I just had to post this, partially because I struggle with a lot of these and also to look back on to make sure I start following more of the winner traits.

TRUE STORY: In a fresh internet chat room 20 strangers made a pact together to make $50,000 revenue in 3 months by getting their ideas out there as fast as possible. It was a big but serious dream, especially considering some members were close to broke!

In just 9 weeks two of the people in the group exceeded $50,000 and a few more are close behind and making great progress. However, at the same time over half the group is barely making a dent.

So what’s the difference? Why are some racing ahead and others being left behind?
All 20 people work in the same niche and market to the same audience, they are all intelligent people, but the difference between the winners and losers is in how they act and how they think…

The Winners…

The personality traits of winning entrepreneurs. Do you pass the test?

1. The winners set launch dates, deadlines and aggressive goals like releasing a new product/update/offer every two weeks. They may miss, but they try hard to hit them.
2. The winners focus on this one project with pinpoint precision. They make more money because they can say no to pursuing other projects. That makes sticking to #1 much easier.
3. The winners don’t focus on perfection and are more focused on getting something good out there quickly, that getting something perfect out there sometime in the distant future.
4. The winners accept “flops” as inevitable, and embrace the “flop”. They know their early attempts probably won’t do great, so it is important to get those early attempts done and dusted as quickly as possible.
5. The winners hunt out their mistakes. This is against our natural emotion to accept we did things wrong but it is vitally important to improve. The winners know that mistakes are normal and are not wrong at all. They hunt out what they did wrong so they can improve next time.
6. The winners say “If they can do it so can I”, and they find out how they did it. They network, analyze, scrutinize, and reverse engineer to find out why someone else did better than they did.
7. They focus on a few USPs (unique selling propositions) and copy the rest from other winners.
8. The winners focus on extending their strengths (after identifying them) and rely on using or copying others in areas they are weak.
9. The winners hunt out successful people they can learn from and put a big effort into networking.
10. The winners are generous to their partners and stakeholders. They pay generous commissions, good wages, share profits and help others. Their generosity stands out against the competition. This motivates their partners and creates opportunities.
11. The winners focus on marketing more than the product/idea/service. In fact the marketing drives the product creation.
12. The winners block out distractions and set time aside to get things done. They are disciplined to turn off email, chat, television and any other distractions that stop them from working.

The Losers…

1. The losers drift and don’t held themselves to deadlines or targets. Ask the loser when his next deadline is and he won’t know.
2. The losers can’t say no to shiny objects and have a lot of projects on the go and find it too hard to abandon any one project to focus more on others. Quite simply they can’t focus.
3. The losers focus on perfection. They want everything ‘just right’ for when they make that all important launch. Perfection takes a long time and they miss opportunities and the learning process from launching NOW!
4. The losers fear the flop. So much so that they may never launch, and if they do they may hide away or seek to blame others and not accept responsibility when things don’t go to plan.
5. The losers are stubborn and blame others. They don’t want to be shown or face their mistakes. They want to prove to the world that what they did was right, and that it was others that were wrong. They’ll even go as far as calling their customers stupid for not buying their product, they’ll highlight the stupidity of the ad-network that does not approve their ad, they’ll blame a guru or teacher for their failures, and they’ll blame their friends and family for lack of support. They will be very reluctant to change or admit where they went wrong, despite the fact being wrong is NORMAL.
6. The losers look at the winners and make excuses about why they can’t do what the winners have done. Instead of looking for ways to emulate the winners, they hunt out differences which they can identify as excuses for not being a winner.
7. Losers forget about having any USPs at all and just try to copy someone else (and do a worse job). Just as common in losers is that they think they must do things differently to all the winners to stand out, and that doing this gives them a USP. So they choose not to do everything that the winners do to be “unique” and “clever”, and fail at the same time.
8. The losers focus on trying to handle and be good at everything, and are reluctant to put their weaknesses in the hands of others.
9. The losers avoid talking with successful people, or agitate successful people, because they don’t take advice and criticism well. Just being around successful people depresses them rather than motivates them because it shows that they have made mistakes and need to change, so they avoid it.
10. The losers are greedy. They don’t want to share their profits and success with others and will offer lower commissions, wages, profit share and less help to others. They ultimately alienate themselves from opportunities.
11. The losers focus on their product foremost and marketing second. They may produce an awesome product, but without solid marketing it flops.
12. The losers are easily distracted. In fact they unconsciously routine their day to have distractions like email alerts, chat, television, news, chores, phone calls etc. so they don’t have to face the music. They invite distraction rather than actively take steps to block it out. Even though these distractions lower their quality of life and stop them from achieving their dreams, they will defend them like a drug addict.

So are you a winner or a loser?

Who I’m Looking For

• 5-10 people interested in photography
• You must own a digital camera
• Willing to give honest feedback

What You Get In Return

• Free lifetime access to the course, videos, and bonuses
• Entered into a drawing for a free digital camera
• Free photography advice from me
• That fuzzy feeling from helping someone out

I’m not just looking for beginners either.  If you’re already good at photography, but just want to help another photographer out that’s awesome too.  If that’s the case and you’re local to Grand Rapids, Michigan I’ll buy you a couple  micro-brews at one of the fine local breweries we have. Oh and before I forget…THANKS!

I’m Ready To Help – Sign Me Up

UPDATE: I’ve had an overwhelming response and I can’t say thanks enough.  If you’re still interested in the course you’re welcome to still sign up below.  You’ll be the first to know when it’s released and I’ll also be emailing out a giant discount for people who sign up ahead of time.  Thanks!

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time?

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution.

You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then, senor?”

The American laughed and said “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions, senor? Then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

Here are a few of the chapters that I was particularly interested in:

• How to Lose 20 Pounds in 30 Days Without Exercise
• From Geek to Freak – How to Grain 34 Pounds in 28 Days
• Occam’s Protocal 1 – A Minimalist Approach to Mass
• Engineering the Perfect Night’s Sleep
• Ultra-endurance 1 – Going from 5K to 50K in 12 Weeks
• Six Minute Abs – Two Exercises That Actually Work

So how much did I actually lose? 9.4 pounds to be exact. I went from 156.6 pounds to 147.2 pounds in 2 weeks. I made a quick graph from the data in Google Docs to help show just how fast I was dropping weight. I also lost 2.5% of body fat, dropping from 17.5% to 15.0%.

So what all did I do?  Well as the book suggests, I didn’t exercise, but I did follow what Tim Ferriss calls the slow carb diet.  Basically you cut out breads, grains, and other high carb foods as well as sugars and instead eat more of a high protein diet that is heavier on lean meats, beans, and vegetables.  Obviously he still lets you have a glass or two of dry wine a night which was a nice change for me after mainly drinking beer over the winter.

What Did I Eat?

Most of my meals started with a vegetable, then I added a protein. Breakfast was an exception as Tim wants you to get at least 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. This was honestly the hardest part for me because I don’t eat large meals to start with, especially not in the morning. I ended up doing a combination of organic eggs, spinach, and black beans though to get as close as I could to 30 grams.

For lunch and dinners I picked my vegetable, broccoli was my favorite, and then added my protein. Lean ground beef, chicken, steak, whatever… The leaner the better. One night we even had spaghetti-ish squash.  He suggests sticking to the same couple of meals so that’s what I did.  I didn’t give up pop though and had 1 or 2 cans of diet pop a day.  That’s the limit before it effects weight loss.

Cheat Day

Once a week the 4 Hour Body suggests you have a cheat day where you can eat / drink anything you want. Let me warn you from experience that you will feel like shit after eating really healthy for a week and stuffing your face with crap. Although it was nice to have beer, pizza, and anything else you wanted. I can’t argue with his methods on this, it works.

Before & After Photos

I wish I would of taken more than just a kinda front shot. The photos show a change, but not nearly as noticeable as it is in real life. The two spots in the photos where you can really see though are my face and stomach. Dang I was fat!  Can you imagine the changes I would of seen if I had done a full 30 days?!

What Now?

Well for those who think this is one of those diets when you quit you gain all the weight back, it’s not. I’ve been off the diet for 2 weeks now and I’m only 1 pound heavier than I was when I was on the diet. I will say that I do eat healthier overall though, mainly because of how good I feel. After 3-4 days into the diet I had so much more energy I didn’t know what to do with it all.

I do want to do a full 30 days or possibly try some of the other cool things out there like the couch potato to 5k in 60 days. When I decide which I’m gonna do I’ll definitely keep track and post it up for everyone to see.

Overall I really don’t have anything bad to say about the 4 Hour Body. I recommend this book to pretty much everyone I know, I just wish more people would actually pick up a copy.

Special thanks to Pat Flynn for posting his Insanity Workout Results which led me to actually make this post and have the courage to post before and after photos.

So why didn’t I?

Well to be honest a lot of the reason is due to a post made by Chris Guthrie who has a similar taste in cars as I do, but more importantly he also has similar long term business goals as me, although he is a few years ahead of me. Chris talks about taking the money you make from your side business and reinvesting it back into the business instead of spending it on things like the STI. The rate of return on money that’s reinvested back into the business is amazing right now and as an old co-worker once said; “a car is rolling stock.”

When will I buy my dream car?

That’s a great question that I don’t really have the answer to. I currently own a pretty rare car (1 of 2,400 ever made) which is a blast to drive and has heated seats, side mirrors and wind shield wipers. Did I mention I live in Michigan and it snows…a lot. More than likely it’ll be around 2 years or until I’m feeling comfortable enough with the side business that I can stop reinvesting so much.

What did I learn?

I learned that sometimes your “dream” anything really isn’t that hard to achieve as you think if you really try and I also learned that sometimes when you have the option to actually get your “dream” anything, it’s not always the smartest move or the best time. It’s important to take a step back from time to time and look at the big picture, it gives you a completely different perspective.

WTF is this side business?

The side business is a web based project I’ve been half heartedly working on over the past year. I say half heartedly because I would get really motivated for a month or so and then completely forget about it for another 2-3 months thus killing any progress I was making. As promised I’ll have a full post up about it soon, possibly this weekend if I get some free time while Angela, Izzy and I are in Traverse City for the holiday weekend.

-Sent from my mobile command center.

So lately I’ve been writing a lot of articles for various websites. I was never a good writer in high school and I didn’t get much better in college. Lately for work however I’ve had an increasing need to become a better writer for some upcoming projects that we are working on. It’s amazing how fast you improve at article writing after only a few weeks. I’d say I’m probably a month into writing articles and the first two weeks were definitely the hardest. After that it just kept getting easier and easier.

I’m currently writing articles for a website called rambles on tech which is going to be a cool website dedicated to everything tech related. I’m not looking to compete with sites like Gizmodo or Engadget which are definite authorities in this area, but it will be a great place to keep a journal of the technology I use in my life and also a site where other people can contribute to the site and talk about tech in their life as well.

After a few weeks of article writing I started digging through my old college work. I’m still digging through all the backups trying to find the majority or it, but I did find some papers I wrote. I will say that some are better and less embarrassing than others. Considering I’m into photography the article I wrote on the transition from film to digital wasn’t to bad. It was short and to the point, but over all was very good. The paper or manual I had to write on how to throw a kegger however wasn’t so great. It was a group project and the teacher thought it was funny so I guess it worked out ok. There is something odd about standing in front of a group of college kids and presenting a manual on keggers though.

See I told you this post would be boring. If you made it this far I’m impressed…haha.

I have started a new guest posting site though where people register and can post articles on my site with links back to theirs. I’m hoping to start more soon, but currently I’ve only get Info and Reviews up and running though.

I did move again, which I don’t think I’ve blogged about recently. After trying and failing to purchase two separate homes this year and after they both fell through for various reasons I decided it was time to sit down and sign a lease until Winter passes. It’s a sweet place on the second floor of an awesome 4 unit just outside Heritage Hill.

I’m also looking into getting a new camera soon. The D70 and D70s are getting a little old and I’m actually outgrowing them skill wise. I would really like to get a D700, but can’t justify spending over $2500 on a camera right now. The D90 has been slowly dropping in price though and I’ve seen them around $750 for just the body. I am going to be selling my D70s though so if anyone is interested get a hold of me and I’ll give you a good buddy deal.

Well this post has turned into a random mashup of thoughts in my head. So I will leave what I have close out this post, if I don’t do it now I’ll just ramble on which nobody will enjoy reading. One last thing though that I completely forgot about. Congratulations to Lance and Mandi, they are expecting!!!