Author Archives: Guus

No decision?

Everything seems to go better and better and still ‘little’ things can upset me very much, while I thought I could deal with ‘little’ things quite easily.

I have been out for a few days and just turned on the two computers that serve as my main servers in the house and the office. And it turned out that one of them, the one holding most of the data, didn’t start. It starts buzzing and it seems the disks and everything are running fine, but it just doesn’t ‘start’. And this made me very anxious (again). And especially the ‘being anxious’ annoys me as I know it’s not needed to be anxious as it’s actually not needed to be anxious about anything in life. Rationally of course.

And again, the whole thing goes back to fear, I think indeed the biggest enemy of success (and happiness). And it’s related enemy of success indecision.

You see, this whole computer thing can be easily solved, because I’m 99% sure that if I bring it to the computer shop tomorrow it will be fixed either tomorrow (Friday), probably otherwise Saturday and at the latest Monday. And most of the data I keep in duplicate, so I can do almost anything i want, even without this computer holding most of the data. So actually I already decided to just maybe first do a small check myself tomorrow morning and if it doesn’t work after just bring it to the shop. And it will be 99% sure back on Monday.

So what makes me anxious with this computer thing. Well, just thoughts like ‘it is my main server with most of my data so if it falls I may lose all this data’. And while writing this it seems this is even the biggest issue. So well, it could happen. But it’s not very likely. And even if it does happen, the data would probably still be there. And even if the data would be lost, I would still be able to work. So that’s all.

And yes, there are some more thoughts like that I’m just annoyed that I have to spend time on this while I have planned some other things. And that I probably need to pay the computer shop an outstanding amount which I don’t have the budget for right now.

And next to the anxiety about the above, the whole thing can be solved in one second by just deciding ‘I am going to check it tomorrow for maximum thirty minutes and if that doesn’t work I’ll bring it to the computer shop after lunch’. And then decide to leave it like that, finish.

And you know what’s the worst thing? I don’t even need that computer right now as the other does all the work I need to be done right now as I’m just using the internet and that’s just working. And I don’t really need that computer tomorrow as I’m quite sure all the work I want to do can just be done on the other computer.

So yes, all this anxiety and annoyance is just created by myself, by my own thoughts that trigger feelings and emotions. And as I said, the worst thing is that I even know that. And yes, I could just check that computer right now, but that just doesn’t make any sense and it would just be to ‘calm my mind’, not to really solve something.

So what’s inspiring about the above? Nothing I guess. And how is this related to success? Well, not really, at least not directly. But it is related to my mood and happiness as the whole thing makes me feel very stressed and basically makes me feel unhappy.

And as of now, now, now I can’t really figure out how to get rid of it except than realizing that this feeling is something I don’t want and try to figure out what I do want: feeling relaxed. And this helps right now, a bit.

So for you, well right now, just realize that above process may also apply to you, that your thoughts just can create anxiety and unhappiness while rationally that just doesn’t make any sense and is not needed. So just try to snap yourself out of it if you’re in it.

The innovators

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The Innovators - The Men who built America I was just watching an episode of The Innovators – The men who built America and was amazed with some of the information there. The moment I jumped in it was about problems that Andrew Carnegie had with his steel empire. In the program it was shown that he even was at war with his employees once, including taking his factories back by force after they had been taken by employees on strike. It was also shown that he fired the person actually running his company, I presume his CEO, of whom was stated that he kind of went against Carnegie.

I was amazed as things like strike, I presume the Homestead Strike, is meant, especially using violence to retake the factory, are against the rule Napoleon Hill states something like ‘things should benefit all’, although on the other hand Napoleon Hill also promotes to deal with problems and mentions that it is better to ‘put up a straight fight’ than, well doing nothing or something.

What amazed me most was the person going against Carnegie was presumably his CEO, where I understand that he must have been part of the Master Mind Group of Carnegie and the way how the situation was described had nothing to do with the harmony needed in a Master Mind, it appeared to be the full opposite.

The other story in the program was about Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan which taught me a lot about the practice op applying the Principles of Success and actually the whole book Think and Grow Rich seems to fall more into place watching this program

At the end of the program I was thinking that that period in the United States was about building the United States as it is now industrially. As the book is based on that period while America was built industrially one may ask if all the Principles of Success still apply in the way it was used then. The main issue was also there were many large innovations at the time and for quite a while I’m already asking myself if there are still innovations like that in the world. The last thing in my mind was the Appollo Program to fly to the moon and that’s long time ago. Similar projects were the Concorde and the Boeing 747, but later on I realized that the Boeing 747 was not the big innovation I imagined it to be.

So some long, well, frustration of mine is that there seem to be no more real big innovations anymore. The Appollo Program seems to have been kind of the last. After that it seems to have been mostly ‘more of the same’, like more efficient or bigger of faster, nothing really innovative.

So of course in my mind is how could I find ‘the next big innovation’ that might even be my money making goal. I’m good in ideas and still have some big ideas and plans in my mind, but nothing ‘world changing’.

You want to think with me? Please let us know your thoughts below?

Bread and circuses

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In my quest to business success and our quest to inspire people I am asking myself more and more what people really want and whether I or we have the right or duty to interfere with that.

Last night I happened to spend some time in the cheapest type of karaoke bar in The Philippines where people were just having fun drinking, smoking and singing together. And nearby where I live there is also a very small and simple karaoke place where mostly the owner and his family just sing and drink. And do nothing else mostly.

And living in The Philippines for quite a while my opinion in general is that Filipinos are very happy people. They are or seem to focus on happiness and togetherness, not on ‘success’ in a more western type of view, like career and money. I know there is more to this, as this type of Filipino happiness might also be some kind of way of dealing with poverty, real poverty, like nothing to eat.

And comparing myself I also often ask myself if I shouldn’t just ‘stop’ with my ambitions in career and finance and stuff as my work seems to have not been of any use to anyone, at least most people seem to have not been really happy with the work I have been doing, either as a customer, a boss, or an employee. As I am very persistent (or stubborn) I have basically always stood up again after business defeat: find a new job after losing the old, starting a business, finding new customers after losing old customers, finding new employees after old employees left.

And besides how you could look at my career through the Principles of Success, I often ask myself whether I should not just stop with my business ventures, sell the house and just buy a hut on the beach or something and just do what many, especially poor, people do here: basically nothing, except smoking and chatting and drinking a bit. And what’s wrong with that anyhow? It’s a bit a similar issue as in the story about the Mexican fisherman (just search in Google for that).

So yes, should we inspire people to do more, be more, achieve more, dream more? Or not?

Looking forward to your comments.

Good and bad

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So I just removed about another one hundred spam comments. Comments with just the purpose of making a link to some website to increase the ranking of that site. And yes, I was part of that, am kind of still part of that. I also bought ‘cheap’ links to customer sites. I also instructed one of my staff to do the same some time ago.

So what are we doing here? I am doing my best to build up this site by writing a post every day and by adding content in the pages part. I am trying to build a site to inspire people, inspire them to follow their dreams, have success, be proud of themselves. And yes, I know it will take some time before people will find this site and I know that in the end this site will be taken seriously if I persist in building it, having it built with good intentions.

So while I was thinking about this thing of the spam comments which I consider ‘bad’, I was wondering how I could make an inspiring post out of it. But I guess I have to think first about those people creating those spam comments, about those people buying them, and in the end about us, you and I, somehow supporting them, somehow wanting this, as we are paying the people doing it because I guess if they wouldn’t be paid to do it they wouldn’t do it.

The weird thing is there is something ‘inspiring’, something ‘exciting’ in creating those spam comments. Because the people creating them, or the programs posting them, need to find ways to get them posted, to convince the blog owner (or the spamn blocking program) to accept them. So in the end it is kind of an exciting ‘fight’ between the spam creators and the spam blockers, kind of a game. So I guess that’s kind of ‘good’. And I also try to rank sites high, try to rank this site high by using ‘tricks’ to show to Google what the site is all about, so the site will rank higher.

But to me the sad thing is that to me putting those spam comments doesn’t really help anybody, or maybe it does: promoting some kind of product that people want.

But no, deep in my heart something says that that effort could be used for better things, to produce more food or more fun or whatever for each other. Or maybe just even just spend time with each other instead of posting spam comments ‘somewhere’ in order to promote ‘some product’.

So yes, if you are a ‘spammer’ and reading this, you may want to consider if there is nothing more inspiring to do than post spam comments. And if you are a customer of those people, you may want to consider if there are no better ways to promote your product, to find ways to really show people what your products are about so they will find them, buy them.

And if you are an ordinary internet user, you may want to rethink if you really want all those advertisements and stuff in all those sites, often bigger than the content in the site itself.

I guess I still want to make and keep this site a ‘direct pay’ site, as I’d rather just be paid straight for what I do here than being paid indirectly through ‘some advertisement someone clicked on’.

So please let me know what you think, please put some real comments. That would also inspire me to continue with the work I’m doing here.

Hope again?

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Today was a very weird day for me (again). And maybe I’m learning, something like learning to be myself, do my own thing, making my own decisions and at the same time respecting others, respecting the opinions of others and following others. And maybe i found what I have to give in the sense of what Napoleon Hill states that you have to be willing to give to get what you want. And it hurts, because the thing that seems to be asked for is a high price, higher than I expected it to be, different than what I expected it to be. It is not out of bounds of what I stated that I was and am willing to give to get what I want, to make my dream come true, so I can give it, relatively easy. But it hurts, the price is higher than I thought, in a way. And in a way it’s not. Maybe it’s logical Maybe this is the only simple thing that has to happen, even though I didn’t want to let go of it. But indeed, if this is the thing I will have to give, will have to let go of, then the price is very low, then the whole thing indeed is easy.

So again, not sure how to inspire you with this. Maybe indeed just start with the six steps, defining your desire, your definite purpose, stating what you are willing to give. Make a plan and put it into action and write it down and read it aloud. Twice a day is ok, but sometimes for me less than that was also ok as the whole desire document was and is already in my heart.

And for me patience was important, and ‘no action’ was the action I decided to often take, which was hard, because I’m an action oriented person. Often I take too much action.

Let’s see, my belief went sky high again today.