Looking back to my days in school all the way from first grade until the end of college, there were certain courses that I enjoyed doing homework in while the majority of course work felt like a chore.The courses that I enjoyed doing homework for were the courses that I really enjoyed.The rest of the courses were basically, a means to an end.
Part of being an entrepreneur is seeing the world a little differently than everyone else and focusing on problems and how they can be solved.Being an entrepreneur myself, I find new problems and potential solutions on a daily basis.I get excited about these ideas and create plans to turn these solutions into businesses.I have files with hundreds of these ideas and plans of action but for most of them, the excitement fades away after a little while, as I get excited about the next idea.That is where the “I Hate Homework Test” comes in to play.
Tuchman writes that to find your passion and an idea that you can turn into a profitable business, you need to have a certain excitement for the topic that is unmatched by the excitement for the rest of your ideas.You need to be able to say “I love this” and “I can’t believe I actually get paid for this” about your idea.To find out if you have the right passion and excitement, just think about doing research on your market and finding out more about how you will move forward.Does any of this seem like homework or is this something you would do for hours on end in your spare time, even if it wasn’t your business?If any of it seems like homework, then this idea is not for you.Otherwise, you may have hit gold!
It is so simple and yet so accurate.Over the years, I have gained and lost excitement about so many ideas but the one that stuck is what I am passionate about, marketing and technology.I started Flid Media, a marketing agency specializing in digital media over a year ago and I am going strong.Even when I worked at a traditional marketing firm with almost no connection to social media or technology, I spent most of my free time reading about it and listening to related podcasts.Looking back, if I would have done the “I Hate Homework Test”, I would have started Flid Media even sooner.
Ideas are worth a dime a dozen so the next time you have a “brilliant” idea, do yourself a favour and take the “I Hate Homework Test”.It can save you hours of time and effort.
We live in the disposable age.We eat take out, use disposable dishes, and look for a quick and easy fix for everything.The current bestselling books talk about doing less and enjoying more like “The Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss (which I am all for by the way).We are bombarded with mlm (multi-level marketing), network marketing, internet marketing and many other disguises for a way to make a quick buck.It seems like most people have forgotten that the most important ingredient in becoming successful is hard work.
Gary Vaynerchuck: The Hard Worker
Being involved in social media, I am very familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine expert/store owner who has used social media to grow his family business from $4 million per year to a $50 million business.I’m mentioning Gary Vaynerchuk because he is a modern example of a hard worker.He is passionate about what he does and he may be one of the hardest workers out there.
Scalable and not so Scalable Apps
Not long ago, platforms such as the Facebook and iPhone opened up to developers so that anyone can create an application for their platform.Most people saw this as an opportunity to create a scalable app that can continue to make them money while they slept.It was a dream come true for some people.Gary Vaynerchukjumped on the bandwagon and created his own Facebook app but contrary to what everyone else was trying to do, he may have created the absolute least scalable app in Facebook history.His app “Ask Gary” was pretty much just a place for people to ask him questions about wine.Gary answered every single one of the questions himself.
Gary Vaynerchuk’s lack of scalability doesn’t end there.He also answers every single one of thousands of emails he gets every day.To top it off, he personally speaks to almost every customer that comes in to his store.Gary also manages to record Wine Library TV, a regular videocast on wine which happens to be very entertaining.
Gary on Social Media
Gary was recently asked how much time he spends on social media platforms such asFacebook and Twitter to which he responded “about 2.5 hours per day”.Shocked at the answer, Gary explained that it is a CEO’s job to make connections and get business and that he has found Social Media, the best place to make his connections.
Gary’s Research and Development
Looking at Gary and what he has done, you may think that Gary has it made and can start delegating now.He can let other people do his work for him and go relax on a beach, he can definitely afford it now.Gary feels otherwise and for a very good reason.By answering thousands of people’s questions, speaking to customers and doing research online, his mind and gut are a better R&D team than you can ever possibly hire.He can smell new trends and predict what people will want and like.The human mind can accurately crunch more information that any super computer in existence.Gary takes advantage of this and stays years ahead of his competition.
To get lucky, you need to constantly be learning and opening up new horizons.Whatever area it is that you want to get lucky in, you need to involve yourself in your interest and surround yourself with tools to increase your knowledge of the specific area.Hang around people who are where you want to be.For instance, if you want to get rich, hang around rich people.Another must do for getting lucky is to read everything you can get your hands on on your topic of choice.
If you are hanging around the right people, they can often suggest the right books for you to be reading but there always comes a time where you are stuck and don’t know what you should read next.Here are a few ways to find the next book to read.
Go to Borders or Chapters or whatever your local bookstore is.
Just go into your local bookstore and browse through the section on the topic of your interest.Look for best sellers, new releases or store recommendations.You can also read a few pages from the books that catch your interest to get an idea of what they are about and if your will enjoy the read.
Surf the net for a good book.
There are websites such as www.whatshouldireadnext.com that ask you to enter the book that you just finished reading and it will tell give you a list of books to read, based on other people’s choices and suggestions who also enjoyed the book you just read.
Amazon.com’s suggestions
Amazon is really good at following up with buyers and sending them suggestions of additional books to purchase. Their recommendations are usually pretty good if you generally buy books that interest you.When I first started using Amazon, it was for college textbooks for random classes.I was getting philosophy and history college textbook suggestions for years.
I’m currently in the middle of a few books that I’m really enjoying.I keep one book in my work bag that I read on my commute, one book is on my night table and one book goes with me everywhere else so that I always have something to read.I suggest every one of them:
This past week I read, (well actually listened to) Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.I have been meaning to read this book for some time now and I finally had the chance to listen to the audio version on a road trip I took this weekend to Montreal, Canada.It took about 8 hours to listen to the whole book but that was 8 hours I would have been listening to pointless music for.
Tim doesn’t claim that everyone can or should only work four hours per week but he does make very valid points about how people waste time when they could otherwise be more productive.For example, he suggests limiting your email checking.I for one have my outlook email set to send receive every minute, and I check my Gmail and Yahoo accounts pretty much just as often.I feel that I need to be on top of every email the second that it comes in so that I can be as productive as possible.Tim proves that this is a waste of time and completely counterproductive.If you batch your email checking into designated times, you will get things done a lot more efficiently and effectively.He suggests checking email twice daily at 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM to start out and then check less often as time goes on.Tim checks his email once a week for 2 hours on Monday mornings.He makes it possible by setting up auto responders with messages to the effect of “I will be checking my email (enter date, frequency or whatever) and will get back to you right away after that.If it is an emergency, call my cell at 555-555-5555.”People will come to accept this and will cooperate with your system. If you have a boss, tell them that you are more productive when you can get your work done without interruptions and you will still be checking email regularly.
Instead of spreading your email out over an 8 hour workday, you can spend a fraction of the time taking care of your messages all together at designated times.
Another point that Tim makes is that projects take you as long to do as the time you have allotted for them.He uses Parkinson’s Law, that“work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion” to show that you really don’t need as much time as you are using to get things done.Most people who work 9-5 don’t use their 40 hours per week as productively as they can.In fact, most people probably aren’t even productive half of the time.These people can probably deliver the same results in half the time.If that is so, why are so many people slaves to their jobs their whole lives?
Tim likes to look for loopholes to work as little as possible and get the best results.When he was making cold sales calls, he discovered that the hardest part of getting through to decision makers is the gatekeepers or secretaries.He found that by calling for just half an hour before office hours and half an hour after office hours, he can be twice as productive as the people calling from 9-5.Tim doesn’t like to follow the system, he likes to beat the system and he proves it over and over again in his book.
This morning I was reading “Why We Want You to Be Rich: Two Men, One Message” By Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump on my subway ride to work.The book is basically these two great business minds writing about why they want people to be rich and why people getting rich is for the greater good of the country.
They talk about the economic situation in the United States and how the deficit is constantly growing and digging a hole that the country won’t be able to get out of.Kiyosaki mentions his favorite example that Baby Boomers are starting to retire now and are entitled to Social Security and Medicare but the government doesn’t have enough money to cover it all.
Don’t Wait for the Opportunity to Come to You
One thing that jumped out at me was when Donald Trump was giving advice to college students.He said that “There is a lot to know in this world… if you want to be a major player in the world arena, pay attention and go the extra mile – every single day.Don’t wait for the opportunity to come to you.”He quotes Louis Paster who says “Chance favors the prepared mind”.
The way to get lucky is to go the extra mile and find the opportunity.Every once in a while opportunity comes your way and it is up to you to grab it and take advantage of the luckortunity.But, to be a major player and get lucky every day, you need to go out and find the opportunity in the world – anywhere you can.
Trump suggests reading the newspaper every single day and keeping up with international affairs.Kiyosaki mentions that the first thing every morning, he needs to know how the foreign markets did and what happened while he was asleep.
Find your Passion
If you are very passionate about something, it is automatic that you will check up on it as often as you possibly can and maybe even more often.A student checks daily on his science fair project to see if his hypothesis was right.A blogger checks his stats every other hour.A successful businessman checks his financials regularly.I am not saying to obsess over your passion and check up on it more than you need to and thereby waste a lot of time.I am saying find a passion that will get you where you want to be and obsess on moving forward.
If the student sees his science project isn’t going as planned, he will do something about it.If the blogger’s stats start to drop, he will put more effort into building his blog.If a businessman sees a problem in his financials, you can be sure that he will jump to remedy the situation.
Go out of your way to learn and know what is going on in the world, become passionate about being informed and luck will start coming your way.
Everyone has heard the saying, “a penny saved, is a penny earned”.I know I grew up hearing it.I always took it too literally and thought of it as just being pennies.I often thought to myself, who cares about a few pennies, they are all over the place and pretty much worthless.There has even been talk about getting rid of the penny altogether since it costs more to make a penny that it is actually worth.
Today I started reading the book “The Millionaire Next Door” and something clicked.It is pretty obvious now that I think about it but it is worth mentioning. The book is a research study on the typical millionaires in the United States.It talks about people that are actually wealthy in net worth and not in high wages and life style.
The point that really got me was that the average millionaire is frugal and his wife is even more frugal that he is.One story in the book has a person hand over $8 million worth of stock in a company he just took public to his wife and she thanked him and went back to cutting her coupons to save a few cents off of her weekly shopping.
One of the ways to be successful is to think big.Take the smallest concepts and think of them in the biggest terms possible.Instead of making a few hundred dollars on a rental apartment, you can think big and make thousands on an apartment building.When thinking of the saying “a penny saved is a penny earned”, think of it in as big terms as you possibly can and you will get rich.If you are always saving every penny, over time, you will get rich.It may not be tomorrow but one day it will happen.
Unlucky people often think that they won’t gain anything from books, audio books, lectures or seminars.Although they often know about the subject, in my experience, there is always something new that they can learn.
Truth be told, a person can learn new things from a single lecture or book each time he hears or reads it.Even on the fifth time around, there is still new information that can be picked up and learned.
Studies have shown that the average person only retains three concepts from any book that they read. That means that if you read a book with 30 chapters, you will only really retain 10% of the information, if that at all.If a person would read the book again, they would pick up and retain more concepts.It is sometimes beneficial to read books several times over to make sure that you gain the maximum amount from the book.
The average book has multiple chapters and the average chapter has multiple points and sub points.The unlucky person will read a book once and think that they absorbed the entire book.They would feel that reading the book over again is pointless.
The point I am making is not to read every book and go to every lecture multiple times.The point is that a lucky person understands this and knows how to maximize his time.If he feels that reading the book a second time, he will read it a second time.The unlucky person would not even consider it.
Part of being lucky is knowing how to maximize your time.Nobody has time to do everything; the trick is to learn how to do as much as possible.If your choice is to reread a book that has valuable information in it or watch a tv show, choosing the tv show would be the unlucky choice.
Another piece of advice from The Richest Man in Babylon is to discipline yourself when it comes to saving your money.They give the example of a man who decides that he is going to throw one pebble in the river each day.It would make sense if this person would miss a day that he could say to himself that he will drop two pebbles the next day.It would make even more sense if his goal was to eventually put as many pebbles in the river as possible, that he would start on the first day by throwing as many as he possibly can at that time.
The book does not agree with what most of us would look at as pure logic.It says that you should only drop one pebble per day and if you forget one day, that you should go back to the river and drop the pebble for that day instead of dropping two the next.The reason being is that if you discipline yourself and continuously do the same thing, it will become natural and you will be able to do it for a long time.If you choose to take shortcuts, you will either burn out or give up at some point.
I find this to be true with many things in my life.For instance, blogging.When I write a few blogs at the same time and then post one per day, I usually end up getting lazy and missing at least a day once all of my posts run out.When I write each and every day, I miss less posting because I am on a schedule and I don’t have time to get lazy.
I noticed the same thing when I work out.Most people that are out of shape that decide to get into shape try and overdo their workout at the gym on their first day.During the workout they are pumped and feel like they can handle everything but when they get home, they are more sore than ever.Each day after that the pain gets worse and worse and does not allow you to work out again for at least a week and by that time you are not motivated anymore.
If you take things one day at a time and start building a routine that you can handle, you will be much more likely to continue for many years.If you are working out, try just going to the gym on the first day for 15-20 minutes and do a light workout.You will leave feeling good and that you can handle more.Take that feeling and come back the next day and the next and so on.Then you will be able to add each day in small increments until you are happy with your workout.
When it comes to saving money, some people feel that it is easier to give a lump payment into their savings once a month or even year (especially when they are saving in a tax free IRA).The only way to make sure that you continue to save is to put money in your savings regularly enough that it becomes a habit.At that point it will be hard to break.
Back to the book “The Richest Man in Babylon”, here is another lesson that I feel is important to share.“Put in 10 pieces of copper into your purse but only take out 9”.When working for pieces of Copper keep 1/10th of what you earn and save it.That will start building your ultimate wealth.In modern days the advice can be applied by putting 10% of our paychecks into a savings account.The book talks about investing a little later on but this piece of advice is the most important to start off.Without the savings, we will have nothing to invest.
This advice is pretty common and can be found in almost any personal finance strategy or book.It might be written differently or sound different but they are all the same.Rich Dad, (Robert Kiyosaki) says to “Pay Yourself First”.Before paying bills or buying what he calls “doodads” (things that we spend money on that don’t put money back in our pockets), we must take a portion of our paycheck for ourselves.
In “The Automatic Millionaire”, David Bach mentions the same thing.The first step to becoming an automatic millionaire is to pay yourself first.Preferably 10% of you salary if possible.Bach says that if you have the money taken from your paycheck and automatically placed into your savings, you won’t even notice that it is gone.It’s weird but most people can live off of 90% of their paycheck, no matter what their situation is.If it is out of site, then it’s out of mind.We know this because we see people getting raises in their paycheck every day and yet, these people do not start saving more, they start spending more.The more money people make, the higher their lifestyle becomes.There are people who make 7 figures a year and still live paycheck to paycheck and then there are people who in their best year made under $60,000 and retired millionaires.That is the story of the first automatic millionaire that Bach speaks of in his book.
I personally agree with the advice to pay yourself first or save 10% or however you want to put it.I also agree that once you start doing this and make it automatic, you don’t even notice that it is gone.I have direct deposit for my paycheck and regular transfers of at least 10% to my savings account.I don’t notice a change of lifestyle or anything… until I look at how much is piling up in my savings account.
My finances are so automatic that it is like a computerized game that just continues calculating my savings as my turns (or weeks) pass.The money comes in through direct deposit, automatically money is transferred to different accounts of mine such as savings, fun account and charity.The rest of my paycheck stays in my checking account which has automatic bill payments for all of my other expenses including rent (I’m looking to buy but more on that later), credit cards (I only spend what I have in my checking, I use credit cards because I get points, longer to pay and I get a full spending summary at the end of each year), gas and electricity ( I pay the same every month and get a credit or bill for the difference at the end of the year so I don’t have to calculate and I Can budget better), cell phone (the bills are always wrong so this is a little headache), and all the other fun bills that overflow from my mailbox.
I do check each of my accounts including all bank, credit card and other major accounts at least once a month to make sure that everything is working properly and to watch my savings grow.
Now that I have savings built up, it is time for the next step, to start investing and take advantage of one of the greatest tools in the financial world, “compound interest”.I suggest you do the same.Some people seem lucky because they saved money and invested well but knowing what to do and when to do it is how to get lucky.If you have any similar stories, please leave a comment.
I started reading the book, The Richest Man in Babylon this morning on the subway on the way to work. I have read a few reviews on the book, added it to my amazon.com cart and it arrived this past week. I knew that it was a must read but I didn’t realize how useful the book would really be. It pretty much speaks of common sense from many many years ago which still applies today. The problem is that nowadays many people no longer have common sense. I feel that there are many topics in this book that I would like to cover so I will post a few articles about this book.
At the beginning of the Book the main character, Arkad is poor and he wants to become rich. When Algamish, a rich man came to ask him for his services, he said that he would work overnight to have his product ready by morning if Algamish would tell him how he became rich. Algamish agrees and teaches Arkad to be rich.
The first piece of common sense from the book that I want to speak about is “don’t ask a brick maker to buy jewels for you”. Arkad (the richest man in Babylon), when he was first learning to be rich, gave money to a brick maker who was traveling far away to buy precious jewels and then when he came back to Babylon, he would sell them and they would split the profits. Arkad was called a fool because he trusted a brick maker to buy jewels. The brick maker came back to town with what he thought were precious jewels but ended up being pieces of glass.
This teaches us that when asking advice or for an expensive favor, ask an expert. As the little rat says in Robert Kiyosaki’s game “Cashflow 101”, “Don’t ask a stock broker for real estate advice”. If you want to know about real estate, go to a real estate investor. Not only that, don’t go to someone who is a bad real estate investor or even an average one. Go to an extremely successful one and you will get good advice. If Arkad would have asked a jeweler to buy jewels for him, he could have been successful but instead he lost out on his entire investment. People many times think that asking a professional in the field is expensive but if you look at this story, you learn that it is more expensive to take advice from someone who is not an expert.
Year ago in Babylon and in Modern day United States, advice is always free and plentiful. The price we pay though is who to listen to and who to tune out. Most people in the world listen to the people closest to them such as their parents and friends. It is no wonder that the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. The advice that we get determines the road that we take to the future. If you want to get lucky, find a person that is where you want to be in life and ask him for advice.
This self improvement blog is full of advice on how to increase your luck and improve your life. You can start off by reading 40 Ways to Increase your Luck.
A little while ago Robert Tuchman reached out to me to see if I would write a review of his new book “Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own
Another piece of advice from The 
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