Author Archives: Jesse Martinez

Change Your Mind Make a Million

Recent scientific studies show that our minds are mold-able. The old adage that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks is not true in regard to the human mind. Neuroplasticity refers to changes in neural pathways and synapses which are due to changes in behavior. Old science believed that our minds were in a constant static state. New scientific studies now indicate that our minds are mold-able and therefore can be changed for the better or for the worse.

Since 95 percent or more of the population has been bombarded with negative input it is no wonder that this population does not experience ridiculous success. Like a computer if we take in negative input we will have negative output.

I contend that those people that have been raised in an atmosphere of positive praise, where anything is possible, are the two percent that achieve incredible feats. Whether it is a physical world record breaking achievement or financial gain, their minds are different. Because outside influences create who we are, the older we are the more time it may take to reverse our major self doubt. Success breads success. You see countless examples of this.

Think about it. If you were raised in an environment where your parents had characteristics of extreme optimism, confidence, faith, work ethic, self knowledge, financial success. Wouldn’t you believe you could do the same? It is like a species, the species of the unsuccessful and the successful. So how does the species of the average and ordinary break out of this pattern?  It may be by blind luck. They have to discover that they have a problem. That could come from a chance encounter from a caring individual or stumbling across important information.

Here is the question I pose. Is it possible for someone up in age that falls in the average category to transform mentally and accumulate a million dollars in one year? If so what mental activity and disciplines could they implement to achieve this goal?  Your thoughts would be welcome.

 

How to Make a Million Dollars in a Year

The follow was taken from an old 2008 eHow article titled “How to Make a Million Dollars in a Year”

The first suggestion was to sell products. The premise was if you could sell 500 pieces of your product at $10 each to 200 stores or sources over the course of a year you will have made one million dollars. I personally am not a fan of this because this is an old business model that requires inventory and warehousing. It is also very labor intensive so it is very likely that hiring employees would be a must. I would rather be on the affiliate end where I would get paid a commission for referring business. They do the physical work and I do the mental work.

The second suggestion was real estate. Wasn’t 2008 the collapse of real estate? I think that this can still be done however being that I know very little about real estate it would take me a year to learning how to do it. Some examples were to rent several apartments (hundreds) at a 20% mark-up or flip houses for a profit of $20,000 each. Do 50 and you have made your million. In 2012 is it even possible to flip five?

The third suggestion was to land a role in a major motion picture! Hmmm… I wonder how many other people want to be movie stars. Here again for someone to consider this, they better have many years of training and probable good looks unless you want to play a villain. Simply put negotiate a contract for $1 million with a major movie house or do 50 commercials for $20,000 each. This is probably the least likely way that someone could make a million in one year.

The last one makes the most sense in regards to the masses. Write a book. A 200 page book can be written in three months. By selling 100,000 books at $20 each you could earn $1 million out of the $2 million generated.

Here were their suggestions. Contact Bowker. Go through the process of getting your (ISBN) International Standard Book Number. Market your book through your website. Submit press releases through distribution services such as eReleases, PRWeb and Business Wire. Do speaking engagements at colleges, universities, libraries, conferences and seminars. Sign and sell your books after every speaking event.

Do you have a better idea? Let us know.

Russell Christoff Potential Millionaire

The following story is about a gentleman that went from not exactly zero to seven but from average income to 8 figures and then back down to average.

Back on Jan 27th 2005 Russell Christoff was awarded $15.6 million for two hours of work he did modeling almost 20 years earlier. At that time he was an Antioch kindergarten school teacher living in northern California. After the verdict he is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle saying “For now, I’m just as poor as I was. But if I do get any of the money, I will take care of my mom. She took care of me.”

How did that come about? One day when he was shopping at a drugstore for some Bloody Mary mix he stumbled across his picture on a Taster’s Choice instant coffee label. That was 2 weeks after someone in a Home Depot said that he looked like the person on her coffee label. He shrugged that off because of his previous career as a model and actor.

Back in 1986 Russell Christoff posed for a photo session for Nestle’s Canadian branch. He entered into a contract that stated that if they used the photo they would pay him $2000. In all he was paid $250 for the two hours of work. Since he was never paid the $2000, according to Christoff, he thought that was the end of it.

Russell Christoff was never notified that in fact Nestle’s, the company that produces Taster’s Choice, used his image in its Canadian labels right away. They later went on and used his image between 1997 and 2003 in the United States and several other countries.
The jurors concluded that Nestle should have paid Christoff $330,000 for the use of his image. They also awarded Christoff $15.3 million for damages equal to 5 percent of the profit from Taster’s Choice sales during that six-year period. All in all he was awarded $15.6 million.

That sad truth for this could be millionaire is that on June 29, 2007, the California Court of Appeal reversed the jury award against Nestlé. Nestlé got the large damages award reversed on what was a limitations argument by invoking the “single publication rule.”

Imagine the emotional roller coaster that he went through. Should he have taken the $100,000 out of court settlement that he was offered?