Stupidity is a Choice - choose wisely, my friend...

(A Syn)

Of all the people who haunt my dreams and thoughts, the worst are those who I thought brilliant and turned out to be stupid. 

If you chase up their back-trail, you'll find that they became that way because they accepted lessons and examples around them without examining them. And these tend to rise up again and again (like a badly-cooked meal) so you can figure out what lessons you should be getting from these.

The Western humorist Will Rogers laid out the three ways a person can learn:

A person can get themselves educated.
Or a person can learn by observation.
But some people only learn by peeing on an electric fence and finding out through experience.

Since I deal with electric fences every day as I feed my grass fed cattle their next meal, you could understand that I have learned quite a bit about fences. (I started by reading the manual...)

Stupid people never evaluate the lessons they are given, but accept them wholesale. Their life becomes a very long learning experience as others around them have to almost beat it into their head that certain actions cause certain other reactions.

Like being critical of others makes them leave you alone. And soon you have a very small circle of acquaintances who will deal with you - but few true friends, if any.

The underlying core approach is to let any identity or individuality go - and learn by first just observing what is going on. Simplest: Just Be.

Then take that idea and test it a dozen ways in your mind. If it still seems plausible, then test it in a real-world situation - or several.

Don't take anyone's word for it. Especially if they are a celebrity or arrogantly demand you look up to them (by being critical of other competitors.)

You want to take all advice (starting with this one) and test it against what you've already observed, and studied, and your own similar experiences.  Only if they hold together as true through this can you then test it in the real world.

It doesn't matter how many glowing testimonials as person can accumulate, or rave 5-star reviews.

What matters is if any given datum actually is useful to you to improve your own life. That is the acid test.

And if you ever get the chance to sit down and start at the beginning of your own education, observations, and experience - to test each and every datum you have to see if it actually worked in the past and works now: take that chance.

Once you know for yourself exactly what works and what doesn't, then you'll know more about yourself than anyone could ever tell you. You'll know better what you are here for and what you want to accomplich, acquire, or attain. At that point, you can figure out what you should be doing, and how you need to be as a person - what identity is appropriate to do those acctions in order to get where you want to wind up.

Unless, in examining yourself, you've already arrived.

At that point, you can sit on that bliss-point forever - or pick out a new goal that looks interesting.

Your choice.

Let's just not be stupid from here on out, OK?

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The Acid Test to Anything: Did You Help?

Where Win-Win-Win and Golden Rule Intersect

It's not how much money you make, it's how you use that money. It's not the amount of people who will review your book or follow your tweets - it's how much you help them improve their lives.

This universe is actually built from an inter-connected scene. Everything, everyone affects everyone else and everything else. And this is why some version of the "Golden Rule" shows up in every major religion and philosophy on this planet.

Jesus said nothing new when he told people to treat others as you expect to be treated. He was just quoting older sayings in a new version.

Similarly, a current Midwestern phrase is related: "What goes around, comes around."  Just look at it carefully. As you act, so are things acted toward you. As you react, you cause reactions around you. Proactive people live less stressful lives - because they are acting responsibly within their environment.

Napoleon Hill, in his "Think and Grow Rich" had it as: "You have to give before you can get."

This is also the old Steven Covey adage (who was really quoting other sources, again) where he recommended that every action and decision you made should be pointed toward achieving a "win-win-win" outcome. Both you and your customer and everyone involved wins something out of your exchange.

You hear in the "news" about ripoffs and frauds - as if this was common place and involved in every commerce transaction. As usual, they are concentrating on a handful and minority of controversial exchanges. (And by concentrating on the controversial, and chaotic, you'll also see that only a small minority trusts any mainstream media to tell the truth.)

Any small business owner or operator knows that your business continues to survive and get new customers only at the whim of neighborhood goodwill.

Where you do have a scam, they try to get around this concept, but the law (natural law, not man-made) eventually catches up with them and shuts them down. Look up anyone who tried to do this as a regular operation in their own business - they don't exist after a few years.

We are all connected. Those who work to help others constantly and improve the value in their lives will profit in turn. (Profit is just increased value in your own life or business, isn't it?)

In order to get something for yourself, you need to help others achieve it for themselves.

Look at Ray Kroc of MacDonald's fame. He helped an industry expand, serving decent-quality food at decent prices. And made untold millionaires from his suppliers as the result of his "millions sold."

Sam Walton of Wal-Mart helped everyone succeed around him, serving a whole set of people who were underserved by the nationwide chains at the time. By pushing the idea that "you'll sell a lot more for a little less" - he made the entire industry realize that giving greater value to the customer would result in greater profit to the store. Suppliers who built warehouses close to his were able to take advantage of his own "hub-and-spoke" distribution lines - saving them money on shipping - which could be passed on as lower prices - which in turn resulted in greater profits.

Win-win-win.

All based on helping.

So the acid test: Did You Help?

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The Secret to World Peace is - Network Marketing!

You probably won't believe that MLM could end all wars...

So here's the logic of it (all carefully worked out between waking and dreaming):

What keeps countries from going to war with each other is the ability to sell and trade with each other. That was observed with McDonald's and also with the manufacturing chain of Dell Computers (I believe this was in a book by the same author as "The Lexus and the Olive Tree")

The great part about Network Marketing is that it's international in scope these days. And people are able to make extra money on their own by getting out and talking to people, delivering great value to them and helping them learn to run their own business. (The latter is the real reason for the success of MLM - people go onto earning income on their own.)