Wonderful! Jim, you’ve mastered the art of simplifying $5,000 seminars into just one simple concept. Kudos.

By the way, any chance of a free consultation for some of my ideas?

Hi Jim,
Great rant on the first video. Excellent explaination and stories in the second video. Outstanding motivational material in the third video. The content of the third video explained a lot of the things that stop people from success. Looking forward to getting the 5 Steps To Getting Anything You Want cd.
Thanks,
Keith

Wow, Jim! As usual you manage to explain so much so simply. I’ve probably been guilty more than once of the sins you describe in your “why people fail” video. This is definitely going to help me think more deeply about how to overcome the obstacles that are keeping me from implementing my ideas.

Hi Jim,

As usual, you managed to “hit the nail on the head” in short order.

You are able to say sooo much in simple every day language.

I’ll be reviewing these videos sevral more times to make sure I’ll remember the lessons.

Tanks a lot,

Hans

Jim

Really awesome series of vids man! I think that your definition of failure was pretty interesting.

Like everyone else said, Lotsa good info here!

Jim,
You already know how I feel about you and your work from my prior e-mails. I can only say “ditto” to the comments above.
I am normally pretty “anti” playing mind games with one’s self, as some would consider your wise words. But they’d be wrong.
I am glad that your previous great help and inspiration for me allowed me not to be “poisoned” into thinking this was just more shallow “rah-rah” stuff. I’d have been dead wrong, and would have missed some great wisdom.

Hi Jim,
Very well said, I have send link to your ‘I Gotta Tell You” blog and specifically this Lesson!

Thanks for your efforts…
Dale Maxwell

Thanks for the kickstart, Jim. Wonderful videos!

Hi Guys,

Thanks
I’m really glad you enjoyed them!

Based on this feedback, I’ll do more stuff like this in the future
See you at the Big Seminar!

Jim

When things go wrong, we are quick to complain!

This time…it’s about a wonderful lesson in life, and your videos about failure are right on.

I speak from personal experience, and when you talk of ideas that I missed because I just failed to take action, well

it hurt but you hit the nail on the head. Ouch! !

I feel it’s a wonderful lesson and I want you to keep up the good work. Nuff said.

Ron Wagner

Wow! You got the idea — you took action — and now you’re getting the feedback. What a great way to get your message out there — and yes, the message was right on the money.

I have to admit that I was really taken with the technology nehind that. Think I’ll go check out that program.

Thanks — this was a good one.

Ron Rink

PS It did work, too! You are getting some nice feedback. — RR

I think the example you gave of a guy and a girl is CLASSIC. You started the story as the couple already being married (past success to learn from and remember). What about us “geeks” who haven’t the foggiest clue about girls and have only gotten a slap in the face for our efforts? (Personally, I’m married w/ 4 kids, but, in business, my cheeks are still stinging.)

On NUMEROUS occassions, I’ve had an idea, taken action and was completely ignored! What kind of feedback is silence? On other occassions, I’ve gotten an idea but then had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what kind of action that I could possibly take to bring it to fruition. It was highly technical, outside my realm of “expertise”, or something else that I had no clue how to pursue.

An example:
I used to work at Papa John’s Pizza here in Colorado. The pizza dough is made in a cetral facility and trucked to the restaurants twice weekly as ordered by the manager. If the dough is “old”, it gets stringy, sticky, and otherwise unusable for pizza so it’d be thrown out at night. Being the closing driver, I was allowed to take 5-10 of the expired doughballs home where I turned them into a DELICIOUS sourdough bread. At first, I baked them in larger loaves and brought them in to share. I later decided to bring in slightly unbaked loaves, load them with pizza toppings, put them through the regular oven and make a HOT pizza sandwich. Everyone in the store loved them, but I was completely dependant on Papa John’s for the expired dough. Using all Papa John’s ingredients, I repeatedly asked for a contact person at their HW in Kentucky to offer the suggestion to. I wanted face or phone time, rather than surrendering the idea for their use without even a “thank you”. After repeated attempts, there’s still been NO response that they’re even interested.

Another idea I had was a computer idea in the form of miniCD-based customizable collector’s card game. Since “Magic: The Gathering” and other cards had done so well, my idea was to make it computer based so the CDs would enhance your copy of the game giving you an edge when it came time to do an ONLINE battle. With some programming experience already, step one was to begin learning game programming. Step 2 was to consult people in the industry that I knew while living in Seattle. Step 3 was finding that NONE of the game companies that I spoke with EVER accepted outside ideas. In order to put forth the idea for a game, I had to work my way up the corporate ladder which included 5-10 years of programming before I was allowed to make a suggestion, AND THEY AREN’T HIRING! Game programmers start their education on their own in elementary school driven by their obsession with computer games, then get internships to work for free during the summer in high school. Option #3: hire a developer to do it. Average investment per game is ~$3MILLION and up to 5 YEARS!

Idea #3 was a self-snapping windshield wiper. Those of us in place where it snows are aware of the problem of snow accumulation on a windshield and the wipers. As it sticks, it builds up to the point that the wiper is ineffective. Simply lifting the wiper off the windhshield and releasing it causes the snow to break off the wiper allowing for a clean swipe again … for about 3 minutes when the accumulation builds up again. Reading an article about a new type of electro-polymer plastic that was able to bend when charged and relaxed when the charge was removed, I realized that it might have the answer. I contacted every university professor I could find to answer a couple questions on the plastic. Again, after repeated attempts to contact them, none have yet to even acknowledge that they received my eMails, let alone that they have the answers to my questions.

Am I a “failure”? Well, I “failed” to get what I wanted. I “failed” to get ANY feedback at all, let alone positive or negative. I “failed” to take additional action after my initial efforts “failed” to show a way to improve my actions or my idea. I “failed” to find the money to fuel my car to drive all over the country to knock on everyone’s door and make a more unavoidable demand. I “failed” to have any prior experience or knowledge on how to actually go about getting my ideas put forth.

My NEW idea is to learn about sales. My new job is as a salesman against the advise of my seniors who’re worried about “income shortfalls”. I met another newbie who agrees with my intent to “learn sales”, then take our knowledge ONLINE! He got his start off of Cory Rudl in 2003. I’ve been on my quest since 2001. I also met a clear speaking sales teacher who’s teaching us how to actually make sales over the phone of the several thousand dollar products that we’re offering.

You may not believe that money has any bearing on success, but $50/month is more than I made in February & March COMBINED! I just got my FIRST commission check: $175. I’m feeling very RICH right now. I can actually pay for my own gas!

I guess the only thing I can say in response is that “silence” or being “ignored” is feedback… it means the market either doesn’t care, or you didn’t take the right action.

The key is to take so much action that *something* has to work… and the only way you can fail is if you stop.

Jim

Well, nothing like a smack in the head to wake me up!

Thanks for bringing this out, Jim. Completely true. I even use this process at work with the “projects” that they hand me.

And I never thought of applying it to my online attempts. Thanks for the wakeup!

William

Jim,

I love this video so much that I just sent an email out to my list, telling them about it!

Zev Saftlas

Jim, Another great newsletter or should I say blog now! I’m still green on this blog thing but reading and learning all I can about them. Your success and failure videos are great and they describe alot of the traits I myself used to exibit. Maybe even a couple still deep down but I’m working on that. Just wanted to tell you that your work has inspired me greatly and the site I now have is due mostly to your very knowledgable products, wisdom and encouragement. I also gave you a very honorable and well deserved mention or plug, whatever you want to call it on my site and give away some of your products. If you prefer to have this omitted, let me know and I will remove it. Keep up the great work and don’t change a thing. Thanks for everything.

Hi Jim,

I was rolling under my desk and laughing when it came to the part where you listed those excuses like: “I don’t have any money”…:-)

Thank you for this issue!

Success or Failure is the Result of a “Process”

Jim Edwards has been down and out, upside down, smacked upside the head. (Amazing, isn’t it, how much of our language about failure uses vertical positioning?) In any case, Jim knows failure. And he knows success. More than that, he

Hi Jim,

You just summed up in a few minutes what I have taken years to learn!

It works too…

Cheers,

Chris