Friday August 31st, 2007: Issue #835
My holiday head is finally defuzzing. You are supposed to come back from a vacation feeling refreshed, relaxed and raring to go - but this time I felt quite the opposite: laid-back, lethargic and lazy as hell! Must have been all that wonderful pasta that gave me a carb overdose.
Today is the first day that I think I might get something done.
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On Wednesday afternoon Delia and I indulged in the ultimate decadence - we went to the movies. Yes … during the day!
We saw the latest in the Matt Damon Bourne movies - The Bourne Ultimatum.
I have to tell you that it was really good and deserves the generally positive reviews it has received. The story, based on the book by the late Robert Ludlam, is tight, fast-paced and exciting. Matt Damon does an excellent job of bringing the character to life.
Delia and I had two criticisms - both of which are probably age-related: it was way too loud (I can’t remember coming out of a cinema with my ears ringing before) and the cinematography was awful. The entire film seemed to have been shot by a drunk with a hand-held camera. Every scene wobbled and fast-panned to such an extent that you started feeling seasick within minutes of the opening credits and stayed that way throughout.
Neither ‘problem’ ruined the movie, but it would have been a lot better if they hadn’t been so obvious.
If you’ve seen the first two Jason Bourne movies, don’t miss this one. If you haven’t had the pleasure of the others yet, get the DVDs first because The Bourne Ultimatum won’t make a lot of sense to you otherwise!
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And now for something completely different!
A lot of us dream of writing an ebook. Some of us even succeed. But deep down in our heart of hearts, almost everyone would love to write a real book that is sold in real bookstores.
Not for the money - you are more likely to make a lot more more cash from an ebook than a physical book - but for the joy of being able to point at a bookshelf and say ‘I wrote that’.
Well, one of our great Kickstart family has just done it. My good friend, Barrie Segal, is one of the UK’s leading experts (probably THE leading expert anywhere) on parking tickets. And as the vast majority of tickets appear to be issued illegally, he runs a very successful website that helps people to quickly and easily appeal against them.
Barrie has a lot of funny stories about crazy parking tickets. Stories that you won’t believe, but which are all 100% true. Like the parking warden who slapped a ticket on a rabbit hutch - with the rabbit inside! Or the poor guy who was in a bad motorcycle accident and while he was being loaded into the ambulance a warden slapped a ticket on the wreck of his bike. Or the hearse that got a ticket while attending a funeral!
Barrie has collected hundreds of these funny stories and about a year ago a publisher asked him to write them down in a book.
The result is a very funny paperback called The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness & Traffic Warden Hell. If all goes to plan it should be hitting the bookstores in the UK today.
But you don’t need to be in a bookstore or even in the UK to get a copy of this very funny book. You can get a copy from Amazon: http://www.urlnex.us/parking-tickets/
That link is to the US version of Amazon - UK people can use it too.
Already there has been a lot of media interest. Barrie has given 14 interviews so far to various radio stations, several newspapers have written articles about the book and Barrie was even featured on the Richard and Judy show last week (for non UK readers, the Richard and Judy Show has a very influential book club like the Oprah show in the US).
And now Barrie has been featured in Kickstart!
It is very low cost. It is a lot of fun and more importantly, buying a copy will support a fellow Kickstarter and help him have a bestseller on his hands!
Check it out.
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Some time ago I waxed lyrical about a set of videos on Lead Generation by Mark Vurnum. They outlined, in my opinion, a very real and very realistic online business opportunity - creating leads and selling them on to businesses.
Mark Vurnum makes a killing doing this every day.
I know Mark personally and can tell you that he is a very respectable and honorable guy.
As a result of what I wrote back then, a lot of Kickstarters bought the videos and the feedback I’ve received from many of them has been outstanding.
Yesterday I was talking on the phone with another good friend, Peter Woodhead, who told me that he and Mark are putting on an exclusive Lead Generation workshop in a couple of weeks. At it, Mark will personally teach his methods to a very select group of people. No more than 25 or so will be able to attend and as far as I know there are only a handful of places left.
http://www.urlnex.us/LeadGenWorkshop/
What is unusual about this workshop is that you will be personally taught how to make it work for you, and you will go home with a workable business ready to run.
The price of the event includes all your hotel and food costs AND everyone who attends will go home with a brand new laptop computer!
Mark is personally making over $49,000 every month from his lead generation business and while he can’t promise you that kind of success instantly, he will teach you everything you need to know to emulate him. The rest, of course, will be up to you.
If you are looking to start an online business the right way, then I highly recommend Mark and Peter’s workshop.
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Changing the subject yet again, on Wednesday I wrote about the nine ways that you can pronounce the syllable ‘ough’.
An eagle-eyed Kickstart reader wrote to tell me about a tenth - ‘ock’.
How did he know this ultimate piece of trivia?
His name is Ian Loughlin (pronounced Locklin)! 
Thanks Ian!
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An Inspirational Thought
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I’ve been scan reading some of the many personal development books on my bookshelves and I’ve been struck by the observation that they fall into two types: the ones that tell you what NOT to do, and the one that tell you WHAT to do.
My favorites tend to fall in the latter category.
Personal development, in my mind, is about building new behavior patterns into our lives. Better ways of doing, thinking and seeing. Certainly, adopting these new methods tends to stop you from following the old life patterns and that is a good thing. But I don’t believe we change by focusing on what we should not do - change comes because we find something better.
I know that if I want to lose weight, focusing on NOT eating just makes me conscious of the desire to eat and creates a constant feeling of hunger. To succeed I have to overwrite the urge to snack by filling my time with absorbing and productive alternatives.
In Kickstart I talk often about the need for positive thinking in our lives, but it goes beyond that. We also need positive influences from outside.
And in my case that means focusing on the books with a positive message and ignoring those that make me fat.
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Who do you know who would love Kickstart Today?
Don’t keep it to yourself - send them to
http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
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The Quote of the Day
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Dr Melvin Konner said,
“If it’s working, keep doing it. If it’s not working, stop doing it. If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything.”
[Martin’s note: Personally, I’d change the last part to ‘If you don’t know what to do, ask someone who is successful.’ But that’s just me!]
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Today’s Power Thought
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Today’s action point is stolen lock, stock and barrel from one of the best books ever written: ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie.
Six Ways to Make People Like You.
1. Be genuinely interested in them.
2. Smile.
3. Remember, and use, their name.
4. Listen. Encourage them to talk about themselves.
5. Find out what interests them, and then couch what you say in terms that relate to their interests.
6. Make them feel important - but make sure you do it sincerely.
There is nothing difficult in any of those timeless principles. The hardest thing to keep in mind is that in any conversation you have, if YOU don’t push yourself as the most important person, the other person WILL.
Sounds illogical, but the best listeners are always thought of as the best conversationalists - even thought they say very little.
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Fascinating Facts
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Singapore was the host of the first ever world summit on toilets, in 2001.
I bet they had a crap turnout.