Seriously! I can run  forever on this sort of thing:

“Your Dad’s work ethic is unmatched. I don’t know how that man functions on so little sleep. I’m excited about the future with him. Big things are going to happen.” Ryan B., North Olmsted, Ohio 44070

This was received last month during monthly billing. It came from a client who came on board two years after our initial consultation. I followed up often but not to the point of being  a pain in the a##. We became friends and then he became a client of The Ultimate Internet Image of Lakewood, Ohio.

And do you know what?

Ryan is right because I will never stop working for him!

My Relationship Formula and the Key to Suucess

Connection → Consultation → Follow-up → Acquaintanceship → Follow-up → Trust → Business Relationship → Friendship →Client for Life

By the time we get to Friendship, I can honestly say I am genuinely fond of my clients and care about their future. I am fully invested in their families’ futures, the future of their businesses, and the future and well-being of every employee attached to that business.

As I have said in the past, my relationship with my clients (i.e., marketing clients, tutoring, mentoring, coaching, education consulting, test prep, etc) becomes a scared trust!

I am forever grateful for the opportunity to serve and for clients who take the time to write things like the email above!

John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image, LLC – Inbound Marketing Consulting and Social Media Management
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004 (office)

I feel like someone who buys one of those Acai, or is it Acia, cleanses must feel like after the last 10 days!

In my opinion, we tend to think others see the world in terms of how we perceive it to be. When, in fact, there is a HUGE population out there totally computer illiterate and most don’t even know how to set up an email account!

That is good for the future of the Internet generally, and creative Internet marketers specifically, but it is a reality many seem to miss when shaping their world view, our world view!

The key to success online, to Internet marketing success, is not trying to sell each other, the trick is to tap into the virgin market still available and waiting for a creative approach and the right message!

Instead of preaching to the choir, we should be focusing on the masses…because that is where the real opportunity resides!

The choir knows the song by heart, it is in reaching those just beginning the search, just beginning the process of online education, whether in online, stay-at-home businesses or in some other form of Internet commerce, the real opportunity for service and for success rests with the novice, the “newbie,” and not in restating the same message to the same followers in the same way, day in and day out, online, whether through social media or whatever!

It is nice to be back with a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective. Often, the best way to understand something is to step away long enough, and in this case, far enough to be able to see the forest for the trees.

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
216-539-7412
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Making Decisions and Success: The Single-Most Important Step You Should Make in the Decision Making Process!

We make hundreds of decisions a day, everything from when to get up in the morning to when to go to bed; and, to reduce this to the ridiculous, we even decide when to close our eyes and go to sleep! Everything we do in the course of our lives involves a decision making process, conscious or unconscious…and some would add subconscious to this.

So, how do we train ourselves to make the best decision possible in each and every instance?

Well, some people would say we can’t, that there are simply too many decisions in our lives to monitor and direct the implementation of each and every one, and they’d be right…sort of!

“Sort of!” being a technical phrase only used by the most precise and discerning of scientists and statisticians…and a few bloggers with too many ransom thoughts of their own to deal with. And that’s another decision: Which ones to share with others?

The fact is, we cannot hope to make every decision made on our behalf by our brain during the course of a day, we turn it over to our mind, our collective consciousness, or our subconscious. We also trust our experience in such matters, and this is a good and a not-so-good thing, because experiences can be deceiving.

Experiences are shaped by our perceptions which are shaped by past events and our responses and decisions to those events. That’s not a scientific definition, that’s my own. This is the scientific one:

Experience as a general concept or construct includes knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event. The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment….The concept of experience generally refers to know-how or procedural knowledge, rather than propositional knowledge. Philosophers dub knowledge based on experience “empirical knowledge” or “a posteriori knowledge”. (Source: Wikipedia).

Keep in mind that even this definition is based on someone’s experience, in fact it is contributed by an individual, or the collective experience of a group of people, as is referenced by the philosophers’ take on the definition and application of experience.

The essence of decision making, its foundation, is rooted in experience, whether good or bad, correct or incorrect, right or wrong. As we seek to make decisions concerning issues or situations we are unfamiliar with we seek out information, either directly, as in word-of-mouth, first hand experience of others or through information and experience passed down from others and progressively reshaped and reformed by the experiences of each individual in the chain. The problem with the former arises when the person consulted is wrong or has faulty information and is not in a position to be an authority. The issue with the latter is one of misperception, second-hand knowledge, and the bias that comes along with it, and error through misapplication or misunderstanding. In other words, in either event, the experience you draw upon to make a decision, if it is not your own, and even if it is, may be faulty and inaccurate…thus leading to erroneous decisions.

So how do we avoid making error after error in our daily lives, particularly when it comes to the really big decisions?

Part of the answer rests in our own trial and error experience. we usually stumble upon either the correct response or at least one that is acceptable over time; again, our experience. The difference between being good enough and being an expert may be significant enough that good enough is acceptable for many tasks and applications. However, for those tasks that require a correct response, when good enough simply won’t do, what do we do then?

Well, when it has to be right, when we are starting something that matters to us and/or others and we must get it right? We usually call on a trusted authority for help, generally someone we know, like, and trust. But who qualifies as a trusted authority, number one? And, if we don’t know of one, how do we establish whether or not someone has the reputation, and the street credit, the business sense or the personal integrity, to have faith in and for us to put our trust in them and their experience?

This is often done on what is called blind faith! Often, if we choose correctly, we get a combination of two phrases that have grown out of such expressions of trust over time:

Blind faith! and Blind, or dumb, luck!

Really, why?

Think about it!

In most instances we place our complete trust and faith in someone else’s experience and how they’ve shaped their decision-making which is based on experiences unique to them, their lives and their personal experiences, not yours. So, if you aren’t dealing in something that is exactly and appropriately applicable, the decision may be based in incorrect or misapplied data, theirs not yours!

How do we rectify this? How do we resolve this without going through life blindly following experts with experiences that simply don’t translate well, if at all, to your situation?

Three words: Know, like, and trust!

But is that enough?

No!

There is another ingredient and it takes us full circle back to our decision-making process:

Experience!

But how do we get experience with someone to base our experience with that someone?

Here we have what Yul Brenner, The King in The King and I, would call a puzzlement!

Like every other experience and every decision we make on autopilot every day, it is done incrementally. Or, as Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus would have said in What About Bob?

Baby steps!

We give people a little bit of our trust and we incrementally allow them a little more and a little more until we “trust them!” And, their judgement!
This is how we learn absolutely everything from crawling and walking to talking and speaking a foreign language…incrementally. We also allow others into our lives and allow them to shape our decision-making incrementally. To do otherwise is folly!

And yet, we do just this every day on the Internet, in our businesses, with our money, with our very lives. We turn over the reins to others on basically nothing more than a say-so, our gut, because it feels right, instinct! This is incongruent and flies in the face of everything we have learned, everything we know. It is contrary to sound knowledge and our own experience! And yet, it happens time and again!

I often hear things like:

“Well, he had a great presentation.”

“Jim is going with it and he is almost never wrong.” (almost!)

“I’ve been reading their material for weeks now and it feels right!”

Or the best one of all:

“What do I have to lose? It seems like a no-brainer!”

Decisions, experience, and the antithesis:

Impulse!

Marketers thrive on it, they live for it, they feed on it, they depend on it!

Experience and well-thought-out decision making:

The antithesis of impulse and the real secret to prosperous living!

This is incomplete! The fact is, I could go on for days. But if you take away anything from thins I hope that it will be the following:

Only base decisions on sound experience, either yours or that of someone you know, like, and trust. Additionally, make sure it is someone who has earned your trust incrementally and over time! Be wary of anything that happens quickly, depends on a deadline, a limited supply, or anyone who insists on your trust before you are ready to give it.

Never do anything unless it can be done incrementally, and then test, test, and test!

No matter how good the deal and no matter how great the price, there will be another offer along in 5 minutes, so never jump at scarcity and a deadline!

If it can’t wait, it can…permanently!

Whatever goes around comes around and if an offer is that good, it will be just as good next week, next month or next year…or you can do without it! Trust no one that tells you anything different! If someone has a quality product and is part of a reputable firm, they will withstand scrutiny and they will offer their wares on a continuous basis. The rest is flash and it is designed to rid you of one thing…your cash!

This started as a blog about decisions and experience, it grew outside the framework of my outline into something even more important, something that affects all of us in one way or another: Impulse!

Once again, impulse is the enemy of experience and flies in the face of sound decision-making!

If you are pressed into a decision and you don’t have all the facts. If you are pressed into a decision and you lack the experience to make a sound evaluation and decision. If you are pressed to making a decision and you lack the experience; and, you don’t have access to someone you know, like, and trust, and has been a confidant over time, pass!

Experience is a great teacher!

Unfortunately, bad experiences are the best teacher!

Make sound decisions based on the above and avoid impulsivity and you you will prosper!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526 (home)
216-539-7412 (bus)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

The Meaning of Life and The Definition of Success

Life is funny sometimes!

Life is funny…as in peculiar, perplexing, uncertain, difficult, a conundrum. And yes, sometimes life is also funny, as in ha-ha, amusing, and downright hysterical! Very often, it is somewhere in between.

Success in life, on the other hand, is elusive, perplexing, rewarding, frustrating, and amazing. In other words, success is the ultimate paradox, disconcerting and awesome, often all in the same moment, at times in the same breath.

Success is elusive because most people don’t understand what success is, perplexing because they are chasing something they think will define success, without actually understanding that success is nothing close to what they envisioned or imagined.

Success is rewarding because, when it comes, and regardless of how fleeting it may be, it validates our efforts and is one of the most amazing experiences we can have as human beings…providing we recognize it along the way!

Success is a paradox because it is often accompanied by incredible heartbreak, even failure; and, it tests our mettle in ways we never imagined, in the fires of life.
While exploring the rain forests of Central America we used to say Heaven and Hell were one in the same, around every bend, in every experience, in each and every moment.

The reason for this?

We had to endure incredible hardship on our way to amazing experiences. We had to endure incredible physical trials in order to get to pristine locations, places where few people had been for hundreds of years, untouched and unspoiled by humans. We had to endure bugs that would literally turn any exposed skin into sores, sores that, if scratched, increased in discomfort exponentially, all the while taking in some of the most incredible experiences of our lives. We had to endure intense heat and humidity, enough to stagger many in our party, only to jump into a river, clothes and all, a river so clean you can drink from it without fear of any of one hundred possible diseases or infestations. Imagine snakes and tarantulas along side of the most amazing lightening bugs imaginable, as big as silver dollars lighting up the sky. Imagine one hundred different tests each and every day while experiencing the time of your life, in each and every moment!

Life is like that!

Success is like that!

We often hear people say that life is a process, a progression, but deep down inside many still assign success to things instead of to experiences. Success, like life, is experiential!

Why is success experiential? Because it is a process!

That’s why people say it is a progression. Success is very much like life, in that as we progress through it we can either live one year 30 times or we can live 30 years.

Life, like success, is a process, a learning opportunity we are not meant to survive…but it can be amazing along the way. The end result is the same! It is up to each of us how we progress, how we experience the tests along the way.

I often mention Tony Robbins when I talk about success because I have been listening to Tony and people like him for decades. Napoleon Hill, then Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar, J Douglas Edwards, Wayne Dyer, and others all have the same message, enunciated in different ways…but there is a common theme.

The theme?

Build one day upon the one before!

*Whether as a template for a lifetime, as Napoleon Hill suggests.
*As a 30 day all out quest, repeated again and again, as Earl Nightingale challenges us to do.
*Or as CANI! Constant and never ending improvement! as Tony Robbins suggests.

The result is the same, an incremental approach to life. The method is similar, using forward motion, baby steps to build something amazing!

Baby steps?

What About Bob? is one of my all-time favorite movies and does the whole baby steps thing in such a great way! Take the time, Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus at their best!

While we are on the subject of movies, and Bill Murray, watch Groundhog Day! Talk about a message cloaked in comedy! Do it over until you get it right, can you imagine? Can you imagine being given the chance to live every day until you get it just right?

You do!

You are!

Each and every day is a major do-over!

We have two choices, we can go on into the next day, week, month, year, decade in the same way as the one before…or we can have a do-over. Because every day we live is in essence a chance to reshoot the day before, to get it right…Groundhog Day!

If you haven’t watched those two movies, do so! They will not only make you laugh until you cry, therapy in and of itself, but you will learn something about life and do-overs! We all get them each and every day…it is all about perspective and about living each moment and building upon the one before, learning from our successes and our failures on the way to CANI!

Constant and Never Ending Improvement!

Well, enough for now! The video below will help you get a sense for the mindset I have been developing over a lifetime. I thought I might share a little of it.
Remember! Build, remember, and make it better each and every day. Your life will be amazing and success will be a done deal!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

johnz@ultimateinternetmarketing.info
Video Title:
Life, Success. and a Sculpture on Halloween!

I recently received a CD from Tony Robbins, it is from his Power Talk series and is a bonus for The New Money Masters members. In many ways, this is the most important and certainly, at least in my opinion, the wisest and most useful recording I have received from Tony Robbins since Personal Power II!

The recording defines success in terms of consistency, noting that “it is consistency that creates the fabric of success for a lifetime” and offers a new word to remember and apply this definition, this concept of and for success.

I have been thinking about this almost nonstop since receiving the CD a couple of weeks ago, and it has taken me back to the recording of The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale and to Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.

The Tony Robbins Power Talk CD and The New Money Masters series have also reminded me of the videos by Napoleon Hill, done years ago, and now available on video through YouTube.

Talk about an amazingly powerful historical record!

So, not only do we have the text of both The Strangest Secret and Think and Grow Rich, we have the actual recordings available on Google and YouTube!

But Google does this one better. Because of the time constraints on YouTube videos, yes even for the masters like Nightingale, Hill, and now Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy…the videos and recordings must be segmented. The power isn’t lost when you can go right from part one to part two, and so on, in video format. However, I feel something is lost when attempting to follow an audio recording in such a manner. There is something magical about listening to Earl Nightingale uninterrupted.

Fortunately, Google offers the entire audio version of The Strangest Secret free!

The Strangest Secret, listened to from beginning to end in one sitting, is one of the most important recordings in terms of self-improvement, understanding the power of setting and achieving goals, and the true definition of success ever made…period! If you have not listened to the entire thing, you must do so at once…it will change your life!

But wait until you finish this article and have a look around…OK?!

I listened to Earl Nightingale for the first time in the mid-1970s and I have listened to it hundreds of times since, literally! I pull it out every few weeks and particularly when I feel my life getting a bit off course. The power of this single life-lesson is awesome and the lessons immediately applicable…in any of life’s arenas!

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal!”

The definition above has become ingrained in ever person who has ever had the pleasure of listening to, and applying, The Strangest Secret!

Interestingly, Tony Robbins has re-introduced many of the same concepts and philosophies in a new concept he calls CANI!

CANI! Means consistent and never ending improvement!

The Tony Robbins synthesis takes into account the teachings of the early masters and expands upon them by integrating the notion of kaizen, the Japanese word for constant, consistent, and incremental improvement over time, generally used in the context of business and thought to have emerged in Post World War II Japan.

In the aforementioned episode of Power Talk, Tony Robbins introduces the concept of kaizen to his listeners. Robbins expands on the concept of kaizen, and subsequently introduces CANI!. Both terms are introduced in relation to the work of William Edwards Deming, known by many as simply W. Edwards Deming or Edwards Deming, the father of the industrial turnaround in Post WWII Japan. Kaizen, a concept integrated into a way of doing business, but also applied generally to how one lives their life, catapulted Japan from being known for “cheap” products, meaning the manufacture of substandard products in my youth, to being know for the finest quality in the world within a period of a few short years.

Interestingly, and as noted above, the concept of kaizen, the “Japanese way of doing business,” has its origins in an American, W. Edwards Deming, who is still revered throughout Japan, even today. By extension, Tony Robbins thought it appropriate to apply an American term, one he originated, to the American concept and came up with an American term…CANI!

CANI! means constant and never ending improvement.

If you think about it, CANI!, or whatever you decide to call it, is the basis for success…in business and in life. Combined with notions as old as “seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you” and, “ask and ye shall receive,” all the way up to the present day CANI!…the message is the same:

Success is a progression towards a worthy goal and/or ideal…or whatever! As long as the “whatever” is quite specific and the the progression is consistent and never ending!

In other words: CANI!

Why do people fail?

People fail for a myriad of reasons but it all comes down to four things:

1) A ship without a rudder! No goals, no idea where they have been; and, worse yet, no clear idea where they are going!
2) No passion! No idea what they want. People who fail lack a burning desire, something…anything…that captures the imagination and inspires massive action!
3) No consistency! Many think they know what they want, and may even have an idea how to get there! But they lack consistent effort, they work in spurts and quit before half way there!
4) They quit! This ties into number 3 and is the biggest reason for failure! “Winners never quit and quitters never win!” I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed failure on the brink of success. I have witnessed people quitting just before a promotion was about to be offered, before a deal was about to close, before a goal was about to be achieved!

Quitting is the deadliest of all success killers and it is a habit. Avoid quitting at all costs!

Remember the first post at The Internet Marketing Quest Revealed?

No?

Well, it is on this topic and will get you pointed in the right direction, it relates well to the whole notion of a rudderless ship, goals, and consistency of action…quitting on the verge of success. I hope you enjoy it!

Ultimately, success means something different to and for everyone…but how you succeed is one of life’s hard and fast rules:

Success is a progression, a progressive journey toward a worthy ideal!

Whether kaizen or CANI! or some other phrase or term…the end result is the same if you apply it…success!

The end result is also the same if you do not…failure!

It is more difficult, and more painful, to fail! And yet, many seem to choose it. Incredible as it seems, with a road map in front of us, we still get off course and get lost!

The decision is yours:

Consistent and never ending improvement?

Or

Failure, pain, and remorse!

Success, like quitting, is a habit. That’s why I love The Strangest Secret, Think and Grow Rich, and Personal Power II…they are all about setting and achieving goals, building one day on the day before, one 30 day challenge upon the last…until you have created a habit and a lifetime of success!

A lifetime filled with success!

John

John Zajaros
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

http://www.facebook.com/JohnZajaros

An old lady selling flowers by the bus stop., originally uploaded by soylentgreen23.

As you may know by now, TuffGuy and I go for a walk every night at midnight. In fact, we will be heading out in just a few minutes for what promises to be an interesting excursion. It is Tuesday September 29, 2009 at 11:59pm Eastern and it is 50 degrees outside, raining, and the wind is kicking quite up a bit!

What does that have to do with tonight’s blog post? Nothing really, and everything! Nothing except for the fact that we seem to go out at all times, in all sorts of weather. And everything…because why would it be at all surprising that we run into all kinds of people on those walks?

Hence the picture!

And the real reason for this blog post!

The picture is the story, or one like it. The picture embedded in my brain, and perhaps my soul, repeatedly and on almost every walk for the past 3 months.

You see, we have made this walk a ritual, a part of our lives, TuffGuy and I, and it has been an education in people! All kinds of people.

Every walk is an education, except for maybe tonight’s walk. Because on a night like this, when the weather is so bad, or at least not great, there will be few if any people, smiling or not, young or old, hearty or frail. We will be alone in our thoughts.

Well, almost alone!

There is always the young woman in black. No matter what time we leave, regardless of the weather, she too is out walking. It seems we are in sync somehow. So there she is, night after night, afraid of others, perhaps more afraid of her self, she walks…or perhaps runs away…each night.

A guy nodded to me the other night from the doorway of a local bar down on Detroit Road, the young woman had just passed the bar and then TuffGuy and I, making a wide circle around all of us in order to avoid any sort of human contact or interaction. He said to me quietly, as if somehow I knew him and he was confiding in an old friend, that “she must be afraid of dogs.”

I chuckled, looked at him and said, “She is afraid of everything!”

He laughed, a drunk’s laugh, and I continued on my way, half sorry I said what I did…but only half.

For the life of me, I can’t imagine what would so profoundly affect a person so young and in such a manner as to provoke that sort of a repeated response.

But that takes me back to the picture again!

On Sunday, TuffGuy and I usually head out for a walk during the day (see YouTube Channel), in addition to our midnight walk, particularly if the weather is on the cool side and the sun is shining. This summer has been good for walks, not too hot and not too humid, so we have been able to go on a few Sunday excursions. This Sunday the weather was perfect and so we were heading to the Metroparks, a band of parks that surrounds metropolitan Cleveland called The Emerald Necklace, very nice and quite picturesque, when the full magnitude of my observations, what had been brewing in my head for months, finally gave rise to the thoughts you are now reading in this blog post.

It was a beautiful day and we passed quite a few people, some obviously on their way to or from some task, while others seemed to be out enjoying the day. The streets, so empty a few hours before (at 3am on another walk), were jammed with cars and people.

We passed an old Caucasian woman, hair still jet black and probably done weekly, not a hair out of place. She was seemingly first generation from Europe, probably here most of her life but never really letting loose of the “Old Country.” There is a large “ethnic” population in Lakewood, many own duplexes living in one half and renting out the other. They are nice people, a close-knit community, and generally friendly.

Well, TuffGuy was giving this woman a wide berth, I thought because he is people shy. TuffGuy had a very difficult time as a puppy due to an illness he contracted at a local puppy mill (read: pet store), he has never fully recovered and doesn’t really trust new people at first. A lesson is of sorts I am sure. But it was something else about this woman that TuffGuy sensed, something wrong with this lady, something very negative about her…and TuffGuy picked it up.

Well, this lady gave new meaning to the word dour!

Dour was the word that popped in my head. Of all the words, dour…but it fit!

* Marked by sternness or harshness; forbidding: a dour, self-sacrificing life.

* Silently ill-humored; gloomy: the proverbially dour New England Puritan.

* Sternly obstinate; unyielding: a dour determination.

The way she carried herself, her manner, even her response when I tried to say kind word…twice.

Dour was it!

More than any other emotion? I felt pity. How sad to be her age, somewhere in her 60s by my best guess, already old, and to be that sullen, that gloomy, that dour!

So, TuffGuy and I moved on, picked up the pace a bit to distance ourselves, and continued to smile, nod, and say hello whenever eye contact was made. I make a point of saying hello to everyone, everywhere. You never know when you might be the only person all day to say hello to someone. Never miss a chance to perhaps provide that personal touch in someone’s life, it can make a real difference!

The funny thing about eye contact?

In Manhattan, not making eye contact is a science, people really do have it down to a science. You see, people in Manhattan are constantly bombarded by people trying to hustle them…”hey buddy, wanna buy something”…that they never make eye contact for fear of being victimized.

Sounds like a social media commentary I did for another blog not long ago! Or was it for this one? Anyway….

There’s a marketing lesson there somewhere but we will save that for another time.

On the opposite side of the coin from the Manhattan ethos, the people of Belize, Central America. Walk or drive anywhere in Belize and people are always waving, greeting each other, smiling! You will spend the entire drive down the Southern Highway, from the capital city of Belize, Belize City, to its southern tip, south of Punta Gorda, waving and saying hello to everyone you meet along the way, in fact to everyone you pass. Truck loads of people traveling in the opposite direction will wave and shout greetings, it is an amazing experience,

What a happy and wonderful environment in which to live!

Well, somewhere in between you have Lakewood, Ohio, USA…a mix typical of many Midwestern small cities…neither closed in and down upon itself nor wide open and totally responsive.

The next person of note we came across was an African American woman somewhere in her mid-30s.

Jessie, she took the time to introduce herself, when all I got out of the “old lady” was a very, oh-so-subtle grunt, had on jeans and a white t-shirt, her hair was pulled back, and she was by herself; and, she was very beautiful. Striking to begin with, almost six feet tall and slender, when she smiled was gorgeous…and TuffGuy loved her! Her smile defined her, it immediately declared that she was someone worth knowing, someone it would be a pleasure to know. Of course she praised TuffGuy and we talked for a moment before moving on.

TuffGuy pranced away! It was funny because it was that noticeable…he had a new friend. So did I!

What a difference a quarter of a mile and who knows how much personal history between the two made! I went from thinking how sad one person was to how happy and joyous the other’s life must be…in the space of less than a few minutes and few more paces, my mood had shifted, as well.

Well, over the course of the afternoon and early evening the same scenario played out over and over again. I took notice of it more and more as the day went on. Interestingly, I kept coming back to the first two women, how different the two had been, and how different the effect on me was…not to mention the effect on TuffGuy!

Some people were closed in, apparently unhappy, seemingly defeated by the weight of their existence. Definitely not people you would want around on such a beautiful day, much less be around permanently.

Others? Well, some were obviously not as well off financially, but they were nonetheless happy, open and friendly…a pleasure to be around, if just for a moment.

The lesson here? I guess it is that how you carry yourself and how you relate to the world around you has an impact, a ripple effect throughout the world, often into areas you can’t possibly even be aware of. It is in a very real sense the Butterfly Effect in action.

Think about it for a moment if you will:

A lady smiles for a camera and somewhere in the world a man uses the picture, taken by another person, to bring home a point about the beauty inherent in a smile, the beauty we all have within us…if we will only let it out.

And the power of a single act, a smile or a frown, and how on another day at another time a person is writing about how that seemingly insignificant act can be have such a profound and lasting effect that another was willing to write about it and share his feelings on the subject with the rest of the world.

The Butterfly Effect!

We affect the environment around us, the people around us, in very significant ways each and every day, in ways we can’t possibly conceive of, because the full impact is beyond our reach, even beyond our understanding. Significantly, our actions often determine whether or not people choose to interact with us at all. Our kindness, our gratitude, our mental attitude (positive or negative), our empathy, our compassion, and a myriad of other qualities and characteristics all shape our environment, physical and social, and determine our success in life. So above all, be positive! Negativity is a disease, it is contagious, it is terminal, and it will kill your relationships with others and your chance for anything remotely resembling success in your personal and business lives.

John Zajaros
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

Life Delivers!

Life delivers in direct proportion to your belief that all things are possible. When coupled with a burning desire, forged by sheer determination, and driven by concrete action, the meaning of life comes into view, it happens, becomes real. In Internet marketing, as well as in all aspects of business and, in life in general, it is not enough to simply want or desire something. Wanting, wishing, desiring, and/or hoping will not, in and of itself yield the desired results. In order to convert ifs and wishes to a tangible and lasting reality, an aggressive, forward-thinking concrete plan of action must be envisioned, designed, initiated, and carried out. In order to succeed in any of life’s arenas, and there are a myriad, you must be willing to burn your ships! I said burn your ships, not your bridges!

The funny thing about life is that it will provide in the exact measure and to the nth degree…but you must ask of it. Once asked, life will offer and one must be in tune with, and receptive to, its message.

There is a statement attributed to the Bible that applies here, and I paraphrase:

God always listens and answers the prayers of His children. However, He answers them in His own way and in His own time. Interestingly, the answer we wish for, the answer we desire, and the answer He provides for us are not always the same…but He does answer. He also answers in His own time!

I don’t believe God, however you envision Him, Her or It, whether as some fire and brimstone, burning bush kind of God or as simply an Infinite Intelligence providing order and balance to the Universe (capital “U”), He does not always respond as if we were receiving a Western Union telegram. The fact that the answer to our prayers is often obscure, that it isn’t a subject line scrolling on endlessly at the bottom of our 55” Mitsubishi widescreen television like a news update, does not diminish the power of our prayer or His answer…

We simply, or not so simply, must be in tune with the Universe and His message!

The ironic thing about all of this is that our ability to hear, really hear His message does not diminish the role and/or efficacy of prayer or whatever you want to call your communication, your communion with Infinite Intelligence.

In other words, prayer, as with desire, our communication must be a fervent request, a burning desire, and not simply some wishy-washy, kinda-sorta-gotta-hafta message to the Almighty.

The prayer, the message, the communication, the communion must be passionate, it must be from a place deep inside of you, it must be from that ache deep in your soul, within your very being or self that no man or woman can quench.

Your desire must be a fire that consumes you!

The problem with most prayer, with most desire, and with most goals is that they are in fact wishy-washy and kinda-sorta-gotta-hafta messages. The messages, whether to a God, an Infinite Intelligence, or to the Subconscious are simply amorphous masses of gobbledygook that can’t possibly mean doodley-squat to anyone…even to one’s Self!

Hence we come full circle to the point of this message, that it is in fact the message and how it is delivered that takes us to a place where are able to receive His answer…because the answer will be all around us and will in a very real sense take the form of a burning bush.

The challenge?

If we are wishy-washy in our message, we will get nothing or worse than nothing back!

How can an answer be worse than nothing?

Well, it’s kind of like how we understand computers. The Mind and/or the Self is just one big computer; and, if you believe in a God, or not (?), linked to every other computer in the Universe in some sort of mass, information sharing network, an information highway, if you will. Interestingly, even if you don’t believe in a Supreme Being per se but in some sort of Infinite Intelligence or simply, or not-so-simply an Interconnectedness, an Interrelationship with every other form of energy in the Universe, all working together en-mass to some future end we are simply too small to understand or envision, our prayer, our message has real power…or none at all.

It is the “none at all” that confounds us, perplexes us, and puts us in a place where we not only disbelieve. You see, in such instances, we are incapable of receiving because we are not in tune! We just aren’t on the same frequency, and so we dismiss the efficacy of prayer, of communication with a God or our Selves. We fail because we are doing it wrong and are thus incapable of hearing and/or seeing the response, much less envisioning it…a response all around us and screaming to be seen, heard and felt, to be lived!

The lessons here?

1) We must have a clear and concise vision of what it is we are asking for. It is not enough to kinda-sorta-hafta want something.

2) Along the lines of number one, we must want whatever it is we are asking for! We must really want it with a burning desire, a burning desire in the pit of our very Soul! It must be physical, a visceral response whenever we think about it!

3) Once we know what we want, we must then ask for it, send a message to God, Infinite Intelligence, to our Selves in such a way that it is simply impossible for it not to be heard.

4) Next, we must transform our desire into action. Not simply a desire though, a burning desire, into a clear and concise plan, a concrete plan of action as Napoleon Hill would say. Something magical happens when we envision a result, something we want with every fiber of our being, we become a magnet. However, and this is crucial, we must be moving in the right direction, with the proper mindset, or the messages, the signals, and/or the answers, and there will be many, to our prayers will be lost…we will never hear them!

5) Finally, we need to be receptive. It is not enough to want, ask, and implement…we must also tune in. The messages will be all around us, it is our responsibility, in fact it is a requirement for continued success, that we align ourselves with God, the Universe, Infinite Intelligence, and/or our Selves in such as way as to not only hear the messages and signals we will receive but to feel them…and to act accordingly. Without this ingredient, we will ultimately lose that link and the answers will cease.

Ache!

Ask!

Answer!

Apply!

But is that enough, will that do it? If we have a burning desire, get in touch with Infinite Intelligence, tune in, and act…is that enough?

No!

The final ingredient is a biggie! Biggie being a technical term!

The final component in this master plan, the road map taking a burning desire and placing it and your Self on the road to success?

Burn your ships!

Ah!

Bet you thought I forgot about that one? Burning your ships is the final piece of the puzzle, the linchpin that holds all of the above together, it is not only necessary, it is essential.

Burning your ships?

You must remember two things about history, it repeats itself and it is written by the victors and the survivors. A similar story to the Cortez “myth” (based in fact), has been attributed to Sun Tzu, and a historical parallel has recently come to light, via the movie 300. 300 is the retelling of the heroic and inspiring last stand of the Spartans’ stand against a vastly superior Persian army.

History is revised throughout history by each subsequent generation and thus is not a static re-telling but an ever-changing mythology.

What does that mean?

Well, let’s use this as an example, it’s one you may be familiar with:

Start a rumor at one end of a row of 50 people. By the time you get to the end of the row, the story has morphed into something entirely different, rarely resembling the original story.

The same applies to history…ours, there’s, everyone’s!

The illustrative aspect in the story of the Spartans is that almost everyone perished. Burning your ships is not without its share of risk, and it is certainly not for the faint-hearted and/or inexperienced, and certainly never for those with a sorta-hafta-wanna mentality. Burning your ships is for those totally committed, with a clear, well-thought out action plan before them.

Do not!

I repeat!

Do not quit your job, burning your ships, which may also result in burning your bridges, until you are ready. The ships, by the way, Cortez may have simply damaged them, not burned them…as a point of historical accuracy. He also made sure the supplies and provisions were safe-guarded first.

In other words, do not go off and quit your job tomorrow but make sure all of the components above are in place first…and make sure this is indeed a burning, speaking of burning, an ache in your gut, an all-consuming desire, and you have a clear and concise action plan that has been properly tested.

In other words, don’t jump into the English Channel to swim to France if you can’t do anything more than the doggy paddle! You will drown! Regardless of how badly you might like to run the Boston Marathon, if this is your first day running after back surgery, it ain’t happening!

Not yet, anyway. And that’s the key!

Make sure you have a burning desire, a concrete plan, and the tools…and then go for it!

Ultimately, achieving your goals and satisfying your burning desire still requires planning and managing your actions. Every endeavor in life and every goal contains a degree of uncertainty and risk, but risk in and of itself should never keep you from aching, asking, listening for the answer, and acting! Through proper implantation of a concrete and concise plan of action, achieving your burning desire is not only a possibility, it is a reality. Go for it!

I would like to invite you to one of my other blogs, The Internet Marketing Quest Revealed. With The John Zajaros Blog I am attempting to develop a central hub, a single place from which people can jump off to my various web properties, my Internet real estate. So, whether you are looking for information about Internet marketing, online business in a variety of niches, back pain and sciatica, online or in-home tutoring, soccer training tips, football training information, the coolest new stuffed animals and innovative, novel toys on the market, addiction information, the ultimate weight loss plans and more You can come here and then jump off to wherever you need to go…through The John Zajaros Blog.

Or perhaps you simply want to connect with me by way of the various social networking sites like Twitter, facebook, or LinkedIn to name just a few…The John Zajaros Blog will get you there or at least get you started (see the sidepanels for more) !

Or you may wish to visit me at :

The Internet Marketing Quest Revealed, a blog dealing with all aspects of Internet marketing!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr., The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

Imagine my surprise when I opened up my dashboard and found a comment from Tony Robbins!

I have a profound respect and admiration for Tony and all he has done in his life, not only as the preeminent speaker on self-mastery but as a humanitarian and philanthropist. Tony does a great deal behind the scenes, things to help people, some of those people he doesn’t even know personally.

Starting out in life with seemingly everything going against him, he has become one of the most recognizable figures in the entire world! Tony Robbins has had an impact on an entire generation of marketers, entrepreneurs, and just regular folks!

I still have Tony’s Personal Power II Success Journal sitting on my desk, I have followed Tony for many years, his thoughts, ideas, and products have helped immensely over the years.

Tony Robbins now has a new product out called:

The New Money Masters

The above is not my affiliate link, it’s Russell Brunson’s. He is offering an additional video bonus if you purchase Tony’s course through him…so I am passing it along so you can benefit too! I just ordered it tonight and I can’t wait to see the first installment with Frank Kern, it should be awesome…as well as extremely entertaining!

So anyway, take a look at the video and tell em what you think. I look forward to your comments and feedback!

And don’t forget to order your free trial of The New Money Masters. If NMM is anything like his other products, it will be amazing!

All the best to you!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

It seems longer, almost an eternity ago. I was living my life from pain pill to pain pill…more like PAIN PILL to PAIN PILL…and doctor’s appointment to hospital stay. It certainly doesn’t seem like a matter of months…it seems like a lifetime ago! Yet, as I think back, it really wasn’t that long ago at all! So, how did I get here? How did it all happen so fast? Is it important to tell my story at all?

Well, to the last question I would say yes…but then, I am somewhat biased. Not egocentric, mind you, just somewhat biased.

You see, I think my story is important. The story isn’t important in the “Here I am!” and “See what I did!” or “Look what I have!” sense but it is in the “See what I’ve been able to accomplish and you can too!” sense. The story is important if only to give someone else hope, to assure others that, no matter how dark their present may be, there is an alternative future just beyond the range of their sight, beyond the horizon, just out of their grasp. It is a life-lesson, passed on from me to you, assuring you that you can get there, wherever and whatever there is for you, if you simply persevere and remember that someone else, in this case yours truly, has been there before you, with you, and has done it, whatever it is…so you can too!

This seems to be a time for baring of the soul, telling how we got here, sharing the trials and tribulations that brought us to the point of self-realization, self-discovery, and finally, of self-knowledge.

But that is way ahead of the story…way ahead of it!

Before we get to all the self-actualization “stuff,” to use a technical term…cuz everybodies got “stuff“! Just ask George Carlin!

Oops! Got off the subject with George there. Hope you came back! Or, better yet, click the link later. It will be worth it, too funny…and true!

Back to self-discovery:

Self-actualization is a term that has been used by psychologists in a variety of ways and for a long time now. The interesting thing about the term self-actualization is that the term is used in slightly different ways by different psychologists at different times. In many instances, as with history itself, psychological thought is a reflection of the times it was written in as much as it is or was about the subject matter itself. While a topic for a different time and a different article, it is interesting to note that our history, and much of social scientific and physical scientific theory seems to reflect the period it was written in, as much as being a reflection of the thought or theory itself. Meaning, like it or not, we see the world in terms of the world we live in…and that is a very difficult bronco to buck!

So, as we seek to understand ourselves, we also need to take a hard look at our context, how we are living our lives and who is shaping our beliefs, consciously or unconsciously…some would say subconsciously.

OK! Back to self-actualization. To quote Wikipedia (Why not? Everyone else does!): “The term was originally introduced by the organismic theorist Kurt Goldstein for the motive to realise [sic] all of one’s potentialities. In his view, it is the master motive—indeed, the only real motive a person has, all others being merely manifestations of it. However, the concept was brought to prominence in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory {Tim Schmidt has incorporated this nicely into his Tribal Marketing concept!} as the final level of psychological development that can be achieved when all basic and mental needs are fulfilled and the “actualisation” of the full personal potential takes place.

In other words, as a consequence of our life-lessons, by way of a journey of self-discovery and the eventual fulfillment of the needs below on the pyramid, below self-actualization on the hierarchy, we come to an awareness of our full potential, our “full personal potential” or our “potentialities.”

I would argue that there is, in fact, a degree above this, true self-actualization takes place when we implement our potentialities, when we put our selves (spelled put our a##es) into gear and get going with the business of living…thus achieving our true potential or potentialities, whatever that or they may be!

Just to be clear, because the image, when transferred, blackened out the labels somewhat, the lowest level of needs in Mazlow’s hierarchy are physiological. Next up on the pyramid are the needs associated with safety. Then come the needs associated with love and belonging. The next level up are the needs related to esteem, and this is where most people get stuck…if they get to this level at all. And finally, we reach the peak of Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs, those needs labeled as self-actualizing, or simply self-actualization!

Whether you agree with the whole of self-actualization theory and Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs or not, it seems apparent, at least to me, that we all search for a purpose, something larger than ourselves to identify with and to incorporate into our schema of the world, the meaningful world we seek to identify with and become linked to.

Why do you think social media is so popular, aside from the whole issue of marketing…spam notwithstanding? It’s because we all seek to attach ourselves to something or someone greater than ourselves! Notice the emphasis here on selves! Something or someone exciting, larger than life if you will…and certainly larger than our lives! Our current lives anyway, the lives many of us wish we could escape, or at least change drastically!

So what is stopping us?

Well, I hear a lot of gobbledygook phrases (wait to click it until after you’ve finished the article, OK?!) like:

Inertia!

Take action!

Visualize!

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe…

You know the remainder of the last one, you finished it without me even writing it out here, didn’t you?

…it can achieve!

Change your state!

Huh? What? How?

We all know the catch phrases, we all know the goobledygook terms…but how the heck do we implement them and what has to happen in our lives, to our lives, in order to get us to the point where we:

1.) Counter the inertia that is our life!

2.) Take the necessary action because we simply can’t stand the pain of inaction any longer!

3.) Get to a point where or when, although it may be difficult, if not seemingly impossible, we know there must be something, anything that ranks higher on the life-satisfaction scale than our lives do now. Something out there that ranks higher in terms of satisfaction, reward, meaning, and here’s the million dollar word…potential!

It is the potentiality, the possibility of potentiality, that will ultimately fuel our action, breaking through the inertia of our inaction that is our lives! Without belief in the possibility of potentiality…we are doomed!

That takes me back to my story!

Phew! Thought we’d never get back here, didn’t you?

The fact is, I thought I was doomed! I was absolutely, totally, completely, utterly, finally (get the idea?) doomed! That was my mindset, just roll me over and stick a fork in me…I was done!

Here I was at the time, a 53 year old guy with a huge gap in his employment history because of catastrophic illness (almost dying in the process-see below). I had finally come through several surgeries to save my life after doctor after doctor (some of the “best” in the word), and hospital after hospital (also a few of the “best,” like the Cleveland Clinic) misdiagnosed me, or didn’t bother to diagnose me at all.

I actually had one doctor, I had to admire is honesty, who told me my back was too big a mess for him to handle and he’d, “rather not touch it!”

Yup! Doomed!

I was in so much pain, I couldn’t crawl to the bathroom, literally. It was horrible! I was on so much pain medication that when I finally found a surgeon willing to operate, I almost couldn’t find an anesthesiologist to do the honors! That would have been the height of irony…and about my luck back then! Fortunately, I found a guy, a good one, who was willing to take me on and it ended up saving my life.

Osteomyelitis!

They woke me up in the recovery room to one of those good news-bad news lines:

“Mr. Zajaros,” who cared if they got the title wrong, “the bad news is, we couldn’t fix your back.”

“Mr. Zajaros,” did it again, “the good news is, we found a massive staph infection throughout the vertebrae and the surrounding tissue. We think it may have been in there for several years…and you are going to live!”

I have to tell you, the pain when you wake up from spine surgery is worse than anything you can possibly imagine! You really think death would be a relief, it’s that bad. But at least I knew all the pain I had experienced up to that moment was not in my head, there was a reason, it was based in a medical reality; and, that was strangely satisfying. Just knowing that I hadn’t imagined it all, that it wasn’t “in my head,” that it wasn’t “rebound pain” or some other ridiculous misdiagnosis…

…I was relieved.

Little did I know, the battle of my life was just beginning.

That was May of 2000.

Several more surgeries, many years in hospitals, yes years, and I can’t tell you how many pills, bills, and doctors I went through on my way to recovery.

“Recovery?”

I walked away from a comfortable 6 figure a year job (well, they got tired of waiting for me to get well and put me on leave), spent months going through our retirement, 401k, IRAs, everything we owned, including the better of the two vehicles (a brand new minivan we had payed cash for), to keep from living in a box…or in the back of a 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier Station Wagon!

Had it not been for amazing friends and the help of Catholic Charities, we would have been homeless, evicted while I was in the hospital having surgery number 13…of 14 or 15?! We had run out of time…and money! Thank goodness we still had friends!

We moved…started over.

Operation.

Moved…started over.

Operation.

Moved…started over.

Operation. Addiction (there is no such thing as a “controlled addiction,” physician monitored or not). Depression. Blackness.

I felt utterly and completely doomed!

Then, in March of 2007, I fell while walking out our door and down the front walk. The winter had lifted the sidewalk and I didn’t notice it. That is, until I was falling into the bumper of my in-laws new pickup truck, denting the bumper with my head, ripping open my scalp (100+ stitches), and the concrete sidewalk (crushing my shoulder). The osteomyelitis had weakened my bones, when I say I crushed my shoulder, I mean it was almost completely destroyed, they pinned it back and rebuilt it as well as possible but, as you can see from the videos, it is still quite a mess!

While recovering from the reconstruction, yet another operation if you are keeping track (15 by now), I had a pulmonary embolism, along with another large clot in my shoulder, congestive heart failure, and a myriad of other health consequences and complications.

By April of 2007 there was little left of our previous existence, I should say our previous lives…because what we were doing by 2007 was existing. We no longer had our lives, we muddled through each day, I on the sectional or in the recliner, taking pain pills to kill the pain, physical and psychological, in pain 24/7, severely depressed, truly at the and of things…all things…or so I thought.

I was doomed in every sense of the word…except one…I had an amazing wife and family!

Each time our standard of living dropped and our prospects diminished…my self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth with them! Yet, my family never gave up on me and I never saw anything but love and respect in their eyes. I will never forget that, I can never adequately express my feelings concerning it…or ever repay what it meant to me or did for me.

I will work the rest of my life, for them, that is my burning desire…my one thing!

It literally kept me alive…their love!

You know, it seems like everyone has a near death story, it’s almost the new Horatio Alger, Rags to Riches thing….

As an aside: Horatio Alger wrote rags to riches stories, yet at the time of his death he was living with his sister and brother in law, he never made a lot of money from his writing. His image today is somewhat tarnished by rumor and innuendo, another tragic fatality of revisionism and conjecture in historical research. But the American Dream, the ideal of a rags to riches life of achievement based on honesty, hard work, integrity, and ingenuity is embedded in American social culture at least in part due to his stories.

Anyway, back to the recent wave of “I Survived…Buy from Me!” stories!

< For a moment, anyway!