.

Okay. Let us calculate the probability of getting 3 symbols in a row.

With 1/5 x 1/5 x 1/5 = 1/125

In another words, the probability of getting 3 symbols to line up together is about 0.008%.

Bombshell, isn’t it?

For those who are still deciding to play the slot machine at this point. Please wait for a while while we examine the odds of getting the same symbol in a straight line for a machine with 5 reels.

It is a mere 0.032% chance, for a machine with 5 symbols and 5 reels.

Okay. Let us see how low the probability of a FAIR slot machine can go to.

Consider a slot machine, with the symbols from a deck of cards.

Since a deck of cards has 52 different cards, minus the Joker, the chances will be as low as ….

Wait, the numbers just disappeared.

Really. Try using the windows calculator. Try punching in 1/52 x 1/52 x 1/52 x 1/52 x 1/52 =.

The calculated value is around 0.00000263%.

But, hey, it is better than winning the lottery, isn’t it? If you want to see what is the odds for winning the lottery, go here.

Then again, if the slot machine is fair, that odds might seemed fine. But, what about machines that are biased?

According to Wikipedia itself, some slots machine have some symbols removed deliberately. Now, isn’t that fantastic? The probability of getting some combination had just decreased deliberately.

What about video slot machines? Well, they are the real killer. Being computer programmed, they are able to decide whether the next person who put their money into the machine wins the game or not.

Yes. You heard me right. The video slot machine is always biased. There are claims that the machine is never biased, since it is based on a computer chip which generates numbers randomly. Yes. The chip will ensure that the number is generated randomly. But the working mechanism of the slot machine as a whole will ensure that the casino is always the winner.

And you had already seen the percentage of hitting the jackpot using simple calculation.

So, the next time you want to try your luck on the slot machine, remember a few points:

1) Numbers are generated randomly by the computer chip, if the slot machine is digital

2) The odds of winning is fixed, so that in the long run, the casino is the winner

3) There will be jackpots. But there will be only a few jackpots. Others usually walk away with little or no wins.

4) Just have fun. You will spend that money in useless pursuit anyway,  if you already decided you want to gamble away your money.

Have you tired many methods of sliming down but never succeed? Have you spent a large sum of money but the fats always return to haunt you?

Well. Look no further.

The solution is here.

It is simple.

 

Just stop kidding yourself.

 

Yes. You did not read wrongly. Your eyes are good. Your monitor is good.

Stop kidding yourself.

Stop telling yourself that the slimming pill is at fault.

Stop telling yourself that the maker of that low fat drink is fooling you.

Stop telling yourself it is ok to eat as much as you want, since you are drinking diet Coke.

Stop telling yourself that tomorrow is a good day to start running.

In fact, stop reading now if you still think that these fats are no bobby’s fault, except everyone else’s.

Yes. Stop reading if you cannot accept the fact that you are the master mind behind the crime of picking up that extra piece of greasy chips and stuff it into your mouth.

Stop reading if you cannot accept that fact that you took double the serving, because that particular bottle of yoghurt says that it is low fat.

Stop reading now, if you cannot stand people telling you that fact that you cannot stand people telling you facts.

Yes. Please. Do not waste your time here. There is no elixir being sold here. There are no diet receipts here. Maybe you can find it in other pages within this website, but not in this page.

This page, is only high-lighting the fact that, many people who wants to lose weight, are just trying to kid themselves.

Sure, you may have 27 million dollars in the 27^th account of your local bank. Sure, you visit that sliming center every week. And you also visits the gym, every once in a while. Don’t you?

Well, I dare you to do this little test here.

Stand up straight.

Just tilt you head down a bit. Look directly at your foot.

Look directly down at your foot.

Yes. Directly down.

No, he floor. But directly down at your foot.

And, no, do not bend over.

Yes, just directly down.

Can you see the floor without your stomach blocking more than half the view?

Yes? Oh, that means, you have no need to read further. You probably do not need to know how to slim down.

No? Oh, you cannot see the floor? Can you at least see a part of the floor over the peak of that mountain of fats?

Well, some people simply cannot.

They just cannot see what is directly in front of their foot anymore. Whenever they look directly down,  all they see is just a mountain of fats.

But, most of us do not really care about that mountain of fat anymore.

They simply refuse to look directly down anymore.

They prefer, instead, to bend over, and look OVER that mountain of fats to catch a glimsp of their toes.

For some, they simply have no time for that mountain of fats. They are just too busy watching their LCD/LED screen to notice that pile of fat in front of their stomach.

So, for those who really want to lose fats, please continue reading. Otherwise, please indulge yourself in promising sliming tablets and cream which do zero effects except to give you some sensation.

 

 

Okay. Since you continued reading, you have just taken a big step forward, which many choose to avoid.

And now, for the tips for losing fats.

They are not new. I am just reminding you of their existence.

They had been around with us all the time, and had been tried and tested.

Yet, many people refused to believe that they work.

Here is the first.

1)      Stop kidding yourself

Yes. This is the whole point. When you admit that you have a weight problem, that is when you will start to take action.

Since so many words had already been wasted to being point 1 across, I will go straight to point 2.

2)      You need to decide to take action

Yes. You read it properly. Do not rub your eyes. They are fine. Admitting that you have a weight problem is entirely different matter from wanting to do anything about it. It is similar to the difference between a person who saw an old lady being knocked down on the road, and started cursing and swearing, but walked away without leading a hand, and a person who curse and swear, but ran to attend to the old lady, no matter whether she is alive or dead.

Make a decision now. You fats will not shrink by themselves. You hands and feet will not move by themselves. You are the only person who can make them move, unless someone ties a few ropes around your limbs, and pull them along.

Similarly, diet cola do not replace the sweet cola in your cupboard by themselves, unless, of course, you have a maid. In this case, you will STILL HAVE TO tell the maid what kind of cola and how many to buy. You still have to tell whoever is cooking your meals that you want your fish toasted, not fried.

So, don’t wait. Take action. Things do not happen by themselves.

3)      You need to decide what action to take

Remember the words, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”? Well, without a sound plan, nothing will work.

Sure, you can start running without a plan. You can also visit a gym without much thought. But what good will these routines be if you did not even think about what kind of exercises to do? If you do not give enough thoughts to the kinds of exercises you want to do, or the area of your body you want to target, or the amount of energy you want to expend during the exercise, you will end up doing too little, or doing too much. You can pull your muscles, and landed yourself on your bed for a few weeks. This will also mean that, everything you done on day 1, will be flush down the toilet.

Planning what to eat is more important that choosing the type of exercises you want to do. This is simply due to the fact that, you are what you eat.

Take for example. A person ran a mile that left him motionless on the ground for 20 minutes. He may think that a mile is a lot of grounds, since he is dead tired when he finished the mile, but if he never paid attention to the thing called “calorie” or “joules”, he would not know that as tired as he is, he did not burn much energy at all. Which brings us to the next point.

4)      Do some simple calculation

 Both “joules” and “calories” describes the amount of energy a person expended, or absorbed. Then again, most people in this world do not give a damn about them, even though they are printed on most food packaging. In fact, I had a friend who is trying to slim down, but he never look at what he was eating. When I asked him whether he knows it takes running for 25 minutes to burn a whole sugar-covered donut, he was dumbstruck. Further more, when I mentioned that a curry puff have the same amount of energy per serving as a double cheese burger from McDonalds’, his face turned into one with bewilderment.

Then again, it is true that each person will expend different amount of energy when we run the same distance. It is also a fact that a heavier person needs more energy to cover the same ground as a light person. Then again, the fact remains that, if you do not keep in mind how much energy you are expending against how much energy you are absorbing, you might end up being heavier than ever.

5)      Continue to do what you have done

There is a common mistake many people makes.

They thought that the weight they shed will not come back to haunt them.

They thought that after they have obtained their ideal weight, they can reward themselves, like, forever.

They thought that their body is different from what it was used to be, so some extra calories will not matter at all.

They thought wrong.

And so, one fine day, when they look themselves at the mirror, they got the shock of their life.

They are as round as they used to be.

At first, they will ignore the mirror, and continue to reward themselves. They will tell themselves that they just had a bad hair day. They will not want to face reality, just as they did so many months ago. They told themselves that that part of their life was over, forever.

The next time they get to the mirror, the same rounded creature stood there, staring at them.

And many of these people will go around, telling people that the diet did not work, that the exercises did not work, or that pill did not work.

Then again, what they need is to REALLY change their lifestyle, like, forever.

Yes, forever.

Not 1 or 2 months.

Not 1 or 2 years.

Like, forever.

If you picked up running to lose weight, please, for goodness sake, continue to run.

If you picked up yoga and lost weight, please, continue to bend.

If you picked up swimming, please, contimue to swim.

Apart from helping you to control your weight, good exercises, balanced diets and positive thoughts will decrease your risk of dieases, like, heart attack and such.

Now, if you think that I am just copying what the doctors said for the past centuries, you are correct. You are definitely correct if you think that I am just repeating what I hear from other medias. You are also correct if you think you heard enough of all these.

Then again, why aren’t you acting?

If doctors had been talking about it for so long, why can’t you just use your logical sense for once and try out what the doctors advise?

Why don’t you just stop saying, “but the TV says, I will get lean with just eating/drinking/wipping this?”

Why don’t you just stop wasting money and time and try out what the doctors and health medical professionals recommened?

What? You may ask.

Well, exercise.

Decide to exercise.

Stop giving yourself excuses.

Start now.

Continue to do it.

It is that simple.

It is a simple, yet hard to follow rule.

Being swarmed by so many empty promises printed on colourful pages, one could never believe that by simply watching what you eat and exercising regularly, you will become lean.

Yes. Many of us will think that, “It will never be so easier.”

Some of us will start thinking, Hey, we have to find a more complex way to slim down!!!!

And so, they started to do more over time to earn more money, just to book an appointment in that sliming center or that posh gym.

In the process of getting the cash needed to get into the sliming center and gym, one may forget about the amount of fast food and take outs they consume. What was on their mind was usually, “Hey, if I get one more client, I will be able to book that gym/center appointment faster!!!” Therefore, they consumed that extra piece of donut to allow themselves to last through the night.

They did not think of the extra amount of calories that they consumed, in order to gain that one client.

Sure, it is always good to serve one more client. It is always good to make one more customer happy. It is also good to  know that you may have another source of income coming your way soon.

Then again…. They forgotten to look down.

Yes. Directly down.

Yes. They had forgotten to see if that piece of fat is growing or not.

They had forgotten to count the calories of the food they ate.

They may have forgotten that they had DECIDED to follow a DIET, and they had forgotten that they have an exercise plan as well.

They may have forgotten that they had pledge to take action to workout, and went to sleep the moment they hit home.

Then again, since most gyms would had closed by the time they reached home, they will not be bothered to workout anyway. More often than not, they feel that a gym is necessary for a person to be lean.

In the end, it is all up to you to decide. It is no use for anyone to nag at you, unless you are actually paying them, or they are your parents. And this is the reason why gym instructors bothered to give you instructions every time you entered that posh fitness center, since you would had paid a huge sum in membership.

Then again, people often choose the easy way out, since it is easier.

Which comes to the last point in this post:

6)      The easier way out if often not the best

 

It is easier to pretend that the huge lump of fat in front of you is not there.

It is easier to blame the diet, if it did not work for you.

It is easier to blame the fitness center, the instructior, the equipment, the air-conditioning, than to blame yourself.

It is easier to switch on the television, than to change into your running gear.

It is easier to spend your time on facebook, playing  Mafia war, than to run around your neighbourhood.

It is easier to read this article, than to decide to become leaner.

The universe works this way. Every living thing, every particle will try to remain at the state of lowest energy as long as possible. Atoms will try to absorb or lose electrons to maintain a neutral state within themselves. Bipolar molecules will prefer to share their electrons, rather than become charge particles. Animals, including humans,  will move less and sleep more, if their food is delivered to them without much effort on their part.

It is just so easy to maintain a position which uses the least energy. Then again, it is so hard to expend energy such that everytime we need to work, we will have to drag ourselves across the floor, across that street, or across that country. When we wanted to play, we simply floated to that destination without much effort, no matter whether that pub is halfway across the country, or whether we have to travel in economy class for 12 hours across the globe.

Then again, is the action that uses the least energy always that good?

Well, it is always good that you use the least energy to drag youself across the office, since you may have to use more energy in dealing with a customer’s call later. It is good to conserve energy on a crowded train, since you will have to walk for a distance to your office to work.

It is always good to conserve energy while typing on the computer, since you may have to deal with your boss later, when he found out that you are actually playing internet black jack, instead of looking at the Nasqad.

Then again, look down again.

Yes, directly down again.

Do you want to do all the above actions while dragging that fat around?

Do you want to go for a holiday halfway round the globe, only to find that you are out of breath half the time because you have to drag along that extra 30 pounds that is always with you?

Do you want to meet up with a soul mate you found online, only to find out that she blocked you from his/her messenger, because you sounded 40 pound less onine?

Of course, everyone can enjoy life, even with that extra fat in front of their stomach.

Everyone can find love, with that extra 40 pounds in front of their liver, if they look hard enough.

Everyone has the right to be humourous, even with that extra lump of fats blocking their view to their feet when they look down.

Everyone has the right to stop reading now, if they do not like this article.

It is easier, after all, to ignore that extra lump of fat.

 

It is your choice. You can spend all the money you want and try all the magical remedies to that extra pound you have, or you can choose to do something more practical. You can choose to blame your parents, your spouse, your canteen, your neighbor for your extra pounds, or you can choose do something about it. No one can force you to do anything.

I can’t. Really. I know I can’t. since all you have to do is to press that small “X” on the top left button to close your browser to stop me from feeding your brain with poison. After all, it is easier to ignore my words than to stand up and walk around.

It is your choice. There  is no magical to fat lose. The scientists are still trying. Let them try. Until then, there is no Harry Porter to cure your rounded stomach.

“No choice”, is two words which people around me use.

There will always be some people around me who always say that they have no choice but to accept what their lives had throw at them. some lament to me that they have no education to backup their dreams, some choose to blame their education background for  their state.

For example, in the aging society I am in now, I see a lot of old people working in fast food joint if i have the chance to visit the joint at strange timing where people are normally either working or studying, trapped in concrete prisons elected by their forefathers. It seemed strange to me, as most of us would had been used to being served by teenagers who are trying to earn a few dollars in their free time.

Some of these elders mentioned that they are trying to keep their mind alive. Others, are simply trying to make a living as they now discovered that their retirement funds are no longer enough by today’s standards.

The choices they have now, are very limited to that, if they are 10 years younger.

Then again, as compared to many others who are younger, did they exercise their choices when they have the chance? or did they just waste their time away, hoping that their luck will take them somewhere safe, safe from all the issues that many job owners are facing now? Since I wa not born in their era, I find that many of them followed whatever their peers or parents told them to do, rather than to look at what the rich and famous are doing.

Why do I say that? Well, my parents did just that.

They chose to follow the norm. They chose to follow the crowd. They chose even to believe what their peers are saying.

And they are still doing it even now.

And that brings us to point number one.

1) The rich choose to be successful.

You see, whenever my parents are confronted by me on the issue of their bad habits, they will chose the simplest way to evade from the confrontation. In my previous article on “How to win the lottery”, I had already mentioned that I have confronted my mother about the wisdom of buying the lottery. She simply says that she has not time to record down her finanes when I dared her to record down her winnings, which she claimed to support her habit.

Then again, everyday, she is playing my PS2 in the living room, doing nothing.

Hmmmm, ok. Enough of my mother. You can read about her adventures in my article here. Next up, my friend who had his business sealed by a new intellectual law being laid down by the government, went about trying to raise awareness to everyone around him, saying how it is unfair for the intellectual companies to press charges to people who downloaded stuffs that was being aired on the television in other counties.

And what did he do after a while? He spent his time playing MMOs around the clock, throwing his problems behind his head. When he stopped playing, he continues to lament about the issue again.

And again.

And again.

Without doing anything.

Well, that is his choice. What can I do about it? Or should I say, I did gave him my 2 cents’ worth. And my 2 cents’ worth, are after all, 2 cents’ worth. They do not cost anything for you to get them. But if he did not even heed my 2 cents’ worth, what makes you think that he will heed my $1,000 worth of advices?

Instead of trying to find other ways to either to revive his business, he chose to become the King in his MMOPG. He chose to become famous once again in the game arena, which brought him much fame as he did at another game we were playing 3 years back.

So, will you want to become what the people around me had became? Do you want to be just another whiner, who sits around all day, trying to make yourself famous with the success you have a few years ago?

Or would you rather have started something? Would you have tried to identify the weakness that you have and try to do something about it? Would you even want to make more than you were making, when given a chance?

Or would you rather stay at home every day, watching television?

I do not know which choice you choose now will benefit you the most in the future. But I am certain that if you would even choose to do something about the state that you are in now, you would have been in a better state than you are, even if some day, you will be back at square one.

Well, if that happens, you would have known how to make your next million with nothing in your pocket since you ha already being there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.

And making that choice will be easier now, since you would have known what to expect, and what steps to take to get you to the top again.

2) The rich choose freedom over security

Looking at the question again, what would you have chosen? Would you have chosen security over freedom if you have the chance?

No. I do not think so.

I think many people would have chosen freedom over security.

To many, the idea of having to work in a cabinet is hideous, and unimaginable.

But they still do it anyway.

And I really wonder why.

Why would they want to choose security over freedom? Why would they want to lock themselves up in a cabinet and make someone else wealthy?

In fact, why do so many people still get a day job and sit in a cabinet, when they know that it will be those who owns the businesses and the buildings they work in that gets the bulk of the profits?

Err, if your answer is, “Everyone knows that”, then, why are you continuing to feed the Millionaires and Billionaires who owns the building you are working in? Are you not even angry with them making use of you to make money for them?

Or, is it just easier to work under someone and let the days goes by?

3) the rich choose to work smarter

Well, some people definitely do not agree with the last few sentences in point 2. And that is why there are always some people who will risk everything they have just to have a chance to be wealthy. Some of them are even spat at wherever they go as their ideology are different from the main stream. Some of these people, including Bill Gates, are spat at simply just because they are rich. But there is one thing in common among them, is that they work smarter than those around them.

And this ensured that they beat their peers hands down.

And why is that so? Why do working smarter will allow a person be ahead of their peers? Isn’t it common knowledge that those who are hardworking will be successful one day?

Well, being hardworking will surely be enough to get you ahead of peers who only know how to get ahead by working hard. To do a simple comparison, if you are an apple picker in an apple orchard, then, the more hours you spend picking apples will meant that you will be able to pick more apples into your basket, assuming that your peers will gather the same amount apple you do per unit time.

Then again, let us consider another job, let us say, programming a new operating system. In case you do not know, Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux are some examples of OSes.

Let us imagine that you decided to be rich. And you know how to make an OS. And so, you decided that you will want to make an OS that is more powerful, and more beautiful than Windows Vista.

So, what will you do after deciding all that?

Some people will go ahead and program the OS themselves. They know that if they are able to make something better than Windows Vista, then they will be able to get rich very easily.

And so, they will then start their programming immediately, and they might work through the night without sleep, in the hope of being able to finish their OS quicker than anyone. They will then sacrifice their leisure time just to see their dream take shape.

But after a while, when a nice television program comes by, or when another Premiere League comes by, he will decide that taking a break or two will be justified and stop his work for a day or two.

Then, after a few months, they will look at their progress and say, hey, this is just not worth it. Is there any way I can speed things up?

After a year or two, when they finally see their dream takes shape, Windows Vista 2 came out.

And all they can do now is to throw their own buggy OS away and try to make another one.

Sad isn’t it? But there are many people who likes to do just that. They like to trade their one goal in life and their future with just the temporary feeling that they are doing something great by themselves.

While I really agree that one should follow their dream since it will be their dream which will propel them to success eventually, there is no reason to use the most ineffective method to achieve it if your life depends on it.

Another group of people will then gather a few friends or relatives and start their own company. They will then enjoy fun and laughter together for a while. When the test comes, companies which are created by a group of friends will be more likely to break apart than family businesses, which explain why we see more family businesses lasting through the years as compared family businesses.

Either way, as their business gets bigger, or the pressure to expand their business gets greater, they may find it hard to get help from people they know, since they are already used to working with people whom they can trust.

So, that is also the reason that some family stays as big as the size of the family is.

What about rich people? What do they do? Well, let us take a look at the famous Windows, which dominates the OS market now.

First, there was Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Microsoft rose from a sub-contractor of IBM into a power house OS creator. They created the MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP and then Windows Vista. Apart from making OSes, they created the XBOX, which is now synonymous to exciting games. They also invaded the PDA market with their Windows CE, and later, Windows Mobile, and also invaded the MP3 market with the Microsoft Zune. And Microsoft never stopped looking around for things to create, or things to buy.

Then again, did Bill Gates and Paul Allen did everything alone?

No.

Did Bill Gates and Paul Allen did everything with a group of friends and family?

Maybe they did. After all, some colleagues are bound to become your close friends if they are worthy enough. As for family members within the company, I do not know. I do not want to make any guesses since I do not have any interest to hire a detective to track each and every employee of Microsoft.

Did Bill gates and Paul Allen stayed small?

No. They did not. In fact, they are constantly on the lookout for new opportunity to make their company bigger.

So, what actually did Bill Gates and Paul Allen did when they want to make a lot of money?

Well, they did things the easy way out.

Although Bill Gates did physically touch the codes of his products well into the first 5 years of the creation of Microsoft, They do know the importance of employing people to work for them.

Yes. You heard it. They employ people to work for them.

They paid large amount of money for top talents so that the best can work for them. They buy over companies which they think will benefit them to diversify and to eliminate competitions. They market their products aggressively to ensure that everyone will know which software to buy when they needed it. Even if you do not need a new software, they will introduce the new one and cease the support for the old one anyway.

And all these made a lot of people angry.

But, you cannot deny that what they are doing earned them a lot of money. And it really will not harm you too much if you can take some tips on the way they marketed their products.

4) The rich choose to focus (while the poor choose to try to do everything themselves).

Arh… The digital age brings a blessing to the people of this world. People can now chat with millions of people in the world, while surfing their favorite website, and listen to their favorite music with a click of the button. They can also check their email while watching Lords of the Ring in HD, while enjoying a cup of espresso.

Even at work, they are able to do their work, check their email, chat with their peers, SMS their friends, and look at the stock market all at the same time.

On the go, people can now contact their peers, check their favorite blogs, get the latest on the news, as well as watch the latest trailer on their mobile phone.

Then, with technology, it is easier for people to be their own boss, their own manager, their own accountant, their own web administrator, as well as their own marketer.

This led to many people to think that they can be a banker, an accountant, a real estate broker, a stock broker, a hotel tycoon, and the top income earner of a few network marketing network all at the same time.

Well, there are a few people in this world who are successful with a few different business at the same time, but it makes little sense to try out other things if you are not even an expert in your own field.

Christopher Gardner did only one thing which made him able to break out of the rat race, and that is trading stocks.

Robert Kiyosaki excels in real estate, which holds the bulk of his assets.

Bill Gates did not try to make another fast food chain, although he had the money to start one.

William C. Durant only makes cars, trucks, pickups, and more cars.

And they are millionaires.

So, what makes people think that they can earn millions by doing many jobs at the same time, if they could not even earn a few bucks from one business they owned?

5) The rich choose to observe

An interesting observation I made is that, there are constantly a group of people at the top of the money pyramid and they seemed to be always be able to do the correct thing at the correct time.

When the market is poor, these people buys stocks people do not want to buy.

When the market is good, these people sells the stocks everyone one wants to buy.

When the market crashes, these people counts their profits, while others count their debts.

When the market is in need of an item, they are the first to provide it.

When the market is saturated, they are able to distinguish themselves from others.

When the market do not need that item anymore, they are the first to get out of the market and move on to other products.

When the other business owners are going bankrupt with an excess of that item, they are the ones who have the capital to start another business with another item that the market needs.

Whenever the market changes, they are the first to be able to sense that change. Whenever the balance of power changes hand, they are also the first to see where that power shifts to. Whenever there are people who are hungry for something, they will be the first to identify that item which feeds the masses.

Unfortunately, there will always be another group of people at the end of the spectrum.

They will always follow sound “advices” given by “experts” who claims to be able to sense the flow of the market. They will gladly believe their own “sixth” sense, then someone who knows the subject matter better than them. They will always be willing to throw their money down into something which they think will bring them millions with a few dollars down and no hard work attached, rather than to follow a sound plan to achieve their financial goals.

They, unfortunately, will always be the ones who shout around, telling everyone how they are scammed.

That is, if they are still around to pay their debts.

Continue on another post…

Continuing from party 1…

 

6) The rich choose to create (rather than to save all the time)

Okay. It is important to have a cache of money for emergency. It is always important to have a sound financial plan, something which people are getting more and more interested in. In fact, it is possible to just save a million dollars when you retire if you are able put a certain amount of money into the bank each month.

Then again, it will take a very long time to do that.

If you starts to save around $1,000 a month, you might reach your goal of saving up $1m in about 35 year, assuming that interest is at 5%.

Then again, who in this world have the ability to wait that long? Most people would either be trying to dig themselves out of the grave, or are already floating around without mass.

It is again, that particular group of people who not only save up, but are able to invest in their dollars at the same time. They are the ones who are able to save more, simply because they have more money to save, and invest at the same time. In absolute numbers, they simply win the pauper in the amount of dollars they save, as well as the amount of dollars they spend in their investments.

And that is also why, when the rich will only get richer, simply because they can.

With those amount of “extra” money, money which they do not need to survive, they can create different income sources which can feed them forever.

Or, they can choose to spend a certain amount of it, and still be able to create a source of income to support themselves, simply because they can.

And to emphasis the point, the rich can afford to create more wealth, simply because they can.

And you can too.

So, the choice is yours. You can choose to become rich, by creating streams of income with your money, or you can simply choose just to save. If you choose to save, please start early. It makes no sense to start saving at the age of 74 when your earning capability is lower. If you trade your time for money, the amount of time you have will then just decrease as you grow older.

Either way, if you think you can lead a comfortable life, please choose your plan now.

7) The rich choose to focus on success (the poor focus on failures)

Have a chat with a rich person if you can. Take note of what is their focus on as they exchange words with you. You will often find that they often focus on their success than their failures. They are not afraid of falling again, and again, and again. It does not seem logical, but they are able to pick themselves up every time they fall down.

You will then find that they are always actively finding ways to get more money, rather than to lament about their lost which they suffered years ago.

Have a chat with poor folks when you feel like it. Take not of what is their focus as they exchange words with you as well. Take note of their choice of words when you come to the subject of money. See if they are what the gurus usually says they are, namely, defensive when the topic of money is raise, or declare to everyone that they do not need to be rich.

I have met them. I have exchanged enough words with them. They live around me. So, it may be time for you to identify who they are and “learn” from them. There will always be things to be learnt from others, but you are the one who can choose to use them as a positive or negative learning material, depending on the situation. As the saying goes, “A fool learns from experience, a wise man learns from others’ mistake”.

You make that choice. You handle the consequences. It is your life.

The rich choose to learn the correct stuffs. (the poor creates their own lies)

How many of the skills you have picked up 10 years ago are still applicable? Well, as an engineer, my basic Mathematics skills and Sciences took me well into my college years.

But that is all. Once out of college, my basic math and science becomes an item that is next to common sense to me. In fact, without some basic knowledge, I do not think that anyone could do anything in life.

Okay, there are a lot of people who did not attended school, or some of them had made it big after dropping out of college. But how many of them can last long without basic knowledge, like basic Math and Science?

Am I looking down on people who do not have a PhD in Math or Science? No.

Am I looking down on people who dropped out of school? No.

Am I discrimination against the rich people and poor people? No.

So, what exactly is my point then?

Well, consider this. You pay is $100. You wanted to buy a bag at $1,000. Can you do it?

Yes. Some of you might say. And I do agree.

You can always get the other $900 and buy that item.

And what if your monthly pay check is $100?

Well, you can save your money for 10 months, and have $1,000, And so, you can buy that bag which costs $1,000.

Then, what are you going to do with living expenses?

Herm, I will think of that later.

Is that how some people do their Math?

Yes. I do see them around me. In fact, my buddy in my college years have a younger sister who did that every month. She always spends beyond her budget. And when she has nothing to spend for that month, she stretched out her hand and asked for more.

And that money had to come from somewhere.

So, if you asked me, are there anyone who do not observe the law of basic math, my answer will be, “they are around me all the time”.

I, myself, is guilty of this from time to time.

So, Do everyone have a choice to spend more than they could?

Yes. They could. Before credit card comes around, one can borrow money from people around them to increase their spending power.

Once credit card comes around, one finds it easy to over spend. Since basic Math do not need to apply.

Wait, if basic Math do not apply, why should anyone care about using credit card to do their purchase?

Well, simply because of the ugly fact that, if you cannot handle simple, basic Math, what makes you think you can handle things that is more complex than basic Math?

Let us take an example. Before credit card comes around, the equation of income versus expenditure is:

Total income – Total expenditure = Total spending power left over

Looks simple, isn’t it?

Well, with credit card, it becomes:

Total income – Total expenditure – Total credit card debt this month = Total spending power left over

Simple enough? I think it is.

But, some people prefers to use this formula instead:

Total income – Total expenditure = Total left over + credit card

So, they concluded that they have more and more to spend each month, because they have a credit card.

If they do not have enough to spend, they will then use another credit card to increase their credit limit.

Then, another.

Then, another.

Then, another.

So, who is going to pay for all these credit card bills?

Some will say, “I will sign up another credit card to foot the bills”. Another will say, “I’ll mortgage my house to pay for my credit card bills. Everyone does that”. Yet, another will say, “I will take up a loan to pay off my debts. In that case, I will have more money to buy the things I want”.

And finally, they will all say, “I will declare bankrupt so that I will not need to pay for anything!”

And they will lose everything they once had.

So, one word of advice, please stick to the basic Math of:

Total income – Total expenditure = Total spending power leftover

If you cannot handle more complex Mathematics. I, myself, are sometimes confused over the different types of formula we can use and so naturally, my leftover is negative.

Yes. You heard me. My leftover is negative.

Simply put, my spending is more than my earnings for that particular month.

And I can do that sometimes because I try hard to have leftovers from the months before that. So, naturally, with simple Math, I can have some months that I spend more than I earn, simply because I have accumulated enough leftovers from previous months.

So, using simple Math, my formula becomes:

Total spending power = Total income + total leftover from last month – total expenditure this month

But, I would rather stick to the simple formula:

Total income – Total expenditure = Total spending power leftover

since it is both easy to understand and foolproof.

So, it is your choice. You can come up with fancy formulas for yourself, but ultimately, once you debt catches up with you, you will have to pay them of face the music. Make a choice now before you start creating strange formulas which look nice but do not make sense even for those who never stepped into a school before.

9) The poor says “no choice” the rich create their choices

Have you ever heard people saying that they are doing a job, or have done something because they have no choice? Have you seen people getting angry over something other people had said, unable to rebuke the offender, they might use the excuse “I have no choice” as to end the conversation?

Well, I have. I had seen people using the words, “no choice” as an excuse, again and again. I have seen how some of these people conducted their lives, and I have no choice but to agree with them that, they have no choice after all.

Yes. You heard me right. I am actually agreeing with them.

I am actually agreeing with these people.  Most of them are neither thieves nor bandits. Most of them have a decent job and a decent income and some form of investment. Most of them have some insurance scheme protecting them and their family, since they know that insurance is now a necessity rather than a luxury.

However, they might have failed to make a few vital choices in their lives, which cause themselves to have “no choice” over their decision in life.

First, some of them failed to catch the flow when they could. Fear of failure and the love of low risk life led many to give up their dreams in a hope of a “steady” life, in which the company or government will take care of them.

After 30, present day, they found out that their “steady” life is not that steady anymore.

First, their “steady” life did not even shook. It just disappeared.

With each generation of people living longer and longer, they found out that the advice of their generation obsolete when they get old. The advice that most of our parents followed are, “Study hard, get good grades, get a stable job, get married and have a few children”. And more often than not, they will try to enforce what they were taught to us.

At least, that was what my parents did.

They made me study hard. With little they have, they employed the best tutors for me, so that I will have the best grades in school. Later, I entered a college and got a degree in computer engineering. And now, I have a “stable” job which earns me quite an okay sum per month. That sum will not make me rich, but that sum will not make me stave.

Yes, you heard it. That sum will not make me rich. These technical skills which I have picked up will get obsolete once new technologies come out. There are plenty of youngster steaming out of colleges all over the world, waiting to take over my job. Each day, I sit down at the computer terminal, wondering who will be the next computer wizard who will take over my place in the company, considering around 2,000 people are graduating each year with the same degree I have each year, in my area alone.

Then again, my parents are happy. I had okay grades, I graduated from college, I had a job now.

And my parents are happy.

But I am not.

I am not happy simply because that I can be replaced immediately by another person who has the same skill as I do. Programming is easy to pick up, believe me.

Then, my “stable” job will be lost to me the moment I cannot do any programming.

That is to say, if I lost most of my fingers, to simply unable to commute to work for an extended period of time, I will be unable to work.

And if I am unable to work, I am unable to make any money.

So, in a sense, I have “no choice” now but to work.

But whether I will be able to have a “choice” will be decided what happens to this little blog in the corner of the World Wide Web.

What about the millionaires of today? Well, many of them decided that they had enough. They had enough of getting salaried “stable” jobs which offers no securities. They had enough of waiting for the pay check which will be stunk whenever there is a recession. They are really, really tired of having an empty bank account, one which I have myself.

They made that choice.

They made that important choice.

They made that single, important choice to change their lives, not because anyone forced them to, but because they wanted something else out of their lives. Because they wanted to fulfill their dreams, without giving up on their own well being.

And some of these millionaires are penniless when they made that choice.

But then again the fact that they did made that choice, and exercised their choices, that made them what they are, this time, this day.

After reading all these, assuming you are still reading, you may ask yourself this question:

Why do you want to listen to my 2 cents’ worth?

Well, I may not be a professor who has a PhD on the topic, or that I am a physiatrist have treated a million patients, and all of them are praising about how well a job I have done. Heck, I did not even have 20 years of experience behind myself to proof the things I had written in this blog, something which many gurus in the internet had.

Well, I do have 25 years of experiences observing how poor people behave. I have 25 years of experiences looking at how poor people conducted their lives day to day, making decisions which they thought are the best decisions one can make in this world. Instead of looking around for a bit, instead of getting the advices of people who had succeed, instead of even finding time to read a few books, or read a few internet pages, they chose to listen to urban legends and hearsays which guaranteed huge returns, without doing anything significant.

A lot of them believed in lotteries, because lotteries allowed them to win a few million dollars with only a few dollars down. They believed that they will always be the next one in line to win the lottery, when in my previous post, I had already shown everyone that winning the Jackpot prize is next to impossible, for a common person walking on the road.

Or should I say, for most of the people walking on the road, winning the lottery is next to impossible.

Yes, there is someone who is out there who gets to carry home a fat check every time the numbers for the lottery. But, how many people are there who takes home a fat check at the end of every draw?

Well, the amount of people who hits the jackpot can be counted by my fingers. And most of the time, I only need to use one of my hand to do the counting.

Well, so, the choice is ultimately yours. You can decide to act now, or later. It is your choice. Only you can make that choice. If you have “no choice”, then, the very act of whether you want to execute that choice is YOUR choice alone. No one can force you.

So please, make a choice.

It was during a sleepless night that I started to physically write this article on a notebook using a pen from my stationary tub. It was so unintentional, yet this article is about something which everyone gets to have, and yet, everyone does not have enough of it.

Yes. That commodity is Time.

Time is something which everyone has, but at the same time, everyone do not have enough to use. How often do you hear people complaining about having not enough time to do their job, or not having enough time to play? Well, I hear them all the time. They came from people of different shape and sizes from the very rich that I know of personally, to the very poor whom I met on the streets.

How many of us have the luxury of sitting down at a coffee table, watching everyone rushing by, without a care in the world? Well, I did that once with a group of my friends. We sat in a Starbuck’s outlet for half a day, doing nothing other than to look at girls passing by the windows, and talking about whatever that came to our mind. Then again, it ended when dinner time came around and all of us had to return to our nests.

So, what did we get out of the visit? Not much, except for some caffeine in our blood stream. The images of the girls that went passed us were forgotten within 10 seconds and I did not think that our life span had increased any longer by looking at the demure ladies walking pass the joint.

So, why do some people like to sit around and do nothing the whole day, knowing that they are wasting the most precious commodity they have?

I don’t know. Maybe they just want to relax. Maybe they just want to enjoy life for a moment. Or maybe, they are just trying to forget that they have to spend a whole day’s pay on the plate of Grilled Chicken with Chips that they are enjoying so much.

Wait a minute, what had I just wrote? A single meal at the cost of a day’s pay? Who would spend a day’s hard work on a single meal? Who would be so stupid to do that?

I don’t know. But I see them around me all the time. Instead of spending within their means, many people that I known of are actually enjoying the strange pattern of spending an hour in a posh restaurant, while spending another hundred hours working for that hour spent in that restaurant.

Hey, isn’t that a bit strange then? Why are people sacrificing so much for just a meal? Why can’t they just have their meal at a normal neighborhood eatery? Isn’t is painful to pay for something which you can only enjoy for a brief moment, only to find yourself trying to pay for it at the end of the month with another month’s hard work?

Err, yes. To me, to pay for a meal worth my day’s work is already very heart breaking for me. But then again, if I am to have a meal like a millionaire, I will have to exchange a month’s pay for it, simply because I have no choice.

And most of the working middle class have no choice either. Either they enjoy their meal in a neighborhood eatery, or they slave away in a posh hotel. There is no other way for a working middle class to enjoy the luxury of a millionaire other than to work really hard for it. And some times, these working middle class had to spend a whole life’s savings just to fulfill their one dream in life, which in the end, may be over in a couple of minutes.

There you see, it is very easy to just live within your means. It is really easy for a middle working class to have a meal in their neighborhood eatery, and enjoy the thrill of killing houseflies with their utensils.  However, it is really hard, and painful, for a working middle class to pay for a meal which is equivalent to their whole month’s pay.

The same can be said for a millionaire.

They will find it really hard to eat in a neighborhood’s eatery, since it is really painful to have no one to serve you during a meal. However, they will find it really easy to grab a meal in a posh restaurant since there will be less people queuing up to get in.

But hold on for a minute. There is a difference between the two. If you haven’t see it, let me just rephrase the comparison which I had made between a middle class and a millionaire.

First, a middle class will find it easy for their pocket to eat in a normal neighborhood eatery. They can choose to frequent the eatery. The millionaire, on the other hand, has the ability to CHOOSE not to eat at the cheap eatery, simply because he prefers not to eat at that eatery.

Second, a middle class can choose not to break their wallet by choosing the cheapest item on the menu. The millionaire, on the other hand, can choose not to break their back by choosing another restaurant with a nicer chair.

Hmmm. Those two items are not really fair comparisons, aren’t they?

Well, if you compare the choices that the wealthy have, as compared to a poor, there isn’t much to compare, isn’t it?

First of all, you will find that the rich have more options when it comes to paying a certain item, let’s say, a car. While many people would be happy with something that has four wheels and an engine, in order to get a car with more sparkle, they will often have to resort to paying for the car using some form of hire purchase scheme. What about the rich? Well, they can choose to pay by using hire purchase options too. But they can also choose to use credit or cash, in a single payment, since it doesn’t make sense to pay the interests incurred when you use the hire purchase option.

Next, the rich can choose to buy from different version of an item, but the poor are usually limited to one or two version of an item. Take from example, a computer ridge.

For the poor, it may be as simple as “something which I can surf the internet with”. Bare minimum, built in graphics card, built in sound, a 2nd hand CRT monitor, OEM keyboard, mouse and speaker.

For the millionaire, a LCD is a must. It is always preferable to get a IMac which produces files which normal PCs cannot read from. The speakers cannot be too ugly, and keyboard and mouse had to look cool.

Then again, the millionaire can also order a PC with built-in graphic and sound, one that “allows one to surf the web” easily, from a few mouse click, directly from Dell.

So, you see, the Rich do have more choices. They have more choices since they are able to choose what kind of commodity to use to trade for what they want to purchase. They are even able to choose what kind of credit card they want to use, simply because they can.

The poor, unfortunately, can only trade for commodities they want, using the single, most precious commodity they have, that is time.

For a posh meal in a restaurant, they have to serve their masters for some time before they can gather enough money to pay for their bills. They do not have many other choices in footing their bills than to use their time.

Wait, doesn’t everyone foot their bills with money? Why am I talking about time? Am I mumbling rubbish in this article as well?

Well, let us look at how money appears in the bank accounts of most people of this world.

First, they work for 8 to 14 hours a day. Then, they make sure that their hours are written down properly in a book at the finance department. At pay day, they queue up to receive their pay check, or rush to the bank to check whether the amount credited is correct or not. Next, they will then check their mail boxes for bills and….

Wait… let’s not go there. We are supposed to talk about how money gets into the pockets of a normal person, not how it flows out of it.

Ok. So, what about a rich person? How do money flows into their pockets?

Errr, ok, since there is a lot of ways a money can go into a rich person’s pocket, let us just take the life of a rich person who owns a rental apartment, Robert Kiyosaki’s favourite.

First, they… err, do other things… maybe, they do their day job. Then, they make sure that people who own them money, pays them on time, including their employees and those who rented their flats. At pay day, they also check their bank account or the check they receive to see whether everything is in order. Then, they cash in their checks or just see the figures appear in their bank balances. Next, they check their mailboxes for bills…. And we shall stop here again.

So, there is no difference between a rich man’s means of getting money, and a poor man’s way of getting money? Right?

Ok. Scroll up a bit. Read those lines again. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

That particular kind of rich person that I had mentioned may have a day job, but, he still receives income from the apartment they rent out. Therefore, any income received from their rental apartment is extra income, which that particular rich person does not need for survival.

On the other hand, whatever money that a poor person, or a middle working class makes during their day job, may become whatever they need for survival, assuming that they do not have other forms of income.

So, the words, “Time is money”, is true.

However, the amount of money that particular time can generate varies from person to person, depending on how much work, what kind of work, and the amount of money generating ways they have on hand.

Then again, money can buy time, to a certain extend. Although it cannot help a person to buy back the time that was lost, they can allow a person to buy more time in the future.

Take for example, a rich person who owns a car, as compared to a person who relied on the public transport system to get around.

Getting from point A to point B, for a person who relies on the public transport system, is usually a pain.

For a train station, he or she had to buy the ticket at the ticketing machine before getting to the automatic gates if he or she does not have a seasonal pass. After getting through the gate, he or she may have to compact themselves into tiny packages, since the train will be very packed during peak hours (Think of the trains in Tokyo during peak hours). Trying to reach for the mp3 player in the pocket might be impossible, as the person next to you may be just, well, right next to your skin. When the train reached the destination, he or she will have to squeeze their way out of the train, the same way they had squeezed into the train earlier. He or she will then walk to the final destination, assuming that the place he or she heading to is within walking distance from the subway.

Similarly, getting from point A to point B, for a person who owns a luxury car, is also a pain.

First, he or she has to make sure that the car has enough fuel to last the trip. If not, he or she will have to stop at the nearest gas station to top up before the trip. He or she may have to stop at other gas stations along the way to the destination, if the destination is really far. Along the way, the driver has to make sure that he does not scratch his or her shiny car, since it will be a hassle to get it repainted. If there is a traffic jam, the driver will then have to crawl along with the slow moving traffic, listening to the songs he or she had downloaded into the iPhone sitting on top of the dashboard. When the destination appears on the GPS screen, he or she will have to find a parking lot as close as possible to the destination, since the parking lot at the destination itself may be full, due to the fact that everyone drives a car.

So, who really spent more time for transport, well, it actually depends on how efficient the transportation system in your neighbor is. If the place you work and the place you live in are right next to a subway, I will say that you will probably save a lot more time than a person who drives. Then again, how many companies are built within 50 meters from the subway? Well, assuming that buildings are actually in blocks of 20m x 20m, I would say that about 24 buildings can be built within the vicinity of the subway.

Wow. That is a lot of buildings, isn’t it? But in my country, the buildings that are actually within 50 meters from the subway is usually 5 or 6, as buildings are not always square, and each company’s ability to buy a piece of land is usually different. Oh, and an area of 20m x 20m is actually very small for Multinational Corporation. Even their employee’s office area is not that miniature.

Then again, it just so happens that it will be faster for me to travel by public transport to work during peak hours, since the roads that I will be travelling on has bus lanes (lanes on the road made especially for buses). Then again, during off peak hours, it will always be a pain to travel by bus. Buses in my area is especially slow and less frequent, as compared to the frequency during peak hours.

Another comparison on how convenient a car can be is, getting from my friend’s house which is 60km from the map takes 1 hour at least by train, while by car, it only takes 10 minutes.

So, if I had a car, and want to get to my friend’s house, I would have saved 50 minutes. That amount of time will be enough for me to do a workout, or leveled up my characters in World of Warcraft.

Then again, 50 minutes alone is enough to clinch a deal, or come out with the next killer idea which can make a 12 years old the next billionaire.

And that is the difference between a rich person and a poor person.

A person who has enough options will be able to choose between the commodity they have to exchange for an item, let’s say, for a house. They will then be able to generate more money with the time they saved. If done correctly, this cycle will never be broken, and that is why everyone is complaining that “the rich always gets richer”, since the rich have the access of money generating machines that the poor do not have.

Then again, it is not impossible to break out of the life cycle of the poor. The moment an effort is made to break the poor person’s cycle, the lives of that particular person who wish to break out of the rat will never be the same again. In order to break out of the life cycle of the poor, one must be able to use their time wisely so that they can produce more “options” for “trading”, instead of being limited to using “time” to trade with other commodities.

Then again, you may ask, if time is such an expensive commodity that we have, why can’t we just keep exchanging time for other commodities, rather than wasting time on other things which may not guarantee us a steady stream of income?

Well, let us just say that, not everyone may have enough time.

Take for example, an old man who can no longer work, since he has a pair of weak legs. Or a person who had recently been told by the doctor that he has only 3 months to live, due to a huge tumor in his or her brain.

Arh… Then you will say to me, “these things will never happen to me, since I am so healthy”.

Correct. You are very healthy now. But what about tomorrow? Have you been going for a health checkup recently? Have you been exercising enough? Have you been eating well? Have you been eating junk instead?

Arh, you will then say to me, “I feel healthy. There is no need for me to get a checkup.”

Well, my healthy looking aunty was diagnosed with lung cancer a month ago.

Arh, you will then say to me again, “It may have happened to your aunt, but not to me. I am very lucky”.

So, do you know what is flowing in your blood? I do not know what is flowing in mine either, since I am not a specialist. So, I rather let a specialist tell me whether the things that are flowing in my bloodstreams are poisonous or not.

Another friend of mine, who had an accident out of nowhere, can no longer live like a person. Everyday, he lives in fear, wondering when he will take a fall again, breaking his spine once again.

Being brought back from death 5 years ago, much of his spine are covered in metallic plates, holding whatever bones that was left together. Hardly a day went by without him wondering when he will die. Occasionally, I will receive his message, saying that he is afraid of dying. And as always, I, a person who had never tasted death before, can never give him many advices, since I do not really know what is going through his minds. Instead of forcing down wisdom which I think that will be useful to him, I rather avoid sending him the wrong message, since I am about the handful of friends he trusted.

I had not tasted death, nor do I plan to taste is so early in life. In fact, if given a chance, I would rather not taste it at all. I personally believed that you as long as you are alive, you can make a difference in this world, like what I am trying to do now, writing my thoughts and others into an article, hoping that there will be some who will be able to see this blog someday, and take away something from this blog.

To this friend of mine, I cannot offer him much advice from someone who knows about death. All I can offer to him are knowledge which I had exchanged with my time, and hope that they will be useful to him when he need them.

Then again, he had lost a lot of time with that fall of his.

Under normal circumstances, he would have lived to a rip age of 70. He would have graduated by age 25, just as I did, with a Honors Degree in Chemical Science. He would then get a girlfriend and get married before the age of 30 years old. He will then have a few children and continue to raise them over the next 20 years or so.  His son will then enter the work force as he had, and gotten married when the time comes, just as he had 30 years ago. My friend would have grown old, just as I will be, and we would meet occasionally to talk about our lives, or the daily news.

But, on that fateful day 5 years ago, my friend took that fall.

And therefore, his time stopped for a while.

After he recovered, his time was shortened. Instead of taking 3 years to complete his degree, he now have to spend 6 full years to finish them. Instead of taking Chemical Science as he had wished for, he can only take an Arts and Social Science degree, even though it is not a lesser degree. Unable to stay outside in the open for long, he is unable to take more than 4 modules per semester. His per-day schedule cannot be more than 4 straight hours, as he will need some outpatient medical attention after 4 or 5 hours. With that, there are certain modules he cannot take, as he would have to be in the school for long hours.

As for the getting married part, it is quite impossible for now.

He became a hermit, unable to talk to anyone, since he can no longer hang out with anyone anymore. He locked himself in his room, playing Massive Multi Player Online Game every day. Unable to be in the open for too long, he cannot join his teammates for projects, and had to do them remotely from home, through the MSN.

And so, his time had been shortened for a lot, maybe he will be able to life till a ripe age of 70. Maybe he won’t.

So, you might be thinking, hey, my friend is unlucky. It does not concern you at all. You will never be that unlucky to fall down.

Okay. So, my friend who took a fall at a young age of 19 years old has nothing to do with you. But the fact is, no one expected it.

So, if you have the ability tell me now that who will have an accident tomorrow, I will gladly be your slave for half of my life, since I will know when I will die.

Since no one can actually foresee the future, rather than depending on one’s’ luck, I would suggest everyone reading this article to be as prepared as possible for whatever situation that might happen to you.

Oh, so, you might be thinking that you have a job now. You will be getting your pay raise next month. Your dream wedding will happen next year, with three thousand guests attending your wedding at a well-known cathedral. With the pay raise next month, you will be getting a brand new SUV, amidst the oil crisis that is happening during the time of writing, as you can afford it.

So, nothing bad will happen to you, right?

You life is all well, carefully planned, isn’t it? Nothing will go wrong for you in the next 10 years, isn’t it?

What if you are the next person to take that fall?

What if you are the next person whose office takes a plan hit?

What if you are the next person who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

What if you just got unlucky tomorrow?

It will only take one fall to be in my friend’s state.

Sad to say, many of us, who thinks that time will always be on our side. We will always fail to use our time wisely until it is too late.

How many times have you heard from those who do not have time left lamenting about the things which they should have done, but did not do?

Take for example, another friend of mine.

At the age of 21, he had USD$350,000 stashed in an overseas bank, earning interest. By the time he is 25, it would had become half a million.

The time which I used for playing online computer games, he was there with me. The time I spent playing offline games, he was negotiating deals. The time I spend going out with friends, he was selling his merchandise and earning 100% profits for his transactions. While I was walking around searching for figurines to buy, he was searching for figurines to sell. While I was watching the movies showed during Christmas, he was making $120,000 in profits, something which is about 4 years of my pay.

What does all these means? Well, this means that, in terms of financial well being , my friend, who is 4 years younger than I am, is more than 10 years ahead of me. He had saved enough for himself such that if he was to get married immediately, he would have enough to hold a wedding and buy a house, all at the same, all with hard cash.

What about me? Well, let us just say that I got enough for the photo shoot.

That also means that if something was to happen to me, I would probably wish that I was dead instead of being bed ridden all my life. Without enough money in the bank as an emergency measure, it would be a problem if I would lose my job now, and if I needed medical attention, I would probably wish that I would be in the coffin, after all, a last service will only cost about $10k for an average person.

Then again, giving up is not an option. It is very easy to give up and let life knock you around. It is very easy to just jump off a building and leave everything else to those that are left behind. It is very easy to not to make an effort to win in games, since it requires no hard work, no sweat, and no blood. It is really, really easy to tell myself that no one will read this blog, and that I should use my time more wisely on other pleasures, like play another round of MMO or to walk around the town without doing anything useful.

It is just simply too easy to quit working hard.

Then again, unless you ancestors had been working hard, or are very lucky, the only way to earn a living is either through hard work, or with a lot of brains. Many people are enjoying their lives because someone had exchange their time for the wealth they are enjoying now. To many, the lives of the rich are just too easy. But what many of us do not see is that fact that the lives of rich and wealthy are easy because they have a lot of options to spend, and also a lot of options to make more money.

And some of these options, like buying a bunch of stocks, a huge rental apartment, or having enough capital to start another business, are mostly out of the reach of most people living in this world.

Then again, these options do come with a heavy price tag. And sometimes, the price is so great that within a lifetime, one cannot hope to have these options.

Therefore, do not waste your time anymore. The time that we are in now will not wait for anyone. Once it is over, it will be over. Once you lost the time you hold, you will lose it forever. You can buy some time for yourself in the future, but you cannot buy back the time that was lost, forever.

The time that you hold now may have gave you little to spend, but if it was used with care, that amount of time you had used in the past may allow you to have more options than you ever thought possible. Without any cash, one can still use their brains and time to create wealth. But if you have already lost time and brain power, money will be you next best bet in generating a sustainable income to feed you, and those that will inherit your genes.

So, for goodness sake, do not waste your time anymore. For you and I do not know what will happen tomorrow. No one expected that a plane will fly into the office they worked in, and many others did not think seeing a plane flying into a building is possible. With each passing moment, future millionaires are being born, and many business plans are being thought of. These future millionaires will never wait for anyone, since they already know that the time they have is limited.

So, please, waste your time no more, and act now. Since it will probably be a miracle for you to find this blog within this mess World Wide Web, it should not hurt you to take something back with you today as you have already spent some time reading this blog.

Remember, you may not be successful even if you try your hardest. But you will certainly not achieve anything if you stay idle and not move at all.

The blogging market is already very saturated and I think that anyone who is reading this will agree with me on this point. In fact, I will be very surprised if you can find this blog among the seas of blogs. There are millions of bloggers who are using the web to document their lives, as well as thousands of blogging-gurus wannabes who are trying to emulate what the real blogging-gurus had achieved, namely, fame and glory, and sometimes a steady form of income.

Then again, these wannabes are upsetting the blogging world with their posts which contains little or no value, as compared to those who really blog for their passion.

Then again, who am I to judge these bloggers? I myself know that to you, the readers, I may be just another guru wannabes, who is trying to attract the attention of the world and make some income out of it. Well, I don’t know. I have started this Blog as an experience to see whether it is possible to blog full time and earn an income out of it. The problem with this blog is, I have started this blog before I actually do any decent research on how to make a living as a blogger. Inspired by those blogging-gurus out there, I started this blog without knowing what it takes to make a blog a magnet to attract readers, the very essence of what makes a blog ticks. And now, slowly, the reality hits me across the face. Using a blog to make a living may be just a dream if the blogger did only the easy step to make a blog. Namely, these easy steps are usually limited to: 1) getting a blog, 2) writing some articles, 3) publish the article and go to bed.

Basically, these are the steps which I took when I just started this blog. And by only using these steps, one can be sure that your content will not attract anyone except for occasional visitors, unless that particular blog is about something unique and original.

Then again, there is hardly any topic in this world that is not touched by a blogger anymore.

Really. Just look around you. What are the blogs that are popular? I am sure that the blogs that are popular are blogs which have original contents, even though the subject matter may not be unique.

Take for example, the blog by Mathew Daimler who blogs about aircraft seats. His post is original. His subject matter is even more original. What started out as a way to share with others what are some of the airlines with better seats became a business venture which eventually became something which pays all the bills of the writer. His blog is popular due to the fact that HE DID try out the seats himself. That is something which he cannot bluff. Although there are a lot of things a blogger can hide from the world, if the blogger does not know the subject matter that he or she is blogging about, the readers will be able to pick out evidences along the way.

Take another example, Dark Mirage, who blogs about anime stuffs. He blogs about anything pertaining to anime which he experienced, seen, touched or watched. Many anime lovers frequent his blog and I am one of them as well. He does not use his blog as a source of income, but concentrates on his passion, that is telling the world what he feels about the subjects he is blogging about, be it an anime figurine he just received, or an anime convention he had visited, or even about an anime which he had just seen. Moreover, he takes pictures of these items, these events which he writes about. People not only know him by his name, but also know him by his face. His passion about anime is what kept readers to bookmark his blog and subscribe to his RSS feeds, since they know that whatever they read on his blog is something which the writer, Dark, have experienced?

Well, to that matter, I do not think that another can write an article well on the matter that he did not experienced before.

Even though that one of the way to keep your blog full of new contents is to review contents written by other bloggers, it will not be as popular as the original content itself unless the reviewing author adds values to the article they are reviewing. There are already many sites and blogs in the web which serves as a gateway to quality contents in the web, and Google, as a search engine, have become the top portal to go to whenever someone wants to look for something interesting on the web. It is the first word that people will think of whenever they want to look for something on the web. Its name is synonymous to the encyclopedia of yesterdays, which unfortunately, almost disappeared when Wikipedia went online. Then again, specialized sites are still needed, as a search engine is still a search engine. On this aspect, Google did a good job in maintaining its search page as simple as possible, such that it became a page with only a handful of items to relieve the brain of web surfers from the danger of having to deal with too many information on earlier search pages.

So, if you are not trying to become Google, please do not do things like pasting a single link on your blog and hope that your readers will be able to understand what are you trying to do, or placing a single picture of a produce and hope that your reader will be able to understand your ideas through reading your brainwave which may be emitted from the other side of the globe. People of this millennium do not have the luxury of time since new things are popping up every day, or even every hour.

Simply said, if you cannot do a proper review, do not do a review.

Instead, create original articles. There are enough things in this world for you to write about and no one can stop you from publishing your works in this World Wide Web, unless it is about things like teaching a 3 years old kid how to make a nuclear bomb. A poem site may be a popular site to people who wished to be inspired, while others may be just interested to know what kind of live you lead if you are living in the desert. There are many people in this world who just simply want a third opinion on the subject matter he or she is interested in, and your opinion may create a wave of unrest in the internet world.

Take for example, the comments made by the China girl, Zhang Ya, about the victims of Si Chuan earthquake send millions trying to track her down, wanting to give the girl a piece of their mind. On the same issue, baby “Ai”, or “Love” in English, whose mother, Zhang Xiaoyan, was rescued after the Si Chuan earthquake also send another wave of unrest across the internet. This time, however, no one is after the blood of Ai. Everyone is instead, trying to express the gratitude to the baby, just for the fact that she had survived the earthquake.

Then again, not everyone can create killer articles to publish on their blogs. There are many writers in this world, but sadly, there will always be only a handful of these writers who can influence their readers in a positive light. Just as there are many who can drive a car, not many people can drive a car to compete with Lewis Hamilton, who drives one of the fastest racing cars in the world.

Then again, you will not know until you have tried.

In order to do well in the field you are in, you had to have passion about the subject you are dealing with. It is will always be easy to start something which everyone is interested in. For example, if everyone is interested in buying a cell phone pouch, if you just open any shop that sells cell phone pouch, someone will definitely buy from you. Similarly, if everyone is interested in the presidential election, there will be a lot of people who will read articles which talks about the candidates. The only difference is in the number of people who will read your blog, and the number of people who will place positive comments on your blog.

Ask any of the gurus out there, and most probably they will be able to tell you that they love what they are doing.

I am sure that Lewis Hamilton is not only good in driving, but loves driving as well. I am sure that “The Crocodile Hunter”, Steve Irwin, loves dealing with animals when he was alive. I am also sure that the “MythBusters” of the Discovery Channel loves to deal with rumors and urban legends, since there is not an episode that was air that they do not show their enthusiasm on the screen. I am also sure that Cosplayers loves to dress up like anime players, since many of them actually repeated their ordeal many times in their lives. In fact, many Cosplayers have their own shops, selling Cosplayers’ items.

Then again, sometimes passion may not be enough. There are many in this world who holds enough passion for their dream that they are willing to give up all other dreams just so that their dream may become a reality. Sadly, there are also many who will be forced to give up their dreams in the end, since in this world, passion without a good job done means that the job that was done, will be of inferior quality. And that is precisely the reason that there are many who can do well in a job that they do not have passion in, just so because they can do their job well.

Then again, without passion, one can never hope to excel in their job. You can be just another blogger who blogs about an issue in this world, but the articles that you write will never be better than another blogger who not only can write well, but also have passion for the job that he is doing, that is blogging.

In one line, if you want your blog to give you a sustainable income, please have passion in at least the thing that you are blogging about. It makes no sense for you to write on something which you have absolutely no interest in writing about. I think that writers will agree that there should not be any issue in writing about the things that you are interested in, but you will run into trouble in writing things which you have absolutely no interest in.

It is just like telling you friends about the movie you saw yesterday. If you are really interested in that movie that you watched yesterday, you would have told everyone else around you how good it was. Conversely, if you have no interest in that movie, you would not waste time in telling people your opinion on the movie. You might instead be talking about the bunch of girls you met after the movie, or the jigsaw puzzle you just finished before going to the cinema.

Okay, let us say that you already have a passion in the stuffs that you are writing about. So, what will be the next item in the list?

Well, after you have passion for a certain job, the next item on the list is to acquire enough skills for you to perform the job well. Just as I have said earlier, it makes no sense to destroy the ear of the masses just because that you like to play the guitar. In makes even less sense to waste your time doing something which will not bring satisfaction to even yourself. There are many things in the world which people do for self satisfaction, which will not kill another person if the job is no done properly. These things include painting, writing a story or even planting some plants in your garden. Certainly, the list can go on.

 But definitely, blogging for an income should not be in the list.

It makes no sense for you to enjoy the job that you are doing, but everyone in the world is against in what you are doing, especially if they are the ones who are bringing you the pay check.

Let’s face it. The readers are our customers. For everyone who wish to earn anything decent on the web by blogging, they have to please their customers, who are the readers of their articles. They have to write quality articles that will attract readers. Bloggers have to create value from their readers so their blog do not become just another blog on the web, but something which people can read again and again, without fear that their brain cells will die from reading the article.

Rather than using gimmicks and active advertisements, you will find that the most popular blogs in the internet will most likely not resort to spamming everyone’s email in the hope that at least some email will be able to get through the spam filters and send some readers their way. Instead, most of these popular blogs are advertised using the word of mouth method, one advertisement method which ensures that your product gets known by people of the world, without the need to spend a single cent on active advertisement.

Rather than spending a lot of money on active advertisements, one should follow what the gurus did, that is learn about the tools of the trade. Bloggers, should, to a certain extent, learn how to tweak their blogs so that their readers will not have a hard time trying to find ways to read their blogs. It makes no sense for a blogger who is blogging for an income to give themselves an excuse to earn less money, just because they do not know how to customize the layout of their blog. It makes little sense for a blogger to let their readers endure a poorly made theme which kills the retina of the readers, who can chose not to visit that blog after their first visit. For a person who wishes to use their blog as a tool to generate their primary income, it makes little sense for them to discourage their customers from visiting their blog.

Therefore, learn CSS. Learn HTML. Learn how to use the Dreamweaver if you think you will need it. In fact, read what the gurus have for you.  Many of them have written articles on how to kick start your blog. It makes no sense to deprive your readers, who are ultimately your customer, from the creative juice that you may have in your brain. Readers love to be able to read your article with the least amount of effort, so, there is no reason not to satisfy them, especially so if your monthly income depends on the readers’ viewership.

So, you already have the passion and the skills. What else do you need?

Maybe a domain.

Wait. Wait a minute, what did I just said? A domain? But Isn’t a domain the first thing a person should get if he wants to make some money out of his blog? Well, just in case some of you who are reading this did not have your own domain, go get one. It makes little sense to be limited by service providers who may not grant you the ability to customize your blog to your heart content. Domains are cheap, and so are dedicated servers. It makes no sense to earn less when you can earn a lot more just by getting a domain of your own.

Look at the gurus. How many of them have their blogs in Blogger? How many of them have the default theme as their layout? How many of them have eye sore coloring for their blogs which drives away even guru wannabes like you? Not many, I guess. Not many.

So, enjoy writing in your blog. Read the blogs of the gurus to gain insights on what you should write about. Learn the skills necessary to satisfy your readers, or you will regret even spending your time in trying to create your own blog to get a sizable income. Remember that not everyone will be able to generate a sizable income through blogging on the web, since in every field you are in, there can only be a small group of people who will dominate the field and be crowned the gurus. The rest of the people, sadly, can only hope that the income they generate is even enough to maintain their site, so that their passion is not washed down the drain. Then again, how many times have we seen zombie sites sitting around with age old contents, but no one to read them or to update them? Well, I really hope that this blog do not become one of them.

There was a time where bubble tea was craze in my country. Everyone wanted a taste of the “magical” tea which contains little “pearls”, rubbery tapioca ball which added to bubble tea, so that customers can also do a little jaw exercise while enjoying their refreshing bubble tea. Oh, if you do not know what “bubble tea” is, try to Google it. It is there, I just tried it.

And so, people started queuing up in front of bubble tea kiosk just so that they can get their daily favorite cup of bubble tea. As more and more people decides to join the queue, more and more bubble tea branches starts to open up at major shopping centers and heartland malls. At its peak, a simple branch at a heartland mall in a modest neighborhood can server several thousand cups of bubble tea a day. In fact, during its peak, bubble tea shops installed large counters at the wall of their shops, telling customers how many bubble teas they had sold since the opening of their store in the morning.

One shop even tried to add some spice into the trade. They hired young perky girls dressed in bikinis to serve customers. They even went as far as to arrange a press conference, hopping to differentiate themselves from others by using a different packaging. Sadly, bubble tea is still bubble tea. He had forgotten that food is still food. Food is meant to be consumed. Bubble tea is meant to be drunk. A naked lady is not going to make a bubble tea tastier than the same bubble tea that was prepared in the same way. Well, the good thing that came out from this idea is that, no one ever forget about this little incident, and the owner is famous for a while.

This bubble tea craze then died down all of a sudden, without warning, in a matter of weeks. The customer base which the bubble tea owners had anticipated have disappeared without a trail, leaving behind a counter at the bubble tea shop which now shows how little bubble tea the shop had sold that particular day, rather than how much that bubble tea shop had served. After sometime, the bubble tea shop owners decided to switch off the LED display, and shortly after, the trace of bubble tea disappeared almost completely for a while, until another group of business seller decides to repackage the whole bubble tea business, and sell them as a franchise, one which is no unlike the first. Then again, they are still here, but the earlier franchise disappeared from the sight of the people, but everyone remembers the craze.

Don’t these two cases sound familiar? There are plenty of franchises and businesses having the same problem as those that I had described above. At the time of writing, the famous coffee maker, Starbucks, is closing down 600 coffee shops in the US due to a very simple reason, a red bottom line. This is, not unlike the bubble tea craze which gripped my country, and ended up in a similar situation. Luckily, Starbucks is cutting back only 600 branches, bubble tea almost disappear from my country altogether.

And with the cut in number of branches, the number of employees will naturally have to be cut. All of a sudden, a bunch of waiters and waitress have to go on another round of job hunting. The amount of people being axed is definitely more than the number of shops being axed. Not forgetting about the managers who will have to be axed, we will have a bunch of people running around, trying to get another job in this already crowded country called the US. Sad to say, I am sure that those who are axed are not rich people who can last a few years without getting a job and not stage to death.

So, what went wrong? Why are some seemingly famous franchises forced to shut down their branches, while the others, are opening more branches as we speak? Why are some franchises selling better products than other franchises, yet are unable to last longer than those who produce seemingly ordinary products, yet are opening branches everyday in the world? Why is it brand names like Mc Donald’s and KFC are well known throughout the world, even though there are plenty of other people who are able to make burgers and fried chickens better than Mc Donald’s and KFC?

Arrrrhhhhhh…. it must be secret recipes that these franchises had guarded so well over the year. Many of us should know that the ingredients of the spices used to marinate the chicken parts used by KFC is carefully guarded, and only a few members of the company really know how it is made. It is just like the recipe of Coca Cola, which is said to be guarded so well, that only the highest of the managements knows about the recipe.

Then again, is producing their prized product the only thing they do? Is protecting the recipe the only thing they do? Although I do not know whether these companies with secret recipes employ killers to assassinate whoever leak out their recipes, there is one thing that I know: KFC do not only produce fried chicken, and the Coca Cola Company do not produce Coke alone.

When you think of KFC, what do you immediately think of? Most probably, it will be their fried chicken, which is fried in two flavors, original and extra crispy, and occasionally, in some strange flavors are sometimes linked to special occasions, as well as festivals and major events happening around the country or state. Appearance of new items on the menu, on the other hand, does not necessary follow the occurrence of festivals and major events. Although several items can only be found in certain parts of the world, the “popcorn chicken” seemed to have caught the taste bud of many people around the world.

Apart from having their prized fried chicken the popcorn chicken on their menu, you will find other hot favorites like the Zinger burger, or the Fillet Tower burger. In short, KFC do not stop at making fried chicken. They knew that it will not be long before other “KFC wannabes” pop up and try to out sell their fried chicken with recipes they developed on their own. Reverse engineering may be the extreme case, but there ARE other fast food chains selling fried chicken on their menus, each one using their own recipe, which are unlike KFC’s.

What about the Coca Cola Company? This company had created a world phenomenon, where almost everyone who have access to a market of some sort will be able to tell understand you when you say the words, “Coca Cola” when you say it. However, since every region in the globe has its own way of writing the words “Coca Cola”, you may have some difficulty in reading the words on a localized bottle of Coca Cola Coke.

Some of us may remember a thing or two about the “New Coke”, which is an attempt by the Coca Cola Company to introduce a newer product to the masses. Instead to wowing the masses, the Coca Cola Company enraged the masses instead. Instead of earning a huge profit out of the “New Coke”, the Coca Cola Company had to pull the “New Coke” bottles off the shelves of shops, and fill them with the “old” coke.
However, the company did not stop there. In order to keep customers happy, they remembered to keep the “old” coke on the shelf, while introducing the public to new flavors, like the “Vanilla Coke” and the “Coke Lime”. Although the new flavors were introduced without much objection from the masses since the old coke is not axed like the saga in 1985, it did not win over the hearts and souls of cola drinkers of the world.
Then again, why am I putting a company like KFC who have so many items on the menu,side by side with a company who specializes in a few winning products, like Coca Cola?

Well, the Coca Cola Company does not only make cokes. They do make other colas, some of which looked like direct competitors to its own brand.

Take for example, if you are living in Asia, you would probably know a series of drinks called “Qoo”. It was first introduced in Japan in 1999 and is always advertised with a blue mascot. It comes in two flavor, namely grape and orange, and its mascot is often more popular than its beverage. A close look at its bottle, you will find a little “Coca-cola” word on the “manufactured by” area. Similarly, the drink, “Simply Orange”, is owned by the Minute Maid division of the Coca-Cola Company.

Wait a minute!!!??? Minute Maid is a division of the Coca-Cola Company?

Yes. Go Google around and you can find it. It is there. I am not lying. The Coca-Cola Company does make other kinds of drinks. Although you will probably not find a Coca-Cola Coke factory producing other kinds of drinks in the vicinity, the “Coca-Cola” brand name will probably be printed on many of the beverage that you see in the supermarket.

So, why does the Coca-Cola Company create competition for itself? Why not just stick with improving the “Coca-Cola Coke” which the masses loved so much that it is considered as a culture to the modern world?

Why create trouble for yourself when your own brand is already so good? Why create competition among your subsidiaries when all they are trying to do is to make more money for you, the parent company?
Well, you see, in order to be ahead of your competition, what is a better way to do it than to introduce the competition yourself, against your own brand? Having competition means that managers, marketers and researchers within the company or division have a reason to be more efficient, as well as a reason to innovate and increase the customer base for its own product, even if the product belongs to its sister division within the same company. That is to say, competition within the same company, subsidiary or even division is better than competition between competitors, since after all, the profits are still channeled to the parent company.

Then again, the losing team within the company who will be given the boot is, after all, a tool for the shareholders to earn more money, which is a sad fact, but is just another day in our life. Even though this world may not be about winners and losers, if you are unable to obtain certain results, you leave the company. It is as simple as that.

So, it is very, very important to improve yourself regardless whether you are a multimillion multi-national company trying to take over the world, or just a small little fast food chain trying feed more people in your neighborhood. Even if you are already the best, the leader of the pack, others who aspired to be as rich as yourself may just pop up from nowhere and snatch away your job.

Take for example, the case of Intel and AMD.

Whenever you think of processors, what is the name you will remember? Well, most of us would have said the name, “Intel”. Then again, there will be a group of people who would have said the name, “AMD”. Although Intel still has a huge market share in the market for desktop processor, it is constantly under attack from AMD’s chips. In fact, before the appearance of Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors, there was a time where AMD’s processors are way ahead of Intel’s Duo Core processors.
Then, along came the Core 2 Duo Processors that saved the day.
Well, much of it anyway.

For this very reason, Intel had to innovate every now and then to try to outdo its rivals.

The same can be said for AMD.

AMD’s chips used to be linked with the label, “cheap and good”. It used to the cheaper alternative for computer buyers who do not have enough cash to get the more expensive Intel branded processors. Overclockers used to compete with each other to see who can buy the cheapest machine, but still able to squeeze every single juice possible from their purchase. Then again, AMD users aleays complained about the extra heat AMD processors used to produce, as compared to their more expensive rival’s processors.

Well, not anymore.

In order to shake away the stigma of being second grade to Intel, AMD’s R&D section went into high gear the last few years, and cleared the way for their marketing colleagues. All of a sudden, people are considering AMD chips for their dream system, not because AMD chips are cheaper. In fact, newer AMD chips that appear in stores are priced around the same price as newer Intel processors. And the strange thing is, people do buy them, and it is not due to curiosity or being conned by the salesman behind the counter. These AMD customers bought these AMD processors willingly. They bought them since they no longer think AMD is second grade, as compared to Intel.

And that is something Intel was afraid of.

In an attempt to stop onslaught of people switching over to the AMD camp before their Core 2 Duo chips arrive at the market, they used aggressive pricing to duke it out with the AMD camp. Then again, since customers are no longer looking at the pricing of the processors they are buying nowadays, the drop in pricing did not impressive a lot of people.

And so, a group of Intel user went over the AMD camp, never to return.

By this time, you may have noticed. All of the companies that I have discussed with you have their own flagship product. They have 1 or 2 “killer” product which they use to hold on to a sizable customer base. With that amount of revenue, they can then innovate newer products and maintain their lead over their competitors.

What if, you do not really have a good flagship product? Or that your product, is just another version of what people have? What if, instead, you believe that even without having the best product around, you still can capture the hearts of millions around the world?

Well, learn from McDonald’s then.

How many of you can make better burgers than Mc Donald’s’? Well, most of you, isn’t it? Mc Donald’s burgers are not that fantastic. Their sides are often either very unhealthy but tasty, or very healthy but needs little processing.

In short, McDonald’s do not really produce a better product from its rivals if you compare to them side by side.
Then again, what makes McDonald’s so popular? Why is everyone queuing up at McDonald’s every day instead of eating at other places? Why do “Happy Meals” make children so happy? Why is a Mc Donald’s birthday party every child’s dream? Why is there a McDonald’s yellow “M” sign in almost every city you go to, and why are they almost about everywhere within the grounds of the cities you visit?

Most importantly, why is McDonald’s making so much money even though they do not make the best burger?

I am sure that I may not be the first one to say it. But McDonald’s do know how to sell a good system.
It is this system that ensures that even if the McDonald’s restaurant ran out of pre-prepared burgers to server you, you will get yours’, piping hot, within 5 to 15 minutes. It is this system which ensures that the fries you are eating is of the right length, and that you will find it hard to resist taking another piece of fried potato until the paper container is empty. It is this system which ensures that the same burger that you eat in one state taste the same as the burger with the same name in another state.

Then again, even with a very good system in place. Did McDonald’s ever stop innovating? Does McDonald’s only sell its Big Mac and Fillet O fish, which I am sure, are all time favorite item? Did McDonald’s every stop trying to add something new to the menu? Did McDonald’s ever stop trying to add some spices to its ever popular French fries?

Nope. I do not see it happening.

Even though Mc Donald’s already have a very good franchise system in place, it did not stop there. When the management thinks that their customers may want to consume more of the golden fries they are so proud of, they introduced the “Super Size” option, on top of their regular up-size options. When the managements realize that certain groups of their customers may be more health conscious, they introduced the lighter sides and the chicken fold-over.

With these add-ons, are Mc Donald’s satisfied?

NO!!!

In order to make their presence almost omnipotent, they make sure that their advertisements are seen by the millions each day. They make sure that Mc Donald’s is on people’s minds whenever they are hungry. Instead of stopping at making ice-cream machine, Mc Donald’s became more well known for making great tasting burgers and golden fries. Instead of stopping in America, they shipped their franchise out to other countries, and now, they are everywhere.

Did McDonald’s stop innovating after all those successes? NO!!! In fact, McDonald’s created more branches, created more items. And now, they are trying to sell their empty employee seats to hopeful job seekers, so that they can expand their employee base to serve their customers better.

Therefore, never be complacence, especially so when you are earning big money, and is enjoying the fruit of your idea or business. Take the lesson of multi-national brand names like IBM to heart and learn from them, since they demonstrates that even strong, multi-national companies can fall if the managements are not careful enough.

Title: Copycat Marketing 101

Author: Burke hedges

In a nut shell:

A book essential for anyone who wants to know how wealth creation tools works

In a paragraph:

Small book, 116 pages, condensed material, right to the point. What more can you ask for? This is a book which explains the mechanisms that makes millions rich. From the average saver, smart savers, investors, and finally business owners, this book explains what makes them tick. It explains how the money flows into pockets of the rich, and also how it also limits their growth eventually.

 

Full review:

This book is small, and compact. I actually finished in within an hour. Amazing it may seemed, this book is another “pocket sized” book which you can actually bring anywhere, and also read anywhere. It do not contain a ton of information due to its size, but it is a book good for someone who wants to know how to make money, but who do not really have the time to read extensively. This book is also cheap, as it only cost USD$5.95 at the time of writing on Amazon.com. The back of the book actually shows the reader a good idea of what the book is about, since in 116 pages, the author does not really have too much room to expand on his idea.

The book had been around for a while at the time of writing this review, but much of what the book is on had not changed much. Issues about being the top 5% and the other 95%, meaning of wealth, income creation versus wealth creation as well as being a slave to money are discussed in this compact book, and the relevant solutions are presented as well. Without a doubt, this book, ultimately is written to promote Network Marketing.

Yes, you hear me right. After discussing many solutions to the problem of being poor, the discussion finally leads to the ultimate solution of our time: Network Marketing, or so as the book says. Although that the title of the book may have already suggested the focus of the book will ultimately point to Network Marketing, those who are not familiar to Network Marketing may think otherwise. To be fair, the book actually presented other solutions, like compounding interests, owning a business, and also franchising, the ultimate solution the author suggested is Network marketing.  Much like other books, this book only presents their ultimate focus in the light, while never discussing whether there is anything wrong with Network Marketing.

Well, since Network Marketing is still around after such a long time, it will never hurt to pick up this book to learn something from the author. Who knows, maybe you can be the next top Network Marketer, someone who will read this book review from the suite of the A380.