Boomer’s Blog

In the Chinese Zodiac, 2008 is regarded as the “Year of the Rat.” Those who bet on Wall Street are likely to agree. Some pundits however, and a great many more investors are recounting the most stellar mistakes of the year with a rueful cringe. Perhaps we’ll all fare better in 2009. This Chinese “Year of the Ox” is aptly named for the heavy load we’ll likely be carrying in our nation’s journey toward economic recovery.

Here are some of the more memorable blunders of the year, many of which are reported in Fortune’s “21 Dumbest Moments in Business 2008.”

1. Apple’s “Think and Glow Rich” App for Entrepreneurs: The geniuses at Apple have made a silk purse out of a dismal economy with the iPhone and its affordable interactive applications and games.  Most iphone apps cost around $5 and many are about as useful to enterprise as pet rocks. But this story may as well be torn from a chapter on psychic ability from Napoleon Hill’s century-old capitalist manifesto: “Think and Grow Rich.” Apparently, a stealth developer penetrated Apple’s channels with an application called “I am Rich” that sold at Apple’s store for $999.99. Eight users apparently bought the app, which produced nothing more than a glowing ruby-red image on their screens before Apple caught on to the hoax pulled the plug on their idreams.
2. Hopeless for Homeowners: In July, Congress passed a $300 billion “housing rescue plan” aimed at preventing an estimated 300,000 foreclosures when the plan took effect in October. Fortune reports that a mere 321 applications to the “Hope for Homeowners” program have been completed. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development says that the costly program has so far produced zero loan workouts.
3. Don’t Point that Bazooka at Me: When Mortgage servicing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hit the pavement in July, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson convinced Congress that a federal funding boost would fix the problem. “If you’ve got a squirt gun in your pocket, you may have to take it out,” Paulson told them. “If you’ve got a bazooka and people know you’ve got it, you may not have to take it out.” Although lawmakers bought into the metaphor, in September, massive declines led the Treasury Department. Now the gun is pointed at American taxpayers.
4. The Man Who Would Be King: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s three-page, $700 billion economic bail-out plan for Wall Street that included less transparency than former mafia kingpin John Gotti’s tax returns.
5. The Primetime Bailout Bonanza: Congressional debate and subsequent beleaguered approval of Paulson’s plan was a circus sideshow of its own. The 450-page final bill they approved contained more sugar and lard than a Paula Deen fruitcake. While the plan did a miraculous job of preserving Paulson’s ambiguity about how the money would be spent, provisions extending tax breaks for toy arrows and wool products are among the few aspects of the Bail-out that were comprehensible to the peanut gallery.
6. Real Estate Entrepreneurs Succumb to Fear: Amid the softening economy, and crises on Wall Street, many real estate investors lost their shirts in 2008 for one simple reason: They failed to execute strategies that are calibrated to meet the changing demands of today’s markets. Too often, when the entrepreneurial belt gets tightened, real estate marketing is the first budgetary item for cutbacks when it should be the last. Without consistent and effective real estate marketing, the “Big Picture” fades and even potentially profitable businesses wither up and die.

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“The day of the go-getter has passed. He has been supplanted by the go-giver. There will never be the need to put the lid back on, because, in the future, business will be conducted by methods that will require no pressure,” said Napoleon Hill. “The business depression marked the death of one age, and the birth of another. This changed world requires practical dreamers who can, and will put their dreams into action. The practical dreamers have always been, and always will be the pattern-makers of civilization.”

Hill, perhaps the original guru of North American capitalism, wrote the above words in Think and Grow Rich, a self-help book penned in the wake of the Great Depression. And they’ve certainly aced the test of time. Much of this book was inspired by the words and works of downtrodden Scottish immigrant cum billionaire steel magnate and global philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Think and Grow Rich is considered by many to be the gospel of 20th century American Capitalism: work hard, have a firm handshake, get ahead by doing quality work, treat your customers with respect, find success by conquering personal weaknesses. These are some of the basic tenants of Hill’s Philosophy of Achievement.

At the foundation of much of his writing, is Hill’s belief that the source of all great accomplishment can be traced to — and controlled by — the integration of desire with the inner workings of the conscious and subconscious minds. The concept is much more simple than it sounds: Seize control of your own destiny.

Many real estate entrepreneurs are so focused on their businesses that they may find there’s little time left at the end of the day to devote to developing the mind set that will attract wealth. But by clearly defining goals, successfully implementing time-management techniques, and using tools such as SalesTeamLive’s Done-For-You Marketing Campaigns, even the most beleaguered entrepreneur can turn his or her real estate investment business into treasure.

Though the final few chapters of the book explore the “sixth sense,” using the sex drive (”transmuted sex energy”) as a motivational tool and achieving greater physical and mental power with telepathy, this should not distract readers from the overall usefulness of Hill’s work. Most of the material in this book is highly relevant to real estate entrepreneurs navigating the cusp of the 21st century business landscape.

What was true in 1937 when Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich remains a reality in 2008: “Ideas are the seedlings from which great fortunes have grown. One sound idea is all that one needs to achieve success.”