Saturday, May 2, 2009

FIFTY POSTS DOWN AND A NEW BLOG TO COME

I never thought I would get here so fast. Here being my 50th post for this blog. The tone and texture of this blog has evolved in ways I never expected. More than just a journal, or a way to promote my healthy dark chocolate business, or slowly emerge back into the real world, it's become a testing place. A forum where I can put out ideas about life and prosperity and self-realization that can be further explored by others for personal development and satisfaction, and by me as themes and building blocks for future  projects

And I'll choose this milestone posting to announce a decision I've made after long and careful thought. Sometime in the next ninety days, I will be starting a second blog. Thereafter, one blog will be focused on the health benefits of dark chocolate and the business opportunities those present--and ChocolateLove, the book I'm now writing on the subject. The other will be focused on MONEYLOVE and my projected next book on personal growth and prosperity consciousness, and sharing some of my adventures as I re-enter the enpreneurial life.  I just got the publishing rights to Moneylove back from the original publisher, and seeing the interest level on the part of readers and fans even when I had disappeared for twelve years, I will be exploring ways of updating, upgrading, and sharing this work of mine.

And the two blogs will cross-reference each other. People have asked me, by the way, why I am putting so much attention and intention in the healthy dark chocolate business, when I have  had so much recognition and success with Moneylove and other books and tapes and seminars.

I could spend days answering that one. But let me offer just one perspective on it. During 12 years in prison, I did much meditation, and
much introspective thinking about how I wanted to live my life once I was back out into the world. One thing I absolutely promised myself was that I would not be involved in just doing or teaching ways of moving money around. These ways included giving investment advice,
playing professional poker, or selling information on how to get rich.

While I may do small pieces of all of these, I want my major focus to be on creating useful models that will actually make a difference, and not just a financial difference, in people's lives. Those of you who attended my Moneylove seminars around the world, will remember that I talked not just about money, but prosperity and abundance in all things. Having more time, more love, more peace of mind, less stress, even less busyness. Prosperity has always meant for me the ability to spend my time in a way that gives me pleasure and satisfaction. And most of my life has been spent that way. Even in prison, I got to spend most of my time reading and writing and thinking--three of my very favorite things to do. As you can imagine, this made me quite an anomaly as an inmate.
In my next posting, I'm going to talk about one of the subjects of an upcoming book--making the most of the worst.

I got off on a tangent there, but to return to the original point...The reason I put so much energy into this dark chocolate
adventure is that a bunch of serendipitous events described in earlier posts led me in that direction. My closest friend getting involved was one. And Susannah, though I haven't explored this with her yet, just may have been predisposed to the subject by the many references I made to missing dark chocolate while at Folsom, and asking her to taste new brands as I read about them, so I could decide which ones to try first when I paroled. Then, my literary agent hearing the enthusiasm and passion I had about the subject of dark chocolate, and himself an afficionado, suggesting there was a book to be written about the health benefits.

And even George W. Bush (and I can't think of a better place to be during his two terms than prison) entered into the equation. By so completely screwing up the economy and disappearing the surplus, he created a lot of financial anxiety among people who never paid much attention to job security or the possibility of losing their homes before. 
And having studied the 1920s and 1930s
extensively in bygone years, I knew that one of the very few growth industries during The Great Depression was chocolate, and that was likely to be true again. Also, it appealed to me that this Xocai brand was being sold by a network marketing company. An industry I had sharply criticized and swore never to be involved in again. But in such a new way that I think their calling it "relationship marketing" is more accurate. What appeals to me about this is the opportunity to show people who have the old-fashioned pre-Internet mindset about network marketing and MLM
that things can be different now. That it can actually be a preferable way of doing business. Where else can you have your own very profitable business with just a few hundred dollars start-up costs, and almost no overhead or need to stock inventory, again thanks to the magic of the computer and the Internet? 

And it also appeals to my sense of accomplishment and irony to tell people up front that I am starting out poorer than they are, broke and just out of prison and living on my Social Security check, and am planning to make a substantial income in the next year or so--and how would they like to join me and learn exactly how I do it. (Don't you sense still another book coming out of this?) And I get to eat all this delicious Belgian healthy dark chocolate, which has already lowered my blood pressure and allowed me to cut down on my warfarin for my atrial fibrillation, and helped me so far lose 12 pounds of the 65 I put on eating the super-starchy prison food.

     And when I do talk or write about prosperity in the future, I will have a model of how real people doing real people-to-people business (something else I highly recommended in Moneylove) are creating real passive income for themselves. Plus more case histories of customers getting major health issues solved with dark chocolate for my book.

And, finally, I do not feel comfortable going out in public or online and telling people how to improve their prosperity consciousness without also telling them my personal financial bottom line. No assets, period.
I'm even eligible and getting food stamps. I know some of my former colleagues who are basically broke are now out there selling courses on how to be a millionaire. But my reinforced commitment, arrived at in my dingy cell, to tell not only the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
but an expanded version of the truth, the deeply buried stuff we usually leave out even when we tell the truth, prevents me doing what they are doing. It may be more truth than people want to hear, but I'm going to tell it anyway. And not because it will make me a better person, or because it's the right thing to do, but because I have learned it's part of manifesting all the good stuff I desire.

Oh, and one correction already in looking over this post. I made a comment about telling people I am poorer than they are. Well, I have tried to eliminate that word from my vocabulary. I'm certainly broke right now, but never poor. I am experiencing a temporary lack-of-funds challenge, soon to be dramatically alleviated. I never knew why the title of an old Red Skelton movie intrigued me so much, but now that I can apply it to my current momentum and robust expectations, I get it.
That title?  Excuse My Dust! 

                                               Jerry

And by the way....if you or anyone you know loves dark chocolate and/or is looking for a way to produce long-term residual income, and would like to work directly and personally with me to build a thriving healthy dark chocolate business, contact me at:
jerrygillies@gmail.com  You can check out the short video on my website, too, at:
www.UnguiltyPleasures.net.  And you don't have to beg to get me to send you a
few delectable pieces to taste.




1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love this Jerry:

'I am experiencing a temporary lack-of-funds challenge, soon to be dramatically alleviated'