Archive for the 'Conferences' Category
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To continue writing about the “Get Rich” seminar that I attended in Atlanta, I’d like to give some of my thoughts about “get rich” types of seminars. At the seminar, a nice gentleman whom I met at the beginning of the seminar came over to me during a break and asked me what I thought about the seminar so far. This is what I told him:
All of these free seminars are the same. There is no such thing as a free lunch and these seminars are no different. The goal of any of these seminars is to get people interested enough in what they have to say to sign up for their really expensive full day or weekend seminar/workshop where they will learn everything that they need to know to get rich. To get people interested, they give over a few facts or pieces of information for people to see that there is something to it and then they offer a lot of fluff and a lot of motivation. The motivation that they offer is partly to get people excited about their potential, possibilities and opportunities but mostly to get them to come to their paid seminar.
They convince people that if they come to their paid seminars and workshops that they will have everything that they need to make it rich but the truth is that all they will get at these paid seminars will be a few more facts, a lot more fluff and some more motivation. At that point, the speakers will offer more of their expensive services such a coach who will send them deals and walk them through each step to make them rich.
In these cases, the only people getting rich are the speakers who are charging for their motivation disguised as promises to get rich. They continue to promote their services and encourage people to continue paying them for more and more. As I see it, the only real value that these seminars offer is a kick in the pants. I mean that in a good way though. To get lucky and rich, you must be motivated and go after opportunities. Just by going to one of these seminars, people get motivated and the lucky ones, take that motivation and turn it into luckortunity. They use what they learn, research what they still need to learn, network and move full force ahead to get rich. The unlucky ones don’t see the opportunity at their fingertips so they sign up for the next class and keep coming back until they either give up or see the light.
Each seminar is a kick in the pants to wake up and do something for yourself. Some people need that kick, some people need a few kicks before they start moving. But if you want it enough, one of the kicks will eventually work. I needed a couple myself.
If you can kick yourself in the pants, you may be saving yourself a lot of time and money. So go ahead, kick yourself into action, get motivated, get lucky and get rich.
On a side note, there are two things I do like about these seminars. One is that they are an extra place to get out of your routine, see new things, network and get lucky. The other is that however little information they do give for free, it is still something and you can always learn something even if you’ve heard the same thing 100 times already.
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April 15 2008 | Advice and Conferences | 2 Comments »
In my last article I mentioned that I was at a “get rich” seminar in Atlanta. One thing that the speaker repeated over and over was that now is the only chance to capitalize on the foreclosure market. They said it has never been like this before and it never will be like it again. They said that there is a 2-4 year window that we can take advantage of and if we don’t, we will never have an opportunity like it again. If they want to get rich, now is their only chance.
They may be right that the foreclose market has never been like this before and will never be like this again but I don’t agree that this is their only window to get rich. Over the years, decades and centuries, we have seen many people get rich. Some got rich in real estate, some in the stock market, some with their own businesses and some in completely different ways. The speakers at the seminar tried convincing everyone that it is now or never but the truth is that opportunities to get rich are all around us and always will be around us.
There are some people that walk around complaining that if they only bought that stock when they were thinking about it, they would never have to work again in their life. Pretty much anyone who thought about buying a house many years ago looks back at what they would have paid for it and what it is worth today and wishes that they would have made the purchase. These same people today say that it is too late and everything is too expensive now to make it big or make a nice profit.
The truth is that opportunities are all around us and if the foreclose window closes, another window will open. The trick is, never get stuck in the past and blame yourself for not moving because it will do you no good. You just have to make sure that you don’t get stuck in the present by not doing anything. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “the best thing to do is the right thing, the next best thing to do is the wrong thing and the worst thing we can do is nothing.” Don’t feel that you have to jump on an opportunity just because someone tells you that it will never happen again and now is your chance, but also, don’t feel that you can just let life pass you by without doing anything because then you really will lose.
Lucky people find something that they like, look for opportunities and jump on those and that is how they get rich. If it is right, they will win by profiting, if it is wrong, they will win with experience but if they do nothing, they will for sure lose.
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April 14 2008 | Advice and Conferences | No Comments »
I just got back from Atlanta, GA where I was working at a tradeshow that my company produces. The show took place at the Georgia International Convention Center by the Atlanta International Airport. As always, wherever I go, I look for opportunities to get lucky by wandering around and paying attention to what is going on around me, especially in new environments.
The convention center is a big place and when I had some free time, I decided to walk from one end of the center to the other to see what other conventions were taking place while I was there. It just so happened that once of the conventions taking place was a free “Get Rich” Seminar. Although I believe that most of these “free” get rich seminars are just commercials for a paid service or seminar, I also believe that you can always learn something in every environment. If I read a book 10 times, I will usually learn something new each time. Sometimes it is something I missed, sometimes it is a better understanding of a topic and sometimes it is just a refresher of one of the topics that is not constantly at the top of my head. That being said, I decided to attend the seminar during my free time. I was in and out of the seminar all day going back and forth between my tradeshow and this seminar.
By the end of the day, I didn’t learn much that I didn’t already know but I did have many ideas come to me while listening to the speakers. Many of the things that the speakers said triggered something in my brain that started a flow of ideas for my blog, my business, my life and my future.
I have been interested in starting to invest in real estate for a while now and one of the speakers happened to speak about real estate. He mentioned many different ways to make money in real estate such as the regular foreclosures, REOs (real estate owned), tax liens and some others. Although he mostly gave teasers to what we will learn in the paid seminar that they were promoting, I did pick up enough information to do some research on my own. That brings me to my next point, the gift of Google. Google can be one of your best friends in the world. Anything that you don’t know, Google can teach you. Just type it in and he will give you thousands of answers and explanations. This past week I stumbled upon a site that made me laugh called www.justfuckinggoogleit.com. On the site there is a picture of Bart Simpson in front of the famous blackboard and he is writing over and over “I will use Google before asking dumb questions” and underneath it says:
Someone thinks you are an idiot because you were too stupid to check Google before asking a question. They gave you a link to this site as a joke. The fact that you followed it pretty much proves the point.
It is true. Although I am a strong believer in asking questions until you understand everything, we are blessed with resources such as Google which can answer our questions for us, give us more questions and answer them too.
My next few posts will be about what I learned or took from the seminar as well as how to research a topic online.
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April 10 2008 | Advice and Conferences | No Comments »
For my sixth post on how to get lucky and increase your luckortunity, I am going to suggest going to a convention of 
some sort on a topic of interest. I cannot explain the amount of luckortunity that is just floating around at every convention or conference, seminar, tradeshow, other similar event. It is a short period of time where tens to hundreds to thousands of people gather in one area with a common interest. No matter what it is, you will be able to find some sort of event for your topic. Some might be easy to find locally such as small business seminars, others you might have to fly out to the convention capital, Las Vegas for such as the Swizzle Stick convention and some you might be able to find somewhere in between. A quick Google search will help you out.
Almost anyone you ask that has been to a convention will tell you that at they experienced what is called a “conference high”. You get to spend a good chunk of time doing nothing but networking with people that have the same interest as you, many of whom are in the industry, listening to some of the top speakers on the subject and seeing what is new in the industry. The conference leaves you supercharged with all sorts of energy and ideas, not to mention the contacts you made and the pockets full of business cards.
If you have a true interest in the topic, your mind will overflow with new information, new ideas and new practices. Once again, this convention must be on a topic of your interest. If you go to a tradeshow for work and are only there because you need to be there, you will not have the same experience. That is why I am suggesting taking a topic that you would enjoy even in your spare time and find the show to go to. It could be a comic book convention, a hacker’s convention, an advertising convention or a convention on one of a million other topics. There are many shows over weekends that you can go to. I would even suggest planning a vacation around your favorite convention because what you get out of it will be priceless.
Just make sure that when you leave the conference, you take something with you to keep the conference high going. That is where luckortunity comes into play. The convention will give you all of the opportunities; your job is to open up your eyes and see them, take them home and then follow up on them. This could mean getting more involved in one of your hobbies, getting a job through a show contact in an area or company that you are interested in or even pushing yourself to turn your interest into your own business based on ideas that you came up with or took interest in while you were there.
The most important thing to remember is that Luckortunity is what you make of it. Just like the apple orchard that Professor Wiseman speaks of, going to a convention is like finding an area with baskets filled with the best apples. You have to take those apples back with you if you want them to mean anything.
Previous Posts in this Series: 10 Ways to Increase your Luck.
- Increase Your Luck by Taking a Different Route to Work
- Don’t listen to your Mother, Speak to Strangers!
- StumbleUpon the Greatest Luckortunity, the Cure for Boredom
- Blog to the Future
- Luck is Risky Business
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January 02 2008 | Conferences | 1 Comment »
