I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and heard an interview with Joshua Cooper Ramo discussing his latest book. Joshua is the Managing Director of the Kissinger Associates which is a strategic advisory firm. It's worth noting that he is the youngest Managing Director in the history of the firm and that prior to this career move he was the youngest Senior Editor and Foreign Editor in the history of TIME Magazine.

Joshua is a Mandarin speaker who divides his time between Beijing and New York City. The World Economic Forum has called him “one of China’s leading foreign-born scholars.” His papers have been widely distributed in China and abroad.

Those are just a taste of this intriguing man who has written the book 'The Age of The Unthinkable' of the title. Listening to him speak about the book I was enthralled with some of the ideas that he puts forward, so much so that I just had to go out and order a copy so that I could explore his ideas further.

He's a compelling speaker and it will be interesting to see if his writing matches that.

The basic ideas that Joshua expresses are that we are living in a time of perpetual surprise and change, yet that the statesmen who make the laws and sanction government reactions to events are resistant to change, clinging to their one basic philosophy and unwilling to be flexible in their approach to dealing with the events that are thrown at us.

As examples he uses the war on terror and how it's created more dangerous terrorists rather than ridding the world of terrorism, the way that the fight to stop the financial crisis seems to be actually accelerating it and the way that carefully negotiated peace plans seem to reduce peace..

He maintains that the 'traditional physics of power has been replaced by .......... a revolutionary avalanche of ceaseless, unthinkable change'.

He then goes onto explain why our current approaches backfire and what we can do to change that. He's a sincere speaker and I can't wait to find out more about his theories when my book arrives.... 

As a follow on this made me think about how we present ourselves when marketing online and the impressions that we make, which led in turn to making me wonder if we are entering our own Age of the Unthinkable in online marketing - ie. maybe another way of looking at this would be to call it selling without hype. Attraction marketing is leading us down this road, encouraging us to build relationships, and add value to others, via sincere efforts to help them to succeed.

OK so it's also designed to encourage people to follow us forever, rather than allow them to buy from us one time and then be lost in the ether until our next advertising campaign catches their eye?

Gurus have been telling us - stick with what you know and believe in, even before attraction marketing became so popular. The reason for this is because it is so much easier to sell a concept or product that you use, know well and believe in than one that you don’t understand.

Sincerity comes with inner belief, and sincerity sells. As a society we recognise sincerity like we are programmed for it, through the voice, the eyes and believe it or not we can also read it in the written word. This is because it comes from the heart and makes us respond on an emotional level rather than a practical one.

It’s why those people who have the most self belief gather others to them without effort - they are sincere, that doesn’t mean that they are always right, just that they have a quiet confidence that makes others feel safe and secure no matter what situation they find themselves in.

If you’re an internet marketer, either one who's having trouble with your self belief and confidence, or maybe just someone like me who likes to learn new things and see what new training is available, come take a look at the free training offered by Your Prospex it will help you to get a new perspective and grow your confidence with excellent learning opportunities that cost you nothing but time.

Always remember that self belief leads to sincerity, and sincerity leads to sales and large teams. So each morning ask yourself - how sincere am I in my wish to better myself by helping others? Do I really believe in myself and in that concept enough to grow a bit more today?

How am I going to further that today and what do I need to do to make myself feel proud?

I don't believe that pride is a sin if you use it fleetingly and sparingly, I prefer to think that it only becomes sinful when you dwell on it and use it to make yourself feel better than others.

How can there be harm in taking a little pride in a job well done, or an action well carried out?

Tthe important thing to remember about pride is that it only trips you up when you hold onto it for so long that you can’t see where you’re going any more .