Different keystrokes for different folks

www.monster.com
www.ework.com
www.acquizition.biz
www.etrade.com

Depending on the quadrant you're in, you're probably searching for different types of information. The four links above shows how different the information is, for different quadrants.

Okay, you probably know that already. What you might NOT know, however, is that your brain is wired differently, based on the quadrant you choose to play in.

Employees look for "work," entrepreneurs look for "workers."

For employees, "time is money." For entrepreneurs, "money is time." That is, use money to buy time, because time is critical to success in business.

Of course, the smart entrepreneur goes further: knowledge is time. The more you KNOW, the less time you waste. Planning, in fact, is an activity where you are forced to "know" or at least make educated guesses ahead of time, and THIS act of planning and putting thoughts and facts on paper, WILL save you time. Brian Tracy's research indicates that planning is an activity that yields a 500% return on investment: for every hour that you spend planning, you will save five hours of mistakes, frustration, having to redo the work, etc.

For the investor, knowledge is certainty of return. As Gordon Gekko says in the movie Wall Street: "The public's out there throwing darts at a board. I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things."

The last sentence is funny, because the very definition of a bet is that it is NOT a sure thing!

What he means is that he WINS, and then PLAYS (whereas most business people play, then try to win). This philosophy is expressed in the same movie when Gekko quotes the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, for the educational benefit of his young apprentice, the up-and-comer Bud Fox: "Every battle is won before it's ever fought. Think about that."

So victory depends on having the right information at the right time. The four links above provides some of the information to base your decisions on, but there is a higher-level information that is not so easily available.

This is the information that we provide in the Economic Options seminar (and soon in a special ebook available on Payloadz). This information allows you to choose which quadrant to live in and work in.

Are you okay?

No matter which quadrant you are currently in, it's a good idea to find out how you're actually doing. I don't just mean financially, because some people are stressed out, have health problems, etc. BECAUSE of the quadrant they're in.

"50% success (up)" means that you're half-way to succeeding in the quadrant, and your odds are going up. If that is the case, it would probably be a mistake for you to switch to another quadrant.

"50% success (down)" means the opposite: your chances of success are going down, not necessarily because of you, but sometimes due to external factors that are outside your direct control. For instance, you may have had success in the past as a software engineer, but somehow, today, Indian programmers and engineers are doing YOUR job at one fifth the salary.

The important thing is to be totally honest about how well you are doing, based on the criteria or factors that are important to you.

What wealth is

"Wealth is a crystal-clear understanding of the economic value of every thing, person or idea you see, hear, touch or read about."

Wealthy people have what I call "Midas vision," which is more than the proverbial Midas touch whereby the ill-fated king could turn, by merely touching, anything and anyone into gold.

Midas vision, which comes from mastery of business basics, allows a person to IMMEDIATELY see the business value of things, places, people, etc. This is probably why Warren Buffett says that you make a profit when you buy, not when you sell. (Buy low, sell never?).

Business is hard enough to understand (which is why I created the BMW workshop -- details at www.businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com), now it seems the economy is getting even more complicated. The famous intellectual Alvin Toffler wrote a brilliant book, called Revolutionary Wealth, capturing the changing nature of wealth in our fast-morphing economy.

Because society and the economy are getting more and more complicated, it is more critical than ever to try to acquire Midas vision, and this can only be done after you've committed to live and work either as a careerist, a free agent, a business master or a sharp investor.

Succeeding as a careerist or free agent

It is possible to win as a careerist, or as a free agent. After all, money is not everything.

For instance, if your talent is recognized by corporate employers, and you are able to negotiate good working conditions, you could go very far in your talent-based career, eventually becoming what talent hunters call an "A" player. Most people, though, are probably "B" players. "C" players are employees who add little value, or whose job can (probably will) be outsourced, automated or eliminated altogether.

As a free agent, you could rise to the top of the industry and be recognized by your peers. One woman I would like to meet is Lyne Lefebvre, a graphic designer in Montreal who has won several awards, yet she works as a freelancer (competing against big ad agencies and established design studios!).

The Secret Game of Life

The above diagram shows the Secret Game of Life. The elite, of course, knows all about it. The minds of most people -- perhaps including you -- are clouded so they don't see this Secret Game nor its secret rules.

In our Economic Options seminar, we explain the technical details behind this mysterious diagram. Once you know, your life will not be the same. Your mind will be shaped to seek and absorb all the information, ideas, encounters, feedback, knowledge, etc. that can help you succeed in life, no matter what quadrant you decide to think, live and work in.

Every cashflow begins with a conversation

The above diagram shows the four economic options that people have: work as an employee, a free agent, a business entrepreneur or an investor.

In our EO seminar, we explain the technical details so people can succeed in the quadrant they choose to live and work in.

Indeed, each quadrant is a different universe, with different rules of the game. Each quadrant has fundamentally different key success factors, and failing to know what they are will inevitably result in failure, no matter how well-intentioned or motivated the person may be.

The Business Entrepreneur quadrant, in particular, demands 100% commitment to learning all the basics about business, and practicing those basics on a daily basis.

Launch of the E/O seminar

Last Thursday, we officially launched the Economic Options (E/O) seminar, and it was amazing to see people light up and finally understand the different economic options they have.

Like Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad Poor Dad book series, we argue that people do have 4 economic options: work as employee, free agent, business entrepreneur, or investor.

However, faithful to Occam's rule, we simplified his cashflow quadrant diagram further, by reducing it to a choice between being an Employee or an Owner -- this is why we call it the "E/O seminar", with a slash between the E and the O.

If you'd like to attend the next E/O seminar, please contact Zoonie at zoonienguyen@yahoo.com or (514) 805-7366.