Closer or Further Away

Everything you do brings you closer or further away from your goals. I feel my goals are clearly defined in my mind... where I can improve is calibrating them when dealing with other people. Of course, everyone's always doing what they think is best for themselves, and what's best for them, or what they think is best for you, might not be best for you.

Soo...

You have to calibrate understanding what other people want, their motives for it, then work out how to reach your goals from that.

You earn money by producing value

The UK society doesn't value people playing chess much. Sure, it may develop your mind but people on the whole aren't willing to pay money to sponsor or watch it. This explains why one of the best chessplayers in the UK, Luke McShane, has a job in the city instead of playing chess much.

Overall when earning money the more rare or valuable your talent or skill is, the more you will get paid. So somone working in a supermarket won't get paid that much, because there are a large number of people who could do that, but a 'star footballer' will get paids hundreds or thousands times more because apparently not many people could do that. And people like watching football.

Sooo... how does this relate to YOUR GOALS? You have to discover something that people value and will pay you for which YOU like too.

Fifteen Thousand

My first post here, I could barely write.

Four years after my novel came out, not that many people had bought it. Just come through a very stressful sales job. Now we’re nearly four years on from that... Just goes to show that you can lose things if you don’t practise. I haven’t spent as much time writing as I used to, but I honestly think I’ve created some killer minimalist posts on this blog.

Anyway, here’s a link to some of my best posts http://markhowitt.blogspot.com/2011/09/art-of-face-to-face-sales.html http://markhowitt.blogspot.com/2012/08/should-you-go-to-university.html http://markhowitt.blogspot.com/2012/07/everybodys-doing-what-they-think-is.html

The last one is probably the most relevant. Bit of clarification on it, everyone at any time is doing what they think is best for themselves. That doesn’t mean it is best for themselves- eventually too much drinking and smoking will kill you. But getting your goals is having a clear idea of what you want, then working with and sometimes against people to make sure you get them. And of course, people often get what’s best for themselves by working together with others. To do that you need quality people and ideally you should be helping each other towards your goals. Bluntly honest, I haven’t always been great at that, but I feel now I have a very strong network.

Anyway.... fifteen thousand. If you think of the numbers as people it’s hard to take in. Even if only one thousand five hundred properly read the blog it’s still a massive number of people. People ask me why I write, and it’s always pure self expression for me. I never write hoping other people will like it. Some of the things I’m thinking of writing now will be quite controversial, and probably turn a few people off. But really, that’s the kind of things I should be writing. You only live once, and I want people to say when I die that I’m an original writer.

Still, there’s part of me that does get a hit knowing the people like it. Pretty much all of the people I like read my blog, and I’ve reconnected with some real winners through this. Hope I inspire you all to express yourself more.

I definitely see me getting to six figures. Will use more time for writing and publish in different places. Here’s to the journey.

Your Network

Another quick post... and first a quick thanks to say that March was a record all time hits for this blog :)

Labelled this post 'your network' but it applies to your friends too. I think it's really important to have a strong network, and a bit of variety helps too. Like I have people who are quite a bit younger and older in my network. People who are quite a bit richer and poorer. As long as we can help each other, it's all good. I'll always give a chance to someone who doesn't 'add value' yet but has the potential to.

At the same time, I'm more quick to cut people off now if I have to. Thankfully, it's rare I have to do this since I have an awesome network, but cutting people off is at least, if not more, important than having new people.

This year I made the decision to focus more on building my network more than being 'superb at sales'. I think in the long run, this will bring more success. It's going quite well so far, but could go better. I think I'll write a fairly detailed summary of this at my end of year review... but let's just say that at the moment I have access to some really cool people who are near the top of the world in their area of expertise... but that 'access' is mainly online, lols. Doing pretty well in meeting great people in real life... could do better though! I'm at about 7/10.

Feel free to connect with me- the best people in my network I've been friends with for more than ten years without having an argument with them! I'm always ready to help good people reach their goals, and they're always ready to help me.

Don't Overestimate

Quick post here... don't overestimate how hard things can be, or how absurd the world can be. Just in your everyday life you will see plenty of instances which are just stupid- but they happen every day. Just because someone is paid a high wage or has good 'education' doesn't mean they can't do daft things. And you have to be ready for these instances to win...

Abstract and Exact

Quick post here... something that's been on my mind a while.

I think it's certainly good to obtain things that are exact rather than abstract. Any prediction into the future is abstract to an extent... "I believe you'll be great at sales/poker". You might THINK that's a nice thing to hear, but I'd rather actually just demonstrate, with concrete results, being good in the present.

The whole thing is... I've spent my life immersed in words, yet they don't mean a thing. Anybody can say anything. That's why I feel super comfortable rejecting any written communication now... I've written a novel based on reading thousands and thousands of books and thinking deeply for so long, yet plenty of people think it's ok not to read it.

You can use words to mystify things, amp people up, put them down. None of it means anything- unless you allow it to. That's why having concrete measurable goals is so important- but DIFFICULT often. You know that each minute of the day you're not doing something towards them you are actually moving further away, or at best standing still. Goals like "I want to be a good boyfriend" or "I want to help people" (family member has last one as goal) are pretty lame. You can easily tell yourself you're a good boyfriend. If you're 'helping someone' part of that (a large part I think) is to make yourself feel good. And on that goal, it's better to help yourself first before helping others- that way you can give better help if you want to. I personally couldn't set a goal to 'help people' until I felt I was perfect myself, and even then I'd make it much more measurable.

2013 Goals

Instinctively I want my goals to be similar to last year... but with less absolute focus on money. With money I'm making a goal to be worth a certain amount more than I am for this time next year- if I can reach that goal I'll score myself 10/10.

It's probable that I will buy some shares in 2013... at the moment I have slightly too much in cash which isn't earning enough interest. Research has already started for this- two main candidates at the moment are National Grid and GlaxoSmithKline. Royal Dutch Shell is a reasonable share too but I already have BP. This is a good list of shares for me to work on anyway... and I can always add to existing holdings.

Want to keep up with the surveys and poker- in poker I need to set myself small goals and just do them. In 2012 I've actually played very well, much better winrate than 2011, and I know there's no skill difference between me and top players. Just have to allocate a certain amount of money and time to poker and produce. Since writing that I've actually won fair bit more and making progress. I have a clear idea of the volume I want to put in, and feel ready to move up the stakes- if I can reach both volume and stakes target I will award myself 10/10.

I aim to do a fulfilling job... like I've said many times, I aim to do what I want to do as much as possible yet I've still worked for some of the biggest companies in the UK. Probably because I don't really take 'holidays' and have a high level of skill. I'm flexible and open minded about the jobs I do this year, but I'll be aiming to earn good money in all of them as well as performing well. The focus is on money this year though- not just putting time in to improve the skillset.

I'm going to allocate myself a certain amount of money to spend for development. Instictive thoughts at the moment are a bare minimum of money for going out at least once a week... if I don't go out for one week that money will still be there. That's a v low minimum and the amount for development could potentially be a lot more, might include money for travelling places or meeting people. I'm open for people to come and meet me too. Enjoy myself more.

Probably I will force myself to be on the internet less in 2013. I know more than enough 'theory' to win in my chosen areas, time to put it into action.

I want to meet more great people in person and just have more fun experiences. That may be in a business setting, may be in a social setting, may be in a 'other' setting... but I'm going to experience it! I'm glad I'm developing things that I can at least do 'on the side' throughout my life, anywhere in the world. Shares, competitions, poker, surveys, investments... all fun :). All helps towards goals!