Improving the Quality of Your Thinking

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Enhancing your Personal Success

Anyone, Starting From Wherever They Are, Can Become Wealthy In America
In one series of I.Q. tests given to children ages 2 - 4 years, 95% of the children were found to be highly creative with curious, questioning minds and an ability for abstract thinking.

When the same children were tested again at age 7, only 5% still demonstrated high levels of creativity. In the ensuing years, they had learned to conform; "If you want to get along, you had better go along," is what they had discovered.

The Dangers of Conformity
They had learned to color between the lines, to sit in neat little rows, to do and say what the other kids did and said, and to do as they were told. Over time, they lost the wonderful fearless spontaneity of youth and learned to suppress ideas and insights that were unusual or different.

Aggressively Seek New Ideas
Most of us have had similar experiences. The "Not invented-here" syndrome in many large companies is simply the adult version of "not rocking the boat." But fortunately, since creativity is your birthright, a fundamental part of your nature, you can tap into it at any time, no matter how long it has been since you really used it.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start thinking outside of your mental box.

First, imagine that there was a vastly better, cheaper, faster way to do your job — and somebody else had already discovered it and was going to put you out of business.

Second, imagine doing exactly the opposite of what you are doing today. Allow your mind to float freely and consider how current trends will change your business.

The fact and fiction of stout: St. Patrick’s Day a good time to set customers straight

By Stephen Beaumont

Come mid-March, beer drinkers across the nation will begin to exhibit very strange behavior. For one day only, imbibers long accustomed to draining frosted mugs of sparkling, golden lager will instead fill their glasses with a roasty, pitch black brew crowned with a ring of dense, creamy foam.

And they’ll profess to love it, all in celebration of a saint named Patrick. Yes, St. Patrick’s Day is nearly upon us once again, and with it comes unequalled demand for all things Irish, from stew to songs to stout. But especially stout.

Although the Irish have, like most of the rest of the world, long since shifted their loyalty to lager—it now outsells the black stuff there—stout is still unquestionably the trademark drink of the Emerald Isle.

For most people, however, their knowledge of stouts stops there. In fact, misconceptions about the drink abound.

Many believe, for example, that stout is heavy and filling, when in fact the relatively light carbonation of most stouts makes them seem less stomach stretching than more bubbly lagers.

Others will swear that a pint of stout is “a meal in a glass,” when its calorie count is actually about the same as or even lower than most mainstream beers.

You likely would have to search long and hard to find a non-Irish person who is aware of Irish stouts’ relatively low alcohol content, about 4 percent to 4.5 percent alcohol by volume.

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding, though, is the notion that there exists a single style of stout. In fact, there are many.

Stout was born not in Dublin but on the docks of London, where early versions of dark-hued and slightly sour ale were dubbed porter, reputedly in honor of the beer-drinking porters who worked those same docks.

Eventually, darker and even roastier versions of the beer began to appear, called stout porters and, eventually, just stouts. It was this family of ales that made its way across St. George’s Channel to become the favorite beer of Ireland.

But stout’s story didn’t end there. The dry, vaguely coffeeish Irish stout has numerous stylistic siblings, including one that sounds more like a breakfast drink than it does an end-of-the-day restorative.

Oatmeal stout, a style popular with many Craft brewers in North America and the U.K., is best identified by its smooth, almost silky mouth feel, a product of the oats used in its creation.

Oatmeal stouts feature a slightly higher alcohol content than similar beers, about 5 percent alcohol by volume, and often also feature a slightly sweet and fuller-bodied character.

Arguably less suited to sipping with raw oysters—a classic pairing with Irish stout—they nevertheless make terrific partners for long-simmered stews and braised red meats.

The strongest of the stout family is the Imperial stout, first brewed with large quantities of hops and fermented to elevated alcohol contents to withstand the rigors of shipment from England to Russia and the Baltic states.

Almost always rich in flavor, sometimes almost oily in texture and usually between about 8 percent and 10 percent alcohol by volume, Imperial stouts are typically served as late-night digestives, although they will pair well with dark chocolate and may be served with intensely flavorful meats, such as rare rack of lamb.

Beyond these varieties, there also exist porters in both dry and fuller, more robust versions.

They include oyster stouts, made either with real oyster liquor added or sometimes filtered through beds of crushed oyster shells; so-called Baltic porters, with sweet, relatively thin bodies and high strength; and stouts flavored with everything from cherries to chocolate.

No doubt on March 17, most beer drinkers will be selecting the Irish style of stout to fill their glasses. But it’s still nice to know that other options are available—on St. Patrick’s Day and all year long.

Stephen Beaumont is a veteran beer writer and author of five books on the subject. His writing on beer, drinks, food and travel appears in a wide variety of national and international publications.

Levels Of Consciousness

From LifeSkill Institute, Inc

On the most fundamental level, success is a matter of consciousness. There are three levels of mind or consciousness. They are: the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the superconscious mind. Each level of mind has its own characteristics.

The Conscious Mind

Your conscious mind is what you think. This is your rational, logical mind. It is masculine in nature and operates personally, selectively and judgmentally. Your conscious mind creates and develops your thoughts.

Your thoughts have two aspects: the idea—the statement of the thought—and the feelings associated with the thought. Your conscious mind transmits your thoughts to your subconscious mind through the feeling aspect of the thought.

The conscious mind reasons inductively. It proceeds to conclusions based on observation, experience, and education. The conscious mind represents the world of effect.

The Subconscious Mind

Your subconscious mind represents what you are. It is your emotional, feeling mind. This subconscious mind is feminine in nature and operates impersonally, non-selectively, and non-judgmentally.

It is non-selective in that in receives all ideas and gives them form and expression through feeling. It is non-judgmental in that it is not influenced by the truth or falsity of the ideas it receives. Your subconscious mind accepts every idea as true, and gives it

It responds to persuasion, suggestion, and auto-suggestion. The subconscious mind reasons deductively. It proceeds on the assumption of truth of every idea, and develops a system of logic which will objectify (manifest) that truth in accord with the feelings associated with it.

The subconscious mind represents the world of cause.

The superconscious mind is the source of all creativity and faith. It is your spiritual mind, which is neither masculine nor feminine. Your superconscious mind operates on a subconscious level at all times.

It has complete and total access to all ideas, feelings, and information stored in your subconscious mind. It also has unlimited access to all knowledge and information in existence.

Your superconscious mind is the source of all intuition, inspiration and internal motivation. It is capable of goal-oriented motivation, and is stimulated by clarity of thought and decisiveness of actions.

The superconscious mind responds to clear authoritative commands by releasing ideas and energy.Your superconscious mind is independent of time. The past, the present, and the future are one and the same. It is identified with the God Mind.

Procedurally, you have a thought in your conscious mind. The feeling aspect of this thought stimulates the subconscious mind, which communicates and interacts with the superconscious mind to objectify, or manifest the thought in your life experience.

© 2007.

Based on The Twelve Universal Laws of Success, Second Edition, Expanded, ISBN 0-9748362-1-4 a new book by Herbert Harris, available at Amazon.com or through the LifeSkill Institute, Inc. Call (800) 570-4009 to order books. Visit our website www.lifeskillinstitute.org for weekly success message and download Twelve Affirmations To Live By Poster. E-mail: lifeskill@earthlink.net

Three Reasons for Business Growth

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Enhancing your Financial Success

Three key considerations to assure that your business grows rapidly.

What to Look For
There are three reasons for business growth. Look at where you work right now and see if these three reasons apply there. Number one, the product or service is well-suited to the needs of the current market.

That means that people want it and need it and can use it and can afford it and are willing to buy it now. Number two, careful market analysis is completed before commencing business operations. In other words, considerable thought goes into whether or not there's a market before the product was offered.

Do Your Market Analysis
Here are some of the questions that you have to ask with regard to market analysis. Number one, with regard to this new product or service, is there a market? This is a very important question. Is there a market?

Will people buy it? Now here's the second question. Is the market large enough? Is the market large enough and concentrated enough so that you can sell enough of the product or service at a high enough price to make a living out of it?

Is the Market Concentrated Enough?
For example, there may be a market for 100,000 units of a particular product in the United States. But if it is one per community throughout the country, it's almost impossible to reach those people with any kind of advertising or sales effort.

So the very fact that the market is not concentrated enough means it would be impossible to make a success of a business selling one per community.

Who Exactly is Your Potential Customer?
Another question is, who is the customer and why will he or she buy from you? Why does he or she buy? What benefits does he or she seek? And an important question is why will he or she switch from their current supplier to buy from you?

Many small companies go broke because they do not have a pressing enough reason for a person to switch from their current supplier to the new product or service.

What Are The Alternatives?
And here's another question with regard to marketing analysis. What else is available? What other products or services are available to the same customer that you're going after and how is your product superior in a meaningful way, to the other product or service?

Control Your Finances
The third reason for business success is tight financial controls. Good budgeting. Accurate bookkeeping and accounting. Remember, practice frugality. Be cheap, cheap, cheap.

Hold on to your cash. Cash is the lifeblood of a business. All successful businesses have very careful financial controls. They very carefully consider every expenditure. They do an analysis of it. They work from very careful budgets, week by week, month by month, quarter by quarter.

Consider Every Expenditure
Carefully consider every expenditure, in advance, before you make it. Never buy new when you can get it used. Never buy it all if you can rent it. Never rent it if you can borrow it. Make it a game to conserve your cash and keep your costs as low as possible in everything you do.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to assure that your business continues to grow profitably month after month.

First, be perfectly honest with yourself and your product or service offerings. Be sure that there is a big enough market that you can sell to profitably, and if there isn’t, find a different product or a different market.

Second, think about your customer all the time and why your customer would or should buy from you. Inaccurate customer analysis is a major reason for business failure while accurate customer identification is a major reason for business success.

Warm up with hot Tequila drink

By Gary Regan

"OK, I know he's allergic to glow-in-the-dark monster makeup, but you say he has allergies to two other things? You sure?" Kevin, a regular customer at the Professor's bar, is asking Frank, his friend.

"Absolutely positive. 'Blood Feud.' July 11, 1991. And how many teeth does he have? Same episode," Frank challenges.

"What the heck are you two talking about?" the Professor, our cocktailian bartender asks.

"Bart Simpson trivia, Professor. Kevin doesn't know about Bart's three allergies. You?"

"I have no idea how I know this, but isn't he allergic to butterscotch?"

"That's right, Professor. Butterscotch and imitation butterscotch and glow-in-the-dark monster makeup," grins Kevin.

"I guess I couldn't serve him a Mayahuel, then."

The Professor is referring to a Tequila-based hot drink created by Junior Merino, a New York cocktail consultant. Using Tequila as the base for a hot drink isn't very common, but this one works very well, indeed.

Merino calls for Partida Reposado Tequila in the Mayahuel. It's a 100 percent agave bottling that garnered five stars in Paul Pacult's Spirit Journal, a very well-respected newsletter.

The most unusual ingredient in Merino's drink, though, is d'Aristi Xtabentun, a liqueur that's flavored with rum, anise and honey.

The producers of d'Aristi Xtabentun say that the drink is based on balche, a magical potion said to have been consumed at ancient Mayan rituals, though balche was made from water, honey and tree bark, so honey is the only ingredient common to both beverages.

Nonetheless, d'Aristi Xtabentun is a fairly stunning liqueur.

The anise is the most dominant flavor in this Mexican product, but the honey shines through quite well, too, and when it joins the Tequila, butterscotch schnapps and apple cider in the Mayahuel -- the drink is named for an Aztec fertility goddess -- the ingredients come together beautifully. Merino is quite a whiz with flavors.

"No, Professor, you couldn't serve a Mayahuel to Bart Simpson. He's only 10 years old, you know," Kevin tells our bartender friend.

"Perhaps I could make a drink for his father, then. Homer, right?"

"Beer for Homer, Professor. 'Ah beer, my one weakness. My Achilles' heel if you will'," Kevin quotes Homer Simpson.

"Sixteen permanent, eight baby," says Frank.

"I'm sorry, Frank. You've completely lost me now."

"Teeth, Professor. Bart Simpson has 16 permanent teeth and eight baby teeth. That episode's coming back to me, now," Frank grins.

"Well we'll see how permanent his permanent teeth are in another 40 years," smirks our bartender.

"Oh, Professor! If he gets any knocked out he can just get them drawn back in. You just don't get it, do you?"

The Professor shakes his head, rolls his eyes, shrugs his shoulders, and walks down to the other end of the bar.

---

Mayahuel

Makes 1 drink

Adapted from a recipe by Junior Merino, cocktail consultant, the Liquid Chef Inc., New York

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 ounces Partida Reposado Tequila

1/2 ounce butterscotch liqueur

1/4 ounce d'Aristi Xtabentun

4 ounces hot apple cider

1 cinnamon stick, for garnish

1 star anise pod, for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:

Instructions: Combine the Tequila, liqueurs and cider in an Irish coffee mug. Stir briefly then add the garnishes.

Get Rich With Good Habits

By Mary Dalrymple

If you want to get rich quick, you could win the lottery, discover buried golden treasure, or inherit a big pile of cash. But if none of those approaches has worked for you so far, never fear -- you also can put yourself on a path to riches by more humble and realistic means.

By establishing two basic habits, you can make money and save yourself from unnecessary expenses. It looks simple at first, but it may be harder than you think.

What are these secret habits that will make you wealthy? First, pay every single bill on time. Second, save some money every single month.

Here's why these two seemingly obvious habits can pay you hefty dividends. First, a late bill payment here or there can do lots of financial damage. Paying every single bill on time will prevent that costly calamity.

It will obviously save you lots of money by preventing late fees and other charges that can drain your checking account for no good reason.

Consistently good bill-paying habits also mean you'll have good credit. Your good behavior will bring you savings through low interest rates when you apply for a loan or use your credit card.

You'll also avoid the nasty trap of credit card default rates. That's when all your credit cards raise your interest rates because you made one late payment on a completely unrelated bill. (Yep, they do that.)

Follow up this good habit with the second and save a little money every month. In this case, consistency is just as important as the amount of money you set aside. Etching this habit into stone means you'll have achieved a major milestone by living within your means.

Live within your means and you'll avoid credit card debt at ridiculous interest rates. You'll also be able to put aside a stash of emergency cash, which can come in quite handy should calamity strike. And you'll be able to save for retirement, a vacation, or any other major goal.

You can even build up a fine portfolio of stocks with small investments if you just keep working at it. Investors who slowly purchased certain stocks over the last decade could have built a small fortune.

As my Foolish colleague Dave Mock highlights, Citigroup (NYSE: C), General Electric (NYSE: GE), and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) have respectively returned 14.2%, 15.9%, and 26.6% annually over the last three decades. He also points out that you can also make the most of your few investing dollars by investing when good companies hit a rough patch.

What's important is that you establish the habit. Once you've done that, you'll be on the winning side of the financial equation. Then you can tinker with the amounts to achieve your goals. But you can't do that until you've learned to at least put a penny of your paycheck away for good.

I may have made financial security sound deceptively easy, but it's not. There's a reason many of us struggle to establish these habits and follow them every day. That's because life gets in the way.

It's hard enough to work all day, get the kids to soccer and ballet, and then remember your spouse's birthday and your wedding anniversary in time to get a card. Who has enough space left in their brains for remembering when the gas bill comes due?

If you can find some space in your busy life to nail down these two habits, you'll be happier and richer for it. You can get more advice about establishing good financial habits in the February issue of the Motley Fool Green Light newsletter, free for your habitual reading for 30 days.

Related Foolishness:

• Deep Six Your Money Resolutions
• Money-Saving Habits
• Hard Habits to Break

Fool contributor Mary Dalrymple does not own stock in any company mentioned in this article. She welcomes your feedback. Wal-Mart is an Inside Value pick. The Motley Fool's disclosure policy always saves for a rainy day.

Starting Small

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Enhancing your Financial Success

How and why you can start your own business with little or no money by using sweat equity.

Everyone Starts Off Broke
I used to feel sorry for myself because I came from a limited background and I had no money. Then I found that nobody has any money. Everyone starts off broke. In fact, most successful people go broke or nearly broke several times during their lives. Don’t let this hold you back.

Practice, Practice, Practice
I know people who started their business careers by buying things and selling them at flea markets and at swap meets. They learned how to buy and sell, they learned how to negotiate, they learned how to compromise.

They learned how to pick products or services. Remember, the only way to triumph is to try. The only way to succeed is to fail and to learn through your failures. The only way to learn to be successful in business is to practice, practice, practice.

And if you're not willing to practice, if you're not willing to put in the time to learn, then it is not possible for you to succeed in business.

But if you are willing to put in the time to learn, remember about 95 percent of the working population in America have the ability to start and build their own businesses if they would only do it.

Multi-level marketing is an excellent second income opportunity where you can learn vital business skills at low cost. Especially selling, organizing, making presentations, accounting, team building, negotiating, persuading, and communicating.

85 percent of what you need to learn to be successful in business you can learn from running a successful multi-level marketing business.

Roll Up Your Sleeves
Remember this, though. Leaders are always willing to do what is called dog work. They're willing to render humble service. They're willing to roll up their sleeves and plunge in. They never think of themselves as being too good for a job.

There are an enormous number of people who are presented with second income opportunities who turn them down because they think that they're too good to do something like that. But the people who are thinking that they are too good are the people who retire poor.

You'll find that leaders of all organizations are always willing to roll up their sleeves and to get in there.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to put these ideas into action immediately:

First, remember that buying and selling things is the essence of all business. Look for opportunities to buy and sell things on your own account. Visit garage sales or hold a garage sale of your own. Visit swap meets and negotiate with people with things for sale. Make it a game to learn these skills.

Second, start in a small business of some kind. Look for a second income or multi level marketing opportunity where you can buy and sell on a small scale. Many people become wealthy starting off with virtually nothing in this way.

Cocktails enter the ice age: Mondo cubes, blocks chipped to order, ultra-pure water: Ice gets serious attention from here to Tokyo

By Charles Perry

Are the glaciers spreading, at least to our watering holes? Bartenders around the world have been showing new interest in ice, heretofore an anonymous bit player in cocktails.

They're using extra-dense ice, ultra-pure ice, custom-chipped ice, ice frozen in oversized cubes or novel shapes and "double-frozen" ice. It's crunch time!

"The question of ice is coming back in vogue," observes Christian Frizzell, co-owner of the Redwood Bar and Grill in Los Angeles. "So long it's all been about mixology or infusion of liquor for flavor. But a perfect pour is not just about adding a bunch of stuff. It's got to be the perfect temperature."

Though ice is essential for most cocktails -- the shaker is the very symbol of a bartender in action -- standard mixology guides say little about it. It's as if bartenders stopped paying attention to ice after the electric blender was invented.

These days, though, the subject has generated some steam (no, wait -- wrong metaphor). Tales of the Cocktail, a mixologists' convention held in New Orleans every year, will even offer a seminar on "The Importance of Ice" on July 19 (probably a nice warm day, if I know New Orleans), featuring New York ice guru Sasha Petraske, famous for calling out specific sorts of ice for particular drinks.

Any self-respecting bar filters the tap water for its ice machine to remove chlorine, and many filter calcium and other hard-water minerals as well. But some are now using premium waters.

"I am starting to make ice cubes with Fiji Water for my Cocktail Reservado list," says Adam Seger, owner of Nacional 27, a Latin restaurant in Chicago. "For my Richy Roy, I stir 28-year-old unfiltered, cask-proof Glenlivet with sweet vermouth and Fiji ice cubes, then finish with homemade bitters and a homemade maraschino."

In London, the Shochu Lounge uses ice made from triple-distilled water to ensure that there is no mineral content. The bar keeps a slab of this ice on its counter and attacks it with hammers and an ice saw as needed.

How you hack up your ice is important, say some bartenders. Old-fashioned hand-cracked ice, which includes larger chunks than machine-crushed ice, may be making a comeback. "Crushed ice melts fast," says Frizzell, who notes that it does have its uses.

"It's usually served in sodas, and it's really good for that -- the best root beer I've ever had was made with crushed ice."

Executive chef and owner David Myers at Sona in Los Angeles is a believer in chipped ice; he likes to be able to control the size of his ice chunks and uses larger, heavier pieces as part of the fruit-muddling process.

"Buy a loaf pan," he says, "a new one that you don't use for baking. Fill it three-quarters full with water and freeze. Run it under hot water for a few seconds to loosen the ice block, then chunk it into cubes with an ice pick.

"It's really beautiful to serve in a cocktail glass -- it reflects light and looks like little sparkling crystals. You can cut the block any size you want, so you can make heavier chunks that muddle better in a shaker. The heavier chunks really extract the flavors of whatever you're shaking."

A concept taking hold in Japan, says London bartender Ben Reed, is the use of ice balls instead of cubes. The tennis-ball-size pieces of ice melt very slowly because they have the minimum surface area to volume.

The cube as logo

In Chicago, a bar named Rocks uses a giant rock as its logo. "Our signature is a 2-inch-by-2-inch ice cube," says co-owner George Manta. "My partner and I came up with the name Rocks, then the ice cube as a symbol, and we decided to have big cubes.

"Then there was a frantic search to see whether it was feasible. No ice machine available in this country makes big cubes. In Japan they have one, but you can only buy them used, and they come without a warranty or English instructions. So we passed.

"It took a while, but after searching high and low, we found the perfect small tray; it makes four cubes at a time," he said.

"Part of the thing about the big cube -- not only does it look cool, it's functional. It melts slower, so you're not watering down your drink so much."

There happens to be an American-made ice machine, the Kold-Draft, that turns out slightly oversized cubes, a little more than an inch per side. Some ice connoisseurs also prefer the Kold-Draft because it produces particularly clear, dense ice through a novel freezing method.

Instead of filling conventional trays with water, it builds up cubes by spraying water upward into molds attached to the underside of the freezer unit -- in effect, upside-down ice cube trays.

Only the water that freezes on contact becomes part of the cubes -- the rest drips away. Because water with anything dissolved in it is slower to freeze than pure water, this means dissolved minerals and gases that would make for bubbles tend not to make it into the cubes.

The cutting edge in ice, as it were, is anywhere mixologist Petraske has been involved. In 2000, he started Milk & Honey, a New York members-only bar, following it in 2002 with a London branch. He also has consulted with Double Seven, a stratospherically posh New York bar (currently closed for relocation).

All these places are known for serving liquor over chunks of ice that are chipped from blocks and then put back in a freezer to make them as cold as possible. (Milk & Honey also stores its glassware at 40 degrees below zero.)

"The whole point," says Double Seven mixologist and partner Monika Chiang, "is to preserve the drink, which in most cases means to keep it from being diluted."

She uses Kold-Draft ice cubes for shaken cocktails and in carbonated drinks such as highballs, because the cubes melt slowly. Hand-cracked pieces, on the other hand, go into drinks with a citrus flavor because they melt faster, so they can dilute the acidity.

The chipped ice, hacked from ice blocks that the Double Seven makes in its own freezer (from water that's been heated to drive out dissolved gases and prevent the ice from being marred by bubbles), is for chilling liquor on the rocks, not mixed drinks.

The chipped pieces end up "kind of the shape of the rocks glass," Chiang says.

The owner of the London branch of Milk & Honey recently took the ice cult to the French Alps by opening a hotel with a members' bar in the ski resort of Chamonix. (In case you're interested, it makes its ice from Evian water.)


Chilled seating

For that matter, in some northern European cities (and Tokyo and Toronto), there are bars, kept at subfreezing temperatures, where the furniture -- and the "glassware" -- are made of ice.

You get your drink in a squared-off rocks glass, which doesn't have to be washed (when you're through, it's just thrown into the sink) and doesn't need any ice -- crushed, cracked, chipped, cubed or even sphered.

charles.perry@latimes.com

Jenn Garbee contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2007, The Los Angeles Times

Becoming an Online Internet Business Success

By: Diep Tran

If you didn’t know already, the internet is a place where you can earn money – lots of money. The internet is not simply just the information superhighway; it is also today’s highway to success.

If one masters how to use the internet for business purposes, a solid foundation for future wealth will have been laid.

You may have already heard some of the Internet age’s success stories. You may have read or been told about those who built their sites from scratch and later sold out for millions – even billions – of dollars.

While it may be difficult for you to duplicate the level of financial success that they have had, it does not mean that you should not try. The results of such an effort, after all, may still make you rich and give you a deep sense of fulfillment.

Internet marketing provides you with a way to supplement your income in ways that were simply not possible before. These days, you can start your own internet business with less than $300 dollars.

Chalk it up to the wonders of the modern capitalist economy, but that relatively small amount can be enough to start you on the road to financial freedom – if you play your cards right.

There is practically no limit on what you can over the internet to make some money. You can join an affiliate program, get involved in multi level marketing, engage in online trading of stocks, bonds, or commodities, buy and sell items, and sell your freelance services.

In fact, many of the possibilities for moneymaking in the outside world are available over the internet – a fact that you should definitely remember. If you are already doing something in the outside world that is making you money, you might want to apply the same to the internet, where potential customer base is inevitably larger.

Do not rush into choosing what you will do to make money online. Take the time to step back and assess what is available to you. While enthusiasm is certainly important, nothing beats rationality when it comes to becoming an online internet business success.

First, choose something that coincides with your skills and level of interest. This will ensure that you will not only have a good attitude when it comes to your work, it will also mean that you will be able to apply the needed expertise.

Second, find people who can help you. There is no such thing as a rich man who got rich alone. If you really wish to be successful, you have to learn to leverage the people around you for better growth,

Lastly, try to choose a business that will create streams of residual income. This way, you won’t have to work hard for every single penny you earn. Instead, a one-time effort will produce for you a lifetime of gain – one of the great secrets of becoming rich.

Diep Tran is Internet marketer, owns a Plug-In Profits Site and webmaster of Internet Home MLM Business Opportunities. For An Internet Home MLM Business Opportunity To Make Money Online, Visit: http://www.internet-wealth.biz

Build Your Own Business

from

Enhancing your Financial Success

The high road to becoming a self-made millionaire in America is starting and building your own business. But this is not as easy as it sounds. Most businesses started by inexperienced people fail.

Probably the primary reason why people don't start businesses is because they're afraid that they're going to lose their money and for good reason. 99 percent of businesses started by people lacking business experience fail within the first two or three years.

Why Businesses Fail
And why is that? It's because they don't know how. They haven't the slightest idea how to make a business successful. They may have an idea for a product or service, but they don't know all the things that they need to know to run a successful business.

Why Businesses Succeed
However, surprisingly enough, 80 percent of businesses started by experienced businesspeople succeed. Now why should this be so? The reason is because experienced businesspeople know what to do.

They know how to purchase their products and their services. They know how to negotiate with their suppliers. They know how to raise money. They know how to negotiate leases. They know how to sell and to market.

They know how to manage their finances. In other words, experience is the key. In order to start your own business and succeed, you have to learn how.

Control Your Costs
The second reason that businesses fail, 46 percent, is because of poor cost control. They may be selling enough on the front end, but they're losing so much on the back end that they go broke anyway.

Sales and marketing, financing and cost control, both require experience. And if you're serious about becoming financially independent, you have to learn how to do both of these.

Put Luck On Your Side
You must learn the skills you need to be successful. Business success is not a matter of luck. Business success is a matter of application. It's a matter of ability. It's a matter of experience and skill and intelligence, and wonderfully enough, you can learn what you need to know to be successful.

And you can start by learning through on-the-job training, which is called OJT. Most successful businesspeople become successful because they get all their training by working for someone else.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to make sure that your business succeeds greatly:

First, take the time to get the knowledge and experience you need in business by working for someone else where you can learn a lot in a short period of time. Go to work in an area in which you are interested and learn everything you possibly can.

Second, read and study in business, especially entrepreneurial business, all the time. Read one or two business books per week and read every business magazine that is published on your subject. Never stop learning and growing.

Mad for March: Harnessing the Goodness of Madness

With March Madness just around the corner, many bars and nightclubs are gearing up for what traditionally has been one of the biggest promotional opportunities of the year.

With the prolific availability of sporting packages on television, high-definition everything and satellite broadcasting, technology has made sports a perpetual entity.

Just how important traditional bar promotions sporting events are to yearly revenue is a question that is continuing to be answered. Here are a couple takes on that.

The East Coast Swing
“Between the end of football season with the Eagles and the beginning of baseball season with the Phillies, March Madness is a huge promotional event in Philadelphia,” says Cheldin Barlatt of McFadden’s, in the City of Brotherly Love.

“It’s a huge factor here. Just like the Super Bowl is the peak of business during football season, March Madness is the peak of business in the late winter.”

Barlatt says that distributors are still very willing and excited to help bars promote March Madness. “The promotion effort ranges,” she says, “but it’s anything from giving away trips to games to best fan competitions with t-shirts to drink specials. The best are the trip giveaways.”

She also says that promotions are driven by the size of the account, and distributors are eager to work with smaller bars too. March Madness is also a good time to promote competitions involving basketball, and your alcohol distributor is a good place to go for help with that.

“They are always willing to provide basketballs,” Barlatt says, saying the freebie balls can lead to anything from free-throw competitions in bigger bars to dribbling competitions. As far as what products drive March Madness in Philly, Barlatt says it’s still predominantly a domestic beer scene.

“I would say that Heineken Light is interested in entering the youthful market of March Madness, but right now domestic beer is No. 1 in sales and promotions.”

Two Points and the Foul
“Our promotions really depend on the distributors,” says Paul Kupercio of Yankee Doodles in Santa Monica, Calif. “Being a sports bar, March Madness does bring in tons of business,” he says.

Yankee Doodles has earned the City Search accolade of “the most unique sports bar in North America” because it covers all major professional and amateur sporting events every single day of the year. The venue features 22 televisions and 23 pool tables.

“Whatever sport is playing is beneficial to us, but March Madness is still a big event,” Kupercio says. Kupercio agrees that domestic beers are the order of the day during March Madness.

“Bud and Bud Light have been huge for us this year throughout football season, and I don’t see any reason for that to be any different for basketball season this year. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” NCB

Nine Rules For Becoming A Success

1. Do not procrastinate.

Do not wait until all conditions are right to become a success. You could wait the rest of your life. Believe that you always possess the understanding, courage and self-confidence to take action. Realize that procrastination is a state of mind.

2. Do it now.

3. Stand on your own two feet.

Do not depend on anyone or anything for your success. They may be depending on you. Believe that you already have everything you need to get everything you want. You should become independent as a part of your interdependence.

4. Do not fear failure.

To fail proves that you are trying. Every failure is a dress rehearsal for success. Every opportunity for suc-cess also contains the possibility for failure. Learn from your mistakes and failures. Concentrate on your possibilities for success.

5. Do not sell yourself cheaply.

You are worth exactly what you say you are worth. Know your full potential and the true value of your talents. Recognize that you are a very special individual with boundless capacity for health, wealth, happiness, love, success, prosperity and money.

6. Develop the success habit of being goal oriented.

Set realistic goals for yourself. Determine what must be done to attain your goals. Make plans for their attainment. Keep a record of your performance and achievements. Stick to your goals until they are accomplished.

7. Visualize your goals and believe you can attain them.

See each goal clearly and in great detail in your mind’s eye—your imagination. Develop a sensory relationship with your goal. Know how it looks, feels, smells, tastes, and sounds.

See yourself as though you had already attained your goal. Hold that vision constantly in your mind and believe that you can and will accomplish it. Know that your goal will be achieved in a timely manner.

8. Plan your work, and work your plan.

Analyze your goal. Write down each and every action that must be performed to accomplish your goal. Make a plan for its attainment. Prepare a time schedule for the performance of each action.

Execute your plan in accordance with your timetable and produce desired results. When you execute your plan effectively, you attract the attention of other people who will help you in your efforts.

9. Do not quit.

To quit demonstrates your own lack of belief in yourself. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. Be prepared to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.

A brighter whiter smile doesn’t need to cost you $1000’s at your Dentist – you can do it at home

By: Jim McDonald

Seeing a professional will cost more, and reality is most of the methods available to Dentists, such as Toothpastes and Bleaching-kits, are accessible to the people in general via the internet, mail-order and even over-the-counter from drug stores and supermarkets.

The one exception would be in the instance where you selected structural changes to your teeth, like Porcelain Veneers or Bonding - which literally change the shape and size of your teeth.

These techniques can set you back anything from $300 - $1200 for each tooth, turning them into an option that isn't readily accessible to everyone.

For much less, and without making any reverseless structural alterations to your teeth, we are left with the solutions of Toothpastes, Whitening Strips and Bleaching systems. The single procedure that rises to the top as being the most effective in relation to cost is Bleaching.

Bleaching sounds hazardous, I mean putting bleach in your mouth does not appear like the most intelligent of all ideas, but the reality is that this technique has been used for quite a few years and history tells us that it is very safe.

The ADHA literally suggests that "Bleaching is effective in lightening most stains caused by age, tobacco, coffee, and tea. Based on clinical studies, 96 percent of patients with these kinds of stains experience some lightening effect".

Before we take an indepth look at Bleaching practices, we'll skim over the less-effectual methods of teeth whitening (Whitening Toothpastes and Whitening Strips).

Whitening Toothpastes:
Many Toothpastes use quite potent chemicals that actually act as abrasive that etch away the enamel, which is definitely an undesirable side-effect. Because whitening Toothpastes are exposed to the entire mouth, they simply cannot include much of the targeted chemical ingredients required to oxidize and cleanse the enamel.

Whitening Strips:
Whitening strips are pressed against the top and lower teeth and normally need to be worn for 30 minutes a day (twice daily) for 7-14 days. Whitening strips do actually work, but because they cannot get into all the nooks and crannies and gaps between teeth, the results can sometimes be less desirable than anticipated.

Toothpastes and Whitening Strips do exhibit some results, but in actuality they offer nowhere near the effectiveness of using a Peroxide-based Bleaching system.

There are so many different Bleaching techniques accessible today that you could actually write a book on the matter.

As an outline, the approaches can be broken into 2 main groups: (i) D.I.Y. kits (ii) Professionally Administered Bleaching.

DIY Bleaching Kits:
A strong bleaching gel can cause teeth sensitivity, and so can a weak gel if it is left in your mouth for too long, so a moderate strength bleaching gel is ideal.

These kits are commonly purchased online, over-the-counter or by mail-order, and consists of a Bleaching tray, Bleaching gels and syringes for inserting the bleach into the tray.

Professionally Administered Bleaching:
The big difference with most professionally administered systems is that they will use a custom fitting tray or a method that applies the gel without a tray.

Using a professional gives more people the peace-of-mind knowing that they are being tendered to by someone who has years of experience, but in reality the one active ingredient (the Peroxide gel) is more than likely the same as you get with DIY kits.

In days of old, Teeth Whitening was a phrase that was strictly associated to treatment you could acquire only from your Dentist.

But that has differed, because now you have many choices. Teeth Whitening is a mammoth market and new products are emerging continuously.

Whitening Strips often give blotchy results because they concentrate solely on the face of the teeth and fail to delve into the gaps and cracks between teeth.

Whitening Toothpastes do work, but the active ingredient is weak, and isn't applied to your teeth for enough time to deliver speedy results. These techniques have shown slight but at times differentiated effects, and if you're Ok with that, you will spend less money.

Porcelain Veneers and Bonding are exceptional alternatives, but when you consider the cost of between $300 and $1200 for each tooth, most of us basically cannot afford this approach.

Add to that the actuality that your teeth are going to be filed down, and reshaped irreversibly - this is definitely not an option for the lily-livered.

That leaves Bleaching. This method is both cost-sensitive and extremely effective. You get consistently white teeth, it does not take long to administer and you do not need to be subjected to any structural changes to your teeth.

But the most attractive facet of this technique is that you can select the approach to happen in the solace of your own place, or you can have it administered by a professional.

As a final outcome, you want a method that results in whiter and brighter teeth, you want consistence and you do not want to re-finance the house to pay for your new white teeth.

If you are seeking a brite smile and would like some useful information and in depth articles on dentist teeth whitening products, please visit http://www.best-teeth-whiteners.com

Saving Energy Saves Money

Your energy bill is one bill that you CAN control.
In 2005, the average household spent almost $1,900 on home energy bills. You can save 10% - 50% each year by making smart energy choices.

Use this site to get rid of the Energy Hogs in your home, and start saving money and energy:-

http://www.energyhog.org/adult/adults.htm

Three Factors for Financial Success

from

Enhancing your Financial Success

What do wealthy people do or have that enables them to accomplish so much more than the average? I believe that these people are successful as a result of what I call leverage. Leverage is the key to maximizing and multiplying your potential for success and financial achievement.

Here are three examples of leverage that you can develop to achieve financial independence:

Become an Expert
First, become an expert in your chosen field. Read all the books, take all the courses, listen to all the audio programs. Second, specialize in those areas that are of greatest importance and greatest value to your company or to your customers.

And the third key is know your product or service inside out. Aim to be recognized as the industry expert in your field. Remember the person who has the expertise has a far greater contribution to make than the person whose knowledge is just average.

Develop Your Skills
The second type of leverage is skill. The better you are at your job, the more you will be paid. The top 20 percent of salespeople earn as much as ten and fifteen times the average earnings of the bottom 80 percent.

There are three keys to developing the leverage of skill. First, make a decision to be the best. Pay any price. Make any sacrifice. Go any distance to become excellent at what you do. Second, engage in continuous improvement.

Never allow yourself to become satisfied or complacent at your current level of skill. And third, always strive to exceed the expectations of your customers, your boss, of the people you serve. Always do more and better than you're paid for.

Save Your Money
The third type of leverage is money. Money is a powerful source of leverage and usually follows the development of knowledge and skill in your field.

One of the reasons that it takes money to make money is that the accumulation of funds is an essential step in the development of the personal qualities and character that must precede the achievement of financial independence.

In other words, you become the person capable of becoming financially independent by accumulating the funds that are necessary for you to achieve it.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas on personal leverage into action:

First, resolve today to become an expert in your chosen field. Set it as a goal, make a plan and work every day to become a little bit better in the most important things you do.

Second, develop the habit of saving money out of every single paycheck. It was once said that, "If you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you." The very act of regular saving changes your character and gets you ready to achieve financial independence.

Piedmont’s unique reds differentiate themselves from an increasingly homogenous pack

By Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy

When the entire wine world seems to be producing wine mainly from the same four red grape varieties—Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Pinot Noir—it is refreshing that regions of Italy, Greece and Portugal, along with parts of France, remain noble exceptions to the globalization that is affecting wine today.

Piedmont, Italy, in particular, is producing delicious, notable wines by sticking to native varieties. Tucked away in Northwest Italy—bordering France and Switzerland—Piedmont has been growing its region’s specialties for centuries.

In fact, Piedmont’s most important red variety, Nebbiolo, does not grow successfully anywhere else in the world. The late-ripening grape flourishes in Piedmont, producing two of the world’s greatest red wines, Barolo and Barbaresco.

Both wines should always be decanted, as they benefit greatly from aeration, which softens their tannins.

They are best in a large glass with a wide bowl, which not only aerates the wine but also gives drinkers the opportunity to enjoy one of these wines’ finest features: wonderful aromas of strawberries, tar, roses, mint, eucalyptus, licorice, camphor, spices, tobacco, vanilla and white truffles.

Barolo and Barbaresco sell for a wholesale price as low as $220 for a case of 12, but the average wholesale price is about $480 per case. Recent great vintages are 1999 and 2001; 1998 is also excellent for Barbaresco, and 2004 will be very good.

If Piedmont offered no other wines, it would still be one of the great wine regions. Still, the region also produces four other interesting reds; the better-known Barbera and Dolcetto, and the less-known Grignolino and Freisa.

Barbera is an unusual red grape in that it practically has no tannin but is high in acidity. Unoaked Barbera wines are crisp and refreshing, without the mouth-drying tannins of most reds, and have spiciness and flavors of tart cherries and berries.

Barberas are generally medium-bodied; they go well with appetizers, seafood, light meat entrées and pastas.

Dolcetto, more tannic than Barbera but not quite so acidic, is also medium-bodied. It is a dry wine, despite its name, with aromas and flavors of black pepper and ripe berry fruit. Dolcetto works well with appetizers, pizza and pasta.

Grignolino often resembles a dark rosé; it’s light-bodied but tannic and quite acidic, with aromas and flavors of tart raspberries. It goes well with Italian antipasti, and is especially refreshing served cool on warm summer days.

Freisa is dry, medium-bodied, and typically has aromas and flavors of tart strawberries. Unlike Dolcetto, which is best consumed at two or three years of age, both Freisa and Grignolino can still be enjoyed with several years of age. Barbera ages the best of the four—up to 15 years.

WINE OF THE WEEK

2004 Michele Chiarlo Barbera d’Asti “Le Orme”

Michele Chiarlo is a leading producer in the Asti area who specializes in making Barbera as well as Barolo. His standard 2004 Barbera “Le Orme” is dry, light-bodied and vibrant with lots of acidity.

It is an unoaked gem of Barbera d’Asti in the lighter style. Great value. The 2004 vintage is a great one in Piedmont.

Wholesale price per case of 12, $103.

Inside the investment strategies of the very rich

By Katie Benner, Fortune reporter

There's no question that hedge funds and private equity investments have dominated the business headlines for the last year. But does that mean that individuals are actually flocking to these high-risk, high-return funds?

Not as much as you might think. A recent study shows that 40 percent of millionaire investors surveyed had no allocation whatsoever in alternative investments, including private equity, hedge funds and commodities.

Those who shy away from the investments say the products are too complex or that the risks associated with these investments are too high, says the report from Northern Trust, which provides financial services to high net-worth clients, including 22 percent of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans.

Click Here to Read the Entire Article

The Law Abundance

from

Enhancing your Financial Success

The Law of Abundance- there is ample money for everyone who knows how to acquire it and keep it. We live in an abundant universe in which there is sufficient money for all who really want it and are willing obey the laws governing its acquisition.

You Can Have All You Want
There is plenty of money available to you. There is no real shortage. You can have virtually all you really want and need. We live in a generous universe and we are surrounded on all sides by blessings and opportunities to acquire all we truly desire.

Your attitude, of either abundance or scarcity toward money, will have a major impact on whether you become rich or not.

Make A Decision
The first corollary of the Law of Abundance says that, “People become wealthy because they decide to become wealthy.”

They become wealthy because they believe they have the ability to become wealthy. Because they believe this completely, they act accordingly. They consistently take the necessary actions that turn their beliefs into realities.

And you can always tell what your beliefs really are by looking at your actions. There is no other way. The second corollary of this law says: “People are poor because they have not yet decided to become rich.”

Examine Your Own Thinking
In the book, The Instant Millionaire, by Mark Fisher, the old millionaire asks the boy who has sought his advice about becoming a millionaire, “Why aren’t you rich already?”

This is an important question to ask yourself. However you answer this question will reveal a lot about yourself. Your answers will expose your self-limiting beliefs, your doubts, your fears, your excuses, your rationalizations and your justifications.

Review Your Reasons
Why aren’t you rich already? Write down all the reasons you can think of. Go over your answers one by one with someone who knows you well and ask them for their opinion. You may be surprised to find that your reasons are mostly excuses that you have fallen in love with.

Whatever your reasons or excuses, you can now get rid of them. The world is full of hundreds and thousands of people who have had far more difficulties to overcome than you could ever imagine, and they’ve gone on to be successful anyway. So can you.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:

First, imagine that every experience you have ever had with money contained a special lesson that was designed just for you to help you to ultimately become financially independent. What are the most important lessons you have learned so far?

Second, analyze yourself honestly and determine your biggest block, your major self-limiting belief that holds you back from becoming more successful financially. Resolve to act from now on as if this block no longer exists.

Bartending Etiquette:- Avoiding Gaucheries and Faux PAs

By Robert Plotkin

A quick look around the room tells the story. The guy in the corner booth...the one with the irritated expression...has a drink sloshing over the rim with little pieces of sopping paper napkin stuck to the sides.

He looks a lot happier, though, than the suits at the bar. They’ve been waiting easily ten or twelve minutes with empty glasses. The impatient rapping of their glasses on the bar is a sure sign they’re a lost cause.

A few short minutes later the two briskly head out the front door with the deportment of men who have tolerated enough bad service for one night.

The problem is that the bartender is otherwise occupied — occasionally making drinks for the servers, washing a glass or two and flirting with the coed sitting by the station is about all the young man can handle.

Murphy’s Law — people get the worst service on those dog days when they can least emotionally afford it.

Click Here to Read the Entire Article

Make Money as a Secret Shopper

By: Carolyn Swearingen


Becoming a secret shopper is a really fun way for anyone to earn money. A shopper works the hours that they want, and they run a home-based-business that still allows them to be out in the real world.

Do you want to be a secret shopper? All you need is a knack for shopping, and the ability to keep yourself incognito.

If you like going to restaurants, shopping, and you're observant, then secret shopping is probably right up your alley. Perfect for the on-the-go person who still wants to earn an income.

Why would someone pay a person to mystery shop? Because they want to evaluate and improve upon their customer service. A mystery shopper provides the company with an honest evaluation about their shopping experience.

They are providing the company with a much needed service, and in turn, being paid for their evaluations.

A shopper can accept as many or as few assignments as they like. It all depends on how much money they want to earn. A beginner will receive a lot of offers right away. The more assignments taken, the better one becomes. Bigger and better offers will come in when a shopper is doing a good job.

Assignments may include but are not limited to:

Restaurants
Banks
Airports
Shops
Hotels
Malls
Grocery Stores...and many more

Secret shopping is a worthwhile, exciting venture that involves no startup costs. If you'd enjoy sharing your opinions with companies, and making money while doing so, please visit my web site for more information.

Carolyn Swearingen is a seasoned Internet Marketer, and runs a successful Home-Based-Business. She is the founder of http://www.greatjobsathome.com

Class by the Glass: Champagne Cocktails Bordering on the Sensational

By Robert Plotkin

Champagne has a nearly universal appeal. Perhaps no other product enjoys such a sterling reputation for outstanding quality. It is also the one wine that may be appropriately served any time of day, with any meal, and about any type of food.

It’s unlikely that when Dom Perignon discovered the process of making champagne he had any idea his sparkling wine would spawn a fabulous array of sensational cocktails. So exceptional are these libations that they have the capacity of making any night something memorable. The new breed of champagne cocktails is among the latest trends sweeping the country.

Click Here to Read the Entire Article

The Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency

Established in 1995, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency is an ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

IREC Logo's mission is to accelerate the use of renewable energy sources and technologies in and through state and local government and community activities.

Formed in 1980, IREC supports market-oriented services targeted at education, coordination, procurement, the adoption and implementation of uniform guidelines and standards, and consumer protection.

IREC's members include state and local government agencies, national laboratories, solar and renewable organizations and companies, and individuals.

Click Here for more Information

You've Worked Long and Hard to Get Where You're At in Life

Don't Lose it All Now to Dementia
or Other Brain Disease

Dear NewsMax Reader,

My Grandmother was a wise woman.

Back during moments of teenage insecurity, she assured me that my looks didn't really matter. "It's what you have in your 'melon' that counts," she said. By melon, of course she meant my brain.

Woody Allen said: "My brain? That's my second favorite organ." Perhaps he's speaking only from the male perspective, but still… I'm sure you'll agree that the brain ranks highly in importance for both sexes.

As it turns out, my Grandmother was right. My "melon" has brought me far in life.

Click Here to Read the Entire Article

Support for food-friendly Belgian beers brewing among restaurant operators

By Stephen Beaumont

In the early days of brewing in America, the prevailing influences were British, which was hardly surprising given that many early settlers traced their lineage to Mother England.

Later, in the early and mid-1800s, waves of German immigrants arrived, bringing with them the cool-fermented lagers that were sweeping Europe. By the dawn of the 20th century, English-style ales had given way to German lagers as the dominant element in the domestic beer market.

Today, however, it can be argued that the most significant national influence on the direction of the domestic beer market, in fact, hails from Belgium.

These days, Belgium’s influence is felt almost everywhere that beer and food co-exist, from the “beer cuisine” restaurants and gastropubs to fine-dining locales searching for food-friendly, prestige labels to add to their beer lists.

Yet, it is arguably less the more familiar, mainstream Belgian brews that have made an impact on the market over the past few years than it is a different group of ales, a decidedly quirky bunch known as Belgian specialty beers.

Still, people likely are more familiar with the qualities of Belgian specialty beers than they think.

Enjoyed a fruit beer lately? Thank the Belgians. A spiced beer? Again, influenced by Belgian brewers. Strong, forcefully malty ales or light, coriander-spiced wheat beers? Once more, the Belgians.

And while we may see North America become an international leader in beer cuisine, that trend, too, can be traced to the cuisine à la bière of, you guessed it, Belgium.

Part of the reason for the rise in popularity of Belgian beer—both with brewers and consumers—is its general “user-friendliness.” In contrast to, for example, American pale ales and India Pale Ales, which can have forcefully bitter personalities, Belgian beers tend to be maltier and sweeter.

Another argument in favor of Belgian brews is their overall utility at the dinner table. Again, unlike more bitter beers, Belgian styles—like malty, faintly roasty and sometimes chocolaty dark abbey ales—can be paired with a wide variety of foods, from vegetarian stews to roast meats and even some desserts.

This makes them particularly appealing to restaurateurs who wish to provide a premium beer alternative to wine by the glass.

In fact, perhaps the only drawback to Belgian and Belgian-style beers, from an operator’s point of view, is that they require significant server knowledge.

For example, the key to ensuring the enjoyment of such brews is knowing when to decant the beer into the glass, leaving the yeast sediment from bottle refermentation behind, as with most of Belgium’s famed Trappist ales, and when to swirl the yeast into the beer, as with wheat beers and most strong golden ales.

Also, as with any potent drink, servers must be trained to caution the customer about the beer’s sometimes hidden strength, and monitor their drinking accordingly.

Overcome these small hurdles, however, and these inspiring brews can reward restaurateurs with contented customers and impressive premium-beer profits.

Stephen Beaumont is a veteran beer writer and author of five books on the subject. His writing on beer, drinks, food and travel appears in a wide variety of national and international publications.

The Truth About Success

Success is generally defined as a favorable or satisfactory outcome or result. Whatever you do in your life, you get results. Whether or not those results are the ones you desired, is basically whether you succeeded or failed in your endeavors.

Success is often defined as the gaining of wealth, fame, rank and so on. However, in the most general terms, success is the continuous realization of the outcomes or results you desire.

On the physical level, success is often seen as specific material accomplishments�a particular type of car, home, status, or income level.

However, once the car, home or other material possessions are obtained, there is no further growth in understanding, wisdom, or consciousness. Those who operate on this material level of success generally become consumed with maintaining those possessions that represent their success.

When success is understood on a spiritual level, it is seen as a progressive realization of a worthwhile purpose. You continue to grow and develop in all aspects. On a spiritual level, success is the continuous unfolding of your purpose and destiny.

True success is the progressive, continuous effort of attaining your goals and realizing your vision. This guides you to your worthwhile purpose in life.

Success Must Be In Your Mind First

Success starts in your own mind. Constantly have a concept and vision in your mind of what success means to you.

�You become what you think about most of the time.�

�Earl Nightingale

Be Constant In Your Efforts

Never take a break from your success journey. Do not stop for rest and reward too soon. When you stop at the first sign of success, you become stagnant, lazy, and begin to decline.

As your efforts begin to produce rewards and results, work even harder. Success and achievement come only through continuous work. The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Get Away From The Crowd At The Bottom

One of the most difficult steps you will face on your success journey is getting away from the crowd at the bottom. There are many unsuccessful, mediocre people who have failed to recognize, or act on their true potential.

If you constantly associate with them, your success journey will be short-lived. You must clear the deck to make room for new associations which will complement and enhance your success efforts.

Once you break away from the mediocre crowd, accept the temporary state of loneliness and prepare for your success.

Be Willing To Change Your Life Completely

You must be willing to change your life completely. Make your life congruent with, consistent with, and harmonic with your desired success. Is there anything about the way you think or feel about yourself that will frustrate your success efforts?

If so, handle it immediately. Do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to become the person that you must be, to accomplish your goals and realize your vision.

Every day, in every way

I�m getting better and better

Next Week: Nine Rules For Becoming A Success

� 2007 LifeSkill Institute, Inc.

Based on The Twelve Universal Laws of Success, Second Edition, Expanded, ISBN 0-9748362-1-4 a new book by Herbert Harris, available at Amazon.com or through the LifeSkill Institute, Inc.

Call (800) 570-4009 to order books. Visit our website www.lifeskillinstitute.org

or weekly success message and download Twelve Affirmations To Live By Poster. E-mail: lifeskill@earthlink.net

A Variety Of Ways That Anyone Can Create Residual Income

By: Diep Tran

Residual income is not just limited to multi level marketing opportunities. There are a variety of ways anyone can create residual income. Some take more work than others, but the bottom lone is that a person can draw an income from doing work just one time.

When compared to how most people earn money in working a typical job, called linear income, earning over and over for doing something once is well worth the initial effort.

Residual income is not just for those interested in marketing. In fact, there are so many opportunities to create residual income that anyone can find a way they like. MLM’s are not the first residual income opportunity.

In fact, residual income has been around for a long time. The following list explains different ways to create residual income that have been around long before MLM‘s.

1. Try becoming part of the entertainment sector. Many people do not realize it but residual income opportunities are very prevalent in the main stream entertainment world. Many entertainment industry jobs are nothing but residual income.

Write a book, act in a television show or record a record to make residual income. A person usually sells their product to a producer or publisher who in turn pays them every time someone buys, watches or hears their creation.

2. Cash in on what you already have. Oil wells are potential for enormous residual income. Let an oil company drill on your land, if they find oil you get a cut of their profits.

Everyone knows what kind of money people in the oil business make, so why not take a chance. The best part is there is no work on your part at all. What better opportunity is there?

3. Get into real estate. Real estate is another big money maker. Many people have made their riches off buying property or land. Buy an apartment complex and get the residual income of monthly rent from tenants. Or buy a piece of land and let someone build there for a lot rent.

4. Invest money. Investments do not even have to be anything big. A person who owns a savings account is already earning residual income through interest. There are other accounts that pay out much larger percentages of interest.

Stocks are another investment opportunity. Talk to an investment professional about it to get the best opportunities.

While these opportunities may seem like along shot, they are opportunities nonetheless. Many people have succeeded in these types of residual income opportunities. Anything is possible if a person has the drive and dedication.

For those looking for something different, one of the above ideas is a great place to start to create residual income.

Diep Tran is Internet marketer, owns a Plug-In Profits Site and webmaster of Internet Home Business Opportunities. For An Internet Home Business Opportunity To Make Money Online, Visit: http://www.internet-wealth.biz

The Parable of Talents

from

Enhancing your Financial Success

The Parable of the Talents is the primary reason for wealth or poverty throughout history.

Reasons For Rich or Poor
Why do some people retire rich and most people retire poor? This subject has fascinated philosophers, thinkers, mystics and teachers throughout the ages.

There have been so many cases of hundreds or thousands and even millions of men and women who have started with nothing and become financially independent that people are naturally curious to know why it happened and what are the common rules or principles that others can apply to become wealthy as well.

Why People Become Rich
One illustration of this key principle is called the parable of the talents. In the Bible, it says, "To him that hath, shall more be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away."

Accumulation Leads to More Accumulation
What does it mean? In the modern world, we say "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." The fact is that people who accumulate money tend to accumulate more and more. People who don't accumulate money seem to lose even that little bit of money which they have.

Why should this happen? The great success principle, the single idea that explains human destiny is simple. It says that, "you become what you think about, most of the time."

Control Your Thoughts
And whatever you dwell upon, grows in your reality. You create your entire world by the things you choose to think about and how you choose to think about them.

It just so happens that wealthy, successful people fill their minds with thoughts, words, pictures and images of wealth, affluence, success, productivity and solutions to problems in the marketplace, most of the time.

These thoughts trigger the reticular activating cortex, the part of the brain that makes you more alert and sensitive to things that you have decided are important to you.

Activate Your Reticular Cortex
For example, if you decide to invest in a mutual fund, you will start to see news and information about mutual funds everywhere. Mentions in newspapers and magazines will jump out at you.

These notices have always been there but now you have sensitized your brain to pick them up and draw them to your attention with far greater frequency and vividness. This is the function and power of your reticular cortex.

Avoid Poverty Thinking
On the other hand, what do poor people think about most of the time? Unfortunately, poor people fill their minds with thoughts of scarcity, lack, poverty, being unable to afford things.

They are always thinking and talking about how little money they have, how much things cost and how they wish things could be better financially. What they think about most of the time is how little money they have.

Think Like Wealthy People Think
Wealthy people from an early age think about how much they have, how much they want and all the different things they can do to acquire and earn the money and things they desire.

Find Out How Rich People Think
Here's a rule for you. If you want to become successful, find out what failures do and don't do it. If you want to be wealthy, find out what poor people think about, and avoid thinking in those ways. Instead, find out how wealthy people think.

Find out what they read. Find out how they spend their time. Study their lives, read their stories and autobiographies and listen to their words when they are interviewed and on tape.

The more you find out what financially successful people think and talk about most of the time, and do the same things, the more rapidly you will enjoy the same rewards that they do.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put this parable of the talents into action:

First, make a decision today that from now on you will think and talk only about the financial success that you desire. At the same time, you will refuse to talk about or dwell upon your financial problems.

Second, instead of saying, "I can't afford it," instead ask the question, "How can I afford it?" When you think of something that you want or need that you don't have the money for at the time, the only question you ask is, "How?" How can you get it? What can you do to achieve it?

What are your options? How can you get from where you are to where you want to go? This type of attitude will change your life.

A Tale of a Tasting

By Stephen Beaumont

While attending the annual Cheers Beverage Conference recently, I played host to an informal beer tasting attended by a handful of prominent writers and consultants operating primarily in the spirits and wine worlds.

Although I had corralled a bunch of interesting ales for the express purpose of the tasting, the two days of the Conference are so packed that its timing was left a bit up in the air, eventually landing it late at night on the first day of the event.

Not the best time for a focused tasting, obviously, but one which helped reveal a couple of truths that are sometimes forgotten in the rush to get that next rating or review.

Take the sampling of this month's TOTM, for example. At 9% alcohol by volume, full of hops and spicy notes, Collaboration not Litigation Ale can hardly be considered a lightweight brew.

But sampled as the clock ticked steadily towards midnight, first among a flight of strong, bold brews, it tasted, well, mild, really.

The big hoppiness I perceived the following day when I sampled the beer late in the afternoon - before rather than after dinner - was so significantly reduced that it scarcely provoked comment from the tasters.

And its formidable strength seemed hardly an issue.

Later on in the tasting, after our palates had been opened up and we were perceiving things more accurately, we arrived at the Lost Abbey Angel's Share, a forcefully malty, brandy barrel aged ale of 10% alcohol.

In recognition of its bottle fermented state, I carefully decanted the ale into each taster's glass, leaving about one inch of cloudy brew in the bottom of the 750 ml, cork-sealed bottle.

We tasted; we discussed the malt and fruit flavours contained within the beer; we concluded that this was a beer for dessert, rather than one to be served with dessert.

Then I dumped some yeast into everyone's glasses.

Instantly, Angel's Share was transformed into a lighter-tasting, less cloying and spicier beer, much more suited to presentation with food than it had been before the addition. Eyebrows were raised all around and reassessments began.

In the end, it was agreed that the yeasted and non-yeasted beers were virtually two different animals, thus reinforcing the idea that it's important to sample bottle-conditioned beers both with and without their yeast.

Musing on the results of the tasting the next day, I was reminded of three important tasting facts:

1) Always bear in mind the context of the tasting, including the time of day, state of mind and recent gastronomic experiences (ie: foods just eaten and drink recently enjoyed);

2) Remember the usefulness of a warm-up tasting, which not only serves to stimulate the taste buds and, if several tasters are involved, make sure that everyone is on the same page as far as the flavours and aromas they are perceiving, but also goes a long way in avoiding positive or negative "palate shock" when tasting the first beer; and

3) Remember when possible to sample bottle-conditioned beers both with and without their yeast additions, and make note of how the yeast changes the beer.

What it all boils down to is context and content: Two words that are very handy to remember whenever new beers are being tasted.

Stop Losing Money Now

By: asdfgjoy


Get Rich Quick Scams Revealed
Read this article before you consider paying for a "get rich quick" program.
From: Link Shield

Everybody would love to make lots of money quickly, working from home, and only doing a few hours of work per week. I've spent the past two years trying to find a great way of doing this.

Only over the course of the past few months have I found any "get rich quick" programs worth buying. I've been trying to make money online for a long time.

I had a few small websites, but they never made much more than a few hundred per month. It was easy money and didn't require much work on my part, but I knew there were people out there doing better than I was and I knew I could do as well as them.

Now, I've seen a lot of "get rich quick" programs. Most of these people make claims about earning $2000/day with Google or something similarly insane. Almost all of these people are complete liars.

Even if they were making $2000/day with Google AdSense, it'd be because they had high- traffic websites with a lot of quality content. I'd know, because in one whole month, I never even made half of what they promised I'd make daily with their programs.

Maybe you've already been scammed by one of these fraudsters. Anyway, I finally got sick of what was being offered.

I decided I'd look through the all of the "get rich quick" programs I could find and see if there were any that were actually legitimate. I found that there were owners selling their programs for well over $100, but the information in them could be found almost anywhere online for free.

Additionally, they all contained out-of-date information, had no e-mail support, no money back guarantees, and broken links in the downloads section.

In conclusion, almost all of the programs I found were completely useless. The owners knew it, but they couldn't care less about their customers since they didn't offer refund policies!

Amazingly, while looking through all of the programs, I actually did find a few legitimate programs. They were run by ordinary people like you and me, and they had found some great methods of making money from their home by doing very little work.

I spent some time working with those programs, and my income is now ten times what it used to be. These programs provided a large amount of great information on how to make extra money on your computer doing very little work.

Numerous customers had provided great feedback and reviews for their products. Many of them have started to make money just days after buying!

Their programs have excellent prices, and the authors have a group of paid staff who are dedicating to helping you or providing assistance if you need any. I must say I was amazed!

If you do decide to purchase any of the programs listed below, I recommend you join quickly. Most of the owners tell me they are getting an overwhelming number of sales and plan on raising prices in the near future, so order while prices are still low!

To Your Online Success,
Link Shield