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Saturday, August 15, 2009
Share information to prevent avoidable exposure
INFORMATION IS KEY
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you $800 to drop that towel.' After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?' 'It was Bob the next door neighbour,' she replies. 'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?'
Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you $800 to drop that towel.' After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?' 'It was Bob the next door neighbour,' she replies. 'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?'
Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.
Please Help Us Solve this Mathematics!!!
CAN YOU SOLVE THIS?
THREE MEN GOT INTO A MOTEL. THE MAN BEHIND THE DESK SAID THE ROOM WAS £30 SO EACH OF THE THREE MEN PAID £10 AND WENT TO THE ROOM.
A WHILE LATER, THE MAN BEHIND THE DESK REALIZED THE ROOM WAS ONLY £25 SO HE SENT THE BELLBOY TO THE THREE GUYS' ROOM WITH £5.
ON THE WAY, THE BELLBOY COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO SPLIT £5 EVENLY BETWEEN THREE MEN, SO HE GAVE EACH MAN A £1 AND KEPT THE OTHER £2 FOR
HIMSELF.
THIS MEANT THAT THE THREE MEN EACH PAID £9 FOR THE ROOM, WHICH IS A TOTAL OF £27, ADD THE £2 THAT THE BELLBOY KEPT = £29.
WHERE IS THE OTHER POUND?
THREE MEN GOT INTO A MOTEL. THE MAN BEHIND THE DESK SAID THE ROOM WAS £30 SO EACH OF THE THREE MEN PAID £10 AND WENT TO THE ROOM.
A WHILE LATER, THE MAN BEHIND THE DESK REALIZED THE ROOM WAS ONLY £25 SO HE SENT THE BELLBOY TO THE THREE GUYS' ROOM WITH £5.
ON THE WAY, THE BELLBOY COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO SPLIT £5 EVENLY BETWEEN THREE MEN, SO HE GAVE EACH MAN A £1 AND KEPT THE OTHER £2 FOR
HIMSELF.
THIS MEANT THAT THE THREE MEN EACH PAID £9 FOR THE ROOM, WHICH IS A TOTAL OF £27, ADD THE £2 THAT THE BELLBOY KEPT = £29.
WHERE IS THE OTHER POUND?
Friday, August 14, 2009
GOSSIP: Causes, Effects and Solutions
PREFACE
All of us often find ourselves generating, hearing, or participating in evaluative comments about someone who is not present during the conversation. It is often valuable and sometimes unavoidable to be part of such communications. To function efficiently in a complex social environment, humans require information about those around them. However, social inter-connections are complex, and it is impossible to be present at many primary exchanges to absorb this kind of information directly. Thus, many people are eager to pick it up through an intermediary, whether or not they have the luxury and patience to confirm it later either directly or indirectly. This phenomenon, of course, is called gossip. It is an important social behavior that nearly everyone experiences, contributes to, and presumably intuitively understands. A paradox of gossip is that it is everywhere, though there are numerous social and biblical sanctions against it.
We have two types of gossip: the positive and the negative gossip. While the positive gossip serves the purpose of sharing healthy and problem-solving information, the negative gossip is malicious and destructive. However, most people have an innate craving to pull others down. And so, they continue to cause sorrow, tears and blood; not with guns, not with knives, but with their tongues which have proved to be deadlier than any poison or weapon ever known to mankind.
Many marriages have been broken. Many families have been torn apart. Many companies have collapsed. Many churches have been thrown into confusion. Many committed Christians have denounced their faith and abandoned their calling because of gossip and slander. Gossips are negative-minded. They often see the world as a big problem, and in their eyes, all of us are part of it. No matter how well things are going, they focus on the little negative details. One blast of negative comment from their lips, can erase the smile on your face permanently. Unfortunately, we are always with gossips. We have them, in our homes and families. We have them, in our offices and institutions. We have them, in our churches. We meet them everywhere we go. In spite of the devastating effects of gossip, not much publicity has been given to it; and so they continue in their nefarious acts.
I was motivated to write this book by the need to reduce the prevalence of gossip in our society. As you already know, evil thrives in secrecy and ignorance. Gossip: Causes, Effects and Solutions aims at exposing and attracting public attention to gossips and their methods of operation.
Chapter 1 of this book focuses on the Nature of Gossip. Chapter 2 looks at the poisonous effect of gossip on our minds. Chapter 3 deals with office gossips; while Chapter 4 reviews religious views on Gossip. Chapter 5 takes a critical look at Gossip and Slander in the Church. I hope that after reading this book, you will not only have value for your money, but will also help to achieve the purpose for which this book was written.
- VICTOR IZUOGU
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C H A P T E R 1
THE NATURE OF GOSSIP
“There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us”.
- Edward Wallis Hoch (1849 - 1925)
Virtually all of us frequently find ourselves producing, hearing, or otherwise participating in evaluative comments about someone who is not present in the conversation. It is often valuable (and sometimes unavoidable) to be part of such communications. To function efficiently in a complex social environment, humans require information about those around them. But social inter-connections are complex, and it is impossible to be present at many primary exchanges to absorb this kind of information directly. Thus, many people are eager to pick it up through an intermediary, whether or not they have the luxury and patience to confirm it later either directly or indirectly. This phenomenon, of course, is called gossip. It is an important social behavior that nearly everyone experiences, contributes to, and presumably intuitively understands. A paradox of gossip is that it is ubiquitous, though there are numerous social and biblical sanctions against it. Most societies have explicit sanctions against gossip, and numerous cautionary narratives demonstrate its unwanted outcomes.
Obviously, for gossiping and the sanctions against it to co-exist, there must be value in the generation and consumption of gossip that outweighs the counterforce of the sanctions. There is no denying that gossip, like rumor can wreck relationships, and stir up a cauldron of trouble. The victims of gossip may be hurt by seeing how others perceive their affairs, by distortion or manipulation of information, or by the violation of private matters.
Definition of Gossip
Gossip does not lend itself to simple definitions or uniform explanations. We all know what gossip is, but defining, identifying, and measuring it is a complex enterprise for practical investigation. However, for the purpose of this book, defining the content, circumstances, and functions of gossip will help to put discussions into perspective.
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, “gossip” means “To indulge in idle talk or rumors about others”. Most of this talk about others involves negative discussions between two or more people concerning those that are not physically present at the time of discussion.
A common feature of gossip is that it often masquerades as “concern” for others. Gossips often hide behind a pretentious expression of concern for their victims. Their opening gambit flows in this tone, “I hate to say anything about this to you, but I’m ’concerned’ about so and so.” At other times, the gossip will seek you out as their ‘confidant’ to unload their ‘heavy heart’ about their ‘concerns’. “I’m very troubled about so and so and I don’t know who else to talk to about it.” In reality, the gossip is not sincerely concerned about solving the problem. He is only interested in talking about it – stirring it up. A perverse man, the ancient book told us, stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends. Gossip thrives on the negative, the controversial, and the sensational. Anyone who is genuinely concerned about solving a problem will go and privately confront the person around whom the issue revolves and express his opinions and concern directly.
The process of gossip
The gossip is like a spider looking for a prey to lure into his trap. He may confide to you, secrets of his private concerns about other people. Perhaps in sympathy, you may express your half-hearted agreement with his concerns, or you may even be lured into confiding your secret to him too.
Subsequently, the gossip will repeat the process with someone else. But next time, he will add your name as an endorsement of his private “issue,” and will eventually even disclose the secrets you shared with him. And on and on it goes. The character of those who gossip is highly infectious. In analyzing this obnoxious character, Robert Greene, the author of The 48 Laws of Power has these words of wisdom to share with us:
The infecting character type is not restricted to women. It has nothing to do with gender. The infecting character’s misfortunes stem from an inward instability that radiates outwards, drawing disaster upon itself. There is almost a desire to destroy and unsettle which is natural in those who possess it. You could spend a life time studying the pathology of infecting characters. But do not waste your time – just learn the lesson. When you suspect that you are in the presence of an infector, don’t argue. Don’t try to help. Don’t try to pass the person on to your friends. Just flee the infector’s presence or suffer the consequences.
The incurably unhappy and unstable people have a particularly strong infecting power because their characters and emotions are so intense. They often present themselves as (innocent) victims; making it difficult at first, to see their miseries as self inflicted. Before you realize the real nature of their problems, you are infected by them.
Speaking negatively about people is widely condemned because it demeans the dignity of man — both the speaker and the subject of the gossip. Watch out, therefore, for people who are eager to divulge personal information about others to you. The problem is that gossip can be very hurtful to people; even damaging to their careers. Sadly, this damage can occur whether the gossip is factual or not. Its effect can last a lifetime. Gossiping causes trouble. Yet it appears that human beings are socially geared for it.
Characteristics of Gossip
As mentioned earlier, gossip is a conversation between two or more people that concerns a third person who is not present. We have two kinds of gossip: the negative gossip and the positive gossip. Ironically, the most popular gossip is the negative gossip that tarnishes the image of those that are not present at the time of the discussion.
Below are other features of gossip:
· Most gossips are based on lies. The people gossiping know that lying is wrong. That is one of the reasons why gossip usually begins with expressions like, "I heard" or "someone told me." Attributing a statement to someone else takes the responsibility for its accuracy away from the person speaking. But this technicality does not make it ethical to gossip.
· The conversation takes place in private. Gossip is usually a private conversation with a conspiratorial tone that happens between two or more people.
· Gossip often thrives on secrecy and ignorance. Where these are removed, gossip is hampered.
· The people gossiping and the person being gossiped about know one another in real life. By this definition, celebrity gossip is not really gossip unless the speaker and the listener are friends with the celebrity in question.
· The people gossiping compare themselves in some way to the person being gossiped about, usually considering themselves to be better than and superior to the victim of their gossip.
· Gossip always contributes to a problem and never to a solution.
· Gossip always distorts and exaggerates the true position of things, and is never a reliable source of truth.
· Those who gossip naturally feel a momentary sense of guilt when they see the person they gossiped against.
Gossip vs. Rumor
Rumors and gossip have similar distasteful connotations, but most people disagree about whether they are the same thing. Here is a highlight of different views on gossip and rumor:
· humanrelys of gossip
· Rumor is a specific type of gossip. A writer once remarked that rumours are carried by enemies, spread by the ignorant and accepted by fools without confirmation.
· Gossip is based on fact, but rumors are based on hypotheses.
· Gossip is a tool for maintaining social order, but rumor is a tool for explaining things that people do not understand.
· Gossip relates to something people believe has happened, but rumors express what people hope or fear will happen.
Negative Gossip vs. sharing healthy information (Positive Gossip)
There is certain shared information that cannot be classified as gossip. The nature of such information exchange can best be described as positive gossip. Some of them are as stated below:
1. Complaint against injustice, such as complaining to a ruler, judge or others in authority. A person may say in this case: "I was treated unjustly by so-and-so in such and such matter. I therefore urge you to help me obtain justice." This cannot be classified as gossip.
2. Seeking help to correct a wrong deed. A person may say: "Mr. A does such and such which is against the law, so stop him." His intention should be to check the condemnable behavior. If this is not the case, then the statement is gossip. The speaker, in this instance, should be willing to confront the wrong-doer directly with facts, if invited.
3. Warning people against evil and advising them. This could include criticism of unwholesome behaviors exhibited by some individuals. Without alluding to particular situations, names and actions, the warning may not be delivered effectively and successfully.
4. Giving information to avoid danger. Someone may simply want to pass along useful information so as to help others. For instance, a mother telling her child about some other child who was hurt by a car because of playing in the street is presumably not motivated by a desire to make the victim look bad; rather, the intention is to help her own child learn to avoid such a fate. This cannot be said to be negative gossip.
5. An open discussion aimed at proffering a solution. When there is a problem or a challenging situation, concerned individuals may objectively discuss to proffer solutions to the situation. Discussions in this regard, cannot of course, be classified as gossip. The discussants should be willing to invite all parties involved to the meeting for an open and amicable resolution of the problem.
In addition to the above, the following is a list of times when talking about other people is sort of, or sometimes acceptable:
· When a major life change is occurring to someone you know and sincerely care about, and you pass on the information to others who might also care about the person.
· When you really plan to take positive action to alleviate the situation the gossip refers to, and need a neutral perspective.
· When you are warning someone about a person whose practices are definitely undesirable.
· When you have accurate information to defuse or counteract a damaging or inaccurate rumour.
In the words of David J. Schwartz the author of The Magic of Thinking Big:
All conversation is not gossip…They serve a good purpose when they are constructive. You can test your proneness to be a gossip by taking this test:
Do I spread rumours about other people?
Do I always have good things to say about others?
Do I like to hear reports of a scandal?
Do I judge others only on the basis of facts?
Do I encourage others to bring their rumors to me?
Do I precede my conversations with “Don’t tell anybody?”
Do I keep confidential information confidential?
Do I feel guilty about what I say concerning other people?
However, if we must discuss about people in their absence, we must avoid making derogatory statements against those that are absent. ........
To purchase the full version of this e-book, please visit the following link:
http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=259609
To purchase another e-book titled, MASTURBATION: How to Overcome and Quit the Habit from the same author, visit this link: http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=259619
All of us often find ourselves generating, hearing, or participating in evaluative comments about someone who is not present during the conversation. It is often valuable and sometimes unavoidable to be part of such communications. To function efficiently in a complex social environment, humans require information about those around them. However, social inter-connections are complex, and it is impossible to be present at many primary exchanges to absorb this kind of information directly. Thus, many people are eager to pick it up through an intermediary, whether or not they have the luxury and patience to confirm it later either directly or indirectly. This phenomenon, of course, is called gossip. It is an important social behavior that nearly everyone experiences, contributes to, and presumably intuitively understands. A paradox of gossip is that it is everywhere, though there are numerous social and biblical sanctions against it.
We have two types of gossip: the positive and the negative gossip. While the positive gossip serves the purpose of sharing healthy and problem-solving information, the negative gossip is malicious and destructive. However, most people have an innate craving to pull others down. And so, they continue to cause sorrow, tears and blood; not with guns, not with knives, but with their tongues which have proved to be deadlier than any poison or weapon ever known to mankind.
Many marriages have been broken. Many families have been torn apart. Many companies have collapsed. Many churches have been thrown into confusion. Many committed Christians have denounced their faith and abandoned their calling because of gossip and slander. Gossips are negative-minded. They often see the world as a big problem, and in their eyes, all of us are part of it. No matter how well things are going, they focus on the little negative details. One blast of negative comment from their lips, can erase the smile on your face permanently. Unfortunately, we are always with gossips. We have them, in our homes and families. We have them, in our offices and institutions. We have them, in our churches. We meet them everywhere we go. In spite of the devastating effects of gossip, not much publicity has been given to it; and so they continue in their nefarious acts.
I was motivated to write this book by the need to reduce the prevalence of gossip in our society. As you already know, evil thrives in secrecy and ignorance. Gossip: Causes, Effects and Solutions aims at exposing and attracting public attention to gossips and their methods of operation.
Chapter 1 of this book focuses on the Nature of Gossip. Chapter 2 looks at the poisonous effect of gossip on our minds. Chapter 3 deals with office gossips; while Chapter 4 reviews religious views on Gossip. Chapter 5 takes a critical look at Gossip and Slander in the Church. I hope that after reading this book, you will not only have value for your money, but will also help to achieve the purpose for which this book was written.
- VICTOR IZUOGU
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C H A P T E R 1
THE NATURE OF GOSSIP
“There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us”.
- Edward Wallis Hoch (1849 - 1925)
Virtually all of us frequently find ourselves producing, hearing, or otherwise participating in evaluative comments about someone who is not present in the conversation. It is often valuable (and sometimes unavoidable) to be part of such communications. To function efficiently in a complex social environment, humans require information about those around them. But social inter-connections are complex, and it is impossible to be present at many primary exchanges to absorb this kind of information directly. Thus, many people are eager to pick it up through an intermediary, whether or not they have the luxury and patience to confirm it later either directly or indirectly. This phenomenon, of course, is called gossip. It is an important social behavior that nearly everyone experiences, contributes to, and presumably intuitively understands. A paradox of gossip is that it is ubiquitous, though there are numerous social and biblical sanctions against it. Most societies have explicit sanctions against gossip, and numerous cautionary narratives demonstrate its unwanted outcomes.
Obviously, for gossiping and the sanctions against it to co-exist, there must be value in the generation and consumption of gossip that outweighs the counterforce of the sanctions. There is no denying that gossip, like rumor can wreck relationships, and stir up a cauldron of trouble. The victims of gossip may be hurt by seeing how others perceive their affairs, by distortion or manipulation of information, or by the violation of private matters.
Definition of Gossip
Gossip does not lend itself to simple definitions or uniform explanations. We all know what gossip is, but defining, identifying, and measuring it is a complex enterprise for practical investigation. However, for the purpose of this book, defining the content, circumstances, and functions of gossip will help to put discussions into perspective.
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, “gossip” means “To indulge in idle talk or rumors about others”. Most of this talk about others involves negative discussions between two or more people concerning those that are not physically present at the time of discussion.
A common feature of gossip is that it often masquerades as “concern” for others. Gossips often hide behind a pretentious expression of concern for their victims. Their opening gambit flows in this tone, “I hate to say anything about this to you, but I’m ’concerned’ about so and so.” At other times, the gossip will seek you out as their ‘confidant’ to unload their ‘heavy heart’ about their ‘concerns’. “I’m very troubled about so and so and I don’t know who else to talk to about it.” In reality, the gossip is not sincerely concerned about solving the problem. He is only interested in talking about it – stirring it up. A perverse man, the ancient book told us, stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends. Gossip thrives on the negative, the controversial, and the sensational. Anyone who is genuinely concerned about solving a problem will go and privately confront the person around whom the issue revolves and express his opinions and concern directly.
The process of gossip
The gossip is like a spider looking for a prey to lure into his trap. He may confide to you, secrets of his private concerns about other people. Perhaps in sympathy, you may express your half-hearted agreement with his concerns, or you may even be lured into confiding your secret to him too.
Subsequently, the gossip will repeat the process with someone else. But next time, he will add your name as an endorsement of his private “issue,” and will eventually even disclose the secrets you shared with him. And on and on it goes. The character of those who gossip is highly infectious. In analyzing this obnoxious character, Robert Greene, the author of The 48 Laws of Power has these words of wisdom to share with us:
The infecting character type is not restricted to women. It has nothing to do with gender. The infecting character’s misfortunes stem from an inward instability that radiates outwards, drawing disaster upon itself. There is almost a desire to destroy and unsettle which is natural in those who possess it. You could spend a life time studying the pathology of infecting characters. But do not waste your time – just learn the lesson. When you suspect that you are in the presence of an infector, don’t argue. Don’t try to help. Don’t try to pass the person on to your friends. Just flee the infector’s presence or suffer the consequences.
The incurably unhappy and unstable people have a particularly strong infecting power because their characters and emotions are so intense. They often present themselves as (innocent) victims; making it difficult at first, to see their miseries as self inflicted. Before you realize the real nature of their problems, you are infected by them.
Speaking negatively about people is widely condemned because it demeans the dignity of man — both the speaker and the subject of the gossip. Watch out, therefore, for people who are eager to divulge personal information about others to you. The problem is that gossip can be very hurtful to people; even damaging to their careers. Sadly, this damage can occur whether the gossip is factual or not. Its effect can last a lifetime. Gossiping causes trouble. Yet it appears that human beings are socially geared for it.
Characteristics of Gossip
As mentioned earlier, gossip is a conversation between two or more people that concerns a third person who is not present. We have two kinds of gossip: the negative gossip and the positive gossip. Ironically, the most popular gossip is the negative gossip that tarnishes the image of those that are not present at the time of the discussion.
Below are other features of gossip:
· Most gossips are based on lies. The people gossiping know that lying is wrong. That is one of the reasons why gossip usually begins with expressions like, "I heard" or "someone told me." Attributing a statement to someone else takes the responsibility for its accuracy away from the person speaking. But this technicality does not make it ethical to gossip.
· The conversation takes place in private. Gossip is usually a private conversation with a conspiratorial tone that happens between two or more people.
· Gossip often thrives on secrecy and ignorance. Where these are removed, gossip is hampered.
· The people gossiping and the person being gossiped about know one another in real life. By this definition, celebrity gossip is not really gossip unless the speaker and the listener are friends with the celebrity in question.
· The people gossiping compare themselves in some way to the person being gossiped about, usually considering themselves to be better than and superior to the victim of their gossip.
· Gossip always contributes to a problem and never to a solution.
· Gossip always distorts and exaggerates the true position of things, and is never a reliable source of truth.
· Those who gossip naturally feel a momentary sense of guilt when they see the person they gossiped against.
Gossip vs. Rumor
Rumors and gossip have similar distasteful connotations, but most people disagree about whether they are the same thing. Here is a highlight of different views on gossip and rumor:
· humanrelys of gossip
· Rumor is a specific type of gossip. A writer once remarked that rumours are carried by enemies, spread by the ignorant and accepted by fools without confirmation.
· Gossip is based on fact, but rumors are based on hypotheses.
· Gossip is a tool for maintaining social order, but rumor is a tool for explaining things that people do not understand.
· Gossip relates to something people believe has happened, but rumors express what people hope or fear will happen.
Negative Gossip vs. sharing healthy information (Positive Gossip)
There is certain shared information that cannot be classified as gossip. The nature of such information exchange can best be described as positive gossip. Some of them are as stated below:
1. Complaint against injustice, such as complaining to a ruler, judge or others in authority. A person may say in this case: "I was treated unjustly by so-and-so in such and such matter. I therefore urge you to help me obtain justice." This cannot be classified as gossip.
2. Seeking help to correct a wrong deed. A person may say: "Mr. A does such and such which is against the law, so stop him." His intention should be to check the condemnable behavior. If this is not the case, then the statement is gossip. The speaker, in this instance, should be willing to confront the wrong-doer directly with facts, if invited.
3. Warning people against evil and advising them. This could include criticism of unwholesome behaviors exhibited by some individuals. Without alluding to particular situations, names and actions, the warning may not be delivered effectively and successfully.
4. Giving information to avoid danger. Someone may simply want to pass along useful information so as to help others. For instance, a mother telling her child about some other child who was hurt by a car because of playing in the street is presumably not motivated by a desire to make the victim look bad; rather, the intention is to help her own child learn to avoid such a fate. This cannot be said to be negative gossip.
5. An open discussion aimed at proffering a solution. When there is a problem or a challenging situation, concerned individuals may objectively discuss to proffer solutions to the situation. Discussions in this regard, cannot of course, be classified as gossip. The discussants should be willing to invite all parties involved to the meeting for an open and amicable resolution of the problem.
In addition to the above, the following is a list of times when talking about other people is sort of, or sometimes acceptable:
· When a major life change is occurring to someone you know and sincerely care about, and you pass on the information to others who might also care about the person.
· When you really plan to take positive action to alleviate the situation the gossip refers to, and need a neutral perspective.
· When you are warning someone about a person whose practices are definitely undesirable.
· When you have accurate information to defuse or counteract a damaging or inaccurate rumour.
In the words of David J. Schwartz the author of The Magic of Thinking Big:
All conversation is not gossip…They serve a good purpose when they are constructive. You can test your proneness to be a gossip by taking this test:
Do I spread rumours about other people?
Do I always have good things to say about others?
Do I like to hear reports of a scandal?
Do I judge others only on the basis of facts?
Do I encourage others to bring their rumors to me?
Do I precede my conversations with “Don’t tell anybody?”
Do I keep confidential information confidential?
Do I feel guilty about what I say concerning other people?
However, if we must discuss about people in their absence, we must avoid making derogatory statements against those that are absent. ........
To purchase the full version of this e-book, please visit the following link:
http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=259609
To purchase another e-book titled, MASTURBATION: How to Overcome and Quit the Habit from the same author, visit this link: http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=259619
MASTURBATION: How to Overcome and Quit the Habit
MASTURBATION: How to Overcome and Quit the Habit
Preface
Since volumes have been written about masturbation, one wonders why another author still feels the need to write about the subject. Is it not presumptions to believe that one has something new to say about a chronic problem of both men and women over the centuries? I respond that there is something new to be said on the subject, for example, one's response to new developments and thinking on the subject matter, as well as one's personal experience in counseling persons struggling with the habit. In this endeavor, I have garnered fresh insights concerning the psychology of masturbation from my personal study of sexual addiction, of which masturbation is a prime example.
Another reason why I decided to write on the subject is because many persons struggling with this weakness do not receive adequate spiritual and moral guidance. It is now well known that the habit of masturbation cuts across all the stages of life from infancy to old age. It is found among children, teenagers, young adults, married men and women, religious and political leaders.
Interacting with masturbation addicts in need of solutions will reveal just how serious the situation can be (and really is) for those involved. Getting addicted to masturbation is no laughing matter. The sufferers can become slaves to their sometimes, compulsive habit.
If you are seeking knowledge on the subject matter, or if you are seeking information to educate yourself and help those that are already slaves to the habit, then read on…
CHAPTER ONE
PURIFY YOUR MIND AND YOUR THOUGHTS
"If you would conquer the world, then conquer yourself. There is nothing more a man can do, and nothing greater." –Anonymous
The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread. Every time we repeat the act, we strengthen the strand, and add to it, another filament until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably in thought and act. The emphasis on the two words here underlines their importance in the formation of any habit. First, we think and then, we act out our thoughts. In fact, all that a man does outwardly is the expression and completion of his inward thinking. No action is possible without the thought. Action is the second form of thought, and personality is the materialization of thought. A bad habit starts slowly and gradually and before you know you have the habit, the habit has arrested you. As the plant springs from and could not be without the seed, so every act of man springs from the hidden seeds of thoughts and could not have appeared without them. This is another way of saying that act is the manifestation of thought; and joy and suffering are its fruits. Thus does a man garner or harvest in the sweet and/or bitter fruitage of his husbandry.
People often delude themselves when they imagine that they can hide their thoughts. But the fact is that thoughts (both negative and positive thoughts) cannot be kept secret. Whatever you plant in the mind is going to come up – multiplied. Plant a negative or a positive thought and you reap in multiples because between planting and harvest, imagination enters the picture and multiplies the result. Thoughts rapidly crystallize into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstances. Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of masturbation, drunkenness, drug addiction, and sensuality, etc. These in turn, lead to circumstances of misery, destitution and disease. Impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which metamorphose into distracting and adverse circumstances. Men do not really decide their future. They decide their habits, then, their habits decide their future. A thought held in thinking substance is a real thing, a form and has actual existence; although it is not visible to you. You internally take the form in which you think of yourself and you surround yourself with the invisible forms of things with which you associate in your thoughts.
The way we think determines the decisions we make. The decisions we make determines what we do. And what we do determines how successful we become. Change your thinking and you change your decisions. Change your decisions and you change your behavior. Before a man can accomplish anything of an enduring nature in the world, he must first of all, acquire some measure of success in the management of his own mind. This is because out of the heart, flow the issues of life.
On temptation
Most of the time when people commit crimes, or are caught pants-down in a condemnable act, they blame an imaginary devil as being responsible for their criminal act. They often claim that it was the devil that tempted them to commit the criminal act. This is indeed, laughable and it brings me to the interesting topic of temptation. Can an individual be helplessly tempted to do a wrong thing? The truth is that all temptations come from within and man is tempted because of the evil that is within him. The idea that God, a devil, evil spirit or outward objects are the source of temptation must be dispelled. The man who sows wrong thoughts and deeds, and prays that God will bless him, is in the position of a farmer who having sown tares, asks God to bring forth for him, a harvest of wheat. The source and cause of all temptations is in the inward desire. When our negative inward desires are purified or eliminated, outward objects, or people are utterly powerless to move the soul to sin or to temptation. The outward object is merely the occasion of the temptation; never the cause. The cause is in the desire and the mind of the person who claims he is tempted.
A man is tempted because there are within him, certain desires or states of mind that he has come to regard as unholy. The desires may lie deep asleep for a long time; and the man may think that he has got rid of them. When suddenly, on presentation of an outward object, the sleeping desire wakes up and thirsts for immediate gratification, the man yields to it. This is the state of temptation. Men fail to conquer their weakness and the fight is indefinitely prolonged because men labor under two delusions: first that all temptations come from the outside, not within, and second, that they are tempted because of their good nature. The good in man is never tempted. Goodness destroys temptation. It is the evil in a man that is aroused and tempted.
Let me give you another illustration to buttress the above fact. A criminal does not become a prisoner by the tyranny of fate or circumstances, but by the pathway of negative thoughts and base desires. The criminal thoughts had long been secretly hidden and nurtured in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstances do not make a man. They rather reveal and expose a man to himself.
Guard well your thoughts, dear reader, for what you really are in your secret thoughts today, be it good or evil will sooner or later, become in actual deed. He who jealously guards the portals of his mind against the intrusion of sinful thoughts and occupies himself with loving thoughts, with pure, strong and beautiful thoughts, will, when the season of their ripening comes, bring forth the fruits of gentle and holy deeds, and no temptation that can come against him shall find him unarmed or unprepared.
If you are addicted to the habit of masturbation or any other harmful habit that you sincerely want to quit, this book will give you some useful tips on how to liberate yourself. It does not matter how many times you have unsuccessfully tried to quit the habit in the past. If you have a small child and he or she is learning how to walk, how many times will you give the child to succeed? After a couple of trials, will you tell the child that he or she is stupid and say things like, “OK, that is enough baby. You will just have to crawl for the rest of your life. I guess you just don’t have what it takes to be a walker”. I doubt that you would react in this manner. Let me ask you then, why do you do it to yourself? This type of disempowerment behavior and reaction is another reason why people have a fear for trying new things. There are seldom any hopeless situations, but there are very many people who lose hope in the face of some situations. I said earlier that everything about habits originates from thoughts and influences decisions and actions. Nothing has power over you other than that which you give it through your conscious thoughts. It is interesting to note that thoughts can be regulated and controlled in much the same way as a traffic policeman controls the traffic. Having said that, let us proceed to the next chapter which focuses on the definition and process of masturbation.
CHAPTER TWO
DEFINITION AND PROCESS OF MASTURBATION
"We find peace only by resisting our passions, not by giving in to them." - James Russell Lowell
In general sense, masturbation is the act of exciting the sexual organs by rubbing, stroking, or fondling, pressing or other forms of handling. It is part of the normal sexual development which occurs in adolescent and which everyone indulges in at some point in life. In a more restricted sense, masturbation goes beyond just exciting the sexual organs, that is, in men, not just handling the penis until erection is achieved. After the initial excitement, the handling of the sexual organ continues until the point of intense sexual pleasure and often times, until orgasm occurs. In other words, masturbation is an act by which one has “sexual intercourse” with oneself. This could be called auto-sexuality, although true auto-sexuality only occurs in a hermaphrodite. Hermaphrodite refers to an animal that possesses both male and female sexual organs.
Some people claim that masturbation is a completely natural habit. However, when the habit gets out of control, it can be a really un-natural habit to have. Addiction to the habit is one of the most personal of all addictions to have and something that you may well find really hard speaking to other people about. The addiction can leave you feeling drained and tired, due to compulsive masturbation and can even give you an empty feeling and a low self-esteem. Some studies have shown that it can lead to premature ejaculation in men and sexual de-sensitization in women later in life. This type of negative impact on anyone’s sex life is bad news. Nevertheless, those who masturbate experience physical pleasure similar to that experienced during real sexual intercourse with the opposite gender. ……. ( To purchase the full version of this book, please visit this link: http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=259619
You can also get another book written by the same author titled, GOSSIP: Causes, Effects and Solutions at http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=259609
Preface
Since volumes have been written about masturbation, one wonders why another author still feels the need to write about the subject. Is it not presumptions to believe that one has something new to say about a chronic problem of both men and women over the centuries? I respond that there is something new to be said on the subject, for example, one's response to new developments and thinking on the subject matter, as well as one's personal experience in counseling persons struggling with the habit. In this endeavor, I have garnered fresh insights concerning the psychology of masturbation from my personal study of sexual addiction, of which masturbation is a prime example.
Another reason why I decided to write on the subject is because many persons struggling with this weakness do not receive adequate spiritual and moral guidance. It is now well known that the habit of masturbation cuts across all the stages of life from infancy to old age. It is found among children, teenagers, young adults, married men and women, religious and political leaders.
Interacting with masturbation addicts in need of solutions will reveal just how serious the situation can be (and really is) for those involved. Getting addicted to masturbation is no laughing matter. The sufferers can become slaves to their sometimes, compulsive habit.
If you are seeking knowledge on the subject matter, or if you are seeking information to educate yourself and help those that are already slaves to the habit, then read on…
CHAPTER ONE
PURIFY YOUR MIND AND YOUR THOUGHTS
"If you would conquer the world, then conquer yourself. There is nothing more a man can do, and nothing greater." –Anonymous
The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread. Every time we repeat the act, we strengthen the strand, and add to it, another filament until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably in thought and act. The emphasis on the two words here underlines their importance in the formation of any habit. First, we think and then, we act out our thoughts. In fact, all that a man does outwardly is the expression and completion of his inward thinking. No action is possible without the thought. Action is the second form of thought, and personality is the materialization of thought. A bad habit starts slowly and gradually and before you know you have the habit, the habit has arrested you. As the plant springs from and could not be without the seed, so every act of man springs from the hidden seeds of thoughts and could not have appeared without them. This is another way of saying that act is the manifestation of thought; and joy and suffering are its fruits. Thus does a man garner or harvest in the sweet and/or bitter fruitage of his husbandry.
People often delude themselves when they imagine that they can hide their thoughts. But the fact is that thoughts (both negative and positive thoughts) cannot be kept secret. Whatever you plant in the mind is going to come up – multiplied. Plant a negative or a positive thought and you reap in multiples because between planting and harvest, imagination enters the picture and multiplies the result. Thoughts rapidly crystallize into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstances. Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of masturbation, drunkenness, drug addiction, and sensuality, etc. These in turn, lead to circumstances of misery, destitution and disease. Impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which metamorphose into distracting and adverse circumstances. Men do not really decide their future. They decide their habits, then, their habits decide their future. A thought held in thinking substance is a real thing, a form and has actual existence; although it is not visible to you. You internally take the form in which you think of yourself and you surround yourself with the invisible forms of things with which you associate in your thoughts.
The way we think determines the decisions we make. The decisions we make determines what we do. And what we do determines how successful we become. Change your thinking and you change your decisions. Change your decisions and you change your behavior. Before a man can accomplish anything of an enduring nature in the world, he must first of all, acquire some measure of success in the management of his own mind. This is because out of the heart, flow the issues of life.
On temptation
Most of the time when people commit crimes, or are caught pants-down in a condemnable act, they blame an imaginary devil as being responsible for their criminal act. They often claim that it was the devil that tempted them to commit the criminal act. This is indeed, laughable and it brings me to the interesting topic of temptation. Can an individual be helplessly tempted to do a wrong thing? The truth is that all temptations come from within and man is tempted because of the evil that is within him. The idea that God, a devil, evil spirit or outward objects are the source of temptation must be dispelled. The man who sows wrong thoughts and deeds, and prays that God will bless him, is in the position of a farmer who having sown tares, asks God to bring forth for him, a harvest of wheat. The source and cause of all temptations is in the inward desire. When our negative inward desires are purified or eliminated, outward objects, or people are utterly powerless to move the soul to sin or to temptation. The outward object is merely the occasion of the temptation; never the cause. The cause is in the desire and the mind of the person who claims he is tempted.
A man is tempted because there are within him, certain desires or states of mind that he has come to regard as unholy. The desires may lie deep asleep for a long time; and the man may think that he has got rid of them. When suddenly, on presentation of an outward object, the sleeping desire wakes up and thirsts for immediate gratification, the man yields to it. This is the state of temptation. Men fail to conquer their weakness and the fight is indefinitely prolonged because men labor under two delusions: first that all temptations come from the outside, not within, and second, that they are tempted because of their good nature. The good in man is never tempted. Goodness destroys temptation. It is the evil in a man that is aroused and tempted.
Let me give you another illustration to buttress the above fact. A criminal does not become a prisoner by the tyranny of fate or circumstances, but by the pathway of negative thoughts and base desires. The criminal thoughts had long been secretly hidden and nurtured in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstances do not make a man. They rather reveal and expose a man to himself.
Guard well your thoughts, dear reader, for what you really are in your secret thoughts today, be it good or evil will sooner or later, become in actual deed. He who jealously guards the portals of his mind against the intrusion of sinful thoughts and occupies himself with loving thoughts, with pure, strong and beautiful thoughts, will, when the season of their ripening comes, bring forth the fruits of gentle and holy deeds, and no temptation that can come against him shall find him unarmed or unprepared.
If you are addicted to the habit of masturbation or any other harmful habit that you sincerely want to quit, this book will give you some useful tips on how to liberate yourself. It does not matter how many times you have unsuccessfully tried to quit the habit in the past. If you have a small child and he or she is learning how to walk, how many times will you give the child to succeed? After a couple of trials, will you tell the child that he or she is stupid and say things like, “OK, that is enough baby. You will just have to crawl for the rest of your life. I guess you just don’t have what it takes to be a walker”. I doubt that you would react in this manner. Let me ask you then, why do you do it to yourself? This type of disempowerment behavior and reaction is another reason why people have a fear for trying new things. There are seldom any hopeless situations, but there are very many people who lose hope in the face of some situations. I said earlier that everything about habits originates from thoughts and influences decisions and actions. Nothing has power over you other than that which you give it through your conscious thoughts. It is interesting to note that thoughts can be regulated and controlled in much the same way as a traffic policeman controls the traffic. Having said that, let us proceed to the next chapter which focuses on the definition and process of masturbation.
CHAPTER TWO
DEFINITION AND PROCESS OF MASTURBATION
"We find peace only by resisting our passions, not by giving in to them." - James Russell Lowell
In general sense, masturbation is the act of exciting the sexual organs by rubbing, stroking, or fondling, pressing or other forms of handling. It is part of the normal sexual development which occurs in adolescent and which everyone indulges in at some point in life. In a more restricted sense, masturbation goes beyond just exciting the sexual organs, that is, in men, not just handling the penis until erection is achieved. After the initial excitement, the handling of the sexual organ continues until the point of intense sexual pleasure and often times, until orgasm occurs. In other words, masturbation is an act by which one has “sexual intercourse” with oneself. This could be called auto-sexuality, although true auto-sexuality only occurs in a hermaphrodite. Hermaphrodite refers to an animal that possesses both male and female sexual organs.
Some people claim that masturbation is a completely natural habit. However, when the habit gets out of control, it can be a really un-natural habit to have. Addiction to the habit is one of the most personal of all addictions to have and something that you may well find really hard speaking to other people about. The addiction can leave you feeling drained and tired, due to compulsive masturbation and can even give you an empty feeling and a low self-esteem. Some studies have shown that it can lead to premature ejaculation in men and sexual de-sensitization in women later in life. This type of negative impact on anyone’s sex life is bad news. Nevertheless, those who masturbate experience physical pleasure similar to that experienced during real sexual intercourse with the opposite gender. ……. ( To purchase the full version of this book, please visit this link: http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=259619
You can also get another book written by the same author titled, GOSSIP: Causes, Effects and Solutions at http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=259609
Generating and Keeping Cash
Generating and Keeping Cash
BY
VICTOR IZUOGU
CONTENT:
Preface
Chapter 1:…………………….. Earning Mind-Sets
Chapter 2:…………………….. Making Money Consciously
Chapter 3:…………………….. Income and Expenses
Chapter 4:…………………….. How to Get out of Debt
Chapter 5:…………………….. Methods of Generating Money Fast
PREFACE
There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty. The ownership of money and property comes as a result of obeying these laws and poverty comes from violating the laws - no matter how hard the individuals work or how able they are – they remain poor for violating the laws of acquiring riches.
Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No one can rise to his greatest possible height in life unless he has plenty of money. Everyone needs goods and services in order to live comfortably in the society. A person cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm shelter, and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to his physical life.
Studying the people who have gotten rich, we find that they are an average lot in all respects, having no greater educational background, talents and abilities than other people have. It is evident that they do not get rich because they possess the best education, talents and abilities that others do not have, but because they happen to adopt a particular lifestyle and they are disciplined enough to do things that poor people don’t do.
It takes work to get rich slowly. No one will take as much interest in your financial future as you will. Never trust anyone who promises to make you rich overnight.
Since there is no perfect e-book and no perfection in any human work, this remains an e-book in progress. If you find errors or points that are unclear, or any point you want me to include, please let me know through my blog: http://victor-creatingwealth.bloggspot.com/ or email victorizuogu.foundations@yahoo.com Perhaps your contributions will make subsequent editions of this e-book richer and better for those who follow behind you. I welcome your feedback. Because it is published on the Internet, it is easy to add or clarify points.
CHAPTER 1
EARNING MIND-SETS
Since money is a social resource, earning money means acquiring more of that social resource. When you spend money, you convert money to value. But when you earn money, you convert value to money.
One way to earn money is to sell valuable possessions. Take an item that has value and sell it, and you will receive money for it. Another option is to acquire items at one price and turn around and sell them for more than your costs. Companies dig up resources all over the planet and sell them for a profit. For individuals this approach might take the form of buying objects, stocks, or bonds at one price and selling them at a higher price. Sometimes value is added in the process (which may just be added convenience), while other times the money earned comes from market inefficiencies.
Perhaps the most common way to earn money is to sell your time. Get a job and trade hours for money. The greater your ability to personally deliver a high social value, the greater your earnings potential. The difference between making $10/hour vs. $100/hour is that the latter work has much greater social value. This difference is not anyone’s “fault” — the difference is due to the social consensus about the value of certain work. Note the difference between absolute value and social value. We all know how much footballers are paid. They may not perform useful work in an absolute sense, but their compensation is based on the social value of their service, which is currently very high.
Another way to earn money is to create a system that earns money for you, such as a business. This is my personal favorite, since it can provide far more leverage than selling time. I also find it much less risky in the long run, since owning and controlling a money-generating system is more secure than trading hours for dollars at someone else’s discretion.
You can also earn money by selling money itself… that is, by investing it. By loaning your money or assets to someone else, you can earn interest and/or dividends. How you earn money depends on what you invest in. Investing in a new business is very different from investing in a criminal organization. One form of investing creates social value; the other steals it.
And of course a final option for making money is to steal it. Historically this has been a popular option, but I won’t give it serious consideration in this work. If you think about it, there are two basic ways to earn money:
(1) Make a social contribution, and receive payment commensurate with
the social value of your contribution.
(2) Take advantage of market inefficiencies to extract money without contributing any value.
Option (1) includes getting a job, running a business that provides products or services, reselling items with value added, or investing in any of these outlets. Option (2) includes reselling items without added value, gambling, mooching off others, crime, or investing in any of these.
Here’s another way of labeling these two strategies:
(i) Contribute.
(ii) Mooch.
Unless you have somehow opted out of the monetary system, you are using one or both of these two strategies right now. One strategy will likely be dominant in your life — either you are creating genuine social value and being paid for it, or you are mooching off the value created by others. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, to mooch means to get money, food, etc from someone else instead of paying for it yourself.
Note that contributing value is essential for the monetary system to survive and thrive, but mooching is not. The only way moochers can survive is by extracting value from the contributors. But ultimately someone must contribute, or there can be no value for the moochers to extract.
Incidentally, Ayn Rand wrote a fascinating novel titled Atlas Shrugged. In that book, he imagined what would happen if the world’s contributors left to form their own society, leaving the moochers to fend for themselves. The contributor society became a paradise, while the moocher society fell to pieces. Rand suggested that a system that rewarded moochers at the expense of contributors was evil and that contributors should be free to decide how their work is used (and whether or not they will support any moochers).
Some degree of mooching is to be expected. Children mooch off their parents. Those who are unable to contribute mooch off those who can. Whenever we enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor without paying for it, we are mooching. We all mooch off the hard work of our ancestors. But eventually we have to decide whether we are going to continue to mooch for the rest of our lives or begin making a genuine contribution. Will we remain moochers for life, or will we become contributors?
Obviously your life will include some contribution and some mooching, but what is your primary strategy for generating income today? Do you contribute social value? Or do you mooch off the value of other contributors?
Let us look at both possibilities.
The moocher mindset
Opting into mooch mode means you are extracting more social value than you are contributing. Your focus is on getting as opposed to giving, so you take more out of the system than you give back. The moocher mindset suggests you can always rely on others to pick up your slack. It is the mindset of unearned entitlement. Since you still need to extract value such as food, clothing, and shelter — value which others must provide for you – you live at the expense of others. Your burden may be shouldered by an individual such as a parent, or it may be shared by society at large, but either way you survive by suckling the social teat.
Sometimes mooching becomes so habitual it is easy to overlook. Many people who seemingly have contribution-based careers harbor an underlying moocher mindset. They aim to extract as much social value as possible while contributing as little as possible. They work to make money to the degree it is necessary, while mooching as much as they can get away with. Such people don’t have inspired careers because work is only seen as a means to an end, not an outlet for genuine contribution. Take a look around and see if you can identify the moochers in your life. Who is there to get rather than to give?
Another name for the moocher mindset is the scarcity mindset. Since you are not creating value of your own, the money you extract must come from someone else. It is a zero-sum game. Whatever you gain, someone else must lose.
The moocher mindset makes the attainment of financial abundance very difficult because in order to succeed financially with this mindset, you must embrace certain values that most people would consider negative. Your gain is someone else’s loss, so getting rich requires taking advantage of more people. In order to gain by mooching, someone else must cover your extraction with real value. So the more wealth you accumulate, the more you steal from others.
Most people cannot handle the thought of becoming wealthy at the expense of others, so usually the moocher mindset gives rise to self-sabotage instead. If you fall into this pattern, you will experience a love/hate relationship with money. On the one hand, you may want more money, but on the other hand, you may feel disinclined to make too much, since you know that the more money you get, the more someone else has to pay for it. For example, if you make a living as a professional gambler, then you know that the more you earn, the more money others have to lose… not the best motivation for a highly conscious person to achieve financial abundance.
Some people are able to bypass this problem of financial self-sabotage by lowering their consciousness. They learn to make money without rationally considering the consequences of how they are earning it. They invent justifications to explain their actions while keeping their conscience from getting in the way. Ultimately this is the mindset of criminals.
The more you align yourself with the moocher mindset, the more difficult it will be for you to experience financial abundance and remain conscious. Ultimately you have to choose one or the other: be conscious or be wealthy. You cannot have both if you subscribe to the moocher mindset. If you find yourself stuck at a certain level of income and unable to go any higher, an underlying moocher mindset is probably the culprit. This is the mindset that leads you to ask, “How can I get more money?” instead of, “How can I contribute more value?” It is also the mindset that says it is a bad idea to earn more money, since your gain is someone else’s pain.
The contributor mindset
Now let us consider the contributor mindset. This mindset recognizes that the best way to make money is to provide fair value in exchange. Create genuine social value, and receive payment commensurate with that value. Due to market inefficiencies, sometimes you will be underpaid, and sometimes you will be overpaid, but the basic idea is that you earn money by contributing.
If you want to earn income as a contributor, you must contribute social value, not personal value. Many would-be contributors get stuck on this concept. Personal value is whatever you say it is — you are free to decide what has value to you personally, and it doesn’t matter if no one agrees with you. Social value, however, is assigned by social consensus. If you believe your work has tremendous value, but virtually no one else does, then your work has high personal value but little or no social value. Here is the key point: your income depends on the social value of your work, not the personal value.
If you want to generate income from creative work, then your work must have social value. There is no getting around that. No social value, no income. If your skills and hard work are not in alignment with the creation of social value, then you will not be able to generate income as a contributor.
This is not an unfair system — it is just how the monetary system works. Since money is a social resource backed by social value, it makes sense that you would not get paid much for providing something of little or no social value. The saying “Find a need and fill it” certainly rings true, assuming we are referring to a social need or desire.
Another name for the contributor mindset is the abundance mindset. This mindset says that wealth can be created from ideas and action. Your gain is a reflection of the social gain you have contributed. If you want to earn a high income, you must contribute a lot of social value. The more social value you create, the more money you can earn. This is a win-win mindset because you are putting value into the system for the benefit of others.
Under the contributor mindset, you receive money as payment for your social service. The money you earn is society’s way of saying, “In exchange for your valued contribution, you are hereby granted the right to extract $X of value from society at a time of your choosing.” This is a beautiful thing!
The only real limit on your income is how much social value you can create. If you want to earn more money, then develop your skills and talents to facilitate the creation of lots of social value. The best way to increase your income is to figure out how to deliver more social value. Focus on giving, and the getting will largely take care of itself. The systems to reward social service are already in place, so all you need to do is plug your service into the existing marketplace.
Generating income from social contribution is a very positive experience. Consequently, it would not lower your conscience like the moocher mindset. With the contributor mindset, wealth and conscience are not in conflict. In fact, they synergize extremely well, especially if you reinvest some of your income into expanding your contribution.
If you adopt the contributor mindset, just be aware that members of the moocher mindset will sometimes mistakenly count you among them. As you work to increase your social contribution and thereby earn a higher income, moochers will project their values onto you, concluding you have become greedy and must be taking advantage of others for personal gain. Don’t let moochers dissuade you from your path though. Let your inspiration come from the desire to provide even more social value. It would be less honorable to withhold your value just because others misinterpret your motives.
Free contribution
Under the contributor model, you always have the option of making a contribution for free. You don’t have to receive the full social value for your work if you don’t want to.
I like having this option because it means I can make my work accessible even to those who cannot afford it. Money is social credit, so when you decline to receive money for your work, you decline the social credit you have earned. While it is perfectly fine to decline the social credit you have earned, be sure to consider what you could do with that social credit if you choose to receive it. Could you re-invest it to make a bigger or better contribution? If so, then paid work makes more sense than free work, since you can use the money to expand your mission and serve even more people. Money makes you more of who you already are, so if you are already a contributor, more money can allow you to expand your contribution.
You can also aim for a nice balance between paid work and free work. It does not have to be either-or.
Making money consciously
Contributing social value is the primary strategy for making money consciously, but by itself it is still not enough. The problem with social value is that your personal values won’t perfectly align with the social consensus. I am sure that if everyone on earth were like you, the demand for certain products and services would shift dramatically. For example, if everyone were like me, fresh fruits and vegetables would have even higher social value, while cigarettes would have none whatsoever.
When you attempt to provide social value without achieving congruence with your personal values, your motivation will be very weak. You would not be inspired because you will be doing what you feel you should do, but not what you want to do. Alternatively, when you attempt to satisfy your personal values without providing any real social value, you get the starving artist syndrome. You may be inspired by work that totally fulfills you, but it won’t pay the bills. Please don’t do this to yourself either. The solution is to find an area of overlap between your personal values and social values, and work within that area of overlap. This will allow you to do what you love and create something that others value as well. Don’t force yourself to choose between your integrity and your income — choose both!
Congruent contribution
Two simple realizations can help you achieve a congruent mindset about money and push beyond limiting financial beliefs. First, you must consciously adopt the contributor mindset and abandon the moocher mindset. And secondly, you must find a way to contribute social value while achieving alignment with your personal values. Once you have internalized those two mindsets, you will be in a position to generate abundant income while serving the greater good.
If you want to generate income without lowering your conscience, you have to get your limiting beliefs out of your way. Holding yourself back from earning more money does not serve anyone. Limiting your income only limits your contribution. The conscious reason to earn more money is that you can put those social credits to good use. Use them to expand your service to others. If you are living an honorable life, then it is a good thing for you to receive more money. You will be a good custodian for it. The more money that flows through your life, the more resources you can invest into your life purpose.
The Law of Demand and Supply in making money
It is important to note that you can also make money by using and applying the law of supply and demand to your advantage. Most of us are familiar with the law of supply and demand – the more supply, the cheaper the price; conversely, the rarer the product or service, the more expensive it is. However, we don't really apply the law of supply and demand to our own lives – particularly our careers. For example, if you are aspiring to do something that many, many other people want to do (so much so that they do it for free, as a hobby) then it will be far more challenging for you to make money doing it. On the other hand, if you do something that most people don't want to do, or if you get very good at doing something most people don't do all that well, then you can make a whole lot more money. The starting point is to adopt a positive earning mindset as discussed in this chapter. When you have the right earning mindset, you would begin to focus on how to create wealth consciously…..
To download the full version of this e-Book, please follow the following link: http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/how-to-make-money/7527170
BY
VICTOR IZUOGU
CONTENT:
Preface
Chapter 1:…………………….. Earning Mind-Sets
Chapter 2:…………………….. Making Money Consciously
Chapter 3:…………………….. Income and Expenses
Chapter 4:…………………….. How to Get out of Debt
Chapter 5:…………………….. Methods of Generating Money Fast
PREFACE
There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty. The ownership of money and property comes as a result of obeying these laws and poverty comes from violating the laws - no matter how hard the individuals work or how able they are – they remain poor for violating the laws of acquiring riches.
Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No one can rise to his greatest possible height in life unless he has plenty of money. Everyone needs goods and services in order to live comfortably in the society. A person cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm shelter, and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to his physical life.
Studying the people who have gotten rich, we find that they are an average lot in all respects, having no greater educational background, talents and abilities than other people have. It is evident that they do not get rich because they possess the best education, talents and abilities that others do not have, but because they happen to adopt a particular lifestyle and they are disciplined enough to do things that poor people don’t do.
It takes work to get rich slowly. No one will take as much interest in your financial future as you will. Never trust anyone who promises to make you rich overnight.
Since there is no perfect e-book and no perfection in any human work, this remains an e-book in progress. If you find errors or points that are unclear, or any point you want me to include, please let me know through my blog: http://victor-creatingwealth.bloggspot.com/ or email victorizuogu.foundations@yahoo.com Perhaps your contributions will make subsequent editions of this e-book richer and better for those who follow behind you. I welcome your feedback. Because it is published on the Internet, it is easy to add or clarify points.
CHAPTER 1
EARNING MIND-SETS
Since money is a social resource, earning money means acquiring more of that social resource. When you spend money, you convert money to value. But when you earn money, you convert value to money.
One way to earn money is to sell valuable possessions. Take an item that has value and sell it, and you will receive money for it. Another option is to acquire items at one price and turn around and sell them for more than your costs. Companies dig up resources all over the planet and sell them for a profit. For individuals this approach might take the form of buying objects, stocks, or bonds at one price and selling them at a higher price. Sometimes value is added in the process (which may just be added convenience), while other times the money earned comes from market inefficiencies.
Perhaps the most common way to earn money is to sell your time. Get a job and trade hours for money. The greater your ability to personally deliver a high social value, the greater your earnings potential. The difference between making $10/hour vs. $100/hour is that the latter work has much greater social value. This difference is not anyone’s “fault” — the difference is due to the social consensus about the value of certain work. Note the difference between absolute value and social value. We all know how much footballers are paid. They may not perform useful work in an absolute sense, but their compensation is based on the social value of their service, which is currently very high.
Another way to earn money is to create a system that earns money for you, such as a business. This is my personal favorite, since it can provide far more leverage than selling time. I also find it much less risky in the long run, since owning and controlling a money-generating system is more secure than trading hours for dollars at someone else’s discretion.
You can also earn money by selling money itself… that is, by investing it. By loaning your money or assets to someone else, you can earn interest and/or dividends. How you earn money depends on what you invest in. Investing in a new business is very different from investing in a criminal organization. One form of investing creates social value; the other steals it.
And of course a final option for making money is to steal it. Historically this has been a popular option, but I won’t give it serious consideration in this work. If you think about it, there are two basic ways to earn money:
(1) Make a social contribution, and receive payment commensurate with
the social value of your contribution.
(2) Take advantage of market inefficiencies to extract money without contributing any value.
Option (1) includes getting a job, running a business that provides products or services, reselling items with value added, or investing in any of these outlets. Option (2) includes reselling items without added value, gambling, mooching off others, crime, or investing in any of these.
Here’s another way of labeling these two strategies:
(i) Contribute.
(ii) Mooch.
Unless you have somehow opted out of the monetary system, you are using one or both of these two strategies right now. One strategy will likely be dominant in your life — either you are creating genuine social value and being paid for it, or you are mooching off the value created by others. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, to mooch means to get money, food, etc from someone else instead of paying for it yourself.
Note that contributing value is essential for the monetary system to survive and thrive, but mooching is not. The only way moochers can survive is by extracting value from the contributors. But ultimately someone must contribute, or there can be no value for the moochers to extract.
Incidentally, Ayn Rand wrote a fascinating novel titled Atlas Shrugged. In that book, he imagined what would happen if the world’s contributors left to form their own society, leaving the moochers to fend for themselves. The contributor society became a paradise, while the moocher society fell to pieces. Rand suggested that a system that rewarded moochers at the expense of contributors was evil and that contributors should be free to decide how their work is used (and whether or not they will support any moochers).
Some degree of mooching is to be expected. Children mooch off their parents. Those who are unable to contribute mooch off those who can. Whenever we enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor without paying for it, we are mooching. We all mooch off the hard work of our ancestors. But eventually we have to decide whether we are going to continue to mooch for the rest of our lives or begin making a genuine contribution. Will we remain moochers for life, or will we become contributors?
Obviously your life will include some contribution and some mooching, but what is your primary strategy for generating income today? Do you contribute social value? Or do you mooch off the value of other contributors?
Let us look at both possibilities.
The moocher mindset
Opting into mooch mode means you are extracting more social value than you are contributing. Your focus is on getting as opposed to giving, so you take more out of the system than you give back. The moocher mindset suggests you can always rely on others to pick up your slack. It is the mindset of unearned entitlement. Since you still need to extract value such as food, clothing, and shelter — value which others must provide for you – you live at the expense of others. Your burden may be shouldered by an individual such as a parent, or it may be shared by society at large, but either way you survive by suckling the social teat.
Sometimes mooching becomes so habitual it is easy to overlook. Many people who seemingly have contribution-based careers harbor an underlying moocher mindset. They aim to extract as much social value as possible while contributing as little as possible. They work to make money to the degree it is necessary, while mooching as much as they can get away with. Such people don’t have inspired careers because work is only seen as a means to an end, not an outlet for genuine contribution. Take a look around and see if you can identify the moochers in your life. Who is there to get rather than to give?
Another name for the moocher mindset is the scarcity mindset. Since you are not creating value of your own, the money you extract must come from someone else. It is a zero-sum game. Whatever you gain, someone else must lose.
The moocher mindset makes the attainment of financial abundance very difficult because in order to succeed financially with this mindset, you must embrace certain values that most people would consider negative. Your gain is someone else’s loss, so getting rich requires taking advantage of more people. In order to gain by mooching, someone else must cover your extraction with real value. So the more wealth you accumulate, the more you steal from others.
Most people cannot handle the thought of becoming wealthy at the expense of others, so usually the moocher mindset gives rise to self-sabotage instead. If you fall into this pattern, you will experience a love/hate relationship with money. On the one hand, you may want more money, but on the other hand, you may feel disinclined to make too much, since you know that the more money you get, the more someone else has to pay for it. For example, if you make a living as a professional gambler, then you know that the more you earn, the more money others have to lose… not the best motivation for a highly conscious person to achieve financial abundance.
Some people are able to bypass this problem of financial self-sabotage by lowering their consciousness. They learn to make money without rationally considering the consequences of how they are earning it. They invent justifications to explain their actions while keeping their conscience from getting in the way. Ultimately this is the mindset of criminals.
The more you align yourself with the moocher mindset, the more difficult it will be for you to experience financial abundance and remain conscious. Ultimately you have to choose one or the other: be conscious or be wealthy. You cannot have both if you subscribe to the moocher mindset. If you find yourself stuck at a certain level of income and unable to go any higher, an underlying moocher mindset is probably the culprit. This is the mindset that leads you to ask, “How can I get more money?” instead of, “How can I contribute more value?” It is also the mindset that says it is a bad idea to earn more money, since your gain is someone else’s pain.
The contributor mindset
Now let us consider the contributor mindset. This mindset recognizes that the best way to make money is to provide fair value in exchange. Create genuine social value, and receive payment commensurate with that value. Due to market inefficiencies, sometimes you will be underpaid, and sometimes you will be overpaid, but the basic idea is that you earn money by contributing.
If you want to earn income as a contributor, you must contribute social value, not personal value. Many would-be contributors get stuck on this concept. Personal value is whatever you say it is — you are free to decide what has value to you personally, and it doesn’t matter if no one agrees with you. Social value, however, is assigned by social consensus. If you believe your work has tremendous value, but virtually no one else does, then your work has high personal value but little or no social value. Here is the key point: your income depends on the social value of your work, not the personal value.
If you want to generate income from creative work, then your work must have social value. There is no getting around that. No social value, no income. If your skills and hard work are not in alignment with the creation of social value, then you will not be able to generate income as a contributor.
This is not an unfair system — it is just how the monetary system works. Since money is a social resource backed by social value, it makes sense that you would not get paid much for providing something of little or no social value. The saying “Find a need and fill it” certainly rings true, assuming we are referring to a social need or desire.
Another name for the contributor mindset is the abundance mindset. This mindset says that wealth can be created from ideas and action. Your gain is a reflection of the social gain you have contributed. If you want to earn a high income, you must contribute a lot of social value. The more social value you create, the more money you can earn. This is a win-win mindset because you are putting value into the system for the benefit of others.
Under the contributor mindset, you receive money as payment for your social service. The money you earn is society’s way of saying, “In exchange for your valued contribution, you are hereby granted the right to extract $X of value from society at a time of your choosing.” This is a beautiful thing!
The only real limit on your income is how much social value you can create. If you want to earn more money, then develop your skills and talents to facilitate the creation of lots of social value. The best way to increase your income is to figure out how to deliver more social value. Focus on giving, and the getting will largely take care of itself. The systems to reward social service are already in place, so all you need to do is plug your service into the existing marketplace.
Generating income from social contribution is a very positive experience. Consequently, it would not lower your conscience like the moocher mindset. With the contributor mindset, wealth and conscience are not in conflict. In fact, they synergize extremely well, especially if you reinvest some of your income into expanding your contribution.
If you adopt the contributor mindset, just be aware that members of the moocher mindset will sometimes mistakenly count you among them. As you work to increase your social contribution and thereby earn a higher income, moochers will project their values onto you, concluding you have become greedy and must be taking advantage of others for personal gain. Don’t let moochers dissuade you from your path though. Let your inspiration come from the desire to provide even more social value. It would be less honorable to withhold your value just because others misinterpret your motives.
Free contribution
Under the contributor model, you always have the option of making a contribution for free. You don’t have to receive the full social value for your work if you don’t want to.
I like having this option because it means I can make my work accessible even to those who cannot afford it. Money is social credit, so when you decline to receive money for your work, you decline the social credit you have earned. While it is perfectly fine to decline the social credit you have earned, be sure to consider what you could do with that social credit if you choose to receive it. Could you re-invest it to make a bigger or better contribution? If so, then paid work makes more sense than free work, since you can use the money to expand your mission and serve even more people. Money makes you more of who you already are, so if you are already a contributor, more money can allow you to expand your contribution.
You can also aim for a nice balance between paid work and free work. It does not have to be either-or.
Making money consciously
Contributing social value is the primary strategy for making money consciously, but by itself it is still not enough. The problem with social value is that your personal values won’t perfectly align with the social consensus. I am sure that if everyone on earth were like you, the demand for certain products and services would shift dramatically. For example, if everyone were like me, fresh fruits and vegetables would have even higher social value, while cigarettes would have none whatsoever.
When you attempt to provide social value without achieving congruence with your personal values, your motivation will be very weak. You would not be inspired because you will be doing what you feel you should do, but not what you want to do. Alternatively, when you attempt to satisfy your personal values without providing any real social value, you get the starving artist syndrome. You may be inspired by work that totally fulfills you, but it won’t pay the bills. Please don’t do this to yourself either. The solution is to find an area of overlap between your personal values and social values, and work within that area of overlap. This will allow you to do what you love and create something that others value as well. Don’t force yourself to choose between your integrity and your income — choose both!
Congruent contribution
Two simple realizations can help you achieve a congruent mindset about money and push beyond limiting financial beliefs. First, you must consciously adopt the contributor mindset and abandon the moocher mindset. And secondly, you must find a way to contribute social value while achieving alignment with your personal values. Once you have internalized those two mindsets, you will be in a position to generate abundant income while serving the greater good.
If you want to generate income without lowering your conscience, you have to get your limiting beliefs out of your way. Holding yourself back from earning more money does not serve anyone. Limiting your income only limits your contribution. The conscious reason to earn more money is that you can put those social credits to good use. Use them to expand your service to others. If you are living an honorable life, then it is a good thing for you to receive more money. You will be a good custodian for it. The more money that flows through your life, the more resources you can invest into your life purpose.
The Law of Demand and Supply in making money
It is important to note that you can also make money by using and applying the law of supply and demand to your advantage. Most of us are familiar with the law of supply and demand – the more supply, the cheaper the price; conversely, the rarer the product or service, the more expensive it is. However, we don't really apply the law of supply and demand to our own lives – particularly our careers. For example, if you are aspiring to do something that many, many other people want to do (so much so that they do it for free, as a hobby) then it will be far more challenging for you to make money doing it. On the other hand, if you do something that most people don't want to do, or if you get very good at doing something most people don't do all that well, then you can make a whole lot more money. The starting point is to adopt a positive earning mindset as discussed in this chapter. When you have the right earning mindset, you would begin to focus on how to create wealth consciously…..
To download the full version of this e-Book, please follow the following link: http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/how-to-make-money/7527170
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