Do you have children?
Added later; I deleted my posts after this. It dawned on me that my posts didn't add to the discussion. Sorry.

Hi Ian

Kids are definitely shaped by their surroundings, if parents leave them to find out things for themselves as you suggest, they will simply adopt the indoctrinations of their peers and others around them.

I agree that we teach our children based on life experience, which is exactly the point of my question. Are there things you learned as you got older which you'd wish you'd known earlier?

Hi Tran

The article below explains it briefly. There's many other articles which go into much more detail.

A scarcity mindset makes us believe life is a zero sum game. For me to win someone else must lose.

https://chopra.com/articles/10-steps...ndance-mindset

Great list!

All the things kids aren't at school!

Just like raising children there are a lot of people who can tell you how they would kill a mounted knight if the where on foot with a pocket knife

I help my brother with his little dog a cocker spaniel and I am pretty sure she is the one who trained us .

In my life, I've done the same thing.

I remember the day before first grade, I thought I would need 5 notebooks, 12 pencils, some sticky note pads, and other supplies.

I remember the day before I took my first Kung Fu lesson, thinking I knew what that would be like.

Or listening to an unemployed guy tell me what he would do if he were rich.

When you don't know, you don't know. But that doesn't stop us from thinking we know...before we actually know.

This discussion reminds me of one I had with my wife's nephew, just before they had their first baby. He asked me "Do you think babies are evil?"

At first, I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. He said "Babies are always demanding your attention, crying, not contributing anything. They throw tantrums, scream when they don't get their way.".

He meant it. Of course, after he actually had the baby, it was a completely different story.

He was a good Dad, a nice guy. He just had nothing to base his opinion on. Just like some here.

I remember my Brother-in-law telling me that you had to register your hands as deadly weapons when you got a Black Belt (I assume in any martial art).

Of course, that was nonsense, coming from a wonderful man who knew nothing about it. And he was talking to a man who did. And like here, when I told him I knew that this was nonsense, he argued.

I have now reached the limits of what I know about anything.

Good day to you, Madam.

For the last 200,000 years (or however long there have been humans) every generation says that "kids today..." and they go on to say how kids are smarter, less disciplined, less respectful of adults, and their music is going to doom society.

Every generation for the last 200,000 years.

Kids are always the same growing up (other than being fatter, that's a very recent problem).

We are the ones changing.

When I was a kid, I remember what my parents said about "Kids today", and what my Grandparents said about "Kids today".

And then I stared saying what my parents said, and now I'm saying what my grandparents said.

It's us, we are the ones getting older and changing how we see the world, and how kids behave.

Although it's only been recently that the fact that kids can absorb information so much faster than adults, has become more evident with the rapidly changing technology.

Thats a great philosophy. I Thanks for sharing your experience Kay, it's good to have the perspective of those that have been through it!

Aw I think even Shane could have pulled off a better insult than that. Just think how much better Claude's own father could do.

I wonder how Ofer when Claude was in his 20's his father would show up with a news paper with several want adds circled. Talking about a union job with pensions and benefits and retirement plans. Something with a future

They knew what "selling" was. What they didn't know was how I prospected, how that worked, how I qualified, asked questions, closed, and financed the sale.

As far as they knew, people just called me up and bought.

My Dad worked for Ford Motor Company in Berea Ohio for his entire adult life, until he retired at about 60. He also did electrical work for contractors, wiring homes and offices. I often helped if it was during the Summer.

He knew how to run his electrical contracting business. For two years after he retired, he mostly worked for me, with side jobs. At 63, he got sick and died.

He charged by the hour, because that's what he was used to. At Ford, it was highly skilled union work, so he made a good living.

When I say their didn't understand my selling, I meant they had no idea how it all worked. Think of it this way. We know what brain surgery is, right?

If you ask anyone what brain surgery is, they can answer the question. But what a brain surgeon does is far more involved and complicated than what a layman would understand.

Like selling, I actually cannot talk about it intelligently with anyone except maybe 3 people here, and maybe 5 others I know...all highly trained salespeople. All are mostly in the Offline marketing section.

When I said something like " I buy this stuff at wholesale prices and sell for a higher price and make a profit, and I'm good at it." to my parents, they understood that. Just like you understand that.

I was talking about the deeper strategies and techniques that are more complex. When I would try to explain something I did in a sales situation to my Mom or Dad, it always sounded like manipulation and trickery to them. So I just stopped explaining.

A few times, my adult Son would suggest we would go to Las Vegas together, when I was speaking there, or training a group.

I would have to say "No". Although we would have fun when I wasn't working, he only sees me as his Dad. And the idea that anyone would listen to what I had to say sounds ridiculous to him.

Once, in the store, he was visiting me, and a customer came in who know I was a sales trainer (and read my books). When he found out that my Son was there, he started talking about how much I taught him.


My Son couldn't stop rolling his eyes and make scoffing sounds....because the idea was so alien to him.

I knew if I took him with me to Las Vegas, he would tag around with me and laugh at the people taking me seriously, and be bored to tears...until we went out in the evening. Steve is highly skilled in a few areas, and is very intelligent. None of those interests involve marketing or selling.


You know the playful insults we say to each other? The insults I find so funny?


There is an entire other group out there that would be shocked to hear anyone talk to me like that, or me talk to them like that. Those are my customers.

That's great, practical advice John. Applies to just about everything in life!

I'm glad you brought that up, because I hear that a lot. people who don't own a profitable business (almost everyone) think of tax deductions for businesspeople differently.

For example, a guy asked me to sponsor his softball team. I don't remember the annual cost, but I'll guess it was $500. This was decades ago.

I said "I'm sorry, but as an advertising promotion, sponsoring local teams just doesn't create a profit for me"

He said "But it's a tax deduction" And I said "Do you know what that means. That means it will only cost me $500".

To him, a tax deduction was somehow a way to make money. I see in movies "What do you care, it's a tax write off!", as though that means it costs nothing.

I've even had advertising reps and fundraisers tell me the great thing about their deal was that it was a tax write off. But that just means the money I give them isn't taxable.

In other words, it just won't cost me more than I'm giving them. Not an incentive.

I wasn't really directing this at you, but your post reminded me of the thought.

And it takes me back to a moment when I realized I lived on a different planet.

I was in a bar, and a woman sat down next to me and asked "So what do you do for a living?"

I said "I sell vacuum cleaners"

She said "How do you make money doing that?"

I said "I sell them for more than I pay for them"

And she asked "Is that legal?".

And I am convinced that she is not the exception.

Thanks for your thoughts, I hadn't thought of it before but I like your suggestion of questions-answers! Sounds like a great way to promote exploration.

That all depends on the parents, and how stupid they are, (these days it seems that herds, lemmings and a big enough carrot or threat will do the trick, in making their parents stubbornly think and act in a certain way, so much so, it looks like the children are the smart ones).

These days, this can lead to serious repercussion down the track, the least being, avoidance.

I think I could accept everything except keynesian economist