‘We’ have evolved as a human race but we often forget that the prehistoric years continue to have a profound bearing on our psyche. We were in the stone ages for 200,000 years and came to some form of civilization only about 8,000 years ago. To expect our thinking to have changed since ‘civilization’ dawned is like expecting a 100 year old man to change and behave like a 4 year old just because they spent 4 years together. The old man had lived 96 years even before the kid came on the scene. Likewise mankind had lived 192,000 years before the civilized mind even entered. Obviously mankind’s thought patterns would be deep-set.
Our consciousness rests upon the early foundation years, when hunting was a way of life, barter was the exchange and gender roles were well defined (John Gray makes a great point about this in his book, ‘Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus’). Anything we do to work against this collective consciousness we falter with. It’s that simple. We bungle up relationships. We have trouble with career women. We don’t know whether currency is good or bad. We are confused.
******Quoting Financial Times (2009)
“It is time for central banks to stop pretending that zero is the floor for nominal interest rates. There is no theoretical or practical reason for not having the Federal Funds target rate and market rates at, say, minus five percent, if that is what your Taylor rule, or whatever heuristic guides your official policy rate, suggests.
Economics as a science and economic reality have never had problems with negative real (inflation-adjusted) interest rates. So what is the problem with nominal rates? In a word, it’s currency.
Currency is the only problem. Paying positive interest on currency is difficult because you don’t know the identity of the owner. The same note could be presented repeatedly to earn the interest due for a single period. To get around this problem, the instrument itself must be clearly identified as current or noncurrent on interest. Once interest has been paid, it is marked, traditionally by stamping it or by clipping a coupon off it. With negative interest, the problem is not the owner turning up too often to claim his interest. It is getting him to turn up at all. Since the authorities don’t know I am the owner of the currency I own, why should I volunteer to pay the government money for the privilege?
Fortunately, it turns out to be extremely simple to remove the zero lower bound on short, risk-free nominal interest rates. There are three practical ways to implement negative nominal interest rates.
(2) Tax currency and ‘stamp’ it to show it is ‘current on interest due’.
(3) Unbundle currency from the unit of account.”
*****
Quoting Thomas Jefferson (1810 – two centuries before the above report!)
"That we are overdone with banking institutions which have banished the precious metals and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society who prefer these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace of the whole is endangered and all our present difficulties produced, are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied."
*****Quoting Robert Hemphill, US Federal Judge (circa 1970) “If all the bank loans were paid, no one could have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial Banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the Banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon.”
******What this means is, unless majority of us stay in debt there will be no money to circulate in the economy and currency exchange will come to a grinding halt resulting in another great depression. What a negative cycle of consciousness that is! And why do we subscribe to it?
Robert Kiyosaki calls it the conspiracy of the rich. And then he goes on to tell us how network marketing is the great leveler. The opportunity for each individual family to develop and thrive in their own economy. It’s distributed wealth. Like distributed power. Many households in Europe generate solar power in surplus on their rooftops. And they feed the surplus to the grid and make money from it. Many households in India construct an extra room and toilet to let out as paying-guest accommodation for extra cash. What are these? Backyard assets. Micro-economies. Functioning for individual benefit within the economic superspace.
Network marketing is just that sort of trend. You create a network of like minded consumers. Since you use products that you buy directly from the manufacturer, the manufacturer saves money on the wholesaler-retaileradvertising supply chain. He would rather pass it over to a ‘loyal’ consumer group. But how would he create loyalty? He’d incentivize leaders who would manage a loyal network for him. Pay everyone who consumes across the board and pay more to people who don the B-quadrant leadership role. That’s all.
The potential for asset creation in network marketing is boundless. People buy private jet planes with the money lying on the table. Of course, it’s because they’re visionaries. And they’ve mastered the B-quadrant principles. Do you want a private jet? If yes, perhaps you don’t have many other strategies to get it, do you? And this is one where you’ll get it through a systematic step-by-step process.
Are all network marketing companies the same? No. There are many different network building strategies. There are many different product lines. From telephones to vitamins to novelty items to education and household goods… the list is large. What’s common everywhere is that the consumer is directly connected to the source and therefore enjoys a money back guarantee (often even after she’s opened the product seal and used the product). She also enjoys home delivery with most large network marketing companies. And of course the support of a team that would teach her how to ‘think’ to make full use of the new economic model.
In fact, this support and teaching by fellow-entrepreneurs, as Nama had pointed out at the coffee shop, is quite alien in the corporate world. Given the competitive spirit (characteristic of the left quadrants), it is rare to see people helping each other succeed. In the consciousness we operate from in a job situation, ‘trust’ has a low standing. In fact it is considered foolish to shut one’s brains off and trust another. People are actually paid to investigate other’s affairs. ‘Due diligence’ it is euphemistically called.
Of course, many new network marketers have indeed burned their fingers by trusting other newbies who were also operating from a low vibration. But I believe this mustn’t prevent anyone from hooking up with the right community when one finds it. The loss, if any, due to associating with an untrustworthy individual or company will be far less than the potential gain of creating your own backyard assets.
One would ideally attach as much significance to a misplaced choice of networking company or upline as one would to a bad car mechanic… a poor experience with him wouldn’t deter one from driving, would it?
This was the essence of a team discussion at Nama’s place the next Sunday morning. It fascinated me. I had been into some part of my spiritual journey and I found it fascinating how a simple concept like this tied in with a huge mindset shift into the realm of abundance. That was the first time I opened my mouth that morning. “Nama, are you saying that being in the company of professional network builders will bring about an abundance mentality in us?”
“Wow! That’s a great conclusion… how did you arrive at that?”“Well I’m just trying to put the pieces together I guess”, I said, examining my nails for I really had no clue what I was talking about.
Sonia was kind to interject, “Abundance is a natural state of mind. I am sure the stone-age man lived in abundance of everything he needed. Air, water, food, caves… it’s education that curbs it…” Ravi cut in, “but Sonia he also lived in fear.”
“Right!” I found myself saying, “and all of technology has evolved only to conquer fear. Everything mankind has initiated has been so that we would not have to live in the lower vibrations of fear, guilt and shame.”
“For example?”“Well dynamite and atom bombs came about so we could survive… we have no shame in killing others, as long as we ourselves escape death”, I declared. “Even with the stone-age man, let’s take the wheel… it came about because it could move us faster than predatory animals. So we have been addressing our fears since then. And recently, the internet and sms became popular so we could escape the guilt of not being in touch with each other… think about it… conquering lower vibration is the incentive for anything to have been invented.”
Mahesh laughed. “I remember seeing ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’ some years back. We’ve really screwed up our lives. All our education teaches us how to cope with the technology we’ve invented. Takes us really far from nature and our natural abundant selves. Better fear one elephant than a hundred clients!”
Sonia was not sure though she couldn’t stop giggling. Nama decided this was getting out of hand. “Hey guys that’s not the point really, is it? Sandeep mentioned ‘abundance’ and there are three things we must know about it. Shall we begin?” We again listened attentively.
“One is a concept of the nature of money. Unless we tune our minds to think differently about money we are not going to have the holistic lives people in the B-quadrant lead. What you must do is drop your hang-up about mymoney, your-money. Money is like water. There is plenty. Like if you visualize a river. It is in motion. You can tap what you like from it. Once you use some you forget about it and get fresh water for the next use. You can even canalize it for some productive use. Are you with me?” “Yes.” “Yes.” “Pretty much.” “Cool.”
“Now what you are learning as you practice network marketing is how to lay a pipeline of money from the money river to your home. It’s pretty different from your job or business where you get a bucketful home every month, or with every project you do. The money river is the consumer economy and when you think a bucket is all you have, you restrict your abundance. But when you can clearly visualize the pipeline and work diligently towards building it, you are into abundance.”
“Voila! So this pipeline is the consumer network, right? And it can have many tributaries,” Sunil exclaimed in a eureka voice.
“Exactly! That’s the help you give to people.”“And create prosperity from the river of abundance.”
“But I want the whole river,” cut in Mahesh abruptly. “Huh??” we went.
Nama picked up a cookie and slurped on his now-empty glass of juice, slowly, carefully measuring each of the 3 words he uttered, “Become the sea.”
Become the sea. Profound. Become the sea. The thought would stay with me till I lived. You don’t ‘just get’ what you want. You ‘become’ what you want. Mahatma Gandhi ‘became’ the revolutionary in order to create the army of peaceful revolutionaries he envisioned. George Washington became the warrior when his only option was to have laypeasants take up arms. Mother Teresa became the messiah to have the largest fraternity of messiahs in the world. Princess Diana became the queen of hearts to be remembered as more of a queen than The Queen herself. Become the sea… and thou shalt have all the rivers.
Somehow the discussion ended that day without us getting to the other two points. The juices got over. Glasses clinked. The team felt great… ready to face another week of bogus negativity – at the store, in the school, with the boss, around the in-laws… Team meetings were like the oasis. And Sunday to Sunday, life was progressive.
Having finished with showing the plan to a half-dozen or so new prospects, we got them packing with some CDs and were on the floor again next Sunday. “Abundance Nama, three things…” Sonia was not one to forget quickly.
“Yep”, Nama smiled, “actually I’d like Tharini to speak about the second one as she’s the one who juggles the household finances.” As the beaming Tharini got up to speak, I couldn’t help but miss my wife. If only she understood… it’s such fun as a couple.
Tharini began, “Well I don’t know much about other networks but as network builders in the consumer products space, we focus mainly on our own consumption of products. We’re not driven by selling. We’re driven by being role models. Product ambassadors, who can use the products, benefit from them, and then speak with integrity when we share with others the opportunity to benefit as prosumers.”
“Prosumers?” That was Vivek in a sing-song voice. He was just a couple of days old and was a quick willing learner… therefore at the smaller Sunday session.
“Yes, prosumer as in profit-sharing-consumer. Also since pro is the opposite of con, as a prosumer you don’t get conned.” We all laughed. Vivek didn’t get the joke. Tharini was sensitive about it and explained, “Whatever you buy from the market has a margin for the retailer, the wholesaler and the celebrity who endorses it, right? “ “Right.” “So whatever price you might buy an item at, you are still paying for someone else’s Mercedes right?” “Hmmm.” “You may think you are saving money buying 2 for the price of 1, but actually the product costs one third and except for during the sale, you are paying two-thirds extra… by habit… without conscious thought.”
Vivek checked, “And now we’re saying I can change my buying habits and buy products direct from manufacturer, right?” “Absolutely right.” “But the products are expensive!”
“Exactly! And that’s where your consciousness as a prosumer gets built. You see network marketing products are typically designed and patented as concentrated formulations. This helps save on inventory, stocking and transport costs, so the savings can be shared with prosumers. Now as a prosumer you must internalize two things. One, that concentrates will cost more than the glitzy looking well stocked products on the market shelves. And second, because your products will call for an upfront expense they will help you budget better and bring you in heightened consciousness of money.”
I had experienced this step-up of money consciousness firsthand. It had taken me 3 months to get over the idea of spending`600 on a detergent. But when I finally did, and the blessed product lasted 4 months, I was happy to never again put the ‘cheaper’`150 detergent on my monthly grocery list. Consequently, when I could visualize a`600 detergent, and derive value from it, I had stretched my mind four times to visualize a`1,200,000 car as well. And that shift in consciousness actually put us in that car, which was a big move from the earlier one which we’d bought at onefourth the cost. Another step forward on the ladder of abundance!
“Money consciousness is a mind game. Have you all read ‘Secrets of the Millionaire Mind’ by Harv Eker?” Most of us nodded. Read it if you haven’t, and practice this game on yourself. Tharini went on to tell us the game which proved to be extremely helpful for all of us to remodel our money consciousness for free! (see appendix 3)
“So what you’re saying Tharini, is our money consciousness increases as we mentally tune our expenses at a higher level… is that right?” I asked.
“Right. And with network marketing products, since we have the model built in favor of the prosumer, we expand our money consciousness without really draining our pockets. Plus the money flows back as share of profit.”
“You will certainly,” piped in Nama, “all you need to do is trust your team and follow instructions step by step. They’ve walked the road. They’re making the money. You hang in close to them and do what they do. Makes sense?”
“Sure does… a no-brainer actually.”“But”, and this was characteristically me, “But Nama, why do so few people actually do that?”
“It’s fear motivation at work Sandeep. They hear someone say something negative or derogatory and fear that they are being misled. It doesn’t matter how misinformed their informer might be. The society at large fears what other people think. And the sad fact is, nobody actually thinks. When was the last time you ‘thought’ about what a close friend does for a living? Possibly never.” Hmmm. Nama had a point. “But this brings me to the third aspect of abundance thinking” continued Nama, “and that’s about the feeling abundance invokes in us.”
“I think I can tell” sprang up Sonia, forever springy in word and action. “Abundance invokes the feeling of peace.” “Bingo! How did you arrive at that?”“Spiritual experience.” Sonia had been involved with some great spiritual masters from South India who rendered discourses that attuned the mind into thinking abundance. Initially these programs didn’t attract me. Since these courses were for many days on end and I didn’t have that kind of time. Moreover there was nothing practical one could do to measure one’s progress and yet it required an hour of daily meditation. I’d rather spend my hour listening to multi-millionaires on CDs I’d decided. And both were good choices… devastatingly good as a combination I later learned when I got into the time-abundance mindset and started meditating as well.
Sonia had already discovered the combination and that was why she was manifesting abundance as a contented achiever. The top network marketers are really cool. Coooool. Nothing and nobody can be abrasive to them. It’s an inner peace that radiates. It’s like a magnetic alignment they have inside and that comes through association. Basil was like that whenever I saw him. Calm. Unfazed. And he too was like an ordinary piece of iron some years back. With the right association he became ‘magnetic’ and as a life mission, he’s helping ‘align’ ordinary iron pieces like Sonia and me.
This is a self-realization one is not likely to have in an employee environment. Only the business owners have it and that’s why most of them seem pious. Piety and alignment have a deep connection with fostering inner peace. Peace is the highest vibration. A handful of peaceful people can change the world as Dr. David Hawkins has propounded. And Gandhi has demonstrated.
*****When this book falls into your hands… when you read it… what you focus on as you read… it is all predefined by your karma. If your timing is set out to be an early adopter of the new economy – a friend of the trend – this could be your trigger. You would take small steps. Maybe check me out online at SandeepNath.com and look up my associations. I can’t say. Maybe you’d just rubbish it the way I did my sister… only to return a few years later.
*****In 2009 something new happened with me. I decided I would seriously get online and study the internet based economy. I could sense a lot was happening out there and five years down the road I would be a dinosaur if I didn’t get cued in. So I took small steps. Meditation – Consulting – Coaching – Networking – And exploring online – all in a single day. “It’s like tying your shoelaces”, I’d heard Basil say, “everything is difficult before it is easy.” Soon I was doing it all as a second nature.
Online I met a community I could not believe existed. The finest peaceful abundance thinkers on the planet. Mike Dillard was one of them. Norbert Orlewicz was another. What I liked was a signature line in his mails, “To your success, Norbert.” Why was this complete stranger wishing for my success, I wondered. True, as network marketers we always think of the success of others, but I wasn’t even on his network. And that was when it dawned upon me. The internet is the mother of all networks. The place where all the ‘rivers’ converged. The sea!
Become the sea.That exchange between Mahesh and Nama suddenly gained new meaning. I could take up all my interests online, I discovered. Share. Network. Write. Coach. Be me. And I set up many sites. One of them was in partnership with a man called Jay Kubassek. This guy struck me as a great leader. He was on a sharply focused mission to create 100 millionaires by 2012. In 4 years I thought. That’s $250,000 per person per year. What was he doing? How was he so sure? What was the magic about 2012? Colin Tipping talked of world consciousness crossing the 210 mark by then. Sai Baba visualized grass-root level changes across the Muslim fraternity starting that year. David Hawkins flagged 2012 as a significant year for several reasons. Are these the coincidences James Redfield wanted us to become aware of in The Celestine Prophecy?
Why did Jay articulate my dream with a deadline? I dreamed of coaching and creating 100 B-quadrant business owners in my lifetime. (Needless to say, they’ll all be multimillionaires). Was Jay showing me the path to my dream? Perhaps yes. And since I’d decided to walk in the Bquadrant path he’d laid out online I came across a place where the Robert Kiyosakis, Wayne Allen Roots and the Paul Zane Pilzers of the world hung out. A new leaf was turning.