Jerry Gardner

With all the hoopla of "The Secret"a couple of years back, it's no wonder that there are literally hundreds of writers, bloggers and "guru's" coming out of the woodwork to capitalize on the phenomenon. I may even work on a book myself.

The thing to do know, it seems, is to declare that The Secret was incomplete. It was life 101. You need to continue on to higher learning. Of course, these teachers are the ones who have the next step or steps.

One of these is a guy named James Arthur Ray and his newest tome is called ,"Harmonic Wealth: The secret of attracting the Life You Want" by Hyperion Press.

In his new book Ray breaks our lives into 5 pillars. These pillars are financial, mental, relational, physical and spiritual. This is nothing new if you've heard Brian Buffini or Joe Stumpf or a host of other Real Estate trainers who want us to live fulfilled lives instead of killing ourselves for money. One good point that Ray makes though, is that we don't live lives of balance in these areas. Balance is impossible. If I spend 8 hours working does that mean I spend 8 hours with my family, 8 hours working out and 8 hours meditating or praying? of course not. Instead, we want lives of harmony.

The rest of the book is spent breaking down the various aspects of existence. There is actually some good advice here. Ray thinks that meditating 8 hours and forgetting about work is a road to ruin. You can't sit around all day wishing and expect success.

Christians may find Ray hard to take when he talks about spirituality. Ray is very hard on the church and religion in general. He seems to be more a a Deist when it comes to faith and is really into shamanism. You need to have a thick skin when exploring any of these writers.

All in all, the book is readable and doesn't bog down too many places. I would recommend Harmonic Wealth for anyone looking for a continuation of The Secret.

When I first started writing this blog I told myself I would only need to do Three days a week. I would do a Market Update on Monday, general blog of whatever was on my mind on Wednesday and a book review on Friday. Easy enough. I found I like it so much that i want to throw in an extra day. So here it is, and it's no charge, of course.

I've always been a little taken aback by the language a lot of Real estate agents use. I've run into a lot of agent here in Livonia Mi that use bad or even foul language. I've always believed that as a sales professional, language is one of our most useful tools.

I'm not trying to come off as an English teacher, which I'm not. Those of you who are or were will easily pick my blog apart for sentence structure, syntax, spelling (especially spelling) and all sorts of infringements. So I;ve decided I'm going to go back to school and take some English courses. There's a local community college right here in Livonia and it seems like a good thing to do.

What got me interested in this discussion was a commercial I saw this morning for a famous hamburger chain. A guy is eating a breakfast sandwich telling his friend about the "hunger pains" he woke up with. His friend corrected him by pointing out the word was "pangs" not "pains". A discussion then ensued about the filling power of the sandwich.

That got me thinking about other commercials I've seen that are correcting bad grammar. For instance, we get "fringe" benefits, not "french" benefits. It's the leaning Tower of "Pisa", not "pizza".

Norm Crosby used to make a living out of mangling language but we as salespeople should know better. What else is out there? Have you hard any recent non-sequiters that caused you pause?

Let me know.

'and a few other things too.

Earlier this fall I made a resolution. I live in Michigan and I choose to live in Michigan, so this year, I wasn't going to gripe about the cold. Even more, I was going to do everything I could to enjoy it.

I've never been much of a winter sports fan, except from my couch. I don't ski. ice fish or play hockey, almost sacrilege in Detroit. Still I was determined to make the best of 6 months of my life. I grew up across the Mississippi River from St Louis. While it's not Florida, it doesn't have the winters of the great white north.

Let me tell you, this morning almost broke my resolve! I had to start the car a lot earlier to make sure the fluids would move. I had to stop my kids from walking out of the house half naked. Then it took me extra time to get to my 7AM BNI meeting. I really thought i was going to lose it. Then I stopped to think.

How many people are out in this cold with no shelter or warm coat? How many poeple had cars that wopuldn't start this morning? How many poeple went without food? I have a warm house, food and my car started. I have a lot to be thankful for.

O.K., I recently saw one of my favorite movies, "Pollyanna", so if I sound a little bit too upbeat this morning that's why. I still love it after all these years. To make it even better my 14 and 12 year old girls loved it too. Actually they love seeing my wife cry like a baby but that's another post.

For all they sappiness of this film, there are some good lessons and one of them is to simply be grateful for what you have. I may not be thankful for the cold, but I'm going to enjoy it as much as possible and have some fun,after I get my work done, of course.

Here's to everyone staying warm and I'll talk to you on Friday.

I was told the other day that you can wish poeple a Happy New Year up to the 10th of the month, after that it's passe. Sounds good to me but what about those clients I haven't called yet? Oh, you haven't called yours either? Is it too late for us?

I don't think so.

There's news to pass on to those clients and the news is called Market Stats!

O.k. wake up. Sorry to bore you but this is a great way to let your clients know you're still alive. Check your MLS and call your clients with what you find out. It's fun, sort of liek hide-and-seek but with numbers. And believe me, you sound so impressive when you slip in words like inventory and active to sale ratio. Here's an example.

In Livonia, Mi, where I live, inventory has gone down quite a bit. A year and a half ago, three bedroom ranches with a basement, 2 car garage, fenced yard and around 1100 aqure feet were a dime a dozen. There were close to 175 on the market. Now Livonia is a suburb of Detroit and has around 95,000 people so it doesn't seem so bad unitl you realize that I was only discussing one square mile. Oooops.

Recently though, I checked the same area for a client and there were a whopping 36 homes for sale. What a drop!

I don't know about you but I see this as good news. Less inventory, more demand, at least that's the theory.

I checked surrounding areas and the same holds true. We are decreasing in inventory. Every town, including the city of Detroit has less inventory now than a year ago. How soon will this translate into higher prices? Who knows? I don't even know if the trend will continue. I know this, though..it gives me a little hope for 2009. and with hope, all I can say is...

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone,

I joined Active Rain a year ago, did two quick blogs and fell off the face of the earth. Well, time to get it going.

One of my joys in life is reading. I thought that every Friday I would give a review of a book I found helpful, heartwarming or just plain fun. I'll try to concentrate on books that would help us in business or life but I may throw in a history book or novel if I think it would be helpful.

One great thing about doing this is it gets me off the couch. To do a review every Friday, I have to read at least 52 books a year. Maybe 48 with vacations. So here goes...

I read a quote last year (2008) and it hit me hard. I heard others quote it so I thought I'd share it with you.

" In times of change, the learners inherit the earth; the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

With that in mind, I encourage us all to be learners. Let's face it, as Real Estate professionals, don't we all want to inherit some Earth?

My first foray into the literary world begins with a small book with big ideas. It's called "As A Man Thinketh" by James Allen.This little tome is only 72 pages, at least my version is, and has fairly large type. It's an easy start for anyone who isn't used to reading. Most people can finish it in one sitting.

Don't let the size fool you. Every sentence in this book is the foundation for later works like,"Think and Grow Rich", "The Greatest Secret" and finally, "The secret". Allen lived from 1864 to 1912 and laid the foundation of the self-help industry to come.

The basic premise is simple, you are what you think about. There's more to it than that but I don't wan to spoil it for you.

My volume, if something so small can be called that, cost all of 7.00. You can also Google the author and read it on-line for nothing.

I hope this helps some of you rediscover the importance and fun of reading and helps your business in 2009.