Archives for July 2017

When you experiment with new activities, eventually you will stumble upon an activity that exposes some innate talent or some activity that stirs your passion.

Activity experimentation is like being offered a buffet of diverse foods. At first, you may not know what you want to eat, but if you experiment and eat a little bit of each food, eventually you will taste something you like, something you want to eat.

Some things will bore you. Some things will excite you. Things that bore you lead to unhappiness. Things that excite you lead to happiness. Only through experimentation will you discover what bores you and what excites you.

When you experiment with diverse activities, something amazing happens. Some activities will come easy. When you find an activity that is easy for you to do, that is when you unearth some innate talent. Those activities that come easy, that put you in the flow. They will excite you and you will feel happy when you engage in them. We all have innate talents. Finding them reveals your strengths and finding what you’re naturally good at in life is the key that unlocks the door to success.

Easy to perform activities expose your calling in life – your life’s purpose. When you find your calling, an immediate mental shift will overtake you. It will make you come alive inside. You will want to engage in those activities every day, 24/7.

Those who succeed in life and realize incredible riches, focus on their strengths, their innate talents. They then spend their entire lives engaged in those activities, practicing them, perfecting them, improving them and eventually, becoming expert in them.

People will be happy to pay you a premium for your services or the products you create because they will be the best services or products. They add value to the lives of others, improving their lives in some way.

Experiment. Find your innate strengths. Then devote your life to perfecting them. This will lead to success and wealth.

We all do things we should not do. We all have Poor Habits. However, according to my research, having Poor Habits is not fatal to success and wealth accumulation so long as you limit, or moderate those Poor Habits.

If you have Poor Habits, the solution, therefore is to limit how often you engage in them. Let me give you some insight as to how wealthy, successful people limit their Poor Habits:

Junk Eating/Drinking

According to my Rich Habits research, the wealthy still ate junk food, however, they limited how much junk food they ate:

• 70% of the wealthy ate less than 300 junk food calories a day.
• 72% of the wealthy ate candy no more than two times a week.
• 75% ate at fast food restaurants no more than twice a week.
• 87% said they never drank alcohol to the point of intoxication.

Junk Reading

Junk reading includes reading for entertainment vs. reading to learn and educate yourself. Here’s some data I gathered regarding this Poor Habit:

• Only 11% of the rich read for entertainment. The rest, 89% read to learn or educate themselves.
• 58% of the rich read biographies of other successful people.
• 51% read history.
• 55% read self-help.
• 45% read about finance or money-related topics.

Junk Time

Wasting time is a Poor Habit that the wealthy avoided like the plague. They made productive use of their time by pursuing dreams, pursuing the goals behind their dreams, working long hours, reading, exercising, volunteering for non-profits, coaching sports teams, teaching, going to school, playing competitive sports, listening to podcasts and other activities intended to help them forge relationships with other success-minded people.

Junk Relationships

To the rich, relationships are like gold. In fact, relationships are the currency of the wealthy. They forge power relationships with other successful or success-minded people – people who can open doors for them. They avoided toxic people, negative people, pessimistic people, people who gossip, people with financial problems, people who are untrustworthy, people who lie, cheat or steal.

Junk Words

The rich choose their words very carefully. They vet every thought before it comes out of their mouth. In Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s book Coach Wooden and Me, Jabbar said he sometimes grew impatient with John Wooden, who would often take long moments to make a point because he was so particular about the words he used. Wooden’s devotion to choosing words carefully is something that was a common habit among the wealthy. The rich in my study made a habit of avoiding the use of words that were critical or words that would offend or demoralize others. Words can build up or tear down relationships. The rich understood this.

Junk Thinking/Junk Emotions

Psychologist Rick Hanson, senior fellow of The Greater Good Science Center of UC, Berkeley has studied something called negativity bias for years. He found that our brains are all hardwired for negativity. Negative thoughts constitute Junk Thinking. Negative thinking includes: pessimism, envy, jealousy, hatred, anger, sadness, worst-case scenario thinking, chronic worry, glass half empty thinking, doubt, ingratitude, victimization, sense of entitlement, hopelessness, blame and fault-seeking. The rich avoid negative thinking because they understand that negativity must be controlled. Otherwise, the roots begin to grow along with the negative thoughts. They embraced positive thinking, positive beliefs. In fact, 71% of the self-made millionaires in my study said that optimism was one of the most critical factors to their success. When it came to their emotions, the rich made a daily habit of controlling their emotions. They understood that losing their temper could derail relationships with other successful or success-minded people. Relationships they spent many years forging.

Junk Talk

Junk talk includes gossip, destructive criticism, cursing, sarcasm, belittling or demeaning others, opinions not based in fact and words said in anger or disgust. The rich avoided Junk Talk because Junk Talk damages relationships and relationships are the currency of the wealthy.

Like any type of junk, it should be hauled away and discarded. Be wary of the junk in your life Limit its existence. Too much junk will turn your life into a junkyard.

Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak. Warren Buffet had Charlie Munger. Larry Page had Sergey Brin. Some of the most successful people in the world owe their success to the partnerships they forged.

Finding the perfect business partner is one of those fast tracts to success I love to talk about. In the case of a perfect business partnership, 1 + 1 = 3. What this equation is trying to say is that when two people join forces, that partnership’s potential success can be significantly greater than the individual accomplishments of each partner.

But while partnering is one of the fast tracks towards success and wealth, it is also one of the fast tracks to failure or bankruptcy. Choosing a bad partner can create havoc with your financial and personal life. Bad partnerships lose money, find themselves in litigation and destroy marriages.

So how do you go about finding the right business partner? Below are some questions to ask that will help you identify potentially good business partners:

• Is your potential partner honest?
• Is your potential partner humble?
• Does your potential partner have skills you lack?
• Does your potential partner have control over their emotions?
• Is your potential partner sound financially?
• Does your potential partner have good relationships with his family members? Family includes immediate family as well as parents and siblings.
• Does your potential partner treat their family members well?
• Does your potential partner have a hard work ethic?
• Is your potential partner a rule follower?
• Have you worked with this potential partner before?
• Do you know this potential partner very well?
• Is your potential partner positive, upbeat and optimistic?
• Does your potential partner have a good reputation?
• Does you potential partner have integrity?
• If your potential partner has a spouse or significant other, do you know them well?
• Is your potential partner a good listener?
• Does your potential partner have a reputation for keeping their word?
• Is your potential partner a good learner?

If the answers to these questions is yes, then you have a perfect partner candidate. If you don’t know the answers to any of these questions, do not partner with a potential partner until you do.

Here are some questions to ask that will help you identify potentially bad business partners:

• Does your potential partner have a reputation for lying? Have you caught them in even little lies?
• Is your potential partner arrogant?
• Does your potential partner cheat on their taxes?
• Does your potential partner have any outstanding tax issues or deficiencies?
• Has your potential partner ever sued anyone?
• Has your potential partner ever been sued by anyone?
• Does your potential partner cheat on their spouse?
• Do you and your potential partner have similar skills?
• Is your potential partner quick to anger?
• Does your potential partner have money problems?
• Does your potential partner have bad relationships with his family? Family includes immediate family as well as parents and siblings.
• Does your potential partner treat their family members poorly?
• Has your potential partner ever been in a failed partnership before?
• Has your potential partner ever broken any laws before – are they a rule breaker?
• Has your potential partner ever filed for bankruptcy before?
• Does your potential partner have any outstanding debts they are behind on?
• Does your potential partner gossip?
• Is your potential partner negative, downbeat and pessimistic?
• Does your potential partner have a bad reputation?
• Does your potential partner lack integrity?
• Has your potential partner ever made bad investments in the past?
• Does your potential partner have any issues with their spouse or significant other?
• Is your potential partner a poor listener?
• Does your potential partner exaggerate or have problems keeping their promises?
• Is your potential partner a poor learner?
• Has your potential partner ever broken any promises to you or anyone you know?
• Has your potential partner ever broken any promises to any of their past business partners?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, this may not be the right partner for you. If you don’t know the answer to all of these questions, do not partner with a potential partner until you do.

Some other points I’d like to make regarding potential partners:

• Find three or more individuals who have worked with this potential business partner and ask them the above questions. This includes former partners and vendors.
• Ask your potential partner’s family members these questions?
• Who does your potential partner surround themselves with?
• Are their friends standup people or not?
• Would you associate with their friends?
• Never partner with someone who surrounds themselves with fools or people who lack integrity.

You will never know everything you need to know about a potential partner, but asking the above questions is good due diligence and will help you to better vet potential partners. Knowing as much as you can know about future business partners significantly reduces your risk. The more you know, the lower your risk. Not knowing as much as possible about potential business partners significantly increases your risk. The less you know, the greater your risk.

Some Poor Habits negatively affect your ability to realize success and achieve wealth in life. If you subscribe to this website or have read any of my media articles, you know I spend a lot of my time talking about Poor Habits.

But there are other Poor Habits that have little to do with success and wealth. They simply make you an evil human being. Prejudice is one of those Poor Habits.

The definition of prejudice is as follows:

A preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

At its best, prejudice is simple ignorance, also known as a lack of knowledge or being uninformed.

At its worse, prejudice is indoctrinated hatred. You have been indoctrinated by your parents or your environment into hating certain things about others that do not align with your ideology or beliefs.

Prejudice comes in many forms such as racism, religious bigotry, sexism, ethnic or cultural bias and sexual orientation intolerance. It’s one thing to disagree with the way others go about their lives, but prejudice often elevates disagreement to hatred.

This prejudice Poor Habit is typically a Generational Habit. Generational Habits are passed down by parents or the environment in which you live from one generation to the next.

Generational Habits are among the hardest habits to eliminate because they are so inculcated in us from a very young age.

Nicolas Christakis, a Yale University professor and leading researcher on socially contagious behaviors, found that habits are contagious, passed along by our families and our environment.

According to a well-known Brown University study on habits by Dr. Pressman, we forge most of our habits, including thinking habits, by the age of nine. Thinking habits include our beliefs, attitudes and prejudices. Since we are primarily under the care of our parents as children, our parents are the font of many of the thinking habits we forge during our childhood. And these thinking habits stay with us into our adulthood.

But, like every habit, once you become aware that you have it, habit change becomes possible.

We live in a world where the prejudice Poor Habit has run amok. It’s been hijacked by politicians and their lackeys, with political agendas that require pitting segments of society against one another. It’s called Identity Politics and the objective of Identity Politics is to incite prejudice in order to drive a wedge into society. Unfortunately, it is an agenda that is succeeding.

If human beings are ever to live in harmony with one another, it’s imperative that this prejudice Poor Habit be eliminated. Awareness opens the door to all habit change. Self-assessment forces awareness and makes habit change possible. That is why Self-Assessment is the first Rich Habit – it starts the habit change process.

P.S. If you want to learn more about the demoralizing effects of prejudice, read Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s latest book: Coach Wooden and Me

“But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5

Have you ever been pressured into making a decision?

How did that work out?

Acting in haste is a Poor Habit. It is born out of naiveté, greed, the desire for immediate gratification and laziness. 

Unethical salespeople, con artists and fraudsters are tuned into these human defects and exploit them to their advantage. You need to be aware that there are people out there who butter their bread by finding naive individuals they can exploit for their own benefit.

Haste is a Poor Habit that afflicts the poor. Haste is a byproduct of being naive. Naive people act impulsively. The don’t devote adequate time in evaluating important decisions. They don’t do their homework before making important decisions. Important decisions require effort and diligence. That’s work. It’s hard. It takes time and effort. It requires patience.

Rich, successful people never act in haste. They do their homework. They patiently perform due diligence before any important decision. They seek out experts. They gather feedback from those they trust implicitly. They carefully consider every important decision before they take action.

If you want to become rich and successful, never let anyone push you into making any important decision in haste. There’s no such thing as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Make a habit of seeking out expert opinion before making any important decision. Do our homework. Study every aspect of every important decision. Only after you have gathered all of the information you can gather, should you then act. That’s what rich, successful people do.

Haste is a Poor Habit. Due Diligence is a Rich Habit.

There’s an old saying:

A Fish Rots From the Head Down

What this means to me is that poverty begins in the mind.

According to my Rich Habits Study, most of the rich (76%) are born into either poverty or the middle-class. According to the 2016 Wealth X Census, 75% of the rich are born into either poverty or the middle-class.

It’s what happens after you are born that determines whether or not you will become rich and successful. And the path towards wealth always begins in the same place – the mind.

Those who rise up from poverty or the middle-class have one thing in common – they change their thinking. They do this a number of ways:

• Associate with other, success-minded people who infect them with their upbeat, positive, success-thinking.
• Find success mentors in life. who infect them with their upbeat, positive, success-thinking.
• Read books of other successful people who rose from poverty or the middle-class.
• Read books, articles, blogs or listen to TEDx talks or podcasts that inspire them or help them grow in knowledge and wisdom.
• Surround themselves with experts who wisely council them.
• Find partners who can help them advance in their careers or realize a dream.
• Avoid or disassociate themselves from negative, toxic people.

Success is a process. That process always starts in the same place – the mind.

If you want to succeed in life, you must change the way you think. You must become upbeat, positive and optimistic about life. You also must increase your knowledge.

These things require an investment – an investment in yourself. You invest in yourself by building relationships with other success-minded people, finding success-mentors and by seeking to gain knowledge you don’t currently possess.

Make this investment a daily one. Build daily habits to forge relationships with success-minded people. Build daily habits, such as reading to learn, in order to increase your knowledge or listen to podcasts, audio books or TEDx talks that help you gain knowledge.