I now believe that the worst thing you can do when selling a product is to sell what everyone else is selling because it’s hard to turn a profit. You’d have to slash your prices to match your competitors over and over, until no one makes much of anything.
The idea is that if you’re selling kitchen cabinets and they’re selling like hot cakes, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can tap into that market because the people who sold it first have already built up their name, loyal customers, contacts, and are a step ahead of you.
The power in differentiating yourself and offering something special is that you’ll have very little competitors. That means anyone who wants what you sell will buy what you have because you’re the one of the few that have it.
Recently, I asked my coach a couple of questions I was having some trouble with in basketball class. He’s been playing basketball since he was 6 years old and played all the way from middle school, high school, college and professional in Europe.
M: Here’s the scenario, I have a lane where there’s one defender and I’m open at the 3 point line. Should I drive in for a shot, or should I take the 3 pointer?
C: If you can step in and take a 15-footer, that’d be the best. You’d have to be pretty good to be able to drive into traffic and make the shot. If you can make the 3 pointer, go for it.
Please note that I am paraphrasing, because I don’t have eidetic memory =P. One of my friends also mentioned that if you have a clear lane, it’s better to drive every time. My coach has also mentioned the problem with a lot of players in my class was that they kept getting themselves in sticky situations when they didn’t need to.
M: How do you know when to set a screen?
C: Find someone that you like to work with. Not everyone in a pickup game knows what they’re doing.
I think what he meant by this is that you should find someone who can use your screen effectively, as well as effectively screen for you.
He also mentioned that you should use defenders to drive as well as shoot.
M: Is there a set “number” of how often I should pass, shoot, drive, or just go with how I feel?
I asked this question because one time the coach inferred that I was shooting it every time I got the ball, so I figured I wasn’t passing enough. So then I started to feel like I was passing too much.
C: You should go with how you feel.
I think the key though is still to balance out how often you pass, shoot, or drive. It should be dependant on what your defender saw you last do. If he’s giving you respect for a 3 you made last time around, and is up in your face, you should drive on them.
M: How can I get better as an overall player?
C: Go to the park and shoot as much as you can. Watch good players play. Practice good ball handling.
He also mentioned that a lot of NBA players are great individual players, but bad “basketball players”. I think what he means by this is that they are bad team players.
Everyone should set both realistic goals and ideal goals in order to manifest their desires. When you have a goal, you have a dream. When you have a dream, you have a desire. When you have a desire, you have will.
Here’s one of my goals: Make a million dollars.
How do I reach that goal? I won’t just wake up one day and go, BOOYEA, I’m a millionaire! That is, unless I uhm… win the lottery ( which I’m working on 
) , or something.
How do I get to a million? Make several hundred thousand.
Short term goal: Make $120,000 in a year. I picked $120,000 because that would give me the nice even number goal of $10,000/month.
I don’t think $10,000/mo is a very realistic goal for me right now, so I’ll lower that to something that I feel is do-able, $1,000 a month.
Whether or not I reach that $1,000 a month is not a live or die moment to me, it’s just an indication of where I’m at and where I am going in terms of my goals. If I make $10 the first month, I damn well better pick up the slack if I’m ever going to be on my way to the goal!
However, that won’t mean that I’ll start to slack off if I make $1,200 in my first month. It just means that I’m going to revise my short term goals to reflect what I’ve made. So I’ll say instead of making $1,000 next month, I’ll make $2,000.
That’s the act of progression, and is seen and taught everywhere in everything. For example, weight lifting is progressive — you up the reps and weight as you get stronger, otherwise you don’t get anywhere.
Short term goal: Make $1,000/mo. (increase to $2,000 if I pass the $1,000 mark the first month.)
Long term goal: Make $10,000/mo. (This’ll take a while.)
Thinking small: Make $120,000/yr. (I wonder what color my hair will be.)
Thinking big: Make $1,000,000/yr. (That’s a lot of zeroes.)
Anyone need their dogs walked? 
Drop shipping is where you sell a product to a customer, and a warehouse ships it directly to your customer, saving you shipping fees and inventory space. You make money off the difference between the retail price and the wholesale price.
Everything would be fine and dandy, but the problem is that there are so many scams and so much competition out there that it isn’t worth the effort to sell some items. However, if you can find your own wholesaler in a good niche, you can make much more money.
You can read more about this from Eli’s post in the Net Business Blog. He offers a really long but good article on drop shipping and e-commerce.
The worst thing you can do is slam on the brakes right before you’re going to collide into a car. That’s because not only is it really uncomfortable to yourself and the people in your car, you run the risk of losing traction and actually slamming into that car in front of you.
Therefore, brake early rather than late. You should have your brake at the pedal ready to press on it or already pressing on it when the car in front of you starts braking (when their red light goes on).
This way, not only can you press the brake harder and stop fully before hitting the car in front of you, it also shows the person behind you that you are braking, giving them the signal to brake as well. It’s safe for everyone.