I feel strongly about self employment. I love being my own boss, and I envision more and more people will be self-employed in the New World. Having made the transition from a corporate employee to a small business owner recently, I also know there are a lot of questions and fear among aspiring entrepreneurs.

This eBook guides you from the embryonic phase of “Can I possibly start my own business? Do I have what it takes? What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur anyway?” to the point you make the leap of faith with a clear vision of your success. It consists of three parts:

Part I: Myths & Reality
Part II: 5 Steps to Self-Employment
Part III: Your Success

A lot of materials comes from the posts I wrote on this Yes to Me blog, but I have added new ideas and insights, and put them all together in an integrated one vision, one process. It discusses paycheck mentality vs risk management skill, our attitude about marketing, very practical suggestions about business names (which is a key to effective marketing), the unavoidable issue of money, our secret fear of success that deters us, and a lot more.

Spiritual entrepreneurship

Throughout the eBook, I point out how spirituality can help you in the endeavor of starting a new business. If you think spirituality has nothing to do with the real world challenge of making money, you are in for a good surprise. If you think spirituality is a drawback, putting you to a disadvantage against those aggressive “practical” type who would do anything to make money, you are in for an even bigger surprise.

I know this from my own experience. I don’t think I had the courage to quit my cushy corporate job if it wasn’t with my spirituality. I don’t think I could survive the transitional phase when nothing much was happening (at least on the surface) if I didn’t have the willingness to contribute to the world. Now, this year, which is my second year, I’m making more than I did in the corporate world and my business is growing. Doing what I love and by helping people.

This eBook is a gift to you and to the world. You can just click on the icon on this page or on the sidebar to download it. You are also welcome to share it with your friends.

Social entrepreneurship

The eBook is free, but if you find it valuable, please consider making a contribution to Kiva. Kiva is not a charity — they help entrepreneurs in the developing countries by lending money for their businesses. Those entrepreneurs will pay you back. You can then take back your money or re-loan to another entrepreneur.

When I think of the many small business owners all over the world, I feel so inspired and I’m sure the feeling is doing me good in my business. Plus, by making them rich, we are developing a worldwide market — for your business.

I appreciate if you could leave a comment with your thoughts on this eBook. Perhaps I will revise and enrich the eBook in the future to make it even better, and your feedback is priceless in such an effort.

My gratitude also goes to those many entrepreneurs who have inspired me through the interviews and other communications. Entrepreneurs are never alone (which is another critical point I make in the eBook). In fact, I will be publishing several more Interviews With Successful Entrepreneurs soon — interviews with some spirited business owners that I came to know recently. (Stay tuned!)

Occasionally I receive emails from people who want “free” readings, and I’ve wondered why. Is psychic reading typically offered free and I’m violating the rule? Hmm, no, there are plenty of psychics who ask for far more than I do. Is it because they don’t think I’m worth their money? But if so, why do they ask me for reading ever?

Is it because they don’t have money? This may seem right, but then, it hit me: It’s because they don’t pay the due that they are poor. They don’t pay what is due, so what is rightfully theirs don’t come their way in their life. They believe they don’t have the money so that is how they are. Look at the energetic exchange (or the lack thereof, in this case), and it’s quite plain and simple.

I’m not advocating to spend lots of money. When I receive bills that I don’t agree, I go after the merchant and straighten things up. I do advocate paying properly. Sometimes I pay more than the bill my, say web designer, charges me. With gratitude. Because I think the work was worth it.

If you want to be treated well for who you are, treat others well. (Plus there are plenty of articles in this blog’s archive about how to start a business and make money )

June in Review

As promised in last month’s Gratitude Journal, I wrote about love and sex — and was discouraged with the low level of comments. Okay . . . if my readers don’t like this topic, maybe I’ll write about something else. But are you sure? I was ready to write more juicy stuffs . . .

I started writing about various starseeds groups. This is going to be a long series. I don’t think there are sufficient information about this, so I take it to my responsibility to write about it.

Fun

In 12 Steps To Raw Foods, Victoria Boutenko, the leading raw foods advocate, writes about a few other healthy habits beside eating raw. One of them is sleeping naked. She cites several studies and maintains sleeping naked promotes surface circulation. (I guess, then, being naked anytime is good, but we need to balance healthy habits with social life requirements. Plus it can be too cold outside the bed.)

Well, the weather is warm, this is the best time to try this. I do think I sleep better this way. Plus it feels good. (My sheets are 100% organic cotton.)

Victoria Boutenko also recommends jumping into cold water, sleeping on hard surface, keeping windows open for fresh air, etc. I started taking cold shower occasionally and try to keep the windows open. Not sure if I can keep doing this in winter, but for now, it works.

Challenges

Blog marketing, I guess. I simply don’t have time to go around promoting my blog. I love writing, and many articles here will be included in the book I hope to publish about Ascension and Akashic Records, so with or without large audience, this blog is very meaningful to me. At the same time, I wish I had more readers. Writing gets lonely sometimes, and there is nothing like reading comments at such time.

Lucky Synchronicities

For this, I’d like to record the great synchronicities I experience in my life. It confirms the benevolent mystery of life

Saturday evening, June 13th. I went out walking to my local supermarket. It’s 15 minutes walk and I find it to be a good way to exercise. There is sidewalk all along lined with lots of trees and flowers.  When I was leaving home, the sky was mildly overcast but it didn’t seem like it would rain any time soon.

I bought some mangos and grapefruits and came out of the store to find rain pouring down. Haven’t I learned the lesson of living in Oregon yet? It can rain any time. The sky changes in 10 minutes.

So . . . I was standing outside the store. Do I want to walk back in rain and just pretend I went swimming? Shall I wait until it clears up?

It was dark with the severe rain, but I noticed the car in the parking lot. Hey, that gray Scion is just like my friend’s. Is she here shopping, too?

I stood there looking around for several minutes. She did come out from the store, looking surprised to see the rain and me.

I got the ride home. I’m lucky. My spirit guides work hard for me. Thank you.

Where in the blogosphere Akemi has been

I’ve always been interested in eating healthy and mindfully.  Here are two videos that inspire you.

First one — by the end of this short video, foods start to look different to you, I hope.

And here is a movie trailer about the miracle of eating raw. It reversed diabetes in 30 days. (HT: Evita)

A year ago at Yes to Me

I started this Gratitude Journal series a year ago. Over the course of the year, I’ve changed the format and posting frequency, but all in all, I think this is a great way to share a bit of my personal side. Namaste.

I personally like “Embrace The Big Questions Worth Spending Your Life For”. It’s about how “quick and easy” answers deprive the joy of living.

Word of month

“Cultivate a sense of gratitude for your food. Each time we remember to eat with awareness, we return to that place of inner peace.”

By earthmother. I learn a lot from her blog about eating raw, which I think has a lot to do with spiritual development. Thank you!

Thank you for your readership and comments, as always ^_^ I hope you are enjoying the warm weather.

Do you consider spirituality as a special day (maybe Sunday) treat?    Do you think certain activities such as meditation or religious worship is spiritual while your other activities are not?

Many people compartmentize spirituality.  And this is so counterproductive to your spiritual development.  Because (hold your breath) ANYTHING and EVERYTHING in life is spiritual.  You are a spiritual being living in a physical body, so you cannot not be spiritual.  Thinking you can is delusional and detrimental.  (Photo by Paulaloe)

Eating is spiritual

For instance, eating is spiritual.  All your meals, snacks, and drinks.  It’s not a “low” activity while “spiritual work” is holier.  And I don’t mean certain diet, such as vegetarianism, is spiritual while others are not.

I stopped eating meat after my soul shift, but it’s because my new soul (therefore my body) simply rejects it.  It’s not about some spiritual or religious beliefs.  I actually hated the self-righteousness of some vegetarians.

Eating is about feeding the body with other lives, whether they were plants or animals.  It is a way to connect to other life forms, along with the people who have contributed to the harvesting, processing, distributing, and preparing of the foods.  Each one of us are connected and supported by the whole, and eating is a solid way to realize it.

Eating is also about caring for our physical bodies.  While we are incarnated, the condition of the physical body affects our soul.  So you do want to eat healthy.  And this is true 24/7.  You cannot binge eat and then somehow “purge” or forget about it.

You may insist vegetarianism enhance your psychic power.  Sure.  This is why traditional psychic mediums and religious figures were vegetarian.  If you want to follow their path, I also recommend abstinence.  Attachment to anything and anyone can affect clear channeling.  Ideally, stay virgin all your life.

Fortunately, we can also develop our intuition and psychic power while enjoying meat.  Of both kinds.  So again, all eating is spiritual.

Sex is spiritual

And I don’t mean certain style of sex or certain sexual relationship is spiritual while others are not.  You can be as kinky as you and your partner want.  I don’t even think monogamy is the spiritually-correct form of intimate relationship.  As long as you can be honest and open, you can experience love and sex in many ways.

Sex is a way we exchange energy with another person.  Every single act – whether you were serious or just playing or whatever, causes this interaction.  Saying something like, “Oh, that was just my animal instinct that surged on Saturday night.  I have nothing to do with her and the real spiritual me is looking for my soulmate.” is a lie.

(I have nothing against men.  I like men.  But I think men are more likely to say BS like above due to their hormone effects.  There are other BS related to sexuality, and I’m sure women use them, too.)

And of course, sex is also about creation and procreation.  What can be more spiritual than love and new life?

Work is spiritual

Again I don’t mean certain jobs such as religious jobs, teaching jobs, or non-profit jobs are spiritual and others are not.  Work is about service, whether it is about sweeping the floor, repairing a computer, or figuring out how to sell a handmade jewelry.  It is about exchanging energy, and many times, about helping others exchange energies.

Money is a form of energy, too.  Thinking money is dirty and low is a socially supported yet nonetheless erroneous idea and is an effective way to refuse God’s blessings.  In our current system, exchanging value and money works, and empowered lightworkers can make good money.  (We are moving on to the New World where we’ll be just freely giving away value, but that is another topic I will be writing at another occasion.)

Money is fine, but thinking your work has no meaning other than earning a paycheck is a huge neglect of your own value, which is spiritual.

I can go on and on saying how everything in life is spiritual – every friendship and other relationships you have, every physical activity you do, the way you sleep, get up, drive, etc etc. — but I hope you get the idea.  There is not a minute you are not spiritual.

Lies to our spiritual nature

Anything and everything in life is spiritual.  Accepting this fact can help you streamline all aspects of your life, reconciling what is out of alignment, and so will promote your spiritual growth.  Rejecting this fact and lying to yourself and others distance you from truth.

And perhaps I’m repeating myself, but this alignment with your true spiritual nature is NOT about being a “good” person.  The idea of a “good” person, or what is “good”, is severely manipulated by darkworker authorities.  Most of us are more or less brainwashed with the various ideas of “good” that have been taught to us in schools, families, and in society in general.

We need to review all ideas of “good”.  At this time, the only thing that I think is no good is to mis-align with the basic energy flows of Love, Light, Truth, Abundance and Power.  Lying is mis-aligning yourself from Truth, so I don’t recommend it.

Does this idea of everything is spiritual work scare you?  If so, why?  Please let me know in the comment.

Yes to Me is one year old!  So this is a special celebration edition of my gratitude report.  Thank you my readers, thank you my subscribers, and thank you my fellow bloggers.  (Photo by Mr. Greenjeans)

My Spiritual Make Money Scheme

My business is doing pretty well, and I started writing what I believe to be the secret of my success so that you can learn from it and make money yourself.  And I typed and typed and . . . realize it’s really worth to be published as another independent post.  So here, let me just quickly share my business’ January financial record to give you an idea of how my 9 month old service is doing.

I wanted to insert the screenshot of my Paypal statement, but I can’t figure out how to, so you just have to trust me.  Here is the breakdown:

Gross revenue: $6205
Paypal fee: $214
Expense paid through Paypal: $193
Revenue: $5798

This is before tax and overhead.  The expense I paid through Paypal last month includes donation and web design work.  So these are not ongoing overhead.  My ongoing overhead is very low – they are internet and phone connection, web hosting, e-junkie seller account fee – well under $100 per month.  I may have incurred some other expenses (I haven’t really worked out the numbers yet), but you get the idea.

Pretty good for a new business, huh?  (Did anyone say recession?)

And here is a preview of my next post on abundance and spirituality:
The shortcut to abundance is to develop your spirituality so that you see abundance instead of lack.

Do you see lack?  Are you afraid your needs may not be met?  Or are you enjoying abundance?

Yes to Me blog growth

Here is a quick summary of this blog’s journey of this past year:

First post on February 4, 2008:  Why I Couldn’t Become An Entrepreneur Earlier
I started Yes to Me to share my adventures as a new entrepreneur.  With me as an author, however, it couldn’t avoid the spiritual flavor . . .

First post of Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series with Christine O’Kelly
Like likes the like.  She may not realize how spiritual she is, but her interview nonetheless emphasizing the inner working of entrepreneurship . . .

Dodging The Many Forms Of Psychological Manipulation
This is one of the most popular posts, drawing traffic from SEO even now, 10 months after its publication.  Wish all my posts performed this well!

Soul Shifting And The Light Ascension Of Maybe 2012
By far the most commented, perhaps most controversial post so far . . . There have been so many questions that I had to give up responding to each of them individually and wrote another Q&A post.  And I wasn’t even attempting to be controversial – I was trying to help some people.
The second most commented post is Living Your Life Purpose

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!

My anniversary gift to my readers

I wrote an eBook titled Stop Craving Sugar! Despite the title that reads like a headline of a women’s magazine, this is not only about nutrition, not only about emotional eating –  it addresses the issue from all four levels of our existence, physiological, emotional, mental, and spiritual.  Yeah, spiritual, too.  Everything we do is spiritual, including eating.

I asked some of my friends to read the eBook and here is one of the reviews:

“As a registered holistic nutritionist, I can truthfully say that Akemi has done a fantastic job of putting this eBook together. It is a yummy work for the body, the mind and the spirit. You will explore the truth about what you are feeding your body, what you are feeding your mind and how these influence each other. After reading this eBook you will realize that you have the ability to stop fighting sugar cravings and start living well.”

– Davina Haisell, RHN, Vancouver, Canada

I will be building the sales website and finalizing all the sales details this coming week.  But the book is ready, and I’d be happy to give away the copy to five commenters of this post.  Please write your comment below by Monday and if there are more than five commenters, I will do the drawing and contact the winners by email. (The eBook will be selling for $29.)

And today I am grateful for the sunlight, for the trees that I sense to be waking up soon, and for my wonderful spirit guides.  Hope you have a great weekend!

This post is for Blog Action Day 2008 that is about Poverty.

It’s also a supplement to my last post on how to start your own business because the issue of money is unavoidable when you quit your job and make the leap of faith. (Photo by Kaptain Krispy Kreme)

Real cause of poverty

When we think about poverty, it’s so easy to focus on the existing tragedies such as the homeless people or the starving children in Africa. I feel for them, but I’m asking you to put those issues aside for a moment and think why poverty exists. Let’s take care of the root cause first.

Now imagine two individuals – two brothers, with the same educational background. Will they achieve the same level of financial status as they proceed in life? We’ve seen similar cases and know they won’t, right? So what makes one succeed, while the other fails miserably? It’s their thinking. One is focused on wealth, abundance, and success, and the other only sees lack and poverty in and around him.

In my previous bank job, I was told never to judge customers by their appearances. A stinky homeless-like guy may have tens of thousands of dollars while the guy in nice suit may be deep in debt. (As bank employees, we knew this.) I also read that Donald Trump once said, when the economy was down, that the homeless guys had more net worth than himself because they had some coins in their papercups while he was deep in debt.

So what makes Donald Trump rich? He focuses on abundance and success. While the guy on the street worries like crazy and never touches his savings.

Kiva: Empowering the have-nots

This understanding that poverty starts not from external lacks but from the internal scarcity thoughts has taken roots in our social awareness. For example, charity. Charity used to be about sending money to the needy. This only helped the needy superficially and temporarily. Now organizations like Kiva lends money to the people who currently don’t have the money but are willing to make some. They treat the people as those who have the full potential to become rich – just not there yet. This is empowering.

Do you still think there are absolute poverty? People who just can’t climb up from poverty because of their outwardly circumstances? Well, I’m not going to argue – there may be because this physical world is not perfect. For those of you who think that way, however, the real question may be: Are you using their poverty as an excuse for you to stay stuck?

I’ve seen this pattern of thought. For example, Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question describes people who say something like “Oh, but those poor immigrants . . . they take the worst jobs . . . I feel bad being so picky about what I want to do in my life . . .” As an immigrant myself, I say BS. Don’t use us as an excuse of your procrastination and lack of courage. For the same token, don’t use people in poverty as your excuse. Pick up after yourself and the world will be a better place.

10 principles of spiritual money practice to eliminate poverty and to become rich yourself

There are a lot you can do right here and now to decrease the world poverty, and only you can do them because they are about your own spirit. In the meantime, they will make you rich

Here are the principles of spiritual money practice (I will be explaining them into more details in my future posts):

1. Let go of your scarcity thoughts. One by one, as they surface in your mind.
2. At the same time, expand your spirit to allow higher level of abundance for yourself and others. (My Dream Money Project is a fun way to do this.)
3. Accept money as a form of natural abundance. There is nothing dirty or evil about money. We can do a lot of good things with money.
4. Learn to see the current situation, financial or not, as a vehicle to learn the valuable lessons rather than being stuck in it.
5. Learn to see the possibilities behind what meets your eye. There are a lot of opportunities to make money.
6. Take responsibility for your own life. Don’t wait until you win the lottery to do what you want to do. Use the power of your free will and free choice to create your own life.
7. See abundance in nature. Be amazed how God (or any name Divinity) has made this physical world so abundant and beautiful. Isn’t the sunrise literally priceless?
8. See everyone as your equals and treat them with respect. Money goes around and comes through people.
9. Start your day with gratitude and end your day with gratitude.
10. Enjoy giving.

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur – the startup money issue

You might want to do some math how much money reserve you need to quit your corporate job and start your own business. Alternatively, you can take a part-time job or rely on your family’s income. But still, there is a point when you cut your umbilical cord and step into the unknown. No amount of money can make this transition completely safe.

When I was starting as a new entrepreneur, I often thought about the Kiva beneficiary in another country that I was supporting. Or about Muhammad Yunus, the banker to the poor, and his story of lending money to a woman who wanted to buy a goat to eventually sell its milk. (If my memory serves me well, she expanded her business further and later became Mr. Yunus’ business partner) It gave me tremendous courage in the uncertain days of early entrepreneurship.

What is your money hangups? Write them in the comment as a way to overcome them!

Further reading: This book review is about how to become a millionaire.