The Most Important Things in Life

For years I’ve preached over and over about the basic and best formulas for going out in the world to get and keep lots of money and so, of course, I think that’s very important. Succeeding in financial matters really can improve and lift your life and your loved ones’ lives.  But, never let that going for the money thing get in between you and the ones you love.

Every day, all over the world, terrible things happen to everyday people. I’m thinking of the school shootings and even the bombings in all those war torn areas we hear about on the news. They have a different perspective than many of us because of what they’ve been through.

I remember reading about that huge mine disaster that trapped 33 miners for 69 days, back in 2010 in Chile. When those survivors finally escaped that pit of hell, what they said was very instructive for those who would listen and learn from their experience. 

Did any of them think about their houses or their money while they hoped and waited to be rescued?  No, they did not.  Their minds and hearts were fixated on their loved ones—their wives, kids, parents and other people they loved. When our lives are on the line, most everyone realizes what the most important part of our existence is, and money is quickly and easily pushed out of our heads by thoughts of those that we love and those that love us. But we don’t need to wait until something terrible happens to remember what really matters.

Back when I was giving seminars, I used to ask the audience to show me, by raising their hands, how many of them would like to make and have a net worth of one million dollars. Just about every hand in the audience went up.  I would follow that question with several similar questions but with higher numbers: Who would like 10 million? Who wants to be worth 100 million dollars? About the same number of hands went shooting into the air each time.

Then I would ask the same type of question with an even bigger number but with a much bigger difference: How many people here would like to make and have a billion dollars in net worth, but when you got to the top of that huge financial mountain, you found you didn’t have any friends or relatives that liked you, much less loved you, and you would be totally cut off from everyone you once cared for? There were always a few hands that were raised, very few, but all of those that had their hands in the air were, well, teenagers.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t set your goals high, go after your fortune, and keep on building it bigger and bigger. Just keep an eye on the big picture and don’t push for that wealth at the cost of friends and family. If you are going to grow great wealth, you should also think about all the good you can do in the world with that fortune. That’s not only the right thing to do, it’s going to help you keep and lift up the most precious things you have in life—the people you love.

Always, always, always remember that giving and receiving love is infinitely more important and lifts your soul and your happiness in life to a much higher level than any amount of money ever could. You don’t have to give up one to have the other. You just have to remember to live your life with a focus on the things that really matter as well as your big financial goals.

Facing Our Temptations

As human beings, we have many good habits that we’ve formed and held onto in our lives and then there are some bad habits that we’d really like to dump. Like most of us, you have probably observed and experienced how very difficult it is to change a bad habit, whether the bad habit is overeating, overworking, sleeping too much or too little, watching too much TV, checking our email or text compulsively or some even worse habit or addiction.

Thinking about this recently reminded me to look again at a book I read some years ago. I believe it’s one that can shed tremendous light on our habits including how to form good ones and how to break bad ones. The book is Living Beautifully by Pema Chodron.

I must admit that even though I’ve formed lots of good habits that have led to some very wonderful and rewarding successes in parts of my life, I’ve also had some bad habits that have hurt me, and it’s been so very frustrating for me to try to break or change the bad ones only to fail and fall back into them. But Pema’s book has some real answers and directions that, so far, seem to be quite a breakthrough.

First of all, she outlines that part of the reason we have trouble breaking bad habits is because we are too hard on ourselves.  What most of us do when we end up doing something that we’ve tried to stop doing, is to get mad at ourselves, beating ourselves up with all kinds of negative self-talk. Then we try to repress our thoughts and whatever we did that got us to break our promise to ourselves. She strongly suggests that instead, we come to recognize that we are fundamentally good rather than thinking that we are fundamentally flawed.

Probably Pema’s biggest lesson for us is a bit surprising. She suggests that if we are trying to break a bad habit, we need to think hard on refraining from doing what we promised ourselves we wouldn’t do but DON’T repress it. In other words, face the fact that you are tempted or even that you give in and do it.

She goes on to say that many bad habits come from us trying to escape from uncertainty and fear in our lives, especially in particular situations.  So when we are faced with the desire to fall into that bad habit, we need to examine our thinking to see what led us to that point and then try to refrain from that action but not repress our thoughts about it. Tell yourself it’s okay that you feel like falling back into that habit but also tell yourself, in that moment, you are going to resist. And then every time the thought comes up, you do that again.

Pema has science backing her up on this issue.  She says, “Science is demonstrating that every time we refrain but don’t repress, new neural pathways open up in the brain. In not taking the old escape routes, we’re predisposing ourselves to a new way of seeing ourselves, a new way of relating to the mysteriously unpredictable world in which we live.” And so, in the process, we are hard wiring our brain to do the right thing automatically.

What I learned from Pema is already working well on a couple bad habits that I’ve been trying to break for years, and I am so pleased!! Try it yourself and you may well see what I mean and find success.

Investing in Uncertain Times

The past couple of weeks have been a roller coaster in the news and it has left some people feeling anxious about the future. That can happen right before an election anyway because we feel uncertain not knowing who’s going to be in White House or what they might do. We have also been going through a couple of years of high inflation coming off the crazy time we had with the pandemic. So, it’s no wonder that some people don’t want to take risks, especially big risks with their money.

Investing your money will always come with some kind of risk. If it wasn’t risky, everybody would be doing it! But none of us would make much money if everybody was trying to do it so think of risk as a kind of filter that sorts out the people who can’t take a lot of risk or who just aren’t comfortable with it.

The problem for people who aren’t comfortable with taking some risks is that they can end up looking back and regretting that they didn’t invest back when they had the chance to really grow their wealth.

So, what I’m trying to say is, don’t be like the people that will look back in 3, 5, or 10 years from now and wish they had gotten into real estate income properties sooner. The sooner you can start investing in real estate, the more wealth you will have in the long run.

I’ll tell you one really true thing — politicians are not going to cure our inflation. They’ve not been able to do so since the beginning of time.  So don’t think that your choice for government leadership is going to reduce inflation, give us certainty in the stock market, or create a strong real estate market. Besides, now is actually a good time because you can benefit from national inflation instead of being hurt by it.

The thing is though, you need to know how to go about getting into these investments, because otherwise you’ll be making all the mistakes you really want to avoid. I know… I made a lot of mistakes when I got started. But you don’t have to make those mistakes that are only going to slow you down. 

My book, The Next Step to Waking the Financial Genius Inside You, contains a tried and true game plan to avoid many of the common mistakes people make when starting out and gives you specific knowledge to keep you on the right path.

You and I may be different in many ways, but I honestly and sincerely believe we have at least one common interest — that we live in a country with opportunity, and we have the means to make things happen.

I have tremendous faith in our American free enterprise system — as I hope you do — and I believe that your efforts can be so well rewarded.  If you stop and think about it, our economic system is geared to allow the ambitious to succeed. So don’t let the ups and down in the news get to you. Instead, get yourself the information you need to make you feel more confident that you can minimize your risks. Because America still is a country where a person can make their dreams come true.

The Most Helpful of Lines

When we hear the word “dead” in a conversation, most of us automatically start to imagine some really bad stuff because dead is something we try to keep away from in most of the ways the word is used. But there is one use of the word “dead” that can, and does, add so much to our lives when used in one particular way — when it’s linked with the word “line”, as in “deadline”.

The origin of the word deadline is very interesting. It came about during the US civil war when prisoners were surrounded by barriers or sometimes just simple lines drawn in the dirt. If a prisoner crossed over these, the guards we under orders to shoot them dead! These boundaries were called deadlines.

These days, deadlines are defined as the time by which something must be finished or is a line or limit that must not be passed. So, it’s not as scary as the original meaning of the word but it can motivate us to get things done so we don’t cross over that line which, today, usually means we’ve failed, or we’ve missed an opportunity.

The good thing about deadlines now is that they can make our world a more organized and efficient place. They force us to push ourselves a little bit harder to do more and be more. Even though this is true, we still often need that little extra push even though you’d think that just the idea of how short life is would make us want to hurry up and get things done.

Sometimes I think that if none of us ever died then we would probably not have a clue why anyone would want to set time limits or deadlines on themselves, since time would not be much of a concern. Why? Because we’d never run out of it. But, of course, we all have a limited amount of time in our days and even in our lives. I mean, the average person lives less than 30,000 days or 720,000 hours. So, it’s important to use the time we have wisely and efficiently. Deadlines are one of those great things that help us do just that.

Just think what it would be like if we didn’t have deadlines for things like:

• Starting or finishing the workday.
• Starting or finishing a school day.
• Business deals or real estate offers to sell, buy or close a deal.
• Expected departure and arrival times for airlines, trains and buses.
• Meeting up with friends or doing things for family.
• When we want to accomplish goals that we’ve set for ourselves.

I think the last one on that list is particularly important. Sometimes those deadlines for our goals are not as immovable as, say, the departure of your flight or when you have to start work each day, but they are just as important. And they should be considered rigid and nonnegotiable. Why set deadlines for goals if you don’t work hard to meet them?

We don’t always make our deadlines but that’s no reason to stop setting them or stop trying to meet them. They give us something to reach for, something to motivate us and they give us a sense of urgency. So, you want to have those deadlines no matter what. Just don’t let those times when you don’t succeed in meeting your deadlines keep you from trying again or trying harder next time.

So, my message for you this week, and really for all of you who would like a productive and more satisfying life, is to keep setting big goals for yourself and be sure to include those deadlines so you can push yourself to use your time wisely and more efficiently. But don’t shoot yourself if you step over the deadline a bit. Just re-boot and try again.

Being the Right Kind of Person

I’ve been looking back at some past posts, and one mentioned a book that has been super helpful since I first read it in 2005. The book is Goals! How to Get Everything You Want Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible. I’ve always felt it a privilege to call its author, Brian Tracy, a friend. He’s not only a warm, friendly person, but he’s also smart and wise. His advice in Goals! is fantastic. I have reaped huge rewards from following his wonderful and sage advice.

When I read, I often make notes on the ideas and quotes that I find particularly wise. In the front blank pages of Brian’s books, I scribbled page number references so I could go back to my favorite parts and lines such as, ‘Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution after the enthusiasm with which the resolution was made has passed.” That’s on page 263.

But what Brian wrote about the concept that gives a person a huge advantage to be successful that really influenced me was written under the subhead, “Get Around the Right People”. In that chapter, Brian says that you should, “make it a point to associate with the kind of people that you like, admire, respect, and want to be like sometime in the future. Associate with the kind of people that you look up to and would be proud to introduce to your friends and associates. The choice of a positive, goal-oriented reference group can do more to supercharge your career than any other factor.”

When I set my goal to be a millionaire, one of the first things I did was to set in motion a plan to meet and get to know wealthy people. On that list were two billionaires who didn’t know me from Adam but who, with persistence and a plan, I was able to meet and get to know as well as get advice and financial formulas from. The two billionaires were Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, and Curt Carlson, founder of the TGIF restaurant chain.

However, my very first adviser, who also became a good friend, was a multimillionaire by the name of Larry Rosenberg. He not only referred me to the best books to read to lead a person to huge wealth, he also spent lots of time with me over lunches. He gave me great advice, hints, and direction concerning where to look for the best properties and what to do to fix them up to greatly increase value and then sell them. Later I was fortunate enough to connect with businessman Paul J. Meyer, who built a half-billion-dollar fortune starting from nothing. He shared many ideas and formulas for achieving success at a quick pace with me.

Besides the notes I made in the front of Brian’s book, I also found this note that his words inspired me to write in one of the margins: “In order for me to be able to associate with the right kind of people, I must work hard on myself to be that likable and right kind of person.” It’s a thought that has stayed with me ever since I wrote it.

When I think about it, I know that for me, and most people, we would all much rather do business with people who we really like, and we tend to shun people that are difficult or unfriendly towards us. I don’t even enjoy playing tennis with people I don’t like, even if I beat them. So, the bottom line here is that in order to meet the right kind of people you must work on yourself to become that right kind of person as well. Once you have, then you can surround yourself with the kind of people that will help you become the kind of successful person you want to be.

Live Large, Take Risks

Back in 2015, Mitt Romney, former GOP candidate for President made some memorable and powerful comments to the graduating class at Utah Valley University. He advised the students “to experience a fulfilling, purposeful life.” But then he took it a step further and went on to say, “One thing you’re going to have to do is live a ‘Large Life.’” 

What great advice. That is something all of us need to think about and pay attention to. We need to go out and live large and do it our entire lives. So many times, we hesitate to “Live Large” in meaningful and fulfilling ways. Why? Because most of the time we fear that we will fail.

“Failures don’t have to define who you are,” Romney said in that same speech. “Through all my occupations, I have experienced successes and failures. I am asked what it felt like to lose to President Obama. Well, not as good as winning. Failures aren’t fun, but they are inevitable.”

How about you? Have you racked up a lot of failures or just a few? Do you think the frequency of your failures compared to your successes has motivated to try harder and go bigger or has it held you back?  

It seems to me, from my experience, that the number of failures I’ve had is in direct proportion to how large I’ve tried to live.  So, yes, I’ve had a ton of failures but I’ve also had some really huge successes. And I think I had those big successes because of all that I learned from my failures.

I remember one huge loss that I learned a valuable lesson from which led me to some of those very, very large successes. I had decided to lend a large amount of money with a restaurant as collateral. This turned out to be a huge mistake on my part! Why? Because I don’t know much about that kind of business so if it failed, I had little knowledge or skills to save it or run it. And guess what? It did fail and I lost almost all of what I had loaned.

What did I learn? Well, first of all, I found out that restaurants have a very high rate of failure, and, second, I learned that I shouldn’t stray from what I know best.  Not that I shouldn’t ever loan money but if I do, I should loan it on assets that I understand as well as sticking to improved real estate which, ideally, would also be income producing.

I forged ahead and made many millions of dollars worth of loans that were backed by real estate and I was very successful there.  Later, I discovered that I could do even better by owning the right kind of income producing properties. I also, very successfully, ventured into the development of condos and warehouses, where the profits were even bigger although they did come with increased risks. The thing was, those were risks I was willing to take because I knew the business. 

Had the restaurant been successful, I might have gone on to make bigger mistakes in that and other businesses that I knew nothing about.  So, yes, I would say that much, if not most, of my success with real estate backed loans came from lessons learned from that one particular failure and, confident that I’d learned a valuable lesson, I went on to “Live Large”.

So, don’t be afraid to take those risks and make mistakes but just be sure you are paying attention to the really valuable lessons you’ll find in living large.

Teaching Your Way to a Better Life

I am often struck by the thought that there is this huge life enhancing potential available to everyone on the planet that maybe we don’t always take great advantage of. It’s our ability to teach other people and, through it, help ourselves and others by sharing the things we have learned by educating ourselves and through our successes and even our failures.

Doing this has been changing and helping my life for years now. I have been teaching and preaching from the time it occurred to me that I had some really great stuff to share. But, strangely, it took me a long time to really identify what it was that I was doing, at least enough to put it into words.

So, I’d like to share with you my thoughts on why teaching and sharing your knowledge can be so important to you as well as to the people around you. Please, think deeply and intently about this and then put it into practice in any way you can. See if it doesn’t profoundly enhance so many parts of your life, even in the areas you’re already super successful in.

Here is what makes teaching so great for the person doing the teaching. Any goal, habit, human quality, or desire that you start preaching, teaching, or pontificating about will automatically, and almost without effort, push you to do more of it yourself. The knowledge you share, whether spoken or written, is like a truth drug for the mind, pushing you to do what you are encouraging and teaching others to do.  I am totally convinced this will, and does, work that way for everyone.

If you have been reading my past blogs you might remember me setting some pretty tough and maybe even overly ambitious goals through the years. Some I reached, and some I didn’t quite manage, but I know I wouldn’t have done as well as I did if I had not been constantly sharing my thoughts and ideas with you, my readers. After talking about any particular subject or goal setting item, I usually find my mind fixating on the advice I gave to you and pushing myself to do more and do better in that area. I can now see that it’s been my inner brain keeping me on track as I dig up and share these ideas with you.

I guess you could say that my brain pushed me to remain “true to myself” and to my readers as well. You see, if you teach and preach to others what they could and should do for self-improvement, or just about any subject, your inner self gives you the message that you must live up to what you put out there. We all know the saying, “practice what you preach”, and our inner brain and soul does not want us to be a hypocrite, therefore our subconscious pushes us to be true to our words. I am pretty darn convinced that is the best way to become better at whatever subject, goal, or life enhancing idea we want to improve upon. We just need to talk and teach others about it.

What knowledge do you have, or have you learned, that you want to be reminded and pushed to improve in your life? If you want to do better at it, there will be plenty of others that will want to do better at it too. So, why not teach and share what you know and help yourself do better and better at these things?

I challenge you to start teaching and preaching now about something that you want to improve in your own life. Be sure to write down your goals and objectives as well so you can stay on track. And then, in a few months, take a look back and see what it has done for you as well as for other people’s lives. Once you see how well it works and how it is a win-win for everyone, you just might be hooked on teaching and preaching your way to a better life.

The Wisdom of Your Past Self

Anyone that has followed my blog over the years knows that I think very highly of the power of words, especially the words that you and I write down. I encourage everyone to “journal their journey” through this life. Your own words can be so powerful in helping you through it.

Usually at the end of a year or the beginning of a new year, I go back and revisit myself when I was 30, 40, 50 or 60 years old. In fact, I can even visit myself when I was 18 and 19 years old since that’s when I started my journal. Believe me, some of my thoughts back then were downright funny and crazy. But, more often, I am amazed at the things I wrote. Oh yes, there were many dreams and goals that I set for myself that didn’t turn out the way I hoped. But I did succeed with many and made progress on others so even though I was a failure here and there, I can see that overall, I did very well for myself.

But the big stuff that often jumps out at me as I read these old journals are the words that push myself to do better and, more importantly, to enjoy my life right now. Not only are there lessons to be learned in those pages, those words from my past self still continue to be very motivating years later.

I have such a wonderful time reviewing my past experiences including recalling my trips, the people I’ve met, the way my various goals changed and re-focused over the years and, most importantly, my inner thoughts along the way. Think about it–what a great thing it is to be able to relive and bask in all that was great in the weeks, months, and years of your past and also have the opportunity to learn some valuable lessons from both the good and the bad stuff that happened.

Many times, when I go back and read my inner thoughts and ideas, I say to myself, “Wow, I wrote that?”, or “Wow, where did that come from?” It’s like it came from some other person’s brain.

It’s very interesting to me that our own words and our past selves can give us motivation and inspiration. Here is a sample of some of the words I’ve come across in re-reading my journals. These were from January 29, 1998, in an entry entitled simply “Thoughts”. I should have titled it “Random Thoughts” though as they aren’t very connected, but they are still really interesting and important things to remember.

• We involve ourselves in so many activities –games, sports, work, relationships, eating, drinking etc.–to distract ourselves from ourselves. Is making it in the world the most important thing about our being?
• Climbing and coming back down from Mt. Everest is a perfect metaphor for life. When you get to the top you are only halfway.
• Love is what we were born with, fear is what we learn. Love is our ultimate reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life.
• Meaning doesn’t lie in things because things don’t love us back; meaning lies in us.
• We overvalue what we perceive with our physical senses and undervalue what we know to be true in our hearts.

And the last, but not least, of these random thoughts:

• Time only exists in the moment of right now. Time is an infinite series of “nows” strung together. The way we spend each “now” creates our destiny. When you are focused, time is your partner.

I do sincerely wish and hope that these few random thoughts might enhance your life and those people, friends, family and loved ones around you. And once again I strongly encourage you to write notes to yourself in a journal, on a notepad, or on a computer or even your phone. Later on, as you re-read your own words, you will be so very glad you did, and you may even be inspired by those words, ideas, and inner thoughts that you put down.

So, start writing in your own journal and you can look forward to experiencing similar thoughts and feelings when you read them in the coming years.

Wealth, Fame, and a Perfect Life

Wouldn’t you agree with me that most of us, at one time or another, especially when we were young, had thoughts of being rich and famous? And maybe those thoughts were followed by, “If I was rich and famous, my life would be perfect!”

If you were at all like me, you certainly had those thoughts. Most people I’ve talked with over the years have mentioned that they had those thoughts run through their minds at some point. But I’m here to tell you that a perfect life does not necessarily follow fame or wealth. Yes, wealth can make a lot of things in your life easier, but if you think that tons of money and fame will automatically bring you happiness and contentment, you’re dead wrong. I think you will find that early death and addiction rates are higher in the rich and famous than in the middle class. I think that says something about how imperfect life can be with wealth and fame.

Riches and fame can give you a lot more choices, but you do need to be extremely careful of what choices you make. For example, gifting your wealth to charitable causes can bring far greater and longer lasting satisfaction than feeding a cocaine or alcohol addiction with all that money.

Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not putting down money and fame or going after great and lofty financial goals. Those are motivating, lots of fun, and can be very satisfying to carry out but be sure you enjoy each hour and day of your life as well as your pursuits and be aware that whatever the end results of your journey, it won’t make your life perfect.

Nobody’s life is perfect. I would even say it shouldn’t be perfect since a perfect life would mean there’s no need for improvement, no goals to reach for, and nothing left to really accomplish. And when you realize this and accept that as fact, your satisfaction and contentment can begin to really soar. Trust me on this; I’ve been there and back and learned that lesson the hard way. In fact, I have to remind myself of that on an almost daily basis. I have found that it is better to “live in the now” where I can recognize what I have and enjoy all the happiness I find on this journey we’re on.

I want to remind you that recognizing that money doesn’t create a perfect life doesn’t mean that money is not important. It is important and it can do so many good things for you and your family and the way you get to live your life. And when you have lots of wealth, you can also help out a lot of other people.

So, you don’t need to set aside your dreams of being wealthy or famous. Just know that those things don’t make your life perfect. It’s the good things that you do with that fame and fortune that will help you lift your life and the lives of the people around you and give you the happiness you want.

Precious Days

One day doesn’t seem like very much time and if we get a lot of good stuff done or we do nothing but watch TV all day it may not seem to make much difference in our world let alone the rest of the world.  Hey, it’s only one day. No big deal. But those single goof-off days can add up quickly and none of us have nearly as many days as we might figure to accomplish what we want, especially if we set our minds on big and lofty goals.

Even if you are only 25 years of age right now, that still gives you just over 27,000 days to age 100.  Now to some people that might seem like a lot of days but to me it’s a pretty small number, therefore I am inclined to think that to waste even one day is a very serious matter, unless of course you don’t have any big and lofty plans and goals.

The good news, however, is that if you are keenly aware of your hours and days as you experience those days of your life then you will be much more likely to not only set good, worthwhile and important goals but you will be many times more likely to reach those goals. And because we all have a limited number of days—whether it’s 10,000 or 27,000—we need to set strict time deadlines for those goals. If we do that, then we are much less likely to waste those precious days and more likely to reach our goals.

When I was only 37, there was an article about me that appeared on the front page of the Sunday Register Star, a newspaper in Rockford, Illinois. The article was titled “He Quit Bragging after his First Million”.  Every once in a while, I re-read the story that they wrote about me and I am always a bit surprised at the mention of my beginnings as a construction worker, 16 years prior, in Rockford. I was making only $4.50 an hour back then but I had already set my sights on becoming a millionaire. 

Even at the young age of 21, I was acutely aware of this thing called “time”. I had figured that even working as hard as I was, making just $4.50 an hour would only bring me a mere $9360 in a year and even after 50 years, I would only have made $468,000. Of course, when I considered that I would have to spend money to live, I quickly figured out that there had to be some formula or secret to becoming a millionaire because just working an hourly job wasn’t going to do it.

I was to find out later, using each precious day to look for the answer, that there was, in fact, a formula to making millions and one that doesn’t require a person to invent Facebook or Amazon or some hi-tech computer program. I’m convinced that if I hadn’t realized how critically important each and every day was and how few days there are in a person’s life, I wouldn’t have spent my early days searching for the right financial formula. The idea of my limited days kept me motivated.

So, please, never forget the great and precious value of a single day in your life and spend it like the precious thing it is.

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