The Lazy Way to Success

Making Money in Hard Economic Times

I’m a fussbudget. Before I get involved with a business, it has to meet four rigorous criteria:

1. The product or service must shift the paradigm. I’m not interested in a “me-too” product.
2. The opportunity has to be a win-win-win-win for all concerned, and especially a major win for the customer. There can be no losers. In other words, no one gets exploited or cheated or short-changed. Everyone involved must win. The environment must not be harmed. And the product must make a meaningful contribution to society.
3. The realistic possibility of making a breathtakingly huge amount of money must exist.
4. It’s got to be FUN.

If a business opportunity fails to meet any one of these requirements, I decline to get involved. I just know I would end up getting bored with it.

Now don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind starting from scratch. In fact, I prefer to. But the vision of possibilities embedded in an opportunity must fulfill those four criteria.

Needless to say, with those formidable hurdles, I’m rarely attracted to a business opportunity.

Interestingly, one opportunity that met these criteria landed in my lap a few months ago. But I didn’t recognize it as the rare gem it was. That’s because it came wrapped in something that I’ve always avoided like the plague. That something is “network marketing.”

Here’s the story: When my dear friend Allen told me about a nutritional juice product and the wonderful benefit he was getting, I was intrigued. But as soon as he mentioned it involved network marketing, I completely shut down. I couldn’t find an exit from this conversation fast enough. At that moment, another friend mercifully joined us. To my great relief, I was able to politely and elegantly and immediately change the subject.

I thought I had successfully escaped.

I hadn’t. Allen invited himself to lunch the next day. Now I love this guy. I love talking to him. And he is always welcome in my home. But given my chilly knee-jerk reaction the previous day, I didn’t think he’d ever mention network marketing again.

To my chagrin, I was wrong. He relentlessly pursued the dreaded topic over lunch.

I tried to explain to him that I’m an extremely healthy dude. At 63-years old, I swim every day, eat my nutritionally-minded, gourmet wife’s fabulous organic vegetarian meals, and get plenty of rest. My blood pressure is normal, bad cholesterol is low; good cholesterol is high; and the ratio between the two is ideal. My PSA is low. Nothing hurts. I sleep well, don’t get sick, and feel happy and content.  Why would I need a nutritional drink, I asked rhetorically?  

He was unmoved by my arguments and continued to pursue his agenda.

To get him to finally shut up about his damn juice, I agreed to try it.

So every day, for the next week, my wife and I dutifully sipped the suggested amount of his juice.

We were blown away.

My wife immediately lost her craving for chocolate and Coca Cola – two miracles. She also felt significant relief from the arthritic pain in her spine. I started sleeping much more soundly and was waking up fresher. (I didn’t think it was possible for me to sleep deeper.) And while I don’t have any bothersome health challenges, I felt my body was being nourished, strengthened, and even rejuvenated on a deep, cellular level like never before. I loved drinking the juice and actually looked forward to it.

Okay, I conceded to Allen, the product is truly great, even spectacular. But network marketing? Let’s get real. The sun would flame out before I’d even consider doing something as abhorrent as network marketing.

Or so I thought.

Buoyed by the product’s excellence and motivated by Allen’s prods, I started looking for flaws in the opportunity. But the more I investigated the juice and the company (www.exfuzeforyou.com), the more impressed I became. The truth be told, I couldn’t find any flaws. This company was clearly trying to do everything right – from how they compensated those who harvested the fruits to how they formulated the juice to how they processed it to how they compensated their distributors. I looked into their pricing structure to see if it was out-of-whack. As far as I could tell it appeared completely consistent with other "traditional" business models I’d been involved with. The management team was experienced, likeable, dedicated, and sincere. The company even had an impressive philanthropic mission. And compared to others in this market space, this particular product and company appeared to be head-and-shoulders above the competition on every level.

Allen explained that the company was young and that even though it was growing at a rate of 30% per month, it had yet to experience explosive exponential growth which he felt was imminent. He counseled that the sooner I got involved the better off I’d be. 

So in a moment of weakness, which turned out to be a stroke of extreme good fortune, I agreed to become a distributor. The investment risk of $1000 was miniscule compared to any other business I’ve started. And I reasoned that if the worst thing happened, my wife and I would end up a year’s supply of powerful nutrition in our closet and that wasn’t a bad thing at all.

Regarding fun: I soon came to realize that my snobby attitude toward network marketing was stupid. I saw that some products need to be explained and network marketing is the most sensible, efficient, and cost-effective way of teaching the customer. This system of marketing can also be really fun. I’m thoroughly enjoying the collaborative process with Allen and others who have joined us. The team-play is exhilarating. We are training each other and helping each other be successful.

So, if you want to know more about this opportunity and/or if you’d like to sample the product (I can get you a free month’s supply), please send me an e-mail at fredg@lisco.com. We can then schedule a phone chat.

In short, the product is great; the opportunity seems huge; and the team-like way we are approaching this makes it easy and fun.

Of course, as always, I wish you effortless success,

Fred

In Praise of Laziness

I just finished making a video entitled In Praise of Laziness. It is a glorious, uproarious five-minute animation starring humanity's greatest thinkers stingingly rebuking the concept of hard work and embracing the power of laziness.

In Praise of Laziness is quirky, funny, delightfully shocking, and playfully profound. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as we enjoyed creating it.

To view, please click here www.lazyway.net/movie.

For the maximum experience:

1. Watch until after the credits for a surprise ending.
2. Turn up the sound. The music specially composed for this video is superb.
3. If you have a fast computer, the icon in the lower right-hand corner (next to the speaker icon) expands the video to full screen.

Let me know how you like it.

Fred

Definition of Success

An editor for a success magazine wanted to know my views on success. Here is what I wrote back:

Most people think success is a goal. I do not. I see success as a process. Most people define success only in terms of money. I do not. I think success is a combination of things -- health, happiness, material prosperity, love of family and friends, wisdom, influence, and fulfillment.

Here is how I know someone is successful -- If you are able to give from your abundance then you are successful. If you are able to donate money, spread happiness, inspire health, propagate love, share knowledge, motivate people, etc. then you are successful.

Most people think you need to work hard to achieve success. I do not think that is true. I believe the opposite is true. I believe you have to learn how to avoid work to be successful. I define work this way -- if you'd rather be doing something else, then you are working.

You avoid work by loving what you do. Loving what you do is infinitely more powerful in achieving success than all the hard work in the world. If you love what you do, Nature will show you her secrets. When Nature reveals her secrets to you, you have the golden key to being successful. Those secrets are the formulas for working less yet accomplishing more. For example, you can strain your muscles working hard to move a big rock or you can use one of Nature's secrets and use a lever. When you use a lever you work much less but you accomplish much more.

People who say they work hard are really saying they are not smart enough or creative enough or lucky enough to have found an easier, more effective way to accomplish what they want. Hard work is not the answer. Finding an easier, more effective solution is the answer. To find the easier solution, you need to be alert for a lazier way. People who work hard don't have the time or the energy or inclination to find that easier way.

www.lazyway.net

Holiday Wishes

Here's wishing you a blissfully lazy holiday season, gloriously filled with robust health, uproarious laughter, fabulous culinary treats, and loving family and friends.

May the New Year bring you more of the above plus even greater prosperity and glowing accomplishments.

And finally may we all see this New Year result in a world where everyone finally learns to play together in joy, harmony, and enlightened laziness.

All the very best to you,
Fred and all the members of Team Lazy

A Star of Stage, Screen, and You Tube

I've made it to the big time, folks. There is a 51 second clip of me talking about Transcendental Meditation on You Tube. Here's the link.

News from the Hammock

I have not been posting these last several months for a couple of compelling reasons:

1. I've been participating in a special Transcendental Meditation program that I have been enjoying immensely. Unfortunately it absorbs a lot of time, leaving little left for things like blogging.

2. In the time I do have, I've been writing my next book which is currently in the hands of an editor who I revere. Once I incorporate her ruthless edits - always a shocking, yet ultimately rewarding process, I'll be ready to lay out the book and publish it.  I will release it as an e-book first even before it goes to the printer. I think it is going to be a humdinger so stay tuned. If you want to be alerted when it is ready, send me an email to fredg@lisco.com and I'll put you on my mailing list. For those of you who were just horrified by that complete lack of on-line savvy, rest assured that I am in the process of upgrading my entire Internet presence so that things like building an email list will be automated.

For more news, the translation rights to my first book, The Lazy Way to Success, have been sold to 8 foreign publishers. Now folks interested in my brand of laziness can read my deathless prose in German, Portuguese, Czech, Hungarian, Korean, Chinese (simple character), and Chinese (complex character). The Japanese publisher who purchased the rights, failed to do anything in a timely manner so those rights revert back to me. I hope to sell them again soon. The German edition, by the way, is in its third printing.

For those who prefer pixels, The Lazy Way to Success is also available as an e-book. The e-book comes with a pile of bonus interviews of yours truly. If you are interested in it, please go to www.lazysuccess.com.

I am extremely stoked about my new book, Perfect Mind Perfect Motion. I think it is the most important book on sports ever written. It shifts the paradigm dramatically and I think it will change the way sports are taught, practiced, and played throughout the world. Hang onto your hats, folks. It should be available as an e-book in about one month.

That's it for now.

Wishing you all effortless success,
Fred

Destination Imagination and a Proud Papa

My son Jake has participated in Destination Imagination (DI) for the last eight years. DI is a team-oriented creative problem-solving competition. Each year in October, teams (comprised of five to seven kids) must choose one out of five long-term challenges -- each with a different focus (Technical/Mechanical, Theater Arts/Science, Theater Arts/Fine Arts, Theater Arts/Improvisation, Structural & Architectural Design). Each Team Challenge is designed to be open-ended and solvable in many ways and on many levels. In competition the long-term challenge counts for 75% of the score.

The Instant Challenge portion of a DI Tournament accounts for 25% of the score. During Instant Challenge, teams are given a challenge on the spot and asked to solve it in about five to eight minutes. No one knows ahead of time what the Challenge will be. Kids really have to be good at thinking on their feet.

The coolest part about DI is that adult intervention is strictly prohibited. Kids must create, build, and present their solutions without any adult direction and assistance (other than chauffeuring and paying the bills). In the early days, it was difficult to bite my parental tongue but I have come to really enjoy this aspect. First off, it is quite liberating. Secondly, I realized that if adults were involved, the solutions would not have been anywhere near as imaginative.

I am convinced these DI kids will make ideal business partners because they are extraordinarily creative and they understand the power of teamwork. They definitely have learned how to think innovatively to solve problems cheaply, efficiently, and elegantly.

Here's how the competition works. First place winners on the state level qualify to compete at the Global Finals. And let me tell you, Global Finals is a spectacle to behold when a cross-section of the most kids in the world come together. Competition is extremely stiff.

My son has won first place in Iowa and gone to the Global Finals four times. In seventh grade, his team came in 6th globally and, in eighth grade, 5th. (4th, 5th and 6th place are like honorable mention; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bring home flashy hardware -- medals and trophies.)

When in tenth grade, Jake's team won 2nd place and I thought I had reached Parent Nirvana but this year, Jake's 12th grade team finished first in the world and they also won the prestigious Renaissance Award for outstanding design, engineering, execution, and performance. The centerpiece of their solution was a homemade computer with its electromagnetic switches constructed out of nails and copper wire. The damn thing could add. The judges were absolutely blown away.

As you can imagine, I am still kvelling. Here's a picture of the world champs. Jake is front row, second from left. As proud as he is of his accomplishment, I am more so.

Even though I am a little sad to see the end of this exciting chapter in our lives, I am relieved our home will no longer be the "mess house" where solutions are designed and built. That means I won't have to peel scrapes of duct tape off my socks any more.

www.lazyway.net
 

The Laziest Man in North America on YouTube

I will be coming out of retirement for a couple of hours to speak at the THINK! 2007 Seminar along with a slew of world class presenters. The dates are September 25-27, 2007 and the place is Amsterdam, Netherlands. Here's a glimpse of yours truly in the middle of the seminar's promotional trailer.

Free Advertising

Let me start by splitting hairs.

Frequently, publicity gets referred to as free advertising. This is a common misunderstanding. There is an important distinction between advertising and publicity. You pay for advertising and you control the content. With publicity, you don't have to pay (it's articles and shows about your product) and you have no control over the content. It is the journalist who writes what he wants -- good or bad.

However, this just happens to be a story about free advertising.

It takes place during my ice cream days. We were trying to get into supermarkets and compete head to head with Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's. In taste competitions, we always beat them. Journalists would ask why and I would explain that both Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's were French-style ice creams that used egg yolks in their recipes.  Since I objected to the sulphury taste of egg yolks and felt it overshadowed the subtlety of delicate flavors like vanilla and fruit, I didn't use eggs. While my ice cream was as rich and as dense as my two major competitors, my ice cream had a clean, pure dairy taste that enhanced subtle flavors. I would tell journalists that I believed ice cream came from cows, not chickens.

In our efforts to get placed in supermarkets we signed up to exhibit at the FMI convention held in Chicago. FMI stands for Food marketing Institute and they would hold these humongous conventions for supermarket executives who would come from all over the world. This particular year, McCormick Place was the venue. If you have never been there, suffice to say that the exhibition space is large enough to have all National Football League games played simultaneously and there would still be room for several college games as well.

Nearly every manufacturer who sells wares through supermarkets puts on a display. And no one skimps. Floor space is exorbitantly expensive and some large food concerns don't hold back. Companies like Coke and Pepsi construct breathtaking architectural and technological wonders. Some companies (Budweiser, for example) put on stage shows in their exhibits featuring the characters from their popular television commercials. Other companies featured sports figures or movie/television personalities. Wheaties, for instance, had some well-known Olympic gold medalists in its booth. Playboy magazine had its Bunnies and Playmates. And not to be outdone, Penthouse had its "whatevers."

And everyone serves food and/or drink. Even if you are extremely particular about what you eat, you'd more than satisfy your hunger even if you ate just one bite-sized free sample per booth. I am a fussy vegetarian and I was so full at the end of the afternoon I didn't want to think about dinner.

Now, into this arena of excess, marched the "juggernaut" from The Great Midwestern Ice Cream Company. We could not afford even the smallest booth space for ourselves but fortunately we had been invited by the state of Iowa to be in its "Taste of Iowa" booth . This booth wasn't on the main exhibition floor but on a subterranean floor of an auxiliary building. It definitely was far removed from the main action. We ended up sharing this space with two popcorn companies, one barbeque sauce company, and a fruit cake baker from Nebraska.

We had five feet of frontage.

Even given its poor (and tiny) location vis a vis the big manufacturers, we still had plenty of traffic since most executives toured the entire show. Unfortunately, when they finally got around to us, they were so totally over-stimulated, over-titillated, overwhelmed, jaded, satiated, and carrying their overloaded stomachs around in wheelbarrows so the idea of eating another bite, even if this was the premiere taste sensation of the entire show, was abhorrent to these guys.

So, how did we compete in this high dollar and high glitz environment?

It turns out that concurrent with the expo were presentations on various aspects of the supermarket industry to large audiences. The speakers for those presentations were the same executives we wanted to contact. So instead of standing in our booth and trying to entice passers-by to taste our ice cream, we wrote letters of invitation to each speaker to come and visit us and guaranteeing them that just a taste of our ice cream was worth the trip. 

Now here is the best part. We then went to a Federal Express box, commandeered a stack of cardboard envelops, addressed them to each speaker, and just before any presentation was to about to begin, we hand delivered the FedEx letter. It created quite an impact. Most presenters were tickled by the chutzpah and cleverness of our approach and actually visited us.

Whatever bad karma I incurred for taking those envelops, I'm sure I've repaid many times over in the high prices I've paid FedEx for subsequent deliveries.

www.lazyway.net

Ice Cream and the Presidential Election

As I mentioned in my last post, the Iowa caucuses are the first test for aspiring presidential candidates. A good showing in Iowa and then a success in the New Hampshire primary a week later gives a candidate a major boost in terms of media coverage and fund raising. Candidates are well aware of Iowa’s early impact. They start arriving more than a year before the caucuses and return frequently to grovel for our votes.

Besides the candidates, an army of journalists from all over the world record every step and misstep during this quadrennial courting dance.

Back in 1987, no incumbent was running so both parties had eight or nine candidates each declaring his or her intention to run. At the time, I was in the ice cream business and looked upon this overwhelming media presence and wondered how I could tap into it and use it to my commercial advantage.

It was then that I thought of The Great Midwestern Ice Cream Presidential Poll. Here is how it worked:

I assigned flavors to each candidate, giving that flavor a name that reflected a distinguishing characteristic of the candidate. For example, there was Bush’s Preppymint, Simon’s Bow Tie Brickle, Gephardt’s St. Louis Bluesberry, Biden’s Loquacious Peach, Gore’s Mint Julep Chip, etc. I then declared that we’d determine a candidate’s popularity by how much ice cream was sold in his (or her) name.

It was a cute idea and I thought I’d get some little mention in TIME magazine or something like that. What actually happened blew my mind.

The press went wild. The evolution of this story over the next six months made the international wire services four times. I was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times Magazine, NBC Evening News, and scores upon scores of others. I appeared on Japanese TV. A friend said he saw my interview when he was vacationing in Italy. A Dutch film crew visited my ice cream factory.  I got a call from a radio station in Germany and found it particularly difficult explaining to a German audience why Kemp’s Quarterback Crunch was funny.

The punch line of my ice cream poll was the flavor for a candidate who was forced out of the race because of an extra-marital affair – Hart’s Donna Rice Cream

With all the media attention this poll was receiving, the candidates and their staffs started taking the poll seriously. Staffers would “stuff the ballot box” by buying lots of their candidate’s flavor. One staffer actually complained to a major newspaper that just because someone may not like their candidate’s flavor didn’t mean he didn’t like the candidate. Another campaign’s highly placed staff member called me and expressed her extreme disapproval with the name we gave to her candidate’s flavor – Robertson’s Born Again Chocolate. (It was Double Dutch chocolate). She said she wanted us to change it to Peppermint Patty. I said that that name simply wasn’t funny. Congresswoman Pat Schroeder loved her flavor – Run Pat Run Raisin. (When she was trying to decide whether to run or not, her supporters would chant Run Pat Run.) Dupont cringed when he heard the name of his flavor – Dupont’s Super Rich Fudge – but he said he would endorse my ice cream if I would endorse his candidacy. Both Governor Dukakis (Massachewy Chocolate) and Senator Dole (Top Banana) made personal campaign promises to me. Neither kept them even though I tried to collect from Dole on a number of occasions. When I shook hands with General Alexander Haig (I’m In Charge Chocolate), all humor was sucked from my body and I thought I would never laugh again. He was one serious dude.

The caucuses are held in the evening. On the actual day of the caucus, the candidates fill their schedules with as many appearances as possible where they try to squeeze out every last single vote and also to try to be the lead story in the evening news.

Governor Dukakis for the Democrats and Senator Dole for the Republicans won my poll. Each consented to receive their winning flavor on the day of the caucus. At the Dukakis presentation in the morning, there were 20 television cameras. The photo of me handing Dukakis his flavor made the front page of the Washington Post. Later that day, Dole’s presentation was recorded by 6 television cameras and a horde of print journalists.

That morning I was interviewed on the Today Show by Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley. On Good Morning America I was interviewed by Mark Russell, the political comedian.

The poll was such a success that we continued it after the Iowa caucus and took it on the road. Amana, the appliance manufacturer,  sponsored “The Rolling Polling Station.” The ice cream ended up being served at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans, a major Democratic fund raiser in Washington, DC, and at the White House at the President’s Annual Picnic for all the members of Congress. I was invited to attend. (At the time I was married for only three months and I really impressed my new wife with this invitation to the White House.)

If you would like to read the story of all my ice cream exploits, it begins at this permalink – http://lazyway.blogs.com/lazy_way/2005/04/by_popular_dema.html and runs for ten posts.

www.lazyway.net