NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED PT 2

 The Following has been taken from Part Two of Chapt 1. of Michael Dlouhy's book, "Success in Ten Steps"


People ask me:

• "Your e-book is great.  Why on earth, do you give it away for free?"
• "Your telephone training is great!  Why is it free?"
• "Your 'Colors CD' is great!  Why is it so cheap?"
• "Why do you help me for free, when I am not in your Company?"
• ...and a dozen other variations

  In the early 1990's, I joined over 100 MLM Companies.  I tracked, cataloged, analyzed & evaluated EVERYTHING they did:  products, compensation plans, marketing, distributor support, profitability, etc.

THE UGLY RESULTS

     I'm a fun-loving, an easy going guy.  But my teeth clenched, and my fingers curled into fists of rage.  I was stunned by how many Companies and 'Heavy Hitters' make HUGE  profits NOT on product sales, but instead by selling a ton of worthless marketing materials to the distributors who trust and believe in them!

   I get mad just thinking about it.  This is why you find widespread cynicism and skepticism amongst network marketers.

I can't blame them.

But you should hear the calls I get from people trying to figure out  how I'm going to bamboozle them.

First, they figure I'm trying to steal their people.

Fact is, they don't HAVE any people.  None who trust them, anyway.  Many uplines' idea of support is to tell them the lies we'll cover in Chapter 1

True support is to take you by the hand, and lead you through every step of this business, so you can actually experience it in real time, and get good at it.  THAT is what we do on our phone calls.

No company is ever mentioned on those calls.  No product is ever mentioned.  No one is ever recruited. 

MONDAY, MARCH 18 2013

    This being Monday, I slept in past 0900a.  I made some coffee.  I walked downtown as I had some personal business to attend to.  I needed to get a haircut, I stopped at the CVS pharmacy to pick up a prescription, and I also stopped at FedEx Kinko's to print the MI-8453 electronic filing declaration document which I need to send in for my State income tax return which I electronically filed last week. 

   I walked back home.  I was watching some Agatha Christie Video's.  I spent some time trying to assist a friend who needed his car battery jumped.

  I worked on my home business, calling some lead, talked to several people, inviting one prospect to a video chat that I am tentatively setting up for friday, March 22.
  
  I watched several more Agatha Christie Poirot video's.  I talked to a team member who lives near Sacramento California

I retired for the evening shortly after midnight eastern time.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS-I HATE IT!

   In our day and age, the 21st century, the idea or concept of being politically correct, or 'Political Correctness' is much in style.  The idea that one can't say things a certain way, or can't have certain opinions, or risk being considered a politically incorrect pariah, apparently has taken over much of our society.  I don't know about you...but I hate it!!!.  I am not a politically correct person, and I glad of that fact!

   I remember the first time that I was exposed to what I consider to be a 'PC' attitude.  It was in 1984, when I was serving with the US ARMY, and stationed in what was then, West Germany.  A Staff Sergeant named Jim Hardy who was one of my superiors, used the expression to me on several occasions 'right answer'.  In fact I heard him use that expression quite a bit  

   I retired from a career with IRS.  Years ago we had an expression that we called people what actually fought against paying taxes.  We called them Tax Protestors which was a good and very descriptive expression.  All of a sudden, one day we couldn't use that expression anymore.  They told us that it would hurt peoples feelings.  We had to call this particular group of non compliant tax fighters, 'Constitutionally Challenged'.  What balderdash!

SPEND YOUR TIME DOING WHAT YOU LOVE!

     That wonderful comedian, George Burns, who lived to hit the century mark, once said:  "I honestly think it's better to be a failure at something you love, than to be a success at something you hate.  

I do believe that he was right!

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

   
     Nearly 45 years ago, when I was going to high school, I came across a poem in an American Literature class that I was taking that has stayed with me through the years.  Robert Frost's, 'The Road Not Taken' caught my attention; especially the last three lines of the entire Poem:

       " Two roads diverged in a wood; and I

I took the road less traveled by, 

and that has made all the difference  "

  This puts me in mind  of something that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, said in the Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 7: 13,14 He said:  

"Enter ye in at the straight gate; For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because straight is the gate, and narrow the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." 

  So, you can see that according to the Lord Jesus, it is a matter of critical importance what road we take in life.  If we are going the way of the crowd, we are going done the wrong road..no question about it.  In each life, another path will appear...The road less traveled.  God has a special purpose for each life, and it will take seeking and searching in order to find it.  The path that the world presents will speak to us in a voice so loud that we might miss the less traveled path.  God tells us in ISAIAH 30:21, 

"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the Way, walk ye in it;  when ye turn to the right hand; and when ye turn to the left"

   So God speaks to us in a 'still small voice' which we can hear if we will listen for it.  However, there is a danger of being distracted by the loud clamorous voice that the world speaks to us in.

   Just recently, I was captivated by another piece of poetry that speaks about the 'untrodden way'.  William Wordsworth wrote about Lucy, who "dwelt among the untrodden ways" Wordsworth goes on to say that Lucy was a solitary person who shone as the only star in the sky.  She was the type of person, that when she 'ceased to be' hardly anybody knew.  But her life made a difference to at least one person.

"She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

A Maid whom there were few to praise

And very few to love;

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the Sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh, 

The Difference to me!"

     God has a purpose for our lives, and if we will seek out the Road Less Traveled, and seek to go down the untrodden way, our lives can have purpose, meaning.   We may not have the celebrity of others but our lives can touch and make a difference to some.

  

THERE ARE MORAL ABSOLUTES

      I believe that there are moral absolutes that are universal; both right and wrong.  Because I am a Christian, I look at all questions in life from a Christian perspective, through a Biblical paradigm.  And the Bible says: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."  Romans 5:12.  Not only are we are born with a sinful nature, once a child reaches the age of accountability where that child understands the difference between right and wrong, that child chooses the wrong way.  Again the Bible tells us, "All we like sheep have gone astray.  We have turned everyone to his own way...Isaiah 53:6.  Although, theological systems, as a whole teach us that we are accountable to our creator, mankind, as a whole, in it's sinful state of darkness, refuses to believe that there is a day of judgement.  They want to believe that there are no absolutes that we should follows.  They want to believe as the socialists, and the communists teach that 'the end justifies the means

      One of the issues that is driving thought and political opinion in our day is the push for homosexual marriage.  I believe that homosexuality, and same-sex marriage is a MORAL EVIL.  Our Creator tells us in the first book of the Bible, "Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." Genesis 2:24.   Homosexuality is evil because it is clearly in rebellion and opposition to the divine plan for the family.  Homosexuals scoff and thumb their noses at God's 1st command to us in the Garden of Eden, when he said to Adam and Eve, "Be Fruitful and Multiply" Genesis 1:28  Two men cannot be fruitful and multiply; neither can two women.  That is an obvious conclusion.

    The Bible tells us that every man and women comes into the world with the Light of God in their conscience; thus they are equipped with the knowledge of right and wrong.  "This is the true light that lighted every man that cometh into the world"  John 1:9  

There are Moral Absolutes which are Universal.

IMPROVIING YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS

    In a Communications course I took recently at the University level,the woman who wrote the text mentioned, that the Five Essential Steps of Interpersonal communication are:  listening skills; people skills; emotional intelligence; appropriate skill selection; and communicating ethically. 

   In the 1990's, I started noticing, my Annual evaluations at work, started to show that my communication skills was the area in which I needed to improve the most.  So I've been concerned about this for nearly 20 years .  Of all the elements listed, I was most excited about improving my listening skills.  I have been guilty in the past, of listening to people with one ear, and looking for the opportunity of putting my '2 cents' in.  So I've changed my behavior and have been really striving to listen to people when they talk to me   

    This begins with looking at them straight in the eye, giving them all my attention, forgetting about what I want to say, and transmitting to them the idea that I really care about what they are saying.  I've been working on this for  quite a while, but I still need n mor improvement.  Learning to listen is a skill that is necessary in order to building the 'know', 'like' and  'trust that is critical in building relationships