Also, It’s probably an amazing feeling to finally accomplish your goal after 25 years, isn’t it?

Happiness has always been my goal. I have a life I love, great children and grandchildren. Just moved to AZ from MI (our dream for 25 years) and have been happily married for 37 years.

One daughter works for the airlines which allows us to travel for free when we want. My husband sold his accounting biz before we moved. We still own a cottage in MI.

I have several friends that are millionaires and the older they become the crazier they get about their money. They constantly obssess over how they are going to keep it. The stock market being like it is their fears have become their reality.

Yes there are thousands of entrepreneurs who make a difference, I know. Most people don’t work their asses off to “make a difference”. It’s usually a front. People want money and you can’t blame them for doing so. Hey I want to make a difference in this world by touching them emotionally through acting. I also want to be rich and famous. Me being rich and famous will allow me to do more good and make a bigger impact.

The CEO guy made some bad choices that led him his current path. Currently, he has thousands of people inquiring his leadership skills and whatever other skills he has right now.

Is that a fact? People with money can make a bigger (no sure for better) difference – it’s hard to argue that. It’s completely different question whether the difference will be for better or for worse.

There are thousands of examples for entrepreneurs starting from ground zero chasing their dream of transforming the world into a better place and getting really successful (VCs usually fund really good ideas), while I can’t think of anyone who went big, because he just wanted a million bucks. Again, it’s the signal of intent which matters.

Why a guy with such skills to solve “so important” real problems would get involved into the pizza delivery business? Don’t blame the crisis for that, please – the crisis is on a global scale. The obvious reason is that no one needs his “skill”, or most probably his “skill” has nothing to do with reality. Anyway, there is not enough information on the topic, so this is just a speculation.

“…when you lack the skill, you’re getting from CEO to pizza delivery guy. And there will be a lot more success stories like this.”

What? He does not lack skill. A self made going from 0-750k by working his @$$ off does not lack skill.

I know for sure he will get on top again.

The level you’re talking about is money, authority and prestige, but when you’re incompetent, when you lack the skill, you’re getting from CEO to pizza delivery guy. And there will be a lot more success stories like this.

AJ, you’re right, it’s just the semantics I’ve assigned to the word ‘crap’ in my mind. And the semantics go something like:

“Crap is Everything that is turned into consumable when there is no actual or rational need for it. But also Crap is All of the efforts to turn everything into consumer of the above mentioned consumables.”

If you think about this definition, you’ll find inside the essence of the current state of affairs. When people want to get to the next level and they lack the skill and they’re not competent enough to solve real problems and to fulfill real needs, they start “inventing” products and services of imaginary value. Then they need to persuade people to turn them into consumers of their products.

I really like your article, but you’ve picked the wrong examples, with the wrong signal of intent. Which is the more productive signal of intent?

1. My intent is to make a million bucks.
2. My intent is to make things better for people.

All I’m saying is that following 1, does not imply skill and competence and usually does not improve people’s life, while 2 can make you a millionaire and at the same time change the world for better.

There are million ways to become a millionaire, as there are millions of unsolved real problems. Instead of searching for an easy way to become rich, start digging into real problems. This is my point!

I never claimed that the antenna ball guy ‘invented’ e-commerce. What I’m saying is that it is examples like his that made it possible for people sell practically everything on the internet (i.e. fertilizer!)

You keep referencing them to ‘crap’, which is unnecessary. That guy provides a good which people apparently are interested in. Regardless to whether or not he’s helping the world, he became a self made millionaire. Vladimir, it does not matter how you do it (ethically/legally of course).

Why would you speak so negatively of a person’s success?

There are definitely more relevant and important things to solve in this world… That’s obvious. What’s your point? People need to make money. Many people want to live successful lives, drive fancy cars, etc. They do whatever it takes to get to that level.

Again, do the things others wont do and you’ll have the things others wont have.

**legally and ethically**

If you can sell antenna balls online and make a million bucks, good for you. If you can make a difference in the world by convincing millions of people to turn off their lights for an hour every week, then good for you…

Vladimir, I get what your saying, but you shouldn’t call someone’s good idea crap, just because they made lots of money on something irrelevant to you or to helping the world in general.

1992: J.H. Snider and Terra Ziporyn publish Future Shop: How New Technologies Will Change the Way We Shop and What We Buy. St. Martin’s Press. ISBN 0312063598.

With antenna balls or without them the world of e-commerce would be no different. Why you’re talking about things as they don’t have an absolute value – as there is no way to measure their utility, their cultural, social and environmental impact? GET REAL, not everything is relative!

Every single thing needs resources to be produced. And as we live on the same planet, we share the same capacity of resources and they are not infinite in quantity. So we have to be more responsible in the way we use them.

At the same time there are numerous problems to be solved (far more important than antenna balls and similar crap) – if you give each person a real problem to solve, there would still be problems in the bag. But solving real problems requires SKILL and COMPETENCE. Choosing to fight real problems instead of creating imaginary needs is what I call RESPONSIBILITY. RESPONSIBILITY goes hand in hand with RESPECT.

And my name is Vladimir, not Vladamir (can’t even imagine how you pronounce Vladamir) – LOL.

“do the things others wont do and you’ll have the things others wont have”

Of course thousands got richer! Look at all the various random online stores now available. You can buy almost anything online!!

I know success isn’t= to money, but to society, success is almost always determined by money.
Even if you do not consider themselves to be personally successful, you got to admit their business model was.

Yes I am 23 and have MUCH MORE to experience, there is not doubt about it. And yes I do understands the “theory” of the 10 -year rule and I agree with it. I no where claimed I am an expert or a master, but I do practice what I preach, and share my results.

The point of spending the time I did behind the scenes of the personal development industry is that it gave me the insight of what the average adult takes many many many years to understand, in just a couple.

“… opened up the doors for thousands of people all over the world to be successful too…”

Million dollars does not equals success. And I really doubt that thousands got richer, because of those guys “brilliance”. Most probably thousands got to spent their time and money realizing stupid ideas like theirs and end up broken in time of crisis.

“Not to be boastful, I believe my blog to be of more than “some value””

AJ, I really enjoy your blog, but you’re just 23 and you’ve spent, what… “more than half a decade ” in the industry, which is… face it, it’s 5 years and a day. It usually takes at least 10 years to get really good at your “craft”, so the time is all ahead of you. I’m confident you’ll get really really good at what you do and I’m looking forward to see you in a movie or in a TV series.

The primary tools of our culture are money, authority and prestige, while it should be COMPETENCE, SKILL and RESPECT. The latter three usually take longer than the first three. What do you think about this?