The pen project has started
I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to write personal letters to people in my life. Some of these individuals will be family but others will be friends. I’ve noticed that I’ve been consumed with the daily hassles of life and forgot to keep in touch. In each letter there will be the attached pen that I used to personally write their letter.
These letters are a start to changing the way I communicate with them. I’m really excited too… As I write the letters I will also encourage them to write a letter to someone else they may have not talked to in a while. This will be my way of doing something positive in the world. It’s nothing big but I want to try and do my part to promote positiveness.
This week I will be writing my first letter.
I’ll also encourage the people I write to come back and post to this blog and maybe tell who they decided to write their letter too. I think it would be awesome to see how far of a reach this project will have.
Build yourself and be prepared
You have to be able to write if you are going to promote your own brand online. Don’t sit around and wait for your personal career to try and define your success. I made the mistake of waiting for 11 years to get the respect that I believe that I deserved inside the company. I’ve learned a lot within the company but I could have done a lot more to help myself outside of the company but I didn’t. You are truly the only person that can build the career that you want. No one else cares what you want they only care about what they want.
Communicate your thoughts professionally and put yourself in a light that focuses on your strengths.
Do you have a hidden talent that you love? If so work on it in your spare time non-stop. You may be able to build something from it and you may not be able to. You’ll never know until you try but you truly have nothing to lose.
Lately I’ve been doing some work on LinkedIn because it’s a way to truly network. I was surprised to get an email from someone in HR for a job through it. I wasn’t even actively looking but I was glad to know that someone was paying attention to the skills that I have. Participate in some of the groups and express yourself. Listen and understand what the groups are talking about. Don’t make the mistake of trying to control the group go in with the attitude of trying to be someone who gives to the group. If you give to the group people will take notice and you’ll never know what connections you’ll make in return. People are always looking for someone who can help them get to the next level. This could be in the form of a new job, business partner or an expert consultant and you could be that person.
The corporate world is definitely changing a lot. Companies are moving the jobs over seas without a doubt. As a professional you have to figure out a way to adapt. You may think that it doesn’t affect you but it actually does. How can you use your skills to combat this so in the future you are somewhat secure? You may have to prepare yourself to be an online professional who works from home and has to travel to different countries. If so, are you ready to make that happen?
Start to Compete
So you want to be able to compete in this world and build your wealth. The first thing you need to do is get in touch with the things around you. You need to understand what’s going on around the world. Pick up trade journals and review information such as the Wall Street Journal. Issues in the world have the tendancy to effect everything that you are doing. For me to put it into a simple form, “Issues effect your money”.
You have a choice
There’s always a choice in everything that you do. Everyday you make a choice to go to work or not go. You make a choice to brush your teeth or not brush them. So if you don’t believe that you have a choice to be financially stable you are wrong.
What’s your choice? Decide today to be financially healthy.
Your dream is your happiness
>What’s your dream? Your dream should be a representation of where you want your life to end. What do you see yourself doing and the things that you will have? Dreams are powerful – when you stop dreaming this is a sign that your life has stopped. Your life should always be filled with dreams of things that you wish to achieve. A dream is the starting point to something that you would like to build or do. As long as you continue to dream about something you will continue to find a way to achieve your dream.
Quick Thought
Life is like a sports game, there is the first half and the second half. In the first half you try to get a feel of the situation. During this time you make a lot of mistakes and do some crazy things. The second half you try to come out and minimize your mistakes and take the things you learned in the first half and capitalize on them.
In your life are you in the first half or the second half?
Invest in yourself
To get on the path to success you must always invest in yourself first. Give yourself a chance to be able to produce the most income as possible. The way that you do this is by receiving an education whether it’s a trade or college. Education will put you on the path to receiving a high wage for the service that you provide.
Another way to invest in yourself is to read books. Read as many books as you possibly can on other people who are successful. Look to see how they became successful and if you can use part or all of their technique to do the same thing.
New cars are only cute for a season
>When I was in my early twenties I made a mistake that I didn’t understand until it was years later. I went out and purchased a brand new car on credit. I loved the car but realized by year two the car wouldn’t be worth near what the loan total was. It was too late, I was locked into a car payment that I really didn’t need. Remember, the name of the game is to build your money army to be strong. If your army is strong enough you don’t need credit to purchase a car. CASH IS POWERFUL If you decide to use credit it’s only to increase your credit score which should be part of your long term strategy. If you don’t believe me go to the mall and drop your credit application on the floor and see if anybody takes it. Turn around and drop $100 on the ground and see how quickly someone will pick it up.
Think about it like this – how often do you see people buy cars and as soon as they are paid for end up trading them in on another one? They’ve purchased a car that depreciates in value – pay it off and then turn around and get rid of it to start the whole process over again. That’s a path for failure… Your car is NOT an asset but more of an expense. How often do you put gas in your car? How often does your car break down? How often do you make a car payment? A car creates many casualties in your army. If you are going to purchase a car figure out how to minimize your casualties. STRATEGY STRATEGY STRATEGY
*An asset is something that will make money for you and preferably with no effort on your part.
Rule 1: Every month take a percentage of your money to invest in your army first.
Rule 2: Create a strategy
Rule 3: Improve strategy
Rule 4: Repeat steps 1 and 3
Going beyond your job – build an army – Part 1
Jobs are a good starting point to create a living. For a person who wants to build wealth you have to push yourself to think beyond a job. Look at a pay check as a building block to something bigger. Determine how to invest your money into something that can grow. Each dollar in your paycheck is what I like to call a recruit in your money army. It’s your job to figure out how to grow your army to be large and very powerful. Most people do the opposite and spend a money recruit every chance they get. When you spend a recruit look at it as a casualty.
Do you ever think ahead determining how long you will need to continue to work? Do you consider what would happen to your lifestyle if you lost your job? These questions will help you to understand why you must increase your money army.
Money should be thought of as a tool to conquer a situation not as a reward to buy things. There are simple things that can be done to increase your money army. What if you took $20 per pay check and put it in a savings account in another state? How much money would that accumulate in 10 years? Start off simple and work your way up to bigger things. Does uncle Sam hold your tax refund for you every year? If he does how about taking the refund and put it into a mutual fund or Certificate of Deposit (CD) every year? Since you are letting uncle Sam have your money for free with no interest you should figure out something to do that will benefit you in the long run. IF IT DOESN’T MAKE A RETURN IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
Something to think about…
“A person with a large army doesn’t waste time worrying about things a person with no army or a small army does.” – Jhasmal Hardyway
Is Failure due to your inability?
We tend to believe failure is due to our inability to do something well. In many cases this isn’t true… Failure depends on whether you are willing to take the initial action to start. There are times that if a person would make an attempt and repeat until success is achieved they would be better off.
