Successfully Start a Business, & Successfully Invest in Real Estate

In his book, ‘Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat’, Michael Masterson says that "Nothing matters more than selling." "Many first-time entrepreneurs have the impression that they are doing things in a logical order when they look for the perfect office space, have logos designed, and order a lot of inventory. The reality is they are wasting valuable resources on secondary and tertiary endeavors. If no one is going to buy what you want to sell, you've just wasted a bunch of money on a business that will never be."
Author Susanna Hutcheson, commenting on Masterson’s book, says “I see this when a client comes to me and has spent most of his small budget on Web site design and left the important thing, the sales message, for last --- just to fill in the beautiful design. They've spent their money on the least important and have no money left for the most important… I've seen this first hand in my own consulting business. Entrepreneurs tend to put their values and their money on all the wrong things --- and this leads to certain failure.”Here are Masterson’s three steps to starting a business:Step one: Get the product ready enough to sell, but don't worry about perfecting it. Step two: Sell it. Step three: If it sells, make it better.

While this all sounds fairly easy, it's not. "Selling can be terrifying," Masterson says. "It can be tough, gritty, unglamorous work. But when you make that first big sale, you realize it's also exhilarating. And like it or not, you probably won't become a successful entrepreneur until you can sell your product or service in your sleep."

Masterson also shares that you have to give far more than you expect in return to succeed. Similarly, I have read numerous times that you should give customers more value than they expect to get for the price, and I believe it.

What does all of this have to do with real estate? Two points.

First point. Several years back I talked to an investor who I saw at my Real Estate Investment Association every week for a few years. It was the first time we really spoke at length, and I asked him if he rehabbed houses. No, not yet anyhow. So rental properties is your game? No, but I wouldn’t mind doing those some time. Okay, then you wholesale houses? No, but I almost did wholesale one, and I would have made big money, too, if it worked. So now I am at a loss, and I ask him what he does do in real estate. He is still learning, and trying to figure out what will work for him. This after a few years of going to meetings every week religiously!!! [some of you are in my real estate investor association, and meetings are every other week; well, back in the day we were hard core, and met every week]

I see people all the time that buy real estate courses like they are candy. I go to free seminars and watch the same people rush to the back of the room to buy three and four different courses – any one of which would probably provide more information than they would need to get started. I see people study, read, spend time and energy learning the business, networking, and several years later they have still never made one red cent in the business. I see people with LLCs, corporations, accountants, attorneys, fancy business cards, using real estate investor terminology that I have never heard before, and they still haven’t done one deal.

I have seen people that have gone through every secondary and tertiary endeavor possible, but they never stopped to ask the most important question of all… Can I go out, locate bargain properties, and figure out a way to make money on them? At what point do you stop studying, learning, buying courses, buying sophisticated software, networking, etc., and just ask “can I make money in this business (or investment)?” [I think many who call themselves real estate investors are not investors, but are running their own small business, but we will save that for another article…]

Masterson says people starting a business need to sell, but it is hard, so they do everything else first and don’t find out until afterwards if their product or service is wanted. People interested in real estate investing find it somewhat fun and easy to learn, study, read, network, set up companies, set up offices, etc., etc., so they do those things, but they wait way too long to go out in the marketplace and find out if they are able to locate properties, negotiate bargains, and find a way to make money on them.

That leads into my second point. Personally, I believe that almost all businesses should be started on a shoestring, while you accomplish that one task… Find out if there is a market for the product or service you want to sell, and can you make money meeting the needs of that market place. If the answers are yes, then start meeting those needs, and base your expansion on your success and the level of demand for your product or service.

Real estate investing should be done in a similar manner. Personally, I did most of my studying in the early years in the library, and by picking the brains of a couple of co-workers that were successful real estate investors. I may not have spent one red cent until I bought my first property, and if I did spend some before that, it wasn’t much. The fact is, by many standards, I still run my real estate investing on a shoestring budget. I minimize all expenses, except for when it comes to giving the customer the best product I can at a reasonable price (part of my formula is to rehab houses nice, giving potential tenants and buyers more than they expect in a home in a given price range).

You might say, “Ready, Fire, Aim” (from Masterson’s title) is crazy, and you have seen some investors that rushed into crazy deals and got in over their heads. I agree with you. But don’t they still have the same issue as in my first point – they tried to buy, buy, buy, but they didn’t stop first to ask “can I go out, locate bargain properties, and figure out how to make money on them?” “Can I make money in this business?”

Anyhow, not my best article, but those were just a couple of points I noticed and wanted to drive home about how to successfully start a business, and successfully invest in real estate.

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My vacation, and a business quote for the day...

Hi everyone!

I haven't had time to write much lately... My family and I just got back from two weeks of vacation in Michigan, much of which was spent with my wife's relatives... I guess every family has a few 'quirky' members, but most of them are terrific, and we had a great time (really, we did)!

We did some boating, with tubing and water skiing, some swimming and hot tubbing, played ping pong, got to see many houses and talk to Tammy's relatives about what they have done with their houses and what they plan to do (which a house guy like me always enjoys). We spent three days in Mackinac (tourist town), where we had a jacuzzi in our suite, and an indoor water park at our hotel, where we had hours and hours of family fun. We discovered "ladderball", which is a fun game that was new to us, went to a wedding and reception, a family reunion, and much more. My six year old got to have six birthday parties, as most everyone wanted to do a small party for his July 1st birthday, plus he got a real 4-wheeler from Mom and Dad at his first party before we ever left for vacation (it will be tough for us to ever top this birthday)! We stayed busy, showed off our two amazing boys to everyone, reconnected with many, and most of the rent checks came in while we were away. One of the benefits of buy and hold real estate - earning money even while you are gone on vacation!

I am not sure how much writing I will do in the near future, either, as we are finishing upgrades on one of my rental properties now, with a rehab house waiting to follow that, and I close on another fixer-upper Tuesday of this coming week. Time to get back to basics, get out to some job sites, and start making sure things are getting done, done right, and done in a timely manner! I have been reading Frank McKinney lately, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I am fired up to get back in the field and start leading by example (aka - hard work). I don't usually do a lot of the fix up myself, but I can do some, plus the planning, some shopping, etc. (it has been a while since I got very 'hands on'). Eventually I will let you know if buy, fix up, and sell works for me in this real estate market (hopefully it will be good news - I am confident that it will be)!

Anyhow, I thought I would share a business quote for the day...
"When everyone is looking for gold, it is a good time to be in the pick and shovel business." -Mark Twain

Where to Find Wealth, Happiness, and Success

A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. “Spare some change?” mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. “I have nothing to give you”, said the stranger. Then he asked, “What’s that you are sitting on?” “Nothing”, replied the beggar. “Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.” “Ever looked inside?” asked the stranger. “No” said the beggar. “What’s the point? There’s nothing in there.” “Have a look inside,” insisted the stranger. The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.

I am that stranger who has nothing to offer you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.

“But I am not a beggar,” I can hear you say.

I read that on Amazon.com, and they credited it to Eckhart Tolle.

I though it was a terrific parable. Now, I won’t be as good, or as fluent, but let me speak from my personal experience for a moment. I have been chasing wealth and success, looking for the recipe and the “right ingredients”, for quite a few years. I have read over a hundred books, and own over fifty in my personal library, on wealth, success, or related topics. I have spoke with countless people on the topic, from all different levels of success: some were just getting started, and some already measured their net worth in the millions. Here is some of what I have noticed in others, and in myself as well.

At the start of the road, most of us are looking for a recipe… a secret formula… that magical investment that the rich use that easily and automatically creates wealth. We just want the wealthy to share the formula with us, give us that one hot stock tip, so we can do it too.

At the beginning of the road, most of us think that if someone wealthy was just generous enough to tell us how to do it, then we could do it too. Well, that is right, and it isn’t…

See, there is great wisdom in the saying: think what wealthy people think, do what wealthy people do, and you will have… what wealthy people have. To tell you the catch, let me repeat a quote I have said before… “It is simple, but it isn’t easy”. When you study enough wealthy and/or successful people, and when you read enough autobiographies of great men and women, you start to notice commonalities. However, what you notice in common is not really a secret. Let me use as an example a ‘typical self-made millionaire’.

First, he (and it could be a he or a she, but for simplicity’s sake I will just say ‘he’) starts out growing up relatively poor. Generally, he has obstacles and hurdles to overcome that are larger than what most people can imagine facing themselves – larger than life atrocities... Maybe bankruptcy, maybe parents disowned him at a young age and he grew up on the streets, maybe deaths in the family at an early age, maybe a broken home for whatever reason, maybe embarrassment at growing up dirt poor, maybe his family being thrown out of their home to live on the streets, perhaps little formal education because he had to quit school and work to help support the family, maybe he barely escaped persecution in a savage country and escaped to America where he couldn’t even speak the language, maybe labeled with mental or other disabilities, etc. These obstacles become a rallying cry – they harden his resolve that he is going have the good life – that he is never going to let that happen to him as an adult, or he is going to make sure that his children never have it as tough as he did. Maybe his parents were complete failures, and it hardens his determination to be a huge success.

Personally, one day before school my Mom and Dad told my sister, brother, and I that they would have a surprise for us after we got home. I was in about second grade, my sister one grade behind me, and not sure if my brother was in kindergarten, or not in school yet. Anyhow, being kids, we got all excited. “No, don’t make us wait, give us the surprise now. Tell us before we leave for school. Please, please, please, please, please!!!” “Well, okay. Mommy and Daddy aren’t getting along, and we don’t love each other any more, so Daddy is moving out and we are going to get a divorce. But don’t worry, everything will be just fine.” Well, I talk to my sister and brother about it now, and they don’t remember that day, but I do. I remember crying all day long at school, trying to hold back and/or hide the tears, and I remember trying to figure out what I had done wrong that caused it. You see, kids don’t think logically about that kind of stuff – they don’t understand. Kids are simple, and they think the world revolves around them, so they must have had some role in anything that happens. Especially if the reasons behind something like a divorce aren’t broken down and explained to them in a way they can understand. Anyhow, moving right along to growing up in a single parent household…

I remember wearing sneakers that were held together by tape until my mother’s next payday (I learned later that my father was an alcoholic, and he never did help much with alimony or financial support). I remember being made fun of because I wore the same clothes too often – because I was lucky if I owned five sets of school clothes. I remember being laughed at because back when I was in school the kids on the school lunch program were easily identified as the poor kids by their punch cards and/or the line they had to wait in to get them.

When you have it worse than many people can imagine, one of two things tends to happen. Either you end up the exact same way yourself, or something inside you snaps, and you decide that you are going in the exact opposite direction. You decide that you will find a way, no matter how hard it is, to succeed, or be wealthy, or to not abuse your children, or whatever that opposite might be.

Enough of my personal story, and now back to our typical self-made millionaire. Once the decision is made to have it better financially than he had it growing up, he doesn’t know how he will become wealthy, but he knows he will find a way to do it somehow. Next, he starts working extra hard, ten to twelve to fourteen hours a day, five and six and seven days a week. He works harder than the next guy, and longer hours, and more days, with fewer vacations, sometimes holding two jobs, or running a business of his own on the side, and insists on doing everything he does to the best of his ability. At some point, he starts following a formula - he lives below his means, and he saves and invests the difference. Sooner or later, he typically finds his way into a field or business that he is passionate about, and he enjoys his work or business (which helps make the long hours and sacrifices come easier). He is generally a fair person, of the highest integrity, who tries to make sure that he always takes good care of his customers and honors any commitments that he makes, even if it occasionally hurts his pocket book to do so. He gives back out of his blessings, either to his church, or to those less fortunate, or to whatever causes are near and dear to him. His dedication shows, and eventually he starts to get promoted, or his business starts to grow and improve. The more he earns, the more he is able to save and invest, and his net worth starts to grow more noticeably now. He continues putting in the long hours, and hard work, and building wealth, for ten to twenty to thirty years. Eventually he starts to treat himself and/or his family a little better, and he starts to show some of the signs of success. One day Joe Average American finds out a little about what our typical self-made millionaire has achieved, and says, “Boy, you sure are lucky!” Yes, typical self-made millionaire sure is lucky. He got up earlier and went to bed later, worked harder, and gave it 110% effort 110% of the time. He built his success from the ground up, most of it by his own blood, sweat, and tears, especially in the early years. He did the things early on that others wouldn’t do, so that later he could do the things others couldn’t do. Meanwhile, Average Joe was enjoying the average American’s seven hours a day of TV, doing just enough at his job to keep from being fired, and never considered living below his means or starting up a side business because it would be too difficult. Yes, typical self-made millionaire sure was lucky!

So, now let me circle back to the beginning, and tie some things together. I said, “At the beginning of the road, most of us think that if someone wealthy was just generous enough to tell us how to do it, then we could do it too.” I proceeded to say, “Well, that is right, and it isn’t…” Now you see, what I mean is, the ‘how to’ is different for each person – we all have different passions and talents, so we must have different businesses, and get into different investments, etc., but the path we follow is similar. We first make a decision, and our ‘why’ has to be huge; it has to give us a burning desire that makes us willing to do whatever it takes (within moral, ethical, and legal limits, of course), because it will be simple, but it won’t be easy. Then we figure out some things, and work long and hard for many years, and make sacrifices, and figure out more things, and continue working long and hard, and figuring out things, and, eventually, one fine day we end up “LUCKY!!!”

And even before “the beginning of the road”, I shared Eckhart Tolle’s story about a beggar, and Eckhart said that we need to look inside ourselves. What I am sharing is that I think we need to look inside ourselves to see what kind of lives we lead – that we need to make conscious decisions about who we are and who we become, so we don’t get to the end of our lives and find ourselves left with a lot of wasted potential. Wealth, happiness, and success don’t come from ‘secrets’, and they don’t come from the outside world; indeed, where they come from is inside ourselves. They come from having the right mindset. They come from having the intestinal fortitude to make tough decisions, and to stick it out when times get tough. They come from overcoming our fears, and having integrity in all that we do. They come from deciding to be happy, and then doing it.

I was talking to my sister recently about goals and dreams, and she said “Well, not everyone is like you. Not everyone wants to be rich, you know”. My reply was something along the lines of “Dreams and goals don’t have to be about getting rich! They are about figuring out what is important to you, and deciding what you really want to do with your life, and then making a plan and going for it. Your dreams can be financial, or they can be spiritual, or they can be about a career choice, or anything at all, as long as they are yours!” What breaks my heart, though, is seeing so many Average Joes that spend seven hours a day watching TV, that never pursue any dreams or goals at all, and knowing there is a good chance that they will get to the end of their lives and look back and regret all of the things they never did, never tried, and all of the dreams they had that they didn’t make come true. That is really sad!!!

Real Estate Investing Is Not Dead!

I know many of my readers are real estate investors, as am I, and here is a little encouragement for you... In May 2008 I attended a Robyn Thompson (aka The Queen of Rehab) four day “Real Estate Millionaire Mastermind Conference” in Altamonte Springs. The last speaker she had, to close out the event, was Frank McKinney. For those of you who don’t know, Frank McKinney is known as ‘The Real Estate Rock Czar’, because of his long blond hair, his crazy advertising antics, and the multi-million dollar spec homes he builds (he is currently working on his latest and greatest, which he plans to sell for approximately $130 million)! Frank is also heavily involved in building free housing for the homeless, especially in Haiti.

The only thing that Frank pitched when he spoke was a trip he is doing that includes touring his latest mansion, plus his personal mansion, plus some of the stuff he is doing in Haiti, with all proceeds from the trip going towards the Haiti projects. The talk he gave, in a nutshell, was his personal story, followed by his opinion of the current real estate market.

The best I can recall, here is what Frank said about the current real estate market. First and foremost, he said it is a great time for investors, because now is when we can buy at the bottom. Second, he said the number of investors has thinned out, so there is less competition. Third, he stated his personal opinion that the current real estate downturn will end this year, or next year at the latest, and here were some of his reasons... The average length of a recession is only ten months. He feels that the current downturn in the real estate market is enough of a correction in pricing, and possibly even an overcorrection (not completely sure I agree with that one). He stated 5-6 economic stimuli that have been put into place, and says that these will help jump start our economy, but it will just take them a little time to kick in… The stimulus I can remember are: the income tax break checks currently being sent out to Americans, interest rates being dropped back towards their lowest levels, the Federal Reserve proving their willingness to support banks and financial institutions, and the expansion of our money supply.

Now, I talk to a lot of people about real estate, and I have heard from many that they already feel the market is improving some. Plus, when someone with Frank McKinney’s credentials talks, with no ulterior motives, and says that he has studied our current economic and real estate climate extensively, and he feels that we will experience an upturn soon, that carries a lot of weight with me.

Now, Frank can’t guarantee he will be right, and I certainly can’t guarantee it, but a bottom does have to come some time, and wouldn’t you rather be buying at the bottom than tucking your head in the sand because the declining market chased you out of real estate? Personally, I am getting back into buying mode now, though I never really quit buying, and I plan on buying as we head towards the bottom, buying at the bottom, and buying as we come out of the bottom. I believe in real estate investing, and I plan on doing a lot more of it in the years to come. Now, to be fair, I don’t think we will see the kind of crazy appreciation again that we saw before the market turned (things definitely got overheated), but I still love the long term benefits of real estate, which I have preached on before. Done correctly, you get positive monthly cash flow after all expenses. If you do your homework, you can have significant equity on the day you buy. You should get equity build up as your underlying mortgages get paid down (basically, your tenants buy the properties for you). Long term, your properties will appreciate again. It is easy to apply leverage in real estate. And lastly, you get several tax advantages when compared with alternative investment choices. Taken together, these benefits make real estate an incredible investment option for those who know what they are doing.

Well, that is my pep talk for today. As always, use your common sense, and buyer beware; you are responsible for your own action and results. Also, I am not saying run out and buy all of the real estate you can get your hands on. However, I am saying that well thought out, well planned, long term buy and hold real estate investments that mesh with your lifestyle and personal goals can yield very nice results, as indicated by the fact that the majority of wealthy people in America either got that way, or stay that way, by keeping a lot of their wealth in real estate (and that isn’t just a coincidence!). Best wishes, and happy investing!

Financial Freedom and All Your Dreams Come True (Ten Years From Today)

Let’s start with the question, “Do you plan to be here, alive, on planet Earth, ten years from today?” If so, where do you plan on being then? Don’t kid yourself, but realistically, based on what you are doing today, where do you plan on being in one year, three years, five years, and ten years? How will you and your life be different or the same as compared to today?

I got my wakeup call at about age 28, when I read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” for the first time. I came to the realization that, after 28 years on this planet, I didn’t have a lot to show for the time I spent living, and worse, that I had no reason to believe I would do any better in the future. Up until then, my plan was just going through life, living day to day, waiting for something good to happen to me; waiting for my ship to come in. The problem was, I wasn’t even near the water; I couldn’t have seen my ship even if it did come in!

“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” was a great beginner book, which was all I was ready for at that time. It was wealth and success in an easy to read, story format that was able to hold my interest. It showed me that I needed to think ahead, long term, and begin doing little things that would add up to a better life later on. It was then that I started to become an avid learner. I figured out that if I could think what wealthy people thought, and then do what wealthy people did, eventually I would have… what wealthy people had!!!

Just a few changes... Back then, I thought I was doing about 10% of what I needed to do to succeed, and I was missing 90% of the puzzle. Furthermore, I didn’t think the other 90% was achievable before reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. I really thought you had to be born into a wealthy family, and wealth was nearly impossible to achieve in less than one generation. What I eventually learned was, I actually already had 90% of the puzzle inside me, and I just needed to improve the final 10%. I already was a hard worker, with integrity, and ‘learn-ability’. The last 10% is different for different people. It might be a small shift in thinking, one or two minor activity changes, a little more discipline, changing one bad habit, or having or implementing one good idea. For me, it was largely a shift in thinking and, once made, wealth started to gradually come into my life, and stay! One year, three years, five years, ten years… Slowly at first, but then it picked up steam as I went.

Now, when someone asks me when and where they should start working on building wealth, I tell them the best time to start is now, and the best place to start is wherever they are right now! You may have to get tough on yourself to get started. You will have to ask yourself hard questions, like, “Am I reading the books that will take me where I want to go in one year, three years, five years, ten years? Am I working today on changing bad habits that hold me back from my full potential, and beginning to replace them with good habits, like living below my means and saving and investing the difference (do I pay myself first?)”?

Excellent questions. You see, what you are doing right now, today, determines who and what you become in ten years. If you keep doing the same things, you will keep getting the same results. So, ask yourself, am I improving me, and, if not, am I okay with being exactly the same person, with exactly the same results, in ten years as today? If not, when will now be the right time to make some changes? The first time I heard it put that way, I really had to think about it, but when it sunk in, it really hit home with me… When will now be the right time for you to start doing better?

So, for every one of us, we are either reading the right books to take us where we want to go in ten years, or we are not. We are either starting to discipline ourselves for a life of more, or we are not. We are either improving our habits, or we are not. Here is what you want to be careful to avoid… Don’t kid yourself. Don’t hope for and expect the best, without taking actions to create that best. Don’t wish for more, and not do something about it. Don’t fail to plan, since we all know that is the same as… planning to fail.

If you are where I was ten years ago, at age 28, with little or nothing to show for 28 years of living, ask yourself, “What can I do right now, today, to start moving towards my dreams? What can I do to begin moving towards the personal, spiritual, physical, and financial goals I want to achieve? What can I do to shake off wishful thinking, and start on a path to become the person I want to be, with the life I want to have, in one year, three years, five years, and ten years?”
Ten years ago, I ‘woke up’, I decided I didn’t want the same things out of the next ten years of my life as I had gotten out of the last 28 years, and I changed who I was becoming with a 10% change in me. A 10% change doesn’t sound like much, but what happened was it compounded, and gathered momentum, and I got on a path of personal achievement that has been absolutely nothing short of incredible! You see, just a little tiny shift in me, compounded over time, changed everything. I had to start small, biting off what I could chew and digest at the time. As time went on, I could do more and more, and I could see things I didn’t see in the beginning. If I had been given a million dollars back then, when I was 28 years old, I wouldn’t have known how to handle it, and I just would have spent and lost it all. I had to grow myself over the years, and the journey to where I am today is worth every bit as much as the money. The money may or may not disappear, but the person I became on the journey can’t be taken away, and if I started over again today with nothing, I would be able to rebuild my wealth much quicker and easier the second time around (because of who I became the first time around).

The key is to start right now making a few small changes so you can make all of your dreams come true. When will now be a good time for you to get started? How exciting, that just a few small tweaks, a 10% change from who you already are, and who you can be in one year, three years, five years, and ten years is limited only by your willingness to dream it and believe it. As Napoleon Hill said, “If your mind can conceive it, and you can believe it, you can achieve it!” You already have 90% of what it takes – why not do just 10% more??? Go for it!!!!!!! If you do, you won’t ever regret it, and if you don’t, well, the saddest truth of all… You may grow old wondering what could have been, and wishing you had done something different.

'And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.' –Anais Nin

My wish for all of us is that today be the day when the risk to remain tight in a bud is more painful than the risk it takes to blossom – and that we open up and bloom (as human beings) like the most beautiful flowers imaginable! Best wishes on the path to making all of your dreams come true!!!

It’s Time For You To Be Rich!!!

Here is a fundamental truth that many people won’t admit – we would all like to be rich. If we are capable of being rich, and we can get rich via win-win situations, without hurting or taking advantage of anyone in any way, why would we not choose to be rich? If rich doesn’t agree with your moral values, think of the good you could do with millions of dollars at your disposal… How about starting up a charity to support your favorite cause? How about my personal goal, which is to give lump sums of one million dollars each to my church and a children’s charity that is near and dear to me? How about what Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen aspire to – to create a million millionaires who all give a million away to their favorite church or charity?

We live in an abundant universe, and God wants us to be abundant, and thinking that money is the root of all evil is so old school. Closer to the truth is that lack of money is the root of all evil. I hear biblical phrases thrown about saying how good it is to be poor, but I seldom hear mention of biblical phrases about prosperity… So here are a few.

“Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” -Psalm 35:27

“If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.” -Job 36:11

“Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments… Wealth and riches shall be in his house.” -Psalm 112:1-3

Or, how about the parable of the talents, where the servant who multiplies his talents is rewarded with many cities, and the servant who buried his talent in the sand gets nothing, because to he who hath, more will be given, but to he who hath not, even that little which he hath will be taken away? Was this not a direct biblical command to manage the money God allows into our lives, and to manage it well, and to make it grow and multiply?

Many people don’t have the why part of getting rich down, and I promise you this, if you don’t have the why, you will never, ever get the how. Also, personally, I feel that giving back has to be part of your why (especially if you have issues regarding whether or not you deserve to be rich). There is nothing at all wrong with wanting to improve yourself, your life, and the lives of your family, but for most people, the recipe doesn’t work if giving back isn’t part of the equation, too. The why is the first, necessary ingredient. Next, on to the how.

Most of you have been reading my blog for a while, and my e-mails before that, and you know that I don’t do too many actual sales pitches… But every now and then it is necessary to give people a nudge towards something that will be in their own best interest, and that is what I am about to do.

“Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, by Robert Kiyosaki, is among my recommended books, for several reasons. First, it is a great book about having the mindset of the rich. Second, it is in storybook format, which means it is easy to read, and it is a real page turner. When I first read the book, I couldn’t put it down – I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning reading, wanting to find out what the boys, Robert and Michael, learned from their Rich Dad. I started it one day, and finished it the next. It is that good! Third, it is the book that started me personally on the path to wealth – it is where I really started to get my millionaire mind, and many others as well. Also, let me throw one other thing into the ring… I read the book the first time at the public library. It was so good, I eventually had to have it, and bought myself a copy. I loaned that copy out, and it never returned, so I bought myself another copy. Then, either I loaned that one out, or misplaced it, and I bought myself a third copy. I have recommended the book to almost all of my family and friends. To most people who ask me how to build wealth, I tell them, if they haven’t already, to start by reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. I have read the book at least a half dozen times or so, and I just finished reading it again right now. I also read all of the Rich Dad books, and own several more, either books or CDs. If you don’t already own this book, ask yourself, if someone who is financially free at 39 years of age feels this book is good enough to purchase three copies, study every book in the collection, read it over and over again, and recommend it to family and friends and anyone who will listen… If it has helped countless numbers of people learn how to create wealth… Ask yourself, “If I want to be rich, is there a chance that maybe I should own it too?” If you realize you should, click on my link now and buy it through Amazon, which is where I buy almost all of my wealth materials these days. The 4% associate fee I earn won’t mean much to me one way or the other, but the book could make a difference in your life, and if I didn’t prompt you to get it, shame on me!!!

Now, to finish up, I am going to give you a few samples from the book – just a small taste of what “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” will give you…

Rich Dad says that fear of being without money motivates us to work hard, and then, once we get that paycheck, greed or desire starts us thinking about all the wonderful things money can buy. The pattern is then set. “The pattern of get up, go to work, pay bills, get up, go to work, pay bills… Their lives are then run forever by the two emotions, fear and greed. Offer them more money, and they continue the cycle, by also increasing their spending. This is what I call the Rat Race.” “There is another way?” Mike asked. “Yes,” said rich dad slowly. “But only a few people find it.” “And what is that way?” Mike asked. “That’s what I hope you boys will find out as you work and study with me.”

A little further along, Rich Dad says, “I’ve met so many people who say, ‘Oh, I’m not interested in money.’ Yet they’ll work at a job for eight hours a day. That’s a denial of the truth. If they weren’t interested in money, then why are they working?”

Now, here is a rich dad quote I really love… “A job is really a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”

“Wealth is a person’s ability to survive so many number of days forward… or if I stopped working today, how long could I survive?”

“The rich buy assets. The poor only have expenses. The middle class buys liabilities they think are assets.” Robert Kiyosaki basically says that an asset is anything that puts money into your pocket, without you having to work for it. Liabilities are anything that cost you money.

Rich Dad forbade the words, “I can’t afford it”, because he said it shut down the brain. Instead, he said to ask, “How can I afford it?”, which forces your brain to think and search for answers.

“The main reason people struggle financially is because they spent years in school but learned nothing about money. The result is, people learn to work for money… but never learn to have money work for them”, says Robert Kiyosaki.

“Every day with every dollar, you decide to be rich, poor, or middle class”, and 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' will share with you the differences in mindset between those three groups, then you can choose which one you want to be in, so you don’t risk ending up in the wrong group by default.

Now that my article is done, let me remind you, if you want to own 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad', please click on my link (right hand side of the blog) to buy it through Amazon.com... Thanks, and best wishes!