How to Defeat the Insidious Green Monster
Issue #2135
- WEALTHY: Economic reports with good news… bad for the market? (R. Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Calories aren’t the enemy! (Shane Ellison)
- WISE: Helmut Schoeck on envy
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- On your way up, don’t let them drag you down (Michael Masterson)
- Egos and copywriting don’t mix (Monica Day)
- It’s Good to Know… if you’re a cyberchondriac
- Add "gauche" to your vocabulary
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Because of that low cost-of-entry and growth potential, it is the ideal vehicle for getting wealthy in the 21st century. Whether you intend to make your fortune on your own (as an entrepreneur) or within the context of a corporate environment (as an intrapreneur), taking advantage of these forces is the best and easiest way to achieve fast success and acquire great wealth.
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- Patrick Coffey
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Market Action and Economic News Don’t Always Move Together
Knowing the way the market’s going to act is an instant moneymaker. And the one thing you can safely predict is that the market doesn’t always do what you’d expect it to.
Case in point #1: Two economic reports were released recently that indicated that the U.S. economy is improving. The first was the second-quarter GDP report (released on July 27), which showed that the economy grew at a 3.4 percent pace for the quarter, a drastic improvement over the first quarter when the economy grew at a dismal 0.6 percent.
The second report was the Core PCE Inflation report for June (reported on July 31), which showed that price pressures are easing and that the year over year rate of inflation was at its lowest level since March 2004 (1.9 percent).
You might think that this news would have caused the stock market to move higher - but in each instance, the market moved lower on the day the report came out. This happened because investors were focused instead on their concerns about the housing and mortgage markets.
Case in point #2: When the first quarter GDP report came out in April, the stock market was in the midst of a strong rally from early March to mid-July. The weak report did little to slow the rally despite the fact that, at that point, the year over year inflation rate was at 2.3 percent.
Knowing that the market and economic reports aren’t always in sync can help save you money. Don’t base your investing decisions on economic reports. Instead of making a trade the instant those reports come out based on how you’d expect the market to react, base your moves on other factors, including the sentiment toward the stock, the price action of the stock, and the fundamentals of the stock.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft is a market expert and two-time winner of the "Top Trader" award at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. In ETR’s free e-zine, Investor’s Daily Edge, Rick and a select group of market specialists will give you to-the-point analyses and tell you how you should act TODAY to make the most money with the least risk.]
"The envious man thinks that if his neighbor breaks a leg, he will be able to walk better himself."
Helmut Schoeck
How to Defeat the Insidious Green Monster
ETR reader Greg A. wants to know how to deal with "family or friends that seem to want you to fail… if a great break in your plan to future success happens, and you tell everyone the good news, and half of them act bitter and discouraging."
Unfortunately, envy is about as commonplace as crabgrass, though not as easy to spot. But you can defeat it - once you learn how to recognize it.
As you become more successful, the people who know you will change in two ways. First, they will begin to think of you as smarter than they do now. Second, they will sometimes resent your good fortune.
You will probably notice the first - your new intellectual status. Friends will seek your advice and treat it seriously. Siblings will come to you for help. Colleagues and competitors will nod in studied contemplation when you make an offhand remark about business. (Well, not always - but it will happen. And you’re probably going to like it.)
You won’t notice - at least most of the time - the resentment your accomplishments will stir up. You may be kidded now and then about your financial status. You may hear self-deprecatory comparisons. ("It isn’t big money to you, but…") Every once in a great while, you’ll be stung by a zinger. I remember being lambasted for my penchant for expensive cigar lighters ("You think you’re too good for a Bic?") and denounced for my tax bracket ("People like you can afford to pay 41 percent, so they should").
You may be shocked to learn how widespread envy is. In fact, it may floor you to discover that some of your closest relations - partners, family members, and old friends - bear the greatest resentment.
Envy damages the person who feels it, but it can hurt the person envied too. Not the envy itself, but the actions and lack of action that can result from it. And most people - both the enviers and the envied - aren’t even aware of it.
I am always surprised when I discover that someone is envious of me, because I have never felt envious of others. How is it that I, a man who has admitted to many other sins in my lifetime, managed to be free of this one? Because, to feel envy, you must:
- Want something that someone else has
- Feel that you can’t easily get that thing yourself
If either of those feelings is absent, it’s pretty much impossible to be envious.
Let’s say, for example, that Ralph gets a nice new boat. When you see his boat, you decide that you want one too. If you have the resources, you buy a boat of your own - one that’s perhaps a little nicer than Ralph’s. But if, for whatever reason, you can’t buy one, you start to feel a certain amount of dissatisfaction. And, before long, that turns to envy.
Let’s go back to Greg, the ETR reader I mentioned at the beginning of this essay who wants to know how to deal with people who envy his success. In his case, he is just starting to be successful - while his friends aren’t. I’m guessing that because he has stopped doing whatever unproductive things he was doing before that prevented him from achieving his goals, his friends feel that he has betrayed them. They liked him just the way he was - unfulfilled and burdened by bad habits.
When he dropped his bad habits, it was as if he were dropping them. Greg is like the alcoholic who joins AA and leaves his barfly friends behind. They know he is doing something that is considered to be "good," but it feels "bad" to them.
If they were smart, Greg’s friends would emulate him. But it’s easier to be jealous - and even to hope that Greg ends up failing miserably.
When you think like that, you do yourself a double injustice. First, you accept limitations that you don’t really have. Second, you spoil a good relationship.
Several times in my career, acquaintances, colleagues, and even friends have done things or said things or failed to do or say things because it was clear that they envied my success. For the most part, I’ve tried not to pay too much attention to this. But I can’t ignore the fact that there are people out there who don’t like me… simply because they don’t have the things that I have. As a result, I’ve learned to make certain adjustments to my behavior that seem to help.
Based on my experience, here’s what I suggest you do:
- Don’t talk too much about your success. Don’t, for example, talk about awards you’ve won, famous people you’ve met, or how much money you’ve made.
- If the subject comes up, make a concerted effort to diminish your own role and praise others.
- Eschew the trappings of success - the fancy cars, the expensive watches, anything that’s ostentatious.
- Most important, be interested in other people - in what they are doing and what successes they are having. Focus attention away from yourself, even while you work on achieving more of your own goals.
[Ed. Note: Michael Masterson and a group of the world’s leading Internet marketing experts will be revealing their strategies for getting a brand-new business off the ground… and making an existing business grow like crazy at this fall’s Info Marketing Bootcamp - Making a Fast Fortune on the "Other Side" of the Internet. Reserve your spot before 5:00 p.m. TODAY and save $200.]
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Eat More Calories, Burn More Fat
My body was expanding with fat right before my wife’s eyes. In the nicest way possible, she made it a point to tell me, "You’re getting round." During that stressful and busy time of my life when I was working as a drug chemist, I often ate low-calorie foods and meal-replacement shakes, thinking that I could stay slim and not live in the gym. I learned the hard way that eating and drinking low-calorie products makes people fat. It inflated my body fat to 30 percent.
Low-calorie (and low-fat) foods are loaded with fat-fertilizing sugar. They cause a sharp rise in insulin, the fat-storing hormone. This phenomenon was recently highlighted by researchers at the University of Alberta. Their study "adds to a growing body of research in humans that suggests a diet-foods paradox: The more low-calorie (or even zero-calorie) sodas and foods you consume, the more your body demands payback for the calories it was deprived."
To avoid becoming a victim of this paradox, fill up on grass-fed beef, seeds, nuts, or avocados instead of low-cal foods. Despite having a higher calorie content, they do not cause an insulin spike.
Today, I have 11 percent body fat. I got here by avoiding things that taste sweet and getting most of my calories from real food. If it comes from a box, I don’t eat it - regardless of how few calories it might have. And I supplement my healthy diet with interval training, the best way to burn fat.
[Ed. Note: Shane "The People’s Chemist" Ellison is an internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition. Get his "Foundational Health Education" program to beat obesity, heart disease, and even Type II diabetes by clicking here. You can also read Shane’s insights into what you can do to lead a healthier life by signing up for ETR’s FREE natural health e-letter here.]
Quick Copywriting Tip: Come Back Down to Earth
By Monica Day
I’ve worked with my fair share of prima donna copywriters. Interestingly enough, it is usually beginners who have the biggest egos. They complain when their work is critiqued by "people who don’t understand copywriting," and spend more time defending their writing than improving it.
Here’s the funny thing. Your target prospect… you know, the one who’s going to buy your product and make you a fortune in royalties… doesn’t know a damn thing about good copywriting, and doesn’t care. And yet, he or she is the final arbiter of whether your promotion is worth the cost of the paper it’s printed on.
Established copywriters understand that humility is the name of the game. If your writing doesn’t strike a chord in the person it’s intended to motivate… then it sucks. Plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if your client likes it or if you think it’s the most brilliant sales letter you’ve ever written. If it doesn’t sell, it doesn’t work.
If you must turn your nose up at writing that appeals to the masses, try the literary arts instead. Writers ensconced in academic ivory towers have the luxury to decide that anyone who doesn’t like what they’ve written is beneath them. Copywriters don’t.
[Ed. Note: Monica Day is co-editor (with Krista Jones) of The Copy Protege, a free bi-weekly e-letter that helps people become professional freelance copywriters.]
It’s Good to Know: Are You a Cyberchondriac?
You wake up one morning with a swollen right hand and a tingling sensation. You don’t remember suffering any injury, and have no idea what might have caused it. What do you do?
If you’re like many American "cyberchondriacs" (about 160 million in all), your first step is to get online and try to match your symptoms with diseases and conditions listed in databases maintained by a variety of health and medical websites, such as WebMD or Everyday Health. Increasingly, people are using this kind of information to make healthcare decisions, especially whether their symptoms are worrisome.
Keep in mind that, although these Web-based tools can provide you with useful information about a possible problem, a website is no substitute for a doctor’s knowledge, which is backed up by years of education and experience. Self-diagnosis and self-treatment based on something you read online is not a good idea… and could be potentially fatal.
(Source: Business Week)
When the CAR gets stuck in a rut you can call AAA - But who do you call when YOU get in a rut?
Feeling like your life has stalled? Wondering where all the excitement has gone? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. All of us get dragged down in a rut now and then.
But you’ll get back out on the highway of life a LOT faster if you have a friendly “towing service” looking out for you 24×7.
So put on your seat belts, rev up those engines… and let’s get going with our motivational kick-in-the-pants program.
- Charlie Byrne
Word to the Wise: Gauche
Someone who’s "gauche" (GOHSH) - from the French for "left" or "awkward" - lacks social polish.
Example (as used by Noreen Taylor in the London Times): "The audience’s performance was altogether more gauche, with scores of people in the stalls constantly turning round to gawp at Mick Jagger seated ten rows back."
[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.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007