My own personal Internet Obi Wan, Luke Melia, has made the tweaks, and here it is at last: a newly-formatted blog, well equipped to meet all the paces through which it a serious blogger might put. (No grammar checker though.)

Here, let me show you:

That’s a view of the highest mountains on Kauai, as seen from our helicopter, earlier this month. And just for variety, here:

Our devoted and highly paparazzo-friendly dog Ben.

Meanwhile, I am still working out the kinks in terms of which things I post here, and which I post there, on the Zen of MLM blog. In general, as I promised, I’ll post things network marketing-related over there, along with things Zen of MLM-related.

So: I just left a post about Seth Godin’s delightful and magnanimous blurbs about my books—both this book and the next (as yet unpublished) one, too! You’ll find it here.

A few weeks ago, I promised I’d dig into my copy of The World Is Flat when I got back from Hawaii. Ready? Here we go — first, from p. 29:

“Although the United States has lost some service jobs to India in recent years, total exports from American-based companies—merchandise and services—to India have grown from $2.5 billion in 1990 to $5 billion in 2003. So even with the outsourcing of some service jobs from the United States to India, India’s growing economy is creating a demand for many more American goods and services.”

Now keep that one in your head and check this one out (p. 38):

“In 1997, 11.6 million employees of U.S. companies worked from home at least part of the time. Today [this is quoted from a 2004 LA Times story] that number has soared to 23.5 million—16% of the American labor force. [Note: that’s more than double in just seven years.] Meanwhile, the ranks of the self-employed, who often work from home, have swelled during the same period—to 23.4 million from 18 million [grown by nearly one-third].”

Translation: The number of Americans working out of our homes is mushrooming—and in only the first three years of this century, the market in India for the “merchandise and services” we all produce doubled.

And that’s just India. My friend Dan Burrus (author of TechnoTrends) tells me that during 2004 in India 350,000 engineers graduated from institutions of higher education. (India has more honors students than America has kids.) But in China, that figure was 600,000. (In America, btw, it was 70,000.)

Here are some more of Dan’s figures on China:

• In 2005 alone, China built 137 brand new world-class universities.

• China will soon be the #1 English-speaking country in the world.

• If you took all the jobs in the U.S. and shipped them to China, even if they still kept all the jobs they currently have, there would still be a labor shortage in China.

On p. 15 of The World Is Flat, Friedman quotes Jaithirth Rao, a native of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) who runs an Indian outsourced-accounting firm named MphasiS:

“In ten years we are going to be doing a lot of the stuff that is being done in America today. . . You are defining the future. America is always on the edge of the next creative wave.”

Ladie and gentlemen, they’re singing our song.

Today, Japan is the world’s second-largest market (after the U.S.) for network marketing. In the next ten years, as their middle-class population grows enormous, India and China will become a huge market for what we do. And if you’ve read Paul Pilzer’s The Next Millionaires, you know what that means:

My point? Grow a strong network marketing organization in America today, and you’ll have a global empire tomorrow.

I know I said “three” in my last post. (I also promised the post would come on Sunday, and now it’s Monday. Plans of mice and Menn.) But I’m going to introduce you to just two amazing online communities created and run by two amazing women. (I’m still researching the third, undecided on its amazingness.)

The first is Your Success Network (www.ysn.com). I spent a jam-packed 45 minutes last week talking with its founder, Jennifer Kushell. I interviewed Jennifer and her husband Scott Kaufman a few years ago in Networking Times; they coauthored the New York Times bestseller Secrets of the Young and Successful, and she is one of the most brilliant and accomplished entrepreneurs–and entrepreneur advocates–I’ve ever met. (She also wrote a lovely endorsement that you can read on the back cover of You Call the Shots.)

YSN is a no-nonsense, no-kidding online community of people who are up to great things. The furthest thing from a time-wasting water-cooler hangout, it is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence: discussion groups, a powerful self-assessment, intriguing tools and newsletters to support your success, open forums for questions and answers, and a strong emphasis on mentoring characterize this exciting, high-octane environment. Jen and Scott’s youthful enthusiasm and delightfully friendly, can-do optimism infuse the place. Check it out.

And now, for something completely different . . . yet under the hood, not so different.

Powerful Intentions (www.powerfulintentions.com) is the brainchild of Marcy Koltun, known throughout the Internet as Marcy from Maui, and her partners. Inspired by and conceived stem to stern as an evocation of the “Law of Attraction” lately made famous by the book-and-DVD The Secret, Powerful Intentions has actually been intertwined with The Secret and its creator, Rhonda Byrne, since long before the latter became a phenomenon.

Why “completely different”? PI (as it is called) is something like what you’d get if you took YSN and developed it at the Omega Institute or Naropa instead of Harvard or Stanford — a decidedly “metaphysical” proposition. Crazy? Like a fox. These people are getting things done in the world.

As with Jennifer, I spent an hour on the phone last week with Marcy (having just missed meeting her while on Maui myself!), and the two women have far more in common than not. And so do the communities — both are deliciously light-hearted, wonderfully friendly, and stunningly successful environments.

Check em out.

At last! The blog for the Zen of MLM has launched, and done so in style, with several breathtaking (if I do say so myself) photographs of Kauai’s Waimea Canyon, taken from helicopter vantage point (on my fifty-third birthday).

Actually, I would have posted these photos (and many more) right here — but this JDM blog is not quite yet photo-capable, while the Zen blog demonstrably is. So go check it out.

I have a new post coming here tomorrow (Sunday, June 24) about three amazing online communities created and run by three amazing women — but for now, I just want to direct your attention to the Zen of MLM blog.

It’s an odd thing to watch the launch of one’s own book from a distance of thousands of miles, half an ocean and a six-hour time difference. We’ve left Maui now and are camping out on Kauai, the oldest and first-populated of Hawaii’s islands and a place of untrammeled natural wildness. (Most of Jurassic Park was filmed here; when Ana and I toured the isle by helicopter Sunday, I fully expected to meet up with some dinosaurs.)

The high point came when our helicopter pilot Tobias took us down into the caldera of Mount Waialeale (reputed to be the rainiest spot on earth). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have wet his pants.

And while we take in the canyons, rainforest gulleys and volcanic mountains majestic, The Zen of MLM is doing brisk business over in the mainland. The blog is not yet, alas, up and functional (soon!), so I’ll use this space to record a few early comments.

Richard Brooke sent out the following note to his leadership list within a few hours of the book’s release:

John David Mann is one of the most important writers in the history of our industry. His role for several years writing for Upline magazine and Networking Times has been pivotal in enhancing our image and in the development of MLM leaders worldwide. His latest book is a must read–over and over again–and is destined to be one of the great ones you will want to always keep close at hand. Give him a few bucks and some of your personal development/MLM leadership time. You will love it.

Networking legend Frank Keefer wrote:

Thank you so much for the heads up on The Zen of MLM–I ordered it immediately! I have long been an admirer of your work. I’ve long recognized the power of legitimate third-party resources and am excited about receiving your new edition, which I’m sure I will be able to recommend without reservation. Best wishes for your continued success.

Art Jonak wrote with an interesting question:

Hey JDM: How freely can I use your audio CD? Nicely done by the way!

Art’s talking about the free MP3 file, “What IS This Thing Called Network Marketing?” that is posted on the site here. Others have written and called to ask whether we’re going to release this as an independent CD. And I have to say, we’re thinking about it.

Meanwhile, here’s the answer: By all means, use it! Fire at will! Share it freely. The audio was designed explicitly to be used as a prospecting and “third-party credibility” tool, and it makes an awfully compelling case for the genuine value of this business. Soon we’ll have a more sophisticated resource on the site that allows you to send it to friends at the push of a button. For now, you have to copy and paste the link into an email yourself. Let me know how it’s working for you!

I’m sitting at an outdoor café overlooking a Maui oceanfront as I type these words. It occurs to me that I am more or less halfway to Asia. Which strikes me as a very good place to be halfway to, if you’re in any way involved in network marketing.

Sixty years have certainly shown us one thing about this profession: it is a middle-class phenomenon. Why? I would think, two reasons: 1) the driving force of a network marketing business is the entrepreneurial idea that by my own actions, I might forge a better economic future for myself and my family, which is a distinctly middle-class idea. And 2) in order to participate in this thing, one really needs to have a bit of disposable cash–not a lot, but some: a few hundred, a thousand or two–that one can toss in to get started without needing to see it come back immediately. Which again is a distinctly middle-class proposition.

Despite all the caterwauling we do in this country about how it’s fast disappearing, the America middle class is alive and well. So are the robust middle classes in Japan and Europe (and Australia, New Zealand, etc.), where network marketing is also strong. But just wait. There are two new and enormous middle class populations rising from the mists of technological transformation–and they’re happening just beyond that Maui horizon I’m gazing at right now.

If you are involved in any kind of network marketing business, you might want to come out here too, and start casting your net eastward.

I just finished reading The World Is Flat (man, that is one BIG book!), but left my copy back on the mainland. When I’m back home, I’ll post some astonishing figures that will make the point more starkly clear. But for now, let’s just say it this way: When network marketing truly takes root in India and China, watch out.

It’s gorgeous, being here on Maui, halfway to Asia . . . I can’t wait to get all the way across and start putting down some entrepreneurial roots there.

Last night, at 11:59, I sent out an announcement of the release of The Zen of MLM to my email list. As I hit “Send,” I wondered how long it would take to get my first reply. It took about 48 seconds.

At 12:00 midnight I received an email from Doug Firebaugh: “I love it! How can we help, dude?” Within another few minutes I’d received an invitation to talk about the book on a radio show, several invitations to appear on national training calls to promote the book, declarations from several others that they would promote the book widely in their own networks, and one networking leader (John Stetler) actually turned around and sent my announcement out to his entire leadership list. (That was at 12:31, a whole thirty-two minutes after I sent the announcement.) It was hard to go to sleep.

And in the morning, the notes kept pouring in. I know it’s the Internet, but that’s not what it feels like. It feels like everyone I know just showed up for a barn-raising.

Not all notes were positive. One complained that all the endorsements are by men (I know, believe me; I’m working on this!); another pointed out that it was hard to find the place where you order, and still another reported that the “Buy the book” links didn’t work for her (both problems quickly addressed by my wizardly Webmaster Luke–and yes, he does use the Force). Throughout the day there have been numerous fixes, darnings, tweaks and fidgets on the site–especially the page where you actually buy the book. If you encounter any difficulties, glitches or annoyances, please let me know!

So . . . the launch is officially underway. And man, that barn is going up fast. You people are amazing!