Ad Hominem

You are a Champion!

I read this article on How to Disagree and just had to make some comments because it takes me back to my college days when I took a course in Logic. Note: I don’t know the author so this is not a personal attack and his comments are not wrong. He is a highly educated and sharp person.

As I recall, we learned how to dissect language and determine the truth or falsity of a statement as well as logical fallacies like Ad Hominem. It all made so much sense and sounded really neat–so educated!

Perhaps (looking back) the most important points I got out of the course are these:

• The professor said that a lot of things are not logical and are emotional. He said as an example, “There’s nothing logical about my making love to my wife.”
• We can keep the “heat” low by expressing ourselves like Joe Friday, “I just want facts mam, just the facts.” It is actually good to address the argument with facts and keep it impersonal. Also, “a soft voice turns away wrath.”

After leaving the “Ivory Tower” (probably a logical fallacy in that statement somewhere) I learned that “facts tell and emotions sell.” I also learned that many well educated people know very well the logical fallacies (can name and describe the fallacies and why the statement is not logical) and often use emotionally charged statements on purpose. Perhaps many of us can recall books and articles that personally attack friends, relatives, religion, and etc. that are written by PhD’s. You know that they know better so what’s their real motive?

Now here’s some real (?) logic:

• You send someone an email and instead of really addressing your questions (he has his PhD in English or something) he corrects your grammar, spelling, and your logic with some condescending statement. How impressed were you?
• You’re listening to a talk show host (redneck central) and a self assured educated caller says, “That’s an ad hominem and your argument is not logical.”

The host and listeners don’t understand or don’t care what you are saying and are not very impressed with your sophistication. Many people are turned off by what they consider to be a snooty, boring, too educated and a too serious person. There’s a big communication gap!

Ad hominem attacks are very effective, for example:

“A tin foil hat is a piece of headgear made from one or more sheets of tin foil, aluminium foil or similar material. In theory, people wear the hats in the belief that they act to shield the brain from such influences as electromagnetic fields, or against alien interference, mind control and mind reading.

The idea of wearing a tin foil hat for protection from such threats has become a popular stereotype and term of derision.” Wikipedia

And so, instead of addressing the facts I could say, “Looks to me like you are wearing a tin foil hat.” And, I can begin my sentences with condescending statements like, “With all due respect…” that means “no respect.” Or, I can crack some joke at your expense.

No one likes ad hominem attacks but they can be very effective (even though not logical). Don’t just attribute them to red necks because highly educated people and politicians use them everyday.

Debtor Nation

You are a Champion!

Here is a simplified story by Warren Buffet to help us understand our current national situation (article written in FORTUNE 2003).

What’s more important the interest rate (yield) on our mortgage and investments or the value of the dollar?

As an individual we can change our minds about investments, lifestyle, and taxes and begin to have an impact on our life.

What can we do?

• Think in terms of risk and determine how much risk we can handle (monetarily and psychologically). Each of us differ so there is no correct answer. Also, what is a high risk for me might be an insignificant risk for someone else.
• Think in terms of value and determine the value for yourself. The obvious example is the value of a car because we all know that most cars depreciate in value. On the other hand, a salesperson may need a nice car in order to promote their business.
• Think in terms of productivity and determine if this is a valuable way to spend time. We may like mowing the yard and that may be the right thing for us. For others, it would be a poor use of their time.
• Think in terms of giving and determine if we will be a giving person. Giving often returns significant dividends.
• Think in terms of yourself and determine not to control your neighbor. We can’t particularly educate our neighbor no matter how smart we are. He doesn’t now or will he ever think like we do.
• Think in terms of example and determine what kind of a person we are. If people will learn anything from us it will be observed in our life.
• Think for yourself because others may not have your best interest in mind. We learn to modify our behavior from childhood to adult and still realize that most people are selfish (including us). They may not blatantly lie to us but they may keep silent about the truth. “Be as smart as a serpent and as harmless as a dove.”
• Think about your ongoing learning and education because most of what we learn will be in an informal setting. What we learned yesterday is obsolete today. How interested are we in learning and keeping current?
• Think in terms of sowing because we shall all reap what we sow (cause and effect).
• Think about eternity and where we will spend it because this life is temporary. Our debt has been paid in full so be thankful to the creator.

Need Oxygen?

You are a Champion!

Perhaps you have had the opportunity to burn a large pile of wood so that an area of ground is covered with ash. Perhaps you had a really hot fire (and a large bed of coals) and you poured water on the coals to make sure the fire was out and didn’t spread. I did this recently and after several days put some more wood in the same spot. That evening I was looking that direction and saw the wood on fire because of the coals and the wind.

The oxygen from the wind had fanned coals I figured were out and started a fire.

My wife pointed out to me that this is how our business works. We take someone with a burning desire to change and fan the coals. We pour oxygen on the coals and over a period of time we see a fire. The fire was there all along.

When you are in Network Marketing various people (meaning well or not) will pour water on your fire and if you have enough coals (desire) the right individual can add oxygen and give your fire life.

Dr. Tom Barrett in his book Dare to Dream and Work to Win said, “Winning the mental battle for success in life and network marketing does not come from the absence of negative beliefs. It comes from the presence of core beliefs and thinking habits that are true, positive, and empowering.”

Add some Oxygen to the coals and you can overcome the water poured over your ashes. Restore the flame in your life!

Keyword Optimization

You are a Champion!

Just the other day I was talking with a prospect and he told me, “I’m looking at multiple streams of income and I’m taking a class on building a website to learn keyword optimization so my website will be on the front page of the web search.” I’m thinking why don’t you just sign up as a Distributor and go to work? Quit taking the long way around to success because you will never arrive. You will never get any income from your multiple streams of activity. It’s been a month now and he’s still thinking about the activities that actually make money and doing the things, in his limited time, that might get him into action someday.

His comments are so typical of someone desiring and searching for a way out. Yes, I’ve read Robert Allen’s Multiple Streams of Income and books like Building a Web Site for Dummies that writes about keyword optimization.

His comments also remind me of large Network Marketing training schools where wall-to-wall people come to be motivated and dream about doing the business. Some actually take notes and begin the process (key steps to success).

If you search on keywords or keyword optimization you will find many businesses telling you how to optimize your website (that’s their business). Interestingly, keyword optimization and looking on a search every hour to see the ranking in Google has never been my goal. However, if I search on the keywords important to me I’m often on the front page near the top. Why?

Because working toward my real purpose and goal somehow optimizes my ranking.

Also, I understand that the Internet for many companies is just a tool they use to take orders or compliment their primary business. If that were not the case you would see many businesses with many experts on their payroll tell them to sell their brick and mortar locations and just work online. Even Amazon.com has tremendous fixed cost. Sometimes I drive by their huge warehouse on highway 169 in Coffeyville, KS. Look at what large and medium sized businesses are really doing and when they are solely online you will know that the Internet Age has arrived (matured) but don’t hold your breath.

Signs on the highway, on the side of your car, in the gym, in the yellow pages, on your website, etc. softens the market place. We do want name recognition but that’s not doing the business. If it was, the company my wife and I work for could just eliminate their Distributors and knock about 40% costs to sales right off their Income Statement. Why don’t they just go totally online and forget their expensive Distributors (become order takers)?

In the online revolution interim you might try optimizing an activity that’s described as talking to people.

Talking to people is the activity (keywords) that Network Marketing is made of.

Productivity and Economics

You are a Champion!

Your productivity improvements should be “controlled” by economics.

As in government, productivity gains are often (stifled) controlled by subjective decisions that are not rational when it comes to economics and slows down productivity improvements, growth of the economy, and even eventual collapse of governments.

Bad or wrong decisions should be corrected quickly!

For example, if the wrong person is hired for a position it is not fair to other employees in the company to continue working around or over the nonproductive people (carrying their load). Therefore, correction of a mistake is not a “heartless” decision but a “necessary” decision. This is often the hardest part of being in business.

This is one of the main reasons that Network Marketing Distributors have a significant advantage over other business models.

My wife and I were going to meet with a small business person just the other day who was detained in a meeting with a person he had just fired. The person wanted to draw unemployment compensation even though she was being fired for cause. As you may know, this increases the cost of being in business and a hard (distasteful) decision had to be made.

If you find these kinds of decisions upsetting you may want to join Network Marketing instead of starting a small business where these types of decisions “have” to be made everyday.

Pricing

You are a Champion!

Pricing is not a one man show and should have input from accountants, engineers, economists, statisticians, and marketers. Also, pricing requires significant judgment and is not just a computation as any small business person or entrepreneur would know.

Many small companies approach pricing from a cost accounting point of view where product prices are evaluated internally in relation to the margins (percentage of profit on sales). In other words, a target gross margin. If that target isn’t achieved those products are phased out or priced out of the market. Obviously, a product should at least cover out-of-pocket (variable) cost unless it’s an important loss leader to other profitable business. However, we will soon show that this is just half of the computation.

In many small businesses we would rarely see pricing based on investment returns (ROI) even though it is a long-run necessity. Unfortunately, many small businesses have faced the Wal-Mart experience and are no longer in business. Many undisciplined managers get wild hairs or out-of-body experiences at night that cause them to add unnecessary costs to the business. In other words, over time they are not even remotely the low cost producer. That’s why many new to a business start with a franchise because the business model is extremely structured and controls the amateur exuberance (things that don’t work).

Let’s look at the following simple example: I go out and spend $200,000 for a new truck which I assume will bring a good price on the market if I need to exit the business. Of course, I have all the costly insurance policies (trucking is a risky business) even though my operating costs are reasonable (I have a new rig).

Your experience in trucking tells you to buy a good used rig for $50,000 (you let me take the hit from driving a new rig off the lot) and you just happen to be a mechanic too. Also, you let your increased operating costs from running an older rig offset reductions in other expenses. You assume personally as much risk (self insurance) as possible because you have a great safety record.

From a P&L or income statement we both run 500,000 miles at $x per mile. In other words, we both make the same profit on the income statement. With just business experience and judgment only, who’s more profitable (ROI)?

Let’s look at another example:

• A 20% profit margin multiplied by one turnover equals 20% return on investment.
• A 10% profit margin multiplied by two turnovers equals the same (20%) return on investment.

Any questions?

VLJ Perfect Storm Coming Soon

You are a Champion!

The perfect storm is developing for the VLJ (Very Light Jet) as jet fuel and airport security increases at the hub airports, and commercial airlines continue to limit service to smaller cities around the U.S.

Commercial air flights are currently experiencing the most significant paradigm shift we’ve seen in decades (even though it’s still under the radar screen).

My wife and I recently toured the Cessna plant where they are building the Mustang VLJ and Cessna already has a sizable sales backlog for their jet (certified for a single pilot). The same dynamic is occurring faster for the developer of the Eclipse VLJ (Eclipse Aviation) who already has a tremendous global market presence. Vern Raburn (with billionaire backers like Bill Gates) had the vision to transform and revolutionize air transportation.

The hub and spoke system is on its way to becoming a buggy (at least a modified buggy) and being replaced by light jets that have the ability to land at small airports. These high performance (fuel efficient) jets are capable of landing at the same air speed I use to land in a single engine Piper. This state-of-the-art jet paves the way for point-to-point jet traffic on the way to future jet planes that fly themselves (avoiding airport security and inconvenience).

The technology for state-of-the-art transportation has been around for a long time due to the development of military aircraft (drones), sophisticated avionics, and the most important of all–GPS systems and NASA. As usual, the 10,000 airports don’t appear to be keeping up with this innovation so we may see a pilot free plan develop faster in Europe than in the U.S. Who knows?

Of course, the major airlines will cry foul and give specious arguments why this revolution should be hindered or killed (to eliminate their potential competition). For example, the crowded skies argument is ridiculously false because computer avionics and GPS makes this argument false. As for security, commercial flights file flight plans and fighter jets are scrambled from various air bases when a hijack code is sent or the transponder is turned off or communication ceases. Military jets fly multiple times faster than any commercial airliner. And, of course, carry sophisticated weapons. Technology is available to take over a flight because, in that regard, a passenger plane is just a larger complicated version of your radio controlled model airplane.

You might find reading the book, free flight from airline hell to a new age of travel (2001), by James Fallows interesting. We can’t see the mistakes of 9/11 being repeated after such a horrific event. If Congress, and the hub and spoke airlines, can see a possible repeat of the homeland not being protected we need for them to explain why to the American people. In the private sector incompetent people are fired.

Safe guards should be the application of existing high tech innovation (not the removing of shoes at airports). As usual, this is quickly coming from the private sector responsible to customer demand and disgust with inconvenience.

As business travelers we look forward to this freedom!

Trust or Faith

You are a Champion!

In Network Marketing we need to have significant faith not only in ourself but in God. Lack of faith has been around a long time and we can continue to trust only in ourself. That’s a problem.

We are certainly not alone when it comes to this issue when we look at Mark 6 in the New Testament. You would think that the Apostles of Christ would be overflowing with faith and trust when you read this chapter and see the miracles. In verse 6 it says of Christ that “he marvelled because of their unbelief.” He sent his Apostles on a limited commission without anything except faith. In verse 8, “And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse.”

Would you take a trip today without cash just depending on God to provide? No! However, that’s not the point in Mark 6 because Christ wanted his Apostles to understand the power of God and trust in him.

In this chapter he gave his Apostles several reasons to change their hearts about trust. We see him take a few loaves and two fishes and feed a multitude (probably about 15,000 people–only mentions the 5,000 men). Verse 42, “And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments, and of the fishes.”

Until recently, after hearing a sermon, I never really thought about or understood the rest of the story. Like most people I just see his Apostles getting in a ship on the Sea of Galilee and Christ eventually going out to meet them walking on the water. That’s not the real story. His power to walk on water and the Matthew 14:28 account of Peter coming out to meet him on the water (losing faith and being saved) is not the complete lesson.

You see from the picture that the Sea of Galilee is not too big and at its widest point it’s only eight miles across. That’s not much of a challenge for a bunch of strong fishermen to get across the lake. Verse 48: “And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.” They had been rowing all night and were getting nowhere fast! He wasn’t coming out to meet them it says that he “would have passed by them.” Why?

He was disgusted with them because they didn’t trust in his great power even after all the miracles. In fact, they weren’t getting much help getting over to the other side on the Sea of Galilee either (rowing against the wind). Verse 52, “For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.”

Are you rowing against the wind? Perhaps there is a reason why.

Science versus Politics

You are a Champion!

Quality science versus the politicians in the war on Obesity:

America has a serious obesity problem and Ph.D’s in Nutrition have been fighting an uphill battle for years. Over the years there have been several ephedra studies with similar conclusions to the above study.

Study Conclusion:

“A dietary supplement containing a low potency ephedra/caffeine mixture appeared safe and effective in causing loss of weight and body fat, and improving several metabolic parameters, including insulin sensitivity and lipid profiles when tested under physician supervision. Such supplements could be a useful tool to assist with weight loss.”

Of course, thousands of people already knew this because (like me) they used the particular product in this study for years. In fact, the herb ephedra has had documented use for well over 5,000 years. We admit that this product is not for everybody but how did this quality product go from warning labels to being completely banned?

Short History:

The conflict is long and the story is involved but the end of ephedra involved the media hype surrounding the death of a Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler. While thousands of people have used various low dose ephedra products without incident for years, and various companies have made millions of dollars from the sell of these products, the only company (in the fragmented Nutrition Industry) that would continue to fight the FDA decision in court was a Utah based company named Nutraceutical Corp. with the assistance of attorney Jonathan Emord. While they won in the lower courts they could not win the FDA appeal or get a hearing before the Supreme Court. The suit contended that the FDA would not follow the laws passed by Congress (the major reason for the suit). Also, the FDA was charged as being inconsistent in its application because ephedra can still be obtained in tea bags, and synthetic drugs with some similar properties (cold medicines) can be obtained over-the-counter without prescription.

The FDA and the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce, under the chairmanship of Billy Tauzin Rep. 3rd Louisiana Congressional District, seized upon the Bechler moment to kill ephedra with its hearings. “This powerful committee is arguably the broadest (non-tax-oriented) jurisdiction of any Congressional committee.”

The rest of the story: “On January 3, 2005, the same day he left Congress, Tauzin began work as the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, a powerful trade group for pharmaceutical companies…. He is represented as the one single factor that has prevented the United States of America from adopting a publicly funded health care system for all (according to Wikipedia).”

Is ephedra/caffeine dead from now on? Scientist in major Universities know how very effective ephedra/caffeine is for sustained energy and weight management. Not only have they studied this they have thousands of testimonies of people who have used the products over a long period of time (outside of formal studies). And so, they need not be convinced and we suspect they will continue to have their influence. On the other hand, the unorganized Nutrition Industry cannot hope to have the influence and associations developed in congress by powerful interest groups and lobbyist for decades. Many consumers were outraged at the ephedra hearings, even to this day, but it takes more than outrage. Perhaps one day ephedra will get its day in court. Certainly this is a Constitutional issue regarding the basic freedoms and rights of citizens in a non socialist capitalist society.

While the Nutrition Industry is supported by the science it doesn’t have the funding to overcome powerful lobby groups, controlled (for profit) media, and fee based political government associations. Of course the industry (like the food industry) should continue to be monitored to insure safe and quality products. Americans, that believe in the freedom provided by the Constitution, will have to organize to get the scientific arm of government uncontrolled by the agenda of their political bosses and powerful special interest groups with large advertising budgets.

The Observer

You are a Champion!

“There, but for the Grace of God and me, Go I!”

My cat reminds me of a lot of people because she’s and observer in life and not a doer. She never changes much from her routine and change bothers her a lot.

We have some sayings in the business, “For things to change we have to change” and “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting to get a different result.”

That’s why people that have cultivated the same habits as those around them, watching their parents from a young age, have learned to place limits on their lives. Not realizing that they have the ability to break the mold and free themselves. Can you set in front of the tube, watching other people on the screen, and expect things in your life to change? Remove yourself from bad circumstances like you would from a bad stinch in the wind.

Where Will Rogers was born is not a very populated or significant place in this world but that never limited Will Rogers. He said that if you want to be successful in life do these (3) simple things:

1. “Know what you are doing.”
2. “Love what you are doing.”
3. “Believe in what you are doing.”

Most authors (including Will Rogers) will tell you that the key words in those (3) sentences are Know, Love, and Believe. I think those words are very important but the key word is the last word in the sentence-doing.

When you became immersed into this life you didn’t just stick your toe out and say, “I think I’ll just test the water.” You came right out with your whole being and you’ll be here until your body is immersed back into the grave (every inch of you will go back from where you came). While you’re here it would be a good idea to submit you body to the task of living with your total being.

Don’t be an observer in life–be a doer!

Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”