The 60-Day Experiment

Let's Turn on the Water for 10,000 People Today!

On the day after Thanksgiving, I find myself thankful for so many things, but one stands out because it represents so much more...

Flip a lever on the sink, and I can catch a stream of clean, cool drinking water whenever I'm a little thirsty. So can you more than likely.

It's such a small act, that I totally forget how important it is to my health and wealth. I'm very fortunate to be able to do this because only 1 in 6 people in the world have access to clean water!

I'm also thankful for Luke Hutcherson who just returned from a village in Ghana where he and a small crew implemented a McGuire Purifier to bring pure water to thousands of people.

We helped! Those of you who purchased any of the products in My 31-Day Birthday celebration helped us donate about $1000 to support this excellent work. And we will continue to donate 25% of the gross sales until Nov. 27th.

Luke sent me this note after he returned from Ghana a couple of weeks ago about his next urgent mission...

Take the Best and Leave the Rest!

I'm not sure where I heard this first, but "take the best and leave the rest" is always sound advice. It can be applied to any resource you find, whether it's for your business, your personal growth or your education.

Take the best and leave the rest...

Not long ago, I raved about The 4-Hour Workweek. And I do love that book. Timothy Ferris, the 29-year author who has figured out how to live a simplified life while earning $80,000 per month, delivers some great advice.

But some of it's a little hard to take too.

In fact, as a guy most interested in building relationships with my clients, friends and family...

Why Did I Buy 10 Shares Of WSPI This Week?

It's not much...$9 a share, so I invested less than $100.

So, why is it one of the most important investments I've made in my business life?

Before I go into that, let's talk about relationships a minute.

If you've read my other posts, you'll know I focus on person-to-person relationships in all aspects of my daily doings: Home life, corporate life and business life.

I focus on building and understanding personal relationships with people important to me.

Are there other categories of relationships we need to monitor too?

Absolutely! Here's a few examples of relationships we must maintain as well:

You Meet the Best People at JV Giveaways...

Do you know why I do what I do? I'll tell you...

I love creating close relationships with my readers. Many really do become friends.

Meeting people, like 60-Day Experimenter's Criss Bertling and Craig Sunney, at live events like last week's Internet Success System Seminar is always a kick. You know...putting faces with names and all that.

Roger Carr and I have become good friends too. He introduced himself in the forums and became a solid contributor. One day, he mentioned that he traveled to Huntsville, AL frequently. We arranged to meet for dinner.

And we stay in touch because...

Are You Living Your Story?

I think I fell in love with my wife from the first moment she opened her mouth.

We met at an outdoor café in Atlanta for a blind date that a mutual friend arranged. As I sat down expecting an hour of idle chatter, she cut to the chase and said, "So, what's your story?"

Mine was a good one -- full of doom and gloom with a lot of "woe is me" thrown in. My story included two failed marriages, three troubled kids, a huge debt, a short homeless period, a dingy little apartment and enough insanity to dump my car for a Harley for more than two years just because I felt like doing something different...

Yet...

The Building Blocks of Relationship Building

Sometimes, I come across something really exciting...and free. You're in luck, today.

After I read Keith Ferrazzi's book "Never Eat Alone" two years ago when it first came out, I told everyone about it. Ferrazzi became one of my personal heroes.

This is a guy who can manage more than 5,000 active personal and professional relationships from his Blackberry! And that takes some doing. He's the Relationship King -- so dubbed by The Today Show and other programs.

So, Ferrazzi's primary building block in building relationships is...

I thought I'd lost my good Karma...

My traveling partner, friend and paying client always lets me rent the car when we travel. Hans says I've got good car rental Karma.

Truthfully, my travel Karma IS pretty good.

For example, when making a reservation online, I use my standard profile stored in the car rental system that specifies a Ford Taurus as a first choice -- low-price and practical use.

But I've never driven a rented Taurus. I have tooled around in style with a Volvo S80, a Lincoln Town Car, a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Crown Victoria, a Mustang GT Convertible, a Mercury Grand Marquis and even a Jaguar.

(Hans checked my car rental agreement to make sure I'd requested a Taurus when we got the Jaguar. That one shocked me, too.)

And that Karma follows me wherever I travel. Usually...

Back to My Old Ways...Thank God!

I'm on the verge of changing my entire business.

Luckily, on the Internet, it's not like I have to build a new building, buy new furniture or hire more employees.

Nope. I'm just going to change the way I do things -- going back to my old ways in the offline world.

Is this progress? I think so.

Intrigued? Keep reading.

The benefit of doing this is not so difficult to understand...or at least shouldn't be. But someone else had to point this out to me. So, I'll relay it to you. It may apply. But first, I have to give you a little background.

In my day job (yep, still got one of those)...

Have You Started a Fire Lately?

I'm starting a forest fire today...

Before you call the cops, I've got a permit. It's a controlled burn. At least, I hope so since our house is on the other side of the driveway :)

We lucked into a little land in North Alabama that includes 12 acres of planted pine. Planted pine is basically a long-term form of farming. So, I'm a tree farmer, of sorts...

Luckily, trees pretty much take care of themselves, because I don't know anything about it.

As you drive through Alabama and Georgia, rows of pine, straight and narrow, line the country roads. Maturing in 15 to 20 years, millions of acres throughout the south are planted in pine and...

What does the Atlanta Airport have to do with losing at Racquet Ball and Changing My Thinking?

I've got a thing about the Atlanta Airport.

It's a pretty efficient airport. They move a ton of people each day as the busiest airport in America. But I'm convinced they squeeze everyone through these 8 gates:

A1, A2, A35, A36, D1, D2, D35, D36

And really, only 4 of those may be real.

Of nearly 190 gates, in Terminals T, A, B, C, D, and E, the eight above are the only ones I fly out of no matter where I'm flying.

And the one I'm taking today -- and everyday -- seems to be the one that is the furthest away from the escalators.

If you've never visited the Atlanta Airport, let me describe it for you: