Tyler Jorgenson

So some guys ‘stole’ my law, named it the law of attraction and made a killing marketing the concept that the things we dwell upon become bigger in our lives. The Law of Expectation that I began formulating in 1999 while living in Africa is a little different, and I plan on expounding on it in a post shortly.

I have been waiting on some pretty big deals to close recently. Three big ones and a couple little ones, but they’re all big to me right now. With the real estate market in turmoil none of these deals have gone remotely close to as planned and this has been the source of a small *cough* amount of stress in my life. But today things begin to change in my favor. There may not be one specific thing that will change today, but I believe that the momentum will finally be picking up and moving in my direction. I’m ready to unload these three so I can focus on new projects and spend some quality time with the family that has been so patient with me.

So if you woke up this morning and smelled something in the air, it was the winds of change and it smells GREAT!

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
– Thomas Jefferson

Readers of this blog know that I am a proponent of liberty and limited government. In this election year the above quote stands out to me for I feel that we are faced with candidates that are not overly concerned in our individual freedom. I agree with Jefferson. In both the case of the people having ‘too much’ liberty and in being overly limited there are inconveniences. I much prefer those accompanying liberty than of being led blindly into socialism and heavy handed government.

The Mrs. and I were getting a bit stir crazy in the house today with all of the kids running around so we decided to go get a cookie and then play at the park. There is a new cookie store, the Nestle Toll House Cafe, here by our house so we went to try it out. The staff was polite and courteous, the store was clean and the overall presentation of the store was positive. We ordered some delicious looking cookies (that were as good as they looked) and then went to pay. The total came to $9.44. My wife asked if we could get a cup of water for the kids and the reply by the cashier was “we don’t give out cups of water but we do have bottled water for sale.” After she heard me chuckle at what I feel is a huge marketing blunder the cashier said sheepishly, “sorry, it’s not my call.” She was really sweet so I made sure she knew I wasn’t laughing at her and that she was doing a great job.

I’ve been a small restaurant owner and I know the importance of the up sell. In trying to get the customer to put avocado on their sandwich and get a large drink. I understand that completely… but are we missing something. I just spend close to Ten dollars on cookies and the last thing I remember as I leave the store is that they just wanted more from me. I wonder how much better the customer service would have been if the policy were to give out cups of water for free (or even 10 cents to cover the cup, lid and straw).

If I ever open a cookie store (don’t worry, I’m not planning on it anytime soon) it’s going to have a milk bar. Picture buying a couple of fresh jumbo chocolate chip cookies. As the cashier hands your the bag you can feel the warmth of the cookies radiating from the cute little bag. The sweet smell of the round bit of heaven rises up and you can nearly taste the perfection that is waiting for you. Just as you are about to leave the smiling baker hands you a small glass of ice cold milk (sure you can have soy or low fat if you’d prefer… you’re the customer). Now the treat is complete… you wander in dreamlike trance to the nearest table and begin to savor your snack, dipping it in the cold milk and letting the chocolate chips cover your fingertips.

I don’t know about you, but I’d go back to that cookie place a lot more than the other one. As a marketer this is, in my humble opinion, genius. As a capitalist I am still happy. Sure I lose the milk up sale, unless somebody is wants a larger thing of milk, or soda, or coffee or hot chocolate, etc. but I know that the number of customers will increase and I also know that if my customers have a positive experience they’ll be back sooner to drop another $9.44 on a few cookies.

I rarely read email forwards, but for some reason I watched this video that was forwarded to me today. I’m really glad that I did, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Thank you for being a part of my life.

I just started reading another book, Sharing The Wealth by Alex Spanos, owner of the Chargers. I’ve only read the forward and the first chapter but I am thoroughly enjoying it. Rush Limbaugh wrote the forward in this book about Spanos, who became America’s number 1 builder of apartments from extremely humble beginnings. Here is one quote I loved:

“Two things separate America from the rest of the world. First is our freedom. Second is our Founding Fathers and their brilliance in constructing a Constitution that is itself founded on the notion of the yearning of the human spirit. Our Founding Fathers knew that this spirit is part of our creation. That spirit, that yearning for freedom, comes from God, not from other men granting it to some and not to others, and they wrote a Constitution that limits not the freedom of the American people but rather the power of those we elect to govern us. This is the framework from which individual greatness grows, and to understand this is to understand the roots of this country’s amazing success.”
– Rush Limbaugh

I wish more people had the same level of respect for the Constitution and the Founding Fathers.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
– Thomas Jefferson

I have long been a believer that we create much of our own destiny. There are certainly times when we are lucky without any exceptional effort on our parts, but Jefferson learned that if you want to create a lifetime of fortunate circumstances you must work hard. I would only add that one must also work smart, although I feel that concept is becoming a bit cliche.

Jefferson is on the $2.00 bill, the nickel and the 2007 $1 coin. I think it is worth noting that the early $2.00 bill had Battleship on the reverse. How much luck would a battleship have if it’s crew did not work hard? The $2.00 bill currently has a depiction of the signing of the declaration of independence, another example of a bit of ‘luck’ that came about by the blood, sweat and tears of some great men.
This wasn’t intended to turn into a history lesson, and I may lose a few readers because of it, but I think it is important to show that Jefferson had a sure foot to stand on when he made this quote.

Now, enjoy your week. Work hard, and create some luck.

on a 5 cent coin in 2005.

on a 5 cent coin in 2006.

on a 2007 dollar coin.

Pain or Pleasure?

A friend of mine has a great post about motivation. His friend is building a mansion in Santa Barbara as a speculative investment and is considering moving in rather than selling, even though the market is hot enough to sell, so that the mansion will motivate him to achieve greater goals. Deyl asked: Do you think there is anything wrong with a material thing like a house being a motivator to work hard and smart? He has received some great responses so far.

What I find interesting about choice is that all of our choices in life come down to our desire to gain pleasure and our need to avoid pain. Think about it. From the very simple decisions in our lives to the most complex those two factors are at the root of our the choice we make.

Example

Ask a woman why she spends hour(s) every morning applying makeup and doing her hair. The answers are likely to be either because doing so makes her feel pretty (pleasure) or because not doing so may garnish some ridicule (pain).

You can go through any choice and break it down to these two factors. When the light turns red you stop to avoid pain. Even if you are certain no cars are coming you don’t want the pain of having to pay for a ticket and the serious agony of sitting in traffic school. If you give to charity, what is your motivating factor? Is it because you want the pleasure of helping somebody? Do you not want the pain of higher taxes and want the pleasure of a nice write off?

Understanding these two principals is helping me understand what drives me and what influence the decisions I make. I am currently in the middle of a few real estate deals that are generating a bit of stress, but the idea of the payout and the pleasure it will bring motivates me to make the deals work.

Just because we are driven by pleasure and pain doesn’t make us bad people. If the things that we associate pleasure to are being able to contribute back to society then that’s a good thing. If you get pleasure from knowing that you are providing for your family, creating employment, promoting commerce, etc then building a nice house for you and your (6) kids is a great thing. Especially if it’s going to motivate you to take on more ventures that are likely to continue the cycle even more. So, Deyls’ friend, build on and love your home. Enjoy the pleasure that comes from the sense of accomplishment and knowing that you are living in something that you envisioned from a bare lot and a bunch of sticks.

I stumbled accross this interesting site and it made me think about how I am doing my marketing. It may be time to rework my marketing plan a bit and try some new branding tools. Now I don’t read too much Dutch, but it’s close to Afrikaans which I also don’t read much of so I don’t know entirely what the site is all about but from what I can see it’s a Dutch online shopping site. I think we’re in a time of the business cycle where we can’t just keep doing things the way we used to do them. The Realtors I know that are still in business have completely changed their business plan for 2008 compared to 2006. Those that are trying to do it the same are hurting, badly. It’s probably the same in other business sectors as well, I’m sure the successful stock investor is trading differently than in 2005. Anyways, just some food for thought.

So often in life we create our own limitations. Interestingly enough our limits are self imposed or conditioned by others who feel inadequate. When we are born we are nearly fearless (the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises are with us from birth) but we learn to fear failure through being teased or ridiculed. I got this little glimpse into my 1 year old daughters limitless perpective on life and loved it. She’s just doing what she sees her 3 year old sister do… so why couldn’t she be able to do the same? Look around you and see if there is somebody that has attained goals you would like to attain and ask yourself if you believe that you can achieve the same levels of success. Too often we don’t give ourselves enough credit, or have enough faith in our own ability to achieve greatness. Raise the bar.

-Posted From My Treo –

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and this week the leader of my church passed away. Glen Beck says much of how I feel, his video is below.

I hope to one day be able to have the sort of influence upon people that Garth Brooks has. I don’t mean that I want to be a music star, as if that was an option anyway. I feel richly blessed in my life and want to help people live a life full of passion. I want to inspire people. To have people that need a little kick in the pants, a little motivation, some reframing or a new perspective come to me and I want to lead them on a journey to greater personal strength. What Garth did, in taking a little time out to share his experience with Alva the concession worker, was amazing. In those few moments Alva’s entire life may have shifted course. I may be hallucinating this but I see a girl that had poor self esteem that now has something she can hang on to as a reminder that she is of infinite value. I see a girl who will now take charge of the life that she may have been drifting through. How can I make this sort of impact in the lives of people I am lucky enough to be a part of?

I got an email early yesterday morning from my friend Deyl inviting me to lunch. I’ve posted links to Deyl’s blog before but the background is that Deyl and I went to Elementary, Middle and the first part of High School together. I moved from San Diego to Wrightwood just before our Sophomore year. It was great to reconnect with Deyl and even though we didn’t have hours to chat since we both had meetings we had to get to I really enjoyed talking through a couple of deals. Deyl and his wife Paige have a great outlook on life and are both going to be household names within a matter of years.

As I was waiting outside the Cheesecake Factory at Bella Terra I overheard a couple of businessmen discussing a new product they were promoting. Since I try not to be shy about opportunity I introduced myself and we shared a brief, but rich, dialog. They invited me to help them with their product and we exchanged contact information. I don’t know if anything will come of the interaction, but I was pleased that I didn’t allow a silly fear of introducing myself get in the way of a potential opportunity.

I made it back to Chino a little late for my two o’clock meeting but not too late for it to be saved. I met with one of my new licensees and we went through some business strategies for how he can make good money even in the current market. There is a lot of opportunity out there and we are only limited by our own lack of vision.

A few business calls and emails later I was on my way home to my beautiful wife and kids. My twins turned 1 year old today… Happy Birthday!

We are packing up and moving to a bigger house this weekend. I am amazed at how much ‘stuff’ we have accumulated during our 5 years of marriage and 3+ years in this house. Perhaps the hardest thing is to look at everything and realize that it had a cost. I have boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff that I don’t really use. It must have cost me thousands to buy all of this stuff but it adds up piece by piece and dollar by dollar.

How much do you think you’ve spent on ‘stuff’ that you don’t use? What could you have spent that money on instead (philanthropy, investments, HDTV)?

I came across this quote today:

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
– Thomas Jefferson

It seems pretty prophetic now especially when one thinks about how far and deep the impact of the the sub prime loan crash is being felt. I have friends in South Africa that are feeling the effects, friends traveling to Germany are concerned about a weak dollar as they exchange to the Euro, and hey, don’t forget about my colleague that just told me yesterday he let his house go to foreclosure when the market dropped $100k below what he owed on it.

Here’s another quote that people could have listened to and, had they headed his warning, we may not be seeing such a crazy popping of the bubble.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

– Thomas Jefferson