Many years ago, I worked at a patent and trademark research firm. This was right about the time that the WWW got online and companies were starting to appear. Part of the research expanded to domain names for copyright infringement, and so there was a lot of talk and looking at new companies, one of which was Amazon.com. As an avid reader and book buyer, my jaw literally dropped when I saw this store and I jumped up from my screen and ran into my bosses office and said: “Oh, my gosh! This company is brilliant! If I had money to invest in it now – I would! Get whatever money you have extra and invest in Amazon.com. It will be HUGE!”

Why I Chose To Be Poor

Did I take my own advice? No. Why? Because I was convinced that I knew nothing about investing and that I had no spare money for investing. So, I let that mega opportunity pass me by – even though I recognized it as a gold mine!

Now, when I put up my blog survey to hear what topics people wanted to read on my blog, the number one selection was: “How To Create More Income.” Yet, even if a mega opportunity stares you in the face, are you going to choose to be poor, like I did? I can tell you what I think the next Amazon is for me, but will you believe me? Will you not invest and choose to be poor, like I did? It’s not that  the opportunity doesn’t appear that’s the problem, it’s that few people fail to take advantage of the opportunity EVEN when they recognize it for what it is. Why is that?

Kiyosaki’s Choose To Be Rich Program

All it really would have taken for me to profit from Amazon.com would have been the research to learn how to buy stock and the determination to use my own funds to do it, no matter how little. Over the years, I’ve had the same pattern, over and over. I am very good at spotting hit money makers, I am just not good at following through on them. And, yet, no one gets rich from work alone. If you want to create wealth you have to create a business or invest, you have to plant seeds that grow on their own. That’s the Rich Dad path, as Kiyosaki states in his program “You Can Choose To Be Rich.”

Your Mind Is The Only Obstacle

I have come to see all obstacles as self-inflicted. The only true obstacle in your life is your mind set. Yes, there are external conditions that hamper us, but they started in the mind first, in how we perceived ourselves and how we limited ourselves. The beliefs we have and nurture make up what happens too.  There are plenty of reasons not to do something, and most of those are just our way of subconsciously limiting our future choices and wealth.

A Hot New Opportunity

Now, I have found another very hot opportunity. I didn’t think twice even though money was tight this week. This is a company I have been involved with for over 10 years and that I have reaped at least $30,000 extra in my association with them already. It was a no brainer to upgrade to become a business partner with them for $72.  After October 30th, the cost to be an business partner would have gone up to over $250! I never did it before, even though I was tempted, for solely one reason: I am an at-home Internet worker, and they were a face-to-face company. This has ALL changed! Even so, that wouldn’t have been enough NOW because I already am self-employed. I don’t want another job, I want a business or investment opportunity – a set it and forget it money-maker! With their partnership with the Blastoff Network, I am now in a position to do exactly that. Build my wealth and put it on auto-pilot. And, you can too!

I Will Help You Do It!

This is the perfect opportunity, as it is low cost entry right now, and the basic level is free! It is partnered with Blastoff, a company that may or may not be bigger than Facebook in a few years, but I want to get in on the ground floor!  Join the network first, and I will send everyone in my network a free 10-page report telling you how to create a “set it and forget it” business with it, no matter what your niche is! This you get only for joining using my link. It is completely free to join my network, and from there you can learn ways to create multiple streams of income, some require an upfront investment and others do not, choosing which is right for you. There is no obligation to buy anything! Do yourself a favor and take the time to investigate this opportunity during the pre-launch! After October 30th, major players will be advertising this network, and you will have missed out on the BEST WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY  I have seen in many years. Don’t choose to be poor like I did with Amazon,  join today!

If you’ve been debating whether to start working at home, wahms (work-at-home moms) can tell you there really are some definite perks to doing so. Of the millions of women returning to the work force, due to their spouses being unemployed, the ones that become wahms end up getting some really great perks. When you include them in your wealth equation, you may find that they are really quite priceless.

Why I Like To Work From Home Freelancing

• No commute - No gas costs and no traffic to deal with! Whether gas goes to $5/gallon or not, it’s not going to cut into your monthly budget.
• Less food and clothing expenses - While many wahms like to work in their pjs, I’m not one of them. I like to get up early, dress smartly, and have a cup of coffee – made at home. That simple act leads me to at least a $5 savings at Starbucks, every day.
• Flexible hours - This is really the prime motivation most people, especially moms, go into work at home businesses.  Need to pick up the kids at 2:30 pm? Okay. You’re the boss, just schedule your work around it.
• No daycare costs – Why pay someone else to watch your kid or do afterschool camp when they can just be home? It’s hard to do when you have multiple kids, but one or two can be fit in with a work at home opportunity.
• Schedule errands away from crowds - Shopping can be done during the week, away from crowds. Appointments scheduled outside of rush hour. You can easily save four to five hours a day in your schedule by working at home. Two hours for commute back and forth to office and another three waiting around the post office, the checkout and bank lines.
• Feel the seasons - When you work for corporate, you don’t get to really enjoy the seasons. You’re stuck inside, in an artificial environment, and it affects your moods and your health. Work at home and enjoy the luxury of taking a bath at mid-day during summer or working by the fireplace in the winter.
• Healthier for you - You are less stressed and more easily take care of your needs. This can lead to a healthier you, especially if you include regular exercise in your schedule at home.
• Find greater work/life balance – Since you get to schedule your own jobs, you get greater work/life balance.  With that comes a deeper appreciation of life and work.
• It’s easier to market yourself – You don’t have to meet people in person to do work at home marketing. You can just join social networks and job boards and meet as many new, fascinating, and fun people as you like! This can widen your network very quickly!
• Your future is as big as you make it - You’re not limited in your role as a wahm. You can make your career as big or as little as you need it to be. It’s exciting, it’s fun, and definitely gives you life skills that can improve your performance, even if you finally decide to go back and work for someone else!

Anyone else out there finding the perks too good to be true? Let me know what you like about working from home!

Studying what makes us healthy, wealthy, and happy is much of what I do. I even took a master’s course in Transpersonal Psychology, which views all manifestations of mind as a symptom of spiritual growth and evolution. What some might call a nervous breakdown, others might view as a spiritual emergency. How we react to what happens to us and use it to self-develop is influenced by how we view our world, whether positively or negatively. In this respect, Transpersonal Psychology doesn’t come from a basis where the client is viewed as being sick or mentally ill, instead behavior (such as depression, mania, and some forms of psychosis) is viewed as a natural evolution for that particular person in the conditions and mental climate they uphold. It’s growth, even if some growth shows up as abnormal, with respects to our cultural standards. In other cultures, it may be quite normal.

The Recession and Abnormal Psychology

Something that has truly puzzled me lately, with this recession, is the number of people who have literally taken to criticizing everything in their lives, even when they do have it quite good when compared to others. The ones that are suffering economically are mostly silent, but those that have a lot to crow about, now feel it’s time to look poor, regardless of their conditions. I have come across more people whining about their supposed lack, when from my point of view, they are luxuriously, materially, wealthy. So wealthy in fact, that they don’t flinch about sending back a plate of salmon at a restaurant because it tastes “fishy” or buying a pair of $100 shoes because their feet “need” it.

I finally have the answer in this article: 10 Tip From Happy People . It turns out happy people are more prejudicial, according to recent studies. This behavior shows up as snobbery, like when someone thinks that the Ramada Inn is not good enough, and only the Hilton will do, for a night’s stay. If they don’t get it they whine about how unfair life is and how entitled they are to get something that literally 95% of the world doesn’t enjoy. Instead of being ecstatically grateful that they have money for a hotel room at all, they whine about the quality of the room as if it’s just not up to their standards. Yet, in the next sentence, they’ll tell you how poor they are and how much sympathy they demand of you for their sorry state of affairs.

All this time, I was beginning to think that this behavior bordered on some sort of pathological narcissistic disorder. Now, I’ve come to understand it as a natural outcome of living a pampered life where every whim is satisfied and no self-discipline is ever attempted.  It seems you get so happy, so comfortable with your elevated standard of living, that you automatically become more “discriminating” and this shows up as complaining as a means of expressing happiness in a covert fashion. It happens so subtly to the person who is enjoying a large degree of success in their life, that they literally have no idea what a snob they’re being. It’s just a natural extension of living a life of luxury. No one is immune to the powerful, seductive, and destructive effects of material wealth, and that’s what got me thinking. How do I balance my spiritual growth with increasing wealth, if prejudicial behavior is a natural outgrowth of living a life of unmeasured luxury?

Self-Discipline Starts Within

A friend of mine and I had this conversation that the older generations had more self-discipline than the newer ones. Even when they had the money to buy bigger houses and more toys, they were frugal and kept their money stashed for a rainy day. This, in turn, led to them escaping some of the entitlement phenomena we see in the younger generations that are spoiled to a point where they’re not happy unless they’re complaining. We both decided that to maintain some level of spiritual balance with material wealth, it appears we have to invoke a measure of self-discipline and live simply, so that the mind doesn’t turn into something pampered and spoiled, and instead remains sharp, appreciative, and grateful. The mind can control the spirit, but only if we allow it. It’s up to us to cultivate humbleness, simplicity, and frugality, if we want to. We don’t have to be forced into it by a recession to be happy to learn to live with less.

Simple Exercises to Strengthen Gratitude

• When you have a choice to drink coffee with sugar or without, give it up for a day. Now, you know how sweet your life is on other days.

• When there’s a party, wait to be the last to get your food. Now, you know how blessed you are to eat of abundance every day.

• Build up someone else’s achievements, instead of your own, for a change. Supporting someone elses’s efforts, helps us to recognize when someone takes the time to help us with our own, leading to an appreciation of others.

Whether it’s through diet, spiritual exercises, or donating time and money, when we are blessed, if we fail to recognize it and pass it along, we waste a valuable opportunity to create not just happiness, but contentment and joy not only for ourselves, but for others too.

Every writer dreams of being published, but sometime that’s not the primary motive for writing a book. That was the case with me. Fundamentally, I didn’t write the book, the book wrote me. It crept into every pore of my skin, and insinuated itself in every facet of my waking life, and, even my dreams. The book demanded to be written, and that’s the simple truth.

It Has A Message We Need To Hear

In this time of financial catastrophe, and an uncertain future, we need to know that we still really do create our own reality. The Divine Within is still in full control of what happens to us, even if our trials are not famine and pestilence, but rather foreclosure and bankruptcy. Many people would suggest that the topic of finance and spirituality don’t mix, sort of like science and religion. I don’t believe that’s true because I’ve seen how paying attention to my spirituality has reaped major dividends in happiness and material wealth. Yes, the form may not be as easily recognizable as a dollar bill in the bank account, but even that eventually comes forward as other obstacles to prosperity vanish through our inner work. It has been proven over and over to me: We create our reality flawlessly, from day-to-day, sometimes when we even have no money left in the bank.

YCYOR Needs Details

The “You Create Your Own Reality” (YCYOR) genre has been made famous by such books as the Law of Attraction or movies like The Secret. Prior to that was Seth and Jane Roberts. These books also had the same fabulous message, but were a little short on details, in my opinion, or a bit too complex to decipher into working methods.  Are thoughts really things, and do they create our reality? Or, is that just possibly one limited view of a more expansive model? Even if they did, how the heck does one control their thoughts or change limiting belief systems? Is it even necessary to do so or will other more powerful techniques help you to achieve the same ends? Following the Elias material, a successor to Seth, and having dealt with this teacher in dream work, I elaborate on the details of the reality creation cycle so that anyone can understand exactly how they create reality, and not just accept it on faith.

This is what you will get from reading this book:

• The Mandala Map of Creation – A map of how a cycle of creation is implemented and what specific cycle creates wealth or poverty.

• Overview Of Core Belief Systems – An overview of seven of the ten core belief systems that influence what you create in your reality, with specific regards to money imagery.

• Information On The Shift Of Consciousness - This is an event that is influencing our reality right now, according to Elias.  It’s like a big tidal wave that’s hitting our shores and either drowns us or carries us to distant shores. Learn how to pay attention to the shift in your own consciousness to surf the wave, instead of struggling within it.

• The Two Natural Flow Paths - Why some people create in a negative natural flow and others choose a positive one, so you can decide which is right for you.

• How To Engage Cooperative Groups - Understanding why our economic models have relied on competition, and how to re-orient to a way of working that chooses cooperation over competition to meet the same, or bigger,  goals.

• How To Create Value Through Connection - Why the model of conquest is being replaced by connection through social networks.  How you can create value using a model that brings more compassion, connection, and trust in your life.

• Understand What You Want In Your Life And Create It Without Money - This is the biggest technique included in this book. Once you realize that you can have what you want (through the action of paying attention to your reality creation cycles), and without creating financial obstacles, you will be free to be anyone you want to be. You will achieve a freedom even money can’t buy.

To get a copy, order Me Money To We Money here.

If you have a blog or site and would like to review the book, email me at moylan.claire260 at gmail dot com.

People will tell you that your emotions will kill you in business, and a good deal is done with a poker face and the drive of a hired assassin. However, what if your business is about freelance writing, or about something where you’re passionate about what you do? That’s when your emotions are there for a reason, but they can still lead to being used by others who try to take advantage of that emotional charge.  The key to understanding how your emotions can help, instead of hurt you, in business is to learn how to use your business judgment, along with your emotional instincts, to cue you into bad customers before you get into relationships with them.

Every Business Relationship Is Like Dating

We can laugh or cringe at the dating horror stories of the woman who always ends up with the batterer, the drunk, or the just plain weirdo. Yet, sometimes our businesses attract the same types of deadbeats and we just drum it up to a bad economy, when it might be the way we’re doing business that is generating these bad business relationships. Just like a woman who does too much upfront in a relationship, a business owner who provides too many products or services before figuring out what the other party is going to provide back is in for the same sort of co-dependent, miserable, times as a single on the dating scene.  How do most people avoid these soap operas in their lives? They tend to rely on their “gut instincts” and emotions to let them know when they should pass on a relationship that’s going to be a downer, no matter what. When faced with a one-liner from a potential deadbeat customer (whether romantic or business), your gut instincts will tell you something is really wrong, and you can choose to acknowledge this or face the consequences later.

So Many Frogs, Few Princes

There was a question posted on Facebook recently: “Do I prefer the customer who offers a high price and fails to pay on time or the one that offers a low price and pays immediately?” What’s missing from this question is the value of the work. What sort of value do you place on your work? Is the customer willing to recognize the actual, intrinsic, value of the work or are they looking at the dollar bills? If you are working with a low-paying customer, be assured they’ll never be satisfied with the value of the work. They’ve already said as much by refusing to pay what it’s worth. More than likely they will try to chintz you even more in future projects. The same is true for the one that offers a high price and refuses to pay, as if your work is free or you are not a top priority when it comes to paying their bills. Sometimes, you get a high paying customer that is so demanding that you spend so much time with them, that if you added up the hours, you’d make less than the low-paying clients. Unfortunately, the additional criticisms and demands spell out exactly the same thing:” They don’t value your work.” Which begs the question:

Why don’t they go elsewhere then?

How You Create Your Own Customers

The reason, as hard as it may be to believe, is that you allow them to stay there repeatedly disrespecting the value of your work because you don’t believe it’s worth much either. The irony of the whole situation is that just like an abusive partner picks someone who they admire to belittle,  these customers actually like your work or they wouldn’t be there. It gives them great joy to find someone who wants to be involved with them because they don’t think much of themselves either. As the relationship continues, of course, the emotions become louder. Something is wrong, but the familiarity of it may lead to ignoring the fact that the pay is getting less and the demands are getting more. It may be hard to cut these people out of your life, but ultimately, it may be what your business requires to survive.  Ignore your gut instincts at your own peril at this point.

Learning To Trust Yourself In Business

Once you learn to disentangle yourself from these types of customers, the newer ones that are worth your time will appear. At the point you start to trust in your own innate worth, the deadbeats and abusers will begin to scatter because you either 1) Refuse to engage these customers, or 2) State the value of your work upfront and expect and get fair recompense for your work or they walk away. You learn to negotiate difficult customers so that you’re both on the same page or you clearly realize from the start that the relationship is not a match. At that point, you will have learned to trust yourself and appreciate the value of your own work enough for it to generate the customers who can do likewise. Whether in dating or business, once you learn to trust your own judgments and listen to what your emotions are telling you about the other party, the ability to select the right relationships becomes clearer and easier, and far more profitable.

Why don’t they just throw up their hands and give up? Honestly, if the Horizon Realty fiasco (Can a tweet cost you $50k? Maybe, if you get sued like this woman: http://bit.ly/4A60v (via @ColonelTribune)) is any indication, big business will never get social media. They’re still working on the old assumption that a market is profitable only when it’s controllable, but social media is something quite different. It is open source technology in action where people are the code that connects and creates a new reality, no matter what input or large infrastructure is already in place.

It’s Kind Of Funny To Watch…

I admit it, I was immensely amused by Horizon Realty’s online debacle. Who wasn’t? A big company sues a little Twitterer with at most 20 followers for an off-the-cuff remark about some moldy apartments.  What’s in the suit? A claim for $50,000 dollars in damages for one tweet with an exposure of 20 people on an inactive account, no less.  Regardless of whether the defendant “started it” as Horizon Realty suggest by wanting to sue over the issue first, the point is that social media is about the dissemination of information, whether accurate or not.  You can’t target one Twitterer in the hopes of controlling information on the Internet, it has a tendency to highlight these offensive attempts as “censorship” and they get widespread attention by way of “The Streisand Effect.”  What would have led to 20 people being told now has become a case of instant Twitter stardom with Horizon Realty placing number four on trending topics on July 28, 2009. Unfortunately, what they got with that stardom is permanent association with the company’s spokesman’s quote: “We’re a sue first, ask questions later type of organization.”

I’d Be Running Scared Too, Right About Now…

Big business is trying very hard to control places like Facebook, Twitter, and any type of social media that is taking the profit out of their pockets. The newspaper and magazine industry is collapsing because of the ease of information access via the Internet. Iran is having trouble squelching rebellions because of one pic tweeted across the globe of a girl named Neda. The establishment has lost control of the framework by which it tells us what it wants us to believe and how it shapes public opinion. What’s next? Are we going to demand that industry create jobs, products, and services that actually create value in society, instead of exploit it? What will happen to the profits then?

That’s Okay, They Have A Solution

And, that solution is to join up with what they can’t control, and infiltrate the new “system” so that at some point they have a handle on it. That’s why people who were previously canned for saying nasty things about their companies online are now being courted as social media gurus with an audience that can be harnessed for good publicity, not just bad. Now, they actually want people who are on Twitter and Facebook and the larger the audience, the better, even if on the surface it appears very hypocritical. They want to know how many Twitter followers you have on your resume because that’s just the type of person they want to hire, right? Once you’re on their payroll, they have control of that voice and they have a bigger share of that market to create profit, and not losses. They’re going to control the Internet, not by controlling the technology (which they clearly can’t do), but by controlling the voices that access the technology. That’s the thinking, anyways, and it’s completely misguided. They still don’t get it and they aren’t meant to get it. Social media isn’t for big business, as it stands now. It’s for the individual, and they should just get out of the way and let us do our thing before they get run over. In order for big business to truly get it, they have to revamp their companies from the bottom rung to the topmost CEO, and that’s just not going to happen by grabbing a few Twitterers or Facebook stars on their side and putting them on the payroll. Every voice is just as powerful, whether it has 1000 followers or 20 followers, as the Horizon Realty example clearly shows. That’s the concept they clearly don’t get, and that they aren’t going to get any time soon.

Dear Gov. Arnold,

I have a business proposition for you. You see, it’s come to my attention that California is 24 billion dollars in debt and suffering badly. I have debt on my ledger too, and I know how painful it is to be short of money, especially for needed services. It also came to my attention that you are planning on handing out IOUs to your suppliers and vendors, students, and some needy individuals and social service programs.  I feel really bad, you know, because I was born in California and I want to help you guys out.  At any rate, I think it’s a brilliant plan and you are on the right track, especially as banks in the state are on board to take those IOUs as payment, like real dollars from what I hear. I just think you haven’t taken this idea far enough. That’s why this business proposition occurred to me. We can help each other. You see you’ve solved the problem that’s been plaguing me since this recession started. I can’t pay off my debts in full and now some of my debt, in credit cards, is at 30% even though I wasn’t late when they hiked the rates. But, that’s neither here nor there. The point is, we both have a golden opportunity now to get America back on track.

Here is what I propose:

Instead of cutting back on purchases, you go whole hog on buying up everyone’s debt around the country that has exorbitant interest rates tacked onto it that in any other day and age would be called “malicious usury.” I mean, really, what’s a few more billions when you’re already 24 billion in the hole, right? That’s right, anyone and everyone who has a predatory lender on their tail – you promise to buy their debt. In exchange, for that service, we will pay you instead of the bank at the maximum rate that you have set for your IOUS: 5%. Then, you turn around and buy out the debt contract from the bank using IOUs, transferring their monthly income to your balance sheet, with no appreciable cost to implement. It’s a win-win-win. You get instant income of millions (maybe even billions) of dollars EVERY MONTH for many months – from outside the state, all over the United States, in fact! You’ll be inundated with grateful debtors and might even be canonized as Saint Arnold by the Catholic Church (okay, maybe not!).  We get a simple interest rate that allows us to pay back our debts while still making a living wage. The banks get their money in IOUs and balance their ledgers, and there are no extra expenses on your balance sheet until October! America is saved!

Please let me know if this is a reasonable proposition and at what time we can go ahead and get this show on the road!

Regards,

SpiritWealth

It’s amazing to me to come across so many people in today’s society that think that just showing up is sufficient for me to fork over my hard-earned money to them. Whether it’s someone I hire to do something for me, or a customer service representative, a salesperson, or even a family member. While I appreciate the company, you know, I am not the only person with a brain and two working hands. When I say I want “support” it’s not your emotional shoulder I want, it’s your work ethic. That appears to be sorely lacking in this country where the “do nothing and get paid for it” ethos wins the day.

I Always Thought It Was Because I’m A Single Mother

I used to think it was because I was a single mother, and we tend to work harder, longer, and have to pick up after every one else. While we may get tons of sympathy, no one feels obligated to do any baby-sitting, send over a casserole, invite me for dinner, or even mow my lawn for free.  I noticed that while everyone else had spouses (which they bitterly complained about) who did their lawn, changed their oil, and fixed their appliances, that I had to pay for those services, sometimes quite a lot and got very little in terms of actual quality work from these people. They want my money, all right, but they don’t necessarily think they need to deliver a quality service, or any service at all sometimes to receive payment. At any rate, I can now say it’s not because I am a single mother that predatory promisers of good service abound. I think now it has more to do with the do nothing work culture of America. I can expect it whether I am single or not.

Classic Examples

• A Do Nothing Sales Person – I went into a health food store and requested a brand name allergy herbal remedy. I had money in my hand, but they only had the larger bottle and not the original bottle that cost what I wanted to spend. When I complained that I didn’t want that many pills and that I only had so much money, the sales person abruptly left me on the spot, saying “Fine!” to tend to some other person. I ended up going to another store, buying a different brand for the right price, and I haven’t returned since to that other store. Why? Do nothing sales people who can’t even turn a sale when a customer walks in with money in their hand knowing exactly what they want, that’s why. What would it have cost her to actually listen to my needs and recommend a different brand? Instead, I get the “I’m too busy to help you, and I must go elsewhere where I can go get paid to do nothing” ethos.

• A Domain Registrar – I tried this weekend to get a domain registered with hostgator.com. They said they accepted PayPal payments, but didn’t specify how.  Something happened right away upon my sales request, and the password was different than I had set up, so I couldn’t get into support to find out how to make a payment. Did they notice the payment wasn’t made? Oh, yes – IMMEDIATELY.  The do nothing and get paid culture always notices when a payment doesn’t show up that they believe they’re due for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING yet.  They finally send me instructions on how to make payment and the payment goes through. There I am sitting and waiting for the domain to propagate and after seven days, I figure something is wrong. It’s still not showing up in my browser. I contact them again and they tell me they never registered it. Sure, they admit to taking my money, but they never registered it. Why? Maybe because that’s the standard way to make money in America. Sit on your fat *SS and do nothing! When I requested a refund for the period of time that they essentially did nothing and had promised delivery, I was told it was my fault because I didn’t notify them I had paid them and their system didn’t tell them they were paid. Holy Cow! I am now responsible for making sure people who take my money know they have it or I won’t get any service.  I canceled my account on the spot. I don’t do business with do nothing companies or do nothing customer sales people. I requested a FULL refund instead of a partial one. No work – NO PAY. How many times do I have to say that before someone understands me? Meanwhile, I’m getting the full sympathetic shoulder from a do nothing customer service rep as if that’s what I’m paying for. I’m paying to register a domain, not for some retarded double-speak and excuses. If the domain isn’t registered and they have my money, I want a refund for the work they promised that they failed to do. What’s so hard to understand?

• An Expensive Employee – I have a friend who had 13 employees who were very well paid, very highly educated too. One of these employees said he had “12 years experience” and could do all manner of things. At any rate, he was sent out on a simple job for a client and when he reported back, he told this friend that he thought they could “do nothing” for this client. He was fired on the spot. It turned out to be a simple 15 minute fix, but the owner reasoned that the man was either lazy, didn’t want to be bothered, or simply didn’t have the knowledge he claimed to have to fix the problem. Either way, he wasn’t worth the salary. Here’s a helpful hint: When a client comes to you with money in hand and they want their problem fixed, “do nothing” is not a good response to generate business. If you think your boss isn’t noticing your lack of action or your lazy attitude, think again. If you have a job in this tight economy, my advice to you is to do what you have to do to keep it – like actually doing your job.  If you are a struggling company, here’s a tip for you. Actually deliver what you promise, when you promise it. Is that too much to ask in America anymore? My friend thinks so. He says in all the years he was in business he found that none of his employees had the work ethic that people outside the country have. The suppliers too were not that great about doing what they say will do either. He’s thinking maybe he’ll go overseas and start a business there instead. He’s tired of pampering overly educated, highly pampered, do nothing Americans.

I was startled to hear a recent story about a top executive who lost his job saying he’d know things were bad when he started drinking “wine out of  a box.”  While it may come close to snobbery, food choices do hit very close to home and having to make sacrifices in this area is probably where it hurts the most. In fact, I was smugly laughing at the ex-executive’s comment until someone pointed out to me that I also have “given up” certain favorite foods for this recession and I complain I miss them every now and then.  It almost made me want to put on a sandwich board and stand out on the street corner panhandling with a sign that reads “Will Blog For Food,” but only, of course, for those forbidden treats.

A Fair Trade?

That’s when I thought it might work on the Internet. If you are a business owner who wants some free marketing, heck, send me some food. No need to find some extra cash (which I know is just as hard for you to find right now). I will accept food in lieu of payment as my way to stimulate this economy and get your business needed Internet exposure. Of course, it has to be hard cheeses, fine wines, stuffed olives, shrimp, or any other delicacy that I simply can’t afford any other way during this recession. I will do my part and savor and enjoy your little care package for all it’s worth (and before these items hit their sell by dates and you can’t sell them anyways!) and then I’ll blog about how much I enjoyed it and mention your brand.

Isn’t the Internet grand?

This question doesn’t require a look at your recent bank account statements, instead it takes a bit of introspection. Organic wealth is more about community and self-sufficiency than it is about dollar signs. It’s about what you value and whether you are appreciating the value of your life. It is about learning how to feed yourself first with values that promote well-being and life happiness, and having gratitude for each experience. It is about taking life as it is, no added fertilizers, no harmful pesticides, and just seeing all natural goodness, no matter what happens.

The Top Wants In Life

Most people in the United States are exorbitantly wealthy, whether they make a low income or a high one. It is far easier to cultivate organic wealth in the United States than elsewhere because we’ve met many of the subsistence values that other countries still struggle to meet economically. Life is so abundant that few people notice it, until they visit a different country and realize what they have. Many countries struggle simply to provide these subsistence values to their citizens: shelter, food, and water. To progress out of subsistence, one needs energy and education to create industry. Those can also be in short supply in many places, yet the ability to get an education or create your own business is a pillar of our society. After our basic needs, the top wants in life are: money, relationships, and a sense of accomplishment (work/career).  Yet, money, in and of itself, is not the only variable that determines how wealthy you assess yourself. Having the basics of life and the opportunity to create money, relationships, and industry (a condition that most Americans enjoy) is having way more than most in this world. Yet, we don’t understand how rich we are because we haven’t experienced different.

Learn To Appreciate Your Organic Wealth

It’s only when people get sick, that they realize that they had much when they were convinced they were poor. The body image in health mirrors our organic wealth, through imbalances in the ability to house, feed, or nurture the soul. Diseases are often “gifts” to people to help them to relearn how to balance their internal compass of physical, emotional, and mental wealth. It helps the person who is sick to begin appreciating what they have lost, and that resets the internal compass in the right direction. Once they see that they really had the basics they needed to be happy, it can be a great motivator to return to that physical state and make the most of it from now on. It’s when our life values are not the ones that we are seeking to fulfill that a feeling of poverty creeps in and immense dissatisfaction with life, and a potential for disease enters. Yet someone in the same position might see you as being immensely blessed to live your life if it were them. Learn to value what you have and you are organically wealthy, no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. There is always something to appreciate in life, no matter how small. Once you cultivate that deep appreciation and gratitude with life, you will generate more and more of what you want through the power of like attracts like. You will be a producer of value, not an exploiter. You will appreciate things and nurture them into creating more value for others because you are so wealthy it only makes sense to share with others.  You will be rich, born into a birthright of organic wealth and happiness. You will feed yourself, and you will feed others too, creating huge value that eventually gets reflected in all areas of life.