Comments on: Motivational Seminar Recap

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:48:14 +0000

@Mike: The context for that line was that Zig was talking about things that money can’t buy like joy and inner peace vs. things that money can buy like cars and houses. So he’s referring to the idea that being in the right internal state will lead you to get more of the external things you want. A new car won’t make you happy per se, but if you’re happy to begin with, it’s easier to take the actions that will get you the new car vs. if you’re depressed. A positive attitude can help you produce positive external results more easily than a negative attitude can.

This is isn’t an original idea — I’ve heard it in many different forms — but I do think it’s a profound one. Tony Robbins deals with these issues a lot as well. He refers to it as the difference between “achieving to be happy” vs. “happily achieving.” The latter is more effective than the former.

I’ve applied this concept in my own life and found it to be spot on, although it took me many years before I felt I’d really mastered it. I am in a wonderful place in my life right now, where each day I work from a state of inner peace and a pervasive sense of joy, regardless of what my external results are at any particular time. I don’t need to accomplish anything to achieve these states — I work from these states, not for them or towards them. For me this has become my default permanent state of being.

Imagine waking up every morning feeling wonderful for no particular reason and having that feeling last all day, regardless of what you do that day — every day. This is the state of being from which you will do your best thinking and take your best actions to manifest the other things you want.

The material I found most helpful in reaching this goal came from Dr. Deepak Chopra and Dr. Wayne Dyer, especially Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and Dyer’s The Power of Intention. The main thing for me was to keep focusing on the intention to raise my consciousness to a state of peace and joy. After several months of holding this intention, I found myself locked into these states by default.

By: Mike W.

Mike W. — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:26:17 +0000

I was wondering if you could expand on one of the Zig Ziglar bullet points:
“The more you have of what money won’t buy, the more you’ll get of what money will buy.”

What is he referring to? How does having what money won’t buy lead to getting more of what money will buy?

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:13:51 +0000

@Phil: That’s great to know. I really enjoyed the information you did provide, and it was obvious that the audience was excited about your ideas. Your passion and enthusiasm were contagious. I took 10 pages of notes during the seminar, and 3 of them were from your presentation — more than for any other speaker. I especially liked when you brought the women up on stage and had them go through the example investment scenario with you.

I’ve subscribed to your blog feed, so I’ll definitely check it out.

By: Phil Town

Phil Town — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 19:06:43 +0000

Actually, Steve, there are ways you can take action on the information I presented. I have a blog (www.philtown.typepad.com) where I mentor individual investors for free. There’s plenty of reading there, enough that a beginning investor could start learning and eventually start investing using free tools. The free tools take a lot longer than the software I talk about, but you can get the same results either way. It just depends on how much time you have to devote to the research. It’s like farming with a stick vs. farming with a tractor. Tractors aren’t cheap, but they get the job done faster.

Stop by the blog, take a look. Thanks for your feedback.

By: Jim Buck

Jim Buck — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 16:35:53 +0000

What kind of game, where Ultima IV was in the right direction, were you wanting to take games given the right tools existed?

As a complete aside, but related to your postings on gambling, what poker book(s) would you recommend for someone that only plays once in a great, great while but with business execs that are poker sharks? I’d like to be able to hold my own with them, for once.

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 15:32:22 +0000

@Manuel: Different media like games, movies, or books all have different levels of expressiveness. The advantage of games is that they are interactive, while movies and books are not. You can control your game character and make your own decisions. With a really good book, you can relate to the characters, but you cannot control what they do. You cannot change the outcome of Hamlet by reading it. With a game you can.

And because of that higher degree of immersiveness, I think games have the greatest potential expressiveness of any digital media.

By: Dmitry Chestnykh

Dmitry Chestnykh — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:43:15 +0000

“Initially I could tell some of us found it hard to get out of “speaker evaluation” mode and to just listen to the content.”

This happens with most professions — before I began sound recording/mastering “career”, I didn’t notice how the song sound. Then, when I began making records myself, my brain switch to technical mode and I just couldn’t stop noticing all the technical sides of songs. Now when I dropped, it comes back to me — I listen to songs, not those tracks with guitars, drums, basses, etc

By: Manuel

Manuel — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 18:11:10 +0000

Steve,

What is it about a game like Ultima IV, that makes it able to express an idea or a feeling, that writing cannot?

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 15:58:37 +0000

@Johann: Seats at this seminar were sold in blocks of 10, and each block was $49. So it was less than $5 per person. I went with a friend whose company bought a block of seats and had extra tickets, so for me and a few other people I went with, it was actually free.

I think the low cost of the event explains why a couple of the presentations were sales pitches for more expensive seminars. In that sense it was a bit of a feeder seminar, but there was still an abundance of great stand-alone content. Also, some speakers sold products there. Zig Ziglar offered product bundles ranging from $149 to $649. Speakers commonly earn more from BOR (back of room) sales than they do from speaking fees.

By: Johann Sigurdsson

Johann Sigurdsson — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 15:07:31 +0000

Steve, Loved the review of the speakers, although I have never seen Zig speak live I had seen a live engagement by him on Video (actually he spoke at Toastmasters Annual Meeting) and found that he was going in too many directions without much details.

On Tom Hopkins sales questions I agree with you it sounds a bit creepy, but as I have been in sales for years as a business owner I have to agree with Mr. Hopkins that question based selling works best not as a closing technique like he uses it, but as way to really find out what the customer requires and thus match your product too the customers needs Nothing creepy about that.

Finally just out of curiosity how much did this seminar cost?

Keep up the good work.

Johann