Good evening,

Years ago, when I was in college, I had a political science teacher. I no longer remember his name, nor much of the class itself, but I remember the teacher very well.

He taught in a fashion that made you want to do well in his class — for him, as well as for yourself. In point of fact, in all classes, I wanted to do well for myself, but this teacher had something magical about him. An aura perhaps.

He carried a mantle of authority but never lorded it over you. He never put you down for not seeing things his way. He simply created new opportunities for you to try again if you chose to. He’d say things like, “I’m presuming that I’m working with adults here,” and that would be the end of it.

Some people complained. He’d politely listen, then

Good evening,

I hope tonight finds you and yours well.

NewbieReports.com began as a blog. A different blog than this one. One based on Wordpress.

I sort of "retired" that blog when I created this one, based in Joomla.

I like this blog. But I also like the other blog. This blog is more straight-laced; businesslike. The other is more free-wheeling and creative.

So why choose? I thinks to myself.

I am an avid reader of James Brausch's blog, whch he recently moved to here.

Though I find his writing style to be, at times, somewhat obnoxious, that's about the worst I can find to say about him. I've dealt with worse. :)

A few weeks ago, James posted a series of blog entries which were eventually going to be compiled into a printed book. The links to the blog entries still exist on his blog, but he's password protected them, so the only way you'll now be able to get them is to buy his book. (Brilliant)

I bought one of the preview copies, which I was just informed has been shipped. It will be interesting to see how it differs, if at all, from the blog entries.

At first I thought I'd be willing to give a testimonial to be published on this book, but for various reasons that I won't go into, I had a change of heart, and James graciously let me off the hook. (I don't really know if he was gracious or not — he hasn't contacted me, and I'm not a mind reader.)

What's prompted this entry is that I just tonight finished the series (I'd printed it out while it was still available on his blog). Here are some initial reactions to what I read:

Good evening,

It seems that some people are out to make a buck at all costs. They sacrifice integrity, honor and trust in order to excel in the game of the con.

This may work for short term gain.

It's not a strategy for one in business. In online business, more often than not, one has an easier time and can make more money by working folks who've previously bought from you than from people who haven't yet done so.

In my efforts as a marketer, I have to keep this in mind if I'm going to work smarter and not harder. The smart thing is to make offers to those who've already bought!

Most people I've talked with about this don't differentiate to very distinct words: customer and client. Until a few years ago, I didn't either. It wasn't until I was reading a wonderful book by Jay Abraham called Getting Everything You Can out of All You've Got.

Here's what he wrote:

Good evening,

Some of my readers might remember me from another website I owned called WealthCountry.com.

I have had a number of technical problems with it.

Specifically, I couldn't get Google to help me with my blog, which was managed by Blogger. Maybe it was me... I don't know.

But I do know that I'm not willing to be a victim of a bureaucratic snag.

A lot of time has gone by since I last updated that blog. After much thought, I've decided to retire it.

In its place is a new website; a new blog.

The text below the line is "copy and paste" from Mark Joyner. I've done this, proabably like many others, in order to obtain his course for free.

Why would I do this? Because, I've been blogging for a long time now, and it will be good to see what this master marketer brings to the table. I'm anticipating that it's a lot, which is why I've "accepted his bribe."

OK, Mark - here's the text you've asked for - posted on my blog.

Regards,
Bal

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There is a thread in the Warrior's Forum started by John Delavera that I highly recommend called Do not do this mistake (AGAIN!?!) in 2008. John talks about setting things up so that you can do things in a big way rather than just want have things in a big way. John puts it really well, and I'm simply telling you that you should go have a look.

John's post got me to thinking about teachers again. (I guess that's on my mind a lot these days.)

Here's some further thinking about the making of a great teacher.

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Note: This post originally had a summary of events that prompted me to write, but the events themselves are largely unimportant to me. What does matter to me is the matter of cutting people some slack.
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"Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

I wonder who said that.

Amazingly, a little more than 2000 years ago, a fellow named Christ set the paradigm - the archetype for cutting people some slack.

One of the problems faced by anyone who would teach another is that the teacher often assumes mind-reading capabilities on the part of the aspiring student. This results in the teacher sometimes being unable (or at least less able) to distinguish a student's confusion caused by poorly executed teaching and a student's confusion caused by waywardness on the part of the student.

A teacher of someone who has reached an age of responsibility has no obligation to smarten up a chump, i.e., a student who simply chooses to not perform.

Good afternoon,

Part of what I do here is give you tips on resources that you may not know about. Sometimes these resources are very inexpensive and even free.

There is a company that provides a service (currently free while in beta) that you should know about, if you don't already.