A little while I ago I happened to be in my car and listening to the radio (one of the few occasions where I am not listening to good brain food) and there was a debate going on as to whether or not Ronald McDonald was to blame for obesity in children... what I heard shocked me. There were all sorts of people ringing in about it, including Doctors, and I would have to say that 95% of them said that yes, Ronald McDonald was to blame.. WTF? Seriously?

It is this sort of thinking that is causing the decay of mankind, not some organised religion or something even less understood like climate change.

So then if regulation is not the answer (as I still firmly believe that I am responsible for myself, not anyone else), and people already know that to weigh less they need to eat appropriately and exercise more and the clearly makes no difference at all... then what do we do? Or rather what can be done?

Well let me answer that with first addressing another issue... all to often I hear that healthy food is too expensive, and that it is just easier and cheaper to grab some maccas or BK (Hungries in Australia), or even a Sub, I mean they're healthy right? They are endorsed by Doctors Inc (in case you don't already know that is the name of the company that own them, not necessarily doctors). So its just easier to get the cheap and easy stuff.
And while on this tangent lets also look at the health system, people are crying because they are being taxed to pay for health care, and believe me it will get to the point in the not too distant future where your government will no longer be able to offer health care as it is too expensive because of the ever growing obesity epidemic.

So back to the original question 'what can be done? Well here is a thought, now it is a little radical, and of course it would be meet with all sorts of friction and opposition, yet if the government really wanted to do something to stop the ever growing obesity rate they would implement this right away, and that is this; put a junk food tax on all junk food, yup I said it (and trust me I eat my share of junk food so it would effect me too) tax ALL junk food. I mean imagine ordering your Big Mac value meal, 'yes sir/madam, that will be $7.95 for your meal and a further $5.00 (each meal) for your junk food tax. (I would love to be a fly on the wall for that!)
Now for anyone out there that has read anything that I have put out you would know that I am not a big supporter of tax of any kind... I firmly believe that the government should be run like a business and if it was then there would be no need to tax the people of their country, yet this one makes sense, as it would be beneficial two fold... it would not only make junk food more expensive (therefore more of a luxury than an everyday event) and with the tax, it would NOT go into the government coffers it would be used directly as a subsidy for healthy organic food (or as our grandparents used to call it, food) therefore making it more affordable for even the people on benefits.

It just makes sense, unfortunately due to the fact that apparently to be considered in politics you need not have a spine (this is how politics occur for me, well at least for 95% of the politicians) it would prove to unpopular and cost to many votes, although that being said it could prove more popular than Julia Gillard's carbon tax.

So as I said, a little radical, maybe even a little controversial, its just that if nothing gets done then the scene from the movie WallE where all the fat people are flying around on hover scooters as their bones can no longer support their own body weight does not seem too far fetched at all.

That is my two cents, would love to hear your thoughts here, remember to share this with your friends, perhaps we can start a revolution, who knows.

Until then, make it a most outstanding day and tell the special people in your life that you love them.

About the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

Hey Guys Andrew Hawkes here and from the looks of the cobwebs around the place here it is easy to see that this little piece of online real estate has been neglected for a little while.

Far out, "its been 5 months since my last confession!"

That is really how I feel, you know when you feel bad because you said you would do something and you didn't and you let someone down? That is kinda how I feel right now....

But not really, because the leave of absence has been well worth it. Its funny I have been thinking that I needed to get back here and let people know what it is that I am up too, and a post from a good friend of mine spurred me into doing just that,  Natale Louise wrote in 'The Hiatus That Changed Everything for Me'

Don’t get me wrong I have been working on many things in the background here, mainly on myself, no products but many ideas for how I want to take my brand forward online.

And that has most certainly been the case with me, so where the heck has Andrew Hawkes been?

Well those of you who know me will know that I pretty much willing to try my hand at everything, and if you read many of the post on this Weblog you will be able to find out exactly what I am talking about.

I have to say that the last three years have been the hardest for me financially of my life, and of course you can read more about that in my series Andrew Hawkes Gets Frank. Being the person that I am I understand that everything happens for a higher purpose and there is a lesson in most everything that happens in our lives, given that and the reflection over that time it came to me.

"There is obviously a lesson I am missing, what the hell is it?"

I traced my fortunes back to the first time I started making A LOT of money (not that this is the main factor here, the lesson is bigger than that) and then I looked at what it was that I was doing differently then to what I am doing now. There was ONE thing that was BLINDINGLY obvious... Well at least it was when I started LOOKING for it. Now we could go into a whole discussion about quantum physics and meta physics here, however that is not the topic, so we will leave that for another day.

In a car, when it breaks down, there is generally a cause, and you must do a fault diagnosis to determine what that fault is and rectify it, in other words when something was working, and now it seemingly is not, then you must trace back to where it was and stopped to determine what is wrong.

So I did a little 'fault finding' on my life, (NOTE I was not looking for faults, I was looking for when it was last working the way I wanted it too.)

OK So here is a list of things I was doing when I was making money;

• Reading, good quality books for the mind
• engaging people and looking for ways to help them
• looking inside myself for answers
• relying on ME

All of those things (and that really is just a snippet) allowed me to BE that person who would have great results and achieve the level of income I desired.

Now compare that to what I had been doing for the last two years;

• Sitting on the Couch watching TV
• Staying at home and meeting NO one
• Looking outside for assistance of others to pick me up
• Forgetting that I am so Powerful

You can see that there is a striking difference.

I finally realised that pushing products that I didn't really 'get' or was otherwise not emotionally involved with, or more to the point reliing on other people to 'Get it too' before I got paid was not serving me at all, I realised that after all of the personal development trainings and the things that I had done that I wasn't at all being true to what I wanted in life, and that was to be of service and to build a solid company with products that people are using everyday and that people are really looking for.

So since rediscovering this, I have made massive inroads to what is fast becoming a viable and profitable business, and I have never been happier feel free to check out the products and services on offer at Goin On Group's company website

So really that is it, this is where I am at, 2011 is alreday huge and it is only getting bigger, I love life, I love my family, and in just over 8 weeks I am going to be a father all over again. It doesn't get much better.

Namaste to all!

About the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

lets see if today I can wrap up this story of mine.

If you have not read the first installments you can do that;

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

You know there is a quote that I believe holds a lot of answers and that is this "We see the world not as it is, but as we are" The reason I say this is because I was really kidding myself if I thought that moving was going to magically sort all of our issues out, and I guess deep down I knew that. There was of course more than one reason to move, and part of it was in fact to escape the negativity that was ever present where we were living. Albert Enstien said it well when he said "The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them." Yet here I was thinking that all I needed to do was move. What a schmuck! No if I was going to truly sort the issues out I was going to have to change my level of thinking.

So during this time I had gotten started with a number of Home Business, and there, as I said was really plenty of opportunities to choose from. All with varying levels of investment. I was committed to (and to this day am still) ensuring that the creditors are compensated for their loss. (you see even though the debt is effectively wiped clean with a Bankruptcy you can still pay it back, its just who I am). The sad part about all of this, was that I was yet to realise that I had not yet changed the way I was. So there was now a pattern starting to emerge, and the one variable was me. We started to get behind in our bills again, only this time in Australia. So any money I did make with the home business that I was actually working at was going towards catching ourselves up once again. It was a perpetual cycle of get behind, make some money, get caught up, get behind, make some money, get caught up. It really was just like working a job... and that started to take its toll on me. I slipped into a pit of darkness, and this is where the real damage started to occur.

Funny things happen to people when things are not quite right. The little things that we have always been so good at seem a little harder, we start to doubt our own ability, we begin to be cynical and resentful. The stupid part is that you yourself (I mean the person who is doubting etc...) are the only one who sees or thinks this. Everybody else see's you as the capable person you are. You are most certainly your own worst enemy in that situation.

So we didn't have a lot of money, yet I always held on the the belief that it was just around the corner (if you know anything about NLP or personal development you will know how stupid that is, its like tomorrow never comes), however due to the fact that I held this belief I didn't go out and get myself a job like normal people would (then I have never claimed to be normal). What I did have was time. It is true that we are all given the same 24 hours in day, and it is true that a lot of people spend their time doing any number of things, what I did was I chose to invest my time. I have lost track of the times that my wife has told me that she is going to lock my office door so I come out to the lounge. (I have found that great balance now of course). So what did I invest my time in? Well I was now an online businessman so I invested my time in learning things like HTML Code and the inner workings of SEO, teaching myself how to build websites and do graphic design. I learned a truck load of information about how a computer works, I mean like the inner workings, I had no money to pay anyone to do it, if I didn't do it, then there was never going to be cash flow come in.

It is safe to say that I was changing the way in which I saw the world, it was no longer about getting ahead and making money, lets face it, making money is EASY, I had already proved that to myself and to my family. My issue came as I didn't know how to keep it. And the biggest factor to this was how I saw the world, in other words how I saw myself.

Having always been the outcast in school and never really fitting in, at the end of the day it came down to a matter of me not truly believing that I was worthy of the money,or that happiness. Thankfully the past does not dictate the future, and the fact is that I can BE DO and HAVE anything that I truly desire, no one said it would come easy.

So by now I am looking at the world in a totally different light, and it is all because I have change the way I am. You see the truth is that I never lost any of my ability, I did misplace my belief for a little while, however my skills and my (ever expanding) knowledge were always there, only when I was able to look from a place of total gratitude was I able to see it. So here today there are a  few people that I would like to acknowledge for their support, this is support that came fiscally as well as emotionally.

They are, in no particular order;

Heidi Gray and Stephen Gagie, Kaz Spence, Justin and Sharyn Hawkes,  John and Melanie Kaczon, John and Shannon Lavenia, Natalie Meyle, and Ted Hooper.

Your kindness and support will never be forgotten.

So many people say, and no doubt will continue too that Andrew Hawkes lied, cheated and scammed people out of money. They will say that I ran away to avoid paying anything back. You know what? I have no control over what they say, what I do have control over is my actions. Actions speak louder than words, and so long as I act with integrity towards my obligations then I am OK with that.

I know that regardless of what others think, it is always going to come down to me. They can blame me all they like, at the end of the day they are responsible for the stuff in their life. If they want to simmer and stew, good luck to them, all that will succeed in doing is expending energy without result. In the eyes of the law, I owe nothing and am free to get on with my life. Which is what I have done.

So this is me, this is Andrew Hawkes, this is the good the bad and the ugly of the last 4 years. And as I have said here in the post, the past more certainly does not dictate or equal the future. I am just like every body else, working toward and better future for myself and my family.

About the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

Now in case you are just joining the story then you may want to bring your self up to speed with the first two posts, All I can do is Just be Me, Andrew Hawkes gets frank about his life pt1 and Your Failures are Sometimes your Biggest Assets, Andrew Hawkes gets frank pt2. That will bring you up to speed as to where this story has come from... will it finish today? Maybe, we'll have to wait and see.

So picking up where I left off... we were where we were from the decisions we had made.We really were in a world of hurt, no income, no business's, mortgages to pay, leases to service, creditors phoning every 5 minutes making threats and demanding blood, staff, who had been fed lies and utter bullsh*t, all wanting money... money that we no longer had. Again, this was due to decisions we had made. Of course we had, and still have, family members that try and tell us that is was because of this and that, at the end of the day, the buck stopped with us, no one else.

Not wanting to admit defeat, I was determined to carry on, I was searching for that magic bullet, the one thing that was going to solve all of our problems over night, problems that we ourselves created. Funny how that works... we put ourselves in that precarious position trying to avoid it. You see our focus was on getting out of debt, not getting a poor credit rating, not going bankrupt, not going out of business, not losing money, not losing our house's, not losing our cars. Now what is wrong with that, isn't that what most people would focus on? Short answer... YES, it is precisely what they would focus on, which is more than likely what 95% of the population is broke. You see we were focusing on all the things we didn't want. It may seem like I am splitting hairs when I say this, and to a lot of people I may be, yet you always get what you focus on... the mind negates or does not see the negatives, all it sees are the keys, the triggers, it sees debt, credit rating, bankrupt, going out of business, you get my point? Here is the hair splitting part, if we have just changed our inner dialogue slightly we may have been OK. If we had said, we are so happy now that our creditors have been paid. I am sure you can see where that is going right? It effectively says the same thing yet is has such a different meaning psychologically.

So, things as I am sure you can imagine and appreciate were pretty dire. I just want to add a note here, I am not writing this for anyone's sympathy, and I not looking for vindication. What we did and what happened was entirely our doing... I guess what I am highlighting here is that sometimes even with the best intentions that not everything turns out as you might anticipate.

For years I had thought of ways for me to avoid bankruptcy... so in point of fact, I thought myself into it. It is a viable alternative to suicide, bankruptcy laws are in place to protect people, they are there to help people out. There is a lot of stigma attached to people being bankrupt, mostly of course by people that are too scared to try something new because they have some ludicrous belief that the government will actually be able to support them in retirement (that is another topic entirely). However the fact remains, there are the laws in place for a reason. Personally I never wanted to do it... in fact at the time, I had a tremendous life insurance policy, there was no suicide clause (well there was, it was a time frame that had lapsed), I had done the math, all of my debts would be cleared, all of my mortgages would be paid, my new wife would be set for life and would never have to work again. So to say that I didn't contemplate doing exactly that would be a lie... I can't be clearer than that. I do the best I can with the tools that I am given, the same as anybody does. Then I really starting thinking about it, what a cowardly thing to do... how many people would I hurt, if you know me, and some of you who read this will know me very well, I don't like to hurt anyone, regardless of who they are, so to do something that would hurt my own family so deeply was never ever really going to fly in my mind.

In my search to find that magic bullet to fix all my woes, I found a new and exciting world of the Internet, sure I had used it in business for a long time, yet the business I used it for was all offline, if that makes sense. I didn't know about Google Adsense, I didn't know about Affiliate marketing. Yes it is safe to say that I was pretty naive when it came to the potential of the internet.

Now if you have ever searched for money making opportunities online then you know that there are A LOT, and I am sure that you can make money from all of them.  In fact I know quite a few people that have made great money from them. Most will make the promise of riches overnight... of course there is some hard work. And I know people who have made tremendous amounts of money in a very short period of time. So yeah you can make good money. I thought I could see a way to sort all of the problems that I had created out in one foul swoop.

If you have ever watched 'the secret' or had anything to do with personal development you will know that constant negativity is not a healthy environment for creating abundance. So I made a decision (I didn't even consult my wife, although I knew she would be happy), I decided that we were moving to Australia. It would give us the clear air we needed to get back on top of things. It wasn't an easy decision, I was about to leave my family, whom I am very close to, I was about to leave everything that I had ever worked for in New Zealand and just give it up. At the time we still had our mortgages with the bank, and we were still lagging way behind in paying them.

It was time to pull out all the stops....

And for that, looking at this length, you will have to wait until tomorrow to see what happened.

So here again this is Andrew Hawkes signing off and saying that I will see you tomorrow

About the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

seriously though...  who else could it be? lol Sorry just having a little joke with myself.

So my last post was about me and my story... and it kind of left off leaving you hanging a little. So today let me try and fill in some of the gaps that were left.

Right I left off mentioning that I was also involved in a Franchise Hair Salon. I guess I want to start this by saying that you really should investigate and carry out a thorough due diligence on a business before making a solid decision. We made a decision based on  a franchisors word and projections he threw together. If your franchisor or the person you are buying an existing business off cannot provide you with timely accurate figures for the business in question WALK RUN AWAY. Normally I myself would have walked away... however this case was different. My wife had been managing one of his franchises in another part of town in another mall. I had seen what the weekly figures were that these salons were doing, and of course given that my wife was working for the franchisor previously we had every reason to trust him and really none not to. And also at the end of the day we made the decision to move forward and get involved with the salon.

Now I am not sure if you have ever heard the term about how life or rather the universe will tell you when things aren't right, they will give you signs, they are likened to a feather, a brick, and then finally a truck. Meaning of course that the signs get stronger and stronger until you can no longer ignore that there is an issue. Oh, BTW the by the time the truck comes you are pretty much f**ked (excuse my french)

So here is the feather;

Our settlement date for the Salon, i.e. the salon was supposed to be finished so that we could start trading, was the 12 of October. The date we actually settled (as construction took a lot longer than implied) was the 22nd of November. At this stage, we should have, and would have been well within our rights to, cancel the contract on the salon purchase, we would have received our deposit back, and would have forgone the even greater debt we were about to get ourselves in. Given my nature, of always trying to do the right thing by other people... I felt we were obligated to stay in the contract and see it through. This turned out to be a massive mistake.

OK so here now is the Brick;

We were fast approaching settlement (and we still could have canceled) and our finance fell through. New Zealand was going through a major rut of finance companies falling over left right and center and even though under normal circumstances our applications for finance did stack up... we were no longer in normal circumstances. Top this off with the fact that my mother in-law, who lived in a different country, had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness, this really should have been (and was we just didn't want to see it) our second warning and the one in which we walked away. Instead, driven by my needing to do right by everybody else we carried on.

I'll get to the Truck in a minute.

We settled the deal... how? Well our friendly franchisor offered to provide vendor finance so that we were able to make settlement and to be able to trade. He was in as bad a spot as us really. He wanted someone to run the salon and didn't have the time to do it himself. We actually thought this was a good thing. Now as part of the vendor finance deal there were certain caveats as to what we were and what we were not allowed to do within our own business. He was, by rights,  protecting his asset. In the same position I would have done the same... I may have been a little more realistic with my demands, however that is not what this is about.

One of the caveats that was placed upon us was that we were only able to draw a certain amount from the business each week, which was basically less than what Sarah was getting while she was earning wages. Now I was not in a very good frame of mind money wise with the fall out of the cafe and the fact that my property trading had taken a hit due to my investment in the said cafe. All I could think of was keeping a clear credit rating so as to be able to continue in my primary business. So I worked out a way to get around the caveats placed upon us... we were allowed to pay contractors... So I contracted my services to the salon. This is all very legal and totally above board. In hindsight however it was not the best or smartest move I had ever made. I was fighting a losing battle with my credit rating, and I would have been better to take the hit then... again this is another one of those hindsight moments. The fact the I had contracted my services to the salon would come to back to haunt me in the eventual demise and sale (this is in italics as it was not really a sale, just enough for the franchisor to get his money back, and NOTHING else) of our salon.

The way it came back to haunt me was by the franchisors wife informing our staff (who were paid everything accept their holiday pay)  that I had stolen from the business. Which was a blatant lie. Now was I responsible for her saying that... you bet, so I am not sending any negativity her way. I believe in karma...

Right so here is the brick;

What started the eventual lead up to the resale of the business back to the franchisor was really two things. The franchisor took a disliking to our accountant, now at the time we were unaware as to why... and to be fair what I am about to say is a little speculative, however our lawyer agreed, it was due to the fact that our accountant was started to smell a rat, and the rat looked a little like our franchisor. This is something that we ourselves should have and would have seen if we had looked through business eyes instead of emotional ones.

Once this dislike was totally apparent, things really started to change (now of course this may just be my perception). Our franchisor had always maintained that he had a great relationship with all of our suppliers, and he did, they did exactly what he told or asked them to do. It was not long before we were put on stop credit with little to no chance to prove that we would be able to trade our way out the situation that we, and only we, had gotten ourselves into.

So what did all this mean? Well it meant that we were neck deep in the kaka. All thanks to decisions we had made. I had let my property business lapse, we had 3 mortgages to pay, solicitors fees, accountants fees, and top all of this off with creditors from not one, but two business I no longer had. And now, there was no income coming in. What happened next was entirely of our own doing... no one ever forced us to make any decisions, no one ever put guns to our heads. And all of the bother we were in came down to the choices we made. rightly or wrongly we made them...

And once again, I am looking at the length of this and realise that I have written enough for one day...  so I will complete this picture tomorrow.

Once again this is Andrew Hawkes signing off, and until next time,

Ignite Your Passion

About the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.