This site is all about your business success. A big part of that success is linked to your mindset. That's why I've spent the last decade immersed in the world of Advanced Thinking - the study of how our mind and our thinking works.

Here's a classic example of how your thinking will massively influence your actions and your results in business.

A friend of mine, a recently retired MP, asked me a question a couple of days ago. He wanted to know how I thought the economy was doing, as the people he had been speaking to felt we were definitely experiencing a downturn.

People seem to obsess about this issue - the media certainly does - but it can be very, very dangerous. Here's why.

Advanced Thinking shows us that what you believe affects your actions. Numerous studies have shown that people who believe that they are going to be more successful become more successful. People who believe they are leaders are better leaders. People who believe they are attractive do better with the opposite sex (whether or not they are what most would classify as 'attractive')

In fact the power of beliefs goes much further. Your beliefs directly affect your health. When drug companies test a new drug, they do double blind studies where one group gets the real drug, while the other group gets a water tablet with nothing in it - what's known as the placebo.

What's fascinating is that a proportion of the people who get the placebo (the drug with nothing in it) get better. There's even a name for it - the 'placebo effect.'

How do they get better? The only explanation is that because they believe they're taking the real drug, their beliefs affect their body and their internal healing mechanism kicks in.

If you stop and think about that for a moment, the implications are staggering. It means your beliefs can directly influence your health.

If your beliefs can help you recover from illness, do you think it's possible that your beliefs can influence your business results?

Do you think it's possible that business owners who are bombarded with news stories about economic downturns, who are surrounded by people in the pub moaning about how bad business is, actually start believing all this, whether or not it's true? And do you think it's possible that if you believe we're in a slowdown, you start acting differently in your own business whether or not there is a slowdown?

You'd better believe it. People get a sort of business depression. They slow down. They blame every problem on the economy or the government - and before they know it, they've created the downturn in their own business, by their own lack of action.

Many years ago, I had an office above a leasing company. Every day when I went in I would pass the owner of the leasing company, say 'hello' and ask how he was doing. Every day he would tell me how bad the economy was. I tried to tell him about some of the really obvious Marketing he should be doing but he never listened. He was too busy moaning and complaining. It was very obvious that he was heading for disaster - not because of the economy, but because of his own thinking.

Sure enough, six months later the receivers came along and carried out all his goods. He seemed strangely satisfied. I think there's a comfort in believing that everyone else is to blame for your situation and there's nothing you can do about it. That's why so many people live their lives at 'effect' rather than 'cause.'

So when my MP friend asked me the question about the economy, it reminded me what an important issue this is.

As a business owner, I have virtually no interest in what the media or government or the local gossip has to say about how the economy is doing.

Firstly, these reports of economic downturns or even recessions are huge, huge generalisations. They are averages. I don't know about you, but one of my life missions is never to be average. I couldn't imagine anything worse.

So they average out how everyone is doing to come up with these generalisations. But in any downturn or recession, there will be hundreds of thousands of people who do very, very well. One of the reasons they do so well is they do not buy in to the general consensus about how business or the economy is doing.

Second, these downturns are just blips. We live in a world oozing with wealth if you look in the right places. When our economy takes a dip it's like Pavarotti hitting a bad note. In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter.

Thirdly, and most importantly I know that my Marketing knowledge can ride the economic waves. If you really get deep into the material I'm sharing with you. If you devour this material every month and go back and re-listen to the seminars, your results should be hundreds of per cent ahead of your competition. Maybe 300% more. So in a bad year it's just 200% more. Who cares?

The greatest protection you can give yourself against economic downturns is becoming excellent at Marketing.

However - and here's the public health warning - you can do all of the above but if you start buying into the cultural beliefs about the state of the economy, you're risking disaster.  I strongly believe that it's peoples' beliefs about the state of the economy that do far more damage than any particular economic pattern.

So over the next few months, you'll see and hear and read heated debate among the 'experts' trying to work out how we're all doing. I suggest you ignore all of them. They have no idea how you're doing and they have no idea how it's possible to rise above the average if you get just a little bit smart.

As someone once said, 'All we have to fear is fear itself.'

Of course, talking of fear, it's not just the economic doom merchants we have to learn to ignore. Even when things are booming, we're all being told how we're going to be blown up by terrorists and how they can do untold harm to the economy etc.

You really don't want to buy into all this doom and gloom. While acknowledging the terrible suffering of those who've been hit by terrorism, I remember going to school wondering whether the next bang you were going to hear was a nuclear bomb going off and the end of the world. I would swap those days for these anytime.

It's a great time to be alive. There are more opportunities out there than ever before. The internet is transforming our world and our businesses and you and I are at the leading edge of all this.

Let everybody else worry about the economy. You focus on doing some new Marketing tests and enjoy watching the money pour in.

Your thinking and your mind run your life. Use them wisely.