Business | What Anais Nin has to teach us about Success by Judith Morgan

Anaïs Nin was a Cuban-Catalan-French author who became famous for her published journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death. Nin is also famous for her erotica.

Some will be disappointed I am not addressing her erotica today (!), only what she has to teach us about being successful, being fearful of our own success and hiding our light.

One of Nin’s most famous quotes is “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”.   I know what she means, do you?

Sometimes it seems easier to restrict oneself, to limit my gorgeousness, to hide my brilliance.

Today what am I hiding from?   I am hiding from things which I fear.   My fear concerns what other people will think, how they will react.   What will they do if I leave them behind when I go to live abroad?

What will happen if I leave projects I have created or co-created?

My timidity is also around how will I be when I am different from what I already know.   If I become even wealthier and/or raise my profile, if I accept any single one of the invitations I receive to go on television (the edit of which is outside my control), would I be mis-represented?

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£1k For A Piece Of Caribbean Paradise?

Judith Morgan says: “Only £1,000 down for your own freehold little bit of Paradise in the Caribbean? Can this really be true? Or is it simply “Too Good To Be True”?

I have always wanted a life in the sun, so when one of our own ex-clients on the 2007 Money Gym Gold Express programme contacted me earlier in the year, I couldn’t wait to hear about the opportunity she presented.

At the time, I had challenges of my own – I was right in the middle of moving house in the same week as Janet Swift took me to a 3-day Alan Forrest Smith event and then I hurtled up to Manchester to find out all about Cartel, about which more later.

And to be honest with you, and I don’t think Victoria would mind my sharing this with you, when she brought it around to me, she hadn’t got her own head round the offering yet and so I simply didn’t understand it either and with all that busyness on my hands, I just parked it – a bit further down the To Do List! But I do remember calling Nicola and saying we must tell our clients about this. Nicola said “no, not now, let’s wait until someone we know and trust has invested their own money in it first” or word to that effect.

But Money Gym clients are not fools and so Victoria hedged her bets and she also showed it to Marcus de Maria AND Maria Davies. These days, Maria writes a regular column for “A Place in the Sun” magazine and so if Victoria could get past Maria’s defences, that would be a great result.

As Maria tells the story, Victoria badgered and badgered and badgered until Maria caved in and looked at the details and followed up on the opportunity in a way which I simply had not had time for.

And what did she discover? Maria discovered something so good she invested herself and she has now given up most, if not all, of her other speaking engagements just to present for this company. She is concentrating on them pretty much full-time and for the same reasons, it doesn’t just look too good to be true – it is true! And we want our clients to get a piece of that action!

With Maria’s “heads up” we have now all discovered something which, as I say, many will think too good to be true and indeed that may prove to be thei greatest marketing challenge!

So, what do they offer then, and how can you get your own freehold bit of Paradise in the Caribbean for only £1,000 down?

This company is a UK based developer, owned and run by one family, most of whom work in the business. Their Head Office is in Essex and I have been down there twice, once on my own to learn from a BBC geologist and oceanographer all about why their developments are no more likely to be hit by a hurricane than the south coast of England (!) and once with a carload of lovely Money Gym ladies.

We went to find out more, we went to grill the sales guy whose name, appropriately, is Sunny. We grilled the poor boy (and ticked him off about the state of the Ladies Loo to boot) for way more than two hours and he had the answers to all of our questions, literally at his fingertips. Sunny, rather worryingly (but affectionately I feel) now calls me “Trouble”.

Since then I have been once more to hang out in Essex. I have been to their Directors’ Box at the glamorous all-new Wembley Stadium where I met Katharine. Katharine is a Cambridge graduate who has worked for this company since she was 23; she’s now 26 and she is, quite frankly, the most brilliant presenter I have ever heard in all my years in the Money Gym.

There’s no fluff, she embodies the word succinct, thank heavens and she’s intelligent, intelligent, intelligent and posh (her hobby, nay passion, is Polo). And Katharine has created a lot of the business excellence which this company now display. Again, when answering questions, she quite easily and quickly put her hands on the answer to everything. Katharine is my new best friend in the Wonderful World of Wealth Creation.

God knows how or where the CEO recruited Katharine (she was head-hunted apparently) but he’s no fool. Together they are a brilliant business combination to my mind.

Sunny’s Mum works for the company. Katharine’s brother is her PA. It truly is a family business. Does that make it a better business? Not necessarily, but apart from Cartel, I haven’t found a business with greater or more infectious energy for a very long time. Victoria even took her singing sister into this company to work too.

So, let’s cut to the chase. Who are they and what’s in it for you?

A little piece of Paradise as I already said on terms which are literally too good to be true…..
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