Don’t worry, I am still going to continue my “What I learned this Christmas” series, but this is now, officially Christmas week, and things are hectic here.  Opportunity and interesting demands for time come fast and furious.

Some of you may not be interested in this, but I also look upon it as an offer that can mean the world to a few of you out there, so read through it and think before you click on to something “more interesting”.  In the long run I can not think of anything more interesting than succeeding in life (and no, I don’t just mean earning money).

This is not an ad for some “Get Rich on Line” book … the author, Jack Reed, doesn’t even sell any “on-line” products … although he does make very good use of the Internet for sales).

What this book is really about is “luck”.  How you make your own “luck”.  When you see someone whom you feel is more successful than you in life, it’s only human nature to say, “Wow, look at that lucky so and so.  I could be living a life like that except for the fact I just didn’t get the breaks.”

What if the reality of the difference between the more successful person and you is that the “lucky” one made his own luck?

What if she is living where she wants to, or earning a living without a nine-to-five job, or enjoying the well-earned fruits of a happy marriage instead of arguments, distrust and divorce because she “engineered” it that way?

In one way this book has nothing to do with living in the Philippines.  Jack is a Californian with no interest in living anywhere else that I know of.  He enjoys life with his successful children and his long-term, loving wife.

On the other hand, it has everything to do with making a life for yourself in the Philippines.

Jack is a man of about my age, mid-60′s, who has not punched a time clock for at last 40 years.  He lives in a comfortable, paid for home, drives paid for cars, and has absolutely no worries about retirement, even in California’s tax-crazy environment.  He doesn’t worry about where is health care insurance is coming from, how much his Social Security COLA will be, or nay of the other day-to-day spectres of doom that so many of you do.

photo credit: akeg

If he wanted to live in the Philippines (or any other country), he could just order up some containers, pack his household goods and fly off to wherever he wanted to … his income will continue (actually, even long after his death) no matter where he might live … and it is all as honest, above-board and not really dependent on the Internet, either.

Another way this offer is very appropriate to the majority of my readers is, a whole lot of people who happen by and read this pages are suffering through the after effects of bad marriages and even actively looking for that mythical “Filipina Bride” who will have none of those horrible habits “Western women” have … you know the ones that led to the failure of your first marriage?.

For those of you in that boat … and believe me I’ve had lots of conversations with guys who wanted to find wives sight unseen, or marry a girl they have only known for a week … then this book is an absolute Must for you …because believe me, as a man with experience in both failed and successful marriages, it isn’t the nationality of the bride who makes the difference … not by a long, long shot.

As John mentions in this “Succeeding” book, many men spend less time and take less care in choosing their future life companion than they do in choosing a used car … for that reason alone, this could be the most important $29.95 you have ever spent.  $29.95 won’t even buy 15 minutes of a decent divorce attorney’s time, and belive me, not only can divorce eat your insides and break up even adult families, it can drag on for months or even years.  Talk about life insurance … you’re looking at it right here.  Insurance that your life will be better while you live it, not that there will be money for your relatives to argue over after you are gone.

I own some of his books and everything he writes is short, precise and to the point … best value I can think of in publishing to date.  He says what he means and means what he says, all too uncommon in today’s world.

So if you resonate with any of these words, or you know anyone who might, I can’t think of a better Christmas gift … one that will keep on giving for years and years.  Merry Christmas.

Note:  I am not affiliated with John T. Reed in any way, this is not a commissioned offer, I make nothing from it at all … It’s my Christmas gift to you (and to Jack for all the good work he’s done).

• The gift of lifetime success
• Choosing your spouse
• Wealth and fame
• Resolutions to make 2010 better for you

Succeeding

The gift of lifetime success

What better gift can you give a young person than a book that will help them figure out who they are, what they are good at, what their weaknesses are, what goals they should adopt, and how best to match their strengths and weaknesses to the available career opportunities?

This book is much of the information you need, but that they never teach in schools or colleges.

• the real price, and finite value, of high achievement—including a chapter on the necessary amount of oomph
• the need to avoid the almost universal mistake of “Little Old Me-ism”—selling yourself short
• picking the right goal—not the usual “you can do anything you set your mind to” (not quite)
• identifying your true talents, and deciding whether to capitalize on them
• recognizing when you simply do not have the talent for some goals
• preventing you from wasting time trying to change those things about you that are the real you
• subjects school don’t cover like finding the best medium for you to operate in

What I got from your book was a sense of information “clicking” into place – a sense that the information I was being given was accurate, born of experience, and at some level – probably the common-sense level – what I already knew. – Michael

• the overriding importance of reputation and how to find careers that will let you retain your integrity and values
• make yourself scarce, that is avoiding the common mistake of choosing a career where everyone else has the same strengths as you
• how to manage risk, a neglected subject that people became painfully aware of in the last three years
• the reality of how to succeed as an investor—which is rather different from what people think
• chapters on how to do better at, and get more from, the things that young people spend most of their time on: education and athletics
• avoiding the tenure trap, that is, being afraid to move on because you have what others perceive to be a “good deal” 

Choosing your spouse

My book, Succeeding is mainly about spouse choice and career choice. If you get those two decisions right, the rest will probably fall into place. Spouse choice is the most important of your decisions. It is very important to accomplishing your career goals. High achievement requires great effort and risk taking. Your spouse must be on board for that or you will not be able to succeed. That chapter is the longest of the book.

Here I am again buying another copy because I find the information too valuable for my loved ones to go without. Your book has helped me succeed and everyone I’ve given a copy to. – Ryan

The basic point is to take enormous care in making that decision. Most people meet their spouse by what one expert called “chance proximity,” that is, you just go about your life and bump into their future spouse by luck. Very Hollywood. But in the real world, most people take more care to buy a used car than they do to choose a spouse, with predictable results.

Divorce is really awful—I’m told and have observed from afar. If the book does nothing but prevent your young relative or friend from going through that unnecessarily, it’s worth a million.

Because of coming out of then male-only West Point, I and a classmate developed an approach to meeting the opposite sex that we called The System. It was a great and very educational adventure in opposite-sex relations. I do not recommend replicating it exactly, but the basic idea of systematically meeting lots of well-qualified potential spouses was quite correct. Both my classmate and I each got married decades ago, are still married to that first wife. I have three great sons. He has two great daughters.

“Little Old Me-ism” is also part of the problem with spouse choice. There may be 50 million guys in America who couldn’t work up the courage to get to know the girl they wanted to date—and 100 million women who felt prohibited by the so-called “male prerogative” from having any control over initiating relationships. This is insane. How many marriages made in heaven never happened because the boy could not muster the courage and the girl could not figure out a socially-approved feminine way to initiate a relationship? You only have one life to live and, hopefully, one spouse to spend it with. Help your young relatives and friends get that big decision right.

Part of shopping around appropriately for a spouse is lots of rejection. You can’t marry everyone you date. Succeeding shows how to put that in proper perspective.

Wealth and fame

Too many young people think wealth and fame equal success. In fact, wealth and fame can be a part of succeeding, but the young tend to overvalue them and fail to see their disadvantages. The benefits of wealth and fame are finite and irrelevant to other worthwhile goals like a happy family life, good health, loving what you do, and so on. Succeeding gives them a chance to learn that lesson without having to spend decades pursuing wealth and fame

For adults, too

Today, many, maybe most adults, are dissatisfied with the amount of success they are currently having. They also will benefit from reading Succeeding. Since the book did not exist until 2003, and the other books on the subject are incorrect and/or incomplete, there is a very good chance that they did not structure their approach to career correctly. For example, most success books tell you to pick whatever goal you want then claim they will tell you how to achieve it. Succeeding says it is very important to pick the right goal—both to increase your chances of achieving it and to increase your chances of enjoying it when you do. Picking the wrong goal is like getting on the wrong international flight at an airport. You are going to waste a lot of time and money straightening that out. In life, the irony is that the people who get on that wrong flight often never realize it and spend their whole lives at the wrong destination.

Not everyone can achieve every goal. Talent matters in some cases. Aptitude and other personal characteristics always matter. But far too many adults are sadly struggling along unwittingly on the wrong path for them, or pursuing the wrong goal for them, while the right path for them is nearby and still available to them.

If you are dissatisfied with your career at present, read Succeeding. It will give you a back-to-basics, zero-base review of your whole career situation and could greatly improve the rest of your life.

Normally, when we sell a book, we sell one copy…

But with Succeeding, the pattern is often selling one copy to one customer, then getting another order from that same customer for three, five, or six more copies—especially around Christmas.

When we get a multiple book order for other books, we inquire whether the multiple order was a keyboard mistake. With other books, it usually IS a keyboard mistake. But with Succeeding, the typical answer we get is, “No. I am going to give those to my children and niece and nephew. I wish I had a book like that when I was their age.”

The week between Christmas and New Year’s: resolutions to make 2010 better for you

I have long used the week between Christmas and New Year’s to review the past year, compare my goals for the past year to my achievements during the year, and to choose goals and plans to achieve them for next year. Succeeding gives you an excellent framework for doing that review, choosing your 2010 goals, and designing your plans for achieving your goals.

Best wishes,
Jack Reed

JOHN T REED.COM

See videos of John talking about his book, Succeeding

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