Axiom 33: Change Your Handwriting, Change Your Life

Whether you knew it or not, your handwriting tells a lot about who you really are inside. When you write in cursive your personality flows out into your handwriting. I first became aware of this after hearing a radio interview with handwriting expert Bart Baggett. At first it sounded like quack science but I was interested enough to investigate the handwriting of some people I knew to verify that there was validity to what he was saying. 

The first big thing I noticed is that women and men have different writing styles. They both think differently and it is reflected in the way they write. Then I thought, "but what about successful people versus unsuccessful people? Do they have different writing styles as well?" 

According to Bart Baggett they do.

There are a couple of handwriting traits that successful people might have. First, writing words upwards from the baseline is a sign of optimism. Secondly, underlining your name is a sign of self-reliance. See my signature above for an example of both these traits. I changed my signature to exhibit these traits after I saw these same traits in the signatures of successful people I know.

Another big trait that successful people often exhibit is found in the lowercase "t". People that cross their t's higher tend to have higher confidence. People that cross their t's lower tend to lack confidence.

Consciously forcing yourself to write differently can actually rewire your brain to think differently. You can boost your confidence, change the way to view the future, change your ability to react to problems, change your attitude, and so on.

I don't normally like to plug products, but for those interested in finding out more check out Bart Baggett's website: www.bartbaggett.com      

Axiom 32: Everything is Cyclical

"What goes up, must come down." -Proverb

"What goes around, comes around." -Proverb

I work in the commodities markets so I've seen booms and I've seen busts. I've learned that everything is cyclical. You always have to anticipate the next step in the cycle otherwise you'll always be playing catch up.

You should be buying when everyone is selling. You should be selling when everyone is buying. Always run the opposite way of the crowd. Don't be afraid to do the opposite. People that never takes chances never make big profits.

Products follow a very predictable cycle. If you can anticipate this cycle you won't be caught off guard.

This is the life cycle that every product follows:

1. A new product is born - People buy it because it fills a need and solves a problem they have. There is a lot of money made from the sales of this new product and the businesses and people that sell this product usually make huge profits.
2. Other people and businesses copy the original product - People want to cash in on the success of the original product so they come up with something similar to compete. Market share is split and profits go down for everyone.
3. The market gets fully commoditized - More copycats sell a similar product to the point that the market gets crowded and profits get smaller. Some companies go out of businesses because they can't compete.
4. The product dies or is reborn - Usually sales of a product eventually drop off as new, better products enter the market. These new products begin their own product life cycle. The only hope for an older product to survive is to be "reborn" in some way that it is made like new again.

The life cycle of a product can make you a victim or make you a winner. Watch for these signs in the market and take advantage of them before others do.

Bring Yuengling to Texas

I want to take a minute to shout the praises of a regional beer you may have never heard of outside of the East Coast called Yuengling Traditional Lager.

I discovered it on a business trip to Charlotte. The first time I heard someone say the name (pronounced Ying-Ling) I thought it was some sort of Chinese beer. Actually, the name is German and the brewery is in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Yuengling is the oldest brewery in America, since 1829. Budweiser actually sued them over this claim and lost in court.

Yuengling is currently run by Dick Yuengling, who believes in slow and steady growth. They've been expanding distribution state by state very slowly. Unfortunately for me here in Texas that means I probably won't see Yuengling for sale here anytime soon. Currently Yuengling is only sold on the east coast, and there are currently no distributors west of Tennessee.

So why all the fuss anyway? Because this beer is awesome. I don't care what the beer snobs say, this reasonably priced beer is the smoothest I've ever had. There's nothing else here locally that even comes close, and there's nothing better than washing a great meal down with this stuff.

I'll do anything to get Yuengling. I've driven 8 hours to Memphis to buy it. I've smuggled it in my airplane luggage from New York City. I've had friends and business contacts bring it to me from Alabama, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Yes, it's that good.

So Dick if you're reading this please bring Yuengling to Texas... or at least send me over a few cases.