I'm not the expert, but I know who is.....

..YOU are.

You are the ultimate expert

1) So many experts - It's no longer hard to find a "Guru" or an "Expert" on a subject. You trip over them in search results on google. Everything from relationship experts to money experts to experts on how to make a "killing" off AdWords. As if that's what we were put on this world to do "Make a Killing on AdWords". I happen to be of the minority opinion that a person's purpose in life has to be grander than simply manipulating code to make a website show on the first page of google - but, again, I'm the minority.

2) So many opinions - It's just as easy to find "experts" online that espouse the benefits getting out of debt - as it is to find experts who encourage readers to charge their credit cards to the maximum in order to obtain "easy" riches. For the record I'm more so a Dave Ramsey fan than a Kiyosaki fan but, I find it puzzling that Dave considers Kiyosaki a "friend" - when they promote exact opposite strategies to wealth. I suppose their are differences of opinions in the relationship, dieting and marketing spheres as well but, I'm not as attuned to those areas so who knows.

3) The opinion that counts is in fact yours - If you had to take a weekend and research all of the spectrum of opinions on a given subject, I would venture to guess you'd have several ways to skin a cat and no clear winner on the best way if the subject has any form of complexity. It's up to you to sift through all the varying opinions and decide on a final opinion that is in fact yours and only yours.

4) Truth/Falsehood - (the dichotomy) One thing that I'd say that speaks to me when trying to form an opinion is more or less a sense of feeling - Do I feel this person, subject-matter expert is speaking more TRUTH or more FALSEHOOD. The more truth I feel - the more I respect the expert, the more falsehood I feel - the less I respect said expert. TRUTH to me feels obvious and without effort while Falsehood seems forced or very elaborate when something very simple would suffice. TRUTH reminds me of my Pastor at the Church I attend as well as in some ways the Llama who presides over a Buddhist Temple I attend. FALSEHOOD reminds me of a "Guru" I had a chance meeting with while I was searching for a meditation group in a distant city. Instead of meditating, his followers sat around and asked him questions - as if he was an expert - although I had not yet acknowledged his supreme knowledge he had no problem commanding me to go fetch him a cup of water - as if I was his disciple ...or slave - I grabbed it, hoping I was in the presence of an enlightened being- it was only when he began preaching his philosophy that was essentially "winning arguments are a way to enlightenment" that I pulled out my Bulls**t button aka I recognized - to me at least he preached FALSEHOOD.

5) If I were an expert ( and I'm not) I'd give a single piece of advice. - Err on the side of LOVE. Listen to Jesus when he said

"Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and all thy mind...[then added] Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"

Or Buddha who taught 'Metta' or the practice of Lovingkindess

Even an upstanding secular humanist will tell you their belief falls apart if there's not an underlying principal of the Golden Rule to prevent anarchy, disorder and despair could be expected to follow.

Bottom line though, if all of what I've presented here tingles your B.S. button - then, in your opinion - I'm a promoter of falsehood and in a sense that proves my point again - you are the expert. YOU and only you know what makes sense and truth for your reality.

I sincerely hope that your reality holds you as the resident expert.

Have you given up on your resolution yet?

If you haven't...please check out this video from Tony Robbins to get you some gas...helped me at least:



http://youtu.be/7H2uNIChYtQ

This videogame called life...

Up until recently I have been struggling to find a good metaphor in which to describe life. Tony Robbins talks about the multitude of metaphors ways that people describe life as. Some calling it a war - and thus they're always on edge, some people calling it a test and thus they are always studying.

Then the other night, I came upon a metaphor that I think fits (at least for me):

Life is like a videogame

1) Life has a definite possibility of given outcomes - Now I'm a little bit old school so I'll go ahead and date myself by saying I remember playing on a Commodore 64 but mainly got my 'gaming' experience in by playing games like Galaga and Street Fighter at the arcade* and Super-Mario Brothers at home. Whatever the game was, there typically was a goal to blow up as many attacking space ships, beat up as many traveling martial artists or rescue poor old Princess Toadstool from an evil turtle. They all had some GOAL that you were shooting for - likewise in life, it's better to have goals than to go without them.

2) If the game is too easy &  not challenging enough we feel like we got ripped off - Now, I don't know about you but, if you wait anxiously for the newest game out there called Super-Stab-fighter Deluxe...or something...and it's been promoted by all these videogame magazines as being "the best game since that other really cool one!" and you wait outside of Best Buy for two days like my brother would** and pay a cool $75 dollars to be the first to purchase Super-Stab-fighter-Deluxe only to beat the games 87 levels in under 10 minutes - wouldn't you feel ripped off? Life is like that in a way, we need a challenge. if everything gets handed to us on a silver platter without effort we feel as if we lack purpose. But if we struggle to achieve our dreams they then feel so much more rewarding.

3) You can decide to live off ACTION or RE-ACTION - Sometimes you have to choose whether to ACT or RE-ACT.True Story : So the first time, I played Batman -Arkham Asylum I was over my lil bro's place. He started the game from the very beginning and - being the old-school player that I am I was absolutely floored by the opening sequence. While credits were rolling. This cinematic scene seemed to be coming to an end and eventually the camera focused on a light. So I just sit their, holding the controller waiting for something to happen and then after looking at me with a look that says "You idiot" for a full minute, my lil bro finally  says "You may want to move...or something". I moved the controller and suddenly what was a second ago an opening movie turned into me playing the actual game. A very awesome game if I might add. That moment taught me something unique - if you want something - like a date, a certain amount of money, a better lifestyle - you have two choices you can a) wait for something to happen or b) you can take action and make something happen.

4) You have 99 'lives' so to speak until you get it right. - Failure is something that videogames in a lot of ways encourage. People close to me that have been to my house know that I'm obsessed with playing both versions or Star Wars Battlefront - repeatedly, when I'm bored on my now out-dated X-box or as I like to call it X-box Classic. One thing you get to do on this game, over and over again, is die and then respawn - or instantly come back to life in the same place you were before or a different place. It's learning from what you did wrong the last life(or year - or hour) that makes you better in this life - let's say as the Sniper Class of Storm Trooper***. Failure is sometimes the greatest teacher.

5)  Mastering the videogame is possible - Now, again I've mentioned my lil bro - who I love. He  however, loves schooling me on just about every videogame we play together - which I hate. The one exception being the aforementioned Battlefront game which we tend to end up about even on. One thing I will say about my lil bro is that he has 'Mastered" the videogame. Whenever he buys a game it is completed or conquered within a week or in some cases a matter of hours. The question you might want to ask yourself is "What can I do today to  start mastering my life?" If you're the type that plays a videogame with excitement and expectation knowing that you can reach the exciting achievement that marks 'conquering' the game. I lay the gauntlet down to you and ask you to dare to bring that same excitement and expectation to your own personal life whatever challenge or goal you may be facing.

So in closing my life is becoming more and more like a videogame.

But what's more important is -  what metaphor do YOU apply to your own life? I'd love to hear your opinion - please leave any comments, compliments and/or constructive criticism below.

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a great day!

notes:

* In my day, we used to have video arcade's where stand-alone video games were played and taunts were spewn back and fourth until the guy on the left of me playing Samurai Showdown realized that he had just met someone who was unafraid to 'perfect' him with Hanzou's fireballs.

**OK I might be exaggerating a little bit or likely a lot here.

***Sniper Class of Storm Trooper - for your information, when playing Star Wars Battlefront II this is best used on the Kamino aka the cloning facility board. Gosh - I love sniping me some 'droids.

Books I've Read in October (2011)

Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries From the Rest of Us.




By Erik Calonius

Summary: Erik Calonius, a former journalist for the prestigious Wall Street Journal talks about people and in particular businesspeople, who see opportunities where others see problems and chaos. The author discusses the insights gained from interviews with the likes of Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and those intimate with Walt Disney.

My Opinion: This book gives a lot of insight into how visionaries think differently than others. It also piggybacks off of some of Malcolm Gladwell's findings in Blink while also contrasting from those findings. Anytime you begin a book with a story about one of my favorite entrepreneur's Richard Branson, you have my attention. Mr. Calonius struggled to hold my attention though by going into too many studies, data and statistics in Chapter 9.

Key Point: to paraphrase Ovid - "Fortune & Love Go to the Bold."

Triggers: 30 Sales Tools You Can Use to Control the Mind of Your Prospect to Motivate, Influence and Persuade.





By Joseph Sugarman

Summary: What makes a kid want a Schwinn bike instead of a Huffy, or makes a customer pull out their wallet to buy a "limited edition" rather than "come back later" to "maybe" buy a standard edition at some unspecified point in the future. What makes you want the brand name shoe that the super-star basketball player wears rather than the generic. no-name tennis shoe with all the same basic features at a fraction of the cost? Answer = Triggers.

My opinion: After you've finished the 3rd or 4th Chapter you quickly realize that Mr. Sugarman is either an excellent salesman, a masterful storyteller or possibly a little bit of both. Mr. Sugarman's stories are witty, compelling and keep you turning the page. This man who apparently made his fortune selling calculators in the 80's and BluBlocker sunglasses in the 90's brings a lot of wit & humor as he explains several different ways to "trigger" or convince a prospect to buy. Throughout the book he tells great stories - from the time he calmed a near panic at an airport by showing confidence and knowledge to the time when, as a little kid, he tried, unsuccessfully, to impress the girl next door by tying her up and setting the garage she was in on fire!

Key Point - know what motivates your prospect.

Books I've read in September

The Sales Advantage - By J. Oliver Crom & Michael Crom





Summary  - This is a book for people interested in learning how to sale or at least learning how to improve the sales process.It goes from the pre-approach and initial contact to the close and follow-up process. In addition the book gives tips on how to improve sales compared to average sales tactics.



My opinion - I believe this book gives up a lot of unique techniques & strategies that can help the average salesperson become an extraordinary sales superstar. Ultimately it comes down to caring more about the potential & current customers than you do about the sale.

Key Point - Show the client that you share more for their bottom line than you do for your own.

Books I've read in August (2011)

Rich Dad's - Before You Quit Your Job




Summary: If you've read more than a handful of business books in the last several years you've likely heard of Rich Dad, Poor Dad books. Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad book made it very clear that people rarely get rich being someones employee. In this book Mr. Kiyosaki makes clear the steps necessary to take before quitting your job and becoming a full-time entrepreneur.

My Opinion: Ever since becoming a follower of Dave Ramsey, I've become a little bit leery of Robert Kiyosaki who's business philosophy is the exact opposite of Dave's. That being said, they are apparently friends (can you say Millionaire Secret Society?) which led me to give Rich Dad Poor Dad another try. Honestly, I liked this book , rather than advising to go into debt to succeed, he talks quite a bit about how he's failed in business. He also talks about how learning from failure ended up leaving to success. He's a very talented storyteller in my opinion.

Key Point: Just because you hate your job does not mean you should become an entrepreneur.

You need to be a little Crazy - By Barry Moltz





Summary - Mr. Moltz has started a business, failed, started a new business (or two) and lived to tell his tale. In this book he talks about what to expect - which is basically expect the unexpected - when attempting to start a business.


My opinion - This book was an interesting break from the typical entrepreneur book where a set formula is given to succeed. Mr. Moltz brings to light the fact that most businesses end up failing and includes a polarity (possibly a majority) of business stories with not so good endings to keep new entrepreneurs grounded in reality and not the fantasy world of instant success that is often heralded but rarely achieved.


Key Point - 'treppin ain't easy - put another way - if you read too much Inc. & Entrepreneur and think that investors are just giving out suitcases of money to the next guy with any idea - it's time to think again.

Books I've read in July

1) How to Work a Room - By Susan RoAne



This is a book about overcoming shyness to help promote you business or professional pursuits. Ms. RoAne teaches the proper way to hand out business cards, how to overcome the fear of rejection and a few words or Yiddish as she goes through.


My opinion - I think I learned a lot from this book and immediately began adopting some of the techniques Ms. RoAne teaches in this book. I also realized that I had been approaching networking groups with the entirely wrong attitude.


Key Point - You never know who knows who. Approach everyone with sincere interest and try and learn more about them & their business before talking about yourself and your business.

2) Bootstrapping Your Business - By Greg Gianforte w/ Marcus Gibson



This is a book for bootstrappers - those unique entrepreneurs who DON'T go courting for venture capital firms to give them money in exchange for controlling interest in their idea. For those who want to start a business where both bosses and board members are absent this book may be for you.


My opinion - I really enjoyed this book. It was full of a combination of advice and real-life case-studies on how entrepreneurs overcame obstacles to make millions based mainly on their own investment.

Key Point - before you spend all your money on an untested idea - see if people will buy the product or service in advance.