Author Archives: admin

Don’t Make Out This Is Hard

Many years ago I saw a poster on one of those noticeboards which all churches seem to have outside. It simply said:

Jesus Saves!

Underneath, on one of the few occasions I’ve applauded a piece of graffiti, someone had scrawled in black marker pen…

But Moses knocks in the rebound!

I was reminded about that the other day when I passed another church with another of those posters. It said…

God created the world and everything in it.

I’m sure that far more learned people than me could give a perfectly reasoned argument for the truth of that statement, but leaving aside the question of whether God actually exists, taking the credit for creating everything around us seems a bit rich anyway.

The earth is about 4,500 million years old, and I’m pretty sure that until long after the first humans appeared about 3 million years ago, there wasn’t a great deal of what we see today. In fact, there wasn’t a whole lot of anything.

What happened was that as man evolved and became more intelligent, he learned to work with what was in the environment to create everything that we now have: buildings, machines, infrastructure, technology, medicines…just about everything. Without man’s ingenuity, none of this would exist.

I don’t know about you, but I find that awe-inspiring and humbling…

As I drove past that church, and looked around my car, I realised that everything in it existed, not because God created it, but because someone had been smart enough to take some stuff out of the ground, combine it with other stuff out of the ground, and then miraculously transform it by some scientific skulduggery into something useful.

Metals, plastics, ceramics, rubber, glass ~ all created from innocent-looking materials in the environment, and then designed, shaped and fashioned into something that works.

You may have noticed something here. I’m not being specific about the actual processes that have to take place in order to create these things from what appears to be very little. There’s a reason for that. It’s because I haven’t got the first idea. I couldn’t create even the simplest item in my car from scratch, and I suspect, neither could you. But almost everything you see, touch and rely upon to get you through your daily life has been created by human beings from little more than dust, gas, water and rubble.

As I said, awe-inspiring, and a valuable source of perspective too…

You see, when we think about human achievements of this magnitude, doesn’t it make our own work challenges and issues seem pathetically small and insignificant? I know that many readers of this newsletter are in the field of marketing products and services. I also know that many in that field are prone to the odd bout of ‘woe is me’.

Isn’t it almost embarrassing to think in terms of there being significant difficulty in what you’re trying to achieve, when you view it in terms of the challenges people have faced (and continue to face) in creating everything we have around us – from nothing?

As marketers we should be thanking our lucky stars, not bemoaning our bad fortune or the state of the market. All the hard work has already been done for us, by people who created the products we sell from scratch. All we have to do is get them in to the hands of someone who can make use of them, in return for a reasonable amount of money. And for doing that small thing, we’re more than fairly rewarded.

Creating stuff is ridiculously hard. Selling it is child’s play by comparison. Never lose sight of that when you think you’re having a difficult day.

Kind Regards

John Harrison

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I hope you’re keeping safe and well.

This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment.

Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.

He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh?

Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit.

Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought.

The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch.

For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…

The full programme in one package and at a huge discount!

For full details take a look here.

www.streetwisenews.com/secret

Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison

Love In A Box

Perhaps you thought that your relationship with your partner was something that would just grow, develop and evolve naturally. Well that’s not going to work in today’s busy and high pressured dual-career world according to the people at www.unboxlove.com

The company sells a monthly subscription to couples. It’s a box designed to give them the inspiration and tools to create an evening of unorthodox activities. They say that the ideas will “allow couples to learn about each other, experience something new together, and make memories that will last”.

Couples can open the box together on the night of the date in order to create some excitement and surprise about what they will be doing. Each box costs $50.

The service is only available in the US at the moment, so it could be one to keep tabs on with a view to copying if it becomes successful. As an additional thought, if this ‘relationship-help’ market sector continues to grow, it could be worth thinking about what other services you could provide to enhance personal relationship.

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

Ayn Rand

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“I haven’t spoken to my wife in years. I didn’t want to interrupt her.”

Rodney Dangerfield

An Unexpected Use For A Sweaty Sock

I’m not sure what I expect you to do with this information I’m about to impart, but I found it fascinating. What would you use if you wanted to trap or kill mosquito’s? Well you could use an expensive device or preparation off the shelf… or you could use a sweaty sock!

It turns out that mosquito’s are attracted to the smell of sweaty socks. Once African inventor Fredos Okumo discovered this, he set about developing a synthetic chemical which mimics human foot odour and incorporated it in a commercially available trap.

Once lured inside, the insects are poisoned by a powerful insecticide. Before manufacturing his synthetic compound, Okumo baited his prototype traps with dirty socks collected from locals in Isakara, Tanzania. That can’t have been a pleasant job.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL SIMPLICITY DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I hope you’re keeping safe and well.

This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment.

Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.

He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh?

The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch.

The full programme in one package and at a huge discount!

For full details take a look here.

www.streetwisenews.com/secret

Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison

Whinging Poms

Have you ever wondered why Australians call us “whinging poms”?

Well to give you a clue, think about the people you know who have upped sticks and moved to Australia…

Were they happy, successful, and highly ambitious people looking for a new challenge? Or were they underachieving, dissatisfied people looking to escape to something better?

For reasons I don’t fully understand, it seems like the people who move to the other side of the world are usually those who haven’t really made a go of it here. People move to the United States for positive reasons. They move to Australia for negative ones.

So what you end up with in Oz, once the novelty has worn off, is a bunch of underachieving, dissatisfied people ~ in shorts!

Or whinging poms, in other words.

The only way the move could have the desired effect for people like that, is if they were able to go without themselves!

Confused? Let me give you another example of what I’m talking about here…

Do you know anyone who regularly changes jobs? I know quite a few, and the pattern is always the same:

“I just got offered a new job. It’s fantastic…great pay, great people. I love it. So much better than that crappy sweat shop hell-hole I just left.”
“Hmm…there are things about this job that they kept from me.”
“My work colleagues and/or boss are unreasonable and unpleasant.”
“They’re taking advantage of me and exploiting me. I’m not being paid what I’m worth.”
“I need to look for a new job.”
Go back to number one.

And it’s the same with businesses. People start out with great enthusiasm, only to stall when the reality hits home…this isn’t as easy as it looks. And so they start something else, only to find that that business also has difficulties associated with it. And the whole sorry cycle is repeated over and over.

The point I’m trying to make here, is that if you find yourself to be a serial-switcher of either location, job or business (and it’s not for positive reasons) then the problem is almost certainly not to be found in the locations, jobs or businesses.

And I’d go even further…

If you find yourself constantly ‘switching’ in any aspect of your life, but without any tangible improvement in satisfaction or success, then the problem isn’t an external one.

The common denominator is a little closer
to home, and can be viewed daily in the mirror.

I think most of us spend at least part of our lives seeking out external solutions for internal problems. To recognise and accept that blame and responsibility lies right at our own doorstep is far from easy (self delusion is much more comfortable and a far more natural reaction) but it’s essential if we’re to find a solution that works.

So by all means embark on your own version of an antipodean adventure, but at least be honest and realistic with yourself before you set off…

It’s a long way to go to end up exactly where you started, but with slightly browner legs.

Kind Regards

John Harrison

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

Imagine if your betting profits were a nailed on 100% certainty…that you were guaranteed to never lose a bet…and that there was a totally fool proof system you could deploy that would only ever win or break even at worst. Well thanks to a rule which every bookmaker in the UK is forced to follow, you don’t have to imagine it.

Because It’s The Loophole To End All Loopholes!

And for reasons I’ll explain fully, it’s a loophole that’s open to anyone and everyone with an internet connection…and it will be open forever.

Here’s your chance to find out about this secret loophole for yourself, because Nick has come up with a unique offer that will put almost £300 in your pocket…even if you prove him wrong!

For full details Visit:

www.streetwisenews.com/loopholes

Take a look now. You’re going to love this one!

Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison

Savings Without The Hassle

There’s no doubt that there are big savings to be made by shopping at warehouse style outlets like Costco, but it’s not for everyone. A lot of people live too far away to make travelling viable, and the shopping experience can leave a lot to be desired. It’s this juxtaposition that formed the basis of Monstersaving.com, a New York based business recently set up by Michael Eberstadt.

The company promise is simple; order from the website by 10.00am and they will pick up your order from Costco and deliver it the same day. No travelling, no mixing with the great unwashed, no worrying about your car in the car park, no contending with the grumpy checkout assistant.

Of course, for all this convenience, there’s a penalty. Eberstadt works out what a customer would typically pay for, say a bumper pack of toilet roll in Manhattan, looks at the Costco price, and splits the saving. But for people who can’t go to somewhere like Costco, or don’t want to, it’s a very valuable service.

Could you do something like this in your area? With people being increasingly both time stressed and cost sensitive, I can see a need for this sort of service in many areas of the UK