Hello Everyone,
Have you ever heard of the Cassandra effect? I was haunted by it for years in dreams and suffer severely from it today in reality. Let me explain:
In Greek mythology Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by the god Apollo. When she spurned his love she was condemned by him never to be believed when she forewarned of tragic future events.
The Cassandra effect then is when one believes that they know the future happening of a catastrophic incident, having envisioned it in some way or experienced it first hand. However that person knows that nothing can be done to stop the event from happening and secondly, that no one will believe them when they are forewarned.
Although I didn't know the name of it at the time, I experienced this syndrome for years after I returned from Vietnam . My best buddy, Stanly Kopcinski and two other platoon members, Joe Lilley from Mobile Alabama and George Mack from Rhode Island were killed by a command detonated mine. Two others, I won't mention their names because to the best of my knowledge they are still alive, were severely wounded. One lost an eye and the other was traumatically castrated.
I loved Stan dearly, more than I can ever put into words. He was genuinely a good person, not an evil bone in his body. He was more like a twin brother than my best friend. When I returned from Vietnam, for years afterwards, I would nightly dream that I tried futilely, without success, to save his life. The circumstances of his death in my dream were different than actuality but the result was the same. I dreamed that he was going to be killed in ambush while on patrol like my good friend Johnny James from Long Beach, CA who was killed about the same time and with whom I shared C rations minutes before his death. In my dream I would plead with Kop not to go on patrol but he was a free spirit with a light hearted attitude, gutsy and afraid of nothing. He wouldn't listen. He'd saddle up, go patrol and sure enough be killed in an ambush. Night after night I had that same dream for years. It was terrible. The harder I tried to warn him of his impending doom the more light he would make of it and the more frustrated and impotent I felt. It was like the movie Groundhog day, only tragic.
After my heart pooped out in '96 when I was on a serious roll, earning nearly a million dollars a year and the top money earner in the company, I was severely incapacitated. The docs told me that my condition was irreparable and that I'd never make it out of the hospital. When I did, my standing release orders (I still have them) limited me to 10 minutes of activity (that includes brushing my teeth as an activity - no kidding) every two hours for the rest of my life. For years I was almost totally incapacitated. I'd sleep 16-18 hours a day. This shouldn't have happened. I was only 50 years old and in excellent physical condition. I worked out, ran, was a practicing martial artist and didn't smoke. Fortunately, I was debt-free and financially secure because I had invested my time in proactively building my business.
Around the same time I had a friend succumb to cancer. He live a righteous lifestyle and, like me, was fortunate enough to be debt-free because both of us had used our energies to build a residual income that would protect us and our families. As a result of our experience, I would do my best to encourage folks to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them and protect themselves in the event of unforeseen catastrophe - because bad stuff happens to everybody. It's a matter of "when," not "if" but many wouldn't listen.
It's the Cassandra effect, all over again. Sadly, many still will not listen. Over the years I have had more than a few folks come to me who disregarded my advice, let the opportunity slip through their fingers and then awoke one day to find their days were numbered. With tears in their eyes, a few openly sobbing, they'd beg me to help them build their businesses overnight so their families would be financially protected. I cannot even begin to tell you how heart wrenching those scenarios were but there was nothing I could do. This business is built one person at a time, not overnight.
Sadly, there are those who will read this, be concerned for a few minutes and then go back to business as usual and some, among you, will come to me one day tearfully expecting miracles when it is too late. This will happen.
In the past two days I have gotten three emails that I want to share with you. The first two came from folks, both about a year in the business, who started out doing well but let life get in the way, lost momentum and have said "I've got too much on my plate with my job. I just don't have time to do two things at once."
What a bullshit excuse for laziness and lack of guts to take charge of their lives! What a sign of complacency! They've surrendered and are willing to trade time for dollars for the rest of their lives and be controlled by others. How very sad!
This business is easy if you don't make a big deal out of it. It's conversational marketing. Nothing more, nothing less. Are they talking to people anyway? Does it take any more time out of their day to ask someone if they know of anyone who shops on the internet or if they get cash back themselves on purchases they make?
I don't care if you are selling cars or real estate, banging nails or pulling teeth, you have time to do this business. If you truly love your job why not do it as an avocation for fun not just as a vocation, slaving to put food on the table?
My skin has grown tougher over the years and should either of these folks - or any of the others who mentally quit come to me when tragedy befalls them, I no longer have the capacity to sympathize or empathize. God has given everyone who was ever introduced to Market America a wonderful gift to be as free as a bird and help others do the same. Those who choose to shackle themselves to a job for the rest of their life when they could enjoy the lifestyle that Gingie and I and hundreds of others in this company have, get what they deserve. What could be better than hanging around successful, positive people and doing whatever you want, whenever you want without being encumbered with financial worries?
The third email was from a gal who has been in the business for a number of years. Her husband owns his own business and does extremely well - a solid six figure income - but their lives are controlled by his business. She says, in so many words, that the business owns them and she laments that had they followed through a little more on their commitment to Market America beginning ten years ago they would undoubtedly be where they are financially today but they would be FREE - which is really what this business is all about. Now that she has had the personal wake up call will she follow through? Who knows? The choice is hers and her husband's. I've seen folks in the past have the same revelation and then continue on the treadmill.
Take a lesson from the Chinese who read and study every chapter in my books. The answers are all there. Review the first chapter in Reflections of a Master. Study it. Burn the message in to your brain. Borrow the book if you don't have a copy. There are a ton of them floating around. Let the chapter sink in and seriously ask yourself what you want to do with the rest of your life. Have fun or be a drone? Why exist when you can live?
It truly is later than you think!
Frank
sent via blind copy
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