Team Spirit is for Losers

Team spirit is for losers, financially speaking. It is the glue that binds losers together - a strategy used by employees to shackle useful employees to their desks.

While lives may depend on team spirit and teamwork in professions like soldiering or firefighting, in commerce it acts as a subtle handicap and brake to ambitious individuals. Which, in a way, is what it's designed to do, as you will undoubtedly discover when your own managers trumpet the mantra of team spirit to those who will work for you in the not too distant future.

The truth is uglier. As the owner, you are in a team of one.

Anyone arguing that is an old-fashioned, dinosaur-like approach to business is either an academic or a teacher, probably at a fancy business school. They will be full of hot air and exciting theories concerning 'cooperative alliances', 'partnering' and 'new ways' of doing business.

Note that they will never have risked everything they own on the road to richness. In truth, they are sometimes ashamed to teach red-in-tooth-and-claw-entrepreneurial-capitalism to students or are projecting a kind of wish-fulfillment. Such professors may know a great deal about business theory and management techniques.

But they know nothing whatever about the getting of money.

Negotiating like a Pro

In 1625, Britain's answer to Machiavelli published a book, and edition of which has sat beside my bed for the last 2 years-his Essays. Here is what he has to say about negotiating:

'If you would work [negotiate with] any man, you must either know his nature and fashions, and so lead him; or his ends, and so persuade him; or his weakness and disadvantages, and so awe him; or those that have interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning persons, we must ever consider their ends, to interpret their speeches; and it is good to say little to them, and that which they least look for. In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.'

Let us be thankfull we shall never have to negotiate with Sir Francis Bacon!

Serious negotiations do not include management bargaining with personnel. Each requires different skills and many good managers should be excluded from serious negotiations. They have to much empathy. Important points to remember in serious negotiations include:

• Most of us are poor negotiators (including those sitting across the table).
• Most negotiations are unnecessary.
• Detailed preparation is of inestimable value.
• Whoever depends the least upon the outcome will usually prevail.
• Tenacity nearly always trumps eloquence.
• If in doubt, walk out.

As the owner of a growing start-up, do not permit professional advisors or potential purchasers lure you into interminable discussions and 'negotiations'. They are often little more than fishing expeditions. Lastly, on serious negotiations in general, it is worth engraving Marguerite de Valois's variation on an old Italian proverb into your sould:

'It is the same in love as in war; the fortress that parleys is already half taken.'

Choosing The Right Industry

The world is full of money. Some of that money has your name on it. All you have to do is di it out of the mine - but which mine?

Certain industries are more glamorous than others. Some require huge investment, some can be conquered out of a garage. Some are growing, others are in decline. Should you choose only to operate in a glamorous, growing industry? Where is the most opportunity to be found? How do you choose the right mountain.

Forget glamour if the getting of money is your priority. Few of those who wish to start their own movie company own the coolest PR outfit in the world or steal Steve Jobs's gadget thunder will ever succees. The reason is obvious. The laws of supply and demand apply  not only to commodities but to the choices people make. Too many people wish to make blockbuster movies and live in Beverly Hills. Not enough people wish to start a landfill company and dig holes.

Gold rushes rarely happen in old mines. New or rapidly developing sectors often provide more opportunities to get succesfull. The reason for this include: (1) availability of risk capital; (2) investor ignorance  and greed; (3) the power of a rising tide.

Investors gravitate to emerging industries in the hope of making a killing. The power of a rising tide masks manu start-up diffuculties putting newer companis on a more even footing with larger, more established  operators, at least for a while. A rising tide floats al boats.

The Magic Of Boldness

The most succesful generals and admirals in history shared one characteristic: they were willing to disregard orders and risk disgrace in order to exploit  rapidly changing circumstances. When the chance came, they recognised an opportunity, weighed the odds swiftly and placed their lives and careers on the line to snacht a victory.

In short, they were bold, often turning a blind eye to previously agreed strategy while ignoring direct instructions from their superiors. As an entrepreneur you are unlikely to have to follow the orders of others, but the fetters of conventional wisdom can prove equally inhibiting.

Fortune favours not just the brave but the bold. Boldness has a kind of genius in it. It relies on the unexpected and can lead to catastrophic defeat because it ignores conventional wisdom, which often proves to be wisdom of a kind. But should boldness succeed, the resulting succes appears all the more devastating in the eyes of startled observers and rivals.

Opportunities to get succesful keep popping up. The more alert one is, the more chance one has of identifying an opportunity; the more preparation one has done, the more artillery one can bring to bear; the more self-belief one can muster, the more certain will be the aim; but the boulder the stroke , the better chance one has of confounding the odds.

All entrepreneurs have a short- or medium-term gameplan, it's the only sensible way to proceed in getting succesful. But should the chance offer itself, that game plan must be hurled aside and the watchword on the road to succes changed to: 'Carpe diem!'

Persistence

Persistence is important, vital even, and requires a concerted effort of will and stamina to maintain. But it is not an end in it self. Nor is stubbornness persistence. Stubbornness implies you intend to persist despite plentiful evidence that you are reinforcing failure. A stubborn person fears to be shown that or she is wrong. A persistent person is convinced that he or she has been right allong; that the proof lies just around the corner.

'Never give in' is a useful catch phrase, but do not take too literally. We must all surrender at some time - to love, or desire, or death. You will be forced into the last, and a fool if you never surrender to the first. But never give in easily. If you can attempt one step further along the road to succes than appears sensible before calling a halt to regroup and chart a new course.

Above all, avoid banging your head against the same piece of wall. The wall will not get any softer. Persistence is only a virtue in getting succesful when applied with intelligence, and with the humility to accept that your may be flawed.

Believe In Yourself!

Coupled with tenacity, self-belief lies at the core of getting succesful in life. Without self-belief, nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible.

Persistence offers  you a second or third bite at the cherry. Tenacity ensures that you will continue to search for alternative ways to succeed. Self-belief encourages you to stare down failure and naysayers while tenacity works its magic.

It has been wel said that 'no one can make you feel inferior without your consent'. Self-belief reinforces this axiom and is priceless asset. We may profess to detest arrogance, yet isn't it true that we secretly admire it a little, too? Even though arrogance is a poor  thing compared to rooted self-belief - an imitation of the real thing.

Which is not to say that self-belief should be permitted to trample on doubt as arrogance is wont to do. Doubt is like pain: both are antennae - one attuned to fallibility, the other to malfunction. Far better to embrace our doubts; without them, there is only naked ego, the kind of certainty that leads to untrammelled arrogance, to cruelty, or worse.

If you will be guided by self-belief tempered by a generous dollop of doubt, whether or not you succeed on the road to succes, you will perhaps dislodge a pebble to ricochet down the very small mountain of your life. This, in turn, may wel create an avalanche that others will stand in awe of.

While I doubt I shall be among those clapping, you will certainty receive sufficient applause to repay your efforts. In time, you may even grow to enjoy the process.

Harnessing The Fear Of Failure

Anyone determined to create wealth from a standing start must make a pact with themselves to abandon the fear of failure. One cannot banish fear, but one can face it down, crush it, bury it, padlock it in the deepest recesses of your heart and soul - and leave it there to rot.

Just try. Go on, I dare you! Try for a single day; one whole day when you refuse to acknowledge fear of failure, fear of making yourself look like an idiot, fear of losing your lover, fear of losing your job, fear of falling ill, fear of  getting old, fear of any kind. If you can do this, you will transform your life.

Better still, you can harness fear. Think of it not as the King Kong of bogeyman, but as a mare. A night-mare. A mare is a horse. A horse can be tamed, bridled, saddled and ridden. Harnessing the power of a creature  that has oppressed you for so long will add mightily to your own. Thus the nightmare of prospective failure provides you with the very means to succeed, affording you the opportunity to feed on the adrenaline you will experience when you confront and master it.

Fear of failing in the eyes of the world is the single biggest impediment to amassing wealth. Trust me on this. It will cripple you. You must confront and harness it.

If you shy away, for whatever reason, then the gate to the road to succes is shut.

And it is shut for ever.

Ambition: The Tiger Chained To Your Ankle

What is the first question asked by strangers of each other? It's 'What do you do?'
In some cultures, the way of answering may be different; but nearly always relates to work: 'I'm in banking; I'm dairy farmer; I'm an administrator; I'm a soundengineer.' Our job defines us.

But it cannot define you. Not any more. You are a wild pig rooting for truffles. You are a weasel about to rip the throat out of a rabbit. You are an entrepreneur. You are going to be rich, and you don't much care, within the law, how you are going to do it. Or what must be sacrificed in the attempt.

You will do anything it takes, short of larceny, fraud, blackmail and murder. You may have cut yourself loose, but the tiger  chained to your ankle has come right along with you. He will always be with you, until the day you turn him loose by an effort of will. The day you leave the road to riches.

Until then, he requires pretty regular feeding. His name is Ambition. You can call him 'Ambo', if you like - but it won't make his teeth any less sharp.

You have changed in order to be free to make a whopping great fortune while your tiger scares the hell out of little old ladies and rivals. And yourself, for that matter. All self-made men and women are fettered to such companion, whether they choose to acknowledge his existence or not.

If you do not have a tiger handy as you read these words, I suggest you acquire one soon if you wish to amass serious wealth. Without him, all the tenacity in the world will avail you nothing.

Trust Your Instincts!

This is potentially lethal piece of advice. And yet, for me, it seperates the wannabes from the gonnabes. Perhaps, in the end, it is the difference between an attentive eternal lieutanant and the pirate captain who comes to won the ship.

You are not attempting to be a manager, or even a businessman. You are concerned with the getting of money. You must go with your gut. After that, the managers and the bean counters and financial advisors can take over. But only afterwards.

Trust your instincts. Avoid being a slave to them, but when those instincts are screaming Go! Go! Go! it is time for you to decide whether you really wish to be rich or not. You cannot do this in deliberate, considered manner. You cannot get rich painting by numbers. You can achieve it only as a lone predator: by out-waiting rivals; by remaining alert, constantly sniffing the air; by bringing murderous force to bear upon your prey.

And to do so without consulting anyone or anything but the secret servant of your compulsion.

Share the kill later, by all means. But if you want to get rich, trust your judgement when it calls - and leave those whos job it is to manage your business to pick up the pieces They can have the lesser quality bits.

But the heart and liver are yours!

Common Impediments

-If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes, publicly, and even catastrophically, you will never be rich.

-If you care what people think, you will never be rich.

If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry and concern to your family while you walk in the shadow of the road to getting rich, you will never be rich.

-If you stay too long working for others, you will never be rich.

-If you have artistic inclinations and fear the search for wealth will coarsen your talents or degrade them, you will never be rich. (Because your fear, in this instance, is justified.)

-If you are not prepared to work longer hours than anyone you know, you will never be rich.

-If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game - a silly game with serious rules - you will never be rich.

Cut Loose From People

You have to cut loose to get rich. There isn't any other way. Cut loose from parents and family, obviously. Loose from working for others, except as a short-term reconnaissance expedition and in order to raise a fraction of the capital you will eventually require. And loose from negative influences - those naysayers and Jeremiahs who cover the face of the earth.

These wretchers will tell you, if you listen, of the impossibility - and the foolishness - of trying to make yourself richer than they are. In doing so, they can drain confidence and optimism from you. Surprisingly, such people may include your family, your lover, your husband or wife, or your friends.

It's not that they do not care about you; they may well do. But two fears confront them: they (openly) fear you are placing yourself in harm's way, which cannot be a good thing; and their own timidity. Above all, they do not wish to be faced with the messy chaos that accompanies strenuous effort and risk. They yearn for the familiarity and sense of false security conjured by the status quo.

This is why you must cut loose. Getting rich comes from attitude of mind. It isn't going to happen if things drift on pretty much the way they are right now.

Get Started Now!

There is no point in sitting around thinking about getting started - not just for the getting of money but for just about anything.

If you have not made up your mind already, promise yourself you will do so as soon as you have finished reading this blog. Better still, this post. Better still, do it right this minute - this 'unforgiving minute'.

Are you going to commit yourself to becoming rich by following this road? Well, are you?

Commit now, or leave such dreams behind.
Begin now, or turn away.

Common Excuses To Not Attempt To Get Rich

The three valid reasons for not attempting to become rich are: (1) I do not wish to get rich; (2) I would lik to be rich I but I have other priorities; and (3) I am too stupid to make the attempt.

The first reason is Teflon-coated and defies challenge - but one wonders just how many who use it would turn down a surprise inheritance of, say, $10 million?

The third reason is conundrum. Those smart enough to know they are none too bright might stand a better chance in getting rich than they imagine. The rich lists of the world contain a far number of succesful but stupid enterpreneurs.

Apart from those listed above, some of which are debatable, there are no other valid reasons why you should not get rich.

In truth, most of the so-called 'reasons' for not pursuing wealth are not reasons at all; they are excuses. Pitiful alibis, half truths and self-serving evasions you have erected to spare yourself from the quiet terror of taking your own financial destiny in your hands and making your dreams concrete reality. They are the children of fear and the parents of a thousand 'if onlys'.

Who is likely to succeed in getting rich?

Anyone in good health and of reasonable intelligence, provided they utterly commit themselves to the journey, can be succesful in getting rich. The commitment is vital.

Tunnel vision helps. Being a bit of an asshole helps. A thick skin helps. Stamina is crucial, as is the capacity to work so hard that even your friends mock you, your lovers despair and your rivals watch furtively from the sidelines, half in awe and half in contempt.

Self-confidence helps, but can be stimulated or acquired  along the way, Tenacity  is an absolute requirement. Luck helps, but only if you don't waste time seeking it. The belief that you have a great idea is not worth shit. Ideas are ten a penny while the ability to execute counts for a great deal more.

The answer to 'Who is likeley to succeed?', perhaps then, is this: not those who want to and not those who need to or those who deserve to, but who utterly determined to, whatever the cost to themselves and to those around them.

Jordan Belfort & Felix Dennis on Getting Rich

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Millionaire Maker, Jordan Belfort explains how getting rich is easy, especially for those willing to change their approach.

Multi-Millionaire , Felix Dennis advice on how to get really rich. 

Changing the subject of my blog: Get Succesful in Life blog

I'm gonna stop with blogging about family guy and southpark and other bullshit. I'm going to change my blog's subject to how to be succesful in life. I will post advice from billionaires like Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, Felix Dennis, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many more.

Starting today, the Be Succesful in Life blog.

Last three South Park episodes were absolutely priceless!

South Park is back and it looks like it has picked up the taste! I laughed my ass off off all the last three episodes. Especially T.M.I. That episodes reflected so much truth in society. Every time I see people get anrgy fast I think they have a small penis and that's the cause for their exagerated anger. Don't you just love South Park?!

So let's start with reviewing the first of the latest three episodes T.M.I. I totall loved this episode. It was hilarious and as I mentioned before it reflect so much truth in our current society. People that are constantly angry about things are hiding something that they're not happy about. In this case, their penis sizes. It may sound ridiculous and shit, but believe it or not, there is more truth to it than meets the eye. WAHAHA! I'm not going to spoil it for you. Go watch the episode! What are you waiting for!? Please, leave comment before you do that or I will get very angry.

Thank you.

P.S. I will review the remaining two episodes in the following posts. I'm lazy. Period.

I'm back!

Excuse me for my abscence. I had some personal things that I had to get done over the few weeks so I didn't have time to post anything. But I'm back now and will start posting asap.

But you know who has come back too? SOUTH PARK! The last two episodes were hilarious! They were really good. I''ll post soon more about the last two episodes of South Park. And for the geeks under us, I'm planning to post some technical posts.

But for now, enjoy my blog!

Latest South Park episode was really boring, again!

I don't get it, South Park has become boring and not funny. First episode was hilarious but the last two episodes were horrible and really boring. What happened? As you may have guessed, the last episode was about the royal wedding. I think they could have made this episode much funnier. This was a missed chance for South Park.

I expect them to come with a Bin Laden episode. Hopefully that one will be funny. Tell me what you think about the latest episode of South Park.

Acer & Samsung come with Chrome OS laptops!

So google came with it's own operating system called Chrome OS and their own laptop, the chromebook Cr48. It's mainly designed for internet usage.. But now Acer and Samsung have come with their own Chrome OS based laptops. They announced this during the Google I/O 2011 event.

Both the Acer and Samsung laptops only need 10 seconds to boot! They're also equipped with long-lasting batteries and options for 3G connectivity.

The Acer laptop is the smallest of the two and has an 11,6 inch display and a bettery that last 6.5 hours. It only takes 8 seconds to boot up. It features two usb-ports, a webcam and an hdmi port. It will be available for $ 349

The Samsung series-5 laptop is with 12.1 inch SuperBright display a little bit bigger and it has a battery that lasts 8 hours. It also feautures dual-band Wi-Fi and a Core 2 Duo N570 1.66GHz processor. The prices are
$429(only Wi-Fi) and $499(3G).

So whould you buy one of these or would you rather go for Google's Cr48? Btw, I'm installing Chrome OS after this. If you too want to try Chrome OS out, here is a tutorial with a download link:

http://www.thetechlabs.com/tech-tutorials/os/download-google-chrome-os/

Tor: browsing anonymously has never been this easy!

You may  or may nothave heard about Tor. It's this FireFox addon browser that let's you surf the internet anonymously through encryption and proxy servers. Problem is, it requires both a browser extension and a standalone app to work. Leaving most of us horribly confused. So the Tor team decided to create its own fork of Firefix with private browsing feautures baked in. So the other benefit of this is that Tor will not have to wait on Mozilla to fix the bugs that affect privacy and security.

But for now: happy anonymous browsing!


Download: https://www.torproject.org/

South Park - Funny Bot episode was boring

It has been a few days since South Park aired the Funny Bot episode. It's the second episode in the new series. It was shit. The first episode about the humancentipad was much better. I liked how they mocked Apple. It was hilarious. But this episode was boring, Ok, I get the message behind it all. Which is don't take comedy seriously. There were some funny parts though, like the part when the Germans got angry because they got an award for the least funny people on earth. Their angry response was hilarious. At the end of the episode I spotted a little reference to the killing of Osama bin Laden. It seemed to be rushed in.

Southpark loses sometimes it's taste and that's why I think I grew to like Family Guy more. Every episode cracks me up. Well, I hope that there will be funnier episodes coming this series. I still love South Park though.

Do you really care that Apple stores your location data?

You may have heard the fuzz. Especially if you own an idevice, like the iPad or the iPhone. So apparently some dudes discovered that Apple stores your location data in a hidden file. To be honest, when I heard about this I really didn't give a damn. I mean, I have nothing to hide and the location is stored anonymously. So why are so many people worried about this? Can someone lighten me up?

As you may have guessed, I have an iPhone 4 and I'm in love with it. Everything about it is great except for that it's made out of glass and that I need to be very careful with it. I think Apple has delivered a product as never seen before and the fact that my iPhone stored all my location data doesn't change my opinion about Apple.

Anyways, Apple has fixed the "bug" in iOS 4.3.3 update. Hopefully people will stop whining about this and enjoy their idevices.

White iPhone 4 is almost here!

So, you may have heard about this. iPhone 4 is almost here!
Are you going to get one or do you think that it's just a color and nothing special about it?