Issue #2363
Friday, May 23, 2008

• WEALTHY: What trumps a stalled economy? (Andrew Gordon)
• HEALTHY: An unexpected breakfast for the cholesterol-conscious (James B. LaValle)
• WISE: Paulo Coehlo on experience

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• A Stanford education for free? (Charlie Byrne)
• The most talked-about ETR essay in recent history
• It’s Good to Know… about the most popular books in the U.S.
• Add "equivocation" to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

WANTED: Fast, Easy and Automatic Internet Profits

Sound good, but hard to believe? If you can suspend your skepticism, you could bank $800 a month in automatic income that flows every month into your bank account. These income streams could often be even more money, sometimes A LOT more…

Hang on to your hat, because one man used these simple techniques to bring in $187,296 in one day from following this plan! You can copy the same exact steps for bringing in money faster than you might imagine. And get this: you’ve got nothing to lose because there’s no risk. I guarantee this new program, called Instant Internet Income, does exactly what I promise. Click here to learn more and get started today!

Unhealthy Investments Are Best

By Andrew M. Gordon

What trumps a stalled economy? Demographics. And what are the two biggest demographic trends today?

1. Globally, it’s the rapid growth of a middle class in countries like India, China, and Brazil. They want what we already have: a nice car and house, modern appliances, and good education and health care for their children.

2. Domestically, it’s back to the future. Boomers still rule. And they’re getting old. Hospitals, long-term-care facilities, vaccines, and meds of all kinds will see greater demand.

What these two trends have in common is health care. Globally and domestically, it’s set to grow – even if the economy isn’t.

[Ed. Note: ETR's Investment Director, Andrew Gordon, 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.]

Click to comment on this article.

"Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience."

Paulo Coehlo 

7 Sizzling Business "Discoveries" From Stanford’s Facebook Project (and How They Can Help Any Entrepreneur Make a Million Bucks)

By Charlie Byrne

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg turned 24. 

And my guess is, he’s pretty pleased with himself so far. 

A college dropout, but from Harvard. A self-starter who launched a business from his dorm room. And, oh yeah, the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, according to Forbes magazine. 

Make that a "theoretical" billionaire, since nobody is really sure exactly how much his hugely popular social networking website – Facebook.com – is actually worth. It’s not publicly traded (although Microsoft recently laid out $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake). It’s not clear where it’s headed. (Mark himself isn’t sure.) To some people, it’s not clear what purpose it’s supposed to serve either.

But at least two things are sure.

First, people love it. Nearly 70 million visited the site last month alone. And second, it’s looking like one of the greatest entrepreneurial innovations since, well, since someone launched the first business that offered sliced bread.

One area that’s receiving plenty of attention is Facebook "apps" (applications). From useful tools such as stock market tickers and productivity management helpers… to complete time wasters such as "Give the Imaginary Puppy a Bone" and "Who’s the Coolest Person You Know"… there’s a Facebook app for just about everyone and everything.

After (if) you’ve chosen to add one of them to your Facebook homepage, it appears in your browser whenever you sign into Facebook. Most of these mini software programs are developed by third-party entrepreneurs and monetized (not always successfully) through a classic advertising model: Get eyeballs and sell ad space or place affiliate ads.

Facebook apps are so big right now that B.J. Fogg, a professor at Stanford University, launched a semester-long project just to develop more of them for Facebook users. 

At the end of the project, Professor Fogg and his students published a report to name the entrepreneurial "discoveries" they had made. But were they really breaking new ground… or just reinventing the wheel?

I decided to take a look. 

Combing back through the longstanding principles you’ve come to know and love by reading ETR and Michael Masterson’s new blockbuster book, Ready, Fire, Aim, I found at least seven "power principles" with fascinating parallels to the Stanford project.

ETR Longstanding Principle #1: Introducing Products in a "Mature" Market

Consumers aren’t looking for brand-new products. They are looking for clever new adaptations of products they already know and love. When it comes to new, the human brain can take only a little bit of it. Eighty percent of the old and 20 percent of the new is a good ratio. Your goal is not to develop brand-new ideas, but to notice trends that are beginning and develop products that anticipate that trend by a little – just enough to catch your customers’ attention.

Stanford Students’ Discovery: "It’s Never Too Late to Create a Winning App." When Stanford launched its project, over 6,000 Facebook apps already existed. Just 10 weeks later, the students had six apps in the top 100. None of them were radically innovative.

ETR Longstanding Principle #2: The Power of Simplicity

You can sell your product very well by talking about its many benefits, but the most successful advertisements are those that highlight a single benefit above all the rest. When this benefit can be presented as uniquely characteristic of your product, you have an advertising proposition that can last and last and last. Consider any great marketing campaign – Burger King, Charmin, Marlboro. Examine any best-selling, non-fiction book – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, What Color Is Your Parachute?, Chicken Soup for the Soul, etc. What do they all have in common? Simple themes. Ideas so simple they can be expressed – and understood – in a few short words.

Stanford Students’ Discovery: "Simplicity & Clarity Are Key to Success." Too many and too clever features must be avoided. Make the app easy to understand and easy to use.

ETR Longstanding Principle #3: Ready Fire Aim

Prudent entrepreneurs do not want to risk all their time and money on a single product. For the best chance of having a successful business, they need to be flexible about what they are going to sell. If their first product idea doesn’t sell well, they have to be able to generate a second one. Innovation matters. And so does speed. Combined, they give your business extraordinary growing power.

Stanford Students’ Discovery: "Speed & Flexibility in Launch & Iterations." Many fast and imperfect trials beat deep thinking. Flexibility beats quality. Getting too attached to one app idea can be fatal.

ETR Longstanding Principle #4: Teamwork Accelerates Success

Don’t even try to be a solo creator. You will get much better results much faster by working with a creative team. Sometimes you might get ideas while showering or exercising or sitting on an airplane. But don’t act on those ideas. Write them down and bring them up when you’re brainstorming with a group.

Stanford Students’ Discovery: "Community Cooperation Leads to Success." Students helped each other a lot, sharing app development tools, tips, and insights.

ETR Longstanding Principle #5: Check Your Ego at the Door

How do you know your product idea is good? Because you think it is? Business is not and must never be about what the business owner thinks is good or right. Business is about providing value to the customer. And that value can be determined only by the customer. Don’t let your ego convince you that you can teach the marketplace what it should and should not buy, or you and your ego will soon find yourselves in the poorhouse.

Stanford Students’ Discovery: "Individual Opinions About Apps Are Worthless." Don’t be swayed by one person’s opinion. Just get the app out there and see what happens.

ETR Longstanding Principle #6: Don’t Be a Pioneer in a Market

When it comes to answering most of the fundamental questions about selling your product, the best answer will always be this: Imitate the industry norm. If you are always trying to come up with product ideas that are completely new and different, you will likely have a very poor success record. Let others live (and die) on the "bleeding edge."

Stanford Students’ Discovery: "Copying Success Is a Cheap/Fast Way to Succeed." Novelty isn’t the best approach to apps. If you’re desperate for a win, just copy something that’s working. Flipside: If your app is doing well, expect imitators.

ETR Longstanding Principle #7: Accelerated Failure

Success isn’t usually about genius. It is more often about trial and error. Money loves speed, so spend your time trying new permutations of existing successes rather than endlessly hoping to find the "next big thing." Don’t be satisfied when things are "running smoothly." An entrepreneurial business should never be running smoothly. Accelerate failure. Cut your losers and run with your winners.

Stanford Students’ Discovery: "Success Comes From the Chaos/Control Cycle." Successful innovation is a process.

So there you have it…

Now I didn’t have access to the details of everything Stanford attempted. They probably made a ton of easily avoided mistakes. And it sounds like they had some very nice successes as well.

Over the course of their project, they generated somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million in revenue from their Facebook apps… not to mention at least three new companies that were formed during the experiment, two others that were acquired by outside interests, and reports of lucrative job offers for all those who completed the program.

But I’m willing to bet they could have had a LOT greater success, a LOT sooner, if they’d spent some time reading Early to Rise and Ready, Fire, Aim first.

That’s where you have an advantage. You see, every day you get (for free!) what took about 75 smart Stanford students months and months to learn. (And think of all that tuition you saved too!)

So congratulations to the smart and energetic Stanford students who learned these lessons the hard way – valuable business principles that most people never discover. You’re getting them the easy way… but now it’s up to you to go out and use them.

Of course, you’ve got to be careful out there. Just because lots of people are talking and writing about Facebook doesn’t necessarily make it a lasting business model. There have been plenty of "next big things" on the Internet that have turned out to be quite the opposite.

But you’ve got the knowledge to find out quickly, without spending a fortune, if a business idea is going to work. So who knows? Use ETR’s ideas to develop an "app"… and maybe YOU will be next to make a million bucks on Facebook!

[Ed. Note: If you’re interested in taking a look at Facebook, you can get started by “friending” Charlie. Just go to his blog and click the Facebook link on the right side.

And if you’d like to learn more of ETR’s business-building skills, join our team at our 5 Days in July conference. The event is SOLD OUT, but we have just squeezed in a few FINAL additional spaces. Check the website to find out if any remain.]

Click to comment on this article.

== Highly Recommended ==

The Greatest Medical Discovery of the Century

Scientists have discovered a remarkable substance that has the power to prevent diabetes, stop heart disease before it starts, and kill cancer cells on contact. In fact, this substance has been shown to prevent and treat more than 20 major diseases in all!

However, more than 85% of the population is deficient in this disease-killer at least part of the year. And believe it or not, medical professionals and health authorities actually advise people to avoid the single greatest source of this vital substance.

Click here to learn why you probably haven’t heard about this revolutionary discovery.

Feedback Friday: The Positive Thinking Uproar, Part 1

Stand in front of the mirror in the morning and repeat 20 times: "I am a good person. I can do anything. I will be successful." And poof! Your wildest dreams come true. Sounds appealing, right? But the reality is different. Forget about positive thinking. Instead, start working toward the goal you want to achieve or practicing the skill you want to master.

That was Michael Masterson’s main point in a recent article, "Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work." It turned out to be one of the most hotly debated articles he’s ever written. Here is what a few of your fellow ETR readers had to say on the subject…

"I needed to hear the fallacies of positive thinking. I knew it had to be more than that, and of course it really was. Excellent article. I believe what you are saying is get off your duff, set some goals, build on your small successes, and keep visualizing what you want to accomplish until it becomes second nature. I hope all Michael’s ETR followers read this. It really is the only road to success."

Marc Abramsky
Picton, Ontario, Canada

"I don’t mean to insult you, Michael, because I respect you very much and have high regard for your accomplishments. But I would like to make some comments on your article in ETR on positive thinking. I think you simplify the issue too much and miss some of the point. For one thing, there is a major difference between simply thinking positive thoughts and developing a positive frame of mind and heart.

"The underlying motivation of wanting to better oneself and one’s life is the key, no matter what that motivation is or where it comes from. You have to be at a point in your life where you want to change for the better. Thinking positive thoughts alone cannot do it. I tried that for years.

"Michael, if you look back at your own life, to that point after high school and all the C’s, you had to first change your way of thinking before you could develop a frame of mind that would inspire you to take the actions you did to change your life. I’m sure you’re grateful that changing your thinking came easy for you. But, unfortunately, many of us have to work much harder to even get to the point of beginning to think positively before we can hope to make the changes we want so desperately to make.

"I bet if you asked Dr. Joe Vitale, Bob Proctor, or any of the hundreds of successful people that Napoleon Hill interviewed over the years, their experiences would be similar to my own.

"Michael, I think we agree on the major points. But you do a disservice to the ones who have actually turned their lives around and became successful in their own right by first developing a positive frame of mind and heart; however they managed to do it and however long it took.

"You truly are an inspiration to anyone wanting to be all they’re meant to be and achieve their wildest dreams. I look forward to meeting you at the 2008 Bootcamp."

Deirdre Feeney
Irvington, NY

"What you say about visualization is so, so true. You buy those programs and sit around reading or listening or both to them, expecting everything to fall into place when you finish. But guess what? Nothing.

"In one article, you made the intuitively obvious plainly simple. Visualization in short steps initially overcomes the stumbling blocks of procrastination and rationalizations re success, failure, and, most important, INACTION.

"I look forward to reading more."

John Gould
Hermitage, PA

"Most of the time, I find your articles interesting and valuable. However, your article ‘Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work’ really disappointed me.

"Absolutely, the Power of Positive Thinking works! If I hadn’t begun to think Positive and allow myself to consider even the possibility of better things in my life, I wouldn’t be one of your readers!

"The real reason most believe Positive thinking doesn’t work is because of a continuous immersion in Negative thinking. If Mr. Disney never thought Positive, we wouldn’t have Mickey. And if Mr. Gates never thought Positive, I wouldn’t be writing this e-mail!

"On a final note, if all your ‘couch potatoes’ do is think Positive and they never reach YOUR idea of Success, but they are happier nonetheless, please don’t label them so harshly. One more happy person creates more happiness for us all! Thanks for reading my ‘two cents,’ and have a great day!"

Christina Hope
Camarillo, CA

Click to comment on this article.

2 Eggs or a Pop Tart?

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN 

An egg has approximately 200 mg of cholesterol, and frying or scrambling it can up the cholesterol to approximately 245 mg. According to Kellogg’s, a Blueberry Pop Tart contains no cholesterol, but it does have 39.8 g of carbohydrates – almost half of them from pure sugar. So which is a healthier breakfast – an egg or a Pop Tart?

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says you should eat less than 200 mg of dietary cholesterol each day. That’s because "cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for heart disease." Not to mention "the higher your blood cholesterol level, the greater your risk for developing heart disease or having a heart attack." So if the egg breakfast has more cholesterol, you might think it’s the wrong choice. But you’d be wrong. The egg breakfast wins out over the Pop Tart.

You see, it’s not the amount of cholesterol you have in your blood that puts you at risk, but the form in which it’s found. Processed foods that are high in sugar can contribute to inflammation and increase the volume of free radical byproducts from metabolism. This can end up increasing the amount of blood cholesterol found in its "oxidized" form, the form your body can’t use to build cells and create sex hormones. It’s "oxidized" cholesterol that’s deposited on the walls of your blood vessels and increases your risk of a heart attack.

It may be counterintuitive. But eating a food that’s a little higher in dietary cholesterol but doesn’t spike your blood sugar levels and create inflammation is sometimes actually healthier, even if you have "high cholesterol."

[Ed. Note: James B. LaValle, RPh, ND, CCN, is founder of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, a nationally recognized expert on natural therapies, and the author of 13 books on healthy lifestyles and integrative care, including Cracking the Metabolic Code.

By modifying your diet, medications, lifestyle, and exercise habits, and with nutritional supplementation, your health is largely in your control. Learn more here.]

Click to comment on this article.

It’s Good to Know: The Most Popular Books in the United States

A recent Harris Interactive poll of American adults has found that the Bible is the most popular book in the country among both men and women. Rounding out the top 10 are favorites that have topped best-seller lists for years:

• Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• The Stand by Stephen King
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Click to comment on this article.

== Highly Recommended ==

The Only Three Ways to Grow a Business

Did you know that there are only three ways to grow a business?

1. Increase the number of customers.
2. Increase the average transaction value.
3. Increase the frequency of repurchase.

Find a way to maximize each one, and your business will experience an astonishing rate of growth.

In his "9 Pillars of Business Growth" program, acclaimed consultant Jay Abraham outlines hundreds of proven, frequently unrecognized, and almost totally underutilized ways to grow these three key areas of your business. If you own a business (or would like to), be sure to take a look at Jay’s program.

- Charlie Byrne

Word to the Wise: Equivocation

"Equivocation" (ih-kwiv-uh-KAY-shun) – from the Latin for "of identical sound" – is intentionally vague or ambiguous language.

Example (as used by Ben Macintyre in a New York Times review of Peace by Richard Bausch): "The best [writing about war], like this, is in shades of gray, evoking the personal equivocations, the doubts, the discomfort, and the sheer, crushing boredom and fatigue that constitute the real nature of war."

[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.]

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

Similar Articles:

• 7 Sizzling Business “Discoveries” From Stanford’s Facebook Project – Last week, Mark Zuckerberg turned 24.  And my guess is, he’s pretty pleased with himself so far…
• Soy It Isn’t So – I’ve written several times recently about the unhealthy aspects of soy. Not only does it mimic the h…
• 2 Eggs or a Pop Tart? – An egg has approximately 200 mg of cholesterol, and frying or scrambling it can up the cholesterol t…
• Avoid the Big-Time Corporate Heart Attack – You probably know that Enron CEO Ken Lay’s life was cut short by a heart attack. His doctors knew he…
• A Business Idea With a Humanitarian Purpose – A group of students from the Michigan Institute of Technology came up with a business idea to help p…
• Evolution, Not Revolution – Consumers aren’t looking for brand-new products. They are looking for clever new adaptations of prod…
• How Can I Clean Out My Arteries Without Surgery? – “I need your advice. I had an angiogram and I have 3 plugged arteries. The doctor at Stanford hospit…

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 am and is filed under Daily Issues .