Rich Habits Word of the Day

Exemplar – Standard, epitome. Tom’s 4th grade teacher was an exemplar of a mentor who instilled in him a sense of purpose.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Famous Mentor-Mentee Pairs:

OPRAH WINFREY mentored by Mrs. Duncan (4th grade teacher)

GEN. COLIN POWELL mentored by his father Luther Powell

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING mentored by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays

US PRESIDENT JOSIAH BARTLET mentored by Mrs. Landingham (The West Wing)

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN mentored by Howard Zinn

LUKE SKYWALKER mentored by Obi-Wan Ben Kenobi (Star Wars)

HENRY DAVID THOREAU mentored by Ralph Waldo Emerson

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN mentored by William Ravenel (high school teacher/coach)

WALTER CRONKITE mentored by Fred Birney (high school journalism teacher)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON mentored by Rev. Donald James

GLORIA ESTEFAN mentored by her grandmother Consuelo Garcia

HELEN KELLER mentored by Anne Sullivan

BOB DYLAN mentored by Woody Guthrie

QUINCY JONES mentored by Ray Charles

MARTIN SHEEN mentored by Rev. Alfred Drapp

DENZEL WASHINGTON mentored by Sidney Poitier

HARRY POTTER mentored by Professor Dumbledore

ROSA PARKS mentored by Alice L. White (headmistress)

TOM BROKAW mentored by Frances Morrow (elementary school teacher)

MITCH ALBOM mentored by Morrie Schwartz (Tuesdays with Morrie)

ANTWONE FISHER mentored by Brenda Profitt (elementary school teacher)

GWEN IFILL mentored by Alden Poole (college professor)

LARRY KING mentored by Edward Bennett Williams

CAL RIPKEN, JR. mentored by his father

TIM RUSSERT mentored by Sister Mary Lucille

Rich Habit Lesson of the Day

1. In life, there are five ways to find a Success Mentor: Parents – Parents are often the only opportunity any of us have at having a mentor in life. This is why parenting is so important. Parents need to be success mentors to their children. They need to teach their children good daily success habits. If they don’t it is likely their children will struggle in life financially.
2. Teachers – Good teachers are good mentors. Teachers can reinforce the mentoring children receive at home from their parents, or step in to provide the much needed success mentoring absent at home.
3. Career Mentors – For those not fortunate enough to have had parents or teachers who provided success mentoring, finding someone at work who can act as a mentor will ensure success in life. Find someone at work who you admire, trust and respect and just ask them to be your mentor.
4. Reading – Many successful people attribute their success in life to self-help, success authors such as Dale Carnegie, Earl Nightingale, Og Mandino or Jack Canfield.
5. School of Hard Knocks – When you learn good daily success habits through the school of hard knocks you are essentially your own mentor. You teach yourself what not to do. You learn from your mistakes and failures. This is the hard way because those mistakes and failures cost you financially.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Indiscriminate – Random. Random luck is indiscriminate; it favors the rich and the poor equally.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Random luck, good or bad, is fairly democratic; it happens to everyone, rich or poor. There are those few who are rich or poor simply by chance thanks to random luck. But there are two other types of luck that are not so democratic: Opportunity Luck and Detrimental Luck. Opportunity Luck is the type of luck wealthy people create when they have good daily habits (Rich Habits). Detrimental Luck is the type of luck poor people create when they have bad daily habits (Poverty Habits). These two types of luck separate the rich from the poor and are driven by cause and effect. Rich Habits are the cause, wealth is the effect. Poverty Habits are the cause, poverty is the effect. If you want to become wealthy you need to eliminate Detrimental Luck and create Opportunity Luck. You do this by following the Rich Habits. The Rich Habits were designed to be Keystone Habits. Keystone Habits are unique in the habit world because they are the only type of habits that can influence other, ordinary habits. One Rich Habit can eliminate two or more Poverty Habits. When you eliminate Poverty Habits you reduce Detrimental Luck in your life. When you add just one Rich Habit you introduce Opportunity Luck into your life. So the Rich Habits are like hitting a double or a triple in baseball. Just one Rich Habit can get you to third base in life and turn you into a slugger.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Forge – Create. Tom forged a new understanding of the causes of income inequality and the wealth gap, with his research.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Rich Habit Lesson of the Day

Many books have been written about God. Perhaps the most famous book is the Bible. At the core of being God is one unique trait: the ability to create. This ability makes God unique. But God is not the only one who can create. Humans posses this trait. We are the only species on earth who have the innate ability to create tangible things from mere thought. We have the ability to dream and turn those dreams into reality. We are, in a sense, godlike.  Each of us is endowed with the God Gene. Those who create are actually tapping into the God Gene. Those individuals who do harness this God Gene, and create things of incredible value to society, are labeled “geniuses” and rewarded by society.

Only when we create are we truly being human. For some unknown reason, we were the only species on earth blessed with this unique gift to create. Those who spend their lives creating, are the happiest human beings. That is life’s reward for utilizing the God Gene. Happiness. Creating is our purpose in life. For most, unfortunately, the God Gene remains dormant. When we ignore our purpose in life we find ourselves unhappy, eking out a living, never reaching our full potential.  Making use of this God Gene is the path to happiness. Ignoring it is the path to unhappiness. If you want to be truly happy in life you must create. You must activate your God Gene.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Networking – Making relationships. Tom’s volunteering helped him develop valuable relationships that helped improve his business.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Rich Habit Lesson of the Day

When you volunteer your time in your community you gain name recognition. It exposes you to more people and expands your relationship base. You become a recognized figure in your community and that makes you feel important. 

There is no better feeling than the feeling that you made a difference. I like to call it the “George Bailey Effect.” We all want to feel our lives have meaning. Volunteerism satisfies that empty feeling we sometimes have about our very existence. When our volunteerism makes a difference, it simply makes us feel like we matter in life.

Volunteerism allows you to meet new people and gain new relationships. These relationships can turn into life-long friendships or business acquaintances. If you have had difficulty making new relationships, volunteerism may be the perfect remedy.

Volunteerism is a perfect way to highlight your skillset. When you do a good job, people notice and that very often translates into business opportunities. People want to do business with people they know, like and trust. What better way to make that happen than volunteering.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Causation – Origin, beginning. Tom realized, after completing his five-year study, that the causation of poverty for most people was their bad daily habits.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

What causes hurricanes?

Hurricanes are intense low pressure areas that form over warm ocean waters in the summer and early fall. Their source of energy is water vapor which is evaporated from the ocean surface.  

Water vapor is the “fuel” for the hurricanes because it releases the “latent heat of condensation” when it condenses to form clouds and rain, warming the surrounding air. (This heat energy was absorbed by the water vapor when it was evaporated from the warm ocean surface, cooling the ocean in the process.) 

Usually, the heat released in this way in tropical thunderstorms is carried away by wind shear, which blows the top off the thunderstorms. But when there is little wind shear, this heat can build up, causing low pressure to form. The low pressure causes wind to begin to spiral inward toward the center of the low. 

These winds help to evaporate even more water vapor from the ocean, spiraling inward toward the center, feeding more showers and thunderstorms, and warming the upper atmosphere still more. The showers and thunderstorms where all of this energy is released are usually organized into bands (sometimes called “rainbands” or “feeder bands”), as well as into an “eyewall” encircling the center of the storm. The eyewall is where the strongest winds occur, which encircle the warmest air, in the eye of the hurricane. This warmth in the eye is produced by sinking air, which sinks in response to rising air in the thunderstorms. The winds diminish rapidly moving from the eyewall to the inside of the relatively cloud-free eye, where calm winds can exist.

Hurricane intensity is based upon the highest sustained (1 minute average) wind speed the hurricane is producing. The “Saffir-Simpson” scale rates hurricane strength in this way from Category 1 to Category 5. These categories were chosen based upon the amount of damage that each category can produce.

Rich Habit Lesson of the Day

For most people bad daily habits are the cause and poverty is the effect. In my five year study I discovered certain poverty Habits that are directly responsible poverty. Poverty Habits are behaviors that contribute to poverty. Behaviors such as watching too much T.V., spending too much time on recreational Internet use, eating too much, not saving, living beyond your means by spending more than you earn, not reading every day for self-improvement, lack of proper goal-setting, procrastination, poor relationship management, negative thinking, allowing negative emotions to control your behavior, drinking too much alcohol, not seeking out mentors in life and lack of purpose in life. You can eliminate your Poverty Habits by adopting Rich Habits. Rich Habits are unique Habits known as Keystone Habits. Keystone Habits are unique in the habit world. They are unique because they affect or eliminate Poverty Habits. If you want to raise yourself out of poverty you need to adopt Rich Habits.