The Difference Between Intention and Desire
January 31, 2007
A few weeks ago, I tackled the question of whether you can achieve two seemingly disparate goals - wealth and happiness - simultaneously. And lately, I've been thinking about how understanding the difference between intention and desire is a necessary part of the equation.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:00 AM,
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The Business of Religion
January 30, 2007
When I first got into the direct-mail business more than 25 years ago, my mentor introduced me to Reverend Ike. Reverend Ike was a South Florida-based direct-marketing pro whose ministry was focused on helping people cure disease and gain wealth - often at the same time - through the power of prayer.
My mentor loved Reverend Ike's promotions, because of how ingeniously he evoked sympathy. One that I remember in particular arrived with blotches on the envelope. The lead sentence of the sales letter explained: "Please excuse the blotched ink on the envelope," Reverend Ike said. "I was praying for you and crying. Those are tears of sympathy."
For a while, my mentor and I dabbled in the occult. We once sold a product based on "ancient Celtic money rituals." It sold very well, but it made me uncomfortable.
"Do you have to believe in something to sell it?" my mentor asked me.
"I think I do," I said.
"So, if we found some religious thing that you believe in, you'd have no trouble selling it."
"Right."
"Don't you think that's a little arrogant?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"How do you know your religious beliefs are better than the next guy's?"
"Well, I don't."
"Then why do you object? Ninety percent of what we sell - and what anyone sells in America - are products that people don't really need. They just want them. People buy those products to satisfy that desire - believing they will get something from them that 'things' really can't provide. Do you agree with that?"
"I suppose so, in some existential way."
"Then you can see that most everything is sold on faith. And as far as faith is concerned, I try to take a neutral stand. As long as it doesn't do any harm, my position is this: If they want to buy it, I'm happy to sell it to them."
His arguments kept me on the fence for a while, but finally I couldn't take it anymore. I told him that I didn't want to sell anything I didn't believe in. To my surprise, he agreed ... and never put pressure on me again.
But that experience piqued my interest in religious marketing. Whether it is a letter selling holy water from Lourdes or Buddhist prayers, it fascinates me.
Years ago, I may have made a distinction between "legitimate" solicitations from the major faiths and the ancient Celtic money rituals that I once sold. But as I became more sophisticated as a marketer, I could see that they were all pretty much the same. The belief systems may be different - but not the offers: Send us money and we will pray for you and you will be healed and enjoy eternal salvation.
Scanning The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal last week, I came across two stories:
- A start-up company in Tel Aviv called Pray Over IP is selling phone cards that let customers send prayers to various "holy sites" like the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The customer pays a fee to record a prayer and have it broadcast to the site. "It's just $5 or $10 and you get eternal life," said Hasan Achsaf, chairman of POIP.
- Christian doctors all over the U.S. are selling elixirs that have been fortified with prayers. Some of these are meant to cure arthritis, others depression, others cancer.
When you see stuff like this, you have a choice. You can hate it or you can love it.
You can hate it because you see it as duplicitous - as the smart preying on the stupid, the sophisticated taking advantage of the naive.
You can love it because you actually believe in the promises or because you see it as part of the Divine Comedy. Life is a great big, universal joke, laughing at itself, and this is another example of how foolish we are.
But however you feel about it, you have to admit: Religion is and always has been the best business in the world because of the arithmetic of its promise:
- The promise (of curing cancer or of eternal life) is worth every cent the customer has - even if he is a billionaire.
- The cost of the product (I will pray for you) is next to nothing.
Is it duplicitous? Well, that's a matter of opinion. Or faith.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:49 PM,
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Religion and Science
The purpose of science is to discover truth, even if it contradicts what we believe to be true. The purpose of religion is to preserve belief, even if it is contradicted by what we discover to be true.
When science contradicts religion, scientists feel like they are making progress, while religious leaders feel threatened.
When religion has more power than science, scientists are punished. Two examples, one well known, the other not:
- Copernicus was almost executed and later exiled because he published information suggesting that the earth revolved around the sun.
- In the fifth century, a mathematician named Hypatia was tortured to death by monks because of her belief - later proven true - that all of the common curves (circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas) can be created by slicing a cone.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 11:14 AM,
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A New Tool for Citizen Vigilantes
Ordinary citizens will be able to buy hand-held stun guns pretty soon. Taser International recently unveiled a new model that will cost only $300 and will shock its victim into immobility for 30 seconds.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 8:05 AM,
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Speaking of Having the Right Attitude
January 29, 2007
There was a great piece in The New York Times this week about Frank Amonte Sr., the oldest living jockey. At 71, he is still racing horses. The article described a race at Aquaduct. It was a bone-chilling Saturday, and his was the last race. "The only people left in the stands and on the track were those down to their last chance."
"Go get ''em, Frankie," someone yelled ... and the race was off. This was Amonte's chance to make the Hall of Fame. Although he hadn't won a race in 61 tries, if he won this one he would become the first jockey in history to win a race at the age of 70 or more. He believed he had a chance. When he was just a day shy of 70, in 2005, he won his last race at Northamption Fair in Massachussetts.
"We all want to be somebody," he explained to the NYT. If he won that race, he'd get the fame he had been riding for all these 56 long years.
Amonte is in amazing shape. He is lean and strong and never has to throw up or sweat off water to make weight. He weighed in at 125 pounds, mounted his horse, and went out for six furlongs (3/4 of a mile). It was a race for older horses with no more than two career wins.
'Amonte's mount, Eightyninecenntsday, was an "anxious 20-1 gelding with speed and what the jockey later called suspect ankles."
The horse started off impressively, and Amonte hunkered down, "his stirrups slung low, old school style," and stayed ahead down the first stretch heading toward the bend. Then Sultry City edged passed him, and then Speeding Jim. Amonte whipped him and Eightyninecents advanced ... but then, coming down the stretch toward the finish line, the horse began to tire. Amonte stopped whipping. Later he said that he didn't want to "ask more of it than it could give."
"People think it's easy to win," he said. "But it's not. Don't worry though. I'll get them next time."
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posted by M. Masterson @ 2:23 PM,
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Sometimes the Bear Eats You
January 26, 2007
Wednesday, my Jiu Jitsu instructor crushed me. But good. He beat me standing up, sparring. And he tapped me out at least a half-dozen times on the ground. He pushed me around like I was a white belt. I know he's a world champion, but still.I've been at this for eight years. I should be able to hold my own.
It hasn't always been like this. For a while there - when he was focusing on stand-up skills and I was sticking to submission wrestling - I could go 10 minutes with only a single tap-out. Once or twice, I went without a tap. And every so often, I passed his guard - something even black belts rarely do with my instructor. But that time has passed. He is competing at such a high level now that he must have every aspect of his game at 100 percent. And he can't waste time fooling around. If he's going to train, he's going to train hard. And if that means beating his most loyal student, that's the way it's going to be.
I am telling myself that this will be good for me.
' Yesterday was frustrating, because I never got to do the catch-up writing I had planned to do.
So when I woke up today, I resolved to have a strong day.
At noon, JM came by to run my through my strength and cardio training. We are working on a new routine that combines calisthenics and sprinting. It's pretty brutal, but I have been making some gains from it and so was looking forward to a good hour.
What happened was not good. It was non-stop torture. JM gave me a new set of challenges that seemed like they should have been easy, but it was murder. After 20 minutes, I was totally beat. After 40 minutes, I could barely move.
As I lay on the ground sweating and gasping for breath, JM looked down at me and shook his head, smiling.
"Damn," I said. "I thought I'd do better than that."
"Sometimes you eat the bear," he said, "and sometimes the bear eats you." That phrase has been running through my head all day.
There are days when I feel like I can accomplish everything well And there are days when I feel like I can't do anything well or right.
When you have a really tough day, you do feel like you've been eaten by a bear. And sometimes that makes you feel like quitting. But if you push the doubt out of your mind and keep going, you usually find that your luck and your performance change for the better. And then you have a day when you feel like you "kicked ass and took names," as Matt Furey likes to put it. You have a day that makes you feel like you've eaten the bear.
To achieve anything exceptional, you have to recognize that sometimes the bear will eat you. But to accomplish any important objective, you have to learn to accept the setbacks that are an inevitable part of any journey.
If you go into a new endeavor expecting that each effort will show better results than the one before, you will be thrown for a loop when that doesn't happen.
The setbacks are just part of the process. You move forward two steps and back one. Sometimes the backward step feels like more than a step. Sometimes it feels like you've been mauled.
Begin with the right attitude and you will end up with more success. Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 2:00 PM,
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Get Your Toddlers Set Up for College
State-sponsored 529 college savings programs (also known as qualified tuition plans) made the news last fall because Congress has made their tax-free earnings status a permanent thing.
If the newspaper articles raise awareness about these programs, so much the better. They are very helpful for middle-income families who want to pay for college expenses without going into debt.
In ETR #1943, I suggested that it's the responsibility of the parents - not the government - to make sure their children have a good elementary and high school education. That means investing both time and money. But when it comes to a college education, the responsibility has always been borne by individuals - the parents and/or the students. In fact, next to a house, college tuition is the biggest financial burden that most families face.
Why not lighten the load by (1) paying for tuition and school expenses in advance or (2) beginning to invest for that education today on a tax-exempt basis?
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:00 AM,
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Hiring the "Right" Employees for an Info Business
January 25, 2007
More than 600 people attended Agora Inc.'s Christmas party this year. It took place at the Engineer's Club in downtown Baltimore, where Agora's seven Baltimore-based publishing divisions are housed in seven turn-of-the-century mansions.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:00 AM,
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On Being a Small Fry in the Info-Publishing World
January 24, 2007
I read The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times almost every day. Lots of the news articles are written by tyros who don't understand the subjects on which they are reporting (which is especially obvious to me when they report on business). But most of the regular feature writers and essayists are remarkably good.
Those writers are the lucky few.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:00 AM,
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Common Complaints About Wealth-Building Books
January 19, 2007
As you may know, the two books I put out last year - Seven Years to Seven Figures: The Fast-Track Plan to Becoming a Millionaire and Automatic Wealth for Grads...and Anyone Else Just Starting Out - made Amazon's 10-best list of finance and investing books for 2006. That made me feel good, really good. And it comes at a good time, because I have been thinking about how to write better books that sell well and deliver on their promises.
The books I've written so far have been generally very well received. A sample of the critiques on Amazon:
From reader reviews of Automatic Wealth for Grads:
"...after purchasing it as a gift for a family member, I was so impressed with what I read (I skimmed through the chapters to see what it was all about) that I bought a copy for myself! This book is filled with tons of great information and real-life examples from the author's past experiences. I highly recommend this book to people not only just starting out, but anyone looking to improve their financial future.''
"I have enjoyed this book very much. I have two children, ages 13 and 15, and plan to have each of them read this book either before or after they graduate. It really has a lot of great information that I wish someone would have told me about when I was younger.''
"My favorite chapter in this book is the one on real estate investing. As an engineering major, I'm not very familiar with this sort of thing and found it to be a good introduction. I also like his advice on how to approach work and how to get promoted. I think this is a great read for students in general.''
From reader reviews of Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence:
"Although becoming wealthy in America is not and easy task, the steps outlined in this book give the reader a great place to start. All too often, a book is purchased with the hopes of a "magic formula" that will make the reader rich in a week. Not the case. This book shows how to turn dreams into achievable goals, and expects the reader to take action on the advice being offered. Following the steps in the book has led to more doors of opportunity opening for me, as well as a new mindset that has allowed me to seize opportunities that I would have never seen had I not changed my way of thinking. I promise this book, if followed correctly, will more than pay for itself.''
"The world is filled with get-rich schemes and early retirement plans. Michael Masterson's book stands out because it blends common-sense advice with savvy investment strategies and a healthy dose of reality. Using personal stories and instructive examples, Masterson provides reality-based insights about achieving financial independence. The chapters on wealth-producing habits and investment diversification are especially helpful, although the multiple sections on real estate investments make the book slightly repetitive. It might have benefited from tighter editing. This is a lively book with helpful suggestions and examples about generating wealth and achieving financial independence. We recommend it to those who seek a healthier income statement, early retirement or both.''
From reader reviews of Seven Years to Seven Figures:
"Seven Years to Seven figures has captured the essence of building real wealth from the basic need to work hard and establish a firm and reasonable plan to the realities of putting that plan into place.
"I have followed Mr. Masterson's advice over the years and have marveled at his ability to transform seemingly obtuse theories into amazingly simple actionable advice that seem obvious in retrospect. His concepts, presented here in one place for the first time, have made me rich beyond my wildest imagination. My only regret is that this book did not come along sooner in my quest to accumulate true wealth.
"This excellent work is both inspirational and a practical guide to getting rich. I was so impressed that I have given copies to my favorite young relatives and friends.''
"If you liked "Automatic Wealth For Grads" by Michael Masterson, you will love "Seven Years and Seven Figures". Like the former, it gives many salient points in realizing your investment dreams --but in half the time! Page four outlines three key components in getting rich: How long you invest (7 years). How much you invest, and what rate of return you achieve on your investments.''
But they are not all good. About one out of five comments registered on Amazon, for example, have been lukewarm to downright negative.
Complaints about finance/wealth-building books usually fall into one or several of four categories:
- Irrelevant. This is just one rich guy's opinion. What does his experience have to do with me?
- Same Old, Same Old. I've heard this advice before - in fact, it's the same advice the author gives in other books and on his website! I'm looking for new and different ideas.
- Impractical. This advice may work for someone else, but it makes no sense for me.
- Suspect. The author isn't really trying to help me. He's just trying to add to is wealth by selling books to people like me.
Here are excerpts from some of the "bad' reviews my books have received:
Irrelevant
"I am a receptionist...I was expecting more things I can do... (someone with) no real selling skills. All the author talks about is pretty obvious things that require some serious skills, like start a business that earns an average of $700,000 a year, then sell stocks in that company. Okay, sounds good, I'll get right on that.''
Suspect
"The motivation for writing this book was undertaken purely to increase the author's wealth and popularity by putting the proceeds of sales in THEIR bank accounts.''
Impractical
"Dull is exactly what one would become, if they follow the advice of this (and other like-written books)...In order to build immense wealth, one must spend a substantial amount of time away from family and friends.''
Same Old, Same Old
"His advice seems to be a rehash of the earlier books: save prodigiously, turn your expertise into a moonlighting job, become a copywriter, invest in real estate, et cetera. The advice is not bad; to the contrary, it is useful but seems to be a repackaging of old ideas.''
My favorite critique was written by Sandra Peters (real name) who is rated as one of Amazon's "Top 100 Reviewers.'' Peters says:
Well, I'll be danged, just when you think you have read them all, along comes another one - another book telling us how to become millionaires...in seven years, no less! Unbelievable, I have been reading these books for 40 years and my bank account still doesn't have seven figures (well, actually yes it does; they are just not all on the same line!)
Impractical: They might have been if I hadn't wasted money on these catchy, over-cliched books. Alas, my interest in finance superseded and I always did have a penchant for fairy tales.
We are in an era when much of society is desperately in search of a job and a pay check, most of whom would be happy just to be able to put food on the table.
Same Old, Same Old: For those of you fortunate enough to be on a different path and quite capable of attaining "seven figures", you will find what is written here common sense and nothing more - most of which you already know or you would not be in your current financial position.
Irrelevant: Before my retirement, my career was in business and finance and there are only two segments of this book worth reading - how to attract customers (much could be added to what is written here) and investing in real estate. As for the rest of the book, well, it is a matter of opinion.
Suspect: Masterson reminds me of a terrific motivational speaker; one who can create hype even if half of what we hear is a bunch of fluff and malarkey.
(Become a millionaire) in seven years...or seventy for that matter? (It's) a dream for many, yes, (but) a reality for few. I...know a few millionaires but none (that) made it by reading a book -- any book. While others were sitting on their posteriors, reading books on the subject and dreaming, the (true) millionaires were getting an adequate education and working their butts off from sun up to sun down.
For most, a seven-figure (net worth) will come through hard work, business sense, smart investments and/or inheritance.
It's hard to be upset with a critique like that. And I'm not. But I would like to answer these four criticisms because (a) they are likely to be made again and (b) it may help you be a more efficient reader of books about wealth.
Now, let's talk about Peter's four specific criticisms:
Impractical: They might have been if I hadn't wasted money on these catchy, over-cliched books. Alas, my interest in finance superseded and I always did have a penchant for fairy tales.
We are in an era when much of society is desperately in search of a job and a pay check, most of whom would be happy just to be able to put food on the table.
That Depends on You. When people say my advice is impractical for them (because of some situation they are in - poverty, family obligations, racism, etc.) I think to myself: what are you really looking for? To excuse yourself for failing to get what you want? There a hundreds of reasons why most people don't succeed. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in how the very few who do succeed achieve their success. As someone who has become wealthy several times over and helped more than a dozen people become millionaires, I have very definite ideas about how wealth is created. Naturally, these ideas will involve what I know. But that's the way it should be, should it not? Instead of thinking about how my advice might not work for you, why not put your imagination toward the idea that you might succeed? Why not put your energies toward finding ways to do what I've and others have done?
Same Old, Same Old. For those of you fortunate enough to be on a different path and quite capable of attaining "seven figures", you will find what is written here common sense and nothing more - most of which you already know or you would not be in your current financial position.
The Old Ideas are the Best Ideas. At a glance you will get the same advice from me that you get from anybody who has accumulated a lot of wealth in a short period of time. There's a reason for that: there are just a few ways you can get rich quickly. Think about that for a second: if there are only a few ways to get rich, why are you looking for a new and different way? Shouldn't you be glad there are only a few ways? Shouldn't that make your goal - the goal you admit to by buying my book in the first place - easier? There are only a few ways to tie your shoes. You pick one and you go with it. It's the same way with building wealth. The big ideas will be the same. But the smaller ideas will all be different. The smaller ideas in my books are very different from other books. If that isn't apparent to you, then you need to read them more closely.
Irrelevant; Before my retirement, my career was in business and finance and there are only two segments of this book worth reading - how to attract customers (much could be added to what is written here) and investing in real estate. As for the rest of the book, well, it is a matter of opinion.
Everything is Relevant: When I go to a conference or seminar on wealth building, I never say to myself, "Gee, this presentation is a waste of my time. It has nothing to do with me.'' It doesn't matter how much I know about any subject or how much more experienced I am than the person making the presentation, I always listen with the expectation that I will learn something: and because I have that expectation I am never disappointed.
Suspect: Masterson reminds me of a terrific motivational speaker; one who can create hype even if half of what we hear is a bunch of fluff and malarkey
I Am for Real. It is true that many people who write about money do so to enrich themselves. What's wrong with that? I have some information or advice that you want to use. You pay me some agreed-upon sum of money and you get my ideas. If you don't like what you get, you can ask for your money back. Isn't that the way business is supposed to be done - a fair exchange of value? I know my advice is worthwhile because it comes from experience. I'm not a person who learned about wealth building by reading about it. I know what I know from doing it. With the guidance of an excellent mentor, I built several multi-million dollar businesses in several different areas: product sales, publishing, sweepstakes and contests, travel, etc. And since then I've started more than a dozen $10 million+ companies, including one whose revenues are now at $270,000,000.
Other writers have more specific experience than me (Donald Trump and Kiyosaki come to mind) and some authors have earned their reputations strictly by writing about wealth (Suze Orman, David Stanley, David Bach, etc), but I am one of the few who has made multi-million dollar fortunes in a variety of businesses...and not just once or twice, but over and over again. If you were down and out of luck and wanted to become wealthy, why would you not listen to me?
For more of my thoughts on reading wealth-building books, check out my article "How to Read and Profit from Wealth-Building Books" in ETR #1945.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:36 AM,
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Welcome to the Neighborhood
January 18, 2007
It was a blank, hand-addressed, number-10 envelope with a "live" stamp instead of metered postage. Inside was a simple letter - two single sheets of white paper with black printing (Courier font) on one side. At the top of the outside sheet was pasted an ersatz million-dollar bill. No headline. The salutation: Dear Neighbor.
The letter began:
"As you can see, we attached a One Million Dollar Bill to the top of this letter. Why have we done this? Actually there are two reasons:"
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:43 AM,
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Automatic Wealth in Minnesota
January 17, 2007
Just the other day, I found a kind thank-you note on my desk amid a pile of other mail. It was from Sonja Mishek, a woman who'd interviewed me about my book Automatic Wealth - via e-mail - for her local newspaper.
"I just want to thank you for taking the time to answer my interview questions for the Stillwater Gazette in Minnesota," she wrote. "My readers are going to LOVE your advice."
She also said, "After reading your book Automatic Wealth , it inspired me to 'get off the couch' and invest in real estate. AND ... I added $360,000 to our net worth in under two years!"
Sonja did a great job with both the interview and the article. I thought you'd be especially interested in the part where she talks about how she got started investing in real estate, so I'm reprinting that here ...
"I asked Michael Masterson, a self-made multimillionaire and author of one of my favorite books - Automatic Wealth: The 6 Steps to Financial Independence - if I could interview him.
"And I was thrilled that he was willing to give me, a small town columnist and aspiring writer, my very first interview.
"But first, I want to tell you how his book changed my life."
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posted by M. Masterson @ 8:12 AM,
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Is It Time for Time to Slim Down?
January 16, 2007
My issue of Newsweek Magazine was noticeably thinner this week. "What is going on here?" I wondered. A story about another magazine, Time, may provide the answer. According to a New York Times article, Time, Inc. is planning to reduce the size of a number of its publications, including its flagship weekly, Time, in response to a dropping rate base - off 20 percent in the last six months.
Industry insiders say the drop-off is due to the Internet. As more readers get used to finding their news online, sales of print news publications are gradually but steadily falling.
Time, Inc. plans to keep itself solvent with a three-pronged attack:
- It will cut costs dramatically by reducing its size and getting rid of a lot of its editorial staff.
- It will beef up its website.
- Instead of focusing on the news, it will focus on news analysis.
Time, Inc. is in the process of hiring expert commentators to write essays about news events, rather than simply report them. In taking this tack, Time will position itself as a thinker's tool for affluent people. (In a recent issue that gave an indication of the kind of articles we can expect, the editor of the Weekly Standard and the former editor of the New Republic squared off to debate whether America is still a great country.)
In reviewing the new format, The New York Times said it seems to be "a journalistic offspring of The Atlantic and The Economist" but with shorter articles.
If so, I applaud Time. That's exactly what they should be doing.
You can't stand against the tide ... especially when it's turning into a tidal wave. The Internet is changing the way people get their news. It offers, in one package, all the benefits of all the other news sources: the instantaneousness and visual immediacy of television, the textual depth of a newspaper or magazine, and - as an added bonus - the research capacity of a local library. You can't compete with that.
For many years (and most recently at our Info-Marketing Bootcamp in Florida), we've been making the case that the Internet is a perfect medium for information publishing - but only if publishers abandon the idea of providing general information and focus on highly specialized data and, more importantly, on expert analysis and advice.
That seems to be exactly what Time is doing. Not only will the new approach reduce the cost of printing, production, and editorial (composition and copyediting, since freelance writing requires less copyediting), it will attract a better audience in terms of advertising potential. "Print publishing is becoming a business built on rich people who read," The New York Times said. "Information that can be digitized and commoditized, like the kind of data that weeklies historically traded on, ends up being consumed on the Web."
"We want our product ... to be seen as a premium product, a special and beautiful thing," Mr. Stengel, Time, Inc.'s publisher, said. So far, this has been reflected in the magazine's price, which increased to $4.95 in November.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:55 AM,
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Universal Health Coverage - How to Do It
Forty-five million Americans don't have health insurance. Millions more have inadequate coverage. It's not a government's obligation to provide health care, but the U.S. is probably rich enough to afford doing it in some basic way.
Here's my plan:
- First, prevention should be the priority, because it is the most effective and the cheapest type of health care.
- Next, natural remedies should be promoted, because they are inexpensive and sometimes work.
- Third, we must get rid of the archaic doctor-based system at hospitals and let nurses and others with less education but more technical experience do more of the treatments.
- Fourth, we must not think we have to cure everybody just because a cure is available. If some cures are very expensive, let them be expensive. Set up privately funded charities where wealthy people can contribute individually to specific cases.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:44 AM,
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And What About Chavez?
January 12, 2007
Down in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has announced that he will nationalize the country's biggest telecommunications and electricity companies, which are not controlled by U.S. companies. He also said he will abandon the country's commercial code and take full control of the central bank (which had some autonomy before). His dream, he says, is to create a 21st century, socialist utopia. Centralized, socialist governments haven't worked before, but Chavez is counting on his country's oil wealth to make this latest effort succeed.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:58 PM,
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What's Arnold Up to Now?
My man Arnold Schwarzenegger has upset the apple cart once again. Now, he's going against his Republican colleagues and suggesting that California is rich enough to offer all 36 million of its residents - legal and illegal - health insurance. Anti-immigrant groups don't like the idea. They say the plan will cost much more than the $12 billion that the governor's experts have estimated. Some other states - such as New Jersey, Maine, and Illinois - have similar programs already in place for children ... and they are working. But California has the largest population of uninsured children - more than 750,000, according to The New York Times. "Everyone in California must have health insurance," Schwarzenegger said.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:51 PM,
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One More Check for the Free Market
January 11, 2007
An econometric study of the performance of private versus public defenders (published by the Ohio Sate Journal of Criminal Law) found that private lawyers tend to outperform their public colleagues in terms of getting fewer years of imprisonment for their clients. The report also revealed that marginally indigent people used public defenders when their cases were highly unlikely to result in jail time. But when the charges were serious, they would borrow from friends and family to hire private attorneys, apparently because they believed they would get better representation - and they did. The study was reported on by Morris B. Hoffman writing in The New York Times. Hoffman is a 16-year state trial judge who said that prior to seeing it, he thought public defenders were better than their private counterparts.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:56 AM,
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USA Today for Cutting-Edge Coverage
USA Today is an amazing paper. It appears to be sort of pedestrian - a middle-brow, four-color daily for those who would prefer to get their news from television than print. But in reality, it's pretty far ahead of its competitors in terms of topic coverage and design.
It was the first national paper to simplify the way articles are laid out and to eliminate jumps (when an article goes from one page to the next) except from the first page. It was the first national to cover alternative health. And it's been ahead of the curve in covering financial matters as well, being one of the first to feature contrarian and alternative investment newsletter gurus.
In a recent issue, they carried a story about some obscure development in ancient archeology - something about a new interpretation of a line by Aristophanes. This might have been the kind of story you'd expect from The New York Times (and tucked away, at that), but USA Today covered it with four columns in its Science section.
I am predicting USA Today will be the first major newspaper to begin regular coverage of no-holds-barred fighting.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:16 AM,
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Helping Thousands of Patients Start the Year Off Right
January 10, 2007
Julia Guth, Director of the Oxford Club and also of the non-profit foundation that supports the Roberto Clemente clinic in Nicaragua, is asking for help. The clinic needs money, supplies, and personal assistance to cope with the growing demand for its services.
When it was created five or six years ago, it treated only Rancho Santana employees, their families, and the local citizens of two small hamlets in the area. Nowadays, Julia tells me, it is working 24/7 to treat 48 area villages up and down Nicaragua's Pacific coast, as well as tourists, workers, and residents of Rancho Santana. (In one recent month the clinic saw 1,270 patients!)
It's inspiring to think that so much is being done now that was not possible before the clinic was built. For example:
- A man gets treated for a puncture wound in his leg.
- A local surfer gets treated for lacerations on his back.
- Rancho Santana workers bring in their children and infants for bronchitis treatments.
- Elderly citizens of local villages visit regularly for arthritis medication.
- A woman comes in to be treated for elephantitis.
One of their main needs is for a back-up electrical generation system. The electricity goes down almost every day - and when it does, it's very difficult for the clinic to operate effectively. On the drawing board is an alternative energy center that will use wind and solar power to fuel a back-up generator. This project will meet Julia's long-term goal of providing "self-sufficiency in a cost-efficient and eco-friendly manner."
In addition to providing health care, the clinic is promoting good health in the local community through educational programs. Boys and girls, 12 to 20, meet regularly with clinic nurse Marta Cerda Miranda to talk about good health practices, and the clinic's small medical staff conducts seminars at local schools.
Margie Finchman, a nurse from Northern California and part-time resident at Rancho Santana, has been acting as a clinical nurse specialist with experience in holistic medicine and primary care for rural areas. She's made two extended visits so far this year, and has recently accepted responsibility as the clinic's healthcare manager.
Still, as Julia reminds me in a recent letter, "there's a lot to do." And she tells me that Agora Inc. has agreed to provide 100 percent matching funds for any donations ETR readers make.
Read more about the clinic and what you can do to help HERE.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 8:59 AM,
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Developing Your Business Genius
January 8, 2007
Yesterday, I sat down with Charlie Byrne, ETR's Editorial Director, and Jason Holland, a former journalist, to talk about one of the books I'm writing now. Jason, a very bright young man with experience covering business and government, has been hired by ETR to help me with these projects and, in doing so, to develop his skills as a writer.
The book we talked about yesterday has the working title Business Genius. It will contain about a dozen "big secrets" about building a business that I've discovered during my career of building (and failing to build) just about every kind of business you can imagine. I've sold electronic goods (televisions and radios), personal accessories (jewelry, watches, perfume), published products (books, newsletters, magazines), and educational programs. I've run bars, restaurants, furniture stores, and art galleries. And I've provided both blue-collar services (printing, landscaping, home remodeling, pool construction) and white-collar services (marketing, copywriting, business development).
Needless to say, I've got lots of business-building "secrets" that could be included in the book. But I want to narrow them down so I can go into detail on each one - so I'm hoping to get some feedback from my readers to help me focus on those they'd be most interested in.
Here are my rough notes on what I think are the best of the bunch:
- Understanding the difference between a self-employment business (making a decent income by being an employee of a business that you own) and an equity-oriented business (being CEO of a growing business that other people run for you).
- Why you should always begin a new business with a personal wealth plan.
- Why being good at doing something isn't the same thing as being good at selling it. Why selling is the core of every business, and why selling poorly is the problem with most floundering or foundering businesses.
- The importance of picking the right partners. How teaming up with great people will quadruple your chances of success and quintuple the fun you'll have in business.
- How to become your company's number one marketing genius. Why you can't leave the role of marketing to anyone else. How to unlock the marketing genius that is inside of you. (Don't worry. It is there.)
- The Internet Opportunity: The opportunity to make big money with an Internet-based business isn't because of the greatly reduced cost of storage and shipping, as Chris Anderson argued in his 2006 best-seller The Long Tail. It is because the Internet and the personal computer have made it possible to communicate to your customers for practically nothing.
- Cutting Losses and Riding Winners. This is the most time-honored money-management system for gamblers and investors. But it's also helpful for entrepreneurs. It's about how to set expectations for new projects, how to keep yourself from falling in love with new products, what to do if a new launch does "just okay," etc.
- Mentors and Proteges. How to develop knowledge and skills in half the time and at a fraction of the cost that it would take for you to develop on your own. Finding the right people to learn from and to teach.
- Creating a Network of Resources. Get the money, ideas, talent, and technology you need simply by flipping a Rolodex and making a call. This is a powerful secret that's easier to accomplish than it may seem.
- Incremental Augmentation. Business schools teach the danger of incremental degradation: allowing your product or service to deteriorate by small, almost imperceptible, degrees. This is how to prevent that too-common phenomenon. How to constantly improve every aspect of your business and steadily make success easy and fun.
- One-Step-at-a-Time Product Development. One of the biggest mistakes growing companies make is to launch products that seem related to their core business but are, in fact, two or three steps removed. Moving away from my recommended, one-step growth formula is unnecessarily risky.
- Laissez-Faire Management. How my main client grew beyond its original leadership by hiring smart people and allowing them to do pretty much whatever they wanted to.
- Motivation. You can't motivate your employees by following the advice that most business magazines talk about. Here's what works.
- Consumption Frenzy. Understanding how and why people buy things will make you 300 percent stronger when it comes to marketing.
- Productivity Techniques. Everybody is different, but these 24 techniques work very well for me.
[Which business-building "secrets" would you be most interested in learning? What other problems/challenges/questions would you like my book to address? Please write to ReaderFeedback@gmail.com with "Business Genius" in the subject line.]
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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:25 PM,
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Might As Well Throw the Money Away
January 5, 2007
Once you've given incentive pay to an executive, it's hard to get it back from him if something goes awry. That is the not-very-startling point of an article by Phred Dvorak and Serena Ng in The Wall Street Journal. Case in point: FPL Group Inc. top executives received $62 million in bonuses linked to an intended merger. When the merger didn't go through, the company tried to retrieve that money - but, after three years and "millions in legal bills," the company got back only $9 million of it.
Duh.
Why would you pre-pay a bonus that is contingent on something that hasn't happened yet? Why not make the payment subsequent to - or at least simultaneous with - the anticipated event? Why should executives, shareholders, vendors ... anyone ... get paid in advance?
I have to admit, I've made this mistake myself once or twice in my career. In an effort to please a deserving someone as quickly as possible, I've awarded a cash bonus based on an outcome that, at the time, I was confident would take place. When it didn't, I was doubly disappointed - both with the outcome and with myself for needlessly giving away the money.
At least I wasn't foolish enough to hope to recover the given-away dollars. The rule should be: Money, once given, should be treated as gone.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:15 PM,
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Selling Your Soul
January 4, 2007
AWAI has been developing a program that will teach people how to write advertising and editorial copy for the Christian market. When the head honchos at AWAI talked to me about launching this program more than a year ago, I told them that I had once sold some Christian-related books and had also provided marketing advice to that industry. Although I didn't have exact numbers in my head, I said that I knew the market was very large, very dynamic, and very quirky. I told them that some of the biggest publishing companies in the world have interests in Christian publishing - and for some of them, that is where the majority of their profits come from.
After talking to me, AWAI conducted an informal survey with people enrolled in their other programs and received positive feedback on their interest in a writing program for this market. So they added it to their 2007 agenda.
This morning, Katie Yeakle, AWAI's Executive Director, sent me a sheet of facts and figures about the Christian market. Here are the most interesting ones, along with some of my comments about them:
* Christian-related products comprise a $4.5 billion industry in the U.S.
* Nearly 12 percent of Americans spend more than $50 a month on religious products and another 11 percent spend $25 to $29, according to a national survey of 1,721 adults by Baylor University.
* One in three Americans surveyed by Baylor made at least one purchase in a Christian bookstore in 2005. They bought mainly books and CDs, but also toys, gifts, home decor items, clothing, jewelry, and other personal accessories.
- Unlike some other religious groups, Christian buyers like to demonstrate their faith by buying objects that say, "Hey, look! I'm a Christian!" In the business, they call this "witness wear."
- With 304 stores nationwide, Family Christian is the world's largest Christian retail chain. It currently sells more than 25,000 items.
- Family Christian's original parent company, Zondervan, is the world's largest publisher of Bibles. It holds the copyright for the New International Bible, the most popular Bible translation in the U.S., and for The Bible Experience, a best-selling audio version voiced by African-American celebrities.
- Zondervan launched the California mega-church pastor Rev. Rick Warren to publishing superstardom. 19 percent of Americans, including 25 percent of women, say they've read Rick Warren's Christian-living handbook The Purpose-Driven Life, according to the Baylor survey.
- The market for Internet-based information and entertainment publishers seems especially strong, because they can convert hard products to digital and take advantage of long-tail, back-end marketing.
- Popular areas for Christian marketers include all the Hallmark moments: births, baptisms, birthdays, marriages, sickness, and death. Child-oriented literature and products are especially strong.
- Maintaining the core Christian theme is essential for success: "We don't want anything in the store that fails to point to Scripture," one successful retailer says.
Two more things that I remember about my own personal foray into this market (although I can't say for sure that they are universally true): Most of the buying is done by women - and although they are willing to spend $50 a month, they will seldom spend much more than that.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 10:59 AM,
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The Eyeballs vs. Dollars Question
January 3, 2007
A consortium of seven newspaper chains representing 176 daily papers has made a deal with Yahoo to share content, advertising, and technology, The New York Times reported. This is "another sign that the wary newspaper business is increasingly willing to shake hands with the technology companies they once saw as a threat."
I applaud newspapers for understanding that they need to get with the Internet, but I wonder if this is the right way for them to go.
By partnering with Yahoo, they give away content - which they've already expensed - for a share of Yahoo advertising dollars. But I'm not sure if that's their main objective. According to the article, the long-term goal of the alliance with Yahoo is to "have the content of these newspapers tagged and optimized for searching and indexing by Yahoo."
Gee, that doesn't sound very profitable. But even if they figure out that dollars, not eyeballs, measure success in business, newspaper executives must develop their own back end - the relationship they have with their own readers - or they will never make any serious progress toward saving their industry.
Read this post in Early To Rise
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posted by M. Masterson @ 10:01 AM,
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A Hidden Danger for Frequent Travelers
January 1, 2007
A recent report in The Wall Street Journal by Tara Parker-Pope says that meals served at "quality" restaurants are often higher in calories and fat than those served at fast-food chains.
For example: A classic cheeseburger from Ruby Tuesday's restaurant has 1,103 calories and 78 grams of fat, while a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonald's has 730 calories and only 40 grams of fat.
And a Tufts University study discovered that people who eat out a lot are more likely to have higher body fat than people who eat mostly at home.
Maybe that explains why I have a tough time losing weight: I travel too much!
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posted by M. Masterson @ 11:58 AM,
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