September 2nd, 2006 - Step Twelve Completed

How To Double Your Way To A Million In 28 Steps

I thought I might be able to complete Step Seven with the Bottle and Can Collecting business, possibly even Step Eight I never imagined that just collecting on the three immediate roads near my home, covering no more than perhaps three miles maybe four, that it would bring me through so many Steps. Everytime I thought that this opportunity would dry up, I found the next batch I needed to get me through a step.

I still look on the ground for change when I go out but what really drives me crazy now is when I am driving down the road and I constantly see bottles and cans. I say to myself, "Self, there's a nickel, and there and there." It can be maddening bypassing money lying on the side of the street but I can't walk up and down every street around. It isn't even like there is a can or bottle every mile its every few dozen feet and those are the ones I can see. I have found that once you are out of the car and really see what is laying around it is actually about five times more than what you first perceived. There is a lot of money out there just lying on the ground in all kinds of forms that nobody wants.

This Step has been nothing but garbage but at least mildly profitable garbage.

I turned in a total of 116 Cans, 81 Glass Bottles and 3 Plastic Bottles, 200 in all for $10.00.

Lessons:

(1). From the start of attempting this Double to a Million plan, I contemplated upon one of the rules that had me a bit perplexed. I was unable to see the reason for Rule Number Three where you had to use the actual stake money for the first 15 steps. You were not permitted to use other funds in place of the actual bills and coins. It came to me, the other day, perhaps why that rule is there and what principals it is meant to teach.

I believe that one of the things that stops people from succeeding is the need to stay the same. Change is not really liked by humans for the most part. Even when things do change and and get better in fact, we still have the tendency to pine for the "good ole days". More than likely those "good ole days" were really quite terrible and we seem to remember only the good times and forget the horrible ones.

What I have noticed myself doing as I began to reach higher steps was to get frustrated when walking around and not finding coins on the ground as much as I did before. At this point I have been making a nickel per can or bottle and I can find those much faster then finding a penny here or a penny there.

I found myself getting upset after walking around a store plaza recently and coming up with no pennies. I began to think "I miss the good ole days" but then something occurred to me. I was thinking about the good ole days and those days were just two weeks ago. I had a revelation of sorts. I realized that one of the things that has caused a lot of pain in my life and failure as well was my propensity as a human to look back, pine over and perhaps even try to recapture the "good ole days". I then began to realize why William Shatner a.k.a. Captain Kirk keeps trying to tell all the Star Trek fans to get a life, move on , etc.

He doesn't want to go back to the past but move on into the future. Success only comes from moving forward. There is nothing so pathetic as someone trying to relive their past glory. How pathetic would it be to see Captain Kirk, now over seventy years old, dressed in his old Star Trek uniform. It would just be sad.


William Shatner has the right idea and that is to move on to new things and leave the past behind. Even the Star Trek Syndication needs to keep moving forward if it wants to continue to be successful on television.

Star Trek: Coming to a Theater Near You - Small Poster
Star Trek: Coming to a Theater Near You - Large Poster
The reason this plan has you start fresh with each step and takes any residual amounts you made in a trade and tells you to take those funds out for profit is three fold.

One is it is an act of leaving the past behind and starting new in the latest step with all the past eliminated and thus it is like starting over. This is important for humans when attempting to move forward. Cutting ties with the past is important at each step of the game. We are told to take as profit any funds that exceed the starting amount of the next step so we can cut the ties with the past and be free from any encumberances that our minds may have tied to those funds.

Second, we take those profits as a blessing and reward for our work. It is like a reward for a job well done.

By taking the excess out of the program and using it for yourself now, it ceases to be part of the work and is turned into something that will enhance your life by using it for fun and good memories. You convert the funds from work to play and thus benefit from your efforts while there is time to enjoy it. Sort of like smelling the roses along the way or like a bonus that you weren't expecting.

Third, each step can be looked upon as a separate business of sorts. In other words, we can start a different business with each step and, in fact, you sort of have to, because what worked before will not necessarily work for the new step you are in. This can be very freeing because you are not locked into a business or an idea forever, you can be creative, use the ideas, complete the step then move on to new and exciting things. Knowing that you only have to make the business work for that step takes all the pressure off concerning making it work out into the future, it only has to work for the present step and that is it.

One thing that stops people from starting a business is the idea that you not only have to do something so great that it works in the present but it better be able to beat the competition that will come along well into the future. It is hard enough to come up with an idea but the pressure of worrying whether all the work and effort and investment will pan out well into the future is enough to stop anyone. Staying focused only on the present business step, and knowing that the idea only has to work long enough for you to get to the next step, takes a lot of that pressure off and makes it easier to do what needs to be done in the present.

Success in life means always moving forward. Onward and upward.

Step Twelve has been completed: $20.00

All of the fine details are spelled out in the "Time Line."

Motto: It is only "one" found penny.

Regards,

Xinfinitum



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