"Learning to be happy for extremely competitive dummies"

This is a comment left here to this article (with video), regarding someone similar to myself.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. One of the most refreshing things in this blog is to sense that Frank is able to use his money to live a high quality life, unlike the person of the video in this post's links.
The ex-owner of Paypal presents clear signs of serious psychological imbalance. I am sorry for him. His excessive competitiveness doesn't allow him to enjoy the present moment, thus he cannot enjoy life. That's why he feels sad when he is not busy.
I know what's to feel that push forward that he feels, because I am (was?) similar. I spent 10 years of my life being dominated by it. Now I fight against it, trying to live a healthier and more balanced life. And I feel better than ever.
What's all the money doing for that person? Nothing. He is not even spending it in a good chair and a good desk, for what we can see in that video. He is not unpacking his things. And he presents in his body language many clear signs of stress, although he appears calm. Isn't it odd? He seems to be very stressed out and letting his life -and possibly partner- slip away. He is not able to disconnect from his urge to win. It is just that this is not an urge to win, but just to compete. And the competition is against himself, so he can never win.
He feels he has to prove something. His life is dominated by others, and by what others think of him. His self esteem depends on the outside world.
If he is not "producing" he feels he is not doing anything useful. He works 15 hours a day or more. Once he sold his company, he felt worthless.
I am sorry for him. He should look for help as soon as possible.
Of course many of us will say -particularly thos of us that are like him and me- "what the hell do you know Javier, he is free to live his life in any way he wants!" and it is true...as long as he is happy. But he doesn't seem happy at all. Id' bet he is not. Frank seems much happier and more balanced than him. I strive to be a more balanced person myself.
There is a time when you lose contact with reality. When you cannot enjoy the smell of a flower anymore, or the beauty of a sunset...you just are here physically but you are already somewhere else mentally. Always somewhere else. Never in the present. Never really being where you are. Never enjoying quality time. You have lost perspective. It is hard for you to laugh at yourself, and at how ridiculous things can be sometimes. You are too busy for that.
He feels he hasn't learnt anything if he doesn't sell his next company for more money than the last one. But with the next company he won't be happy either, we all know that.
He only feels alive when he is working, because that disctracts him from the things he feels are wrong...it distracts him from the voice of the father critic inside him that whispers all the time behind his ear "you are not good enough".
He is looking for fulfillment in the wrong places. The best thing that can happen to him is something that brings him back to reality fast. At the moment, the only thing that differentiates him from a robot are his biological functions.
There is a time to compete. There is a time to stop. There is a time just be, and love yourself and the people that loves you because you are you, not because you sold paypal for 1.X billion. And there is a time to appreciate your life, your health, the air you breath, the food you eat and the fact that the sun came up the horizon one more day.
In one hand I admire such a strong drive in a person, and this guy's technical knowledge is clearly outstanding. But has he learn anything about life itself during his 33(?) years? I hope he does soon, otherwise he'll end up like the many of our generation (I am 32)...extremely rich...extremely lonely...extremely empty.
I hope he changes before that happens and stop making wealthy and happy everyone around him...except himself.

Regards,

Javier Marti
Trendirama.com


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Make money online with John Chow

The man of the left is one of the most famous bloggers today. John Chow is a highly creative and money driven person whose blog can give you a ton of information on how to make money online. There is so much info there...you would need already two lives to investigate it all properly and take action. That would surely make me rich...in my next life.
He also invented the "review this blog" system, which is more or less what I am doing here. He says that if you review his blog with a certain text in your blog post, he'll link back to you. And this is a good opportunity for any blogger to get a lot of traffic. I don't know if this is true, but here you have an idea (which I am sure he had already: make a similar system for community projects and link to Trendirama from there! ;) now I am the evil one)
Basically, what you have to do is to add this text to a review of this blog (like this post)

John Chow dot Com is blog that helps you make money online. If you do a review of his blog, he’ll link to it and send you a ton of traffic.

(It it is true what he says, then you would get a link back from him. I'll let you know if he did or didn't link to this post)

So, let's analyze his blog briefly...

These are only a few of the many things to notice, that he does well:
- he personalizes his favicon with his face. Very good idea. You may like his face or not, but doing that way and in high contrast, it definitely draws your attention to wherever you see it. Probably the smartest favicon I've ever seen.
- he seems to talk with honesty from the beginning about his intention of monetizing his blog.
- he is very creative in the ways of doing it
- he shares his best results and ideas with the community through his posts. Since he posts mainly his successes, we don't have to go through the stumbling that he may have had to go through to find the best way of doing things.
- he knows how to grow. He included invited authors to keep his blog fresh and interesting and possibly to prevent his own burn out. Smart move again.
- he has been able to create a community around his personal project, and that's no easy feat, even if you do it on the most attractive subject for many people "make money online". He has a lot of competition but seems to be the number one.
- he seems to have invented the "review this blog and get a link" system. That's not only smart, but a a good way to spread knowledge and wealth around. (In that respect, he is identical to the Trendirama.com project. Kudos for that)
- he has been criticized left and right but he doesn't seem to care
- he is very clever, and you can see that in his posts. I have the feeling that he is very hard working too.
- there is a lot more work behind his blog that you would think. He is a master in what he does, and that's one of the typical signs of mastery: he makes it seem simple.
- his priority is working smart, not working hard. I agree 100% with that philosophy!
- he has made some powerful connections, and due the the "snow ball effect", he gets better connections every day. In one way or another, those opportunities sooner or later will "overflow" to his followers. Smart pioneers are the best people to watch and be associated with.

Things that I don't like so much on his blog:
- his blog can be sometimes excessively commercial (however this is normal, bearing in mind his publicly delcared goal: to make as much money as possible through it)
- some of his commenters seem not to have anything to say, really. They seem to be there only to try to promote themselves. Unlike John, they don't show it openly, but rather praising John in most things he does / say, being he right or not. Unlike John, they don't usually provide you with a lot of interesting information
- some of said commenters seem to admire the guy...too much. They seem to have lost their sense of objectivity, or they never had it in the first place
- reviews and pictures of food are boring for me, and remind me of Xiaxue's blog
- John wants us to enroll in Agloco. I don't have enough information about it, but I instinctively will stay away most times from anything similar to multilevel marketing. (however I am not saying these systems cannot work.)
- there are always two cars in the banner at the top of his blog. And too much wasted space. Some people like cars, some don't. Some like the colour blue, some don't. If you want to monetize 100%, you want to attract and please as much people as you can. I would put some randonm images there, or a multi-coloured neutral collage (politically correct) a pretty flash presentation or something...
- he has made public his pictures, the city where he lives, and where he usually eats. (and I haven't read more than 20 posts so far!) For me, making public this information, coupled with letting the public know that he is so financially successful, is a big mistake. There are certain people in the world that shouldn't know where to find you, if you are so successful. I hope he knows what he is doing in this respect, and has taken appropriate protection for him and his family. His ego has been a bad advisor on this matter. There are too many idiots around with too much time in their hands...
It is too late for John now, but, for all of you out there...watch out! If what you say is really interesting, if you know your stuff, readers will come. There is no need to make it personal. Yes, it is a nice touch, but thre is no need to do it.

Overall, yes, it is a blog I would recommend you to read if you are interested in making money online in any way. It is one of the few I follow on RSS. You can always learn something there, or get pointers that help you monetize your online activities.

(PS- I'll do the same as John and many of his followers: if you link to this blog with the word "blog of Javier Marti", I'll link back and review your blog. Just drop me a line with a link to the post)

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Web 2.0 explained in a few words

By "The Sage":

Web 2.0 is about social collaboration (blogs, vlogs, wikis, user generated content [ugc]) using Ajax and Ruby on Rails and a nice looking logo with a name that is either missing some vowels or adding extra ones in (translation - no money to buy the properly spelled domain name and all the good domain names are gone). The business model is to get enough interest in it for a few months to get some VC backing to then go and use that VC money to purchase enough traffic from Google over the year and hopefully sell to Google, Google, or Google. Maybe Yahoo if Google passes.

The founders get 5% of their company, the VCs at the various stages get 95% and Google gets a lot more eyeballs to monetize of their adsense product. Those who get these eyeballs are more Web 2.0 companies that just received some VC funding and these VC funds are flush with cash because every 2 in 10 companies they fund ($50,000 to $5M with the average being $350,000) get sold for $20 to $50 million to Google or a profitable business.

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The adults of tomorrow?!

Accustomed to spend, but not trained on how to make the right financial choices. (some) Studying to do jobs that are fast dissapearing. Destined to compete -in some industries- with workers in the other side of the world that are paid 100 dollars/month.
Unprepared for defeat and with unreal expectations.

American teens believe, based on the career that interests them the most, that when they get older they will be earning an average annual salary of $145,500. Interestingly, boys expect to earn an average $173,000 a year and girls $114,200, according to the findings of Teens & Money, an annual survey released last month by Charles Schwab & Co. and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

I am not saying that all young people will end up like this. I am just saying that in the the coming 20 years we are going to see this generation becoming independent adults and they'll have to fend by themselves. In a world where there seems to be no room for real finacial success but for a few, in a society that feels "they deserve to have it", how will it all work out? What will be the impact on society of this young generation realizing that the dream sold to them by their parents ("you're special"), the media and school was just a lie? How till they feel when they learn that they will never be the next Britney Spears? Will a generation raised in the believe that the others don't matter be able to learn to work in teams with them? To do exactly what anyway?

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Yes! Yes! Yes! Help in education: so much better than a loan!

More photos here. Maybe you don't care about these things, but I do. These are nigerian children getting familiar with their new 100 dollars laptops. This is good news for everyone!
One of my dreams is setting up business schools for children in my country of origin, Uruguay. One day I'll also be able to help like this.
What Nicholas Negroponte and his team have achieved is admirable. It doesn't matter if the effort may be tainted by corruption in some receiving countries, it's always been so. It doesn't matter if some computers don't get to these children. It doesn't matter if they may even have a higher final cost than initially expected.
The important thing is that people in developed countries are taking notice of these realities.
The important thing is that now these children and their families will have a completely different future. Imagine! And this is good news for every person on earth.
The waves of equality are slowly but surely spreading around the world. Great!
Thank you Bono, Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie and all the rest that do such a valuable job where it matters the most: putting the pressure on the wealthy by showing these realities, so ealisly ignored. That's the most effective work that can be done to change the world. What you do is priceless. In the name of all of us, thanks to everyone involved in making the lives of others better in any way.

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Good speakers get tons of cash

If you have something to say, and people want to hear it ;) ...those could be your earnings in one year
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2007/clinton-speeches/


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102 Personal Finance Tips Your Professor Never Taught You

http://www.yourcreditadvisor.com/blog/2006/10/102_personal_fi.html

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