Eight Principles of Persuasion from the Authority on Influence

Robert Cialdini’s book Influence is the classic bestselling text on the subject of persuasion and why people behave the way they do. Because the psychological principles it describes are so useful when it comes to marketing and sales, it’s become one of the most popular business books of all time.

So what are the principles of influence?

1. Automatic behaviour

Certain things trigger an automatic response. For example, the large head/eyes to body ratio of a baby is something we are pre-programmed to respond to and this makes us more caring and protective towards children. Even if it’s an animal, which we have no logical reason to be protective over, we naturally find young animals ‘cute’ and have similar feelings towards them.

Use 1: This automaticity can be taken advantage of in sales. When something is priced highly, we automatically associate the high price with high value. One anecdote tells of a shopkeeper who accidentally marked up a clearance item to 10X its value and actually sold more of it.

Use 2: Also, when we see that the price of an item has been reduced in price we automatically think: ‘I’m saving X… what a good deal’.

As buyers we should be aware when these tactics are being used against us. If you ever wonder why every online product is marketed as $2047 value, reduced to ‘only $67!’, this is why.

2. Reciprocity

When someone at work buys you a Christmas card or gift have you ever been stricken with the very strong feeling that you now have to get them something back. Damn! Reciprocity is a bitch.

Companies have long used free samples to get new customers. Reciprocity is a big part of why that works. Nowadays content creators who blow you away with massive free value rely on this principle to get you donating or buying their products. We feel we owe them something for the great stuff they’ve given us for free. We should give something back, right?

One of the most interesting things about this is that is if you give someone a small gift/favour and then ask for a big one in return, there is a good chance they will still feel obliged, even though it’s a completely lopsided exchange. That’s the power of reciprocity – it’s a very strong rule of human psychology, not to be underestimated.

3. Relativity

I ask you to borrow $1000, you say no. I then ask you to borrow only $100. What do you say? There is a good chance that you say yes the second time.

The second proposal is presented as much smaller and more reasonable relative to the first, so it’s much more likely to be accepted. Because I retreated from my initial position, making a concession, the reciprocity rule also comes into effect, psychologically pressuring you to do the same. Double persuasiveness!

I only wanted $100 the whole time! I have just used a sales tactic on you that Cialdini calls the rejection-then-retreat strategy.

4. Commitment and consistency

When you make a commitment to doing something, or acting in a certain way, you are much more likely to follow through. You are psychologically more committed. You want to act like the person that you have presented yourself to be.

For this reason, Trump gets prospective voters at rally to shout out that they are going to vote in a hall filled with thousands of witnesses. This increases turnout on vote day.

Tony Robbins recommends that dieter’s make their goals public. If you told everyone you knew that you were going to lose weight, don’t you think you’d have a better chance of following through, knowing that if you didn’t you’d look foolish?

Written commitments are even better. Generally, the more effort or ‘investment’ we put into something, the more committed to it we are to follow through. Writing something out takes slightly more effort than saying it, so it’s slightly more likely to stick.

This explains many things such as why we value more that which we have worked hard to achieve, why we tend to undervalue things that we get for free, and why don’t quit bad jobs or bad habits when we should – we have sunk so much investment into them already that we feel committed.

5. Social proof

When something is seen as being popular in the eyes of other people, especially a great many other people, it becomes very desirable.

This is why when someone starts to build up a following, their success snowballs. If Bob has 7 million instagram follower’s he must really be something, right?

You see that something is a best seller, it’s top of the charts. Why? What’s all this buzz around it? It must really be sensational stuff!

Advertiser’s use this all the time to sell to us. One little trick used by unscrupulous marketers is to launch a book on Amazon in an obscure category where it’s very easy to become the number one ranked book. They then claim that their book was ‘number one on Amazon’ and that they’re a ‘bestselling’ author, a claim that can be used to generate more sales by the magic of social proof. Naughty, naughty, but it can work.

This allows a successful businessman to snowball their success by building up a track record. It’s much harder for the little guy staring out who has no social proof. Such people will do well to collaborate with more successful individuals and entities in order to absorb some of their social proof.

6. Liking

We are far more likely to accede to a request if it is from someone we like, indeed we are far more likely to give them our business.

Persuaders use this to their advantage by leveraging other people we like (friends, celebrities) in persuading us.

What are some of the factors that lead to is liking someone?

Physical attractiveness – there is an automaticity in liking good looking people that operates at a subconscious level where we appraise their genes as being superior and desire to associate with good looking people. Good looking people are proven to do better in court, receiving more compensation and smaller fines, for example. They earn, on average, more throughout their lifetimes. (From my reading on genetics and intelligence I also know that there is a weak positive correlation between good-lookingness and IQ).
Similarity – we like people who more who dress in a similar way to us, who have similar beliefs, values systems, hobbies and interests. If we are married then we like those who are also married.
Compliments – they work. In fact, flattery works better on men than women, who are more used to being flattered. A car salesman in the book used to send his clients a card every month saying simply ‘I like you’. This complement cost the salesman a decent amount of money in mailing fees, but obviously he made a positive return on this!
Contact and cooperation – if you can get someone to think of you as being on the same team (perhaps against someone else) you’re in!
Association – we like things that we associate with other positive/desirable things. The classic example would be that in a car advert with a hot girl, the hot girl makes the car seem more desirable.

7. Authority

In the famous Milgram experiment, named after the researcher who performed it, subjects had to act as the assistant of a scientist to administer electric shocks to a second participant (who was secretly an actor). The experiment found that the majority of everyday people would administer terribly powerful electric shocks to the second participant even when pleaded and begged not to because the authority (the scientist) had told them to continue.

Most people are very pliable and conditioned to obey authority to a worrying degree. Authority can be conveyed in a number of ways, especially by credentials, titles, trappings (fancy cars etc) or how someone dresses. Con artists will usually dress the part and frequently adopt title such as ‘Doctor’ or ‘Professor’ in order to increase their perceived authority in the eyes of their mark.

8. Scarcity

Scarcity is when something is rare or limited in supply. Everyone has heard of the limited time offer or the phrase ‘while stocks last’. We want what we can’t have. We hate the idea that an opportunity is being deprived us, and feel compulsion to act ‘while we can’.

One man who used to buy and sell used cars would invite multiple prospective buyers to view the car at the same time rather than at different times. When the buyers knew that there was competition for the car, they would be incredibly easy to sell to.

We also want more something that has been banned or censored, automatically perceiving its value to be higher. If you hear that people are trying to ban green hats, you are much more likely to develop a passionate interest in green hats.

If you rail against those trying to ‘shut you down’ that is a sure way to build a following!

10 ways to increase to measurably increase your intelligence

Intelligence predicts success in life, affluence and attractiveness to the opposite sex. This has been confirmed in many scientific studies in the burgeoning field of intelligence research.

Most of us aren’t as smart as we could and should be. We aren’t performing at our genetic limits. This is because in the modern world there are lots of factors that are suppressing our natural intelligence. They are fixable.

We’ll look at what you can start doing to become smarter in a real and measurable way. These are all things you can easily do to increase your intelligence and focus without resorting to abuse of study drugs like Ritalin.

By studying health and intelligence and applying these strategies, I have found that I feel mentally sharper, more ambitious, driven, energetic, and generally intelligent. I am measurably more productive and creative. I am complemented more frequently on being an articulate speaker. I procrastinate less. I read more frequently and at a faster pace. Also, I have noticeably developed a longer time preference, which is a phenomenon explained in the next section.

We first need to understand what intelligence is…

What is intelligence?

Isaac Newton - Epic Rap Battles of History Wiki — Do you know who this is? You should.

Intelligence is the ability to solve complex problems quickly. The more complex problems you are able to solve, and the more quickly you can solve them, the more intelligent you are.

Our intelligence is comprised of a very significant genetic component, as well as an environmental component. We have an innate level of genetic intelligence, which is denoted by what scientific researchers in the field of human intelligence call ‘g’ which stands for ‘general factor of intelligence’.

There are many personality traits associated with higher intelligence such as longer time-preferences which is basically a tendency to plan for the future. This may involve sacrificing immediate pleasure in order to work hard on one’s education, career, or business. People with low intelligence tend to live for the now (shorter time-preference). They will reach for one more slice of cake even though it is terrible for their health. They are more likely to have children ‘accidentally’ without having planned it. Of course, the word ‘association’ means that these things are correlations that aren’t always true and certainly have exceptions, but they hold much more often than not.

Intelligence has different ‘ability clusters’ such as linguistic, mathematical (numeric) and spatial (geometric). All three of which are underpinned by ‘g’ and correlated to it. This means that usually people who are intelligent in one of these areas are intelligent in all of them. The person who thinks that they are good in languages and bad in maths is probably wrong. They probably aren’t as good in languages as they think they are, just a little bit better relative to maths. Smart people tend to be good at everything (as long as they are motivated).

There are exceptions who have strongly skewed intelligence patterns, however they are outliers. Typically this applies only to genius or near-genius level intellects. For example, geniuses like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were intelligent in all areas, but super-duper intelligent in some ability clusters. For example both Einstein and Newton were much stronger mathematically than linguistically, but still above average in all areas.

There will be slight skewing towards some ability clusters in some individuals and groups. For example, where the European average IQ is 100, the average IQ of North-East Asian or Oriental people is 105. The latter have a higher IQ overall because they are on average a fair amount stronger in the mathematical ability cluster than Europeans, and despite being slightly lower linguistically, are still higher overall. Thus, the stereotype of Asians being good at maths is justified.

In order to maximise the potential of your genetically given g-factor, or innate intelligence, environmental factors are important. If you haven’t had a sufficiently intellectually stimulating environment growing up, then your intelligence potential will be suppressed. Suboptimal nutrition, health, stress and other environmental factors can all suppress you from achieving your maximum intelligence.

The key to becoming as smart as possible is therefore to maximise the environmental factors that boost intelligence, while fixing those which suppress intelligence, as the genetic component is fixed by your genes.

We will now look at things that you can do to maximise your intelligence.

How to become more intelligent:

1. Build an intellectually stimulating environment

You should be exposing yourself to large amounts of intellectually stimulating information. This could come in many forms:

Books – reading is an effective way to stimulate your mind. You should read on a wide variety of topics which will allow you to make connections between different things. Making connections is an important aspect of intelligence. You will develop your vocabulary and linguistic dexterity. Read both fiction as well as non-fiction.
Intelligent conversations – this will require you having intelligent friends or colleagues to talk to, or perhaps joining various clubs or societies where you’ll find smart people.
Teach someone – when you teach someone about certain ideas, this forces you to clarify and better understand them for yourself. This could be verbally or by writing an article as I am doing right now.
Workplace – if you are in a low-brow job you are going to be less intellectually stimulated than in one where you have to use your brain, so try to get out of that wrong job asap.
Problem solving – Puzzles and games that require you to strain your brain.

2. Limit your technology use

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This is huge. Reducing screen time has been the most important factor in improving my focus. Intelligence is very much dependent on focus. If you can’t focus, you’re effectively dumber.

Use of internet and phones trains our brains to be be focused on short term rewards via various mechanisms including notifications, likes and clickbait. Apps and social media are designed to be addictive in many sneaky ways. They are very effective at this.

Internet and smartphone usage decrease attention span and focus. Even when they are not being, the brain is thinking about these devices, anticipating and craving its next dopamine hit from the. Even having you phone next to you makes you dumber because your brain can’t help being distracted by it’s presence. Have you put your phone down but felt it magnetically dragging your attention?

Get off social media.

Check your phone less often.

Use your device for specific tasks only, then put it away out of sight.

Don’t multitask – this trains your brain to have a shorter attention span. Do one thing at a time and do it well.

This fits neatly with…

3. Allow yourself to be bored

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You don’t need to be constantly stimulated by entertainment all the time. In fact it’s not good for you.

When we are completely unstimulated or ‘bored’ our minds naturally wander. We are likely to use that time to think about and strategise our future. We will ponder important things such as our relationships or businesses, and we will consider our direction in life.

Isaac Newton was known to stop midway on the stairs and ponder questions he was thinking about for an hour or so without moving. Would he have made so many great breakthroughs if he was plugged in to his ipod listening to music?

It is well known that the bathtub or shower are great places for ideas. This is simply due to the fact that the bathroom is a quiet place where we are unlikely to be distracted by people, technology or entertainment. Our mind is simply left with its own company. Undistracted, uncluttered, free.

So it’s ok to sit or walk with no other stimulation. Even something as great as reading should be shelved now and again to just sit there and do absolutely nothing. I no longer jack into my headphones and listen to music as I walk around from place to place as I used to, and I have had insights during those walks that other times I might not have.

Also when you’re not jacked in, you’d be surprised… People might actually start conversations with you. Occasionally, I’ll have a woman start talking to me in the supermarket checkout queue, something which wouldn’t happen if I’m listening to music.

4. Sleep more and better

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Nothing is better than waking up feeling fully refreshed and ready to tackle the day with a revitalised brain.

Good sleep goes hand in hand with limiting tech use, as using screens before bed diminishes the quality of your sleep by overstimulating your brain. The mind is unable to relax; it will be thinking about potential dopamine hits from notifications that you may receive.

Try to not look at screen for the hour before you go to bed or make that time interval as long as possible. 30 minutes of no screen time is better than none, but a full hour or more is better still. Using a screen reddening app to filter out the blue light (which is know to be the most stimulating) isn’t good enough; you need to cut the screen out properly.

Also, you should try to go to sleep and wake at roughly the same times every day, which helps establish a natural sleep rhythm and therefore higher quality deeper sleep.

I aim for 8-10 hours per night, usually sleeping longer on the three days a week that I train in the gym. I do find the extra hours very beneficial on those days.

You should limit how late you are drinking caffeine, as we will see in the next section.

Along with reducing screen time, I would say that improving my sleep quantity and quality has had the most positive effect on my mental acuity, creativity, and ability to focus.

5. Reduce stress

Stress make it harder to ‘think straight’ and this makes you dumber. Stress can cause headaches, inflammation, and blood pressure issues, all of which can effectively make you dumber.

One must reduce stress in order to operate at maximum intelligence. You need to remove or optimise stress factors in your life which may include work, relationships, health problems, anxiety etc

Form of mindfulness practise such as meditation are known to help with reducing stress.

Good sleep helps handle stress levels.

The following is an important factor for reducing stress:

6. Do physical exercise

Physical exercise is beneficial at reducing stress.

It also contributes to better mental function. Cardiovascular exercise is, in particular, very good for this.

It is well known that ‘going for a walk’ can lead to clearer thinking and has been associated with higher levels of creativity than sitting. In fact Steve Jobs was known to conduct many of his meetings as walking meetings with his close team in order to take advantage of this effect.

7. Consume caffeine

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Caffeine is a legal performance enhancing drug which boosts focus and mental sharpness with minimal side effects. It’s absolutely fantastic! It has been shown that individuals score as much as 2-3 IQ points higher on tests, on average, when they are on caffeine.

(As a bonus it’s also thermogenic, meaning that drinking 4 cups of coffee over a day can burn around 150 calories of energy, which is a useful little helper in fat loss.)

The great thing about caffeine is that there are such clear benefits and few obvious downsides. Like anything in life there is of course a natural limit to what is healthy, so don’t overdo it. A maximum of four cups of coffee per day is probably a good upper limit for most people. I usually have one or two.

Importantly though, in accordance with the previous section on sleep, I’d advise you to limit how late you consume caffeine. I try to stop consuming it early afternoon, and consuming caffeine too late in the day will reduce your sleep quality significantly so don’t do that.

8. Eat a brain-friendly diet

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The quality of your diet affects your focus and effectively has an impact on your intelligence.

You need to be eating fresh whole foods and cutting out processed foods, especially sugary ones. This is a no brainer.

It has been noted that children in schools who eat an inferior diet have a harder time concentrating and focusing.

I’m a big fan of intermittent fasting, eating only one large meal most days (sometimes two) and there is evidence to suggest that the lack of energy drain from digestion after a meal will enable your brain to function more efficiently during those times. Chemicals are internally released during fasting which improve mental acuity. Intermittent fasting also has many other benefits including increased fat loss over normal eating patterns for the same amount of calories and anti-aging effects.

Leafy greens are good for the brain, along with healthy fats from fresh fish and certain vegetables.

Nutrition is a huge topic. There is plenty of good information out there but it’s mostly common sense what would be good for you.

One controversial food would be whole grains, which some people say are healthy, but there is increasingly evidence that they may be not so great. I’m planning to read the book Grain Brain on this topic but haven’t got around to it yet.

P.s. don’t forget to drink plenty of water.

9. Harness your sexual energy

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This is an interesting one which I haven’t explored much personally but am planning to do so.

Sexual energy is a potentially a huge wellspring of intellectual and creative energy. It is indeed notable that many famous individuals have noted for their abstinence of lack of interest in sex including many geniuses. It is believed that by channeling sexual energy into different forms, rather than the obvious, results in greater creativity. More sexually repressed societies as a whole, such as the Victorians, produced huge numbers of highly creative and inventive individuals as they were forced to redirect their sexual energies.

These ideas of sexual energy transmutation have been written about for thousands of years, perhaps most famously in Napoleon Hill’s classic self-improvement manual Think and Grow Rich.

One needn’t necessarily give up the pleasures of sex, but by limiting ‘release’ to say once per week, many believe that overall energy and creativity can be enhanced.

Semen is highly nutrient rich, and requires a lot of the body’s resources to replenish. Reducing the need to replenish this is anecdotally known to result in greater personal energy levels.

What is essential though, is that you do creative things to refocus this energy. If you don’t do so, the build up of horny energy will be rather uncomfortable!

10. Create

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To become more creative and intelligent you need to not only absorb the ideas of others by reading and talking but you should do something creative. You need to act. And it’s fun! A mind that is not used degrades. A mind that spends significant amounts of time consuming tv and social media degrades.

There are many forms of creativity to engage in:

Create a business
Write papers, articles, books, poetry…
Create videos
Create websites
Do mathematics
Do scientific work
Create music/ learn an instrument
Create art
Create code

Summary and conclusions

Create an intellectually stimulating environment for yourself including lots of reading on a variety of topics.
Strictly limit your use of technology such as smartphones and laptops to improve focus. (I would say this is the number one thing most people need to get sorted).
Allow yourself to be bored. Don’t always require entertainment.
Get enough of sleep and maintain high sleep quality with a good routine. (Another very important one).
Excercise!
Reduce stress in combination with good diet, sleep, and exercise as well as meditation.
Eat well and be hydrated.
Use the power of caffeine.
Learn to harness your sexual energy into creative endeavours.
Be creative!

I hope these tips work for you as they have for me.

P.s. I highly recommend the book At Our Wit’s End – Why We’re Becoming Less Intelligent and What It Means For The Future by Dutton and Woodley for anyone who is interested in the topic of intelligence. The book is more about societal intelligence trends than one as an individual; it was the main source I used for the first section on what intelligence is, and is a fascinating read.

The secrets to making massive amounts of money from “The Greatest Salesman In The World”

This guy is a bit of an inspirational quote machine!

“The Greatest Salesman In The World” By Og Mandino – A review and summary

I’m sitting in my bedroom in my black leather ‘work chair’ writing this review of the book I just finished last night. I read it in pretty much two sittings as it’s rather a short book (at 89 pages) and I could have read it even quicker if I wasn’t doing it with a highlighter in one hand.

This book, which I hadn’t heard of before seeing it link-hopping on Amazon, is apparently a mega classic; the old second-hand copy I have says on the cover it’s sold more than 14 million copies and the author has apparently sold over 50 million of his books all combined, with this being the most popular.

Unlike other self-help books I’ve read it tells the story as a fable, and it sucks you in and gives some context to the main message of the book: The story is about an Arabic merchant boy who wants to learn the secrets of salesmanship from the master seller who, it turns out, learned his amazing skills from a bunch of magic scrolls in a chest. It’s well-written and engrossing (Mandino had been an aspiring writer before a businessman, so he has some skills with a pen).

The ten scrolls in the chest are the core of the book and, while very poetically written, give you ten clear principles to follow to succeed in selling. It’s really about more than that, though, and although the summary I’m about to give you does list the all the principles, it’s worth reading the book to get the feel of it. This is a book that could change your whole life (many people apparently say it has), not just boost your sales.

Ok, so here’s my summary of the ten principles and the other stuff I found most useful and interesting from this book:

Og Mandino’s personal transformation

So firstly, Og was in a real bad way before he got into self-help. He was completely broke, basically a bum, and about to kill himself. He didn’t and he read some self-help in the library instead. The book he credits with guiding him to turning his life around here is called Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by W. Clement Stone. I highlighted this because it obviously might be worth checking out.

A famous quote from the book

Before we get to the ten scroll’s there’s a famous quote from the master seller to the youngster:

“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”

I’m not gonna argue with that now, am I?

The Ten Scrolls (and other juicy quotes)

Leading-up to the scrolls: “Failure is man’s ability to reach his goals in life, whatever they may be.”

Scroll 1 – Today I begin a new life – I will form new habits and become their slave.

Powerful and pretty self explanatory really. Good habits are so important. Bad habits (like laziness, pointless time-waste activities) are a pure waste of your life and potential.

Scroll 2 – I will greet this day with love in my heart.

I interpreted this one as both about having a positive attitude for your own sanity and happiness, and also to become a magnetic individual, since Individuals who radiate love tend to be magnetic (and when you’re a magnetic person life is probably just gonna go better for you in a variety of ways since it will affect every interaction you have with another human).

Scroll 3 – I will persist until I succeed.

‘Nuff said.

Scroll 4 – I am nature’s greatest miracle.

This one is about being unique and individual – and tapping in to who you are to be the best version of you (and not somebody else). It’s about having to find your own authentic style in order to maximise your potential.

Scroll 5 – I will live each day as if it’s my last

Live well. Don’t waste your life. Whatever you spend your time on (work, family, fitness) make it count.

Scroll 6 – Today I will be the master of my emotions.

This one is about understanding that some days you’re gonna feel good, some days you’re gonna (for no real reason maybe) feel terrible because you’re not a robot. It’s about forging ahead through the unpleasant emotions and managing them. It’s about discipline over motivation and self-control. Good stuff.

Scroll 7 – I will laugh at the world

It’s about being able to laugh at the world, at yourself and allow yourself to experience a lightness of spirit that will take you forwards in life. Also, as with Scroll 2, it will contribute towards making you a magnetic individual.

Scroll 8 – Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.

This one is very interesting and I believe its about harnessing the ingenuity and creativity that we are all capable of. Examples given are of how some cheep wool can be made in to a fine (and very expensive garment) by the application of skill and intellect. It’s about using leverage to accomplish huge feats with small (but very clever and precise) actions. Mastery of this skill is probably one that can make you really successful.

Scroll 9 – I will act now

“My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible. All are of no value unless they are followed by action. I will act now.” Self-explanatory.

Scroll 10 – I will pray for guidance

There is a great prayer in this chapter. The line I highlighted is “Guide me so that I may acquire ability equal to my opportunities”. Whether you believe in God or not, there is a lot of power in these lines.

Final thoughts

Overall the book is definitely worth reading and I will make an effort to review my progress at following these principles over time. Again, it’s a really short book so there’s no excuse for not reading it, except for the fact that I gave such a great summary of course! But, nah, go on and read the whole thing.

Make as much money as you damn well want and live life as you damn well please! (free book)

F.U. Money by Dan Lok – a book review and summary.

I recently discovered Dan Lok on youtube. The likeable multimillionaire business owner and e-business celebrity has a channel with over one million subscribers and offers brilliant advice for budding entrepreneurs and business owners. His new book FU Money – make as much money as you damn well want and live life as you damn well please! is actually offered free to download in pdf form (www.fumoney.com) so there was no reason for me not to check it out. (Note: this is an entirely unpaid and unaffiliated review)

I’ll simply say that the book is excellent: Written in the powerful, captivating and ‘real’ voice of the author, it was very easy to flow through and finish the 284 pages in a couple of sittings, taking notes along the way. The main concept of the book is ‘F.U. Money’ which is having enough financial freedom to basically be able to tell anyone (bosses, employees, employers…) to F-off at any given time if necessary or desirable. Anyone who has merely pondered or seriously considered quitting their regular job and launching some kind of online business (or doing so ‘on the side’) would be well advised to check out the book.

By the end of the first chapter I was filled with a real desire and belief that I could achieve everything that the author set out about creating my ideal business and lifestyle, and this was cemented further in place throughout the reading. It’s a book that makes no bones about telling you that you can’t just read it and put it away – you have to get up off your ass and do something. It powerfully ends by telling you that you have 24 hours to to do something (however small) towards your goals or you probably never will (and woop-de-doo I did! Maybe I’m gonna make it). Here is a summary of some of the top things I learned from the book:

1. Read books by or about really rich people

Read biographies and autobiographies of successful entrepreneurs. Read books by real world experts in business with a proven track record of making big money. There is plenty of literature out there on business, money, and personal development but much of it is by people who’s expertise is merely theoretical. Basically, read people who are actually rich.

2. Make very specific goals

To achieve goals you need very specific goals. Dan is a proponent of setting an annual income goal and then dividing that number by the number of days in a year that you will work in order to set a Daily Income Goal (DIG).

For example, if you want to make £100k per year that would mean making £274 pounds a day (working 365 days a year).

You can, of course, decide how many days a year you are willing to work and will need to make more per day if you want weekends/holidays out of the equation). Once you have your DIG you can focus much more effectively on how to make it happen.

3. The Wealth triangle

Dan’s big concept on the best way to be financial success is manifested in his concept of the wealth triangle.

Start with a high income skill (which you probably need to develop) such as sales, copywriting or consulting (Dan started as a copywriter). It could be anything. In one of his videos dan talks about a high paid ballroom dancing instructor making over 100k per year. This provides financial stability as you can always work for money.
After developing a high income skill, build a scalable business. A business has the benefit of bringing in money through sales 24/7 (as you sleep!) which your high income skill does not.
When you have a serious stack of money, start investing in high-return assets/ investments. Dan defines this as at least a ten percent annual yield. Don’t worry about this side of the triangle early on when you don’t have much yet.

4. Easy money and leverage

Utilise the talents of others to make YOU money.

An important concept of being a successful entrepreneur is not doing everything yourself, but outsourcing tasks, either by hiring employees or consultants – ideally ones who are more skilled than you in that field. Doing so allows you to increase performance in those areas of the business and also frees you up to look at the big picture and chart the course of your business.

I could go on. The chapters on the 7 Keys to Internet Riches and the 9 Characteristics of an Ideal Business were very useful and relevant. The overall impression of the book, most importantly, is a powerful call to action-taking and avoidance of excuse-making. It’s a great combination of a kick up the backside with some valuable business concepts that the beginner needs to know. I will definitely be picking up a copy of his forthcoming book ‘Unlock it’ so I guess Dan’s marketing strategy of giving away FU Money for free worked on me pretty well.

5 Hacks to Drastically Increase Your Tinder Matches

Tinder can be a frustrating experience for the majority of men, who often report that they are unable to consistently get many matches, especially with the calibre of woman that they desire. This is an accurate picture. Average men and even good looking men will struggle to find success on the app if they don’t know what they are doing.

The good news is that it’s entirely possible for even an average (or below average) guy to do well on the app. Men just need to know the optimal way to present their pictures and bio to create a strong and attractive impression and they will do very well. Their number of matches will drastically increase and the women will respond more enthusiastically to their messages due to the higher level of attraction experienced. It does requires a little work to get your profile set up optimally, but once you do… you are set. It’s an investment of time and effort that will reap rewards time and time again because once you’ve done it you really don’t need to alter it again unless you get even better pictures.

By following the 5 hacks outlined in this article you will achieve a drastically higher number of matches every day with girls that respond more enthusiastically to your messages and are actually excited to meet you. These hacks are mostly common sense, but I assure you that the vast majority of guys are doing it totally wrong. Without further ado, here are…

5 Hacks to Create a Killer Tinder Profile:

#1. Use flattering pictures that show you at your best

Left: Grainy, dark, loose-fitting clothes
Right: Clear, well-lit, displaying good style and physique

This rule may seem so obvious, but it is worth stating, since many people still fail to adhere to this fundamental concept. A good picture can potentially add two or three ‘points’ onto your attractiveness rating compared to a bad one. Even if you aren’t the best looking person, with patience (yes, it does take some investment of time and effort) you can get highly flattering pictures. By taking a large number of photos from different angles, you will eventually get some good ones that are just right. In order to obtain a high image quality you will need a good quality cameraphone or ideally a ‘proper’ camera such as a DSLR. You can do this with a friend or even hire a professional.

The key components of an attractive picture are:

Clear and sharp image with good lighting – Pictures taken outside using natural light will usually make your complexion look better than those taken indoors.
Attractive facial expression – You will want to take dozens of pictures until you find the most attractive ones. It is good to ask girls you know to give you a female opinion, as they can judge far better which are the most attractive.
Natural looking – This is important. A picture which looks to staged, posy, or ‘tryhard’ will be less successful than a picture which has a more natural feel. Ironically you may be taking many many staged pictures to get one which looks ‘natural’,
Good fashion – Again ask girls or a friend with excellent fashion for tips if you’re not sure about this.
You are clearly identifiable – Your first two pictures should be of only you because the person viewing your profile most likely won’t have the patience to play Where’s Wally and try and figure out which person you are. After that it’s ok to have one or two group pictures.
Physique – If you have a good one, show it off. (How overtly/subtly you do this is something you can experiment with and see what gives the best results). If you are out of shape, you want to stick to pictures where your clothing conceals your excess baggage. (You should be hitting the gym to address this. In 6 month’s when you’re in better shape, get new pictures taken).

(Additional tip: Use digital photo editing to subtly touch up your pictures).

#2. You’re only as attractive as your worst picture (remove them!)

If you have two excellent pictures in which you appear highly desirable, and a third picture in which you appear unattractive, guess which picture members of the the opposite sex are going to judge you on…? That’s right, it’s the weaker one. It only takes one bad picture to ruin your match rate. Removing your bad pictures and keeping only the best ones will noticeably boost your success. I’ve found that if one of your pictures is even slightly sub-par it can have a significant detrimental effect. Also, you only need 3-6 pictures in your profile. Only add more if you’re pictures if they are adding a lot of ‘value’ to your profile. If you only have one or two good pictures, just use them and don’t add filler pictures in which you don’t look as good.

#3. Include pictures which ‘add value’ and display your personality

In addition to displaying the maximum level of physical attractiveness that you can with carefully selected photos, showing that you have a cool life will also boost your appeal.

Examples of things that add value are:

Exotic locations – showing that you are well traveled and adventurous.
Sports – For example, I use a pic showing me sparring with a partner (boxing). I also use a picture of me and a friend in the mountains with snowboards.
Social – a cool picture with friends can show that you are ‘normal’ and sociable.
Any other cool activity – for example people have successfully used pictures of them DJing, flying planes and so on.
Dogs – people love dogs.

#4. Use this (rough) structure

Picture 1: Clear head and shoulders, front-on or slightly angled. Only you. Your first picture should be your most attractive picture of your face. They want to clearly see what you look like.

Picture 2: Clear head and shoulders and more of your body. Only you. Similar to picture 1 but showing a different angle and outfit/ location.

Pictures 3-6: ‘Value adding’ pictures that display your personality and cool things you have done. May include group pictures. See Hack 3 above. Note: you don’t need group pictures. This is a common misconception, but it is possible to do fine without them so don’t feel the need to shoehorn your grainy cameraphone boozy piss-up photo in there to show your sociability.

#5. Write the right bio for YOU

Decent examples which all convey: humour, the person’s interests/something about them

A good bio won’t save you if your pictures suck – so make sure you get those sorted first. However, if you have optimised your pictures as much as possible, then a good bio will help you stand out from the crowd in a positive way. (Yes, it’s true that if you’re very good looking you can get away with having an inferior or even no bio. But even if that’s the case, you’ll do even better with a good one).

One thing you should think about before your bio is what kind of person you want to meet, and what kind of dating you are looking for. Are you looking for:

1. Short-term/casual dating/’fun’

2. A relationship

3. Potentially either/ don’t know

For most people, sticking to a bio that describes a little bit about you and your interests, and possibly incorporates humour is a safe bet for the majority of you.

Ingredients of a killer bio that gets results:

Congruence. Your bio should match up to your personality which is conveyed by your pictures. If your bio attempts to paint you as an exciting ‘bad boy’ but in all your pictures you are smiling and posing with puppies and generally look like a typical ‘nice guy’ then it will be perceived as being incongruent/fake and probably result in a left swipe.
Positive tone – Avoid any negativity/bitterness as it’s a turn-off. For example it may seem unreasonable that some girls are demanding guys to be over six foot in their bios, but bitching about it will just make you seem bitter and unattractive.
Not overly wordy – Keep it fairly succinct and avoid TLDR syndrome.
Display cool things about your life/work/hobbies without bragging or appearing too tryhard (important!) Think carefully about your wording here and experiment. Be prepared to re-draft. Also, avoid listing nerdy hobbies unless you really want to match a kindred spirit.
List your height if you are 6 foot+. Whether you like it or not, height matters for guys. If you are slightly less you might consider giving yourself a ‘boost’ but don’t overdo it. If you are short, don’t list it and have a witty line prepared for if girls ask you during the messaging.
Incorporate humour. Showing a sense of humour helps convey trustworthiness, creativity/intelligence, and social awareness – all of which are attractive traits. You do not NEED your bio to be funny but it can make all the difference. Be careful with excessive ‘humour’ because if your bio seems too tryhard (a big turn-off) it will hurt you more than it helps, so don’t overdo it.
List your tastes: List a couple things you like in the opposite sex (for example: good fashion, sense of humour, girls who lift/are sporty). This shows you have standards and preferences, which is attractive.
Have a hook: If a girl wants to message you first, then by actually having interesting/funny things in your bio this gives her something to message you about.

9. Sexuality (not for everyone): If you are more casual/fun-oriented then including references to sexuality such as sexual humour or words with sexual connotations in your bio may appeal to members of the other sex who are looking for the same thing that you are. However, this will probably lose you matches from members of the opposite sex who are more relationship-seeking or who just don’t like to see overt sexuality displayed too early on in the dating process (this is effectively a sexual screening filter that can be a good thing if you really don’t want a relationship or a slower dating process).

The more sexual you make your bio (if you are a guy), you will actually decrease your overall number of matches. BUT, the girls who are intrigued by it will match you and may be strongly interested, increasing your odds of a positive outcome. You may also attract a wilder type of girl than a tamer bio would.

Summary:

Five proven hacks to increase your number of matches are are:

Use flattering pictures that show you at your best
You’re only as attractive as your worst picture (remove them)
Use pictures which are ‘high value’ and display your personality
Follow the structure, starting with your best head and shoulders picture first
Write a congruent bio that makes sense along with your picture

ESSENTIAL: Don’t forget to do trial and error. Sometimes a subtle change can have a big impact on your results.

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Personal consultation:

If you are interested in a personal one-to-one consultation on how to create your optimal Tinder profile, custom tailored to your individual goals (including photo shoot) email: lifehacksthatworkyt@gmail.com