Hi there,

I’ve just been reading about a remarkable young girl of twenty. Her name is Ladan Lashkari and I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about her in the future.

She’s making more money on the Internet than 95% of her fellow countrymen do in their regular jobs.

Nothing remarkable about that you may think until you consider that:

• She’s not allowed to accept credit cards
• She can’t cash USD cheques
• She can’t open a Paypal account
• English is not her mother tongue
• She’s a young woman in a severely restrictive male dominated society
• She’s not allowed to travel
• Her country is viewed in the most negative light possible – so much so that she’s even recevied death threats

But despite all these hurdles and others too she is forging ahead with a really successful business. You can take a trip to her blog to see for yourself how she’s overcome all these obstacles and built herself a successful business.

To hear her say:

“I think there’s nothing hard about it. It’s the perfect kind of business for people who want to be independent and work for themselves in a business that there’s no limit to your success.”

… puts a lot of people to shame. Most people give up when faced with even a minor hurdle then turn around and say that you can’t make money on the Internet unless you’re lucky…

BS!

All it takes is persistence.

And age is no barrier either, look at Ladan, she’s only twenty, there are others who are making oodles but are even younger… And I know some people who are way past ‘retirement’ age who have only just learnt about the internet but are already making money.

No matter who you are or where you live you can make money online if you have persistance.

This is what Laskan has to say about it:

“When you are just getting started, you should know it might take some time to make the amount of money you expect, and you should keep on and don’t give up — no matter how people around you try to disappoint you. I think this is the most important and difficult part… it’s where most people give up.”

I highly recommend you read her full story. Click here to be inspired.

Post a comment below and let me know what hurdles you’ve overcome on your road to success… Nothing is too difficult if you really want to do it.

To your success, always.

Stuart

Hi there,

I’ve just found this interesting video and knew I had to share it with you right away. It contains a crucially important marketing lesson.

Would you do me a favour and have a quick look at it? Then post a comment telling me what you think the lesson is – it’ll only take you a couple of minutes.

It’ll help you write better sales letters for sure.

To your success, always.

Stuart

When I was a teenager I was talking to an old man in a pub in England and he asked me where I’d just been.

As I told him that I’d just got back from a wonderful holiday in Morocco he said something that really made me stop and think.

His exact words were “I wish I could have done that when I was a child.”

I’ll never forget those words, words that spoke of lost opportunities, of regret about the things that could have been done if only…

Well, I really felt sorry for that man but I was grateful to him too. For inadvertently he had given me the best advice I’d ever heard.

You see as I sat and spoke to him, and listened to him lament his life, I made a vow to myself that I would never be like him in my old age, rueing the things I wished I could have done.

I vowed to take whatever opportunities life presented me and help others when I could…

That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to go live in South Africa twenty one years ago and then three and a half years ago China where I live now.

It’s been a fantastic education experiencing every facet of life in these wonderful countries and I’d never have missed it for the world.

But what about you, will you truly be able to look back when you retire and say that you’ve done everything you wished you could?

Too many people fail to live their life, they waste so many opportunities that are presented to them and end up lamenting those they missed.

Don’t be like them, whatever your dream is, it’s only a step away… Take the first step and your journey has begun.

I’d love to hear stories from you about your first steps and how you’re living your dreams so post a reply below.

To your success, Always!

Stuart

There’s a hot bidding war on over at Ebay this very moment.

Clayton Makepeace has taken his favourite T-Shirt and put it up for auction (I hope he washed it first)…

And so far this hot little item has attracted bids of $1025 but… this money is not going to end up lining Clayton’s pocket. Not at all. In fact the higher the price goes the more HE will have to pay.

You see, he’s agreed to match the winning bid – up to $10,000 – and that’s a lot of money in anyones book.

But, why is Clayton being so generous?

Well as you know. Recently the lovely wife of Michel Fortin, Sylvie, recently started her own personal war. She vowed NOT to let the breast cancer that had attacked her out of the blue destroy her life.

She’s been fighting hard and is winning the battle. You can read her story here on her blog, BreastCancerVictory.com.

The Fortins are big friends of Clayton’s and he has decided to help all breast cancer victims, his mother also suffered from this terrible disease shortly before she died, so he decided to put his favourite T-Shirt up for auction.

Emblazoned across the chest are the words “Squeeze a Boob, Save A Life” — You can see a picture of it here.

Can you imagine the contacts you’d make if yours was the winning bid and you were to walk into a conference wearing this Copywriting legends favourite T-Shirt?

Everybody would be scrambling to talk to you – what a wonderful way to build up a contact list.

Go over to the auction right now and see how much YOU can make Clayton pay out… And hurry there’s only a few days left.

Here’s the link again

Let’s hope he pays a bundle!

Stuart.

Have you had a similar problem with Skype?

The other day I received a chat message through skype. It was from an unknown sender and written in Chinese so I ignored it.

A little while later a couple more messages came through, also in Chinese. I don’t understand the language but there was a link in these messages that looked like they came from Skype (skypeht.com/skypecn — don’t go there just in case) and telephone numbers from them so I asked my wife to translate…

She said that there was a draw and Skype had chosen me as a winner – “Oh Yeah?”

I thought this was a scam so I asked her to call the number and see what they said.

The guy who answered confirmed the draw story and said “… to claim your prize, go to the Skype website – there’s a link provided – Enter the passcode from the message in the form provided and you will be taken to another page where you will be asked to fill in some more details…”

Now this sounded highly suspicious to me especially as the guy mentioned that I’d have to deposit Y1100 (about $140) ‘tax’ into their account then I would be given the prize of Y28,000 ($3500) — deposited to my bank account – no less!

And… A new Sony Viaos Laptop would be posted to me which I would receive in 3 days.

Here’s where I said a double “Oh Yeah, Really!!”

Now I think this could be a scam of the highest order, so I’ve sent the info to Skype and await their reply.

The chat was in Chinese so it may be limited to mainland China users. But it was well done and looked official – three or four manned landline numbers. Pictures and graphics from Skype and Sony – Logos, screenshots of the computer and the like – all over the one website I visited out of curiosity. (I didn’t click the link just in case, but typed it in my browser.)

I wasn’t even in ‘Skypeme’ mode, I had my status set to ‘online’ when I received the chats… (This begs the question… “Are there ’scraper-bots’ picking up Skype ID’s the same way they pick up email addresses off your web page now?” If so it would be wise to only accept chats from known users and be careful who you add to your address book)

I am living in China at the moment so you may not have been troubled by this type of thing ‘attack’. This is certainly the first time I’ve heard of this type of suspected phishing / pharming attack on Skype.

So… I thought I’d ask you if you’ve ever had a similar experience… If you haven’t here’s a warning for you of what could be a new trend.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts, you can leave a comment below.

Take care online!

Stuart.