I am a fan of “true value” eBooks and software tools which can be used for your business (inside or outside Japan) from the get go.  So much material on the Internet is either sold or given away piecemeal.  Other tools or reference materials are far too difficult for the novice to use effectively.  Still other freebies are really just tip-of-the-iceberg appetizers of the full versions of a product, meant to entice you into becoming a paying customer.

My take on all these inducements is that about ten percent of them can help you in the here and now; while the rest of them are just bait or utter garbage to get your name, email address and other vitals in order to up-sell you again and again.  

Don’t get me wrong – I fully endorse good marketing strategies to build your online or offline business.  One such strategy is to get a targeted audience of people hungry to buy or use whatever your niche product or service may be again and again.  Any ethical bribe will do in order to get the fish – that’s you or me! – into the boat.

But once taken aboard, we must be fully responsible for and of service to our prospect…forever or until they leave us.  In this newsletter and on my website, I take your time and your desire to succeed quite seriously. 

The country I live in, Japan, has been my home for nearly 43 years.  I have met with and worked with people from every conceivable strata of Japanese society.  While it doesn’t make me an expert on Japanese culture, it does make me a catalyst for all aspiring marketers and entrepreneurs wishing to build a stronghold in this formidable culture.

On my website I  full-throttle try to deliver true value.  Notice I said value and didn’t say the free word.  There is a price to pay to set yourself off from the rabble.  If we don’t invest in ourselves, then why would anyone want to invest in us?  We are energy, good or bad.  The energy you will receive from me and the material I introduce to you is meant to wring the underachiever out of you and make you a smashing success. 

In each of my postings or alerts, I  will introduce doable or value-added products and ideas which I come across in my daily life.  I promise you some gems and perhaps a few duds, but if you read these articles regularly and start jogging your mind, surely you will find the million-dollar idea or plan you desperately want to find.  Stop being an opportunity ambulance chaser and start laser-focusing in on one idea, one concept, one market that you can lead in.  Build a system.

Stretch your mind every day.  Walk down different streets.  Talk to different people.  Look in different directions.  Vary your food choices.  Keep a journal.  Write down things which you want or need to have for a better, more fulfilling life.  Each morning pick up an object such as a comb and try to imagine how many possible uses there are for that comb (or whatever) other than its original purpose.  Find people who are chomping at the bit for success or have already achieved a modicum or more of it, and hang around with them.  Overcome shyness, one aggressive act at a time.

Though I am not a techie nerd by a long shot, I promise to provide vision and insights which you will not find elsewhere on the Worldwide Web.  This is going to be an exciting ride for all of us.  Let’s have a ball with, by and for Japan.

By Richard Posner

“I am convinced that there are universal currents of Divine Thought vibrating the ether everywhere and that any who can feel these vibrations is inspired.”      ~Richard Wagner~

If you have ever walked into a room, saw someone you didn’t like (for some ungodly reason), and immediately carried that feeling through your eyes and body language…you know the formula for defeat in human interactions.

Japanese are often labeled as being serious, humorless and silent because of shyness.  Some (or many) may show that superficial side in business in the same manner as a poker-faced gambler conceals a good hand, but most of the results in our life are a direct reflection of our thoughts before exchanging greetings and business cards.

In my humble estimation, there is not a single, non-brain-dead soul on this planet who doesn’t hunger for love and acceptance. 

Though many of us humans may put on airs to try to impress others or repel all but those sexually attractive to us, truly we waste a ton of energy not connecting because of fear of the unknown and unknowing eyes scanning us from head to toe.

Just the other day, I discovered something.  Even (or especially) a robotic cashier or waitress in a fast food establishment tires of looking at her cash register or of pouring coffee with no personality.  Each yearns to somehow be noticed while on the job.

One such young lady was pouring my coffee and I noticed her jade ring.  I said to her that jade is my favorite too and that jade makes me feel happy.  I smiled and said, “How about you?”  She smiled back and her soul lit up beside mine.

It’s those small acts of kindness that can turn around a person’s day.  And when their day is turned around, other people’s days can be turned around as well.  And the ball of good vibration rolls on and on.

Most impressions we have of people are right simply because other people feel and begin to react to our vibrations well before we utter a single syllable. 

A genuine smile – it takes practice for some of us – or a gesture of appreciation to another can instantaneously turn a snob from your viewpoint into an adoring, genial fan of yours.

Give this theory a whirl and see whether your life isn’t percolating within an hour.