Issue #2157
- WEALTHY: Should you give in to the new mutual fund temptation? (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: You don’t need to go from nothing to 60 minutes of exercise to see results (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Sydney Smith on regret
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- What’s at the bottom of your to-do list? (Robert Ringer)
- Getting top decision makers in your industry to take notice (Michael Masterson)
- It’s Good to Know… 7 words that most people mispronounce
- Add "galumph" to your vocabulary
Imagine if There Were Only 6 Numbers to Choose from When Buying a Lottery Ticket!
Wouldn’t that be great?! Of course, the fewer the choices, the more likely your chance of success, right?
How many choices are there when buying and selling shares? Errmm… a LOT! Hundreds… One of the reasons I enjoy such consistent success from trading is because I only have 6 options to choose from! Except this is even better in a way, because the lottery is pure luck…
… I only have 6 choices AND have a VERY good idea about which choice to make because of the insider signal.Click here to learn more…
Hedge Fund Clones Fail Important Test
With the market showing definite signs of wear and tear, some of the newer mutual funds – called "long-short," "market-neutral," and "absolute return" funds – claim they have the answer to continued strong returns. But before you jump on board the new mutual fund train, take note: Claiming strong returns is one thing, making it happen is quite another.
When the market downshifted in July, it gave these funds a chance to show investors that they can indeed grow when the market goes south. And they flunked the test. For example, more than a third of the "long-short" funds did worse than the market did. The S&P 500 was down 5.95 percent for the month. As a whole, these mutual funds lost 5.3 percent.
Sure, it’s only one month. But it raises the question: If the managers of these funds are so good at what they do, why are they working for pale versions of hedge funds rather than the real thing?
Only time will tell how good these managers really are. Right now, figuring out which of these funds will excel is a roll of the dice. Better to stay away and give them more time to prove their mettle.
[Ed. Note: ETR's Investment Director Andrew Gordon is the author of about a dozen books on energy markets, global countertrade practices, and the hot growth sectors of China and Russia. 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.]
"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."
Sydney Smith
Left to Wonder
When I was a teenager, one of my good friends was "Gary." Gary was one of those kids who were targets of the taunters and teasers. Even nice guys threw barbs at him, but he took it in a good-natured way.
I probably teased Gary myself on occasion… I honestly can’t remember… but I went out of my way to be kind to him most of the time. I liked Gary, because he was a genuinely nice person.
What caused Gary to be teased so much was the way he spoke (a little odd) and ran (very odd). Seems strange now, but no one – including me – ever stopped to think about what might be wrong with someone who had what we would now clearly consider to be a disability. If someone walked, talked, or acted differently than everyone else, he was simply thought of as a "donkey," "do-do," "dork," "weirdo," etc. Compassion and understanding were scarce commodities in those days.
Things like "learning disorders" and conditions such as autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, or dyslexia were never discussed. Nor did teachers or school staff members even dream of giving kids with such problems special accommodations. It was a pretty cold world for those youngsters. You either cut it or you didn’t.
By the standards of yesteryear, Gary’s dad was perceived to be rich by everyone who lived in our little version of Peyton Place. By today’s standards, of course, he really wasn’t. But I loved going over to Gary’s house, because he had everything – including a great recreation room in the basement with a jukebox, ping pong table, pinball machine, and more.
What was really interesting about Gary was that even though the bullies in our class tried to make him out to be a dummy, he was actually very smart. I remember playing a game with him one afternoon with two dictionaries. One of us would throw out a word, then we would race to see who could find it in the dictionary first.
As best as I can recall, Gary found every word faster than I did. It just about drove me nuts. It was the first time I consciously thought about how smart he was.
I also recall dragging Gary into touch-football games in the street with two of my neighbors who were roughly our age. He could catch the ball pretty well, but he ran stiff-legged like a duck. One of my neighbors ("Larry"), who was in the grade below us, would mock him unmercifully for this. Interesting, now that I think about it, given the fact that Larry was one of the dumbest kids in his class, having flunked at least one full year that I know of.
As is so often the case, we all went our separate ways after high school. After a number of years had passed, I heard from "Ben," my best friend in high school, that Gary had moved to Washington, D.C. Every time I came to Washington, I thought about trying to get in touch with him, but it never happened. Too busy with business matters.
Years later, when I moved to the D.C. area, I finally tracked down Gary’s telephone number. I thought it would be a kick to get together with my old high school pal and see how his life had turned out. I’d heard that he was an attorney, but I didn’t know if he had ever gotten married or had children. Plus, as an adult in a much more open, knowledgeable, and medically aware world, I was curious as to what Gary’s condition was and how successful he had been in rising above it.
Gary kept creeping up on my to-do list, until he eventually made it to the top 10. I felt sure I would be able to get in touch with him and manage to have a little reunion within the next few weeks. I was very much looking forward to it.
But before I made the effort to actually do it, I took a short trip back to Peyton Place to visit my elderly mother in her nursing home. Ben picked me up at the airport and, as soon as I got in the car, said to me, "Before I even pull away from the curb, I want to tell you something. Gary died a few days ago – on the operating table while having open-heart surgery." I was stunned.
I’m angry with myself that I never made it a point to see Gary. I’ll never know the answers to all the questions I had about him and his life. I especially wanted to talk to him about his condition, as I have two children with disabilities. But I was too late.
Which leaves me thinking about all those things on my to-do list that were always ahead of getting in touch with Gary. In retrospect, I ask myself, "Was each and every one of them more important than seeing him?" I guess I’ll just have to keep wondering … and wonder what our reunion might have been like.
Who’s on your to-do list, and how many tasks are ahead of that person? You might want to start wondering about your priorities. Wondering about them today – not tomorrow – might just lead to action instead of regrets. When you wait until tomorrow to wonder, action is sometimes not an option.
[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.]
Gain strength and energy… without exercise?!
It’s time to drop that outrageously expensive gym membership and those heavy dumb bells. All that pumping, pulling, sweating, and unnecessary stress is NOT healthy…
Because so many of my patients strained muscles, ruined joints, and even suffered heart attacks at those fitness centers (or what I like to call “torture chambers”), I finally said, “Enough!” and found a safer way to keep in shape.
Discover the latest research the fitness industry doesn’t want you to know.
Dear Michael Masterson: "My goal is to make contact with the highest-ranking decision makers present."
"I love ETR, and your articles always seem right on the mark. I have a real-life question. Maybe you can provide some help with it.
"I’m a chief product engineer for a small manufacturer that is looking to increase sales. We currently sell our products mostly through regional distributors. However, our distributors have limited or no penetration at large OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that prefer to buy direct. Our CEO (my boss) would like to make direct contact with these OEMs.
"In keeping with your advice, and my boss’s desire for more sales, I’d like to expand my marketing skills and experience. I plan to attend a large technical trade show next month where many of our potential OEM clients will be represented. My goal is to make contact with the highest-ranking decision makers present and get referrals to the engineering department heads that use our type of products.
"What would be the best method for making the show contacts? Should I try to set up appointments in advance? If I cold-call at the show, I may only get a minute to make a pitch. Any suggestions would be very helpful."
- David Edwards
Tampa, FL
Dave,
I don’t have a good answer to your question – but you are doing the right thing. You are taking the initiative to go to the trade show and make personal contact with top decision makers for the businesses you are targeting.
If you can get a list of your target clients beforehand, you’d be wise to try to arrange appointments with them. Rather than doing this by sending a standard business letter, I’d send some sort of gift – something nice that is likely to make it through the various barriers that keep regular mail from reaching people at the top. You might consider something related to the theme of the meetings you are attempting to set up.
What is that theme? I don’t know. I don’t know anything about your industry. You will have to figure it out. But keep this in mind: It should be something that your target clients will want to hear about. What could that be?
The gift should be fun and useful, something that would put your prospects in a receptive – and possibly reciprocating – mood. You might give them half of something and promise the other half when you meet. The most obvious idea: half a hundred dollar bill. But that’s tacky. What more clever thing can you send them half of?
You could offer to give them a valuable report. Tell them it’s worth $X and that you’d like to deliver it personally at the trade show.
You could also try flattery. Tell each prospect that you are a young executive who wants to learn more about the industry. You have heard that he’s brilliant, and you’d like five minutes of his busy time to answer a few questions.
Let me know what happens.
- Michael Masterson
[Ed. Note: Get dozens of proven business-building strategies and sales-boosting techniques from Michael Masterson and a group of the world's leading Internet marketing experts this fall at ETR's Info Marketing Bootcamp: Making a Fast Fortune on the "Other Side" of the Internet. Sign up today.
Have a question for Michael Masterson? Write to him at AskMichael@ETRfeedback.com.]
All It Takes Is 10 Minutes a Day
If lack of time is what’s been holding you back from exercising, you can now scratch that excuse off the list. A recent study from Louisiana State University shows that even 10 minutes of exercise per day can improve your cardiovascular fitness. Working with a group of overweight or obese subjects, the researchers found that as little as 72 minutes of exercise per week (or just over 10 minutes per day) improved cardiovascular fitness by four percent as compared to subjects who did nothing at all.
If you don’t get any exercise now, all you need to do is get off the couch and get moving for at least 10 minutes per day and you’ll start to see improvements. As you become more advanced in your fitness, you can use short, intense workouts like Dr. Sears’ PACE program or the bodyweight exercises in my Turbulence Training program.
The more exercise you get, and the more intense your exercise is, the more benefits you’ll see. But in the meantime, if you’re just starting, simply find something enjoyable to do for 10 minutes per day and work up from there.
[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne is the creator of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system. If you want a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR's FREE natural health e-letter.]
It’s Good to Know: 7 Words That Most People Mispronounce
- flaccid (FLAK-sid)
- heinous (HAY-nus)
- scion (SIGH-on)
- ague (AY-gyoo)
- dais (DAY-is)
- quay (KEY)
- ribald (RIB-uld)
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: Galumph
To "galumph" (guh-LUMPF) – is to move in a clumsy manner or with a heavy tread. The word was coined by Lewis Carroll in his nonsense poem "Jabberwocky."
Example (as used by Alistair MacLeod in Island: The Complete Stories): "Then he climbed up the little iron ladder that led to the wharf’s cap, placed me once more upon his shoulders, and galumphed off again."
[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
Similar Articles:
- A Low-Cost, Highly Effective Way to Build Your Business – I’m going to share with you a marketing tactic that will, without a doubt, generate more clients for…
- Professional Stock Pickers Are Failing Their Test – Chances are your actively managed mutual fund is disappointing you. You’d probably get better return…
- Patina – “Patina” (PAT-n-uh or puh-TEEN-uh) – from the Latin for “a dish” – is the color or incrustation, as …
- Word to the Wise: Kluge – A "kluge" (KLOOJ) – perhaps from an ironic use of the German for "smart/clever" …
- When Will It Be Safe to Go Back in the Water? – One question keeps coming up when I talk to my friends and family these days: “How will I know when …
- The Worst Positioning Statement in the World- "We’re Better" – Here’s a trick question: What’s better – chopped liver or filet mignon? Most people answer "fil…
- How to Handle Your Investors’ Money for Fast, Profitable Real Estate Deals – Without Bank Hassles – Many banks and other lenders have overreacted to the sub-prime mortgage scare. As a result, it’s tou…