Albert Einstein’s Three Rules of Work

“So many worlds, so much to do, / So little done, such things to be.” – Lord Tennyson (In Memoriam A.H.H., 1850)

1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.

2. From discord, find harmony.

3. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.

1. What to Do About the Clutter

Start with the clutter on your desk. Spend an extra hour to get it sorted and filed, forwarded and discarded, noted and taken care of.

Next, get rid of the clutter in your schedule. Get rid of all the Urgent but Unimportant work you are doing with one long, get-it-done session — and then resolve to delegate or refuse tasks like this in the future. Before taking on any extra work, ask yourself: “Will this get me closer to one of my Life Goals?” If not, don’t do it.

Finally, clear out the clutter in your mind. Get rid of negative thoughts, doubts, and worries. Put your mental life in perspective, focus on what matters, simplify your thinking by teaching yourself not to think about problems you can’t solve or troubles that exist only in your head.

2. What to Do About the Discord

Understand that almost any type of discord is counterproductive. Find ways to get along. Practice mental tricks to keep yourself positive. When disputes arise, be the problem solver — not the fanner of flames. Recognize that you are working hard to achieve harmony in your life. Don’t spend any time working on anything that promotes the opposite.

3. What to Do About the Difficulty

Almost every big break I’ve had has begun with a problem. Count up your own problems. Look them in the eye. Start working — if only for 15 minutes a day — to solve them. Before you know it, your biggest hassles will transform themselves into great opportunities.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the Internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

A Revisionist’s Look At The Stages Of Wealth

“I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.”” – Jackie Mason

In a prior post, I said the following:

* If you have a family income of less than $50,000, you are poor in America.

* If you earn between $50,000 and $150,000, you pay the bills but not much else.

* When your family income exceeds $150,000, you are comfortably middle class.

* When you start making more than a million bucks a year, there is a big change. You will be able to save most, if not all, of your after-tax income above the million.

This caused a little stir among my readers and clients.  And looking back at what I wrote, I can see why. As TH pointed out, “If you make a household income of more than $80,000, you are in the top 20% of all households. . . . Over $142,000 puts you in the top 5% (but, according to you . . . ‘just barely middle class’). . . . So my guess is that to live a middle-class lifestyle, you have to make more money than 93% of your fellow Americans.”

And DF wrote to say, simply, “Thanks! Now I know why my life sucks!”

I’'ve been thinking about these numbers since then, and I'’ve come to the conclusion that I was wrong about some of the details but right on the major points I was trying to make.

You can live a comfortably middle-class lifestyle with an income of less than $150,000; if you are frugal and clever. RF is a good example. He and his wife make a combined household income of about $80,000 – but because they are very smart consumers, they live very well. (They buy almost everything used,– but they buy only the best quality, so that long after new, cheaper stuff would be worn out or out of style, theirs is still good.) Their home is large and impressive. (RF does the remodeling and landscaping himself.) They drive luxury cars. They have nice furniture and neat electronic gadgets.

So, I’m adding another category to my arbitrary wealth scale:– families whose incomes fall between $50,000 and $150,000. We'’ll call these people middle class, –which means we need a new term for that next level - – the $150,000 to over-one-million category. Let’s call them “income affluent.” Making a lot of money allows them to do things most middle-class people cannot, such as going out to dinner whenever they want or taking luxury vacations and driving luxury cars.

I remember when my income first exceeded $100,000. My accountant at the time welcomed me into the “world of the affluent.” I remember very well what he said. He said, “"Congratulations, you’ve made it. You now make enough money that you can live the American dream. You can have all the toys.”"

“All the toys?” I asked.

“All of them. Making more money won’'t change your lifestyle in any essential way. It will just be a matter of bigger toys.”

That was the first big point I was trying to make in my earlier post. And I'’m glad for this chance to make it again.

If you are struggling financially and wondering how much is enough, this is my suggestion: $150,000. (I’'ve moved it up to account for 20 years of inflation;– maybe it’s a bit high.) If your household income gets into this category, you can have it all. Well, almost all. There’'s one thing you probably won’'t have that does make a difference,– and that difference separates high-income earners from the truly wealthy.

If your income is between roughly $150,000 and a million dollars, you will live well– with larger and larger toys depending on how high on the income scale you go. But what you will probably NOT do is save money. At least you won’'t save enough to make a difference.

And that’'s my second big point. Earning a big income (more than $150,000 a year) will give you the lifestyle of the wealthy, but it won’'t give you wealth. You’'ll have the fun, enjoy the toys, wear and drive and carry the status symbols, but you won’'t have a ton of money in the bank.

To acquire substantial wealth,– enough to provide you with a passive income sufficient to support a modestly affluent lifestyle,– you need to have an investable net worth of at least a million dollars (two million is really more like it). Building a $1 million-to-$2 million nest egg is no easy matter. To get that much socked away, you would need to be able to save at least $50,000 a year for a long, long time. And you would think that if you earned $250,000 or $350,000 or even $750,000 that would be easy, right?

But it just is'n’t so.

First, the government is going to have its way with your money. (Don’t even talk to me about tax shelters. Since 1986, they haven’'t existed.) After taking care of Uncle Sam, plus state and local taxes (including property tax, sales tax, etc.), you are very lucky to keep half of what you make.

Let’s say you are making what most would consider a giant income,– $750,000 a year. After all the taxes, you are left with about $375,000. That should be plenty – considering it’s more than $200,000 over the $150,000 threshold. You’'d think so. But that’'s not the way it usually works.

What normally happens is this:

You move into a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood. You tell yourself it’'s the only thing you are going to do. You feel that you deserve it. And since you lived in a $190,000 house when you were earning half that much, you figure you can afford a $1.5 million house now. And many of the experts tell you that you can.

But since you are conservative, you shop around for a $750,000 house and end up buying one that costs just under a million. And that’s where the bottom falls out.

You bring in your old furniture, and it looks like crap in the new, palatial setting. You throw it all out and go shopping. Finding anything that looks like it belongs is next to impossible, so you hire someone to help. (Someone your new neighbor'’s wife used.)

A month later, you’'ve spent $350,000 on furniture. You think I’'m crazy? Just wait.

But that’s only the beginning. To keep from totally embarrassing yourself in front of the neighbors, you upgrade your car collection. Now you are driving a BMW 7 Series at a thousand bucks a month and your spouse is driving a Landcruiser at $700.

Next year, your kids will be in private school (despite all your carrying on about “public school was good enough for me!”) – and that will cost you about $15,000 apiece. Then there will also be summer camp, European vacations, and expensive clothing. You just don’'t look good in $150 suits anymore, and why should you?

It goes on and on. Landscapers, haircuts, shoes, and doctors. Everything is much, much more expensive. You discover an interesting truth: In America, the costs of goods and services rise in direct proportion to your income.

Yes, it’s obnoxious and unforgivable, but the Lament of the Affluent is “"I can’t save a dime.”" As EP, my good friend and a real-estate lawyer in Oak Brook, Illinois, once told me, “"You have no idea how leveraged out all these doctors and lawyers are. They have cash flow, but they have nothing that sticks.”"

The point is this: If you want to get wealthy before you are too old to enjoy it, you must either earn more than you can easily spend (and that, I’m arguing, is a million a year) or learn to live frugally and creatively and yet earn enough to sock away 50 Gs a year.

I’'ll tell you the secret to living frugally. It’s very simple. Don’t buy that new house. Everything you do and buy in America is dependent, in terms of pricing, on the neighborhood you live in. If you can stay in that $190,000 house and make $750,000 a year, you’'ll be able to save all you need in 10 years or less.

But if you are like most of us, you’ll find that you won’'t save a lot of money unless you can get your income into that hyperspace range of a million plus. And that’'s when you’'ll need a wealth-building strategy that works in spite of your spending habits.

I suggest that you read the book "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. And of course, stay tuned to my blogs for ideas on increasing your income and putting that extra money to work for you!$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the Internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

The World’s Most Valuable Skill

If you want to be wealthy, I’'ve mentioned (in past messages) the four things you absolutely must do …

1. Master a financially valuable skill.

2. Develop a high income.

3. Invest conservatively in other businesses.

4. Invest aggressively in a business you know.

Today, I’d like to talk about THE most valuable skill you can have – and share with you some of the secrets I’'ve learned over the years that can help you become very good at it, very quickly.

On the road to wealth, developing a financially valuable skill is the most important step. It’'s the foundation upon which every other step is based.

What is the world’s most valuable skill? Simple: the ability to sell. Not just products and services – but ideas, concepts, and beliefs.

You know it as well as I do, in any organization, power moves inevitably to those who are persuasive. This is true for every business in every country in the world.

What matters is that you have a way to convince people (your boss, colleagues, customers, investors, etc.) that your ideas (and your work) are worthwhile.

I’'ve identified a few fundamental secrets of selling over the years – a few tricks of the trade. And that’s exactly what I’m going to share with you right now.

I can’t give you all my secrets in this one message, but I can give you the basics behind every great piece of salesmanship.

I call them THE THREE FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF SELLING and they are …

#1. People don’t like the idea of being sold.

#2. People buy things for emotional, not rational, reasons.

#3. Once sold, people need to satisfy their emotional decisions with logic.

Let’s look at Rule #1: People don’t like to be sold. On the face of it, this doesn’t make sense. Every year, trillions of dollars worth of goods and services are bought and sold … billions through online purchases alone. Think about your friends. Many of them, no doubt, love to shop.

People like to buy things. But they don’t like to be sold. Remember this. Whether you’re writing a sales letter or trying to convince your friend to go to a concert, don’t apply pressure. Offer to give something. Don’t force. Tempt.

Let’s say you want to get your friend to buy a piece of chocolate cake. You wouldn’t start off by listing 10 reasons why cake is good for him, would you? Of course not.

In real life, if you really wanted to get a friend to buy a piece of cake, you’d probably start by describing how great the cake smells, how gooey it is, how thick the icing is, and how it will just melt in his mouth…

In other words, you’d create a verbal picture that teases his desires — his hunger, his craving for chocolate. You’d tempt him by appealing to his emotions. You would not bore him with reasons or bully him with force.

Understand this first principle and you’ll have people eating out of your hands.

Rule #2 Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts: People buy things for emotional, not rational, reasons.

If people acted rationally, you couldn’t sell chocolate cake. There’s no logical reason to eat it. It’s not nutritious. It makes you fat. It screws up your metabolism. And it’s expensive.

So why is chocolate cake a multi-million-dollar industry? Because it makes you feel good!

To be persuasive, you have to appeal to your prospect’s feelings and desires.

Here are seven very important ones: Fear, Greed, Vanity, Lust, Pride, Envy, and Laziness.

Rule #3: Once the prospect is emotionally sold, he needs to justify his irrational decision with rational reasons.

Think about TV commercials for cars. How do they work? First, you see a stirring image of the car itself — beautiful, stylish, new. The background says something too: There’s a mountainous landscape for the prospect who wants to see himself as rugged. A five-star hotel for the prospect who wants the car to enhance his status. A beautiful woman for — well, you get the idea.

Next, you see an interior shot to show how luxurious your life will be with this car. You get to listen to the state-of-the-art sound system. (The type of music depends on the feeling required.) Then, there’s a shot of the car driving by the ocean. Put it all together and you have an effective 20-second movie that’s designed entirely to appeal to emotion.

But car commercials don’t stop there. They usually give you numerous bits and pieces of information —  the size of the engine, statistics on fuel economy, speed, weight, interior space, rankings in national surveys and customer satisfaction reports, and so on.

All this data isn’t meant to sell the car. It’s to make the prospect feel good about the decision he’s already made. And in the final analysis, this is almost as important as the emotional appeal. Though the information doesn’t sell the car, it does justify the sale.

These secrets are, of course, only the beginning.

But the great thing about the secrets of selling is that once you understand how they work, you can use them in every aspect of your life: to land a better job – to get a promotion – to sell more of your company’s products – even to convince your friends to follow your advice for your next vacation.

Make no mistake about it, sales writing is one of the highest paid professional skills in the world. (I’'ve personally seen ads that make writers tens of thousands of dollars each year – year after year.) But because so few people understand what copywriting is, much less how to do it effectively, there’s a great shortage of good copywriters.

Whether you want to become a professional writer, or simply want to learn how to communicate much more persuasively, mastering the basics of selling can really give you an edge.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…
 

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

Five Secrets Of Wealth Building

“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.” –Chinese Proverb

Anybody can get rich. It doesn’t take genius. Nor are special talents required. You don’t need to be lucky. And you certainly don’t need to be privileged. As “The Millionaire Next Door” (the best-selling book by Thomas Stanley and William Danko) and many studies have shown, most self-made millionaires are very normal in their circumstances. What separates them from the pack are their habits.

Becoming rich is a matter of making certain decisions and practicing certain skills, none of which is difficult or complicated. Viewed from this perspective, becoming rich is simple. You can acquire a multimillion-dollar net worth by doing just five things:

1. Get to work an hour early.

2. Make an above-average income.

3. Practice a financially valuable skill.

4. Invest a big part of your savings in a side business.

5. Invest the rest safely.

There are plenty of other ways to get rich, but the five above are proven. I’ve done them myself, and I’ve taught them to others who have become rich by doing them. Let’s take a quick look at these five “requirements.”

Secret #1. Get to work an hour early.

Most people want to be rich, but few succeed. The reason is not how much or how little they desire but what they actually do each day. Despite what the self-help books say, you won’t get wealthy by just wishing — or by positive thinking, imaging, visualization, and other mental tricks that promise overnight magic.

A good mental attitude will make you a happy person, but it won’t put any money in your pocket. To get rich, you have to give yourself an edge over everybody else. And the best way I know to do that is to get to work early. By getting to work early, you can do all the little things that put you ahead of the pack. You can make extra contacts, learn useful skills, take time to write an impressive memo, polish off a report, etc.

Seven Years to Seven Figures is designed to help you get rich (and successful) one day at a time. You start with a set of life goals and reduce them down to five-year goals, then one-year goals, then one-month goals, then one-week goals, and finally to one-day goals. In SYTSF’s daily messages, I ask you to do something, review something, remember something, or learn something that will get you one step closer to your ultimate goals.

Each thing I ask is relatively simple and small. It can be done easily and most often quickly. If you get into the habit of using SYTSF actively — not just reading it, but practicing its advice — you will make progress. I know this works, because I know dozens of people it is working for. And because it’s working for me.

But the things that I ask you to do are extra things that go beyond what you are doing right now. That’s why you need to get up an hour early each morning — so you have time to read SYTSF, plan your day, and get at least one positive thing done before you start doing all the regular things. The regular things will give you a regular life. The extra things will give you all the extras — including the extra millions.

Secret #2. Make an above-average income.

You don’t have to earn a ton of money to become a millionaire, but you do need a higher-than-average income. It’s possible to become financially independent on an annual income of $50,000, but you’ll do so only if you scrimp and save for a long time. To get wealthy while you’re young enough to enjoy it, you need to make about $75,000 or more. When your income exceeds $50,000 (after taxes), you can save most of it without compromising your lifestyle. Since I can’t scrimp and save, I can’t ask you to.

It takes some effort to get your income above $50,000 but it can be done. (See Secret #3.) And when you break through that level, a very nice thing happens: Increasing your income to the next level becomes a little bit easier. And when you hit the next level — say, $75,000 — you can bump yourself up again with even less effort.

There is truth to the saying that the rich get richer. It’s not the truth most people take from it though. 

Secret #3. Practice a financially valuable skill.

A financially valuable skill is one that contributes to (and is recognized as contributing to) the profits of a business. By this definition, not all business skills are financially valuable. You need to help create profits, and you need to be sure that the powers that be see you as a profit maker. We’ve talked about this before, and we’ll talk about it again.

Secret #4. Invest in a side business.

If you earn an above-average income and don’t go crazy buying things, you’ll have money left over for investing. Investing is the best way to get rich — and investing in your own side business is the best way I know to get a higher-than-average return on investment (ROI).

I’m not an advocate of quitting your job, mortgaging the house, and jumping into a business. Although you may read stories about people doing that the odds are very much stacked against you if you try. You just don’t know enough — or have enough — when you start off that way.

I believe in “chicken entrepreneurship” — starting out slowly and learning about a side business while you have the safe and steady income of your main job.

Even if you own your own business, you should invest a large percentage of your savings in a side business. It’s simply the only way you can ever expect to earn 20% or more on your money with relative safety. By a “side business,” I mean something you can run on weekends or weekday evenings. It is something that won’t take your attention away from your full-time job. It should be something you enjoy and are willing to stick with.

There are all kinds of side businesses you can get into, from consulting to freelance writing to real estate.

Secret # 5. Invest the rest safely.

If you take advantage of Secrets #1, #2, and #3, you’ll eventually (sooner rather than later) have money left over that you won’t need for your side business. You should invest that money conventionally but safely. You want to keep the money you have worked hard for safe and secure, but you also want to earn the highest possible ROI on it. The difference between earning 2% on your money and 22% can be the difference between having a net worth of $100,000 and $10 million at retirement.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…
 

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

Success Loves Speed

“There are no speed limits on the road to excellence. We can’t be fined for speeding.” – David W. Johnson

I’ve written a lot about the importance of acting sooner rather than later, without waiting to figure out everything in advance. Nothing says this more succinctly than Joe Vitale’s aphorism: Money loves speed.

Recently, a reader asked my why money loves speed. First off, let me say that this is not just true about money. Success – in all areas of life – loves speed.

• If you want to buy tickets from a scalper for a big game that’s sold out, get there first. Tickets love speed.
• If you want a job that you just found out about, get there first. Jobs love speed.
• If you want to get the guy or gal who has your heart pounding, get there first. Romance loves speed.
• If you want to get the investment property that just came on the market, get there first. Investment properties love speed.

And so on. I don’t recall ever succeeding at something because I got there last.

So, why does success love speed? The answer is to be found in the dictionary. Action is defined as “the causation of change.” Whatever result you want, it’s a change from what you now have. By definition, then, a change has to take place for you to get from your present status to that result.

Following are some of the more important reasons why I believe action begets results.

1. When you do too much planning, there’s a tendency to think of one reason after another why what you’re contemplating won’t work.

Many of the reasons you come up with may be correct. But the important thing is that it doesn’t matter. Why? Because, as you move forward, circumstances continually change – and those changes often render irrelevant many of the concerns you may have before taking action.

In other words, don’t try to figure out steps two, three, and four before taking step one. The legendary Joe Karbo once said that he ran his first ad for The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches (a million-copy seller) before he even began to write the book! In fact, he said that the ad he wrote served as an outline for the book itself. Talk about going against conventional wisdom…

2. When you procrastinate, you tend to lose your enthusiasm.

That, in turn, causes homeostasis to set in. Homeostasis is the tendency to live with existing conditions and avoid change. You get comfortable with the way things are and allow your great idea to fade into the comfort zone of oblivion.

But when you take action, your creative “juices” flow faster, your resourcefulness kicks into high gear, and the things, people, and circumstances you need to accomplish your objectives are drawn to you almost like magic. This is not hocus-pocus. I’ve done it enough times to be able to assure you that it really works.

3. Even though changing circumstances often negate many initial concerns you may have had, they can also place new obstacles in your path.

As a result, if you wait too long before taking action, the opportunity may become less and less appealing as those obstacles start to make their appearance.

Robert Ringer wrote about this danger in his book "To Be or Not to Be Intimidated?" under the auspices of the Fiddle Theory, which states: “The longer you fiddle around with a deal, the greater the odds that it will never close.”

Time is your ally when you take action. But time is a two-sided coin. If you hesitate or procrastinate, time becomes your worst enemy. As a general rule, I assume that if I take action, perceived problems will tend to disappear – and that the more I hesitate, the more time I give new obstacles to come on the scene.

4. Perhaps the most important reason of all for taking action now is that time is finite.

No matter how proficient you are, you can only accomplish so much in a lifetime. Every second that’s wasted reduces the totality of what you can accomplish by one second.

Some people maintain that a constant feeling of urgency to accomplish more is stressful, but I find the opposite to be true. I feel more stress when I procrastinate – when I’m not doing what I know I should be doing. There’s not a worse feeling in the world than to be conscious of the fact that your finite supply of time is ticking away while you’re straightening your desk drawer.

Of course, nothing in life is perfect. There will be times when moving too fast can end up hurting you. Based on my own experience, what I gain from moving fast far outweighs any losses that result from too little planning.

That being the case, when you fall – and you will fall – simply pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and take more action. Success could care less about mistakes. Success loves action. Think seriously about making this your mantra for 2016.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…
 

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

Life After 50: You’re Never Too Old To Succeed

“The hardest years in life are those between 10 and 70.” – Helen Hayes (at age 83)

Think getting older stinks? Some say that life begins at 50. Here are more reasons to embrace your golden years. Take inspiration from the following "oldsters" who accomplished more after 70 than most do in their whole lives:

* Nelson Mandela, having lived a life dedicated to the realization of democracy and the defeat of apartheid in his native South Africa, emerged from a long imprisonment at the age of 72 and within four years became president of his country and the recipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

* Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Christian Science Church, started the Christian Science Monitor daily newspaper when she was 87, two years before her death.

* George Burns, who returned to motion pictures after a 30-year hiatus in 1975 at the age of 79, lived to be 100 and in his later years became the unofficial spokesperson for an inspired old age. He quipped, “I get a standing ovation just standing.” 

* Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses) became internationally known when the world took notice of her American folk paintings. During the next 20 years, until her death at the age of 101, she created approximately 2,000 paintings.

Researchers at Stanford University also discovered:

• A third of the accomplishments of the four hundred most famous people came when they were between sixty and seventy years old.

• A quarter came when they were seventy to eighty.

• More than half of what researchers called “the world’s greatest work” was achieved by leaders, thinkers, and creative people, businesspeople, and others who were sixty or older. More than half! Some examples:

• Hillary Clinton was sixty-two when she became America’s secretary of state.

• Golda Meir was seventy-one when she became prime minister of Israel.

• Julia Child was forty-nine when her first cookbook was published. Louise Nevelson was a prolific sculptor well into her eighties. Tony Bennett is a regular Grammy Award winner, and he is an octogenarian.

Even if you are 70+, there’s still time to do something very meaningful with your life. If you are only in your 50s, like me, be very grateful. From a different perspective, you are a kid with the whole world before you.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…
 

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

Real Estate Investing - Dealing With Adversity: React Or Respond?

Regardless of who you are or how smooth a deal appears to be going, you will most likely end up facing adversity along the way.  It is at these critical junctures when you can either react and let the deal fall apart or respond to it and immediately figure out how to push forward.  Contrary to what you may think about the business, it is never going to be smooth sailing. From the time you sign a contract until the time you close the deal, adversity will threaten to impede your progress.  Those who are best equipped to deal with the challenges of the real estate industry will typically be the most successful.

It can be very easy to let one problem fester and impact the rest of a deal. Even if you checked and double checked your course of action, there is always something that will be out of your control. Instead of complaining and pointing fingers, figure out what you can do from that point forward. Not only will you appreciate it on your current deal, but the people around you will remember it and reciprocate in the future. Conversely, if you proceed to complain, you may be able to salvage the deal, but anyone you are working with will surely remember how you acted.

Regardless of how experienced or successful an investor is, they are always, in one way or another, at the mercy of someone else. You can’t buy unless your seller agrees to sell and you can’t sell unless you have a willing buyer. Real estate is a people business that relies on collaboration. The attorney has to do their job in clearing the title and if you are getting financing your mortgage broker has to work on getting your loan approved. If anyone on your team drops the ball, you could be left wondering what went wrong. Since there are so many ways a deal could go wrong, you have to be prepared to act at a moment’s notice.

Nobody appreciates being blamed when things go wrong. Your realtor, mortgage broker and attorney only get paid if your deal closes. They have every reason to work as hard as they can. If you start to criticize how they are working or something they did wrong, you will surely upset a contact that you have worked with in the past. Look at the big picture. Instead of pointing fingers and blaming others, work on a solution. All finger pointing will do is upset your team and lessen the chance they will ever work with you again.

You can either react or respond when things go wrong. If you react, you will let your emotions take over and focus on blaming.  If you are responding, you are working with people on your team in a conducive atmosphere. Furthermore, you are not thinking about how you got to where you are, but how you can improve your situation. Responders are always more successful because they will get things done instead of making excuses.  People want to work with responders and they will always get more opportunities because of this.

Adversity will happen on almost every deal and in many facets of your business. If it does, you can’t take it personally or think your business is doomed. The sooner you start working on a solution, the better you and your business will be.$

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Why You Should Write Down Your Goals

I recently read about a study in a book called “Look Within or Do Without,” by Tom Bay. According to Mr. Bay, Harvard Business School did a study on the financial status of its students 10 years after graduation and found that:

* As many as 27% of them needed financial assistance.

* A whopping 60% of them were living paycheck to paycheck.

* A mere 10% of them were living comfortably.

* And only 3% of them were financially independent.

The study also looked at goal setting and found these interesting correlations:

* The 27% that needed financial assistance had absolutely no goal-setting processes in their lives.

* The 60% that were living paycheck to paycheck had basic survival goals (such as managing to live paycheck to paycheck).

* The 10% that were living comfortably had general goals. They thought they knew where they were going to be in the next five years.

* The 3% that were financially independent had written out their goals and the steps required to reach those goals.

Yes, the results seem a little too perfect, but I’m not surprised at the overall implication. I work with many bright, ambitious people who have everything they need to get what they want – and who work nonstop – but fail to make the progress they desire. Yet when I suggest they could do better by setting goals and writing them down, as well as planning their days, getting in early, and doing all those other things we talk about each morning, much more often than not my suggestions are met with amused derision. I understand why you’d want NOT to write down your goals. It seems so contrived. So banal. You think that it may work fine for someone much less intelligent – much less individualistic – but that it’s not for you. Yeah, that’s the way I used to feel.

For years, I felt that way about anything that smelled of positive thinking, personal power, or self-help. Then, almost by accident, I stumbled onto Stephen Covey's productivity and time-management program – and that changed the way I thought about self-help. Prior to that, I had small successes, but felt like I was spinning in place. Since the humbling experience of admitting I could do better by structuring my life according to the banalities of good advice, I’ve become much better at defining and reaching my goals and finish virtually all of my pet projects. If goal setting can work for Harvard Business School graduates, shouldn’t it work for you too?

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…
 

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]