… at least the part of YOU who dares to go beyond your own comfort zone and continually strive for new expansive experiences in life.

But, before we give you the details on what all this means, a big strong shout and cheer goes out to everyone in the USA celebrating the 4th of July Weekend! (And… anyone in Canada still celebrating Canada Day!)

We hope you’re doing fantastic, spending time with family and friends, and having an incredible holiday…

Before you head out to watch Fireworks, take 5 minutes of your time to read just ONE thought — a recommendation for a “shift in thinking” — about your FINANCIAL GROWTH…

* * * * * * *

We’re in the middle of creating our LWL Wealth Vault by sheer “design on the fly” movement!

What that means is that while we ARE putting the same level of due diligence, critical examination, and thorough research into this product as you’ve come to expect from us via our “personal growth products and interviews,” we’re not WAITING around for consensus approval or “crowd” market demand.

Based off the PURPOSE of The Wealth Vault —  to continually research and disclose  underground money-growing tools and alternative wealth-building programs — we’d never expect, or want, the MAJORITY to become members.

We know better!

While there’s a slew of entrepreneurs who will bury their integrity and independent spirit in a heartbeat, so they can be OKAY with creating and marketing hype, sizzle and instant gratification “me too” junk, we’ll continue to take the road less crapped on:

Creating and publishing diversified, rare, and uncommon information products that actually, if put to work consistently over time, can dramatically AFFECT somebody’s ability to ACCOMPLISH and EXPERIENCE.

Like personal growth tools that “stick” (not the surface-level kind that cajole you to wish, chant, affirm, dream, and hope for your desires every day), rock-solid, grounded financial wealth is an accumulation of little things (represented by money) over time.

Without question, setting the foundation for lasting monetary (and asset) wealth DOES take time; however, doubling your money every year and having sources of passive cash-flow doesn’t!

Financial accomplishment, or the psychological effect of experiencing higher income and lower expenses, is easy once you’re willing to approach problems and opportunities in a DIFFERENT way than what you’re used to.

Take this for example: years ago it was enough to plan things out, to relentlessly analyze all possible scenarios, to sit back and ponder the possibilities of just being “better than average” — better than your fellow employee, better than what society expects, better than the next competitive product, better than the guy or gal who is wooing the girl or guy of your dreams, etc., etc.

To observe, to ask, to probe, to learn… yes, that’s certainly all very essential to gaining an edge in life; HOWEVER, it’s just not enough anymore.

As an entrepreneur or business-minded, wealth-ambitious person, you have to be different, you have to become outstanding in order to be noticed and move PAST the herd. You should look like a purple cow to attract attention, and “snap” the world into SEEING (and truly knowing) your KVP (Killer Value Proposition).

Seth Godin wrote a great book called Purple Cow. And it is all about that… how to become remarkable.

So, in our quest to continue providing you quality, personally usable information, here’s something of an amalgamation of Seth Godin-LWL-inspired ways to be remarkable:

>> Always understand that you don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going (well, thanks to Mike Litman, too, for popularizing that phrase)… whatever that “it” is for you (i.e., new business, pursuing a relationship, attracting new clients, or writing the cook book of the century). And once you get it going (moving)… then go ahead and modify, tweak, and enhance along the way.

>> Act upon your inward courage, and natural inclination, to be an iconoclastic thinker – challenge value systems, controlled processes, and anything or anybody that you KNOW (from a gut level) prevents you from expressing your opinions and your own unique ability to reason.

>> Be extreme. Shock others in some way, attract their attention and keep it. Get to the edge. The remarkability is on the edges.

>> Relinquish your need to have the world see that you’re “all together” or that there’s no strife or disharmony in your life. Because, that’s nothing more than a nice-looking, feel-good smoke-screen. Instead, find a confidante, a coach, a personal mentor who will help you be aware of what you are FEELING. Because what you’re feeling (vibrating) NOW is basically thought-energy in motion, or e-motion, which in turn causes what you experience.  A coach will nudge you along to be aware of this, be honest about it, and accept responsibility for it.

>> Combine the spirit of adventure with deep thinking. In other words, don’t be normal. If you’re living from congruency (meaning that if you have conviction about X, you’re also behaving X a majority of the time), providing true value to somebody or some group, and you’re operating from the heart to affect change and growth in yourself and the people around you, who cares what others think?  Being remarkable is knowing that your dreams are worth more than other people’s opinions.

When we speak to people on the phone about their challenges, dreams, habits, skill set, knowledge, lifestyle, etc., the common thread amongst all our combined solutions always has something to do with that person doing a few things that are DIFFERENT…

… a change in habit… a shift in beliefs… a commitment to stretching their imagination… a request to spend less time soaking up knowledge and more time meeting new (and different) people.

But really, all that advice is still just a stepping stone for the big GOAL:

To earn more, work less, and enjoy life!

And, in our experience, how much somebody actually DOES that is directly proportional to how much somebody excites, energizes, involves, and disseminates with pure intention.

Very soon , we’ll be offering something incredibly life-changing that will help with this, when it comes to money-accumulation and financial wealth.

It’s called The LWL Wealth Vault and it takes what we’ve given you a glimpse of above to NEW levels of implementation — an ever-growing smorgasbord of personal contacts, insider vendors, and coveted programs that are specialized in making, growing, and keeping money.

Yup, it’ll be unlike anything you’ve most likely seen, or ever been a part of, and we can’t wait to unleash it.

However, here’s the rub:

This isn’t going to be OFFERED to our main LWL list.

We discuss WHY that is once you subscribe to the Wealth Vault / RMG list.

NOTE: The link to sign up is at the VERY BOTTOM of  part one of our Passive Income Adventure Report

If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t YEARN for a positive quote-of-the-day, another viewing of a “mind movie,” or the reading of every self-appointed self-growth guru, our coming new venture MAY be for you.

If you’re more about LIVING than LEARNING — more about discovering LIFE than analyzing yourself to pieces — our coming new venture MAY be for you.

If you’re into exploration of “self” and “things” yet you never  let the former over-shadow the fun and coolness of the latter, our coming new venture MAY be for you.

If you know that the whole reason to be interested in the desire to make and grow money is to HAVE financial and time FREEDOM now (as in while you’re in physical form), our coming new venture WILL (without question) be for you.

————————

Your Partners in the Quest For
Living a Life Without Limits,

(( Life Design Consultants,
Agents of Higher Learning &
Catalysts For Change ))

We don’t endorse stuff (or people) just because it’s the cool or popular (in-crowd) thing to do.

We actually speak out against marketers who have no clue HOW a product, service, or person can help their readers.

We see too many people — way too many people — ONLY (emphasis on ONLY ) promoting pedigreed teachers (probably for some repressed desire to be accepted or seen), incessantly recommending books they haven’t read (for no other reasons than to get subscribers from their bonus offer), and just mindlessly passing along the ‘usual suspect’ information about life, business, entrepreneurship, self-growth, etc.

We do what we do here — interview, research, write, create — because we like provoking thought, questioning the way things are, and, yes, recommending people/products that are, from our view, different, unique, and created with the right intentions.

Now, we’re NOT saying that in order for somebody to ADD value and richness to your life that they have to be an unknown / independent contrarian, rebel, or maverick.

‘Cause there are, indeed, a handful of people we know who march to a different drummer while being well-liked and popular.

The person we’re asking you to pay attention to on this post was one of the first guests, in 2006, to be profiled on Heather’s Internet Marketing Unwrapped (IMU) tele-show (teleseminar-talk show).

He’s one of the most respected, legit, and results-producing online marketers around, and became a millionaire at a very young age.

Basically, he’s a trailblazer in the industry.

Or, well… you might call him a “maverick”.

* * * * *

The person we’re taking about here is none other than Yanik Silver.

And, like a lot of authentic marketers who stay awake at night wondering how they can SERVE their readership and infuse “extraordinary” value into everything they do, he came up with a brilliant idea:

To invite his “Maverick Insider” members to talk about the one thing that everybody secretly thinks about more than anything:

Financial Independence and Time-FREEDOM!

We both know that, when you boil it all down, the single biggest reason for entrepreneurs to start anything is that word ‘Freedom’.

When you go to this link:
http://www.lwlurl.com/freedom

… you’ll see 10 videos, all under 3 minute each, of different ambitious-minded, action-oriented DOERS talking about what FREEDOM means to them.

Please go here, watch them, and pick which one you feel inspired you the most.

Your Partners in the Quest For
Living a Life Without Limits,

(( Life Design Consultants,
Agents of Higher Learning &
Catalysts For Change ))

Editor’s Note: OMG, how eerie that I wrote this the day before Billy Mays died.

Although I wasn’t a fan of his pitching style, I grew to admire and respect what Billy does as an entrepreneur, as this article tells.

He’s a one-of-a-kind, so he’ll be missed, and our condolences go out to Billy’s family.

A follow-up post on life, death, and the sudden passing of several celebrities this week will be forthcoming.

Okay, I know a lot of people think it’s cool to say, “I don’t watch TV.”

I first found this out over 10 years ago, doing “streeters” (on-the-street short interviews with passersby).  Whenever I asked, “What’s your favorite TV show?” I got “I don’t watch TV!” more often than any other answer.

Somehow, I don’t think they were telling the truth.

Or, at least, most of them weren’t.

But I’d believe them if they said, “I don’t watch a lot of TV,” because Barry and I don’t watch a lot either.

And when we do, we try to watch something entrepreneurial (like The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch), or inspiring (like something on the Travel Channel, whether it’s Samantha Brown or her alter-ego, Anthony Bourdain), or entertaining in a quality way (like Entourage, a great study of human nature and the roller coaster of life).

A little over a week ago, we found a new show that’s both entrepreneurial and entertaining… and, in a way, you could say it’s inspiring too…

*  *  *  *  *

It’s the Discovery Channel’s Pitchmen, featuring infomercial kings Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan (a.k.a. Sully).

Hey, fair warning here: I’ve never liked Billy Mays very much.

At least, not when he’s being the pitchman.

I don’t like people yelling at me, and I certainly don’t want some guy I don’t even know in my living room (on my TV) yelling at me.

Some people call it “energy” and “enthusiasm” (Billy even says, “I’m not yelling, I’m projecting my voice”), but it just seems like an invasion to me.

Plus, I bought The Awesome Auger that Billy pitched at me a year ago, and I was less than impressed with the quality… not to mention that I really didn’t like the whole “all this for only $19.95!” promise, just to find out that I had to pay close to $10 shipping and handling on EACH “free” component of the package that I wanted (which, in actual fact, covers their whole cost for manufacturing that item).

And even with the high price for shipping and handling, it took me two months to receive it.

Awesome? Yeah, whatever!

But I have to admit that I do take notice when he comes on the screen, and that, says Barry, is why “what Billy Mays does is brilliant!“

After all, how can you just walk away when you hear, “Hi, Billy Mays here!” followed by a rapid-fire slew of words that may just describe something you’ve actually experienced, albeit exaggerated to the extreme?

As Conan O’Brien said the other night when Billy and Sully came on The Tonight Show, “You guys just make up problems, and then come up with solutions for them!”

That goes for any infomercial, of course.

Why is it that when they say, “Oh, no! Has this ever happened to you?” we actually think that maybe it has?

Hmmm… the power of suggestion.

Well, anyway, as much as his pitches annoy me, I’m starting to have more respect for what Billy does, after watching a couple of episodes of Pitchmen with Barry.

When he’s not “pitching”, Billy Mays comes across as an astute and creative businessman, and he can even laugh at himself sometimes.

It’s inspiring to see how he and Sully approach all the new products that inventors pitch to them.

And Billy knows pitching, inside and out.

He got his start in the trenches, pitching products on the Atlantic City boardwalk, and was taught by some of the most successful pitchmen ever.

His big break came as the result of The Law of Reciprocity, when at a home and garden show, his competitor at the next booth had a broken microphone.  Billy gave him an extra one, and they ended up keeping in touch for years.

Who was that guy?

The inventor of Orange Glo, Oxi-Clean and Kaboom!, the three cleaning products that Billy is best known for.  The “competitor” he helped turned out to be his best business connection.

And, contrary to what I would have thought after using (or trying to use) The Awesome Auger, he does seem to care about quality in the products he promotes.

One thing you can’t deny is, he’s carved out a niche for himself that’s unique among all the other infomercial hosts.

He’s a renegade who does things his way, no matter what kind of feedback he gets.

Here’s a video of Billy hawking the Hercules Hook… complete with some standard infomercial clichés!

*  *  *

But there’s a new kid on the block who also does things his own way, and that’s Vince Offer (real name Offer Shlomi), better known as “The ShamWow Guy“.

Vince’s story in a nutshell (and hey, you’re gonna love his nutshell!) is that he was an aspiring comedian and filmmaker who became a Scientologist for some reason; maybe because of the other show biz types in the cult, or maybe because he really liked the “sci fi alien as Creator” theory.

Anyway, the Church of Scientology was going to fund the production of his Underground Comedy Movie, and supply him with some actors, but then pulled out when they realized it wasn’t that good (let’s call it a B-movie; or maybe a C minus).

Hey, what did they expect? The actors they were supplying were D-list celebrities like Joey Buttafucco anyhow.  C minus is a step up!

Alright, fine, everyone has the right not to pay for something they don’t think is good quality, but then they decided to lay criminal charges on him (apparently it’s a crime to make cheesy low-brow comedy, even though Hollywood churns out several a year that just happen to have bigger budgets) in their own court, the Court of Scientology.

No, seriously!

That’s a no-win situation if I’ve ever seen one, and of course he was found guilty, had to pay for the movie himself, and lost everything he had, including his employees and PR people; but when all was said and done, he turned the whole thing around.

Inspired by the success of Girls Gone Wild infomercials, Vince put his movie trailer on an infomercial and ended up selling 50,000 copies.  Not too shabby!

Now he was hooked (but not by the Hercules Hook)… and figured if he could market something more mainstream, he’d be all set.

He had been working at flea markets selling absorbent chamois, and thought that the same pitch on TV would move a boatload of the things (or maybe several boatloads).

And he was so right!

“The ShamWow Guy” was born.

Guess what else he had been selling to crowds?  Yup, you got it… kitchen gadgets.

(Sounds like a familiar story now, doesn’t it?)

After the ShamWow came the SlapChop, and people started looking at Vince as the anti-Billy Mays.

Personally, I like Vince’s sales style on air better than Billy’s.  I can relate to him more, and the tongue-in-cheek comedy makes me want to see what he’s going to say next.

He doesn’t yell at me, but he entertains me, and I don’t mind him in our living room.  People call him “aggressive”, “abrasive” and “condescending”, but I think he’s a pretty nonchalant smooth-talker.

Obviously others like the way he sells too, because he’s sold millions of dollars’ worth of the two products now.

They say success is the best revenge, and this would be a good example.

Here’s Vince with the SlapChop and free Graty:

*  *  *

But trouble seems to follow Vince around. If it’s not legal problems with the Scientologists, (or Anna Nicole Smith, who backed out of his movie, or the Farrelly brothers, who Vince claimed stole some of his jokes), or an arrest for fighting with a hooker, then it’s a pitchman war with Billy Mays.

Billy claims that Vince ripped off his Zorbeez to make the ShamWow, and stole his QuickChop to make the SlapChop.

Could that be the QuickChop that Vince threw over his shoulder because it’s harder to clean?

But as for the ShamWow, I’m not so sure that Billy can claim credit for it, because I bought a similar chamois product with a different name at the fair many, many years ago (15 years, in fact… in 1994). It was pitched by a guy who reminds me a lot of Vince  — complete with the spiky hairdo, headset, cola, carpet piece and clear shallow bowl — which makes sense, since Vince was doing the same gig at flea markets.

Who knows, maybe it was even him… although I’m pretty sure that was before his time as a fair pitchman.

The point is, it pre-dates both the ShamWow AND the Zorbeez by more than 10 years.

But when Vince decided to launch the ShamWow, he didn’t just sell an existing product… Vince apparently had a better, more absorbent chamois towel engineered, as confirmed by Popular Mechanics.

Is there anything wrong with making something good even better?

The pitch is basically the same one these fair guys have been using for years… but maybe Vince’s script is a little too close to Billy’s.

Here you can see the juxtaposition of their styles… and why Billy is so angry at Vince (if you thought Billy yelled a lot before, wait till you hear him yelling about Vince… and you probably will, soon!)

*  *  *

But hey, if you can build a better mousetrap — or a better chamois — and pitch it in a way that people can relate to, all the more power to you.

And if you’re a renegade thinker who doesn’t care about other people’s opinion, you got my vote too.

Probably one of the hardest things we ever have to do is follow our hearts and take inspired action, despite all the naysayers, dream stealers, and roadblocks we run into.

Apparently very soon on Pitchmen, we get to see the battle in action as Billy tries to take some of the wind out of Vince’s sails.

In the meantime, to learn from some renegade mentors who will help you change your life for the better, and get out of whatever rut you might be in, check out the Renegade Growth Pak.

Your Partner in the Quest For
Living a Life Without Limits,

But it’s much more than that!

This report contains some things that would make the average college graduate’s jaw drop, and their head shake in disbelief.

See, there are some things that “they” don’t want you to know about… and often those are the things that, if you knew you didn’t know them, would be the things you’d choose to learn first!

(But how can you know, right?)

Well, in this case we’re just gonna tell you about it!

As promised,  here’s our 10-page report titled “Passive Income Adventures” (just right-click and save the PDF to your computer).

Speaking of things that will make people’s jaw drop and their head shake, Robert Scheinfeld — the author and speaker who used to talk about manifestation, but now has gone beyond that with his teachings of Phase 1 and Phase 2 in the Human Game — has just come out with a new book called Busting Loose From the Business Game.

Of course, as expected, what he’s written about is completely unexpected!

See, if you’re an entrepreneur or business person, or you’ve been working in any capacity, you’ve been playing what Robert calls “The Old Business Game”.

Just like a lot of “old ways” of doing things (like mentioned in the report above), that’s a losing way to play.

Robert’s new book is about finally winning, by playing “The New Business Game“.

> It’s rooted in metaphysics… likely on a different level than you’ve experienced before.

> It will shift your paradigm and your beliefs about what’s possible.

> It will help you out if you’re currently struggling.

> It will guide you do better if you’re currently doing okay.

> It will allow you have more fun if you’re currently doing well.

Basically, however you’re experiencing the Business Game now will become a much better journey after you read Robert’s book.

And if you buy the book this week only, you’ll get some extra tools from Robert that will support and guide you even more as you approach this New Business Game, and start playing to win.

Get your copy of Busting Loose From the Business Game, your “Busting Loose Fast Start Toolkit”, and more by reading Robert’s message here.

Your Partners in the Quest For
Living a Life Without Limits,

(( Life Design Consultants,
Agents of Higher Learning &
Catalysts For Change ))

Which houses took your breath away?

“Well, the house in Germany with 365 rooms and a room map so you would not get lost. The house in Australia that was so large, they had a chauffeur driving you from one room to another. A 50,000-square foot house that was on the Pacific coast in Mexico. An all-gold house in Hong Kong. Celebrities are nowhere as rich as some people think they are. It is usually people in the money business, finance, and international trade that are really rich. You generally find that the number of very wealthy [celebrities] is not more than a couple of handfuls.”

Mr. Leach reminiscing about these houses reminded me of all the times, when I was living in Virginia Beach for 12 years, that I’d hop on my mountain bike, head down to the boardwalk, and cruise on into a residential area of the beach called “Croatan”.

It was through this away-from-the-computer time that I’d immerse myself into the culture, richness, and vicariously live through the extreme “vivid” experiences, of the Rich & Famous…

Er, or was is just the rich? Read on to find out…

* * * * * * *

The main unanswered question I had, 100% of the time, as I propped my leg up on the right-side bike pedal and stared at the fabulous houses, wonderful swimming pools, tennis courts, and garages full of expensive automobiles, was this:

“Just how in the hell did these people earn, or get, their wealth?“

Well, PNC Wealth Management has confirmed the suspicion I had from the very first day I started this little-known, hard-to-quit habit of mine (Mansion Viewing).

They polled about 1,500 Americans with $500,000 or more in investable assets and found that 69% of respondents made most of their fortune through work, business ownership or investments. Only 6% made their wealth by inheriting it, while 25% made it through a combination of inheritance and earnings.

Nothing new, or surprising, in the way the numbers above break down. However, what is at least mildly interesting is that the survey found some major differences in the two group’s attitudes about money.

Similar to the way poor people think, in comparison to the rich, about how to engage life (see below), heirs seem to be in a restrictive box that keeps them from expanding their value to its full potential.

For instance, fully 37% of earners agreed that “the money I have made so far has come from being in the right place at the right time.” Among heirs, the number was 25%. I guess the heirs don’t subscribe to Warren Buffett’s “lucky sperm” theory.

Similarly, broke people think rich people are lucky. Rich people put themselves into a position to be “lucky,” and then work hard to make the “luck” show up.

In the area of HAPPINESS, 76% of earners agree that “my financial success lets me feel less stress and worry,” compared to 50% of heirs. Half of all earners agree that “as I have accumulated more money in my life I have become happier,” compared to a third of heirs.

Similarly, broke people are glad when the day is over. Rich people love when the day begins.

And about that gnarly, and insidious beast called WORRY — Heirs are more than twice as likely to say “having a lot of money brings about more problems than it solves.” Heirs were at 20%, earners were at 9%.

Similarly, broke people are too concerned about what other people are doing. Rich people are only concerned about what they can be doing to get more done.

And, on that same note, another broke-versus-rich mental truism comes to mind. And this was elaborated on from a recovering ex-Billionaire who, at the height of his career, was changing the way business is done… and was making a whopping half a million dollars a DAY (not a typo) as a result.

The truth goes like this:

Broke people think that other people’s opinions are worth more than their dreams. Rich people know that their dreams are worth more than other people’s opinions.

You can order the interview Heather and I conducted with Bill Bartmann on CD for a mere $14. Close to 80-minutes of solid, real-world, cut-to-the-chase information, from the Billionaire nobody knew, on how to fail and still make millions.

Okay, so back to the last part of the Robin Leach interview quote I pulled from AskMen.com:

“It is usually people in the money business, finance, and international trade that are really rich…”

Climbing a mountain is always more exciting, and brings more of a sense of fulfillment, than the descent. The payoff of a lottery win or 15 minutes of fame on T.V. might seem like the road to easy wealth, but, if you’re an entrepreneur, a passionate business person, or someone who simply does what they love and lets the money follow, keep doing it and never give up.

When the going gets tough — when you wonder about your next promotion, or get up sweating in the middle of the night thinking about ideas to bring in more money or more customers — just do what I do:

Take a breather, don’t think business, and just start imagineering.

That multi-sensory exercise involves you SEEING YOURSELF doing what you want, with whom you want, and where you want.

If you have somebody special cheering you on (a loved one), if you’re putting honest value out into the world, are passionate about why you do what you do, and learn to imagine now and then, there’s no doubt you’ll be having champagne wishes and caviar dreams

So, before I let you go, check out this inspiring HOUSE — a house on the coast of California on the market for $75 million smack-a-roos:

* * *

Stay tuned… on Saturday, by evening (Pacific Time), Heather will release a REPORT titled: “Passive Income Adventures — Education For Living a Rich, Leveraged Life“

This report will tie in with the monstrous discussion and commentary that is currently being had via our Institionalized Thinking Via Formal Education post.

We’ll talk to you this Saturday.

Until then…

Your Partner in the Quest For
Living a Life Without Limits,

Okaaaaaay, here it goes:

WE’RE NOT GONNA RIDE IN ON *OUR* SOAP BOX ON THIS TOPIC.

Instead, today we just want to pass along something that we saw in our new favorite magazine, The Week.

But before we do, we’ll first say that one of our Renegade Growth Pak teachers emphatically asked, on our live call with him, to anybody who feels they’re owed one: “Who are you to think you’re entitled to an education?”

And, ya know, his explanation for that stop-in-your-tracks question made what good ol’ Farmer John would call “some damn good horse sense.”

So, Dear Reader, what do you say?

Let us pepper (stimulate) your noggin first with what Michael Moynihan, a columnist at Reason.com, has to say:

* * *

From The Week

“Too many people are attending college these days,” said Michael Moynihan. It’s both “impolite and impolitic” to say so, but the modern idea that everyone should get a college education — emphatically supported by President Obama — is, frankly, dumb.

Obama is now planning a massive expansion of the federal Pell Grant program, making a college education another taxpayer-funded entitlement open to all. But, here’s the reality: More than two-thirds of U.S. high school graduates, a recent Harvard University study found, are unprepared to enter a traditional four-year liberal arts program.

Indeed, “more than 40 percent of students who enter college drop out before graduation.” Today, many young people enter college out of obligation, seeing it purely as a means to a higher salary. College makes great sense for those who truly value a higher education, and will make use of it after graduation. But not everyone is capable of academic success, and for those destined for “a management-level job training program at Hertz,” college is just an expensive waste of time.

What we want from you is this…

Your commentary, thoughts, opinions and experiences on one, two or multiple aspects of the following (these are just to spark some ideas… you may have something else to say on the topic):

> How do you feel about this subject?

> Is your formal education (if you have it) important to you? Did/does it serve you?

> Are you currently working (or have you ever worked) in the same field as your degree?

> If you had to do it all over again, would you take the same schooling?

> Are societal perceptions of the value of institutionalized education skewed?

> Is it okay to you that the educational establishment wants you to believe that it’s responsible for all learning?

> etc, etc.

Lay it on us… the comments section is below…

Your Partners in the Quest For
Living a Life Without Limits,

(( Life Design Consultants,
Agents of Higher Learning &
Catalysts For Change ))

]]> http://www.lwlworldwide.com/blog/institutionalized-thinking-via-education/feed/ 39 http://www.lwlworldwide.com/blog/institutionalized-thinking-via-education/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LifeWithoutLimits/~3/o0f6we7SBgg/ http://www.lwlworldwide.com/blog/meet-a-boy-named-milo/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:45:29 +0000 Barry & Heather http://www.lwlworldwide.com/blog/?p=1116 Hey, cool… technology at its most interactive and personal.

A shout out to Harris Fellman (aka Santa Sal’s Cousin) for passing this video on.

By the way, if you’re the least bit curious about HOW to create profit-pulling QUALITY content through the power of conversation, don’t miss the Interviewing Unwrapped “Live” Simulcast with Harris and Heather on June 8th, 8pm EDT.

You can sign up here

* * *

Life is part of a continual process of exploration with not just ourselves, but with “others” too.

And when you strip away all the fluff, hyperbole, and timid behind-the-computer communication, you’re only left with fresh, candid, uncensored conversation.

That basis is the root for nearly everything we do !

LEARN MORE….

If you missed the INTRODUCTION to our Hidden Heroes series, you can read it by clicking here. Otherwise, continue below to read about Hero #3…

It was just over 10 months ago.

I read a passage in a book, by an author who is undoubtedly the most controversial thinker of our time. An author that has been vilified by the media ever since he started exposing the dream world we believe to be real, in 1990.

David Icke wrote (and this caught my eye in a big way):

“People can quote all the mystics and crossed-legged people they like, but this guy understood as much, if not more, than most of them…”

Fun stuff — ironic actually — coming from a guy who, well, is not too shabby himself when it comes to taking people into the unknown area of life that leads them down some pretty dark (yet truth-infused) rabbit holes.

The guy David is referring to was the most legitimate (uncensored and raw) social critic of the 1990s: a renegade thinker who tried to make people laugh, but usually ended up pissing them off, or drawing blank stares.

Well la-di-da, how ’bout that:  another guy speaking out against mediocrity, incompetency, and the proliferation of so-called leaders getting in their own way… yet, because they (the masses) associate intensity and biting language with negativity and unenlightenment, Hero #3 figuratively caused most to “run for the hills.”

When I mentioned the name Bill Hicks to Heather, she immediately responded with:

“Hey, I actually think somebody we know wrote an entire book about him!”

“Yeaaaaah, baaaaaby” I said while smiling, “now, this is getting fun. Tell me more.”

So, I heard about how our friend Ben Mack — the marketing genius credited with having sold a quarter-billion-dollars in yo-yo’s in two years — produced a Bill Hicks fan page which was turned into a book.

The site asked…

“If Bill Hicks were alive today, What Would Bill Hicks Say?“

I immediately told Heather that there was no need for us to be the trumpeters for Bill’s legacy, when somebody we know (and magically enough, somebody who is also endeared to marching to a different drummer) already has.

So, without further ado…..

* * * * * *

Bill Hicks is Good Energy
by Ben Mack

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” ~ Bill Hicks

Engineering our own success is the work of a hero. The late great comedian Bill Hicks was not only heroic in his self-creation, he paved the ways for others to lighten the load for more to follow…

Bill Hicks (December 16, 1961-February 26, 1994) is considered one of the most influential comedians of the 20th century. However, he is far better known in Europe and Canada than in his homeland of America.  His outspoken candor kept him from widespread fame and mass media attention. However, his legend is building.

On 1 October 1993, Bill Hicks did his twelfth gig on the David Letterman show. What the audience in the studio didn’t know was that Bill Hicks had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Later that night, Bill Hicks became the first comedian censored from CBS’ Letterman show.

Perhaps fitting for the Ed Sullivan Theatre, where Elvis Presley was censored in 1956. But, while Presley wasn’t allowed to be shown below the waist, Hicks was made to disappear.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have censorship in America, not good energy.

To David Letterman’s ultimate panache, he took complete and utter responsibility for this mistake. David Letterman apologized to Mary Hicks, Bill’s mom here…

The New Yorker reported Letterman greeted Hicks as he sat down on the couch with, “Good set, Bill! Always nice to have you drop by with an uplifting message!” But, there was trouble in the air and Letterman knew it. Letterman went to commercial with, “Bill, enjoy answering your mail for the next few weeks.”

Back in his hotel, Bill stepped out of the shower to answer the phone.  Robert Morton, the producer for the Letterman show, explained the show was not running his set.

Bill was terminally sick and knew it. He imagined his Letterman show to be his swan song… what he would be remembered for. In many ways he might have been right. This debacle brought him more attention in The United States than his previous 11 Letterman appearances combined.

In the next few days after the censorship, Bill Hicks performed three shows ranting harder than ever before. These three “post-Letterman shows” as they’ve been called, have long been thought not captured.

A few years ago, one of these three historic shows emerged… the middle show from 10/5/93, recorded by an audience member who happened to be an audio engineer. There is a brief gap in the recording at the one-hour mark when he switched tapes, but the quality is as high as can be expected from a covert recording.

Click here to hear the Bill Hicks audio, finally available more than a decade after Bill’s death <=

Bill Hicks has been popularized by such bands as TOOL and Radiohead, cartoonists Jeff Danziger and Martyn Turner; writers Neal Pollack, Robert Newman, and A.L. Kennedy; and essays by Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

As Heather and Barry introduced me, I came up with the idea of a website, WhatWouldBillHicksSay.com

It was an experiment in idealistic social engineering. We were naive enough to believe we could change the course of an election by popularizing the great humanitarian Bill Hicks and spreading the seeds of his knowledge.

Here’s how it all came together…

I met Amelia Smith, a.k.a. blogger Amelia The Great, during a summer hurricane in 2004, at the Hard Rock Casino outside Tampa. Trapped, we spoke for hours about everything from philosophy to sex to “our” Iraqi invasion. I played for her a clip of Bill ranting about President Bush.

Amelia  was blown away when I told her Bill passed away 10 years earlier. I said that if more people heard Bill Hicks, we might be able to get folks to see the stupidity of what’s going on now. She said she would build the site, Joseph Matheny stepped forward with expert help and the servers from sTaRe Network.

And, so the experiment began…If Bill Hicks were alive, What would Bill Hicks Say?

Over 300,000 unique visitors came by the site, more than 300 folks entered the contest and Bush was reelected. Damn. Its not that I wanted the puppet on the Left, I just didn’t want another term with the grandchild of Satan.

“People often ask me where I stand politically, it’s not that I disagree with George Bush and his foreign policies or his economic policies, it’s that I believe he’s the child of Satan sent here to destroy the planet earth.” – Bill Hicks on Elder President Bush

Bill Hicks introduced me to Noam Chomsky, showed me how blatantly the media lied about Waco, and taught me to relax into love. If Bill were alive today, I think he would be asking how come the four planes that crashed on 9/11 were never investigated by the FCC, the ONLY plane crashes not investigated; how could a Boeing 757 only leave an 18′ hole in the side of the Pentagon? Where did the wings go? I think Bill would be asking just how sleepy Americans really are.

So my recommendation to you, dear reader, is to stop reading about my intellectual hero, gently back away from your computer. Crack open your beer and enjoy the new version of Gladiator we have on TV, its called The News, and it’s brought to you free of charge by your friendly government that promotes prescription-mind-altering-substances that are not to be mistaken for untaxed-drugs. Go back to sleep America, your government is under control.

Or, you can choose to facilitate our own creative evolution.

Bill asked that we continue to evolve ideas. WhatWouldBillHicksSay.com was an experiment to that end. Sure, I love a good Goat Boy every now and again, but what keeps his words alive are the striking truths that persevere.

Bill Hicks unabashedly said, THEY’RE FUCKING LYING TO YOU!!!

When I get dispirited that there is so much deception and corruption, I put Bill on and I hear my friend remind me that we have a lot of bright and creative people on our side… the side who believe in the power of love and good energy…

“I’m gonna share with you a vision that I had, cause I love you. And you feel it. You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense each year, trillions of dollars, correct? Instead — just play with this — if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world — and it would pay for it many times over, not one human being excluded — we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever in peace. Thank you very much. You’ve been great, I hope you enjoyed it. Good Night.” ~ Bill Hicks

Bill Hicks closed several hundred performances with the inspirational words above. Bill’s words heartened the bright and creative during a spell when intelligence had gone out of style. Bill Hicks ignited Promethean sparks among followers whose loyalty is sometimes described as obsessive. Bill promised listeners that his ideas will, “Squeegee your third eye.”

CLEARly CHANNELing just 4 profits SUCKS.

Bill resented more people not seeing and honoring his perspective. Bill didn’t have the Noam Chomsky grace of simply accepting the level of denial he found in his lack of supporters. Bill raged against the denial, cracking open the terministic screens of some listeners, and feeding quippy phrases to those who would repeat his jokes the next day in the office. And his intelligence came through a curmudgeon tone of an unstoppable rage against the machine.

We live within the thought debris of our puritanical, tyrannical forefathers, force-fed to us primarily through television. Bill reminds us, “Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.”

Liberty and the American dream of Freedom was founded on our right to pursue happiness as we see fit.

“Here is my final point. About drugs, about alcohol, about pornography and smoking and everything else. What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body – as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?” ~ Bill Hicks

Bill was painfully aware that he had to pepper his routines with dick jokes to earn the right to speak his truth about the cost of Bush taking us into the Iraq War. Bill’s material made many people mad. And, to those who were spreading their Truth, as they saw fit, Bill heartened us by reminding us that we have bright and creative people on our side, who are constructing more harmonious ways of spreading good energy.

Despite Bill’s rage, he remained optimistic to the end, singing his comedy to ears that might hear:

“It’s just a ride and we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.” ~ Bill Hicks

With the help of many Good Energy friends, we’re launching a New Thought experiment inspired by Bill Hicks & Mark Joyner’s Construct Zero.

We’re organizing on FaceBook =>  http://ConstructHero.com

Give us 23 seconds and we’ll help you spread Good Energy in a free LIVE LEARNING EVENT, hosted at Albany State University, starting at exactly 9:09 am and 9 seconds, on the morning of September 9, 2009, aka 9/9/9. Announcing Good Energy Day 9/9/9, empowering the world with positive thoughts.

You can get involved by Twittering #GoodEnergy or simply by sharing Bill Hicks with your friends. Thank you for your considerations, and for your Good Energy.

To Bill Hicks, you are missed, and your good energy lives on. We love you Bill. You taught many of us to Love all the people. Thank you for your good energy. Your seeds are growing.

The program used real-world experiments in social psychology as the source of its humorous scenarios.

The resulting programs were not only entertaining, but also instructive.

For example, how independent is the average person when confronted with the all-powerful “consensus of the group?”

Not very.

This is the very reason (one main reason, anyway) that the warm and fuzzy side of personal and spiritual development continues to be perpetuated by NEW marketers entering this area!

Not only do they think it’s the cool, hip, in-crowd thing to do, they actually think (without a lot of authentic, honest self-talk and contemplation, by the way) that their recycled, surface-level, me-too content actually serves a purpose beyond spoon-feeding the masses the very “fix” that treats the symptoms and NOT the cause.

World-famous copywriter, Bob Bly, recently commented on how this phenomenon — of being enamored with fluff, fads, and molding your personality to “crowd mentality” — applies to marketing:

“…blogging, social networking sites, bulletin boards, forums — all that is well and good. But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to sell something or you’re just wasting your time.”

Yup, we hear ya, Bob… it’s a crazy thing, isn’t it? As we’ve been saying in a hard and heavy way over the past year on this blog:

When it’s your belief (your self-identity) that you’re always or mostly one way (i.e., loving, caring, enlightened); that you’re put here to be a messenger for something profoundly intangible (i.e., like bliss, happiness or love); that you’re supposed to always socialize or give away things BEFORE you can sell something you have of value… you go into cognitive dissonance when your behavior doesn’t fit the self-identity.

Yet, the majority, regardless of how personally unfruitful or non-productive it is, will always protect their self-identity at all costs.

Several days ago, we started our first post about “happiness” — how when you use your common-sense and ground your fluffy emotions, you’ll realize that not only can you not strive to find it around you, but it’s really something else you’re after. Many “Thank You’s” for everybody in our community who participated.

However, there’s one community member,  Azam Khan , who we feel said it best, as it applies to what THIS post is about:

Being transparent, holding yourself accountable for what you experience (or don’t experience), and not pretending to be something you’re really not.

In response to the I Don’t Want To be Happy post, Azam adds:

“It is refreshing to hear a clearly defined distinction between superficial happiness and true fulfillment. I have known many people who go through life wearing fake plastic smiles to make themselves appear more pleasant or personable, but are emotional wrecks inside, or totally numb.

“I believe the whole spectrum of the human emotional experience needs to be felt and acknowledged in order to be genuinely whole. And that is to never repress the shadow of our anger, resentment or negativity, but to truly feel and acknowledge them, and in some cases where appropriate, express them.

“It is true that the pursuit of happiness is something that can cause unhappiness. We live in a world which can generally be an awesome place too… but we are also subject to an infrastructure of forced social adaptation that is governed by advertising and collective trends. As human animals with an inherent need to belong and be part of a collective, it is easy to fall prey to socio-cultural definitions of happiness and success, and aimlessly pursue them to maintain appearances and status.”

And, this is a perfect transition to the event I’m leading off on June 6th. Kinda like Bill Hicks (we’ll talk about him soon) warming up for George Carlin, I’ll be starting off some rants and giving my direct, let’s-keep-it-real commentary to a “Personal Development Raw” event.

= = = = =

Personal Development Raw is only being offered, at this time, to a private, somewhat select group of students who have progressed through some no-nonsense, hard-core training by a friend of mine who is doing some pretty snazzy habit-busting things for his people.

Ya know the ol’ saying: “Insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.”

Well, my friend, who shall go unnamed until I get my hands on the recording and/or can direct you to the Personal Development Raw series he’s putting together, is ensuring his students don’t go insane.

Like Heather and I, he completely understands how the self-improvement, spiritual growth, manifestation / LOA niche attracts a lot of people (the majority) who are in a constant state of delusion (yep, a strong assertion… yet, we’ve dived deep enough to be able to say that).

In our friend’s words:

“The truth of the matter is, you are NOT willing to realize your faults, your mistakes or how you are constantly lying to yourself. Please don’t stop reading; if I have offended you, I’m sorry. But, I really think it’s time that a personal development professional begins to tell you what you need to hear, instead of hyping it up with philosophy and what you THINK you need to hear.”

So, my request of you is this:

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO COVER ?

I mean, come on, I can obviously sit, talk, and elaborate on everything we’ve been revealing, exposing, and being critically direct about on this blog…

… like self-help teachers who have an  identity crisis with “marketing” and “teaching.”

… like how some of the most fragile, neurotic egos come out of the woodwork when we confront their hazy, cryptic, single-minded, over-analytical views of what The Secret means (or should mean) to them.

… like how certain marketers/publishers claim they’re trying to dig deeply and be intelligent researchers, impartial reporters, or scientists, yet when they get an expert on the phone turn the whole thing into an adoring gush-fest.

So, you get the drift:  What RAW things — things that you wouldn’t want your grandma to hear — do you want me to talk about?

Name it (by commenting on this post)… nothing is out of bounds for this call I’ll be conducting on June 6th.

———————————————————————–

And, yes, by the way, I WILL be strong-arming (aggressively cajoling) my friend to create a book out of the Personal Development Raw series he’s creating.

Why?

Simply because, in an age where the MASSES fool themselves every day by believing in mainstream propaganda (or at least, not questioning it or turning over the rock) and striving to perfect their game (the game called “personal accomplishment”) from hollow, lame, and Utopian practices, it’s NEEDED!

And, least I not forget!

I can’t begin to tell you how many of our readers have submitted tickets about wanting to write a book or make comments here on our LWL blog about “one day” being an author.

TRULY, if that’s you, there’s no damn excuse.

Have a dream of writing your own book?

Yeah, well, we do (did) too — we’re in the process of writing three of them, actually.

We got off our ass and are doing it. So can you.

Research tells us that 82% of people believe they have a book inside them. However, sadly 99.9% of people will go to their grave with their book still inside them. But don’t despair.

Don’t let that be you!

By accessing this FREE 68 Minute Audio and 43–page Publishing Guide, valued at over $147, you’ll discover a proven way to become a best-selling author…

Yup, watch out J.K. Rowling… Dale Beaumont, the publisher of this AMAZING publishing guide, has published 15 books over the past three years – selling over a quarter of a million copies. As he keeps up the pace, he’ll be right on your tail

Hey, Dear Reader, what can you learn from Dale ?

At the end of yesterday’s post, “The Pursuit of Pleasure,” Heather briefly mentioned (via the P.S.) a RESOURCE that’ll show you how to EXIT the rat race and become a “Mobile Entrepreneur” with the ability to live, travel or work anywhere.

The owner of this resource, ExitMyJob, wrote a very synchronisitic (similar in thought) article about “Happiness.”

While Heather’s post, from yesterday, talks about the “pleasure” of external places and things vs. the true “happiness” that comes from within, Bryant’s article looks at a more superficial definition of “happiness”.  He equates “happiness” with Heather’s definition of “pleasure”, and “fulfillment” with her description of “happiness”.

So the semantics are different, but the sentiment is similar…

—————————————-

By Bryant Jones

I don’t want to be happy…

What do you want? Do you really want to be happy?

I don’t think so!

Let’s look at what we humans really want…

I was in a conversation with a friend a few weeks back about the Exit My Job program and we got on the subject of being “happy”.  My friend quickly pointed out that as humans, it is not in our nature to want to be happy. “WHAT?” I said… he went on to explain that most of us chase being “happy” as the end goal in life, but that is not what we really want. How could this be…?

I had never heard a such a crazy statement. But I was curious about what he meant…

Well as we talked I found out it was true, I don’t want to be happy.

I have a feeling you don’t really want to be happy either.  And it maybe the VERY pursuit of happiness that has you unhappy and stuck in life.

So if I don’t want to be happy I must want unhappiness, right?  WRONG! Here’s what I really want… and what I bet you really want…. ready…

I want to be fulfilled, that’s right I want fulfillment in my life. Think about it, if we humans REALLY wanted “happiness” over anything else, why the hell would we go to a sad movie, or listen to a sad song? Does that make you “HAPPY”? No.

Would we ever go on roll-a-coasters and have the crap scared out of us? Does being scared make you happy? No. How about having kids? I have four and I can tell you I was NOT happy with the experience of raising my kids a lot of times – but I WAS fulfilled in being a father.

Now I focus on those things that fulfill me, and I want to help you do the same. So the next time you are looking at some area in life, don’t ask yourself “what would make me happy?”, ask yourself “what will give me fulfillment?”.

I bet you have a dream deep inside that you know would fulfill your very soul and I bet chasing all those “things” that are suppose to make you “happy” have you denying your dream. Am I getting through to you here?

I am saying that you very well might be chasing happiness and denying yourself REAL fulfillment. Why the hell would you do that? Because you are conditioned to do that, you are conditioned to MAKE people around you happy and to be happy yourself.

Think about this, as a society most of us are conditioned to believe that we BETTER be happy and if we’re not happy that “something is wrong”. And, that part of being happy is making OTHER people happy (which is impossible by the way).

So, we all start playing our “roles” in order to make others, and ourselves happy. We try to make our spouse happy. We try to make our kids happy. We try to make our boss happy. We try to make our parents happy. We even try to make total strangers happy.

We buy all the “stuff” that will make us happy. The new car. The new boat. The new house. We  buy all the “stuff” that will make other people happy too. You get the point…

And then comes along banks, big corporations and the media. Here’s how they fit in the mix and make it even harder on us to follow the “Pursuit of fulfillment”.

The banks say “I will loan you some money”, so then you can go to the big corporation and buy some more “happy making” stuff. Then the media steps in and reminds you how UNHAPPY we all are… but wait – here’s a commercial break to sell us some more stuff to “make” us happy just in time! You see the cycle?

So I say screw being happy – I want TRUE fulfillment. Leave me a comment and let me know what you want….

With love,

Bryant

Wish you could work from anywhere? How about a hammock on the beach?