Smile

This will prevent my Karma from running over your Dogma.

Be Real!

Image…Appearance…Perception…Impression…Acceptance! That’s the game of life, how we look to the world and what message we send out to those who are watching. People spend exorbitant amounts of time and money to create their image. Plastic surgeons will vouch for this as will credit card companies. People want to make a good impression. There’s nothing wrong with making a good impression, but when it covers up your real Self, that’s a problem.

People get themselves in a financial mess because they want to keep up with the Jones’. How many times have you heard a child say, “well, so in so got it so why can’t I have it too?” We are programmed to go into debt to keep up appearances. That puts a great deal of stress in our lives that is unnecessary. I did it and I ended up with physical challenges all because I wanted to appear a certain way. I bet you know the routine!

Stop and think about your own actions. In a new relationship of any kind – work related, romance, friend or community – you present yourself the best you can. If you go for a job interview you dress in your business best to impress the interviewer. Perhaps you wine and dine a client, go on a first date, meet future in-laws, and you’re on your best behavior. But once the mask is taken off your real personality emerges, and it may not be quite the same as it was in the beginning; the divorce rate now-a-days is a prime example. Remember the old saying, “you can’t judge a book by its cover?” Exactly, you can’t!

Many times individuals agree with another person to win their approval in some way, even when they aren’t really sharing the same thoughts. Sometimes it happens because you don’t stop long enough to realize your own beliefs. This is sad because you do not know who you are.

As I jumped out of my box a few years ago I was forced into seeing myself in raw reality, naked if you will. I didn’t like everything I saw and understood why I had tried to hide these things. But when I came face to face with them and realized what was real, I was glad I finally took off the rose-colored glasses so I could see who I am. I then proceeded to change whatever didn’t serve my highest good. I was free for the first time in my life, and it felt incredibly wonderful.

Being real allows your spirit to bring your truth to the surface. It’s not about anyone or anything but you. When you are being real with yourself you don’t need anyone’s approval or validation because you’ve already given it to yourself. You are free to think, believe, dress, eat, and be as you wish. Society has not been taught this, it has been taught to conform and to seek approval or acceptance from others, especially if success in business or life is a goal.

Now I’m not saying we can be heartless, unkind, unfair, or any other action that is fear-based. I’m saying that if you come from a loving place, loving yourself first and foremost, you have the birthright to be you, whatever that means to you. It means taking off your mask, baring your soul and heart, becoming vulnerable, accepting yourself as you are and then making changes it you wish. It means saying “no” if that’s what you want to say instead of sucking up to someone by saying “yes.” It also means letting go of anyone or anything you are attached to because any attachment is bondage. Being real is freedom.

Know that the only real moment you have, the only time you can be real, is in the present moment. The past is over and cannot be again. The future isn’t here yet so is not reality, only a dream. The only place in which there is realness is in this very moment, right now. Learn to live in the present moment. Here you can love fully, expand fully, create the future fully and be in the fullness of life.

So listen to your heart, hear your inner guidance and pay attention, honoring your own beliefs even if they differ from everyone else. Stand in your truth regardless of the crowd and value yourself as a divine being whose birthright says you are worthy and deserve all that’s good. Most of all, truly love yourself because without this self-love you have no love to give to anyone else. This is where you are real, in your heart where love abides, and love is the positive power in your life to heal everything. And so it is…

Fruppertunity beckons - Thanx Peter

Fruppertunity beckons It's so easy to become enmeshed in the changes in South Africa, and to see a dark conspiracy behind each new piece of legislation, or to see our individual futures threatened. And while it may well be that for some of us life is getting more challenging - how much more challenging to have a B&B in New Orleans right now, or a hotel in Pakistan, or to have a struggling tourist business in Sumatra? Life is about change, and it's dealing with that change that keeps us growing. I would much rather be dealing with these challenges while sitting on a sunny beach with a pina colada in hand, than suspiciously scoping out every bearded foreigner on the London underground while trying to evaluate the impact of the macro-economic situation on my small business. Wherever there is change, there is opportunity. The more change, the more opportunity. So why are we so constantly focused on the negative aspect of change, rather than on the immense wealth of opportunity that we now face? In fact, if there is a 'problem' it lies in having to choose one opportunity at the expense of another. The mere fact that we have a choice stymies most of us. What if we choose the wrong one? What if the other choice turns out to have been better? What will my mates/mother/maiden think of me if I choose this one? What if I fail? What if I lose money? What if the government doesn't like it? Who should I ask for permission? Hey! This is Africa. It's better to ask forgiveness later than to wait for permission now. I fear that we may be using all the changes as an excuse to wait until things get better. In the meantime, we think, "I'll start working on getting some qualifications. After all, how can I sell something in this arena without the proper credentials?" Think again. These are the best times we've ever had. And, as for the credentials, lets put that into perspective. When last did you ask a supplier to prove to you that he was qualified? Doctor? Dentist? Plumber? Programmer? We don't ask. We assume that you have the skills you're professing to have. (Hint: pretending to be a medical professional without having the appropriate credentials is illegal. This is one of the very few cases where it's better to get permission first - preferably via the traditional technique of studying for 5 years, rather than the modern SA technique of purchasing the certificate over the counter!) Right now, sitting right where you are Michiel, if you have enough technical smarts to read this email - you have all that it takes to be hugely successful as a small business operator in this country. Even if you're already in your own business, have a crack at the following simple exercise. Step 1.------What frustrates YOU. What bothers YOU every time you see it, or you can't get it, or it breaks, or you don't see it? What frustrates YOU so much that you'd be happy to spend money fixing it? [Make a list of all of these frustrations that you can think of.] For now, focus only on the stuff that hassles you. Step 2.------For each item on your list - how many other folk does it bother? Don't worry about fixing it just yet. We need to establish if there might be a 'market' - enough people prepared to spend money on fixing it. At the end of this step you will have a few 'winners' - things that hassle you and a bunch of other folk enough to warrant further attention. Step 3.------Find/develop/create some solutions that YOU would be happy with to kill these frustrations. Start by using Google/Yahoo/Amazon/Ananzi or any of the 10,000 web search engines to see if anyone else anywhere else in the world has solved it. If they have, can you copy, franchise, buy, or improve their solution for yourself and your market? Step 4.------At this point you almost have a business. And SA is so full of fruppertunities right now that there are a zillion businesses waiting to be created. Every business on earth exists to solve a frustration of some size. For example, your motor vehicle's starter motor was invented by a guy who's friend was killed while trying to start an engine with a crank handle. None of the above steps requires massive capital unless you choose to do your thinking with a bottle of Meerlust Rubicon 1979. And if you start your research early in the day with such alcoholic stimulation, chances are that you will indeed have to ask forgiveness later as you stagger home. The above steps reflect an extremely simplistic view of market research, but I have never had to go beyond this in order to see whether a business model will work or not. If the idea cannot pass these 4 steps, it's not going to pass at all. And on that note, have some fun. And if this inspires you to be the next Shuttleworth, Branson, or Gates - then I'd welcome a bottle of Meerlust when you race past that first million. October 12th, 2005 - Umhlanga RocksPeter Carruthers - Business Warrior

Success

True success is…..

Eventually having your bank manager end up in your company as an employee of yours. Mike van Niekerk

Survival in a Sick world

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. — Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, philosopher and inventor

Neither a borrower or lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. — William Shakespeare; "Hamlet"

Do not be made a beggar by banqueting upon borrow, when thou hast nothing in thy purse: for thou shall lie in wait for thine own life, and be talked on. — Apocrypha, (Ecclesiasticus 18:33)

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. — Robert Frost, American poet

Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt. — Henrik Ibsen; "A Doll's House"

The surest way to ruin a man who doesn't know how to handle money is to give him some. — George Barnard Shaw; "Heartbreak House"

Dreading that climax of all human ills, The inflammation of one's weekly bills. — George Gordon, Lord Byron, English Poet

Who goeth a borrowing Goeth a sorrowing. — Thomas Tusser; "The Farmer's Daily Diet"

Getting rid of debt is like getting rid of an illness. First you have to recognize the symptoms and then you have to provide an immediate remedy. If you wait too long before treating the problem, the situation will get worst and it will take longer to recover. If your procrastinate on treating the problem it may cause long-term pain and discomfort that eventually escalates into a more severe illness, which requires a more drastic cure. If the illness progresses too far, if could turn into a chronic condition. Similarly, failure to acknowledge financial problems can escalate into more severe problems that are costly to recover from and require drastic solutions that may damage credit worthiness. — Road To Debt Freedom

The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow and the men who lend. — Charles Lamb; Essays of Elias, "The Two Races of Men"

It is very iniquitous to make me pay my debts; you have no idea of the pain it gives one. — Lord Bryon; Byrons' "Letters and Journals"

A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it. — Victor Hugo; Marius, in "Les Miserables"

Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: "I wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars." — Mark Twain; "The Gilded Age"

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Victim Mentality

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

The best use I have ever heard for the word FICA

PetesWeekly.Com Petes Weekly will be back next week, in full force. The past 10 days have been awfully interesting, however. The highlight - my daughter finally arriving on Tuesday evening, and after 17 years I get to practice parenthood again. The lowlight - my bank arbitrarily deciding, without warning, to freeze my business bank accounts because they felt it was time for me to get FICA'd. Absolutely no concept of the knock-on effect of such a drastic action! I don't know about you, but I sure am getting exercised about SA banks behaving as if we're all criminals, charging us the earth, with service levels that make Telkom look almost maternal. Maybe more about that next week when I have had some sleep and time to calm down. Have a great weekend, and if YOUR bank gives you uphill, tell them to go FICA themselves. Peter Carruthers April 12, 2007

Finances

BANK

A place that will lend you money if you can prove you don't need it.

JOINT ACCOUNT

Something that is never overdrawn by the wife, just under-deposited by the husband.

CREDIT CARD

What you use to buy today what you can't afford tomorrow while you're still paying for it yesterday.

INFLATION

A way of cutting a Ten Rand note in half without damaging the paper.

RECESSION

A period when we have to go without things our grandparents never heard of.

Insurance Salesmen

INSURANCE

Something that keeps you poor all your life so that you can die rich.

The next time a receptionist from an Insurance Broker (Please note not a Richer…… but a broker) phones you and asks you that her boss wants ONLY 20 minutes of your precious time to see if you are “Financially up to date” ask them to have the “Broker” fax or e-mail you his or her personal Asset and LIability report, financial status report or balance sheet. And I mean everything he owns and possesses. Not stuff that they still owe the bank…….. I mean real wealth!

If they are more wealthy than me.... I would love to know their secrets to success and they are more than welcome to come and share their secrets with me. I always associate myself with people who are better than me. People I can learn from. That is a way that I grow.

I must have asked this request to about 8 potential brokers that have phoned me via my banks.

I have been promised by all of them that they will get back to me and to this day I am still waiting. (Smile)

Rod Finnie

Rod Finnie's hour of glory. (A picture tells a thousand words) It's amazing how we learn our lessons.

The one lesson I have learned is that when a person calls himself a "Wealth Creation Coach" or even worse.... a consultant? – it is normally because he could not make it in his own business and now becomes a instant consultant. A very dangerous title.

Before you get in a consultant do yourself a favour. Have him or her checked out. And I mean in every way. Credit Check - SARS Check - SAPS Check - You will find that most consultants and or coaches have the worst credit record or can barely make ends meet....... AND NOW THEY WANT TO GIVE YOU ADVICE ON HOW TO CREATE WEALTH???

Not one thing that you took on did you complete. Thank God the "advice" you gave me fell on deaf ears. I do not think you understand the entrepreneurial mind and never will.

The day you can show me your millions in the bank because of your wonderful "advice" please give me a call. I will then call you a genuine "CREATOR OF WEALTH"

I thank you Rod Finnie from the bottom of my heart for the very hard and expensive lessons learned. The universe has its way of sorting people like you out.

Do me a favour my friend......... rather go and get a honest paying job and stop the Bullshit, you create more harm than good!!

Never chase a lie. Let it alone; and it will run itself to death. Lyman Beecher

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. Marie von Ebner-Eschenback; Aphorisms; 1905

The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight; but they while their companions slept; were toiling upward in the night. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not. James Gordon; M.D.

The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand; as in what direction you are moving. Oliver Wendell Holmes

In reality; serendipity accounts for one percent of the blessings we receive in life; work and love. The other 99 percent is due to our efforts. Peter McWilliams

Funny