Now, you may be wondering what the difference is between mentors and experts.  Well, there can be many differences, but one major distinction really stands out.

You see, mentors and experts both know the field that they are advising you on (or at least they say they do).  The difference is who benefits more from the relationship.

In my like, I have built many home-based businesses and I have run into many, many experts; all of whom were ready and willing to offer me the latest and greatest deal.  On the other hand, I’ve had very few real mentors.

You see an “expert,” many of whom are self-professed with no real credentials, are out to impress you with how much they know and how they can help you…for a price.

Mentors, in contrast, genuinely care about you and your success and want to help and nurture your growth.  They are a much rarer breed.

When I started my first real home business, I was 16 years-old and was mentored by my next door neighbor named “Paul.”  Paul was a great man who actually cared about my success. 

Unfortunately, their were others in the business who were “experts in mentors’ clothing.”  They pretended to be mentors, but, in actuality, their only goal was to sell everyone their over-priced books, tapes and seminars.

Now, let me stop for a minute to make it clear that I don’t object to personal development (actually, I highly endorse it) and I don’t fault anyone for making a profit by producing items to teach and instruct.  The area where I do find fault is when the “experts” show their lavish lifestyle as a way of luring people into a business when that business didn’t provide the lifestyle.  Their wealth came from taking advantage of the trusting souls who bought the expensive books, tapes and seminars.

Way back then, we ran into a lot of those types of “experts.”  I still remember many of the names: Bill, Angelo, Ray, John, etc. etc.

Can you see the difference?  Paul cared about me and my success.  To Bill, Angelo, Ray and John, I was just another sucker who would buy their expensive “training system.”

As I moved into the Internet business arena, the number of “experts” jumped up 10,000%.  Every day, I receive hundreds of e-mails offering me the latest and greatest new money-making system or business tool; all from people who greet me as though we are long lost friends.  The fact is, these people do not know me.  They do not care about me.  The only reason they are writing to me is to get me to open my wallet and whip out the ol’ credit card.

Fortunately, there are mentors left in this world.  My friend Jim (in New York) has been a real friend and mentor over the years. 

Likewise, my friend Tom in Texas has taught me a lot.  Sure, Tom owns a company which produces and markets books, training materials and business seminars, but they are not over priced and he is up front about them.  Besides, they’re among the best available.

Currently, my two biggest mentors are my friends Peter (in California) and Steve (in Missouri).  They are helping us build our current home business which will allow us to pay off our home early and live life more on our terms.

Peter and Steve are real all-star mentors.  Steve and his wife Ginny have spent thousands of dollars to provide training and support materials for their associates at little or no cost.  That’s a big difference from what I have experienced elsewhere.  It’s good to know that I can call Peter when I have a question and get an honest, not hype answer.  That’s what mentors do.

Listen folks, dreams are important.  Don’t let your dreams be stolen by some self-professed “expert.” 

If you are looking into a business of your own and would like to have great mentors like the ones I have, check out this website:  www.tch87.com.

We’ve all heard the story of the man trapped in the flood.  As the water rises, he prays for God to deliver him from this situation.  When the flood waters cover the first floor of his house, the man goes up to the second floor.  A boat comes by and a man yells, “Get in the boat and be safe.”  The trapped man replies, “No thanks.  God will deliver me from this.”  The boat sails away.

The waters keep rising until they cover the second floor.  Now, the man is sitting on his roof.  A helicopter hovers overhead.  A voice yells out, “Grab the rope.  We’ll pull you up to safety.”  Once again, the trapped man replies, “No thanks.  God will deliver me from this situation.”  The helicopter flies off.

The water gets deeper and the trapped man perishes.  As he approaches Heaven’s gates, he wonders why God has forsaken him.  Why didn’t God deliver him from his dire circumstance?  Upon reaching God’s throne, he asks the Heavenly Father just that question.  He said, “God I’m glad to be in Heaven, but I didn’t expect to be here so soon.  While trapped in the flood, I prayed for deliverance.  I believed that you would save me, but you let me drown.  Did you not hear my prayer?” 

God replied, “My son.  I did indeed hear your prayer and I answered it.  I sent a boat and a helicopter to deliver you and you refused.”

That’s the problem many, many people have.  They need a blessing.  They need to be delivered from their dire circumstance, but they fail to understand one fundamental thing about blessings:

Blessings flow FROM God, but they usually flow THROUGH people.

Let me put that another way.  If you pray for God to bless you in some way, he will most likely work through other people to do it. 

If your need is emotional, He may send someone to talk with you.

If your need is financial, don’t expect money to fall from the sky.  He may send someone who will hand you a check, but more likely He will send someone to offer you employment or opportunity or he will open doors for you to obtain the same.

If you need is spiritual, He may send a minister in your path or He may send someone for you to minister.  Quite often, we minister to ourselves when we minister to others

Over the years, I have heard and read  A LOT of hype from scammers and self-professed gurus who seek only to profit from the dreams of others.  It really hurts my spirit when I see what some of these charlatans are doing.

Every single day, I get tons of e-mails promising the latest and greatest “must have” e-book, report, membership or product that is guaranteed to make you wealthy with little or no effort on your part.  All you have to do is part with $27 or $47 or $97 or $997 or whatever the amount is today.

The writers of these pitches are very skilled.  They know which buttons to push and how to get your excitement to build long enough to click that “PayPal” button.  Once you pay your money and get the product, you find that they are rarely worth what you paid for them and they rarely live up to their claims of passive income.  Jaded by the experience, you swear that they will never get you again, but that resolve doesn’t last. 

You see, the promoters know that many people are desperate to own their own business and get out from under a “regular job.”  They know this and they exploit it.  That’s why they have a new “best, greatest and hottest” offer almost every week.  And that’s why so many people fall for them week after week after week.

Believe me, I know this first hand.  Over the years, I have fallen for my fair share of sales pitches and spent more than my fair share of money on them.  The one thing that I have learned is that there IS NO MAGIC BULLET.

Let’s put this another way.  There is no magic software, book or membership site that will make you money with little or no effort on your part.  There is no business opportunity which will allow you to make money from day one without considerable effort on your part.  These things don’t exist.  Whenever some scam promoter promises that there opportunity will “do all the work for you,” run away fast.  After all, if they are doing “all the work,” what exactly do they need you for?

So what do you do if you want to run a business from home?  Well, my advice is to choose a business which suits your lifestyle and your passions.  Secondly, find mentors who will support, guide and nurture your new business.  How can you tell a “mentor” from a “self-professed guru?”  That’s easy.  A mentor cares about your success, the other guy cares mainly about his.

The next thing I’ve learned is, once you find your business, STICK WITH IT.  The grass may look greener somewhere else, but it is almost always an illusion.

I learned this lesson the hard way.  Many years ago, Cindy and I had a home-based business that was growing and making us money.  We were distributors for a well-known company.  After a while, we heard some of our colleagues say that they thought we could make more money with another company.  After all, the company we were with had been around for a long time and maybe they were a bit “old fashioned.”  This new company, on the other hand, was exciting and cutting edge.  I thought, “hey, if we are making good money with this old fashioned company, we’ll be rich by jumping over to the new company.”  The funny thing is that it didn’t happen that way.

Many years later, the “old company” is still growing strong and introducing new products while the new and cutting edge company is out of business and not making anyone any money.

You see, we would have been much better off to have stayed where we were instead of roaming.  Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

In conclusion, it is possible to find success in home-based businesses, but you have to be careful and you have to follow some basic rules:

1.  Follow  your passions.
2.  Find a market for your offerings.
3.  Associate with mentors and stay away from “gurus.”
4  Put on “blinders” so your aren’t led astray and
5.  DON’T QUIT!

I just finished the revised outline and the rough draft of the introduction.  I still have a lot of research and writing to do, but I would really love to be able to finish this book by the end of the year.  That would be great.

If anyone would like a sneak peek at the rough draft of the intro, just let me know and I will post it online.

Sasha Alexander Photo by PR Photos

Tonight is the night for the premiere of Rizzoli and Isles on TNT.  This marks the return of Sasha Alexander to weekly television.

I’m not a big TV watcher, but there are some shows I really enjoy.  NCIS is my favorite show followed by Royal Pains, White Collar, In Plain Sight and a few others. 

I really enjoyed watching Sasha Alexander on NCIS and was very sad to see her character get killed off a few years ago.  I really hope that I like this new

Angie HarmonPhoto by PR Photos

 character as much as I liked Kate.  Besides, the show also has Angie Harmon in it and she’s awesome too.  It should be pretty good. 

It looks like I will have a good excuse to take a break this evening and watch  a little TV.  Can’t wait.

I also heard that filming starts today for the 8th season of NCIS.  Yes.  I love it.  NCIS is truly the best thing to happen to Tuesday nights.

Now, when I talk about “net worth” in this context, I am not talking about how much money you have or the bottom line on your balance sheet.  I’m talking about your worth as a person.  How much value you provide on this planet.  When dealing with something so important, why do we allow others to determine this for us?  Odds are, they are not even determining it for themselves?

The answer is simple.  Most of us don’t know any better or we don’t think we deserve any better.  If you’ve been using either of those two excuses, I have good news for you.  In about thirty seconds, you won’t have those excuses anymore because you will know better and you’ll know that you DO deserve better.  Any thoughts to the contrary are simply HOGWASH!

Consider the following.  You are a unique individual created by an all-powerful Creator.  You are not here by accident, but by divine decree.  You are made in the image of the almighty God.  You were deemed so valuable that God sent his only Son to pay a debt you could never pay, just so you could be reconciled to the Father.  That last fact alone should tell you that you are valuable.  You are precious.  And, you are loved!

Remember, we are not defined by the names we are called, but by the ones we choose to answer to.

Have a great day.  God bless.

I am very blessed by those kind words.  From the beginning, I’ve always said that I would consider the book a great success if it helped just one person.  It’s done that and a lot more.  For that, I am very thankful and humbled.

When we published “Walking With My Savior,” we did it through a self-publishing company called Lulu.com.  Since then, we have formed our own publishing house.  I am currently working on formally moving WWMS over to our imprint and our ISBN, distributor, etc.  That will be a huge step forward.

At the same time, I am working on two more books to follow along with WWMS.

The first is called “Healing The Hidden Hurts.”  This book expands on some of the themes covered in WWMS.  It is my sincere hope that people will be greatly blessed by this book.

The second book is “Walking On The Mountain Top.”  This book shows you God’s view of your worth and how to achieve your God-given potential.  I hope to have both of these books available in the next  year, but we’ll have to see how that goes.

Thanks again for all of your help and support.  You’ll never know, this side of Glory, just how much it all means to me.

It’s strange having a new hosting service.  I’ve been building websites since 1995 or 96 and, for the past ten years or so, I’ve leased my own server(s) and hosted my own sites.  I also made a few extra bucks by hosting sites for other people.

All of that changed recently when I heard of a company called BlueHost.  They offered more features at a much lower cost.  I couldn’t turn that down, so I jumped at it.  I encouraged all of my hosting clients to do the same.  BlueHost has 24/7 customer service so that means I won’t get a phone call at 2 a.m. because a friend’s site is down.  Yes!! Life is good.

At any rate, we are slowly working to get all of the sites back up and updated.  So far, everything is working great, but I’ll keep you posted.

Take care and God bless, y’all.