It’s hard to imagine for old timer like me to think a free product can be any good. If it’s any good, why would anyone give it away for free? Well, the new electronic media have near-zero marginal cost. Therefore, giving away these free are not too costly, thus the dawn of the new “free” economy.

The author, Chris Anderson who also wrote “The Long Tail,” gave a pretty convincing set of arguments that the new “abundant world,” as opposed to the “scarce world” we were more familiar with in the 20th century, presents a new set of challenge to producers of “contents” or “IP (intellectual property)” to derive value and thus charging the users for money. The new generation, especially those from China, are not going to pay for contents because they can easily transported in “bits” over the internet and they have more time than money, but they’re willing to pay for something physical (“atoms”) or experience (like a concert). Giving away free music, contents are the new way to maximize the reach to the maximum number of audience. The best you can do is probably to charge 5~10% of the audience for the “premium” versions, because they have more money than time. Another way is have ads subsidize the cost but this is getting increasing difficult as ads are not as effective. (Google ads remains the king of ads because it’s directly related to people’s interest at the time of the search.) The other way is to give away the first one free and charge the follow-on products once the large audience base has been built up.

Though the book is a bit long and repetitive but it’s worth listening to on audio. It teaches you how to make money off “free” goods in this new world of “abundance.” This is a scary time for most knowledge workers as a lot of our results and efforts can be easily moved from one place to all over the world through Internet very quickly and “freely.” We need to learn to adjust to the new pricing model and take advantage of it. Living with “abundance” can be hard.

This is Jim Rohn at his best. Such a concise book containing so many words of wisdom.

The 5 key words
1. Fundamental: “Success of no more than the natural consequence of consistently applying the fundamentals of success to life.”
2. Wealth: Wealth that comes form the conversion of effort and enterprise into currency and equity.
3. Happiness: freedom from the negative children of fear such as worry, low self-esteem, envy, greed, resentment, prejudice, and hatred. A way of interpreting the world and its events and having values in balance.
4. Discipline
5. Success: making your life what you want it to be.

The 7 strategies are:
1. Unleash the power of goals: Four great motivators: a. recognition, feeling of winning, family, benevolence (charity). Long range goals: Ask yourself, “What do I want to do, be, see, have, go, and share? Write down time horizon to achieve. Pick one from each category of 1-yr, 3-yr, 5-yr, 10-r goals and describe in details what you want and the reasons.

2. Seek knowledge: Capturing the treasures of knowledge. Gain wisdom through personal reflection on journals weekly, monthly, yearly, and through learning from others by books and tapes, by listening to the wisdom and folly of others and by observations of winners and losers.

3. Learn how to change: “To have more than you’ve got, become more than you are.” “Unless you change how you are, you’ll always have what you’ve got.” “Better is not something you wish; it’s something you become.” Seasons of life: Winter: a time to grow strong. Sprint: a time to take advantage. Summer: a time to take care, protect what you’re created. All good will be attached. All values must be defended. Fall: a time to take responsibility, reap the results of our springs and summers. Eliminate self-imposed limitations: procrastination, blame, and excuses. “You can change all things for the better when you change yourself for the better.”

4. Control your finances: 70/30 rule: 70% on essential and luxury and the 30% on charity, capital investment, and savings.

5. Master time: Learn to say “no” by saying “No, I don’t think I can. But if that changes, I’ll give you a call.” When you work work, when you play play. “Don’t start the day/week/month/year until you have it finished.”

6. Surround yourself with winners: “It’s easy to remain mediocre. All you need to do is spend major time on minor things with minor people.” “Spend more time with the right people.”

7. Learn the art of living well: 2-quarter attitude. “Be happy with what you have while pursuing what you want.” “The good life is not an amount; it’s an attitude, an act, an idea, a discovery, a search.”

“Resolve” – promise yourself that you’ll never give up. Why not? Why not you? Why not now?

I listened to the audio book version of “This I Believe” book, which was narrated in most cases by the original authors of the essays. Very enlightening to hear people’s stories and how they became what they believed. Some of them are funny: be cool to the pizza delivery dudes; it’s a practice of humility and forgiveness. Some are American patriotism like forgiving some young foreign visitors tab when they ate at a restaurant more than they could afford. Some are in parenting: believing in handing off the world to our next generation in a better form than we received it. There is one essay on believing in their parents who believed in them. Some are about optimism: believing in a better days ahead. Some believed in religion and some believe in non-religion.

There are several essays from famous people like Bill Gates, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, and etc, though the audio quality of the older essays (due to reproduction from the old “This I Believe”) were poor and hard to understand.

Overall it was a treat to hear the diverse beliefs from a diverse set of people and their stories. This brings up the interesting question about what I truly believe.What do I believe? I believe we only live on this earth once and we ought to give it our best to learn, enjoy, love, and be loved and make the world a better place than we found it.

This is book is highly recommended.

1. Stay Calm. Say “This shall pass.” Resolve to be positive. Refuse to be upset and angry.

2. Be confident in your ability. Keep saying “I like myself.” “I can do it!” “Confidence comes with the forward motion toward your goals.” Remind yourself you have handled problems before.

3. Dare to go forward. Vision and courage are for the leaders. Draw on the courage. “Act as if it’s impossible to fail, and it shall be.” Courage to launch and endure (persist in the face of disappoint) – a true test of leadership.

4. Get the “true” facts. The reality principle – facing the world as it is, not what it should be. Ask “What and how are we trying to?” “What assumptions are we making and what if we are wrong about the assumption?”

5. Take Control (of your mind/emotion). Focus on what’s under your control and what can be done. Accept 100% responsibility and take charge. Keep saying “I’m responsible.” Focus on the future, not the past.

6. Cut your losses – don’t cry over spilled milk: Use “Zero-based” thinking – “is there anything what I’m doing today, knowing what I now know, I wouldn’t get into.” Ask “how do I discontinue this product & service?” Get back to basics.

7. Manage the crises: It’s the testing time. Preserve cash. Get the facts. Discipline yourself to think of solutions. Become action oriented. Crises anticipation: looking ahead to future and ask what could happen to my business and personal life. What steps would you take and react? Extrapolated thinking: describe how you handle in such a crisis. What’s the worst that could happen in this situation? Make efforts to make sure they don’t happen.

8. Communicate constantly. In crunch time, keep key people informed. “No surprises” policy for everyone. Explain what’s going to happen. Ask for ideas. Do not hide the crises. Offer to pay interest only until turn around. Do not delegate to others.

9. Identify your constraints. Be clear about your goals. What are the limiting factors to achieving this goals? Why am I already there with my goal? 80/20 rules seem to apply. 80% of constraints are internal and 20% external. What’s in me or my business that’s holding me back? Fear of failure or rejection. External constraints are outside of your control. There are things you can affect. Focus on one major constraining factor. Get on with it.

10. Tap into your higher power – “holy spirit” or “infinite intelligence,” or “super conscious mind” or “power of God.” Use meditation, solitude or prayer. Let your mind relax – think about water, deep pool of still water – to calm your mind. Develop an attitude of faith. Goal: “peace of mind” and “happy resolution” of the problem. Be open to whatever happened around you. Whatever you want wants you. Be alert. Expect the miracle to come around you.

Remind yourself that life is full of tests and you only fail when you give up. Resolve to persist.

This is a comprehensive book about creating income stream to earn residual income. I did learn quite a few new things about the affiliate program, network marketing, info-preneuring (feel like writing a book now!), licensing, variable life insurance, and about protecting your empire. Very informative but some of the things he mentioned sounds a lot easier than actual. Each stream of income may require a book or more to understand and practice profitably.

The key outlines:
1. Investing in stock market: a) start investing right away, b) index funds are safest, c) dollar cost averaging, d) long-term investing. The efficient market group vs. beat the market group.

2. Accelerated stock strategies: a) let the master (Warren Buffet) manage your money, b) Select the mutual funds with the longest-term track record, c) select only the financial advisers with the longest track records, d) let your portfolio go to the dogs (of the DJ), e) consider enhanced index funds (2x, 1.5x), f) Consider high-powered stock section funds.

3. Double your money in the market: How to multiply your investment dollars. a) writing covered calls, b) Buying and selling call options. Six rules: a. paper trade first, b. never invest money you can’t afford to lose, c. study, d. establish a mentoring relationship, e. don’t overcommit, f. don’t confuse brains for a bull market.

4. Winning big on real estate:
A. finding motivated sellers (DON’T WANTER CONDITIONS, acronyms). Use a property selection grid (3 pts for each of below categories) 1. Sellers motivation and flexibility, 2. location, 3. financing, 4. price, 5 Property condition. Needs to be 12 pts and above.
B. Funding: 1. Nothing down: ultimate paper out. 2. Lease to own option, 3. ABC (anything but cash) 4. OPR (other people’s resource)
C. Farming: How to harvest your profits: flipping or buy & hold.

5. Fortune in foreclosures and flippers: lots of case studies on how to acquire foreclosures and flip them.

6. Paying other people’s taxes: buy tax liens.

7. Network marketing: a. select the right company, b. use the right marketing system, c. use the right leadership system.

8. Infopreneuring: How to turn a tiny classified ad into a fortune. 5 rings or riches in infopreneuring: 1. succeeding in your core expertise, 2. Teaching others specific know-how to succeed in your core expertise, 3. Using your specific experience to teach general success skills, 4. Marketing other products to your database, 5. Support services to infopreneurs in the other four rings. Seven steps: 1. select a subject that matches your passion/expertise, 2. find the hungriest fish in the lake; et a copy of the standard rate and data survey, 3. Discover the kind of bait your fish have been biting on. 4. Design your own unique bait, 5. Test your bait, 6.Roll out your marketing campaign in a major way. 7. Add other ring 2 versions of your winning info-product.

9 Licensing: Intellectual property at warp speed. Types of licensing: a. Celebrity licensing, b. Character licensing, c. Information licensing. Profiting from licensing: a. Start from scratch with your own idea, b. Use licensing to add multiple streams of income to your existing business. c. Acquire the license to someone else’s idea and grow it from scratch. d. Use licensing to add multiple streams of income to someone else’s existing business. How to get there? a. saturate your mind with tollgate thinking, b. pretend you’re a license mogul, c. spend a day at the local library or bookstore, d. find a manufacturer or end licensee. e. enjoy lifetime streams of royalty checks.

10. The internet. Successful business models: a. Information marketing, b. network marketing, c.affiliate programs.

11. Tax cuts: plugging your biggest leak. Variable life insurance (not variable annuity): single premium variable life (SPVL) and variable universal life insurance (VUL).

Financial fortress strategies: shielding your multiple stream of income – asset protection, estate planning, legal strategies (the Nevada Corporation)