Tag Archive | "Mercedez 280 SL"

International Internet Business Competition

Here is a really important point about international internet business and competition.

In a moment we’ll look at a Vilcabamba Ecuador house for sale.


First, let’s see why your business can be an also-ran and yet bring you wild success!

Also-ran is described as:

1. A horse that does not win, place, or show in a race.

2. A loser in a competition, as in an election.

3. One that has little talent or success: just an also-ran in the art world.

Most Westerners are raised in a highly competitive environment.  “Win at all costs” is a growing credo in society.

The conditioning “to achieve” spills over when we get into business. Many make the error of thinking that their business must be #1.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In The Kentucky Derby #1, #2 and #3 are all that count.  The Olympics award Gold, Silver and Bronze.  Everyone else is an also-ran.

In business you can finish 100th and be wildly successful.

In fact the day I produced this message, our website ranked (in terms of reach) 24,604th in the US and 10,012th in Canada.

We could hardly be happier. In fact I am not sure we could handle a faster growth rate.

A successful business requires a balance between three parties… the owners (us)… the customer… you and… the bank. The company must be profitable.

A small business dominated by many, much larger firms can still do well…. make millions in fact.

This is why we are sending you free lessons in internet marketing. Here is the third lesson.

Live Below Your Means

There is a caveat. For your business to remain balanced it (and you) must live within your means.

Most businesses have ups and downs and many inexperienced business people who meet with their  first success, spend it!  They have not learned how to survive sudden wealth.

I learned this lesson, the hard way, as a young executive, (just 25 years old).   My first job abroad was working for a new company in a hot sector.  I was the firm’s eighth employee.

My compensation included a stock option for 50,000 shares at a dollar each.  Within a couple of years the company had grown to 2,000 employees and the company  went public.   The shares were issued to the public at $20 a share.  At 25 I was already a millionaire and those were the days when you could buy more than a house for a million dollars! In fact a million then was worth about $12 to $15 million now.

I had not learned to save, lock in profits or to live below my means. My monthly salary was $750 a month so this wealth was bewildering. I bought everything I could, a new Mercedez 280 SL, a new house and I ran up some nice credit card bills.

Then the stock market collapsed. The sudden drop caused a run on the shares of the company I worked for and it with many similar firms collapsed. The entire industry tanked and the company went broke. I ended up unemployed, with no money and a lot of debt. My stock options weren’t worth the paper they were printed on.

The moral…when you make money, do not spend it all.

Most wealthy people receive their income in spurts. We saw this process regularly during the internet craze. Executives left proven fields to begin bold new startups and in an instant became billionaires!

My experience suggests that sudden financial success creates disaster as often as not.  Recipients of sudden cash make one of two mistakes.

The first mistake is to believe this is the only time there will be such an influx of cash. This tightens a person, so they can’t enjoy spending. They become afraid. Life becomes filled with paranoia. Unhappiness sets in. If money doesn’t make life better, what’s the use?

The other mistake is to think that these large chunks of cash will come easily again and again without worry or working. This thinking creates unrealistic lifestyles and work ethics that lead to disaster.

I first observed this ironic fact while living in England. A happy, financially responsible middle class family won millions in the lottery. Just a few short years after reaping this spurt of cash through supposed good luck, the husband and wife were bankrupt, divorced and no longer speaking to their kids.

I have seen example after example, of people, who received a sudden chunk of income made very unhappy by this large inflow of wealth. This is why it is a risky time when investors make a big sudden profit. The proud owner of new found wealth, buys new cars, houses and becomes very spendy. He creates overhead and debt. If there is a single reversal, everything is lost.

How much is a big hit anyway? One measure is a ten times increase in wealth. This normally is enough to make a significant difference in a person’s life. For someone with a thousand dollars in the bank, $10,000 seems like a lot. The extra money can make a difference. For someone who already has a million dollars, another million doesn’t make such a significant shift. Ten million does.

The reason spurts of profit create problems is because they disrupt our discipline. Money is discipline and our financial affairs have some form of economic routine, either self imposed or not.

We have a set of mental standards that makes us think, “I can afford this, but can’t have that”, etc. Spurts of wealth demolish these standards. Suddenly we can have many things we previously could not. We become, once again, kids in the proverbial candy shop.

Yet much of the Western world spends their lives trying to become and stay independently rich. If succeeding in this process can ruin happiness, what can we do?

First, realize that independent, permanent never-ending, fearless wealth is a process, (not a state) of a continual series of reasonable risks, mistakes, refinements, lessons and actions that culminate in getting it right. When success arrives, there is a huge income (or capital) spurt.

Understand that this is not the only time you can make a huge wad of cash.

Impose discipline. Here is a simple formula.

First, eliminate debt.

When Merri and I bought our house in Naples, we had what we thought was a large mortgage.

We bought a white board and wrote the mortgage amount on it.  Each week we paid whatever was left in our bank accounts on that mortgage and marked the new reduced balanced.  That became our weekly entertainment… paying down the mortgage rather than going to movies or dining out!  This weekly habit never took any money from us that we missed, and yet it gave us in 1 1/2 years total freedom from debt.

Second, trim overheads so they are less than income.

Third,  if you receive a large profit for the first time, immediately spend ten percent of the new money on your dreams. Buy, the Porsche. Take the world cruise. Build the new eight bedroom house. Do whatever you want that does not cost more than ten percent.

Second, give ten percent to a worthy charity. Take a little time, find a need in this world you feel really should be filled and truly give the ten percent away. Third, invest the remaining eighty percent very conservatively. Use the PIEC Everlasting Wealth system.

When we sold our house in Florida for an excellent profit,  we spent 10% to take a year off.

We gave 10% to help Ecuador’s poor.

We bought our farm and lived in a Coleman tent while we fixed up one of the old farm houses located on the farm.

internet - business

Next we turned this old barn into a guest suite, all…

internet - business

with cash flow. We did not touch our saved capital.

Next we built our farm office…


and deep woods spa.

internet - business

Finally we built (over three plus years) our dream house in the woods… again all…

internet - business

with cash flow and without touching capital.

Manage Wealth Conservatively

Hire a good, conservative investment manager such as Jyske Bank or for Americans Jyske Global Asset Managers.

This steady, low leverage approach may slow the overall amount of wealth you build… but what you have will be more stable… less stressful and  safer wealth.

Low Cost Ecuador

One reason Ecuador has become so popular is that the low costs make it easier to live below your means.


See this Vilcabamba Ecuador house for sale.

Finally be grateful every day, not for any lump of cash, but for the fact that even with a modest also-ran business and personal financial discipline you can enjoy wild success!






See details of the two seminar below.

Delegates at our Ecuador seminars and tours enjoy Ecuador music.



Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina


Sept. 17-21 Ecuador Super Thinking + Spanish Course

Sept. 23-24 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 25-28 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour


Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Tour

Oct. 25-26 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador Seminar

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

