Archives for January 2018

It is a fact that how you present yourself to others impacts their perception of you.

If that perception is a negative one, it’s like you’re slamming the door in your own face.

Millionaires don’t want to do business with those they perceive in a negative light.

As I discovered in my study of self-made millionaires, becoming rich and successful often requires the assistance of people who have already become rich and successful. And in dealing with them, there are certain road rules, which I cover in my bestselling book Rich Kids. Here are a few of those road rules:

• Never Curse – Cursing is a habit that is forged over many years. You don’t want this habit to become an impediment when you run into a millionaire. Millionaires don’t take you seriously if you curse. And, worse, cursing makes you sound stupid or ignorant.
• Don’t Gossip or Badmouth Others – Millionaires will hand those they trust the keys to their kingdom. Badmouthing and other forms of gossip telegraphs to millionaires you are disloyal and cannot be trusted.
• Always Tell the Truth – Lying is one of those scarlet letter habits that follow you around via your reputation. Millionaires won’t do business or help anyone who has a reputation for lying. They avoid  anyone that cannot be trusted.
• Etiquette Matters – Etiquette is a business card we all carry around our necks. It tells people you are a person of character, manners and good social skills. Poor etiquette tells people you lack social skills and millionaires will distance themselves from those who they think might embarrass them is a social setting.
• Names Are Important – Everyone, even millionaires, perk up when they hear their name. Since you might not know who is or isn’t a millionaire, it’s important to forge this Rich Habit whenever you meet someone new. They will be impressed that you remembered their name, the next time you meet them.
• Avoid Slang – Ain’t and Irregardless might be words according to Webster’s Dictionary, but to millionaires they advertise your lack of command over the English language. Always use proper English in social settings and avoid slang. You never know who might be listening.
• Never Interrupt – Interrupting others is a bad habit that can catch up to you. Especially if you interrupt the wrong person, like a millionaire. It’s offensive to interrupt someone while they are talking. You don’t want to offend millionaires who could open closed doors for you.
• Eye to Eye – According to my research, self-made millionaires forged the habit of looking others in the eyes for only a few seconds at a time. I was told by my millionaires that staring into someone’s eyes for too long is intimidating. Worse, was not looking into their eyes at all. It shows a lack of confidence and self-assurance. So, moderate your eye to eye contact but don’t ignore it.
• Follow-Up – If you make a promise, follow-up. Following-up says you respect the other person. If that person turns out to be a millionaire who can help you, following-up tells that millionaire you are a person of integrity and someone who is true to their word. It’s a Trust Habit that attracts others to you.
• Go the Extra Mile – When you forge the habit of exceeding the expectations of other, you set yourself apart from everyone else. Millionaires notice those who are willing to go the extra mile.

It’s easy to fix the blame for poverty on society or the government or tax policy or Wall Street or, well, you fill in the blank.

What’s not easy is to look in the mirror at the real cause.

Sometimes we need a dose of reality to shake us from our excuses.

If no poor person on the face of the earth ever rose from poverty to wealth, you might have a case that it’s impossible to become rich if you were born and raised poor.

But, reality paints a very different picture. There are thousands of poor people every day who become rich. According to Forbes Magazine, just in America, there are approximately 1,700 working class people a day who become millionaires.

And, according to my own Rich Habits study, 41% of the 177 self-made millionaires I studied were born and raised in poverty.

What was the #1 factor that helped them shake off the chains of poverty and become wealthy?

Changing their daily habits.

Changing your habits can be hard, especially if you don’t know how. If you read my book Change Your Habits Change Your Life, you know the shortcuts to habit change.

Here are some of those short-cuts, straight out of my book:

Habit Merging

Think of an existing habit (existing neural pathway) as a train on a track, except it’s inside your brain. If you add your new habit to that same train, as if it were a new passenger, the brain won’t put up a fight because you’re not trying to take control of the train or the track. You’re just taking a ride. When an old habit does not perceive a new habit as a threat, it does not wage war against the formation of the new habit.

Here’s how it works: Let’s say you want to add a new Rich Habit of reading 30 minutes every day for self-education and let’s say you have an old habit of exercising aerobically on the stair master 30 minutes every day. If you were to put a book on the stair master and read that book while you’re exercising, you will, almost immediately, form a new joint habit that sticks. The trigger for the habit will be the book on your stair master. Here’s another example: If you have an old habit of drinking coffee every day and you want to add a new Rich Habit of drinking a glass of water every day, you will put your coffee cup on a water cooler or in your sink or in your refrigerator, next to the water bottle. When your brain tells you it’s time to drink coffee, you will, initially, search for your coffee cup. That coffee cup will then become a trigger, reminding you to drink a cup of water. That new joint habit will only take a few days to stick.

Law of Association

Old habits can be triggered by the individuals you associate with. If you are trying to get rid of some old, bad habits you need to limit the time you spend associating with those individuals who act as a trigger for those bad habits and begin associating with individuals who possess the new good habits you are trying to adopt. You can find these new individuals in network groups, non-profit groups, trade groups or any group that is focused on pursuing similar goals. For example, if one of your new goals is to read more, you can join a reading group that meets periodically to discuss books the group reads. Another example would be finding individuals who run, jog or exercise and begin jogging, running or exercising with them. Once you open your eyes to habit change, you will begin to see that there are many individuals who have those same habits. They are all around you. You only begin to notice them after you make a decision to change your daily habits.

Changes in Your Environment

It is much easier to abandon old habits and form new habits when your environment changes. New home, new neighbors, new friends, new job, new colleagues, new cities, etc., all offer an opportunity to forge new habits. When your environment changes, you are forced to think your way through each day. Spoons, knives and forks are no longer where they used to be, so you have to think. Your commute to work is different, so you have to think. Your new responsibilities at work are different, so you have to think. Eventually your brain will force you to develop habits in your new environment in order to make the brain’s job easier.

Start Small

It is far easier to change your habits if you start with small habits. Small habit change involves adding habits that require very little effort. Examples include drinking more water during the day, taking vitamin supplements or listening to audio books while you commute to work. Small habit change also includes cutting back on existing bad habits. Examples include reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke, reduce T.V. watching by thirty minutes each day or reducing Facebook or Internet use to less than an hour a day. The smaller, easier the habit change, the higher the probability that it will stick. Small habit change gives you momentum and increased confidence. This allows you to take on bigger, more complex habit changes in the future.

Schedule Your New Habits

Sixty-seven percent of self-made millionaires in my study maintained a to-do list. To-do lists are a way of processing success into your life. One of the tricks self-made millionaires use is to incorporate certain good daily habits onto their to-do list. These specific daily habits show up automatically, every day, on their to-do lists. This forces accountability. Every day you must be accountable for the new daily habits you are trying to form. If they are simple daily habits, after a few weeks, you won’t need to include them on your to-do list – they will have become habits. You can then move on to other, new daily habits using this to-do list habit process.

Firewall Your Bad Habits

One trick to habit change is to make it harder for you to engage in a bad habit by creating some type of firewall between you and the bad habit. For example, let’s say you eat junk food late at night while watching T.V. You eat that junk food because it’s in your pantry. If it wasn’t in your pantry you wouldn’t be able to eat it. The way to make this bad habit harder to engage in, would be to stop stocking your pantry with junk food and instead stock your pantry with healthy snacks. The habit isn’t eating junk food; the habit is snacking while you watch T.V. Eliminating junk food may stop you from snacking, but more likely, when you sit to watch T.V., the cue, you will default into your routine of seeking a snack. This time, however, the reward will be a different snack, ideally a healthy one or at least a low calorie substitute.

Another bad habit might be spending hours on Facebook at night, after dinner. One way to make this habit harder to engage in would be to turn off your computer, or moving your computer into the basement or disconnecting it from the router. Because it requires exerting some effort to engage in the bad habit, you won’t, if your willpower is weak. And willpower is usually at its weakest at the end of the day.

You can call it karma, the law of attraction or, what I prefer to call it – the Law of Cause and Effect.

When you devote your life to helping others succeed, life rewards you. It rains riches down upon you.

Take Mother Teresa, for example. She 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.

But, I’ll bet you didn’t know this about Mother Teresa. Her Missionaries of Charity organization received hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to help her carry out her mission. Her selflessness became a money magnet.

I’m no Mother Teresa. But, since 2009 I have been sharing my Rich Habits study findings to millions of people around the world through my Rich Habits website. I literally dump all of my research onto my website, which is free to everyone. Over five million people have read one of my articles on my website.

For those who do not subscribe to my website, I’ve written several self-published books in an effort to get my research out there. Over the years, I’ve invested close to $70,000 in these self-published books and, until recently (2013), they did not generate any significant royalties.

But, in 2013, the law of cause and effect brought my research and my books to the attention of tens of millions of people in the U.S. and Canada, thanks to my Dave Ramsey and CBS interviews. Since then, I’ve sold close to 100,000 books, signed a big publishing deal with the 6th largest publisher in the world (China South Publishing and Media Group) as well as a number of other foreign publishers in South Korea, Vietnam and Australia. Soon, my books will be in many bookstores around the world.

The money, however, is not the reward.

The reward is the people, whose lives I’ve improved.

One woman, who was struggling financially, emailed to thank me for saving the life of her daughter. For six months, she followed my Save 10% of Your Income Rich Habit and was able to sock away $800 during that time period. Then her daughter got brain cancer. In her country, she had to pay a specialist $600 up front before the doctor would treat her daughter. Thanks to her saving $800, she had the money. Her daughter recovered and is now healthy.

I think about that email almost every day, especially when my life is beating over the head with problems.

Another individual emailed to tell me that before he read one of my books, he was unhappy, unemployed and at the end of his rope. He was contemplating suicide. After reading my book, he pulled himself together, eventually secured a decent paying job and even started a side business (Multiple Streams of Income Rich Habit), which was now providing him with a very good living.

I have thousands of email examples from individuals around the world, whose lives improved in some way from my writing/research. For me, these emails justify all of the cost, time and effort I’ve put into my blog, my books, my media interviews and my speaking engagements.

I do what I do because I truly believe we are put here on earth to help each other thrive. And I also believe that when you devote yourself to helping others, the Law of Cause and Effect rewards you in many ways, financially and otherwise.

At the start of my sophomore year in college I was required to pick a major. They call that matriculation – selecting a particular course curriculum in order to receive a specific college degree.

I did what most children do. I asked one of my parents. In this case, my Dad. He told me to pick Accounting – “you’ll never starve,” he said.

What he really meant is that if I became an accountant, I’d never be poor.

That meant a lot to me because we were poor at the time and I didn’t want a poor future.

So, I took my ladder and put it on my Dad’s wall. Then, I proceeded to climb it for 28 years.

I got my CPA (Certified Public Accountant) license. Then I went to grad school at night and got a Masters degree in Taxation. To help my CPA clients manage their money, I got my Series 7 license for financial planning. Then I got my CFP (Certified Financial Planning) license.

By the time I was done climbing my Dad’s wall, it was 2009 and I was age 47, unhappy, unfulfilled and wondering if this is all there was to life.

And that’s when I discovered my purpose in life.

I had always written articles. Most were technical in nature and related to accounting, taxes or financial planning. I wrote hundreds of those articles. But after completing my Rich Habits study I decided to apply my writing skills and write a book about my findings.

I published my first book, Rich Habits, in 2010. It became a huge bestseller on Amazon. In 2013, Rich Habits rose as high as #7 in all books in the United States. I was ahead of J.K. Rowling, Tony Robbins and even Sheryl Sandberg, whose book at the time, Lean In, was #1 on the NY Times bestseller list. And I stayed in the Amazon top 100 for nearly three weeks.

I’ve since written three other books. I’ve spoken on the same stage as Sir Richard Branson. I’ve spoken to thousands and thousands of people across the United States. I’ve been to Canada and Australia to share my Rich Habits research. I’ve done over 300 media interviews, over 150 radio interviews and dozens of TV interviews. My research has been shared by the media in 25 countries.

I’m not rich yet, like the millionaires in my Rich Habits study. But since I put my ladder on my wall, my income has doubled and I feel happy. My mindset has shifted from negative to positive. I feel energized like never before. I feel optimistic. I see a different future. I see a light at the end of the tunnel. And I know I will be writing until the day I die.

That’s because, for the first time in my life, I am doing what I am supposed to do.

My new life began the minute I decided to put my ladder on my wall.

Don’t waste your life following someone else’s dreams and goals. It’s your life. It’s your ladder. Find your wall to put it on.

What does it mean to have a purpose?

A purpose is a desire for something that is so intense, it haunts your thoughts even while you sleep.

When you find your purpose, you are able to focus your thinking and actions like a laser. You are able to marshal enormous reserves of unlimited energy.

Purpose provides you with clarity – clarity of vision (your Where, Destination or End Point), clarity of the path you must take (your Road Map or Directions to get you to your Destination) and clarity of action (your How).

When you have a purpose, you are able to overcome every obstacle in your path. With a purpose, failure is never permanent. It is always a temporary thing. A mere setback.

When you have a purpose, achievement is virtually guaranteed. You literally become unstoppable.

Everyone has a purpose. You just have to find out what it is (here’s how). When you do, your life will never be the same.

Motivation is a short-term burst of activity that can lead to incredible breakthroughs, incredible performance and incredible productivity.

When motivated, you can work many more hours in a day than the average person. When motivated, you can create a prodigious amount in a short period of time. When motivated, you can push yourself to perform at very high levels.

But, motivation is fleeting. It is hard to sustain.

Those who rely on internal or external motivation do not get very far in life. Eventually, they all lose their motivation. And when that happens, they then burn through their willpower reserves. When they run out of willpower, activity, progress and performance declines significantly or may even cease.

This is why habits are so fundamental to long-term success.

Habits do not rely on temporary bouts of motivation. Habits do not rely on willpower.

Habits, by their very definition, are unconscious behaviors that a person engages in every day, whether or not they feel like it or want to.

Rich Habit #6 – Everything in Moderation.

This is a seemingly short, simple and innocuous little Rich Habit.

Except that it’s not.

Moderation means to moderate everything in your life: How much you work every day. How much you eat every day. How much you drink every day. How much you exercise every day. How much you read every day. How much you (fill in the blank).

Moderating your activities enables you to engage in those activities, every day, every week, every year, for your entire life.

Moderation is all about consistent activity. Those who forge this Rich Habit are able to engage in daily activities that, over time, lead to incredible success.

“Luck favors the persistent.” – Jim Collins

Thirty-three percent of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits study had accumulated $4 million or more during their lifetime. Ten percent had accumulated more than $5 million.

What I found interesting, however, was that 93% of the self-made millionaires in my study did not accumulate that wealth until after age 50. And 79% did not ring the bell until after age 55.

That’s a long time pursuing a dream.

In describing these millionaires, I often like to say – They survived until they thrived.

Literally every month these future millionaires battled just to stay in the game. In fact, some were tossed out of the game – 34% of the self-made millionaires in my study failed at least once in business.

But they were in my study because they got up off the ground and went at it again.

Failure teaches a lot of lessons. Hard lessons. Lessons that are like scar tissue on the brain. Those lessons are only learned, however, if you keep trying. You figure out what to do only after you figure out what not to do.

For those who did pick themselves up after failing, there’s another very interesting little factoid I discovered in my research – the persistent eventually get lucky.

Eighty-seven percent of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits study said they would never have become rich if not for luck. At some point during their very long march towards success, luck found them. And boy did it transform their lives.

They went from struggling to pay their bills and fighting to make payroll, to a financial windfall that seemed to come out of the blue. But that windfall did not come out of the blue. It was something each self-made millionaire in my study was building up to year after year.

Success is a process. A big part of that process is persistence. You never get lucky if you quit. You get lucky when you persist. Luck is the reward for persistence.

Never quit on your dream. Luck does not visit quitters.

Cornelius Vanderbilt, the richest man in the world in the late 1800’s, controlled much of America’s transportation in two sectors – the steamships and the railroads.

He was revered for his ability to minimize costs. His attention to financial details was unsurpassed during his reign.

For example, when he took over the New York Central Railroad, one of the first things he did was remove all of the brass from all of the trains. This cost him a lot of money in removing all of the brass from his rail cars. People thought he was crazy.

Why did he do it?

Brass needed to be polished every day. No brass, meant no more need to pay people to polish it every day.

Eliminating the expense of polishing the brass far and away exceeded the cost of its removal, saving his railroad companies an enormous amount of money in the long run.

Rich people find novel ways to stretch their money.

Poor people, on the other hand, spend their money foolishly. They focus on the short term – the cost of the product always comes first. Quality rarely enters their mind.

They will buy a cheap product, just to have it, despite the fact that the quality of the product is suspect. After a few years, the product wears down and they are forced to buy another cheap product or do without.

Be frugal, not cheap. Being frugal is a Rich Habit. Being cheap is a Poor Habit.

The unaware are all around you.

The person who walks through a door, oblivious that you are right behind them, letting the door slam in your face.

The driver who cuts you off on the highway.

Or the overweight person, eating junk food, watching TV, oblivious to the fact that they are destroying their health.

It’s not selfishness that drives these people. It’s not even an entitlement or elite mindset.

It’s a lack of self-awareness.

The fact is, most people lack self-awareness. They are completely unaware of what is going on internally – their thoughts, emotions and behavior. They are also unaware of what is going on externally – their environment.

There are plenty of studies that support this. There are even videos of people completely unaware of their external environment. Here’s one I like called the bear on the porch.

Self-awareness, however, is a real superpower for the few who possess it.

Self-awareness allows you to recognize your own thoughts, emotions and behavior. Self-awareness also allows you to see what is going on all around you in your environment. Self-awareness enables you to pivot in order to avoid obstacles, pitfalls, mistakes and toxic people who get in the way of your success.

Self-made millionaires make a daily habit of developing this Self-Awareness Superpower Habit. And it’s one of the reasons they become self-made millionaires.

Self-awareness helps you do many things:

• Self-awareness enables you to see your strengths and weaknesses. This helps you to focus on what you are good at and find others who are happy to do what you are bad at.
• Self-awareness enables you to identify your good and bad habits. This helps you to identify habits that help you succeed and eliminate habits that get in the way of success.
• Self-awareness enables you to identify toxic people. This helps you to avoid being used, abused or dragged into other peoples troubled lives. Toxic people are like potholes along your path to success. They make the journey bumpy and difficult.
• Self-awareness enables you to see dangers, obstacles and pitfalls that are oblivious to others. This saves you time, money and emotional anguish.
• Self-awareness enables you to identify the lessons found in mistakes. This helps you grow and improve.
• Self-awareness enables you to step into the shoes of others and see what they see. This helps you empathize with others. This also helps you when you are negotiating with others.

Self-awareness is a Superpower Rich Habit that is critical to success. Without it, success is virtually impossible.