This is an opinion piece. It will be controversial. Some readers will be offended by it.

Good.

I see many experts teach business optimization and automation systems. Many are big names, highly respected, closely watched, followed and mimicked.

Yet when it comes to their own businesses, there is a serious paradox. One contrary to the wisdom they preach.

2 examples. These are by no means the ONLY paradoxes, just 2 examples.

Rich Schefren’s ‘manifesto’ isn’t yet ready. (Sorry, Rich, even if it looks that way, I’m not picking on you - I still love ya! )

There are ‘delays’. Then ‘last minute’ rushed, sleepless-night-generated ‘nearly complete’ versions that are launched. With corrections and omissions addressed in updates and follow up versions.

The other case study is John Reese’s ‘Blog Rush’. (yes, that’s an affiliate link, in case you noticed and want to make a big deal about it - and that’s not even relevant to this discussion!)

It has been in the works for oh-so-long, yet the beta launch happened after a long delay… and here’s the part that irks me - after John himself stayed awake “41 hours without sleep” by his own account (there’s a ghastly photo on his blog to prove it!)

This from a guy who wrote the manual for outsourcing work/tasks to teams, and shows the rest of the industry how to live the ‘Internet lifestyle’.

Plus, there were minor problems with the instruction videos - no big deal, right? Yet, for a perfectionist, every bit had to be in place on time, creating yet more stress for the entrepreneur!

I thought it was all a marketing gimmic.

Apparently not. John’s recent blog post clarified that it wasn’t a trick, that things really did get out of hand towards the launch. Rich has also said many times he actually didn’t manage to find time to complete his document, but it was so important it had to go out, even if in bits and pieces.

(Or maybe I’m the fool for thinking there are really delays.)

Hmm…

Why am I getting so hot and bothered by this all?

One word: STRESS.

And 2 personal experiences that I thought long and hard before deciding to share with you today - because it is so relevant and important for all of us to consider and factor in to everything we do… because realization may come too late.

The first still hurts. Because it was so sudden. And unexpected.

At 3:30 a.m. one day some weeks back, my mobile phone rang. I answered - and got news that so deeply shocked me, I couldn’t believe it for many hours, even days later.

My good friend and colleague, a cardiac surgeon himself and one of our small team who perform operations funded by my non-profit organization, died suddenly from a massive heart attack.

It happened so suddenly there was no time for any resuscitation to be possible. He had a perfectly normal day at work the day before. He is my age. No apparent risk factors - except for one…

STRESS.

He was ambitious (like every heart surgeon is). Maybe a bit more so. Trying many different things, wanting to live big dreams. Sadly, that castle came crashing down… leaving two little kids and a young widow wondering what happened, how they would cope.

I’ve had nightmares since that day - and started appreciating my life a whole lot more deeply.

The second is even more recent - and equally scary.

My very close friend, who is just 3 years older than me, and runs a fairly successful business that grosses over $4 million a year, went for a routine health check - and found he had blocked coronary arteries in his heart needing bypass surgery (CABG).

He was operated 2 weeks ago. He’s in his early forties. His best years are ahead - but he’ll now have to cope with the altered reality of being a ‘heart patient’.

Healthy living, regular exercise, no bad habits - all this did not protect my friend from the silent killer, heart disease. Because underlying it all was the most dreaded risk factor…

STRESS.

Which brings me back to Rich Schefren, John Reese, you, me and the hundreds of other online entrepreneurs, business owners and Internet marketers who are in the same boat (and frankly, need to read this message and take note).

Way back when I got started working online, I loved the concept of running a business hands-off. Studied anything or anyone that taught the principles of business automation and systematization.

With one proviso - the person who teaches me should LIVE the lessons in their own business.

One guy I identified who did this was the late Corey Rudl. With 5 people in an office in Canada, he ran a multi-million dollar business - while indulging his passions. He lived the life he taught others to, walked the walk himself.

I studied his process, bought his course, applied his methods. With the result I manage my own pretty extensive online ‘empire’ conveniently, comfortably, and pretty much hands-off.

No, I don’t make 7-figures a year. No, I don’t get millions of visitors every month to my site. No, I don’t dream of world domination or ‘making history’ (not in online marketing anyway! )

But I am working my way steadily towards my dream - which only peripherally involves the work I do online. The ‘Web based’ part of my life just runs on near auto-pilot - the way Corey Rudl taught me to structure it.

I have a client base of around 700 people. They collectively spend six figures with my business every year. I have one virtual assistant in South Africa. I have one person helping with physical product shipping and order fulfillment. I spend between 2 and 4 hours a day on my online business, most of it on educating myself or helping others build their business.

And I have a full professional schedule as a heart surgeon!

Am I stressed?

Not very much. Because I work on containing it, am conscious about how much is there, and constantly work to lower it by removing the sources of it.

I could be stressed a lot more than I am. After all, I’m juggling THREE full time jobs - heart surgeon, fund raiser (yesterday’s ‘Heart Kids Blogathon’ lasted 24 hours straight, and raised a bit over $18,000 in donations), and online business owner… in addition to being a father, husband, son, and wearing many other hats in real life.

Like anyone in a hyper-competitive arena like heart surgery (a physically, mentally and psychologically demanding profession that makes Internet marketing often seem like a walk in the park!), I’m a Type A personality, driven by a fierce ambition to succeed massively and win at anything I touch.

But I’ve learned the VITAL importance of slowing down STRATEGICALLY - by harnessing the power of automation and systematization.

And I’ve had the lesson pounded into my head in the worst possible way these past few weeks - by terrible things happening to two very special people in my life.

I’ve been taught that life is too fragile, short and uncertain to obsess over many things… like the mundane details of a getting a product launched on a time frame.

In exchange for all of John Reese’s fortune and fame, I wouldn’t stay awake 41 hours straight just to meet a self-imposed deadline for a launch (I would have done it some years back, and know how it feels, John… just that life has made me wiser lately!)

That, in a nutshell, is the point of this rant.

- Watch the people who teach automation, systematization and business success - and if you don’t see them following their own advice, ask yourself WHY

- Watch yourself when you set yourself up for stress of any kind - and ask yourself WHY… and then decide if it’s worth going on and facing the stress anyway

Sometimes, it is.

But not very often.

It’s more frequently an ‘ego’ thing - trying to prove a point, to yourself and the world.

And then, it really isn’t worth it.

Not much is worth losing your life over at age 40.

Nothing is worth being forced to have heart surgery at age 44.

Nothing is worth getting stressed, anxious and going sleepless for long periods - not even a product launch that ‘will make HISTORY’

Just wanted to clarify what was behind my earlier post that called my favorite online marketing expert, John Reese, “Nucking FUTS!” - sorry, John, but if that what it takes to get you to take notice and read this post, I’d do it again at the drop of a hat - because I care about you and everyone else who reads this message.

All success
Dr.Mani