Archives for August 2017

According to David Buss, psychology professor at the University of Texas, we are hardwired for unhappiness. And we have evolution to blame.

It turns out unhappiness spurs individuals to improve their conditions in order to return to a state of happiness. Unhappiness drives us to make necessary changes in our lives.

And what may be even worse, happiness is hardwired to be temporary. The purpose of this little evolutionary slap in the face is to prevent humans from becoming too complacent with their happy lives so that they will continue to do things to improve their lives in an effort to chase happiness.
No matter what amazing good things happen in our lives that make us happy, we always revert back to our happiness baseline. That’s why the happiness that results from some good fortune like winning the lottery or inheriting a million dollars or the happiness that we experience from buying something new, doesn’t last very long. If it did, humans would fold up their tents and stop trying to improve their lives.

Being hardwired for unhappiness is why we compete, why we chase dreams, why we go to college, why we start new businesses and why we sacrifice today for something better down the road. This very unique, hardwired human trait, drives us to do things today that will hopefully make us happy tomorrow.

So, if you’re unhappy with your life, there’s a good reason. Life is screaming at you to grow and improve. It wants you to become a better human being. It’s time you listened to that voice.

History is replete with famous individuals and companies who either failed or came within a hair’s breadth of failure:

• Abraham Lincoln failed six times in politics before he was elected President of the United States.
• Henry Ford’s first automobile company went bankrupt.
• Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times with the incandescent light bulb.
• R.H. Macy failed seven times before figuring out how to run a retail outlet and make a profit.
• Steve Jobs went through nearly $80 million of his $117 million in less than nine years and was just one year away from losing everything in 1994.
• Elon Musk (SpaceX) was one rocket launch away from losing everything in 2008.
• Donald Trump (Trump Entertainment) nearly lost everything in 1992, his Waterloo year.
• Phil Libin was one day away from shutting down his now $1 billion dollar company Evernote.
• Pandora, at one time, was forced to lay off all of its employees and was a hair’s breath away from going under.

There are many successful people who attended the school of hard knocks, battling through countless errors, mistakes, poor decisions and even failure. In fact, 34% of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study, failed at least once in business.

But history is also replete with stories of successful individuals who did not experience failure:

• Andrew Carnegie, at one time the richest man in the world, experienced nothing but success in his march to making millions. He later partnered with Napoleon Hill to share his secrets to success. Hill wrote a book about the lessons he learned from Andrew Carnegie. That book, Think and Grow Rich, helped a new generation realize enormous success in life.
• Benjamin Franklin, America’s first millionaire, succeeded in just about every endeavor.
• Warren Buffet’s rise to billionaire status was seamless.
• Mark Zuckerberg came out of nowhere with Facebook, rising to billionaire status almost overnight.

These individuals all seemed to have the Midas Touch when it came to making money.

My point is that you don’t need to graduate from the school of hard knocks in order to succeed. There’s an easier way. You just need to adopt good daily success habits. Habits put your success on autopilot.

Habits are automatic, subconscious behaviors, thinking and choices. Most are not even aware of the habits they have. Having the Midas Touch is nothing other than having good daily success habits. To the untrained eye, those who have this Midas Touch, seem to coast through life realizing one success after another. But, in reality, these individuals forged good daily success habits early on in their lives and , as a result, they put their lives on success autopilot.

In my study, individuals who were lucky enough to find a success mentor became self-made millionaires within twelve years and accumulated an average of $7.4 million in wealth. Success mentors teach you two things:

1. What to do and what not to do and
2. Which habits to adopt and which habits to eliminate.

When you know these two things, success is more streamlined and much easier.

That’s why I decided to write my Rich Habits books. This way, by just reading a book, you could streamline the success process. In a way, my books are a surrogate for the success mentor you never had.

Don’t make the journey to success any harder than it has to be.

Human beings are self-centered. We’re just hard-wired that way. It actually goes against the human grain, when individuals are selfless. It is such a rare trait that when we see selflessness it stops us in our tracks. We stare in wonder. We admire and treat those who are selfless as heroic. We lavish them with awards. Society even came up with a name to call these selfless outliers – Humanitarians.

Here are some examples of selfless human beings:

• Mother Teresa – Devoted her life in service for the poor. Through her Missionaries of Charity, which began in India, she created branches in 50 Indian cities and 30 other countries. Her selflessness was so admired that she even received a Nobel Peace Prize.
• Mahatma Gandhi – Devoted much of his life to freeing, his country, India from British rule. His selflessness was also rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. – He devoted the later portion of his life to bringing equal rights to black Americans. Like Mother Teresa and Gandhi, his selflessness was rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize.

Selflessness is a Rich Habit. Those who are selfless are admired by society for this outlier quality. There’s just something special about them. I suppose, they highlight the potential greatness that resides in all humans.

In my Rich habits Study, I saw this trait show up in the habits of the 233 millionaires I studied. Seventy-two percent of those millionaires volunteered their time at community non-profits. They not only contributed their time, they also contributed their wealth to the non-profits they served.

Selflessness, I discovered, was a mindset inherent in the 177 self-made millionaires I studied. They devoted themselves to adding value to the lives of others. In exchange, they were rewarded financially and became wealthy in the process. So, selflessness attracts wealth.

The opposite, selfishness, is a Poor Habit. Those who are selfish, simply blend in with the rest of society. They get lost in the noise, ignored and forgotten. We don’t admire or follow selfish people. There’s nothing special about them.

As I’ve mentioned many times, relationships are the currency of the wealthy. The rich have many powerful relationships – relationships that can open closed doors and move mountains. And because selflessness is a rare trait admired by others, the selfless magnetize others to themselves or their cause. We human beings so admire the rare and noble trait of selflessness that we will follow individuals who possess this trait, like lemmings.

Those who struggle financially in life are focused on today. Their decisions and their choices are focused on improving their immediate circumstances. They are not focused on their long-term future and, thus, are unwilling to make sacrifices today for a brighter future tomorrow.

As I discovered in my five-year Rich Habits Study, those who eventually become self-made millionaires are focused on tomorrow. Their decisions and choices are directed to improve their lives in the distant future. The sacrifices they make in the present, are not easy. Some are even painful:

• Financial Investment – They invest what available money they have in the pursuit of some dream, purpose or calling. They sacrifice the present enjoyment of that money, betting that their financial investment will pay dividends down the road.
• Time Investment – They invest what available time they have in the pursuit of some dream, purpose or calling. They sacrifice time with their family and friends, betting their time investment will pay dividends down the road.
• Financial Risk – They leverage their assets by taking out loans against those assets. They sacrifice the equity they have in their assets, betting that this financial risk will pay dividends down the road.
• Peace of Mind – Pursuing success takes you completely out of your comfort zone. This discomfort is mentally taxing. There are so many obstacles to overcome. So many mistakes that will be made. So many unexpected consequences that will require quick thinking and quick action. There is the uncertainty that all of the effort will be for naught. Lastly, there is the worry that the venture might fail – that your dream might never become a reality.

How you think today, what you focus on today, affects the future version of you. Are you focused just on getting through today or are you focused on tomorrow and your long-term future?

Those who are focused on tomorrow, are placing a bet on their future success. That wager takes the form of a financial investment, a time investment, financial risk and peace of mind. The reason so few become rich and successful is because so few are willing to place a bet on themselves for their future. That bet might never pay off. There are no guarantees. That’s the risk everyone who pursues a dream takes. But if you don’t place that bet, by at least trying, you will never know what your future holds. And it could very well be an amazing future.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, millions emigrated from Europe. Many of them did so in order to escape their creditors. The United States (U.S.) provided a safe haven from Europe’s overbearing creditors, debtors’ prisons and oppressive rules which acted as a restraint on new business ventures. The consequences of these rules were to induce a real fear of failure, which served to restrain entrepreneurship, risk taking and, thus, innovation.

The U.S. did not want to make the same mistake as Europe. So, in an effort to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, the U.S. introduced a novel legal remedy – bankruptcy laws.

These bankruptcy laws allowed entrepreneurs who failed, a “fresh start”. Entrepreneurs could then learn from their mistakes, make adjustments, and start over. This encouraged entrepreneurship in the U.S.

Many individuals who ultimately became very wealthy, took advantage of these bankruptcy laws. And many thriving companies, they founded, did too. In fact, many of the companies on the lest below still employ millions of people around the world. You might recognize a few names:

• Ford Motor Corporation
• General Motors
• The Texas Rangers
• Marvel Comics
• The Chicago Cubs
• Trump Entertainment Resorts
• Sbarro
• Six Flags Entertainment
• Texaco
• American Airlines
• United Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• US Airways
• Friendly’s
• Eddie Bauer
• Walt Disney
• Milton Hershey
• H. J. Heinz
• P.T. Barnum
• Larry King
• Mark Twain
• George Foreman
• Bob Guccione
• Clarence Saunders (Piggly Wiggly)
• Francis Ford Coppala
• Wayne Newton
• Stan Lee (Marvel Comics)
• Jerry Lee Lewis (Hall of Fame Rock Star)

Taking risks, making mistakes and failing are all part of the entrepreneurial process.

Our lives are a reflection of our habits.

In my book Change Your Habits Change Your Life, I provide the latest science on habits and habit change. I also highlight many of the daily habits that hold us back from living the life we deserve to live.

One prevalent daily habit that creates poverty and destroys lives is the Poor Habit of giving into negative emotions, like hate.

Here’s the science behind this Poor Habit.

The amygdala is part of the inner, middle portion of the brain known as the limbic system. It is rich in neuro-receptors for cortisol, a stress hormone. It is often considered the command and control center of the emotional part of the brain, primarily negative emotions. It controls the fight or flight response and is activated by negative emotions. Once activated, cortisol levels rise, which leads to stress. This short-term stress is a good thing. It forces us to be aware of potential dangers in our environment that could cause physical injury or death.

However, when we hold on to negative emotions like hate, anger, fear, envy or pessimism, those cortisol levels remain elevated, leading to a condition known as chronic stress.

Chronic stress has all sorts of adverse consequences such as: higher blood pressure, depressed immune system and diminished prefrontal cortex activity.

Elevated blood pressure can lead to heart disease or a stroke.

A chronically depressed immune system opens the door to all sorts of infections, viruses, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease and even cancer.

Diminished prefrontal cortex activity impairs:

• Learning
• Decision-making
• Planning
• Social behavior
• Impulse control
• Short-term memory and
• Long-term memory.

You turn on the amygdala, the subconscious part of your brain, when you give into negative emotions like hate, anger, fear, pessimism or envy.  When this happens, the conscious part of your brain, the prefrontal cortex, takes a back seat.

When the amygdala takes over, your focus and awareness becomes narrowed. As a result of this narrowed focus and awareness, your ability to learn new things is impaired, you become oblivious to solutions to problems and you are unable to see opportunities – opportunities that are all around you.

Those who hold onto hate, anger, fear, pessimism or envy, are literally operating with half a brain. As a result of this impaired cognitive functioning: they struggle financially, struggle at work, struggle with relationships, are unable to grow through learning and are unable to identify opportunities or solutions to problems.

The result? An unhappy, frustrated and unsuccessful life.

Your state of mind is critical to your success in life. Giving into negative emotions is a Poor Habit. This Poor Habit seeks out environmental triggers that give rise to negative emotions.

You can find fault in everything in life. There are plenty things and people to hate, plenty of things and people to be angry about, plenty of things and people to fear and plenty to envy. You are, everyday, bombarded with environmental triggers that can set off negative emotions. You have a two choices: #1 You can respond to those triggers or #2 You can ignore them.

The Rich Habit is to be constantly vigilant in maintaining a positive mental outlook, and to ignore environmental triggers that give rise to negative emotions. Don’t give negative emotions a foothold in your life. Stay positive and upbeat, always. Your success, health and happiness depends on it.

When you think of entrepreneurs, what images immediately pop up in your mind? Do you see bold, courageous, fearless individuals, confidently moving forward, with little to no doubt that success is just a matter of time?

Or, do you see someone swimming in a sea of doubts, uncertain if they will be able to make payroll, or up all night worried about an impending deadline that could make or break their company?

Consider Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors. At the end of 2008, Musk and all of his companies were on the verge of bankruptcy. His Falcon 1 rocket had failed to reach orbit for the third time in early August, 2008. He had to scramble to secure outside financing just to get him through 2008. He was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, going through a divorce, and everything hinged on a fourth Falcon 1 rocket launch on September, 28 2008. If it too failed, SpaceX was done and Elon Musk would have lost all of the $100 million he had invested in SpaceX. The rocket didn’t fail. It reached orbit. He succeeded. But the intense emotional stress was almost unbearable and nearly broke him mentally.

Consider Steve Jobs. By the end of 1994, things were looking bleak. He was five years removed as Apple’s CEO. His $10 million Pixar investment had run up another $50 million in debt. Pixar was burning through $1 million a year. His personal fortune was dropping like a rock from $107 million in 1985 to $24 million in 1994. And, worse, between NeXT and Pixar, they would need an additional $60 million a year just to stay in business. Everything seemed to come crashing down all in one year. We all know the fairy tale ending, but, for Steve Jobs, 1994 was a make or break year. The stress and pressure he faced, at the time, was crushing.

Consider billionaire President Donald Trump. In October of 1989, three of his key senior executives, who ran his casino empire, died in a freak helicopter accident. Within two years, three of his casino’s would have to file for bankruptcy protection. His entire financial empire was crashing down on him in 1992. For Donald Trump, 1992 was a year not to remember.

Thirty-four percent of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study failed at least once in a business venture.

The fact is, most entrepreneurs who pursue success, have either had to endure long periods where everything they worked so hard to create was on the line, near collapse or had collapsed. Being an entrepreneur is often like a walk through a hell – one hurdle after another, one let down after another, one disappointment after another, one rejection after another or one cash flow crunch after another.

What keeps entrepreneurs in the game is their belief, faith or passion for what they are doing. They simply love what they are doing and believe in their cause. That belief, that passion, is the only shield they have, defending them against the trials and tribulations that is the journey most successful entrepreneurs must endure.

The next time you see a successful entrepreneur, pause and consider that that individual very likely spent much of their entrepreneurial life walking through hell. Don’t envy their success. Instead envy their ability to endure the journey. Envy their persistence.

We are all flawed human beings. Many of those flaws are subtle ones. Flaws we don’t even recognize, unless someone close to us is kind enough to point them out.

The problem is, no one likes it when others point out our flaws. Our human instinct is to take offense to constructive criticism or critical feedback we receive from others.

Self-awreness is the remedy. As I mentioned in a Business Insider article titled What Self-Made Millionaires Think About Every Day, one of the daily habits of self-made millionaires is to force self-awareness, in order to grow and improve.

How many people have done something nice for you? How many people have helped you in life? Have you forged the daily Rich Habit of thanking them in some way? This Rich Habit of Acknowledging Kindness helps you forge long-lasting, powerful relationships.

Acknowledging Kindness can be as simple as sending out a thank you card or a simple phone call. It could be, or rather, should be, repaying that kindness in multiples. Here are some things to self-reflect upon:

• Did anyone do something nice for you recently? Make a list and thank them in some way.
• Did anyone help you recently? Make a list and thank them in some way.
• Did anyone ever lend you money? Make a list, pay them back, and thank them.
• Did anyone lend you a tool, clothing, a car, their house, a book? Make a list and thank them in some way.
• Did anyone help you in your career? Make a list and thank them in some way.
• Did anyone offer you advice that was helpful? Make a list and thank them in some way.
• Did anyone come to your aid? Make a list and thank them in some way.
• Did anyone go above and beyond in any service they provided to you? Make a list and thank them in some way.
• Did anyone pick up the cost for dinner, bar drinks, anything? Make a list and thank them in some way.

Relationships are the currency of the wealthy. One of the many ways self-made millionaires forge strong relationships is by acknowledging the kindness of others. Relationships just don’t grow by themselves. They require nurturing, fertilizer, in order to grow. One of the most powerful types of relationship fertilizer is the Rich Habit of acknowledging the kind acts of others.

Let others know that they matter. Let them know that you appreciate their kindness and consideration. Always acknowledge the kindness of others.

Received a few requests asking me to provide a list of the best self-help/inspirational books I’ve read. Here’s my list:

• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Psycho Cibernetics
• The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (Murphy)
• Head Strong (Dave Asprey)
• Superbodies (Wells)
• The Millionaire Next Door
• The Millionaire Mind
• The Richest Man in Babylon
• Release Your Brakes (Newman)
• Success Principles (Canfield)
• The Compound Effect
• 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth (John Maxwell)
• The Art of Work (Goins)
• The Science of Getting Rich (Wattles)
• Grit (Duckworth)
• The Power of Habit (Duhigg)
• Genome (Ridley)
• Super Brain (Chopra/Tanzi)
• Super Genes (Chopra/Tanzi)
• Million Dollar Habits (Ringer)
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• Willpower (Baumeister/Tierney)
• Unstoppable (Kersey)
• The Richest Man Who Ever Lived (Scott)
• Tools of Titans (Ferris)
• 10% Human (Collen)
• Getting There (Segal)
• Economics in One Lesson (Hazlitt)
• The Science of Happiness (Klein)
• The Well-Tuned Brain
• Focus (Coleman)
• The Eureka Factor (Kounios/Beeman)
• A Lifetime of Riches (Ritt/Landers)
• Be My Guest (Conrad Hilton)
• The Brain That Changes Itself (Doidge)
• Making Habits Breaking Habits (Dean)
• Mini Habits (Guise)
• Finding Your Element (Robinson)
• The Psychology of Achievement (Tracy)
• Create Your Own Future (Tracy)
• Seven Strategies for Wealth & Happiness (Rohn)
• Train Your Brain Change Your Brain (Begley)
• The Owner’s Manual for the Brain (Howard)
• Brain Rules (Medina)
• Rewire the Brain (Arden)