The reason for existence is Valuable Service

photocredit: blog.bqe.com

This stock photo has a lot to say, but nothing you couldn't say better with your own life.

Purpose is key to living. I've found that it's one of four elements to any life, any business. This is introduced in "Build Forever Today" - and needs some more examples as I can get back to it.

Purpose isn't self-centered - far from it. Purpose is built on your exchange of a valuable service (a product being a finite exchangeable end-result is still a service.)

Earl Nightingale held (as did Napoleon Hill, Charles Haanel, and others) that a person's income was directly proportional to the amount of valuable service they provided. Nightingale further held that there were "river people," who were always in a "river of interest" as they moved through life. He also mentioned "goals people," who went from one accomplished goal to the next.

In all cases, they arranged their lives to help others and were remunerated by it.

The people you see who are complaining about the One-Percenters simply don't get this concept. They are not making the income they want because they simply don't know, understand, and apply what they need to in order to get through life prosperously. Wealth has always been and always will be held in the hands of those who have trained themselves in how to deliver and exchange valuable service. Those who remain poor have isolated themselves from the very data which would allow them and the people around them to become rich.

For richness, true abundance, lies in helping others to succeed.

Competition is another lie designed to distract.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxypar4/

(I hope one in blue wins...)

Came to me that competition is a false term. In modern school sports, it's a great thing to have pretty equally-matched teams on a clean, nicely marked, mostly level (crowned slightly for run-off) playing field. Both start with clean uniforms that are mostly the same except for colors. And they have a set of rules to keep the playing fair.

Horrible training for life. Because nothing on this planet works like that. While members of the same species are "dressed" alike, that's more for mating purposes than to compete with other species.

Humankind, for instance, is a horrible competitor to the other species. If we don't hunt them to extinction, we generally plague them with our exhaust fumes, or cement highways, and metal vehicles which either smash them flat or cripple them in any collision.

But competition in itself is a lie.

Species do not compete with other species - they eat each other to survive. Humankind does the same with others of their own - eating them in a corporate sense, not (except rarely) a physical one.

Look at Microsoft's rise and dominance. Apple had a much better interface (which they copied from SPARC) and then Windows copied theirs. There were much better Disc Operating Systems (or Digital, whatever you prefer) than what Gates bought from a programmer to license to IBM.

But Gates knew how to play cutthroat poker and got the IBM Operating System license for their new line of Personal Computers. Sheer bluff. Didn't actually have the OS. Bought it later for $50K. A fortune at the time for those struggling programmers they bought it from.

I was going along with all my research on Internet scams and realized that trying to "compete" with them was a fool's errand. They were getting all this money by ripping people off with their false promises. When enough people complained, they simply packed up shop, declared bankruptcy so they didn't have to pay the rest of them, then started a new LLC or corporation with the same line of work, the same people, the same scams - just called something slightly different.

So it was a constantly moving target which mostly stayed in the shadows or moved back into them whenever the light shone on them. Paid off politicians to look the other way - everything like the racketeers they are. Almost as bad as the credit card companies...

But competition is never on a level playing field. Someone gets a product out there first and usually keeps the lead. Others whittle away at their flanks, but never take the big prize. And if they start getting close, the leader usually makes them a deal and buys out the management, folding that competitor into their side.

Sure, there are laws against this, but that practically doesn't matter. If the Feds don't approve it, you can always see that later, one "suddenly" goes bankrupt and then is bought up at fire sale prices by the market leader. There used to be two satellite radio services... And how did GM get so big? It's not just the Pontiac brand which bit the dust...

And how is Ford not being part of this bail-out? They have better ideas - like seeing this coming and re-negotiating their loans far ahead of this economic collapse. And as well, already shifting their production lines to be able to shift from trucks to cars in the same plant within a few weeks. Never done before in this industry. And they just reported they are probably going to be profitable next year.

How do they do this?

Not compete - it's create. You have to way out-think those people who are competing with you. But more than think - it's create. You have to pull great new ideas into your space and utilize them to build great new worlds.

Where do ideas come from? Well they don't grow on trees -- they grow within them.

Huh?

Look, all inspiration comes from the Universal. Check out your Bible, New Testament, especially. All these New Thought guys, these "Secret" teachers, the ancient Vedic and Huna teachings. There's a river runs through this for everyone.

Around a year ago, I edited and compiled a book called Genius. Here, I searched for every article I could find which defined how a person became and harnessed their own native power of genius.

Turns out anyone could become one, and/or learn to live with that extreme talent.

The secret is that it all comes from within - and without, for that matter.

Same place your creativeness comes from. Mostly your application of Free Will with that great repository of all knowledge called the Universe.

And those who know this "secret" are way ahead of everyone else. The simplest explanation of those sentences above are in "The Secret" DVD, but also in Earl Nightingale's "The Strangest Secret" and also in Robert Collier's "Secret of the Ages".

No surprise that they all have the word "secret" in them - but the funniest thing is, as Nightingale says, it's no secret at all and writers have been talking about this since ancient times up to the present.

But back to our competition. If you really want to be outrageously successful, have fantastic wealth - don't try to compete with someone or some corporation. Simply create a better solution. And be more creative in marketing that solution.

And better than that fabled mousetrap - the Universe will flood you everything you could possibly want.

Try it and see.

The funny philosophy of happiness - it was exactly where you needed to look for it all the time

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jphilipson/)

Fascinated with how things are coming together recently.

Things you are looking for truly and always show up exactly where you needed to look for them.

This image is one. Of course, it's a search on Flickr for pictures of "happiness" - and I get this fascinating image which the center of attention is on that beautiful glowing tree. But what you don't particularly notice right off is that there are several other trees n this photo. And you find them when you look for them. That's right where they are - where you needed to look.

Of course, that's a simple explanation.

But let's go over supposedly immutable laws. Like the Bell Curve - states that any distribution of data has about 3% actually making an incredible success of themselves and somewhere around 95 % just muddling along. (With 3-5% being criminals who commit most of our crimes, and around 10-15% being "poor" that the media love to trumpet about.)

If you check around, this bell curve shows up just about everywhere.

But you and I know that the rich are there because they changed their minds. Another way to look at this is that they started looking where they needed to look in order to find what they wanted.

Of course, that phrase says "wanted" comes before "look".

My own example in this is somehow following this inspired idea to get a refund back from a company I was scammed by. Sure, I can make it work to pay off these thousands of dollars that I really got nothing out of. But that idea of "inspired" was a new thought. I was born a Scorpio and so have worked with this heritage for a long time. It means that I'm wired to be incredibly dedicated to whatever or whoever I attach to - it also has the flip side of bringing new meaning to "hell hath no fury" when scorned.

So when I get this nagging idea to get a refund by using all the tools I already have at my disposal, I then get a bit leary about it. But testing my intuition, the thought came back, "Go ahead, it will be okay - everything will turn out fine."

Yesterday, I got my first live phone call from that company - and I hadn't actually sent them any email directly for probably months. Now the guy was pretty nice about his stonewalling. And we left the conversation on more or less even terms. Afterwards, even three blog-posts later, I was still a bit ticked off and unsettled.

Sleeping on it gave new answers to that problem. And of course, I was looking in all the wrong places for my solution.

I've said many times that your purpose is what makes you happiest. And have quoted Earl Nightingale in his "Strangest Secret", who says that what you are looking for as a chronic attitude is one of "calm, cheerful expectancy."

The kicker in this is that you can use this feeling as an indicator of what you are doing in life. If you feel this way, then everything is going along fine. If you are intense, upset, or otherwise off-beam and away from this attitude, then you are looking in the wrong place.

All this work in refunds from Internet scammers can lead you through some of the most intense negative emotions that exist. (Follow that link for the graphic - it's a hoot.)

That's the point to living - having fun at things. Sure, there is Justice and there is necessary discipline to keep things on an even keel. Those who follow the route of evil simply have to have more structure installed in their lives. Training a pet is one of these. (I've gotten my dogs to get along with my cattle and vice-versa, as long as I'm right there near both of them.)

Again, that result is because I'm looking where I need to. If you want natural antagonists getting along with each other, then you have to look for that as a result. Figuring that they are always going to be this way or that way - of course gets that result.

That's why I love working on my farm. My dad worked his cattle like most people and so had to build up high fences to keep them from jumping out. I've studied books on this and found out that if you simply work slowly (and hand feed them a lot), the cattle will go just about anywhere you want them to - calmly, quietly, with little fuss. And when I get around to it, I've got a heckuva lot of building materials I can re-use somewhere else...

Back to this telemarketer scam refund business. To make short of it (so you don't have to get an education in internet marketing here), there are marketing keywords which I haven't used, but are enlightening. One of these is "funny things to say to telemarketers". This has far more people looking for it with a lot less competition than keywords like "stop telemarketers" or "Internet scams".

And that would get me back to battery, wouldn't it. Make fun of the silly people who rip others off for greed. Too simple.

Where's my refund? It's right where I needed to look for it all the time. Use the "old" tools I've learned from these old books I talk about all the time. Atkinson, Napoleon Hill, Haanel - right up to more modern authors like Nightingale and even "The Secret" and Jose Silva. You just calm down, relax, think the thought of what you most want - and release it for the Universe to manifest.

Wherever you need to look, it will show up there.

Too simple.

But that's the way this Universe is actually set up. That Bell Curve above just shows how many people aren't looking where they need to - if they did, they'd find it a very simple existence.

(And, not so oddly, this gives me a whole new approach to Internet Marketing...)

Cheers.

The haves and have-nots - how two worlds live together simultaneously

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/visulogik/)

There are two worlds living together simultaneously,
but only one knows the other exists.

These are not the worlds of have and have-not, but probably they align pretty well that way. Some of those who know about the two worlds simply wish to live in relative obscurity rather than living in fantastic opulence - while the other world around them burns.

Some know the universe can be easily changed, and the rest figure that they have to go along with what's presented.

Nightingale, Hill, Holmes, Haanel, Troward, Carnegie, Emerson, Eddy - all these authors and more found out that there was a completely separate world right at their finger-tips. All they had to do was start thinking different. You'll find in most of these writers above that they did exhaustive/exhausting research to determine what was actually going on in the world around them.

And if you look up the thinkers who made incredible amounts of money through these methods, you'll see they have become philanthropists the rest of their lives - Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, Gates, plus many, many others.

So we have our Matrix red pill/blue pill choice.

Start by turning off your TV and start thinking for yourself.

Your future can be whatever you have always dreamed it as - and make those dreams become real and actual in the world around you.

But you have to start thinking for yourself.

Faith - one thing no one can take from you...

(from christianbook.com

Faith - one thing no one can take from you...except yourself. (a book review)

Earl Nightingale said often that the most valuable things in life were given to you free and you couldn't pay to get them back - such as your health and your capacity for thought.

Faith, as laid out by McKay and Abraham in their new book "Billy" - faith is one of these precious and incredibly valuable items which only you can put there and only you can take away.

This story starts and ends with the problems that one of the best friends Billy Graham ever had - he lost his faith and became an agnostic/atheist for the rest of his life. Through an interview on what later became his deathbed, we see the life of Billy Graham from his beginnings on a dairy farm through his decision to follow his call to the ministry and also to the most important incident of his life.

By comparing these two individuals, McKay and Abraham do not tell a cloying, over-pious, up-on-a-pedestal version of Graham's life - but they tell a story of that individual who was as human as the rest of us, warts and all.

Through the eyes of Charles Templeton, we see that talent plays no favorites - that a person of immense talent can yet ruin his own life through the different choices he makes in life. Talent doesn't prepare one for the depths of personal doubts and doesn't prevent anyone from the pitfalls each of us face.

But luck can fall to those who aren't as gifted or talented or brilliant. In Graham's case (as related by the authors through Templeton) the most average among us can live incredibly lucky lives and have all sorts of good fortune shine down on us. Templeton was gifted, physically and mentally - capable of putting women into a swoon and grown men into immediate respect, all with a glance and a word. He also had a native talent for illustration and as an athlete.

Graham and Templeton were best friends and lived through many adventures as up-and-coming evangelists. Why Graham went on to international fame and Templeton to relative obscurity is the question this book raises.

And perhaps the answer is too simple, too pat. But you don't see what this answer is until the end pages of the book. Skilfully drawn through the pages by the narrative, I found myself immersed in the life of Billy Graham and his counterpart, Templeton. Of course the story is all about Graham, but you also find the story of Templeton. One succeeds - and endures that same night on the mountain much as Jesus did, finding that his faith was paramount to all obstacles. The other finds that his faith fails him and so turns his back on his success, his wife, and his friends - to go seek an intellectual reasoning for the world around him.

Templeton has no real explanations for the lucky breaks Graham had - and how he rose to incredible fame and success. Instead, Templeton grouses about these breaks over and over.

I haven't seen the movie, but I can see why someone wanted to make it into one. This is an incredibly powerful narrative and one which has lessons for anyone in our modern times - where we are presented with all types and kinds of opportunities. As well, we are presented with every trial that can be faced by any person living on this planet.

Each one of us can be - and has been - tried in our faith as these authors describe the ordeals Graham experienced, and as well those of his best friend Templeton.

And so this book is a personal tale - personal to everyone who seeks answers to life and yet finds all roads lead back to oneself, one's own ideas - and ultimately, one's personal faith.

So I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who can read it. Life is meant to be lived. And faith is a cornerstone for living.

- - - -

Next up: Think and Make it Happen - Stay Tuned...