The Attention Age Doctrine

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An Open Letter From The Desk Of Rich Schefren Dear Fellow Business Builder, What you now hold in your hands is a snapshot of my research over the past 12 months with my thousands of clients (including many of the most successful marketing gurus) and the biggest direct response companies on the planet.

You see, our world is changing… our personal lives, our businesses, and everything that surrounds us – they’re all changing.

In a blink of an eye certain weaknesses are all of sudden strengths, and a number of strengths are now irrelevant. Disorders have become natural gifts, and a select few have already leveraged them to build thriving businesses with incredible profits.

Here’s my promise to you: If you understand and apply the information in this Doctrine, you can build a very successful business in record time. Regardless of your past… Whether you’ve been successful or not… No matter how many times you may have tried. Because right now, with this information, your ability to profit enormously has never been more certain.

Back when I finished the Manifesto Trilogy, I thought I’d never write another report.

In fact, I was so certain I was done, I named it “The Final Chapter.”

But I was wrong.

The Calm Before The Storm Something dramatic is happening in the marketplace… it’s not email deliverability rates; it’s not Search Engine Optimization; it’s not the shift from salesletters to video; nor is it pay-per-click, banners or any other paid advertising methods.

In fact, it’s nothing technical whatsoever.

It isn’t because marketing is less effective, although many will say it is. Or that there is a lack of money, although there will be for many marketers.

It’s far deeper than any of these things – it’s the unfortunate price of admission many entrepreneurs will have to pay as we enter a new era.

There’s been a fundamental shift in the currency of our entire economy.

People have simply reached a saturation point in their lives – all the cool technology, all the nifty gadgets, and many of today’s modern conveniences have turned on us.

For entrepreneurs who don’t “get it” this is going to be a growing problem like an

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undetected terminal disease slow wly eating away and destroying the abilitty to market effectively and profit.

But it doesn’t have to be th his way. Because right here in “The Atte ention Age Doctrine” I am going to show you how you can keep blasting on, earn massive profits, and grow your business as fast as you desire.

2 ½ Years Ago Each off These Entrepreneurs Acted d On My Last Prediction And They’ve All Become Millionaaires… ofit Potential This Time The Signalss Are Even Stronger, The Pro Even Greater, And d The Probabilities Are More e Certain Right now I feel even more certain than I did back in February of 2005.

2 Back then I spotted an emerging trend online e before anyone else did. The sharp incrreases in competition screamed out to me tthat the winners would be the first marrketers to build systemized well running business ses.

I acted immediately on this s trend. I set up a pilot coaching program. Only 25 clients were accepted for this initial test--run. 12 months later the results they achieved a are now legendary. Here are just a few of the stories you might recognize:

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With results like these, my prediction proved to be dead on. So I rolled out the coaching program and to put it mildly, it was an extraordinary success.

Fast forward to today, Strategic Profits helps thousands of entrepreneurs grow their businesses faster while working less. And demand for our programs keep growing with each new success story.

In 2006 we clobbered our 2005 numbers by a factor of 30x. And by March of 2007 we already surpassed our annual 2006 sales. That’s great news for the thousands of business builders who are now living their business dream.

But that’s not why I’ve written this doctrine – in fact it has nothing to do with my coaching program whatsoever.

On the pages that follow, I am going to prove to you there’s an even greater opportunity for you to profit right now. More simply stated – more people will make more money than ever before. Not only that- I’ll also show you exactly what you must do to capitalize on it.

Pay careful attention: because if you end up being one of the lucky few to get what I am about to share… it’s the entrepreneurial equivalent to winning the lottery.

Here’s how it all started: For the past 15 months I’ve been digging around for an answer to a question I’ve been struggling with. Ever since I began coaching so many of the marketing gurus I kept wondering…

Why Do 53 of the 75+ Gurus I’ve Coached Have ADD? That works out to be a staggering 76% of all the marketing and business gurus I’ve coached have been diagnosed by their doctors as having ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).

That’s more than 15 times the supposed national average of 5%. It’s such an extreme variance… I knew there had to be a reason.

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And since then I’ve spent an enormous amount of time in search of an answer.

I went through all my old notes and reviewed all the past recordings of my private coaching calls.

I took each and every one of my guruclient’s businesses and put them under the microscope. I identified, refined and improved the strategies that shot them to the top. I even identified a few strategies they weren’t even aware they were using.

My search continued over months of intensive, in the trenches research. Plus many sleepless nights pouring over countless academic research papers from different authorities and universities like Harvard Medical School, University Of Pennsylvania and MIT. All of the research and analysis led me to a startling discovery I could have never predicted.

It revealed an amazing opportunity for entrepreneurs to quickly build profitable businesses right now!

The discovery set off a chain reaction of events that has left everyone in my office scrambling (including yours truly) to make all the necessary adjustments it required. But more than anything, I realized...

You and I both stand on the threshold of the greatest wealth-building business opportunity in history, but for many it could be a gruesome business disaster.

Which side you end up on will be determined by the decision you make in the upcoming months. That’s why I simply had to write another report.

Listen carefully: It wasn’t my love of writing, my desire to stare at monitors for so long my eyesight blurred, and it wasn’t that I couldn’t think of at least twenty-five more enjoyable things to do with my family either.

Nope, not even close! The reason I am sitting here right now is because what I am about to share with you is so exciting… so incredibly profitable… and so certain there’s no way I could keep something so powerful a secret.

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S Why O So…W Only TThe First Se egme ent?

In a little less tha an three weeks from now I’m cond ducting a very v specia al summitt for my prrivate clien nts. It’s base ed entirely on the res search tha at led to th his report.

When I told t one off my mark keting men ntors, Jay Abraham abou ut what I discovered d and my plans p to rev veal it to my m clients – he was absollutely floorred.

First, he e secured an a intervie ew with me to get th he same inforrmation to his privatte clients. Then Jay said I cou uld use the e interrview when n I promotted the sum mmit.

When I told t Jay I wasn’t w pla anning on promoting g the summ mit to the public… that t I had never ope ened up ev ven one of my private p eve ents to the public, he e just starred at me.

It felt as s if he was staring att me for fiv ve minutes s altho ough it wa as probably y no more than forty y-five seco onds.

Jay the en spent th he next 30 0 minutes telling me why I had d a respon nsibility to share thes se findings s with the public. He H was rele entless… he didn’t ca h are that I had h never done it be efore, he said s it was time to sttart. h didn’t ca he are that th he ballroom m wasn’t big b enough h, he said the hotel would w g gladly rent us a bigge er room. h wouldn’’t listen to my excus he ses that there wasn’tt enough time t to pre epare – he to old me sto ories of wh hen he was s forced to conduct a 5 figure seminar and a sell out within a week. h didn’t be he elieve thatt my team was too busy b to gett everythin ng done be ecause he couldn’t think of any ything morre importa ant. e I th hrew at him m, he defle ected it an nd put the pressure right back k No matter what excuse on me. m It was s a verbal ju-jitsu.

In the ten-plus t ye ears I’ve known Jay, I’ve neverr won a diisagreemen nt (let alon ne an argu ument), an nd this tim me was no different. We ended d our conv versation with w me prromising to do d whateve er it took to invite en ntrepreneu urs to atten nd what we w both kn new would be a histtoric eventt.

That’s right. r Jay won out, and a for the e first time e, I am bre eaking pre ecedent an nd opening g m exclusiive client-o only semin nar to the few entrep preneurs who, w after reading the doors to my “The e Attention n Age Doctrine”, gra asp the nee ed to be th here.

I reconv vened with h my team m, and gave e them the eir marching orders… … get us a bigger balllroom… ac ccelerate th he prepara ation sche edule… all other prio orities werre now sec condary to this s event.

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I began writing “The Attention Age Doctrine”. But orchestrating the creation of this new program has been so arduous… getting the incredible lineup of speakers so expensive… and putting together the integrated curriculum so exhaustive… I just didn’t have the stamina to finish both the summit and the doctrine.

And since “The Attention Age Doctrine” is vital for your ongoing success – I simply refused to do a half-hearted rush job on the most important segments – it wouldn’t be fair.

But if I wait until it’s finished, you wouldn’t have the advantage of knowing all of the forces converging to cause this business shakeout. You wouldn’t get the heads up to start making your profit moves right now.

Most importantly you wouldn’t have the critical information you need to appreciate how groundbreaking and important “The Attention Age Doctrine” and my upcoming event are.

Here’s the rub… if I wait until the report is completed and sit on this critical information and I don’t share this opportunity I have for you, you would end up with the short end of the stick. I am forced to release the first segment of the Doctrine right now.

This way you’ll easily appreciate how groundbreaking and important what I am giving you is for your future.

To Higher Profits,

Rich Schefren Strategic Profits

PS –

The dates of the summit are July 12, 13, 14, 15… For me to go out on a limb and tell you to change your schedule, to reserve your plane tickets, to book a room, and register for an event, is not my style.

I’ve no intention of selling you on it. I am offering you an invitation to what I’m sure will be recognized as the definitive event that launched more online entrepreneurs into 6 figure, 7 figure, and even 8 figure businesses, than anything else online or off.

What I will do is give you an over the top guarantee –and extremely generous payment terms on the inexpensive price we’ve already established. You can read all about it here: http://www.strategicprofits.com/live

PPS –

I’ve convinced Jay to conduct our interview on a tele-seminar so that you can get the same benefit as Jay’s most elite private clients. You can get all the details for it right here: http://www.strategicprofits.com/jayprivate/

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Why The Doctrine Is Different (And More Profitable)Than The Manifestos “The Attention Age Doctrine” is different from the Manifesto Trilogy in more ways than just the title.

All three Manifestos; The Internet Business Manifesto, The Missing Chapter, and The Final Chapter, were all centered on a common theme - The mistakes Internet marketing entrepreneurs made that stalled their success.

As a result, strategies, tactics, and tips were scattered throughout the pages. Based on the Manifestos success (each Manifesto achieved more downloads than its predecessor) the format seemed to resonate with many of my readers.

“The Attention Age Doctrine” is different because it deals with the future. That means we first have to get up to speed… to where we are today.

You are still going to get a lot of step by step recommended actions, although this time they’ll be concentrated towards the end.

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Bill G Gates,, Michael D Dell, Andrew Caarneggie, J John D. Ro ockefe eller, And (Your Nam me He ere) Here’s why: w when never a ma ajor shift happens h in n our overrall econom my, the bu usiness buillders who act fast offten get ve ery, very rich. Busine ess succes ss stories like Rocke efeller, Carnegie, Gattes, Dell, Perot, P Waltton, and many m otherrs, got exttremely we ealthy in ex xactly the sam me way. m 100% ce ertain thatt right now w we are en ntering intto a new economy. e Now gett this: I am Wha at this means is you u now have e an opporrtunity to be more successful s than you might poss sibly have e ever imag gined.

But the e fact is… you y need to t read thiis entire document d a soon as as s possible in order to maximize m y your profitts. For you ur benefit,, not mine e… please don’t skip a single sentence s of what w I’ve la aid out for you. If it weren’t w im mportant I would’ve taken t it ou ut myself.

In orderr for you to t maximizze your pro ofits you simply s mu ust understtand the entire e scop pe of the events e and d circumstances that have led us here to oday. If yo ou do… yo ou’ll be very y glad you did.

W “The A Why “ Atten ntion Age D Doctrrine” Was Writtten As a top p business s coach an nd author,, I’m worried – no, make m that disgusted d d – that you are not ge etting the quality of business and mark keting adviice you need… or de eserve.

Especia ally at a tim me like thiis where missteps m ca an be dead dly and op pportunitie es seized e can build an empire.

The exp plosion of so-called s “ “Expert’s A Advice” an nd “cleverly y crafted pitches” p is coming att us from f every y direction… and herre’s the cliincher… None N of th hese “experts” giv ve the sam me advice e or n even agrree on wha at actions s can you u should take.

Ove erloaaded d a Conffuse and C ed Entreprreneurs arre in the sttrange situ uation of having morre business and marrketing infformation available than t at any y other tim me in historry – and fe eeling morre confused than eve er before about a how w to start and a grow your y busin ness.

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What’s missing is i practical and objjective bu usiness bu uilding ad dvice that works.

Rea al actionab ble informa ation you can c use to o boost pro ofits, spend less time working, and even n dele egate almo ost every ta ask to “ove erseas” or “leased em mployees” working for f practica ally noth hing.

I’ve taken it as my m job to ca are about the entrep preneurial--after-effec cts of this tidal wave e of uninformed u d advice. In I fact it’s much mo ore than a job. It’s my m life’s pu urpose – a passionate co ommitment to cut th hrough the e fog, noise e, and dec ceit so you can grow your siness faste er and furrther while e working less l than you y ever thought po ossible. bus That’s why w I’ve written w “The e Attention n Age Doctrine”. It contains c dozens of tiips, tech hniques an nd strategiies you ca an use righ ht now to make morre money and a work far less.

If you’ve been con nfused at all, a I’m here to tell you y it does sn’t have to o be that way. w In factt, inside th his Doctrin ne I’m goin ng to expos se why 99% % of what passes as s expert bu usiness adviice today is i little mo ore than a set-up forr a later sa ale, or som me perverse form of ego e grattification on o the beh half of its provider. p Bu ut I must warn w you… … I’ve got some rea ally strong g emotion ns about what’s w currrently go oing on in online bu usiness so I’m no ot going to o win any awards a forr being Pollitically Co orrect or even remotely r ta actful for what w I’m about a to re eveal.

So, if my m calling out o and ex xposing th hese dream m-shatterin ng lies, and d the lying g liars who o tell them m, disturbs s you, then n here’s yo our warnin ng because e it’s definitely going g to get ugly y before we e are throu ugh.

If you want w to kee ep your in nnocence and a ignora ance – look k away now w.

Howeve er – you sh hould also know… I’’ll be revea aling in thiis Doctrine e, some off the sma artest and fastest wa ays to grow w your business and d increase e your pers sonal and financial free edom in 20 007.

Hype, Pro H omisses, One Time & O O ers Offe If you’ve been onlline even for f a few short months s, you’ve undoubtedlly heard everrything by y now in th he way of hype, h prom mises, and d special one-time o offers.

I won’t try to overrhyp pe anything g. Nor willl I insu ult your in ntelligence either.

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But I do o have a very v straigh htforward,, some ma ay even say y blunt, qu uestion forr you… Is your business s where yo ou want it to be and all you co ould hope for?

Betterr stated… … Are Yo ou Really y Makin ng It With h Your Business B ?

If not, it’s time we e had a se erious hearrt to heartt talk.

Since almost a everrything you see onlin ne these days d aboutt business s building is from peop ple who ne eed sometthing from you, let me m say righ ht from the get-go th hat I don’tt need you ur money.

I don’t need n anyth hing at alll from you.

What I would like e, is your attention. a And that’s s what this truly un nusual doc ctrine is alll about (more about a this later).

The Inte erne et Is A An In ncre edible Invventtion The Internet has already sh hrunk the investmen nt necessa ary to get your y busin ness starrted down to a shoes string. On n top of that, the wo orldwide in nterconnec ctivity prov vides a muc ch larger audience a of o potentia al buyers than has ever e existed d before.

When you y combin ne the low w cost with h the world d wide reac ch the Inte ernet prov vides, it reprresents a tremendou t us opportu unity that can easily y be levera aged with the t powerfful bus siness buillding and marketing m g strategies s I teach.

But, greatt opportun nity invites s not only the eth hical, but also temp pts every tw wo-bit hustle er - Con-m men who dream d of getting g rich by b separatting you from f yourr hard earned cash.

They belie eve the anonymity of o the net can be a great tool for mak king overIntern the-to op claims and a promises they have h no intenttion of everr deliverin ng.

It’s the ma ain reason n why the Internet today is a mark keting jung gle where many m gurus make outtrageous and a absurd d promises.

“Buy my m $29 e-bo ook, and I promise you y will ea arn at leas st a million n dollars in n ninety days or less or o you can have yourr money back”… b (Ye eah, sure). Or, “I am m going to sell you excllusive reprrint rights to sell my y stuff on EBay… E alo ong with the t other 2000 2 people”… (good d luck k).

So let’s bypass th he hype an nd talk verry simply and a hones stly.

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I am not usually the type to throw mud; I usually just bite my tongue and keep quiet.

But this time I’m taking it all very personally because I really believe what’s currently being done is destroying many entrepreneurs’ best chances of building their dream businesses.

And the timing couldn’t be any worse. We’re in middle of the biggest shifts our economy has seen in decades – it’s creating incredible opportunities with more potential in a more flexible environment that’s ever existed before.

But up till now no one has said a single word about it – they’re all too busy screaming their pitches at a full stadium roar.

Completely oblivious to what’s going on around them.

Think about it:

There’s more opportunity, faster computers, faster Internet connections, better tools and software, and marketing “know-how” on the Internet than ever! So why is it that entrepreneur CONTINUE to fail online?

I’ll tell you why…

Most of what’s being offered today in marketing or business advice is utterly worthless and misleading. It’s a one-two punch “Mind Virus” – wasting your time, money and effort now… and setting you up for bad decisions in the future by infecting your thinking with half-truths.

Look, in your gut, you know this is true.

If there really were better choices out there to build your business you would have already found them. You would have already studied them, committed to them, and applied them and you’d be making an incredible profit in a business that no longer needed you to continue to grow and thrive.

The fact that you’re not means you still need an answer.

And what I’m suggesting here just works. If my client list and my long list of success stories don’t say it all, I don’t know what would.

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You u Can n Haave A A Th hrivin ng Bussinesss In n Reccord d Tim me How ca an I be so sure? s Welll…

First off ff, you can say I have e a knack for knowiing what’s currently needed fo or success in b business.

I’ve proved it time e and time e again in my own life. Whethe er it was clothing, c m music, hyp pnosis, Inte ernet mark keting, or business coaching I’ve I always s been ablle to pinpo oint the mullti-million dollar swe eet-spot in n the mark ket.

If that weren’t w enough, my coaching client’s un nbelievable e success stories pro oved to the world I co ould take business b o owners from m a complete standstill to milllionaire in n less than n 8 months. m On top of that, ta ake a look at the slid de below and a see how w many names you recognize.

Eac ch and every one of these t busiiness build ders enrollled in my program p t get my unique to u pers spective on n business s building.

Of courrse I am no ot writing this to bra ag (even th hough I am m proud)… … Nor am I writing to o you to tell you u how piss sed off or saddened s I am at wh hat I curre ently see happening h in Inte ernet Mark keting (eve en though it’s sad and d I am mad d as helll).

Nope, th he main reas son is I’m 100% conv vinced the e info ormation I’m rele easing in THIS T REP PORT willl make all those t imp pressive resu ults we’ve e gotten in the t past lo ook like a drrop in the e ocean.

And thiis time, you can be on ne of se “lucky” thos entrrepreneurs s who buillds their business b and d profit alongside us.

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My Coaachin ng Prrogrram Has Bee en, And SSTILLL Is… …“TH HE” P Proggram m ng Se erious P Playe ers O Onlin ne Teaachin H How to Syste emize an nd Grow w Th heir Bussinessses Fastt If you know k anyth hing about how I wo ork, or hav ve been folllowing my y work-carreer in bus siness you know tha at I refuse to be a “s static thin nker” and d become complace ent with my success.

It’s my job j to keep research hing, study ying, analy yzing and identifyin ng the mos st powerfull and d critical bu usiness ph hilosophie es and proffit generatting strategies that small s busiiness own ners never get a chan nce to be exposed e to o.

Of courrse, I alway ys keep a watchful eye e on the e Internet marketing m g communiity where my roots are firmly f plan nted. Unfo ortunately,, I’ve been shaking my m head in n disbelieff at what nessing lattely.

I’ve been witn Things are chang ging...

Today,, the best selling rap p artist is white w (Em minem), the e most success sful golfer is black (T Tiger Wood ds); the talllest bas sketball pla ayer in the e NBA is Chinese C (Ya ao Ming); the Fren nch have been b accu using Amerricans of being b cond descending g and d not carin ng about th he views of foreignerrs; we now w pay for watter (bottled d water is $9 a gallon n) while music m is fre ee (sort of); and you need n 9 diffferent phon ne numbe ers to reach h any two of your y friend ds. And I could c go on n and on… …

But in times of ch hange and d uncertain nty the big ggest forttunes are made. m The e quick ac cting luck ky few who o stumble e on the right informatiion are th he ones wh ho reap th he ssive rewa ards, proffit enormo ously, and d set them mselves mas up for f a rightteous futu ure.

Knowin ng firsthan nd the incrredible opp portunity this adv vance insig ght provide es – I actu ually make it a point to map outt changes in i the env vironment at least on nce a mon nth.

In otherr words, I am always on the prowl p for a big busin ness tidal wave w comin ng, so my clien nts and I can c profit from it. An nd as I fin nd mapping the best way to vis sually gras sp a com mplicated concept, c I’d d like to sh hare my map m on the e next page.

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And wh hat I’ve see en come to ogether the ese past fe ew months s is so incrredibly pow werful, so easiily “leverag gable” and d so certain n to boostt profits off any entre epreneur who w gets itt, I knew I need ded to tell you abou ut it ASAP… …

That’s why I needed to clear my T m calendar, cancel all a my app pointments s, turn off m cell pho my one, and give g up my y weekends s … so I co ould write this urgen nt d doctrine as s soon as I possibly could. c Ok. Now wh hat you see below arre all the collective c fo forces com mbining to create the spaces betw ween the cracks c in the t busine ess growth h ceiling.

In orderr to follow w the chartt, start in the t upper left hand corner. Work your way w across s (from m left to riight) – whe en you see e 2 arrows s pointing to a box re ead both of o the boxe es where the arrows em manate fro om.

Don’t worry w if doe esn’t all make m sense e yet… I kn now my mind m somettimes work ks double-time e – and ever since I realized ho ow great an a opportu unity this is, i it’s all I’ve I been thinking t about.

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Besides, you’ve got the whole rest of this doctrine to get hip to this, and for me to show you how to use it to your advantage.

Once you understand what’s going on in the map, you’ll already realize its potential future effect.

There are very big ideas inside this Doctrine, I and a few people have already made a fortune with what I am revealing here.

The Current Health Of Entrepreneurs & Their Businesses I don’t need to tell you how difficult it is for entrepreneurs to succeed these days.

You’re right in the middle of it.

And even those of us who have tasted some success realize it isn’t exactly as easy as those who haven’t would think.

Between finding and keeping great employees, developing marketing plans that bring in the cash, and keeping clients happy even after you achieve success maintaining it isn’t so easy.

I could go on and on but the facts tell the whole story…

“Over 544,000 Small Businesses Close Each Year”

U.S. Small Business Administration

Let that financially devastating statistic mentally marinate for a second…

Before going any further – understand what that nightmare statistic means. Think about all of the humiliated and humbled bankrupt entrepreneurs, •

How they invested all they had (sometimes even what they didn’t have) and lost it all!

•

How they worked harder than ever before with nothing to show for it but a pile of debt.

•

How they gambled with their pride and lost.

•

How public their failure was - how the whole world can see it.

•

How their failure carries over to their families, their kids, their employees and their families too.

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I know how this feels firsthand - and it sucks. I consider myself lucky to have been able to have barely escaped the clenching fangs of this bear trap when one of my companies was on the line.

To make this daunting number of 544,000 business closings more real, let’s break it down. First, we’ll divide it by the number of days in the year, 365.

544,000/365 = 1,490 Businesses Close Each And Every Day Gadzooks! That’s a lot of business closing each day. And that’s including weekends too!

Think about that number when you go to sleep tonight – 1,490 of your fellow entrepreneurs are entering into what’ll most likely be the most difficult, embarrassing, and humiliating low point of their lives.

But I don’t want you to have to wait for tonight to get this on an emotional level. Besides you might even conveniently forget about this altogether. And who could blame you?

Entrepreneurs by their very nature are optimists.

We prefer to focus on the great opportunities in front of us rather than the potential catastrophes we hope to avoid.

Knowing that, let’s break the 1490 daily business failures down right now. We’ll divide the 1,490 daily business closing by the 24 hours in a day.

1490/24 = 62 Businesses Close Each And Every Hour Each And Every Day. Holy S#%T! 62 businesses closing each hour. That’s a depressing statistic isn’t it?

Especially when you realize it means…

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Mo ore TThan n On ne Sm mall Bussinesss D ppeaars EEverry MINUTE! Disa And leftt in its wake… the nightmaris n sh entrepre eneurial after-effects a s the owne ers expe erience, allong with everyone e a around the em.

In the time t it’s ta aken to rea ad the lastt sentence - another entrepren neur and their t bus siness vaniished. By the time you’ve y finis sh this doc ctrine – do ozens of sm mall busin ness, will be wiped w off the face of the planet forever.

It’s obviious… enttrepreneu urs need help. h And mo ost are smart enough h to realizze it too. Bu ut figuring g out who and wherre to go to get the expertt help they y desperately need tu urns out to t be a cha allenge. Th he search for f real worrld profitab ble advice becomes an a unexpe ected odyssey of nev ver ending detective work.

There are a so man ny so-called business experts these days s it’s hard to know who’s w got the chops.

The sta akes are in ncredibly high h too be ecause the e penalty for fo the wro ong decisio on can be tota al and com mplete finan ncial deva astation.

If you fa all victim to th he wrong advice, a you and your already uggling business stru can immediattely sink into o the busin ness dead d-zone, no ot able to with hstand the e damage of another a bad piece of amateur a ad dvice.

I don’t want w to get too far offf topic e – but thiis is here imp portant.

If you’ve iden ntified with h what I justt said, wha at about your clients and a pros spects – what w fears do they t have, and how do they t evaluate who they y buy from m.

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TThe R Real Reaason n Wh hy M More En ntrepren neurrs Arre Sttruggglingg Obviously, there isn’t only one reason n why so many m busiinesses arre failing – bad idea as, poor ca ash manag gement, ba ad hiring, obsolete solution, s a and the listt could go on and on.

But eve en so, I’ve noticed th hat there’s s been a very v big sh hift taking g place in n our sociiety and most m busiiness and entrepren neurs hav ven’t noticed it yett. And it’s s this overrsight thatt’s respons sible for more m busin ness failure es and fals se starts th han anyth hing else.

We hav ve less free e time than n ever befo ore, we are e working harder tha an ever be efore, and we have h all th his wonderrful techno ology but our o lives are a only ge etting more e and morre com mplicated.

The chiief reason is that we e’ve entered d into a ne ew era, an nd it seems s as if no one o is notiicing. Jus st so we’re clear – th he single biiggest facttor causing g entrepre eneurs to struggle s and d fail is the ey’re not noticing these t crittical chan nges. Inste ead, most entreprene e eurs just keep p plodding g along so they continue to folllow outda ated and in neffective strategies s never desiigned for the t curren nt environm ment.

The T “ ormaation “Info n Agge” Is A Alreaady O Over

That’s right. r

It has passed. p

And now w, we’ve quickly q enttered a new w age – an age a I call:

The “Atte ention n Age e”

Wh hat H Happ penss

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When the World Around You Changes In a previous report I wrote about my love of tennis…

I remember as a kid watching the legendary Bjorn Borg. At the time Borg played with a wooden racket, like everyone else. And he won a lot of major titles.

Then he retired.

A couple of years later he came back, but by then all the top tennis players were using more powerful rackets (metal, graphite, etc.).

It wasn’t pretty what happened to Borg. Inferior players with better rackets creamed him. He stayed loyal to his wooden racket never to win another major tournament.

Obviously, Borg knew the rules of tennis. He still had the same winning strokes. But the context and, consequently, the rules for winning changed. The more powerful rackets gave a competitive advantage to anyone who used them. Borg with his weaker wooden racket didn’t stand a chance.

That’s why he was never successful again.

Just to be clear… Borg might have still been a "better" tennis player – but his talent was shut-down by the changing environment.

Bjorn Borg’s story is our story… The rules of the game have changed, and many of us are struggling. We are still trying to win with a wimpy racket, pretending that we are playing in the same world we were in ten years ago.

But we aren’t… times have changed…

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What Happens When You Change Before Everyone Else?

Here’s the flip side of Bjorn Borg’s story. It’s a great way to illustrate the advantages you can gain over your best competitors by recognizing and leveraging the changes in your marketplace.

If you’ve studied any business history at all, you’ve probably come across one of the very first “business gurus” of all time. His name was Fredrick Taylor.

He is perhaps best described today as an “efficiency engineer” and a significant amount of his work laid the groundwork for the mass production methods used by Henry Ford.

He studied many different methods of working in order to determine the best way to achieve maximum efficiency on the factory floors. Many of his ideas at the time were quite revolutionary. In fact, many are still widely practiced today.

In his book, Principles of Scientific Management (1911), he argued that companies should install precise procedures to maximize the efficiency of the work being done. His system became known as Taylorism, which dealt with people, machines, and processes that would speed up work.

The reason I bring him up now though has nothing to do with his contribution to modern management whatsoever. You see, his story is the exact opposite of Bjorn Borg’s.

Even though Taylor wasn’t the best player at the time. He won the US Tennis Open with the invention of a unique oversized racket. There were no standards regarding the size, shape, and design of tennis rackets back then. So Taylor designed himself a bigger racket

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that was big enough to make winning a lot easier but small enough that it wasn’t too noticeable by other players.

His oversized racket made it easier for him to return tough shots his opponents thought were winners. The racket also gave him extra power turning his shots into rockets that were difficult to return.

Even though Frederick wasn’t the greatest player, his new advantage proved too powerful when competing against the better players with weaker rackets. He ended up taking home the US Open title because of his unfair advantage.

Leveraging everything you’ve got is where I am leading you in this Attention Age Doctrine. I’ll show you how you can leverage yourself personally and leverage your business so you’ll have an unfair business advantage over other entrepreneurs. even if they are better business operators than you are!

The Perfect Storm The world we’re operating in is changing so fast these days that almost everybody is scratching their head wondering, “What the hell is going on here?”

Well, if you’ve been wondering the same thing yourself then you’ve just stumbled on your answer. Because I am going to walk you through all of the different forces that recently come together on the entrepreneurial landscape.

I call it “The Perfect Storm” because it really is this very unique combination of events that is currently creating the struggles and lack of business success in the lives of too many entrepreneurs.

Listen: In order for you to really profit during this unique moment of change… you must comprehend all the different forces currently coming together to birth The Attention Age. There are no shortcuts…no one can do your pushups for you.

We’ve got lots of ground to cover together, so let’s dive in and focus on the changes that are currently affecting your ability to achieve a thriving business and a personal life all at the same time.

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A Bri A ef R Recap p of the Pastt 10,,000 0 Yeaars In 10,000 years we w human ns have bee en through h five ages s. And ourr society is s speeding g up so s fast tha at dependiing on you ur age, you u’ve either witnessed d two or th hree of them m.

Up untiil 8,000BC C we lived in the Hunter/Gath herer age.. During th his era, pe eople who could kill an animal a forr food or se elect the right items s to eat were success sful and had the pow wer.

We mov ved from th he Hunterr/Gathererr age to th he Agriculttural Age when we stopped roam ming and began to put p down roots. r Farrming mad de it possib ble to stay y in one pllace long enou ugh to build a real social s stru ucture for the t first time.

You bec came weallthy throug gh owners ship of pro oductive la and and kn nowledge of o metthods to maximize m th he yield off food. Thiis lasted until u the la ate 1700s.

The Ind dustrial Age A came next. n It sta arted in Eu urope with h the comm mercial us se of the stea am engine, a new inv vention pa aved the way w for the e freedom to t no longe er rely on the mus scle of men n.

The worrld change ed rapidly,, with facttories leverraging mac chined pro oduction, new n tran nsportation n methods s from the railroads and the growth g of cities c as pllaces of production and d distributiion.

Then about a thirtty years ago a we entered into o The Info ormation Age. This s age was initiiated by co ommunica ations sate ellites, com mputers an nd the histtorically unpreceden u nted num mbers of an n educated public.

During this time the number of o white colla ar workers s (ma anagementt) surpasse ed the number of o blue colla ar, or prod duction worrkers, for the t first time e. It was a wonderfu ul era for busine ess, for e. sure But som mething hap ppened. hing starte ed Everyth to move m so fas st… the lines between n one hum man age an nd the nex xt blurrred.

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The amount of information exploded. It just kept growing and growing until many of us developed information overload.

About ten year ago we entered into The Communication Age. Each year brought another way for us to communicate with each other. Pagers, cell phones, voice mail, conference calling, email, instant messaging, etc.

But with all of the new technology we all of a sudden found ourselves connected to a 24/7 “global economy” all of the time.

The downside of being over-connected led us into another age. About five years ago, we entered into an age I call…

The Age Of Interruption It was during this time that we found ourselves constantly interrupted by our “plugged-in world”. This shift has had enormous consequences that up until now I’ve heard very little mention of.

Later on in this Doctrine, I’ll tell you exactly how bad it is – how much we’ve been negatively affected by this subtle shift.

You need to do to reclaim your independence. Your ability to be an incredibly successful entrepreneur will multiply when you overcome this new hurdle.

Another powerful force rearing its ugly head during this time is The Paradox Of Choice. Too much of a good thing can be bad – and that’s exactly what many realized when they had too many options to choose from.

But before we get to that – there’s one more “age” I need to let you know about. It all started about a year ago. That’s about the time we entered into a new era, The Attention Age. With information no longer scarce, and an ever increasing number of new technologies being developed to continually interrupt us, and too many choices to consider with almost everything, the resource that has become most scarce is human attention.

I’ve been aware of this shift, in fact I’ve even spoken about it, but I didn’t recognize its overall importance as the chief culprit in business failure and success until recently.

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There’s a lot to discover about the Information, Interruption and Attention ages and what you must do to significantly profit from these cultural shifts.

We’ll focus on each and how you can overcome the challenges each one presents and where the big opportunities currently are to explode your business.

New Economies Always Open Up… New Opportunities To Build Wealth Fast The dominant value of the Agricultural Age was land and the wealth that came from the land. Large landowners were regarded as the wealthy. Farming skill was prized, and if you could make the land produce more than your neighbor… you got wealthier than he did.

In the Industrial Age, the new economic value became production. Wealth was created through production.

The more efficient your production and the more effective your distribution the wealthier you became. Some people got very, very rich – these were the early captains of industry, the robber barons, whose large corporations created unprecedented wealth.

Their wealth migrated to stock markets, where wealth was defined by the amount of stock anyone owned.

Today we’re still reminded of our past by the remaining values of these two ages. The ownership of land, real estate… or ownership of stocks and securities still acts as a barometer of wealth.

During the information age it was thought that information was power. And for a while it was – until the amount of information exploded and the Internet leveled the playing field (when it came to the access of information).

Still today certain types of information can yield incredible wealth (like insider trading knowledge) but overall the worth of information has decreased dramatically.

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In the Age A of Inte erruption, whoever owned o the vehicles of o interruption had enormous e pow wer. They could c insta antly comm mand the attention of millions s without even gettin ng their prio or consent.

Of courrse, over tiime we gott hip and no n longer allowed a alll interruptters the sam me level of access. We W develope ed caller ID D boxes to o let us kn now who was w calliing, email filters to rid r ourselv ves of the excess com mmercial spam s mes ssages, etc… …

And now w we find ourselves in The Ag ge of Atte ention, witth so much informa ation surrrounding us u and so many inte errupters trying t to get g our attention, we e are left with w our atte ention as the scarc cest resou urce we ha ave.

Those of o us who have h learn ned to optiimize our own o attenttion alread dy have a sign nificant ad dvantage ov ver others s. Our atte ention is really r the driver d to ge etting mas ssive pers sonal leverrage. If I can absorb b five books with the e same amount of atttention it takes you to re ead one bo ook, you’lll get left in n the dust over time.

In the business b world, w busiinesses th hat captiva ate the atte ention of the t public and are able e to hold on o to it are e winning big b time. Right R now,, the overw whelming number n off bus sinesses an nd website es suffer frrom an an nemic amou unt of atte ention.

Also, th hose companies thatt can focus s the atten ntion of their employ yees on the things thatt truly matter end up u fully lev veraging th heir talent,, while oth her compan nies sufferr from theiir employe ees’ diffuse ed attentio on on every ything from m surfing the ‘net to o personal issues.

The e Interne et Bu ubblle an nd W Whatt’s G g On Going n In tthe B Backkground The birtth and gro owth of the world wid de web hap ppened so quickly, q no o one was really prep pared for it. i On Wall Street it ca aused “Irra ational Exu uberance” during the e tech boom and the en destroy yed the wea alth of man ny during the sub bsequent Tech-Wreck T k.

Pundits s said the world wid de web was s going to o cha ange every ything… inclluding bus siness mod dels.

Obv viously the ey were wrrong… or were w they?

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It’s imp portant you u don’t ma ake the na atural (yet incorrect) leap that just becau use “the prom mise of the e Internet”” didn’t ha appen on stock s spec culators’ timeline, it’’s not currrently hap ppening – because b alll the evide ence sugge ests it mo ost certain nly is.

Just to be clear, J c I’m not talking about se elling eboo oks, affiliatte marketiing, or anything g like that. It’s the overall o imp pact the In nternet is having h on our entire socie ety and cu ulture that’s critical to t understtand. Beca ause if you u d you’ll profit do, p from it – guara anteed.

Any his story buff will w tell you that wh hat occurre ed with the e dot com boom and d then bus st is a pattern that’s played ou ut in almos st every ne ew technollogy. From m the birth h of railrroads to th he mass av vailability of electric city, it’s alw ways the same s old story… s ays end up being ove er-hyped, creating c m massive dis sillusionment and Innovattions alway an inevitable i backlash when they y don’t delliver on eve erybody’s wildest prromises. But B their true e, longer range r pottential ten nds to be vastly un nderestima ated.

Ho ow In nside ers V View w Tecchno ologgy What I am aboutt to sho ow you willl change the way y you look k at any new n tech hnology, software, s or tren nd. y that, but it will Not only mak ke you a much m bette er inve estor and business b owner o beca ause you’lll finally kn now whe en it’s the right time e to leve erage or invest in a new n tech hnology.

The gra aph above is kno own as a “H Hype Cyclle”. It Almost every e new w technolo ogy goes through t th his hype was s introduce ed by a cycle on n the way y to being g mainstre eam accep ptance. resp pected ana alyst/resea arch com mpany by the t name of o Garrtner. The hype cycle e represen nts adoptio on and bus siness app plication of technolo ogies.

Since 1995, Gartner has us sed hype cycles c to characteriz c ze the hype and inev vitable disa appointme ent that alm most alwa ays happen ns with the e introduc ction of a new n techno ology.

A certaiin amountt of hype always a acc companies s new technological developme d ents. This is when w every yone is talk king aboutt a new prroduct, but no one is s actually using it fo or greater prod ductivity.

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When shown s grap phically, a hype cyclle initially climbs steeply as more m and more m peop ple pay atttention to the new technology y.

But the e curve dro ops just as s steeply once o public c interest wanes, ev ven though the new w technolo ogy has sttill not ev ven been employed e d productiively.

Only as s the techn nology beg gins to com me of age will w its use e become more m wides spread.

Eventually it hits its pla ateau of prroductivity y and beco omes a na atural partt of doing business. b

The e 5 Phase es off a “Hype C Cycle e” Arre: 1. "Tec chnology Trigger" T T first ph The hase is the e breakthrrough, product launch or othe er event th hat genera ates significant press s coverage e and interrest.

2. "Pea ak of Inflated Expec ctations" In the nex xt phase, a frenzy off publicity typically generates ove er-enthusia asm and unrealistic u c expectations.

3. "Trough of Disillusionm ment" Nex xt the new technolog gy enters the "trough h of disillusionment" becaus se it fails to t meet th he unrealis stic expectations.

4. "Slo ope of Enllightenme ent" Even n though th he technollogy has lo ost its pop pularity with h the press s, some co ontinue through the "slope of enlightenm ment" and d experiment to find the benefits and a practic cal applica ations of th he technollogy.

5. "Platteau of Prroductivitty" The technology reaches r th he "plateau u of produ uctivity" whe en the ben nefits becom me widely demonstrrated and accepted.

Railroad ds an nd the Inforrmattion Sup perhighw way Once yo ou realize that there e is a com mmon patte ern to the hype thatt surrrounds ne ew technollogies, you u realize thatt we are ju ust now in the midstt of the long g-term effe ects that th he Interne et will have on our liives.

In many y ways the e hype tha at surrrounds the e Internet mirrors th he hype thatt once surrrounded the t birth of o the railrroads.

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Here’s a quick history h les sson: A “ra ailway man nia” sweptt Europe in n the 1800 0s.

A suppo osed techn nological revolution r promised abolishing g current time and distance d constraints (s sounds fam miliar, does sn’t it).

The raillways were e sold as goldmine g i investmen ts that wo ould bring its savvy investors i d naturally y the vast majority of o people who w first in nvested ne ever saw milllions in retturns. And theiir millions… they los st their sh hirts.

But the e railways over an ex xtended pe eriod of tim me did pro ove to be genuinely g revo olutionary and radic cally trans sformed the t entire e world ec conomy. And A that’s importantt beca ause rightt now the Internet I is s quietly ha aving thatt same imp pact on ou ur lives.

We mak ke the sam me mistake e in our pe ersonal liv ves.

I call it the “Overe restimate/U Underestim mate Theory” becaus se most pe eople tend to ove erestimate e what the ey might achieve in n 1 year, and dram matically underestim u mate wha at they might m achie eve in 5 years. y And it’s s no differe ent with ou ur expectations about tech hnology.

My poin nt is – man ny of us arre already y disc counting the staggerring effects s the Inte ernet has already a ha ad on our lives. l

In addittion we do on’t see the e bigger imp plications that t are sttill to come e.

But we’d better! Especiallly if we want w to be successfu s oming yea ars. l in the co Because not know wing how this trend d shakes out could cau use you to make a lo ot of wrong g guesses and missed m opp portunities.

For a co onsumer this t can mean m buyin ng the new west gadget only to be b disappo ointed it do oesn’t live up to it’s promise. But B then see s a much h better and d less expe ensive gadg get come out o a montth later thatt blows the e older mo odel away.

In busin ness, know wing this cycle c helps s you avoiid jumping g on new technologi t ies too early. I’ve seen n plenty off business ses lose their shirt because they y focused too t much of their atttention on n prod ducts or marketing m methods that t weren n’t going to hit h critical mass for another a de ecade.

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The wid despread acceptance a e of the Intternet is changing c s many off our daily so y activities,, it’s no wonderr that our society an nd busines sses are ch hanging so o rapidly.

Here’s my m advice to you about how to o think of the Intern net from th his point fo orward.

Think of o the Interrnet as a “general “ pu urpose” te echnology - like electtricity which now affects the entire economy and ou ur lives. he converg ging interrsection of innovatiions in co omputers and It is th com mmunications that is causin ng this shiift: microp processors s, software e and inforrmation proc cessing sy ystems, da ata compre ession, datta storage and digitization tech hnologies and voice and d data telec communic cations nettworks.

What th his means s is that the t Intern net is goin ng to conttinue to magnify m th he results s of future fu inn novations..

It alread dy has dra amatically y changed the landsc cape for ou utsourcing g, publishiing, info ormation marketing, m startup businesses b s, and the nature of competitio on for all of o us.

Keep th his in mind d as we dis scuss all the t curren nt changes we must adapt to la ater on.

Here’s a look at the profoun nd implica ations for society s and for you if, i for exam mple, you wan nted to sta art selling informatio i on online in the heallth field.

Today, there are 181 millio on America ans online. They are e more likely to cons sult the Web b for health information than their own medical doctor! d hopedic surgeon com mplained to o the New York Time es: “I have e people Recentlly, an orth com ming to the e office who have dow wnloaded 50 pages of stuff fro om the Intternet on minimally m inva asive surge ery.”

On the surface th hat small factoid f mig ght just se eem unimp portant – but b this is sn’t a uniq que case – think abo out all the e areas wh here, all of a sudden,, we are ta aking back k some of the responsib bility to bec come well info ormed.

All of a sudden you y are becoming infformed in na hun ndred, two o hundred d or even a th housand different d areas a thatt you u didn’t ha ave any pressure or desire to study before e.

Unfortu unately, th hat’s just g of the pre essures to o the beginning gath her more, learn morre and kno ow more in nformation n. This lead ds us to…

Informa ation:

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Paart ll We elco ome e to the e “In nforma atio on Age A ” Everyon ne said ou ur lives wou uld drama atically imp prove… th he workweek would shorten… s free e time wou uld multiplly... remem mber?

It sound ded like we w were gettting ready y to enter a time of Nirvana!

N

So…H How’s Nirvana N a Workin ng Out For Yo ou?

I’ll get back b to ou ur so called d “era of bliss” in a moment. m F First, let’s s get a han ndle on wh hat got us here.

The Inforrmation Age A Itt freed us from the Industrial age. But the t price we w paid was som mething we w never co ould have projected.

Before economist e ts define a new age, they look to see if th here has been a ch hange in which w resou urces are scarce and d can lead d to wea alth.

So in th he Informa ation Age, informatio on was the e scarcest reso ource. If you y could d capture it i and dis stribute in nformation bettter than others o you u had an advantage a e.

Microso oft became e one of th he world’s largest l com mpanies beca ause of its s role in crreating the e platform that greattly improved our abillity to captture and distribute d d digital info ormation.

A large cause of our o rushin ng into the e informatiion age wa as the new w way mon ney was be eing made.. During the t Industtrial Age th he U.S.’s major exports e we ere items manufactu m ured in the e plants an nd facttories spread throug ghout the country. c In the Information Age it sh hifted to in ntellectuall property deliv vered in th he form off movies, music, m boo oks, softwa are and hig gher edu ucation to name n just a few.

I know it’s hard to believe e now, bu ut there re eally was a tim me when in nformatio on was a scarce reso ource. We needed

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info ormation to o help solv ve specific and urgen nt problem ms in business and our o person nal lives.

A great example of o our desiire for morre informa ation is the e adoption n spee ed of the printing p prress. Towa ards the end of 15th h century a man nam med Guten nberg conv verted an old o wine prress into the t world’s s first prin nting mach hine.

Only forty years after a the in nvention of o the press, there were w prin nting mach hines in 110 cities in six differe ent countrie es!

Then… just ninetty years la ater… more e than eight million books had d been prin nted. Alm most every ything prin nted was filled with h info ormation that prev viously had not bee en availablle to the average a pers son.

T Info The ormaation n Exp plosion In an ec conomy where inform mation is both the currency c a and the pro oduct our reaction was s obvious: we directe ed our ene ergies and “know-how” to invent things that would d increase e our supply off information.

By 1990 0, in the US U alone, there t were e 260,000 billboards s; 11,520 newspaper n rs; 11,556 6 periiodicals; 27,000 vide eo outlets for renting g tapes; 36 62 million n TV sets; and a over 400 4 milllion radios s.

Add to the list the e 60,000 new n book titles t publlished everry year (30 00,000 world-wide) plus s every day y in Ameriica 41 million photo ographs arre taken, and a just for the recorrd, over 60 billion b piec ces of direct respons se mail com me into ou ur mail boxes every year And that’s all wiithout eve en mentio oning the compute er!

The con ntribution of the perrsonal com mputer to the t inform mation expllosion can nnot be overr-estimate ed. The perrsonal com mputer spa awned all of these new inventiions: emaiil, the worrld wide we eb, word processors p , spreadsh heets, blog gs, search engines, rss r feeds, social s netw working, pdfs, p powerpoints, ettc…

We’ve all a become informatio on/conten nt produce ers. More to the poin nt, we hav ve all become e more sk killed in ge enerating g informa ation than n almost anyone a ha as in managiing it.

Th his makes s it extrem mely difficult to figure e out which informa ation is us seful and not n wastefu ul or, even worse, des structive.

Itt’s not justt the quan ntity of the informa ation eitherr. It’s how w all these things (email, document d s, the Inte ernet, etc.) come

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together… like an orchestra with no conductor.

The net result is we try to get our work done, but information seems to get in the way.

A single publishing company like Reuters produces an astonishing 27,000 pages of information per second.

Whoops… It seems we forgot to ask the question “How much information can any one person manage at a given time?”

Which led us to…

Information Overload Wikipedia defines it as “The state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic.”

It was only a matter of time, with the amount of information increasing that we would eventually be overloaded by it. It all happened too quickly. We went in a blink of an eye from information being scarce, to way past the point of saturation.

The total freedom and the complete accessibility of practically all information diluted information’s meaning and value to us. It became a curse rather than a blessing.

It certainly didn’t help that technology made the retrieval, production and distribution of information so much easier than any time before. Our new technology reduced the natural selection processes of information.

What I mean is this: in the past, technological limitations enforced a policy where only the most important information was published.

And now with so much irrelevant, unclear and inaccurate data fragments surrounding us, it has made it extremely difficult to tell the forest from the trees.

Some experts have defined this as "data smog", which they fairly compare to the pollution of rivers and seas caused by an excess of fertilizers.

Other experts compare the current info-glut to health problems caused by a diet too rich in calories, except it’s stuffing our brains instead of our waistline.

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Many have h specu ulated thatt all this in nformation n has left us u powerle ess to really know any ything anym more.

We hav ven’t had d the time to ada apt our defe enses against overrload brea ak dow wn. Nobod dy ever taught us u how w to mana age this s ove erwhelmin ng qua antity of info ormation effe ectively.

We don n't kno ow how to filter it.

We don n't kno ow how to redu uce it. n't We don kno ow how to use it.

I’ve broke en down n our ov verload d proble em into o six cau uses:

The firs st is having more im mportant in nformation n than we can assim milate. For example, we gather g twe enty differe ent books on a topic c, but we can’t c read or review all of it. Many M of us feel that since e all of the e informatiion is relev vant, we cannot igno ore any off it withoutt negative consequences s.

The sec cond is beiing weighe ed down by y a never ending e sup pply of infformation we never ask for, with the t fear th hat some may m be imp portant an nd we shou uld know about a it.

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Take for instance email.

We get tons of unsolicited email messages daily clogging up our email-boxes. They require our attention only because some may contain relevant or useful information.

Of course, each moment we spend figuring out whether an email message is junk or not is a moment we cannot spend on one that provides relevant information.

Or, you conduct a search online and you get back hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pages as potential sources. We know we can’t go through every result, even though we may worry about missing relevant information.

The third relates to the speed we are receiving new information.

For most of us it’s too much to process.

It reminds me of a few college courses I took where the professors would attempt to go through too much information in a single lecture, it was impossible to grasp, capture, assimilate and work with it all. So I’d walk out of class with the other students, more confused than when we sat down.

The fourth relates to the value we place on information: With the amount of information increasing, the value we place on any single piece of information goes way down…No matter whether it’s important, redundant or just simply noise (clutter caused irrelevant data).

The fifth relates to contradictions in the information we review.

One source tells us one thing; the next tells us the complete opposite.

Of course both sources know more about the topic than we do, so we end up with the dilemma of dealing with these conflicted points of view.

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The sixth relates to our increased information needs. As overall changes in our world accelerate so does our need for information.

We need new information in order to keep up with all these developments.

Impacts Of Information Overload Unfortunately the negative repercussions ripple through our personal and professional lives. We are paying a very high price dealing with all this information we are responsible for.

Since most people don’t realize all of the negative effects, what follows are some of the more damaging side-effects.

The Line Between Work and Personal Life Blur It began innocently enough. At first there was voicemail, then cell-phones, and now the ability to check work email from home and on the road.

On the other side of the same coin, practically everyone reads their personal emails, makes personal phone calls, and even surfs the web recreationally while we are supposed to be working.

It’s grown to such unacceptable levels that most small business owners now feel as if they’re working 24/7.

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O Our Wo ork Su uffers All this information coming g at us ma akes keepin ng track of o it all diffficult. It pu uts pres ssure on us u to multii-task (spe eaking on the phone e while rea ading and writing w em mail mes ssages), wh hich leads s to an ina ability to fo ocus.

We easiily become e frus strated (lik ke when we cannot find a file on ou ur com mputer).

And alo ong with th he incrrease in sttress come es a de ecrease in our ability y to th hink clearrly, and an n incrrease in ou ur tendenc cy to make m mista akes.

It’s counterintuitiive, but as the am mount of info ormation in ncreases, our o abillity to mak ke accurate deciisions decreases.

We’ve always a lived in a society de edicated to o the idea that we're alwa ays bettter off gath hering as muc ch informa ation and spen nding as much m time e as poss sible in de eliberation n.

But new w research h and popu ular books s like Blink k, by Malc colm Gladw well (famed d author of The T Tipping g Point) sh hows us th his line of thinking is sn’t alway ys true. Gla adwell sho ows lots off situ uations wh here our sn nap judgm ments and d first imp pressions actually offer o a mu uch bettter means s of makin ng sense of o the worrld.

The Tie T e Betw ween In nformation and d Actio on Is SSevered It used to be thatt between receiving new n inform mation we had enou ugh time to o put it into o use and test t it out.. Unfortun nately with h the blind ding speed d we are hit h with new w info ormation th here’s no downtime. d . Unless you’re y high hly discip plined it’s s easy for the tie betw ween info ormation and a action n to be se evered Bestselling busin ness books s have been n focused primarily on this ne ew condition. The bus siness com mmunity ha as referred d to it as “T The Know wing/Doing g Gap” bec cause we simply s don n’t have enough time e to do wha at it is we know.

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Of course the implications of this new dilemma are extremely costly to businesses and to our own personal lives. Since all rewards come from what we do, not from what we know.

Informing Ourselves to Death A world-wide survey (Reuters, 1996) found that two thirds of managers suffer from increased tension and one third from ill-health because of information overload.

The psychologist David Lewis, who analyzed the findings of this survey, proposed the term "Information Fatigue Syndrome" to describe the resulting symptoms.

“Information Fatigue Syndrome: Symptoms include paralysis of analytical capacity, increased anxiety, greater selfdoubt, and a tendency to blame others.

When people are faced with more information than they can process, they become unable to make decisions or take action.”

Other side-effects highlighted by Lewis include anxiety, poor decision-making, difficulties in memorizing and remembering, and reduced attention span.

David Shenk, author of the book “Data Smog” cites many different studies showing information overload causes these “wonderful” effects: Increased cardiovascular stress Weakened vision Confusion Frustration Impaired judgment Decreased benevolence Overconfidence

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Even with all of these nega ative effects s, most of us treat in nformation n like a junkie who is co onstantly in search of their ve ery next fix x.

In nformaation H Hoarding – tthe Clu utter FFactor Anotherr research h study by Reuters revealed th hat despite e the prolifferation off office tech hnology, we w were still informattion miserrs.

Better stated: s we feel certa ain inform mation if kept k to ou urselves gives g us an a adv vantage ov ver others s.

We consider inforrmation an n asset – whether w we realize th he value of o it or not..

In our attempt a to o horde thiis intangib ble goldmin ne, we create clutterr. The clutter acts as a continua al drag on n our lives s by hamp pering our job perforrmance, sttealing ourr time awa ay from frie ends, famiilies, and productive p e work and d fosters an a overall feeling f of inad dequacy.

Info‐llust & Info‐A Addicttion If you’re e an experrienced, sw witched-on n consume er you Goo ogle sometthing at least once a day… or even n once an hour. h Nobody y wants to be the guy y on the plane p who paid the most m for th heir ticket. So we rese earch the cheapest c available a fa fare, the diifferent rattes the hottels are ch harging an nd the diffe erent price es the car rental age encies are currently offering.

It’s not just trave el that spu urs our urg ge for more e informattion. For almost a everry major purchase an intensive i research r p project is undertaken u n. We wan nt the bestt available option forr the cheapest price so we w scour th he informa ation superrhighway in search of the breadcrumbs s thatt lead us to t the cove eted inform mation we are seekin ng.

If we are e thinking about buy ying a book on azon, we sc can the comments and a critiqu ues of Ama fellow w readers to preventt the purch hase of a worthless w book k. d, think ab bout how Just forr a second incre edibly add dicted to informati i ion we all are as cons sumers.

Some ex xperts have e said thatt we consu umers are experriencing nothing n sho ort of an all-encomp a passing INFO OLUST: sumers are e lusting after a “Experienced cons detaiiled inform mation on where w to get g the bes st of the best, the cheap pest of the cheapest, the first of o the first, the healthiestt of the healthiest, th he coolest of the coo olest, or on n how to become b the e smartestt of th he smartes st. Instan nt informa ation gratiification is i upon us s.”

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In Interrnet marke eting almo ost everyon ne seems to t be addic cted to infformation, and lustting after more. m Think about a this:: More info ormation products p a boughtt and neve are er read, lis stened to, or c consumed than are bought b an nd read.

It’s the equivalent of torchiing whatev ver cash yo ou have.

Recent IDC resea arch found d the avera age knowle edge worke er spends up to 25% % of their worrking time searching g for inform mation. It’s s a ridiculously large number – what did d people do twenty t yea ars ago?

What ab bout you? ?

How mu uch time do d you spe end search hing for information? ?

How wo ould you rate your skill s level at a leveragin ng technollogy to find d the inforrmation you are lookin ng for?

Wh hy TTryin ng to o Kee ep U Up Is Only Mak M ing U Us D Dumber This ma ay be the greatest g irrony of info ormation overload. o All of th hat data fly ying at you u by way of o e-mail, instant i me essage, ce ell phone, voice v mail and d rss feeds -- could actu ually be making m you u dum mber.

The mo ore info ormation we try to suck in, the more we ves to traiin ourselv defa ault to a shorter s atte ention spa an.

The nattural resullt is itt becomes harder to rally y the conc centration requ uired to learn any ything of re eal value.

Whiich puts downward d pres ssure on how h much you’ll make in n your bus siness.

The rea ason our atte ention span n is

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decreasing is in the way we are designed. We are hardwired to automate repetitive mental actions to save ourselves from having to think.

The more times we perform a task, the more we “habitualize” it, the easier it becomes. That’s why we can save energy because we end up putting less thought into things we have done before.

It’s the same with kids. That’s why experts always tell parents not to allow their children to watch too much TV. You should be very concerned about this trend. It’s like you are training yourself to be stupider and stupider with each passing day.

Many business owners I meet have “habitualized” a short attention span and can no longer concentrate for any extended period of time. It ends up being one of the biggest handicaps to getting wealthy in our current economy.

Because our brains are designed to conserve energy, once we’ve habitualized our short attention span - our brains will fight to conserve energy by defaulting into the “habitualized” pattern instead of more difficult options.

So we end up not only preferring to concentrate for shorter periods of time, but we actually default to it when attempting to process information. And it becomes a selfreinforcing process, only making entrepreneurs less and less likely to succeed.

Well informed, Well Researched Vs. Lazy + Escape This has to go down as one of the best forms of procrastination and laziness ever invented.

The reason: The passive activity of reading and surfing Internet can fool practically everyone into believing that actual work is being done!

You know what I am talking about don’t you?

You’ve most likely sensed it in your own activity - the way the collection of information can so easily disguise itself as a worthy substitute for doing any thinking on your own.

It’s been so effective because it’s more self-deceptive than the obvious cleaning of our desks before writing. It’s a form of laziness the Internet encourages, justifies, and deceives us with.

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The scary secret is this: if we’re not made conscious of this hideous mind virus, we can endlessly delay having to do any real thinking whatsoever simply by stacking more and more bits of data in front of ourselves.

I see this pattern all the time with entrepreneurs who first get online. Sadly a large number of them never realize what they are doing to themselves – and quit the Internet before ever applying themselves.

If you are an info-junkie you need to pay extra careful attention here. I know I do. My strategy is to have timers all over my desk and on my desktop screen – I set them to countdown and give myself a certain amount of time for research. If I wasn’t disciplined about it – I would never get anything done other than a lot of research.

If you’ve never realized this before – from this point forward consider yourself warned. If you choose to willingly fool yourself, from now on you know what you are really doing.

Increasing Complexity Mandates More Information The more “tools’” we buy to make or lives and tasks easier, the more complex our existence becomes.

Think about that for a moment… could you have imagined five years ago that you’d need to know how to set up a sync for a PDA, wire a HD TV, backup a laptop and desktop to a 500 gig portable drive, find a restaurant on your GPS, or manage a photo library?

With each neat tool we add into our lives comes the prerequisite training just to use them.

How much time have you spent in the past year learning a new device, software program or even managing your iTunes library?

I would hazard to guess that your body of knowledge is greater than even you would imagine.

And this body of knowledge takes a little piece of your attention each day, even if just to keep your technology running.

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Info o‐Ovverlo oad C Coping SStrattegie es Th hat Lead d To The e Poo orho ouse e Some of the more e popular, yet ineffec ctive stra ategies ma any resort to t include e: Omission – simply ig O gnoring orr deciding not to prrocess som me of the informa ation becau use there is just too o much.

Latching on L o - Grabb bing onto the first informa ation found d as a way y of avoiding having to evaluatte the data a. An exam mple would be b using only the first result of o a search performed d on your favorite f se earch engin ne.

D Delaying - postponin ng thinkin ng by allow wing the in nformation to stack up u with the fals se thought that we’ll get to it la ater – but we don’t because b new inform mation keeps coming c at us. u F Filtering Arbitrarily A y - choosin ng which in nformation n you’ll go o through without w making g a real cho oice. You just go th hrough what you can n, or the fiirst half off the pile, or a sin ngle chapte er from a book, b etc.

W Walking Aw way – sim mply giving up from the t activity y all togeth her. telling g ourselv ves it isn’t worth the time or efffort, we ch hoose to simply walk k away.

Generalizing – we us G se a minim mal amoun nt of inform mation to draw conc clusions. like sum mmarizing g the details of an arrticle from simply reading its headline. h O Obviously all a of these e coping strategies leave l a lot to be desiired. While e they may y help tem mper some e of the prroblems ca aused by in nformation n overload d, the price e we pay seems to t be too big. b h of these e strategie es we give e up a sign nificant amount off sureness s that the In each info ormation is correctt. ave to mak ke any dec cisions or take t any actions a we pay a very y big price e. Because e If we ha our conclusio ons from th he distorte ed informa ation could d cause a chain c reac ction of ba ad deciisions and d faulty ass sumptions s.

This lea ads to a tremendous s waste of time, at th he minimu um, and ca an lead to much worrse… failurre.

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What Has Your Information Done for You Lately?

Thriving With Information But before you can easily incorporate my suggestions into your overall information management system, we need to cover a few other negative forces working against you.

Changing Your Perspective On Information: JUST IN CASE to JUST IN TIME A good start to getting a handle on your overall “information consumption” is to take a step back and analyze why (or whether) the information in front of you is currently worth learning in the first place.

For many of us our natural curiosity gets the better of us.

We make time for what we think we may need to know at some future date, creating an overabundance of information that we need to process.

The net result is we often forgo some of the information we really need to know right now. It’s no wonder we do this since most of us have been conditioned to appreciate “just in case” learning from all of years of schooling.

Think about it… in school that was ALL we were taught. But the rate of change we currently deal with (especially in online marketing) makes a lot of the information we are currently learning outdated before we ever get a chance to act on it.

Add to that the fact that there’s a “use-it-or-lose-it” aspect to most information.

This means if we never apply the information (which we usually don’t if we are participating in Just In Case learning) we seem to lose the ability to recall it when it’s needed.

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Plus the current information demands placed on us are so high – spending time on information we may or may not need, which may or may not become outdated, seems like a bad choice.

In the final analysis Just In Case Learning is a strategy that no longer makes a lot of sense.

Of course, I’m not saying that there aren't problems with just-in-time learning, too...

It’s just the lesser of two evils. Just-In-Time learning often turns into just-what-youneed to survive.

And it is the common approach of “crammers” who wait for the last minute.

Oh Yeah… What About Nirvana?

Back in the early 70’s the US Senate released a report that analyzed the social implications of the 22 hour workweek (by 1985) and a retirement age of 38!

Remember these buzzwords… the "workerless" factory, the "paperless" office, the "cashless" society, and the "leisure society."

It appears that The Seattle-based “Take Back Your Time” organization, through its Web site and book of the same name, says we're working more than ever and more than workers in any other industrialized country.

Many don't take earned vacations.

It creates compromises in health, marriages, parenthood, community and social activism.

"We are not only working faster but even longer, and filling our limited leisure with busy activities, leading to an increasing sense of time poverty," says Daniel Hamermesh, a University of Texas economist, who studied time-stress perceptions among higher-income households in the U.S. and four other industrialized countries.

Remember when a US Senate committee report earnestly discussed the social implications of a 22 hour work week by1985 and retirement at age 38?

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Fricti F ion A Acce eleraants You and d I are botth “knowle edge worke ers”.

That means we have h to deffine what work w needs to be done, what done d mean ns, and wha at it all is supposed s to look lik ke when we e are finish hed.

I wasn’t always It a tha at way.

Fifty yearrs ago apprroximately y 80% of us ma ade our liv ving by ma aking and moving thing gs. Back th hen it was real easy to know whatt you had to t do. Jus st find the e unmade and unmoved things an nd then ha ave at it.

Inheren nt in the id dea of “kno owledge worrker” is that thinkin ng is requirred to do ourr work. I am a sure th hat all ma akes sense to you – but what shou uldn’t mak ke sense is how many y differentt things we e do (in ndividually y and sociietal) that reduce th he effectiveness off our own thinking..

So, as a knowled dge worke ers – our i income is dependent on our th hinking, y we con yet ntinually en ngage in activities a that lim mit our thiinking and d therefore e limit our earning ability. a

Hencce, “Inccome Frictio on” n few pa ages we’re e going to cover c all th he evil objects that cause c fricttion in In the next your earning ability. Th hen we’ll go o over how w to remov ve all of them so you u will find it an easy slide to makin ng a lot mo ore money y.

Some of o the chie ef culprits s dragging g our inco omes dow wn that we e’ll look at: a • • • • • • • • •

a constantt barrage of o interrup ptions c continually y decreasiing our atttention span o natura our al instincts s that inte erfere with h over-learn ning w walls we place p in fro ont of ever achieving g a “flow-sttate” b being surrrounded by y clutter t the seducttive force of o multi-ta asking t the parado ox of choic ce o fear off missing anything our a a new traitt many of us have adopted a kn nown as AD DT

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The Com mmu unicaation n Agge?

Over th he past dec cade we wiitnessed th he birth off an abund dant assorrtment of com mmunicatio on tools.

It’s hard d to believ ve it wasn’t even tha at long ago o we were without w be eepers, celll-phones, and d email.

And the e impact of o these too ols continu ues to grow w while th hey spread d across th he world and d into the hands h of almost a everry single in ndividual.

These tools have become so o widespre ead it wou uld seem unnecessar u ry to quote e statistics s about their grrowth exce ept for the fact of how w quickly they t contin nue to spread.

The num mber of ce ell phone user u (eve ery minute e another 1,000 1 userrs are i). add ded to the 2.4 2 billion n existing users u The global growth h rate of In nternet use (200 perc cent between 2000 and a 200 06ii), or how w many e--mail mess sages and d instant messages m compete c fo or our atte ention everry day (an estimated d 62 iii iv billiion and 14 1 billion , respectiv vely).

We werre told they y would en nable us to t better co ommunica ate with on ne another. And while it’s true, it certainly has increased d the level of com mmunicatio on – there have been n some unin ntended co onsequenc ces.

Take for example e my friend d, Pam. She’s go ot a cell ph hone and an organizzer. That’s s in additio on to the land l lines she has on her h desk at a work and at home e in her ap partment. Of O course she also has h a desk ktop com mputer (at home and d at work), plus a lap ptop that she s takes with her on o trips.

On Pam m’s computers, she has h email, Microsoftt Outlook with w imme ediate notiification whe en a messa age arrives s.

She also has a multiplatfor m rm Instantt Messagin ng program m, Trillian,, so she ca an mes ssage frien nds and as ssociates on o Yahoo Messenger M r, ICQ or MSN M Messe enger.

Of courrse, Pam has h her clie ents, frien nds and fam mily conta acts on eac ch of those e com mmunicatio on tools. So S no mattter where she s is, any yone she wants w to ta alk to or send a mes ssage to is only a bu utton or ke eystroke aw way.

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Don’t ge et me wrong, it’s gre eat that th hese tools mak ke it possible for us to reach others o at our o own conv venience. It’s just th hat the flip p side isn’tt always as s prettty. Becau use, now others o ha ave the ability to reac ch us at their t conv venience too. t I don’t know k abou ut you, bu ut it didn’t take me lo ong to re ealize the irony of alll that com mmunication. And th hat is:

“IInterru uption ns are in the e eye o of the interrup pted.”

Meanin ng, one perrson’s inte erruption is another’’s colla aboration,, acknowle edgement or display y of frien ndship. d for many of us, tha at I’ve It’s gottten so bad cha aracterized d this era as…. a

Th he In nterrupttion Age e I just go ot back fro om Starbu ucks (my standard is s an Iced Venti V Black-Eye Uns sweetened)). What I saw is a perfect p way y to introd duce you to o The Interrruption Age. A While waiting w to pick p up my m order, here’s h whatt I saw: Two co--workers sitting s at a table. Th hey were on n their lap ptops conn nected to th he WiFi hots spot there, answerin ng emails, using ICQ Q (probably y with peo ople halfwa ay across the t worrld), answe ering their cell phones, all whiile talking to each otther.

So o Con nneccted d… W We're e Acctually D Disco onne ected d The she eer numbe er of ways that we ca an be conttacted or contact c oth hers here and a now continues to multiply m and a it’s turrning our lives l into a series off interruptted interrruptions.

In n fact, if yo ou haven’tt already been b interrrupted at least once e since you u started reading g, the odds s are overw whelming that t you will w be befo ore finishin ng.

Unnece essary inte erruptions now cons sume abou ut 28 perce ent of the average kn nowledge v worrker’s day (about 2 hours h a da ay ). If we translate t t that into hours h it’s 28 2 billion lost l hours a ye ear to U.S.. businessesvi. At an n average cost c per ho our of $21vii, interru uptions are e costing Ame erican bus sinesses $588 billion n each and d every yea ar.

If you’re e like most entrepre eneurs you u aren’t eve en shocke ed by these e statistics s.

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You Y u’re livingg it.

You sett time asid de to finish h an imporrtant proje ect only to be consta antly interrrupted by ema ails, instan nt message es, phone calls, a crrisis that need n your immediate e attention n in the offic ce, family, friends, coworkers, c and some e importan nt late breaking new ws.

You end d up finish hing the prroject late at night when w you can be cerrtain you’ll be left alon ne.

Just ten n years ag go it wasn’’t at all like e this. Bac ck in those e good old d days if so omeone couldn’t walk k over to yo ou and dis sturb you in i person, they were e forced to o rely on a telep phone.

If they needed n to send you something g writtten they relied r on th he postma an who sho owed up at your y door once o a day y.

And th he flurry off interrupttions keeps getting worrse. For mo ore and more busine ess owners, every day feels like this - one long para ade of inte erruptions with only the gaps in between n to get our “real work k” done.

Yo ou’ve e Go ot 11 1 M utes to Minu Ge et Yo our W Workk Do one

In a diff fferent stud dy, Gloria Mark, a rese earcher at UC Irvine e, found prroof that our o work life really is as bad as itt feels. Eac ch knowle edge worrker she studied s sp pent only 11 minuttes on any y given pro oject befo ore being interrupted.

What’s worse is it would take t 25 minutes m on a average to o return to t the orig ginal task k.

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Most off us feel pow werless to do d any ything abou ut it beca ause interrruptions are often nece essary – we w d to discuss need imp portant parrts of projjects with others, take e importan nt phone calls s, and so on. o But with h so many y more way ys to be intterrupted, now w more tha an ever it’s s prac ctically im mpossible to keep p the interrruptions at bay b while getting g don ne those im mportant item ms. ary fact is s The sca there’s a hidden cost to all a these inte erruptions s as well. Mary Czerrwinski, at a Microsofft Research h Labs, fou und that 40% 4 of the e time e, we wand der off in a new dire ection whe en an interrruption en nds, distra acted by th he tech hnological equivalen nt of shiny objects.

The New w York Tim mes stated d it simply,, “The centtral dange er of interruptions, Czerwinski C i reallized, is no ot really th he interrup ption at alll. It is the havoc the ey wreak with w our sh hort-term mem mory: ‘What the heck k was I jus st doing?’””

The e Staggerring Cossts off Bre eaking our TTrain n of Thoughtt Yo But no matter wh hat task orr activity we w return to (the one e interrupted or an appealing a new w one), there is still a steep priice to pay.

The Un niversity off Michigan and the FAA F found d that peop ple who sw witch betwe een diffe erent types s of tasks – say, ema ail and su urfing the Internet, I o writing a blog post and or talk king on the e phone – lose betwe een 20 and d 40% of their efficie ency.

It’s justt like runn ning a prin nt-shop, th he changeo over time for f the ma achines is a sign nificant pa art of the to otal cost and a time th he job take es.

It turns s out our brains b ope erate the sa ame way.

Breakin ng your trrain of tho ought getts expensiive fast as s you try to get bac ck on trac ck.

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That’s why w we be ecome incrreasingly in nefficient when w chan nging from m one type e of task to o another.

Just lik ke almost every e othe er current business challenge, c , Peter Dru ucker (my business hero o) saw this s coming long l ago. Forty F years s ago he wrote w in th he entrepre eneurial must m read, The Effe ective Exec cutive: “To be b effective e, every k knowledge worker, and a especia ally e every execu utive, there efore need ds to b able to dispose be d of time in faiirly la arge chunk ks. To have dribs an nd d drabs of tim me at his disposal d w not will b sufficien be nt even if th he total is an im mpressive number off hours.”

It’s scarry how dea ad on he was w such a long time e ago. Beffore we go any furth her though h, I’ve got some morre bad new ws for you.

It turns s out that you y not on nly need la arge chunk ks of time to get imp portant wo ork done, ntinuouslly interrup pted mak kes you du umb. but being con In 2005 5, Glenn Wilson, W Psy ychiatrist at a King’s College, C Lo ondon gave e an IQ tes st to a grou up of peop ple who we ere to do nothing n bu ut take the test.

He then n had them m take the e same testt while beiing distrac cted by em mails and phone p calls. Even thoug gh they were told to ignore e the distra actions, the vo olunteers’ IQ dro opped an average of 10 pointts while being g distra acted!

That’s more than twice the effect mariju uana had in a similar study y (4 point drop)..

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Whyy Pe eople e Are e Ge ettin ng Du umb ber W Each Ne With ew TTech hnolo ogy Rele ease Here’s the sca ary part off Dr. Wilso on’s IQerruption research– r it was don ne in Inte 200 05! p two ye ears since e the In the past stud dy was con nducted new and im mproved way ys for us to o interruptt each oth her have been n embrace ed by the mainstream m m.

That’s what w led me m to devellop the grap ph that yo ou see on the t right.

For som me bizarre reason ea ach new com mmunicatio on vehicle that gets released seem ms to shrin nk the amo ount of time e in between interru uptions.

For exa ample – ins stant mess saging is qu uicker and d therefore e it can co ome at us morre frequently than em mail.

The net result is s there is an interrruption co ompoundiing effect.. Meaning the freq quency of interruptio i ons are inc creasing, the t amoun nt of time in i between n them is decrreasing an nd the amo ount of IQ points we e are sacrificing incrreases as well. w So we are a left witth “The IQ Interruptiion Curve”” which cle early show ws us why, with each h new com mmunication tool relleased to the t public,, we becom me stupide er and stupider.

Remem mber that th he very ne ext time yo ou start fee eling the impulse to o buy the next n wizban ng gadget that t lets yo ou talk to anyone, at a anytime from anyw where. Ke eep in min nd it will mak ke you dum mber, limiiting your earning po otential ev ven more than t its slo ower prede ecessors.

The G T Geniius’ss Seccret If you ever e looked d at someo one else’s work w and marveled at how inttelligent th hey were, the observatio ons they noticed n tha at you may y not have e, hopefully y now you u are gettin ng a clue as to t why.

When a New York k Times re eporter inte erviewed a number of recent winners w off Mac cArthur "g genius" gra ants, an ov verwhelmin ng numbe er of them said they kept cell phones, p iPod ds and the eir laptops off or awa ay when in n transit so that they y could us se the dow wntime for thin nking.

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Another example is finance guru Suze Orman, despite an incredible number of entrepreneurial and media commitments, she refuses to get sucked into the distraction vortex.

She won’t check messages, answer her phone or allow anything else to come between her and what she's working on. "I do one thing at a time," she says. "I do it well, and then I move on.”

Take a Look In the Mirror Now before you go out and blame all of your work challenges on everyone else’s incessant desire to communicate with you – you need to get a little introspective.

Experts tell us that we interrupt ourselves nearly as much as we let others do it! Though we don’t call it an interruption when we are doing it to ourselves, instead we call it distractions.

It seems that the distracting lure of checking e-mails, surfing the Internet, participating in forums, instant-messaging and chatting on the phone is as seductive as an urgent interruption from others!

The first step is to stop fooling ourselves about our capacities to switch between tasks. We have to resist the "it will only take a minute" impulse to read an e-mail, check a blog post or make a phone call chat in the middle of a demanding task or activity.

Performance Boosting or Enslaving Technology?

What’s most striking to researchers studying the nasty effects of interruptions is that practically no one takes even the most simple steps to reduce the number of interruptions in their life.

There seems to be such a compulsive quality to our relationships with devices that intrude on us regularly.

55% of knowledge workers told researchers they open e-mail immediately or shortly after it arrives – NO MATTER HOW BUSY THEY ARE! Harvard psychiatrist John Ratey M.D. is on record stating that the neurochemistry of addiction underlies our compulsive use of cell phones, computers, emails, text messages, and instant messaging.

“If we could measure it as we're shifting from one thing to another, we would find the brain pumping out little shots of dopamine to give us a buzz."

It’s gotten so common that it’s even been turned into a disorder. Psychologists now call our growing addiction to interrupting activities “Online Compulsive Disorder."

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Edward M. Hallowell, a twenty year veteran professor at Harvard Medical School, has a better term for this disorder - Screen Sucking.

What about you?

Have you become addicted to interruptions in your daily work?

How often do you sit at your desk for an hour or two working on one task without getting up or doing anything else (like checking email or surfing the web, etc…)?

If you are like the majority of people and you’re being honest with yourself you realize that it has become a problem.

If you’re checking email more than twice a day, respond or send instant messages several times throughout the day, or seem to always be getting on and off the phone – then face it… these tools are no longer boosting your performance.

You’ve become enslaved to technology.

If you have even a twinge of doubt whether you’ve got a problem, then you do.

The very first step for you to take is to stop pretending that all the different interruptions you are “letting in” are normal, neutral and have no effect on you.

Because they most certainly do.

And the main reason is…

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As Interruptions Increase…

Net Worth Decreases Remember just a few pages back, in the beginning of this section I listed out for you what I’ve called the Income “Friction Accelerants”?

Just to jog your memory I put them here on the graphic on the right.

As you can see, each income decreasing force stems from the rapid increases in the number of interruption sources all around us.

In order to lick this problem the very first step is to take a closer look at each of these income leaches.

This way you can recognize each of these business-debilitating drivers if or when they rear their ugly heads.

Ridding your life of these is one of the key factors separating the frustrated entrepreneur wannabes from the happiest, most intelligent and wealthiest business owners on the planet.

Don’t believe me?

Just run down the list of these friction accelerants and think about Bill Gates or Warren Buffet and decide for yourself if you think they’ve got any of these going on in their business and personal lives.

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The Chain Reaction Ravaging Business Owners’ Brains Look, all the courses you’ve studied, all the ebooks you’ve read, and all the teleseminars you’ve attended won’t add up to an extra nickel in profits if you allow your brain power to be reduced to mush.

But that’s exactly what’ll happen if you let the chain reaction of income friction accelerants wreak havoc on your critical thinking processes.

That’s why it is critical now that we take a moment to get a handle on each of them.

This way as soon as any one of them rears its ugly head in your life – you’ll recognize it quickly and yank it out of your life and kick it to the curb.

We’ve already covered the constant barrage of interruptions and what’s causing it, so let’s move on to why so many Internet marketers’ minds are being reduced all the way down to the…

Attention Span of a Gnat MIT Professor Ted Selker told the BBC during a recent interview “Our attention span gets affected by the way we do things… if we spend time flitting from one thing to another… we can get into a habit of not concentrating."

And guess what?

Every time you get interrupted, every time you get distracted you are actually training yourself to reduce your overall attention span.

You are actually building yourself a new habit that continually reduces your ability to learn, nose-dives your ability to understand the moderately complex, and could ultimately drop your wealth earning potential into the depths of business failure.

It’s one of the biggest ironies of life isn’t it?

The habits we want to acquire are difficult to practice daily for a long enough period of time for it to click into place.

Yet, the damaging destructive, and debilitating habits are just the opposite. We actually have to fight not to acquire them – because it’s so easy to fall into the daily routine of unconsciously practicing those activities that build the bad habits.

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The bad news is… without noticing it you’ve probably already reduced your attention span significantly and that it’s already costing you money in sacrificed profits.

The good news is that it’s dead simple to regain what you’ve lost.

The reason is that somewhere deep in the recesses of your brain, the pathways have already been built up for you to have the longer attention span you had earlier in life before you unknowingly started to shorten it.

Even better, you can build your attention span to levels you never thought possible with a few simple yet fun activities I am going to show you later on in this doctrine.

The first step to getting your attention span back to the levels you had before is to simply resist the interruptions and distractions that you have succumbed to in the past.

Too Many Options Will Paralyze, Delude, Waste Time & Disappoint It’s obvious nearly everyone desires to have choices in life. And when we don’t get to make the choice in an area we may consider as important in our lives – we often resist because we enjoy our freedom and don’t like being forced to do anything.

But what almost no one realizes is that there’s a very real limit to the number of choices we can enjoy. And when you cross that line, choice goes from good to bad awfully fast.

Just because some choice is good, doesn’t mean that even more choice is better.

The first effect of too many choices tends to be paralysis. We have too many options to choose from so we can’t choose at all. I see this all the time in Internet marketing and with small business owners.

There are so many different ways to market a business and so many opinions on the right way to do it. What ends up happening is the entrepreneur who goes out looking for the “right” way to do things often finds themselves going down a rabbit trail of confusion which naturally leads to inaction.

And experts tell us they see this all the time – the more choices we have the greater our belief that there is a perfect solution for us somewhere buried deep within the choices.

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What follows is predictable… the stronger our belief that there is a perfect solution out there (whatever perfect means). The more we end up searching for that perfect solution – wasting more time than is really necessary or appropriate.

Unfortunately it doesn’t end there. Because the more convinced we are there’s a perfect solution out there, the less likely we will be happy with our final decision since it never lives up to the false belief of the perfect solution.

If You Think More Is Better…

Than You Don’t Know Yourself As Well As You Think A consistent problem I see in many entrepreneurs is the conviction that more is always better than less. But the truth is most people don’t really know themselves that well (of course we all think we do). That’s why most people don’t know what’s good for themselves.

So entrepreneurs go around accumulating more marketing tactics with the mistaken belief that the business owner who is familiar with the most marketing tactics somehow wins in business.

But the truth is the polar opposite. Because as the number of marketing tactics you know climbs, mastery in any of them plummets. And online this is even more costly than offline. Since online advertising more closely resembles an auction format than offline, a competitor that’s mastered a certain marketing vehicle will force you to spend more money for a worse result.

Bottom line – sometimes knowing too much can hurt – especially if your knowledge acquisition has been somewhat haphazard in the past.

This personal example should resonate with you – whether in your personal life or possibly your business life.

Since I spend a good part of my time optimizing businesses you would think when it came to my own business I wouldn’t need any help whatsoever. But you would be wrong if that’s what you thought.

I’ve always sought out advice when dealing with my own business challenges. And I can’t think of a time I’ve ever regretted it. Actually just today I called Internet Marketing Guru Mike Filsaime to get his opinion on an important matter. I knew I was simply too close to the situation to be objective and unbiased.

After giving me the advice I needed, Mike hit me up for some advice. When we were wrapping up we actually spoke about this common experience. Both of us were

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com mmenting how h ironic c it is that it’s always s easier to o see solutions in oth her people e’s cha allenges tha an it is ou ur own.

T Featture Frustration The n Bell Curve Anotherr great exa ample of how h often the t “more is better than t less” is wrong is i a phe enomenon I’ve labele ed “The Feature Frus stration Bell Curve.””

I’ve mad de this miistake of wanting w mo ore and more features when buying b tech hnology gadgets more times tha an I would like to admit.

I’d go in nto more detail d but since s I kno ow my wiffe will be reading thiis I can’t. I simply refu use to give her any additional a ammunition to shoo ot down th he next item m on my wish w list.

With th hat said…I finally did d learn my y lesson. I just have e way too many m unu used elec ctronic dev vices litteriing my garrage and my m home office. o I gav ve up on them t after wasting a few hours tryiing to get them work king as they were ad dvertised.

When you y pack too t many features in n any sing gle tool it gets g incred dibly comp plicated to mas ster. If you u’re a gadg get freak liike me, it’s s hard to face f the co old hard re eality that tech hnology ha asn’t a dev vice to do everything e g that’s eas sy to opera ate.

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From Invincibility to Mental Exhaustion

Has this ever happened to you…?

You have a great weekend and you’ve made some important distinctions that you can’t wait to get working on.

So you start your Monday fresh and rejuvenated, ready to tackle what the world throws your way and to start making progress on what you realized over the weekend.

Yet, by noon your sense of invincibility has started to fade into the background as you are forced to juggle all the challenges, complexities, and opportunities being thrown your way.

And by the time the day is over, you look back and wonder why you didn’t get any real high leverage activities done or even started. You’re exhausted, yet you’ve got nothing to point back to and say it was all worth it. So you chalk it up to a bad day, and promise yourself tomorrow will be different, but it almost never is.

Not to worry, help is on its way.

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We hope the first two parts of The Attention Age Doctrine have helped you understand what this new age means.. and in next installment Rich will be covering the opportunities that lay ahead.

We’ve had to pull Rich away so he can complete his agenda for our upcoming seminar.

His preparations include defining and laying out the opportunities to profit from The Attention Age, as well as finalizing the actions steps needed to implement eveything you’ve learned to double your business in the next twelve months.

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In the e meanttime, he e’d like you y to map m out the folllowing areas, a and d how they are impactting you u and yo our busiiness: Make a chart M c off the tim me you spend s ea ach day y doing nonn p producti ive task ks: emaill, tinkerring with h techn nology, surfing s the web,, watchiing TV… … anythiing you do alon ne that isn’t i m moving your y bu usiness forward f d.

S a sch Set hedule to t do on ne task at a tim me; allow wing onlly 30-60 0 m minutes to do itt, and th hen putt it away y for later. Keep p track o each interrup of i ption that preve ent you from fu ully focu using on n the task k.

M Measure e the atttention others are a payiing to yo our bus siness… h how man ny visito ors to yo our site e, how many m op pt-ins, sa ales, e etc… ma ark each h as dec clining or o increa asing.

S Stop tak king in needless n s inform mation fo or a wee ek - the p paramet ters hav ve been extensiv vely cov vered in this rep port.

Rich wo R ould als so like to t invitte you to t listen n in on Jay Ab braham discuss sing witth him the im mpact this t new w direc ction wiill have e on you in i the very v nea ar futurre, and the ste eps you u need to take e now.

To acces T ss it, jus st registter for frree at http://www.strategicp profits.c com/jay yprivate/ / Also, the date es of ou ur semin nar are July J 12, 13, 14 4, 15… we w are offfering you y an invitati i ion to what w willl be reco ognized as the one-ofa-k kind eve ent that launch hed more e online e entrep preneurs s into 6,, 7, and d eve en 8 figu ure busiinesses, than anything a g else on nline orr off.

Check k out ou ur over the t top guarantee – an nd our extremel e ly gen nerous paymen p nt terms s on the inexpen nsive prrice for this t eve ent. You u can n read all a abou ut it here e: http://www w.strateg gicprofits.com/llive

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Last, if YOU have a project or business that you're trying to get off the ground, We’'ve got an INCREDIBLE opportunity for you.

Imagine if you could call up several of the SHARPEST marketing minds on the planet...

Imagine if you could suck every DROP of extremely profitable advice from their skull...

Imagine if their advice was one-on-one and handed to YOU on a silver platter...

I'm talking about PERSONAL advice from Jay Abraham, John Carlton, Jeff Walker, Mike Filsaime and myself, Rich Schefren. If you need help with your blog or traffic, I’ll also bring in the best in the business to help you.

These guys typically charge fees such as $1250, $2000, and even $5000 an HOUR! Imagine if YOU could get ALL OF THEM to work on YOUR BUSINESS? You could literally implement ONE idea from each of these marketing masters and triple your profits. Seriously, I call these guys up on a REGULAR basis and ask for help with my business. And their advice is usually worth SIX and in some cases SEVEN figures.

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My Challenge For You Is...

Do you have ANY idea how much THEIR attention would be worth to YOUR business?

Well here's the deal...

I want to PROVE how powerful the ideas in my latest report are. In fact, I've decided to create a contest. This is UNLIKE any other contest you’ve seen.

If you WIN first prize, you'll get PERSONAL, one-on-one, one-hour calls for advice with me and each of the marketing experts that I referenced above.

If you've got a business or an idea for a business, getting on the phone and having these guys DISSECT your project is PRICELESS. At a minimum, it's worth about $25,000.

But even if you don't win "first" prize, there are 5 runner-up prizes which pay $1000 CASH in your pocket!

So what do you have to do to win?

The contest is simple.

You've read my latest report. It's all about how ATTENTION can make you money.

Now, I want to prove it.

The person (or team) who can create the MOST attention about my latest, groundbreaking report (and my upcoming seminar) will win first prize.

You You You You You You You

can can can can can can can

write press releases... write blog posts... write forum posts... call a radio station... mail your list... upload a video to YouTube... do almost anything...

(But No Spam!)

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The goal is to show how you can create ATTENTION. If you can demonstrate that you understand the concepts in Rich’s report, and you create a palpable BUZZ on the Internet, you could win first prize, or one of the runner-up prizes.

So there it is. A chance to win PERSONAL advice with several marketing masters. A chance to show off your marketing chops. A chance to win cash….

A chance to impress Rich with your marketing skill.

And who knows what that could do for your business!

Read the report again and then spread the word about the report (and the seminar if you wish).

Then, document what you did and complete the form at: http://www.strategicprofits.com/getattention

You have until July 8, 2007. After that, winners will be chosen.

To Higher Profits, The Strategic Profits Team

i

Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobiles (EPROM) (part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Design Laboratory, “Why Africa?”) <http://web.mit.edu/eprom/whyafrica.html> (accessed October 23, 2006). ii Internet World Statistics: Usage and Populations Statistics <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm> (accessed October 23, 2006). iii VeriSign Internet Security Intelligence Briefing, June 2005, Volume 3, Issue 1 <http://ask.yahoo.com/20060324.html> (accessed October 23, 2006). iv Sean Michael Kerner, “IM Accounts to Number in the Billions,” Enterprise, July 19, 2005 <http://www.internetnews.com/entnews/ article.php/3521456>. v (“The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity,” Jonathan B. Spira and Joshua B. Feintuch, Basex, 2005) vi (“The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity,” Jonathan B. Spira and Joshua B. Feintuch, Basex, 2005) vii (U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics June 2005)

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