Miscellaneous Essays
40 articles filed under Miscellaneous Essays.
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Miscellaneous Essays
Liberal Arts Over Technical Skills For Business Success
I am sometimes asked – and I don’t know why – what course of study I recommend for college students wishing to become successful in business. My answer usually provokes skepticism if not scorn. I recommend…
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Miscellaneous Essays
The Worst Thing I Ever Said to Laura
For years, Laura came to our seminars, sitting in the front row, taking notes and looking earnest. And at least once during each of those seminars, she’d pigeonhole me to tell me something she didn’tlike about…
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Miscellaneous Essays
The Virtue of Laziness
Speed Up Your Career by Indulging Your Lazy Gene The unpaid bills are stacked next to the unwashed dishes. You’ve been short about $1,200 per month since the divorce. You need something to fill that…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Wealth Building for Beginners (Even if You Are Not Young Anymore) — March 26, 2018
4.- “The Most Powerful Force in the Universe” Legend has it that Albert Einstein was once asked what he considered the most powerful force in the universe. He answered, “Compound interest!” It’s commonly…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Wealth Building for Beginners (Even if You Are Not Young Anymore) — March 19, 2018
3.-Your Invitation to the “$150,000 Club” In the last installment https://www.markford.net/wealth-building-for-beginners-even-if-you-are-not-young-anymore-2 of this series, I told you how I got started on my…
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Miscellaneous Essays
What I’m Doing With My Money Now and for the Rest of 2018
Consult an expert, if you like experts. Talk to your broker. Read your broker’s “research” recommendations. But don’t ask me what you should be doing with your money right now. I have no qualifications as a…
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Miscellaneous Essays
How to Protect Yourself From the Next Global Economic Collapse
I wrote the following essay a while ago. It was recently published in Laissez Faire Letter https://lfb.org and I thought I’d reprint it here because it’s relevant… By Mark Morgan Ford Making good investment…
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Miscellaneous Essays
The Most Interesting Ad in the World
Do you remember the Dos Equis commercials about The Most Interesting Man in the World? They were very big for a long time. They may still be running. I can’t say. I don’t watch TV anymore. If you haven’t seen…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Wealth Building for Beginners (Even if You Are Not Young Anymore) — January 29, 2018
2.- Welcome to My Path Let’s stop here, before we move through this thick wood, and think for a moment. What is it that you are looking for? Where do you want to go? You say that you want to get rich. And as…
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Miscellaneous Essays
When It Comes to Your Career, Reading Matters
A Tactical Approach to Reading More Profitably I don’t have time to prove this to you. If you don’t already understand it, don’t bother to read on. You’re a goner. What I don’t have time to prove is the title…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Wealth Building for Beginners (Even if You Are Not Young Anymore)
1.- Wealth Matters: You Decide How Much Making money is not the most important thing in life. And getting rich shouldn’t be your number one goal. But money does matter. And building wealth is necessary if you…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Why You Need a Good Editor, or… How to Edit Yourself When You Don’t Have One
His email was clever and funny. So too (I thought) was my response. I put the two together and sent it to my editor as a witty brief for publication in this little blog. “I think this is pretty clever,” I…
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Miscellaneous Essays
The Exposure Explosion
You Think Sexual Harassment Is News? Really? Men – mostly powerful white men – are being exposed as sexual predators. They are being punished by losing their jobs, their reputations, and, in some cases, their…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Dressing Like a Billionaire
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” – Mark Twain The very idea of dressing like a billionaire is implausible to the point of being silly. Billionaires, after all, are…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Dividends: Not Life’s Greatest Joy But Great for a Worry-Free Retirement
Marc Litchenfeld tells me that John D. Rockefeller once said that what gave him the “greatest joy” was seeing dividends flowing into his bank accounts. Dividends are income – i.e., cash flow you’ve earned from…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Robert Mugabe’s Career How to Bankrupt a Country and Keep It Poor for 40 Years
On November 21, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s authoritarian ruler, was forced to resign in the wake of a military takeover. Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had been Mugabe’s right-hand man was sworn in as president, and…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Ho hum. Another Speech About Money or… How to Make Money and Enjoy It
I hate making speeches – and for good reason. I don’t prepare for them. I ignore them until a week or two before the event. Then I suffer anxiety that rises in a crescendo until the speech and then…
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Miscellaneous Essays
A Monthly Budget That Will Help You Grow Rich
Most people don’t manage their income. They bank it and spend it. This is obviously crazy. Some people do try to manage their income by budgeting. This typically means that you look at what your income is…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Getting There the Hard Way: Breaking Through the Pain
I remember the day that my older boys and I had a breath-holding contest. It was my idea. I had just been trounced by the two of them in an underwater-propulsion contest. (Imagine human torpedoes bouncing off…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Is Armageddon the New Normal?
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall – Think…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Asking for Help… Would You? Should You?
Let’s talk about one of my dumbest weaknesses: the fear of asking for help. It’s dumb but it’s also interesting because it has lots to do with power and politics. Let’s start with an obvious observation: This…
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Miscellaneous Essays
How to Knock Off Your Nasty Old Employer and Have Your Own Nice Little Business
My first real job was as “backseat wiper man” at the Rockville Center Car Wash on Long Island. I was 14 and happy with the $1.25 an hour they paid me. A couple of years later, when I had a summer job as a…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Let Your Business Expand Beyond You Clone Your Brand
AH had done amazing things while working for MM, a competitor of ours. And he did just as well when he came to work for us. He built his part of our company from less than $50 million to more than $100 million…
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Miscellaneous Essays
What to Do When Disaster Strikes
You reach for the mug and knock it over. Hot coffee washes over your laptop. You arrive home and realize you’ve left your bag, with all your IDs, on the subway. Your doctor reads your EKG and says, “Hmm. I’ve…
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Miscellaneous Essays
I Could Tell They Didn’t Like What I Said…
You can tell how well an audience liked your speech if, as you walk back from the podium, you look at those seated at the end of the aisles. If you’ve done well, most of them will be looking at you, smiling…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Creating Memorable Short Presentations 8 Powerful Secrets from TED Talks, NPR, Aristotle and Michael Masterson
For most people, next to the fear of dying, public speaking is their greatest fear. And what’s more difficult than giving a long speech? Giving a short one! “It’s such a little thing,” you tell yourself. “It…
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Miscellaneous Essays
From Life-Altering Advice to Tips on “Trailing Edge Technology” How Gary North Can Improve Your Life
Gary North, an economist, Christian philosopher and good writer whom I’ve known for 30 years, once gave me life-changing advice. We were talking about our careers. Our backgrounds and lifestyles are very…
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Miscellaneous Essays
8 Things I Know About Direct-Response Publishing
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about direct-response (DR) marketing. In particular, how to be successful as a publisher of financial information. When I’m talking about the business to new employees (and…
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Miscellaneous Essays
The Art of Being a Great Interviewer (or How Howard Stern can improve your podcast)
Like every great performance artist, great interviewers make the interview look easy. Unfortunately, the apparent ease of what they do encourages too many unskilled and unimaginative sorts to start their own…
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Miscellaneous Essays
8 Ways to Beat the Blues… and 6 Ways to Manage Serious Depression
In 2011, after having experienced several bouts of mild-to-moderate depression, I was sure I understood it. And I was confident I knew how to beat it. My theory was that it was essentially a malady of…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Having a Supreme and Overriding Goal The Fastest Way to Grow Rich… (And Risk Everything Else)
You’ve probably heard this story already… When I was 33 I decided to become rich and made that my supreme and overriding goal. There were plenty of other things that I wanted to do – like reading books and…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Speak Like a Copywriter: 10 Rules for Having Better Conversations
There are times when I feel smart about my conversations. And there are times when I feel dumb. I feel smart when I give someone a good idea and they gladly agree to try it. I feel dumb when a conversation…
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Miscellaneous Essays
A Short Lesson in Writing Lift Letters
How good are you at judging advertising copy? More importantly, do you know how to fix weak copy when you see it? Test yourself. Read the copy below. It’s a “lift letter,” which is a short letter meant to…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Approach a Job Interview as a Life-Changing Opportunity… Because It Just Might Be
WW, a reader, asks for tips on interviewing for a job... Hi Mark, I recently learned about your amazing success through the Mike Dillard Self Made Man podcast (Episode 2). Coming across this episode this week…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Back Pain?
I could not walk more than five minutes without having to sit down. Some nights I barely slept because I couldn’t find a position that would lessen the pain. I went to two doctors: a neurosurgeon and an…
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Miscellaneous Essays
The Fastest Way to Grow Rich… (and Not Risk Everything Else)
You’ve probably heard this story… When I was 33, I decided to become rich. And I made that my supreme and overriding goal. There were plenty of other things that I wanted to do – like reading books and playing…
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Miscellaneous Essays
J’s Amazing Early Success With Her Little Business: Will She Move Her Business Into Stage Two?
I asked J how her business was doing. “Very well, actually,” she said. “I’ve got all the customers I can handle now and I’m still getting inquiries even though I’ve stopped advertising. J is a “nail…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Starbucks: a Great Company, a Great CEO, an Overzealous Mission Statement
Starbucks is an amazing success. And CEO Howard Schultz no doubt deserves much of the credit. As Travis Bradberry wrote in Entrepreneur Daily, “While many factors contribute to Starbucks’ immunity to economic…
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Miscellaneous Essays
COLLECTIBLE WATCHES
An Australian reader wants to know: I know Mark has bought nice watches in the past, but has also said that a Casio can be just as good. If the subscriber is interested in luxury accessories to wear, a part of…
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Miscellaneous Essays
Making Your Ideas Soar
Think about how many good ideas you have had or been a part of in the past, either in casual conversation, in business meetings, or at conferences and trade shows. How many of them did you execute? And how…
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