* Update I’ve added 2 more books that I somehow missed *

I’ve always believed your life is changed by the books you read, experiences you create and the people you meet. One of my earliest mentors (in print & audio) was Earl Nightingale and he said, “If you want to become an expert read for 1-hour per day for 3 years on your given subject. If you want to become a world expert read for 1-hour per day for 5 years.” Well, I took his advice to heart and early-on I wondered what would happen if I read 2 or 3 hours per day?

Today I still strive to get through at least one book/week sometimes more (or sometimes less like when Zoe is screaming her head off). My library is filled with hundreds and hundreds of books. In fact, when we moved houses this summer – getting built-in bookshelves done before we moved in was a top priority.

I agree when Brian Tracy says rich people have big libraries and poor people have big televisions. Though I might amend that to rich people have big libraries that buy them BIG televisions.

It’s always tough when you have so many great books to pick out a handful as the “all-time” best but here goes…

Drum roll please…

“Top-10” Most Essential Business Books for Successful Entrepreneurs:

#1: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Not really a business book but probably one of the biggest influences for top CEOs and entrepreneurs who have cited this numerous times. I’ve read this several times and even threw out calling our daughter Dagny – but Missy didn’t go for that. I loved Atlas Shrugged for instilling the philosophy that productive value should be compensated and revered instead of these individuals being coerced into self-sacrifice because of their talent and other’s “needs”. It really cemented the argument in my mind that the more laissez-faire approach to governing is ultimately best for a free marketplace and productive society. Yes, this is a thick read but well worth it.

#2: Influence: The psychology of persuasion by Robert Cialdini, PhD

I’ve read it at least 9 times and it will truly help you understand the psychological triggers to a sale. Very powerful stuff. Written by a self-proclaimed “sucker” and professor of psychology to help consumers avoid being taken “in” by marketers – this instantly became a classic for us marketers to apply each of the psychological tactics to success. This truly is a power that should only be harnessed for good. If I was to start at zero again and if you stripped away all the knowledge from every book I’ve read – I would start by reading this one and get it all back!

#3: How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur’s Guide by Dan Kennedy

Yes, even though this was published in 1996 and some of the new-fangled technology sections like broadcast fax are out-of-date – this is a top ten for sure! I’ve spent probably $150k or more with Dan and every product or resource I buy from him gives me back at least a 10-to-1 return. This is one of my favorite Dan books (along with #7 on the list) but you really can’t go wrong buying any of his books. When I first stumbled onto Dan I was so excited because he finally provided more of the true ‘nuts & bolts’ I was looking for. Sure, he’s grumpy and not the most sociable guy – but his information is priceless no matter what type of business you are in.

Side note: I also strongly recommend getting Dan’s newsletter. You can get a free 3-month trial here. (Fair disclosure – I do write a damn good column for it on Internet marketing each month)

#4: “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples

Absolute classic for any direct marketer or anyone that doesn’t want to waste a dime on untrackable ads. Devour this one and also look for Caples’ other books that are out of print. A true professional who generously published his directly-traceable results for everybody to benefit from. Many people might think there’s nothing to be gained from a book written decades ago – WRONG! Everything Caples reveals applies online in spades.

#5: Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

Yes another “old time” marketing book but the gems in here are absolutely brilliant if applied today. Remember, human nature does not change – just the ways to activate our buying does. This is a short read and available online for free in many places since it’s in the public domain. Hopkins was one of the true advertising pioneers and this little guide really distills the essence of why you cannot use conjecture or opinion but actual tested, scientific methods to discover what your customers/prospects want.

#6: 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

I have to admit it, I love Tim’s book because this is the book I wish I wrote. Tim’s a friend of mine and we met over our love of marketing, living life to the fullest and extreme adventures. There’s a reason this book has literally taken on a life of it’s own and achieved best-seller status so quickly. To me, it’s because the concepts in here are so compelling.

I’ve given away a ton of copies of this book and a lot of people have actually gotten pissed at me for giving to them. One of my hockey teammates said that to me again a few nights ago. He’s gets really mad when he looks at it on the nightstand because he’s not living his life the way it could be using the ideas in this book.

This book is designed to get you to stop and think if you are really putting the right things in the right priority. Tim has a concept of the “New Rich” and that’s people who have time to do the things they want & they’re passionate on. There’s some exciting concepts about life design, dumping the email habit, outsourcing and creating online “muses” that pay for it all.

#7: Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki

A lot of people might say “Rich Dad/Poor Dad” is more influential but I would argue this second book in the series really hits the concepts explained there harder. If you’re looking for a book to shake you or someone who needs it out of the typical 9-to-5 mindset – this will do it. The Cashflow Quadrant is all about creating enough passive income to pay for your needs and truly creating financial independence. It’s a simple concept explained by Kiyosaki’s drawing depicted on the cover.

On the left-hand side are the people who trade time for money. That’s the “E” or employee quadrant and the “S” or Small business quadrant. Then on the right-hand side are the people creating passive wealth by being “I” – Investors or “B” Business owners (who work on in their business not in it). While Kiyosaki’s books are pretty short on specific details – I think the philosophy and mindset is way more powerful and important.

#8: “Magic Words that Bring You Riches” by Ted Nicholas

There are 3 main people I’d give credit for opening my eyes to the enormous power of direct response marketing and helping me achieve financial independence before I was 31. And one of those is definitely Ted Nicholas. I cannot begin to tell you how many dozens of times I listened and read Ted’s material over and over again. He’s one of my all-time marketing heroes. Ted took the guts of his $197/year newsletter on direct marketing and distilled it into this single book. When I checked this morning there were a few used copies available on Amazon but you can now find it as an ebook or real book on Ted’s site.

#9: No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy

Yes, Kennedy makes the list twice. Let’s face it, for entrepreneurs we’ve got no greater asset than our time. And even if you’ve read a 100 other time management books I guarantee you’ll get something out of this one. Here’s Dan’s unique & ruthless approach to time management that might give some people pause. I don’t follow all of Dan’s advice here because I’m a little too nice at times but reading this book will really let you understand that you create the rules at all time. You decide how you want customers to work with you, people to contact you, etc. Fact is, if you don’t set the rules – then someone else will for you by default.

#10: “Winning Through Intimidation” by Robert Ringer

I know the title of this book is a bit off putting and that’s probably why Robert renamed the latest edition. I love the way Ringer objectively looks at other people’s success advice in here. For instance, the advice of “work hard and you’ll succeed”. He asked himself what “working hard” really means since one person’s definition of working hard is a 18-hour shift while someone else might have a totally different notion. Ringer threw out typical advice like this to work on his own theories for figuring out success.

Plus, there is one chapter in here “the Leapfrog theory” that is essential reading. It explodes the myth of “working your way to the top”. Basically this is a waste of time to keep the status quo. You can leapfrog over any competitors by proclaiming yourself at their same level – but you’ve got to be able to back it up with the goods. For some reason people are always waiting to be anointed the “expert” – it doesn’t happen. And Ringer’s book is packed with even more hard-hitting realities for street smart entrepreneurs.

Like I said it’s super tough to pick just 10 so here’s a bonus selection. I kinda cheated since this isn’t a book but an audio program.

Bonus: The Strangest Secret & Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale. I can’t even begin to count the times I’ve listened to these programs. Earl was really the first person who game me ‘permission’ to think and behave differently. He talks about how the top 5% of achievers don’t do the things ordinary people do and that’s why they are extraordinary. Or they are willing to do the things the other 95% aren’t willing to do (like read/listen for hours per day honing my expertise).

#11 Unique Ability: Creating the Life You Want by Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller, Shannon Waller

Not sure how I forgot this one – probably because it’s not on my bookshelf now. (I think it’s somewhere in the dozens of boxes still left to be unpacked) This is my absolute favorite book about simply focusing on what your unique abilities are and then bringing in others who are strong in areas that are not unique abilities. Now “Unique Ability” is different than simply finding your strengths like the book “Now Discover Your Strengths” (which is also quite good for their online test).

Unique ability is not only about something that is a strength for you but something you love and that gives you more energy when you do it! Critical difference. You could have a strength but you don’t necessarily want to keep doing that activity. This book walks you the process of discovering your own unique abilities. Highly recommended. (At some point I’ll do a post just on this concept and share with you my own ‘unique ability’ statement I’ve come up with from this.)

This book is put out by Dan Sullivan’s company “Strategic Coach” and they have an excellent group of other ‘knowledge’ products. If you can find it the CD set “Pure Genius” is remarkable.

#12 – 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum Smith

Another ‘MIA’ book from my bookshelf after the house move so it got overlooked. This book has probably had one of the most profound effects on my inner values starting in 1998 when I got introduced to Hyrum’s company, now-called “Franklin Covey”. This book really made me examine what my value was and most importantly in what order should those values be. I look at them nearly every day when I get up to make sure my decisions are on track with my inner compass. This isn’t a half-hour read and then you’ve ‘got it’. I spent some time really considering what type of values and life legacy I’d like to leave. Excellent exercises.

There you have it. That’s my list updated list– what do you think? What did I leave off? Have you read any of these works and how has it influenced your life? Leave a comment – would love to hear it!

* * Important Charity Help * *

One more thing – I couldn’t imagine not having these books and resources I’ve learned from over the years. The wisdom of the most successful ‘doers’ & experts distilled down into the pages of a simple book. I’m passionate about helping others hopefully discover the joy and excitement of books that change their lives and inspire them to new heights. That’s why I’m proud to be helping my friend Tim Ferriss with his charity project at DonorsChoose.org where teachers request assistance for their teaching projects.

I’ve picked quite a few ‘entrepreneurial’ related projects to help fund and I hope you’ll join me. I’ve committed to donating $10,000 of my own money to support this. Now I’m not expecting a donation that large (we’ll certainly take it) from you but I’m hoping you’ll consider donating $50 or $100 to help fully fund some of the requests from teachers. Here’s the page to donate.

I let my personal trainer, Jeff, borrow a copy of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. A few weeks later during our workout session he blurts out, “You know what — I’m carrying buckets!”

“Huh?” I replied.

Jeff reminded me in the “Rich Dad” book Kiyosaki gives the example of someone carrying buckets to supply a town with a water and another person building a water pipe line to carry the water. It took longer for the pipeline to be built but once it was done – the money would continue to come in with or without him.

What are you doing?

Sadly most people are carrying buckets. They are getting paid based on the hours they work. Everybody has been taught to think the harder you work the more money you make.

Guess what? “Working harder” is totally and entirely subjective. What constitutes working hard to one person might be lounging on your butt to another.

So what if that’s completely wrong? What if it’s really the smarter the work, the more money you make? You’ve heard that expression before – but stick with me and I’ll explain what I think it really means…

As I was sitting here writing out this – we had a chimney repairman and a landscaper come out to the house. Out of my window I could see both of them doing their jobs. Let me tell you these guys work DAMN hard.  

Both of them get up very early in the morning and put in a full day’s work. The chimney repairman is dangerously perched at least 50 feet above the ground for most of the day. And our neighborhood landscaper is breaking his back carrying heavy bags of mulch all day in the blazing sun.

The point is these guys put in an honest day’s labor for honest day’s wage every day. They aren’t sleeping on the job or goofing off. They’re working their butts off – but that’s not enough!

Do you know the big secret neither one of these fellows (or most other people) ever figure out?

It’s so simple once you understand and it can have a profound effect on your wealth. Here it is…

Your income cannot be limited by the amount of hours you can put in. That’s it.

Each one of us are given 24 hours and it doesn’t matter if you are a chimney repairman, landscaper, CEO, homeless bum, or Internet mogul. We all have the same 24 hours to work with. Most people simply work -get paid, work – get paid, work – get paid. You put in 8 hours on the job – you get paid for 8 hours. You put in 40 hours a week – you get 40 hours in salary. That’s the way we’ve been taught to do it – and the sad truth is you’ll never get ahead doing what everyone else does. (Re-read that because that’s really a lesson in itself).

Personally – I believe in using leverage…

I prefer to work once and get paid over and over and over again. And there are lots of ways you can create recurring revenue for yourself. It could be via royalties from an invention, a song, or a book. It could be from network marketing. It could be from real estate. It could be dividends from investments. Or it could be from a multitude of other ways aside from the typical 9-to-5 grind.

The majority of my income day-in and day-out is a direct result of work I did 1, 2, 3…even 7+ years ago or more. I like that!

For instance, if you create an information product to sell (like a report, ebook, software, video, etc) you only have to do the work once of creating it and once to write the sales letter.

Then if you set up some automatic promotion avenues like an affiliate program or autoresponder messages – you can continue to get paid for that product indefinitely. One of biggest income streams is a product I created 7 years ago and still makes me a nice six-figure income each year.

Frankly, I couldn’t turn off my recurring revenue streams right now if I tried. That’s because much of what I’ve created has fed on itself. One product refers people to another. Our affiliate network (over 45,000) refer people to our sites. Some of our sites cross-promote our other sites, etc. etc.

When you keep working on activities that have recurring value you’ll create a momentum that’s tough to stop. But the truth is — it IS hard work in the beginning. Or at least what most people perceive as ‘hard work’. But it’s like a rocket taking off in which it burns most of its fuel on lift off.

You need to put in the hours and effort upfront and then you can ease off the throttle. But if you don’t put in the extra effort upfront you’ll never achieve lift off and get that momentum you need.

The more you think about doing the work once and being paid multiple times the more creative your mind will become. Ask yourself the right questions and you’ll get the right answers.

My thinking is squarely on how can I get the most leverage nd ongoing income from any activity? For instance, if I do a teleconference series (like web copy secrets) then I will sell the LIVE calls for “x” amount and then have the calls recorded to turn it into a product I can keep selling for “y” amount. Then going even further, I could take
excerpts from that product and use them as articles or free ebooks to be passed along to get additional business. Do you see how it works? Try to get paid over and over again for activities done once. Make that your mantra.

In fact, even this post, if I’m lucky, will become a recurring income producing activity. I wrote this material once and the publicity from it will hopefully get a few more people to my websites and into my marketing funnel.

Now of course, I’m not saying that every activity I do each day is highly leveraged because I still do some “dumb stuff” but I’m working on outsourcing as much as I can and focusing just on income producing activities (just like you should).

Before tackling a project or putting in your hours – ask yourself how you can create a recurring revenue stream for yourself with this activity. 

Just a quick note to let you know of a some good stuff we just added to the blog for you. I’ve conducted numerous interviews with super successful entrepreneurs and I figured it’d be a great addition here. So look on the right-hand side for interviews I’ve added under the “Top-Gun Entreprenuer Category”. 

Right now I’ve got these up:

• Eben Pagan ($20M information publishing empire) 
• Cameron Johnson (started 12 successful businesses with the first one at age 9)
• Frank McKinney (builds and sells 8-figure and even 9-figure houses on spec)

Just look on the right-hand menu from the home page of our blog

And more to come when I go through my archives…

Here’s something that has really intrigued me…

I’ve named it a Lifestyle business because it takes into account your passion and lifestyle first and money second.
 
Everybody’s has heard the advice “Do what you love and the money will follow”. Well I’m not 100% sure that’s the case. I’ve yet to find someone who will pay me to eat sushi or pizza and play video games. That wouldn’t work because there is no value derived from watching me eat and play video games. Now with that said, you can do what you love AND provide value to others who love the same thing to profit from it. Otherwise there is no exchange of money.

Let me start with an example from one of my previous vacations and then you’ll get a better idea…

For two years now I’ve gone away to Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean to go play beach volleyball for an entire week. In fact, 50 other people from all over the world came to join me. Actually one of my highlights from my trip  was to play doubles with an AVP Pro, Adam Jewel, against Olympic gold medal winner, Eric Fonoimoana. We won!

It’s something called “Volleyball Vacations” put on by an AVP pro Albert Hannemann. AL-B’s been doing this for the last 8 years. He gets a couple buddies to come down for the week, play volleyball and party (sometimes not necessarily in that order).   While the rest of us pay for the privilege.

AL-B partnered up with a travel agency to handle all the nitty gritty details and he just gets paid a certain percentage on every package sold. I don’t know the exact economics but I do know its some nice extra money for doing something you love and getting paid to vacation. A lifestyle business usually centers around something you love and would do regardless.

Here’s another ‘experience’ one…

Have you heard of the Baja 1000?

It’s an all-out endurance race of a thousand-mile (mostly) off-road race through Mexico, from one end of the Baja Peninsula to the other. A guy named Todd Clement started an adventure outfit called Wide Open Baja after winning the grueling Baja 1000 in 1997. He recruited some other winners and seasoned guides to open a Baja racing adventure experience. My late friend, Corey Rudl first told me about them and convinced me to go. I’m glad he did. It was pretty crazy. You get to drive these incredible Baja race cars on some of the same trails as the famous Baja 500 and Baja 1000 races.

This is trip is not for meek of heart or wallet. I believe it cost about $7000 (not including airfare) for 2 people for our 4-day trip. I’ve spoken to the guys at Wide Open because I’m always curious about business models and they run 2-3 trips a week from each location (they have 2 main ones of Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas for 4-day trips.)  And each trip is usually sold-out months and months in advance. We had 10 cars in our group – sometimes there are more. But 10 cars x $7000 = $70,000/trip. Now of course, that’s not all profit and the cars are very expensive, there’s maintenance, food, employees, etc. But it can add up to some good money – once again for doing something you love.

Racing is good one because lots of guys (and some gals) are very passionate about the sport. Of course, there are tons of racing schools around the country that cater to this and once again it isn’t cheap. There’s even a racing school that lets you drive F-1 race cars (basically jets on wheels) in Europe.

Here’s another racing example that is pretty obscure: www.vintagerallies.com/levelTwo.html This guy organizes road rallies for people into vintage-sports cars. Limited to 50 cars per event and many of these rallies are sold out at $4995.00/pop. Do the math! Now when I went back to the site I noticed they’ve donated all the proceeds to charity. They state it’s over $750,000 – but there’s no reason you couldn’t keep all the money if you did something similar or in a different niche.

If you notice there’s something else that really drives these lifestyle businesses is passion. The more passionate the niche the great likelihood they’ll spend money for an experience. Plus, there’s also a social aspect around it. i.e. beach volleyball nuts get to hang out and party with other beach volleyball nuts.

Now that I’ve shown some “experience” lifestyle businesses let me give you another point of view and highlight some information product examples that I’ve discovered. Many of you should be familiar with information products ranging from ebooks to newslettes to DVDs, etc. It’s one of my favorite businesses and if you want some help there see our Instant Internet Profits course.

The first example is Robert Parker at www.eRobertParker.com

If you’re familiar with wine you’d immediately know who Robert Parker is. His 100 point rating scale for wines can either make or break a wine. I’m going back a bit – but this example is powerful. According to his bio, Robert fell in love with wine during a trip to France in 1967. Then in 1975 he thought about creating an “independent consumers” guide to wine. And finally in 1978 he plan became his wine newsletter called “The Wine Advocate”. He started off with 600 charter subscribers in August of that year. Now today – his subscription base has exploded to over 40,000 subscribers at $60/year. (hmmm…adds up to $2.4M to me.)

But that’s not all – his wine empire has spawned some spin-offs. i.e. his membership website at $99 (renewing annually), “Parker in your Palm” which is a listing of certain wine ratings that can be downloaded into your Palm Pilot, books, back-issues, wine events, etc. The wine niche is great – I’ve found all sorts of speciality newsletter publishers here. Some who focus on only on type of grape like Pinot Noir. Or even just one region like Burgundy (also Pinot Noir) from France.

Another interesting niche that I’ve witnessed lifestyle businesses work in a big and small way is travel. I have a customer in the UK who told me about his Caribbean Travel newsletter in which he reviewed accommodations, resorts, islands, etc in the Caribbean for his subscribers. It was a nice publication that also financed all his vacations.
Now, incidentally, is another big bonus with a lifestyle business is a tax write off. Of course, I’m not a CPA so check with your Accountant. But if these expenses of staying at luxury Caribbean resorts are within the scope of your “normal and ordinary” business – I cannot imagine how it wouldn’t be a write off. Plus, this gentleman told me he later sold his newsletter to another company for six-figures. Now a much bigger example in the travel newsletter business is “Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report”.

I love the USP on this publication. Andrew Harper is a pseudonym and here’s what it says on the site:

To assure you wholly independent observations, noted travel authority Andrew Harper travels incognito – booking into hotels and paying his own way as would any typical guest. Hotels don’t know his real name, nor what he looks like because he refuses to introduce himself during inspections. It’s also important to remember that Hideaway Report accepts no advertising and is therefore totally free of pressure from advertisers! In short, Andrew Harper’s monthly recommendations are unbiased, objective and totally reliable.

Plus, on top of that there is a believable scarcity to it because they say they limit circulation worldwide (I believe it’s 20,000 subscribers) to keep these private hideaways truly private. Hey, I believed it so I signed up – plus I wanted to study their business model. For one thing – it’s been published for over 25 years so that gives you a small idea of how successful this has been. And if you ever get a copy of the newsletter (I believe there is a free sample on the site) it looks like something a guy would print in his basement. There are no real pictures – just drawings. And the whole thing only has one color. It’s very, very smart!

My bet is there are lots of little niches out there where people would pay you for experiences. Sometimes there are even combinations like a wine tour with a bicycle tour. Or for instance golf with travel www.adventures-in-golf.com, etc. 

I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing something in the adventure travel business and maybe combining it with my passion for Entrepreneurship and business. The tentative name is “Maverick Business Adventures” – the NEW MBA .

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’d like to go on a trip like that or post about other lifestyle businesses you’ve seen.

Okay, the final secret. Drum roll please….

Secret #9 – Giving…

Whether you want to call it tithing (I don’t) or something else there is magic in giving a fixed percentage of your income WILLINGLY to charities, religious organizations or just individuals in need.

I donate 5% (roughly 10% of profits) of all our companies gross income to several charities I support. Last year we gave away over $120,000 and this year I hope to get to $200,000 or more.

A lot of people talk about how they want to donate some huge sum of money to a charity or their church but then never get around to it because they feel like they don’t have enough right now or it’s not the right time. Frankly, I think it’s because it is not a systematic, regimented giving plan. If you would have told me a few years ago – I’d regularly be giving $10k, $15k, $20k+ checks each month to charities – I would have thought you were crazy because I could use that extra money myself for something. But when it becomes just a way you operate it’s much easier to start writing those checks with big zeros behind them. My dad thinks I’m nuts when I told him how much I donate but I’m more that pleased with my decision.

Where I Found This

One of the first times I heard about this was from the late Foster Hibbard, who worked with Napoleon Hill. Foster talked about setting up a “giving account” and a “wealth account”. The set-up was simple. You would take a fixed percentage of all money that comes in to you (i.e. 5%, 10%, etc) and put that amount into both accounts each time you received it. I only do monthly – but this follows the “pay yourself first” philosophy of getting rich also. So each month 5% gets paid off the top no matter what to myself (for investments and buying assets not toys) and 5% gets paid to a charity of my choice. (Dan Kennedy worked with Foster Hibbard and has a great distillation of this and his own wealth building philosophy in his book “No BS Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs”)

Fact is, I could see significant jumps in my own income once I started this 5% charitable giving. Some of the wealthiest and most successful people of all-time had discovered this secret. It’s been said that Rockefeller walked around everyday with a roll of dimes and gave them away. Carnegie was one of the biggest philanthropists building public libraries. Many people talk about the ‘filth rich’ or how ‘greedy’ rich people are – I’ve found just the opposite. Most of the truly wealthy and successful individuals are some of the biggest & most generous contributors around.

One perfect example I know personally is Frank McKinney. The Wall Street Journal refers to him as “The Daredevil Developer and Real Estate Rock Czar”. Frank builds these mega, multi-million dollar mansion in Florida on speculation (meaning no buyer before he builds it). And the guy plays just as hard for charity. He founded the Caring House Project Foundation to build self-sustaining housing and communities for the desperately housing. In fact, I’m one of the co-hosts for an upcoming event going on in November that should be absolutely incredible called “Frank McKinney’s Palm Beach Experience”. It’s worth checking out and all monies raised goes direct to the charity.

I firmly believe you cannot out-give the Universe.

If that statement is true than anything you give out comes back to you in kind multiple times. Meaning from a pragmatic standpoint you could look at this ally as a return on “charitable investment”. But that’s not it. There’s an incredible feeling from knowing one check you wrote sustained an entire village of enterpreneurial upstarts – like when I donate to Village Enterprise Fund. Or when you get a handwritten note from one of the charities you support talking about how surprised they were to get a $15,000 check out of the blue and what kind of help that means to their program.

Personally, I do due diligence on the charity I’m going to support for that particular month and then I write the check without expectation of what is going to happen with the money. At some point very soon I want to be able to even create my own foundation and donate more than just money – but for now this is my contribution.

A little behind the scenes disclosure – one of my goals with InternetLifestyle.com is to ask members to agree to give away 5% of their revenues that are a result of what they use from the site. My goal is $100,000,000.00 in donations per year from our members to charities of their choice. That’s only 2000 people each making a $1M/year.

I want to hear your thoughts on this and maybe try a little experiment…

For the next 3 months give away 5% of your gross income to a charity, religious organization or persons in need. Do NOT do it out of guilt. Do it with a light-heart and without expectation of what is coming back to you. Or if that’s too big of a step – try this and report back here. Just take out five $20 bills and look for someone to give them to who is in need with no expectation of return. Post your results and let us know what happened.
 

Secret #7:  Continual Learning

I cannot stress this enough, I spend $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 on my own education every single year.  I don’t think that I’m so smart that I have all the answers.  I am humble enough to understand that there are lots of other people out there that have tons of answers.  And I spend money because I know that keeps me motivated to do what they tell me to do.

If I go spend $10,000 for a seminar (which I have) I am going to pay a whole lot more attention to what’s going on and actually follow what they’re telling me instead of the seminar where it’s only $195.

Same thing if I buy a package for $5,000, I’m going to pay attention to it. 

Continual learning is the key.  Remember, your brain is like a bucket with a hole in it.  So you put all of this stuff in it, and slowly it just kind of seeps out.  You’ve got to keep replenishing and putting more stuff in there.

Remember, it doesn’t matter what happens to you.  Nobody can take away your knowledge, all the stuff that you get.  Look, if somebody came, took away my entire business and if they just left me with my customer list, the knowledge in my head and the people I know, I’d be right back on my feet within a month, two months, three months, tops.

My friend Frank Kern is a perfect example of this. His business was wiped out by the government and he’s right back on his feet because of what he knows. He bounced right back to a great six-figure income all within a couple months of starting over. And now he’s into 7-figures living in the beach in LaJolla.

Knowledge is so important and continual learning.  Like I said, if you just study something for one hour a day, for three years, you’d become an expert.  If it’s one hour a day for five years, you’d become a world expert.

Personally, I’m always reading, listening to tapes or watching videos. I love to turn ‘down time’ into learning time. I can’t remember who I heard it from, I think Brian Tracy, but they said turn your car into a “university on wheels”. I took that to heart and anytime I’m in the car I always have a CD or tape in teaching me something. I suggest you do the same.

This specialized knowledge you keep feeding yourself is going to help you get to any level you want.

 Secret #8:  Gratitude 

This is one of those woo-woo, kind of fluffy metaphysical things – but it works. 

Every time I check my e-mail and I have orders come in, I actually silently say, “Thank you” for each of those orders that come in. It sounds strange but having gratitude keeps you connected to the source of what’s bringing you what you want.  And the more you’re thankful, the more you’re going to get that.

Think about your own life. If you are grateful for something don’t you get more of it? On the other hand if you neglect it or you simply start assuming it should come to you – doesn’t that seem to turn off the “spout”?

Being grateful is one of the most powerful forces you employ for your own benefit. Take a minute or two right now just to sit and think about absolutely everything in your life for which you should be thankful for. C’mon do it! I mean it.

• Do you have a roof over your head?
• Clean sheets?
• A warm house?
• How about your health?
• Do you a family that loves you?
• Have you made your first dollar (or million) online?
• A dog or cat that loves you?
• Money in your retirement account? Etc.

Keep thinking and I know there is a whole slew of things you should be thankful for right now.

If you’ve done this exercise you can’t help but feel incredibly happy and joyful. You can only focus on one thing and most people tend to focus on what they don’t have. That only gives more of what you don’t have and what you don’t want. But by being grateful for the things you already have in your life you’ll get even more. 

Alright we’ll finish up with secret #9 in the next post…

Secret #5:  Build on Your Successes

Each success is going to create another success for you.  I suggest you start small at first.  You don’t have to build a million-dollar or $10-million or $100-million business.  You can dream big and have a plan for getting there. 

My friend John Reese says, “Make your first dollar online.”  If you make just one dollar online, you’re already ahead of a lot of people that are trying to make anything, that are scattered around and doing all kinds of stuff.

So you make your first dollar online, and that builds and builds and builds. 

Start with a project that you can manage to get going quickly and easily. Remember, there can always be a version 2 or an updated edition. It’s better to put something out there and see the response then it is to be absolutely perfect. Fact is, you will never have a perfect product or service. I don’t and I don’t know anyone else who thinks they do. But my little ‘imperfect’ products are still raking in a whole lot of dough because I got out there and started. My first success with Instant Sales Letters really boosted my confidence and helped me formulate my next projects. And each one has helped me build bigger and bigger.

I want to introduce you to something called the “Leapfrog Theory”…

You should get a book written in the 80’s called Winning Through Intimidation by Robert Ringer. [Side note: I had a chance to have dinner with Robert about a year ago and it was great hearing how he made a huge splash in the marketplace with a book that misconstrued.]  It’s definitely one of my favorite books (though I haven’t read the new edition called “To Be or Not to Be Intimidated”.  Inside he talks about the leapfrog theory, which says we don’t have to wait for somebody to come anoint us an expert. 

There’s no person that’s going to come up and say, “Joe Blow, you have been proclaimed the expert on self-help.  Now you are the true expert.  Go out there and make money.”  That’s not going to happen.

Each of you has to be your own expert. 

You have to have the confidence, which comes from the knowledge (full circle back to secret #1), from starting and doing.  And as long as you have that knowledge, the leapfrog theory says you leap over all the other people that are hanging out here in the middle, the mediocre majority and the people trying to climb up.  You jump all the way up to the top and you proclaim yourself the expert.

Who’s going to challenge you?  If somebody challenges you, you know you have the confidence and the knowledge, because you’ve studied.
 
If you don’t have that knowledge, you’ll easily get knocked back down to the ‘mediocre majority’.  So use this leapfrog theory and just jump over everyone else, and don’t worry about somebody coming up to proclaim you an expert.  It’s not going to happen. 

Remember, success creates success, and that builds more confidence for you. 

Secret #6:  Decision 

This is such a big point. 

A lot of people have so many problems with decision even the simplest ones like “Where do you want to go to dinner?” 

That’s because they don’t like it because it cuts off other options.  But frankly that’s exactly what you want.  You want to cut off other options.

It’s just like Hernando Cortes during the Spanish Conquest. Cortes was determined to conquer the Aztecs of Mexico and he realized that some of his men wanted to return to Cuba because they didn’t think they could walk through 200 miles of jungle and swamps, climb mountains, avoid thousands of hostile Indians and attack the Aztec fortress city which was surrounded by water. To keep his men from deserting, Cortes carried out a desperate and bold scheme. He removed the sails, rigging, compasses, and all other valuables from
all but one ship and burned the others.

You probably don’t need to be that bold but if you cut off your options, you’re much more motivated.  You make that decision and make decisions quickly.  That’s a sign of successful people. 

There’s a magic of attraction when you make your decision.  However, when you’re hemming and hawing, you don’t experience this magic.  I don’t want to get into too much woo-woo or metaphysical or spiritual stuff. 

But there’s this magic of attraction.  I can’t even explain it.  When you set your mind up that you’re going to do this, all of a sudden, at the next dinner party you’re attending you meet somebody that can help you get to where you want to go.  Is that luck or is that something else? 

I don’t think this is a result of luck.

It’s like once the decision is made your mind is tuned into the solution and all kinds of ‘freaky’ coincidences and occurrences happen.

And that brings me to another important point about decisions – fail quickly. Don’t be afraid of failure.  A lot of people are so afraid of I’m going to screw up, I’m going to make a mistake that are forever frozen.  Who the hell cares?  Screw up quickly!  I screw up all the time.  And you want to fail quickly. 

That’s the great part about the Internet.  You want to go out there and find out if your dumb idea is going to work right away. You can do it in days instead of months. Sometimes hours and if it doesn’t work, you move on.  You say, “Next!”

Look, I know a lot of people who are working on their products for the last two, three, four years.  Get the damned thing out!  If it’s crap, it’s crap.  At least you’ll figure it out.  And you can sell crap.  You really can – you just make it better as you go along.
 
Instant Sales Letters, my first product was not where it is now.  We’ve added a ton of stuff to it and made it better.  But I just wanted to see if the thing was going to sell.

It wasn’t complete and utter rubbish, as my British friends say, but it was enough that it made the point.  It found out if there was a marketplace for it.  So find out. 

Some people like to go around at dinner parties and so on and say, “I’m writing a book.  I’ve been writing a book for five years.  I’m an author.” 

Uh huh. I can show you 6 different ways to have your book done in days. It’s a cop-out and complete B.S. Bottom line – make the decision to get the product out there.  See what happens and fail quickly.

Look for the next secrets coming shortly…

I figured let’s get more of these secrets out sooner – so I’m going to be posting 2/day…

Secret #3:  Do one proactive thing a day

You don’t need to do 100 things a day.  Just get that one proactive thing a day.  So each little brick builds a big wall for you.  Trust me it’s easy to be overwhelmed with hundreds of tasks.  You’re like, “Oh, I need to do ezine ads, create my autoresponders, do joint ventures, set up Pay-per-click campaigns, my affiliate program, write sales copy and I need to do all this other stuff.”

 Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

But just relax and do one task a day.

Your action will create more and more and more action for you. You simply need to make a commitment to do one proactive thing a day no matter what. Even if you’re dead tired and worked a 14-hour day job – come home and mail one letter or send out one joint venture proposal. I’m telling you – just these little tiny proactive things will have an immense impact.

Most everyone has heard of the ’80/20 rule’ or the Pareto Principle. It says that 20% of your actions produce 80% of your results, and the other way around.  80% of your work only creates 20% of your results.

So go back and look where your successes came from, and I know that they’re from a tiny little group of actions.  So if you just get that one proactive thing a day (from the 20% group) that is going to propel you further, that’s going to bring you to where you want to be.

Make it a point to focus on those “20% activities”. In Stephen Covey’s famous work “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” he calls these activities “important but not urgent”. One of my original Apprentices, Peter Woodhead, from the UK is a perfect example of simply doing one proactive thing a day. A lot of Apprentices bolted out of the gate during our one year program but Peter was an Internet newbie and he also had a full time job so he was a bit slower getting started. However, he took my advice and simply managed to do one proactive thing every single day. No matter how big or how small. It could be writing one autoresponder message or it might have been writing 50 headlines. No matter the day – Peter was moving ahead. And not surprisingly his project was completed before many of the other Apprentices were finished.

Secret #4:  Unless You Deliver Exceptional Value – You Will Not Get Rich 

This is something critical that I look at in my planner every single day, when I wake up.  This is one of my cores values. 

It says “I get rich by enriching others 10 times to 100 times what they pay me in return”.

So any product, any service, or absolutely anything I offer, must deliver 10 times to 100 times in value. 

When you deliver that much value, when you over-deliver, the marketplace compensates you.  There’s no other way around it.  This is an unyielding natural law.  This goes along with a famous quote motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar frequently uses and that is “You can get anything you want if you help enough people get what they want.”

There’s no other way that it could possibly occur.  If you deliver shoddy crap, you’re not going to get rich for very long and the marketplace is going to find out about you, and you’ll be out of business. The marketplace is always self-correcting.
 
So the only real strategy to enduring and lasting wealth is to over-deliver as much as you can, and provide as much value.

Think about it. If a customer purchases a product or service from you and they paid $100 but it makes them $1000 – do you think they’ll buy something else from you? Of course. Plus, when you are selling dollars for dimes – it makes it a whole lot easier to sell your product. Too many people only want to do ‘just enough’ or just get-by. That’s the wrong attitude.

Okay look out for #5 and #6 coming up next…
 

Okay let’s continue where we left off yesterday (and look to the bottom for the winners of the cool InternetLifestyle.com hat – 12 of them!)

Secret #2:  Set your plan 

I’m going to show you my initial plan I used to build my first Internet success – InstantSalesLetters.com.

I use the Franklin Covey planner system and I highly recommend it. Notice from the list there was my long-range goal and then there was my intermediate goals. Which then get translated into your daily task lists.So where are you going? 

Be specific.  Write it down.  Don’t be afraid to write it down.

How are you going to get there? 

Get those intermediate goals set up first.  Because if you get the little building blocks going, it’s a lot easier to get to where you want to go. 

And you’ve got to be specific.  You can’t just say, “I want to make a whole lot more money online.”  What is that, like $5 more?  Nobody knows what that is.  And you think, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know exactly what that means.”  But you don’t know what it means.  You’ve got to write it down and be specific.

And when you write down your goals, always write down “or more.”  So if you say, “I want to make $100,000.00” I always say, “I want to make $100,000.00 or more by so-and-so date, or sooner,” This gives yourself that opportunity to remove limitations.
 
Dream a little.  Have fun.  You get to set the rules. I try to create as much fun as I can with whatever I do with promotions that are a bit over the top. For example, at my 30th Bday Bash we had cake, sang happy birthday and even had a ‘gag gift’ contest where a dog won. Or my Underground Online Seminar event that’s all spy related theme. Our customers appreciate having fun and not just learning.

What’s the use of doing all this, unless you’re going to have fun with it?

Now the next part of your plan is that you need accountability. 

I have a personal trainer I work out with.  Before, the kids I would work out early in the mornings, three times a week.  I used to stay up until like 3:00, 4:00 in the morning sometimes, working on a new idea.  And I can tell you, if I’m not paying my trainer, I’m not getting up at 8:30 in the morning to go hit the gym.  But I have this trainer to be accountable to.  So now, I can’t let this guy down.

It’s important to have somebody else that you’re accountable to.  Try to find a friend or someone who you’d be really embarrassed if you didn’t do what you say you are going to do. Embarrassment can go a long way to helping you achieve what you want. 

[Side note: I'm strongly considering having some sort of "Super 6 Week Challenge" for business and personal goals and anyone can join in and together we'll have accountability. That might be part of InternetLifestyle.com - let me know what you think.]

Okay next post I’ll cover secret #3…Do One Proactive Thing a Day

***

Now the first winners of the InternetLifestyle.com hats - I couldn’t just pick a few of you so there are 12 winners! Please open up a ticket at www.surefiremarketing.com/support and tell them you won the hat and give them your address. Look forward to seeing you sport the new lid – send over a pic

Here are the winners:

Brian Diez

Frank Lee

Andrew Wee

Doug Lamb

Shane from Canada

Pam from Australia

Mari Smith

David Rachford

Bonnie Cehovet

Mike Geary

Tom Brownsword

Mike Hill
 

I thought I’d add a series of posts about what I consider to be some of the most important aspects of my success online…

Many of you know my story…

In only a few short months I’ve achieved the ultimate Internet “fantasy” of making a lot of money from a simple (almost primitive) web site that runs itself virtually on complete autopilot. Starting from scratch I banked over $51,351.94 my first 6 ½ months online, just working part-time out of the corner of my living room.

Now today at age 33, I’ve gone on to earn over 7-figures each year. 

How did I go from a standing start to banking mega profits?

To do that, what I think you really need are these inner secrets to mega internet success.  This has nothing to do with search engines, pay-per-clicks.  It doesn’t have anything to do with any of the tactical stuff.  It’s all a lot of stuff that goes on in your head.  So let’s start…
 

Secret #1: Cheerful Expectancy 

One of my biggest mentors is Earl Nightingale. He passed away several years ago but you need to get everything he recorded at Nightingale.com.  He has a program called “Lead The Field” and “The Strangest Secret”.  Just listen to that thing over and over again.  He talks about cheerful expectancy. 

There’s a big difference between having expectancy versus hoping or wishing something is going to occur.  When you have that cheerful expectancy, you know it’s going to occur.  And that doesn’t just come from being “Pollyannaish” or having rose-colored glasses.  It comes from having knowledge.  And you get that knowledge from studying in your field whatever it is. It could be Internet marketing or it could be neurology. That means reading, studying and buying everything and absolutely immersing yourself in it.

I learned from Earl Nightingale that if you want to be an expert, you spend an hour a day reading on whatever subject that you’re interested in, that you want to be an expert on.

So I said, “Well, what would happen if I read for three hours a day?” 

I just started learning as much as I possibly could, and that knowledge gives you the confidence to know that you have that positive expectancy.

My friend Jim Edwards has a great illustration of the difference between simply ‘hoping’ and ‘expecting’. You can try this exercise yourself. Close your eyes and try to HOPE you’ll make a million dollars this year (or whatever number might get you excited). Just sit there and hope and hope and hope.

Now if you pay attention you’ll notice you’ll probably a little bit slumped over and if had to stake your life on it – there’s no way you’d bet you really would make that mil this year. Now try the same exercise but this time EXPECT to earn a million dollars. I mean really expect it.

Now look at the way you are sitting, breathing and feeling. I’d wager it’s a little different. Your expectations determine your results.

Next post…secret #2 (Setting your plan)

And I’ll announce the winners of the very coveted Internet Lifesytle caps