When you pursue a dream, it is an emotional roller coaster ride. You will experience many ups and downs – but mostly downs, especially in the early stages.

Too many unmet expectations will lead to a feeling of hopelessness and result in a negative mental outlook. This negativity is like a cancer that eats away at your confidence and mental toughness. If a negative mental outlook takes root, it can become emotionally too much to bare, causing you to raise the white flag and quit on your dream.

Conversely, if you set low expectations and exceed them, this increases your confidence and strengthens your positive mental outlook, infusing you with optimism, enthusiasm and an overall sense that you are moving forward towards the realization of your dream.

One of the things I learned in my research and in this Rich Habits journey I’m on is that achieving success is contingent on maintaining a positive mental outlook.

Setting low expectations will keep your emotions on an even keel and allow you to keep moving forward on your dreams.

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!

One of the interesting things I learned from studying self-made millionaires was that many of them felt that they were not working hard enough. I found this ironic since 65% of them had a minimum of three revenue streams they were managing.

“So why, Mr. or Mrs. Self-made Millionaire do you think you’re lazy?” I asked.

“I love what I do and it just doesn’t feel like work,” was the most common response.

That resonated with me.

For much of my adult life I’ve worked as a CPA and CFP. And it felt like work.

However, when I embarked on writing my first of many books, Rich Habits, I really enjoyed it and it didn’t feel like work at all. In fact, no matter how many hours I devoted to my writing, which was significant, I couldn’t get over the feeling that I was not working.

And because my love for writing felt like play and not work, I felt guilty when I was writing. I felt guilty that I was not “working”.

Thanks to my research, I finally understand why and no longer feel guilty.

When you love what you’re doing, I mean really love what you’re doing, it does not feel like work. But, it is work, because you are still producing.

I learned from my research that the fastest way to accumulate the most money isn’t through hard work. It’s doing what you love.

When you do what you love, you will devote more hours to it, become more expert at it and if that expertise is in demand, you will make more money than competitors who lack your passion and expertise.

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!

When Kylie Jenner found herself on the famous Forbes Billionaire List, all hell broke loose on social media.

What set so many people off was the usage of the phrase, self-made billionaire.

It seems, there were many who did not agree that Kylie was self-made.

So, is Kylie self-made?

As many of you know, I study self-made millionaires. When you are a student of self-made millionaires, you notice things; things that separate the self-made from everyone else.

And I’ve noticed a few things about Kylie Jenner that are responsible for her rocket ship ride from nubile entrepreneur into billionaire status.

#1 Self-Made Millionaires Create a Valuable Brand

A brand is anything that creates followers, or a herd. It could be a name (Tony Robbins), a logo (Nike), a book (Harry Potter), a recognizable product (Coke) or a powerful social media following.

Kylie Jenner’s brand is her social media following. Kylie has 110 million Instagram followers, 26 million Twitter followers and millions of Snapchat followers.

That didn’t happen overnight. Over many years, Kylie leveraged her famous family name and her modeling career to build up her social media following through frequent daily social media posts.

The true value of your brand is dictated by how many people you have in your herd.

Those in the upper middle-class have hundreds in their herd. Millionaires have thousands in their herd. Deca-millionaires have hundreds of thousands in their herd. And billionaires, like Kylie, have millions in their herd.

#2 Self-Made Millionaires Have an Outstanding Team

The wealthiest and most successful self-made millionaires have a team of outstanding people who help them pull their cart, help guide them and help mentor them.

Kylie Jenner’s mother, Kris Jenner, is a very astute and successful business woman. Her sisters are also very successful. And Kylie’s father? Well, he’s a former Olympian.

She is literally surrounded by successful people, guiding and mentoring her for success.

#3 Self-Made Millionaires Know Their Target Market

Self-made millionaires are very good at figuring out who their target market is. They know their target market.

Because Kylie nurtured her brand over many years, she knew exactly who her target market was – young women and young girls.

#4 Self-Made Millionaires Create Products or Services Their Target Market Desires

One of the reasons it takes most self-made millionaires so long to succeed is because they are simultaneously building their brand, forming their team and figuring out who their target market is.

Their brand, team and target market are therefore in constant flux in the early years. During this school of hard knocks period, they tweak their product or service offering as they are developing their brand, team and target market, all at the same time.

Doing all of those things simultaneously, just takes time.

Kylie Jenner’s brand, team and target market, however, were already in place long before she launched her first product. Because she used social media to build her brand, she knew exactly who her target market was. She knew what they liked and what they didn’t like.

Finding a product to sell to them was actually the easiest part of her journey to becoming a self-made billionaire.

And, she’s only just begun. In my opinion, we’ll be seeing Kylie Jenner on the Forbes list for many years to come, which will no doubt further agitate her envy-driven haters.

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!

Sisyphus was a mythical Greek king who was condemned for eternity by the gods, Zeus and Hades, to push a large rock up a steep hill, only to find it rolling back as he neared the top.

Success takes a long time. According to my Rich Habits research, the average self-made millionaire pursuing a dream, took twelve years to achieve success.

Day after day, month after month and year after year, the dreamer-entrepreneur struggles to overcome a parade of obstacles, problems, pitfalls, reversals, cash flow shortages, and so many other things.

They face constant rejection, unanswered voicemails and ignored emails. Bankers turn down their requests for money. New clients or customers come hard, while they are simultaneously trying to build their brand, their team and fine tuning their product or service offering to meet the needs and wants of their still evolving target market.

Being an entrepreneur often feel like Sisyphus, going at it every day, hoping one day their ball will reach the summit of their hill.

The ones who simply refuse to quit on their dreams, eventually succeed in pulling everything together – brand, team, target market and product.

When the pieces all fall into place, their ball stays on top of their hill, and their days of feeling like Sisyphus are forever in their rear view mirror

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!

Long-term decisions are irrevocable decisions you make which impact your career, business, your life or your relationships.

Because long-term decisions have such a profound effect on your life, you must always take time in making those types of decisions and only make them when you are at your best.

When are you at your best?

When you are healthy, well-fed, rested and not under any stress.

When should you avoid making long-term decisions? When you are at your worst.

When are you at your worst?

When you are sick, hungry, tired, suffering from PMS, recovering from a bad injury or under stress.

When you are not at your best, for whatever reason, your glucose level drops significantly.

Glucose is the brain’s fuel source. When it’s low, your ability to make decisions is impaired.

The part of the brain that is responsible for decision-making, the prefrontal cortex, is weakened when you are not at your best, physically or mentally. Consequently, it is very likely this part of the brain will not be perfuming its decision-making function properly, resulting in poor decision-making.

If you have no choice but to make a major long-term decision, eat anything with sugar in it fifteen to thirty minutes prior to making that decision. Sugar causes a short-term boost in your glucose level and will temporarily restore your decision-making abilities.

But be careful with sugar. About thirty minutes after experiencing a spike in glucose, due to this sugar boost, you will experience a crash in glucose levels which will leave you feeling tired and lethargic.

Rest also restores glucose levels and this is precisely why the sage advice is to sleep on it (decisions). You make the best and right decisions immediately following a good night’s rest.

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!

Big goals really represent your main purpose in life or a life dream.

They are less goal and more wish.

Nonetheless, they are powerful wishes.

Big goals are transformative. They change you as a person because they require enormous growth. They force you to stretch yourself and become someone else – a new and improved version of yourself.

Because big goals require growth, they force you to pick up new skills, new knowledge, meet and associate with new people and engage in new activities.

Big goals will alter your environment. They could force you to change where you live, where you work, who you work with and who you associate with.

They can also force you to disassociate yourself from individuals who are holding you back in life.In this way, big goals remove the anchors that are keeping you from becoming who you need to be in order to realize success.

The pursuit of big goals will change everything about your life. And that new life will be a much more rewarding and exciting life.

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 pursuing wealth and success have a very clear vision of themselves.

Not as the person they are, while they are racing to the top. But as the person they desire to be. A sort of future version of themselves.

According to my Rich Habits research, that future version takes many years to become a reality:

• 32 Years for Saver-Investors
• 20 Years for Virtuosos and Senior Executives at Publicly-Held Companies and
• 12 Years for Entrepreneurs-Dreamers

Their clear vision is what anchors them, keeping them on task, so that they continue to engage in the important daily habits that will eventually transform their vision into reality.

When I discovered this very unique success or wealth building strategy, I decided to give it a try. I created a vision of my future self. I even gave my future self a name – JC Jobs.

Since 2009, I’ve been engaging in the habits I believed the very rich and successful JC Jobs would engage in.

Nothing happened for the first few years, but I nonetheless continued to engage in JC’s daily habits.

Then, in 2013 those habits began to pay dividends in the form of additional income. That additional income continues to increase every year. Plus, JC’s habits also created additional opportunities for me to make money, which manifested in late 2018/early 2019.

So, while I am not yet the future version of myself, my old version is very much in my rear view mirror.

Success takes a long time. Consistency is the key – engaging in habits which have made other people rich and successful, will eventually make you rich and successful.

If you see yourself only as who you are, right now, you are never going to grow into the person you need to be in order for success to visit you. You must have some ideal, some clear vision of who you want to be down the road. This then becomes your roadmap, which you follow until you reach your destination – the ideal, future version of you.

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!

Our family struggled with poverty and, like many who struggle with poverty, I found solace in our poverty by hating the rich.

So, I had my own personal feelings for hating the rich.

But thanks to the enormous amount of research I gathered about the rich and the poor, I had hard data to help me better understand the rich and the poor. My five-year study opened my eyes for the first time.

Based on my research, this is why I believe so many people hate the rich:

#1 Envy

Envy is fed by a feeling of hopelessness.

Since rich haters have a negative mindset, they invite envy into their thinking universe. Rich haters are envious of so many things rich people have: their wealth, their courage to pursue their dreams, their ability to shoulder enormous risk, their persistence, their fearlessness, their optimistic attitude, their positivity, their enormous faith in themselves to overcome all obstacles, etc.

#2 Hopelessness

Rich haters are envious of the rich because they feel hopeless. That hopelessness is the byproduct of not knowing what to do to become rich, not having any success mentors in their lives and being indoctrinated with the limiting belief that the accumulation of wealth is impossible for the non-rich.

#3 Misconceptions About the Rich

Rich haters have many misconceptions about wealth.

Misconception #1 – The System is Rigged

Rich haters believe that the system is rigged against the non-rich. Depending on the study, between 69-80% of the rich are self-made, meaning they came from poverty or the middle-class. So, clearly the system is not rigged.

Misconception #2 -Government Can Eliminate Injustices

Rich haters believe government can level the playing field by taxing the rich more and redistributing what they’ve taken from the rich, to the non-rich.

Misconception #3 –   You Can’t Save your Way to Wealth

21% of the self-made rich in my Rich Habits Study became wealthy by saving and prudently investing their savings.

#4 College Debt

Rich-hating millennials were sold a bill of goods that college was the #1 path to success and wealth. As a result, many went into debt in order to finance a college education, only to learn, upon graduation, that college is not the panacea they thought it would be.

Those graduates still living with their parents, really hate the rich.

#5 2008-2009 Recession

Many of today’s millennials saw their family life upended by the 2009-2009 recession. They lived through one or more of their parents losing their job. Some were forced to leave their homes, their college, their friends and their neighborhoods.

All the while, the rich seemed to go on about their lives as if nothing changed.

#6 Corporate Greed

Depending on the research, CEOs earn anywhere between 24 times to 300 times the compensation of the average worker. Rich haters find this unconscionable. And, quite frankly, everyone should.

The problem, however, is not with the CEOs of the world. It is with the failure of the directors on the boards of large companies who refuse to take a stand and cap CEO compensation.

#7 Political Ideologues

In his You Didn’t Built That 2012 campaign speech, President Obama argued that the rich owed their wealth to the government. He stated that everyone who built a successful business, did so because of the government and not as a result of taking enormous risks, working harder or working smarter.

He went on to explain that the government built the roads, the bridges, the sewers and the infrastructure that made it possible for businesses to engage in commerce.

He was right – the government did all those things.

But he seemed to forget that the government works for the people.

It did all those things because the people made government do all of those things and the people provided the government with the financial resources (tax dollars) to do all of those things.

Nonetheless, that speech was validation to the millions who already hated the rich, and it further fanned the flames of their hatred.

#8 Hypocritical Celebrity Role Models

There are many celebrities who bash the rich, which is ironic, since most celebrities are rich. These hypocritical celebrities are role models to many young people who follow them on social media.

Since negative thinking is a habit and habits spread like a virus throughout your social networks, those following these rich-hating celebrities on social media become infected with their negativity towards the rich and adopt their toxic thinking.

#9 Never Taught How to Become Rich

Since most people come from either poverty or the middle-class, they very rarely have anyone within their inner circle who can teach them what to do to become rich and successful.

No problem. That’s what college is for.

Nope. Colleges don’t teach you how to become rich and successful.  There are a few colleges that offer entrepreneurial studies, but that is just one piece to the how to get rich puzzle.

#10 Lack of Success Mentors

93% of the wealthy in my Rich Habits Study indicated that they were fortunate to have been mentored for success by someone – a parent, teacher, family member, friend, colleague or boss.

When you lack success mentors, you have to figure things out on your own through the school of hard knocks. Not everyone is willing to attend that school, however, as it generally requires taking risks and working absurd hours in pursuit of a dream.

Risk invites the potential for failure and because rich haters are mired in negativity, all they see is failure. Their fear of failure holds them back from taking risks. And hard work is, well, just too hard for rich haters.

#11 Negative Mindset

Many of those who hate the rich, have a negative mindset. The lens through which they see life is toxic, myopic and hostile with respect to the wealthy.

They do not see opportunities, unlimited potential, possibilities or solutions. Instead, all they see are problems, roadblocks, rigged systems, inequities, hopelessness and exploitation.

#12 Limiting Beliefs

Rich haters were raised to believe certain myths about the rich that simply are not true. Here’s an article I wrote that highlights some of those myths: The Pursuit of Wealth is Heroic – http://richhabits.net/pursuit-wealth-heroic/.

Rich haters believe it is impossible for an average person to become rich. They are first in line with anti-rich cliches, such as he’s a member of the lucky sperm club or she was just in the right place at the right time.

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 2003 it felt like my entire world was crashing down on me. I had just spent four years with a team of people, fanatically devoted to developing and launching a product that was so revolutionary, if we succeeded it would completely alter the credit card industry.

At the precipice of success, just when all of our hard work was about to pay off, everything unraveled, seemingly overnight.

We had failed.

And, I was out of a job, with a family to support, a new home, a mortgage, my oldest child just starting private high school ($11,000 a year at the time) and most of my savings lost to the failed start up.

I was the most terrified I had ever been in my life. I never felt so all alone. I felt like a complete failure and a loser.

Eventually, I bounced back, but I learned some profound lessons that stick with me to this day. I have been applying these lessons to my three businesses and they have been largely responsible for my success. Here’s what I learned: [Read more…]

There’s a process to building a house:

1. Draw up Blueprints
2. Build the Foundation
3. Construct the House

Seems pretty simple, doesn’t it?

But, you’ll notice, construction does not begin until the blueprints are first completed.

Constructing an ideal, happy and successful life is no different. It’s the same process.

It all starts with creating a blueprint of your future, ideal life.

How?

By defining exactly what that future, ideal life looks like.

• Dream Job – What would you love to do for a living?
• Ideal Home – What will your perfect home look like? Where will that home be?
• Life Partner – What type of person would you like to share the rest of your life with?
• Desired Wealth – How much wealth would you like to accumulate?
• Fun – What fun places would you like to travel to? What fun activities would you’d like to engage in regularly?
• Rich Relationships – What type of people would you like to be in your inner circle?
• Health – How much would you like to weigh? What would you like your body to look like? What will you do to become healthy and fit?
• Charity – Who will you help with the wealth you accumulate?

Most people do not have a blueprint. They do not have a clear vision of what they would like their life to be. They wing it.

And, like leaves on a fall day, they float about on the wind most of their lives, uncertain where they will land.

Those who have a clearly defined destination, create their own wind, which carries them where they want to go.

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!