Archives for September 2014

A common question I am asked by the media regarding my research is this: “How important is having a college education in order to be successful.”

My response is always the same: “It’s not important. What is important is having the Rich Habit of daily self-education. That’s one of the many daily habits the rich all had in common and one of the Rich Habits the poor all lacked. The rich are in relentless pursuit of knowledge every day.”

Over 30% of the wealthy in my study did not go to college. The common denominator all of the successful shared, however, was their relentless pursuit of self-education on a daily basis. Self-education, is second only to persistence, in terms of its importance in creating success. Once you decide to pursue a big goal, main purpose or life dream, it really is irrelevant how much formal education you have. If you know how to read, write and do simple math you can become wealthy and successful. Once you turn on your passion by pursuing a big goal, purpose or your dream, your lack of formal education becomes irrelevant because your passion will drive you towards obsessive self-education. You will become like a sponge, soaking up all information related to your goal, purpose or dream. You will become an expert in your field, with or without a college education.

It’s impossible to achieve success without having a powerful, emotion-based response to the question: “Why am I pursuing this goal, main purpose or life dream?” Emotion is the key. When our Why is powerful enough we will pursue our goal, purpose or life dream with a relentlessness that borders on obsession. We will overcome any and all obstacles, mistakes and failures only when our Why is big and powerful enough. Everyone has a Why. Very few make any effort to find their Why, however. How do you find your Why?

Finding your Why does not require that you wait for some epiphany-type realization event to somehow express itself to you.  You can proactively find your Why. But it requires a little effort. Sitting down with a paper and pencil, write down a script of your ideal, future life. 500 words or less is all it takes. List everything your ideal life would have: type of house, job, money, etc. Then let your mind absorb this script of your future life. Review your script after a few days. It won’t take long before your Why suddenly begins to come into focus.

Fear holds almost everyone back. It holds them back from taking risks, whatever those risks might be. Those who pursue a course that is very much off the beaten path; a course most would advise against because it has such a remote chance of success, have chosen to pursue greatness. Greatness is an evolution. It is an outgrowth of the individual who pursues success. To the outside world, greatness is invisible until an individual pursuing success, succeeds. Passion fuels action and creates persistence which ultimately results in success. Those who never quit have made the choice to be great.

The most important support beam upon which success is built, is one I call The Why. The Why is so important because it gets everything going. It starts you on your path towards success. The Why represents your real reason for pursuing anything worthwhile. It motivates you to act. The Why is like the Big Bang. It puts everything in motion. It comes deep from within yourself. The Why is your individual motivation for pursuing some big goal, life dream or major purpose. Finding that Why is like flipping on a master power switch in your body and brain. It turns everything on.

The wealthy, successful people in my study all had one thing in common: they all focused their concentration on one single earning activity. They eventually became exceptional in that one activity by continuously improving their skills and increasing their knowledge in that one activity. In no case were any of the wealthy engaged in multiple earning activities. As one individual put it: “If I try to do five things to earn money, I will lose money in all five things. So I focus on doing one thing great.”

Another thing they all had in common was reinvesting the money they “earned” from that one activity into passive activities. This could be stocks, bonds, annuities, real estate, lending or investing money in business ventures/opportunities, or any number of things. These passive activities kicked off unearned income; income they did not have to work for. For many of those in my study who were in their early 60’s, this unearned income exceeded their earned income.

Steve Jobs did it. Ronald Reagan did it. Chris Gardner did it. Successful people, at some point, reinvent themselves. Sometimes it’s a gradual process (Jobs/Reagan) and sometimes it’s an overnight epiphany (Gardner). What causes the change is vision. Those who reinvent themselves change their vision of themselves. They answer the question: “who do I want to be in ten years, twenty years, thirty years?” When you have clarity of vision, you are able to back engineer your life. A clear vision acts like a blueprint for your life. It stimulates your cortex, toggles on your reticular activating system and, out of thin air, allows you to see the goals that will take you to your new place. Goals act like rungs on a ladder. Each goal achieved allows you to climb another rung on that ladder towards your ideal life. You can wait, as many do, for an epiphany to occur; some out of the blue realization of what your life should be. Or you can spend 30-60 minutes today writing the script of your future life. Paint a picture with words, sparing not detail, what your ideal life would be like in ten, twenty or thirty years. Re-read your life script at least a few times a week. In a short period of time your magnificent brain will help you define the goals that will help you realize your vision of your ideal life. If you want to change your life today, write your script, don’t wait for the epiphany to occur down the road.

There are many reasons why we sleep but one of the most important reasons is the creation of memory. This occurs during the REM portion of sleep which usually lasts about 20 minutes for each sleep cycle. In order to “get a good nights sleep” we need 4-5 sleep cycles. Each cycle generally lasts between 60-90 minutes. It is during this REM portion of each sleep cycle that something magical occurs. There is an automatic feedback loop that takes place between the hippocampus and the cortex. Sleep, it turns out, helps consolidate learning. During this feedback loop, what we’ve learned the day before is replayed over and over again thousands of times while we are in REM sleep. This feedback loop strengthens synaptic connections between neurons, enabling us to remember what we’ve learned the day before. Sleep, therefore, is the most important thing you can do before an exam, presentation, speaking engagement or anything that requires intense preparation. Seven hours of sleep seems to be the magic number so long as during that seven hours you complete at least four separate sleep cycles. Sleep allows us to remember what we’ve learned. Sleep creates memory.

My definition of integrity is: Doing the right thing when no one is watching.

Wealthy, successful people forge such powerfully strong relationships with other like-minded, successful people because they understand the power of integrity. When you have integrity you build a trust bank account that you can withdraw from when opportunities or a need arises. When your important relationships know you have integrity they trust you and will lend you money, invest with you, refer you business, help you or a family member find a job and open up doors for you. They will invest in their relationship with you because you have integrity and they trust you. Those who lack integrity regularly damage their relationships and are constantly in pursuit of new relationships to replace the old, damaged ones. Eventually the word gets around and successful people will avoid anyone with a bad reputation like the plague. Those who lack integrity never get far in life. They struggle financially. Many eventually go bankrupt, destroying even more relationships in the process.

If you want to realize true success in life make a Rich Habit out of doing the right thing every time, when no one is watching.

There are three paths to wealth creation:

1. Living Below Your Means or
2. Expanding Your Means or
3. Doing Both #1 and #2

Successful, wealthy individuals do not rely on one source of income. They typically have multiple streams of income. They Expand Their Means. Creating each stream requires an investment in time and money and also involves taking some risk. In time, these multiple streams begin to generate cash flow that increases your income and your wealth. Expanding your means could involve a real estate investment, side business, pursuing something you are passionate about that can eventually create cash flow or investing in equities, bonds etc. Relying on one source of income, oftentimes your earnings from your job, actually creates more risk in your life. You could get downsized, fired or stuck in a job with very little opportunity for earnings growth. Living expenses do not go down; they increase, until you near retirement. At that point it may be too late for you to accumulate enough wealth on which to retire. Expanding your means gives you a shot at multiple streams of income before you near retirement age and can produce cash flow well into your retirement years.

Webster’s definition of persistence: The quality that allows someone to continue doing something or trying to do something even though it is difficult or opposed by other people.

Successful people are persistent. They never quit. They face obstacles and overcome them. They make mistakes and learn from them. They fail and then try again. Sometimes, those closest to them urge them on and encourage them. But more often, they don’t because those closest to them are negatively impacted by those obstacles, mistakes and failures. It takes almost superhuman effort to achieve success when there are so many forces aligned against you. That’s what makes successful people so special and so rare. If you want to be successful in life you must persist in the face of so much adversity. Successful people are successful because they never quit!