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A person’s three most valuable resources are:

1. Time

This is a finite amount that each of us have, and we all have the same amount.  We also spend it continuously, all at the same rate.   So we can’t change the amount we have, or the rate of spending, but we can choose where to allocate the spending.

2. Money

This is most people’s most prized possession, and some people value this more than time.  People spend a majority of their lives exchanging their time for money.  If you have none, you will most probably shorten the amount of time you have left to live. Money  is a necessity to function in modern-day society.

3. Emotion

Emotion can be considered the intensity or amount of attention focused on something at any given time.  Humans are becoming more effective at multi-tasking and dividing emotion/attention, however numerous studies still suggest peak performance comes with single-minded focus.

Day in, day out, for almost every day of our lives, we are spending these three items.  When we spend something, we give it out and lose a portion of that resource.  When we invest in something, we often expect (and receive) a return with more than we put in.

1. Are you spending or investing your 3 most valuable resources?
2. How are you spending or investing your 3 most valuable resources?

Hunger is a feeling experienced when one has a desire to eat.  This desire is of course, generated when a person does not eat.  And since eating is necessary for survival, our brain creates an unpleasant sensation which prompts us to MOVE and TAKE ACTION.  Hunger typically flows in two cycles; there is the sensation of hunger, which ebbs and we often find the hunger “passes”.  When it returns, it will be more severe.

Financial hunger works similarly.  When we don’t have money, we are motivated to increase our activity (since no money ultimately leads to no food -> hunger, the unpleasant sensation).

When a person works a 9-5 job, they are rarely hungry, because the job will consistently give them a scheduled ‘meal’.  Even if they were to leave the job, they may have a ‘food suppy’ that will satisfy any hunger pangs.

Real hunger sets in when there is no food supply, and a person has to forage for their own food.  To hunt, to gather, to live purely on what they are able to earn; lest they starve.  There is a primal drive that sets in when a person is in this stage - they have left their comfort zone and are driven to survive.

This is where the magic happens - when you burn the boats, there is no option but to win.  Do you have the HUNGER to WIN?

It was said of Cicero that when people heard him, they turned to one another and said,

“Great speech.”

but when Demosthenes spoke, people turned to one another and said,

“Let’s march!”

Words that sound pleasant are works of art. Words that incite action are tools of power. 

What effect do your words have?  

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes

We work hard to generate as much personal income as possible.  What then becomes of our personal income?  It goes all into the bank, then what?  

I encourage three deposit buckets for your personal income.

1. Living Expenses (50%)

This includes food, gas, rent/mortgage, utilities, transportation, and sub $100 expenses (light entertainment and recreation). Essentially, these are expenses that you need in order to function effectively on a day-to-day basis to keep your lifestyle going.

2. Rainy Day Fund (25%)

Inevitably, life throws us a curveball and separates the unprepared from the prepared.  Be prepared.  Create a rainy day fund for the unexpected - medical bills, traffic bills, legal bills, etc.  Insurance money can be paid out of this rainy day fund.

3. Sunny Day Fund (25%)

There should be reward for hard work.  And the reward is in the Sunny Day Fund.  This can be used for the frivialities and luxuries of life.  Vacations, gadgets, $100+ entertainment and recreation expenses,  etc.

These three accounts should be clearly separate and distinguished, so you can clearly see at a moment’s glance how much you have in each fund, and can thereby create a budget accordingly. After the money is deposited into one ‘holding’ account, it should automatically be divided out into the three accounts.  This prevents cross-bucket spending and allows you to build each bucket on a steady basis.

Now, this of course is division for personal income after you have set aside investment money.  So if you were to earn $5,000 in one month, you may decide 50% of that to be personal income and to invest the other 50% to grow your $5,000 income.  This would mean that your basic living expenses should not exceed $1,250.00 per month.

Until you are able to enjoy your desired living expense, concentrate on growing your income as much as possible.

One of the most common roadblocks to success is waiting for the “right time”, the “right resources”, or “right circumstances” to TAKE ACTION and move forward.  People want to create the “perfect plan” so that they can achieve “perfect results”.  The truth is, we live in a constant state of flux, so we will never have complete information to craft a perfect plan.  Because many people are hesitant about taking a “leap of faith”, until they are certain of their metaphorical parachute (back up plan), they keep pushing off their dreams and goals until “someday”.  The road of “someday” leads to a town called NOWHERE.

The phrase “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” is absolutely true in regard to imperfect action.  As long as your action does not kill you (literally), you can execute the action, asses the results, modify behavior, and take another action to continue on the NOW path to success.  Information is gained by creating change and assessing the results.  If no change occurs, no new information will be garnered.  By continually taking action, assessing the results, and taking another action, the city of NOWHERE turns into NOW HERE.

This is your life, and it is ending one minute at a time.

Every minute that passes without an action taking place, you have lost FOREVER the potential to invest that minute and reap the dividends.  In a competitive environment, the competitor that is taking action is learning, growing, and transforming that minute into a minute ahead of you.  We have a maximum cap on the amount of time we can invest - those who invest NOW will reap more than those who invest LATER (given the same principal).

It is valuable to gather information, but experience is the best databank of information because it can be recalled instantly, at a moment’s notice.  And the only way to earn experience is to DO SOMETHING.  There is also a synergistic effect with experience - as you gain more of it, you will build interconnections between the various experiences to extrapolate out a third piece of new information.  Information breeds more information and allows for better decisions.  So even if you have ZERO information and take some action, you will create some information which can breed more data for success.

So what action are you going to take now?

A business grows by customers exchanging money for value.  

This could be expressed in the following relation:

Earned Revenue = # Customers * Rate of Money/Value Exchange

Earned Revenue increases/decreases according to # of customers and rate of money/value exchange.

A business exists to earn revenue (and of course, profits).  So we can increase earned revenue by

a) increasing # of customers, and/or

b) increasing rate of money/value exchange.

To improve (a), we must first define what it is we want to increase.  Let us define “Customer”.  The obvious definition is one who buys a product/service.  The deeper definition is that the word “Customer” derives from “Custom”, meaning “habit”.  So for a business to have a customer, they have somebody who is ‘habitually’ buying from them.  So what happens if a customer only purchases once?  Doing something once is not enough to consider it a habit (a habit is a repeated behavior routine).

Read more

I generally advise against watching TV (especially as a habit).  However, at times I watch TV, or watch clips on youtube (which could be an equivalent of watching TV).  Could this be contradictory?  As we know, there are no contradictions - one of the premises must be false.

The underlying assumption is that I am doing the same activity I am advising against.  However, the activity is not the same, and requires further definition.

The activity I advise against, “watching tv”, refers to “acting as a spectator; to look on;”.

The activity I perform, “-watching tv-”, refers to “looking or observing attentively or carefully; be closely observant”.

The former is a passive, the latter is active.  My contention is then ultimately not whether one should watch TV, but whether one should live an active life or a passive life.  Of course, Bruce is about ACTION!

One may argue that if somebody is actively observing a TV show (as when one is enthralled in a dramatic movie or an engaging sports game), then this fulfils the ‘active life’ value.  However, because one has conquered the level of passive vs active, still does not make -watching tv- an optimal action.

There are almost unlimited possibilities with what you could do with your time instead of -watching tv-.  The question is, if you’re not spectating, but observing some video clip very attentively, is that the most optimal use of your time?

World domination of an ENTJ, by TIM505 (entj).

Following a very disappointing scheme of world organization by an INFP on some website, I have decided to make a real plan. A plan that will ensure world cohesion. His plan was also intended as a joke. Mine isn’t. Mine is very serious. Everybody should know ENTJs hate joking!

THE LEADER, THE PRESIDENT, HIS MAJESTY:

First and foremost: I - The ENTJ. This is not even worth discussing. Everybody knows an ENTJ’s place is at the top. The ultimate strategist, the leader with vision -The one to give direction to the rest of the world.

CONSULTANTS:

Right-Arm: INTJ. The mastermind - The perfect friend and consultant to rule the world. The analyzer of plans. The most logic of all types. A definite must-have for any leader. He also ensure endless intellectual stimulation by arguing until early in the morning the meaning of any word, taken randomly, in the ENTJ’s speech.

Image Advisor: ENFP. The ENTJ always wants to better himself and improve. ENFPs are image-conscious and will advise the ENTJ on how to behave in public and stop crushing people like ants. ENFPs are also fun to have around and are good sex partners. They always want to please their boss. A couple of color crayons for kids will be available at the Palace so the ENFPs can relax doing drawings.

Clothes Advisor: ISFP. Clothes are trivial to the ENTJ. Unfortunately, the ENTJ cannot walk around naked outside his palace. The ISFP will choose clothes for the ENTJ. The ISFP’s masochistic tendencies will also come in handy for sex. They are willing to acceptanything. In fact, the ENTJ could have the ENFP in bed first and the ISFP wouldn’t mind joining in later.

DEPARTMENTS:

R&D: In fundamental research, the smart INTPs. They will provide the basis of scientific progress and research the most theoretical aspects. They will make brilliant breakthroughs in physics. When the ENTJ is bored he can also invite a couple of INTPs just to argue. The unlimited power and richness of the ENTJ will ensure that, in his palace, any broken glass, vase, window, pen, fork or door handle by an INTP will be immediately replaced.

In applied research, the genial ENTPs. They will come up with the inventions that will make everybody elses life easier. They’ll come up with new technologies: Like an anti-”SJ” mind control device that will temporarily change those worthless animals personalities to “NP” whenever they start obsessing about details too much. They can also come to the palace whenever Lord ENTJ needs intellectual stimulation - but smoking weed is not allowed in the vicinity.

Security: ISTJs. Mostly obsessive compulsive, the ISTJs lack of any real intuition makes them worthless.Their vision of the future is always unclear and clouded. They don’t have many insights, and when they do they are paranoid and delusional. For that matter, those pesky ISTJ robots will be best placed in Security. They will scan the environment by radar for threats, ensure each door in the ENTJ palace has 7 locks, operates also by card, requires eye, voice and DNA ID - They will keep detailed files of every servant in the kingdom and assign each citizen a number. They will also act as the police.

Since the ideal world is a totalitarian one, legal and executive functions are unified in the hands of the ENTJ - He will ensure that dissidents to the regime receive the treatment deserved. Knowing the overwhelming percent of ISTJs in the world, security will not be a problem in the kingdom. ISTJs will be continuously brainwashed by subliminal messages emitted by the ENTJ on TV.

Recruitment: INFJs. The best people have to be chosen accordingly. INFJs will ensure in-depth knowledge of all personality tests around and will be masters in psychology. They will excell in understanding the MBTI and administer it to all new recruits.Whenever they find a wannabe ENTJ, they will send him to the real ENTJ immediately so he can throw him to the alligators beneath the palace. There is only one! All other so-called ENTJs are impostors.However, the ISTJs will ensure administration of the test will be only possible to recruits, NOT to INFJs - This is in order to stop them passing and repassing the test 50 times.

Medical: Psychologists: INFPs. Psychologists have to listen, be non-directive, self-effacing and gentle.The INFPs inner calm and non-directness will ensure real psychological counselling, ?aRogers. They will take care of all the citizenstraumatized by the ENTJ’s power and directness, and past ENTJ partners still in love with him. INFPs will also be invited to the palace as an audience for the ENTJs argumentation with other NTs. Indeed, the INFP hates arguments and always agrees with the strongest person in a debate, regardless if he is right or wrong. This will ensure a good audience against the NT.

Doctors: INTJs. While the best INTJ will be my right arm, the others will be top doctors. Neurologists, Rhumatologists, Cardiologists, you name it. They will be the experts. They will also ensure research in this domain and will come up with a way to make the ENTJ live longer and be more powerful.

Nurses: ISFJs. What can I say about these people? I love them. They are the best. Most ISFJs will be placed in nursing. Since they are so benevolent, pure and obedient to the regime, they will be invited in masses to the kingdom. At least you can count on the ISFJs to rally behind the ENTJ. While the ISFPs, ENFPs and ESFPs will be sexual partners of the ENTJ, the ISFJ will be the ENTJ’s real significant other. The ISFJ will ensure harmony in the household and education of the ENTJ’s warrio…erm…children. Why the ISFJ and not the ISFP as a wife? Because ISFJs are so much more NEAT and ORDERLY, plus they have a strong respect for authority and tradition. Brilliant.

Hygiene and Cleaning Services: Who will clean up the palace and the citizens homes? The ESFJs of course! Due to the overwhelming number of them, no more citizen will have to clean up, cook, organize weddings, plan parties, etc. since the ENTJ is a powerful but also generous leader, he will place one ESFJ in each household.

Wait, don’t panic! The ENTPs will have invented the mind control device necessary to turn the e-S-f-J to e-N-f-Ps when they get too compulsive. Then they could act as a babysitter for kids, or if you don’t have any kid, you’ll have a temporary one at your disposition with the ENFP!

The benefits of having an ESFJ are apparent: You won’t have to spend time baking cookies, bringing the kids to school, organizing and cooking for friends and waking the kids up. The EFSJ is also an efficient nagger to remind your significant other of any task he/she’s not done yet.

The ENTJ ARMY:

Charismatic Leader: Ok, so at this point on the hierarchy, we need somebody with hi ideals that can mobilize alot of people. Since most SJs are a pain to boss around, somebody has to do it. That person will be an ENFJ. ENFJs learn by role modelling, so they will just role model their beloved ENTJ leader and integrate all his values. They will be able to tame the ESTJ lions in the ENTJ army thanks to their good people skills.

ENFJ are really the best when it comes to duping people into thinking they have benevolent intentions, something the ENTJ can’t do because he’s too straightforward. ENFJs are the only ones able to make SJs understand anything. Thank god they exist. Supervisors and small team leaders: Beneath the ENFJ, there will be a series of ESTJ Majors to lead those mindless ESTPs and ISTPs around. ESTJ are also good to have on the field amidst a battle. They are good leaders but they are also quite disposable. There are so many of them that it really doesn’t matter if any one of them gets killed in the process. ESTJs can use their football skills to throw grenades at the right places in enemy territory.

Disposable soldiers: At the bottom of the hierarchy, we need people who can’t think for themselves, who are conformists, who are unconscious about risk, who are willing to fight unarmed against a squad of infrantry with machine guns - We need people who don’t think- but ACT. We also have to make sure there are plenty of them so we can replace their (un?)fortunate deaths.

In a nutshell: WE NEED STPs! The ISTPs are the perfect soldiers: Fearless, think they’re invincible, don’t like talking, cold and sadistic, influenced by Rambo movies. They can also act as mechanics when vehicules have any problems.

On the other hand, ESTPs. They are great to throw upfront in a battle. You can tell them the enemy has beer in his camp and they’ll go running to him like bulldozers screaming “WAZZZZAAAAAAAAA!!!”. They can invent all sorts of stories if they are captured, and still not be busted on a lie detector.

They also are great salesmen. This ensures that if, regrettably, the war in place is only of an economic nature, they can go along selling junk to the enemy. For example, they can sell cars that will stop functionning after exactly 8000 miles, paralyzing all of the enemy’s transports.

THE AMUSERS:

Entertainers: Last, we need to place those disobedient ESFPs somewhere. These people are really scum and are best left as disposable sex objects. They are good entertainers and ensure the whole society is [sexually] active.

They will be performers for the ENTJ’s vision. They will participate in TV shows like “ENTJ Idol”, a reality show where participants have to do all sorts of things to please the ENTJ. They will be given courses by qualified instructors and receive grades each week.

They will learn to be more organized, less changing, more logical, less impulsive and more argumentative. Aaaahh….Wouldn’t the world be such a better place?

Find out where you fit: http://www.humannetrics.com

B-to-B prospects respond to the same key emotion drivers consumers do. In “Mail Order Strategy” (Hoke Communications, 1956), Victor Schwab compiled the following 40 key emotional drivers.

People want to gain:
Health
Popularity
Praise from others
Pride of accomplishment
Self-confidence
Time
Improved appearance
Comfort
Advancement: social-business
Money
Security in old age
Leisure
Increased enjoyment
Personal prestige

They want to save:
Time
Discomfort
Risks
Money
Worry
Embarrassment
Work
Doubts

They want to be:
Good parents
Creative
Efficient
Recognized authorities
Up-to-date
Gregarious
“First” in things
Sociable, hospitable
Proud of their possessions
Influential over others

They want to do:
Express their personalities
Satisfy their curiosity
Appreciate beauty
Win others’ affection
Resist domination by others
Emulate the admirable
Acquire or collect things
Improve themselves generally

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you may use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.  Note: This is only a very rough generalization.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses logic detail oriented facts rule words and language present and past math and science can comprehend knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception knows object name reality based forms strategies practical safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling “big picture” oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can “get it” (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking

Here’s a hack to help see the other direction: http://ofb.net/~whuang/imgs/spin/

Neurophilsophy blog discussion on it: http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/10/the_left_brain_right_brain_myt.php

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