The magic button that ALWAYS leads to success

Jim:

I couldn't agree more, and nobody has more "right" to feel down than my wife and I.

A few years ago I was attacked by a lawless legal system in a small Texas town, denied assistance of counsel in a felony trial, and the right to call witnesses in my defense.

With doctored (falsified) "evidence" I was found "guilty" of a non-crime by a stacked jury I had no say in selecting, and spent 1 year being tortured in the state jail system.

I was kept in solitary most of the year (even spent some time in a mental facility for telling the truth about delivering all eight of our children at home), was pepper sprayed and denied a shower for 24 hours afterward for daring try to exercise my right to outside recreation 1 hour each week,

and was starved most of the time, losing up to 25% of my former 177 lb weight.

Three years later, my wife and I were suddenly arrested, charged with "elderly abuse" from trying to care for her 92-year old mother (who had terminal cancer).

Dehydration and malnutrition (cachexia) are normal conditions from which many cancer sufferers finally die, and eight days after our arrest she died, deprived of the company of her only daughter.

My wife and I spent over a month in jail (where we were denied adequate food and I again lost nearly 25% of my body weight), denied bail and legal assistance, while our children were abducted by "Child Protective Services" and more than five months later still have not been returned home.

One son just turned 18 the first of November but is still being held against his will, even though they are not supposed to have any further right to prevent him from returning home (where he wants to live) now.

Despite no indictment to date, under $50,000 personal bond each we are thereby prevented from leaving the small rural, retirement community where we cannot find any jobs, our food and money are now nearly all gone and we don't know how we are going to pay the electric and phone bills this December.

Yet I do not believe we are victims, but have been given these challenges to overcome and learn vital lessons about life and how to help others in similar circumstances.

That's why we started StopStateAbuse.com, so that what we learn can be shared with others.

We live in hope, and by prayerful faith each and every day.

So whoever reads this, unless you are suffering from similar troubles, what have you got to worry about?

Even so, many before you have suffered far worse than us and have pulled through it to live blessed and happy lives!

History is full of such examples.

All you need is commitment and dogged persistence, along with the blessings of obedience to a higher law than man's, and you can do anything you set your heart to accomplish, despite all odds and in spite of all opposition.

May you live life to the full and prosper!

Hey Jim, You hit the nail right on the head with this one! Trying to sell anything is difficult because there are so many nay-sayers out in the real world. The best thing to do is just move on to the next person. We all should know by now it's just a numbers game. I will say this though, if you are successful you have a better chance then someone who is starting off because the people you are trying to sell to need to see your success to be able to follow you. Thanks for all your info, Alan Cinqmars

Gloria, I think that you might have misunderstood the intent of UncleDearest. Read his post again, as I had to do. At first, I too thought he was advertising "luck" as his ticket to success. However, after reading the post again, I think I see the "tongue-in-cheek" way in which he stated his cause for success: Work. He said, "The harder I work, the luckier I get!" I think he's trying to say (in a sarcastic way) that luck had nothing to do with it.

By the way, this was a great article on attitude – something I can/should work on.

In the way of encouragement, probably the number one thing that has helped me as an eBay seller is research. Before I list anything on eBay – and before I even buy anything with the intent of selling it on eBay – I research each and every item. If the item doesn't look promising (when viewing similar completed auctions), I don't bother trying to sell it. Yes, researching takes time. But so does listing tons of items that don't sell. And researching (on eBay, at least) doesn't cost anything. Listing items that don't end up selling DOES cost money.

I think a lot of people either don't take the time to research, or they are overly optimistic about whether there is a market for the items they want to sell. (And, let's face it, some sellers do not have "the eye" for what to sell, they take awful photos, and/or they do not provide enough information about their items.) I honestly don't understand how some sellers are making any money when only 10-20% of their items are selling. It seems like the listing fees would eat up their profit.

If you are like me and find your items at retail stores, yard sales, thrift stores, etc., here's a suggestion: find a friend or two who are willing to help you with the research. While on my shopping trips, when I find something that I am unsure about, I have a couple friends that I can call and they are happy to check completed auctions on eBay for me. Those friends, in turn, know that I am always willing to do the same for them. The other way to solve this is to buy a phone with Internet capability. Although I am a Top-rated Power Seller, my husband and I don't yet feel like an iPhone is worthwhile for us. Besides, what are friends for, but to help eachother?

Also, if you find some sellers who consistently sell most of their listed items (ideally, find a friend who falls into this category, so you can chat with them about their eBay experiences), then periodically check out their completed auctions. This is a great way to learn what sells and what doesn't.

Despite my research efforts, ocassionally some of my items do not sell. Sometimes, the market for an item suddenly disappears. You have have researched it before you bought/listed the merchandise, but by the time you put it on eBay, there's no buyers. But, I'd say that about 90% of my auctions do sell the first time, and another 5% sell the second time. I generally do not relist the third time, unless I feel that trying it again at a different time of year might help. Along those lines, don't be afraid to store something until a more appropriate season. If you find a deal on designer sandals, wait until summer to sell them.

So, that's my personal tip for the day: Research, research, research. Keep a positive attitude, but don't be unrealistic.

Where does good attitude come from?

It comes from expecting good things to happen, expecting that everything will eventually straighten out and whenever sth bad happens looking at the bright side – what you learned from it, what opportunities it gave you etc.

For example when I severed my Achilles tendon this year I had to be operated, endure glummy Polish hospital conditions, but I asked my family to bring me my laptop and though I couldn’t sleep from pain I used sleepless nights to listen to great motivational audios I got stacked on my laptop and normally didn’t listen out of lack of time. This helped me to be positive and outgoing – I was helping my fellow patients in my room and had a blast talking with my and their guests, was making little Origami presents to make the nurses smile. The doctors were amused by my – as they put it – fast and easy healing of operation wound.

Then when I went home, spent month and a half in cast, then three months on crutches, with severely reduced mobility.

I used this time to get back to my paper modelling hobby – a few weeks ago I got silver medal on Polish military model championships with my paper airplane model I made during my reconvalescence.

In every adversity there is a seed of something grand.

Merry Christmas to everyone.
Leszek Cyfer
Poland