Archives for December 2013

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.   

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Latticework – Framework, infrastructure. Tom built into his Outlook database a latticework of processes that enabled him to remember every person’s birthday.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Twelve Things How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie book) Will Do For You:

In my research 80% of the wealthy made happy birthday calls while only 11% of the poor did this. The wealthy process this Rich Habit into their day using cell phones, calendars, customer relationship management software, database management systems, Outlook and in some cases a simple Rolodex. While it may seem trivial it isn’t. In Dale Carnegie’s famous book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, Mr. Carnegie points out that the two most important things to every individual are their names and their birthday’s. To each of us our birthday’s are important. When you wish someone a happy birthday it says to the birthday boy or girl you are important to me. Phone calls are the best way to wish a happy birthday because it gives you an opportunity to communicate with your relationship. While Facebook is a great tool to process happy birthday wishes it should not take the place of a phone call. The more we communicate with our relationships the stronger they get. Wherever you go carry around a notepad and when you meet with your relationships at events, gatherings, get togethers, ask them for their birthday and write it down in your notepad and then transfer it to your cell phone or Outlook and set it as an anniversary reminder. This way you will never forget anyone’s birthday. Happy birthday calls keep all of our relationships on life support because at least once a year we are communicating with them. I have been following this Rich Habit for years and I discovered that about 20% of the people you call on their birthday will eventually reciprocate and call you on your birthday. This reciprocal birthday call takes your relationships off life support and grows the roots to your relationship tree further.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Salubrious – Good health. Tom learned his salubrious lifestyle from studying the daily habits of the wealthy.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Prosperity – Financial success and abundance. Tom’s dream was to help the poor rise from their individual poverty in pursuit of the American Dream and realize unlimited prosperity.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

The American Dream represents the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American along with a life of personal happiness and material prosperity. The American Dream offers every American a real hope that they can increase their prosperity and the potential to rise from poverty to wealth in one or two generations. It is the dream that children will grow up to be happier and more prosperous than their parents; that each generation can be better off than the last.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Perspicacity – Genius, perceptive. G. W. Carver’s perspicacity for seeing what other experts did not see is why he is in the history books and those so-called “experts” are not.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

The successful have the courage to pursue their dreams in spite of the overwhelming obstacles placed in their way. Passion for your goal or dream enables you to persist. Perseverance, in pursuit of your passion, always manifests opportunities and unintended consequences. That is why it is so important to persevere. Often the path to achieving your goal or dream is very different than the one imagined. You simply cannot predict the “how” to reaching your goal or realizing your dream. The “how”, in the face of persistence, just appears out of thin air.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Outlander – Outsider. Tom was an outlander trying to help the poor rise from abject poverty to wealth.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

It often takes on outsider’s perspective to solve intractable problems. Many wealthy individuals were outsiders. Oftentimes the greatest achievements in life were by outsiders who were not confined to the rules and paradigms of industry experts. Being an outsider means taking risks, being innovative and bucking the tide. Critics are everywhere but those who persist reap the rewards.