*Highly
Recommended *
“I
knew there were probably some tax savings I was missing
out on…but I honestly had no idea exactly how much
of a difference it was making to my overall financial planning.
When I found the techniques in the Instant Tax Relief Kit,
I realized that with the type of investing I’m currently
doing, I could probably shave about 8-10 years off of my
planned retirement age.
I’m
glad that the Instant Tax Relief Kit showed me exactly
how I can use 2 completely legal strategies to save more
on my taxes. I feel like I’ve just been shown one
of the best kept ‘secrets’ that’s been
kept from the general public.”
-
Lisa Bruette
Could
you be saving $10,000 - $50,000 or more on your taxes? Take
a moment to learn more about the ‘forbidden’ tax-codes
that have been helping the rich get richer for years. Act
today and you can receive a special 50% tax-season discount
on the Instant
Tax Relief Kit
"We
forget the little things, so it's no wonder some of us
screw up the big things."
-
Neil Cavuto
When
You Screw Up, Big Time, Twice in One Week
By
Michael Masterson
Last
week will go down as a memorable one in my journal. I made
two major mistakes that stirred up some dust and made me
wonder if I was fit to run a business.
The
first was a classic e-mail snafu. For several weeks, I was
having confidential discussions with the Chairman and the
CEO of a business about compensation for the four top executives,
including the CEO himself. My job was to help come up with
a new plan that would be fair to everyone now and into the
future, so we wouldn't have to revisit the issue every year.
I'd
been having private discussions with everyone involved and
then getting back to the Chairman and CEO for their reactions.
Finally, I thought I had something that would work well for
everyone. In response to a message about the program from
the CEO, I attached my plan and asked for his thoughts. If
he liked it, I'd show it to the Chairman. If he approved,
we'd present it to the other execs.
That
was the plan. What happened was this: In sending the attachment
to the CEO, I hit the "reply to all" button instead
of the "reply to sender" button. My attachment,
with all the personal income proposals, went to everyone
at the same time, including a senior executive who wasn't
even part of the program.
The
moment I sent it off, I realized what I had done. But it
was too late. By the time I'd verified that it had indeed
been sent to six people instead of two, they had all read
it.
Everyone
assumed it was the final draft. But there were two propositions
that the Chairman didn't like. So then I had the unpleasant
task of telling people that they wouldn't be getting as much
as I had suggested. Needless to say, this was a difficult
conversation. What should have been a very gratifying experience
for everyone involved became an anxious, urgent problem.
My
second mistake was more serious.
I
wrote an ETR message that was sent out to all of our readers
without careful editing. The result was that I publicly shamed
someone I greatly admire.
ETR's
philosophy is to draw our articles from actual experience.
We like to think that our readers want to get their advice
from someone who's walked his talk. Because of this emphasis
on inductive reasoning and "erfahrung"-based (primary)
knowledge, we try to write about things that happen in our
daily working lives.
To
keep the original story straight in my mind when I write
my articles, I use the actual names and situations. But to
protect the innocent, we change lots of insignificant details
during the editing process to make the story/people unrecognizable.
Several
times in the past, we unwittingly embarrassed or upset someone
who felt we were criticizing him or her in public. So now
our policy is to write the essay as a journal entry first,
and then edit it so that it retains the big idea but loses
the identifying details.
I
wrote such an essay a couple of weeks ago about someone we
hired recently. In telling the story, I attempted to analyze
why we were lucky enough to hire her. My theory was based
on little bits of information I had picked up here and there,
but it was ultimately a speculation.
The
point I was making was a good and valid one. And since I
knew the story and the people were going to be disguised
beyond recognition, I felt at liberty to drive my point home
... even if it wasn't entirely fair.
You
can guess what happened. The article was published in its
first draft.
It
was my fault. I assumed this and assumed that and never bothered
to check the copy before it went out. The result was that
my colleague's employees and competitors might have read
what appeared to be a mean combination of pot shots and boasting.
Needless
to say, I haven't been sleeping too well since then. Although
I try to rationalize my mistake by reminding myself that
most of what I said was positive and approving, I know that
the net effect was negative. I am very sorry for that.
Two
big mistakes in one week. Makes me wonder if I am no longer
capable of operating as a senior consultant to so many great,
top-notch companies.
Over
the weekend, I told my neighbor what happened. She said that
whenever her husband screws up, he asks himself the same
question. (When I asked him if he'd ever done two things
as stupid as I had done in a single week, he just smiled.)
Roughly
speaking, business leaders fall into one of two categories.
There are the entrepreneurs who start businesses from scratch
and do everything necessary to get them strong and profitable.
And then there are the corporate executive types who take
over when the business is up and running and use their management
and communication skills to keep it operating smoothly.
I
am - I'm sure this won't surprise you - the entrepreneurial
type. I've spent almost all my business life starting businesses
from scratch and working with them on a daily basis until
they were big enough to be run by someone else. For the most
part, it has meant taking them from zero to about $10 million
in sales with a 10 percent to 15 percent profit.
Counting
the businesses I've owned, directed, and advised, I've done
this at least 20 times. Starting a business from scratch
and making it profitable is something I believe I can do
with my eyes closed. But running it once it's gotten big
and profitable - well, that's another story.
The
kind of mistakes I made last week are the kind that wouldn't
matter all that much to an entrepreneur getting his business
off the ground. Starting a business from scratch takes a
great deal of pushing and shoving. You've got to be willing
to step on a few toes.
But
when a business is up and running, it needs a more careful,
polished hand. With substantial sales and a significant profit
stream to protect, the CEO's job becomes as much about protecting
the existing asset as it is about making it bigger.
Rather
than try to convert myself from hard-boiled entrepreneur
to polished corporate exec, it might be wiser to continue
to do what I do best, but in the context of businesses I've
already started. In other words, instead of trying to be
the guy who manages the whole enterprise, let someone more
thoughtful and careful do that and throw myself back into
the war zone where I have won so many medals.
That
said, I've learned three lessons this week:
1.
Before hitting the "send" button, double-check
to make sure my e-mail is going to the right person/people.
(The
last thing you want to do is have someone read comments that
could be misinterpreted or cause upset. I've warned ETR readers
many times about this common trap - and I fell into it myself.)
2.
Give everything I write a final proof before I let it be
published.
3.
Accept the fact that when it comes to leading businesses,
I can be fish or fowl ... but I can't be both.
I
hope, after hearing my embarrassing confession, you can avoid
getting yourself into similar predicaments.
Today's
Action Plan
Fess
up. You've got your own embarrassing mistakes to talk about.
What advice can you add to what Michael shared today? What
lessons have you learned? Let us know on the Speak
Out forum.
*
Highly Recommended*
Nine
Ways To Explode More Profits
This
week my colleague Jay Abraham is practically giving away
a revolutionary business growth system for pennies-on-the
dollar.
Jay
will send you a comprehensive business growth system, containing
some of his best money-making ideas, methods and concepts
to study, apply and prosper from... and he will only charge
you a modest processing fee to get it produced, packed and
shipped off to you.
Jay
receives $5,000 per hour for his consulting... and that’s
when you can get him. A full day would run you $40,000! His
tape sets alone normally sell from $500 to $2,000, and live
training programs range from $5,000 to as much as $25,000
for a single event.
If
you want to start making a ton more money and have a clear,
direct path to real prosperity and business wealth, you owe
it to yourself to look
into this program.
-
Patrick Coffey
There's
a Reason They Call It the "Great" Outdoors
By
Jon Herring
Many
of my most treasured memories of childhood are centered on
the days I spent outside. Fishing and hiking with my dad
... traveling cross-country with my mom and brother, camping
along the way ... catching snakes in the woods ... climbing
trees ... discovering the source of the creek that ran through
the neighborhood.
But
with extensive land development, many kids these days don't
have the same opportunities. And when you combine that with
competition from video games, computer screens, and 200 television
channels, more and more children are spending less and less
time playing outside.
There
are a lot of people who believe this growing distance between
children and the outdoors has a good deal to do with increasing
rates of childhood obesity, depression, attention problems,
and hyperactivity. In his book Last
Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit
Disorder, Richard Louv writes, "For
tens of thousands of years of human history, children have
spent most of their lives outside. ... There have to be profound
impacts on emotional, physical, and spiritual health when
that changes."
This
happens to be one of the primary themes in my own upcoming
book, The Healing Power of Sunlight: The Vital Connection
Between the Sun and Your Health. The more time your children
(and you) spend outside (preferably in a natural setting),
the more emotionally balanced and physically healthy they
will be.
So
do something about this right now by planning a family outing
for the weekend. A camping trip ... a fishing excursion ...
or just a trip to the park. Twenty years from now, it will
still be a day you will all remember.
Do
Your Words Run Out of Gas?
By
Matt Furey
Would
you reason me insane if I argued there are more than five
vowels in the English language? That's right. There's more
to English vowel sounds than the standard a, e, i, o, and
u. But only if you're one of those revolutionary persuaders
who enjoys transmuting both written and spoken words into
heaps of cash.
If
you want to communicate persuasively, in both written and
spoken English, it would be wise to consider that vowels
are sounds that don't run out of gas. That's how it works
in Sanskrit.
With
this in mind, let's look at the letter "s." You
can slip into an "s" and keep it sizzling so
long that you'll need a siesta. Then there's the letter "k." Almost
as soon as the sound is uttered, you've killed it. Now
let's take the letter "m" - as in "mom." It
makes sense that this word is nearly universal. Even in
China, a language vastly different than English, they say "mama." How
long can you hang on the letter "m"? I'm betting
a good long time. Yet, pull out a letter "p" -
and it poops out almost as soon as it pops.
Take
a moment and go through the alphabet in this unusual manner.
Figure out which letters run out of gas and which ones
keep humming and purring long after you've written or spoken
them. Inject these sounds into your copy or into your speeches,
and you can literally make chandeliers shake and hearts
rumble. In fact, long after you've spoken, people may continue
to hear and feel a buzz going on in their hearts and minds
- and they won't even know why. Isn't that grand?
[Ed.
Note: Matt Furey, an occasional contributor to ETR, is
a best-selling health and fitness author, as well as
a world-class marketer. His daily e-mails at www.mattfurey.com are
must-reads. You can also hear him for yourself by signing
up for the Secrets
of Easy Internet Money. In this program,
Matt reveals a powerful system he's used to generate
in excess of $500K in sales online. ]
It's
Good to Know: The Price-to-Book Ratio
By
Andrew Gordon
The
next time you see a company with a price-to-book (P/B) ratio
below 2, take a closer look. It may be an undervalued gem
just waiting to add loads of value to your portfolio.
Simply
put, book value is the difference between the company's assets
and liabilities. In theory, it tells you how much would be
left over if the company went bankrupt today and whether
you'd be able to recoup your investment (the price of the
stock).
Value
investors like me look at the relationship between a stock's
price and its book value to help determine whether the stock
is undervalued. You can find the price-to-book ratioon almost
any stock screener - Yahoo!,
for example.
As
a rule, the higher the P/B ratio, the riskier the stock.
Historically, a decent value has been roughly 2.0 - 2.5.
Unless you are indifferent about risking your money, any
stock with a P/B above 3.0 isn't worth considering.
(Ed.
Note: Andrew M. Gordon and his staff, along with Dr. Erik
Epp, have created a new free e-letter called Money
Insight: Useful Ideas for Growing Your Money Quickly and
Safely. Every week, they decipher the best
safe-money strategies from the deluge of mainstream financial
news and uncover undervalued opportunities for quick profits.
Check it out.)
*
Advertisement *
Turn
Your Everyday Snapshots into Cash
This
May in Paris, You Can…
*
Learn from professional photographers the techniques they
use to shoot pictures that sell for $150, $400, $600 --
and even higher…
*
Get hands-on practice applying your new skills -- while
you explore one of the world’s most enchanting cities…
*
Discover how travel photographers create a need for their
photos -- and double or even triple your photography income…
*
Find out just how easy it is to turn your snapshots into
cash… and enjoy the freedom, independence, and travel
that freelance photography delivers…
The
Ultimate Travel Photographer's Workshop * May 24-27, 2006
* Paris, France.
For
more details call (866) 879-2924 or
local at (561) 278-5557. Spaces are limited. Reserve
your seat before April 17, 2006 and you’ll save
$300.
Word
to the Wise: Transmute
To "transmute" (trans-MYOOT)
is to change from one form, nature, substance, or state into
another. The word is derived from the Latin "transmutare" ("to
change").
Example
(as used by Matt Furey today): "There's more to English
vowel sounds than the standard a, e, i, o, and u. But only
if you're one of those revolutionary persuaders who enjoys
transmuting both written and spoken words into heaps of cash."
