Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Who is the Happy Warrior?
Character of the Happy Warrior William Wordsworth (1770-1850) WHO is the happy Warrior? Who is he | |
What every man in arms should wish to be? | |
—It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought | |
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought | |
Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought: | 5 |
Whose high endeavours are an inward light | |
That makes the path before him always bright: | |
Who, with a natural instinct to discern | |
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn, | |
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there, | 10 |
But makes his moral being his prime care; | |
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain, | |
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train! | |
Turns his necessity to glorious gain; | |
In face of these doth exercise a power | 15 |
Which is our human nature’s highest dower; | |
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves | |
Of their bad influence, and their good receives: | |
By objects, which might force the soul to abate | |
Her feeling, rendered more compassionate; | 20 |
Is placable—because occasions rise | |
So often that demand such sacrifice; | |
More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure, | |
As tempted more; more able to endure, | |
As more exposed to suffering and distress; | 25 |
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness. | |
—’Tis he whose law is reason; who depends | |
Upon that law as on the best of friends; | |
Whence, in a state where men are tempted still | |
To evil for a guard against worse ill, | 30 |
And what in quality or act is best | |
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest, | |
He labours good on good to fix, and owes | |
To virtue every triumph that he knows: | |
—Who, if he rise to station of command, | 35 |
Rises by open means; and there will stand | |
On honourable terms, or else retire, | |
And in himself possess his own desire; | |
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same | |
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim; | 40 |
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait | |
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state, | |
Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall, | |
Like showers of manna, if they come at all: | |
Whose power shed round him in the common strife, | 45 |
Or mild concerns of ordinary life, | |
A constant influence, a peculiar grace; | |
But who, if he be called upon to face | |
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined | |
Great issues, good or bad for human kind, | 50 |
Is happy as a Lover; and attired | |
With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired; | |
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law | |
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw: | |
Or if an unexpected call succeed, | 55 |
Come when it will, is equal to the need: | |
—He who, though thus endued as with a sense | |
And faculty for storm and turbulence, | |
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans | |
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes; | 60 |
Sweet images! which, whereso’er he be, | |
Are at his heart; and such fidelity | |
It is his darling passion to approve; | |
More brave for this, that he hath much to love:— | |
’Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high, | 65 |
Conspicuous object in a Nation’s eye, | |
Or left unthought-of in obscurity,— | |
Who, with a toward or untoward lot, | |
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not, | |
Plays, in the many games of life, that one | 70 |
Where what he most doth value must be won. | |
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, | |
Nor thought of tender happiness betray; | |
Who, not content that former worth stand fast, | |
Looks forward, persevering to the last, | 75 |
From well to better, daily self-surpast: | |
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth | |
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth, | |
Or he must fall to sleep without his fame, | |
And leave a dead unprofitable name, | 80 |
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause; | |
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws | |
His breath in confidence of Heaven’s applause: | |
This is the happy Warrior; this is he | |
Whom every Man in arms should wish to be. |
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Would you wage a war for independence?
Only India, under the amazing leadership of Gandhi, has been able to achieve independence without having to go to war.
Similarly, it is very unlikely that a man can achieve financial independence (also called financial freedom) without waging a war. This war, however, is not waged with guns and bullets, but with words, ideas and thoughts.
If you look at the men in your life, you will immediately see who is engaged in a war to attain financial independence, and who is just seeking security and wants to absolutely avoid war.
The men who are not willing to fight, will have plenty of reasons (excuses, really) for not fighting. But nobody can judge them. They are responsible for their own lives, and what they do with the limited time they have on Earth is their own business and nobody should interfere.
However, this portal was created for men who are willing to fight. I know they are in the minority, and I also know they need tools and weapons to wage this war.
This is why I decided, two days ago, to launch information and training sessions every Monday, from 7 to 9 PM, in order to share as much of what I know as possible with these valiant men. I will record all the sessions so the valuable information and knowledge becomes available to all users of this portal.
Can a man be a winner if he doesn't know business?
Is this all there is to Life?
The following is a great passage from John O'Keeffe's book, Business Beyond the Box - Applying your mind for breakthrough results.
It takes as much effort and energy to work at a boring, mundane improvement to any part of our work and lives – which any one of a hundred people could have done – as it does to deploy our minds and talent trying to do something substantially more meaningful. The problem is that we never take five minutes out to realize this.
How often do we become involved in relatively petty arguments about realtively petty things? Why not put all that energy and commitment into going after something worthwhile?
How often do we just get stuck in a rut, without realizing it, believing that a minor improvement on where we are is a cause for celebration?
How often do we, almost subconsciously, accept the status quo and happily work within it?
Are we living or are we dying? Will there be anything to write on our gravestone that makes us anymore distinctive, memorable or contributing more than millions of others living this very minute? Are we destined simply to come into the world, perhaps mate with another and spend our lives going through the humdrum activity of producing and raising two new humans to replace the two mates? Talk about going round in circles.
At work, are we simply to live out a commmonplace existence, going for mediocre improvements, just like millions of others in hundreds of other corporations, all in their own little boxes just like us, earning a wage to keep us alive until we're dead?
Next month, even if it is March, starts a new year. March to next February. Is there any real point in us living that year or might we just as well go into a coma? Are we merely going to aim for this year being a little bit better than last year – and accept it if it's not? Will the world be any different for us having lived his year? Wil we ourselves be any different, for the better, after the year is over?
How about next month, or next week? Are we really aiming to make a big difference – or are we just continuing to exist as before, perhaps a little better, stuck in the box of incrementalism, imprisoned by old habits and routines, without knowing it, concentrated on the scraps of work and life?
If we were seen from Mars, wouldn't we be just like one ant in a colony of ants at our feet in a wood – focused on things that to us are minutia and trivia? You lie in a box called a house – is it really so different from all the other boxes? You travel in a box on wheels – is it really so different from all the other boxes? You go to an office block to work in a cubbyhole – is it really so different from all the other blocks? And when we make minor improvements to our boxes, we're still in the box of incrementalism.
Are you dressed in a box called a suit, perhaps the same color as all the other boxes, with perhaps an incremental difference of a wider stripe, or perhaps choosing a slightly different tie or a brightly colored blouse – an incremental difference that you celebrate as a major distinctiveness?
Is what you do during a work day really just existing in a box of routines and habits established by others before you or around you – celebrating incremental changes or improvements as being significant?
Are things really, in the big scheme of things, going to be that much better for you acting out your life this day, this week, this month, this year?
Do you want to stay stuck in a rut? Accepting your state in life? Accepting where you are, what you have, what you do as being “given” and looking at a modest change or improvement you make as being a cause for celebration?
Whatever job you do, whatever role you play, whatever life you lead, you can aim for step-change results within that job, that role, that life, rather than being content with just making it marginally better.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Capitalism is a manly tool
Men who don't understand capitalism are destined to lose economically their entire lives.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Gods in the chrysalis
This is one reason why I created this portal: so that I could stop thinking and acting like an ordinary man, and start thinking and acting like a superman.
I believe that men are not just men. They are gods in the chrysalis. They are magnificent, colorful, winged creatures trapped, often for a lifetime, in the hard-shelled pupa of a butterfly.
But unlike butterflies that emerge naturally from the chrysalis, men must blast through the mental walls around them. The superman mentality precedes the superman powers. No man can become a superman unless he first believes he has the innate capability within himself to self-transform and courageously struggle toward supermanhood.
This, of course, means war. War against the past. War against other men. War against society.
Men will remain weak and fail to live up to their full potential until they face this super-reality within themselves, and give it full expression in the form of an irrepressible desire to excel in their chosen field.
Do you understand capitalism?
It's great if you use your time productively. What's strange is that after 5 PM, your time is worth zero dollars. This is a sure sign that you are not operating according to capitalism and, therefore, cannot become rich in this life. Don't worry, you're not alone. Most people find themselves in this strange, unprofitable situation where they can only make money 9 to 5.
Why can't people make money AFTER 5 PM or even during week-ends? Because they don't own the means of production. Today, however, the "means of production" is basically what you have in your head. So if you can't make money after 5 PM or during week-ends, it's because there is something about intellectual capitalism that you don't understand.
More about this later.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The magic of compound growth
By "empowerment," I mean that either somebody gave you power, or you grabbed power. Either way, I mean power in the sense of "knowledge." And knowledge is best defined as the "capacity for effective action."
So somebody who has a management degree, but doesn't know what to do in a business situation, does NOT have knowledge. He may have a nice degree, properly framed and hanging on a wall in the living room. But he does NOT have knowledge (i.e. power).
As for "Exponential Profits," I refer to a person's ability to see, with his mind, "money seeds" everywhere. Exponential profits come from seeing money as an organic seed which produces limitless wealth.
This requires, of course, that the money seed be planted in a highly fertile environment that will nourish it and grow it. Such a fertile environment is the properly excited human mind.
If a person's mind is not fertile and doesn't nourish the money seed, then the money will just die.
This is why, for instance, over half of people who win a million dollars at the lottery, become bankcrupt in two years. This means they are POORER than they were before they bought the winning lottery ticket!
This is also why most self-made millionaires come from poor families and started out in life with very limited resources: Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, Matt Morris, etc. just to name a few.
In truth, it's not the size of your money seed, or how many money seeds you have. It's your skill at creating and sustaining the compounding growth of that seed.
Einstein hinted at that secret when he said, on the evening where he received his Nobel Prize, that the greatest force in the universe is that of compound interest.
In short, to become wealthy, you've got to find a way to create and sustain compounding growth. Read the book by Curtis Carlson to know the secrets regarding compounding growth.
By the way, have you noticed the total absence of any kind of compounding growth in the working life of employees? Indeed, the salary of most people is fixed throughout the year, and even from year to year. Since salary reflects contribution to corporate success, it then follows that there is NO compound growth in the person's professional contribution or career development.
Economic impotence is painful
That's because society is 80% business. So without understanding business, a man cannot have power in society. He is "economically impotent."
Like the other form of impotence, this kind of impotence is not something men want to talk about, let alone admit privately or publicly. However, unlike the other impotence, this one penalizes not just the couple, but their children as well because quality of income determines quality of life for the whole family.
To remedy this feeling of being "economically impotent," a man may do other things after 5 PM or during week-ends to feel better. However, every Monday morning (and often, it starts on Sunday afternoon), he is brought back to reality.
The reality of being existentially incomplete and economically inadequate.
He may blame his managers or the "system" or the government or any number of external sources. The only person he does not blame is himself. This is understandable, for such is human nature and the need for psychological self-preservation.
But eventually, he begins to realize that he is trapped in a sort of Matrix where the system is too powerful and where his life seems to be programmed in advance, where he has little choice. This daily grind crushes his sense of manhood, and turns him into sheep that is incapable of having an independent opinion, much less an original idea (when, strangely enough, as self-made billionaire Ross Perot said, "it just takes one idea to live like a king for the rest of your life.")
The movie Fight Club expresses brilliantly this deep-seated desire of men to take back control of their lives. Men have the innate desire and ability to fight for what they believe is right. It's just that, tragically enough, society's institutions are designed to deactivate that desire to fight in every boy. The educational system, for instance, is designed to create obedient, predictable and conforming little boys who grow up to become obedient, predictable and conforming little men.
That indeed is the ultimate crime of society: to rob men of their manhood.
Indeed, how can a man feel virility when another man dictates HOW and WHERE he must spend his time five days a week?
The "organization man" of the 1950s must give way to the 21st century superman. This superman is fully in charge of his economic life, and has absolute sovereign control over HOW and WHERE he spends every single day of his life.
Watch the movie The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Pierce Brosnan. You will see an example of what a superman should look like. Most people think that becoming Thomas Crown is impossible, and THAT very thinking is precisely why they will never become Thomas Crown. They have basically given up before even trying. Even a small baby or a young infant will try before giving up.
The bottom line is that every man's life is his own. He can choose to do whatever he wants with it. But choose, he must. He must choose either to be in control of his life, or he will -- often by default -- choose to give up control of his life (especially five days a week, 9 to 5).
For men who courageously choose to be in control (I say "courageously" because being in control implies being personally responsible), the next step is to realize that power can only come from understanding.
Understanding what? Understanding business, which constitutes 80% of society, as mentioned previously.
People who refuse to learn about business, are in fact choosing a life of economic slavery. No man wants to be the slave of another man, yet so far, it was the only way to survive. Having a "job" was the only option available.
Today, there are many more options. And people DO want to explore those options, which is why the billionaire Donald Trump, who made his fortune in real estate, now seems to aggressively pursue and exploit the exploding Business Education industry! (www.trumpuniversity.com)
In the end, economic impotence is painful. And it keeps hurting without men doing anything about it because it is not physically visible, and it's not even mentally detectable. This undetectability of the Economic Impotence Syndrome makes it all the more difficult to treat.
I myself had to admit, several years ago, that I was economically impotent, even though I had a business degree from McGill University (called the "Harvard of Canada" by Newsweek magazine).
The good news for all men is that I've spent the last 7 years doing the hard intellectual work of creating a powerful framework that teaches business, so there is no need to get an MBA degree (unless you want to work as an employee-executive for a Fortune 500 company).
It is then up to every man to assess, accurately and honestly, his economic situation, and make the courageous decision to learn and master business. For the stakes are high: it's not just financial freedom. It's about seizing control of one's life and, in the process, proudly expressing the full potential of one's MANHOOD!
Meet women, make money, master business and GET RICH!
From my experience, I find that women are decent, pleasant and compassionate human beings. I've learned so much from interacting with women -- stuff I have never read in any book! (And I'm a book worm who reads hundreds of books per year!).
And I've had a lot of fun sharing my knowledge with them.
Currently, I'm looking for men who are good at oral presentations so that Talentelle can serve more women. No training background required, but the candidate must be good at or willing to learn public speaking.
Trainers not only get paid, but learn a great deal about business and can eventually launch their own business if they wish.
To be considered for these contract training positions, please signal your interest by emailing cover letter and resume (PDF format) to omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com Thank you.
FREE Business E-ducation Program
Business is really the way to create wealth and achieve financial freedom under a system like capitalism. As we all know, capitalism won over communism in 1989, and is currently the "only game in town."
Capitalism is a system of private ownership and control of the means of production, and was in fact designed to make YOU rich. BUT you have to know HOW to use it to your own advantage.
Most people don't know how to use capitalism to their own advantage, which is why they have to work for someone else: the business owners.
Don't feel bad if you don't understand capitalism or business. In my case, I graduated with distinction from McGill University in business and STILL did not understand what business or capitalism is all about! I only understood 7 months after graduation, when I began to make a LOT OF MONEY for my employer, yet noticed that my paycheck remained the same week after week.
In fact, the revenues I brought to the company grew exponentially, because I was very good at selling and persuading, but my salary was a flat line. That was in June 2000.
Since then, I've read about 800 books, even speed read through websites, blogs, white papers, etc. to discover the secrets underlying capitalism. Why is it that some people become rich while others struggle every day without seeing the end in sight?
Most people, in fact, work hard every day, but never become rich. What's the difference between rich and poor people?
Robert Kiyosaki, T. Harv Eker, Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, etc. all provide good conceptual answers, and I truly admire these men for they have taught me how to think correctly at the conceptual level. But I think people need to ALSO get down to the nitty gritty (i.e. technical) details.
This is why I created the Business E-ducation Program. It's an email-based education program that will challenge people to think strategically and profitably, so they can liberate themselves financially.
In the end, life is just WAY TOO SHORT to work for someone else.
My philosophy is that if you've got a brain, you deserve to have a business. And if you've got a business, there is a 1 in a 1,000 chance that you will become a millionaire (this is from a research study commissioned by Newsweek magazine).
But in my opinion, it's not even about the money. A business allows you to CREATE LIFE, because if you design and build your business correctly, you should be able to hire a high-integrity and capable manager to run it for you while you do other things like pursuing the life of your dreams.