Tuesday, August 03, 2004 - Volume 2 Issue 13
Colin Evans, Editor (mailto:
)
In this issue
- From the Editor
- Featured Success Article - The Formula For Failure and Success - By Jim Rohn
- Featured Online Marketing Article - Does Microsoft Show Hackers How To Attack? - By Jim Edwards
- Motivational Quotes
- Take A Break - Trouble with R's...
- Tell Me what You Think
From the Editor - Colin Evans
Hi Everyone 
Welcome to this edition of Cols-A-To-Z.
I have a couple of questions for you:
How many eBooks do you buy, hoping to find the key that unlocks
the internet riches door? I used to buy plenty, to the point of
becoming an information junkie.
Do you ever read the eBooks you buy? I used to diligently file
them in an easy to search directory and then forget about them.
If I've read 10% of the eBooks I've collected, it's a lot.
That's all changed now. I won't buy an eBook unless it's to help
solve a problem that I have at that moment. I read the eBook,
sometimes more than once, and I apply the new information I've
learned.
Let me give you an example...
I knew that articles were an excellent way of generating traffic
to any website, but I had no idea how to write one.
I purchased two ebooks dealing specifically with writing articles
and studied them both, (one of them was written by a person whose
articles I regularly publish in this ezine). It took about a week
or so to learn enough to try my hand at writing my first "real"
article.
I submitted it to various article digests and directories, not
especting much, but to my amazement, it was published the week
after I wrote it, by one of the biggest internet marketing
related ezines.
I can't begin to explain the buzz I got from that, not to mention
my smokin' hit counter...
I'm not telling you this to boast, well maybe a little bit, I'm
telling you that some of the ebooks you buy contain information
vital to your success as an internet marketer, but you have to
read them.
Not just read them, you have to study them and then apply what
you've learned.
Until the next time...
Featured Success Article - The Formula For Failure and Success - By Jim Rohn
(Excepted from the book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle
by Jim Rohn)
Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail
overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of
poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is
nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.
Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so
foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or
she does not think that it matters.
On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't
result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not,
we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds.
If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety
days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate
impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us
after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment
for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it
doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far
worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it
matters!
Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a
future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who
smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices
year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter.
But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only
been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant;
instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning
finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices
- choices that didn't seem to matter.
Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short
term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We
do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated
errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and
prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us,
since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention,
we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors,
thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and
making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have
no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.
But we must become better educated than that!
If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment
the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken
immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated
again. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite
his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous
experience accompanying our error in judgment.
Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our
parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our
philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a
powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become
more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each
error really does matter.
Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure,
the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple
disciplines practiced every day.
Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we
change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines
required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the
future an important part of our current philosophy.
Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past
activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to
ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in
the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems
and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings
that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.
But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few
minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We
would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our
current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would
be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into
new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to
change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to
replace the old.
One of the exciting things about the formula for success - a few
simple disciplines practiced every day - is that the results are
almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into
daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short
period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves
noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we
feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we
experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence.
Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce
exciting results that will drive us to become even better at
developing new disciplines.
The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to
amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books,
keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more,
then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a
better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in
every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle
and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we
would never again settle for a life of existence - not once we
have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
This article was submitted by Jim Rohn, America's Foremost Business Philosopher. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine go to
http://www.jimrohn.com
Copyright © 2000-2004 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved worldwide.
Featured Online Marketing Article - Does Microsoft Show Hackers How To Attack? - By Jim Edwards
After another security hole recently surfaced in Microsoft's
Windows operating system, the software giant released a patch
this past Friday to plug the possibly devastating "back door"
which allows hackers to potentially seize control of any pc
running Windows.
The latest threat, "Download.Ject," infiltrates computers after
users surfing with Microsoft's "Internet Explorer" web browser
visit websites infected with the virus.
This newest security patch covers Windows XP, 2000, and Windows
Server 2003.
Several factors make this latest development more disturbing than
past discoveries of security problems with Internet Explorer,
currently the most dominant web browser on the market.
First, it demonstrates very clearly that criminals discovered
they can use the power of viruses to very profitably steal
important bank, personal, and credit data from people on a large
scale.
Second, it took Microsoft what many would consider a very long
time to come up with a patch for this problem.
Before a fix appeared, Microsoft told everyone who uses Internet
Explorer to stick their finger in the dyke by putting their web
browser security settings on high, rendering it impossible to
view or use features on many websites and web-based services.
Third, expect this to happen again as new holes open in the
future when Microsoft makes Windows more complicated, adds layers
of code, and generally makes the operating system more complex.
This may sound like business as usually, however, I think this
story actually points to a much deeper problem, one for which I'm
not sure a simple solution exists.
Though free and reasonably reliable, many people do not
automatically update their Windows operating system through the
update service on Microsoft's website. (I won't even get into how
many people don't operate up-to-date anti-virus protection.)
Whenever Microsoft publishes a security update, especially for a
highly publicized and obviously widespread security breach,
thousands of people will not immediately download the update.
In fact, tens-of-thousands of users will not download these
security updates for days, weeks, even months (if ever).
So let me ask what seems like a very elementary question: By
publishing security updates that point out very obvious flaws
in their system, doesn't Microsoft also point the way to exactly
where the holes exist?
Let me put it another way.
Doesn't this rate the same as discovering that the local bank
vault won't lock and then announcing the details on the front
page of the paper along with the dates and times no bank guard
will be on duty?
After all, if tens-of-thousands of users won't immediately get
the Microsoft Security Patch, don't those patches show hackers
exactly which holes get plugged (and which, logically, must
already be open without the patch)?
It doesn't take a hacker with more than a basic set of skills to
recognize where and what holes got fixed and then
reverse-engineer how they can get into computers that don't get
updated.
Now, do I have an concrete, 100% bullet-proof answer to this
problem? Unfortunately, I don't have more than a common- sense
answer...
At this point, your best defense rates staying current on the
latest threats and how to defend against them.
Keep your anti-virus software current, your firewall up, and your
Windows software updated with the latest security patches.
Though not a perfect solution, at least you'll have a fighting
chance to prevent, or at least minimize, any possible threats.
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr-e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
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"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links... without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here => http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
Motivational Quotes
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it
today.
- Abraham Lincoln
The first principle of success is desire -- knowing what you
want.
- Robert Collier
Take A Break - Trouble with R's...
A young schoolboy was having a hard time pronouncing the letter
''R,'' and all the other kids were, of course, teasing him about
it. To help him out, the teacher gave him a sentence to practice
at home: ''Robert gave Richard a rap in the ribs for roasting the
rabbit so rare.'' In class a few days later, the teacher asked
the boy to recite the sentence out loud.
The boy nervously eyed his classmates--many of them already
laughing at him--then replied, ''Bob gave Dick a poke in the side
because the bunny wasn't cooked enough.''
Tell Me What You Think
I would love to hear what you think of this issue of the "Cols-A-To-Z" Newsletter.
And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you'd like to
share with me, please send those, too!
Just e-mail me at:
To subscribe to my "Cols-A-To-Z" Newsletter, go to the following URL:
http://www.cols-a-to-z.com/join.html
Written by Colin Evans
Editor, Cols-A-To-Z.com
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