More on Taming Dinosaurs
Issue #1999
- WEALTHY: How one man turned Vegas into a giant (Robert Ringer)
- HEALTHY: That spare tire around your tummy - your fault? (Jon Herring)
- WISE: Johnny Weissmuller on willpower
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- How paying 25% of last year’s taxes can keep you out of trouble (Eric Taylor)
- Michael Masterson on his "Ready, Fire, Aim" philosophy
- It’s Good to Know… how we have grown!
- Add "bailiwick" to your vocabulary
An Exciting Opportunity To Take Advantage Of A Trillion-Dollar Industry
Of the many paths to wealth, there is only one that Michael Masterson most consistently recommends to his closest friends and relatives.
It has all the advantages you want if you’re starting from scratch: simplicity, privacy, an extremely low entry cost and a huge and growing potential for wealth building.
But one word of caution – your best chance to get in expires in just a few hours…
What am I talking about? Michael himself explains here.
- Patrick Coffey
"With but few exceptions, it is always the underdog who wins through sheer willpower."
Johnny Weissmuller
More on Taming Dinosaurs
By Robert Ringer
In my last article for ETR, I told you how Leonard Riggio of Barnes & Noble fame proved that every industry is vulnerable to resourceful entrepreneurs.
Today, let’s talk about the similar effect a young upstart named Steve Wynn had on Las Vegas.
Are you old enough to remember Las Vegas? I’m not talking about today’s Las Vegas - tract homes thrown up like mud huts with tile roofs… traffic jams that rival those in New York, Chicago, and L.A…. and giant gaming corporations that are in total control of anything - and everything - that goes on there.
When I refer to Las Vegas, I’m talking about the original Las Vegas - the one where men wore coats and ties and women wore fine dresses in the casinos and hotel restaurants. In those days, if you wanted to sit in the front row to see a puffy Elvis perform in his Col. Sanders outfit, you slipped the maitre d’ 50 bucks and were immediately ushered in and taken to a stage-side table. If you liked a touch of class with your corruption, Vegas was the place to be.
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. would make surprise appearances at each other’s shows, blowing smoke rings, sipping booze, and spontaneously yukking it up on stage. Talk about the good old days - Vegas in the sixties, seventies, and early eighties was the embodiment of that phrase.
Then, along came Steve Wynn. Many credit Howard Hughes with the corporatization of Las Vegas, but the reality is that Hughes was so drugged out in the late sixties that he probably thought he was still in Nicaragua while lying in his bed on the top floor of the Desert Inn Hotel.
Wynn, however, knew exactly what was going on in Sin City, and he had a vision of a very different kind of Las Vegas - a rigidly corporate desert oasis structured for the masses. The son of a compulsive gambler, this Baltimore native somehow negotiated his way into owning a piece of the Golden Nugget in the seedy downtown.
After converting the property into a luxury hotel, Wynn mounted a full-scale attack on The Strip itself. He opened The Mirage in 1989, and followed that in 1993 with the ultra-tacky Treasure Island right next door. Then, in 1998, he went to the head of the class - as in first-class - and built every socialist’s nightmare, the Bellagio, a structure so sumptuous that even Saddam would have been happy to count it among his palaces.
The paintings in the Bellagio’s art gallery cost more than it cost to build an entire Vegas hotel in the good old days. But long before he built the Bellagio, Wynn had already succeeded in forcing the gaming industry in Vegas to conform to his corporate-structure model.
Once he landed on The Strip, it took him just a few short years to eliminate the old maitre d’ bribery (er, tipping) system and replace it with tightly controlled theaters where people were given only one choice: Buy a ticket for a specific seat or stay outside. Worse, he turned Vegas into a come-one, come-all town - "Bring your paycheck, and preferably as much of your dwindling savings as possible, and your whole family is welcome."
The coats and ties are now a distant memory. In their place are sloppy fitting Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts made in Pakistan, even sloppier khaki shorts made in the Philippines, and an army of fast-food-bloated bodies parading around in them.
This army consists of everyday Americans who part with most, if not all, of their money inside the casinos, then wander aimlessly up and down The Strip in search of fun that doesn’t exist. "Gee, Maude, it all looked so exciting in those TV commercials we saw back in Des Moines." Funny how having your last dollar extracted from your wallet seems to take the fun out of everything.
In 2000, Wynn sold his Mirage Resorts group of hotel casinos to MGM and became a billionaire. In case you aren’t familiar with the big players in Vegas, MGM’s largest shareholder is Kirk Kerkorian, who seems intent on making Howard Hughes’ hotel-buying spree in the late sixties look like a game of Monopoly. It’s no wonder Kerkorian is in such a hurry. At the tender age of 89, he probably doesn’t have more than 10 years left to take control of every hotel-casino in the city.
What Wynn accomplished in a town where Bugsy Siegel and The Mob once called the shots is about as easy as taming a dinosaur. He got his foot inside the door (Entrepreneurial Step No. 1) through his minority stake in the Golden Nugget. Then - slowly, at first - he started to manipulate the entire industry to his way of thinking.
I don’t know whether Wynn began with a grandiose plan to change the way Vegas operates or if events just sort of unfolded for him as things went along. Either way, Wynn’s success in bending the desert Establishment to his way of thinking was a remarkable entrepreneurial achievement.
Which brings me to you. Are the companies at the top of your industry arrogant and lethargic? Probably.
If so, think about going against the grain and doing things differently - or, even better, exactly the opposite of the way the big guys have been doing them for years. But don’t spend too much time thinking. Instead, like Leonard Riggio and Steve Wynn, take action. Move quickly, quietly, and relentlessly, and you may be surprised to discover just how vulnerable the major players in your industry are.
Bill Gates did it to IBM and the rest of the computer industry. Now Google is trying to tame Microsoft and Microsoft’s worst enemies. And, at this very moment, there are young dinosaur tamers - in many ways just fresh incarnations of Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin - working out of their home offices and plotting how to tame Google.
Pretty exciting century we’re living in, isn’t it? Why not make a commitment to yourself to be in on the excitement?
[Ed. Note: Take a gigantic step toward achieving all your personal and professional goals - faster than you ever imagined - with Robert Ringer’s best-selling personal-development program. And sign up for his Voice of Sanity e-letter here.]
One Proven Secret to Investing Success
It is rare thing to find an investment where everything lines up – where the technicals, the fundamentals and investor sentiment are all in your favor. When this happens, the probability is extremely high that you have a winner on your hands.
This is what I call the “Sweet Spot” of investing. Trades like these don’t come along every day. But when they do, the gains can add up very quickly. And now there is a service that can help you uncover these rare gems in the market. It’s called Triple Wave Investor… click here to learn more.
Tax Tip: Quarterly Taxes - an Easy Way to Avoid an IRS Penalty
By Eric Taylor, CPA
It’s tough for people who are self-employed to predict their earnings. Despite that fact, the IRS requires them to pay a quarterly estimated tax. And if you underpay, they hit you with a penalty. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to make sure you never find yourself in that situation. Here’s how:
If you expect to earn more less than $150,000, pay 25 percent of your previous year’s actual tax obligation every quarter. (If you expect to earn more than $150,000, make it 27.5 percent.) Do that and the IRS calls it good enough - even if you still end up owing a significant amount of money.
[Ed. Note: CPA Eric Taylor specializes in taxation and business development and is certified to represent his clients before the IRS. Listen to Eric’s recent teleconference for more Smart Money-Saving Tax Strategies for Freelancers and get a free copy of The Writer’s Tax Guide: A Money-Saving Manual for Travel Writers and Other Freelancers.]
Are Some People Programmed For Obesity?
By Jon Herring
The majority of people who are overweight or obese (from what I’ve observed) become that way due to lifestyle choices - an improper diet combined with not enough physical activity. But there is no doubt that some people are more inclined to gain weight, while others can eat just about anything, never exercise, and not gain a pound. So is your fat your fault?
New evidence suggests that common endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastics and pesticides could "program" some people to be obese from birth.
Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences in the Endocrine Disrupters Group at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has extensively studied the effects of these chemicals on mice. He has shown that exposure causes the mice to be born at very low birth weights and then gain abnormally large amounts of weight in a short period of time. These mice are then far more likely to be obese throughout their lives.
Studies of low-birth-weight children have shown similar results. According to vom Saal, "The babies are born with a low body weight and a metabolic system that’s been programmed for starvation. This is called a ‘thrifty phenotype,’ a system designed to maximize the use of all food taken into the body. The problem comes when the baby isn’t born into a world of starvation, but into a world of fast-food restaurants and fatty foods."
This research reaffirms what we’ve been telling you for years: You should avoid exposure to chemicals whenever possible, and definitely avoid heating foods or liquids in plastic containers.
But don’t get the idea that you are not responsible for your own health and weight. Being "programmed" for obesity does not mean you’re doomed to a life of fat and health problems. There are countless examples of people who were, at one time, hundreds of pounds overweight and, through effort and determination, reached their ideal weight and transformed their health.
If you have a metabolic system that requires a stricter diet and more activity to maintain a healthy weight, accept that fact and do what it takes to achieve your goal.
Treasures From the ETR Archives: Michael Masterson on His "Ready, Fire, Aim" Philosophy
[Ed. Note: Our mission at ETR is to help you reach all your goals - and to celebrate our upcoming Issue #2000, we are presenting you with some of Michael Masterson’s most powerful, life-changing messages to date. To read each full article, click the link embedded in the text.]
"Think about how many good ideas you have had or been a part of in the past, either in casual conversation, in business meetings, or at conferences and trade shows. How many of them did you execute? And how many somehow slipped away?
"To keep a good idea going forward, you can’t leave it alone. You need to exert a lot of good force behind it right away, and then you have to keep that force building as time moves on. Getting a jump on the idea as soon as you get it creates the initial force… and getting specific tasks accomplished to propel it forward, even if they aren’t done perfectly, adds to it."
* * * * *
"When you create something - a business, a book, a wedding, or a craft project - you have to make countless decisions that involve speed and excellence. By opting for speed, you create action - and action gives you the momentum you need to get your goal accomplished. By opting for excellence, you can create something that is better than what everyone else is creating… and, in business, that can put you ahead of your competition.
"Longtime readers of ETR will not be surprised to hear that, particularly in business, I favor speed over excellence - at least, in the beginning. Ready. Fire. Aim. That’s my motto. Figure out - quickly - if the idea is worth testing. (Ready.) Test it. (Fire.) If it works but only marginally, kill it or fix it. (Aim.) Then move on to the next thing.
"If you don’t get things going quickly and keep them going, you will find that progress on the business you are starting (or the trip you are planning… or the poem you are writing … or the garden you are planting) will slow and eventually stall. But if all you care about is speed, your business will eventually face another terminal danger. If the quality of your product and/or service starts out as ‘okay’ and doesn’t get better, you will have a very hard time ’selling’ it to the world. They will recognize (even if you don’t) the mediocrity you have created and will look elsewhere for something similar but better."
* * * * *
"You don’t need to get your ideas sanded and polished to find out if they make sense. If completing a project to perfection takes 100 hours and getting the basic idea down on paper (so that everyone can understand it) takes 10 hours, FIRE after you’ve invested 10 hours.
* * * * *
"The knowledge you need to be successful will come to you only after you’ve started. Thus, you must be prepared to start before you are ready. Or, as I have put it in several earlier ETR messages: Ready. Fire. Aim.
"I had the same experience when we launched Early to Rise. I didn’t know exactly how I could make any money sending it out, but I wanted to do it and people were telling me to do it… so, one day, I just plunged in. I knew then about one-tenth of what I do now, but, fortunately, it was just enough to get started. Since then, the ETR team and I have made a thousand changes and improvements as we’ve learned this ‘business.’ Those improvements have made our work easier and more profitable. The future for ETR is very promising.
"But if I had waited until I had ‘enough knowledge,’ I’d still be waiting."
* * * * *
"Growing businesses create hundreds - even thousands - of opportunities for decisions. Some are large. Some are small. Some are critical. Some are insignificant. When you put them all together they determine your success or failure.
"To make your business grow up fast and strong you have to become very good at making these decisions. You need to develop a skill at figuring out, first of all, which decisions to make yourself, which to delegate, and which to ignore completely.
[Ed. Note: Learn how you can be part of an exclusive group of 25 to 50 ambitious businesspeople that Michael will be leading through an elite 5-day program that can help you dramatically increase the profitability of your business here.]
ETR Contributors Weigh In On Our 2000th Issue Celebration: "One of the most important principles that Michael Masterson has espoused is ‘Ready, Fire, Aim.’"
"I’ve been an avid ETR reader almost since its inception, and have been an editorial contributor for a little over three years. While there’s no doubt that the constant daily reading of ETR continues to make me more educated and motivated in terms of being successful in life, there is one lesson ETR has taught me that I consider to be continually valuable.
"One of the most important principles that Michael Masterson has espoused on more than one occasion is ‘Ready, Fire, Aim.’ I’ve repeatedly found that following this strategy of coming up with an idea and going for it without delay has rewarded me with a multitude of business successes."
Paul Lawrence - creator of ETR’s Quick and Easy Microbusiness System and ETR contributor.
ETR Issue #2000 Celebration - It’s Good to Know: How We Have Grown!
Since Michael Masterson launched Early to Rise 2,486 days ago, readers have been requesting specific information on the subjects he’s covered. As a result, ETR has grown into far more than a daily e-letter. We’ve spun off dozens of services, programs, books, and special reports, some of which are on sale now through Wednesday.:
- Direct Marketing Masters Edition (edited by Bob Bly)
- ETR’s Goal-Setting Program
- Main Street Millionaire (edited by Justin Ford)
- American Consultant’s League
- Quick and Easy Microbusiness System (created by Paul Lawrence)
- Profit Center Dispatch (edited by Marc Charles)
- The Wealth Advantage (edited by Andrew Gordon)
- INCOME (edited by Andrew Gordon)
- Investor’s Daily Edge (edited by Jon Lewis)
- ETF Options Trader (edited by Rick Pendergraft)
Turn YOUR Brain into an Idea-Generating Cash Machine
Want to know the same secrets that McDonald’s Ray Kroc, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos use every day to keep their businesses at the top of their game?
It’s the most valuable money-making secret on the planet and the easiest to convert to cold, hard cash…
Take advantage of this unique method, made easy by a million-dollar idea superstar today!
Word to the Wise: Bailiwick
A "bailiwick" (BAY-luh-wik) is the district over which a bailiff has jurisdiction. The word is used figuratively to refer to a person’s specific area of authority, interest, or skill.
Example (as used by Sue Grafton in "L" Is for Lawless: "I’ll give it a try, but this is not my bailiwick."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker… build your self-confidence and intellect… increase your attractiveness to others… just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library, on-sale now through the 28th to celebrate the 2000th issue of ETR.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007