Expert Professional Advice

Hong Kong Tourism Board announced the formal establishment of the Office of the Hong Kong Tourism Board in Taiwan, Taipei, to help strengthen Hong Kong’s tourism promotion activities in the Taiwan market.

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The Chinese University of Hong Kong officially launched yesterday, “I CARE Bo group plan.”

(Zhongda Bo group of students set up social enterprise plan)

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What we don’t know about HK moon cake packaging?

“Hong Kong moon cake” is actually produced in the mainland Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places

香港文匯報 – ‎4小時之前‎ Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po

PR:

Apple will open its Hong Kong store in the International Finance Center, 24th September

Reuters and BBC report the same news, but Reuters does a better job of the coverage… I crossed out some of the BBC coverage for evaluation purposes.

Apple to open first Hong Kong store this quarter –

SHANGHAI | Tue Sep 6, 2011 2:21am EDT

(Reuters) – Apple Inc said on Tuesday it will open its first Hong Kong retail store this quarter and is targeting another Shanghai store opening by the end of the year.

Apple, which has four stores on mainland China, will open its Hong Kong store in the International Finance Center this quarter, said Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman.

Wu also said Apple will open another Shanghai Apple store by the end of the year.

Apple, whose iPad and iPhone are among the most pirated gadgets in China, recently saw its retail experience ripped off by copycats in Kunming city.

Apple is striving for greater growth in China via the expansion of its Apple Store network and the roll out of cheaper iPhones.

The Asia-Pacific — which accounts for about one-fifth of Apple’s total revenue — and Greater China, in particular, helped Apple’s revenue surge 82 percent to $28.6 billion in the April-June quarter.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

6 September 2011 Last updated at 04:04 ET

Apple to open first store in Hong Kong to boost sales

Apple is planning to open its first store in Hong Kong as it seeks to capture a greater share of the booming Asian market.

The store comes as Apple’s outlets in Beijing and Shanghai continue to be among the best performing ones across the globe.

According to Apple, its sales in the Asia-Pacific region surged 247% to $6.3bn (£3.9bn) in the third quarter.

Apple currently operates four stores on the Chinese mainland.

“The scale of retail sales via the open market in Hong Kong is quite high,” Melissa Chau of IDC Asia-Pacific told the BBC.

“It would make sense that they [Apple] want to be the ones profiting from it the most.” she added.

Regional demand?While Apple’s products have been very popular with the local residents, analysts said Hong Kong was also catering to increased demand from other parts of the region.

“Hong Kong has been a really big port to buy Apple products for consumers who are not [resident] there,” IDC’s Ms Chau said. [Analysts said? BBC lists one analyst- and commentary is not substantial, nor supported by figures.]

Strict policies and high import tariffs on import of electronics goods in some countries of the region make Apple’s products relatively expensive.

Analysts said consumers from neighbouring countries often bought those products from Hong Kong, where easier and comparatively open market policies kept them more affordable.

“Shipment amounts in Hong Kong far exceed what one would expected for domestic demand,” Ms Chau added.

• Apple defends record on pollution 01 SEPTEMBER 2011, BUSINESS

Nature:

Magnitude-6.6 earthquake, North Sumatra, Indonesia

Giant croc caught in Philippines (world’s largest crocodile capture)

Alien worms ‘threat to forests’ (Invasive earthworms alter the carbon and nitrogen cycles in woodland)

• Earthworms to aid soil clean-up 12 SEPTEMBER 2008, SCI/TECH
• Soil’s secrets to be unearthed 28 NOVEMBER 2002, SCI/TECH
• Deepest-living land animal found 02 JUNE 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

Finance:

Swiss National Bank acts to weaken strong franc (large currency movement)

TOKYO, Sept 6 – Nikkei average declined 2.2 percent on Tuesday to a 2-1/2 year closing low

Technology:

SMS-all innovator in Pakistan (social activity applied to SMS)

A review of Ultimate Technique for Success by Ken Roberts:

The UTS marketing brochure is very similar to his Rich Man’s Secret course that he offered beginning in perhaps, 1997, but now he’s changing the terminology to add three words to his marketing:

1. LifeStar

2. Dream Tickets

3. Recontextualize

On the surface there’s nothing different about his RMS offering versus UTS – but the delivery has changed because Ken has probably figured out that he never fully accounted for the “learning gap.” So it appears you get the same kind of information he was selling in 1997 but now packaged with CDs instead of audio tapes, and now a DVD when you renew your membership, and online coaches and online club meetings, along with placing a premium of giving us an experience with the Dream Tickets marketing angle and perhaps letting club members teach each other for a more powerful learning experience. [edit: club members do not directly interact with each other, they simply can read comments and comment during the once a month text chat with Ken. Ken does not understand the flow and structure of online learning practices.]

This last point of training and then teaching others is common practice is corporate training and some education programs – it is known as train the trainer.

I’ve looked at some of his RMS/ATS marketing material from 2002 to 2004 and while he does talk a good game about changing your thinking – he originally pinned his approach for teaching us a better life to a reprint of a book about visualization techniques/practices. The book was probably from the 1960s, I don’t recall the original publishing date, but I know the entire RMS course was often sold on Ebay so I contacted a few of the individual sellers to ask about their learning experiences and it seems it didn’t emotionally rock their world, or offer any kind of financial success. I was able to obtain the RMS material for review purposes and looked at what Ken had put together, bear in mind that did not include any of his ongoing newsletter or phone hotline updates that members were encouraged to buy separately to stay active.

But the material itself, a workbook, the pictography book, another older book, a paperback originally published in the 1970s about meditation, and two audio cassettes made up the course.

The audio tapes made mention of Ken’s amazing success not so much from trading but on operating an information empire of memberships… Ken said this point was raised by a gentlemen in the bathroom during one of the breaks at a workshop or lecture, and then Ken said something like multiply $200 by the number of memberships we have and you’ll have some idea of the business we do, which at the time the rough estimate number he gave was about $25 million. His new marketing material shows a graphic of a check for $55 million representing the aggregate personal income taxes he’s paid over the years. [edit: However, there’s no letter of reference from an accounting firm confirming it has audited that claim.]

Ken’s marketing material is generally straightforward – his earlier two page marketing brochure from 2002 to 2004 said that nothing is going to work, all the talk we hear is hype in the media, and people acting as false gurus in the financial and self-help areas. No dispute there.

What gets me looking closer now is that although Ken’s marketing has honed in on this concept of “love what you do, but you probably don’t know what it is, my course will tell you how to find it” – is that because his original course never really delivered on the more modest claims? Yet, he’s really going for it this time in his claim that this will change your life because he’s going to assign you tasks as part of this course. I see the potential application of game dynamics at work here which can be effective in learning methodologies, however, there’s nothing to say Ken himself is a better man or had some breakthrough compared to when he originally developed version one, RMS, so he relies on introducing three new vocabulary words that were completely absent in all his prior marketing.

Dream Tickets, LifeStar, and recontextualized didn’t account for Ken’s success – and to top it off, on page 76 of his marketing brochure he has a question: “Well if you’re so rich (and ‘retired’), why do you do this?”

But he never answers the question, the question is immediately followed by six quotes, staring with a proverb, and the last quote “When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.” -Jacques Cousteau. And that’s how the brochure ends with the next page being the summary of how we learn but he doesn’t clearly illustrate the products that are for sale, the next and final page being the order form.

I’m wondering about that question he never answered, wouldn’t it make more sense to offer people a way to volunteer in their communities for x number of hours and receive the course as a gift? Especially when his marketing brochure makes the point that we are not after money itself, but what we think it represents for us to accomplish or to live a certain lifestyle.

Ken doesn’t show any accomplishments himself, nothing lofty he’s trying to accomplish in a humanitarian sense, so I don’t see any application to his own experience before or after his financial success toward something more meaningful.

Notes:

If you feel Ken’s RMS or the newer UTS course was helpful please share your experiences. And if you are interested in more detailed information on the finding what you love to do concept that is part of UTS, purchasing UTS at a discount, or even getting the course for free – let me know.

comments @ expertprofessionaladvice

Here are my notes from “the secret”:
A book with large claims and no evidence beyond potential coincidence. The question is, if it is so easy then why isn’t everyone walking around in “the zone” of high-performance achievement?

What do you really want? Sit down and write it out on a

piece of paper. Write it in the present tense. You might begin

by writing, “I am so happy and grateful now that…” And

then explain how you want your life to be, in every area.

You get to choose what you want, but you must get clear about

what you want. This is your work. If you’re not clear, then the law

of attraction cannot bring you what you want. You will be sending

out a mixed frequency and you can only attract mixed results. For

the first time in your life perhaps, work out what it is you really

want. Now that you know you can have, be, or do anything, and

there are no limits, what do you want?

Dear Maker:
Please allow everyone to have abundance, and if that is not to be, then to reallocate monies from scammers, hucksters, and self-appointed gurus who offer no or little societal benefit compared to their claims, to the needy like the homeless, especially homeless veterans. This way, when funding is taken away from those who claim to know “the secret” or some such thing, they can rebuild their abundance by asking the universe to fulfill it while those without those skills still receive tangible benefit.

Just throwing a list out there of people who have received some publicity – people who many do not seem to like due to their business practices:

Dr. Oz
Tony Robbins
Dr. Phil (a lawyer, not a doctor)
Jack Canfield
Robert Kiyosuckie
Kevin Trudeau
Joe Vitale (not a doctor, right?)
and the secret bunch, etc.

Asking is the first step in the Creative Process, so make it a habit to

ask. If you have to make a choice and you don’t know which way

to go, ask! You should never be stumped on anything in your life.

Just ask!

Dear Maker:
Please give all the vulnerable people their common sense back, and if that is not to be, then to reallocate common sense from those who would profit with offerings of thin value and diverting it to those who are most in need in their daily lives to make better decisions.

You must believe that you have received. You must know that what

you want is yours the moment you ask. You must have complete

and utter faith. If you had placed an order from a catalogue you

would relax/ know you are going to receive what you ordered, and

get on with your life.

Dear Maker:
And I would like an abundance of healthy fries with that.

You must act, speak, and think, as though you are receiving it now.

Why? The Universe is a mirror, and the law of attraction is mir-

roring back to you your dominant thoughts. So doesn’t it make

sense that you have to see yourself as receiving it? If your thoughts

contain noticing you do not have it yet, you will continue to at-

tract not having it yet. You must believe you have it already. You

must believe you have received it. You have to emit the feeling

frequency of having received it, to bring those pictures back as

your life. When you do that, the law of attraction will powerfully

move all circumstances, people, and events, for you to receive.

Dear Maker:
This power is so great that you are giving me that I also want to use it to clean up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Genie is responding to your predominant thoughts

all the time, not just in the moment you ask. That’s why after

you’ve asked, you must continue to believe and know. Have faith.

Your belief that you have it, that undying faith, is your greatest

power.

Dear Maker:
And please crash the stock market so that the next generation can afford to invest if they choose to do so and have adequate savings for retirement.

Ask once, believe you have received, and all you have to do to

receive is feel good.

Dear Maker:
Asking feels good.

“I am receiving now. I am receiving all the good in my life, now, I am receiving

[fill in your desire] now.” And feel it. Feel it as though you have

received.

Dear Maker:
I am receiving now – the money is flying around and I am receiving all the good in life. I cherish this existence and want the disadvantaged to experience it ten times over.

the law of

attraction, is just figuring out what will help you generate

the feelings of having it now. Go test drive that car. Go shop

for that home. Get in the house. Do whatever you have to do

to generate the feelings of having it now, and remember them.

Whatever you can do to achieve that will help you to literally

attract it.

When you feel as though you have it now, and the feeling is so real

that it is like you have it already, you are believing that you have

received/ and you will receive.

Dear Maker:
Some people at Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, and Worldcom have already experienced receiving. Bernie Madoff only got it half right, he stole from the rich and gave to himself. Please let the next Bernie Madoff offer great societal benefit for the disadvantaged.

The Universe likes speed. Don’t delay. Don’t second guess.
when the intuitive nudge from within is there, act.

That’s your job. And that’s all you have to do.

Dear Maker:
I am Speedy.

You will attract everything that you require. If it’s money you

need you will attract it. If it’s people you need you’ll attract

it. If it’s a certain book you need you’ll attract it. You’ve got

to pay attention to what you’re attracted to, because as you

hold images of what you want, you’re going to be attracted to

things and they’re going to be attracted to you.

Dear Maker:
Yes, the largest coil, to make the strongest magnet.

you are a magnet, attracting everything to you.

When you have gotten clear in your mind about what you want

you have become a magnet to draw those things to you, and those

things you want are magnetized to you in return. The more you

practice and begin to see the law of attraction bringing things to

you, the greater the magnet you will become, because you will add

the power of faith, belief, and knowing.

Dear Maker:
I am practicing toward progress.

Time is just an illusion.

It takes no time for the Universe to manifest what you want. Any

time delay you experience is due to your delay in getting to the

place of believing, knowing, and feeling that you already have it. It

is you getting yourself on the frequency of what you want When

you are on that frequency, then what you want will appear.

Make it a daily habit to determine every event in your life in advance,

through your thoughts. Set the Universal forces ahead of you in every-

thing you do and everywhere you go, by thinking the way you want

it to go in advance. Then you are creating your life intentionally.

So it showed up, because the law of attraction is always

being obedient to your thoughts. Do yourself a favor―

expect a check!

Dear Maker:

Please turn the invoices of the needy into magic checks so that they can pay their mortgages and keep their homes and be able to afford a quality education for themselves and their offspring.

“Desire connects you with the thing

desired and expectation draws it into your life.” Expect the things

you want and don’t expect the things you don’t want.

“The Pruning Shears of Revision.”
Neville recommends at the end of every

day, before you go to sleep, to think through the events of the

day. If any events or moments did not go the way you wanted,

replay them in your mind in a way that thrills you. As you re-

create those events in your mind exactly as you want, you are

cleaning up your frequency from the day and you are emitting a

new signal and frequency for tomorrow. You have intentionally

created new pictures for your future. It is never too late to change

the pictures.

Morning:
I am powerfully creating my day and all that it will

contain. I am setting my frequency for the day and intentionally

declaring the way I want my day to go,

I am so

happy and grateful now that…” (and you fill in the rest).

In Charles Haanel’s book, The Master

Key System, written in 1912, he gives twenty-four weekly exercises

to master visualization. (More important, his complete Master Key

System will also help you become the master of your thoughts.)

The reason visualization is so powerful is because as you create

pictures in your mind of seeing yourself with what it is you want,

you are generating thoughts and feelings of having it now. Visu-

alization is simply powerfully focused thought in pictures, and it

causes equally powerful feelings. When you are visualizing, you

are emitting that powerful frequency out into the Universe. The

law of attraction will take hold of that powerful signal and return

those pictures back to you, just as you saw them in your mind.

This is such a holographic experience―so real in this

moment―that you don’t even feel as if you need the car,

because it feels like you have it already.

As you see the picture in your mind

and feel it, you are bringing yourself to a place of believing you

have it now. You are also implementing trust and faith in the Uni-

verse, because you are focusing on the end result and experiencing

the feeling of that, without giving any attention whatsoever to

“how” it will come about. Your picture in your mind is seeing it

as done. Your feelings are seeing it as done. Your mind and your

entire state of being are seeing it as already happened. That is the art

of visualization.

You want to feel exhilarated by this whole
process.

if you create

a static picture in your mind it can be difficult to hold that picture,

so create lots of movement in your picture.

To illustrate this, imagine your kitchen again, and this time imag-

ine yourself entering that kitchen, walking to the refrigerator and

putting your hand on the door handle, opening the door, looking

inside, and finding a cold bottle of water. Reach in and grab it. You

can feel the coldness on your hand as you grasp the bottle. You

have the bottle of water in one hand, and you use your other hand

to close the refrigerator door. Now that you are visualizing your

kitchen with detail and movement it’s easier to see and hold the

picture, isn’t it?

You can let your imagination go wild with a Vision Board, and

place pictures of all the things you want, and pictures of how you

want your life to be.

Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you

deserve it and believe it’s possible for you. And then close

your eyes every day for several minutes, and visualize having

what you already want, feeling the feelings of already having

it. Come out of that and focus on what you’re grateful for

already, and really enjoy it. Then go into your day and release

it to the Universe and trust that the Universe will figure out

how to manifest it.

When I was working with Stone he said, “I want you to set a

goal that’s so big that if you achieved it, it would blow your

mind, and you would knew it’s only because of what I’ve

taught you that you would have achieved this goal” At the

time I was making about eight thousand dollars a year, so I

said, “I want to make a hundred thousand dollars in a year.”

Now, I had no idea how I could do that. I saw no strategy,

no possibility, but I just said, “I’m going to declare that, I’m

going to believe it, I’m going to act as if it’s true, and release

it” So I did that.

when you have an

inspired thought, you have to trust it and act on it.

You must focus on the abundance of money to bring that to you.

You have to emit a new signal with your thoughts, and those

thoughts should be that you currently have more than enough. You

really do need to call your imagination into play and make believe

you already have the money you want. And it is so much fun to do!

You will notice as you pretend and play games of having wealth

that you feel instantly better about money, and as you feel better

about it, it will begin to flow into your life.

My image:
A roaring river of money flowing into a room…
A roaring fountain of money spurting copiously…
A roaring waterfall of money…

all

the money you require exists right now in the invisible.

I want to let you in on a secret to The Secret. The shortcut to any-

thing you want in your life is to BE and FEEL happy now! It is the

fastest way to bring money and anything else you want into your

life. Focus on radiating out into the Universe those feelings of joy

and happiness. When you do that, you will attract back to you all

things that bring you joy and happiness, which will not only in-

clude an abundance of money, but everything else you are want-

ing. You must radiate out the signal to bring back what you want.

As you radiate out those feelings of happiness, they will be sent

back to you as the pictures and experiences of your life. The law of

attraction is reflecting back your innermost thoughts and feelings

as your life.

Dear Maker:

Please transfer happiness and luck from the self-serving gurus to the gullible and disadvantaged. 

Your job is to declare what

you would like to have from the catalogue of the Universe. If

cash is one of them, say how much you would like to have. “I

would like to have twenty-five thousand dollars, unexpected

income, within the next thirty days,” or whatever it happens

to be. It should be believable for you.

Most people have a goal of getting out of debt. That will keep

you in debt forever.
Set up an automatic debt repayment program and then

start to focus on prosperity.

Dear Maker:

Please provide a bailout to the disadvantaged so that they can receive prosperity.

focus on prosperity despite the bills around you. You have to

find a way of feeling good, so you can bring your good to you.

“I can afford that! I can buy

that!” Say it over and over. Become like a parrot. For the next

The Secret to Money 103

thirty days, make it your intention that you are going to look at

everything you like and say to yourself, “I can afford that. I can

buy that.” As you see your dream car drive past, say, “I can af-

ford that.” As you see clothes you love, as you think about a great

vacation, say, “I can afford that.” As you do this you will begin to

shift yourself and you will begin to feel better about money. You

will begin to convince yourself that you can afford those things,

and as you do, the pictures of your life will change.

“How do I turn this

around?” The law of attraction states that what you focus

on you will get, so I got a bank statement, I whited out the

total, and I put a new total in there. I put exactly how much

I wanted to see in the bank. So I thought, “What if I just

visualized checks coming in the mail?” So I just visualized a

bunch of checks coming in the mail
Within just one month,

things started to change.
(no details)

pretend that the bills were actually checks. I would

jump for joy as I opened them and say, “More money for me!

Thank you. Thank you.” I took each bill, imagined it was a check,

and then I added a zero to it in my mind to make it even more. I

got a notepad and wrote at the top of the page “I have received,”

and then I would list all the amounts of the bills with an added

zero. Next to each amount I would write “Thank you,” and feel

the feelings of gratitude for receiving it―to the point where I had

tears in my eyes. Then I would take each bill, which looked very

small compared to what I had received, and I would pay it with

gratitude!

I never opened my bills until I had got myself into the feeling

that they were checks,

There are so many

games you can create, and you will know what works best for

you by the way you feel inside. When you make-believe, the

results come fast!

“Money comes easily and
frequently.”

You have got to stop the cycle, and you stop it by starting to

feel good about money, and being grateful for what you have. Start

to say and feet, “I have more than enough.” “There is an abundance

of money and it’s on its way to me.” “I am a money magnet.” “I

love money and money loves me.” “I am receiving money every

day.” “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you/’

Giving is a powerful action to bring more money into your life,

because when you are giving you are saying, “I have plenty.”

Life is meant to be abundant―in all areas.

Money summary:

To attract money, focus on wealth. It is impossible to bring more

money into your life when you focus on the lack of it.

• It is helpful to use your imagination and make-believe you already

have the money you want. Play games of having wealth and you

will feel better about money; as you feel better about it, more will

flow into your life.

• Feeling happy now is the fastest way to bring money into your life.

• Make it your intention to look at everything you like and say to

yourself, “I can afford that. I can buy that.” You will shift your

thinking and begin to feel better about money.

• Give money in order to bring more of it into your life. When you are

generous with money and feel good about sharing it, you are saying,

“I have plenty.”

• Visualize checks in the mail.

• Tip the balance of your thoughts to wealth. Think wealth.

Relationship:
When you want to attract a relationship, make sure your thoughts,

words, actions, and surroundings don’t contradict your desires.

• Your job is you. Unless you fill yourself up first, you have nothing to

give anybody.

• Treat yourself with love and respect, and you will attract people who

show you love and respect.

• When you feel bad about yourself, you block the love and instead you

attract more people and situations that will continue to make you

feel bad about you.

• Focus on the qualities you love about yourself and the law of attra-

tion will show you more great things about you.

• To make a relationship work, focus on what you appreciate about

the other person, and not your complaints. When you focus on the

strengths, you will get more of them.

know that your body is only months old, no
matter how many birthdays you have
…

age, and in reality there is no such thing.

You can think your way to the perfect state of health, the perfect

body, the perfect weight, and eternal youth. You can bring it into

being, through your consistent thinking of perfection.

If you are feel-132 The Secret

ing a little unwell, don’t talk about it―unless you want more of it.

Know that your thought was responsible and repeat as often as you

can, “I feel wonderful. I feel so good,” and really feel it. If you are

not feeling great and somebody asks you how you are feeling, just

be grateful that that person has reminded you to think thoughts of

feeling well. Speak only the words of what you want.

Just the simple proc-

ess of letting go of negative thoughts will allow your natural state

of health to emerge within you. And your body will heal itself.

I immediately imagined myself seeing

as clearly as when I was twenty-one years old. I saw myself in dark

restaurants, on planes, and at my computer, reading clearly and

effortlessly And I said over and over, “I can see clearly, I can see

clearly.” I felt the feelings of gratitude and excitement for having

clear vision. In three days my eyesight had been restored,
(no note from his doctor?)

So if you have attracted some affliction or debt to you,

reduce it in your mind to the size of a pebble, let go of all negative

thoughts, and then focus on the perfection of financial health.

“curable from within.”

I could not afford to allow anything                                            The Secret to Health 137

to come into my mind that would distract me from my goal or

from my vision.

For people who are sitting out there right now and are hurting, if I

wanted to sum up my life and sum up for people what they can do in

life, I would sum it up in six words: “Man becomes what he thinks

about.”

Health:
The placebo effect is an example of the law of attraction in action.

When a patient truly believes the tablet is a cure, he receives what

he believes and is cured.

“Focusing on perfect health ” is something we can all do within our-

selves, despite what may be happening on the outside.

Laughter attracts joy, releases negativity, and leads to miraculous

cures.

Disease is held in the body by thought, by observation of the illness,

and by the attention given to the illness. If you are feeling a little

unwell, don’t talk about it ―unless you want more of it. If you lis-

ten to people talk about their illness, you add energy to their illness.

Instead, change the conversation to good things, and give powerful

thoughts to seeing those people in health.

Beliefs about aging are all in our minds, so release those thoughts

from your consciousness. Focus on health and eternal youth.

Do not listen to society’s messages about diseases and aging. Nega-

tive messages do not serve you.

“What you resist persists.”

page 142
The anti-war movement creates more war. The anti-drug

movement has actually created more drugs. Because we’re

focusing on what we don’t want―drugs!

The bigger things
get bigger because more people give their thoughts to it after it has

appeared. Then those thoughts and emotions keep that very event

in our existence, and make it bigger.

I am so impressed with the potential you see in me. – michael scott

You cannot help the world by focusing on the negative things. As

you focus on the negative events of the world, you not only add to

them, but you bring more negative things into your own life at the

same time.

When the pictures have appeared of something you do not want,

it is your cue to change your thinking and emit a new signal. If it

is a world situation, you are not powerless. You have all the power.

Focus on everybody being in joy. Focus on abundance of food. Give

your powerful thoughts to what is wanted. You have the ability to

give so much to the world by emitting feelings of love and well-

being, despite what is happening around you.

We buy more newspapers

when a huge drama is the headline. The news channels’ ratings

skyrocket when there is a national or international disaster. So the

newspapers and news services give us more bad news because, as

a society, that’s what we are saying we want. The media is effect,

and we are cause. It is just the law of attraction in action!

Your mind is

the creative power of all things. So how can there be any lack? It’s

impossible. Your ability to think is unlimited, and so the things you

can think into existence are unlimited. And so it is with everyone.

When you truly know this, you are thinking from a mind that is

aware of its own infinite nature.

“The essence of this law is that you must think

abundance; see abundance, feel abundance,

believe abundance. Let no thought of limitation

enter your mind.”

Nothing is limited―not resources or anything else. It is only

limited in the human mind. When we open our minds to the un-

limited creative power, we will call forth abundance and see and

experience a whole new world.

The Universe offers all things to all people through the law of

attraction. You have the ability to choose what you want to ex-

perience. Do you want there to be enough for you and for eve-

ryone? Then choose that and know, “There is abundance of all

things.” “There is an unlimited supply.” “There is so much mag-

nificence.” Each of us has the ability to tap into that unlimited

invisible supply through our thoughts and feelings, and bring it

The Secret to the World 151

into our experience. So choose for You, because you’re the only

one who can.

Praising and blessing dissolves all negativity, so praise and bless

your enemies.
If you praise and bless them you will dissolve all neg-

ativity and discord, and the love of the praising and blessings will

return to you. As you praise and bless, you will feel yourself shift

into a new frequency with the feedback of good feelings.

What you resist, you attract, because you are powerfully focused

on it with emotion. To change anything, go within and emit a new

signal with your thoughts and feelings.

• You cannot help the world by focusing on the negative things. As

you focus on the world’s negative events, you not only add to them,

but you also bring more negative things into your own life.

• Instead of focusing on the world’s problems, give your attention and

energy to trust, love, abundance, education, and peace.

• We will never run out of good things because there’s more than

enough to go around for everyone. Life is meant to be abundant.

• You have the ability to tap into the unlimited supply through your

thoughts and feelings and bring it into your experience.

• Praise and bless everything in the world, and you will dissolve

negativity and discord and align yourself with the highest fre-

quency―love.

I never studied science or physics at school, and yet when I read

complex books on quantum physics I understood them perfectly

because I wanted to understand them.

All the things you want are made of energy, and they are vi-

brating too. Everything is energy.

It’s more like the Unconventional Guide to Wasting Time than it is an Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself. Chris Guillebeau’s guides aren’t very informative and his writing isn’t anything scholarly if you were actually looking to study and learn something. I’ve looked over the Travel Ninja guide and even reviewed Frequent Flyer guide, which was a shambles.

Just an example here, in his marketing for the UGWY he states that he will show you Ebay secrets/techniques to boost your business even if you’re already selling online. There are four pages that mention Ebay, and we can’t count the first one because there’s no information on it, so out of three pages he writes the following about making money on Ebay:

Strategy #1: Buy low and sell high

Strategy#2: Become a specialized dealer

Strategy#3: Create products and your own market

The first two tips are on the same page – then he goes on to state you can post an ad on Craigslist for free to offer to buy or pick up unwanted goods. He states, “I recently heard of a few people who are literally earning a full-time income using only this strategy.” Does he ever cite sources, or give examples about this? No, he moves on to strategy #3 without any research on the full-time income about the people he recently heard of… #3 is his recommendation to create your own information products in multimedia form and to sell them on Ebay. The he goes on to say go take a look at this other guy’s link who has a newsletter about Ebay because he really knows what he’s talking about. Chris seems to offer very little research, generally what he writes about is freely available on hundreds of blog sites, and he doesn’t offer any insight into Amazon or other marketplace sales channels, because it probably seems to him that it’s too difficult to implement or there’s no money to be made there.

When a topic gets too burdensome for him to actually develop insight backed from research he’ll just point to a link, “Almost every week Jim has lots of great ideas that will work for lots of people.” But surprisingly Chris doesn’t care to research any of it and offer it to you as a way to make money.

When you visit Jim’s site he has a post about how so many people contact him about making money online – and that they get ripped-off by zero quality or low quality information. Jim knows it is an experiment, you keep experimenting until you find a way to pull money out of people without ripping them off, but he never claims it is easy to support yourself financially doing online business activities. He doesn’t have the magic wand either.

I’m guessing the only reason you’ve come across the “unconventional guides” is from bloggers posting about it, but let’s face it, they get the guide for free, and even if they don’t receive a free guide they get 51% commission to recommend it and make a sale. I wouldn’t feel comfortable promoting his writing because it is not compelling research and not thick with value. There are so many $10 paperback or hardcover books that offer detailed research about operating a marketing campaign and serving customers online, but they don’t stretch across the working for yourself theme, which is probably what attracted you in the first place.

Conclusion: Avoid
Notes:

Reach out to us with your own examples of working for yourself, we’re looking to put a better book together that shows examples of working for yourself. Here’s one example, a person who freelances and earns $500 per day from a five-person company experimenting with making apps and writing the code to touchscreen advertising displays. The amount of money is not necessarily important, we’re more interested in the process, and the nature of the work itself so that others may benefit.

Consumer Survey Panel scam? Review:

Frequent Flyer Master PDF download bad review:

The sales pitch proclaimed earning hundreds of thousands of miles with little effort even if you never set foot on a plane.  The author got bloggers to recommend it – as they, the bloggers, were going to be compensated for any sales – and comments were used that stated readers were blown away by the information they received in a 40 page PDF file.

There’s no reason to pay $47 for the file – there’s nothing of substantial value. A discussion on earning miles only begins on page 13 and lasts only about three pages. What are all the great ways to earn miles without flying or signing up for credit cards?  Frequent Flyer Master lists Ameritrade and Lending Tree. All that sales talk didn’t deliver. That’s why a lady commented on one of the blogs to say she returned the PDF file and asked for her money back. Another guy commented that there are no unbelievable ways to earn miles as promised by the sales pitch and he stated that he would never pay for such “common sense” information. I’ve got news for you – that guy was right. There’s nothing valuable in Frequent Flyer Master that isn’t already freely discussed on a number of blogs.

But I wasn’t surprised. I looked at the author’s blog and before the PDF book sales pitch was released he discusses some of his travel plans for 2011 and stated that he will sign up for more credit card offers to further his mileage goals. At this point, nowhere is it mentioned that he is an expert on getting air miles and points for travel by being creative and knowing all the deals. So, how does he go from being a guy who likes traveling to being an expert on telling you how to follow him to affordable travel greatness? Probably, right around the time he decided to write a “book” on it.

Avoid.

Now I know why some bloggers said they wouldn’t want to give away Guillebeau’s tips – because there aren’t many in Frequent Flyer Master.

-Sign up for credit card offers (his #1 tip)

-search engine to buy frequent flyer miles (for example, the smarter travel blog already discusses this)

-search Ebay for upgrades and awards

-Mileage Mall offers (shopping online through your credit card)

You don’t need this information, but if you are curious and want to see what I’m talking about I’m working on my own “book” (free PDF download) that will cover the same Frequent Flyer Master ground and spruce up those tips into, well, tips. Not that you can’t find that stuff on blogs, for example, why would you pay for Frequent Flyer Master when there are good Frugal Travel blogs that offer better information for free?

SPAM OF THE WEEK: Well-paid job

After looking at some of the poor sales copy on the examkiller.net website I decided to reach out to them. I can tell English is not their first language – yet they are trying to sell English language IT training materials!

If they don’t care about putting in the effort with proper English on their website why would I trust them in doing a better job with their IT study guides? I don’t, but the only way to test examkiller.net is to write to their customer service email and tell them that the sample training document link doesn’t work and that before I could even consider buying I needed some questions answered about the number of pages within one of the PDF products and contradictory statements from the product page compared to the customer service page. And I let them know I would need to see a sample before I could even consider making a buying decision.

Do you think ExamKiller.net responded? No. So, if they can’t make any effort now before the sale I know there’s no reason to believe anything will be better for those who make a purchase. Avoid them. Still curious? Contact them by email and call them – there won’t be any customer service.

Let me give you an example of good customer service:

I recently contacted someone who placed an ad a little over a year ago about a weekend vacation rental property. I got a response back within twenty-four hours even though I sent the message on the weekend! Although the property is already reserved  on a long-term basis the owner still responded promptly that it wasn’t available.

Annoying email promotions:

Delta – Teleflora – Barnes & Noble Nook – Omaha Steaks – Ticket Master

I’d like to file a complaint…

Airlines enjoy promoting fake prices and specials – nearly every airline has display advertising that quotes a one-way fare when they’re advertising a fare – even a vacation targeted ad! So, you don’t expect me to consider returning when I book the flight? It seems silly, and annoying, here’s an email promotion from Delta advertising a one-way fare price when they will only be selling a round-trip air ticket. Here’s an idea: put the actual ticket round-trip ticket cost in the ad when you’re only offering a round-trip ticket. And how about adding the minimum estimate for taxes and fees when you create an ad? Wouldn’t that be helpful – and truthful? Or do I have to ignore all your communications as some kind of spam or scam?

Teleflora sends too many emails with nothing interesting to say… and they didn’t send the flowers as advertised. I did file a complaint, and will give their customer service department a chance to resolve the issue, but regardless, they don’t know how to effectively handle email marketing. If you send too many useless messages people will ignore all of them. Barnes and Noble is guilty of the same thing as they attempt to push their Nook. They’ve communicated nothing of value during the last few weeks of their email campaign.

And another negative thing about Teleflora is that in their email it states that you can contact them by email for customer service but in that same email message it says you cannot email them (see below). I sent them an email complaint to test the email address and it does not work. ***Update: A Teleflora rep called me and I was offered partial credit. Resolved!

At least Borders makes a decent effort to sweeten its general email campaigns with coupons, specials, book store events, and other tidbits. Barnes and Noble looks like they hardly have a clue with their most recent general email promotion. If you’ve never expressed any interest in an e-reader, guess what, Barnes and Noble thinks you’re a great prospect and apparently interested enough to send you multiple crappy emails about the Nook.

The worst email campaign offender in terms of frequent annoyances that I’ve seen over the past year is Omaha Steaks. They’ll send one or more messages every week and if you remove yourself from their email list they will send their promotions to you by postal mail every week – often twice in the same week!

The worst lack of respect and courtesy for email campaigns that I’ve seen is Ticket Master. Ticket Master advises you they will provide your email to their partners and not allow you to opt out when you make your original purchase. Then you’ll get messages about other events you don’t much care about – and have to unsubscribe individually or unsubscribe to the four lists they manage. With that attitude, it’s almost like these people are asking for their server to get crashed by the hacker community.

Subject: Happy, happy, happy, happy day!

 

Kathy,

Who could ask for a better Kathy? Not me, I thought you were great from the
beginning – still do. My flaw is not learning enough from you and continually
making better decisions – remember when I found out I’m not the world’s greatest
planner? That was you who gently broke the news, but it had to be done. Some
other guy or gal had trumped my position long ago it seems. Then again, you
never revealed your ranking…

Whatever the case – I’m taking a moment to say happy, happy, happy birthday to a
great friend who has brought much joy to my life.

Who could ask for a better Kathy? Not me, I love the one I got.

So, dear friend, I’m wishing you love and birthday wishes now in case we don’t
get to speak later today as you wrap up your business trip. Just remember how
great you are – I do.

-A. Friend