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--W. Clement Stone His Daily Affirmation OUT OF THIS WORLD Space Services Inc. was the first private company to send rockets into space. Then, they had to figure out a way to make money at it. They send creamated ashes into orbit around the earth. Soon, they will be sending rockets in a program called Voyager into deep space. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, has part of his remains currently in space circling the globe. James Doohan- "Scotty" will soon by joining him in orbit in Space Services 8th Memorial Launch. Gene Roddenberry's wife plans for her remains and the other part of Gene's to take the ride into deep space. Al Yegenah is reopening his International Soup Kitchen in a new location, but DON'T CALL HIM THE "SOUP NAZI"! LIVE IN A SHIPPING CONTAINER You can buy a kit for a 2000 square foot two story house made with five 40 foot long metal cargo containers- the kind they use to transport goods on ships and trains. The cost: $76,000. See the floor plan for the Quik House at Architectureandhygiene.com YOUR BIG BREAK Nobody watches network television on Saturday night. All the networks combined do not get as many viewers as CSI does on Thursday night. The networks are not even bothering to put original programming on Saturday Night. ABC is willing to give anyone a shot as long as it is cheap- $500,000 an episode. This could be your chance to revolutionize television if you have a great idea. TESLA: Genius Inventor/LunaticTesla's story is told at great website TALES OF FUTURE PAST which shows what people thought life, cities, gadgets we would have in the future (which is our now).  There are good ideas and bad ideas. You don't really know if an idea is good or bad until you give them a try. With Free Enterprise, there is a huge battlefield and we keep the winners from the battle of good and bad ideas. With socialism and communism, if an idea that a small committee of "all-knowing geniuses" comes up with is a failure, or becomes obsolete, you are stuck with it. Comedian Nipsey Russell passed away recently at age 80. Nipsey started his working career as a famous car hop at THE WORLD'S LARGEST DRIVE-IN You miss 100% of the shots that you don't take. The History Channel recently had a program about meteorites and featured Bob Haag and his meteorite collection. Click THE METEORITE MAN to read our "Weird Ways to Get Rich" article. SUCCESS ON THE INTERNET Finding success on the internet is hard. The Top 500 websites get 75% of the traffic. The other 18 million get the rest. Here is a popular website you probably never heard of that is worth studying. It is ranked about no. 3000 and gets 3 million visitors a month. Dave's Daily - Funny, Strange, Bizarre News and Media It costs about $15,000 a day to rent a oil drilling rig. WE'RE DOOMED. THE DISCOUNTERS ARE COMIN' When the big box discounters come to town everyone worries about the mom and pops being put out of business. Jeff Slutsky teaches how to fight back with his company STREETFIGHTER MARKETING. An example of streetfighting: When a DOMINOS PIZZA moved into a small Colorado town they bought a full page two color ad in the yellow pages. The established mom and pop pizza restaurant was buried on a page no one ever got to, so they fought back. They had a promotion: 2 pizzas for the price of one if you brought in a Dominos yellow page ad. People went into phone booths and ripped out the yellow page ad. Soon, there wasn't a Domino's ad left in a yellow page book in town. Read a transcript of the interview with Jeff Slutsky from SMALL BUSINESS SCHOOL THE FIRST NATIONAL HIGHWAY The LINCOLN HIGHWAY opened in 1916. It was the first national highway. The Lincoln highway was mostly paved and started at Time Square in New York City and ended in San Francisco 3300 miles away. It was the brainchild of Carl Fisher, the entrepreneur who owned the first automobile dealership, made the first sealed headlights, built the Indianapolis 500 Speedway,and turned a swamp into resort town of Miami Beach. The highway was financed by donations, the states, and automobile companies except Henry Ford who was against it. In 1918, Half of all cars were Ford's Model T. BODO'S BAGELS FINALLY OPENS Bodo's, a popular Charlottesville, Virginia bagel restaurant, finally opened it's third location in June. Located directly across the street from the University of Virginia in a strip of bookstores and eating places called the Corner, the new location has been sitting there empty for 10 years with the Bodo's sign frustrating everyone. It had become a place of mystery, conjecture and legend. The owner, Brian Fox, said the reason for the delay was lack of ambition due to some personal problems such as a divorce, his kids becoming grownups and illness of his parents. 2 1/2 cycles of students at UVA have come and gone while it just sat there taunting them. Bodo's management expected a trickle of business the day they opened, but over 1000 flooded in, some were UVA alumni journeying from far away for the day no one ever believed would happen. The pre-grand opening word-of-mouth build up worked, but it is doubtful anyone would want to duplicate it. THE RAT BOX The Secret Weapon that will keep your business profitable. TRUTH ABOUT WAL-MART GREETERS City slickers searching for a taste of what they believe to be an idyllic lifestyle are fueling a new growth industry- agritourism or entertainment farming. Farmers are opening their farms to visitors who climb hay bales, pick their own fruit, feed the cows, chickens and rabbits,and pose for pictures with the horses. Some farmers carve out mazes in their cornfields for Halloween. Others open petting zoos and take kids on pony rides The money they make from turning their farms into little amusement parks doesn't replace their main business of farming. But, it gives them the cash flow to keep them afloat during the ebb and flow of their normal business. Just like Uncle George who had employees go down to the shed to build "ratboxes" when they didn't have anything else to do. ANSWER TO REBUILDING MS AND NEW ORLEANS? They were inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, looked down upon by snobs, made home construction resemble the GM assemblyline, solved a big housing problem and enabled working class people to own their own homes. LEVITTOWN STORY MADMAN MUNTZ STORY "I would give'em away, but Mrs. Muntz won't let me, she's crazy!" proclaimed the world's greatest huckster. He made and lost three fortunes,was best friends with the stars and married seven times. And, that is just part of the story. ECONOMICS OF RIOTS, BLACKOUTS AND NATURAL DISASTERS The lady on the news seemed shocked that people would be looting after the hurricane clobbered New Orleans. It always happens because during a riot, a blackout or a natural disaster, the cost for stealing goes down because the police are occupied and you are less likely to get caught. Normally law abiding citizens will be tempted to join the crowd helping themselves if the price for plunder is near zero. Some people rationalize that god created the havoc for their benefit. The price of looting has gone up in recent years. With television crews rushing to every disaster, if you are unlucky enough, their cameras may document your looting, so you can be identified, later. 80% of Americans think they are smarter than their boss. They are probably right and a smart boss would believe it, too. It is best to have a business that any fool can run, because eventually it will. VOLTAGEWARS EDISON vs. WESTINGHOUSE HD-DVD, the next generation of DVD which can hold 4 or 5 movies, is about to come out. But, there are two incompatible systems that will be competing for the market. This happens almost everytime there is a major innovation. In the 1880's it was the battle between Edison and Westinghouse over electric power. Edison lost but his dirty tricks caused many people to get "Westinghoused" (a very unpleasant experience) over the years. Thomas Edison once planned to build homes out of concrete with the cement poured into a mold of the entire house. He never built any, but someone else did. About 100 were built in Union, New Jersey in 1927 and people still live in them. FREDERIC BASTIAT SOLVES TRADE DEFICIT PROBLEM Protectionists believe exports are good and imports are bad. Frederic Bastiat, a 19th century economic thinker and satirist proposed this solution: All ships should be sunk at sea, that way all countries could export and none would have to import. Read Frederic Bastiat Explains It All HURRICANES CAN BE GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY because you have to rebuild everything, right? WRONG. Find out why, read Frederic Bastiat Explains It All "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE" Ron Popeil, recently sold his company, RONCO, for 55 million dollars. Read more about the inventor of the infomercial, mr. microphone, the pocket fisherman, home rotisserie, and 100s of kitchen gadgets. "But Wait", don't forget his ultimate product: hair-in-a-can. "TO GET AWAY FROM HAIRY APES ...." Before TVs and DVDs in the family SUV, people read their roadsigns for entertainment on long trips in the family roadster. BOOMTOWN, USA The largest cities usually reside next to waterways and natural resources and are hubs for trade, transportation and economic opportunity. The newest boomtown was a once sleepy area that is next to only one thing besides scenery. The population jumped 57% from 1990 to 2000. The airlines now fly direct flights, there. Million dollar houses, designer clothing stores, spas, Hummer dealerships, exotic restaurants, traffic jams are popping up all over town. The town is Bentonville, Arkansas and the hub that generates all of this trade activity is: WAL-MART. Hundreds of vendors with hundreds of employees have opened offices in Bentonville to be near their "goldmine". This should be a lesson to other dying towns whose mill or factory has moved out. If just, some bright local boy or girl with a good idea could start something new in their hometown instead of moving away. Speaking of starting businesses in your hometown FSB magazine has an article SECRET CAPITALS OF SMALL BUSINESS. It is about towns that are surprisingly the hubs of certain industries, usually because one person decided to locate there and others followed. THE WITCH OF WALL STREET Hetty Green was the wealthiest and most miserly woman in American history. PINK SALVE 97 year old Lillian Harris is still hard at work everyday running her company, EMJAY LABS. She sells PINXALV (pronounced PINK SALVE), an ointment for diaper rash, a product her husband helped invent in 1927 when he was a pharmacy student. She helped her husband run his businesses, keeping the books and calling customers until his death in 1972. Her son, Seth, came into the businesses and she worked side by side with him until they sold Harris Wholesale in 1989. She kept the PINXALV product, mostly sold in Cleveland area, and ran that company single handedly from 1986 to 2000, when her grandaughter joined her. Her mind is still sharp and she says she plans to keep working as long as she is able. You can visit her website pinxalv.com. They even offer an affiliates program so you can sell PINXALV. HOW TO CATCH LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE Steve gave away the concoction he invented to keep Alaska roughnecks from throwing plates at him, until he discovered he could sell it. HENRY'S SON Henry Hershey was a walking disaster. In Las Vegas, he would be called a "cooler"- the guy they position near someone on a winning streak to change their luck. Was his son Milton's success because of or despite his dad? THE NAKED TRUTH There is a book store owner that refuses to wear clothes in his book store. He says that he has a bad location. He makes up for it by getting international publicity from letting it all hang out. TELL ME MORE Sales of magazines about celebrities are way up and sales of magazines about news and politics are down. So, if you want to make money don't start a periodical or website about news, politics or free enterprise. Start one about, Nick and Jessica, Paris, Britney, Jennifer, Angelina and Brad. The highest paid photojournalists: PAPARAZZI. They say that the first photo of Britney's baby will fetch a million dollars. RICHARD BRANSON The billionaire and owner of hundreds of businesses named Virgin, always travels with a notebook in his hand. It is always there so he can jot down ideas that suddenly hit him and for making notes about things that he notices which he needs to investigate further. He doesn't like computers. He believes in his notebooks. SWINDLETOP Before it earned its nickname when the carpetbaggers came to town, it was the discovery that had changed the world. THE COSTCO BUSINESS PLAN Costco is now the fifth largest retailer in the country with $40 billion in sales and growing at a rate of 10% a year. They have an iron-clad rule that nothing is marked up more than 15%. They pay their employees an average of $17 an hour (40% more than Sam's Club) and have one of the best health plans in the industry. They have an almost cult-like customer following and employee turnover is near none. DON'T HAVE DINNER WITH CHARLIE CHAPLIN It could cost you a billion dollars. Read this before you go on "The Apprentice" and you'll win! $500 AND A PASSION Publisher John Johnson recently died. In 1942, he took out a $500 loan and started a magazine, Negro Digest. He later lauched Ebony and Jet magazines. He was the first to prove that you could target advertising to African- American consumers. Before him, marketers thought that they could just reach African-Americans through general mass advertising. John Johnson said "Reaching ain't selling. I'm helping you sell products." He was not shy about calling CEOS and saying "This is John Johnson, and I don't see your ads in my paper." He helped companies make money and wasn't afraid to ask for their business. With persistence and a passion for his business, he turned a $500 investment into hundreds of millions of dollars. NOT FOR SALE SIGNS In some Brooklyn neighborhoods, Homeowners are having their doors knocked on so many times by people (mostly developers) asking to buy their house that they have resorted to sticking "Not For Sale signs in their windows. A MILLIONAIRESS STORY Sarah lived a difficult life until her hair fell out. Then, everything changed. MR. BILLIANT WILL SUE Ashleigh Brilliant's business is writing aphorisms/epigrams- short (17 words or less) philosophical sayings which he sells on postcards for 25 cents each. He also sells them- to Reader's Digest, puts them on mugs, shirts, caps and compiles them into books. He earns over $100,000 a year. Mr. Brilliant has over 9,600 of them in his catalog and tries to write one every 36 hours. He claims his aphorisms are on 100 million items. I can't give you an example because he will sue me. He sued David Brinkley when his book's title happened to be the same as No. 461. You can read his pearls of wisdom on his website. Mr. Brilliant has settled over 130 copyright infringement cases. ENTERPRISE AND INTRIGUE WOLFMAN JACK and the gun battle in the Mexican Desert HOW TO BECOME THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD Ingvar Kamprad the founder of IKEA may be the richest man the world. He lives cheaply and invests his money back into his business. If he stays in a nice hotel, and happens to take a soft drink out of the pricey mini-bar, he replaces it before he leaves with a bottle that he buys for much less at a nearby store. 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO START ANYTHING Guy Kawasaki, who helped launch the MacIntosh computer, and wrote ART OF THE START, tells you what you need to get any business or organization going. DON'T TAKE ANY WOODEN NICKELS If you would like to promote yourself with your name printed on wooden nickels or if you just have a hankering for visiting the Wooden Nickel Museum visit wooden-nickel.com. BEST STUFF TO SELL ONLINE According to the Wall Street Journal, what sells best on the internet is T-shirts. Many have started websites with grandiose dreams (like FreeEnterpriseLand.com) of the millions flocking to see their compelling content and spending money hand over fist. Almost by accident, the t-shirts they make for sale as an after thought are the only moneymakers. TAX CUTS ARE GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY You probably haven't seen this reported. SURPRISE! The tax cuts seem to be working. The economy is growing, tax revenues are up, budget deficit is lower,and unemployment is down. There are three kinds of people. Those for tax cuts, those that are bad at math, and those who only like tax cuts with strings attached. The same politicians who oppose tax cuts with no strings are the same type of politicians that will give a business a tax break to get them to move to their town. Why would they give a tax break then? Because, they know it will stimulate the local economy, when the new business starts dumping new money on the town. Stealing businesses from some other country is not likely to happen in the United States, so that plan won't work. Plan B: give money back to the people. The money loops through the economy faster that way,anyway, because the people will immediately start trading with their neighbors. More trade is what economic growth is. DEAL OF THE CENTURY The Silna Brothers make $13 million a year to do nothing. THE BEST ORANGES AREN'T SOLD AT FLORIDA FRUITSTANDS The best of anything is not sold near the source. The best goes to whoever is willing to pay the highest price. This is usually someone farthest away because the cost of shipping is not as big of a consideration in the price. I once read about a boy who grew up in lobster country. He was looked upon as poor because he had to take lobster sandwiches to school for lunch. WHAT IS THAT THING CALLED THAT MEASURES YOUR FEET AT THE SHOE STORE? The incredible truth revealed! CALLING ALL JR. ENTREPRENEURS Disney.go.com has a game to teach your kids how to start and run a business. You'll probably be playing, too. WANNA START A HOT DOG STAND? Find what you need at the FreeEnterpriseLand.com HOT DOG page UNIONS, HUH, WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR? It was recently reported that Union members are signing up their children and grandchildren into the Union while they are young, so that when they are old enough to work, they will have seniority and larger salaries. BETTING ON HURRICANE STRIKES Three University of Miami professors have started a futures market for hurricanes. MAHEM or Miami Hurricane Event Market will take your $500 to predict where hurricanes will strike. The winner will get the jackpot. They say that it is a way to predict hurricanes economically. Futures markets for predicting Academy Award winners, box office receipts, political races and flu outbreaks have been extremely accurate. The creators of MAHEM say that consensus of opinion is usually right especially when those giving the opinion are putting their money where their mouths are. MADMAN MUNTZ MOVIE They have made a movie about a hero of FreeEnterpriseLand.com:MADMAN MUNTZ. Read all about it at MADMAN MUNTZ: American Maverick ISN'T IT IRONIC There is a company in Ohio named Lehman's that has sold non-electric appliances such as wringer washers and butter churns to the Amish and assorted Luddites for years through it's store and mail order catalog. Several years ago, they began selling their wares on their website-- Lehman.com FSB 100 FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES Just out-the FSB Magazine's list of the 100 fastest growing small public companies THE SECRET OF SUCCESS Successful people are successful because they have failed more than anyone else, because they tried more than anyone else. Visit DR. FAILURE'S website. INVENTORS R US Ideafinder.com has tons of articles about inventors and the inventions that changed our lives. WE HAVE EVERYTHING WE NEED? In 1876, the head of the British post office said that unlike Americans, the British would never need telephones. In England, office buildings were no taller than four stories, so it was easy for copy boys to run up and down the stairs delivering memos. "A man who grabs a cat by the tail knows 40% more about cats than a man that hasn't." --Mark Twain THE MONEY-GO-ROUND So, you want to be a pop star? Take a ride on the music business MONEY-GO-ROUND or "How to sell a million albums and still need to keep your day job." THE 25 BEST SELLING RECORDS OF ALL-TIME THE GRATEFUL DEAD: One of the greatest American business successes? They had a strong Brand with a loyal following, they met a genuine consumer need (something for someone looking for a permanent vacation to follow or a gathering for people with similar interests), they put their product and customers first, they took care of their employees with high salaries, profit-sharing, benefits and no layoffs during downtimes. They weren't in it for the quick money, they said it was "Built to last as the years roll past." And, the money rolled in. $95 million in 1994, their last year of touring, and $50 million in merchandising a year after that. Success that anyone would envy. HIGHEST PAID DEAD CELEBRITY Elvis Presley was last year's HPDC--$40 million. (source- FORBES Magazine) WHAT'S FOR SUPPER The Big Apple Inn in Jackson, Mississippi has served their specialty since they opened in 1939: PIG EAR SANDWICHES. The sandwich contains: 1/2 Boiled Pig Ear topped with Slaw, mustard, homemade hot sauce on a soft dinner biscuit. They go through about 300 Pig Ears a day. FREDERIC BASTIAT Read the hilarious essays of another FreeEnterpriseLand.com hero: Frederic Bastiat at BASTIAT.ORG as he skewers absurd Economic thinking by being absurd. WHO INVENTED CHARCOAL? Henry Ford and Thomas Edison in 1920. JUNGLE JIM'S It started from a truck selling produce on the side of the road. Now, it is one of Ohio's largest tourist attractions. HOW THE WEST WAS WON In 1876, Fred Harvey found a desperate need and filled it with his HARVEY HOUSE chain. ALWAYS BE SELLING J.C. Penney in his later years, spent a lot of time visiting his stores. He would lead by example, sweeping floors and showing clerks how to take care of customers. Once, after a long day of greeting customers and meeting associates, a customer approached him and said "Mr. Penney, you have all my admiration! Why if I had been standing as you have all day, my feet would be killing me!" "Madam", Penney replied warmly, "perhaps your shoes don't fit properly. May I direct you to our shoe department?"
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MR BAD IDEASSearches the world and his mindfor the worst in bad ideas |
