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2017 Is Done
And not a moment too soon!
It has been a wonderful year in many respects. My wife and I celebrated 25 years of marriage and I actually lived to the age of 50 and beyond.
On the other hand, I suffered some of the most excruciating plantar fasciitis I’ve ever had as well as a number of other side effects of trudging around on concrete factory floors for 12-hour stints. My ankles are in absolute agony and my knees sometimes gave out a few hours before quitting time. Well, that’s quite enough of that. I’m full time on my business from here on out.
New Year, New Challenges
As you read this, I’m kicking in the afterburners on a site that serves a couple of important purposes. Firstly, it provides information and value to people who are interested in preparedness without a lot of the SHTF hype that’s typical in that niche. Secondly, it demonstrates how a simple site and autoresponder sequence can still bring a job-replacing profit in a training course that I have been recording while I set the thing up. Finally, it’s a springboard to a fully self-employed future. The income from this site will replace the factory wages while I set up additional sites for passive profits.
Some More Rules
Much like myself of late, the folks at Star Trek left some gaps in the content. I’m not sure how they chose the numbers for their rules, but there was a fair amount of skipping around. I can identify. 2017 was pretty spotty for me for a variety of reasons. As the year comes to a close, I can merely resolve to do better in the coming days. Let’s see what the Ferengi have to say.
Rule #66: Someone’s always got bigger ears
The Ferengi have large, sensitive ears. They’re a status symbol as well. Females have small ears and male Ferengi have large ones. They frequently refer to someone having “the lobes for business”. In Deep Space Nine, they introduced the character of the Grand Nagus who is the political and economic head of the Ferengi Alliance. The leader at the time of the series was a fellow named Zek. His ears spoke for themselves. This guy definitely had the lobes for business.
In any case, what they’re saying is that there’s always someone craftier than you. Don’t take people at face value or worse, devalue them needlessly by underestimating them. If you’re the sort who believes in exploiting people (like the Ferengi), this can lead to a big fall since there’ll be someone even more Machiavellian laying in wait for you to fall into his or her trap. If you’re the sort of person I can identify with, this means that by underestimating someone based on first glance impressions can lead to missing out on a possible friend, business partner or mentor.
Rules #67-68: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels
Let’s pick one then.
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. —Robert Louis Stevenson
This caught my eye because the course I’m recording refers to planting your money tree. That’s an old cliche with a lot of bad associations, but it’s really accurate. If you think about it, creating a niche site is a lot like planting a tree. You need time and patience to wait for it to bear fruit. Anyone who says money doesn’t grow on trees doesn’t have any trees. Got an apple tree? Harvest some apples. Make a pie. Sell the pie. Money grows on trees. If you build them right, money grows on websites. Stay tuned for my course in the coming year.
Rule #69: Ferengi are not responsible for the stupidity of other races
The Ferengi are socially informed by their Rules of Acquisition. It’s not so much that they keep them to themselves, but they know that the other species who inhabit the Star Trek universe either don’t have them memorized or don’t really even know about them. When you know the rules to a game and you play that game with someone else who has no idea, they’re going to be completely lost. That’s part of the Ferengi exploitation model. Since they are primarily interested in making profit, they find that profit by keeping their edge over the other species by adhering to the Rules of Acquisition and using them to shaft whoever they’re dealing with.
The same can be said of people who think that information marketing is a racket. A lot of people get drawn into internet marketing with promises of push-button riches and overnight success. When they don’t achieve those results, they write the whole thing off as a scam. Even though plenty of people make a living or even a complete killing online selling information, the aforementioned aggrieved would-be internet millionaires will dismiss the evidence out of hand. As Quark said to his nephew: “They’re a primitive, backward people, Nog. Pity them.”
Rules #70-73: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels
Like a lot of my activities in 2017, there’s a big gap here for no discernable reason whatsoever.
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. —Leonardo da Vinci
Yeah, yeah, I know. There’s no result to be gained from knowing or wanting, only from doing. How many times have I been thwarted by my own inaction? How many days have gone by in the paralysis of analysis? How many ideas swirled in my mind while I was obliged to trudge around the factory or chauffeur my kids thither and yon only to be lost when I finally had a free minute? There were so many lost opportunities this year, but it was a learning experience nevertheless. The important thing is to move forward and take determined action in 2018.
Rule #74: Knowledge equals profit
As we saw in the previous point, this is not entirely true. Knowledge enables profit, but action really gets you there. Knowing things is awesome, but if you don’t act on any of those things you’re just a dusty old library that nobody visits. Action equals profit. Knowledge is most useful as a guide to the proper action.
Rule #75: Home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum
This is the Ferengi version of “Go West, Young Man“; a clarion call to adventure and profit. Getting anywhere in the Star Trek universe requires a starship of some kind.
We don’t have that technology yet, but we don’t really need it to make a profit in the real world. We can delve into cyberspace and be everywhere and anywhere at once. Being online lets us have friends on every continent and to be able to talk with them face to face in real time. In days past, if you wanted global distribution you needed a navy like the East India Company or the Hudson Bay Company and it took weeks to cross the ocean.
Not anymore. You can sell the same thing to folks in Perth, Phnom Pehn, Pretoria, Paris, Paramaribo and Philadelphia all at the same time without even leaving your living room.
The weird schedule and the unremitting pain had a negative impact on my productivity and my consistency. I resolve to improve in the coming year.