Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Fwd: why stem cells may save your life




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: why stem cells may save your life
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:32:56 -0700
From: Peter Diamandis <peter@diamandis.com>
Reply-To: peter@diamandis.com
To: STeve <stevescott@techacq.com>


You are a collection of over 30 trillion human cells.

Every one of these cells, those in your brain, lungs, liver, skin, and everywhere else, derives from a single pluripotent type of cell called a stem cell.

This blog is about how stem cells are going to change medicine forever, extend life, and potentially save your life in the years ahead.

In this blog we'll talk about why it's important to bank the cells of your newborn children or grandchildren – and potentially your own (no matter how old you are).

In a recent Abundance 360 webinar, I had the chance to interview Dr. Robert (Bob) Hariri, one of the world's foremost experts on stem cells. He's the Founder, Chairman and Chief Science Officer of Celgene Therapeutics, and the Co-founder and Vice-Chairman of Human Longevity Inc. (HLI). Here is what we discussed.

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What are stem cells?

Stem cells have the remarkable ability to "differentiate" into any other type of cell in the body.

Dr. Hariri explains, "At the beginning of life, a single nondescript cell with a giant nucleus, cytoplasm, and a cell membrane, goes on to replicate and create every cell in our body.

"This single cell contains within it the entire genetic code – the biological software – necessary to produce everything that ultimately defines each and every specialized cell type in the body."

After our body has developed, among our tens of trillions of fully differentiated human cells (skin, heart, muscle, kidney) remain a population of quiescent stem cells waiting to be called into action to help repair damaged tissue. These stem cells reside everywhere: in our bone marrow, in our fat, and in every single tissue compartment.

And, as Dr. Hariri describes them, "they are nature's perfect repair kit – ready to be mobilized and facilitate repair when needed."

So why don't we live forever?

If we have the ability to constantly repair ourselves, what goes wrong?

Why do we age?

Current theory says two things:

First, we deplete our reserves of stem cells during the course of our lives.

Second, our stem cells undergo various 'epigenetic' changes (insertions, deletions, mutations) over the course of life, making them less accurate and less adaptable.

Basically, the repairmen of our body die off and go senile.

How do stem cells work?

Normally during our youth, when we experience damage, stem cells are mobilized to the site of damage to effect repair. However, as mentioned above, this capability slows with aging.

But what if you could supplement or rejuvenate your supply of stem cells?

Today, in various locations around the world, researchers and physicians inject stem cells into areas of damage, and explore stem cell therapeutics around heart disease, brain disease, diabetes, cancer treatment, arthritis, spinal cord injuries, burns, macular degeneration, and much more.

The implications of this are staggering.

Of course, the challenge is getting the stem cells to inject in the first place. So where might they come from?

Three options:

  1. Many children today are having their stem cells "banked" or preserved at their birth (see below).
  2. You can actually have your own stem cells isolated from fat, bone marrow or your blood supply. The challenge here is that they may have already undergone epigenetic changes/mutations.
  3. Some companies, like Hariri's Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, have begun pioneering the use of placental-derived stem cells, which (for many reasons) do not cause an autoimmune reaction.

Why and when to bank stem cells

"At your moment of birth, you are probably at the point of biological perfection. Your system hasn't been exposed to all of those injurious stimuli, like electromagnetic radiation, chemicals, etc., and your biological software is uncorrupted."

What if we could capture stem cells with our original, uncorrupted DNA at birth and then replicate them into a large number of future dosages and then freeze those doses, making them available for future injection to facilitate repair over the course of our lives?

This is one of the primary concepts that Hariri has been pioneering for some time.

Hariri discovered that in addition to cord blood (the blood found in the umbilical cord of a newborn), the placenta of a newborn is an organ very rich in stem cells.

And rather than discard the leftovers of birth, placentas, if saved, may hold the key to a longer and healthier life.

Hariri created a business called LifeBank USA, which provides private cell banking (FYI, this is where we banked our children's stem cells).

Lifebank (now part of Celegene Cellular Therapeutics) isolates, processes and cryopreserves cells (putting into a deep freeze, about minus 180 degrees Celsius), keeping them in suspended animation at the most pristine state of their existence.

Where is this all heading?

There's no question about the promise of stem cells, the question is how you rejuvenate the reparative engine of your body.

This is one of the key areas of research at Human Longevity Inc.

In principle, there are three approaches:

  1. For those lucky enough to have had their stem cells banked at birth, these cells can be replicated and reintroduced later in life.
  2. HLI is researching the use of FDA-approved placenta stem cell lines as generic cellular medicine.
  3. The Holy Grail is to be able to isolate your own stem cells (at whatever age you are) and then repair their DNA to rejuvenate your stem cells back to their original software. As Dr. Hariri explains, "At HLI, we will create a model upon which cells are interrogated, their genomes are read, abnormalities are identified, and then strategies are developed to fix those abnormalities and give those cells back."

What should we do now?

  1. Get your children or grandchildren's stem cells banked when they are born. There are a number of different companies doing this, one of which is Life Bank USA. The cost (between $2,000 - $5,000) is insignificant if it could save or extend their lives in the future.
  2. Get your own genome sequenced and get your own stem cells extracted and stored. Your DNA today is in better shape than your DNA 10 years from now. At Human Longevity Inc. the sequencing is available today, and stem cell isolation for our members is something planned down the road, so stay tuned for more information.

In conclusion…

As humans, we've just come to accept the notion that we are going to die.

One hundred years ago, we accepted that most people live to age 50 or 60.

A decade ago, if you made it to 75 or 80, good for you…

Today, if you're in your 30's, 40's or 50's (maybe even 60's), you have the chance to make it to 100.

This decade we will begin to develop the tools to understand how to extend the healthy human lifespan, and stem cells will be one key to help us get there.

This is the sort of conversation we discuss at my 250-person executive mastermind group called Abundance 360. The program is highly selective and we're almost full, looking for a few last CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. You can apply here.

Share this email with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

Best,
Peter

[ Click to Tweet about this (you can edit before sending): http://ctt.ec/KWYB9 ]

P.S. Every weekend I send out a "Tech Blog" like this one. If you want to sign up, go to PeterDiamandis.com and sign up for this and my Abundance blogs.

P.P.S. I've just released a podcast with my dear friend Dan Sullivan called Exponential Wisdom. Our conversations focus on the exponential technologies creating abundance, the human-technology collaboration, and entrepreneurship. Head here to listen and subscribe: a360.com/podcast


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FW: Bob Marshall - Is It Time To Quit?

 

 

From: Bob Marshall [mailto:bob@themarshallplan.org]
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2015 8:53 AM
To: stevescott@corsairexec.com
Subject: Bob Marshall - Is It Time To Quit?

 

Is It Time To Quit?

Bob Marshall

July 2015

 

 

In this article, I have borrowed liberally from an excellent little book by business guru, Seth Godin, entitled, The Dip.  Based on this book, I will discuss the proposition that knowing what to quit and when to quit are essential tools you need to carry on your daily treks into the wonderful world of recruitment.

 

Sports Culture

 

For many of us, we were raised in a sports culture.  Because of that we were all bombarded on a daily basis with the bromides about never, ever quitting.  Who hasn’t heard the famous quote by Vince Lombardi that, “Quitters never win and Winners never quit”?  Well, that was bad advice—and I love Vince Lombardi!  But winners quit all of the time…they just know what to quit and when to quit. 

 

The better advice would have been “Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.”

 

Opportunity Cost

 

What is Opportunity Cost?

 

Here is your definition:  The loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen; the cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action.  Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action.

We have all saddled Dead Horse Clients and been saddled by Dead Horse Candidates.  That will happen.  It is in the nature of our profession.  The key, then, is to identify these two huge time-wasters, as soon as possible, and ‘quit’ them.

 

Once you realize this dynamic and make a unilateral commitment to never again waste your time with the ‘Dead Horses’ you encounter, your job will become a lot more fun and a lot more profitable.

 

The DIP

 

What is a DIP?

 

According to Godin, “A Dip is a temporary setback that you will overcome if you keep pushing.”  A Dip is differentiated from a Cul-de-Sac which will never get better, no matter how hard you try!

 

Sometime this is a hard distinction to make—whether we are in a Dip or in a Cul-de-Sac—but it is essential that we make the right decision so as not to waste our time.  After all, we want our JOs to be difficult to fill (hence the reason for our existence) but not impossible to fill (hence the end of our existence)!  We are here to solve the hard problems.

 

Everyone, everyday, faces dips.  But there is a Silver Lining in that cloud:  The harder it gets, the more your competition will fall away.  It’s how you push through the dips that will allow you to become successful and become a scarce entity—a Power Broker in your chosen niche.

 

If you can get through the Dip, if you can keep going when the system is expecting you to stop, you will achieve extraordinary results.  People who make it through the Dip are scarce indeed, so they generate more value.

 

The Dip creates scarcity; scarcity creates value.

 

When to Quit

 

“It’s time to quit when you secretly realize you’ve been settling for mediocrity all along.  It’s time to quit when the things you’re measuring aren’t improving, and you can’t find anything better to measure.  Smart quitters understand the idea of opportunity cost.  The work you’re doing on project X now is keeping you from pushing through on project Y.  If you fire your worst clients, if you quit your deadest tactics, if you stop working with the people who return the least, then you free up an astounding number of resources.  Direct those resources at something worth conquering and your odds of success go way up.”

 

Quitting is not the same as failing.  Quitting allows you to free up your resources so that you can be exceptional at something else.

 

Quitting as a short-term strategy is a bad idea.  Quitting for the long-term is an excellent idea.

 

“Strategic quitting is the secret of successful people/organizations.”

 

In the words of famous General O.P. Smith during the Korean War, “Retreat, hell!  We’re not retreating; we’re just advancing in a different direction.”

 

The Fallacy of Diversification

 

When faced with the Dip, many will want to diversify to create multiple streams of income.  And yet, the real success goes to those who obsess.  “The focus that leads you through the Dip to the other side is rewarded by a marketplace in search of the best in the world.” 

 

“A woodpecker can tap 20 times on 1,000 trees and get nowhere, but stay busy.  Or he can tap 20,000 times on one tree and get dinner.”

 

In the immortal words of legendary basketball coach John Wooden, “Never mistake activity for achievement.”

 

Seven reasons you might fail to become the best in the world:

 

*You run out of time (and quit);

*You run out of money (and quit);

*You get scared (and quit);

*You’re not serious about it (and quit);

*You lose interest or enthusiasm or settle for being mediocre (and quit);

*You focus on the short term instead of the long (and quit when the short term gets too hard);

*You pick the wrong thing at which to be the best in the world (because you don’t have the talent).

 

The Motivation of Pain

 

It seems to be human nature to continue to do what you are doing, something you are used to—even if it stops working so well—rather than to quit and move your resources in a new direction.

 

There is the famous tale that illustrates this point.  It is entitled, “Get off of the nail!” 

 

This is how the story goes:

 

One day a man was walking down the street on his way to work.  As he walked down the street, there were dogs on just about every front porch and they all would bark as the man walked past them.  However, there was one dog that the man remembered, because this dog was just sitting there and he was whimpering and whining and moaning, you know the little whimpering sounds dogs make when they are wounded or in some sort of pain.

 

Well this particular dog was just sitting there on the front porch making those sounds.  The man was curious as to why this dog wasn't barking like the other dogs and why he was whimpering.  He couldn't figure it out, so he just kept walking to work.

 

The next day he was in the same situation where he was walking down the street and saw the dogs once again and this same dog that was moaning and groaning the other day was doing the same thing today and he just couldn't figure it out.  Well, he walked past for an entire week and every day the dog would be there moaning and groaning.  So, finally, the guy got fed up, he said "let me find out what's going on."  So he went and knocked on the door and a guy came out and said, "Yes, how may I help you?"  He said, "Sir, is this your dog?"  "Yes, that's my dog."  "Well, what's wrong with him?" The owner of the dog said, "What do you mean?"  "Well, he's been sitting here moaning and groaning, whimpering and whining for an entire week.  The rest of the dogs are barking, your dog should be barking too, why is he moaning and groaning?"  The owner said, "Well, he's actually sitting on a nail."  He said, "What!  Your dog is sitting on a nail.  Why doesn't he get off?"  "Well, it just doesn't hurt him enough yet."

 

So why don’t we all just quit unproductive situations?   Because, for most of us, it is just not that painful yet!

 

Establish Your Identity

 

It’s OK to quit a ‘Dead Horse’ JO, Candidate, or Client, or a feature or a design; but never quit a market or a strategy or a niche.

 

Don’t quit because something went wrong.  Quit because you tried your hardest and nothing made it better!

 

It is absolutely essential that you set a time frame—a drop-dead date—and once you reach that date—if you are not successful—you need to strongly consider quitting and broadcasting your resources in another direction.

 

If you are trying to influence a market (your niche), it is an easier proposition.  Sure, some of the people in a market have considered you (and even rejected you).  But most of the people in the market have never even heard of you!  The market doesn’t have just one mind.  Different people in the market are seeking different things.

 

Influencing a market is more of a hill than a wall.  You can make progress, one step at a time, and as you get higher, it actually gets easier.  People in the market talk to each other.  They are influenced by each other.  So every step of progress you make actually gets amplified.

 

Make sure your marketplace is just big enough for you to make an impact.  Too large and your message will get lost.  The word won’t spread and reach critical mass.  Too small and you won’t be as successful.  Over the years I have been a big proponent of having a large enough marketplace to sustain any recruiter in any economy and create a Low Risk Operation.

 

The Principle of the 1500 Company Contacts

 

This is where the Principle of 1500 works so well.

 

One of my recruitment ‘aha’ moments came when I met with the AE of the Year at an annual meeting of a very large recruitment organization.  I arranged a one-on-one meeting because I wanted to know how he survived, and indeed thrived, during a recession year to become the best of the best while the rest of us suffered.  When I asked him how he did it, this is what he said, “I doubled, and even tripled, my marketing call activity.”  Aha!  Most of the tenured recruiters weren’t even making marketing calls at this point and so were failing as their existing client companies were failing.  This AE of the Year was looking for new dynamic business and leaving the old failing business behind.

 

A free economy marketplace is constantly correcting itself.  While some companies fail, other companies will rise to take their place.  Some win.  Some lose.  And so we market on a daily basis to ‘vector in’ on the winners because they are the ones that need our recruitment services.  And often, an added benefit is that we can find some of our best candidates among the losers—the companies that are downsizing, experiencing lay-offs or simply going out of business.  In a sluggish economy where there are more companies failing, big billers might double or triple their marketing activity to find the few companies that are flourishing.  But they continue to find them!

 

We can’t call everyone in the world, so the big billers figured out years ago that you need to set parameters around your specialty—to ‘delimit’ your niche.  No matter how “marketing challenged” we are, most of us can make 25 marketing call attempts in one 8 hour workday.  This becomes our daily marketing target.  Now just multiply it out:  25 per day equals 125 per week; equals 500 per month; equals 1500 per quarter.  So ‘1500’ became the magic marketplace niche number—our initial goal.

 

Once we determine those 1500 client contacts (keeping in mind that approximately 80% of new job creation comes from small and medium-sized companies), we want to verbally recycle those potential clients four times per year.  Touch them electronically the other 8 months of the year, but call them 4 times per year.  Then, based on the 4% placement rule, we should place with 4% of the 1500, or make 60 placements per year.  Multiply that 60 by an average fee of $10,000 and you have your $600,000 yearly desk.  Multiply that 60 by an average fee of $20,000 and you now have your $1,200,000 yearly desk.  It’s all in the numbers and the big billers understand this.

 

The Warm Call

 

The next task is to turn those first-time (cold) calls into warms calls.  This is how it’s done.

 

Steel yourself to make those 1500 calls in one quarter.  Of course, you will be leaving a lot of messages and that’s OK.  Just make sure that your message is a scintillating one.  Godin says, “Selling is about a transference of emotion, not a presentation of facts.”  Once you have accomplished this feat, you will never again have to make another cold call in your career as a recruiter.  Now every call will have turned into a ‘warm’ call because you have already called each Company Contact once!  And that’s how you develop your warm call marketplace.

 

 

 

Bob Marshall began his recruiting career in 1980 when he joined MR Reno, NV.  In 1986 he founded The Bob Marshall Group, International, training recruiters across the nation as well as in the United Kingdom, Malta and Cyprus.  In 1996, he returned to working a desk full-time, while continuing to train recruiters.  In 2015, Bob will begin offering his one-year TBMG Consulting Partnership proven training system in selected US and international territories.  To learn more about his activities and descriptions of his products and services, contact him directly @ 770-898-5550; bob@themarshallplan.org; or visit his website @ www.TheMarshallPlan.org.

 

 

 

Bob Marshall

President

TBMG, International

247 Bryans Drive, Suite 100

McDonough, GA  30252-2513

770-898-5550

520-842-5550 (fax)

bob@themarshallplan.org

www.TheMarshallPlan.org

 

 

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Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Fwd: Entrepreneurs, Not Government, Drive Innovation – Here’s Why.




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Entrepreneurs, Not Government, Drive Innovation – Here's Why.
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2015 10:29:26 -0700
From: Peter Diamandis <peter@diamandis.com>
Reply-To: peter@diamandis.com
To: STeve <stevescott@techacq.com>


It's sad that the U.S. government doesn't fund risky research anymore.

After all, "the day before something is truly a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea"… and if you're not funding crazy ideas, you're stuck with linear (incremental) thinking.

This blog is about why YOU as an entrepreneur (or 'exponential CEO') are going to be solving our problems, as opposed to waiting for the government.

Why government R&D funding is declining, why that's a bad thing, and how innovative entrepreneurs are now responsible for keeping the U.S. on the cutting edge.

[ Click to Tweet about this (you can edit before sending): http://ctt.ec/KWYB9 ]

Historically speaking…

Historically, government funding accelerated some of the most important technologies on which our entire global infrastructure now heavily relies: The microchip, GPS, wind energy, cancer therapies, touch screens, the Internet…

Even Google probably wouldn't be around had it not been for government funding. In 1994, NSF, DARPA and NASA funded the Digital Library Initiative to index and sort through the growing number of websites coming online.

One of the six grants from the Digital Library Initiative went to two graduate students at Stanford -- Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- who would later commercialize their research and call it "Google."

But the government doesn't fund crazy ideas anymore…

In fact, as the data from a recent NIH Report shows, the more innovative a concept, the less funding it receives.

Figure-1: NIH evaluation              score vs. proposal novelty

Figure-1: NIH evaluation score vs. proposal novelty

Why does this happen?

Governments (and large corporations) have a tremendous fear of (public) failure, which leads to congressional investigations or lower stock prices. And, as my friend Chris Lewicki says, "When failure is not an option, success gets really expensive!"

Here's one of my favorite stories. Did you know that that the $2.5 billion Curiosity Rover (which landed on Mars in 2011) is running a PowerPC processer that was built in 1993?

Why?

Because NASA knows it works, and they don't "want to take a risk" with a newer processor that is unproven.

Even stranger, guess what processor the next mission "Mars Rover 2020" will use when it touches down on the surface of Mars in 2021?

Yup, you guessed it, a 1993 vintage PowerPC.

At the same time that the government is getting more and more risk averse, the total amount of federal R&D dollars continue to shrink (as a percentage of the federal budget) by more than 60% over the past 50 years.

Figure-2: Federal R&D as              % of total Federal Budget

Figure-2: Federal R&D as % of total Federal Budget

It really is a sad state of affairs.

What's going to keep the U.S. on the innovation cutting edge?

Entrepreneurs.

Today's entrepreneurs have access to technologies once only available to governments and the largest corporations: the world's information on Google, massive computation power on AWS, access to capital and expertise from the crowd, etc.

At the same time that entrepreneur reach has increased, the cost of launching an Internet technology startup has plummeted 1,000-fold over the past 15 years.

Figure-3: Cost of launching              an Internet Tech Startup

Figure-3: Cost of launching an Internet Tech Startup

With this democratization of entrepreneurship, we've seen a dramatic rise in the number of startups created and concordantly, the number of innovative solutions to problems that we've been unable to solve (or even think about) until now.

And rather than shrinking (as we've seen in government R&D funding), private sector funding has steadily increased more than six-fold over the past 80+ years.

Companies like Google, SpaceX, IBM, Facebook, Qualcomm and countless of global startups are moving the needle forward by developing technology that solves key problems. After all, the world's biggest problems are the world's biggest business opportunities.

Graph - Private Sector              R&D

As the Kauffman Foundation reported a few years ago, "New businesses (i.e. startups) account for nearly all net new job creation and almost 20 percent of gross job creation."

Net Job Creation

If we can continue to incentivize and support entrepreneurs to devote their time to solving the world's biggest problems, we will see enormous economic upside in the long run.

Bottom line: If you're looking to make a difference in the world. You can vote, politic, fund campaigns, write grants… or you can start a company and build technology.

Join Me

This is the sort of conversation we discuss at my 250-person executive mastermind group called Abundance 360. The program is highly selective and we're almost full, looking for a few last CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. You can apply here. Share this email with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

Best,
Peter

[ Click to Tweet about this (you can edit before sending): http://ctt.ec/KWYB9 ]

P.S. I've just released a podcast with my dear friend Dan Sullivan called Exponential Wisdom. Our conversations focus on the exponential technologies creating abundance, the human-technology collaboration, and entrepreneurship. Head here to listen and subscribe: a360.com/podcast


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Thursday, July 9, 2015

Fwd: THE BATTLE FOR YOUR LIFE. (extremely personaly)




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: THE BATTLE FOR YOUR LIFE. (extremely personaly)
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 16:22:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: Frank Kern <news@frankkernhelpdesk.com>
To: stevescott@techacq.com


WARNING: THIS GETS WEIRD. And it's unusually PERSONAL.

Admittedly off topic ...but very important.

I was listening to a presentation by pastor Rick
Warren the other day and he cited a verse that
said, "THE BATTLE FOR YOUR LIFE IS IN YOUR MIND."

That struck me as very profound ...and ultimately true.

Think about this:

1. Your mind creates your thoughts.

2. Your thoughts govern your beliefs.

3. Your beliefs guide your actions.

4. Your actions create your LIFE.

So with that in mind, the verse is right.

The battle for your life is in your mind.

If your mind is "weirded out", your life suffers.

May I ask you something?

Do you ever get overwhelmed?

Do you ever get "frozen" by all the "what ifs" and
find yourself kind of paralyzed by uncertainty?

Do you ever walk around feeling stressed out and
you don't even know why?

PERSONALLY, I DO.

Yeah - I know I'm supposed to be a "big shot" or
whatever but that's just marketing.

I'm just like you. My life has its ups and downs
like anyone else's.


And I get freaked out, stressed out, and overwhelmed
just like the next guy.

HOWEVER.

I've found some techniques and general "best
practices" to FIGHT THE WEIRDNESS and ...well...WIN.

I'll give you an example.

In 2011 I went through a pretty heavy divorce after
eleven years of marriage.

I was guilt-ridden and absolutely certain I was ruining my
two daughter's lives by doing this.

(I was wrong, thank God. Everything ended up working out
perfectly.)

In 2012 I remarried and had a son. (As you can imagine,
the tabloid-like gossip from family and friends was delightful.)

Oh yeah, two months before my son was born -my wife, Natalia, got sick
and ended up in a COMA.

They didn't expect my boy to make it. (He did, and he's a BOSS.)

Between 2011 and 2014 I moved SEVEN TIMES in an effort to find
the perfect home for my family.

In 2013 my mentor and greatest hero, my Grandfather, died.

In 2014 my youngest daughter, Katya was born.

...Needless to say it was a ROUGH STRETCH in many regards...and it was
filled with blessings as well (two awesome kids!)

But one thing is for sure - it was STRESSFUL AND HECTIC!

So why am I telling you this?

BECAUSE IN 2014 I HAD THE HIGHEST NET PERSONAL INCOME
I'VE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.

Despite divorce, re-marriage, coma, two new kids, death of my hero, and moving
seven times, I literally made more money than I'd ever made in my
life.

Look. To say I was under pressure would be an understatement.

But I KICKED ITS ASS AND WON.

How?

I got the "mind game" worked out, that's how.

And tomorrow at 10 AM PACIFIC time, I'd like to show you how
on a ONE TIME ONLY LIVE webinar featuring Brendon Burchard.

You can register here.

Now: Two things about this:

1. It's informal. I literally called Brendon last night and said,    
   "Hey man, you wanna do a live Webinar tomorrow and
    teach some cool high performance stuff?"

    He said, "Hell yes brother let's do it!"

    And therefore, I've set aside the time for it and we're doing it.

    BUT ...there's not much of a "formal" vibe here.

    It's just you, Brendon, and me having an open discussion about how to
    overcome stress, worry, overwhelm, and all the the mental
    stuff that sucks.

2. It's 100% LIVE.

    Not a single second of this is pre-recorded or rehearsed.

    And there will NOT be a replay.

We just literally decided (at the last minute) that this would be
fun and would probably help some folks.

So we'll be on there for Q&A and will personally help you
as best as we can.

Like I said, its 10 AM PST on Jul 10th and you can register here.

See you then!

Frank

P.S. Brendon is roughly 100X better at this "inner game" stuff than me.

I kind of downplayed that in the email.

As you know, he's written to books on the topic and they've both been
New York Times bestsellers.

So a lot of what we'll be doing is interviewing each other on what works,
what doesn't, and why.

...And if I have my way, It'll be me interviewing HIM more than the
other way around.

Anyway - come join us here. I think you'll feel like a champ when we're
done.



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Monday, July 6, 2015

Fwd: impact pledge




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: impact pledge
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 11:27:28 -0700
From: Peter Diamandis <peter@diamandis.com>
Reply-To: peter@diamandis.com
To: STeve <stevescott@techacq.com>


With immense respect to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, I'd like to suggest an alternative to the giving pledge… an "impact pledge."

Specifically, a pledge where philanthropists actually pledge to solve (i.e. eradicate, eliminate, exterminate) a specific problem, rather than just agree to give their money to philanthropy.

What if today's billionaires actually "call their shots" and commit to fixing something big?

And with $7 trillion in assets held by the wealthiest 1,000 people in the world, the potential for global impact is huge.

This blog was inspired by two different news blurbs last week.

[ Click to Tweet about this (you can edit before sending): http://ctt.ec/KWYB9 ]

First, news that Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced his decision to donate his entire $32 billion fortune to philanthropy.

Second, Sean Parker's formation of the $600 million Parker Foundation and his article in the Wall Street Journal titled Philanthropy for Hackers – Today's young Internet barons should use the talents that made them rich to transform the world of giving.

What is the Giving Pledge?

The Giving Pledge invites the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes during their lifetime or in their will. So far, more than 137 of the world's wealthiest have signed the pledge.

The issue, as Sean Parker points out in his excellent WSJ article, is the following: "…$300 billion a year is given to private foundations and public charities, which offer little in the way of transparency or accountability."

He continues, "So while philanthropists like to talk about impact, they seldom have the tools to measure it. This has led to a world in which the primary currency of exchange is recognition and reputation, not effectiveness. These incentives lead most philanthropists to favor "safe" gifts to well-established institutions, resulting in a never-ending competition to name buildings at major universities, medical centers, performing arts centers and other such public places."

An Alternative: Calling Your Shot

What happens instead, when a philanthropist commits their capital, resources and prowess to solving a specific problem? For example: "I'm going to wipe out hunger in my country… or child marriages… or expand access to clean water."

The mere verbalization of a specific moonshot, or publically calling your shot, changes everything. It inspires accountability, it focuses your team's efforts, and it attracts the best minds on the planet to help you on a massively transformative purpose.

It's the equivalent of Google's commitment to autonomous cars, Wikipedia's mission of organizing the world's knowledge, or Elon Musk's commitment to taking humans to Mars.

And speaking of, this is exactly what Bill Gates is doing with malaria, polio, and other diseases through his groundbreaking work at the Gates Foundation.

So, How Do You Actually Create an Impact?

I'm continually amazed at the lack of leverage used by most foundations and philanthropists.

During the success phase (or "making money phase") of one's life, people demand tremendous leverage on their working capital.

Invest $1; you shoot for 10x or 100x back (either in returns or value created).

But in the philanthropic phase, somehow that desire for leverage is forgotten, and an impact of 30 cents on the dollar, after overhead, is acceptable.

Leverage and scale need to remain paramount.

So for the philanthropist, billionaire or foundation reading this blog, here are my two recommendations on how to create leverage, change the world and create an impact.

Entrepreneurs (aka Hackers): As I teach the entrepreneurs at Singularity University who are interested in solving billion-person problems, the world's biggest problems are the world's biggest business opportunities, and if you want to become a billionaire, help a billion people.

So the first piece of advice is for you to invest.

Invest in entrepreneurs who passionately desire to solve billion-person problems.

Call it what you wish, double-bottom-line or triple-bottom-line investing, but as Sean Parker described about today's young hackers, "…they are intensely idealistic, so as they begin to confront the world's most pressing humanitarian problems, they are still young, naive and perhaps arrogant enough to believe that they can solve them."

"In philanthropic work, hackers must constantly ask if they are leveraging their investments. Are they getting out more than they are putting in? On a particular issue, do they have a comparative advantage? It's important to treat philanthropy as a series of calculated risks: Not every contribution will yield success, some will end in failure, and others, when they succeed, ought to generate exponential returns."

Parker continues, "In this model, being wrong is as valuable as being right. Nothing works all the time, and hackers entering the world of philanthropy will be skeptical of any claims that cannot be invalidated."

Incentive Competitions (aka Prizes):

Another approach is to incentivize solutions through prizes.

When you create an incentive prize, you clearly define a problem and then challenge the world's entrepreneurs to solve it.

By doing so, you tap into a spirit of competition that brings about unprecedented breakthroughs.

This is what we do at XPRIZE (www.xprize.org) and at HeroX (www.HeroX.com). Here's why incentive competitions work:

Prizes are highly leveraged. If you launch a $10 million prize purse, you can expect teams to cumulatively spend 10 to 40 times capital to try and win the prize. For the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE, we had 26 teams from 7 nations spend over $100 million to develop a rocket that could take 3 passengers twice to 100km altitude.

Prizes attract untapped talent and stimulate novel solutions. Sometimes the best solution doesn't come from an expert. I define an expert as the person who can tell you exactly how it can't be done.

And the day before something is truly a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea. But where inside of our government, large corporations or large foundations do we fund and attempt crazy ideas?

Prizes are efficient. You only pay the winner, and you can set a deadline. For prize benefactors, the prize is a fixed amount of capital, not an investment that requires continuous follow-on capital.

Putting up a incentive prize around an audacious (but achievable) challenge tied to clear, simple, objective, and measurable goals is one of the most effective ways per dollar to solve big problems.

A New Forbes 500 "Impact List"

Today the Forbes 500 list of the wealthiest on Earth effectively gamifies the retention of personal wealth. Give away your fortune, and you might drop from #48 to #192. This perverse incentive of retaining your wealth for stature (for some, not all) is unfortunate.

Imagine instead if Forbes, with its armies of investigative reporters, was able to quantify the impact of a philanthropist's actions?

Imagine a Forbes Impact List, where spending a billion on curing MS or cancer or illiteracy elevated your ranking from #19 up to #3 on such a global Impact List?

In this day and age, there is more wealth being created every year.

Graph - Total Global Wealth              2000 - 2014, by region

This is a chance for today's billionaires to transform success to significance.

Let's identify these global heroes – and celebrate those with the passion to identify and solve the grandest challenges on Earth.

The World's Billionaires

Conclusion

Ultimately, giving your money away to a foundation versus spending it on toys or passing it down the line is an old school way of "doing good" for the world.

Instead, why not use the genius that created the wealth in the first place to solve problems, the biggest problems?

Now is your chance to make an impact.

And if we all make an impact, we truly will create a world of Abundance.

This is the sort of conversation we discuss at my 250-person executive mastermind group called Abundance 360. The program is highly selective and is full. If this the conversation you desire, then apply here. We are looking for a few last CEO's, philanthropists and entrepreneurs who want to change the world.

Share this email with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

Best,
Peter

[ Click to Tweet about this (you can edit before sending): http://ctt.ec/KWYB9 ]

P.S. Every weekend I send out a "Tech Blog" like this one. If you want to sign up, go to PeterDiamandis.com and sign up for this and my Abundance blogs.

P.P.S. Please forward this to your best clients, colleagues and friends — especially those who could use some encouragement as they pursue big, bold dreams.


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Sunday, July 5, 2015

Fw: Bucket Technique



From: Bryan Kreuzberger <bryan.kreuzberger@breakthroughemail.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 5, 2015 4:00 AM
To: stevescott@techacq.com
Subject: Bucket Technique

Steve

 

When I started off in sales, I would go to a meeting and then FREEZE when it came down to talking money.


I would try and disguise the dollar amount in cheesy ways like saying "this will cost 50-K" instead of saying "This will cost fifty thousand dollars."


But the main mistake I was making was not first ASKING the client what their expectations were. I'd just present everything to them first, and pray to Jesus/Allah/Buddah that I got something out of it.


I later learned that if the client asks the question, "So how much does this cost?" it meant I was no longer controlling the situation.


Anyhow... after a few years I finally discovered what's known as "The Bucket Technique."


This technique is a framework for finding out how much your client is willing to spend.


THIS IS A DAMN IMPORTANT CONCEPT because it will save you from endless proposals that go nowhere, and find out how much your client is willing to spend.


Read on:


STEP 1 of The Bucket Technique: Asking the "setup question"


In your initial meeting with the prospect, if you're seeing signs they like what they see... you ask this magic question:


"What's your budget?"


We can even modify that question a few ways like this:


"What do you typically budget for something like this?"


"You seem interested, do you have a budget for something like this?"


Basically, this is a setup question. Almost certainly they never just throw out a number. This question is to just see how motivated they are as a buyer.


Watch for their reaction.


BAD ANSWERS... SIGNS YOU SHOULD RUN:

  • "Well, all new projects are on hold right now." (I heard this one from Sprint).

  • "You know, we're really just looking." (This means they're just shopping around and using you for free information).

  • "We're just in research mode." (This means they're not ready to spend money).


GOOD ANSWERS... SIGNS THIS MIGHT GO WELL:

  • "It depends."

  • "I don't know."

  • "For something like this we'd typically budget around $150,000."


Let me show you a real-life example from recent history:


---------------------------------------------------


I was selling custom websites for a web design company. The contracts would range from $5,000 to $250,000... and it was my job to sell as much as possible.


When I would reach out to companies, they would usually not have a budget for a website.


They knew their website sucked.

They knew they needed a new one.


And they didn't have any set budget for it.


Now for me as a sales guy, I didn't have to do the technical side of building the website. My company handled that.


So it came down to this:


If I sold a small contract, I did the same amount of work.

If I sold a big contract, I did the same amount of work.


HOWEVER, I made 10% of the gross sale, so the difference in commissions was massive!


If I sold a $5,000 website, I would make $500

If I sold a $50,000 website, I would make $5,000

If I sold a $150,000 website, I would make $15,000

If I sold a $200,000 website, I would make $20,000


To me, it made sense to focus on getting LARGE contracts, since getting a large contract meant very little extra work on my part.


Now most sales people will tell me, "I'm different, because I have a complex sale."


But that's because they're doing the sale all wrong (I teach you more about this in my training).


So typically our sales would come in from $20,000 to $45,000 at the time. And when I would use The Bucket Technique and ask "What's your budget?" I was always shocked at how wrong I was!


I would either be able to get a lot more out of the deal, or I'd be able to disqualify them.


----------------------------------------------


STEP 2 of The Bucket Technique: Finding the right prices to use.


So if I was going after a contract I wanted to land at a target of $20,000, but I'd like it to be more like $50,000... then I'd come at the client with these figures:


$20,000: This is the minimum I'd like them to spend. Anything below is not of interest. $100,000: It's 5x the minimum spend. $250,000: This is more than 10x what I think they're budget will be. I purposely want this number to be completely outlandish. This number anchors a high price in their mind, which makes your perceived value go up. This number should be SO high, that it's literally hard for you to say that number with a straight face!


-----------------------------------------------


STEP 3 of The Bucket Technique: Finding their budget.


Ask this question:


"Typically clients fit into one of three buckets: $20,000... $100,000... or $250,000..."


Now almost every time without fail, as I utter the highest number, they will stop me mid-sentence.


And that's EXACTLY what I want!


Because the next words out of their mouth will be the number on the higher range of what they're willing to spend.


They'll say something like this:


"There's no way we can spend $250,000... the max our budget is about $85,000."


"We're a lot smaller than some of the companies you probably work with, the most we could spend is 30 to 40 thousand."


Almost right away they have given you their max budget on this. I was hoping at best to get $50,000... but almost immediately could find out they're willing to pay more than double.


NOW... if at this point they still haven't told you their maximum budget, you follow up with the question:


"Typically our clients fall into one of three budgets, do any of those numbers speak to you?"


And with that setup... in over 1,000 meetings... I've never had someone not answer that question.


--------------------------------------------------


So there you have it, "The Bucket Technique" to talk money when you're not comfortable talking money....and to find their budget, even if they "don't have a budget."


If you're ever going on a sales call, and need a quick refresher on how to position your pricing, use this cheat sheet I made you:


Quick Re-Cap of The Bucket Technique:


STEP 1: Ask the "setup question"

"What's your budget?"


STEP 2: Find the right prices to use.

Minimum price, 5x the minimum, 10x the minimum.


STEP 3 of The Bucket Technique: Finding their budget.

Ask this question: "Typically clients fit into one of three buckets: $20,000...$100,000...$250,000...do any of those numbers speak to you?"


You should probably save this email as a sales call cheat-sheet.


Sincerely,

Bryan Kreuzberger


P.S. If you liked this email, there's a LOT more I have to show you. Stay tuned
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