One of my older retired friends is very wealthy. He has a beautiful home on the water in Florida. He has a 57 foot boat that is one of his great passions in life.

Prior to his retirement, I had the great honor of working with him and his company. As we were waiting for the other board members to arrive for a board meeting, he and I had some time alone. For some reason, the conversation turned to his journey and he decided to share with me this story.

Back in the early 1980’s he had orchestrated a management buyout of the New Jersey division of his employer’s home building company.  In this buyout, he invested everything he had and also taken on significant debt.

During the first three years, his company incurred significant losses and he was running out of money, quickly.

Bankers were putting pressure on him almost on a daily basis.

Each week, he worried about making payroll.

Even worse, vendors were on the verge of rebellion.

Some refused to deliver the supplies he needed to build his homes unless he paid upon delivery. This is called COD, or Cash On Delivery. Since he didn’t have the cash, and wouldn’t until he finished and sold some homes, those COD vendors pushed him to the very edge of insolvency.

He told me, during those dark days, he would wake up in the morning and struggle to get dressed, shave and drive to work. He said he felt like a zombie most of the time.

Zombie days turned into zombie months and zombie years. Still, despite the intense pressures, despite the depression, despite the desire to crawl up into a fetal position and stay in bed, he showed up.

Slowly, he began closing on the homes he completed. He would use all of the money he received to complete more homes.

The company began to show a profit. After a number of years of profitability, he decided to take his company public and this produced a windfall that transformed him into a multi deca-millionaire.

To this day, my friend considers his greatest accomplishment to be – just showing up.

When the going gets tough, you either show up or you give up. Those who make showing up a habit, are able to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of their success.

There are no days off for those who pursue success. Showing up, no matter how bad things are, is a common Rich Habit among self-made millionaires.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Back in 2004, when I began my Rich Habits Study in order to find out why the rich were rich and why the poor were poor, I’ll confess, I hated rich people. I had some entrenched negative beliefs about the wealthy that I inherited from my “poor” upbringing.

As I uncovered more and more about the causes of wealth and poverty, however, my hatred of rich people began to fade. When I finally completed my research in 2009, this hatred had transformed into admiration that bordered on idol worship.

The self-made rich, I learned, were nothing like the evil, greedy, materialistic horde I depicted as a child. In fact, almost everything I had been led to believe about the wealthy was a myth.

I thought I’d share some of those revelations with you and dispel the myths I embraced for much of my adult life. Let’s begin. [Read more…]

A good team works relentlessly every day in moving you toward the realization of your dreams and goals.

If you have a team, however, your dreams and goals remain elusive, there’s a good chance not everyone is pulling the same cart. One or more members may have their own agenda – their dreams and goals, which are not aligned with yours.

If you are an entrepreneur who has been pursuing a dream for some time and that dream still remains elusive, it is a clear sign that you have the wrong players on your team and it’s time to restructure your team.

Ideal Dream Team-Member Traits:

• Positive, upbeat, optimistic mindset.
• Shared focus on identical dreams and goals.
• Effective communicators.
• Relationship builders.
• Have specific complimentary knowledge/skills.
• Take immediate action – do not procrastinate.
• Bubbling with enthusiasm.
• Seek constant feedback.
• Good finishers – they finish tasks.
• Relentless.
• Cheerleaders, to Booleaders.
• Work horses.
• Anticipate problems and potential roadblocks.
• Solution-focused.
• Control over emotions.

When you have a Dream Team, everyone is on the same page and pulling the same cart. With a Dream Team, success is virtually guaranteed.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

In my Rich Habits Study I learned three things about mentors:

#1 Mentors are hard to come by – only 24% of the wealthy had a mentor in life. But, for those 24%, 93% said they became rich because of their mentors.

#2 Finding a mentor is the fast track to accumulating wealth – Those 24% who found mentors also happened to accumulate their wealth at a younger age than the rest of the millionaires in my study.

#3 Having a mentor produces the greatest accumulation of wealth – Almost all of the millionaires in my study who had a mentor, also happened to have accumulated the most wealth.

So, clearly the goal for everyone who wants to be rich  should be to find a mentor. But what if you can’t find one?

Well, that was the case for 76% of the wealthy in my study, yet they still somehow were able to become rich. So, how did they do it?

The simple answer is ….. they became their own mentors.

In my study, I found that there are a number of ways to mentor yourself:

1. Reading – Reading to gain knowledge. Reading “How-To” books/articles about successful people in your field. Reading biographies about successful people.
2. Seek Feedback From Your Inner Circle – Bounce problems, issues, ideas off of those you know. Also, have your inner circle be your guinea pigs for the products or services you sell and ask them about their experience.
3. Form a Master Mind Group – In order for a Master Mind Group to work, everyone in the group must be pursuing almost identical dreams and goals. In other words, they must be in the same field as you are and they must be seeking the same end result. An ideal Master Mind Group should be no more than five individuals who meet (physically or remotely) at least once a month. One of the objectives of the Master Mind Group needs to be the sharing of Best Practices – things that work and things that don’t work.
4. The School of Hard Knocks – Start a business. When you start a business, you will make mistakes and may even fail. These mistakes and failures teach you what works and what doesn’t work. Because they cost you time and money, they lessons they teach create emotional memories, the most powerful type of memory there is. Emotional memory is like scar tissue on the brain. It never goes away. The memory sticks forever, and, therefore, the lessons stay with you forever.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Many problems are self-made.

And most of those self-made problems have one common source – out of control emotions.

Recently, there was a national media piece about a 35 year old man who was asked by a father outside a 7-11 to not smoke around his children. The man flew into a rage, got into his car and proceeded to drive the car into the family, killing the mother.

Uncontrolled anger was to blame.

Then there are the familiar stories in which a husband or wife catches their spouse in the act of cheating on them and assaults one or both of the cheaters.

Uncontrolled jealousy was to blame.

Becoming a master of your emotions is critical to success in life. When you allow your emotions to take control of your mind, you essentially shut down your prefrontal cortex, the executive command and control center of the brain – you stop thinking!

When emotions take control, your thinking becomes impaired and this results in bad decisions. Sometimes those decisions can affect you the rest of your life.

Never act on emotions. The simple formula to diffusing emotions is as follows:

THINK –> EVALUATE –> REACT

During highly emotional events, this formula is a life saver.

The most successful people understand that emotions are your enemy. They need to be reeled in and controlled. Emotions are like a wild dog, they need to be on a short leash.

Rich Habit #10: I Will Control My Thoughts and Emotions Every Day.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Like attracts Like.

Unconsciously, we seek to associate with others who are like us.

This could be a good thing or a bad thing.

It could be good, if the things we have in common are constructive and improve our lives.

If your inner circle includes people who are fit, exercise daily and eat healthy, this is a good thing.

If your inner circle includes people who are good at managing money, this is a good thing.

If your inner circle includes people who love, care and look out for one another, this is a good thing.

It could be bad, however, if the things we have in common are destructive and poison our lives.

If your inner circle includes people who are overweight, inactive and who have unhealthy eating habits, this is a bad thing.

If your inner circle includes people who are living beyond their means, in debt and struggle financially, this is a bad thing.

If your inner circle includes people who are out for themselves, and gossip behind your back, this is a bad thing.

If life is not going as planned, there’s a good chance it is because you are surrounding yourself with toxic people. Toxic people can’t help you improve your life. rather, they will drag you down like an anchor.

One of the short cuts to habit change is to change your environment. That environment includes those you associate with on a frequent basis.

If you want to change your life, you must find people who are living the type of life you desire and make them part of your inner circle.

Their habits, thinking, emotions, goals, dreams and ambitions will infect you like a virus.

You new inner circle of upbeat, success-minded, healthy, happy people will magically transform your life. They will open doors for you. They will introduce you to other like-minded people who will keep you inspired and focused on becoming the best you can be.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

The vast majority of people work for others, as employees.

From the perspective of the employer, employees are their asset and remain their asset, until they cease being an employee.

A select few employees, however, are able to win back their freedom and regain ownership of themselves, as an asset. They do this by consistently going the extra mile.

Going the extra mile is actually an investment you make, in yourself.

When you consistently do more than your job requires, good employers eventually take notice. They reward their extra-mile employees by giving them additional responsibilities.

These added responsibilities push them outside their comfort zone, forcing them to grow in knowledge and skill, with the added benefit of working with new people within their organization.

Growth makes you more valuable.

If you view yourself as an asset, think of growth as asset appreciation.

And this is why going the extra mile is a Rich Habit.

As you grow in knowledge, skills and relationships, you become more valuable and when you become more valuable to others, you put yourself in a position of strength.

But here’s the most important take away – going the extra mile shifts the ownership of you, as an asset, from your employer back to you.

The new knowledge, skills and relationships become yours, not your employer’s. You can take them with you wherever you go. Including the competition.

Employer’s know this, and will do everything to keep extra-mile employees.

When you make going the extra mile a habit, you become un-fireable.

One of the self-made millionaires in my study rose up the corporate ladder by going the extra mile. He volunteered his services as a member of an important pharmaceutical trade organization; one that his CEO was heavily involved in.

The trade organization work put him in constant touch with his company’s CEO as well as other pharmaceutical executives from other companies.

Eventually, his hard work at the trade organization got him noticed by his CEO. Once noticed, he was put into a management-trainee program and fast-tracked for management. He rose up the ladder and is now the #2 executive at his company. Today, he is worth in excess of eight million dollars.

If you want to be a success in life, you must invest in yourself. You do this by going the extra mile, taking on additional tasks and responsibilities which push you outside your comfort zone. Discomfort is a sign that you are growing.

When you go the extra mile, you are investing in yourself. And when you invest in yourself, you cease being anyone’s asset but your own. You call the shots. And when you call the shots, you become un-fireable.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

I spent five years studying the daily activities of wealthy individuals.

One of the many things I learned is that self-made millionaires have a very different understanding about money than non-millionaires.

I’d like to share some of the myth’s about money I uncovered in my research. [Read more…]

Mark Twain was a gifted author and speaker. His books are still read by schoolchildren and adults to this day. Yet, despite all of his fame and the financial abundance his success produced, Twain was mired in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy towards the later part of his life.

Henry Huttleston Rogers, a close friend and astute businessman, took control of Twain’s finances late in Twain’s life, saving him from certain bankruptcy.

What put Twain on the brink of bankruptcy was his penchant for investing large sums of money in anything that caught his eye.

Mark Twain suffered from Bright Shiny Object Syndrome.

Individuals who suffer from Bright Shiny Object Syndrome are easily distracted by the latest fad or get rich quick proposition. They continuously shift their focus from one thing to the next, never seeing any one thing through.

They are like frogs leaping from lilly pad to lilly pad, never settling on one for very long.

One characteristic of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study was their ability to focus on one thing for a very long period of time – ten years, twenty years or even a lifetime.

As I learned from my study, success takes a long time.

Unfortunately, most people never succeed because, when something does not immediately pay off, they move on to the next bright shiny object.

These Bright Shiny Object Syndrome sufferers never experience success because they lack dedication, grit and persistence.

Success requires a significant amount of time to overcome failures, mistakes and many obstacles, all of which lead to growth.

Those struggling with Bright Shiny Object Syndrome, never grow enough to learn what to do and what not to do. They quit and move on when the next bright shiny object catches their eye.

Those who focus on one singular thing for a long time, build a strong foundation for success.

In fact, the longer success takes, the greater and more permanent the foundation will be.

We live in an age of instant gratification. This desire to achieve immediate success is a Poor Habit.

In my Rich Habits Study, it took the average self-made millionaire, who was pursuing a dream, twelve years to become rich and successful. That’s a long time and requires a lot of patience.

Those who seek instantaneous success, realize little success, because the foundation upon which their success is built is weak and shallow.

They never give themselves enough time to figure out what to do and what not to do.

They never become Virtuosos in what they do because they are constantly moving on to the next get rich quick scheme.

Success requires a laser-like focus along with relentless persistence. This takes time. The longer success takes, the longer it lasts.

Forge the Rich Habit of devoting yourself to something which makes your heart sing and never quit on that one thing. Eventually, you will figure it out and you will be rewarded with success.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Those, like myself, who struggled with poverty growing up, face numerous uphill battles.

When you are a child raised in poverty, there are certain things you are forced to do without; things the non-poor take for granted.

Something as simple as getting help from a tutor, if you’re struggling in school, is problematic, since most tutors cost money – money your family does not have. So, you are forced to struggle academically.

Engaging in extracurricular activities, whether at school or outside of school, presents another problem, if those activities require money. Not having money, because you’re poor, forces you to pass on extracurricular activities that cost money. So, you miss out on opportunities to build relationships and learn new skills.

These limitations begin to infest your psyche at an early age. You form certain limiting beliefs, as a result of being poor.

Negative emotions also often accompany poverty. Especially anger.

Anger at your parents, at life, at society.

Anger at society can morph into a the belief that you are a victim. Those who see themselves as a victim, assign blame to everyone but themselves, for their circumstances.

These limiting beliefs, negative emotions and victim mindset create a poverty mindset. And, unless you become aware of this poverty mindset, it will follow you throughout adulthood. Even worse, it will infect your children, which does nothing but perpetuate a generational cycle of poverty, within the family.

A poverty mindset become a self-fulfilling prophesy or blueprint for your future life. With this blueprint in hand, you unknowingly build a life of poverty.

Essentially, this poverty mindset says: I was born poor, I’m a victim of my circumstances and the world is intent on keeping me poor.

That thinking and those beliefs transform temporary poverty into permanent poverty.

The solution is to never allow negative beliefs, negative thinking, negative emotions or a victim mindset permanent residence in your mind. You do that by embracing a positive outlook on life.

Those in my study who were raised in poverty, did just that. They forged a positive outlook, despite their poverty. They never allowed themselves to be victims. They took control over their emotions.

This positive outlook, or Rich Thinking, then became a blueprint with which they built their future prosperity.

Rich Thinking eradicates a poverty mindset and breaks the cycle of generational poverty, enabling the poorest of the poor to achieve great things in life. If this was not true, there would be no Andrew Carnegie’s, no Oprah Winfrey’s, no Ralph Lauren’s, and no Howard Schultz’s (Starbucks).

The only limitations in life are the ones we set.

A positive outlook releases your brakes, allows you to soar above your temporary poverty and completely transforms your life circumstances.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!