I've never been a fan of "the hard sell." In fact... now that I think about it, is there anyone who has ever been a fan of this tactic? Aside from used car dealers and guys trying to sell you a lakeside time share?

Recently my wife and I went to a 24-Hour Fitness. We had actually called to see what they offered as far as prices, facilities, options, etc. The same as we did for the YMCA and a couple of smaller gyms. We were doing a little smart consumer shopping.

The guy at 24-Hour Fitness, James, told us that he really couldn't cover everything over the phone. It would be best if we came in, took a little tour of the facility, and he could go over everything with us then.

Red flag number 1.

I don't know why my spidey-sense didn't go off like a room full of smoke detectors. I guess I was lulled in by the idea that this was a gym, not a used car lot. It hadn't occurred to me that these guys would even NEED a hard sales tactic. I had never realized that they, too, work on a commission.

I've never had a good experience in a gym. I've never actually been a member of one, either, now that I think of it. At the time of comittment there's always some little thing that causes me to go another way. Price usually makes a big impression on me, for one. But I think there's always been this sort of slick, shifty feeling.

The first time I went to an actual gym I was with a girl I was dating. She had signed up for Bally's and was bringing me along on one of her guest passes. I thought it was an interesting place, but not much different than any other gym I'd ever been in.

My girlfriend at that time had signed up under the condition that she would pay month to month, and nothing would be taken out of her checking account. They agreed, in writing, that this would be the case. But because of the contract they required that she give them her bank account information. She did so (against my advice), and began paying them by check every month. Of course, we can all predict what happened. They started double-dipping - pulling the money out of her account directly AND cashing the checks. When she pointed this out and demanded her money back, they pointed to a clause in the contract that basically said they had the right to pull money out at their discretion, and that any overages would be applied as a credit towards future dues.

But present day at 24-Hour Fitness we weren't having contract issues. Blissfully there was no contract to deal with. There was just James.

He wasn't a bad guy. He sat us down and asked a bunch of questions. He showed us around the facility, told us about the many benefits of membership, and described their program for better results. Then he took us back to his little desk and started giving us the hard numbers.

The information we had called about on the phone, but which we couldn't possibly have gotten because of its sheer volume and detail. Yes, this information was so complicated that it couldn't possible be described in a phone call. The registration fee, the monthly membership rate and the additional fees, all in easy to understand and very high numbers.

So what was it about these numbers that made them difficult to explain over the phone? They seemed to roll off the tongue easily enough in person. If he'd been blind, it would have been practically the same conversation, minus the colorful, laminated and spiral bound sales booklet with the pictures of the uber-buff men and women scattered throughout.

But then came the kicker. "The mayor has asked that today be 'physical fitness day,' so we're offering this one-time, today only, get it now or miss it forever chance to get a discount!" A huge discount, to be sure. But still putting the cost up somewhere beyond the figure I had in my head.
"Well, we need time to think about this," I said. "We need to discuss if this is the right decision for us."

"But you HAVE talked about it. You know this is what you want. I can give you a couple of minutes if you want to talk it over. But this offer ends today!"

Here's a tip for sales people everywhere - telling me that I have to take this deal right here and now or it's off the table is the quickest possible way to pooch yourself out of the deal, because I'm walkin'. I go on record with this: I will never, ever, EVER buy something from you if you tell me it's now or never.

Now, I should say that we found nothing wrong with 24-Hour Fitness. We liked the facility. We liked the equipment. Even the price of membership wasn't really that much. Our budget doesn't allow for it at the moment, but one day it might. And we'd consider going back there and signing up. But it will be on our terms and not theirs.

I see "hard sell" emerging once again in every industry in America. It's the BIS (Butts In Seats) approach to selling. Just get as many people as you can to sign up, no matter what. Get them in, get their hands on something, get them to touch it, drive it, wear it, etc.

It's slimy. It's the equivalent of trying to force someone to buy something. Informed consumers should never allow themselves to be manipulated like this.

There is a psychology at work here, by the way. The idea is that if you have some kind of tactile connection to something there will be a mental "transfer of ownership." In other words, if you pick something up then there's this part of you that claims it. You own it, in some small way. And because you own it, you'll do what it takes to keep it. If you pick up a DVD at Best Buy and walk around the store with it, you're much more likely to purchase it than if you casually glance at it while you're wheeling your cart to the check-out having already gathered the things you came in for.

For the record, when we called the YMCA they gave us all the pertinent information over the phone. The price wasn't that far off from 24-Hour Fitness, actually. The amenities are somewhat on par. The only real difference is that they aren't working on commission.

My advice to anyone looking to join a gym, buy a car, or purchase a time share is that you do your homework. The web gives you tons of resources to use. A simple Google search is enough to get the ball rolling. Find out as much as you can about a product or service before you even speak to someone on the phone about it. And if they tell you that they can't possibly explain it to you on the phone, beware. If the only way they can quote a price to you is to show you what they're selling then all they really care about is getting as much money from you as possible.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is the Editor of ViewOnline Magazine. He is a Writer and Producer for Hat Digital Media. If you would like to reach him you may do so at kevin@viewonline.com. He would like to show you some beach side property that he thinks you'll love.

Being a small business owner is tough. It's difficult to get steady clients, which means it's difficult to get steady money. Not impossible, mind you, just difficult. If you have the right combination of passion, dedication and motivation you can make any business successful.

One of the things that I face as a small business owner, though, is other small business owners. There are certain myths out there that I think need to be squashed. And one of them is this notion that to run a small business you have to spend 24/7 working.

I have a friend and associate who also owns his own business. In fact, like me he's in production. And he does very well. He makes decent money and seems to have plenty of work. But in talking to him I find that he's a little unhappy with the kind of work he gets. It isn't exactly what he wanted to do. He's making a buck, but not making his dreams come true.

This friend has the attitude that if you cut off your work day at 5p.m. you're "wasting time." In his opinion you have to be willing to work late into the evening, every evening, to keep your business going.

I have an issue with that.

First of all, I have a wife now, which means that small as it may be I have a family. My first priority is to my tiny little family. Nothing else is as important. The argument could be made that supporting that family is part of making it a priority, and I agree. But above and beyond that, my wife is more important than my work.

That said, my next issue with the "wasting time" argument is that in order for the long work hours to pay off you have to actually have work to do. I'm a pretty well organized person. I know how to get a job done quickly and efficiently. If I can, I'm going to finish up as quickly as possible because the most precious commodity I have is time. So the ideal job is to make more money and invest less time, right? Isn't that what everyone wants? In most cases, I finish up the work I have to do well before 5p.m., so cutting off my work day around that time is perfectly acceptable to me.

What I've noticed about most entrepreneurs is that they have the willingness to work long hours. That's the key, not the long hours themselves. It's the drive to complete the work, to do the job, to be reliable. If you can do what you say you'll do, in the time you say you'll do it, for the money you agree to compensated for, then you're a success. You've done it. The rest is planning.

My small business doesn't make a ton of money right now. But it does make something. It's growing. I see it every day. Considering I'm only a year in, it's doing rather well. And if I have to take another job to make sure that the business has enough operating capital to make it, then so be it. In that, I'm certainly willing to "do whatever it takes."

But you can see the difference there, right? The first idea is that you put in the long hours to make it successful. You pay the price of working until late into every evening, and that's what makes the business work.

The second idea is that you do whatever it takes. If the job requires you to be there late into the evening, then you are. If it doesn't, then you aren't. If it requires that you take a second job, then you do. If it doesn't, then you don't. If you have to work out of your home instead of an office building, then that's what you do. But if you don't have work that keeps you in the office until 10p.m. every evening, then why are you there? Isn't that wasting time?

It's not about hours logged, it's about the quality of those hours. The productive power of them. You focus on what's important first, and the rest takes care of itself. For me, the focus has to be on finding clients. That's the driving force in my day right now. Finding clients is pretty much a round-the-clock kind of job, but it's not always a go-out-and-dig kind of thing. Mostly, it's every casual contact, every moment you talk with someone, every hand you shake, every store you walk into. Business cards and web forums. Telephone calls and e-mails. Networking. So in a sense, I AM working late into every evening, because the networking never really stops.

But sitting at a desk? For no other reason than you feel obligated to? Now who's wasting time.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is the Editor of ViewOnline Magazine at www.viewonline.com. He is also a Writer and Producer for Hat Digital Media at www.hatdigitalmedia.com. If you'd like to e-mail him you may do so at kevin@viewonline.com. He feels obligated to sit and watch the clock hands move.

I'm reading "Unlimited Power" by Anthony Robbins. It's a book I first picked up to impress a girl I was dating back in my early twenties. She was enthralled by Tony and his ideas. I was enthralled by her and her... ideas. Among other things.

When I first got the book I mangled it up real good. I bent back the corners of pages, folded the cover so it was nice and creased, and generally made it look as if I'd read the book dozens of times. Then one day when the girl and I were first starting to date I "accidentally" left it sitting in the floorboard of my car. "Oh, sorry about that! I don't know how that got there!"

Sheesh, the things a guy will do for the girl he loves.

A couple of years later, after the girl had broken my heart and moved on, I was working in a job I hated. I was there for a paycheck, and nothing more. There was no passion in my work, no reason for me to push myself, no point in trying to get ahead. It was a dead end. No matter how many times I was praised for the work I did I was criticized twice as much and far more often.

At that time I picked up the book again and actually started reading it. I got about a third of the way through it and found that it really was shaping my thinking. It really was helping me deal with where I was in life and what I wanted to change. Heck, at the time I read it I wasn't much younger than Tony had been when he wrote it! So there was hope. I could make sweeping changes in my life, be happier, get to where I wanted to be.

And I stopped reading the book.

Why? I wish I could say. I did the things he suggested and saw the benefits. I was in better shape physically because I followed his advice on diet and exercise. I had a better mental outlook because I listened to what he had to say about positive attitude and belief having an impact on you. In so many ways I had adapted what I'd read into my daily life. And yet, I never finished reading the book.

Since then I've changed quite a bit in my life. I went back to college and got a different degree. Two of them, as a matter of fact. Then I went to grad school and earned another. I began working in the media doing things I had always found interesting. I never really made much money doing it, but I loved the work! I've written two novels (neither published) and have been picked up by several newspapers and magazines to write occasional articles, columns and blogs. In many ways I'm much more successful than I was when I had the dead end job, but I've never quite made the mark. I've never quite hit that vague, undefined goal I had (can you guess why?).

And that book sat on my shelf through it all. Occasionally I'd pick it up, thumb through it, say to myself, "I should finish reading this some day." Now, here I am ten years later, and I'm finally starting the book again.

Why is this important, one might ask? Well, it's not that Tony Robbins is so great and that I'd be a fool not to listen to him. It's more a question of getting myself to be the person I always dreamt of being. Meeting my goals, having the success I want, and having the freedom that I feel is vital to my existence. That's the point. Not the book. The book can't do that for me. Only I can do that. But reading that book all those years ago was helping me in a very important way.

It got me thinking.

I think that Tony Robbins is on to something with his techniques. He uses Neural Linguistic Programming, for one thing, which is a tried and true method of achieving the results you want over and over. But Tony's philosophies are just part of the equation for me. It's more about the thinking.

Thinking is something that we don't see a lot of these days. It isn't taught anymore. In public schools, students are taught to "learn" by memorizing facts. They aren't shown how those facts connect to anything. There's a gap between memorization and learning, and that gap is filled with thinking. Thinking skills are vital.

I try never to read something and accept it at face value. Over the past year or so I've started using a technique that was adapted by theologists to study the bible. It's called lectio divina, and it seems simple but it's a deceptively difficult way to study something. And it produces results that become deeply ingrained in the reader.

The precepts are READ, THINK, PRAY, LIVE.

I'm a Christian. Prayer is a part of my daily life. But even if I were a non-Christian this would be the best way to study anything and learn it inside and out. If you feel more comfortable substituting "MEDITATE" for prayer, be my guest.

You begin with the most obvious and easiest step. Read what you want to understand. That's simple, right? If you're interested in a topic, read about it. Read varied and wide. Read everything you can get your hands on. Take a look at opposing views (this is the best thing you could possibly do), pick-up books and articles and web sites that explain your chosen topic in every possible light.

Then think about it. This seems easy, but it's the hardest step in my opinion. This is the part where you make a point to purposefully sit and ponder what you've read. Let it roll over in your mind. Hold a dialogue with yourself on the opposing points you've read, the facts you've gathered and what they mean in connection with each other. Talking it over with someone else would probably help. If you can find someone who has the same interest or who is (better yet) an expert on the topic that would be a tremendous resource. But writing about it is one of the very best ways to keep your thoughts focused. Write down everything you've learned, everything you believe and everything you still have questions about.

Pray about what you've learned. Meditation and prayer are times of mental peace. Your thoughts aren't on you anymore. They're on God or some sublime consciousness. I'm no good at the hippy talk about new age philosophy but whatever your beliefs may be, taking the time to turn your thoughts away from yourself and seek the advice of a higher power gives you the humility to step back from the problem. You're no longer an investigator trying to piece together a puzzle that's missing some pieces. You're a child asking a parent why the sky is blue or why the Democrats are willing to filibuster to get a minority rule in Congress (or whatever your question may be). You're humbling yourself, which means you're willing to listen.

And the final step is to live. Take what you're learned, apply it to yourself and your thinking. Let your thoughts reshape you, if necessary. Sometimes all of this just amounts to a confirmation of what you already believe. When that happens, it's great! You get a boost of confidence and you come out with a whole body of knowledge that you can use to support your view. In other words, you're an expert.

So here I am reading "Unlimited Power" again. If you haven't read it, I recommend it. It's a good starting point. It gets you thinking. And like I said, thinking is the hardest part.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is the Editor for ViewOnline Magazine at www.viewonline.com. He is also a Writer/Producer for Hat Digital Media. You can reach Kevin via e-mail at kevin@viewonline.com. He is thinking of all the reading he has to do.