The Lazy Way to Success

My "Revised" Book

I've completely revamped my "latest" book that used to be titled Instant Athlete Instant Zone. It's now The Mentally Quiet Athlete.

It also has a new cover.

 

 

and a new website www.MentallyQuiet.com. The actual text, however, is the same deathless prose as before.

I'm happy with this make-over as it fits my promotional activity much better.

One of the great blessings about e-books over the printed variety is that if you want to change something, you can make those corrections without having to deal with a garage full of the earlier version.

Please check out the website and let me know your reaction.

All the best,

Fred

Kicking the Beehive

I just kicked a beehive.

Well, not literally. My "kick" is actually a controversial article I wrote titled The Failure of Sports Psychology: Why It Doesn’t Help Under-Achieving Athletes. It should stir up a lively hullabaloo. As you may know from my other literary creations, I relish the idea of attacking sacred cows!

You can find my latest and greatest at my companion blog Playing in the Zone.

Here's the tiny URL link: http://tinyurl.com/c49c5cr.

In short, the essay explains (in simple language) how different parts of the brain function during an athlete’s performance. It turns out that different parts of an athlete’s brain work at cross purposes much of the time during competition! And this “inner conflict” will always disrupt the flow of muscle memory to the body to varying degrees. This is the real reason most athletes rarely play up to their potential.

On the other hand, when all parts of the brain are operating harmoniously, an athlete performs from the Zone. Unfortunately, those times are scarce. And, needless to say, most athletes have not found a reliable way to enter the Zone on a consistent basis.

In the end, my article offers the perfect "Lazy Way" solution.

 

My New Blog on Sports

I've started a new blog to complement my new book—Instant Athlete Instant Zone. The blog is called Playing in the Zone. Here's the link: http://lazyway.blogs.com/playing_in_the_zone/

I just submitted a funny story about golf that you may enjoy.

 

Philip Humber's Perfect Game

Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber threw a perfect game the other day. There have only been 21 perfect games in the entire history of Major League Baseball. It's a huge accomplishment.

Interestingly, two years ago Philip learned the system I describe in my book, Instant Athlete Instant Zone. And it salvaged his career.

He learned it from the person I modeled one of my book's characters after—a friend who also happened to be a World Series hero from the mid-1980s.

So if you are an athlete who aspires to play up to your potential, I urge you to visit www.InstantAthlete.com (and hopefully get my book).

And if you know an athlete, you'd be doing him or her a huge favor by pointing them to this website.

 

My New Book on Playing Sports from the Zone

I know I've been promising my book—Instant Athlete, Instant Zone—forever. I'm like the boy who cried 'Wolf.' No one believes me any more since none of my predicted release dates ever came through. But I'm delighted to FINALLY announce that my book is now ready for prime time.

I'm extremely proud of this book and I think the knowledge contained within it will revolutionize how sports are taught, practiced, and competed.

If you play sports, you will definitely enjoy this book. And it won't matter what sport you play or how good you are. You could even be a top pro. Whatever your situation I promise this book will make you even better. That's because it reveals the secret to peak performance and playing from the Zone.

The video describing my book is at www.InstantAthlete.com.

P.S. Please direct your athletic friends to that website. They will surely thank you.

I look forward to your feedback.

 

Wally (from Dilbert) has profound insight



Full Potential Interview

I was interviewed by Rick James on Full Potential.com. We did it over Skype so you get to see me in action. It's 40 minutes long but it's quite lively. I tell lots of stories about my ice cream company, my telecom company, and my "lazy" philosophy. Here's the link: http://www.fullpotential.com/fred-gratzon/. Let me know if you enjoyed it.

Cool Idea

As you can see, I don't allow advertising to appear on my blog, with the obvious exception being my Lazy Way book. But if I were to endorse something, I'd have to believe in its value 100%. 

Interestingly, one such product came across my desk a while back. It's a simple idea, but one that resonated with me.

Here's the back story.

I'm an unabashed tree-hugger. I like to re-use and recycle. So instead of buying bottled water for a trip or some other activity, I'd fill up an empty. Unfortunately, after frequent use, a black gunk would eventually collect at the bottom of my bottle. I would try various methods of cleaning it out but nothing seemed to do a satisfactory job. So with a pinched conscience, I'd toss the bottle in the recycle bin and replace it with a clean version.

Enter the Clean Bottle. These guys experienced the same irritation as me. However, they solved the problem. Both the bottom and the top of their bottle unscrews so you can clean it easily. It's brilliant.

So now I can help reduce my consumption of plastic bottles while simultaneously reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Alright, so that's a little grandiose, but the Clean Bottle is way cool. I hope they get rich.

Take a peek. The Clean Bottle is available at www.cleanbottle.com. 

P.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have zero financial stake in this enterprise. I would not know these guys from a bar of soap. I just like the product and want to help them out.

Bottoms up!



One Million Years Old . . . to the exact day!

The digital revolution has made casualties of the numerals 2 through 9. These ancient symbols, which trace their lineage to the earliest Sanskrit writings, are now considered spare parts – unwieldy, unnecessary, and, most damning of all, majorly untrendy.

Today, the numerals 1 and 0 do all the heavy lifting. This pair of powerful icons singlehandedly represent and convey our music, photographs, movies, television, radio, news, phone conversations, money, correspondence, books, and even our titillation (if we so choose).

So to take advantage of the benefits of this efficient numeral system, I’ve decided to “digitize” more aspects of my life. And I’ve started with my age. After all, who wants an antiquated analog chronology when sleek, chic bit stream is the rage? 

Certainly not I!  

Therefore, let it be known throughout the blogosphere that on March 25, 2010, I will have achieved a significant binary milestone. I will be exactly 1,000,000 years old.

To honor the occasion, I’ve updated an appropriate Beatle lyric:

Doing the garden, digging the weeds,

Do you want a flower?

Will you still need me

Will you still feed me

When I’m two to the sixth power?

(Or in keeping with binary integrity: “When I’m 10 to the 110^th power.”)

 

 

Fred Gratzon

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 [email protected]. 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