Archives for January 2017

According to my research, being rich eliminates approximately 67% of life’s problems, which means a reduction in 67% of the unhappiness you experience. But a reduction in unhappiness does not correspond to an increase in happiness. It doesn’t work that way.

True happiness can only be found when you strive for significance. Significance is the pursuit of excellence. When you make self-improvement a daily habit you become better – better health, better knowledge and better skills. The better you become, the more significance you add to your life. By becoming better, we are living a life of significance and this produces a feeling we call happiness.

This is why pursuing your dreams, your passions and your goals is so important. They are the keys to true happiness. The pursuit of these things forces you to grow as an individual, to better yourself. The pursuit of dreams, passions and goals forces you to gain knowledge, skills and expertise you did not have before. You become more significant. And the result is happiness.

Happiness has many components: confidence, achievement, fulfillment and feeling valuable. These things make you feel more significant. The road towards greater confidence, achievement, fulfillment and value to others is found in daily self-improvement. This daily self-improvement is forced upon you by pursuing your dreams, passions and goals.

So, you see, the true path towards happiness is becoming significant. And significance is acquired when you pursue the things in life, your dreams, passions and goals, which force you to grow and improve as a human being. As you grow, as you improve and as you become better, you feel more significant. And happy.

Our genetic human condition is to improve and grow every day. Our subconscious is the gatekeeper. It challenges us, reminds us and alerts us daily when we defy that human condition.

Somehow, we misinterpret those messages. Instead of prompting us to take action to grow and improve, we only allow ourselves to hear how flawed and inadequate we are.

That is too bad. Those voices inside your head are not your enemy. They exist for only one reason – to stir you into action in order to improve and better your life.

You must learn to embrace those voices and not go to war against them. You must really listen to them. They are the most important ally you have. Those voices are telling you what you need to do in order to create a life of fulfillment and meaning. Don’t fight those voices. Listen to them, join forces with them and take the action you know you should be taking to transform your life.

As I’ve indicated many times in the past, one of the common characteristics of self-made millionaires is that they generate income from multiple sources. In fact, 84% of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study had three streams of income.

But, not all income is created equal. One or more of those streams of income were what’s called passive income. Passive income is income that you do not have to work for to generate income. It is automatic income.

An example is an annuity. An annuity is an investment that you make at some point which grows over time which eventually generates a stream of income. Other examples include: rental income, dividends, interest, capital gains, book royalties, ad dollars from a blog or website, income from a phone app, licensing fees, franchise fees, revenue from the sale of a business, silent partner income, etc.

Think of passive income as any investment that generates income down the road. It is an income stream that is commonplace among self-made millionaires. Passive income is working for you all the time. If you’re not making money when you sleep, on the weekends or on vacations, it will be very difficult for you to become financially independent.

Give, and it will be given to you – Luke 6:38

The Ripple Effect is a success principle. By definition, the Ripple Effects states that people will people give back the kind of treatment they have received from another.

When you give of your time, without any motivation except to help, it will have a ripple effect – those you help will desire to reciprocate.

In order to succeed in anything you must first give value to others. The Ripple Effect allows you to showcase your skills, your expertise and your value to others. It will endear others to you.

The rich people in my Rich Habits study all seemed to have one thing in common – they donated significant amounts of their time to helping other like-minded individuals.

This was more than a habit. It was more like an addiction. The self-made millionaires in my study seemed to be unable to control their impulses when they came into contact with other individuals who shared many of their success traits.

This is an important insight because it gives you the upper hand. If you are pursuing something big, some dream, some purpose or some passion, you’ll need influencers who can help you. They can help you by becoming part of your team or by simply opening doors for you.

How you do that is by infecting others with your dream, purpose of passion. You infect others by sharing with them your dream, purpose of passion. Then nature does the rest. This draws to you, like a magnet, other like-minded individuals.

We are drawn to those with passion like bugs to a light. People love passion because it’s hard-wired into our DNA.

The Passion neuro-chemiclas (chemicals released by the brain) oxytocin, testosterone and neurotrophins are released when we come into contact with someone who inspires or motivates us. These chemicals, by the way, happen to be the same chemicals that are released when we fall in love, so, in a sense, those who are passionate about their dreams or goals, make others fall in love with them.

Find your passion and you’ll find people who are drawn to you and want to help you succeed. They will want to become a part of your team in some way. Never hide your passion. Let it out. Let is shine. It will, like a magnet, pull others into your circle who become infected by your passion. Passion is very seductive.

I met Richard Branson a number of years ago at an event the two of us were speaking at. He is one of the most sought after entrepreneurs on the speaking circuit. He’s brash, yet, somehow, comes off humble. He also has Hollywood good looks and a personality that endears him to millions around the world. And he’s got stories.

In one of those stories, he shares the lucky break he got on the first music album produced by Virgin Records. After Virgin completed the album, they spent months trying to get the influencers in the music industry to listen to give it a listen. William Friedkin, an executive at Atlantic Records, was one of those influencers. Branson had reached out to Friedkin relentlessly in an attempt to get him to listen to the album. The lucky break came when Friedkin happened to give the album a listen while a film director for the movie the Exorcist was in Friedkin’s office. The film director had been on the hunt for a new soundtrack for his movie. He liked what he heard in Friedkin’s office and the rest, as they say is history.

According to Branson, those who play it safe, don’t get lucky. You have to be relentless in order for luck to visit you. In my study on the daily habits of the rich, I saw this success principle repeat itself over and over again in the lives of those ordinary people in my study who were able to transform themselves into self-made millionaires. They were damn lucky. Or, more accurately, they simply never stopped trying to succeed and their persistence eventually created good luck.

Those who relentlessly pursue success, eventually get lucky. Good luck visits the persistent. This is why it is imperative to never give up on your dream.