Friday, March 16, 2007

How to Treat a Hero...

How to Treat a Hero...

The other day, a Canadian soldier came home from Afghanistan. This is a guy who joined the Armed Forces of his own free will as a volunteer so he could go to Afghanistan to help the people there rebuild a country that has been devastated by years and years of war. 

If you have any illusions about how much that country has been damaged, do a Google search on Kabul, the capital. In the 1960s, it was a beautiful, modern city. Now, Kabul, like most of the country, lies in ruins. (See http://www.afghan-network.net/Photography/kabul/ )   

Smiling Afghan Children

The Canadian soldier I'm talking about went to that country to try to help the people rebuild and live in peace. It's such a mess there that school children take their lives in their hands just by going to school (the Taliban do not like education and are especially opposed to females getting an education of any kind.) 

Kids in many areas go to schools that are only partially destroyed, but have to put up with no heat, no electricity, and no place to plug in computers - something that we take for granted here in North America. 

 After facing the enemy, both visible and invisible, for long months during his tour of duty, this brave soldier came home to his home town, still in good shape, having been one of the favoured ones who wasn't shot up or blown up in an ambush. 

He went to a local pub to see his friends, was hailed as a hero when he walked in the doors, and then was severely beaten by some low-life jerk who hasn't got the guts to do what this soldier has already done, and ended up in the hospital with head injuries, broken teeth and a lot of bruises. Fortunately, he's out of the hospital now, and recovering nicely. 

What's the matter with our world? What's the matter with Canada and the US, that we would treat our soldiers so badly when they come home? People in both countries are screaming at our leaders to bring our soldiers home, treat our soldiers like garbage, and don't really give a blip about the suffering thousands and millions in those faraway countries. 

Oh, they'll tell you they do. They'll say it's all about oil, and if our leaders would just stay out of it and bring our soldiers home, all the troubles would be over. 

Bull..... The people in Afghanistan, Iraq, and many other countries don't have the luxury of even knowing if the lights are going to be on when they wake up. The enemy, be it the Taliban, el Queda, or whoever, do not understand the concept of passivism. To them, those who will not fight are weak, and deserve to be conquered, molested at will, and killed for sport. 

 Anyone who thinks otherwise has not paid any attention to the news and photographs from the last 40 years, and certainly has NO understanding of history from that part of the world. Peace has been an extremely rare commodity over there, and has only been possible when very strong leaders have been there who are backed by other very strong countries (like the US and NATO forces).  

Our soldiers who are fighting in these "far-off" lands are heroes and deserve to be treated as such. What they are doing "over there" is not simply "interfering" in someone else's business, but it is a huge humanitarian challenge and ultimately, is protecting our own freedom over here. 

Those who spit on our returning soldiers or worse are the first ones who would start screaming for the soldiers to protect them if the battles came over here. My personal feelings would be to send them out first to try to make peace. Then, when the pile of bodies gets high enough, the rest of us would have a place to lay our rifles when we start to shoot. 

Call me callous. Call me mean. Heck, call me a warmonger! I don't care. I call myself a realist, and have studied history and modern history far more than the average head up the tail ignoramuses that march in peace parades, and I think I know which end is really up. 

I don't like or support war, but when the war comes, I know that doing nothing is the best way to get shot. I applaud our brave soldiers and give them all the support I can. We should support our soldiers and we should welcome them home as heroes. 

We should also pray for an end to violence and for peace in the hearts of men. Peace doesn't come from parades. It comes in hearts, one at a time, from above.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Hype Sucks!

Hype Sucks!

Hype really sucks! It sucks money out of the pockets of honest people trying to make an honest living on the Internet. 

There are thousands of scams being run on the Internet right now, and hundreds of products available that do not produce income the way they promise to. Every day, hundreds of people go online for the first time, looking for the fortune the new commerce has been promising. They are inundated with programs that will make them rich, being told that all they have to do is build a free website, plaster up a bunch of banners, and then sit back and collect their fortune. 

Empty Wallet

After a short time, reality begins to sink in. The hit counter is not moving. No one can find them. Having a website on the Internet is kind of like having a store at the North Pole. Nobody knows you're there! 

The next step in the online business odyssey is website promotion. Soon, you are spending all your time joining every banner and click program available, then spending countless hours clicking through one banner-plastered, slow-loading site after another. The result..........? No sales. 

The next step is to go looking for better affiliate programs that offer better products that everyone wants to buy. You put up more banners and take down some, and keep clicking.... clicking... clicking... And still no sales. 

Here is where things really begin to suck, and I mean to literally suck YOUR wallet dry. You either click through to a flashy "How to Make a Million Bucks Overnight" site or get something similar in your email. After reading for fifteen minutes, you still don't know who's behind the program or what the product is, but you are promised that you will get rich and that you are saving hundreds and hundreds of dollars by buying NOW! 

Hype does sell. That is why you see so much of it. But most of the expensive programs promising to make you rich simply make their promoters rich. 

My basic rule of thumb is this: If the program costs more than dinner and a movie, and your online profits won't cover the cost, then don't go there. Learn how to market online first. Then you will be making money, and will be far more able to recognize a good thing when you see it! I hate seeing people waste their hard-earned money, and then become discouraged. 

That is why I do the research I do, and why I write these articles. I want to see people succeed. I've already done things the hard way myself. There are three steps I want you to look at. These will really boost your success on the Internet if you follow instructions and work hard. If you don't like work, please stop reading here. 

1.Join an online community like Adlandpro, Sokule or Ryze (and there are many more). Get to know people, find out who seems to have the most popular forums on business, network marketing, internet sales, and related information, and learn from them. 

Ask lots of questions. You will quickly find out who really knows their stuff, because they will generally be the kindest, friendliest, most helpful people you'll ever meet. You will also find that they are not afraid to give you answers that might ruffle a few feathers because they realize that telling the truth is more important than anything else. 

2.Find out who's making money and what they're doing. Take your time, and be choosy. When you find someone who's making money with a product or program you really like, you can approach them and find out if they're looking for new partners to mentor and train in their business. Note that in most cases, this is a networker's dream and they will be thrilled to sponsor and train you. 

3.Learn from your sponsor and do exactly what you're told. You're not ready to go on your own, so why try to do it your way when your upline already knows the right way? 

4.Let a small number of people into your organization and train them in exactly the same way your sponsor trained you. Notice that I said, “Let a small number.” This is YOUR business, and you don't want the whole world trying to run your store. 

If you start out with the idea that it's YOUR business and THEY have to qualify to join you, you will have an organization built with people who are much more likely to follow your example and succeed, creating a very tightly knit and successful organization. Do it right, right from the beginning, and you will enjoy wonderful success in a solid, long-lasting, profitable business!