Amazing how kids learn and I think I figured out how they do it.

Last night my five year old son Jae figured out some stuff on the iPad2 without the help of any adult and he was very very happy about it. He found out on his own that swiping four or five fingers up the screen of the iPad (running iOS 5) will display the recent applications list. This morning he figured out how to play music on it on his own too.

I know it sounds mundane but the thing is that nobody taught him how to do it. So, how did he learn on his own?

Freedom

Jae already used my iPad the first time I bought it but he only has limited access because I was using it for work. In other words, he was not allowed to do so many things with it except play games which I even had to open for him. I recently gave my iPad to Evelyn and as a result Jae now has more access to it than ever. He now has freedom to do what ever he pleases to do with it except breaking it.

Explore

With freedom comes exploration. Jae tapped, swiped, pinched, and did whatever he wanted to do with the iPad. He learned its applications and its features.

He tried out the different icons that he wasn’t allowed to run before. He moved from one icon to another. He opened the different applications and tried them out. He explored.

Enjoy

One thing that we used to do when we were young was to enjoy. As we grew up, everything started to become tasks and obligations. We stopped enjoying and focused more on accomplishing things. We were drowned in a world where accomplishment trumps enjoyment.

Looking at Jae learning the ins and outs of the iPad, one thing became obvious – he was enjoying it, really enjoying it.

I believe that if you enjoy the things you do then you will be a lot better at it. You will learn new ways, you will figure out things, you would adapt, you will excel. And all this while enjoying what you’re doing.

In conclusion, I think that the secret to learning like kids and to learn better is to simply enjoy your freedom to explore the things that are in front of you. Stop thinking of them as tasks and instead start thinking of them as fun. Needless to say you must try to avoid doing things that you don’t enjoy.

I hope this short blog post helps you become a better person. I hope you begin to learn like a child once more.

If you are a non-English speaking person, would find that iPhones Siri would help you improve your English communication skills. The main reason being Siri couldn’t understand English spoken in a very bad accent. Instead you have to speak English in a more natural and continuous way. Therefore helping you improve your diction.

I myself am a very fluent English speaker. Being a Filipino, I think my English is better than most, well at least according to my American and Canadian friends. However I still find Siri being a little bit challenging in some words that I pronounce.

It also helps you type messages faster. As a matter of fact I find myself spending more time thinking of what to say rather than typing out messages on my phone now.

3:04 PM. Well as you can see it took me 20 minutes to type this short blog post. Most of it, as I said, is spent on thinking what to say rather than the actual typing itself.

In the end you would realize that if Siri can understand your English then most Americans, Canadians, British and other English speaking people will understand you as well.

Disclaimer: Please know that this entire blog post is written by dictation using Siri. While it may be readable, the grammar or spelling maybe incorrect.

Anyway, being an old friend, I have to be polite and get along with the discussion. Besides I have two things that I want to share with you which came up in our conversation.

Failure #1 – No one becomes a millionaire through sales

All experienced marketers will certainly disagree with this, myself included. Even if we confine this thought to the network marketing industry alone, many will still disagree chiefly because sales is the driving force behind any millionaire in the world today, even network marketers.

The network marketing world is divided mainly into two camps. Those in the first camp are those who believe that the path to becoming a millionaire is to focus on selling the membership package (i.e. recruitment). These people focus more on promoting the opportunity rather than the product. The second camp however believes that the right path to becoming a millionaire is to focus more on promoting the product first then the opportunity second.

But which is right? It’s hard to tell because both camps have produced millionaires but here’s what I think.

If I focus on telling people about the opportunity, I will end up with only a handful of people who might believe me mainly because there are tons of opportunities out there most of which are scams. Furthermore, the team that I will be building will be one who will easily jump to a better or a newer opportunity if they find one. In other words, loyalty and retention is low in this group.

On the other hand, if I focus on the product by both using it and telling my friends about it, then I will naturally gain new members in my team because they trust the product because I personally use it or have tried it themselves and liked it. This results to a team that both believe the products and are happy using it and telling other people about it. Even if they find other network marketing companies who offer other products, they will most likely still keep on using our products because, as I’d always like to say, “no one stops drinking coffee because they found a new brand of shampoo.” In other words, they don’t necessarily have to switch.

If you’re a budding network marketer, always remember that money is in sales not in recruitment.

Failure #2 – Recruitment alone is enough

The reason for this is obvious, what if you can’t recruit anyone anymore? But there are billions of people in the world! Surely you won’t run out of people to recruit. WRONG. You can’t recruit everyone because everyone is not meant to be recruited. No matter how hard you try, there will always be a saturation point wherein no one else wants to join your business opportunity even if they want to buy your products.

Don’t get me wrong though. Recruiting new team members is a great way to jump-start your success in network marketing and I encourage my team to bring in new members regularly by promoting the products first then opportunity.

However, there is one big problem to this. A company that focuses on recruitment alone to compensate its members is most likely a involved in what is called pyramid scheme which is illegal in most (if not all) countries. Stay away from companies that do this. Good companies also allows their members to earn through other means like overrides and direct sales.

So you’ve been warned. If you’re required to recruit to earn, you’re most likely involved in a pyramid scheme.

Conclusion

Selling can make you a millionaire and network marketing makes it easier to earn through group overrides, rebates and bonuses. Network marketing is an awesome way to make money if you know how to do it right. Finally, the path taken by long-term successful network marketers is one that focuses more on product movement rather than recruitment.

Looking for a Network Marketing Company?

Send me a Facebook message and let me know that you’re interested.

Good news is that you can check out what it’s all about with the three FREE videos and the Membership Site Blueprint from the makers of WishList Members themselves. Check out the link below:

Multiply Your Income With Membership Sites

You’ve got nothing to lose.

People object to different things all the time but before we discuss how we can minimize those when we make our sales pitch we must first understand why people object. Imagine this scenario…

Boy meets girl for the first time. Boy asks for her name. Girl gives it. Boy feels good about the short conversation and asks for a kiss. You know what happens next, the girl objects. But what is more interesting is that some of you may even object to my conclusion in this scenario. Perhaps, some would say, it really depends on the type of girl.

So, why do people object? First, they’re not ready. Did you spot the second one? The second one is based on my assumption that some might even object to the above scenario and that is people object because they have a different worldview. Now that we know the basics of why people object, I think it’s time for us to check out a few methods to minimize them.

Build trust and rapport – best friends object less to each other because they trust each other so well and they have built a relationship of mutual understanding (rapport) between them.

Identify the person’s worldview – no one likes someone telling them that what they believe in is wrong so don’t. It’s the probably the worst thing you can do in building your relationship. Instead, identify the person’s worldview and look for any common ground then work from there. There will always be common ground.

Flow with the river but take control of the boat – people like people who agree with them so it’s best that you agree with the person you’re talking to but at the same time also slowly taking control of the conversation and bringing him or her closer to you. Note that this may backfire if done wrong – that is your prospect taking control of the conversation instead of you.

Be genuine – we humans have the natural instinct to identify genuine people from the phoney ones. If you’ve come across a dishonest people at least ones in your life then you know exactly what I mean.

Break it gently – convincing a person to agree with you (whether it’s to buy your product, fill up a form or get out on a date) is like courting a lady. You just have to break it to her gently otherwise she will back off. The good news is that if you’ve done all previous steps then closing the deal won’t be hard at all. It will come naturally.

There you go. My five tips to minimizing objection. Don’t forget to post your comment and share this with your friends.

Frozen in surprise, you try to find the right words to use but couldn’t. Silence. A few minutes later you find yourself packing your things preparing to leave the room, defeated.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? It’s embarrassing ain’t it? Oh yes, I know how it feels. I’ve been there a couple of times (or more) before. The good news is that there’s a way out of it and it’s called PREPARATION.

You see, preparation can mean the difference between winning and losing. To help you prepare, I want you to remember the 4 A’s of Preparation.

1. ASSESSMENT – know what you are preparing for. Determine where you are, where you’re headed and what the conditions will be along the way. Find out the price you have to pay to get there.
2. ALIGNMENT – knowing where to go is not enough. You need to line-up up with your goal. Get rid of any distractions and focus yourself on your destination.
3. ATTITUDE – lazy people rarely prepare but diligent people do. To succeed, you must do your homework to take care of the mental aspects of your game. Prepare physically and mentally.
4. ACTION – ultimately, you’ll have to take action. This means being ready to take the first step. Courage has no greater ally than preparation and fear has no greater enemy.

Furthermore, to improve preparedness, you have to become a process thinker. Break down big steps into smaller steps and think through the entire process before going through it. Create a system to help you mentally walk through any process ahead of time.

Proper preparation can mean a lot. As the saying goes, “the man who is prepared has his battle already half-fought.”

Nowadays, creating a blog is easier than you may have thought. It wasn’t so back in the old days when people have to wrestle with HTML and FTP and a handful of other people-scaring technical acronyms just to create and manage a blog. Today, everything is point and click – thanks to technology and WordPress.

So here’s a short video for you to watch. I hope you enjoy it!

Go out there and create your first WordPress blog now!

Bad news if you’re not the type that goes for different – in today’s world (and perhaps even before’s world), it’s the only way to stand out. Good news is that it always works!

Welcome to the sixth and last part of this week’s series called Happy Feet: Penguin Business Lessons. I sure hope that you’ve learned enough to discover yourself and the people around you. May this discovery, this new understanding, lead you and your business into a better future.

So, what’s good in being different? Before we continue, I’d like to warn you that being different may not be the most comfortable thing for you to do. However, if you want to be successful, it might be your only way.

Mumble is different from his kind. The other penguins sing, he dances. But his difference from the rest does not end there. In fact, it only points out that he’s different from the beginning. Other penguins go surf the wave, he swims against the odds. They have faith, he has vision. They believe, he wants to know more. Mumble is the type of person that brings dictators to their knees. He’s the kind that never quits. He sees what’s beyond the horizon. He’s different. He’s the hero.

My friend, that’s what being different really means. Different is not just standing out from the crowd (and being buried afterwards, nowhere to be found). Different is not doing what others do. Different is climbing the mountain when everyone says it’s impossible. We who are different take risks when nobody else would.

If you want to be the purple cow then you have to be the purple cow from within, from the very marrow of your bones or you won’t last long.

But why is different good? Because different is what makes great leaders, great inventors, great entrepreneurs, great authors, great architects, great artists, great people. Different is what will make you great. It’s what you want to be if you want to be everything we’ve talked about in the past few days.

Be different. Join the club!

Mumble, our main protagonist in the movie Happy Feet is someone I would call great and he became great solving the problem of not just his family but of his entire kind. In the process of doing so, he experienced being ridiculed, looked down upon and even called an abomination by the very people he is trying to help.

But what makes a person great? Different people have different definitions of what greatness is. Some relate greatness with power – I don’t. I think greatness is about being able to enlarge your circle of influence by genuinely helping others.

Think of it this way:

• The selfish helps no one but himself
• The average helps his family
• The leader helps his community
• The great helps everybody else

Furthermore, the great one never considers greatness as his ultimate goal. It is not important to him whether he’ll be great or not. Instead, what matters to him is finding a solution to the problem at hand. This is what makes him great.

Now, that said, what kind of person do you think are you? How far are you from being great? Are you focused more on making money instead of genuinely providing a working solution to your niche?

Greatness can be achieved in many ways and in many different areas in your life and your business. First you must accept that you cannot be great in everything. Instead focus on your resources and think how you can use them to help others. Also know that making money does not lessen your greatness in any way so don’t feel bad if you charge people for your services.

So go now and be a great blogger, great marketer, great businessman, great leader, great inventor, great singer or whatever great you want to be. Go and be the great one!

Believe it or not, I myself am learning as I type each and every word of this series. It makes me think about the things I’m doing not just in my business but in life as a whole. It’s changing me day by day and I hope that it’s doing the same to you.

Lovelace, the guru. A penguin so respected that other penguins are willing to spend their entire day looking for the perfect pebble to offer to him so they can hear his words of wisdom. There are many Lovelaces in this world, for all you know you might be one. But who is Lovelace.

He’s been to a place no one has ever been before and that’s just about it. To this Lovelace adds some mystery to his story which tickles the minds of his listeners even more. But Lovelace is nothing more than a pretty face with a good story. He speaks of love but has never experienced love himself. He lies about the thing around his neck saying that it’s been bestowed upon him by some mysterious being.

People love to listen to his stories and don’t get me wrong here, Lovelace is getting a lot of pebbles for his service which we can translate to money in our world. After all, he’s a guru!

Well, it’s easy to become a guru nowadays. All you need is a good webmaster and a good copywriter and you’re pretty much there. Come up with a good eBook with a mysterious title and a spanking new salespage and you’ll be making money.

And then there are the “real” gurus. Those who do more than just talking. The question is which one are you? The talker or the doer? Do you tell stories you never really have encountered? Do you lie? Or do you do things according to your business plans? Do you take action and learn from your mistakes? Do you tell real stories to those who are willing to listen?

Telling is NOT Doing and we all know that. Sometimes, we tell stories so good we even convince ourselves it’s true. Well, that will get you somewhere but I don’t seriously think it will get you anywhere near your real goal in life.

As NIKE would say, Just do it!