Archives for November 2005

He never took a single psychology course as an undergraduate at Queens College. Initially rejected because he did not have enough background in psychology, he was accepted after he took six psychology courses at three different schools in New York. The American Psychological Association (APA) put Milgram’s membership application on hold when questions were raised about the validity of his research.

Yet he would go on to become one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century.

In what was dubbed as the “small world experiment”, he sent 60 letters to random volunteers in Wichita, Kansas and asked them to forward it to a person they had never met or heard about – they could pass on the letter to anyone they knew who they thought would be able to get the letter one step closer to the target, either directly or through “their” friend. It is said that those letters passed through an average of – you guessed it right, six people – to reach the destination.

This was the basis for his theory that any two random people in the U.S. were connected by an an average of just six people, famously called the “six degrees of separation”.

Stanley Milgram‘s research went on to note that not all the degrees were equal – that there was a “funneling” effect in place, whereby most of the letters eventually forwarded to the destination, were done so by the same few (2-3) people.

Author Malcolm Gladwell calls these people as “Connectors” in his book, The Tipping Point, which is based on the same “funneling” effect that Milgram talked about.

This theory later spawned movies, TV shows, games and even a now-extinct web site, sixdegrees.com .

“Small world” or not, we’re all truly connected – in many weird ways.

Otherwise, out of the 22+ million blogs, why would you be reading this post?

Imagine this:

You own a restaurant. You spend lots of time, money, brains and effort building up a brand and increasing sales and repeat sales. They like your food and service so much that they go out and tell all of their friends and family. Now the world comes knocking on your door, and wants to try your food.

So what do you do? Instead of showing them your menu, giving them the best possible service and serving them the tastiest food they’ve ever had, you now pull out business cards and flyers from all neighboring restaurants and fast-food centers, and tell your visitors where else they can go to get some food.

No, Wait!

Would you ever do that in a real-world business? Would you recommend your competitors and display their ads to your visitors as soon as they walked in to buy your products?

If it makes absolutely no sense in the real-world, how come it is common and acceptable online?

I subscribe to a large email-only forum called FrankelBiz, a list I highly recommend to expand your business network and get answers to many questions. I have had some tremendous successes in the past in getting information from other subscribers when I was stuck at something other than technology and programming (my primary skill).

Recently, the moderator recommended a 3rd-party service for conducting online meetings and presentations. So what did I see when I got there? A commercial web site, trying to sell a much wanted, help-yourself service, displaying Adsense ads with links to its competitors, on most of the pages!

So what is exactly is the message that the site owner is trying to convey?

• That the product being sold is not good enough, and so the owner is recommending the competitors to me?
• Is this an Adsense-optimized site designed just to draw users and then make money from clicks on ads?
• Or is the site owner genuinely clueless about conducting business?

Whatever the answer, the site lost all of its credibility in my eyes – and I was a highly targeted, pre-sold, ready-to-buy, potential customer!

The site may no longer get my business, but you may still want to check it out, at least to see how not to conduct business.

Just because it’s an e-Business, don’leave your brains behind when you go to work.

“He was called the Bayonne Bleeder for the punishment he took during his fights”, writes Tom Denelson of Inside Boxing.

“Chuck Wepner must have felt that the heavyweight championship was his as he saw Muhammad Ali go down as a result of a right hand to the chest. It was not to be as Ali staggered back to his feet and continued to batter the ‘Bayonne Bleeder’ and eventually stopping Wepner with but 19 seconds left in the fight”.

Wepner never won a major championship, but he did become immortalized in history in a way that no one – not even he – could have imagined.

On that fateful night, as Chuck Wepner came back to take blow after brutal blow from Ali, there was a young, impressionable and unknown Philadelphia resident watching on closed circuit TV.

Inspired by Wepner’s relentless comebacks, this young man went home that night and wrote the screenplay for what would become not only one of the greatest movies of all time, but also gave birth to arguably the greatest American icon.

The writer of this movie, would later go on to become hugely popular in hundreds of countries around the world, as the Italian Stallion – and thus “Rocky” was born!

“Wepner was what one would call ‘a catcher“, writes Tom, “a fighter who often used his head to block the other guy’s punches- not the kind of strategy that leads to long careers. Wepner actually began fighting after he left the Marines at the age of 24 and never truly learned the craft of boxing. At 6’5” and over 220 pounds, Wepner was a giant in his era and his style was plodding and awkward. He constantly pressured his opponent until he either won or was knocked out. He never truly cared how many shots he would absorb before landing the telling blow”.

Wepner was offered a choice by Stallone – receive $70,000 upfront, or 1% of the profits of a movie that was not yet made.

Wepner – who had never heard of Stallone – opted for cash upfront in lieu of unseen profits. And he lost over $8,000,000 (yes, 8 million dollars) as Rocky went on to make over $800 million in profits the world over.

Chuck Wepner is believed to have retired a rather poor, liquor salesman in Bayonne.

Stallone had an idea after watching Wepner that night. He could have gone home that night, drank beer, watched TV, and gone to bed. Instead, he was inspired and motivated enough to go beyond 32 previously-rejected scripts, to write his 33rd script, for the next three days.

Rocky was almost never made as producers went running because Stallone insisted that he play “Rocky Balboa” himself. Rocky was born because Stallone had initiative. Stallone was born because Stallone had initiative.

Ideas are not worth the paper they are written on, without initiative.

While I was growing up, my father used to say, “Opportunity is like a beautiful woman coming towards you very fast. She has long hair at the front of her head, and completely bald at the back. The only way to catch her is as she approaches you. Let her go past, and you will have nothing to catch her with”.

What will you do when opportunity strikes?

Will you be a Wepner? Or a Stallone?

If you are reading this post, you are among the lucky few in this world. We are lucky because we are aware. We want to do something. We want to be something.

We are lucky because we are surrounded by people who are content working for others all their lives, without ever giving a single thought about being able to be in control of their own lives – their own destiny.

Then there are those who don’t know what they want.

If at all they have the slightest clue as to what they want, then they are either too lazy to get off their behinds and do anything – or they think it’s impossible – or it’s too hard – or it’s too easy (so it must really be a scam) – or it’s too crazy – or it’s too plain – or it’s too over ambitious – or it’s too stupid.

There hasn’t been a single great idea that hasn’t been trashed by the “well wishers”. But that is why there was a Thomas Edison, a Alexander Graham Bell, a Marconi, the Wright Brothers, and a Michael Jordan.

If everyone had the same drive, the same inspiration, the same burning desire, the same hunger for success, then it would be the village of normal people. If you are 6 feet tall, you look tall only when you are surrounded by people less than 6 feet tall. If you are hanging out with professional Basketball players, then guess what – you are S-H-O-R-T!

“The size of the villain determines the size of the hero. Without Goliath, David is just a punk throwing rocks”, says Billy Crystal in the movie “My Giant”.

I am only 5’8 in real life – but I am a giant – in my mental strength, in creativity, in my passion, my ambition, my initiative, in action, in discipline, in perseverance, in awareness.

And I don’t need a Goliath to be a David.

My fears are my Goliath. And I have conquered my fears.

I’m now conquering my dreams – my “other” Goliath – one stone at a time, one day at a time.

How about you?

“Survival of the fittest” was Charles Darwin’s theory. Boy, am I glad the theory works, on many levels.

I was telling a friend – let’s call him Mr. “X” – about Robert Allen, the real estate mogul, who not only made and continues to make millions in real estate, but has trained and mentored average folks like you and me into making millions themselves. Robert Allen is one of the few geniuses so confident about his strategies, that just to prove that they work, he actually pulled a guy randomly out of the line at the unemployment office, and mentored him to make a deal worth a few hundred thousand dollars, in just a few days.

I was telling “X” how this was a good venue for making some good money if one were really interested and driven – maybe even enough to quit your day time job some day.

“X” was hardly impressed – he dismissed the idea of success in real estate by saying, “if it is so easy, then every one would be a millionaire”.

“That, my dear “X”, is the whole point”, I said.

I told him that those who are making tons of money in real estate are lucky to be surrounded by people like “X”. If every one took action and signed up for Bob Allen’s courses, and aggressively started going for the same piece of the real estate pie, then the business would no longer be that profitable, would it?

Here’s how people get filtered out in life:

Of the billions of people in this world…

• Only a few dream about being successful.
• Of those few, only a few ever get off their butt and ‘want’ to do something.
• Of those few, only a few actually get down to ‘actually’ doing something.
• Of those few, only a few actually learn how to do it right.
• Of those few, only a few do it with focus, without getting distracted.
• Of those few, only a few strive to go on till the end, without quitting too soon.
• Of those few, only a few go on to actually reach the ‘end’, and become successful.
• Of those few, only a few go on to maintain success for life.

Charles Darwin called it “Survival of the FITtest”. I call it “Surival of the ‘FEW’est”!

Regardless of whether it’s Bob Allen’s course, or some other Internet guru’s course, the few who remain standing at the very end, after life’s natural filtering process, are the ones that manage to achieve their dreams, live their dreams, and be everything they ever wanted to be.

Go on and be everything you’ve ever wanted to be.

No one is stopping you. No one can ever stop you – except yourself.