This is shirk http://ping.fm/fyyWt

This is not Islam...Jhoota Pir http://ping.fm/O24s3

Email marketing best practices revealed | Yasser Khan http://ping.fm/HMJkr

Twitter best practices revealed | Yasser Khan http://ping.fm/BbN1Z

Why you need to master copywriting | Yasser Khan http://ping.fm/hKmlm

COPYWRITING DOMINATION SECRETS | Yasser Khan http://ping.fm/hfSI5

What it takes to be self employed | Yasser Khan http://ping.fm/3Jmw1

How to increase productivity | Yasser Khan http://ping.fm/BKjSt

Why Positive thinking does NOT work by Yasser Khan http://ping.fm/PB6iX

Law of Diminishing Returns explained | Yasser Khan http://ping.fm/G82U5

How to tweet intelligently

By now you know well the power of social media like youtube, facebook and especially twitter, in directing attention to a specific issue. None could matter more to you than your online image and branding. Though twitter has largely left its etiquette to individual discretion and an open source platform, here I address a commonly under-looked issue; your tweets.

Tweeting
Tweeting is all about cramming as much info into a mere 140 characters, much like text messages. That means you could simply bring your familiar short-hand text skills onto online messaging. It can build or break your followers. So be careful what you tweet about, and how go about doing it. Keep in mind to be yourself and focus on providing something of VALUE. Put intelligent thought into the kind of information you want in your tweets. Do be mindful of what topics are trending, which are conveniently displayed at the search box on the left of sign-in form, as well as news-style moving text at the centre-top of your twitter account. In fact, riding on those trending topics could give you the needed exposure or even more followers.

#s
Including hash-tags '#' is another way you can conveniently ensure your tweets appear in searches. Do take the time to find out the popular # categories. My favourite ones usually have to do with the most recent trending topics, #quote and #nowplaying.

RTs
On retweeting, it is by far the best way possible to let others know you find their content/tweets interesting and to build rapport with them by engaging after they thank you. Do not just retweet every single thing; Only those you find interesting, inspirational, or worth the time of your followers.

With that said, cultivate a more wholesome, intelligent strategy around twitter. Using discretion and common sense can get you far on a medium still in its infancy.

Sign up now for my info-packed newsletters to receive FREE reports on what works now in social media online!

Yasser Khan: How to market any business successfully part 2 http://ping.fm/Xma4E

Are you truly meant for entrepreneurship? The no-holds-barred approach to determining your suitability for entrepreneurial develeopment.

You need to confront your mind. The little guy who gets in your way when you least expect it.

Not just some table tennis you play daily by whacking thoughts off it; but soul-searching insights into the inner workings of your subconscious regions. Where your mind truly loves to play hide and seek with you. Where you can find the real keys and answers to your most pressing concerns. They say, the things you are too often busy looking for are right under your nose. In this case, right under your skull!

Are you truly an entrepreneur? How could you answer this all-important question without incurring hefty consultation fees by experts? Honestly, and I am mean shamelessly, assess the following:

1. Do you truly have an idea of where you could be in 5 years' time? What will you be worth then? What exactly will it take to get there?

2. What have you done about it so far?

3. What do others truly think and say about your ability to work despite a lack of resources, or whatever your need to run your business?

Now for the explanations and reasoning behind confronting yourself.

The first question verifies your ability to visualise goals and set up systems in place to meet them. Remember, true entrepreneurs are visionaries first and foremost, then pragmatists who shape their realities after those visions which no one else sees.

The second one is a crucial quantitative assessment of your ability or disability to ACT. Entrepreneurs have a real, tangible bias towards action. Their ultimate nemesis is procrastination.

The third objectively answers your resourcefulness and tendency to take action in spite of setbacks/limitations/flaws and removes your own clouded judgements or emotions entirely from this equation of self-assessment. This requires considerable problem-solving skills and bridges your end product to your vision.


If you already run a business without having first addressed the above concerns sufficiently, you are only deluding and setting yourself up for failure later. The good ones realise this early on and take corrective actions. The rest take 5, 10, or 20 months or years to realise this. By then your dream becomes your nightmare!

Understand that your business is nothing more than an extension of yourself and your personality. Every decision you make, results you achieve, the state of things as they are, and every personal reaction manifesting itself in your business are all signs pointing to this inescapable fact. Consequently, your business can only prosper to the extent you do. It can only grow to the extent you do too!

If you are currently running away from your 'oppressive' job and intend starting your own home-based internet business, DO NOT do so! You WILL end up having another job with your business as your Boss! Incredulous? Simply look to the statistics.

If you have nothing much to offer to the market except your skills, you won't create a business, but a job! Only knowing things isn't enough. You have to know your vision, and you must know how to manage the nitty gritty work of being self employed.

If you already are a business owner, and your business requires you to be there all the time, how could you say it offers you time freedom, which it definitely does not! You have become a modern slave!

Check you suitability first, before you take that plunge into the wild ocean that is entrepreneurship.

What I love about the BiB

Here I sum up my favourite things about the Business in a Box (BiB).


The 30 day activity booklet tackles habit formation right from the start. And these are not just ordinary, temporary or run-of-the-mill habits. Carefully crafted with long term success in mind, these habits focus exclusively on developing a 'getting things done' attitude, and paying daily attention to success, no matter how small or insignificant. That way, you cultivate day-to-day action plans with clearly set goals and celebrate the smallest of successes to feed your entrepreneurial drive and whet your creative juices continually. Kind of exactly like how the pros themselves do and say, success brings even more success, and that to me is the single greatest asset keeping me going despite countless obstacles.


You get to learn key character traits early on, through practical application of success attracting thought-processes, which few school text-books could teach you. This is KEY. You learn entrepreneurial traits of persistence, accountability, planning and execution, among countless others requiring exhaustive detailing, which this discussion is not about. E.g., you learn to hold yourself accountable through your signatures on top at beginning. And mentality is a huge component of character-building, with sufficient emphasis being placed on reading books by top businessmen and coaches, and ample opportunities to apply those lessons to your business.


The internet is vast and a constantly evolving, organic entity. You can get sucked into it for hours on end with zero productivity and even zeroer results to show for. The BiB gives a gentle nudge in the right direction, by clearly differentiating money making activities (MMA) and wasteful ones. In that sense, you are in the know right from the start on what you are required to do to grow your business. That actually forced me to focus only on the most important aspects of my business, not the glamour or the gaudy appeal. Effective strategies to minimise and avoid distractions were included, together with productivity-boosting activities, gadgets, software and the like. All these tools are fine and dandy, but if your toolbox (your mind) isn't trained yet to handle these, you won't get far. This is overcome by acknowledging yourself as being in the driver's seat with total control over where you want to head in life.


The BiB directed me to the correct learning sources, which is the basis for learning ANY new trade. CCPRO back office is the best resource for knowledge under a single domain. All the TOP people share insights there, combining wikipedia-like resource with a forum platform. I was able to realise what specific knowledge I could gain from whom and where. Trainings in the form of webinars and calls and recorded archives accessible any time ensured I had direct access to the latest information the minute I might need those the most. Be sure to check-in regularly and habitually going through ALL the training archives to get the most value for yourself.


As for the crucial strategic development of your marketing efforts, the BiB helps to correct your expectations and perspectives, making it easy to maintain a view of the big picture. The focus is of course on long-term development of your business with a viable strategy. Personally for me, developing my own strategy streamlined the entire process and brought form and structure to my haphazard marketing efforts. It gave strategy to randomness and brought order to the chaos that is the internet. I was able to realise early on that marketing without strategy will be wasteful and make you go round in circles. But what exact strategy do you need? That depends entirely on you yourself.


The best part is, after a month, you have formed a new habit of the entire A-Z process of running your own online business, the right way, while eliminating guesswork and unnecessary stalling. In this manner, you could hit the ground running and with consistency, reap the rewards over time. Hence, the onus is on you to commit unreservedly to your own future.

Can I Celebrate This 2of10.flv http://ping.fm/PGiFq

On the diminishing returns of life

You've stopped cherishing a loved one you say?

And don't bother telling me not to take things for granted! That statement is a bit of an oxymoron, considering our minds are wired that way!

So before I dive right in, answer this question. How did you feel the first time you bit that favourite chocolate of yours? Did you taste bliss?

Let me describe it for you. The first soft, bite into that dark chocolatey mass oozed warmth and melting sweetness into your mouth, then all too-suddenly your tongue lapped it all up onto itself and your throat reflexively drank it down in greedy anticipation of the next morsel. But when you took the next bite, what happened? Not as relishing? Feeling full already on the third one? And on the fourth, the cloying sweetness starts feeling a little bit too much. Forget about eating the next choc bar for now. Your mind (and your taste buds) need rest!

That, my friend, was the Law of Diminishing Returns in action. To use biological processes to describe what happens when you eat that chocolate, our neurons fire up with frenetic activity the first time our brains recognise a new but 'familiar' sensation. There-in lies the 'problem'. In our brains and nerves, tiny molecules have the capacity for 'cellular memory' in the form of 'lock and key' structures and chain-processes. Continued stimulations of neurotransmitters, the most basic process of electrical stimulation in our nervous system, has a dulling effect on our ability to perceive our senses. Ever noticed after staying in a house by the highway, your ears get used to the noise and you can now sleep peacefully? That experience is akin to the experience of lessened pleasure of eating chocolate, and more seriously, in relationships, habits and emotions.

In finance, you see it manifesting in the steadily falling profitability of giant companies once they've reached a given level's worth of market capitalisation. Your thrill of buying that brand-new car fades after a few months of thrilling rides and serene escapades. In your job, you see it in the falling of enthusiasm and satisfaction, which you can't place as you still remember your first, exciting day of work. You could in fact, conjure up hundreds of scenarios you couldn't grasp at all back when they happened. But they did, and with a reason.

This occurs all the time. Instead of telling yourself to not take things for granted, realize that this phenomenon is actually a part of your make up. Only when you have realised this consciously, you will be able to see it for what it truly is, rather than entertaining myopic viewpoints characteristic of self-censure and contrition.

With awareness comes a natural shift towards change. This is the point where you will get down to changing your emotional processes of complacency. One way you could counter this 'laziness of the mind' is by engaging in the mental activity of pursuing new experiences. By continually trying out new things, thought-processes, experiences, activities and habits, you will forge your single greatest defence against yourself; never settling for the status quo. Like the restless traveller on a mission to see all the wonders of the world on a limited time-frame, you will remove the very repetitiveness of familiarity that bred your complacency in the first place.

With that said, you can now bring to fruition a new perspective to life in general. The Law of diminishing returns.

Yasser Khan : What it DOES’T take to win at the money GAME? Video

Yasser Khan: How to create videos using slides or images only

The reason I decided to create this video is to show how easy it is to create any video using only still images and pictures. For that you need to head over to a gem of a website that www.animoto.com is.

From their bold slogans of "The death of slide shows" to in-built chic video designs, they deliver right from the start due to the intuitive layout and the sheer ease of use in creating video. Even novices could master the site in less than a day.

The main advantage in using animoto's services is creating professional-looking videos using only the images you supply. Nothing else. They create the effects, input the various techniques, with their very own music database and effects galore to boot. Even the text you input manages to pack a punch.

There are several things to bear in mind. You'll have to create you account there, which is simple and pretty fast. Secondly, you could opt for FREE and PAID versions. The only drawback to the free version is you only can create a video not exceeding 30 seconds and no downloads to you PC, although you can upload it directly to youtube. That means your choice of images had better be limited to around 6 to 8. As for the paid version, you not only get plenty more video time, you could download it direct to your PC. And, incredible as it is, it costs a paltry USD 30 a year!

However, for both these versions, animoto WILL include their logo, name and other branding properties. You cannot remove these inside animoto.com. This is where the third membership comes in.

That version is for corporate use. This is of course higher in cost, with an option of a 90-day trial and delivers far greater value in terms of full control over your own branding, distribution channels and the like.

Additionally, they have their very own greeting cards (more like greeting videos) for a growing number of special occasions and festivities.

So, head over to www.animoto.com now to create your own video and share!

Book Review of "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind"

Image coutesy of T Harv Eker, Peak Potentials

"Give me five minutes and I can predict your financial future!" - T. Harv Eker

A book that bridges the desire for success,and achieving it.

In his groundbreaking book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind™, T. Harv Eker states: "Give me five minutes, and I can predict your financial future for the rest of your life!" Eker does this by identifying your Money Blueprint. We all have a personal money blueprint ingrained in our subconscious minds, and it is this blueprint, more than anything, that will determine our financial lives. You can know everything about marketing, sales, negotiations, stocks, real estate, and the world of finance. But if your money blueprint is not set for a high level of success, you will never have a lot of money - and if somehow you do, you will most likely lose it! The good news is that now you can actually reset your money blueprint to create natural and automatic success.

Using the exact same principles he teaches, Eker went from zero to millionaire in only two and a half years. He is now the president and founder of Peak Potentials Training, the largest success training company in North America. Peak Potentials has changed nearly 1 million lives throughout 101 countries, and publishes Secrets of the Millionaire Mind in 31 languages.

My personal opinion on this book would include nothing short of 5-star reviews and and a keen desire to share and recommend it to people willing to re-look their successes or failures in life. But, this is a big BUT, in bold letters, it is only suitable for those with strong belief systems and a huge bias towards action. Aside from plentiful "Ooh..." and "Aah!" moments filled with true, instant enlightenments, if you seek lifelong success principles, I have yet to find anything more lasting and permanent than this. You might enrol for great seminars and courses, and after a temporary boost in motivation, what happens? Not much, because it's then back to normal.

This book serves as a refresher before you head for the all-important seminar where the real transformations take place. These seminars are held all over the world, in which Eker himself personally revises peoples' money blueprints and gives them a plan of action to follow. That, in truth, is the real reason behind the permanent and lasting impact of the seminars.

So if you truly are ready to make the courageous step of embarking on a fully transformational journey towards wealth, purchase the book first here. After that, you could check out his seminar locations at the banner provided below, or get a feel of the events by signing up for his live seminars (or webinars if you will).

See you at the top!

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What it DOESN'T take to WIN at the money game...

It's myth-busting time!

Here, I dispel popular misconceptions, urban myths and bad programming about winning financially, fed forcefully on us since young by the media, education system, and yes, the job market.

Myth 1.You need 'Higher Education';

In 1998, Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund run by mathematicians, computer scientists and 2 Nobel Prize-winning economists lost more than a whopping $2 Billion in just weeks. They placed a huge bet that the bond market would return to normalcy, when in fact, it went the other way! Now, before you believe a word I say, read Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed (Random House, 2000).

Why would a group of highly 'qualified' scientists, mathematicians and the like fail at the money game that is the stock market? The key is in getting the proper type of education. They might have excelled in academia, but they appeared to definitely flunk in 'money 101'. If you simply lack sufficient know-how in the areas of personal finance and money management, your expertise might end up counting for nothing. Having mere 'paper qualifications' can never guarantee you success with money.
Notice, in life there are NO guarantees. You have no guarantee on when you will get married, when you might retire, or even when you might stop living. Same goes for money. There is actual EFFORT involved in really mastering all the different aspects of dealing with money,so dump that 'guarantee mentality', which just happens to be rooted in insecurity.
It goes without saying that money skills can definitely be learned by getting the correct kind of financial education. Need inspiration on that one? Look to the rich.


Myth 2.You must be a 'Genius' to win;

In 1720, Sir Isaac Newton sold his shares in South Sea Company, pocketing a handsome 100 percent profit of 7000 pounds. Months later, swept in by the market's wild enthusiasm, he jumped back in at a much higher price, and commenced to lose 20,000 pounds (more than $3 million in today's money), recounted in John Corswell's The South Sea Bubble (Cresset Press, London, 1960).

So what went wrong with the genius behind the 'Law of Gravity'? Well, he couldn't resist the tug of another type of gravity: herd following. In this are ample lessons for us, non-genius-types. Blindly following others' advice in the areas of money is so insanely dangerous, that it squarely defeated one of the greatest scientific minds of modern times.

At the other extreme, billionaire investor Warren Buffett attributes his own success to simple common sense. If he doesn't understand a business, he steers clear of it. It's as simple as that. Wall Street financial reports frequently corroborate this by calling him "a man with unusual common sense". Notice that such common sense needs to be cultivated. It requires disassociation from misleading financial press, eager people dishing out free advice, and having healthy doses of scepticism. You do not need to be genius to earn a lot of money. But you do need awareness, which always trumps the ignorant herd behaviour of the crowds. In short, keep TESTING others' logics..


Myth 3.You must work as a Doctor/Lawyer/Engineer;

The perennially favourite profession almost every kid dreams of, this career bloc is rooted in personal services business. So what exactly has winning, or not winning got to do with being in personal services business? Let's try massage parlour owners for size. There are only so much customers they can handle in a day. This means their key liability is the lack of a system for duplication. Even if their business booms, if there is zero duplication taking place, the massage parlour owner may well expect to continue working for life!

So what exactly is duplication? Simply put, it is using leverage to free yourself up. In the massage parlour owner's case, he could use time leverage by hiring and training assistants, he could use money leverage to outsource some of the work, or he could system leverage to automate the whole business process. Notice the end-result in all the leverage scenarios is the same; the owner frees up his valuable time.

Hence, as long as doctors, lawyers and engineers do not employ some form of leverage to take over their work, they might find themselves having money, but no TIME to spend that money. Now, that is NOT freedom. Yuck!

One great service we can all do to ourselves is to recognise that there are all sorts of useless junk about money being circulated everywhere. Just like junk food, they do fill you up (think pay-check), but are never good for the long-term (think freedom).So whenever possible, and in whatever situation you find yourself in, challenge your own thinking. Silently analyse the information and compare its relevance to your future. Feel free to discard whatever that doesn't make you better than you already are.

That's what the rich do!

Yasser Khan: My Story

Yasser Khan: My Story

Do Not Know Where to Start?

When I was barely into my first month, I had information overload, paralysis from over-analysis and a headache which was the result of trying to do too many things at the same time.

I never knew where to start, after reading too many tips and tricks online. Everybody had their own ideas on the what, when, where and how of doing things. In short, it was pretty noisy.

Then it dawned on me. "You do not need to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step." said Martin Luther King. I tuned out all the noise, braced myself and acted on my intuition. Boy, what a ride it was!

Once I figured out to train myself to act in spite of anything, things started falling in place and after a while, doing new things became a natural way of being for me.

If you too are in the same position, then you might benefit from what I did too. Simply trudge along, and doors may open to you which you never imagined before! Bon voyage!

Money Management Strategies For Building Greater Net Worth and Wealth Creation For Everyone

Smart money management strategies for the average person to build money habits of the wealthy.


If there is any one, straightforward way to get better at managing your finances, it would definitely be learning from the wealthy people. Why? Simply because of their habits.

The primary reason why the wealthy are successful at having money has nothing to do with luck. If that was the case, every lottery/jackpot winner would be a millionaire. However, evidence again and again shows that those same lottery/jackpot winners always go down all the way back to their previous levels of being financially broke. To the uninitiated, this seems inexplicable, since it is assumed anyone would instantly be rich just by having a million dollars.

Why then would the jackpot winners lose it all? Simply because of their habits. Everybody knows humans are creatures of habit, but what they do not realise is that our results, especially financial results, are determined to a great degree by our money habits. It is how you MANAGE your finances, not how you SPEND. Therein lies the fundamental difference in the level of successes enjoyed by the rich and the poor.

The secondary reason why the rich get richer is simply because, since they already

know how to manage that much money, they can always start learning how to manage even more. Ever noticed some millionaire losing all his business in a bad year, trying again and getting back up even better? That is simply because he never lost his good money management habits.

Now, the question is, what can you learn from them about budgeting habits? Incredibly simple, but profound. It is to assign mental purpose to your money. Once a portion of your money has been assigned a purpose by you, guess what happens? It usually serves that exact purpose. Incredulous? Try it!

So now you have learnt to assign mental purpose to specific amounts of money, how do you go about getting richer? Simply keep on practising the above exercise. Why? Practice makes 'PERMANENT', not perfect. This is because of the same principle laid out above: our habits.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series.

Why positive thinking doesn't work? And what REALLY works.

This one's a bit of a shocker.

Positive thinking doesn't work. Not at all. Why? If you got to this page, you were in all probability searching it out.

When you are 'trying' to think positive, all you're doing is pretend that everything is going great when in fact, deep down in your heart you know that is not true.

What works then? Power thinking. Power thinking is recognising and accepting that everything is neutral.

Need more evidence? Read on!


Make a 'positive thinking' statement. Something on the lines of "I'm happy now!", while you are having a bad day. First, notice what the little voice in your head (some prefer heart) says to you. "No way man! I'm pissed, and now I can't believe I'm lying to myself?!" No matter what, that cynical little voice can NEVER buy that position of falsehood.

Now, try this. "I know I am in a bad mood now, but this is 'temporary'. I'll create a solution for lasting happiness and make it happen." So what happened here? You achieved several things. You evaluated the situation honestly to appease that little voice, then EMPOWERED it by making a declaration of making something powerful happen in the future. Also, you trained it to listen to you, not the other way round. Lastly, you recognised and accepted your choice of taking CHARGE. This is power thinking in action. With just a simple shift in your mental and emotional processes, you diverted control away from circumstances/life/a bad day to yourself.

And by the way, there is no such thing as a bad day. The sun rises daily and the earth continues to revolve around the sun without any problems, as it has for countless aeons. That is a neutral aspect of life. So how can something neutral be perceived as being bad? Simple. Your mind does it. If you don't already realise by now, your mind can make you believe absolutely anything, so long as you LET it. The challenge we all have is that we see the world as WE are and NOT as it really is.

Here's a thought-provoking question. If you had a hand that was all over the place, it continuously beat you up and would never shut up at all. What would you do to it?

What's that you just said? Cut it off?

But it IS a part of you! You'll be making a bad situation worse!

What if it was your mind? Now you're beginning to really think!

Ready for the solution? It is to train it to work FOR you. And power thinking achieves just that. Positive thinking sets you up for just the opposite. Your little voice doesn't believe you, and for the life of you, you can't figure out where did it all go wrong.

Adopting power thinking into your mindset has to become a daily habit first, for it to have any lasting effect. Begin by being aware of your thought-patterns. Simply re-framing every time you catch your mind drifting on negativity will put you on track for this new thinking method. And yes, what exactly you need to think is all up to you and the circumstances you find yourself in. Make it as empowering as possible. The minute you start feeling powerful, and new strength pumping up your limbs, you have learnt and applied this technique correctly.

If you prefer an expert personally guiding you step by step through the basic and advanced techniques, seek it at here.


Now, have fun watching the good changes start coming in!

What it takes to become Self-Employed?

Here I lay down business fundamentals in a concise and succinct manner. This content is based on the consensus of leading business coaches, successful entrepreneurs, academicians and gurus throughout the world. I encourage you to do independent verification, and hear directly from the best in the business field.


1 Mentality

I simply can never emphasise this enough. The way you think definitely has a lot more to do with your business, and life in general, than you might realise. Be it your original reason for starting out on your own, your vision, intentions, passion, goals and many more, your mentality will play the greatest part in your day-to-day running of your enterprise. If you think like an employee, but are running a retail business, you might find yourself totally out of sync. In fact, moving from the E (Employee) quadrant to B (Business owner) takes a whole lot of struggle on its own that you might need to hear directly from Robert Kiyosaki himself, explained simply in his best-selling book "Rich Dad Poor Dad".

Notice that before you even get down to the specifics of a business, you need to win the psychological battles first. So make sure your heart and mind TRULY fit the business model you choose, or even being your own boss in the first place.


2 Financial education

In business, you need processes to analyse the inner workings of your enterprise, a yard-stick to measure your daily, monthly, quarterly and annual progress and mechanisms for identifying areas for growth or improvement. All these are supplied by having the PROPER types of financial education. If you are out to make money, you might as well equip yourself with the ability to handle it beforehand. A great education in the business or finance fields amply equips you with the proper knowledge to handle your cash-flow, budgets, account statements, tax liabilities, and so on. And don't think for a moment that these are all for the big boys only. Do you even intend to be among them in the first place?

And yes, this is an on-going process too. You will definitely find numerous opportunities to learn along the way. But you must supply the desire to learn and grow. I personally believe in the saying of "No new skills acquired means no new money."



3 Marketing, advertising and sales management

If you somehow resent the word 'sales' for whatever bad experiences in the past, then working for yourself in a business of ANY sort may not be for you. Unless you want to embrace change. Recognise that the only way any business makes money is through sales. Simply put, no sales = no business = no money. Hence it is crucial to be competent in promoting your business. Generally all things being equal, the better you are at this, the more you will earn in bottom-line profits.

So, set out to master marketing, advertising and sales in your profession. Find ways to keep pace with the ever-changing consumer dynamics, advertising platforms, product evolution and changing e-commerce landscapes. Model after industry leaders. Hire the best salespeople. In short, your long-term business viability depends on acquiring and mastering this skill.


4 Business-specific knowledge and skills

You will need contextual expertise to handle specific issues that few outsiders could foresee. It could even be so esoteric so as to necessitate specialised training or apprenticeships. This will differ largely from industry to industry, and even within the same industry. If you are involved in the PC industry, then you might need to learn much more specific knowledge in the areas of PC manufacturing processes, storage solutions, product placement, import-export issues etc. than if you are in the generic retail-store business.

A strong educational foundation in the business field with a specialisation might suffice for this purpose. But there is another, much greater tool which nothing can even come close to replacing; your own experience. Nobody could find out things before-hand. What you can do, however is learn and correct along the way.



5 Be a Problem solver

You MUST be a problem solver. The whole thesis of entrepreneurship is to solve problems for others, at a profit of course. So long as there is a human population, there are always needs to be fulfilled and problems to be solved on a daily basis. If you somehow always find yourself mired in problems in your own personal life, then you might not be as good a problem solver as you might like to see yourself as. This has far less to do with capability than with having the discipline to channel your mental fortitude out into the physical world.

Solving problems requires resourcefulness, re-framing skills, insight, leadership, will-power and a willingness to get things done when there is no one around to do that. By now you can see this does not appear as easy as it seems.

To master this 'art', you need to go back my point 1, dealing with mentality. You need to change your thinking habits, especially anything to do with problems. Learn to re-frame your thoughts towards being solution-oriented. Joining an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) course would be a tremendous investment in yourself that would pay for itself over and over again in years to come. These courses are specifically designed and equipped to undergo holistic mind transformations, sort of like how Anthony Robbins and other top personal coaches conduct their trainings.


I hope you enjoyed reading my article, and more importantly, taking the time for critical self-evaluation and doing the exercises laid out above.
By taking the first step, you already have solved the problem of inertia and laziness, and showed your mind how to solve problems. Do it enough times, and you'll be on your way to be an entrepreneur, who by definition is, a problem solver!

What I learnt from my time in Network Marketing, MLM.

Here I recount my key lessons which I learnt strictly during my time in Network Marketing. I will compare the soundness of those lessons with my later experiences, supported by real experts in their specialisations as well as my own higher levels of personal happiness and success.

Lesson 1 Learn to earn

Before you start to earn, place an 'L' right before it. Yup. If you simply are unaware of how to pay yourself, you must find ways to do that. Nobody else, only you could do that. That takes courage, resourcefulness, commitment and single-minded determination. You must supply all these. There is NO other alternative. No desire = no results = you continue to enjoy your current levels of failure.

Lesson 2 Business know-how

Being totally green to the workforce and barely out of school, I learnt first-hand what it took to run your own business. And I learnt it in the hardest possible ways. It was totally hands-on, the kind of curriculum you don't get to learn from school. I had to master ten totally new skills overnight, though I was an unusually SLOW learner then. Things that knocked me the hardest were the ones I learnt the fastest!

Though what I truly am thankful for, and where the REAL value lies is the fact that I got to literally see the inner workings of a new company. I was the second batch after the pioneering, initial net-workers. I witnessed the expansionary stage with its accompanying growth pains. I saw the inner workings of the management, their daily itineraries, 'insider' meetings, 'interrogation sessions' of out-of-favour management personnel, closed-door consultations, among others which I could never have had the privilege of as an outsider. I understood early on what it took to generate cash-flow, loyal customers and keeping good employees. I learnt the value and power of 'leverage'. I got to appreciate the amount of work-load it took to be 'the boss'. In short, that experience hammered home the sweat-and-dirt reality of running a business. I even recognised the intoxicating thrills of the promise of 'making it'. In fact, that very lure of profits was to be my undoing later on.

Looking back, I am glad I underwent that crucial metamorphic stage.


Lesson 3 Look at the big picture

I would venture to state this thought-process is serving me well, even years later. Looking at the BIG picture, thinking BIGGER than you are capable of, actually helps to bring everything into perspective and shrink all the problems. It's also a tremendous motivation booster.

Lesson 4 Practise,practise,practise

This is obviously too much of a cliché, so the only new thing I'd say about this which I learnt much later, is that practice does NOT make perfect. It only makes permanent. If you think about it deeper, it's quite true. We are run by our habits. If you do anything new consistently for 30 days, voilà! You've formed a new habit which did not even exist last month!

Lesson 5 Condemnation of competitors

This one's a bad, and I mean, REALLY TOXIC thing to do. Nearly every MLM company I have encountered does this to some extent. Besides, there is retribution, karma if you will, to come sometime in the future. Come on, how could you ever get better than someone you condemn and bring him low to your own level? No way!

The best solution I discovered is actually to NOT compare yourselves to your competitors, but to 'differentiate' yourselves in a competitive manner. Keep them anonymous, while verbally tying good experiences to yourselves. While outright praise could get you labelled a hypocrite, suggest rewards the buyer could get by working with you. This IS a life lesson, which anyone would be well-served by applying in any area.

Lesson 6 Brotherhood

I learnt this early on and detached quickly from it. Initially, an absence of hierarchy in my company led to the formation of 'cluster' work groups. Independent clusters would later evolve into pseudo-societies with their own codes and individual agendas. Coupled with a lack of success (think broke) and REAL motivation, cluster members formed 'hoods' as a solution to seek solace in a hostile work environment.

The code of brotherhood was to support emotionally each other as a team. It didn't say WORK as a team towards a common financial goal.

Sure brotherhood is good, but does it FEED you? Down-and-out people usually seek the crutch of companionship and ultimately get carried too far away by bawdy camaraderie and raucous revelry. It simply puts you off your goals. Does anyone like their success getting side-tracked? I don't think so.



Lesson 7 Think glamour

This was a heady drug you used on yourself that impressed upon customers the giddy levels of your own success. Flashy toys, opulent settings, exquisite aromas, sports cars, all to up the wow factor. You could set it up easily to snag passers-by. Or borrow/rent others' belongings to make yourself look rich.

Frankly, I did it too. "Fake it till you have it" comes to mind. It worked. Until people could 'smell' your phoniness from a mile away and turn tail!

There is actually no replacement to genuine confidence. What your true passion can bring out requires no masks of any sort. I don't think you need 'toys' to impress others. Think about it. If you were genuinely successful, would you have a strong need to impress others to 'buy' into you? Or would you be more worried about your family's and your own personal safety from scammers, paparazzi and the ilk? So, what do Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan all have in common? They hide! They've got bodyguards preventing fans from getting too close. I think you get the point.


Lesson 8 Pressure them into buying

Newbies were drilled from the start to sandwich prospects from three sides and pressure them into buying. I soon realised this was the worst way possible to promote a product to someone. Forced decisions build frustration and resentment over time, and people remember your actions far more, and longer, than what you said. Doing that created instant enemies. For life! That's one of the worst destroyers of reputation I have ever known.

If you're down in your business, and you approach people in an artificially controlled manner, they can still sense the desperation in you. However, if you are doing great, your natural confidence shines through and that alone is capable of making people want to work with you. In either case, it is a positive-feedback mechanism in action. You do bad, you get worse; you do well, you get better. I would say the key is re-framing your situation from an angle of strength, rather than work from a decidedly weak position of neediness. Unfortunately, that is the exact reputation Network Marketers have acquired here in Singapore. If you hear MLM here, you picture hard-selling, underhanded tactics.

Anyway,this is not meant as an exhaustive list. But I enjoyed visiting the past to extract meaningful lessons applicable to our daily lives. I learnt things good and bad. Had the biggest roller-coaster ride of my life then. I have now already out-grown any ill-feelings towards that fateful section of my life.

Why I Failed In Network Marketing/MLM

Here I will recall the reasons why I failed in my network marketing/MLM venture from 2005 to 2008.

I was 22 plus years old at the time and, after two and a half years in the industry, I could still name the number of people I had sponsored personally as being within the single digits. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't make money in MLM — even though I did everything my upline and leaders told me to do.


I went to every meeting worth going, made numerous calls per day, and spent every cent I had on advertising that never turned in positive cash flow. When my upline and leaders got to know about this, they insinuated it must be "me" getting things wrong. That the system was completely "duplicable." And I just needed to be more "positive", set more goals, call more prospects, and attend more meetings and training sessions.



But those same things only got me more of the same feelings of rejection and frustration. By now I was totally broke, had racked up over couple thousand of dollars worth of telco bills in debt, and was so financially challenged, I had to borrow just to travel to work and buy food.


In truth, I had totally given up on MLM.

In retrospect, the first reason, which I feel forms the entire basis of failing or succeeding in any business venture, would definitely be one's intentions. I remember my intention was to make a quick buck, FAST. I was thinking short-term, expecting a miracle of overnight riches after foolishly believing their unsubstantiated income claims. Since I was never in it for the long term since day one, I was willing to jump ship once a nicer alternative presented itself, rather than stay on a sinking ship to learn valuable lessons which they don't teach you in school.


My second reason was a lack of support from my family. This was ABSOLUTELY demoralising, considering from the start I had their well-being at heart and promised myself they wouldn't have to work ever again. It took what seemed like ages to me, to realise that sadly, they had never learnt of any other way to earn money. Study hard, get good grades in school, go to university for a degree, work hard and then happy ever after... blah blah blah... You get to hear such nonsense a lot in Singapore. More on that in a moment.



The third reason I could come up with was the wrong industry to be doing business in, without having properly analysed its suitability on my part, namely the mattress industry. The product was not unique in any sense. There were other companies offering similar products imported from a too-similar exporter. Also, there were pseudo-scientific elements in the sales pitches, blended with juicy elixir-like health giving promises and a system blatantly championed as 'the' final cure to poverty. There was virtually no way to make residual income from the products. As for the system of recruitment, the inherent flaw was its relying too much on a franchise model, when there was not even a workable system reliably taking over your hard work. I never had my heart in it, and ached to do something I loved just once. Imagine calling up tremendous amounts of courage and initiative for a work I couldn't even force myself to like, day in, day out.


The fourth reason I was bound to fail was whom I surrounded myself with. There was not a single individual who could be found to be truly successful. I understood that a mentor, role-model or a business coach to learn from was absolutely critical in learning the ropes of a new industry. I just couldn't find anyone worth following. All had delusions of grandeur, and nothing much to show for it except sneaky sales tactics, cultivating fake persona and too much glib talk, leaving much to be desired. It slowly dawned on me that anyone lacking scruple can never deserve respect and awe. Hence, quoting one of my leaders, I "ensconced myself in my own ivory tower" to drown away the bubbling up of disrespect, rudeness and impotent rage.

Another reason I lacked the capacity to cover the basics was due to my mindset. I was simply programmed from the start to be an employee. Influenced by the education system, society, relatives, et cetera. Hence there was a HUGE inward struggle when I tried to move away from the E(employee) quadrant into the B(business owner) quadrant. In retrospect, it had never been natural for me to think as a business owner, in part due to a lack of business culture at home. Also, there was no system acting as an incubator for entrepreneurship development, though now you could spot a few half-hearted initiatives. That ultimately led me to crave security and the assurance of a regular pay check. In fact, to be bluntly honest, I was afraid to let go of my old, fear-based programming. Consequently, I had a lack of desire to create financial freedom, which is very unbecoming of me as I'm known for my passions (though not of those sorts you're imagining). I was content and comfortable to work for others, to be worth only so little. It was when I accidentally bought a book, containing the keys to unlocking my mind, that awakened the desire for riches (I'll touch on a review of that precious book on a later date for you). It fanned the sparks of an early, vague dream to a throbbing desire for success. I was never the same again, with my entrepreneurial spirit hungering for the thrilling ride of being my own boss.

Subsequently it was an entirely natural progression for me to branch out into several areas of marketing I am currently involved in.

In writing this article, I have strived not to create any scapegoats, as such is not in my nature, but to draw invaluable life lessons. In having learnt to forgive unscrupulous people, I have learnt to forgive myself. That, my friend, is advice you can take to the bank!