Learning From Saddam
Issue #2109
- WEALTHY: Why you should keep out of Chile, Poland, and Brazil (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: 5 warning signs that could save the life of someone you love (Jon Herring)
- WISE: Aristotle on wisdom
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Prevent yourself from making "The Big Mistake" in 4 steps (Robert Ringer)
- Do we care who advertises in ETR? (Michael Masterson)
- It’s Good to Know… about your printer
- Add "obtrude" to your vocabulary
He’d Have Called Them Crazy - Or Worse!
With the Internet, it’s now possible to spend no more than a few dollars, write a couple of very basic ads, and have instant access to millions of potential customers all in a matter of minutes.
If anyone had told Jim Sheridan he could bank thousands in just 24 hours… without any product of his own… without spending a penny on getting it or promoting it, he’d have justifiably said they were nuts.
But Jim made a decision that he would overcome his skeptical nature and give it a go. Boy, is he glad he did! That one deal alone banked him $187,296 in one day.
Take a look at how Jim brought in over $187,000 in a single day!
- Patrick Coffey
When Higher Doesn’t Mean Better
Is the smart money the $3 billion that poured into emerging-market mutual funds during the first six months of the year? Or is it the $2.7 billion that was pulled out at the end of May and into June when emerging-market stocks went through a correction? If you don’t know, you could be putting the savings you socked away in mutual funds at risk.
Emerging markets are the rage right now - so much so that several markets in Asia and elsewhere are approaching or exceeding new highs. Big deal. If you weren’t invested in those markets, you made zilch. The question for you now is: What will these markets do tomorrow and the following day?
The answer: Not much. Their market valuations are hitting highs, and now average the same price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) as U.S. markets - 16. They used to go for a huge discount (meaning a much lower P/E) compared to U.S. stocks, because that extra zip you get from growth comes with a warning label: Watch out for a lack of transparency, fewer shareholder rights, weak law enforcement, potential for price manipulation, and low liquidity and huge volatility.
Emerging-market stocks shouldn’t be worth as much as American stocks, but they are. Investing now in these markets is tantamount to overpaying.
The most overpriced and/or potentially volatile markets are Brazil, India, Mexico, Malaysia, Poland, Chile, Turkey, Hungary, and South Africa. Make sure your international mutual funds don’t have more than 10 percent of their holdings in any of these countries. If they do, reduce your investments in those funds immediately.
[Ed. Note: Andrew Gordon, ETR’s Investment Director, has authored several books on energy markets, global countertrade practices, and the hot growth sectors of China and Russia. A former professor of marketing and finance, he is the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]
"There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man."
Aristotle
Learning From Saddam
I’ve always thought I’d be a much smarter tyrant than Saddam Hussein. Now I’m sure of it. When I watched his executioners place a rope around his neck back on December 30, I have to admit I was thinking, "I told you so." Ever since the U.S. invaded Iraq to save the Kuwaitis, pundits have labeled Saddam "the master of miscalculation." After watching him in that memorable execution video, however, I think it would be more appropriate to refer to him as the master of The Big Mistake.
To quote myself from a previous ETR article: "Some Big Mistakes are made impulsively, on the spur of the moment, while others are made after considerable reflection. In the latter case, the problem usually is that the person allows his intellect to get trampled by his emotions." In reflecting on Saddam’s error in judgment, I realize now that I should have said "… the problem usually is that the person allows his intellect to get trampled by his emotions and/or ego."
In thinking about Saddam’s freefall from a large collection of sumptuous palaces to a small prison cell and a death sentence, I’m still dumbfounded by the magnitude of his mistake. Just as he had done in 1990, Saddam gambled that the U.S. wouldn’t cross the Atlantic and kick butt. He probably assumed that Cowboy George would follow his dad’s lead and let Saddam off the hook. Unfortunately for Saddam, it was not to be. George was prepared to do whatever it took, including looking into every spider hole in Iraq, to find the fearsome Saddam.
Saddam’s is the ultimate Big Mistake. All he needed to do was let the U.N. inspectors flit around Iraq and pretend they were looking for WMDs, and the civilized world would have allowed him to continue to plunder and torture his people at will. Even if he had WMDs at the time, he could have simply let the U.N. destroy them - or ship them to Syria, which is quite possibly what he ended up doing anyway.
By contrast, Muammar Qaddafi apparently remembered the lessons of history (a Reagan missile zooming over his dining room table in 1986) and factored those lessons into his decision-making process. Qaddafi is purported to have asked a high-ranking State Department official if he would meet the same fate as Saddam if Libya terminated its nuclear program. The official assured him that if Libya went the no-nuke route, the U.S. wouldn’t bother him. Apparently pleased to hear this, he decided to become a role model for Libyan Boy Scouts. In other words, at the moment of truth, Qaddafi’s intellect overrode his emotions and ego. Which, in turn, led to his not making The Big Mistake.
As a reminder to yourself of the importance of avoiding The Big Mistake, you need only pay close attention to the daily news. It’s amazing how many stories are a direct result of The Big Mistake - like gaming-industry magnate Steve Wynn accidentally punching a hole through a $139 million Picasso with his elbow… Barry Bonds (tears, tears, and more tears)… and crocodile pal Steve Irwin (maybe?).
Unfortunately, there is no foolproof way to avoid making The Big Mistake, but a method that I find works very well is what I refer to as "looking backward from the future." Here’s how it works:
- Project yourself into the future before you act.
- Picture the worst possible consequences of your actions.
- Pretend to look over your shoulder from the future - at where you are today.
- If Step 2 is much worse than what you see in Step 3, you would be wise to rethink your plans. Put another way, if you’re not prepared to live with the worst-possible consequences of your contemplated action, take a pass.
I don’t mean to imply that you shouldn’t take risks. Risk is an integral part of success. But so is moderation, which is why you should always add it to the risk equation. Reasonable risk is a necessity for getting ahead in life; unreasonable risk is foolish.
By employing the looking-backward-from-the-future method, I’ve been able to avoid the "excitement" of engaging in dubious activities such as jumping out of airplanes - with or without a parachute. Given that I don’t have wings, I don’t like the downside of that particular activity. When the worst possible consequence of your contemplated action is death, you’re in danger of making The Big Mistake. And that, of course, includes financial death.
Just something to think about it.
[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.]
How To Make 24% Gains Just By Paying Taxes
Earning 16% to 24% interest through a low-risk and low-maintenance investment is rare to say the least. But that’s exactly what tax liens can offer. And yet the high returns and passive nature of the investment are just the first of many unique advantages tax liens have.
At the same time, you could end up with a bonus of owning the underlying property itself… for profits in the hundreds, even thousands of percent. No other investment can quite match that!
Sincerely,
Justin Ford
In Case You’re Wondering About ETR’s Outside-Advertiser Policy…
ETR reader Steve Papale in Deerfield, IL recently wrote in with a question that may have crossed your mind, too. "How do you screen advertisers in ETR?" he asks. "Do you or ETR endorse or stand behind their products?"
I don’t get involved in the process of accepting advertisements anymore, because I am no longer running ETR. MaryEllen Tribby is. But I know that MaryEllen has continued the policy that I established when ETR was beginning and I was in charge - and that is this: We stand behind everything that we sell in ETR.
That means if you are ever dissatisfied with anything you buy, you can get a full money-back refund. When we accept advertisements in ETR, we insist that no-questions-asked refunds are given. But if, for any reason, one of our advertisers does not give you a refund, ETR would.
So you can rest assured that if you are not happy with what you buy from or through us, it won’t cost you any money.
It may cost you time. And that we cannot refund. The products we sell are, for the most part, programs and books and courses designed to help you make your life healthier, wealthier, and wiser. We won’t advertise anything we don’t like… but that doesn’t mean everything we advertise will work for or appeal to you.
So you have to exercise your judgment when making buying decisions from us, just as you do when you see advertisements in other reputable publications. Since your time is very valuable, you want to invest it for the maximum return. Investing in ETR-advertised products is generally a good idea, since they are designed to give you a very good return on that investment.
But to minimize your chances of wasting your time on an advertised product, do this:
- When you buy the product, write a short memorandum to yourself in which you indicate the specific benefits you hope to get from it.
- When the product arrives, scrutinize it (using the memo), and compare what you have before you with what you expected. If it doesn’t measure up, return it.
- If it looks pretty good, look at it again. If it’s an information product, take the time to understand its contents as quickly as you can by reviewing the table of contents, the index, and the chapter headings. Then do a quick run through the first paragraph of each chapter. Based on that review, write down a set of specific learning objectives for yourself. This will be your guide for using the product profitably.
- Start with the objective that most interests you - not necessarily the first one - and keep at it until you feel you have achieved it. Afterward, assess the time you invested in doing that and the reward you received. If the return on the investment of your time seems too small, return the product and get your money back.
I hope you never return a single thing. I hope that every dollar and hour you spend with ETR will be enriching. MaryEllen is dedicated to making my hopes realities - and ETR will stand behind her efforts to make that happen.
Is It a Stroke? How Can You Tell?
By Jon Herring
Two weeks ago, I woke up to an urgent phone call from my brother. My father had suffered a stroke. The good news was that he was alive and his speech and cognition were intact. The bad news was that he had only limited movement of his arms and legs.
Within a few hours, I was in Nashville, at my father’s bedside. He was weak and delirious, but happy to have his family close by. And over the next several days, he began to regain control of his hands and feet, and later his arms and legs.
Five days after he was admitted, my father walked out of the hospital under his own power. And while he was barely able to hold a fork or shave with his dominant hand that first week, he wrote me a note before I left with barely any change in his handwriting. Even his doctors expressed amazement at his recovery.
I attribute his remarkable recovery to three things: (1) As a former nurse, my stepmother recognized the symptoms immediately. (2) He was transported to the hospital rapidly and within a short time after the stroke occurred. And (3) he received first-class emergency medical care.
The symptoms of my father’s stroke were obvious: He couldn’t move his arms or legs. But would you be able to recognize less severe, but no less dangerous, stroke symptoms? Someday, you might have to. Here are the most common warning signs:
- Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause
When a stroke occurs, every second counts. Time lost is brain tissue lost. So if you (or someone you know) have any of these symptoms, call 911 immediately. It could very well mean the difference between a full recovery and permanent disability, or even death.
It’s Good to Know: Your Printer Could Be Lying to You
Wait! Don’t throw out that ink cartridge, even if the indicator on your printer or computer is telling you it’s empty. A recent study has found that in some cases, depending on the model, a cartridge was still half-full of ink when the printer reported that it had run out. (Epson printers and one HP inkjet model included in the study had "ink efficiency" levels of 80 percent, while a Kodak EasyShare printer had an "ink efficiency" level of only 40 percent.)
To make sure you don’t toss a good cartridge, experts recommend that you keep printing until you notice a drop in quality.
(Source: PC World)
The Internet Money-Making Secret of a Desperate Housewife.
More bills than money. Dave, bless his heart, was trying, but he just couldn’t keep their heads above water.
Vicky and her husband Dave were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Vicky couldn’t stand to see the pain on Dave’s face.
That night fate intervened… Vicky got her hands on something very special.
What she saw changed her life… forever!
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Obtrude
To "obtrude" (ub-TROOD) - from the Latin for "to thrust upon" - is to force or impose yourself, your opinions, etc. on others.
Example (as used by Alden Whitman in The New York Times): "[Charles Lindbergh] was, in his relationships with his few close friends, a considerate, delightful, sensitive, helpful, unpretentious person who did not obtrude his social and political views, nor make agreeing with them a condition of steadfast friendship."
[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 LibraryW700H156.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007