Robin J. Elliott: Joint Ventures with the Prophet of Profit, Training, Strategic Alliances

“The thinnest human hair is half a million angstroms thick. Typing paper is a million angstroms. Yet the layer of quicksilver that turns plate glass into a mirror is only 700 angstroms thick. It would take 714 such layers to equal the thickness of a hair, yet it’s this impossibly thin layer that reflects a woman’s beauty. Beauty may only be skin deep, but the reflection of that beauty is one seven-hundredth of a hair.” – Roy H. Williams

Gnarled, nicotine-stained fingers type lies and false promises and onto a filthy keyboard somewhere, and you eagerly send your hard-earned money into the void. Not everything you read on the Internet is true. It’s an electric impulse from the electric impulse in someone’s twisted mind. As Christopher Hitchens would say, “…a plagiarism of a plagiarism off a hearsay of a hearsay, of an illusion of an illusion. extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents.”

My message is simple: when faced with exceedingly exciting offers and claims that urge you to feverishly grab your credit card and buy chocolate-covered dung before it sells out, whether at a seminar or as a result of reading tripe on the Internet, check out the facts in the real world. Do your due diligence. North America is the capital of BS – people have learned to lie in a very convincing fashion with no consequence. The worst conman leaps around on a stage and whips the sheeple up into a buying frenzy, and they thank him after being viciously fleeced. Be especially careful of “investments,” “consultants” or “coaches”, and “business opportunities”.

It’s worth kissing a few more frogs to find that prince. Don’t be so impatient that you marry a toad. Don’t bet your future on the message in a stale fortune cookie; there are some great, genuine opportunities out there.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If nature allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

And we could never fly…

I grew up poor. When I saw how rich people lived, I decided to get rich. I learned from rich people how to get rich – that kind of made sense to me. To master a skill, you have to learn about it. One of the most effective explanations of money that I have ever read is this excerpt from my favorite book by Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”.

In Wayne Dunn’s exceptional article, “An Open Letter to Businesspeople“, he clearly teaches us how to regard money and business in a sane, rational way that will pave the way to your success. The prevailing socialist view of business and money keeps people enslaved in jobs and debt, since they eagerly consume the garbage they’re fed by their collectivist masters. By understanding how money and value work, you can break free from group-think and scarcity conditioning.

When we change the way we think about money, we adjust our expectations, values, and choices accordingly. By rethinking our conditioning and questioning the tripe we have been sold by the mystics and politicians, we can discover a whole new world of abundance, opportunity, and prosperity. Jim Addison wisely warned us not to take advice from people who are more screwed up than we are. I would like to add that it is always prudent to question the motives of those who would teach you. Jim Stoval said we should be careful to learn only from those who already have what we want. I agree. Poor people cannot teach one how to attain wealth, and cretinous has-beens, of whom I have met far too many, should be avoided like the plague; the chips on their shoulders are lethal weapons.

Michael Roach, a monk who helped build a $100 million business, is the author of The Diamond Cutter, in which he shows how he studied the diamond business in order to successfully apply his philosophy to it. Without defending the seeming contradiction between perceived mysticism and capitalism here, my point is that he studied the business in order to excel in it, and his underlying philosophy is one of limitlessness.

When Michelangelo sculpted the David, it is said that he studied the marble block for months before he even touched it. He “saw” the David imprisoned within the marble and he chipped the marble away to liberate his masterpiece. I have spent a lot of time reading about escapes by prisoners of war. One of the most important aspects of the escape was studying the prison or concentration camp, the movements of the guards, and the way things worked. We need to study in order to escape mediocrity and financial limitations.

Finally, the philosophy of wealth can only be learned by those who would put aside their preconceived ides, prejudices, and assumptions. One’s conditioning takes some taming, but the rewards are endless.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

Highly recommended read: Why Businessmen Love Atlas Shrugged by Alex Epstein

We’ve all found ourselves in difficult financial situations, and we all know how fiscal pressure can tempt one to lower one’s standards and compromise in certain areas out of simple desperation and the urgency of the moment. And we have all found out how that backfires. Like a wild animal, money runs away when you chase it; you have to lure it, entice it, attract it with value, and never compromise your standards.

When we’re feeling down and the wolf is scratching at the door, it’s natural to “sell down” – we approach other broke and frantic people instead of “Selling up” – seeking out people who are more successful than we are at the time. Note I said, “at the time.” Being broke is a temporary situation – remember that. Everyone has been there, and there’s no shame in facing the odd storm; it’s HOW you face the storm and the reactions you choose under fire that will determine how long the storm lasts. You get to know yourself and others under pressure; you find out how tough and motivated you really are.

The key to turning around a difficult cash flow predicament is to get a strong trunk out of the basement, find a solid lock to put on it, and stuff your bruised ego and emotionalism into that trunk until you recover. Being objective and clear-headed is essential and that’s where it’s valuable to have access to an objective, successful mentor or friend who can keep you from rushing out and making a fool of yourself. Desperate salespeople seldom make sales, but they do make a lot of enemies.

Be prepared to walk away from any deal, be low-key, remain relaxed, professional, urbane, and at ease. When I ran a hotel for a smart hotelier who was an even smarter entrepreneur, he told me, “Robin, no matter how urgent a matter is, even if the hotel is on fire or the chef is murdering yet another waiter, you must NEVER RUN. You will walk in a stately manner, like a gentleman taking his leisurely constitutional. Be professional and in control at all times, since you set the example and the standard for the entire staff and the guests.”

Most important, don’t hide from your creditors. Keep contact, offer payment schemes, communicate, and remain confident and self-assured at all times. Think big, be flexible, and take the advice of your mentors, but don’t do silly things that will haunt you for year. Create the value that will attract the money. Discipline yourself to be patient and consistent, an the money will come.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com