Saturday, December 31, 2011

LGN Revolution Has Become the New and Improved Passport to Wealth

!±8± LGN Revolution Has Become the New and Improved Passport to Wealth

I Want That Home Based Business That Makes Thousands While I Sleep 

LGN Revolution is just what the name implies: Looking out for the Little Guy.

In today's deplorable economy with millions of people losing jobs and homes more people are turning to the home based business markets than ever before. With the thousands of various opportunities available to choose from it is often a complicated task for the first time home based business marketer to decide which avenue would best suit their needs.

As we have all seen and heard enticing stories about how so many people have become successful with their own home based internet business and earning that whole year's paycheck in just one month we can not help but to be envious and want to find the overnight success that delivers the automatic income which ensures we will never have to worry about money again.

With each of these business opportunities all promising the potential of earning incredible income with very little or no work required; many people join with the expectation to actually see instant success with little effort only to soon find themselves listed among the over 90% of home based internet marketers who never make a dime and fail miserably. Some people actually believe that all they need to do is simply sign up for their free test drive then sit back and wait for the bank to call and inform them that their account has exceeded F.D.I.C limits.

When I grow up I want to become a professional Pester expert.

 
Let's do a little reality check here for a minute. Nobody joins these business opportunities because they've always had a lifelong dream of beating their head off a brick wall trying to chase their family or friends and anybody who comes within three feet and pestering them to buy things which include: Magic Powders, Potions, Creams, Juice, Cookies, Credit Repair, Travel Plans, Stuff that makes your car go Vroom Vroom, A New Mortgage, A Bigger Penis, or any of the thousands of  "Programs" in between.

The people who join these "programs" or "business opportunities" get involved for TWO Reasons ONLY. The First is: To Make Money and the Second is: To Make Money NOW!   I believe that for the most part the people who seek out which business is right for them to join are looking to find those where others have gotten involved before them and can claim to have done well, and of course become a member of a business that promotes products or services with the intention of not joining the many out there who feel that the key to success is a lack of integrity. Anybody who has been on line long enough soon discovers how the internet can be both fascinating and appalling at the same time.

As each year more and more predators come up to cyberspace creating more clever ways to deceive and cheat people; these are the bad apples who spoil the sincere efforts of those who work very hard to become known for trustworthiness and reliability. The internet seems to have a battlefield for good VS. evil. Often time one is mistaken for the other.

The way it works is actually very simple and not rocket science at all. A lot of people will settle on the business they want to join because they were lured in with promises of instant success and riches. Having heard about a superstar top earner that brings in the six figure monthly income they whip out that credit card and begin the process of what I like to call mental masturbation which translates to playing with your own head.

 
Is it true that I only have to work just a few minutes a day?

 
They listen to the instructions to "plug into the system" and come to the company training sessions expecting to learn how to find that  "Magic Wand" that they can simply add some "Magic Pixie Dust" and wave it around to begin making instant sales and enjoy tremendous income. What they then soon discover is, contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as building a business in "Just A Few Minutes A Day."

When they are unable to make the necessary sacrifices and roll up the sleeves and get to work and get out there to find the right people to speak with and build that network; then soon find themselves going back to that "Job they were supposed to replace" asking the "Boss they were supposed to fire" for some overtime to pay off all the credit card debts accumulated while trying to "build that business" and meanwhile now hiding behind the caller I.D. for all the harassing collection calls.

MY Sponsor went into the Witness Protection Program (Right after I sent my payment in.)

As new members join they now expect the sponsor who contacted them on a regular basis and informed them of all the great features including how the company does all the selling for you to become permanently attached. They now expect the sponsor to become the "Super Sponsor" who drops whatever they are doing at any time day or night to answer questions. Not only do they expect the Super Sponsor to "help them build their business" but even more so, expect the sponsor to build it for them. When they find this not to be the case, then the decline process begins. Soon they cancel the membership and do what many do which is set out on a witch hunt to defame the sponsor and the business.

Then suddenly they find time to get to work spreading their failure stories all over the internet and pointing the finger and anything or anyone to blame for their failures. A good example of this would be one of the most remarkable women who many people have heard of, Jeannie Looman. A stay at home mom from Georgia who spent years building one home based business after another while funding these from child support payments. After finding her pot of gold with Passport To Wealth she then devoted much of her time and money  to sharing with hundreds of people how she was able to finally achieve her success.

YOU SUCK! YOU RIPPED ME OFF! YOUR PROGRAM IS A SCAM!

While this woman should be nominated for the Mother Theresa award, there are numerous people who are angry that they had not been fortunate enough to duplicate her success and now instead of putting forth the time and effort necessary to do this, they spend more time to launch vile attacks against her and attempt to take hers away. Let's face it folks; The world does not care if you make it. They just get jealous when you do. It seems that the expression "Misery Loves Company" is so true because instead of taking the time and effort to go get their own slice of American Pie, they will make every effort possible to take yours away from you. 

So they give it a brief whirl, do not get rich overnight; then the next thing you see if they find the time to go create blogs and submit complaints to Rip Off Report.Com and tell the whole world that it is YOUR fault because they were unable to duplicate your success. I think tomorrow I am going to go across the street and ask my neighbor if he wouldn't mind to water and fertilize his lawn so that it will make my grass grow.

We often hear how not everything is for everyone. Not every person has what it takes to become a born salesperson. If they did, Mc Donald's would have a severe shortage of people who could stick their head out of the drive through window and ask you "Do you want fries with that?" Meanwhile, all along not even realizing they are selling fries yet receiving no commission for the sales generated. Yes LGN Revolution has made it much EASIER for those with NO Sales experience to see results. However, in order for the company to do all the work for you it is obviously in your best interest to get off your keyster and get out there to meet the quality people to introduce to the company.

COCAINE FOR SALE

Forgive that little attention grabber. No I am not selling cocaine. One of the examples I like to demonstrate for people is how some people are born salespersons and do not even realize it. As we all know or have heard about there is a serious drug epidemic in this, and many other countries. The undeniable fact is that so many people have made the fatal mistake of trying to achieve instant success by participating in illegal or prohibited activities in the hopes of hitting that fast money winning streak.

A drug dealer develops the skills necessary to know how to go out and find the right people to procure large quantities of drugs, then repackage this into small packages of drugs, then go out and find the people who will soon become regular customers and continue to order their supply of drugs. How do they accomplish this: Do they place ads in the L.A. or N.Y. Times Classified with "Wanted to Buy: Cocaine?" or "I have Cocaine for sale?" Yet without even realizing it they develop the skills necessary to build a word of mouth business that earns them a tremendous income until of course one of these word of mouth customers is a Police Officer who then dutifully informs them that that business is a No-No and there are certain reprocussions to follow which include lengthy prison sentences and forfeitures of all earnings.

Products and Services Make The World Go Round

As the now retired Don LaPre, who became a multi-millionaire before the ripe age of 25 once said, "The trick to becoming rich is to find a product or service that people want or need and focus on finding the people who need it." If you have not noticed by now there is one product that people from any background all want or need and that is MONEY or the ability to earn a lot of it. People from all walks of life and every language all love to make money.

One good example I love to use is Mr. Ray Kroc, the founder of the aforementioned Micky D's, who took a chain of five stores and turned it into one of the largest corporations in the world from selling hamburgers. Dunkin' Donuts did it with a cup of coffee, AT&T did it with telephones and the list goes on. How much more simpler can it get than that?

I once knew a guy who made a fortune buying and selling Mattresses. Buying them at a discounted price and reselling them in a local classified paper at discounted prices. The thing I love most about LGN Revolution is I never have to replenish my product supply. The start up costs and membership fee allow me to have product on inventory at all times that I only Bought ONE time and can re-sell as often as I wish. No having to re-order for each sale makes for a very nice profit margin.

Of course instant success and riches do not come overnight and there are so many "follow the leader" methods along the way. Some will deliver better results than others while some return none at all. There are businesses who have been around for decades that suddenly seem to go belly up overnight while some are in business for less than one year and earn enough millions to open their own bank as the inventor of the Mr. Moonie toy has done with G & L Savings and Loan. Some people have the Midas touch where every thing they put their hand into turns to Gold; IE:  Sir Richard Branson of Virgin, or Mr. "You're Fired" Donald Trump and on the other end are people who have the defication touch where they touch things that turn into something I can't mention here as this is a family oriented site.

As many business such as Passport To Wealth and LGN Revolution gain popularity  the select top earners who, after achieving great success, find their names soon become commonplace household words throughout the internet such as Darren Gaudry, Bob Williams, the aforementioned Jeannie Looman and many others. Consequently,.along come the numerous copy-cats who throw their collective hats in the ring and devote their advertising efforts to compete against or compare themselves to these companies. Using mud-slinging and bad-mouthing they attempt to lead people to think that other businesses are a SCAM or offer worthless products and seem to think this is the most efficient way to entice customers over to their side of the fence. If you have not figured out by now, this is one of the tricks used by many to get free search engine placement. If you want to open a business that competes against Passport To Wealth, LGN Revolution, EDC Gold, or any other popular name, simply be sure to include those names in your ads that visitors who search for those keywords using Google (etc.)  will be sure to find.

This reminds me of an old trick a yard sale expert  did for free advertising. As the neighbors up the street took the time to create posters advertising their yard sale and post them all around the neighborhoods, this guy would simply wait for the same weekend they held that sale and hold one of his own. Now as all the people in the area saw the signs the neighbors took the trouble to create and post and arrived to their yard sale, they would notice there is another one being held only a few houses away at the same time. Clever way to get somebody else to pay for your advertising.

NO Inventory or Monthly Auto Ship Required

I would like to clarify that it is not the products that encourage new members to join so much as it is the income to be earned from marketing these products. Although I do remove my hat to Mr. James Ward, the creator and founder of LGN Revolution for having done a great job of listening to the complaints that Passport To Wealth has received and using this to turn a negative into a positive and removing the errors and obstacles that make LGN Revolution a much more powerful marketing tool. Having had the pleasure and Privilidge of communicating with James numerous times myself I've asked him when does he ever find the time to sleep. This man does a remarkable job of making himself available to all of his team members.

Promptly returning calls and emails personally and making his appearance on many of the team conference and training calls James Ward is the first one I have ever worked with where I feel he takes a sincere interest in growing each member's business and not just bringing them on board to collect the monthly membership fees. Talk about a bang for the buck, the measly .95 membership fee comes complete with ALL of the tools and resources that others charge separtely for. No more being on the hook for a few hundred bucks a month while trying to get started and bring in sales.

Even the compensation plan is designed to ensure member's success. With many of the other 7.00 programs there have been people who put up the initial costs including the required "Pass Up" sales only to find the sales soon stopped and they've had tremendous difficulty making the consecutive sales to get the return on investment. In today's deplorable economy it is realistically much more difficult to find those who can afford the 7.00 start up costs.  No matter how much they shake the sofa; only so much change is going to fall out. LGN Revolution removes this obstacle as now members can join for as low as only 0.00 and then build up to the 7.00 ELITE level.

What most people fail to realize is that even though these products are at their disposal with full resale rights, the average Joe on the street could really care less about them and is primarily interested on focusing on the income earned from the generated sales. Most of the people on the internet have no clue how to install and use many of the software products and most likely never will even attempt to do so. The vacation packages offered are truly remarkable in and of themselves. They allow some people who could never afford to visit outside of their own home to enjoy a moment in the sun in some of the most exotic locations in the world. Yet, as with the software products offered these vacation packages will simply sit in the back office and go un-used.

 
Advertising Advertising Advertising

I could not stress enough how just the same way the three key words in Real Estate are Location, Location, Location; the three key words in ANY marketing endeavor are: Advertising, Advertising, Advertising. For as long as anyone can remember your whole life you have been exposed to various forms of advertising. How many of us can recognize slogans or logos simply from the constant bombardment of advertising efforts we have been exposed to? When you see the Nike "Swoosh" you think "Just Do It" or when you drive down the street and see those golden arches you already know "Mc Donald's" with "over one million served." Of course that has been recently changed to Billions, but you get the idea. Branding, product placement and constant repetition has been proven to work time and time again.

Or how about "Ivory Soap" with "99.9% Pure" and "So Pure It Floats?" Meanwhile you may think to yourself, "Awww that stuff does not affect me; I pay no attention to that." Then one day while in the grocery store with the shopping list that includes some soap for the bathroom and going down the aisle you see the bar of Ivory and don't even think twice before grabbing it and tossing it in your cart.

Most people, especially those just getting started, do not have the extensive advertising budgets that others are privy to. Yet even some of the Free Advertising resources may prove to deliver better results that some of the most expensive commercial ads. It makes no difference if you can drop a million dollars a minute for television commercials during the Superbowl or simply placing bumper stickers on the back of your car. You need to get your ad out there to bring the eyeballs to your site. One of the new things I have noticed is how clothing manufactures have been stitching logos on the seat of women's pants. As if to say, "Hey, since you are looking down here anyway; you may as well read my ad."  What a great idea. Why didn't I think of that?  I'm going to ask some sexy girls if they wouldn't mind  stitching my website address across her butt.

I have found that some free advertising resources have delivered better results than expected. Yes when placing ads on free classified websites we all get bombarded with offers from fellow marketers attempting to entice us to come visit their website and join their business. That is to be expected. In this game we are all compared to a bunch of cows in a corral all Mooing each other. I got white milk over here. I got chocolate here. I have taken out full page magazine ads for 00.00 that delivered just 2 calls and then have gotten hundreds of hits simply from placing free ads on places such as backpage or craigslist.

Are you an Expert on how to LOSE money on line?

I could write an entire novel here with the numerous failed experiences I have had over the years in my attempts to find the right "business" to promote. Then again, with the "over 90% who fail" so couldn't many people. As Thomas Edison once wrote when attempting to find a filament to use for his light bulb that would not burn out; "I have not failed 1000 times. I have successfully found 1000 ways that will not work." Have you heard of the common household lubricant called WD-40 and the story how it got that name? When NASA commissioned the lab to come up with a "Water Deterrent" formula that could be used in space, they went through 40 different experiments until they found the one that delivered satisfactory results. Hence the name 4D-40.

Many of us have heard the expression "Practice Makes Perfect" yet nothing can be further than the truth as you can practice doing it WRONG a whole lot. Perfect practice makes Perfect. Unfortunately, as we travel through this wonderful growing and learning experience we call live many of us come out with a PhD from the School of Hard Knocks. This is another of the reasons why I truly appreciate the efforts of Mr. James Ward and his LGN Revolution as the team that shares with new members is not afraid to expose them to the truths of where to go for useful tools and resources, but more importantly, where to avoid. This is another small step to keep the struggling marketer from going broke when they are supposed to be on the way to creating wealth.


LGN Revolution Has Become the New and Improved Passport to Wealth

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Campaign Trophies/Achievements Review

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Campaign Trophies/Achievements Review for PS3 and XBOX 360. Wecover all Campaign walkthroughs & Multiplayer Strategies and Tactics for Battlefield Bad Company 2. www.nextgentactics.com Visit our website where we provide detailed game guides, trophy guides, and multiplayer strategies for other games such as Modern Warfare 2, MAG, COD4, World at War, Prototype, inFAMOUS, and Killzone 2.

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

FPS Freek by KontrolFreek (Classic)

!±8± FPS Freek by KontrolFreek (Classic)

Brand : KontrolFreek | Rate : | Price :
Post Date : Dec 20, 2011 19:48:09 | N/A

Legendary performance. 100% Tournament legal.Created with precision and accuracy in mind, the FPS Freek is our flagship accessory. Fueled by our desire to win, the FPS Freek was developed for the sole purpose of becoming better at first-person shooters. The result has become somewhat of a legend. Proven a winner time and time again, the FPS Freek has been praised by numerous professionals, enthusiasts and n00bs alike.By increasing the length of the thumb-sticks slightly, precision while aiming is improved dramatically. Your range of motion is increased by 40%, giving you the opportunity to make smaller adjustments and "snap" to targets much faster in first-person shooters. This affords you the luxury of turning up controller sensitivities to get the closest feel to a mouse possible on a console. The greater leverage offers you better control and less force-alleviating thumb-fatigue and adding more comfort to long gaming sessions. In short, this increased accuracy and decreased thumb-fatigue results in more kills and less deaths.In the competitive world of online gaming, you'd be crazy to play without the FPS Freek!FPS Freek is designed to fit both the PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers but will also fit many third-party versions.Works great in games like: * Modern Warfare 2 * Battlefield: Bad Company 2 * Call of Duty: Black Ops * Halo: Reach * Medal of Honor

  • Better control = Higher accuracy in FPSs
  • More grip, less thumb fatigue
  • Higher sensitivities mean superior kill rates
  • 100% Tournament legal
  • Xbox and PS3 compatible

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Black militarist down

Recent Blackhawk footage on Valparaso. I find that the blackhawk really is best used as covering fire, and for inserting infantry the miniguns are not always the most accurate or easy to hit targets at range. For anyone who keeps saying can I add you on PSN, I cant actually add many people, because I have to keep most of my clan on my friends list, if you want to be part of an active clan that supports titles like Cod, KZ and BC2 - BF3 signup today at : www.veritasgaminghq.com

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Saturday, December 10, 2011

XBox 360 Achievements - Ruining Online Gaming

!±8± XBox 360 Achievements - Ruining Online Gaming

I have to admit - I love achievements, I really do. I love that little "blip" when you've did something that will increase your gamer score. I have to credit the whole achievement system with actually reigniting my love for video gaming. There's just something really fun about beating a game, then having it permanently listed beside your username, to show the world that yes, you played Gears of War 2 on insane, and you lived to tell the tale.

I've also found Xbox 360 achievements have helped in social settings. I was out with a few people a month ago, and there was one person there I had never met before. The topic of video games came up, and as we both had XBox 360s we swapped gamer tags just for the hell of it. I went out with that same group of people a couple of weeks later, and I spent most of the night just talking to that guy, chatting about the achievements he had, and that I had. He even asked for advice on how to get a bigger gamer score, as he has a competition going with one of his co-workers.

I promised him next time we go out, I'd bring Avatar with me.

So yeah, I'm a big fan of achievements, and I have a 75k gamer score to prove it. However let's be honest - the term is "achievements" is just a tad ambiguous. I'd estimate less than 30% of all potential achievements are actual true achievements. Now that's fine - sure, it's a bit sad to sit there with a printed off map for 5 hours shooting and killing 200 pigeons just to show the world that you did it - but at least you have something to show for it. It was a lot sadder finding all those hidden parcels to 100% earlier GTA games "just because".

My only problem - and it's a big one, is online achievements. Because as the title of this article suggests; they're ruining online gaming.

The inspiration from this article came when, after a nice dinner, I sat down to chill for an hour and play some Fifa 2010. I find playing against the AI is rather boring, so I like to go online and play people. Now online play can be frustrating at times, especially in sports games when people quit out after they start to lose, but it's something that I just have to suck up and live with - because that's the way many online games are.

Achievements have made it a hell of a lot worse.

I started up a game of Fifa 2010, and within seconds of kickoff my opponent got the ball, ran to his own net and scored an own goal, then immediately quit. What? Why did he quit that early? Why did he score an own goal? I assume it was just some sort of internet connection problem or just someone messing around, so I went to play someone else. Seconds into the match, this person got the ball, ran to his own net, scored an own goal and quit on me too! I was wondering if there was problems with XBox Live so I messaged the person and asked. He replied:

"Sorry bro, doing it to get an achievement."

What? Quitting games seconds in for an achievement? That doesn't make any sense. So I logged on to the internet to check, and sure enough: there's an achievement entitled Bad Loser. To get the achievement you have to quit 5 xbox live matches when you are losing.

Seriously, what the hell?

Now this is a 0g achievement - it won't affect your gamerscore, but it's still an achievement nonetheless, and you're always going to have people going for it - people who like to get as many achievements as possible, no matter what they are, what you have to do to get them or what they are worth.

So EA deliberately put in an "achievement" which essentially encourages players to lose and quit matches.

I wish this was just a one-off, but in reality the majority of online achievements found in games are ones that disrupt the whole point of online play. Thankfully they're not all that bad, but really - if you're sitting there playing an online game and going out of your way to do something you really shouldn't be doing - you're ruining the whole point of online gaming.

Let me give a few examples of achievements that disrupt online gaming, some specific to games, and some achievements you can find in a majority of games:

Blitz The League: Lose 5 games in a row online. So you can sit there and play people, and they'll just let you win, taking all the competition out of it, just so they can get an achievement.

Call of Duty 3: There are achievements for getting up to 40,000 total points in online multiplayer. The best way to do this is to be the person that scores the flag, or secures the HQ. So if you have an achievement junkie on your team, don't even think you can count on them to back you up, or look out for you and your team, because they're going to be doing it just for themselves, so they can get that precious 120 gamerscore points.

Play Every Map/Gametype: This is a popular achievement found in games, where you have to play every sort of game mode like Deathmatch, Capture the Flag etc, or every different map. Why exactly is this an achievement? What you often get is people going for this achievement, and not actually caring about the game itself. Some of them even start up the game, then go off and do something else, just so they can get that achievement.

Another one that is similar to the above is play X amount games of multiplayer. Again, it encourages people to just join up and let it sit there.

Kill X amount of enemies with ____(insert weapon here): Now okay - I can understand WHY so many online games have this sort of achievement - it encourages variety, but again it comes at the expense of online play. It's happened to me way too often - playing a team deathmatch, and half my team members are spending their time lobbing grenades or trying to stab the opposite team with a knife, just to get a lousy 10g.

Frontline Fuel of War: This one actually has an achievement for killing YOURSELF 10 times in a multiplayer game. There's nothing I like more than teaming up with someone who is going to spend the whole game throwing grenades at their feet.

Battlefield Bad Company: Man, where do I start with this one? Let's see - 15g for hanging back at the gold crates and letting 20 teammates die and respawn on top of you. Destroy 1000 walls and knock down 1000 trees rather than you know - try and help your team? - for 15g each. Battlefield Bad Company 2 is even worse. "Hey, think you can go a sniper and cover us from afar?" "Sorry, I'm going an engineer and will kill someone with my repair tool - it's 15g you know!". "Hey can you give me some cover fire?" "Sorry, I already killed someone with my M60 and my RPG-7, I need to go knife someone now."

I'm not anti-achievements, really. I love them, and I have a 75k gamerscore to back that up. I'm in the Mile High Club. I spent 5 hours freeskating in Skate. I've killed 7 chickens in under 10 seconds in Modern Warfare 2. I've even saved my game of Fallout 3 at Level 19, just so I could go back and redo it again, getting to Level 20 with all 3 different types of karma.

What I've never done however, is disrupt an online game or another persons enjoyment just for the sake of achievements. And really - is it worth paying over a year just to meet people who spend the game jumping off high ledges, deliberately losing or hiding out in a corner?

Because I don't think it is.


XBox 360 Achievements - Ruining Online Gaming

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Eight Leadership Principles Professional Service Firms Should Learn From The Military

!±8± Eight Leadership Principles Professional Service Firms Should Learn From The Military

The military is often called the ultimate professional service firm because it sells, what we can call in plain English, "peace of mind". There is nothing tangible, no deliverables and no billable time. And to maintain this "peace of mind", the military must work in close collaboration with the civilian side of society, like politicians (the client per se). By the way, have you also noticed that the military doesn't have many fee objections? Governments are willing to invest a fair amount in peace.

And while many civilians mistakenly believe that the military is about mass-manipulation, command and control, when you see beyond the veneer, you'll discover a "community" whose operation is based on deep-seated values and which has lower level of talent attrition than any industry you could name. Also, the military of one of the very few organisations whose members are actually proud of belonging there. But since the military is probably the only institution where commitment and accountability are taken dead seriously, civilians tend to call this level of dedication, due to lack of a better word, to command and control. But there is the same level of command and control in every area of life. And in a society that, in general, is pretty low on accountability, these words have been softened up to be more acceptable.

So, let's see what we can learn from the army...

1. Communications

Communication is one of the fundamentals in the military. It must be very clear and precise, otherwise the smallest misunderstanding can cause major devastation. Clear communication takes place when the receiver precisely understands what the sender means. You communicate for several purposes. You can direct, order, ask, request, influence, co-ordinate, encourage, counsel, coach, or educate. It is the sender's responsibility to send the message in such a way and form that it "lands" on the receiver, and s/he can understand the exact meaning of the message at a high degree of accuracy.

And this is where Einstein's phrase comes into the equation, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." This approach makes certain that your message is understood and can be acted upon promptly. And there is another consideration here. Sometimes the price of clarity is the risk of insult. People just must pack their egos, and realise that just because a comment hurts, it's not meant to hurt. Every comment is just a comment. It is us who add meanings to those comments.

In professional firms this kind of communication takes place both in-house among the firm's denizens, and between denizens and clients. We're living in a society that is becoming politically correct at the expense of clarity. I don't mean to be politically incorrect or outrageous just for the hell of it, but clarity must come first. If you mean to say bull****, then don't settle for male bovine solid waste. It may sound nicer and less vulgar, but the meaning gets diluted, and the clarity, urgency and the importance of the message go down the drain. General Patton may have been vulgar in his language but he produced results and his people respected him, which made him a pretty good leader.

2. Developing Associates and Teams

As a leader you must have a strong bond with your people. Leadership by remote control is a sad and rather sick illusion. Ken Blanchard calls it seagull leadership: So-called leaders fly in, make a lot of noise, crap all over the place on everyone and then fly out. Their only contact with their people is when they show up to reprimand and fire them.

Just like warfare, working in a professional firm is a team activity and the battlefield of commerce requires tough and cohesive teams that can work together when the stakes are high and the heat is on. But this requires that teams are trained when the heat is on. And this is where the difference lies. Soldiers rehearse, musicians rehearse, dancers rehearse, actors and actresses rehearse, even politicians rehearse their speeches.

One of the very few groups of people who almost never rehearse their crafts is professional service firm denizens. And not because they are so good that they don't need rehearsing. No! They don't rehearse because it's not a billable activity, and management doesn't tolerate time wastage. Every single dispensed second must be rewarded.

So, what happens next? Well, we can call it winging. And winging is great when everything goes by the book. Every greenhorn sailor can sail a ship on a calm sea. But there is deep trouble when storm's coming and all of the sudden 10-foot waves start pounding on the ship. A team that was built on brotherly love and retarded ra-ra exercises will fall to pieces even before the storm reaches its climax.

The biggest part of building "military-calibre" teams is to create trust in-, respect for- and faith in other members abilities to do what has to be done to advance the firm to the next level of excellence. Team leaders must be able to represent the firm to the team and individual members of the team to the firm. Team leaders must be exemplars. They must be willing to do themselves what they expect their people to do. One big destroyer of teamwork is when team leaders shout, "Do as I say, not as I do." And yes, team members will graciously ignore the team leader and now you have the harbinger of anarchy.

3. Developing Teaching, Coaching and Counselling

The main purpose of leadership in the military is to turn soldiers into leaders, so they can pass on the skills both to the soldiers in their units and their children in civilian life. It's about helping people to grow as people. The military prepares soldiers for many worst-case scenarios. And since the environment can be pretty stressful, soldiers must become good counsellors and coaches to help people in their units. And since this level of help can mean the difference between life and death, it is taken pretty seriously.

How does this reflect on professional service firms? All right, that is not a life or death situation (depending on the profile of your business), but it does mean the difference between feast and famine. And the famine period can be pretty stressful.

As a practice leader you must be committed to your people's overall well-being, and must actively participate in your people's professional development. Professional development is not about more functional knowledge. Technology professionals make the mistake of learning more and more about technology, while they are barely able to carry a semi-intelligent conversation with non-technical people using normal language. Every now and then I get beaten up because my language is not business-like. But I also know through feedback that, in spite of my accent and plain English, people can easily understand my message because it's not wrapped into flavour-of-the-month fads.

4. Enhancing Functional, Contextual and Personal Mastery

Many professionals believe that the more they know about their functional areas, the better they become as professionals. There are some interesting considerations here. I use the world of sports here. Think of some high-achieving athletes and think of some high-achieving sports coaches. What you find is that most high-achieving athletes have never become high-achieving coaches, and most high-achieving coaches have never been high-achieving athletes. They require two different skills.

In great professional firms you find great functional experts who also great (or at least on the path of becoming great) leaders. Besides the content of their speciality (computer programming), they also understand both the context (IT industry and IT business) and the personal issues related to rendering computer programming as a business. That can include decision-making, emotional intelligence and even personal health and fitness. They all relate to running a successful firm. Remember every business problem starts out as a personal problem and then it becomes a business problem.

Nothing is more pitiful than a computer programmer who learns one programming language after the other, but has no understanding of how those computer codes tie into the big picture of the client's company. Understanding content while ignoring context is not a brilliant practice. Similarly, improving our business skills while ignoring personal growth is a waste of time and effort. As service professionals, our job is to improve our clients' condition, but in the process we also must improve both personally and professionally.

According to Harvard Business School research (confirmed by Stanford University and the Carnegie Foundation), regardless what business you are in, your success is only 15% functional skills, and 85% of other skills.

According to Accenture's surveys of 500 top international executives, the most wanted workforce skills in the next 2-5 years in business...

* Business skills: 68% (Decision-making, cross-functional collaboration, client focused, project management)

* Technical skills 42%

* Flexibility and adaptability: 33%

* Self-motivation: 18%

* Leadership: 6%

* Functionally good at what they do (good dentist, good lawyer, good carpenter, etc.): 3%

These same executives also predict that with time it becomes extraordinarily difficult to come by people with good business skills.

5. Improving Decision-Making

Imagine a shooting competition. The contestants are holding their riffles at the target and are aiming... aiming... and still aiming. The clock strikes noon, and they're still aiming. Then the clock strikes midnight, and they're still aiming. At the crack of dawn they're still aiming.

What you see here is the typical decision-making process in most professional firms. Making a decision over an important issue that would actually advance the firm's position in the marketplace.

When decision has to be made over an urgent issue, the decision is instant. But some 35% of those decisions are ego-driven. Nearly 66% of executives never consider alternatives once they've made a decision. 81% of managers push their ideas using persuasion, position power and edict with no regard for the quality or relevance of the idea. "It's the boss' idea. It must be the best idea."

Because a whopping 83% of leaders and managers are confident in themselves (basically trust themselves), but only 27% of them are confident (basically trust them) in the people they work with. The essential message is that "I'm a genius surrounded by idiots." But the interesting thing is that in others' eyes, they are the geniuses and everyone else is an idiot. Well, essentially everyone is a genius and an idiot at the same time. Talking about parallel universes. In his book, The Invisible Touch, Harry Beckwith calls this phenomenon the "Late Wo-Begone" effect: People (especially guys) mistakenly believe they are better looking and smarter than they really are. A great example is your local gym. Some 30% of the guys lift far too heavy weights just to impress other guys.

The military teaches us that firm leaders must be able to make high-quality decisions within a reasonable time frame that are both appropriate for solving the problem and can be implemented by the soldiers. The other point is that every decision must be made at the lowest organisational level. In the military you can't pester the generals with minutia.

Similarly, in professional firms there is a "chain of command" or "chain of accountability", and if you expect accountability from your people, you must give them a "room of discretion", so they will decide what's best under the circumstances. When I go skydiving, I have people above me in the chain of command as to how the whole jumping day will take place, but they don't poke their dirty little noses into why, when and how I open my emergency shoot when main shoot quits on me. I'm accountable for carrying out that jump to my best knowledge, and to do that I am authorised to make certain decisions.

The other end of the same equation is that you can only expect accountability from your people if you are willing to be accountable to them. Yes, it must be a two-way street. The traditional "Do as I say not as I do" is just not enough.

6. Perfecting Planning Skills

Planning is the skill that is less and less appreciated in this Internet-speed world. And a few years ago the dot com companies made it even worse. "Never mind planning. If we fail, we just beg for more venture capital and maybe we burn less of it in the next round." The interesting thing is that over the years information technology and venture capital have become co-dependent. One cannot live without the other.

What amazes me is that when lawyers or dentists graduate, they invest their own money and their own bank loans to start their legal or dental practices, but when some IT gurus decide to start their own businesses, they just go on a begging spree to "raise capital". Since I find it hard to believe that they all are flat broke, I can only assume that they just don't have the balls to put their own money on the line.

Planning is a process that is necessary to support tactical-level execution that is vitally important to achieving the firm's strategy. Saying it in a less pompous way, if you want to make omelette, you have to be ready, willing and able to break some eggs. And some of them may be bad eggs and stink up the whole kitchen, but that's part of the game. The other option is just standing there and staring at your box of eggs until doomsday.

Planning is also a collective name for such activities as goal-setting, forecasting, defining objectives, formulating strategies, setting priorities, delegating, sequencing and timing, budgeting, and standardising the necessary procedures. Your people want to live chaos-free orderly lives, so they must know they can depend on your abilities to plan for success.

There is one more consideration here: As a leader your job is to grow other leaders who will someday replace you in your day-to-day work. And it's up to you what kind of a leader you grow.
7. Effectively Using Available Systems

Many professional firms take the "we provide personalised services" a bit too far and in the wrong direction. You call the firm and it's almost impossible to find your way from the voice mail labyrinth to a live person. But when you ask for the same information which ten other prospects have already asked for on the same day, someone starts assembling the information pieces for you one by painstakingly one. In plain English, many firms humanise the trivia and automate the vital.

Many professional firms rebel against using systems because they believe that would dilute their customised approaches, but realistically systems make things consistent and reasonably predictable. And this consistency and predictability are the cornerstones of your brand. I am wiling to fly on an aeroplane because planes have been fairly consistent and predictable at taking people from A to B. All right, every now and then one comes down in unexpected ways, but in general, flying is pretty consistent and predictable.

People don't buy your services based on what you deliver but rather based on how you deliver it. Think of how Saturn revolutionised the way cars are sold. The first time in history car dealerships selling North American cars treated women with respect and courtesy. Was it rocket science? Not really. Saturn used a car selling system that was drastically different from the traditional slimy and manipulative General Motors approach that regarded buyers, especially women, as high-grade morons with pulse beats, who must be screwed out of as much of their money and as quickly as humanly possible.

Performance expert W. Edwards Deming once said that some 94% of all problems are related to systems. He also said that unless you can map out your work in some box and arrow diagrams, then you don't know what you're doing. These are harsh words but certainly confirm the importance of systems. And while I agree that in professional services, just like in the military, it is the people who make the difference, but when you have great people using great systems, then your firm is as good as untouchable by the competition. You must be ready and willing to use every available system that make you better than the competition.

8. Upholding and Enforcing The Firm's Code of Honour

The US Armed Forces (Army, Navy, etc.) adhere to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The Samurai in Japan lived by the code of the Bushido (Code of the Warrior Soul of Japan). The glue that holds together any team of people is a Code of Honour. This code clearly lays down specific behaviours between team members and between the firm and its clients. And most firms are pretty good at creating such a code. The problem is when it comes to enforcing the code.

The problem is that many professionals refuse to be held accountable for anything. "We're professionals and no one has the right to hold us accountable for anything." - They say.

For some this may sound too harsh, but when you're building a "military-calibre" team, you must know you can count on your people to walk into the arena with you whenever it's necessary, not only when they feel like. Some people may consider this act as tyranny, but it's just part of the Code. Some people just refused to live by the Code (which they created), so they were asked to leave. And I believe this is the only way to reinforce a Code of Honour. In this case the firing of those associates wasn't initiated by partners. It was written in the firm's Code. And this partner, unlike most partners out there, actually had the balls to reinforce the Code.

When a firm leader or partner violates the Code, that leader must be made responsible for his irresponsible act. In the military soldiers don't live by what the generals dictate. Both soldiers and generals live by what the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) or its equivalent dictates. It's a sort of Code of Honour. A sort of constitution for the military. And generals and other officers must become the living embodiment of that Code, so they set an example to soldiers.

Just like in the military, in professional firms too, leaders come and go but, paraphrasing the old Led Zeppelin song, The Song Remains The Same, the Code remains the same. Look at great companies like the retailer Nordstrom. Most employees never meet the top dogs, but they are introduced to the "Nordstrom Code" on their very first days and are told that everyone is expected to live by that Code (or getting fired by breaking it).

So, what is your Code? Is it worth living by? Are you willing to live by it?
Summary

So, why can't most professional firms live up to the "ultimate professional service firm" moniker? It's lack of accountability. In most firms there is only one kind of accountability: Making money. As long as you perform your assigned number of billable hours, everything else is irrelevant.

This is the equivalent of telling soldiers, "Men, as long as you produce the assigned quota of enemy corpses, everything else is overlooked. All sins forgiven."

And here let's revisit the movie Gladiator, respect and how leader earn it. It's just a little detail but throughout the movie, when Maximus was a slave and his former personal assistant was a free man, yet, Cicero always addressed Maximus as "General". Again, it may be just a tiny detail but it may be worth discovering how many of your people call you "Stupid Cow", "Dumb Jerk" or by other innovative names rather than your real name and how many flick their tongues in contempt for you rather than bowing their heads in respect.

Business consultant and former West Point Class President, Scott Snair writes in his book, West Point Leadership Lessons, "The end is never in sight, the job is never done, and for the rest of your time in the Army, no job will ever really get done. What you have to do is concentrate on the process, not on the completion, and try to do some good along the way." I believe this statement sums it up for professional service firm denizens as well. It's an ongoing process. Walking the path towards mastery, which we can never reach.

George Washington once said, "The preservation of the soldier's health should be the commander's first and greatest care." The more firm leaders and managers can adopt this basic philosophy, the better off they will be in their businesses. Only excited, passionate and enthusiastic people can attract top-drawer clients with sexy projects with premium fees.


Eight Leadership Principles Professional Service Firms Should Learn From The Military

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Friday, December 2, 2011

Big Fish Games - Promo Codes - Why Do I Need to Use Them?

!±8± Big Fish Games - Promo Codes - Why Do I Need to Use Them?

If you are fond of playing computer games, you probably know what Big Fish is. There are so many games which this company has been able to come up with. Among the most popular games that have been developed by them are Diner Dash and Farm Frenzy. Aside from these two games, they have also a lot of other games which anyone can find interesting. However, if you want to play them, you have to download them using Big Fish Games Promo Codes.

The reason for this is due to the fact that downloading these games will cost you some money. Although it is not necessarily a big amount, they can accumulate into a hefty sum if you keep on downloading games. If you don't want to pay any money when you play their games, you can always use the free trial download.

Unfortunately, these free trial downloads are only available for a few hours' worth of gaming. They will eventually expire and you can no longer play them. The reason why they are being offered is so users can try out what the game is about and they can determine if they are willing to spend a few dollars downloading them.

If you have decided to download any of their games, you can use Big Fish Games Promo Codes. These codes will entitle you to some discounts or even to other free games whenever you purchase one. By using them, you will be able to save some money and buy yourself a second game that you have found interesting.


Big Fish Games - Promo Codes - Why Do I Need to Use Them?

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