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Have you ever experienced that joyous feeling when you’ve found a lost car or apartment key? That’s how I’ve felt lately - but at a much more enormous, quiet and subtle level. It’s like that scene from Stephen Chow movie “Kung Fu Hustle” when the lead gets beaten up, is bandaged, and suddenly comes out as one big kung fu master that beats the hell out of all the bad guys. Metamorphosis - that’s probably the closest I can think of. The caterpillar becomes a butterfly.

It’s like nirvana.

What the hell am I talking about? That challenge I imposed on myself put me I’m deep in the study of the Science of Getting Rich lately. I’ve found it very enlightening - to the point that I found sudden peace in myself. I’ve found confidence.

The words I write in this blog is not enough to describe the encounter. If only I could put my whole essence in to you, for a brief moment, so that you would understand, I would.

It would seem crazy and perhaps it is. However, it doesn’t matter. I realized the craziness and how I perceive that people impose ‘craziness’ has been one of the main obstacles to growth. It’s been one of the things keeping me from growth.

Perhaps it is also one of the things that keep you from getting wealthy. It may perhaps be the single most powerful block in keeping us all from abundance. We’ve been unintentionally preventing ourselves from being wealthy.

Realizing this simple truth, I’ve been kicking myself for not ‘getting it’ much, much sooner. I knew the answer all along yet failed to see it. It’s like one of those romantic movies where a guy has this great female friend who been ‘always there’ but falls in love with someone else. When that someone else dumps him, he’s devastated. The good friend sticks around and helps him through. He then sees her in another light - that what he’s been looking for has been right in front of him all along.

Enlightenment is not as romantic but it does make you feel awkwardly stupid.

You see, There two basic obstacles to wealth:

1. Lack of Business Knowledge. - You think you know something. You have to be reminded that there is always a different way of looking at things. In entrepreneurship, you must think in a certain way to become wealthy.

Consider this, there a whole lot of MBA majors out there. Are they rich? Are they sufficiently wealthy that they can just sit back and drink fruit juices indefinitely at the beach? No. Why? For some reason, the higher income bracket you go, the higher the lifestyle change. That’s not wealth now, is it?

If you’ve read Robert Kiyosaki, you’d know that wealth is actually a function of time. The question for all of us to consider is, how long can you sit around doing nothing and still make money? Passive income is what you need. It’s what we all need.

Two other business basics to always remember - (1) You must trade something of greater use value to cash value; (2) You must leave an impression of increase.

The following is an excellent anecdote on this.

Let us suppose that I own a picture by one of the great artists, which, in any civilized community, is worth thousands of dollars. I take it to Baffin Bay, and by “salesmanship” induce an Eskimo to give a bundle of furs worth $500 for it. I have really wronged him, for he has no use for the picture; it has no use value to him; it will not add to his life.

But suppose I give him a gun worth $50 for his furs; then he has made a good bargain. He has use for the gun; it will get him many more furs and much food; it will add to his life in every way; it will make him rich.

“Leaving An Impression of Increase” simply means that no matter how small the business transaction is, give your customer or client that impression that he has ‘advanced’ because of your transaction. It can be great customer service or perhaps simply having an excellent product.

Now some of you, like me, would say - “I already know these!” If you didn’t, you can simply study more theories and concepts on business.

So what the other thing that we must be aware of?

2. Emotional Stumbling Blocks - my personal enlightenment at this point. Have you heard the expression “Being rich is bad?” or “It’s much better to be poor?” Well, this has been ingrained in me when I was a kid. I’ve managed to erase it a bit but there are other feelings that also get in the way - Pride, Prejudice, and Fear.

Sound familiar?

When you read all these online entrepreneurs you will see how they become rich. They even sell books and offers seminars of their experiences. When you’ve read them, you’ll find out that it’s really simple. Perhaps you’ll even think “I can do this!”

After a while though, things get in the way. You don’t do what they tell you to do. When you think about it - it’s probably because you don’t want to do it. If you dig deep, you’ll even see that your emotions block you. You are either too afraid or too proud to start.

I know this because I’ve been like that. How many of you experienced the same thing?

Luckily, I’ve learned a emotional release and acceptance technique called the “Sedona Method.” Here’s how it goes:

First, Focus on an issue that you would like to feel better about, and then allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling in this moment. Ask yourself one of the following three questions:

• Could I let this feeling go?
• Could I allow this feeling to be here?
• Could I welcome this feeling?

Then, No matter which question you started with, ask yourself this simple question: Would I? In other words: Am I willing to let go?

Again, stay away from debate as best you can. Also remember that you are always doing this process for yourself—for the purpose of gaining your own freedom and clarity. It doesn’t matter whether the feeling is justified, long-standing, or right.

If the answer is “no,” or if you are not sure, ask yourself: “Would I rather have this feeling, or would I rather be free?”

Finally, Ask yourself this simpler question: When?

This is an invitation to just let it go NOW. You may find yourself easily letting go. Remember that letting go is a decision you can make any time you choose.

Repeat everything.

This method is simplistic yet very powerful. The idea is to understand in your mind that you are not your feelings. It is something fleeting. You have a choice whether to let a feeling in or not. It is wrong to say “I am angry.” It is more apt to say that “I am feeling angry.”

Does all this sound stupid to you?

If it does, you know what? I don’t care. LOL.

I used to worry what people think. When you’ve learned to release the thought of worrying what people think about you, you feel soooooo fffrrrrreeee. Things start to ease up.

Like I said, it’s like Nirvana - perfect peace of the mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflictive states.

Try it sometime.

Two quick topics today.

New AdSense Style

First, as I was going about my business in the SEO Philippines forums, I came across an interesting Adsense Ad. The following is a screen shot.

Notice the use of a separator bar between the words. -> |

If my guess is right, this Ad is disguising itself as a menu. Some websites use the separator for navigational menu items. In a small banner Google Ad, this ad could definitely mistaken for a web site’s menu. Perhaps that is the intention - so that users would click on the ad, thinking it was a menu item.

From A Reader

And now, something from one of the comments on the my last post about making money while keeping users happy.

Dear Tita Charo,

have you come up with a recommended lay-out?

I’m having a problem with adsense right now. I thought this might be caused by my sucky lay-out. Help!

Sucky lay-out guy

My response:

Dear Sucky Layout guy, I recommend we follow Google’ suggested layout and then test the hell out of it.

- Jozzua, designer-pretender guy.

The new Adsense For Search allows you to filter the the search results to much more relevant topics. Watch the video:

Love it and will now put it on my site.

After reading UXMag.com and seeing that…”Advertising is your friend,” I decided to look back at Google’s blog Ad placement recommendations:

So now I’m figuring out the right balance of user experience and income. It’s an art you know. You gotta decide how much you are willing to give up for advertisers and for your readers.

“The advertiser wants to takeover the whole content area and have it blink uncontrollably,” and other comments like this will be large hurdles to overcome. Balancing the peer (and more than likely executive) pressures of display ad pushers versus your user’s experience could be a nightmare.

So now I have to keep everything on “the grid.” You know? The grid? It’s not as mysterious as “the matrix.” The designers in the office, particularly Rico, are pretty strict on this grid thing. Apparently, it becomes more important when one hopes to balance Ads and content.

I suddenly remembered Marco’s twit:

Good Designers believe “less is more”… Great Designers believe “less and more co-exist”.

I’m starting to agree.

Now, I’ve got to figure out how to make it work for that other site and the big personal challenge.

Couldn’t resist blogging about this.

Geek with hot girls and toys.

Is there somewhere I can apply to be like Tony Stark?

Iron Man’s premiere was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He set out to make the new character a rich, glamorous ladies’ man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Lee based this playboy’s personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, “Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies’ man and finally a nutcase.”