About Helmar Rudolph
Nationality: German
Current Residence: Cape Town, South Africa
Age: gave up counting
Zodiac: Libra & Fire Horse
Destiny Cards: Five of Diamonds
Phone: RSA: +27-84-860-1407/ DE: +49-160-105-6002
Slogan: “The Universe is infinitely just, generous and patient beyond measure. Be grateful!”
Raison d’être: First I thought capitalism was the holy grail: making lots of money, getting rich, spending like there’s no tomorrow. Got bored with it, because everybody else is following that path – hardly ever with positive results.
Then I thought relationship marketing was the holy grail: looking after customers’ interests, only to see them abused and mistreated for the sake of making even more money.
Then I thought the Internet was the holy grail, but there too I found out that the same old forces that ruled the old economy were at work in the new economy, spreading their tentacles in their insatiable drive to dominate, monopolize and exploit.
Now I know that neither are, but that each still play a crucial role in reversing the alarming trend of abuse, exploitation, pollution and manipulation that is currently ravishing this planet. With my passion, energy, insight and experience I am doing my best to assist my clients while staying true to myself and those around me.
Hobbies & other interests
Languages : Fluent in English and German; French is good but a bit dusty; Spanish I can understand very well and speak ok – practice is lacking a little. Portuguese I understand well, but am beginning to speak more. Russian and Italian are ready to be revived; Afrikaans has a special status. 😉
Computers: Since 1988 – need I say more? GEOS, BeOS and Windows. dBASE, HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, MySQL – some Perl. Tons of other applications. Provided feedback to Opera, Sonork, Gobe Productive, Total Commander, IrfanView, and other developers of first-class software. Wrote my own relational Customer Information Management System (in dBASE) to prove that I can code what I preach. Must have been the first software application ever to include customer management, sales/order processing, campaign management and lifestyle analysis in one package.
Master Key System: Since March 2007 I have been largely busy with Charles Haanel’s Master Key System, which I translated into German and have made that a resounding success. I have translated two more of his books since, plus created a number of additional products. As you can see, this has become my main profession, if not calling. However, I am in the process of integrating this into my Diamond-CRM Business Transformation Framework, so that companies also come to enjoy the age-old wisdom conveyed in the MKS. Soon you will see more about this on this page.
Sacred Symbols: In 2013 I was made aware of the works of Robert Lee Camp’s work with the 52 “playing cards”, the little book of the 7 thunders. In 2018 I started creating a web app using the same system. This app is in active development, helping people understand themselves better, and the individual rhythm they are following without knowing. It beautifully complements the Master Key System, as it provides the individual side that the MKS is lacking.
Hobbies: Sports, astronomy, good company, Maserati cars, alternative health, music, walks along Noordhoek Beach, playing beach volleyball in Camps Bay, gardening, cooking, wine and good food, travel, reading, as well as testing and improving software.
I make my own Kombucha tea, so if you would like to obtain some cultures or feedback, please let me know. I also dabble with things like Colloidal Silver and food-grade Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) to see what’s behind the claims. I prefer hemp clothes to the traditional “shirt and tie”, which here in South Africa is probably the most inappropriate dress imaginable.
How may I help you? Extremely quick in grasping, analyzing and assessing situations, plus providing practical and affordable solutions, I can assist you or your company in becoming more successful yet less stressed, while doing good to society at the same time.
If you’d like to find out more, feel free to contact me. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
About Canopus & Argo Navis: According to Greek mythology, it was after the battle of Troy that one brave Captain managed to sail his fleet back to safe Egyptian waters. There, he died on the shore. In his honor, King Menelaos named the bright shining star just above the horizon after him: Canopus.
Today, at a distance of about 300-odd light years and far away from the Ecliptic, Canopus serves as a navigational aid to inter- stellar probes and is the second brightest star in the sky.
Canopus Marketing is the name of the company I founded in 1993. When I created my first website in 1995, canopus.com had already been taken, so I chose argo-navis.com – Argo Navis being the large constellation that the giant star Canopus is part of.
Argo Navis in Greek mythology is the “great ship”, with which Jason and the Argonauts sailed through stormy seas in their quest to retrieve the “golden fleece”. I guess this pretty much sums up my life and career, too. 🙂
About this website
Why all this on helmar.org rather than argo-navis.com? Well, the site is essentially about me, while Canopus and Argo Navis are some abstract constructs around me. The former is my registered company, the latter the handle I use for my CRM consultancy. But at the end of the day it’s “the brand called Helmar”, hence the domain.
Its first incarnation went online in June 1995. Since then all the sites that you now see combined into one had their own domain and existence. Different layout, different backend, different everything. Eventually I sat down and wrote the code for this site on my own – every single line hand-coded, except for the XML Writer Class that is courtesy of and copyright © Manuel Lemos 2002.
The site obviously uses PHP and a MySQL database on the backend side. Although it hasn’t been written for use by 3rd parties, I am quite open to sharing the code with others, but first I need to ensure that it’s all clean and to my liking (update: – which I have now done). I don’t claim it’s been done in the most advanced fashion, but on the other hand it combines elements of a number of different site structures, which should make it quite appealing to those who want a powerful and flexible, yet easy to read and administer website.
The 2nd incarnation went online in January 2011, this time using a WordPress CMS and the Dandelion Theme. The old links no longer work; the website structure is completely different, but I hope you still find what you are looking for and enjoy your time here.
Disclaimer: There are a lot of links to other sites and pages on this website. A link is simply a way of saying “Look, there is something you may be interested in – here’s an easy way to get there”. Now some moronic judges in Germany have ruled that you can be made responsible for linking to other content on the Internet, if you don’t explicitly distance yourself from it. This is a blatant violation of free speech, but that’s another story. However, it’s also obvious that a link doesn’t approve or endorse or support anyone or anything. So for anyone (or rather “anything”) who thinks I support or approve of or endorse the sites/pages I link to… I don’t.
