3 Inspiring Quotes

"I'd rather have the whole world against me than my own soul, and this soul reveals itself in a state of gratitude and love."

"Count your blessings each night and end your day with thanks. Faster that any state of mind, gratitude can transform stress into success.  It provides a mental rocket-ship ride to the next inspiring experience in your life."

"I am thankful for my gifts today.  My heart is filled with gratitude."

Charisma - A Vital Skill to Develop

We all know people in business who exhibit tremendous personal charisma.

They exude an aura, an energy, that those around them find highly attractive, even intensely magnetic.

This personal force allows them to lead people easily, persuade sales prospects and enables them to make large amounts of money.

Now most people assume that this charisma is natural- you’re either born with it or you’re not.
I think they’re wrong. I think charisma can be developed by almost any entrepreneur, and I believe doing so can have an extraordinarily positive effect on your success in business.
So how can you develop mesmerizing charisma?

You need only focus on three areas:

1. Enthusiasm.
People who are highly passionate about their work captivate others. When they talk with delight about an idea, business or product those around them are drawn into their way of thinking. The fact is most people are ambivalent about what they do, even by their own ideas for their business. So when they suggest to others a new thought or direction it often has no power to persuade. The same idea however expressed with enormous enthusiasm immediately becomes more attractive and is usually taken more seriously.

2. Expertise.
Very few people are experts at their industry. Most stop serious study as soon as they graduate from college or university and even those that continue to learn about their field do so in a haphazard, half hearted way. But those rare entrepreneurs that endlessly learn more about their industry eventually find that they know much more about their field than everyone around them. When they express that immense knowledge and understanding in meetings or sales presentations it is often mesmerizing to those in the room. Who hasn’t at times been in awe of somebody’s deep knowledge of their field? It is a highly attractive trait.

3. Certainty.
We live in an age of ever increasng complexity, caused by fast technological advancement, increasingly global markets, and more intense competiton. As our own industry gets more complex, if we don’t continuously update our skills and knowledge we begin to slip a bit behind the cutting edge. When this occurs our sense of certainty that we are right declines. We become more unsure of ourselves, which quickly erodes our charisma.

Certainty is also an attitude, and all attitudes can become cultivated merely by focusing on developing them. When you deliberately strive to behave with certainty it soon becomes your normal way of thinking. As Advertising legend Donny Deutch amusingly entitled his autobiography, “Often Wrong, Never In Doubt”. As long as it’s not taken to extremes of dogmatic or bombastic behavior, this sense of certainty is very charismatic.

So those are the primary elements of charisma, as I see it. Note that none of them are difficult to develop in your life.

Indeed by merely increasing each of the three elements by just 20% you can become vastly more charismatic.

The epitome of charisma was of course Steve Jobs. He was famous for creating what became known in Silicon Valley as his ‘Reality distortion field.” He exhibited so much charisma when attempting to persuade others that they would be fully in agreement with him while in his presence, but in the hours following would realise the absurdity of many of his assertions, once they escaped his ‘field’.

How did Jobs exude such captivating charisma?

Enthusiasm. Expertise. Certainty.

Are you serious about building a great business? Really?

Most entrepreneurs think they are dedicated to building their business.
But I question that.
I think the majority of entrepreneurs are just dabbling. Sure they’d like to have a successful business, but they don’t really crave it.
The problem is that business today is really, really tough.
Unless you absolutely, madly desire to create an awesome business it probably won’t happen.
Competitors that are keener, more fired up, will eclipse you. Customers will sense your lack of fire and choose another supplier. You may get some growth, but you won’t get the hypergrowth that defines a highly successful enterprise.
You need to be really serious to make it in today’s business world.
Here’s a quick test you can do to ascertain how committed you are to creating an extraordinary business:
You need to be able to say Yes to at least 8 out of 10 of these points:

• You think about your business night and day.
• You know all the best companies in your field.
• You are clear on the flaws and weaknesses of your business, and your main competitors.
• You arrive at work early.
• You know your business’s key numbers intimately.
• You are always studying ways to better market your products.
• You are constantly making tiny improvements to how you run your operations.
• You have turned your business into a system. Ideally summarised in a manual .
• You have white hot desire to create a great company.
• When you talk about your business to friends, staff or clients it is with genuine enthusiasm.

So, looking at these, how do you measure up?
Which of these points do you need to work on?
The rewards for building a great business are extraordinary: massive wealth, high self esteem, exemplary lifestyle, kudos from society, significant contribution to mankind.
But you’ll get none of these until you get really, really serious about building your company

What All Entrepreneurs can learn from Subway - Siimon Reynolds

A friend of mine pointed out an interesting move by Subway lately.

They’ve quietly been setting up stores inside Walmarts.

Over 1400 of them in fact.

It got me thinking.

Surely one of the best opportunities to increase your revenues is to sell your products in unusual places, just like Subway are doing.

While you’re competitors slog it out in the same old marketplaces, you could be growing your business in places they haven’t even thought about.

What unusual place could you start selling your services?

It’s worth brainstorming ideas for half an hour.

A health food company might open up stores inside universities .

A caterer might approach an electrician’s association offering discount lunches for all their members.

A lawyer might do a joint venture with an insurance company to offer legal services to their clients.

A book publisher might seek to sell their cooking books in food supermarkets across the country.

A meditation teacher might open a branch inside the Los Angeles Police Department.

When you start thinking about it, it’s easy to think of unusual places to sell your goods and services.

And there’s plenty of reasons why you should:

You’ll have very little competition (Usually none).

You won’t have to discount your products.

It will be easier to expand than via traditional avenues.

So next time you’re thinking about how to grow your company, think outside the square.

Be lateral. Even a little crazy.

It’s that kind of thinking that has made Subway the number one food franchise in the world.

And can make you number one in your field too.

After beginning my journey of learning how to read...

After beginning my journey of learning how to read, I was introduced by my parents to a special collection of books about the power of positive thinking. After finally devouring this set of books, I attempted to become only positive. There was a part of me that didn't want to admit that I also had what appeared to be a negative side. Guess, what happened? The more I tried to put on a positive façade in my public life, the more negative my private life was becoming. The people who weren't so important to me were getting most or all my positive pole, while my closest loved ones and I would catch all the negativity. Clearly, this wasn't working for me. It seemed that the more I tried to become only one sided, the more I punished myself and those close to me.

I wondered what was wrong with me, and why I couldn't be positive all the time. Then I thought, maybe someone else figured it out. So, I went and interacted with various positive thinking teachers. I went to their seminars, met them, spoke to them, and found out, one by one, that all of them had both polarities. Not one of them was all positive all the time. I concluded, I can't be one-sided, even though I am diligently focused on it, studying it, learning it, going to seminars, reading books, buying CDs, doing everything that a human being can do to succeed at it. If I can't do it, then, the people I'm teaching probably aren't going to do so either. I can't teach a one-sided state. I have not obtained it. It must be an incomplete concept. It's a lie.

I believe we live in a world addicted to fantasies. The fantasy of always being nice and never mean, of having the career we love and never experiencing stress, of having relationships that are never ending honeymoons or having bodies that resemble the air brushed models we see in magazines. It is these fantasies that are the very source of our mental suffering and as a result depression.

Have you ever thought: When I get this car, life will be better; When I get this new house and land, my life will be better; When I get this new job and more money, life will be better; When I get this new relationship, life will be better.

Most people think that when they get something else life will get better, but all it does is transform the positives and negatives into new forms. I'm not saying you shouldn't seek, but if you seek something you think will give you more positives than negatives, you're living with an illusion. When you get what you imagine you want you will find out that it has a new catch or twist to it that you didn't anticipate. If you live in the illusion that it's going to give you a lot of happiness, you may be let down, for it won't, at least for long. It only gives you a new set of pains and pleasures.

Instead of trying to run from pain and seek pleasure, why not embrace both in the pursuing fulfillment of your purpose? Look back over every aspect in your life, from the smallest thing that you think you were challenged by: criticisms, illnesses, disappointments or whatever, and ask, 'How did that help me?' Don't stop until you can give thanks for all the different parts of your life, because if they are there, they are serving you. I've personally taken the opportunity to do this, and every once in while I get a new memory, a sudden flash of some little event that I'd completely forgotten. Then I ask, 'How did that help me become what I am today? How did that specific moment, as remote and distracting as it looked, help me?'

After you have completed this exercise you will see that at any given moment in your life you are and were perfectly balanced. You will never get one side without the other, and any time you think you've got one-sidedness you're living in illusion and about to get a lesson to wake you up to the truth of duality. It is not about thinking positively, it is recognizing that the good and the bad occur simultaneously.

An Unusual Way to Increase Your Profits

We all want more customers.

It makes us feel good to see more people buying from us.

But believe it or not, getting more new customers is not the best way to grow your business.

There’s another way to make money that’s far easier and more efficient.

Yet hardly any businesses pay enough attention to it. In fact many don’t even address it.

So what is this rarely utilised way to make loads more money in your business?

It’s simple. Just ask your current customers to buy more.

Think about it.

Getting a new customer can be expensive and time consuming. You have to advertise, make sales calls, give presentations or attend events and meetings.

For many businesses, acquiring a new customer can take weeks or even months, and cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Yet to get your current customer to spend more with you is super easy.

After all, having just bought from you they are already won over.

You don’t have to run expensive ads or do elaborate presentations. All you have to do is the following four things:

◦At the moment they want to buy, offer them another product or service, ideally at a special discount.
◦Show them a product that many people who bought their product also found useful.
◦Upsell them to a more expensive, better version of the product they want to buy.
◦Suggest they buy several of your product at once, rather than come back later.

It’s that simple.

Make any of those offers and ten to twenty percent of your customers will say yes .

Bingo, you’ve just lifted your annual profits by at least ten percent.

And that’s net profits- it cost you nothing to get these extra sales.

There really is no easier or quicker way to make more money in your business.

The Importance of Daring - Siimon Reynolds

One of the most underestimated parts of becoming a successful entrepreneur is increasing your level of daring.

You can read a thousand books on business and not see daring even mentioned, but it is a critical character trait to have if you want to build an extraordinary business.

You can be efficient. You can be great at managing your company’s finances.

You can have strong customer service. But if you don’t dare to do amazing and unusual things you will not reach the highest level of business success.

What areas should you seek to be daring in?
◦Moving into new industry sectors.
◦Creating radically different products or services.
◦Offering money back guaranteees.
◦Promoting yourself in daring ways.
◦Challenging industry norms.
◦Standing up for what you believe in at the office.
◦Shooting for huge growth rather than gradual uplift.
◦Massively altering your pricing , either up or down.
◦Adding something dramatic to your menu of products.
◦Starting a business in the first place…

They say that there’s huge competition in the business world.
I beg to differ.

When you consistently take daring actions, pretty soon you will have very little direct competition.

Because most business owners are scared of doing anything really different, you will stand out hugely from your competitors.

Being daring seems at first to be a tough road to take, but it is actually safer than taking the so called safe road.

You get noticed. You attract more customers. You get more PR. You can usually charge more.

Think about it. Are you being daring enough?

Fortune does indeed favor the brave.

Checklist For Fast Company Growth - Siimon Reynolds

I do a lot of consulting for entrepreneurs building their companies.

No matter what the industry, I find the same things lacking in companies struggling to grow.

So this week, I thought it would be helpful if I put these common challenges into an easy to review checklist.

So take a few minutes to look at each of these areas, and ask yourself whether you can score yourself at least a 7 out of 10 in each vital department:

◦Clear vision for company over the next 3 years.
◦Clear company values. (No more than 5, ideally just 3).
◦A manual for running the business. (How you and your staff do things day to day).
◦90 day goals, with exact figures to aim for.
◦A marketing plan that uses at least 3 different media. (Most failing companies are not experimenting enough with different types of media).
◦Outsourcing or delegating non vital tasks. (If you don’t have an assistant you are one).
◦A coach, mentor or board to bounce ideas off. (No matter how smart you are it pays to have wise and objective counsel).
◦A sales presentation with at least a 1 out of 3 success rate. (If you’re scoring lower than that you have either structured the presentation incorrectly, or you’re selling to the wrong people).
◦A clear understanding of who your customer is. (What they fear, what they desire).
◦A system for staying in contact with customers and potential customers. (A company’s biggest potential asset is it’s email list).

There are more areas entrepreneurs should keep an eye on of course, but get these ten right and you can be pretty sure that you’re company will have strong growth over the next 3 years.

Get them wrong however, and your entire company’s future is at risk

FAQ's

1. Do all multi millionaire entrepreneurs think alike?

They are all different in my experience on the outside, but very similar on the inside. On the outside great entrepreneurs can be rough, shy, conservative or radical. But on the inside they are confident, action oriented and exceedingly focused. Now interestingly they didn't necessarily start out this way - many of them deliberately developed these character traits, as I did. In the Billionaire program I go deep into how to develop the mindset of a great entrepreneur, using many real world examples.

2. If you could do only one thing to build a business what would you do?

I would analyse the top 3 companies in the sector and copy how they run their business, from the point of view of price, range, marketing and distribution. You don't have to invent the wheel. Just taking the best ideas from your competition is one of the fastest and most effective ways to improve your company's results. Yet so few business owners ever do it.

3. What's the biggest marketing mistake entrepreneurs make?

They only do one or two things! If only they tried another 5 or 10 marketing methods they could potentially double the size of their business. Now there's two reasons why they don't try more proven marketing methods. One, they don't have the attitude of constantly testing and re-testing, which is vital to create any successful business. And two, they don't know any other ways to market! That's why we make sure in our Billionaire program we give people real methods and techniques they can use tomorrow to market their business quickly and cheaply.

4. How important is using time effectively?

That's one of my favourite topics. You can have a great business idea but if you don't use your time effectively you'll get nowhere. No single profession puts more demands on your time than business ownership. You simply must develop sytems to save you huge amounts of time or you'll get exhausted and downhearted by business. Over 25 years I've developed a fantastic sytem for being super productive at work, and it's helped me enormously to increase my wealth.

5. How do you develop super confidence in business?

Just like any other skill, confidence can be learned. Here are 3 quick ways:

A. Remind yourself of all the times you've succeeded- at least weekly.

B. Read biographies of great entrepreneurs. Many tell amazing true stories about overcoming obstacles through sheer will power, confidence and persistence.

C. See yourself as someobody that is highly confident. Focus on it, act like you're confident, move like your confident, take actions like you're confident , and pretty soon your confidence will skyrocket.

You Can Rise Above The Economic Crisis - Dr. John Demartini

If you feel that the financial crunch has cost you your job, your house, your car, or even all three, or if you feel that it has robbed you of your dignity, responsibility and productivity. Then I suggest you stop; there is never a crisis without a blessing, never a window that shuts without a door opening. So let's just stop right now and look at what blessings we have. As strange as it may sound, your thinking is more sound if you balance out your perceptions. If you don't, you will create emotionally impulsive reactions.

The first step towards regaining emotional and financial health is a lesson your parents may have tried to teach you as a child: the art of being grateful. You might feel so down and out that you feel you have nothing to be thankful about. But it is important at this point to stop your story of financial distress in order to get you out of the hole. Persist in defining your blessings: you still have your talents, your knowledge, you may be closer to your family as a result of your financial problems, you could be more determined and you may be less reliant on others.

Take the time to realize you have power that you are denying. Find out what you can do that fills a void, tackles a challenge, solves a problem, answers a question or - if you want to go really big - solves a mystery. In other words, cultivate the ability to adapt to a changing environment. Anybody who's stagnant and infatuated with the way it was will probably be more hard hit and stressed.

There is consistency in the existence of opportunity and challenge and the wise person embraces both. Warren Buffett says that "if you can't manage your emotions, don't expect to manage money". And I think there's some truth in that. When people get in the high mode, they start leveraging themselves with other people's money and gamble, and when they lose all that because they went beyond the regressed mean, then they go in the other direction and sell out, giving people their money. They lose money on both ends.

Whatever's highest on your value you'll always have money for, whatever's lowest you're going to run out of money for. So if you don't have a high value on saving money, investing money and building wealth, it's not going to happen. It's a fantasy. Many people think when they get extra money then they'll begin saving. That's not the way to do it. You've got to let piggy banks become 'biggy' banks, you've got to save something every day. If you don't link your goals to your value system, the probability of becoming financially independent is just going to torture you.

Here are some examples of perceived challenges, along with their compensatory blessings that may help you become aware of the other side:

Depressed about finances: If you or someone you love is having feelings of depression or suicide, know that when you take the time to see and count the blessings in your current situation, that you alleviate the tensions in your mind. If you look you will become aware of the blessings such as increased support, love and advice from family and friends. There are many more so take the time look. There is never a crisis without a blessing. When a door shuts a window opens. It is now time to count your blessings.


Losing a home: This could assist you to realign your expenditure to your income by renting at a level you can afford. Not having a house can actually bring you relief as you are released from your indebtedness to the bank and ongoing costly home maintenance and taxes. Possibly your children get to learn about the realities of life and discover that no matter the outer challenge, the family survives which assists them in the future when they face their own life's challenges. Instead of saying "why me," begin saying "try me."


Employer guilt over retrenchment: You may be setting someone free to fulfill their dream. By streamlining the company you give job security to those who remain behind and by doing so you have the most efficient team to help you ride the turning tide when the market increases thereby making it possible to hire more people down the line. You may help former employees become more prosperous in the long run since they can now become even more daring and begin their own companies.


Insolvency: If your company is declared insolvent, you are absolved of all business debt, released from all the pressure of figuring out how to pay it back. You get to start afresh but with all the business learnings from the past. And you get to discover that your friends and family still love you no matter your situation.


Hard financial times: It could mean streamlining your purchases to things you truly value, changing your financial management and increasing your portion of future savings. Ultimately this is the key to long-term financial success. Outside challenges often unite families to figure solutions towards a common goal. It can prevent your children from taking things for granted and initiate them into the realities of providing others great quality service and mastering fair exchange.

Additional challenges and benefits related to financial crisis.

Every event has two sides. The universe conserves this balance. So in these market crunch times, it is important for us to not lose sight of both sides of life's equation. It may seem to the populace of the world that the current situation is a loss without gain, destruction without construction, but this is not the whole truth, for ignorance blindly sees only one side.

Getting Your Mind Right - Siimon Reynolds

In business there’s a lot of talk about strategies for making more money.

But not enough about getting your mind into a state where it is highly effective.

That’s a big mistake, because it’s only when an entrepreneur’s mind is centered, focused and clear that we can achieve at a high level.

Haven’t you had days when you just weren’t thinking clearly at work?

Times when you weren’t performing at your best, for no other reason than that your mind wasn’t in the right place?

For most entrepreneurs this negative or distracted mind state occurs regularly, maybe every week or so.

It can be very costly too: we can make bad decisions, speak unkindly to our staff, or just not get much stuff done.

As harmful as this way of being is, the good news is that it can be easily fixed, with a simple technique I developed recently.

I call it The Two Reminders.

As you get ready for work, take a couple of minutes to sit with a pen and pad and just think about these two ideals:

1. Ideal Person.

What kind of person do you aspire to be? What are the character traits that you would most like to exhibit to others?

What kind of ways would you like to think? Typical answers might include: calm, focused, happy, uplifting, clever, inspiring, kind, effective, a top performer, creative, optimistic, efficient.

Spend a few moments each day seeing yourself as that kind of person.

2. Ideal Business.

What do you want your business to look like? What kind of services are you providing, and of what quality?

How do you want to come across to customers? How much money do you want to make? What makes your company different from the rest?

Think about your company as you would like it to be. Just for a minute or two.

Now, go and behave like you are indeed that ideal person, running that type of business.

The Two Reminders are so powerful because we often forget that when we get our inner self right, our outer circumstances soon change for the better.

But if all we do is work, without first focusing on who we want to be, then our results are usually ordinary.

How To Become A Popular Company - Siimon Reynolds

I was out driving recently in Los Angeles and saw an amazing sight.

A famous hot dog stand called Pinks had a line of people outside that went half way around their entire building.

The question is, why?

Is it because their hot dogs are so amazing?

Well I’ve eaten there and while they’re good, a hot dog is a hot dog. There’s only so much you can do with it.

Is it because they spend a fortune on marketing?
No way. In all my time in L.A I’ve only seen one ad for Pinks.
Is it because they cost less than other hot dogs?

On the contrary, they cost more than many of their competitors.

No, in my opinion the reason Pinks has people waiting for an hour just to taste their dogs is because of a factor far more strange and subtle.

People line up outside Pinks because they see other people lining up.

They assume that because so many are lining up the hot dogs must be amazing, and so they decide that they too must visit this place.

So it becomes self perpetuating.

There’s a term for this in behavioural research – it’s called Social Proof.

Humans tend to get more interested in things when we see that other humans are interested in them.

So, think about this:
How can you create the appearance that lots of people love your company?

If you could just achieve that, then you too would get an ever increasing number of people desperate to buy from you.

As I see it, there are three ways:

1. Get lots of testimonials.
When potential customers read about other customers that adore your products, their desire for your stuff will dramatically increase.

2. Initiate a PR campaign about popularity.
Plan a campaign of hitting the media outlets with stories about the fast growth and popularity of your company, product or service.

3. Create shortages.
Consider occasionally making your product unavailable or booked out, due to high demand.

None of these strategies cost much money, but together they will go a long way to creating the impression that your company is powering, and that your product is something really special.

Pretty soon you could end up like Pinks.

Not selling hot dogs, but selling hot products.

My dad's advice on gratitude...

A number of years ago, I was visiting my dad when he asked, "Son, how are things going?"

I answered, "Well, I've expanded my office, so I had to pay the cost of renovating, and right now I'm short of capital. I just bought a diamond ring for my wife, plus a new car, and we recently went on a vacation to Hawaii. We just got a new house and a whole bunch of things are going on, and it seems it is all happening at once. With all this spending, we don't have as much cash as usual, I'm totally overwhelmed and every part of me is stressed."

He looked at me with stern eyes and said, "Son, that is not stress. That is blessings!"

A little shocked by his response I asked, "What do you mean?"

He explained, "John, what you have accomplished in a short period of time is more than I've done in 30 years. Your mother and I never did go to Hawaii. We still haven't got diamond rings, we just have simple gold bands. And by the way, the idea of expanding your office is incredible. The extra taxes and things, just consider that a blessing because it means you have earned some money."

He took every single thing I thought was a stress and made it a blessing. This was not about positive thinking. It was recognizing the so called 'stress' was simply a part of having the things I had aspired to. I was not willing to accept that the things I thought would make me 'happy' came hand in hand with drawbacks. As a result I was slowly making myself miserable, and missing out on enjoying life and all I had achieved.

This is a common experience for many people around the world. The words "I will be happy when..." echoing in the back of their minds and constantly driving them to seek new things and experiences that they desire. Where many of us get it wrong is failing to recognize everything comes with a price to pay. This is not a 'good' or 'bad' thing, it just is.

I grew up hearing my mother talk about counting blessings, but I'd gotten so caught up in my daily life that I'd forgotten her real meaning. From the time I was four years old, my mother would say as she was putting me to bed, "Son, count your blessings tonight, for those who do will have more to be grateful for, and more opportunities in their lives than those who don't."

Those who count their blessings, who are grateful, have more blessings and fulfillment in life than those who do not. This is a simple principle. Yet it has the power to change your life.

When people experience love and appreciation, or in other words gratitude, the brain and heart become energetically integrated. Brain and heart waves synchronize and the power of human intent is maximal. You have the ability to create! When you're grateful, and when you have love in your heart and poise in your mind, you also have an integration of your left and right brain. They become synchronized, too. Your heart's intuition and your brain's reason become one, congruent, centered. You have a power that cannot be shaken and in most instances no matter what the obstacles, you accomplish your objectives.

Ingratitude on the other hand is gravity and it weighs us down. Our immune system runs down, our spiritual life feels like hell and our mind becomes clouded. Our financial situation is likely to become stagnant and change for the worse. We isolate ourselves from people because at the end of the day why would you want to stay with someone who doesn't appreciate you?

So how do you become a 'grateful' person? Keep in mind there is a big difference between true gratitude and temporary elation. Many people assume gratitude arises when they can easily and superficially count their blessings because things are going their way. These same people assume that ingratitude is a natural response when things are not going so well and they can easily count their curses. But this is not the whole picture. The reality is, true gratitude only arises when we take the time to acknowledge the perfect balance residing in our lives, when both support and challenge and all other complementary opposites are recognized as occurring simultaneously. This is the moment true gratitude spontaneously emerges and is the moment we access our most powerful source of love that gives rise to - the gratitude effect.

In order to witness the perfect balance I suggest you take the time to ask yourself insightful questions to a point where you can see the other side of any situation just like I did so many years ago after speaking with my father. How does the credit crunch serve your life? What are the benefits of your failing relationship? How does the extra weight you have gained this winter serve your life? Keep asking until you have the answers. I am certain they are there.

How to Build Business Relationships in 1 minute - Siimon Reynolds

I had lunch yesterday with a highly successful TV commercial producer.

He told me of an incredibly quick, yet powerful way that he deepens relationships with clients and potential clients.

I thought I’d share it with you today.

It’s this simple: Whenever he emails somebody, he writes just one or two lines about their or his life outside of the business world.

Maybe he asks how their family is going. Sometimes he tells them what he’s been up to in his spare time. Often he follows up about some aspect of their personal life they mentioned previously.

It’s not much, just a line or two.

But he believes it has transformed his business.

As he put it, “As clients slowly open up about their personal lives, they begin to view you not just as a supplier, but as a friend. And people prefer to buy from friends.”

He thinks this one small technique has transformed the profits of his business. I think he’s right.

So instead of just asking clients to buy stuff from you, invest a little time to find out about them. Their lives, hopes, aspirations and even troubles.

Over time, sharing these little personal things with clients will make a big difference to your bottom line.

It will also enrich your life immeasurably.

Why Entrepreneurs should behave like Sport Stars - Siimon Reynolds

I often ask myself the following question:
What will the top business leaders be doing in 50 years time?

I figure if I can guess that, and start doing those things now, I should lead the pack over the next couple of decades.

Let me give you one of my answers, it may well help you build a better business, faster.

I believe that the elite business people in 50 years will train like sports stars.

In the following 3 ways.

1. They will use the mental training techniques currently used by sport stars.
For example, almost every major Olympian today regularly rehearses in their mind, seeing themselves performing perfectly.

This mental rehearsal has been shown in countless studies to improve performance.

So why don’t we in business world do the same? Is it not likely that it could improve our performance in sales presentations, time management and our interaction with clients?

Of course it would. The brain is a magnificent computer that can be programmed much like any other computer.
Just read books on neuroplasticity like ‘The Brain That Changes Itself’ or ‘Rewire Your Brain’ for examples of how deliberate imaging of superb performance can literally change the structure of the brain and improve our performance.

When you think about it, it’s crazy every ambitious business person isn’t using these techniques daily. I certainly do.

2. They will use focusing statements like top sport stars do.

Focusing statements are short, sharp summaries that many top sports men and women use to remind themselves of what they need to focus on, just before they perform.

For example, the great baseball hitter Alex Rodriguez,uses this focusing statement : ” I hit the ball solid with an accelerated bat head.” For a sprinter it may be something like, “Stay low, stay relaxed.” For a football player it may be a sentence as simple as the following: “Confidence and aggression.”

The bottom line is that focusing statements like these have been found to be highly effective for all manner of sport stars. They concentrate your mind on what matters and take it away from negativity and distracting thoughts.

Couldn’t every entrepreneur get value out of using one of these focusing statements?

You bet they could.

3. They will learn to relax like sport stars.

The top sports players all value relaxation and down time. They take their breaks seriously, because they are intimately aware of how overwork harms future performance.

They make sure each break is a quality break. They monitor their sleep patterns, ensuring they get enough rest. And critically, they work in quick intense bursts, followed by recuperation.

Now you may think that you couldn’t possibly behave like that in the business world. But according to the Human Performance Institute in Florida, you’d be mistaken. In over a decade of studies , Dr Jim Loehr and his team have categorically shown that business executives perform best when mimicking the work patterns of sporting stars: Intense work followed by frequent short breaks and lots of sleep.

So there you have it.

Three ways you can improve your business performance by using the techniques of sporting champions.

Try them. You may not win a gold medal, but in business you can still win plenty of gold.

Stop Working and Start Thinking - Siimon Reynolds

We live in a culture that admires busyness.

We applaud the fast moving, hard driving entrepreneur, always on their phone, endlessly moving from meeting to meeting.

We respect the urgent executives, with mountainous To Do Lists, no time for breaks, as they get tasks done at a rocket like pace.

But our obsession with busyness can be incredibly costly.

Because usually, the busier we are the less quality thinking we are doing.

And it’s thinking that really improves businesses, not just doing.

As Henry David Thoreau put it, “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?”

Most business executives need to do less and think more.

Michael Dell didn’t become a billionaire because he worked harder and faster than everyone else.

He became a billionaire because he came up with a great idea: to sell computers direct, cutting out the dealer network, which was the prevalent and ubiquitous business model at the time.

Howard Schultz didn’t become a billionaire because he worked hard either. He became one because he traveled to Italy and had an idea: that European specialty style coffee shops would do well in America.

Anita Roddick didn’t become one of the richest women in the world because she was busier than other women entrepreneurs.

She became rich because she conceived the idea of opening a specialist bath and body shop, supporting native cultures.

Sure, we should all work hard, but working hard doesn’t create a competitive advantage, as most of our competitors are also doing it.

Where we can get ahead is by devoting at least 20 minutes a day to just thinking – alone, with a blank pad of paper and a pen. Resisting society’s urge to do, do, do all the time.

It’s ideas that created the modern world and it’s ideas that will revolutionise your business.

But they need time to originate.

So every day, stop working for awhile and do some quality thinking. It sounds simple, but it’s not an easy thing to do.

As Henry Ford said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”

Spiritual Quotient - S.Q

SPIRIT means SOUL which is distinct from your body. Spiritual Quotient (S.Q) is perhaps the only yard stick to judge a person in totality considering today’s hectic life style to keep your health, wealth and mind in proper shape. It is a sum total of all quotients like INTELLIGENT, EMOTIONAL, CULTURE, KNOWLEDGE, etc. Bhagwad Gita is the best book ever written by anyone and perhaps will be learnt by all management gurus world over from Gandhi to Godse, Bin Laden to Bush, Harshad to Dhirubhai, Indira to Atal. S.Q. Point is unique to all human being which is instrumental in developing his vision and values which can be developed by following basic values.

HUMANITY & HUMILITY – All human beings are different from each other and therefore one should develop humanity by treating a person basically a human irrespective of his cast and creed. When a man gets success in his life of his chosen field, he tends to be arrogant thinking that he knows all the subjects in totality with the results he loses humility for others. One should guard against such attitude failing which his down fall is not far away.

SIMPLICITY & MODESTY – It is so simple to be happy but difficult to be simple especially in today’s materialistic world. You should be simple from heart but not for the show. Your most of the problem in your life is the outcome of your EGO/ I-NESS, while dealing with others. One should imbibe modesty in his life and style.

NON-VIOLENCE & FORGIVENESS – Violence refers to physical and mental injury to others. One should not harm others knowingly but take care not to harm unknowingly even though you may be right when you talk to them. You cannot undo something done by someone unknowingly but it requires great courage and virtue for brave persons to forgive to someone who has harm you intentionally. You always gain when you use decent language and polite behavior, while interacting with others.

FORTHRIGHTNESS AND TRANSPARENCY – One should try to be forthright and transparent in his action and dealing with others to have peace of mind.

CONSISTANCY – One should have consistency in your purpose and action to achieve peace and tranquility in his life.

EQUIPOSE OR EVENNESS OF MIND – Birth, ageing, sickness, death etc. are facts of life and natural phenomenon and therefore take life as it comes gracefully without fear and pain.

ADJUSTMENT – Add Just-Like sugar in a cup of tea, one should adjust his way as per circumstances but should not be a complete surrender to others.

NON ATTACHMENT & DETACHMENT – Excessive attachment and reliance on some one should be avoided.. It is not correct that we should not be close to our near dear but one should not have over attachment for anybody. In the present materialistic world, this has great importance than earlier days when wants were limited. One should be happy with what he gets but should not feel unhappy if he is not able to get it. Man is born alone and has to die alone and therefore develop an attitude to love himself by keeping some minutes in a day / some days in a year for solitude for devoting to the Almighty to know himself to get inner peace.

SACRIFICE – The day you start living for others, you will feel life worth living.

The above points are worth pondering over to correct your S.Q. power having a scale from 60 to 140 as the life progress. The ideal S.Q. is 100 plus for practical life for survival in this dog eats dog’s life.

How To Beat Stress - Siimon Reynolds

If you're feeling overwhelmed in your business, there's a technique I developed that can massively reduce your stress and quickly improve your results. I call it The One Action. The One Action is ridiculously simple, but also stunningly effective. It works like this:

When the work is piling up and you don't know where to start, look at each project you have and ask the following question,"What's the one action I could take that would have the most impact here?" And then quickly take that action.

The One Action method works so well because it reduces the confusion and complexity of any major project.(So often we are so frozen by all there is to do, we end up doing nothing). It moves you from thinking/worrying mode into action And it simplifies your To Do List into manageable chunks.

But perhaps the most important change The One Action makes is mental. After you take a key action step on two or three of your projects, you get a wonderful feeling of momentum, progress and achievement.This creates a virtuous action/result cycle where you feel more and more empowered each One Action task that you do, so you're motivated to do more of them. The truth is, we are often busier than we should be.

Rather than just endlessly do stuff we need to behave like an army sniper and very carefully look for the most important target, then shoot it.This highly leveraged way of thinking and behaving ensures no matter how busy we are, we get the vital jobs done (and we feel a whole lot less stress to boot).

Today my One Action task was to write this blog.

What's yours?

Tension Management

Whenever I meet any person I find that everybody is living under TENSION for some reason or other. For child not getting proper attention from parents, for students not getting time to do homework or play, for adults not getting job for their satisfaction, businessman not getting enough business or elders not getting enough respect from society. In other words, everyone feels that he is not able to perform as per his capability without knowing himself that whether he deserves for the job. It is the mindset created in modern world where wants keep on increasing than available resources. It also appears to me that we are trained to worry from birth. When parents express constant worry, children grow up thinking that life goes on only if you worry. We should know that life goes on not because of us but in spite of us. Elders expect their juniors to worry! If you do not worry, they brand you as uncaring. It is possible to take care without worrying. Care is doing while worry is chattering. In the process, you feel isolated and come under TENSION where managing the same is very difficult.

It is not true that the work causes TENSION but TENSION comes from ungoverned mind i.e. impulses, feeling, liking, and disliking etc. which should be controlled to have positive action. Most human beings work for selfish gain for himself to fulfill his ego centric designs. Once you work for greater goal in order of priority you become free from TENSION and start working with perfect sense of detachment. You do not crave for desire or fruit of action but raveling in self within i.e. you enjoy absolute freedom from TENSION.

The TENSION originates from mind which ultimately brings out anger within your body and burst out on other people. Anger is either Explosive or Implosive. Explosive people should learn to respond rather than react while Implosive people should learn to manage reaction before it explodes. In other word Control your anger before it Controls you and learn to approach the problems in a straight forward manner or best going for solitude for some time as underneath every anger lies fear. Anger stimulates the release of the hormones Adrenaline and Cortisol into the bloodstream which mobilizes the body in the short term but can be destructive if chronic. You always think that I am right for getting angry because other people are not thinking the way I think, forgetting that no two individuals are equal, the concept of equality exists on paper and all civilization grow on exploitation, only exploiters and victims keep changing with time and place. One should accept the fact that the way I think will differ then the way others think. It is the perception which changes according to his thinking when you try to mould others in your way of thinking. You have to understand that things do not change unless we change. Ring out the old and ring in the new change where it is needed; even complete overhauling, where worn-out and unhealthy practices, habits and systems should be replaced by gainful and life supporting methods. Before change, one must recognize the change but do not change for the sake of change. In other words, control yourselves to control others, though it is difficult to control own self.

The best way to remove the TENSION is to know yourself, to limit your limitation by understanding yourself that I am different and unique. Remove I ness (Ego) from your vocabulary and accept the others as they are. If you do not like somebody, forget it. If somebody does not believe in you, forget it. Go on doing the work as you deem fit to achieve long term goal decided by you.

Start your day every morning thinking with cool collected mind drawing inspiration from almighty that give me strength to achieve my long term goal. You will find that the minor hiccups/hurdles come in your way will not disturb you with the result, you will not loose your cool in any condition even someone tries intentionally to hurt your ego. The day you start living for others, you will feel life worth living. You will find within a month that things are improving within you and in others also.

C S Modi

Worried You Might Not be a Great Business Person?

There’s a huge fear amongst those who start their own business.

That they are not good enough.

This fear is exacerbated by the media constantly featuring entrepreneurs who seem to make billions overnight.

Every second article seems to be about some new business superstar that grows their company from 2 people in a garage to 2000 people speedily and effortlessly.

It’s hard not to compare ourselves to these geniuses and feel that, well, maybe we don’t have what it takes.

This is a huge mistake.

If you’re feeling a little unconfident about your chances in business, it’s important to remember the following points.

1. ALL BUSINESS SKILLS ARE LEARNABLE.

There’s nothing magical about business – it’s a craft. If you don’t know how to do something you can learn it. Anything.

Don’t ever be intimidated by someone who shows outstanding abilities in entrepreneurship- rest assured they weren’t born a corporate titan.

If they learnt how to excel in any area then you can too.

2. KAIZEN IS ALL THAT MATTERS.

You may have heard of the Japanese concept of Kaizen – that small and never ending improvements lead eventually to greatness.

It’s time to live this philosophy, every day at work. Look for little things you can do just that little bit better. It’s important to remember that excellence is not about perfection, it’s about self correction.

3. GENIUS IS A MYTH.

As the world’s leading researcher on high performance, Anders Ericsson consclusively showed, everyone who seems to be a genius actually just worked harder and longer and had an excellent teacher. There’s not a single example ( other than autistic savants) of anybody just being brilliant at something without long periods of hard training and self improvement.

Not Mozart. Not Kasparov. Not Einstein. Not anyone.

(For mountains of research that backs this up read the following Books: Talent Is Overated by Geoff Colvin, The Genius in All Of Us by David Shenk and The Talent Code By Daniel Coyne).

Yep, the research is voluminous and conclusive. You CAN be a great entrepreneur.

But it will take a total comittment to learning.

And, unlike what the media usually portrays, slow and steady improvements over time.

This path to business success may not sound exciting, but believe me, the results will be.

Past is PAST

It is so simple to advice but difficult to implement the art of
forgetting the past and therefore Forgive First and you will be able
to forget your past.

Whenever you hear a good joke you always like but the same is repeated
everyday, you will start hating the good joke which will turn into bad
joke. Similarly, any past episodes (good or bad) are repeated, our
mind tends to get irritated and in the process you loose the zeal of
living in present. Mind has tendency to repeat bad experience of life
everyday thereby making life of majority of persons miserable. It is
the endeavor of good persons to forget the past and live in present.
Like share market, any script coming to bottom cannot find another
bottom and therefore it has to rise upward only. The person who looks
PRESENT as PLEASANT and forgets the past, gets opportunity to lead
better life. Luck and action are two sides of coins but action is in
our hand while luck is not in our hand and therefore why worry about
what will happen in future which is not predictable but at least you
will be happy that you have worked hard to make life beautiful.

The way a persons deals with unpleasantness of the past influences
largely his attitude and approach of dealing with present. To carry
emotional baggage does not augur well, it could affect your self
esteem. You may get convinced that you are the root cause of all the
misfortune and criticizing yourself. The already low level of self
esteem could move further and make you cynical. Embers of wrong
memories fan out by self pity and self criticism. In other word, you
are becoming judge of your own trial and therefore one has to move
with life to view the past episode as one among many in everyone’s
life.

Whatever will be WILL BE and reacting to past is keeping alive dead
horse. Every event is the outcome of host of complex factors which
are not entirely predictable or controllable. The POSSIBILITY thinker
is positive and has faith in himself that any dream is possible. The
PROBABILITY thinker is skeptical with self doubt and failure.

The unsavory memories of the past should not become such conviction
that bind us and restricts our freedom to evolve and grow. Treat the
present as a PRESENT, a gift free from the past. Let us wake up to
dream about the wonderful future that beckons us.

Chandraknt S Modi - Dated 20-04-2011

Nine Steps To Failsafe Selling - Dr John Demartini

THE NINE STEPS TO FAILSAFE SELLING

"Nothing gets done in this world without selling," says Demartini. "Follow this method step-by-step and you will get a yes, but if you miss a step, you'll get a no."

The cornerstone of Dr John Demartini's teachings is understanding both your own and other peoples' values. He says that values, in his definition, represent what we value most in our lives. For example, one person may have their job very high on their values and the next person may have family.

"Our highest values are what drive and inspire us. The key to good relationships between people is a win-win situation whereby both parties are satisfying their own highest values. This type of congruency is the key to success in sales. No one will be interested in buying unless it's going to fulfill their values," says Demartini.

Step One: Greet and Introduce

Demartini says that the first step in sales is to introduce yourself properly. Let people know who you are and briefly what you do. Then, always ask a question. Sales are about what clients or customers need, not what you can sell them. The key throughout this process is to ask questions. "To sell is not to tell," says Demartini. "If you start by telling a client about your product, you're trying to make him or her do something that you want. This does not plug into the client's motivation, which is to gratify his or her own values"

Step Two: Create Rapport

"The next step is to establish common ground. People tend to forget the elementary stuff," says Demartini. "Ask questions until you find common threads. The point of this exercise is not to hurry a sale, but rather to establish a platform on which to build a relationship. People tend to be skeptical until you find commonalities," he says. "If you can find something that connects the two of you, you stop being a stranger. Ask them about their interests, try and find people you know in common, places you have both been to, what they do, their goals and needs. If you can establish similarities, they will open to you. That's when people see that you care. You can't effectively sell to people who don't feel cared about."

"Remember this tip, if you go in high and arrogant, your client will bring you down. If you go in low and humble, they'll lift you up."

Step Three: Establish Needs

"Next, find out what the client's needs are. This is the most important component of the process. It's all about data collecting," says Demartini. "The more needs you can establish, the easier the selling process will be. If what you are trying to sell to them does not speak to one of their needs, why would they buy from you?"

"Where people blow it in sales is they want to talk about the product," says Demartini. "Again, ask, don't tell. You need to find out what is going to make a client buy. Ask the right questions and they will tell you about their voids or concerns"

Demartini references one of his mentors, Walter Haley of K-Mart. Haley referred to a "dominant buying motive", but he calls it the clients' highest value. He says that you need to establish as many needs as possible. Don't stop until you have a minimum of five to seven needs, motives or voids that they want to fill. "Walter Haley said that until they are asking you to help them, you haven't established enough needs," says Demartini. "The aim is to get to the point at which the client wants to know more about what you can offer them."

Step Four: Confirm Needs

He points out that up until this stage all you have done so far is ask questions - "You still haven't made a single statement making it feel like the client is doing all the talking, is in control of the conversation and making all the decisions," he says. However, it is you, the sales person, who is actually directing the conversation by probing.

"Now summarise your client's needs as it's vital to show that you have properly understood them. When you have their confirmation, then you can make an offer," says Demartini.

Step Five: Now Offer a Solution

First, a warning: "If what you are offering doesn't match the client's need, you'd be a fool to offer it," says Demartini. "You'd be better off not trying to make that sale and finding someone who does match the offer. At his point you have to consider the long-term, rather than about your immediate goal to make a sale. The short-terms costs, the long-term pays," he says. "If you go for the sale and the product you are offering doesn't solve the client's needs, you will undermine the potential referrals that the client might still give you. Don't make them resent you."

"Either find a way to give them a product that matches or you can simply loop back to step three and establish a new or different set of needs. I often say to clients who want to come to a particular programme of mine that the course I'm running at this time may have less value for them than another I am doing in a few weeks. Their needs must be congruent with the product or service or they will not be satisfied."

"At this point, to make a sale, you have to be clear about your intentions. Admit that you want to do business. Let them see that you're interested. The solution, as always, must be a win-win. Help them to get what they want, and you'll get what you want," he says. "Either they'll come back to you or they'll refer you to someone who needs what you're offering."

Step 6: Handle Objections

"This stage is inversely proportional to how well you established their needs," says Demartini. "Objections are symptoms that you have not established enough needs and are not offering the service that matches their needs. Once again, listening to the client is central and your preparation and product knowledge will be key to your success. If and when objections come up, you may need to skip back to step three and four, establishing and confirming needs, as well as identifying new needs. This is also an opportunity to try step five again," says Demartini. "Once all objections are taken care of, it's time to close the deal."

Step 7: Close

"Be clear and direct about your intention to close - don't make it ambiguous. Ask: When would you like to fulfill your needs or objectives?" says Demartini. But he points out that once again, this is a question. You're not imposing terms on the client, but allowing the client to direct you - the decision is in the client's hands and he or she is made to feel in control of the decision.

Step 8: Referral

"Once you have the paperwork done, you have served your client," says Demartini. "Then ask them if they would mind your asking one or two more questions. Do they know other people with the same needs as theirs? At this stage of the process, remember that you still have to keep in mind what is in it for the client. If it's of no benefit to them, why would they do it?" asks Demartini. "The client always wants to know what's in it for them. Generally, when clients feel good about a product or service, they'll give you references."

Next 9: Continued service and follow-up.

"Keep your follow-ups informative and friendly, but don't become friends - it's important to always s keep it professional. And if the referrals didn't come the first time, get them now," concludes Demartini.

Is your business like a yoghurt store? - Siimon Reynolds

There’s a phenomenon sweeping across the USA.

It’s the self serve yoghurt store.

A year ago, there were virtually none. Now there’s literally thousands of them.

If you had started a store in the early days you would have thought you’d make a fortune. Eager customers crammed the stores.

But the idea was so good, copy cat stores proliferated at an astonishing pace.

Now hundreds of them are going out of business. There was simply way too many of them.

Now there’s a lesson in this for all business owners.

No product advantage is sustainable.

If you’re producing something good, you simply can’t rest on your laurels. Competitors are coming, ready or not.

If you are not already working on your next idea, your next product, service or innovation, it’s only a matter of time until your business declines.

Like the early self serve yoghurt stores, you may think you’ve got a path to eternal riches, but really all you have is a year or two of good profits.

The answer? Relentlessly search for new opportunities, even when business is good right now.

Then, and only then, is your future in business assured.

As Ray Kroc the founder of McDonalds put it, when asked the secret to his success; “We can invent faster than they can copy.”

How to Value Junior Gold Shares - Troy Schwensen

When investing in anything, it pays to have a sense of value. Let's say, for instance, you were looking to buy a house in a suburb you like. For starters, you could just charge in like a wounded bull and purchase the first house that takes your fancy. I think many of you would agree that this approach is fraught with danger.

If you were somewhat smarter, you would probably do what most people do and look at as many houses that are for sale in that suburb first and try and establish a sense of value before making a purchase (giving you peace of mind).

The savvy investor may even take this process one step further and establish a value on what all these properties have in common, the answer of course being land. They may work out a value that they are paying per square meter of land for each property inspected. Next, they would compare this with an average for the suburb compiled from recent historical sales data.

Now valuing a property by looking at the valuation of the land is of course only half the battle in establishing whether you are getting reasonable value for money. Why?

Because every house built on that land obviously differs in various ways. The house could be bigger in size and better equipped. The land itself could be located in a more desirable part of the suburb, such as on a hill or by a lake or river where there may be a view and breezes. The list could obviously go on but I think you get the general idea.

All these other factors are variables that you would take into account in order to establish what you think that particular property is worth. But your starting point would be the value of the land and you would build on your analysis from there, based on a comparison of these other variables.

How to find precious metals stocks are reasonable prices

When buying shares in a precious metals company, do you go through a similar process in order to determine whether the company you are buying shares in is reasonably priced? For most, the thought of going through this process is much too daunting. It is much easier to get your stock broker to perhaps recommend a company.

In my experience there is no substitute for being able to personally assess value, even if it is at just a basic level. There is also nothing wrong with receiving stock recommendations from newsletter writers or stock brokers on the proviso you have the ability to check these companies out yourself.

This is what will give you the conviction to buy and hold which brings me to a concept I want to introduce to you today. It is a relatively simple but practical method of comparing similar precious metals companies and establishing a sense of value.

Enterprise Value per Ounce

Let me start by defining what an Enterprise Value (EV) is. An EV is simply the Market Capitalization of a company (number of outstanding shares multiplied by the current share price) adjusted to eliminate the effect of a company's financial assets and its financial obligations (liabilities). You subtract the financial assets which would include items such as (not an exhaustive list):

Cash and Cash Equivalents
Accounts Receivable
Inventories (If a producer)
Listed and Unlisted Investments where you can readily establish a fair value
Derivatives (Bought Options and favorable Forward Sales Agreements)

And add the company's financial obligations including (not an exhaustive list):

Accounts Payable
Interest Bearing Liabilities
Derivative Obligations (Unfavorable Forward Sales Agreements and written option contracts)
Retirement Obligations


What remains is essentially the value the market is attributing to the company's non-financial assets or its projects. If you were to look at this diagrammatically it would appear as follows:



To calculate an EV per ounce, you simply add up the total number of ounces attributable to the company via its projects and divide this number into the Enterprise Value.

The concept of EV per ounce is by no means a new valuation methodology and it certainly has its critics. Like land is the common denominator in our real estate investment example, gold in the ground is obviously the commonality when looking to compare gold related companies.

Now critics of the EV method will tell you that when using this method you are incorrectly assuming that all metal in the ground is created equally. This is of course a valid criticism if and only if your analysis was to simply stop there. It would be like saying property A is better value than property B because I can pick up the land for a cheaper rate per square meter without taking anything else into account.

Obviously this technique would be completely flawed. For instance, you can't conceivably take a producing gold mining company and compare its EV per ounce with an exploration company and come to the conclusion that the exploration company offers better value. You would be excluding the costs associated with the development of the mine, not to mention the premium a company receives in the market for successfully developing the project.

My question to the critics of EV per ounce would be why on earth would you stop at just this first step? This limitation can be quite simply overcome by having a large enough number of companies to compare, so that you can isolate the ones that have the most in common (similar development stages) and generate the additional information required to consider the applicable variables. These might include:
The size of the deposit. Bigger deposits tend to attract a premium due to the higher probability of being developed based on better economies of scale.


Different resource classifications dependent on drill spacing and economic viability. Reserves both Proven and Probable (supported by economic studies) versus just a resource (no supporting feasibility study work).


The depth of the deposit. Is it shallow enough for cheaper open cut mining methods? (Generally 150m-200m or ideally shallower) Are there large amounts of overburden that need to be stripped away adding to the cost of mining (stripping ratios).


The average grade of the deposit. Generally speaking, higher grades are cheaper to produce and attract a premium. If you are mining underground, higher grades become essential due to the additional capital cost associated with underground mining.


Different economics (cash costs, construction costs, ongoing capital expenditure etc) Useful by-product credits can in turn lower the net cash costs of production. The availability of infrastructure lowers construction costs. For example, access to grid power versus the requirement for diesel generators in remote regions (more expensive). Access to ready built roads and ports versus having to build this infrastructure. Underground mines have higher ongoing capital costs associated with the continuation of underground development.


The metallurgy (recoverability of the metals). Sulfide deposits generally have lower recovery rates than oxide and require a more complicated extraction process.


The political risks. A deposit in Zimbabwe would obviously trade at a substantial discount to say the same type of deposit in Australia or Canada.


The exploration potential on the properties and the probability of future expansion of the deposits.
The precious metals sector is emotionally charged. When you study EV per ounce information on a large scale it becomes very apparent just how much influence market sentiment can have on a company's valuation.

A simple way to avoid this risk is to have a basic sense of value. Perform a quick EV per ounce calculation and see what you are paying. Compare this to some of the company's peers and establish whether what you are paying is reasonable. Don't be the chump that is buying shares off the people that were fortunate enough to get in at the ground level and are cashing out.

One of the single largest limitations with the EV per ounce method is having enough comparable companies and all the associated information you need available to make the process of comparison easy and effective. For the average investor, you may be able to undertake this process for a handful of companies but it is not realistic to compile all the necessary information yourself.

If something like EV per ounce sounds like it appeals to you, my advice would be to find a reliable information service that does the grunt work for you at a reasonable price. Most importantly, you need to find a group that actually use their own information and can properly articulate the optimal way of using it.

Jaguar Inflation - Robert Prechter

I am tired of hearing people insist that the Fed can expand credit all it wants. Sometimes an analogy clarifies a subject, so let’s try one.

It may sound crazy, but suppose the government were to decide that the health of the nation depends upon producing Jaguar automobiles and providing them to as many people as possible. To facilitate that goal, it begins operating Jaguar plants all over the country, subsidizing production with tax money. To everyone’s delight, it offers these luxury cars for sale at 50 percent off the old price. People flock to the showrooms and buy. Later, sales slow down, so the government cuts the price in half again. More people rush in and buy. Sales again slow, so it lowers the price to $900 each. People return to the stores to buy two or three, or half a dozen. Why not? Look how cheap they are! Buyers give Jaguars to their kids and park an extra one on the lawn. Finally, the country is awash in Jaguars. Alas, sales slow again, and the government panics. It must move more Jaguars, or, according to its theory -- ironically now made fact -- the economy will recede. People are working three days a week just to pay their taxes so the government can keep producing more Jaguars. If Jaguars stop moving, the economy will stop. So the government begins giving Jaguars away. A few more cars move out of the showrooms, but then it ends. Nobody wants any more Jaguars. They don’t care if they’re free. They can’t find a use for them. Production of Jaguars ceases. It takes years to work through the overhanging supply of Jaguars. Tax collections collapse, the factories close, and unemployment soars. The economy is wrecked. People can’t afford to buy gasoline, so many of the Jaguars rust away to worthlessness. The number of Jaguars -- at best -- returns to the level it was before the program began.

The same thing can happen with credit.

It may sound crazy, but suppose the government were to decide that the health of the nation depends upon producing credit and providing it to as many people as possible. To facilitate that goal, it begins operating credit-production plants all over the country, called Federal Reserve Banks. To everyone’s delight, these banks offer the credit for sale at below market rates. People flock to the banks and buy. Later, sales slow down, so the banks cut the price again. More people rush in and buy. Sales again slow, so they lower the price to one percent. People return to the banks to buy even more credit. Why not? Look how cheap it is! Borrowers use credit to buy houses, boats and an extra Jaguar to park out on the lawn. Finally, the country is awash in credit. Alas, sales slow again, and the banks panic. They must move more credit, or, according to its theory -- ironically now made fact -- the economy will recede. People are working three days a week just to pay the interest on their debt to the banks so the banks can keep offering more credit. If credit stops moving, the economy will stop. So the banks begin giving credit away, at zero percent interest. A few more loans move through the tellers’ windows, but then it ends. Nobody wants any more credit. They don’t care if it’s free. They can’t find a use for it. Production of credit ceases. It takes years to work through the overhanging supply of credit. Interest payments collapse, banks close, and unemployment soars. The economy is wrecked. People can’t afford to pay interest on their debts, so many bonds deteriorate to worthlessness. The value of credit -- at best -- returns to the level it was before the program began.

See how it works?

Is the analogy perfect? No. The idea of pushing credit on people is far more dangerous than the idea of pushing Jaguars on them. ... I hate to challenge mainstream 20th century macroeconomic theory, but the idea that a growing economy needs easy credit is a false theory. Credit should be supplied by the free market, in which case it will almost always be offered intelligently, primarily to producers, not consumers. Would lower levels of credit availability mean that fewer people would own a house or a car? Quite the opposite. Only the timeline would be different. Initially it would take a few years longer for the same number of people to own houses and cars -- actually own them, not rent them from banks. Because banks would not be appropriating so much of everyone’s labor and wealth, the economy would grow much faster. Eventually, the extent of home and car ownership -- actual ownership -- would eclipse that in an easy-credit society. Moreover, people would keep their homes and cars because banks would not be foreclosing on them. As a bonus, there would be no devastating across-the-board collapse of the banking system, which, as history has repeatedly demonstrated, is inevitable under a central bank’s fiat-credit monopoly.

Jaguars, anyone?

Your Home is Not an Investment - Neville Kennard

One of the underlying causes of the Global Financial Crisis was a government-induced over-investment in houses and property. Governments found it to be politically convenient to make special concessions and incentives to people to own their own home. In the USA, for example, home interest-payments have been tax-deductible. In Australia a home has been Capital-Gains Tax Free. Many countries have relaxed-lending criteria for home-ownership leading to people spending and borrowing more than is prudent on their home.

All this has lead to an over-investment in houses. On top of this the house-market in many places has been buoyant, leading people to think they have made a "good investment" in their home.

For many people their home, the house or apartment they live in, is the single biggest purchase they make in their life. People tend to keep their home for a long period, sometimes changing and moving as needs and wants change. Quite often the value of their home increases over their life or ownership period. This is often due to inflation, where it just seems to increase in value, but doesn't in real terms. Sometimes supply and demand pushes the price up, or down. Actually it is mostly the land on which the house sits that increases in price or value; the house itself mostly depreciates with age and declines in value.

With the house we live in we mostly have a loan to finance it and we pay it off over a longish period. It is a means of saving - a forced or disciplined saving regime for us. So after ten or fifteen or twenty years our house may be paid off, and when we choose to cash in and sell, it gives a nice lump sum, probably tax-free, that has kept up with inflation, and we can take our nest-egg and perhaps buy something less expensive, with something leftover to invest or play with.

Thus it seems like it has been a "good investment". But the Global Financial Crisis has caused the house mal-investment chickens to come home to roost and house prices are dropping in many places.

There is another side to home ownership which puts the purchase of a house in a different light.

A house/home is really a "long-term consumer-durable"; it is like a refrigerator or appliance. It will last twenty years or more years and serve us well. It will have running costs, such as rates and taxes, maintenance. It will need to have leaks fixed, plumbing maintained, paint and various repairs over its life. It will depreciate; it will get old and out of date.

And a home will not give a financial return over its life; it will cost quite a lot to own. The land under the house may go up (or down) with supply and demand, but a vacant block of ground will not give a return; rather it will cost money to keep.

Now this is not to say that one should not buy and own a house to live in. Quite the opposite, owning your own home is an attractive and desirable thing to do and most people do it. It can be shelter and accommodation; it can be a source of self-expression with decorating and furnishing. You can alter and change and expand your home when you need or want to. And it is "home". It is more of a "home" when you own it rather than rent it. And there is a sense of pride and satisfaction and security in "owning your own home".

But it is still not a Financial Investment. If you rented your home instead of buying it and put the money into a business or the stock market or even an income-producing property you would most likely come out well ahead.

The property market has swings. Prices go up and down. Should you be skilful or lucky enough to buy when prices are low, and then sell when they are high, it will look like a good investment. But this then turns it into a speculation. And mostly we buy a house when we want or need to, and sell when we want or need to. There are often other factors at play that push us into buying and selling our home - family, job or just because it's what we want to do.

Look upon your home as a long-term-consumer-durable. Own it, pay it off, make it the way you want it, move and swap when you want or need to, and look for other things for your Financial Investments. Look for investments that will hold their value or increase in value (in real terms) and give a return. A business, shares, investment property may do this. Enjoy your home, and if it does actually give you a financial return when you sell it, look upon that as a bonus.

Over-investment in housing and home-ownership has meant less investment is available for business-investment and more productive uses, Let's hope the home-ownership binge is behind us. Politicians can't be trusted to make good investment-incentive rules, so we must each think for ourselves and choose what is in our individual long term interest

Tips For Creating an Extraordinary Year - Siimon Reynolds

A few weeks ago, in a moment of wild enthusiasm, millions of people set their New Year’s goals.

How many do you think will actually achieve them?

Well, a research study by the USA Today newspaper showed that after 12 months, on average only 4% have achieved their goals.

So, how can you be amongst that 4%?

How can you design your New Year’s goals so that your dreams actually become realities?

Here’s my 5 step formula for making your goals come true:

1. Write your goals down.

Incredibly,The USA Today study showed that people who actually wrote their goals down had a 44% chance of succeeding with them- that’s, an improvement of 1100%! And yet it take only a few minutes to do it.

2. Only have a few of them.

It’s been my experience that the more goals i set, the less i achieve.

This year, try having just 3 major goals that you work on.

It’s a virtuous circle: The less goals you have, the more time you devote to each one. The more time you devote to them, the more progress you make. The more progress you make, the more motivated you become. The more motivated you become, the more you work on your goals.

3. Stay conscious of them.

I believe that one of the primary reasons people don’t make progress with goals is that they are not thinking about them all day long.

I’ve found that you tend to get what you focus on. If you think about your goal only occasionally, you won’t be driven enough to achieve it.

I try to read my goals each morning before i start work and have trained my mind to re- focus on them at several other times during the day. The more i think of them, the more actions i take to achieve them.

4.. Be accountable to someone.

Many of the best coaches in the world believe that the number one way to improve performance is to be accountable to somebody. Performance ALWAYS improves when you know that you’ll soon have to report your progress to another person Someone who won’t let you off the hook, or put up with excuses.

Take a moment now to think of somebody you could use as your mentor or accountability partner, then arrange a time each week for you to update them on the progress you’re making towards your goals.

5. Take action every day.

Great achievement does not occur in one grand moment. It’s always the culmination of hundreds, even thousands, of small steps.

If you can just discipline yourself to take one step towards each of your 3 goals every day, at the end of the year you will have taken over 1000 steps towards your dreams! Think about that for a moment – after 1000 steps forward, you’ll either have achieved all three goals and massively improved the quality of your life, or be well on your way to doing it.

So that’s the 5 step formula to super achievement in 2011.

Give it a try.

It may just transform your entire life.

Invest Successfully in Emerging Market Real Estate - Ronan Mcmahon

Today, I'm revisiting my "Five Golden Rules for Buying Pre- construction." I find this a useful process whenever a pre-construction project I have invested in or recommended is delivered.

To remind you, buying pre-construction is where you buy into a development before it has been constructed. You are relying on a set of architectural plans. Frequently, developers will offer substantial discounts to buy off-plan. Often the best units go to "insiders."

Developers do this because they need investor funds to finance the project. That's a strong incentive to create simple and profitable investor terms. Moreover, bank finance for construction costs will typically be dependent on a certain level of pre-sales. The developer will want to hit that number as soon as possible. The developer will also want to share some of the risk by selling pre-construction. He knows he is giving a good deal based on today's prices - but who knows what the market will be like when the units are delivered in two years time?

Buying pre-construction makes more sense for the investor than for someone buying for personal use. For the investor, the unit doesn't have to meet your own taste, and you probably don't mind that it will take a few years before you take possession of your unit, as long as the market is seeing appreciation.

When you buy a unit pre-construction, however, it should be a property that a large portion of the general public wouldn't mind owning or renting. You are buying the unit to eventually sell or rent to an end user, and you want to make sure the property will be attractive to as many end users as possible.

The end user may be a long-term renter, a first-time homebuyer, a short-term vacationer, or even another investor. That will depend on where and what you are buying. Analyze who the end user will be before you put your money down, as you will want to make sure there will be a big enough market to sell or rent your property to. Plus, pay attention to how much similar supply is in the pipeline in the area.
You get a discounted price to compensate you for taking on some of the early development risk, but the real incentive to buy pre-construction comes from leverage. While the terms of the payments vary from project to project, no matter what the terms are, you are leveraging your returns to some degree. A typical deal will start with a small down payment...say, 5%...and work through various stage (progress) payments during the construction period, until you have paid anywhere between 5% and 80% of the purchase price. The balance is due when the keys are turned over.

Let's walk through a sample deal to show how leverage works when buying pre-construction. You purchase a $100,000 condo with a 10% down payment. The balance is due on completion in two years. A 20% increase in price during the build period means a 200% return (net of fees) if you were to flip. Of course, leverage, like buying an option, can work in two ways; a 10% fall in price means that you are down your entire investment.

Buying pre-construction is a strategy that will maximize the retail investor's ROI in the early to mid-stages of a market appreciation cycle. Buy pre-construction at the top of the market and you risk losing your entire investment...and maybe even more than you have invested, if you are contractually bound to complete and that clause is enforceable. All the benefits of buying pre-construction are tied to a rising and active market. Without a rising and liquid market, pre- construction almost never makes sense.

If there isn't activity in the market, you run the risk that the project you buy into won't be completed. Or if it does get completed, half the building will be empty. This can be a big problem when it comes to maintaining communal areas or amenities and security.

White-hot pre-construction markets can frequently overheat. Too much supply becomes a problem. Prices rise too fast. If prices rise to the point where there is no expectation of future price increases, the market will stall. Five years ago, Panama was one of the hottest pre- construction markets I have seen. Today, as you know, it's a different story.

As I said...you want to play the pre-construction market in the early to mid-growth stages of the market. The market punishes late arrivals who think prices will continue to rise as they have been rising all along.

The "right deal" should always follow all five golden rules, below. To illustrate the essentials of investment in pre-construction projects, let's look at the Sian Ka'an project near Tulum on the southern edge of Mexico's Riviera Maya.

1. An appreciating market in the early to mid-stages of growth. Sian Ka'an is set in the Riviera Maya, home to Mexico's best beaches. It's close to the site for a new international airport, and is positioned directly in the path of progress.

2. A developer with a strong track record who is financially stable. Sian Ka'an's developer, Benjamin Beja, has built and/or sold 1500 homes across Mexico, mostly to the North American market.

3. Supply constraints - a lack of developable land, for example. Sian Ka'an is in a location with a lack of developable land. The Sian Ka'an biosphere and other preserved land close by on this section of coast cover 1.5 million acres, and can never be developed.

4. A market with an abundant supply of end users. Benjamin conceived Sian Ka'an in response to a supply shortage of hotel rooms. Sian Ka'an is in the Gran Bahia Principe resort, which has 2,700 hotel rooms...but it needs 3,000. So Benjamin built Sian Ka'an, with 300 condos.

5. A liquid market with a large volume of transactions. More than 400 sales in less than two years at Sian Ka'an alone, tells us that this is a liquid market.
Pre-construction success isn't a fluke. Good fortune is always welcome but the key to pre-construction is following these five golden rules. They are simple, easy to follow...and should stand you in good stead.

Do what you Love, Love what you Do

The clearer and more meaningful your purpose the greater will be your direction and feelings of inspiration for life. People who are inspired and committed to fulfilling their dreams grow, while those who do not, tend to decay mentally, emotionally, and physically. In other words, if you’re not fulfilling your life’s mission and doing what you love and loving what you do, then you are not really planning to live an inspired life. You are simply living a quiet life of desperation.

The first step towards discovering your purpose is making the decision of what you would love to be, do and have in all areas of your life.

If you knew you couldn’t fail, listened to your heart and soul, and wrote down what you would love to be, do and have in all areas of your life, what would they be? Take the time to write it all down. A short pencil is greater than a long memory. Any detail you leave out is a detail that others may determine. Assume you are the captain of your ship and the master architect of your destiny.

No matter what we decide to be, do and have in our lives, if it comes from a place of inspiration, it does in some way make a difference. Whether it is in business, the arts, at home or a spiritual quest, everything we do is another piece to the puzzle of life and if there are any pieces missing we do not have the whole picture.

The second step is the questions we ask ourselves on a daily basis. To live an inspired rather than a despired life there are skills to be mastered, and one such skill is the ability to ask yourself inspiring, quality questions. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask, so don’t say to yourself, I’d like to do that, but do I have enough money? because it creates a mindset that assumes you can’t. Ask yourself, “How can I do what I love and be magnificently paid for it?” Don’t stop looking until you find the answer, and get an entirely different outcome. Just reframing the statements you make to yourself offers tremendous power. This allows your vacation to become your vocation.

Finally the third step is being grateful for everything in life. Those who count their blessings, who are grateful, have more blessings and fulfillment in life than those who do not. This is a simple principle. Yet it has the power to change your life. Gratitude is the key to growth and fulfillment.
Imagine if you dedicated your life to your dream and let nothing stop you, and I mean nothing. If you let no person on the planet, any challenge, obstacles, fears or emotions stop you from being exactly what you dream about, how could it not come true? There’s nothing more inspiring in my life than to speak to people who are willing and receptive to discovering their magnificent potential.

The pain of regret far outweighs the pain of discipline, so don’t spend your life on little dreams when you have something magnificent inside that is just waiting for expression

The Unemployed Genius

I saw an amazing thing this week.

A small poster on a telephone pole, written by somebody asking for a job.

Now we’ve all seen a million of those, but this one had one important difference.

The headline was as follows:

FIND ME A JOB AND I’LL PAY YOU $1000.

Isn’t that brilliant?

In just 9 words he had shown how special he was.

He showed he was highly creative.

That he was super keen to work.

That he understood advanced communications.

That he believed in himself enough to put his money where his mouth is.

And perhaps most importantly, he showed that he understood one of the great principles: that in this world, if you want to get something you have to give something first.

I’m sure that guy thought he’d just written a job ad.

In fact, he wrote a superb lesson on how to be successful in life.