- In Charleston, West Virginia, the tap water is toxic. Bathwater burns sensitive skin. Drinking water takes enamel off teeth. The water has concentrations of arsenic, barium, lead, manganese, and other chemicals that cause cancer, damage kidneys, and wreck the nervous system. The cause? Illegal amounts of these pollutants being pumped into the ground by local coalmines. And what did state regulators do about it? Nada.
- On Wall Street, unemployment is at 7 percent. That is three percentage points lower than the national average. Executives at Goldman Sachs and other bailed-out brokerages are getting million-dollar bonuses. Meanwhile, regulations meant to cut down on the cheating and stealing have not been implemented. For brokers and bankers, it's business as usual -- but with taxpayers' dollars.
Government is supposed to protect its citizens -- not only from bodily harm but from this kind of thievery. Trillions are spent on wars against people who never attacked us. Yet little or nothing is spent to put a stop to the financial damage being done to us. That is a shame. Oh, well. ---------------------------------------------- Highly Recommended ---------------------------------------------------- What MBA Students Have That You Couldn't Get (Until Now...) An unconventional course has appeared at Columbia University's business school... at the London Business School... and at the Haas Business School at the University of California. Says Brandon Peele, "I attribute 80% of my $120K MBA price tag to this one class. It changed my life in profound ways." Now you can get the same life-changing benefits... From your home... For less than a thousandth of the tuition. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity." John F. Kennedy It's a serious mistake to allow yourself to get caught up in the "what-if" and "how-to" trap before taking action. The reality is that no one can ever hope to know all the problems in advance, let alone all the solutions. Further, most of the things people worry about never even come to pass. Or, if they do, they end up being not nearly as bad as envisioned. Even better, some of the most minatory circumstances often turn out to be nothing more than disguises for great opportunities. I thought about this a couple of weeks ago when my son asked me to take him to a University of Maryland football game on a perfect-weather Saturday. It was quite a request, considering: 1. I had never been to Maryland's Byrd Stadium, and was not certain how to get there.
2. I estimated that the University was at least an hour away in modest traffic.
3. It would take us about an hour to get ready to leave the house.
4. It was 10:00 a.m. -- two hours before kickoff.
5. We had no tickets. Nevertheless, seeing a chance to be anointed Father of the Week, I replied, without hesitation, "Sure. Let's do it." Some might call this impulsive. Others might refer to it as abject stupidity. I would argue that a fair and enlightened individual would recognize it as nothing more than temporary insanity. But something just felt right about it. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I felt like I could run a marathon backward. And I saw it as one of those great Steve Martin-type bonding opportunities (as in Father of the Bride). We pulled out of the driveway at 11:00 a.m., an hour before game time. Surprisingly, traffic was light, even as we began to near the campus. Even more surprising, the stadium came into view about 40 minutes after we left the house. I still haven't figured out how that was mathematically possible. Now for the not-so-small matter of parking. Cars were jammed into every square inch of space on the side of every road anywhere within sight of the stadium, so I frantically looked for a parking garage. But before I could locate one, would you believe that a parking space suddenly appeared on the side of the road -- about a five-minute walk from the stadium? After I parked the car, my son and I jumped out and joined the crowd walking toward Byrd Stadium. At this point, I was thinking what a shame it would be if it were a sellout and we'd have to turn around and go home. Amazingly, however, as we approached the front gate, two men were standing right in front of us, one of them holding up a pair of tickets. He said they were his season tickets, but that he was going to be sitting elsewhere with his friend that day, so he just wanted to "get rid of them." He told me they were on the 50-yard line, and I braced myself for his asking price -- $75? $100? $150? Another surprise: Almost apologetically, he asked if $20 a ticket sounded reasonable to me. I refrained from hugging him, and quickly peeled off two $20 bills from the cash stash in my pocket. Thus far, I had been wrong about every dire thought that had crossed my mind before agreeing to take my son to the game. But I felt certain I would be right about one thing: No way was I holding 50-yard-line seats in my hand. Scalpers are hardworking entrepreneurs, but they have been known to shade the truth a bit. Surprise again: Our seats were, indeed, smack-dab on the 50! At halftime, since we hadn't had time to eat lunch before leaving the house, we were starving. Perusing the menu board at a garbage... er, concession... stand, it became evident that our substitute lunch was going to be a hotdog, an ice cream sandwich, and a Pepsi. To avoid apoplexy, I reminded myself that what we were about to eat was at least healthier than cyanide-laced Kool-Aid... though not by much. Besides, the dogs were only $2.50 apiece, which wouldn't even buy you a bun at a pro football game. After we finished "lunch," we stopped by one of the restrooms for a little relief. How pleasant. It made the restrooms at Washington, DC's RFK Stadium look like the Ritz-Carlton. Shows how easy it is to please college kids. The bottom line is that it was a great day, a day when everything that seemed like a problem ended up being a plus. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that things turned out so well, because I've witnessed the playing out of this type of scenario so often over the years. The moral is that when you really want to do something -- but are apprehensive because you see so many "problems" on the horizon -- do it anyway! Don't worry about it. You won't bat 1,000 percent. But if you continually fail to take action, you're guaranteed to bat zero. And even when things don't work out, you'll find that, in a vast majority of cases, the fallout won't be nearly as bad as you'd imagined. The many wonderful, unexpected things that will come into your life as a result of taking action will more than offset any pain you might endure from your few missteps. [Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos. And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.] ----------------------------------------------Highly Recommended --------------------------------------------------- Become the Next Depression Millionaire - The only condition we ask when using the "Multiplier Effect" is that you limit your profits to $10,000 a week. We don't want the "good old boys" to get wise and change the rules again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've been starting businesses for 30 years. And after taking a look at those that failed right away, those that lingered and then failed, those that puttered along, and those that soared, I have come to the conclusion that to be successful, you need a "ready-fire-aim" approach. Let me give you an example. When I first got into the rental real estate business, I had no knowledge of how it works. But I did have a basic understanding of real estate, having bought and sold properties before. So I did two things. First, I bought some "how-to" books and spent, maybe, 40 hours studying them. I zipped through them pretty quickly, because most of what they taught were fundamentals. And that's not what I was looking for. I knew I would pick up the basics on my own, just by buying my first few properties. I was looking for secrets -- inside information that could get me into profitability faster. So, more important than studying the books, I talked to knowledgeable people -- lots of them -- who had made millions in real estate. (I spoke to one guy at a party who had reportedly made billions.) That's what I do whenever I am interested in a new business. I search out pros in the field and ask as many questions as they will tolerate. I am always probing for the same things: - What are the most common mistakes I'm likely to make?
- What is the fastest and safest way to get started?
It took about three months of this sort of research before I felt "ready" to buy. I bought three small houses in my town. All three seemed good on paper. In reality, they were a mixed bag. I made several big mistakes in assessing their value that I won't make again. I also quickly learned things I'll never forget about how to write a contract and how to screen rental applications. What I gleaned from the books and conversations was enough to get me started. It helped me avoid the worst mistakes. It put me on the right path. But what I learned from the experience of doing it was the good stuff -- the true inside information that helped me eventually establish a decamillion-dollar portfolio. I've said this before, but it bears repeating: The most important knowledge about any business is invisible to outsiders. You can pick it up only when you are actively involved in the business on a day-to-day basis. You can't know it any other way. That kind of knowledge will determine your ultimate success -- whether you keep going and become rich or stop at the starting gate and do no more. Where are you with your great moneymaking idea? Are you "ready" to take action on it? If not, take a few months to acquire the knowledge you need. Spend some money to educate yourself. But buy how-to books and programs only from people with proven success in the field, not from those who make money only by selling advice. Then "fire"! The sooner you get going, the sooner you'll succeed. ---------------------------------------------- Advertisement --------------------------------------------------- The Closest You'll Get to Effortless Weight Loss Suppose you could drop all of your unwanted fat... I'm talking 10, 20, even 30 or more pounds... without going to the gym or forcing yourself to eat rice cakes and tofu burgers? A new clinical study published in the medical journal Lipids in Health and Disease says it's now possible. The participants in this study lost an average of 28 pounds and 6 inches off their belly. And they didn't change their diet or exercise habits one bit. This just may be the most successful weight loss compound ever tested! Click here to find out how you can join the "newly slim and trim" crowd... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What do you do when you see a cow in a ditch? Well, first, you get it out. Next, you figure out how it got there in the first place. Then, you make darn sure it doesn't fall into the ditch again. In other words, when faced with a problem, deal with the immediate situation before you do anything else. Once that's been taken care of, find out what caused the problem so you can take steps to prevent it from happening again. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Latest News - Bootcamp... Bootcamp... Bootcamp. With less than two weeks before our biggest event of the year, the office is buzzing. Are you joining us? There's still time to sign up. But not much...
- Over at Total Health Breakthroughs, they've just profiled one of the world's greatest cancer researchers. You've never heard of him. The medical establishment buried his work. But what he discovered could help you and your family. In tomorrow's issue, they have even more on effective natural alternatives to traditional cancer treatments. Sign up for THB today to make sure you don't miss it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Extremely useful." "Today's issue is great! Every issue is good, but Michael's 'early to bed, early to rise' section really resonated with me. "And Dr. Rao's 'mental chatter' article is extremely useful. "Thanks for all your good work, ETR!" Shelby Beckett ---------------------------------------------- Highly Recommended--------------------------------------------------- Should Making Money Online Be This Easy? I hear stories of budding Internet entrepreneurs jumping through hoops to make a buck. And sure, many times building a solid, long term business does take real effort. But you can also quietly pocket some decent dough online for much less work. In this case, you can copy the exact steps one man used to make $187,296 in one day. No, that's not a misprint. What's stopping you from doing the same? The program is called Instant Internet Income and I guarantee it works exactly as it says. Take a look and see just how easy making money online can be. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Words That Work: Minatory Minatory (MIN-uh-taw-ree) -- from the Latin for "to threaten" -- means menacing or ominous. Example (as used by Robert Ringer today): "Some of the most minatory circumstances often turn out to be nothing more than disguises for great opportunities." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We want your feedback! Let us know your thoughts on today's issue. Email us at: AskETR@ETRFeedback.com | 
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