Five stages of vision

Update November 07 2010:  I'm no longer associated with Global Domains.  Some of the videos I included may not redirect.

This article is dedicated to all my fellow Internet Marketers and well meaning people, who I hope will find value in these few words that I want to share with you.

I’m writing this at the request of wonderful human being, Dirk Poulsen (Dirkpoulsen.com), whom I’ve had the pleasure of exchanging a few conversations and ideas on what’s missing in the internet for Internet Marketers to help them achieve their goals: be it more free time to spend with their families, make extra money or overall, have a better life and get out of some undesired situation they may have.

Dirk is my up line and possesses some qualities that are extremely desirable in an associate. He’s already successful with Global Domains International by using Adwords the right way, The word Press project as well as other tools. I could write on and on about this, but suffice to say that we both share similar realities and experiences as marketers (some not so good), but most important, Dirk is a great believer in staying in communication with his down line and helping them to succeed. That is the true value of an Internet Marketer. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

Most up lines I’ve had in the past are too busy or desperate to get more clicks to their capture pages and supposed “free courses” and lose vision of the whole picture: ADD VALUE, be it through a physical product sold or simply information that will enhance the reader’s or listener’s knowledge that will aid his survival, not diminish it.

Dirk’s request is actually an easy one to do. You see. I love writing. But most of all: writing that challenges the reader to reflect on reality, stimulate and challenge his mind and help him in some way, be it small or large, achieve his dreams.

I call this:

THE FIVE STAGES OF VISION

(A simple guide to help you choose your friends)

As I’ve been fortunate enough to deal and rub elbows with many walks of life in my fairly long and adventurous life, I’ve been able to observe five different stages of vision in man (this includes woman, of course, don’t want you to feel left out). 

There may be more, or less, for that matter. I just picked 5 as an arbitrary number for ease of reference.  

These might be called “The Five Basic Survival Philosophies”, for that matter, as these are, in essence, philosophies for survival. But I’ve called it “The Five Stages of Vision”, as these are stages can be climbed (achieved) or even descended.

Realize that I’m making some generalizations as I write here and in the groups mentioned there will be exceptions. This is not an attempt to condemn anyone who finds himself in any given stage. Affluent people can be royal jerks and poor people can be the nicest people in the world.

We all may have found ourselves in the lower stages, but have done something about it and are now flourishing and prospering.

Stage 1. A person in this stage is extremely short sighted. He cannot see past from hour in front him to perhaps one day. His “time management system” is founded on one precept: “How am I going to survive this hour. This day?” This is his overriding philosophy, his guiding principle.

Here you find the drug addict, the bums under the bridge, the beggar, the down and outer, the suicide, the criminal intent—if not the criminal, the released-but-never-turned-his-life-around-parolee: your apathy cases (the totally idle). It’s a very sad and scary stage to be in. These are your most needy, but yet few if any want to help them. Why? Simply: despite inferences to the contrary most of them if not all, don’t want to be helped.

They may have gotten here through misfortune. But if they stay here too long, they’re done for. They’re only a cliff’s edge away from certain death and will take anybody who will let them down with them. They stay here because now their vision is not a forward vector (any force with direction and magnitude), it’s a backward vector. Anybody unfortunate enough to be caught up in this vector will be sucked down too. If he doesn’t know what hit him.

Do we have a responsibility to help them? Maybe. But our biggest responsibility lies with the productive: to help the able be more able. Once that is done (Big job isn’t it?), we can help this group if we so choose, but not out of obligation.

Stage 2. Here’s someone who, although is not quite as bad off as your stage 1 above, is still in pretty bad shape. Such person lives mainly from the one day to the week.

A lot of alcoholics are here: the day laborer that must get paid that day (maybe can wait a few days) to go out to the local tavern, hang out with his buddies and suppress his woes with the brew.

Here you find some ruined retirees who have no more challenge in life (they think!), zest for living, and the recluse; the con man who’ll pull the wool over you eyes and rob you blind; the “experienced help” you hired and later realized they were worthless, because they stole from you; The too-many-chances-to-make-any-sense-Joe you keep getting frustrated with and eventually sac.

O yeah, I’m sure you can think of many more examples. But the moral here is being careful with people in Stage 2. The good news for them is they’re not the far-gone of the long gone yet. They can be helped, but only if they make an extra-ordinary effort to help themselves first, and give you verifiable evidence that they’ve done so, WITHOUT interfering with your good works.

Stage 3. Most people in the world find themselves in this stage. This person lives from week to week or month to month. They make a legitimate effort to survive and add value to other people’s lives: their children, spouses, friends and society at large.

Here we find the factory worker, the corporate employee, the manager, the shop worker, the waitress, and most small business owners, to name a few, the productive. I’m sure you can think of more examples.

The unfortunate thing about this stage is that many working stiffs (maybe not all) find themselves here and are looking for a better way. These people wonder: “Will I win the Lotto and not have to work as hard in something I just don’t enjoy or is a dead end? There’s got to be a better way. If only I could find it!”

People in stage 3 are incredibly valuable: they are society’s engine. They are productive and without them we would have few goods and runaway inflation. If everyone had money: who would have the incentive to produce and get paid? -- Probably very few of us. Societies that amass great wealth in the form of currency only eventually go bust. Witness Italy, Germany after WW2 and others.

Stage 4. This is the “comfort zone”, if you want to call it that. Most of us have striven to get here. A Stage 4 can look ahead a few months to a year and plan systematically without much worry. He’s been able to possibly own some nice Real Estate, a continually profiting business, lives off and re-invests his capital, is creative and is possibly not in a rut.

He probably has a good 401K, IRA’s, etc.

But Stage 4’s can make the mistake of dropping their guard and losing it all with a downturn in the economy.

I know someone who lost over $250K with ENRON. Luckily she had other diversified assets that to this day are holding her over. But she came to the realization that she could’ve lost it all, had she not invested wisely in other ventures.

Then, there’s Stage 5:

I wish I could say that all Stage fivers are incredible and super wealthy. Some are, some are not. But most are ethical, not parasitical and give in abundance, not just in their time, but many years if not millennia to come.

Remember that we’re talking about vision here, not necessarily material wealth. A Stage Five has extended vision. He can see ahead years, lifetimes, even centuries ahead.

We’ve been lucky in this world to have personalities such as Jesus Christ. Whether you believe in his doctrines or not is immaterial. We’re still talking about him, aren’t we... after more than 2,000 years! He was able to instill at least some morals to an otherwise screwed up planet. We even had Buddha, for those of you who prefer eastern philosophy, Marco Polo who discovered spaghetti from the Chinese (what was it originally? "Spiget"?).

In more contemporary times we’ve had more controversial figures such Theodore Roosevelt (thanks to him we have national parks), Henry Ford (Model T: the first affordable automobile for the masses).

We also had Thomas Edison (the light bulb, phonograph, movies, electric power). If it wasn’t for him I might have waited another lifetime to be able to write this in a computer.

Today we have Bill Gates, through hook and crook as the case might be, availed us with affordable personal computers access to record keeping, filing and the Internet through windows.

So here you may think you find oppressors such as Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Stalin. They are still talked about after decades or centuries. But were they true Stage 5’ers? Didn’t they achieve immortality through some deranged sense of Superiority Complex? Were they really “superior?” I don’t think so. As time goes on, the world will have forgotten them. Man maybe a little screwed up at times, but he doesn’t like to be reminded of pain.

A true visionary puts the future there, whether he has money or not. He thinks waaaay ahead so that others in years, decades, lifetimes, centuries and millennia can reap the rewards of fruit planted today.

Alas! What a great place to be! To know that one contributes for years to come!

So, in summary, what does this have to do with Internet Marketing?

A lot! We’re not all in it for the money, although it may appear that way. Sure, money is nice. Without it, we cannot survive in this modern world. But shouldn’t money be earned? Yes, it should only be paid for those goods and/or services which ADD value, thereby enhancing somebody’s life, not taking away from it.

Any Internet System, which doesn’t do this, is worth the price of ice in the Artic.

Stay away from people or associates in Stages 1 and 2 if you can help it and instead help Stages 3-5.

If you feel somewhat saddened or put down by me inadvertently putting you in an undesirable category, then move ahead! Get out of there! You don’t belong there. You can move up, you know, by starting to do this:

You are doing more, a lot more than getting someone’s cash by looking waaaaaaaaaay ahead in anything you do.

1.Help your down line, don’t just take their money.

2. Call them: Even if you rather go to bed early, e-mail them even though you’ve had a long and rough day.

3.Once you’ve raised them you’ll realize you’re making money (funny how that works). You won’t make money auto-responding people to death. It’s O.K. to use auto responders, but not while he’s a newbie. The guy has no clue what the hell’s going on. You’ll just confuse him and lose him.

4.Whatever your copy is, product or service, make it worth the purchaser’s time and money. Don’t waste either.

5.Don’t just look at how deep your pockets can grow: This is symptomatic of a Stage 1 or 2. True visionaries never really worried about that, but most end up rich, especially in this day and age.

6. Once you’ve helped a few souls re-invest in promotion and start helping again. If it gets too overwhelming I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

7. Never get too cocky once you’ve reached the top, remember how you got there.

I'll leave you with a great inspirational video from Jonathan Budd, an internet marketer, who I'm sure you'll love:

How to become a successful person

To your health and prosperity,

Carlos Manrique,

My e mail address:

The fighter@bellsouth.net