Many people grew up with the idea that having a full time job will make you stable. I did. The truth behind this is that, its a lot more risky to have a job than to have a business. Take the economic crisis for example, many people was surprised (and terrified) when they got laid off from their jobs and in financial trouble, you won’t know when it will hit you. Having a business gives you a lot of options to enjoy life. Even though businesses were affected by the economic crisis, you can bet that these businessmen already have other businesses that can keep them afloat. Its all about risk management. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. If you have a job, you only have 1 egg.

Of course not all people are gifted with entrepreneurial spirit and will still choose a job than having a business of their own. Not all people are knowledgeable to start and run their own businesses. And it is easier to just get job and get money monthly though your salary.

I always remember the talk of David Heinemeier Hansson about having a business online. You don’t need to kill yourself working to have a billion dollar business online or offline. You just need to get that first 1 Million annual income. After that, you will realize that you have a lot of free time and will be able to do whatever you want in your life.

When I was in college, I tried to work 24hrs a day just to pay the rent, bills and college tuition. It was tough and I always remember the things that I want to do but can’t because of that. I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Just this month the feeling came back and bought my 2nd electric guitar and start learning. I can now play some music. It wasn’t possible before. But right now its different because of freedom I have.

This is what we call a lifestyle business. A lifestyle business in my own opinion is establishing a business for the sole purpose of supporting a lifestyle. Need a car? Create a business that will pay the car loan. Need a house? Create a business that will pay the mortgage. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to beat Bill Gates to get your dream house or dream car or travel the world.

When a person is young, has financial freedom, has a lot of free time, he is not motivated by money anymore. This is the time where he tries to look for the meaning of life and tries to reach and do things that will make him leave a mark in this world. I guess its a man’s instinct to always on the hunt and if he reached his long term goal early, he tries to go for the big shot.

What I’m trying to say is that, if you’re still struggling financially after working for years and years and still haven’t accomplish anything you might want to take a break and reflect on things. You don’t have to rush finishing your work… If you’re done you wont have anything left to do. Take a time to appreciate nature, get a vacation perhaps… If you’re still searching for the perfect job from a far away nation because of its generous salary, and still no hope… Maybe its time for you to start making the perfect job instead of searching. Because there’s no such thing as a perfect job.

Your skill is directly proportional to the money you’ll earn plus your ability to communicate with people multiplied by the amount of confidence, trust and perseverance you have.

I don’t know if its just a fad or just a politically correct way to answer why you want to work abroad… “To help my family” is a little bit cliche now. You can not help others if you can not help yourself. Just like a drowning person. If you don’t know how to swim, saving a drowning person may risk your life and be dragged to death even if you know how.

You can only achieve happiness if you’re being selfish. Happiness can only be real if you share it.

Almost all people will judge you by how much money you make and if you won’t tell them how much, they will ask you what you do. Then they’ll try to make themselves look better than you. This is what I experience when I attend reunions or alumni homecomings. Just like my friends says “Payabangan lang yun”.

I am not mad at these people. I find it amusing. And it make me feel happy that people are happy with what their status in life are. Think about it, would you rather hear a sad (poverty) story from other people? Or a story of excitement of success?

To make themselves even feel good, I always put myself less successful than they are. It makes them talk about more of themselves. Its fun. They will ask, what’s your job? I will answer, “I stay at home & I have no job.” I never really lied because, what I’m doing is not a job, but a business.

Then here comes people that will talk about their failure. These are people that I really don’t want to listen to… Because you are always in command of what you can accomplish. So when I hear people that they only make this much in their job. They should print out this list.

The top 24 according to the U.S. Department of Labor

1. Surgeon: $181,850
2. Anesthesiologist: $174,610
3. OB/GYN: $174,610
4. Oral and maxillofacial surgeon: $169,600
5. Internist: $156,790
6. Prosthodontist: $156,710
7. Orthodontist: $153,240
8. Psychiatrist: $151,380
9. Chief Executive Officer: $140,880
10. Engineering Manager: $140,210
11. Pediatrician: $140,000
12. Family or general practitioner: $137,980
13. Physician/surgeon, all other: $137,100
14. Airline Pilot: $134,090
15. Dentist: $132,660
16. Podiatrist: $111,130
17. Lawyer: $110,590
18. Dentist, any other specialist: $106,040
19. Air Traffic Controller: $100,430
20. Computer and Information Systems Manager: $100,110
21. Marketing Manager: $100,020
22. Natural Sciences Manager: $97,560
23. Sales Manager: $96,950
24. Astronomer: $96,780

Since Filipinos love to work in a high paying job AND likes to go abroad to work. This might help others in finding the right job for them and the salary of their choice.

It has been quiet for a couple of days in this blog because I’m busy learning things more about affiliate marketing. I just found a great resource that can help me improve my campaigns and its not free. I’ll just have to try it out first before blogging it here.

Anyways, I’m also messing around with offline stuff and I was being convinced into joining in an MLM (Multi Level Marketing) business a.k.a. pyramiding. Now, pyramiding is not illegal. Though most of them are. There are still some legit MLM companies out there. But this post is not about how to spot a scam MLM company but about how they sell.

A friend of mine in college experienced being recruited in an MLM company back then and when I told my story to him, he said that the “sales pitch” of these sales agents are all the same. We laughed and talked about it “Pare yan din sinabi saken noon eh, ganyang ganyan yun!”. Taking into account that this friend of mine got recruited 3 -4 years ago. If their not changing the strategy, it only means one thing, its EFFECTIVE! Let’s enumerate their sales pitch strategy a.k.a. marketing strategy that makes MLM companies (and even scam companies) successful.

MLM Sales Tactics

1. Rags to Riches. They will first start the conversation of what’s their situation years ago before they got into their MLM company. They will tell you all the saddest story from being a highschool drop out to a dog died experience. Just to make you feel that they are just an ordinary person like you that have their ups and downs in life. Of course, you will be interested to know that how this guy got to own a BMW if he’s just a high school drop out? On to our next tactic.
2. The Doubts. They will then tell you how they found the company and how hesitant they were at first. They will tell you that they are just like you that are skeptic and don’t want to spend money for the MLM company. They will blurt out the reason, “I have no money”, “I don’t trust the company because it might be a scam”. The sales agent is already putting his self on the customer’s shoes. He knows about the doubts and that builds rapport. This is a very good psychology because the people being persuaded to join might already be in doubt. The sales agent already did the work for them to clarify the doubts by presenting certificates of legitimacy, business permits, pictures of the president of the company shaking hands with a prominent figure.
3. The Hero Shot. This time, the sales agent will brag about WHO are the people already joined the MLM company. They will name names of celebrities, generals, political figures or people that are already rich. This will give the clients an idea of how “exclusive” this company may be.
4. The Opportunity. This is the fun part as most bloggers in the internet do this (me included). Post the earnings. This will give an idea to the client of the earning potential IF they join the MLM company. They will will show you Php100,000 check amount of money earned per day that its funny how we see our eyes got big but not bigger than the amount of money they have. They make it sound so easy by comparing it to a normal day job. They can earn Php100,000 per day and they will point that out compared to a normal day job. They will show you their BMW’s, introduce you to their youngest millionare teenager just to prove to you that its the shit. They will say to you that you are given an opportunity to change your life by joining their MLM company. This is a psychological tactic that makes the client feel in control. Now that the client is in a trance. It’s time for the next part.
5. The Challenge / Call To Action. They will flatter you. Tell you something like this “You, <your name>, you are intelligent, you know how to grab and opportunity when you see one. This is an opportunity that we are giving you, its all yours for the taking…”. This will most likely result to the person joining. Because no matter how hard they think, they will not see any reason why NOT to take it. The business is legit, check. Earning potential is big, check. Make it look easy to earn, check. This is how many people get scammed. They forget the fact that the reason why these agents want you to join is not about helping you. But its about the money.

We can learn a lot from their example as most of these principles are used in internet marketing.

I am not against MLM because I believe that its a really great marketing strategy. A lot of successful businesses started as MLM. It really opens opporunity for small players to do business. But the fact is, it is against my belief in business. Business for me should be for the long term, that even my 8th generation grand child may earn from it. In MLM, there is no way it could survive 10 to 20 years from now. Once the flow of sign ups stopped, the PYRAMID will shatter. And the ones that will get affected are the ones below. It’s not really helping people build a business, but a legitimate way to take someone else’s money.