According to Dr. Jon D. Miller, Director of the Center for Biomedical Communications, the number of scientifically literate adults in the U.S. has doubled over the past 20 years.

The bad news? That only gets us up to 20 percent.

Only 48 percent of Americans know that humans didn’t live at the same time as dinosaurs. Less than half know that electrons are smaller than atoms. And few know what DNA is or can define a molecule.

We live in a world highly dependent on the fruits of science. Yet most of us have little scientific knowledge.

Does this matter? (more…)

Question: Are you passionate about what you do? Or just passionate about the money you make?

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: It’s a lot easier to make money when you’re passionate about what you’re doing.

How many people are locked into a job they can’t stand, only because they get a steady paycheck and benefits? I’m willing to bet there are quite a few.

You don’t have to be one of them.

(more…)

Life affords each of us an opportunity for adventure every day. Often, it is simply a matter of embracing the opportunity to advance a goal.

Here’s an example of what I mean …

For years, I traveled through the entire state of Florida by car for business. As you can imagine, driving to appointments became less than fun. So when one of my clients asked me to attend a meeting that would require a three-hour drive (one way), I almost said no. After all, I am very selective in the way I choose to spend my time and energies.

However, I have an alternate mode of transportation — my single-engine airplane. “Wow!” I thought, “By flying there, maybe I can make attending this meeting both productive and fun!”

(more…)

Highly creative people tend to have fluid, flexible, adaptive minds. You can see it in three statements they commonly make.

The first is simply “I was wrong.”

Non-creative people are so concerned with being right that all their mental energy is consumed by stonewalling, bluffing, blaming, and denying. If you’re wrong, admit it… and get on to the solution or the next step.

The second is “I made a mistake.”

Non-creative people think it is a sign of weakness to admit to having made a mistake. On the contrary, it is a sign of mental maturity, personal strength, and character. (Remember, everybody makes mistakes every single day.)

The third statement is “I changed my mind.”

It is amazing how many uncomfortable situations non-creative people get into and stay in because they are unwilling or afraid to admit that they’ve changed their minds.

Here are two ways you can break away from those old, limiting ideas and become a more creative thinker.

1. Be willing to admit that you are not perfect, you make mistakes, you are wrong. This is a mark of intelligence and courage.

2. When you get new information, be willing to change your mind. Most of what you know about your business today will change completely in the coming years, so be the first to recognize it.

[Ed. Note: Would you be surprised to learn that you can have all the success and happiness you dream of... just by changing the way you think? With Brian Tracy's powerful one-hour seminar CD, Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, you'll be able to use your thoughts to turn your dreams into reality!

Jumpstart your goal-achieving efforts with Bob Cox, a success mentor who has helped thousands achieve their life's ambition. Check out his Total Success Achievement program here.]

Whether you’re entering the workforce for the first time or have years of experience, keep the following in mind when moving into any new position:

• Spend the first several weeks taking everything in. Be eager and helpful, but don’t be too aggressive and don’t get into arguments or debates. Now is the time to learn everything you can about your new work environment. Much of what you need to learn will be hidden from you if you pose a threat.
• Networking is extremely important to your career. But – for the reasons stated above – you don’t want to go after the powerful people in your company in a pushy way. In the beginning weeks, make a strong effort to make friends with everybody. Making enemies early on – even with seemingly unimportant people – can cause serious problems later.
• Come in early and stay late. But not too early or too late. You want to establish a reputation as an enthusiastic employee and a hard worker, not a goody-two-shoes.
• When you have firmly established good relationships with everyone you work with, gradually increase your efforts – coming in earlier, volunteering for jobs, taking on extra assignments, and setting up information interviews with the movers and shakers.
• As your performance improves and you start accomplishing major goals for the company, stay humble with your fellow workers. But make sure your boss (and your boss’s boss) knows that you are a superstar in the making.

[Ed. Note: For more of Michael's advice on how to succeed in a new job, get a copy of his bestselling book Automatic Wealth for Grads... and Anyone Else Just Starting Out.]

“Principle 1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
Principle 2. Smile.

Principle 3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Principle 4. Be a good listener: Encourage others to talk about themselves.

Principle 5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.

Principle 6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.”

(Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People)

I love my new pilot flight gear bag. It’s functional, easy to use, and the perfect size for my cockpit. But I resisted buying it for months.

My previous bag was leather, with custom embroidered initials. It held all my gear and looked cool. But it was a bit bulky. Worse, it kept knocking around my backup NavCom, causing it to stop working. (Not a good thing when you’re 10,000 feet up in the air, as you can imagine.)

My resistance to buying a new flight bag – even when I knew it was the right thing to do – got me to thinking about the nature of change… and the anxiety that often comes with it.

Do you resist change even when you know it will make a positive difference in your life? If so, do what I did: Put it in writing.

Think about a change that could make your life a little easier or better – a small change that you’ve been avoiding because you figure the status quo is “good enough.” It could, for example, have something to do with your behavior, with time-tasking, or with learning a new skill.

Take a sheet of paper and list all the reasons you can think of for making the change. Then list all the reasons you can think of for not making it. Once you see it in black and white, the benefits of taking action will be obvious.

My new flight gear bag may not seem like a big deal, but making that simple change has made every flying experience more enjoyable.

Making a seemingly small change today will produce an equally good result for you tomorrow.

[Ed. Note: Once you've listed your reasons for making a change that will make your life better, healthier, or happier, you'll know what you have to do to make it happen. But if you still feel stuck, success mentor Bob Cox can help. He's helped four Ordinary Joes climb the ranks to become billionaires... and he's willing to share the same secrets of their success with you. Get all the details here.]

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

I couldn’t believe I’d missed it before. I’d read the book many, many times – but this time was different. A secret was revealed to me – and today I’m going to give it to you.

If you are open and receptive to what you are about to read, you can expect a major breakthrough.

Here it is:
“Psychologist David Seabury says that the best piece of advice his father ever gave him was to practice positive mental imagery – immediately and ‘on cue,’ so to speak, whenever he became aware of negative feelings. Negative feelings literally defeated themselves by becoming a sort of ‘bell’ which set off a conditioned reflex to arouse positive states of mind.”

Now read that passage again. It comes from the 35-million-copy bestseller, Psycho-Cybernetics. Pay particular attention to the words “the best piece of advice his father ever gave him.” Why? Because whenever something is “the best piece of advice” someone can give you – especially your father – you know it’s got to be good.

In reading this passage, I not only see it as the best advice I can give my son – but myself, and everyone I teach at my seminars and in my coaching programs.

Many people wonder why I am always so calm, cool, and collected. Many wonder how I am able to speak before a crowd in such a nonchalant, totally relaxed way and still have everyone totally riveted.

It’s mostly because I have no thoughts of resistance when I speak. I’m not concerned about offending anyone. I’m not even trying to get people to like me. I am simply ME, take it or leave it.

Very few people are like this. They’re always trying to figure out how to get others to approve of them or like them. Not good. Because the more you NEED others to like you the less they will like you.

Same goes with money. The more you NEED it, the more it will stay away from you. Money and friends go where they are wanted – not where they are needed. There is a world of difference between want and need. One attracts. The other repels.

Want comes from a vibration of “I’m happy already and I’d like to have this, too.” Need comes from a vibration of “I’m miserable and frustrated and I need this thing to make me happy.”

Become aware of negative NEED feelings when they arise. And when they do, learn, through practice, to have those feelings immediately trigger the thought to change your vibration into a “feel good” one.

Most people have never been taught to do this by their fathers – or by anyone else. They’ve been taught to set goals, to have a burning desire, to be optimistic and have a positive attitude.

But what do you do when you look at the state of your finances and you feel bad? What do you do when the reality of your situation begins to ruin your day? What do you do when you’re feeling frustrated, fearful, and worried? You do what Dr. Seabury’s father told him to do… and what I’m telling you to do.

First, you “recognize” that you are feeling bad.

Second, you understand that this “feel bad” vibration REPELS what you say you want. Your want is not a want. It’s a need that comes with the expectation that something outside of yourself will make you happy.

Third, you recognize that this “feel bad” imagery sends a signal to the Universe that you cannot be happy “for no particular reason.” And that’s not good.

There is a balancing act between having a burning desire and having a desire that burns you.

Having a burning desire creates the necessary mindset that will attract the thing you want. On the other hand, if the desire is connected to “I’m miserable unless I have this thing” – then you are chasing success and that success will always run faster than you do.

Your objective is to attract success, not chase it. Chasing success is repelling success. You never get what you are chasing.

Several years ago, a man sent me an e-mail in which he accused me of “chasing the almighty dollar.” He was wrong. At that point in my life, I couldn’t even form a mental image of myself doing what he said I was doing.

When I did chase the almighty dollar – and I did it for years – I had no money. When I stopped chasing and learned to attract it, it flowed into my life so fast I was nearly knocked over.

The forces of attraction and repulsion are always at play. Whether you attract more than you repel or repel more than you attract is simply a matter of how strong those forces are. If your repelling energy is stronger, you go deeper into debt. If your attraction energy is stronger, you get wealthier. If both are equally strong, you feel “stuck.”

Now the question is… what do you do if you are repelling more than you’re attracting?

The answer:

1. You change the way you feel by changing the mental picture you have of your situation.

Every time you feel a negative emotion, you sound the alarm in your head. “Uh, oh. Not good. Change the mental picture to a positive one.” You do this over and over, and before long the feel-bad vibe lasts less than a second and you’re back to feeling good.

2. You begin each day with exercises that help you go through the whole day without resistance.

You don’t just read inspirational messages and books. You stand in front of the mirror and tell yourself what you want. You picture what you want when you speak. You recall previous successes and link them to your future.

3. You have a burning desire in mind, a goal.

You don’t expect the goal to give you happiness. You don’t let the desire for it burn you by feeling bad that you don’t yet have it. In fact, even though you WANT the goal, you are able to “walk away” from it emotionally. If, for example, you want more money – you don’t expect more money to give you happiness. You simply want more money – and you put yourself into happiness mode NOW.

If you’re happy even though you don’t yet have in your possession the thing you want – then you are attracting it to you.

If you’re unhappy because you don’t yet have in your possession the thing you NEED – then you are repelling it.

So get happy NOW.

Recognize that fear, frustration, and angst are only there to help you change course. They’re there to help you see that your mental picture is off-target. Put the right mental image back onto the screen of your mind and watch how the Universe lines things up in your favor.

[Ed. Note: Matt Furey, an internationally recognized expert in self-development, fitness, and martial arts, is president of the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation, Inc. With Matt's 101 Ways to Magnetize Money, you can learn the REAL SECRETS of financial success known only to the most prosperous men and women who have ever lived. Find out more right here.]

The most important thing you need to realize before asking for a promotion is this: Your employer is not really interested in you and why you think you deserve a higher-paying position.

He’s interested in himself. And he’s interested in his business – the problems and the challenges his company faces every day. He may be in need of someone to help him, but he doesn’t care about how wonderful that person is. He just wants to know: “Can this person solve my problems?”

If you think of your objective as a direct-marketing problem, it will be relatively easy to achieve.

Direct marketing is the science of creating positive responses with sales copy. By using its proven secrets, you dramatically increase your chances of getting the kind of response you are looking for.

The direct marketer knows that, to make a sale, she can’t waste her prospect’s time by talking about herself. Everything she says in her sales pitch must be focused on the prospect’s problem and how much better his life will be after buying the product she’s selling.

This is exactly what you have to do when you make your case to your boss. In this case, you are the “product” you’re selling. You have to let him know that you understand exactly what his problems are and that you have solutions for each and every one of them.

[Ed. Note: This article was adapted from Michael Masterson's bestseller, Seven Years to Seven Figures: The Fast-Track Plan to Becoming a Millionaire. For more specific advice on how to get a promotion and start building your wealth FAST, go here.]

“Actually, I’m a total weakling,” I told Bob. “I’ve got a lot in common with the guy in those classic bodybuilding ads who kept getting sand kicked in his face.”

Bob had just commented on how I looked like I worked out a lot – and I sensed that, because I looked so “big,” it bothered him.

We were meeting for the first time, and I wanted to secure a deal with him. I didn’t want him to feel intimidated or get his guard up. (Not that being bigger and stronger is worth much when it comes to business.) So I used an old comedian’s technique to win him over.

Not only did I admit to being a “natural-born” weakling, I told him that I’m a lousy athlete. I said that any strength I had was artificially created through years of working out – and that the moment I stopped exercising religiously, my muscles would melt away with alarming speed.

Bob did just what crowds do in a comedy club when a performer uses this technique. He smiled and loosened up.

People don’t go to a comedy club to listen to some guy on stage who presents himself as being smarter, better looking, and making more money than they do. They go to feel good. And when a comic uses self-deprecating humor, it makes them feel good about themselves. It’s just human nature.

Putting yourself down to build up the other guy works just as well in the business world – whether you’re trying to close a deal, get other people to support your objectives, or win new customers.

Here’s an example of how it works…

John, a real estate multimillionaire, was interested in buying an office building that was about to go into foreclosure. The owner had taken a risk when he bought the building by using almost all his cash for a down payment. Then, when the economy slowed and several tenants moved out, his cash flow slowed to a trickle… and he was in trouble.

When John met with the owner, it was clear that the man expected to take a financial beating on the property – and was blaming himself for the situation he was in. So before John even made an offer, while shuffling through the papers in his briefcase, he chatted about his own “problems.” Shaking his head, John said, “I don’t know how it happened, but I have no control over anything at home.” He confided that his wife ruled the roost – and he felt lucky that she even allowed him to watch football on Sundays.

There was a smile on the owner’s face as he read through John’s offer… and then, feeling very much in control, signed the contract.

Here’s another example…

When Jane was hired as the manager of a retail jewelry store, she expected trouble. The assistant manager was 20 years her senior, and had worked for the company for eight years. Needless to say, he resented having been passed over for the promotion.

As Jane walked through the door her first morning on the job, the assistant manager made some flippant, borderline-offensive comments. The other employees laughed, and Jane knew she had to do something quickly to overcome this potential obstacle to her success.

She could’ve given the assistant manager a verbal lashing in front of everyone, but she knew that would simply make matters worse. Instead, a bit later in the day, Jane asked him to come into her office.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” Jane admitted. “I’m so scared about doing a good job that I almost lost my breakfast this morning.”

The anger in his eyes dissipated as Jane continued: “I know that I’m an outsider, and there must be a ton of things I don’t know that could ruin me. I’m hoping I can count on you – so, together, we can make this the number one store in the chain.”

The assistant manager’s attitude completely turned around. From that moment on, he went above and beyond the call of duty to get the entire staff to support all of Jane’s decisions.

Now before you try this self-deprecation technique for yourself, there is one important caveat: What you say about yourself must ring true, or you’ll completely alienate the person you’re trying to win over. But when used correctly, it is a very powerful tool – and only one of many that I have in my arsenal.

There is nothing more important to a business career than knowing how to deal with other people. If you want to have every advantage on your side, click right here and check out my free report on People Power Skills.

[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and publisher who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises. If you're interested in starting a new business with less than $100 in capital, you should take a look at Paul's Micro-Business program right here. It could add thousands to your bank account in as little as 30 days.]

Steven sells his products directly from his website, as well as through hotels and gift shops. His revenue had gradually increased for five years, but then dipped and then plateaued last year. He tried motivating the troops, finding new sales channels, and hiring new salespeople, but nothing changed.

Then Steven started to panic. And as his panic increased, the only thing he could think of doing was to shut down the business and walk away.

Steven was striving without having any specific goals in mind. No wonder he felt so discouraged.

Striving for success is stressful. You’re reaching for something you don’t have, and haven’t really defined. On the other hand, when you’re striding toward success, you’re taking steps each day to come closer to the outcome you desire. Every day, you get to acknowledge your forward momentum. When striding, you are in the here and now instead of struggling to reach a fantasy future. Since you’re mentally present, you are able to recognize opportunities that present themselves.

After I explained this to Steven during our consultation session, he set some specific goals for himself. Now he is striding toward the following:

• Reaching $2 million in revenue by adding retail channels, building more solid online sales, recruiting two new pay-for-performance salespeople, and forging alliances with five or more companies that have complementary products.
• Taking weekends off by training his team to be self-managed and delegating more to his office manager.
• Cutting costs by 20 percent by negotiating new terms with existing suppliers or finding new sources, streamlining internal processes, and using standard operating procedures across all departments.

By striving, Steven might eventually have reached these same goals. But by striding, he’ll get there more quickly… and enjoy the process.

[Ed. Note: Business Accelerator Christine Comaford is CEO of Mighty Ventures, a startup and CEO mentoring company. She has helped more than 150 entrepreneurs become millionaires with her proven strategies and killer connections. Get her free business-boosting tools at www.MightyVentures.com and join her Facebook group at www.BusinessRenegades.com.

And get even more goal-setting tips with ETR's Total Success Achievement Program. Don't wait until Jan. 1 to change your life.]

What a tragedy that Farrah Fawcett not only is suffering from terminal cancer, but that her 24-year-old son, Redmond O’Neal, was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs into a jail to give to a friend. (How comforting it must be to know that your son has buddies in the slammer.)

Then there’s Sarah Palin’s daughter, who got pregnant by an 18-year-old punk who not only backed out of marrying her, but decided it would be real classy to go on national television and tell tales about the Palin family.

These stories of celebrities’ kids screwing up go on nonstop. And they remind all but the luckiest of parents that one of the not-so-fun aspects of having children is that they all too often don’t take into consideration how the results of their actions might impact their families.

Which brings me to my 20-year-old son. A few months ago, he was in an automobile accident and nearly totaled both his car and that of the other driver. It was nighttime, and the black car in front of him had run out of gas and come to a stop in the right-hand lane. The driver said he had his emergency lights on, but my son – perhaps due to a momentary lack of concentration – thought the car was moving.

In any event, he looked over his left shoulder to make sure he could switch lanes, and, as he looked forward again, the right front of his car slammed into the left rear of the immobilized black car in front of him. Though my son was going under the 40-mile-per-hour speed limit, the impact was great enough to trigger his airbag and spin his car around several times.

Of course, you’re always at fault when you hit a car from behind. However, considering the circumstances (black car… nighttime… the other car out of gas and stopped in the road… and my son driving under the speed limit), it didn’t seem necessary for the police officer to charge him with reckless driving. But that’s what he did.

A reckless driving conviction can bring a very stiff fine, the suspension of one’s driver’s license, and, in extreme cases, jail time. But, thankfully, no one was injured. And the other driver was a sympathetic gentleman who was just happy that his wife and small daughter were okay. He even called our house later that evening to see how my son was doing.

As with all negative occurrences in life, a lot of good came out of this one. During a recent conversation I had with my son, he told me that he couldn’t believe how much he had learned from the experience.

When I asked him to elaborate, the first thing he said was that it made him realize how easy it is to have a serious automobile accident. He emphasized how much more careful and alert he intended to be in the future.

He also said he had never imagined how involved being in an accident could be – dealing with insurance companies, finding an auto-repair shop, coming up with the $500 deductible for his share of the $10,000 repair bill, finding an attorney and coming up with the money to pay his fee, going to the DMV to get a copy of his driving record for the attorney, making two court appearances, and, above all, the stress of waiting for both his first and second court dates.

Best of all from my perspective is that he said it made him realize what a major effect his actions could have on others – especially his family. Kids normally learn this simple truth the hard way, over a long period of time. But we adults have no excuse. We should already know that virtually everything we do impacts others, particularly those closest to us.

Which is all the more reason why we should think doubly hard about the consequences of our actions ahead of time. As I told my son, it’s a heck of a lot easier to avoid a serious mistake than to repair the damage caused by one.

In my article “Learning from Saddam,” I said that it’s a good idea to learn to “look backward from the future.” By that I meant that you should make it a habit to picture the possible consequences of your actions before acting. There’s not a person reading (or writing) this article whose family wouldn’t be better off had he/she always applied that rule.

Of course, your perception of reality is a critical factor in all this. If you delude yourself about the odds and the possible consequences of your actions, looking backward from the future is an exercise in futility.

But having an accurate perception of reality is another subject for another day. Right now, a good start is just to think about the efficacy of the “looking backward from the future” principle – and start teaching it to your young children.

What if your children are already in their teens or early twenties, you ask? Answer: Good luck.

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos. And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

Comment on this article

Do you ever wonder why some people succeed at almost every challenge they take on, while others never seem to be able to get out of the starting blocks?

There are four major reasons why people FAIL – and they very neatly spell out the word itself.

• The F in FAIL stands for lacking Focus.

Your chances of success are magnified exponentially if you have the ability to focus. Yet, in research we undertook a couple of years ago, we found that focus was the trait most online entrepreneurs struggled with.

It’s like watching a movie on TV. If you give it your undivided attention, you’ll be able to follow the plot, understand the characters, and ultimately enjoy the film. If, on the other hand, you keep jumping up to talk to your pals on the phone, cook a meal, or clean the room, you’re likely to miss some important things that are happening on screen. And it is highly likely that once you’ve lost track of what’s going on, you’ll reach for the remote and watch something else instead.

It’s not that the film wasn’t good. It might have been a real blockbuster. But if you don’t focus, one of two things – or both – will happen. You’ll lose the plot and/or you’ll simply lose interest.

The same is true in business.

Dwaine was a waiter in a popular New York deli. He had been trying to launch his online business for three years, but was making less from that part-time business in a month than he was making in tips in a single day.

After reading Focus: The Real Reason for the Failure of Online Businesses, he put into practice some of the advice in the book and saw an amazing change in his productivity. Within two months, he had reduced the number of hours he was working on his part-time business – yet the profits had grown tenfold. And that trend continued. After 11 months, Dwaine quit his day job to concentrate all his energies on his business.

“The mistake I was making was obvious,” says Dwaine. “I was spending lots of time on my new business, but I wasn’t focusing. I was just playing with it. Once I learned how to focus, everything changed overnight. The transformation was amazing. My only regret is that I didn’t learn how to focus sooner.”

• The A in FAIL stands for not taking Action.

You may have dreams of success, but unless you take action it is unlikely that anything will ever come of those dreams.

Nearly 90 years ago, Frederick Terman, a Stanford professor, had a dream. He wanted to create a thriving industrial region with the University as its epicenter.

Few bought into his crazy vision, but he didn’t let that prevent him from taking action. Every year, he would take his students on field trips – to San Francisco to see the pioneering work being done by Philco Farnsworth with television or to Redwood City where Charlie Litton was working with vacuum tubes.

Professor Terman’s passion rubbed off on two of his students. A few years after they graduated, he helped them set up a business in a one-car garage. He even provided them with an idea for their first product. Within a few weeks, they’d made their first sale to Disney.

That fledgling company grew at a massive rate over the next few decades, and is now a household name: Hewlett-Packard.

If it hadn’t been for the action taken by Professor Terman back in the 1920s and 30s, it is safe to say that Hewlett-Packard would not exist, and that Palo Alto would not be the hotbed of technological innovation that it is today.

The professor had a dream, and he took that extra crucial step. He took action!

• The I in FAIL stands for not seeking out Ideas.

Without ideas, you’re at a creative standstill. This is particularly true when it comes to business.

Luckily, there are some terrific sources for ideas – and you’re reading one right now. The ETR daily newsletter not only gives you a dose of positive motivation each day, it also provides you with a non-stop flow of great ideas to pursue.

But remember the A in FAIL. Because even with the best ideas, nothing happens if you don’t act on them.

• Finally, we come to the L in FAIL – which stands for not having Longevity.

You need to be willing to pursue your good ideas over the long term, and not just give up when you hit the first hurdle. This is true whether your goal is to start a business, get fit, or make any other meaningful changes in your life. If you don’t have staying power, your dreams are likely to fall by the wayside before they come to fruition.

So whenever you feel like failure is staring you in the face, think of the word FAIL itself, and remember what each of those four letters represents: lacking Focus, not taking Action, not seeking out great Ideas, and not having Longevity.

Here’s to completely eliminating FAIL from your vocabulary so you can succeed at almost anything you set your mind to.

[Ed. Note: Online marketing expert Paul Smithson is the creator of the XSitePro website-building program. This July, Paul and ETR's team of Internet marketers will be teaching an elite group of ETR readers how to build their own online businesses from scratch. You WILL leave the conference with your own fully functioning Internet business. Get the details now.]

Comment on this article

Here’s an excerpt from a book I’m reading that you should pay close attention to:

“This brief company history may leave the impression that our experience has been one of ever-improving results, with one success after another, each building on the one before. Nothing could be further from the truth. Progress, whether in business, an economy, or science, comes through experimentation and failure. Given that a market economy is an experimental discovery process, business failures are inevitable and any attempt to eliminate them only insures overall failure. The key is to recognize when we are experimenting and limit the bet accordingly.”

Now let me tell you why you should think long and hard about the above words: They were written by a man who has built his business into the largest and most profitable privately held company in America. Koch Industries, which most people have never even heard of, has annual revenues of $90 billion – greater than those of Microsoft and Bank of America!

I suppose I was one of those people who assumed that a giant such as Koch Industries had experienced nothing but success, with each success “building on the one before.” After all, how many failures can you possibly have on your way to building a company with $90 billion in revenues?

Answer: Plenty. In his book The Science of Success, Charles Kochdescribes one misstep after another that he and his team have made over the past 40 years, mistakes that cost his company tens of millions of dollars. But mistakes and losses are part and parcel of the free-market, entrepreneurial model upon which Koch Industries has been built.

This entrepreneurial model requires Koch Industries to go into each new venture as an experiment. If the experiment seems to be working, the company increases its bet as it goes along. If it isn’t working, it cuts its losses and moves on.

Translation: Failure is not a bad thing. Failure is a good thing, so long as it doesn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Failure is, in fact, the Supreme Teacher, and action is the matriculation fee that allows you to enroll in the Supreme Teacher’s class.

Michael Masterson calls this the principle of accelerated failure. “To develop any complex skill,” he says, “you must be willing to make mistakes and endure failures. The faster you can make those mistakes and suffer those failures, the quicker you will master the skill.”

He goes on to say that you should be “happy and even eager to try and fail until you finally succeed.”

That reminds me of something basketball great Michael Jordan once said: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”

Most people harbor such a fear of failure that they can’t bring themselves to supply the action needed to participate in the class. There can be many reasons for this fear, and one that I believe plays a more prominent role than most people might suspect is the stigma attached to failure.Society tends to treat failure with disdain, and most people fear being frowned upon by the straight-and-narrow types who make up the bulk of the populace.

I doubt that one in a hundred people believes that “business failures are inevitable and any attempt to eliminate them only insures overall failure.” But these are not the words of a Harvard Business School professor. They were written by a 40-year veteran of the Entrepreneurial Wars who sits at the top of the food chain.

Charles Koch is not telling us that we might fail. He’s telling us that we must fail. And that if we try to eliminate failure, we are guaranteed to experience overall failure – as in long-term failure. In other words, the only way to totally eliminate failure is to do nothing, which, paradoxically, guarantees a failed life.

The next time you feel a fear of failure coming over you, remember the words of Charles Koch and don’t allow the potential stigma of failure to intimidate you. When Charles Koch talks, wise people listen. I mean, how wrong can a guy worth $14 billion be?

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos.

And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to Robert Ringer's one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.] ]

Comment on this article

On a recent bike ride down one of Vancouver’s North Shore Mountains, I noticed a fairly large tree root sticking up from the ground on the trail ahead. I had enough room to pass on the left, but it was tight. I was in control of my bike and I was able to slow down, but my front tire hit the root dead on.

In what felt like slow motion, my back tire came off the ground. I felt my body lift from my seat, and I was thrown over my handlebars headfirst into the bushes to the right of the root. Thankfully I had a helmet on and was going slowly. I was stunned, but not badly injured.

My husband was, of course, relieved that I was okay, but he was also surprised that I had hit the root. He knew I was capable of maneuvering my bike around it. I had navigated tougher terrain before. So what went wrong?

I did the same thing on my mountain bike that many new real estate investors do. I focused on the problem instead of looking ahead to my destination and figuring out how to get there. As Henry Ford so eloquently stated, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”

I focused on the root – instead of my path – and I hit it.

If you focus on the fact that you don’t have any money for a down payment, or you have bad credit, or you don’t think you can find financing for a property, you will hit those barriers and you probably won’t get past them. Yes, you have to be aware of the challenge you face in order to navigate past it – but you shouldn’t make your obstacle the focus. Your focus should be on where you’re going next and how you’re going to get there.

If you don’t have money for a down payment, start putting together excellent property deals that people with money would want to invest in. If you have bad credit, take measures to repair your credit and learn all about real estate investing in the meantime. If you think you can’t find financing for a property, talk to people who are getting financing and learn how they’ve done it.

The next time I ride a challenging mountain bike trail and encounter a scary looking root or rock, I will focus on the options I have for getting around it – not on the obstacle itself. Keep this in mind when you pursue your own dreams.

[Ed. Note: For more insider strategies for getting started as a real estate investor, sign up for real estate expert Julie Broad's free monthly newsletter. Get your free report for making money with real estate here]

Comment on this article

Recently I observed a training session for one of my business clients. When a couple of the attendees started goofing around, Lisa, the woman running the session, raised her voice and said: “People – this was paid for by your employer. You are on company time, and I intend to maximize the use of that short time we have together. So please work with me and be here now!”

“Be here now.” That phrase – referring to the awareness of not only being in the moment but staying in the moment over an extended period of time, free of distractions – struck me as being very much in tune with the overall goal achieving process.

Here’s how to apply it to your goals:

Rule #1. Concentrate on defining your objective.

What do you want to accomplish? What matters to you? Why do you want to achieve that particular goal?

Rule #2. Concentrate on one part of your goal at a time.

Break down your ultimate goal into smaller chunks. Keeping on eye on the big picture is great. However, you have to focus on the individual steps that will get you there.

Rule #3. Concentrate on controlling your situation.

When focusing on those individual steps, control your natural tendencies (we all have them) to drift away from the task at hand and/or stop trying if it becomes too challenging or takes too long.

Rule #4. Concentrate on completion.

To achieve any goal, you have to make a commitment to reach the finish line. Strengthen your resolve and keep yourself motivated by visualizing the end result – how excited you’ll be and how great you’ll feel when you reap the rewards of your hard work.

[Ed. Note: Bob Cox is a success coach who can help you achieve goals in every area of your life: professional, social, personal, and beyond. Check out his program here.]

Comment on this article

My good friend “Will” speaks fluent Japanese. He lived in Japan for more than 10 years and knows the culture inside out. When he visits, he supplements his income by giving English lessons to the local people.

I mentioned to him that I know someone who makes a lot of money with instructional videos that teach Brazilians how to speak English. In fact, I’ve been thinking about creating a similar product for Latin Americans. And I pointed out that, with his knowledge of Japanese, he could easily create and market an instructional video for Japanese who want to learn English.

He was interested, so I explained the basics of how to get started. Will is currently loaded with debt (all the more reason to get a side business going). And because he has no money at all to fund this little venture, I offered to be his partner.

I agreed to produce the video at my expense and market it on my website. All Will had to do was appear in the video doing something he knows how to do very well. He wouldn’t have to put up a dime – and within a week’s time, he’d own half of a potentially very profitable business.

Well, it’s been a month since we had that conversation, and nothing has happened. Will has called a few times to ask a few questions… but there always seems to be something preventing him from taking the next step and coming up with an outline for the script.

Listen – you can always find some reason not to push yourself to move forward with a project. Maybe you’re not 100 percent sure it’s going to work… or you have never done anything like it before… or you have other things going on in your life. But if you let those things stand in your way, the opportunity will slip away and be gone for good.

As Michael Masterson says, “Ready, FIRE, Aim.” As soon as you know you’ve got a decent chance to succeed, jump in with both feet. If you wait for the “perfect” time, it will never happen – and you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering “what could have been.”

[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and business author who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises. For more information on his "Dare to Live Your Dreams" program, click right here.

Need an extra dose of motivation? Proven tools for getting a new venture off the ground? Help moving forward with your goals? Success mentor Bob Cox can give you all this and more. Simply sign up for ETR's Total Success Achievement Program, and let Bob help you turn yourself into the person you've always wanted to be. ]

Comment on this article

• Bill Gates will send you $200 if you forward “this” e-mail to a friend.
• Big box store Target refuses to donate to veterans’ organizations.
• The Holocaust never happened.
• 9/11 was secretly perpetrated by the U.S. government.

As you can see from the examples above – all of them posted on various websites – although the Internet has become the most popular source of information these days, it’s full of wrong information. Sometimes it’s an innocent retelling of myth. In other cases, the people behind it are out to spread malicious lies to further their agendas.

In either case, you must check your sources before you rush to include anything that comes up in a Google search in your next e-zine article, term paper, or blog.

To guard against republishing fiction as fact, ask yourself: ”What sources of information are guiding my actions? Have I checked the facts, or am I simply relying on the word of others? Above all, have I applied common sense to this situation, or am I acting impulsively?”

Lazy thinking leads to the acceptance of fiction as fact. Our modern world is so saturated with fiction transformed into fact through the phenomenon of gradualism (where a lie is repeated so many times it gradually gains currency) that even the most alert and rational among us can be fooled. This is just one reason why the search for truth is a lifetime

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos.

And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

Comment on this article

It is imperative that you learn to relax, physically and mentally.

Why is this? Because a mind that is filled with stress cannot easily transfer a positive mental picture to your subconscious.

The good news is that regardless of how much stress you feel, you can learn to relax very quickly. Regardless of how much of yesterday you are carrying into today, you can get yourself to emotionally unwind and let go within seconds.

One of the fastest ways is to pay attention to your breathing.

Watch yourself breathe. Inhale deeply. Pay attention to the air filling your lungs. Exhale deeply. Feel the bad energy leaving your body.

After a few deep breaths you’ll wonder where all the mental stress went – and once you get your muscles to simply “let go,” you’re ready to work on improving your self-image. You’re ready to begin building the NEW YOU – the person you instinctively know you can be, the person you really really want to be.

It’s a great idea to visualize the new you for a few minutes just before dropping off to sleep. But be careful. Avoid the temptation to lie down for your “Theatre of the Mind” session. Sit up in bed or on the side of the bed with your feet on the floor. This will help you avoid falling asleep before you get to the highlights.

If you visualize before you fall asleep your subconscious mind will work on your goals while you’re in a dream state. And that’s a wonderful thing to know.

If you doubt that what you think about before sleep will have an effect on you the next day, consider this. Most people go to bed with a final thought of “I’m tired.” Hence, they wake up tired.

The very first time you say to yourself, “Tomorrow I’m going to wake up feeling totally energized and refreshed” – you will discover that you no longer wake up feeling tired.

Try it if you don’t believe me. I dare you.

Here’s another example of how you bring ideas into your dream state:

Yesterday I was practicing my kung fu form in the park. When I got halfway through, I had a surprising revelation. I remembered how I was practicing some improvements I wanted to make in my form while in my dream state. And there I was, doing my form in the waking state with the improvements in place.

I didn’t consciously try to make those improvements. They happened subconsciously while I was dreaming and carried over to my waking state.

Made me wonder… in which state am I getting more accomplished?

[Ed. Note: Want to get more accomplished while you sleep as well as while you're awake? Then latch onto the powerful, dynamic, and magnetic self-image exercises in Zero Resistance Living. This program will change your life... FAST. Go here and order NOW.

For more ideas about how to beat stress, sign up for ETR's FREE natural health newsletter here.]

Comment on this article

Before my wife Zhannie emigrated to the United States from China, she always ended her messages the same way: “Bu yao tai nu li gong zuo.”

Translation: “Don’t work too hard.”

This statement always bothered me. I didn’t like it because I honestly believed that “hard work” was the key to success in anything. Today, I have a different way of looking at the “hard work” principle, and I’ll explain it in a moment. But first, what did Zhannie mean when she said “Don’t work too hard”?

Years ago, Zhannie’s good friend was working hard in the assembly line at the aluminum factory in her hometown.

Suddenly, an explosion.

The lady’s beautiful face caught on fire. She suffered third-degree burns and was instantly scarred for life. She didn’t leave the house, other than to see a doctor, for more than 10 years.

And with the communist system, you can imagine the health care she received for her wounds.

Shabby at best. Until the doors opened to capitalism and doctors arrived who could perform the complicated surgery she needed.

Under China’s non-capitalistic system, there were few high-level doctors – and no money to pay a specialist if there was one.

Why no high-level doctors?

No icentive. They all got paid the same, no matter what.

Another worker my wife knew lost his arm while working hard. Others lost their lives. In fact, my wife saw so much death when she lived in China that she became numb to it. Life was not precious. Everyone was the same. Just an eggshell to be discarded.

So my wife’s refrain, “Don’t work too hard,” meant the same as the Chinese saying, “Yi lu ping an.” Travel safely.

Safety was valued far more than hard work. Don’t take a risk. Don’t do anything where you could get hurt or injured.

When Zhannie came to the U.S., she no longer believed in “Don’t work too hard.” She believed in taking risks, in doing whatever she could to make life better for herself.

At one time, she held three jobs. She worked part-time in three different restaurants. She went to a school to learn English. Later on, she attended a junior college to learn more.

And she encouraged me to take risks – to write books, to give seminars, to increase my income. She never said “Don’t work too hard” to me AFTER she moved to the U.S.

Years later, when I began teaching Psycho-Cybernetics and Zero Resistance Living on my website, in my products, and at live coaching programs, Zhannie dived into the subject with enthusiasm.

From me she learned that the key to success is the proper use of your imagination and something I call the Law of Practice.

Dr. Maxwell Maltz called it “practice, practice, practice.”

But not hollow practice.

Enthusiastic practice. Putting your body, mind, and soul into what you’re doing – but doing so in a relaxed way.

All great achievers do what they do in a spirit of calm and relaxation. They may pay lip service to the slogan “It’s ALL HARD WORK” – but the reality is that when you work hard and are not relaxed, you’re not very effective.

The best of the best understand this. So next time you hear “It’s all hard work” coming from the mouth of a champion athlete or successful businessman, ask for video footage of him in action.

While watching him, you’ll discover an amazing fact: Even in the heat of battle, even when time is of the essence, even when a life may be on the line – the winners are those who make what they’re doing look easy.

Two summers ago, I watched a man in Xinjiang Province in China walk a tightrope. I also watched him run on the tightrope. And I watched in awe as he stood upon a chair on the tightrope. He made the seemingly impossible look easy.

How?

First, he imagined being the tightrope walker he became.

Second, he practiced more than anyone else until he became that person.

Relaxed, enthusiastic practice is the key to greatness.

Are you relaxed? Are you enthusiastic? Are you willing to practice more than anyone else?

Then nothing can or will stop you from becoming a successful human being.

[Ed. Note: Matt Furey is a national collegiate wrestling champion (1985) and a world shuai-chiao kung fu champion (1997). He publishes the Zero Resistance Living program that teaches average Joes how to change themselves into the person they've always wanted to be. Discover how to relax, imagine, and put enthusiasm into all you do at the highest level possible. Order NOW and make a quantum leap forward.

You can access dozens of powerful strategies that can help you reach new heights in your business and personal life with ETR's Total Success Achievement Program. Get the details here ]

Comment on this article

When you are writing on deadline (or creating a marketing plan, redesigning your website, etc.) and your energy is starting to falter… do not rely on coffee or “power” drinks to stay alert.

If you’re really tired, take a nap. It’s a tactic all top writers know about. Stuff your brain with info, then go sleep for 20 minutes and let your subconscious synthesize and data-mine everything. When you wake up (don’t sleep longer than 20 minutes or you’ll get groggy), you will often be amazed at what’s suddenly ready to be written.

I’ve done my headlines this way for most of my career.

I never force myself to stay awake. If you do, you’ll spend three hours grinding out crap you’ll have to toss anyway. By grabbing some brain-satisfying shut-eye when you require it, you can be more productive in half an hour than you could hope to manage in three bleary-eyed hours of trying to coerce results.

[Ed. Note: Get more unconventional tips for supercharging your career at John Carlton's blog www.john-carlton.com.

Power napping is a technique that works for John Carlton. But there are hundreds of other "secrets" you can use to get out of tough spots in Early to Rise's Unscrew Your Life newsletter. Sign up today.]

Comment on this article

When you are working progressively, step-by-step, toward something that is important to you, you generate within yourself a continuous feeling of success and achievement.

And it begins with determining what it is you believe in and stand for – your values.

Successful people are successful because they are very clear about their values. Unsuccessful people are fuzzy or unsure. Complete failures have no real values at all.

Clarifying your values is the beginning exercise in building self-confidence, self-esteem, and character. When you take the time to think through your fundamental values, and then commit to living your life consistent with them, you feel a surge of mental strength and well-being. You feel more capable. You feel more centered in the universe and more competent to accomplish the goals you set for yourself.

Here are two things you can do immediately to put this idea into action.

1. Decide for yourself what makes you truly happy, and organize your life around it.

2. Identify your values – what it is you stand for and believe in. Commit to living in a way that’s consistent with these innermost convictions… and you’ll never make another mistake.

[Ed. Note: You need a flight plan to succeed. But having the plan isn't enough. Like a pilot, you must make course corrections along the way in order to arrive at your destination. With Brian Tracy's Flight Plan, you can discover a how to achieve more, faster than you ever dreamed possible. You also receive 2 BONUS CDS. Learn more here.]

Comment on this article

For the great thinkers of the world whose job it is to make sense out of life – from Plato to Will Durant… from Epictetus to the Dalai Lama… from Montaigne to Eric Hoffer – the foundational rules never change. The universal principles of human nature are constants. And in a world of chaos and madness, that’s nice to know.

All of this came to mind yet again when I recently read a book written nearly a hundred years ago. The book, The Human Machine by Arnold Bennett, admittedly is not written in a reader-friendly style. But Bennett’s approach to understanding why people tend to look outside themselves – to others or to “uncontrollable” circumstances – for the source of their problems is quite clever.

By the “Human Machine,” Bennett was referring to the part of a person that consists of brain and muscle.

Researchers of late have been frantically trying to show that abstracts such as the ego and the soul are nothing more than physical aspects of the brain. Their objective is to move the ego and soul out from under the umbrella of metaphysics and fit them neatly into the Human Machine.

The brain intellectualizes, conceptualizes, and gives orders to the muscles. It has the power to override instincts. But the brain and the ego are not the same thing. Bennett believed that “your brain is the servant of the ego” - i.e., that you have the power to control your thoughts.

It was of great interest to me that a hundred years ago Arnold Bennett was addressing many of the same issues I have been writing about over the past three decades – for example, reality versus the perception of reality.

Bennett cautioned readers not to base their actions “on the workings of an ideal universe,” and instead to “base them on this universe.” In my book Looking Out for #1, I discussed this point at length under the moniker of the “Is’s versus Ought-to’s Theory,” which states: The degree of complications in a person’s life corresponds to the degree to which he dwells on the way he thinks the world ought to be rather than the way it really is.

In other words, reality is what it is, and it’s up to us to discover it. Our perception of reality may or may not have any connection to reality itself.While all this may sound obvious, each and every one of us is guilty, at one time or another, of confusing reality with the perception of reality.

We often go to great lengths to convince ourselves of our innocence. But the truth of the matter is that, in the vast majority of cases, our bad outcomes can be traced to our own actions – or lack of action.

Those who don’t get this become unconscious participants in the Blame Game, in which they blame events, conditions, or other individuals for their bad results. It’s a dangerous game to play, because it can become an excuse for failure.

What I’m talking about here is a psychological delusion known as transference. When you insist that something is not your fault, what you are unwittingly saying is that you cannot change your situation because you have no control over it.

The most common targets of transference are the droves of dreadful people who continually cross our paths – the liars, the self-righteous, the rude, the petty, and, worst of all, the hypocrites. After all, aren’t they at fault for any friction that interferes with the way our Human Machines perform?

The answer is no! We would like those people to be at fault, but they are not. They merely provide us with an excuse for the bad results of our own faulty judgment.

Even when you suffer as a result of someone else’s bad behavior, you do yourself no favor by blaming your pain on that person. There is a difference between engaging in transference (blame) and trying to analyze the reason you incurred the problem.

There is always a reason for a bad consequence, but a reason is far different from an excuse. An excuse is nothing but a clever way to escape accountability. The fact that someone was dishonest with you could be a legitimate reason why you were harmed, but it is not a valid excuse for abusing your own Machine.

What I mean by this is that if you allow someone else’s malfunctioning Machine to “bug” you, if you focus on retribution against the owner of that malfunctioning Machine, you – not he – create an enormous amount of friction in your Machine. Why? Because you are the master of your thoughts, and it is your thoughts that either abuse your Machine or keep it operating smoothly.

The reason you are the master of your thoughts is because they are formulated in your mind, and no one can enter your mind and wreak havoc without your permission. Which means that no human being can force you to be upset… to complain… to be angry. Anger is a debilitating mindset, because it separates a person from his common sense and dignity. When anger is out of control, anarchy reigns in your head.

But even when we’re not angry with someone else, we often cause friction in our own Machines by making the mistake of trying to control others. Bennett gave excellent advice regarding this mistake when he pointed out that we are not in charge of the universe; we are in charge of ourselves.

Remember this the next time you think about meddling in someone else’s Machine. Learn to leave things alone that are none of your business. As Bennett put it, the art of peaceful living lies in “keeping the peace, the whole peace, and nothing but the peace with those in your life.”

A good motto to live by is that when there is friction in your Human Machine, the fault always lies within. When all is said and done, the only thing you can really control is your own mind. Which is no small task. Work at becoming adept at it, and you will be amazed by how smoothly your Machine functions. 

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos.

And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to Robert Ringer's one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

Comment on this article

Of all the many prescriptions for happiness that populate the media these days, the most popular one is also the stupidest. I’m talking about the idea that you can defeat depression by “paying attention to yourself.”

The truth is that paying attention to yourself doesn’t make you happy at all. In fact, the more attention you give yourself, the less happy you are likely to be. Focusing inward can perpetuate your feelings of hopelessness.

60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace defined depression this way: “Sunshine means nothing to you. The seasons, friends, or good food mean nothing. All you do is focus on yourself and how badly you feel.”

Think of the least-happy people you know. What are they always talking about? Their accomplishments. Their troubles. Their hopes. Their worries. Their this. Their that. In short, themselves.

I have a friend. Let’s call her Shelly. Shelly is a smart, good-looking woman but she can’t maintain long-term relationships. She has no idea why this is true. “People are always disappointing me,” she says. And she has stories.

We have lunch together two or three times a year. And at every meeting, Shelly talks non-stop about all the people who have failed her. She complains about her boss. She bitches about her husband. She does it with a certain sense of humor – but it is all “Wah! Wah! Wah! What about me?”

I’ve suggested to Shelly that she would be happier if she did some volunteer work or took on a hobby. Perhaps get a pet. But she doesn’t listen.

To the outside observer, Shelly has nothing to complain about. She has perfect health. She has a healthy family. And she is financially independent – putting her among the luckiest people on earth. Yet from her perspective – from the inside – she sees nothing but negatives.

You probably have a Shelly in your life. Maybe more than one.

The trouble with the Shellys of the world is that they spend too much of their valuable time thinking and talking about themselves. Their lives never get any better. And they can’t figure out why. They believe the solution lies in getting other people to feel sorry for them. They don’t understand that seeking attention is a big part of their problem.

I have a theory about why this is so.

There are essentially two impulses in the universe: contraction and relaxation. Everything – every animate and inanimate thing – is, literally, becoming more or less dense at any given moment. The ultimate denseness is a black hole, which sucks in light but gives out none.

As psychological creatures, our consciousness is always in flux between the contraction and the dissolution of the ego. Our egocentric impulses are the source of much of the work we do and the art we create, but they are also the source of tension, sickness, and despair. Our dissolution impulses are the source of our loving relationships. They relax us and prepare us to accept the ultimate dissolution of the ego, which is death.

Contraction gives us the egoistic pleasure of being loved – being acknowledged and appreciated. Relaxation gives us the exocentric pleasure of doing the loving – of our work, our lives, and the people who inhabit them.

Both contraction and relaxation can deliver pleasure, but the pleasure of contraction (the pleasure of the ego) is temporary, whereas the pleasure of relaxation is the enduring pleasure of the soul.

It feels good to have people pay attention to you. But even at its most intense (imagine being a movie star), the pleasure dissipates almost as soon as the attention shifts away. And when the pleasure of the ego leaves, a vacuum of sadness takes its place.

It’s like taking drugs. The effect is temporary. It’s addictive. It leaves you wanting more. And each time you get more, it is not enough. Eventually, it kills you.

“Enough of all this deep thinking,” you say. “What does this have to do with me?”

Just this: The next time you are feeling sad or angry, recognize that there is a way to become happy again: Relax your ego.

Here’s how…

1. Accept the fact that it is perfectly normal to feel crummy sometimes.

Despite your core strengths and your many accomplishments, you will occasionally find yourself down in the dumps. It’s natural for ambitious people (which means you – you are reading ETR, aren’t you?) to feel that way. As productivity expert Tim Ferriss says, “The occasional bouts of self-doubt and sadness are an integral part of building anything remarkable.”

2. If you are upset because of something you did to yourself, forgive yourself.

It’s okay. You screwed up. What matters is what you do next, not what you just did.

I sometimes get angry when I feel pressured by work obligations. But when I examine the reason for all the work, it’s usually because I volunteered to take it on in the first place. When I recognize that my mood is being affected by my own prior actions, I remind myself that I’m lucky. “It’s okay that you are angry. But you don’t have to be. You can get through today. And you can have better discipline tomorrow.” That’s what I tell myself, and it helps me feel better instantly.

3. If you are upset because of something someone else did to you, take a chill pill.

Count to 10. Recognize that you can’t control the behavior of other people. The only thing you can control is your response to their behavior. Nobody can take that away from you.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space,” said Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning.”In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

I used to get upset when my family, friends, or colleagues made a mistake. I realize now how stupid that was. It didn’t do me any good. And it made me unproductive, unhappy, and unpleasant to be around. I changed by learning to turn the other cheek. The moment I stopped resenting others for their shortcomings, I began to feel better about myself.

It’s amazing how well this works.

Somebody bumps into you on the street and you sprain your ankle. You have a choice. You can be angry at that person. You can be upset with yourself for not being more aware of your surroundings. Or you can forgive the person and yourself and change the way you think about your injury. Rather than rue the inconvenience of being laid up for a week or two, see the recuperation period as a gift – the chance to start a new project or catch up on your reading.

4. Don’t allow unrealistic expectations to interfere with your relationships.

(This is a sub-category of not allowing the behavior of other people to upset you.)

Instead of being upset by your spouse’s habit of (fill in the blank), resolve to accept the fact that she won’t be changing and find a way to forgive her and even love her for her frailty. Instead of being angry that your child is a slob, find a way to love him for his strengths while gently teaching him (by showing, not telling) the advantages of being orderly. Instead of being angry at your business partner because she didn’t perform as well as you expected her to, learn to appreciate what she brings to the table and negotiate a new deal with her out of love, not anger.

Accepting people for who they are does not mean allowing them to make your life miserable. On the contrary, it means being realistic – realizing that 90 percent of the time a person’s fundamental characteristics cannot be changed. If you find a certain behavior unacceptable, you change the way you deal with it (something you can do) instead of trying to change the person (which you can’t do).

5. If you are upset because of circumstances beyond your control, take a double dose of chill pill.

As Alex Green, Investment Director of the Oxford Club and Chairman of Investment U, said in his article “The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” you can deal with your troubles more effectively if you define them as “problems” (which can be solved) or “predicaments” (which can be coped with).

Getting caught in a storm or catching a cold is not a reason to get mad at yourself. Neither, by the way, is being caught in a worldwide economic collapse.

6. If you are unhappy at work, find a way to care about what you’re doing.

As Albert Camus said, “But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?” You won’t experience happiness if you work at a job you hate or if you do poor work on a project you like. But if you learn to care about the work you do, you will find that your energy will improve and you will start to enjoy it.

7. Engage in some sport or challenging exercise – something that is so demanding you can’t do it while thinking.

Walking, stretching, and yoga are great forms of exercise. If you do them with a tranquil mind, they will make you healthy and happy too. But if you do them when you are sad and feeling sorry for yourself, they will give you no relief. You will forget about the exercise and focus on your negative thoughts. That will make things worse.

8. Recognize that the health of your body has a great deal to do with your mood.

If you are feeling bad much of the time, you probably need to make a few lifestyle changes. To wit:

• Eat healthy. Eating too many carbohydrates will make you crazy, cranky, and tired. To have consistent energy all day, use food like fuel. Eat six smallish meals a day, avoiding junk food and favoring organics, lean meats, and plenty of protein.

For specific advice on healthy eating, keep reading articles in ETR by Dr. Al Sears, Kelley Herring, Jon Benson, , Jonny Bowden, Craig Ballantyne, Shane Ellison, and other experts.

• Sleep and rest adequately. For me, adequate sleep is a major contributor to feeling good. Studies show that people who get seven good hours of sleep a night live longer, suffer from fewer illnesses, and achieve more because they have more energy.

For tips on sleeping well, read my article “Are You Getting Enough Sleep?” If you get tired during the day, take a short nap.

• Get the advice of a good doctor about antidepressants. I’m generally against putting chemicals in my body. I much prefer natural cures. But antidepressants have helped some people close to me, and may help you too.

9. Take positive steps to focus “outward” instead of “inward” – to pay less attention to yourself and more attention to others.

A few examples:

• Make your friends happy. Smile when you see them. Listen to their stories. Give them the advice they want and shut up when they don’t want any. Become the person they turn to when the chips are down. Learn to love their peccadilloes and encourage them to overcome their faults. Above all, be loyal.

• Be a reliable and steady resource for your business colleagues. Help them achieve their goals – not because you want them to reciprocate in some way but simply because you care about them and want them to succeed.

• Do something for someone you don’t know – a stranger you come upon, a foster child, or a sick or poor person who can benefit from your help. Spend time and money.

Make this outward focus a natural part of your daily life. Do it purposefully and deliberately until it becomes second nature. You will know when that happens because you’ll be feeling happy most of the time – and when you become sad or angry, you’ll be able to get over it quickly and easily.

[Ed. Note: One of the best ways to feel better about yourself, to feel as though you have a purpose in life, is to pursue something you're passionate about. And there's no better way to pursue your passion than by starting a business related to it. Get a step-by-step guide to starting and growing an Internet business right here.

Get more of Michael's surefire strategies for getting ahead in business and in life in True Path to Profits: A Master Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Success. Find out more - including how you can get a bonus subscription to Michael's VIP newsletter, Ready Fire Aim - right here ]

Comment on this article

To make this year the year you successfully start a profitable business (or make the business you have already started more profitable than ever), resolve to be the smartest person you know about the business you are in.

It’s a bold objective, but it is possible. Here’s how to do it:

1. Read the business press voraciously but efficiently. You don’t need to spend more than 30 minutes a day on this. Be selective about your reading. Focus on books, articles, and essays that pertain to your industry – primarily the “how-to” pieces. Give preference to authors who’ve done it themselves as opposed to academics and/or journalists.

2. Supplement your reading by going to seminars and attending conferences. Person-to-person contact is invaluable.

3. Take meaningful correspondence courses. When you find a good home-study program that pertains to your field, don’t hesitate to invest some time and money in it.

4. Seek the advice of experts. Write personal notes. Send e-mails. Call for interviews.

5. Study the competition, especially companies that are growing. If a competitor is doing well, you can assume he knows at least one important thing about your business that you don’t. Do whatever it takes to learn his secret.

6. Network. The more people you know, the better chance you will have to find someone to solve every one of your problems. A big network is also a steady source of opportunity.

7. Be generous with your colleagues and your competitors. When people learn that they do well whenever they work with you, they will be more willing to come to you with opportunities.

There is no limit to the number of new businesses the Internet, with its worldwide reach, can absorb. If you have a product or service that is needed (or simply wanted), you can be successful – and you will be successful if you commit yourself to learning.

[Ed. Note: Get more of Michael Masterson's surefire strategies for getting ahead in business in True Path to Profits: A Master Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Success. Find out more (including how you can get a bonus subscription to his VIP newsletter, Ready Fire Aim) here.

Discover how you could be making $50,000 to $5 million starting this year right here.]

Comment on this article

If you haven’t yet seen Valkyrie, the Tom Cruise film about the best-known of the 15 or so plots to kill Adolf Hitler, I highly recommend that you purchase or rent the DVD.

One of the reasons filmmakers come up short when attempting to recreate true stories on celluloid is that they seem to believe subtlety is a virtue, which can make it difficult to follow the plot. I had no problem on that score with Valkyrie, but only because I had seen The History Channel’s recent documentary Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler.

What I especially liked about the documentary was the part that began where the film left off. After Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) and his co-conspirators were captured and executed, The History Channel went on to discuss their posthumous evolution from traitors to heroes in thought-provoking detail.

Hitler, in his best propagandist mode, referred to the Valkyrie plotters as “a tiny clique of criminally stupid officers.” His denunciations were heard loud and clear throughout Germany. And if there’s one thing we know about human beings, most of them, sadly, tend to believe whatever those in power tell them.

Thus, for many years after their executions, the conspirators were viewed by the general public as traitors. However, as Germany settled into becoming a civilized society, it slowly came to grips with the monstrous crimes Hitler and the Nazis had committed. As a result, public sentiment about the plot shifted dramatically, and the men involved in it were increasingly viewed as heroes.

It’s too bad the movie left all this out, because there are several major messages here. First and foremost, whether one is a traitor (or “terrorist”) or a patriot (or hero) is very much determined by time and circumstances. Hitler had nearly a year to ingrain in the minds of his subjects the belief that von Stauffenberg and his cohorts were traitors of the worst kind.

So, to me, the most inspiring part of the Valkyrie story is that, in the end, truth prevailed. Hitler was reviled by the masses, and those who tried to overthrow him were (and are) looked upon as patriots and heroes.

Perhaps the Valkyrie conspirators were well versed in the life of Socrates. To the bitter end, Socrates never retracted his unpopular statements. And to the bitter end, the Valkyrie heroes never wavered in their determination to put an end to Hitler’s madness.

On a personal level, the Valkyrie story is yet another reminder that it’s much more important to be loyal to your principles than to be popular. Truth and popularity, in fact, are all too often at odds with one another.

In comparing his own life to that of Socrates, in his book The Consolations of Philosophy, Alain de Botton wrote:

“In conversations, my priority was to be liked, rather than to speak the truth. A desire to please led me to laugh at modest jokes like a parent on the opening night of a school play. With strangers, I adopted the servile manner of a concierge greeting wealthy clients in a hotel – salival enthusiasm born of a morbid, indiscriminate desire for affection. I did not publicly doubt ideas to which the majority was committed. I sought the approval of figures of authority and after encounters with them, worried at length whether they had thought me acceptable. When passing through customs or driving alongside police cars, I harboured a confused wish for the uniformed officials to think well of me.”

Sound familiar? It should. Because, to some extent, every one of us is guilty of not having the courage to reveal our true thoughts. In fact, none of us will ever totally rid ourselves of the sometimes overpowering need to be accepted. It is a psychic disability that is part of being human.

This is so even though we know, in our heart of hearts, that some of the biggest fools on the planet are popular. If we need reinforcement on this point, we need only turn on our television sets and listen to the babble of the many high-profile fools who grace our screens.

But what about compromise? Doesn’t a civilized society require compromise? For the most part, compromising on “details and strategy” can be beneficial if it helps equals to get past trivial issues. But when it comes to principles, Ayn Rand had it right: How do you compromise between good and evil? Between moral and immoral? Between freedom and slavery?

Which brings me back, once again, to the Valkyrie story. It reminded me just how important it is not to compromise one’s principles. Like everyone, I’ve had my share of people getting mad at me for something I’ve said (You should read some of my subscriber e-mails!), something I’ve done, or for refusing to do something they wanted me to do.

If this, too, sounds familiar, I’d like to pass along some advice from a centimillionaire friend who died about 25 years ago, one of the wisest men I’ve ever known. About a year before he passed away, he told me that when people become angry with you for your words or actions, and you know you’ve done nothing wrong, the solution is to look in the mirror and say to yourself: “If my hands are clean and my cause is just and my demands are reasonable, I have nothing to worry about.” Then simply go about your business.

Finally, I would remind you to keep things in perspective. Unless it involves the government, sticking to your principles with Socratic stubbornness is unlikely to result in your execution. Of course, in certain instances, it could cost you financially. But even then, the tradeoff is that your self-respect and self-esteem will skyrocket.

And those are things you can’t put a price tag on.

[Ed. Note: For a treasure chest of proven ideas, strategies, and techniques for increasing your income many times over, check out Robert Ringer's bestselling dealmaking audio series.
And be sure to sign up for his Voice of Sanity e-letter.]

Comment on this article

About a month ago, I played golf for the first time with Number Three Son (N3S). I was looking forward to a pleasant afternoon. I imagined fresh air, healthy sunshine, and that father-son banter that women who don’t understand men categorize as superficial.

The afternoon started off as hoped for. The sun was shining. The course was green. We prepared by eating hotdogs and lighting up cigars. But on the very first tee, things started going badly. At least for N3S.

N3S is a novice golfer. He’s played less than half a dozen games. He was focused on long drives and good chips and accurate putting. When he didn’t hit the ball well – which was most of the time – he was angry with himself.

Though he may not have been hitting the ball the way he wanted, he was hitting it. I was impressed and told him so. “You are doing a lot better than I was at your stage of the game.”

That didn’t mollify him. By the ninth hole, he was emotionally exhausted. He didn’t want to play anymore. “It’s no use,” he said morosely. “I stink.”

N3S’s frustration with his poor performance and his subsequent depression reminded me of myself until just a few years ago. It scared me to think that he might go through what I went through for 40 years. On the way home, I talked to him about one of the ways I’ve overcome my own tendency to get depressed. Today, I’m going to share that same strategy with you.

When you’re happy, you can move mountains. When you’re angry or depressed, your energy drops, your focus blurs, and your productivity lapses.

Depression can blunt your work skills. It can damage your reputation. It can separate you from your income and your possessions. It can affect your relationships with your spouse, your children and family – even lifelong friends. Depression will rob you of all the beautiful little moments that make life worth living – like a day on the golf course with Dad.

It steals your fun. It steals your time. It leaves you with nothing.

Last week, in my article “Defeating Depression Before It Defeats You,” I told you two stories about friends of mine who fell into deep depressions when they lost their jobs and their income.

Both of them had based their self-worth on their ability to make money – a mistake that many entrepreneurs make. And when, through no fault of their own, they suffered a serious financial setback, they felt like failures. I suggested that the way to avoid falling into that trap is to base your self-worth on things that really matter – on personal values that have nothing to do with your income.

There’s another common mistake that leads many to despair. The mistake that N3S was making during our golf game. I have to warn you that the solution to this one is a bit harder to understand and practice. But stick with me while I explain it. Because once you “get it,” you’ll have no trouble maintaining a positive outlook… even under the most difficult circumstances.

I am talking about developing the skill of emotional detachment. More specifically, developing the ability to set and pursue goals without caring whether you actually achieve them.

I learned how to do this only six or eight years ago, and have been practicing it in fits and starts. As each year passes, I get better at it. I feel happier and more in control of my life. Most important, I think it has helped me pass along some of my newfound happiness to others.

When most people hear the phrase emotional detachment, they think it means indifference or even heartlessness. Nothing could be further from the truth. Emotional detachment frees you from neurotic attachments and lets you focus your energies on other people, other things, and the here and now.

The best example I can give you is the natural love that a mother has for her child. When the child is happy, the mother is happy. When the child is unhappy, the mother instinctively wants to find the cause of the unhappiness and end it, if she can.

When the mother discovers that the child is unhappy because of some physical discomfort, she tries to relieve it. When the cause is an emotional conflict, she does her best to teach the child how to handle it. The mother’s goal is always to prepare the child to become independent. She works consistently to gradually free the child from his natural dependence on her so that he can go out into the world and live a happy and productive life.

When an 11-year-old tells his mother that he “hates” her because she’s imposed some restriction on him, the (mentally healthy) mother does not feel hurt, even though a hurtful thing has been said. She loves the child and doesn’t take his statement to heart. She remains calm. She reminds him that she loves him. And she explains that the restriction will not be removed simply because he “hates” it or her.

In other words, she is emotionally detached from the child’s expressions of anger.

If you are a parent, you understand what I mean. Most parents, most of the time, practice this sort of emotional detachment with their children. But there are some who can’t do it, because they are emotionally attached to their children’s approval of them. These are the parents who want to be “best friends” with their children. They break their own rules the moment their children object to them. Sometimes they go so far as to tolerate risky behavior.

The skill of emotional detachment can be applied to all relationships. It can work with your boss and colleagues at work. It can work with your spouse or parents at home. Detachment can also be applied to almost any challenge or problem. And the result will always be greater calmness and clarity.

This gets us back to my story about N3S…

When I started golfing, I approached the game very much the way my son approached it. That is, I was concerned about the outcome of my shots. When hitting the ball off the tee, I cared about how far it would go. When I putted, I cared about how close the ball would get to the hole.

This made the game very frustrating. Being a beginner, the outcome of most of my shots was disappointing.

But it didn’t take me long to realize that I was my own worst enemy. By allowing myself to be disappointed four shots out of five, I was setting myself up for failure. (How can you learn to play golf well if you are swearing when you are swinging the club?) The trick, I soon figured out, was to detach myself emotionally from the intended outcome (where the ball goes) and focus instead on the experience of the swing.

My goal, when I play golf these days, is to have a good swing. I don’t care where the ball goes. All I care about is whether I achieve my intention of swinging the club properly.

This has made a remarkable difference in my game. In several short months, I have brought down my handicap by about 30 strokes. Before, I was shooting about 130 and hating the game. Now, I am hovering at 100 and liking it, even when the ball lands in a sand trap or rolls over the green.

Anything we do in life – any goal we set, any relationship we engage in – can be done better and more happily by applying emotional detachment.

Let me give you a few more examples.

Emotional Attachment: You want to go on a picnic Saturday afternoon. It rains. You are disappointed.

Emotional Detachment. You intend to have a picnic on Saturday. But, knowing you can never predict the weather, you consciously detach yourself from the hope that the sun will shine. You create Plan B – going to the movies instead. So when it rains, you move happily from Plan A to Plan B without getting upset or upsetting those with you. You are the Zen Master of your Saturday afternoon. You help others feel better by your good example. And that, in turn, increases your happiness.

Emotional Attachment. You want to get a raise. You don’t get one. You are disappointed.

Emotional Detachment. You intend to get a raise. But, knowing you can’t control the outcome of your next performance review, you come up with a Plan B that involves starting your own side business. You make a good presentation at the review, but your boss doesn’t give you the raise. You aren’t disappointed. In fact, you are excited… because now you can initiate Plan B.

Emotional Attachment: You want to marry your college sweetheart. You propose to her. She refuses you. You are crushed.

Emotional Detachment. You intend to marry your college sweetheart. But, recognizing that you cannot control her feelings, you detach yourself from that outcome and settle on Plan B, which is to enjoy the relationship for some months longer while you begin to look for a new one. You propose to her and are turned down. You aren’t sad. You don’t pout. You put Plan B into action. She notices your detachment and likes you better for it. Now it is up to you to continue the relationship or move on.

As I said earlier, the skill of emotional detachment is hard to understood and practice. But if you can master it, you will enjoy a life of unlimited wealth, health, and happiness.

Before N3S and I went golfing for the second time, I had him take a lesson with Larry, the pro I learned from. (Larry understands the Zen of golf. He, like Ben Hogan, understands that the true purpose of golf is not to achieve a specific score but to experience the serenity and pleasure that come with developing a consistently good swing.)

When we hit the golf course this time, I reminded N3S to focus his mind not on where the ball goes but on executing his swing. We played all 18 holes in perfect harmony. And though we didn’t care about our scores, they were better than they had been the time before.

[Ed. Note: One of the best ways to feel better about yourself, to feel as though you have purpose in your life, is to pursue something you're passionate about. And there's no better way to pursue your passion than to start a business related to it. Get a step-by-step guide to starting and growing an Internet business right here.

Get more of Michael's surefire strategies for getting ahead in business in True Path to Profits: A Master Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Success. Find out more (including how you can get a bonus subscription to Michael's VIP newsletter, Ready Fire Aim) here. ]

Several generations of Americans have now graduated from the education system believing that a good excuse is a Get Out of Jail Free card. Flunked a test? Forgot to finish your essay on time? Late for class? No problem… IF you have a great excuse.

I knew a girl in college who killed off her grandmother three times in three semesters. Got her out of taking a final (didn’t study), out of being penalized for skipping a week of class (rock concert), out of not having a paper written on time (didn’t even try). Granny never found out. And lived a good many more years. And this girl went on to the Dean’s List, grad school, and a PhD.

The lesson learned: You can be instantly forgiven… even felt sorry for… if you just deliver a good enough excuse for screwing up.

That’s a really, really, really bad lesson to absorb. Because once you get out of school and into the real world, you have a very rude discovery to make: No one gives a rat’s ass about WHY you screwed up. The fact you DID screw up is all that matters. Your excuse will comfort no one but you, as you lick your wounds and look for another job.

The hardest thing to teach budding freelancers is the “Professional’s Code.” It’s very simple: You show up where you’re supposed to be… when you said you’d be there… having done what you said you’d do.

That’s it.

The phrase “show up” includes the physical act of appearing where you’re supposed to be… as well as the virtual act of meeting your deadlines.

I did NOT grow up with this code.

I was a victim of the school system, where few consequences couldn’t be negotiated. (Hell – the cops back then even poured out your beer and sent you home after pulling you over. I knew dozens of guys who’d been nabbed while driving with a bottle of Schlitz in one hand, and not a one of them ever suffered a DUI. Right or wrong, that’s how my corner of the generation grew up.)

As a low-level employee with no skills – my standard gig for the first decade or so of my adult life – half the job really was just showing up on time. However, once the idea of going solo as a freelancer copywriter took hold, I started looking seriously at how the really successful dudes were conducting themselves in business.

I vowed, going in, that I would meet all deadlines, no matter what. And BE that guy who could be trusted with delivering the goods to anyone who paid me.

I saw the alternative, in gruesome detail, during my time in a catalog art department.

There were multiple deadlines for photo separations, camera-ready art boards, and every word of copy. And anything that wasn’t done by the printing deadline… didn’t make it into the catalog.

The printing presses were in Nashville. They ran 365 days a year, and you booked your slot six months in advance. You missed your deadline, too bad. You paid anyway for the time and manpower. And your catalog didn’t mail.

Missing a hard deadline was a mortal wound to your ability to continue doing business. You had nothing to mail. No money came in. Clients wandered away. Banks were not nice about outstanding loans coming due.

Wow. That’ll sober you up.

In 25 years of writing copy for clients, I have never missed a hard deadline.

Let me repeat that: 25 years, zero violations on my deadline record.

This concept of never missing a deadline is the hardest thing to teach rookie freelancers. It’s almost like you gotta experience disaster first… and it’s gotta make a deep impression on you… before your mind can shift into Professional Gear.

This is why surgeons endure such rigorous training. Saying “Sorry, I was distracted” after botching an operation doesn’t cut it.

Pilots, too. Accountants. Snipers. Astronauts. Film editors. Lead singers.

You screw up… you disembowel the entire gig. And your fabulous excuse doesn’t fix anything. No one wants to hear it. Because of you, other people now have an emergency on their hands.

Entire kingdoms have crumbled from screw-ups by people who thought they had a great excuse. (”I had that 3-penny nail right here, sir. I dunno, it must have slipped from my hand back there. My arthritis has been really bad, you know, and…”)

In school, a well-crafted excuse will get you sympathy and a do-over. In real life… not so much.

And yet… I am NEVER surprised when confronted with a fresh case of someone I’ve put massive trust in… screwing up. And offering an excuse. It’s the default brain setting of almost everyone out there.

It’s really not that tough to adopt the Pro Code. It takes a commitment, and requires the skill to tell others “no” when faced with a tough choice. And to tell yourself “no” when your very natural urge to flake out and bail on your responsibilities flares up.

Everyone would rather party, or even veg out… instead of buckling down and finishing the job they signed up for. That’s the easy path. Being a true rebel nowadays means embracing responsibility with gusto and energy. The last rebellious act in business, really, is to commit to success. No matter what.

Your social life will suffer. The family will get mad at you. No one will understand, and you will toil without immediate gratification from outside sources. (Your rewards must come from your own heart and sense of self-respect.)

And it all rests on a simple foundation. If you take on a job, you do it. You kill the whiny beasts in your head, wrestle your attention deficit disorder into submission, push through pain and grief and disaster to do what you promised you’d do.

That’s how that US Airways pilot saved all 150 passengers and crew in an emergency landing in the Hudson River. That’s how all professionals worthy of the title treat every responsibility they have.

It’s hard to do. It’s kinda lonely at times. But committing to it will instantly change your life forever.

And remember: It’s no crime not to have this code already in your bag. But once you’re made aware of it, you lose big by choosing to ignore it. (So, yeah, it’s a dirty trick on my part to throw it in front of you like this.)

Today – in business and in conquering the mounting ills of the world – we need professionals more than ever. The hardest and most rewarding jobs will not get done through excuses.

[Ed. Note: John Carlton is an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy. He knows marketing inside and out. Discover how to get your hands on the kick-ass secrets of the world's smartest, happiest, and wealthiest marketers.

Think you have a good excuse for not yet having an Internet business? Wrong. With ETR's Internet Money Club Independent Learner Edition, you'll get a step-by-step playbook to making money online. All you have to do is take action.]

Comment on this article