I read everything you write, because the first thing I read from you felt like you we’re channeling me. I agree with you on most everything, including this. However, I want to make a couple of points.

There are many degrees of people and products that can and in many cases are useful to others. I don’t believe we can speak in absolutes when it comes to a person who is looking for opportunity.

Yes, there are many, many people in the world who simply exist to take advantage of other people. Those victims don’t see it coming because they desperately want to believe.

Many people, okay most of the people we might talk to, want it bad and they want it now. There are a lot of people who are willing to go through some of the crap to get to the gold.

I know much of what I have learned to do and what not do has come from others before me. I have been victim to the hype and BS thrown out by a lot of marketers, companies and organizations who say and preach they have my best interests at heart. But I am a realist. I know they are using what they know and what they have learned to create a business designed to make a profit.

Most of us do the same thing. Once we learn more of what we can do we hopefully get better at what we do. I believe it all comes down to our personal integrity. I operate my business with three major ideals. 1) Do what’s right. 2) Do what makes sense. 3) Make yourself easy to do business with. Along with a foundation of the Golden Rule that’s I how operate.

That’s not to say I don’t have issues or don’t make mistakes. I am a smart guy, but far from perfect. Last year I purchased a web design company with exceptional talent (one of our designers had computer graphics in three blockbuster motion pictures in the last 16 months), but the previous owner had taken short cuts and created so much bad will we couldn’t use the name and had to start building a new brand.

Still I knew it was a great opportunity knowing what I know and what I believed I could make it a great success and do great work for the existing 267 clients and for future customers.

I am now in more debt than I have been in the last 15 years and there is a lot of work that needs to be done to make this company as profitable as I would like to be. But I am using this company, staff and resources as a foundation to do other projects.

I would not have taken this risk had I not seen what other people have been able to do by just taking action. I think many of us out here have to understand there is no quick fix or magic bullet, but there are things, people, products, seminars, etc., that can get us to the next point.

I am another one of those people who do coaching, but I am under the radar with mine. I work with people who are intelligent enough to know they need to learn more and I happen to have some of the knowledge they need. I also have the ability and the desire to guide someone over the rough spots or past the mistakes that nearly every one makes if they don’t know where the mistakes are.

I have clients who will only do so much because of time constraints, financial resources or belief. I try to equip them each with the possibility of what’s they can achieve without filling their head with pipe dreams. One of my clients is a soon to be 90 year man who is brilliant engineer. Most of his peers are either dead or have forgotten him and their own ideas. He is still going strong with an idea that could be the next phase of social networking for education. It’s a brilliant concept, but it needs work, clarity and someone else to help him guide his passion. I got chosen from a small field of individuals.

I am helping him pursue a dream he has had for the last ten years and one that most people had written off. He is more excited than he has been in years, because someone was willing to listen to him.

Everyone one of us has dreams and desires to pursue the ideas in our head. Many of us need other people to help us along the way. For me many of the marketers I’ve met, purchased products from, or have been guided by have good intentions.

The people that don’t grow emotionally beyond the idea of creating the next product they can sell to their list are the ones I don’t have time for. I could have been one of those people. I did a presentation at business opportunity seminar and created over $65,000 in sales. It scared me because the people I sold to were the people we’ve been talking about. I quickly discovered that most of them would never do what they needed to do to even create a modicum of success with my project.

Most people are sheep. They want everything now. They want it cheap, they don’t want to learn and they don’t want to be told they can’t have it. Therein lies the battle every company has to face. Do we sell products to people we know will never use them the way we intended them to.

Use an author as an example. Statistically, most people read past page 14 of any book they buy. That fact comes from several publishing organization. The figure is years old, but a fact nonetheless. Do we as authors stop writing for those who will read because we know most people who decide to buy our book won’t read it? Of course not.

When we decide to create we don’t wonder whether or not most people who might buy our product won’t take advantage or our effort or knowledge. If we did it would stop us dead in our tracks. No, we create because we believe we have something of value. Period. Of course, it won’t be the exact amount of value to all persons, but there is value in what we are doing. We believe we can help some of the people. Those that want our help, our knowledge and experience.

No, we create because we have the passion and the intention to create something that will make life a little better for all who we encounter with it. My friend Robert Imbriale share something with me a few years ago. He said we must think of ourselves like waiters in a restaurant. Those who create the meal must do so with integrity and desire to serve up a great dining experience if they are to stay in and grow their business. The decision to dine at that restaurant is solely on the person who wants to eat. The waiter should not feel guilty if the person decides to eat only half of the meal.

They may not be the best analogy, but my point is this. We all learn at different levels and have different levels of expectation in everything we do and want.

Rich has brought us incredible food for thought. Many of us will take what he has learned and shared with a grain of salt and many of us will digest it like a five star meal. But his information is only part of the puzzle of action, determination and results we hope to figure out. Our self esteem, self awareness and personal desire are all major factors. We can’t grow as a person and as a success in what we do if we spend so much time complaining about what others do us.

Some people get taken. Some more than others. Each of us can only do what’s right for ourselves. We can’t be our brothers keeper for everyone. Some people don’t want the help. But if enough of us do what’s right I believe it will affect a lot more us.

I’ve been working on a book that focuses on helping people using the Internet and the technology we can now all have access to, to make better income decisions in our lives individually. I’ve been nervous about putting it out during the climate of crap products, low integrity marketers and pie sky business opportunities.

With Rich’s help I’ve determined that much of this is never going away and with the right attitude, true passion and great direction, every one of us has the choice to do what’s best for our customers and company.

Every relationship has the potential to lead us to even greater, more prosperous relationships. Some relationships we make will be long-lasting and more profitable than we could we possibly imagine. Knowing that why in the world would be want to do anything to jeopardize our future?

Wow, you guys really do need to just chill out!

You’re spending way too much negative energy focusing on points that Rich isn’t even talking about.

You’d be far better placed ‘putting some action’ into your goals and objectives instead of spending the next hour ‘penning’ a clever response.

“Move on – There is NOTHING to see here!”

Thanks for your time and energy Rich,… as ever!

Have a Merry Xmas and a Great 2008 one and all!

P.S. Yes, even you negs can have a Great 2008 if you learn to appreciate what you’ve got as well as the help others are trying to offer you for FREE! (i.e. Rich Schefren!) – Nuff said!

If the student doesn’t follow in the master’s footsteps, then shoot the master right? What a load of crap, responsibility rests with the individual, not their parents, teachers, police department, coaches.

If anybody has a problem with Mike F., then speak to him personally, don’t run around attacking anybody that says anything nice about the guy. To those who complained about Mike F., step down off your soap boxes, give Mike a call, have a good cry, whine, bitch then… get on with your own business.

Sam, Stop trying to get everybody over to read your ‘rebuttal..line for line’. Maybe consider a different form of driving traffic, like press releases etc. While you’re entitled to your opinion, what everybody ‘needs to do’ is up to them, not you. If I liked my dog yesterday and don’t like it today, that’s my business and I have every right to change my mind at any time without your approval.

We all get fleeced online/offline from time to time, it’s part of the learning process. (Check out your local department store). It doesn’t always follow that everyone is a crook because you feel that you didn’t get value for money.

Sure there is a lot of crap, but we don’t always know the good until we see the bad. Get a refund where possible, learn from the experience, make sure your own IM efforts are ’squeaky clean’ and lead by example.

If you don’t agree with Rich or anybody, that’s fine but don’t attack the guy because he likes Mike F., his brother-in-law’s next door neighbor’s cat, strawberry ice cream or students who handle their business in ways that he either never did or perhaps no longer agrees with, whatever the case may be.

GetALife

You all bitch here about Rich leaning one way or another. Then you talk shit about Mike F. as if you have never tried any of the same tactics he uses.

See the problem is this. Rich and Mike have been successful and you other losers haven’t. Who cares what kind of “tactics” Rich or Mike use. The bottom-line is they use them well and you could learn something.

Shut your whiny pie-holes and open your eyes. You might actually learn something from people who have been successful at this IM game you all keeping chasing your shadows in.

My point is this: Don’t judge a book until you have read it.

Mike