Abundant Success!

Entrepreneurs can change the world

2009-06-01T12:45:00.002-04:00

Great video by Grasshopper which handles telecommunications for small businesses :) Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6MhAwQ64c0

Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights

2009-04-10T08:50:00.001-04:00

World renowned marketer Seth Gordin shares another tip about being a great marketer:

In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html

Analyze Business

2009-03-29T22:53:00.003-04:00

www.analyzebusiness.com

These days I have been consistently learning as I realize that constant openness and learning is one of the keys to growth in business and investing (yes I know EVERYONE knows that). One of the keys to this is having a team (yes EVERYONE knows that also).

However this past year as well as 2008, I have been building my knowledge through one of my teachers / mentors Mr. Adal. I met him 2 years ago from another budding entrepreneur who spoke highly of how this teacher's instruction was precise, accurate, and the real deal. In this world of business and investing there are MANY who don't want you to succeed because they haven't or they don't want competition.

After going to the first few classes, I thought, "I am a real estate investor and I want to learn how to flip, rehab, buy notes, etc...." So I left the class and never looked back until last year in 2008. Going through the industry I realized I needed to learn not only through books and doing deals but actually from others. While many have learned the path to success without a teacher, I realized I deserved the best by learning from a success to accelerate my path to my goals.

Going into the classes. I am armed with many past experiences that makes me a doer (though I learned from the School of Hard Knocks and it is not pleasant many times). Mr. Adal is knowledgeable, patient, and giving in his instruction. He focuses on a very conservative, common sense, comprehensive approach to the money game as he focuses on INVESTING $$$ (the other parts such as SAVING, BUDGETING, etc... he doesn't handle). He doesn't focus on flipping or trading which is a short term approach but using technical analysis to combine with fundamental analysis he sees what is a real investment and what is just speculation.

Unlike many gurus who espouse the get rich quick and leverage your credit card to buy education valued thousands of dollars (but priced more than double the college education of a #1 tiered business school like Harvard when the information is general and can be bought in a book store), his instruction be sensible and make informed decisions on whatever is done -> lower the liability and risk to make things happen. He even requires us to have tests (which guru has done that?).

The results? A greater awareness of what is a good deal and what is a bad deal. His predictions on the market are accurate and common sense. While the market is going down and people have lost $$$ (including myself), he continues to preserve his wealth and building it.

While I don't agree with all that is said, he assists in sharpening my "game" so I can play in this downturn economy and still succeed! I deserved a successful teacher and got not only one but others this year. Do you have one that really is interested in you? and willing to grow you also?

PS His website www.analyzebusiness.com has the latest class schedules.

Warren Buffet's advice for 2009

2009-03-02T12:24:00.000-05:00

We begin this New Year with dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism. Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations. Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health. They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.

Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future. This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older. This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.

Ø Hard work: All hard work bring a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Ø Laziness: A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.

Ø Earnings: Never depend on a single source of income.. [At least make your Investments get you second earning]

Ø Spending: If you buy things you don't need, you'll soon sell things you need.

Ø Savings: Don't save what is left after spending; Spend what is left after saving.

Ø Borrowings: The borrower becomes the lender's slave..

Ø Accounting: It's no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.

Ø Auditing: Beware of little expenses; A small leak can sink a large ship.

Ø Risk-taking: Never test the depth of the river with both feet. [Have an alternate plan ready]

Ø Investment: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I'm certain that those who have already been practicing these principles remain financially healthy. I'm equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health.

With Best Regards,

Warren Buffet

8 SECRETS of SUCCESS in 3 MINUTES!

2009-02-10T12:21:00.002-05:00

Great slideshow by Richard St. John in TED (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader).

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html

The 8 Secrets of Success:

* PASSION

* WORK

* GOOD

* FOCUS

* PUSH

* SERVE

* IDEAS

* PERSIST

100 of America's Most Successful Asian American Entepreneurs!

2009-01-16T16:57:00.002-05:00

This is an impressive list of the most successful Asian American entrepreneurs. Success does not have any boundaries and it is really amazing some of their stories. What is your "story" for not being successful?

URL:
http://www.goldsea.com/Profiles/100/100.html

Movie - The Money Masters

2008-10-29T04:18:00.004-04:00

HOW INTERNATIONAL BANKERS GAINED CONTROL OF AMERICA

This 3.5 hr documentary details the history of how money is being controlled in the last 100+ years in the world. While it can be considered conspiratorial, its depth and detail is worth study and understanding.

------------------------

From the producer:

"The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole...Their secret is that they have annexed from governments, monarchies, and republics the power to create the world's money..." THE MONEY MASTERS is a 3 1/2 hour non-fiction, historical documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure that rules our nation and the world today. The modern political power structure has its roots in the hidden manipulation and accumulation of gold and other forms of money. The development of fractional reserve banking practices in the 17th century brought to a cunning sophistication the secret techniques initially used by goldsmiths fraudulently to accumulate wealth. With the formation of the privately-owned Bank of England in 1694, the yoke of economic slavery to a privately-owned "central" bank was first forced upon the backs of an entire nation, not removed but only made heavier with the passing of the three centuries to our day. Nation after nation, including America, has fallen prey to this cabal of international central bankers."

Movie - The Zeitgeist: Addendum

2008-10-23T10:07:00.010-04:00

This thought provoking film is not kid's stuff. Dwells into who, what, and how economic power is exercised on people in the world. Do your research.

Article - "10 Things Millionaires Won't Tell You"

2008-08-27T01:37:00.000-04:00

http://www.smartmoney.com/10things/index.cfm?story=september2008-10-things-millionaires-will-not-tell-you

1. "You may think I'm rich, but I don't."

A million dollars may sound like a fortune to most people, and folks with that much cash can't complain — they're richer than 90 percent of U.S. households and earn $366,000 a year, on average, putting them in the top 1 percent of taxpayers. But the club isn't so exclusive anymore. Some 10 million households have a net worth above $1 million, excluding home equity, almost double the number in 2002. Moreover, a recent survey by Fidelity found just 8 percent of millionaires think they're "very" or "extremely" wealthy, while 19 percent don't feel rich at all. "They're worried about health care, retirement and how they'll sustain their lifestyle," says Gail Graham, a wealth-management executive at Fidelity.

Indeed, many millionaires still don't have enough for exclusive luxuries, like membership at an elite golf club, which can top $300,000 a year. While $1 million was a tidy sum three decades ago, you'd need $3.6 million for the same purchasing power today. And half of all millionaires have a net worth of $2.5 million or less, according to research firm TNS. So what does it take to feel truly rich? The magic number is $23 million, according to Fidelity.

2. "I shop at Wal-Mart..."

They may not buy the 99-cent paper towels, but millionaires know what it is to be frugal. About 80 percent say they spend with a middle-class mind-set, according to a 2007 survey of high-net-worth individuals, published by American Express and the Harrison Group. That means buying luxury items on sale, hunting for bargains — even clipping coupons.

Don Crane, a small-business owner in Santa Rosa, Calif., certainly sees the value of everyday saving. "We can afford just about anything," he says, adding that his net worth is over $1 million. But he and his wife both grew up on farms in the Midwest — where nothing was wasted — and his wife clips coupons to this day. In fact, most millionaires come from middle-class households, and roughly 70 percent have been wealthy for less than 15 years, according to the AmEx/Harrison survey. That said, there are plenty of millionaires who never check a price tag. "I've always wanted to live above my means because it inspired me to work harder," says Robert Kiyosaki, author of the 1997 best seller Rich Dad, Poor Dad. An entrepreneur worth millions, Kiyosaki says he doesn't even know what his house would go for today.

3. "...but I didn't get rich by skimping on lattes."

So how do you join the millionaires' club? You could buy stocks or real estate, play the slots in Vegas — or take the most common path: running your own business. That's how half of all millionaires made their money, according to the AmEx/Harrison survey. About a third had a professional practice or worked in the corporate world; only 3 percent inherited their wealth.

Regardless of how they built their nest egg, virtually all millionaires "make judicious use of debt," says Russ Alan Prince, coauthor of "The Middle-Class Millionaire." They'll take out loans to build their business, avoid high-interest credit card debt and leverage their home equity to finance purchases if their cash flow doesn't cut it. Nor is their wealth tied up in their homes. Home equity represents just 11 percent of millionaires' total assets, according to TNS. "People who are serious about building wealth always want to have a mortgage," says Jim Bell, president of Bell Investment Advisors. His home is probably worth $1.5 million, he adds, but he owes $900,000 on it. "I'm in no hurry to pay it off," he says. "It's one of the few tax deductions I get."

4. "I have a concierge for everything."

That hot restaurant may be booked for months — at least when Joe Nobody calls to make reservations. But many top eateries set aside tables for celebrities and A-list clientele, and that's where the personal concierge comes in. Working for retainers that range anywhere from $25 an hour to six figures a year, these modern-day butlers have the inside track on chic restaurants, spa reservations, even an early tee time at the golf club. And good concierges will scour the planet for whatever their clients want — whether it's holy water blessed personally by the Pope, rare Mexican tequila or artisanal sausages found only in northern Spain. "For some people, the cost doesn't matter," says Yamileth Delgado, who runs Marquise Concierge and who once found those sausages for a client — 40 pounds of chorizo that went for $1,000.

Concierge services now extend to medical attention as well. At the high end: For roughly $2,000 to $4,000 a month, clients can get 24-hour access to a primary-care physician who makes house calls and can facilitate admission to a hospital "without long waits in the emergency room," as one New York City service puts it.

5. "You don't get rich by being nice."

John D. Rockefeller threatened rivals with bankruptcy if they didn't sell out to his company, Standard Oil. Bill Gates was ruthless in building Microsoft into the world's largest software firm (remember Netscape?). Indeed, many millionaires privately admit they're "bastards in business," says Prince. "They aren't nice guys." Of course, the wealthy don't exactly look in the mirror and see Gordon Gekko either. Most millionaires share the values of their moderate-income parents, says Lewis Schiff, a private wealth consultant and Prince's coauthor: "Spending time with family really matters to them." Just 12 percent say that what they want most to be remembered for is their legacy in business, according to the AmEx/Harrison study.

Millionaires are also seemingly undaunted by failure. Crane, for example, now runs a successful company that screens tenants for landlords. But his first business venture, a real estate partnership, went bankrupt, costing him $20,000 — more than his house was worth at the time. "It was the most depressing time in my life, but it was the best lesson I ever learned," he says.

6. "Taxes are for little people."

Most millionaires do pay taxes. In fact, the top 1 percent of earners paid nearly 40 percent of federal income taxes in 2005 — a whopping $368 billion — according to the Internal Revenue Service. That said, the wealthy tend to derive a higher portion of their income from dividends and capital gains, which are taxed at lower rates than wages (15 percent for long-term capital gains versus 25 percent for middle-class wages). Also, high-income earners pay Social Security tax only on their first $97,500 of income.

But the big savings come from owning a business and deducting everything related to it. Landlords can also depreciate their commercial properties and expenses like mortgage interest. And that's without doing any creative accounting. Then there are the tax shelters, trusts and other mechanisms the superrich use to shield their wealth. An estimated 2 million Americans have unreported accounts offshore, and income from foreign tax shelters costs the U.S. $20 billion to$40 billion a year, according to the IRS. Indeed, "an increasing number of people want to establish an offshore fund," says Vernon Jacobs, a certified public accountant in Kansas who specializes in legal foreign accounts.

7. "I was a B student."

Mom was right when she said good grades were the key to success — just not necessarily a big bank account. According to the book "The Millionaire Mind," the median college grade point average for millionaires is 2.9, and the average SAT score is 1190 — hardly Harvard material. In fact, 59 percent of millionaires attended a state college or university, according to AmEx/Harrison.

When asked to list the keys to their success, millionaires rank hard work first, followed by education, determination and "treating others with respect." They also say that what they absorbed in class was less important than learning how to study and stay disciplined, says Jim Taylor, vice chairman of the Harrison Group. Granted, 48 percent of millionaires hold an advanced degree, and elite colleges do open doors to careers on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley (not to mention social connections that grease the wheels). But for every Ph.D. millionaire, there are many more who squeaked through school. Kiyosaki, for one, says the only way he survived college calculus was by "sitting near" the smart kids in class — "we cheated like crazy," he says.

8. "Like my Ferrari? It's a rental."

Why spend $3,000 on a Versace bag that'll be out of style as soon as next season when you can rent it for $175 a month? For that matter, why blow $250,000 on a Ferrari when for $25,000 it can be yours for a few weekends a year? Clubs that offer "fractional ownership" of jets have been popular for some time, and now the concept has extended to other high-end luxuries like exotic cars and fine art. How hot is the trend? More than 50 percent of millionaires say they plan to rent luxury goods within the next 12 months, according to a survey by Prince & Associates. Handbags topped the list, followed by cars, jewelry, watches and art. Online companies like Bag Borrow or Steal, for example, cater to customers who always want new designer accessories and jewelry, for prices starting at $15 a week.

For Suzanne Garner, a millionaire software engineer in Santa Clara, Calif., owning a $100,000 car didn't make financial sense (she drives a Mazda Miata). Instead, Garner pays up to $30,000 in annual membership fees to Club Sportiva, a fractional-ownership car club in San Francisco that lets her take out Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other exotic vehicles on weekends. "I'm all about the car," she says. And so are other people, it seems. While stopped at a light in a Ferrari recently, Garner received a marriage proposal from a guy in a pickup truck. (She declined the offer.)

9. "Turns out money can buy happiness."

It may not be comforting to folks who aren't minting cash, but the rich really are different. "There's no group in America that's happier than the wealthy," says Taylor, of the Harrison Group. Roughly 70 percent of millionaires say that money"created" more happiness for them,he notes. Higher income also correlates with higher ratings in life satisfaction, according to a new study by economists at the Wharton School of Business. But it's not necessarily the Bentley or Manolo Blahniks that lead to bliss. "It's the freedom that money buys," says Betsey Stevenson, coauthor of the Wharton study.

Concomitantly, rates of depression are lower among the wealthy, according to the Wharton study, and the rich tend to have better health than the rest of the population, says James Smith, senior labor economist at the Rand Corporation. (In fact, health and happiness are as closely correlated as wealth and happiness, Smith says.) The wealthy even seem to smile and laugh more often, according to the Wharton study, to say nothing of getting treated with more respect and eating better food. "People experience their day very differently when they have a lot of money," Stevenson says.

10. "You worry about the Joneses — I worry about keeping up with the Trumps."

Wealth may go a long way toward creating happiness, but the middle-class rich still can't afford the life of the billionaire next door — the guy who writes charity checks for $100,000 and retreats to his own private island. "What makes people happy isn't how much they're making," says Glenn Firebaugh, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University. "It's how much they're making relative to their peers."

Indeed, for all their riches, some 40 percent of millionaires fear that their standard of living will decline in retirement and that their money will run out before they die, according to Fidelity. Of course, it may not help if their lifestyle is so lavish that they're barely squeaking by on $400,000 a year. "You can always be happier with more money," says Stevenson. "There's no satiation point." But that's the trouble with keeping up with the Trumps. "Millionaires are always looking up," says Schiff, "and think it's better up there."

Copyrighted, SmartMoney.com. All Rights Reserved.

Home improvements on the cheap

2008-04-02T05:11:00.000-04:00

Yes I know. Why post a blog on home improvements? If you are doing rehabs then there are ways to save on higher end finishes that makes your renovation top notch. It is an interesting article for those shopping fiends :)

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/real_estate/0803/gallery.cheap_renovations.toh/index.html

I Will Not Die an Unlived Life

2008-02-12T10:40:00.000-05:00

By Dawna Markova

I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

Happiness

2008-01-13T11:08:00.000-05:00

“The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach; but we shut our eyes, and, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for, without finding it.” –Seneca

“The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.” –Richard Bach “Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.” –Mildred Barthel

“If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month — get married.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.
–Chinese proverb

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Albert Schweitzer

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
- Helen Keller

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence
- Aristotle

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be”
- Marcel Pagnol

“Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different.”
- Stacey Charter

“Happiness is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them.”

“Nothing can bring you happiness but yourself.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Article - Retire Rich: Learn from someone who did

2008-01-02T17:18:00.000-05:00

Retire Rich: Learn from someone who did (click here for original article)
By Walter Updegrave, Money Magazine senior editor

January 2 2008: 10:02 AM EST

NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- When Henry "Bud" Hebeler was winding down his career at Boeing nearly 20 years ago, he was appalled at the advice he got from retirement planning software.

"The assumptions about returns, inflation, longevity and expenses were highly simplistic," says the 74-year-old Hebeler. With his engineering degrees from MIT and his experience - first as Boeing's chief forecaster and planner and later as president of Boeing Aerospace - Hebeler figured he could do better.

He has. His Web site, AnalyzeNow.com, is a compendium of advice and tools (mostly free) that can help you tackle topics ranging from how to create a retirement budget to whether to buy an annuity.

What distinguishes Hebeler from the typical retirement "expert" is that he combines a strong quantitative background with real-life retirement experience - his own and that of fellow retirees.

Hebeler took time out from his hectic schedule of skiing, golf, travel and running a site to share his thoughts.

Q. What's the most popular misconception about retirement planning?

A. That your spending will drop as you age and you become less active. My father played golf until he was 95. My wife and I are in our seventies and we ski the expert slopes at Park City, Utah.

My friends who have reduced their spending didn't do so because of lack of energy or physical ability. It doesn't take much effort to get into a taxi and go to the theater. They're cutting back because they know they're going to live longer than they thought they would. They spent too much too early and now they're worried about running out.

Q. So what can you do to assure that your money will last?

A. If you have enough savings to live on, consider delaying taking Social Security until full retirement age or even later. Holding off can be especially worthwhile if you have a spouse who didn't work or had a low income, since the higher payment you get by waiting can be passed on to your spouse when you die.

I also think retirees should consider putting some, but not all, of their money in an immediate annuity. Look at inflation-adjusted immediate annuities, since they provide a lifetime income that, like Social Security, goes up with inflation.

Q. How did your work at Boeing influence the advice you give?

A. It made me more conservative. In business you see how often things don't work out as you planned. Projects cost more to complete than you estimated.

The same is true of retirement, but retirement plans seldom call for setting aside reserves for unforeseen events. There are a lot of surprises, usually more bad ones than good.

Q. What kinds of surprises?

A. For one thing, your expenses are likely to be very different in retirement than during your career. Things that were probably covered by your company insurance - dental work, vision care, a variety of medical tests - typically aren't paid for by Medicare. My hearing aids alone cost $6,000, which wasn't covered at all.

People also don't anticipate the impact of inflation. In the first 10 years of my retirement, the purchasing power of my company pension declined by 30%. And then there are obligations people rarely plan for, such as having to help parents or adult children who are struggling financially.

Q. If you could advise people to do just one thing to improve their retirement prospects, what would it be?

A. People who aren't retired need to know how much to save. My father used to tell me that you should always save at least 10% of your income.

That's more like 15% to 20% today because you're less likely to have a pension.

The Best of Bud

Don't assume all will go as expected. Build a safety margin into your planning.
Enjoy yourself but don't overspend early in retirement. You may especially want to scale back spending during market downturns so your nest egg has a chance to rebound.
Consider delaying Social Security until you reach at least full retirement age. The higher payment will be a good inflation hedge later in retirement.
Think about putting some money into an annuity, particularly if you think you'll live longer than the average person.

Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005

2008-01-01T21:04:00.000-05:00

Youtube Link

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Who in the world is entrepreneurial?

2007-11-24T22:56:00.000-05:00

Good article from CNN. Basically there are many barriers for entrepreneurs in the world market from taxes, bureaucracy, perception on failing (which is part of success), to peer or family stigmas attached to starting and operating a business. Many entrepreneurs are coming from China especially with focus on materialism.

Read:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2007/06/01/100049637/index.htm?postversion=2007060109

ACCEPTED - Project REAP 2007 !!!!

2007-09-26T13:18:00.000-04:00

YAHOO! I am accepted into Project REAP 2007!

What is REAP?
It's a 6 month career / business development course for minorities to be exposed and trained to create value in the commerical real estate field especially with regards to international shopping centers. Afterwards for those qualified, the candidates are offered various internship positions in the top real estate companies such as Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Cushman & Wakefield, CB Richard Ellis, Citigroup Realty Services, Westfield Corporation, and the list goes on and on.

It is an exciting opportunities and many of the candidates are diverse, dynamic and successful. It is going to be a great year!

For more info:

PROJECT REAP

6 Secrets of Successful Immigrants

2007-09-12T17:10:00.000-04:00

6 Secrets of Successful Immigrants

by Marilyn Lewis (reposted from http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/6SecretsOfSuccessfulImmigrants.aspx)

Ever wonder how some immigrants who arrive in this country with nothing can work their way into the middle class in one generation?

Immigrant entrepreneurs are the fastest-growing segment of small-business owners today, says a report on the future of small business by Intuit and the Palo Alto, Calif., Institute for the Future. That's partly because immigrants have few options: U.S. jobs usually go to those fluent in the English language and American culture.

Yet immigrants also have gifts that prime them for success:

They see this country with fresh eyes, spotting chances others miss. Many find that though the U.S. playing field is not entirely level, it still is possible to start from scratch and wind up owning a home and sending children to college.
Many possess excellent free university educations from countries where they could not put their training to use because of high unemployment, corruption or class or ethnic barriers.
They rely on family and on huge amounts of hard work, are averse to debt and use informal networks of relatives and acquaintances over banks and lawyers to help them exploit opportunities.
Some credit poverty with training them in frugality and freeing them from aspirations for an expensive home, car and lifestyle.

Every month in 2005, about 350 of every 100,000 immigrants started businesses -- compared with 280 native-born Americans, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. Many fail, but others hang on or try again, eventually launching a better life.

Here are six lessons gleaned from the lives of three immigrant entrepreneurs:

Lesson 1: Reinvent yourself

Kamal Dergham, 47, arrived in the U.S. in 1979 to study mechanical engineering and eventually trained to trouble-shoot commercial air-conditioning systems. Through seven years of study he worked long hours for low wages at a Lebanese fast-food restaurant. He held every job, from cook to dishwasher to cashier, learning the business inside and out.

In 1989, after many difficulties, his big break came, not in his field but when a relative abandoned a failing restaurant, turning over the keys to Dergham at no cost.

Kamal Dergham arrived in the U.S. in 1979 and trained as a mechanical engineer until he saw an opportunity in a relative's failed restaurant.

For six months, Dergham made no money, only friends. Standing outside the restaurant, he chatted with merchants, strangers and passing children, a few of whom eventually ventured inside to try "American food with a Lebanese humbleness."

Today his Pita Delite restaurant chain, based in Greensboro, N.C., has six locations, three of them franchises.

Dergham's refusal to be defined by training or tradition is typical of successful immigrant entrepreneurs, says Carolyn Ockels, a partner in Bay Area market research company Emergent Research. "Don't define yourself narrowly," advises Ockels, pointing to her manicurist, a lawyer in Vietnam who launched a successful chain of nail salons when thwarted by a lack of credentials and language skills.

Lesson 2: Take a chance

Immigrants are risk-takers by definition. Like Dergham, "people who immigrate generally are more achievement-oriented," says Abdul Rasheed, professor of strategic management and international business at the University of Texas at Arlington. "That's why they are here in the first place."

Without money for restaurant food supplies, Dergham, his wife, mother, father and younger brother cooked each day's menu from supplies on hand, using the day's meager receipts to buy for the next day. They shared a two-bedroom apartment, crowded by American standards but roomy to Dergham, in whose childhood home in Lebanon six children had slept "head to tail" in three beds.

He worked 13-hour days and six-day weeks: "Pita Delite was my boss. I did not feel like I owned the business. I feel like I'm working for it," he says.

Summoning strength for sacrifices typifies self-made millionaires, says Alan Lavine. He and Gail Liberman wrote "Rags to Riches: Motivating Stories of How Ordinary People Achieved Extraordinary Wealth!" He tells of Lisa Renshaw, who founded her multimillion-dollar Penn Parking at age 21 by buying a parking garage and living in it for three years while growing the business.

"In developing economies, you try things because you don't have a choice," says Ockels. "The failure rate might be higher in those economies, but there is more small-business generation."

Lesson 3: Work, work, work

Sheela Murthy heads a 60-person law firm near Baltimore and grosses millions of dollars a year, enabling her to indulge her greatest pleasure, charitable giving. She arrived from India in 1985, dead broke and 24. She had, however, a secret weapon: her willingness to work long hours.

"I can work 18 hours a day and really turn it out," she says. "I am very ambitious."

In the U.S., hard work produces "immediate results," unlike back home in her day where, she says, no one -- least of all a woman -- could get established without connections. (Intuit's study finds immigrant women start businesses at a rate almost twice that of native-born American women.)

Murthy came from a middle-class family, but there was no money for indulgences. She worked full time while attending a free government university and law school. Stellar performance in an international competition propelled her into a Harvard Law School graduate program. She worked full time as a campus security guard while studying and saving.

Lesson 4: Fill a void

Murthy's rise exemplifies the tendency of immigrants to spot and fill unmet needs, particularly in their own communities. Murthy's Harvard degree immediately gained her a $70,000 job as a corporate lawyer, but she hated the atmosphere. She needed to know she was helping people. Searching for a specialty, she recalled the poor job her own immigration lawyer had done. Other newcomers, she realized, needed trustworthy help with complex American immigration laws.

Nine years after arriving, she went solo. The pool of clients in Baltimore was limited, but her volunteer column on immigration law for a nonprofit newsletter generated a huge response, telling her that the Internet might reach new clients everywhere.

Today Murthy, 45, serves corporations, nonprofits, small businesses and individuals all over the world and continues volunteering advice through her popular Web site, newsletter and online chats. She says her foundation gave $600,000 last year and $800,000 this year to charity.

Lesson 5: Network with others like yourself

Anatoly was 21 in 1995 when he left Russia for business school in America. It was a big leap: He had no money, and his student visa's terms forbade him from taking a job. But, in the post-perestroika turmoil, Russians were desperate for Western cars and tools. Before he left he distributed his e-mail address and cell-phone number far and wide, telling people, "Make sure you guys call me first if you need anything, if you need nice SUVs -- anything."

He financed two MBAs -- in international business and information technology -- by filling orders from friends, acquaintances and strangers, marking up cars $1,500 or $2,000. (Lest his exports get him into immigration trouble, he agreed to be interviewed using only his first name.) Like Murthy and Dergham, he spotted a void and filled it.

Immigrants without access to local language, capital or cultural acumen turn to networks of their countrymen for training, financing, advice and customers. Surprising trust develops. Anatoly once received a phone call from a Russian businessman living in Turkey whose friend in Russia had purchased a car from Anatoly. The stranger ordered a white Chrysler Town & Country minivan and immediately wired $32,000 in cash to Anatoly's bank account.

Lesson 6: Despise debt, scrimp and save

People who have witnessed economic catastrophe firsthand tend to squirrel away money. "When the rainy day comes, which happens more often overseas than here, you have only yourself to rely on," says Anatoly. Like Dergham and Murthy, he is a fanatical saver.

Now 32, Anatoly has finished school, gotten a green card and married a Russian engineer. Recently, they became parents. He works at a nonprofit, designing complex accounting and administration systems. He makes $51,000 a year, yet he estimates he saves at least 40% before taxes. His wife can't yet work -- she's waiting impatiently for a green card. Still, they bought a house last year, just five years after he began his job, using a down payment earned partly from reselling garage-sale finds on eBay.

"I am fortunate to have a wife who is very disciplined," he says. "She . . . is even more than me into being debt-free." Their new goal: a duplex rental property.

Dergham says he has capable American friends whose success is undermined by spending habits: "They make half of what I make but live 10 times better than I do."

Starting from scratch is tough anywhere, yet it can be done. "You must be your own boss to make money," Dergham says, "and this country gives a great opportunity. There is no country in the world like that."

Published Sept. 11, 2007

I PAID $24,000 to be a REAL ESTATE INVESTOR !

2007-07-31T06:12:00.000-04:00

No not me. A bunch of people I have met from my REIA new orientation (yes I finally joined a REIA after years of struggling in this business). Several of them mentioned that they joined the Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki Real Estate School and they are learning alot from it.

Currently Rich Dad is undergoing an marketing blitz on sharing to others how to become financially free by offering FREE TRAINING in various cities across the country. I am sure this is a good marketing for upselling to their various higher priced courses. While I am not against selling or marketing as I am an entrepreneur myself, I prefer to give abundant value to those who are my clients. In the case of these real estate institutes, schools, and bootcamps it seems like I am paying $10 for a can of soda that I can get for $.50. While I am sure that people are getting something of these educational organizations I question the pricing of these compared to the various alternatives.

Recently one of my family members friend called me to tell me that he is in the business of real estate. I was surprised and wanted to know more. He explained that he was retired and now entering into 2 new business ventures - real estate and travel. I wanted to know what made him jump into them. He told me after retiring from civil service he was bored and attended a Robert Allen FREE TRAINING on becoming a millionaire. IMMEDIATELY a red flag in my head rose and I asked.... "how much"? He blurted out "$15,000" and he is looking to do deals in order to pay for that education back quickly. I was shocked but not surprised by his comment as I have heard this story many times. In fact I was like that. I watched all these late informericals about how to become rich in my sleep buying property NO MONEY DOWN and attending some of these FREE WORKSHOPS and SEMINARS. Going there and finding people selling their wares. Not all are bad as I have met Vena Jones Cox (www.regoddess.com) who was once the President of the Cincinnati Ohio REIA through a Wright Thurston bootcamp.

I do see some value in some of these bootcamps who also offer mentorship. It is surprising to me how people are willing to pay so much and they can easily get education from more accredited educational sources from REIAs or even universities such as Baruch College CUNY or NYU for much lower costs.

For example, I just joined a REIA in my local area for a whopping price of ...............
$125 / year!
Yes I know that there will be materials sold however for the information and networking offered in a major metropolitan area that is incredible value. You can find partners to do deals with or even a course that is 1/4 of what the gurus are pricing for their wares. This month I have some masterminds appearing in order to see what deals are out there.

Another example, I looked into my alma mater to see what classes they are offering in the real estate industry. Here it goes:

----
Real Estate Finance
Law of Real Estate Transactions and Land Use Regulations
Real Estate Valuation and Market Analysis
Real Estate Capital Markets
Advanced Real Estate Investment Analysis
Economics of Urban Areas
Urban Economic Development
* Each course is 3 credits and each credit is $400 for this MBA degree.
-----

So each course for over 3 hrs a week for a school semester which is about 15 weeks is less than $80 / credit. Now if you join full time it is $4400 for at least 12 credits a semester.

Now you will say, "hey but these don't teach you to flip deals, lease option a house, or even short sale a note!". WAIT! This give you SOLID information and tools on real estate valuation and also understanding how real estate works. In addition, there are more reasonably priced entrepreneurial courses on real estate that don't cost as much. For example:

The Ohio Professional Housing Provider's Program
http://www.cincinnatireia.com/ClubPortal/ClubStatic.cfm?clubID=882&pubmenuoptID=9971

Course of study
The course of study will be divided into 42 clock hours of core courses and 18 hours of elective topics for a total of 60 hours of formal education. The core topics are as follows:

Appraisal - 2 hours
Including formal appraisal methods (cost, income, and replacement methods), PACE instruction, how to compare properties, etc.

Rehab - 4 hours
Classroom - 2 hours (including estimation, which projects will pay for themselves, etc.). Hands-on - 2 hours (including actual hands-on opportunities and demonstrations)

Fair housing law - 3 hours
Federal, state, and local fair housing regulations

Negotiation - 3 hours
Negotiating with sellers, buyers, renters, contractors and vendors, banks, etc.

Finance - 6 hours
Conventional financing, FHA/VA financing, owner financing of all types, comparing financing, offering financing.

Tenant-Landlord law - 2 hours
Landlord's and tenants responsibilities, evictions, etc.

Contract Law - 3 hours
Basic contract law, using contracts and clauses to protect yourself, developing contracts such as leases, options, purchase contracts etc., that are for the real estate investment business.

Local regulations - 2 hours
Zoning and building codes

Federal regulations - 1 hour
Regulations affecting real estate investment OTHER THAN tax laws, fair housing laws, and EPA regulations.

EPA regulations - 1 hour
Regulations affecting real estate investment such as: lead paint regulations, wetlands regulations, underground storage tank regulations, environmental quality zone regulations, etc.

Management - 4 hours
Record keeping; dealing with tenants; maximizing cash flow; and others

Purchasing - 2 hours
Finding deals and calculating profitability

Inspections - 2 hours
Pre and post purchase inspections, and pre and post move-out inspections of properties held

Tax law (income) - 1 hour
Calculating and minimizing taxes, and tax laws as they affect the real estate investor

Tax law (other) - 1 hour
Property taxes, 1031 tax deferred trades, etc.

Insurance-property - 1 hour
Including what type of property insurance is appropriate for investment property; negotiating for the best rates and renter's insurance

Insurance-worker's compensation - 1 hour
When, why, and for whom to carry worker's compensation insurance

Insurance-liability - 1 hour
Including why and how much

Marketing - 2 hours
How to market properties for sale and for rent; how to market buying services

Ethics - 2 hours
Including enacting and actual use of, national, state, local and personal buisiness ethics statements, policies and practices.

Electives - 18 hours
The remaining 18 hours may include education in any or all of the above topics, as selected by the OPHP candidate.

This is a program that is released in Ohio as a response to the various investors who have taken advantage of homeowners in distress. This course is designed not only to instruct people on the HOW TO STEPS of becoming an real estate entrepreneur but it also gives you legal, taxes, and other supporting information on how to comply with the law. Yes it is in Ohio however consider how many people are flying to LV, Cali, or even NYC to take a real estate guru's course that costs 5x as much and more?

Lastly we have knowledge that you learn through books, CDs, and life experience. There are many books out there so I use AMAZON (www.amazon.com) to shift through them. Home study courses I search through websites like http://realestatecoursereviews.com which does a peer to peer review on various courses that I can purchase from the vendor / guru or on ebay (www.ebay.com). The life experience comes from possibly becoming a realtor, appraiser, loan officer, contractor, etc... as it affords real life practice and experience into a transaction to know how real estate transactions are performed in real life.

If you found this of value, please post your comment and experience. Thanks!

Learning to Rehab ... THE RIGHT WAY !

2007-07-03T17:32:00.000-04:00

This past weekend went to the REHABBING RIGHT bootcamp offered in Cincinnati Ohio by Vena Jones Cox (www.regoddess.com) and Jerry Fink (http://cj-phoenix.com/) who at this time of writing is the President of the Cincinnati REIA. It was a 2 day bootcamp however it was tough to cover in depth and do justice the whole field of rehab.

Day 1 - drove around to look at 3 properties and also the Home Depot to see how to look for various items

Day 2 - went through various topics including - how to find a deal, what is a deal and the various MAO (maximum allowable offers) on each exit strategy, how to make an offer and fund the deal, making up a statement of work, finding a contractor, managing a contractor, paperwork required to make sure you limit liability, preparing the property for sale or rental, finding renters or buyers, etc..., making it a business, diagnosing the health of the business, how to use his purchasing software to buy items from Home Depot and other vendors

Overall Jerry did a good job and getting the material going through and offering best tips. I have various projects going on that I want to use this system. For the price given it is a nice package.

Congrats to Runner Up JAMES SUN on his place in Apprentice 6

2007-04-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

James Sun is the runner up to Stefani Schaeffer from season 6 the Apprentice. It was amazing throughout the whole finale that James was the heads on favorite due to his strong performance as Project Manager of Arrow Corporation throughout the 14 week reality tv interview process. The winner gets to be an apprentice of real estate mogul Donald Trump with a paid salary of $250K. Throughout the whole interview process, James was top notch in his sales ability, leadership, energy, and focus. You can view the whole interview process at:

http://apprentice.tv.yahoo.com/trump/06/

What was baffling was the finale in which Stefani Schaeffer, a 32 yr old defense attorney, won the Apprentice even though she never was the project manager. Trump fires James with the enigmatic words:

"I didn't like some of the dialogue……you know what I mean."

It was baffling to me as a viewer as it seemed that James was fit in the mold of previous apprentice winners - entrepreneurial, high energy, intelligent, aggressive, risk taker, etc.. among other things.

With that Stephani Schaeffer became the winner for this season's Apprentice. She is deserving however throughout the whole interview process she didn't risk or even put herself on the hot seat like the others in the Project Manager position. However she did contribute greatly to the success of her teams.

To James - BRAVO for representing the asian american community and much continued success at your business and personal endeavors!

Additional Links:

James Sun Blog on Zoodango:
http://zoodango.com/f2f/article/z3c4c5a84s92dh/my_apprentice_finale_thoughts

Stephani Schaeffer's interview on RealityTVWorld.com:
http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/stefanie-schaeffer-shocked-win-the-apprentice-los-angeles-5059.php

There are 3 Types of People in the World - Which one are YOU?

2007-04-18T22:10:00.000-04:00

This is sent to me by a friend who is readying, firing, and aiming :) This was made for someone who is into bodybuilding.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

1) The ones who say they're going to accomplish something yet they never even attempt it.

They talk the talk and never walk the walk. They spend their lives making excuses for their problems and never actually getting off of their asses to do something about it.

They will waste their years wishing but never having. They will resent and criticize those who succeed because they know that they will never succeed themselves.

They lack willpower and discipline. They are doomed to a life of mediocrity but will never accept responsibility for this.

2) The ones who say they're going to accomplish something, attempt it, and quit soon thereafter.

They talk the talk, begin to walk the walk, but fall down in exhaustion, never reaching their goals or enjoying the fruits of their labour on any kind of long term basis.

They lack patience. They lack perseverance. They too will never stand among the elite and will struggle time and time again but continually fall short.

They deserve some credit for their attempts at success, but simply do not possess the tools needed to follow through.

3) The ones who say they're going to accomplish something, form a blueprint for how they will get there, and then, quite simply, they get there.

They make firm decisions that contain no hints of "maybe" or "try". They understand that there are 2 possible outcomes in any decision: success or failure. They crave success, and they will do anything they have to do to achieve it.

When they make a decision to accomplish something, they already know that they will succeed. They don't question their ability to achieve a goal, they only question the time that it will take to get there.

They understand that within their minds lies all of the tools necessary to accomplish anything in the external world. They have faith in their talents and beliefs and truly feel that they can accomplish anything they want.

They make no excuses. They understand that they are in complete and total control of their destiny, and that every man and woman is responsible for their own lives.

They are ready and willing to battle through setbacks, physical and mental pain, discomfort and exhaustion. They know that anything worth having does not come easy, and that no man or woman ever achieved anything great without a struggle.

They are willing to struggle to be great.

They never fail in the long run. They only experience momentary setbacks and bumps in the road. When a setback or bump in the road presents itself, they form a plan for how they will get past it.

They don't stop, stare and question whether to quit or keep going. Quitting is not an option in their minds, and they thrive on the battle and understand that setbacks and mistakes serve no other purpose than to make their inevitable victory that much sweeter.

They see the big picture.

And when the smoke clears and dust settles, they stand among the elite. They soak up the satisfaction of their victories and look back on their accomplishments with a feeling of pride and fulfillment. They gain the respect and envy of others and know that they deserve it.

Which category do you fall under?

True success is only reserved for category 3.

It is an ongoing battle that does not lend itself to those who seek instant gratification. It will not be had by those who are unwilling to dedicate themselves to a goal and work hard to achieve it.

If you have any doubts about your ability to succeed, eliminate them.

Dissolve your questioning, your fears and your wondering.

Make firm decisions for what you want to achieve, create a map for how to get there, and then... quite simply, get there.

Only when your decisions contain questions of "when can I reach this goal" rather than "will I reach this goal" will you ever truly succeed both in bodybuilding and in life.

I can't make the decision for you, I can only teach you how to get there. Your choice comes from within, and not a single person in this world can make those choices but you.

Written by Sean Nalewanyj

Facing Foreclosure: Casey Serin's Story on Making Mistakes in the REI Game

2007-03-09T23:39:00.000-05:00

Here is a story I caught on wikipedia.org:

http://iamfacingforeclosure.com

Casey Serin: I'm a 24 yr old "would-be real estate mogul" from Sacramento CA. After going to a few seminars I bought 8 houses in 8 months in 4 states with no money down looking to fix 'n flip. I made some mistakes and am now millions in debt, trying to avoid foreclosure, sell quickly, repay everyone, and share my lessons to help others in trouble.

World's Greatest Real Estate Investor - Tom Barrack !

2007-02-12T23:59:00.000-05:00

Why the World's Best Real Estate Investor is Cashing Out?

Good article
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/21/news/newsmakers/barrack/index.htm

Happy New Year 2007! - Starting a new leaf

2007-02-08T03:10:00.000-05:00

Yes it is now February and many things have been happening from the New Year to now. For the most part I have made quite a few new initiatives like most people which include:

* new body - losing 20 lbs this year
* new mind - working on being a better entrepreneur
* new spirit - having a happier attitude and focusing more on the good in life

among other things...

One of the main things that seems evident however something I am learning is letting go of old habits in order to make way for the new. It seems so easy to fall back on old comfortable habits and forging way into new ones does takes time and energy and focus.

I have a list of over 40 goals that I want to achieve and realize before I pass away. Alot of these are not outrageous however instead in order to create them it does take risk, smarts, and work. Ah the dreaded "W-O-R-K" word! It is something that I am also learning that it is not bad however it is the vehicle to success in life. Doesn't it seem natural to want to do nothing and get something in life? I know for myself I am spoiled by my family who seem to do things the "hard" way and share in the spoils of it while I work at things and don't like to "work hard". I realize that while work seems mundane it is only a perception. These days I am looking to change my ideas of work in order to achieve some of the things that I am envisioning for myself such as the new BODY, new MIND, and new SPIRIT.

So this is what I am doing this year:
* reading and repeating my personal affirmations to ready my spirit
* centering myself with support aides such as visual collages
* work a plan to go from 10 minutes daily to studying more on any topics I have
* make minor changes and repeating them for at least 30 days to create new positive habits

By the end of the year, I have more successes to share in my life!

Success Key # 1: Persistence

2006-12-31T00:03:00.000-05:00

In your business, there are going to be times that you simply don't feel like getting up and doing
real estate... PERIOD.

Then, there are going to be other times that you have a heart to heart conversation with the person
staring back at you in the mirror. It might go something like this:

"What are you doing? Did you REALLY think you could do this? Maybe you should cut your losses
and try something else..."

This conversation could go on for minutes, hours or even days at a time. And trust me, these
conversations WILL HAPPEN from time to time if you're in the business long enough (in any
business for that matter).

I remember back about 4 years ago... I was sitting on my couch perched under my front window. I had
just discovered that I'd had 5 break ins in 3 days on 2 out my 3 properties. Yep... that's right.

I felt like laughing and crying all at the same time. I looked out the window, up and down the
street and thought to myself, "What the heck have you gotten yourself into?" I just wanted a way out.
I wanted to quit and go get a job waiting tables.

But, what made the difference? How did I get past that point and ultimately skyrocket from it?

It was 3 fold: Decision, Persistence, and Planning.

I'll talk to you a little more about decision and planning in the next couple days (it'll all make
sense in a couple of days, trust me :-))

But for now... let's talk about how we can persist when things get tough. Here are 5 Tips to get you
started:

TIP #1
First, you need to close all doors behind you. There is no longer any back door; any "way out".
Commit to this business and commit to giving it everything that you have. You see, if you give it
every effort - every REAL effort.

So many times, we stick our big toe in the water and decide it's not for us or it doesn't work.
Jump in as if you're out in the middle of the ocean and you need to get yourself back to the
shore... no life rope... no floatation device...

Your only option is to learn to swim - and do it fast. Now, I'm not suggestion quit your job if you
are using it to pay your bills, but I a suggesting that you STOP looking for the new magic pill.

That is committment and it's going all in. It is no longer a matter of "if I can do real estate".
It becomes a matter of "when" and "how". (The good news is this... with a short time of hard work,
you'll be free to go and explore new opportunities with the confidence that you CAN do it)

A good friend of mine, Armand Morin, says that "success leaves traces". I believe failure does too!
So why not become successful rather than fail!

TIP#2
Next, you need to plaster your "WHY" all over the place. I know you've heard it 1000 times before,
but have you done it? Can you see, touch, taste, hear and smell the reasons that you are doing
this? If not, when the going gets tough, you'll quit going!

Start living the life you want to have on a small scale. If your dream is more time with your kids,
build in an extra hour each week NOW and start experiencing it. It will keep you going. If your
why is to travel, start taking one day trips once a month. They don't have to cost a lot, but
they let you experience what it's like to start living the way you want to.

TIP #3
Stop what you are doing and WRITE OUT YOUR GOALS. Do this before January 1st. Do it now! You need
to know where you're going if you're going to get there. Now, don't sit here at your computer and
jot them down in notepad.

Get a real notebook out. Grab your favorite pen and go to a quiet area and WRITE. Something happens
when you take the time to write out your goals. Then, make a dozen copies of your goals and keep
them with you. Maybe even make your goals your screensaver on your computer. Never let them leave
your side and read them every day.

TIP #4
Set your "real estate" hours. It doesn't matter what you have on your plate (job, family, other
businesses,etc.). You need to block time out for your real estate business. It may be 10-12 every
day or it may be 6pm-8pm every night. But it is important you do it consistently.

Use this time to write your marketing letters, to call potential sellers, to follow up on deals, to
do what it takes to get the leads coming in. This eliminates excuses. You have it set on your
schedule. You don't think about it. Nothing gets in the way to allow you to make your excuses. And
let's face it, 99% of the reason you're not where you want to be is an excuse. Sure, it may be
disguised as a valid reason, but rest assured there are only a few things that are REAL reasons you're
not as successful as you could be.

Think about it...

Money?
You haven't taken the time to learn how to do the business WITHOUT your own money. I didn't have two
nickels to rub together when I got started

Time?
Make it. If you can tell me that you don't have 2 hours/day (12 hours/week that you can dig up), you
don't want to. If you're letting your kids be your excuse for not having time, you're looking at it
the wrong way! Teach your kids the entreprenuerial mindset. Involve them and build it together.

See... it's all how you look at it and if you really want it bad enough.

The list can go on and on, but 99% of the time, there is a solution. For that 1% of the time that
there is not, I understand. And you need to take the time to deal with those life challenges. And
in my opinion, even those life challenges can be excuses sometimes.

TIP#5
Build your support team. I am NOT suggesting to call all your friends and family here. These may NOT be
the right people. In fact, when I was starting, I had a partner and we had our best friend over the
house. She literally looked us square in the eye and asked, "Do you REALLY think anyone's going to take
YOU TWO seriously?"

The sad thing is that she thought she was HELPING us and keeping us from getting crushed.

So, sometimes, you need to step outside of your sphere and find new people that share the same ideas,
values and enthusiasm that you have.

I look back to my everyday circle of influence when I started and compare it to my circle of influence
now and it's not made up of one single person that was there back then. This is possibly the hardest
part of the business! Letting go of the old to make room for the new.

The good news is that the people I made room for are like an extended family that spans all over the
United States and beyond. I couldn't hand pick better people. These are people that I met by
going to seminars, workshops, and events and networking with people all over. From these groups,
we've build mastermind teams that get together once a week.

This keeps you going... it keeps you upbeat and motivated to press on. It keeps you focused. Here's
what you do:

- What have you done in the last 7 days for your business?
- What is holding you back or what do you need help on to take the next steps?
- What are you going to do between now and the next time you get together?

This works the very best if you have a coach facilitating the process with your mastermind team,
but can be done with just a group of people as well.

It holds you accountable to someone other than yourself and forces you to stick with it.

So, take today and focus yourself. Write down your goals, make a committment to your business in the
new year, and start looking for a coach and a mastermind team to get you to the next level.

I've had many mentors in my businesses and have paid 10s of 1000s of dollars (no exaggeration) to
build relationships. In fact, several years ago, I spent $16,000 without even knowing what all was
involved, but I knew I wanted the relationship and the team that was being developed. I committed to
that aspect of my business and have seen my return 10 fold and it's still growing.

In fact, some of the people I met as a result of that investment are now partners of mine in
6-figure companies with huge potential.

Tomorrow, I want to discuss "planning" with you.We're at the end of a year, just days away from the
new year and if you've not gotten your plan set up, what are you waiting for?

So again, take today and get the big rocks planned so that tomorrow we can start planning!

Yours in Success,
Heather Seitz
www.InterviewsWithTheExperts.com
www.FixingAndFlipping.com
www.MotivatedSellerMarketing.com
www.RehabProfitSystem.com
www.Yamon.net
www.NextLevelPromoters.com
www.BigSeminar.net

Heather Seitz is a licensed Realtor® in the state of Florida. Heather
specializes in working with investors, golf communities and old Spanish
homes.

Reproduced with permission.

Credit Repair ?

2006-12-19T09:23:00.000-05:00

Here is information on credit repair:

FTC (US Government)
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/repair.htm

What it Takes to be GREAT !

2006-11-08T05:06:00.000-05:00

Interesting read for you:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391794/index.htm

Here are some quotes to note:

"So greatness isn't handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work."

"Instead, it's all about how you do what you're already doing - you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes. The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it."

"Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it's the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset."

"Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call "mental models of your business" - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another. The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow."

"Do it regularly, not sporadically."

"... the striking, liberating news is that greatness isn't reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone."

Stop Internet Child Pornography - Light a Candle

2006-09-29T08:21:00.000-04:00

This was sent to me. You can join in the petition to stop internet child pornography.

Go to:
http://www.lightamillioncandles.com/

Pics from 9-11-2006 World Trade Center Ceremony

2006-09-11T16:18:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics of the ceremony down at the NYC World Trade Center site on September 11, 2006.

Click here to view my pics

You can view more grassroots photos about September 11, 2001 by going to:

Here is New York: A Democracy of Photos

Here is an interview with our ex Mayor - Rudy Giuliani remembering on the 5th Year Anniversary of 9-11

Click here to see the interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News

***

Hey thanks Dave. Five years later and the emotion is still there. I
remember standing in front of the towers in awe the first time I was
ever in NYC. Awesome pics -- captured the spirit that was there.

David S. - Buffalo, NY

Thanks David!

Nancy - Long Island, NY

Dave -- Thanks for sharing your photos with members of the Power Team. In 2001, I was working for Good Morning America and had the opportunity to do a number of stories relating to the tragedy -- the work of the volunteers at Ground Zero, the families of police officers and firefighters who lost their lives, memorial ceremonies for the airline flight crews, and so on -- such a sad time, but also somehow inspiring to see so many people (formerly strangers) pulling together and helping one another through this unimaginable situation.

Tom M - Ridgefield, CT

Nice pictures. You got some cool ones of the Tribute of Light. Thanks for
sharing!
Erin s - Brooklyn, NY

Thanks for the pics...they were moving.
Your day at Ground Zero must have filled with emotions, sights and sounds.
Howard C - Queens, NY

20/20 Stupid in America

2006-08-30T23:54:00.000-04:00

20/20 Stupid in America

They say Education is Power but is America getting more Powerful?

Ben Chavis, principal of an alternative school in Oakland, CA
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/23/BAGPH8CQRC1.DTL

Check your Bank Account - YOU have been SWINDLED!

2006-06-12T11:27:00.000-04:00

These days working in the real estate field has shown me alot of things from the good to the bad. Some of the things in creative real estate that I have seen enters the gray area to even the illegal. I have a few leads in which the homeowner has been "refi'ed" from lower rate to a higher rate in order to get their equity and the "professional" took their equity! I have even seen several properties appraised over 25% of their fair market value at EXCELLENT condition and the property needs about 100K in work!

In my case, I have been defrauded by various "friends" and also "contractors" who can get me a great price. Even then I have talked to various people who said they can do something and afterwords when I confronted them about their credentials they say, "you either take it or leave it". I left it.

Just this morning my friend from the west coast is leaving the country after an incident in which his group lost the capital of the investment group. They lost the money to a "dealmaker" who was giving them a great discount on some assets.

There is much to be said about trusting people. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, treating them with respect, and creating value for others. What is least talked about is how to insure your interests in things.

I spoke to an investor in California. I asked her does she invest her money with other investment groups. With a quick answer she said - NO! She shared with me a story of how a guy was taking money from a fund of investors. She instead will do her own deals and make them work.

Like Warren Buffet mentions, do not diversify but instead take on the responsibility of investing on what you know and watch the basket of eggs like a hawk! Yet even the best hawks got swindled.

Suffice to say I can go on and on on some of the various scams I have personally seen and heard in my circles but here are some best practices when investing:

1. KNOW WHO YOU ARE INVESTING WITH. How long have they been doing this? What is an example of their project? Do you feel comfortable with them? Are they putting money up in the first few projects to show how confident they are in the deals? Any references?

2. CHECK THE REFERENCES. After I lost money last year to people who promised certain things and didn't perform. I started checking the licenses and information about the companies that are investors. I check the personal references as well as professional ones. I even check the city and state if possible. Kiyosaki mentions that each dollar is an employee so is each investment manager. I take time to interview them. Remember to take time to hire and quick to fire!

3. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE INVESTING IN. Of course if you don't know, ask for information. With the bigger companies it is called a prospectus. With smaller companies ask for brocehures or talk to the principal of the company to understand what they are doing.

4. INVEST ACCORDING TO YOUR PLAN (Note: If you don't have a plan - MAKE ONE!). When I invested with a "friend", I understood what they were doing and trusted that they knew also. I put in only several thousand dollars to see if they would be able to produce. They were not. My plan was not to invest over a flat amount. I stayed with it and took a small loss. I am able to handle it and move on. Others were not as fortunate and are proceeding with ligitation.

5. MEASURE THE RISK AND REWARD (KNOW YOUR #'s). In the above scenario, I calculated 100% return on investment as the reward and a risk of 0% if it failed. I was able to handle the #s as concided with my philosophy of investing and also my risk tolerance. Playing the cashflow board game has been invaluable in simplying the #s and also the strategies.

6. WHAT IS YOUR EXIT STRATEGY? Every investment has an exit strategy. If you don't have one then you will find it a mess. Find out when you can take out money and when you can't. Put a time cost on it and then move on. This is another major reason why newbies investors fail. They don't know their exit.

7. SCREW THEM OVER. One of my friends came up to me and asked me for my opinion. He was telling me he was doing a new construction from his single home to two homes in Staten Island. After some discussion, he found out that the contractor forged his signature and took a draw from the bank without him noticing. Immediately I said, "how much?" He told me, "oh about $150K, what do you think I should do?". I said, "GO AFTER HIM RIGHT NOW! Don't waste your time. Anyone stealing from me is a crook. GO!". My friend said he wanted to wait for the contractor to finish some stuff that is left before reporting him. Basically give him some chances.
I looked at him and was baffled and shared my experience. It is not only a trust issue but business wise every time I wait I am losing money. In addition, if someone steals once they will steal again.
Now I believe in trust, love, patience, etc... I truly have generous spirit and faith in people. Yet, working in the real estate field there are quite a few they don't play that way. They are instead selfish and consider only their desires without regards to others. I know in life we do break the rules in order to fulfill a deeper need like breaking the speed limit on the highway to drive a spouse to the hospital for labor, etc... Yet in these cases, there are people who only care about themselves. In this way I say, "SCREW THEM". Is it an eye for an eye? Yeap but sometimes God uses people to effect a lesson. God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes God uses us.

Ok these should be some guidelines. If you have any feel free to post and let me know.

Enjoy your day!

Learning How to Market and Sell

2006-05-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

After months of inconsistent results one of the areas of weaknesses is the leads that are coming in and also conversion. I haven't been updating as much due to learning how to market and sell. Something so simple yet so powerful that it is not stressed as much in the various real estate guru programs but it is nevertheless critical.

It seems so simple yet books and courses can be written about how important these skills are. Without them the business doesn't even start and is dead. I am currently using the SalesDogs (www.salesdogs.com ) training materials by Blair Singer to start off improving my communication skills. I am also reading the book The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino to create a better positive self image to sell better.

Lastly I have been fortunate enough to enroll 5 other cashflow members in joining with me on how to sell. We have committed to meeting 4 sequential weekdays to practice on this. It is exciting!

My Top 10 Things that a Newbie Should Do to get Started in the Real Estate Business

2006-05-02T22:10:00.000-04:00

Buyer Beware: There are more than 10 top things.

However, here is MY Top 10 list of things a newbie should do to get started in this business:

1) Read EVERYTHING available to you that is free at the library about Creative Real Estate investing, even if the book is old.

2) Read AS MUCH AS YOU CAN while drinking coffee at Barnes & Noble. Buy what interests you and you can afford.

3) Find and join a local (or as local as you can get) Real Estate Investment Club. Look at http://www.nationalreia.com/ to help find one.

4) Call every one of the "We Buy Houses" ads in you local newspapers and talk to the investor. Offer to buy him/her lunch for 30-60 minutes of their time while you pick their brain and explain your current situation.

5) Do an in depth analysis of your current and short term (1 year) financial situation. You need to know a) how much cash you have available immediately to help you find and close deals. This is money that you DO NOT NEED to help pay your bills or feed your face. What is your borrowing capacity, ie Credit score, non-liquid assets that have equity to use as collateral, etc.

6) Using what you have learned above, cultivate relationships with one or two mortgage brokers, bankers, real estate agents.

7) Start a basic business plan targeting only one or two areas of investing, it rehabs, wholesales, flips, subject to's, whatever floats your boat. You'll know what these mean after you do steps 1-4.

My advice to newbies that don't have great credit and large cash reserves: start by flipping (wholesaling). This is where you get a property under contract and "flip" or assign it to another investor.
Advantages: Fast payday, little risk, gets you in the game while you learn more.

Get Bill Bronchick's course "Flipping". It has everything you need to get started. How to do the business, some marketing ideas, all the contracts and forms you'll need. Other than Flipping, make sure you spend significant time on your exit strategies - this is where you realize the profit. Have this in place. Are you going to be a long term hold landlord, or a 3 months rehab and sell flipper, or a wholesaler that never takes title, or.... You get the picture. While you make your profit when you buy, you don't realize it until you sell.

8) Develope a marketing plan. Of all 10 items I list, this is one of the most important. You can spend all kinds of time learning about creative real estate and
how to structure deals, but if you can't find a deal, you are just swimming in acedemia. It must be a 2-sided plan. First part on how to FIND deals, Part Two on Exit Strategy Marketing.

I suggest Ben Innes-Ker's course, "Motivated Seller Magnet". It is inexpensive, and contains truly valuable materials so you don't have to start from scratch, especially if you don't have a marketing degree.

9) Start calling and visiting prospective sellers. Don't worry about making mistakes. Learn from them. If you think you've got a hot one, call on one or more
of your new friends from Step 6.

10) Do your first Deal! Now your hooked like a meth addict. Welcome to the Club.

Dutch
Oklahoma

Helping Homeowners in Central Oklahoma
STOP FORECLOSURE / SAVE YOUR HOME / SAVE YOUR CREDIT
http://www.OKHomesavers.com
We Pay CASH for Referrals!!

Do You Have Billion Dollar Business Idea?

2006-04-19T23:43:00.000-04:00

Hi All,

I was going through the various websites and I caught this one:

http://billiondollarbusiness.blogspot.com

This is authored by Donald Mitchell of the 2000% Solution and other published materials. The website details the Mastermind which is international and building a billion dollar business idea. I wrote to him briefly and he seems to be an open person who has some interesting ideas. I am looking to see what his expertise is on building a world class billion dollar business. Despite all the get quick rich schemes I find that building a billion dollar business does require good business entrepreneurial accumen. If anyone has any comments please let me know. It is a good read to expand one's horizons.

Two Myths About Leadership

2006-03-27T12:26:00.000-05:00

I got this from my daily readings on business and I thought it was very true. Working as an entrepreneur or any type of worthy productive activity - Leadership is required. I feel that many times my perception of leadership to get everyone involved is more important than leading people in a good direction. I find when I am not clear about my vision / intentions then the result becomes muddled and inconsistent. Leadership requires having a clear vision and it makes things better. At this time I have been working with a staff in the Cashflow group in NYC. It has been at times pulling teeth as many don't seem to want to be a leader. They want to follow. This also happens in my business. If I do move and grow then the business doesn't move and grow.
It is so true to get people motivated and willing to work. It comes from within first.

____________________________________________________________

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Two Myths About Leadership

By Michael Masterson

Did you know that the average age of the people who write for Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, and The Wall Street Journal is something like 29 years old?

Don't get me wrong. I read these publications. And I understand the necessity of hiring young, inexperienced writers. But because I have been on the inside of the business-publishing world, I'm skeptical about what I read in the business press ... and especially so about advice that is given.

Such is the case with the advice I read about leadership. For the most part, the ideas seem wrong to me. They don't correspond to anything I've experienced myself, and they don't equate with practices I've seen as a consultant to business owners.

It's not a conspiracy. It's the process that's the problem. I know how secondhand information works. It gets misunderstood, oversimplified, and distorted. And if that's not bad enough, it also gets cleaned up, edited, prettified. Not, in the latter case, by the writers, but by the experts who are being interviewed. (When asked about the secret to his success, what business leader wouldn't want to give motivating credit to his troops?)

Good business writers know how to recognize an interesting idea and present it in a clear, convincing manner. That is good - so long as the idea itself is good. But if the idea is wrong ... then the good writing only serves to waste your time (or do you harm).

There are a lot of myths about leadership floating around out there. And if you take those myths as truth, you can seriously damage your business. Let's take a closer look at two of them, find out why they're wrong ... and what techniques the REAL leaders use.

MYTH #1: "Soft" Leadership Skills Work

I once read an article in which a spokesman for Office Team, a business consulting firm, said "If companies want to be successful in the future, they'll have to adopt soft leadership skills." By this, he meant that you should be listening to your employees, sharing feelings with them, and keeping an open mind "to all kinds of ideas - even bad ones."

If you don't learn these soft skills, the consultancy says, you will be in trouble. Because these softer skills will soon "completely replace the older, harder skills of planning, persuasion, and discipline." Office Team says: "The future office environment won't allow for command-and-control focused management style. Employees want to contribute to decisions and offer creative solutions."

This sort of thinking completely contradicts my own experience. From what I've seen, most employees want leadership. And leadership to them means that someone else solves the problems and tells them what to do about them.

As a leader in your business, you are earning big bucks to do the hard thinking, to make the tough decisions, and to get the job done - even if that means pushing the weight uphill. Yes, you should be open to new ideas. Yes, you should talk to the rank-and-file workers. Yes, you should pay attention to your employees. But the big decisions about where to go and what to make and how to solve the company's problems are ultimately yours.

This requires vision, knowledge, skill, and (most certainly) good ideas. But even more important is an understanding of how to get people to embrace your ideas and work to achieve them ... even in the face of criticism and adversity.

So how do you do it? By making the work worthwhile.
For a perfect example, look to some of the great religious leaders of history. From Jesus Christ to Gandhi, these leaders were able to persuade large groups of people to do all kinds of great and difficult work, merely by creating the idea that the work itself was good. (Yes, there may have been some bribing going on there - the promise of heaven, and all that. But I can't imagine that so many people would have made so many sacrifices without believing that the work itself was worthwhile.)

MYTH #2 "Allowing participation is more important than sharing your vision."

This myth is another gem gleaned from an article in a prestigious business publication. The premise seems to be that, when it comes to setting goals, leaders should focus on fostering and improving employee participation rather than on creating a plan for better business.

That is just silly. Utterly silly. But it was a serious recommendation offered up in sober language by some earnest young writer quoting from some ex-tough-guy businessperson who wanted to sugarcoat his career.

Back here in the real world ... a leader can delegate a great deal of responsibility if he surrounds himself with good people. But the one thing he can never delegate is the job of establishing goals and creating a vision. Unless, that is, he wants to cease being a leader.

Dreaming about what your business can accomplish, thinking about how far it can go and how great it can be, is the most important job you can do. If you are a leader, now or in the future, you must spend much of your spare time doing that.

Yes, you can ask questions. Yes, you can seek advice. But when it comes down to deciding where you want your business to go and what you want it to achieve, you've got to do it yourself. Then ... you've got to share your vision.

It is not easy to inspire work. Those who can have one thing in common: They have a keen ability to create and communicate a compelling vision. This is essential for effective leadership. Most real authorities on leadership recognize this. You can be fairly limited in other intellectual qualities but strong in audacity and the ability to communicate a picture - and still be a successful leader. (Ronald Reagan proved that, didn't he?)

The same can be said for leaders of social causes. When ordinary citizens work tirelessly to respond to a crisis or natural disaster, they do so not for any of the normal reasons that employees work. They do it because they feel that they are compelled by a vision. They feel engaged in a worthwhile process.

Think about religion today. All those apostles you see at airports. Why do they work like that? Why do they submit themselves to that kind of indignity? It's not for the money; they get none. And it's not for public approval; they get the opposite. They shave their heads, put on robes, and spend countless hours begging ... because they believe that what they are doing is good. It's as simple - and as powerful - as that.

To be a great leader, you have to:
• Spend time thinking about how you can make things better.
• Make people believe in the goodness of your ideas.

If you can do both of these things, your employees will gladly work for you. They will beg for you. They will fight for you. And in extreme cases (not that this is something you'd hope for), they may even die for you.

To become a leader is to become powerful and important. To become a leader is to put yourself in a position of authority and influence. To become a leader is a responsibility and a privilege. It can change your life faster and further than just about anything else you can learn to do. And the way to do that is to create a compelling, worthwhile vision and inspire your employees to follow through with the work itself.

Real Time Real Estate Valuations from Zillow.com

2006-02-09T13:21:00.000-05:00

People have been sharing with me about the newly launched website www.zillow.com which is supposed to provide real time valuations on real estate nationwide. I have done some with my current residence which is fairly accurate and some with the real estate projects I have been doing. The market area in Philadelphia is flaky as it is a highly appreciating market and tough to get a good comp as they are going block per block

Otherwise this is another tool to use in doing your due diligence for the valuation of how much your property is worth fully renovated.

For more info:
Zillow unveils real-time home values service
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/258748_zillow08.html

Zillow Goes Live -- Too Soon?

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/archives/2006/02/zillow_goes_liv.html

Want to Accelerate Your Learning Financial Literacy? Play Cashflow!

2006-01-14T21:10:00.000-05:00

I have been playing the game Cashflow by Robert Kiyosaki - NYT Best Seller author of the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad". There are so many insights in that book and the succeeding books that it peers into building financial literacy and the game of money being played from the smallest person to the largest corporations and countries. I have been playing for several years now and I host a club in one of the metro NYC areas.

What I have learned is:
* How to recongnize a good or bad deal.
* What is an asset and what is a liability.
* How to read a basic financial statement.
* How abundant the opportunities are out there to create wealth.
* How to communicate with others to joint venture or negotiate favorable terms.
* When to leverage and when not to leverage.
* What are some of the challenges I have to attain wealth.

There are many more insights that I have learned and implement in real life as I take some of the principles and apply to real life and back to the game. I have played well over a hundred games and I learn about myself and others through it. I have also played with people who are advanced in real life and proceed to continue to learn through it.

In addition, I have hosted the game many times as I am self fulfilled when sharing my knowledge to others. I have many times found people say how interesting or something they didn't realize or how much they learned when playing when I am hosting / teaching. Right now I don't have as much time to do it and also I am aiming to build a stronger foundation and core to the group so I collaborated with another member to systematize the hosting. It should be very interesting work.

If you haven't yet I suggest you purchase the game and begin to learn about yourself and how to build wealth.

Updates:

Friday January 20, 2006 Cashflow Session
Something to share about yesterday's meeting.

The last few months we have received a sporadic few people who are inconsistent in coming to play the cashflow games. I believe it is due to the energy that the group has dwindled to. Inconsistent focus and commitment to one's inner truth.

The core members have been discussing changing the group dynamics with the possibilty of closing the group to other newcomers and making it into a MASTERMIND or investment club to enable the core members to focus on improving each other. In addtion, we have various other cashflow groups that just play the game just to play it without regards to implementing the philosophy in real life and other larger groups that are doing it in real life.

So yesterday we didn't see a large turn out of people so we were going to move forward and discuss about how to actualize our dreams in real life with tangible action steps.

In less than a few minutes, 3 newcomers joined us. 2 of which said they were creating an investment club and saw we were playing the game (they played frequently on the egame and several times on the board game). 1 came once and that was a few months ago.

Fast forward after 2.5 hrs and the reactions are: "wow", "I never saw that before", "I have to come back", "This is great", "There is so much information that I am overwhelmed in a good way", etc....

The newcomers were glad that there were people who were generous to be open and give back to others.

A few things at random that floated in my mind:
* It is good to give back to the community. I always felt that it is possibly ego driven but I enjoy sharing what I know.
* The hosting system that we created needs more tweaking but we will have a hosting system tweaked out in the next few weeks.
* Keeping the group open gives new blood and to feel that wonder of seeing the game new is fun.
* We are growing our brothers and sisters in life. I totally respect others who are serious about their lives and want to live to the fullest.
* Not all are ready to embark on the journey as many have said they will come but they don't come.
* Be inspired by ourselves first. This will enroll and inspire others.

________________________________________________________________________

Articles

Chicago Tribune 1/17/2006 (you may need to register for free on this site)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601170164jan17,1,2379933.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true

Who is Time's 2005 Persons of the Year?

2006-01-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

Time has named Bono, Bill and Melinda gates to be 2005 Persons of the Year. The whole article is located here:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1142278,00.html

Persons of the Year

By NANCY GIBBS

Posted Monday, Dec. 19, 2005
These are not the people you expect to come to the rescue. Rock stars are designed to be shiny, shallow creatures, furloughed from reality for all time. Billionaires are even more removed, nestled atop fantastic wealth where they never again have to place their own calls or defrost dinner or fly commercial. So Bono spends several thousand dollars at a restaurant for a nice Pinot Noir, and Bill Gates, the great predator of the Internet age, has a trampoline room in his $100 million house. It makes you think that if these guys can decide to make it their mission to save the world, partner with people they would never otherwise meet, care about causes that are not sexy or dignified in the ways that celebrities normally require, then no one really has a good excuse anymore for just staying on the sidelines and watching.

Such is the nature of Bono's fame that just about everyone in the world wants to meet him--except for the richest man in the world, who thought it would be a waste of time. "World health is immensely complicated," says Gates, recalling that first encounter in 2002. "It doesn't really boil down to a 'Let's be nice' analysis. So I thought a meeting wouldn't be all that valuable."

It took about three minutes with Bono for Gates to change his mind. Bill and his wife Melinda, another computer nerd turned poverty warrior, love facts and data with a tenderness most people reserve for their children, and Bono was hurling metrics across the table as fast as they could keep up. "He was every bit the geek that we are," says Gates Foundation chief Patty Stonesifer, who helped broker that first summit. "He just happens to be a geek who is a fantastic musician."

And so another alliance was born: unlikely, unsentimental, hard nosed, clear eyed and dead set on driving poverty into history. The rocker's job is to be raucous, grab our attention. The engineers' job is to make things work. 2005 is the year they turned the corner, when Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest; now those countries can spend the money on health and schools rather than interest payments--and have no more excuses for not doing so. The Gateses, having built the world's biggest charity, with a $29 billion endowment, spent the year giving more money away faster than anyone ever has, including nearly half a billion dollars for the Grand Challenges, in which they asked the very best brains in the world how they would solve a huge problem, like inventing a vaccine that needs no needles and no refrigeration, if they had the money to do it.

It would be easy to watch the alliance in action and imagine the division of labor: head and heart, business and culture; one side brings the money, the other side the buzz. But like many great teams, this one is more than the sum of its symbols. Apart from his music stardom, Bono is a busy capitalist (he's a named partner in a $2 billion private equity firm), moves in political circles like a very charming shark, aptly named his organization DATA (debt, AIDS, trade, Africa) to capture both the breadth of his ambitions and the depth of his research. Meanwhile, you could watch Bill and Melinda coolly calculate how many lives will be saved by each billion they spend and miss how impassioned they are about the suffering they have seen. "He's changing the world twice," says Bono of Bill. "And the second act for Bill Gates may be the one that history regards more."

For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are TIME's Persons of the Year.

As it happens, they have arrived at the right time, as America stirs itself awake from the dreamy indifference with which the world's poor have forever been treated. In ordinary times, we give when it's easy: a gesture, a reflex, a salve to conscience. The entreaties come on late-night TV from well-meaning but long-discarded celebrities who cuddle with big-eyed children and appeal to pity and guilt. Maybe we send off a check, hope it will help someone somewhere stay alive for another day. That is not the model for the current crusaders or the message for these extraordinary times.

This was already a year that redefined generosity. Americans gave more money to tsunami relief, more than $1.6 billion, than to any overseas mission ever before. The Hurricane Season from Hell brought another outpouring of money and time and water bottles and socks and coats and offers of refuge, some $2.7 billion so far. The public failure of government to manage disaster became the political story of the year. But the private response of individuals, from every last lemonade stand to every mitten drive, is the human story of 2005.

"Katrina created one tragedy and revealed another," Melinda Gates said in a speech after the hurricane. "We have to address the inequities that were not created by the hurricanes but exposed by them. We have to ensure that people have the opportunity to make the most of their lives." That just about captures the larger mission she and her husband have embraced. In the poorest countries, every day is as deadly as a hurricane. Malaria kills two African children a minute, round the clock. In that minute a woman dies from complications during pregnancy, nine people get infected with HIV, three people die of TB. A vast host of aid workers and agencies and national governments and international organizations have struggled for years to get ahead of the problem but often fell behind. The task was too big, too complicated. There was no one in charge, no consensus about what to do first and never enough money to do it. In Muslim parts of Ethiopia, aid workers can't talk to teenage girls about condoms to prevent AIDS; but in Tanzania they're encouraged to. How you cut an umbilical cord can determine whether a baby risks a fatal infection, but every culture has its own traditions. They cut with a coin for luck in Nepal and a stone in Bolivia, where they think if you use a razor blade the child will grow up to be a thief. There is no one solution to fit all countries, and so the model the Gates Foundation and Bono have embraced pulls in everyone, at every level. Think globally. Act carefully. Prove what works. Then use whatever levers you have to get it done.

The challenge of "stupid poverty"--the people who die for want of a $2 pill because they live on $1 a day--was enough to draw Gates away from Microsoft years before he intended to shift his focus from making money to giving it away. He and Melinda looked around and recognized a systems failure. "Those lives were being treated as if they weren't valuable," Gates told FORTUNE in 2002. "Well, when you have the resources that could make a very big impact, you can't just say to yourself, 'O.K., when I'm 60, I'll get around to that. Stand by.'"

There have always been rich and famous people who feel the call to "give back," which is where big marble buildings and opera houses come from. But Bill and Melinda didn't set out to win any prizes--or friends. "They've gone into international health," says Paul Farmer, a public-health pioneer, "and said, 'What, are you guys kidding? Is this the best you can do?'" Gates' standards are shaping the charitable marketplace as he has the software universe. "He wants to know where every penny goes," says Bono, whose DATA got off the ground with a Gates Foundation grant. "Not because those pennies mean so much to him, but because he's demanding efficiency." His rigor has been a blessing to everyone--not least of all Bono, who was at particular risk of not being taken seriously, just another guilty white guy pestering people for more money without focusing on where it goes. "When an Irish rock star starts talking about it, people go, yeah, you're paid to be indulged and have these ideas," Bono says. "But when Bill Gates says you can fix malaria in 10 years, they know he's done a few spreadsheets."

The Gates commitment acts as a catalyst. They needed the drug companies to come on board, and the major health agencies, the churches, the universities and a whole generation of politicians who were raised to believe that foreign aid was about as politically sexy as postal reform. And that is where Bono's campaign comes in. He goes to churches and talks of Christ and the lepers, citing exactly how many passages of Scripture ("2,103") deal with taking care of the poor; he sits in a corporate boardroom and talks about the role of aid in reviving the U.S. brand. He gets Pat Robertson and Susan Sarandon to do a commercial together for his ONE campaign to "Make Poverty History." Then he heads to Washington, where he stops by a meeting of House Democrats to nuzzle them about debt relief before a private lunch with President George W. Bush, whom he praises for tripling aid to Africa over the past four years. Everyone from Republican Senator Rick Santorum to Hillary Clinton used Bono's October concert as a fund raiser. "He knows how to get people to follow him," Stonesifer says. "We are probably a good complement. We're more likely to give you four facts about the disease than four ways that you can go do something about it."

Bono grasps that politicians don't much like being yelled at by activists who tell them no matter what they do, it's not enough. Bono knows it's never enough, but he also knows how to say so in a way that doesn't leave his audience feeling helpless. He invites everyone into the game, in a way that makes them think they are missing something if they hold back. "After so many years in Washington," says retired Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, whom Bono recruited to his cause, "I had met enough well-known people to quickly figure out who was genuine and who was there for show. I knew as soon as I met Bono that he was genuine. He has absolutely nothing to gain personally as a result of his work. In fact, he has opened himself to criticism because he has been willing to work with anyone to find help for these children who have taken his heart."

This is not about pity. It's more about passion. Pity sees suffering and wants to ease the pain; passion sees injustice and wants to settle the score. Pity implores the powerful to pay attention; passion warns them about what will happen if they don't. The risk of pity is that it kills with kindness; the promise of passion is that it builds on the hope that the poor are fully capable of helping themselves if given the chance. In 2005 the world's poor needed no more condolences; they needed people to get interested, get mad and then get to work.

Congratulations to Randal Pinkett - Apprentice # 4 !!!!!

2005-12-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

YEAHHHH BABY!

I jumped up with excitment after the awaited words - YOU'RE HIRED by Donald Trump on Thursday night December 15, 2005. No I wasn't hired but the 2nd best thing happened - Randal Pinkett was!

He is a native of Newark NJ and one of my business partners went to school with him in Rutgers University. Also he is a neighbor of mine. I thought that the 2nd runner up Rebecca was extremely good in her last task but like Randal said, "there is only one Apprentice!"

Although there is some outrage for Randal not asking Rebecca be hired I believe there are a few factors why she shouldn't have been:

* Her record was 1-2 versus Randal's 3-0.
* Her first loss she was loyal to Toral who not only did a dismal job but also created a question on Rebecca's leadership and decision making ability.
* Rebecca's first win was task 11 in which it was only Randall and Rebecca on the same team.
* All of Randal's suite mates respect him and his style of leadership. In fact 14 of the 16 other candidates agreed that Randal should be the apprentice.
* Randal has years of experience in the real world in leadership while Rebecca is focused more in media.
* Randal shined from Day 1 as he established himself as a major player in contributing to every team he is on.
* Alla, though she is abrasive and head strong, has a better record and exhibited stronger abilities as a leader in many of the tasks.
* There were other 2nd runner ups just as qualified as Rebecca such as Jennifer M in Season 2 or Tana in Season 3 (yes she has tough last task but her record is better than Rebecca).
* Randal was right - there is only ONE Apprentice. This is the reason for the show. It would dilute his win and his achievements.

Here are Apprentice related links:
Randal's website
http://www.randalpinkett.com

Official NBC Apprentice Website
http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_4/

Yahoo Apprentice Website
http://apprentice.tv.yahoo.com/trump/04/

Thanksgiving 2005!

2005-11-25T11:20:00.000-05:00

It has been a long month as many of the deals that I have been working on has not moved much or have died. It feels like I am spinning a bunch of dishes on some poles and sooner than later the dishes just spun out and cracked. For a time, it was a relief but also much disappointment.

I felt "when is this business really going to take off?". After a day of centering myself by taking a break by going to the Hudson Trail in NJ, I was reminded about the simple joys in life that don't cost money but instead just requires an open heart.

It is good and I gives thanks for the simple things in my life:

* My family - although it seems that there is continual disagreements as usual, I love my family and knowing that it gives me a reason to wake up.

* My friends - they are good and knowing them sharpens me to be a better person, it is truly a gift to have friends that don't necessarily criticize but instead support

* My God - having this life is a gift and I give thanks to God for it, it is very simple for me to forget where things have come from and it is a good to be reminded that life and beauty and love comes from the Source in life.

* My life - it has been a year of learning and creating, there are times that I don't but I am encouraged by times that I remind myself of the life that I have is a good life, going to the Great Life really focused on self love and to appreciate the value that I am and I show up in this life.

* My health - I know that I abuse my body from time to time whether it be an extra hour in the gym or the late night munchies but I am thankful for how it is good that I can walk, talk, exercise, and still be young in the things that I do

Oh.. the list can go on and on but I appreciate the blessings that I have in life. Things are much easier when I see life with a childlike playful attitude and show up in life with all the joy, love, and faith to enjoy it!

Maintaining a Positive Attitude by Brian Tracy

2005-11-17T10:53:00.000-05:00

Maintaining a Positive Attitude

By Brian Tracy

When I was 21 years old, a friend of mine and I decided to go off to see the world. Many of our friends were going to Europe and hitchhiking around with rucksacks. We decided to be different and go to Africa.

We had no idea how serious and how difficult this adventure was to be. As we drove south across the Sahara Desert, we encountered endless problems, any one of which could have finished our trip ... or our lives.

The prospect of getting across that immense desert was so daunting, it could have stopped us dead in our tracks. Instead, we learned a lesson that turned out to be one that I have since applied to every aspect of my life.

The French, who had controlled Algeria for many years, had marked a path across the desert with 55-gallon oil drums spaced exactly five kilometers apart. As we came to an oil drum, the next drum would pop up on the horizon and the last oil drum would fall off the horizon, as if shot in a shooting gallery. Wherever we were, we could always see two oil drums - the one we had just left and the one we were headed toward. And it looked like our journey was never going to end.

We could have thrown up our hands and said, "This is impossible!" But we didn't. We adopted a Positive Mental Attitude and realized that to achieve our goal, all we had to do was take it one step (one oil barrel) at a time.

A Positive Mental Attitude is indispensable to success. By focusing on doing what lies clearly at hand ... by taking the step that appears immediately in front of you ... that will automatically lead you to the next step, and the next, and so on. Eventually, you will find yourself where you want to be.

But there is much more to a Positive Mental Attitude than this. You can have a positive attitude that immediately disappears in the face of adversity ... or you can have an attitude that is so strong, you are able to remain positive, cheerful, and optimistic, no matter what.

Of course, this isn't as easy as it sounds. Because we are all faced with four obstacles that tend to get in the way of our maintaining a Positive Mental Attitude: fear, worry, anger, and doubt.

We are afraid that we will lose our money, waste our effort, or forfeit our emotional or physical investment. If we are not careful, we start thinking of our potential losses rather than focusing on our potential gains.

Fear triggers worry, and we begin to use our power of imagination to create all sorts of negative images that interfere with our ability to perform effectively.

Fear and worry create anger and doubt. Instead of constantly moving forward in the direction of our dreams, we turn ourselves into victims and begin to blame other people and other situations for our problems.

There are six things you can do to eliminate these obstacles and develop a Positive Mental Attitude:

1. Instead of worrying about who did what and who is to blame, focus on where you want to be and what you want to do. Get a clear mental image of your ideal successful future, and then take whatever action you can to begin moving in that direction.

2. Focus on the solution instead of wasting time rehashing and reflecting on the problem. Solutions are inherently positive, whereas problems are inherently negative. The instant that you begin thinking in terms of solutions, you become a positive and constructive human being.

3. Assume that something good is hidden within each difficulty or challenge. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, a major proponent of positive thinking, once said, "Whenever God wants to give us a gift, he wraps it up in a problem." The bigger the gift you have coming, the bigger the problem you will receive. And if you look for the gift, you will always find it.

4. Assume that the situation you are facing at the moment is exactly the right situation you need to ultimately be successful. This situation has been sent to you to help you learn something, to help you become better, to help you expand and grow. One of the affirmations I have learned to use is this: "Every situation is a positive situation if I view it as an opportunity for growth and self-mastery." You cannot say that without thinking positive thoughts, feeling positive emotions, and seeing positive actions that you can take.

5. Assume that every setback contains a lesson that is essential for you to learn. Only when you learn this lesson will you be smart enough and wise enough to go on to achieve the big goals that you have set for yourself. If you are busy looking for the lesson, you cannot simultaneously think about the difficulty or the obstacle. And you will always find the lesson.

6. Whenever you have a goal that is unachieved, a difficulty that is unresolved, or a problem that is blocking you from getting where you want to go, sit down with a pen and piece of paper and make a list of every single thing that you could possibly do to resolve the situation. As you write, all kinds of insights and ideas will pop into your head.

A Positive Mental Attitude is indispensable to your success. And all it takes is for you to always take these six actions that are consistent with achieving your goals rather than actions that make you feel the negative emotions of worry, doubt, anger, and fear.

Today's Action Plan

Remember ... you can choose to be positive and constructive in dealing with any adversity. So, starting today, promise yourself that whenever you're faced with a difficult situation, you will sit yourself down, think it through, and then deal with it one oil barrel at a time.

Philadelphia Deal - DEAD! :(

2005-11-14T23:38:00.000-05:00

Been working on a rehab deal to get it going. Found it on a website and spoke with the owner. He is a very good and honest man and I told him that I can close the deal. The #s are:

Acquistion: 79K
Closing costs: 25K
Rehab: 100K
Borrowing $ Costs: 15K
Marketing Costs: 12K
After Repair Value: 300K
Selling Costs: 8K

Gross PreTax Profit: 61K (in 6months)

I am sure that I left out some costs but either way it would have been a decent deal. I found out due to issues with my other rehab deal in Graduate Hospital requiring more cash to get it done I will not be able to get this done. I want to beat myself up for this but I am more disappointed that I will not be able to close this deal from the seller who is becoming a friend.

What I am learning:

* Don't overpromise what you can or can't do. Just be open and tell them you will do your best to produce.
* Keep an eye for the big picture but keep the small detail in mind.
* Put as little non refundable downpay (I am losing $2K on this).
* Things do not go perfect in anything but it doesn't mean that you can't smile and just move on.
* Stay focused and keep working on making things happen. If I relax then things will be pushed out.

Right now the Graduate Hospital deal looks ok. We are lining up things. Today I found out that there may be a deal in Brooklyn NY in my home borough. I am excited about it as it can be really something new and beautiful. I love making new things. In the old comes something new.

How Good of a RE Investor are you? Find out!

2005-11-09T12:22:00.000-05:00

Really cool game!

http://3form.net/mansion_impossible

Classic: The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale

2005-10-23T04:15:00.000-04:00

One of the great classics by famous speaker and writer Earl Nightingale:

http://members.audiogenerator.com/postcard/?2961666

2005-10-22T01:43:00.000-04:00

Rise Early and Catch the Golden Worm

By Michael Masterson

I zonked out at 10:00 last night and woke up seven hours later. I got up and stepped into the shower. Forty-five minutes later, I was in the office. It's 7 o'clock now, and I've already done 16 things.

For me, going to bed before midnight had always been unthinkable. It was capitulating (see Word to the Wise, below) to a dull life. But as someone's mother once told me, nothing good happens after midnight. And it's true. Ask yourself: Name one thing that you do and/or enjoy more after midnight that you can't do/enjoy better the following morning? No ... not even that!

Every successful businessman I know (or have read about) gets up and gets to work early. It's such a universal trait of accomplished individuals, I'm tempted to say it is a secret for success. "Early to bed and early to rise," Ben Franklin said, "makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." I used to think that was propaganda from a Puritan. Now, I think it's an observation from a very wise man.

Healthy, wealthy, and wise. Today, let's talk about how getting up and getting to work early helps you achieve those goals - since my guess is that's the primary reason you read ETR every day.

In my experience, there is no better time to collect your thoughts and plan your day than early in the morning when the office is quiet. Not only are you undisturbed by phone calls and interruptions, but ahead of you is the potential of an unopened day. The solitude promotes a kind of relaxed, contemplative mood. You feel free to think in an expansive way. Later on, when the place is noisy and the pressure is on, it's difficult to pay attention to what's important. You feel your attention drawn in several directions at once. You feel the pressure of deadlines. And you may be hit with bad news, which could put you in a bad, unproductive mood.

A Near-Perfect Morning Routine

Over the years, I've studied hundreds and experimented with dozens of time-saving techniques and organizational systems. The simple three-step program that follows is the best of the best.

Step One: Getting Healthy (6:30 to 7:00)

The first thing I do every day is run sprints. After a four- or five-minute warm-up, I run eight 50-yard dashes, with 30 seconds of rest in between. Then I do a serious 10-minute stretching routine (yoga moves, mostly). Finally, a cold shower and a fresh set of clothes.

The whole routine takes about 30 minutes, but it will completely renew and invigorate your health. This workout is a condensed version of everything I've learned about health and fitness for the past 45 years. (I got interested in the subject when I was 10!) And it has dramatically improved my health. For example, I no longer have the back, shoulder, and neck pain that troubled me for so many years. I am as strong as I was when I was playing football in college. And I rarely get sick. (You'll learn all about this program and why it works so well from ETR's health expert, Jon Herring.)

Step Two: Planning Your Day (7:00 to 7:30)

I didn't always plan my days. I managed to get rich before I developed this habit. But since I've learned how to plan, my productivity has quadrupled. If you use this system, I'll bet you see the same improvement in your own life. I begin each day with a list of "to-dos" that I've usually created the night before. I add to that list by going through my inbox and selecting any items that are important enough to make it to my daily list. After my list is completed, I highlight all tasks that help me accomplish one of my major long-term Life Goals.

I used to scan my e-mail for things to do, but found that I couldn't resist the lure of trying to "knock off" a bunch of little things that wasted my time and drained my energy. Now, I scrupulously avoid e-mail in the morning. In fact, I don't even open it up.

I check phone messages and faxes and add any important items to my daily task list. Again, I don't respond to anything at this point. My job is simply to organize it all, to figure out what I will do today and what I can delegate or do later.

Now, comes the fun part. I get out a clean sheet of paper - or even an index card - and write the date on top. Referencing all the inputs I have just gathered, I select 15 to 20 that I intend to accomplish before the end of the day.

Be realistic when you do this. There is no way you can do more than 15 or 20 significant things in a 10-hour day. And you don't have to work more than 10 hours a day to accomplish everything you need.

Of the 15 or 20 items, highlight four or five of them. These should all be "important-but-not-urgent" tasks. (The urgent tasks you have to do. The important-but-not-urgent tasks are the ones that will advance your Life Goals. They are critical to your success, but you will almost certainly fail to do them unless you make them a priority. That's why you are highlighting them.)

To the right of each item, you might want to indicate how much time you think it will take. (I run a subtotal of the accumulating times to the right of that so there is some relationship between what I want to do and how much time I have to do it.)

As a general rule, it's a good idea to structure all of your tasks so that none lasts more than an hour. 15-minute and 30-minute tasks are best. If you have something that takes several hours to do, break it up into pieces and do it over a few days. It will be better for the extra time you give it ... and you won't get crushed on any one day.

This whole process takes less than 30 minutes, yet it saves me hours of wasted time every day. More importantly ... it helps me focus on what is truly important to my career. (At the beginning of the week, when I'm creating a weekly task list in addition to a daily one, I allocate an extra half-hour. Once a month, I create a monthly list that takes another additional half-hour.)

If you adopt this simple organizing and planning system every morning, you will see how well it works. Before your colleagues, competitors, and coworkers are even sipping their first cup of coffee, you'll have figured out everything you need to do that day to make you healthier, wealthier, and wiser. You will know what to do, you will know what your priorities are, and you will already be thinking about some of them. You will not have to worry about forgetting something important. And you will have a strong sense of energy and excitement, knowing that your day is going to be a productive one.

Step Three: Giving Your Day a Boost (7:30 to 8:30)

Here's the best step. Select the single most important task of the day - the one, highlighted task that will best help you accomplish your most cherished Life Goal - and get to work on that.

Don't worry if something else is more pressing. Don't pay any attention to what everyone else wants you to do. Heck, it's not even 9:00 a.m. yet. It's your time, so spend it on yourself!

If you are having trouble figuring out what your most important task is, ask yourself this question: "If I knew I was going to die in a week, which task would be most important to me now?"

Start with that task. Chances are, it will be something that moves you toward a goal that you have been putting off for many years. There is something in your mind that has so far made it difficult for you to accomplish it.

Don't worry about the negatives. As I said, this time is for you.

If you spend the first working hour of every day on something you deeply care about, it will give you more energy and a better feeling than you can possibly imagine. How do I know this is true? Because it's how I feel every time I do it.

This little three-step program is a truly health-giving, wealth-making, life-changing routine. It has totally transformed my life. I am sure it can do the same for you.

Remember, the entire three steps will take you only two hours. If you start working at 6:30 (and you should!), you'll have done more by 8:30 than your friends, colleagues, and competitors do all day!

Try it tomorrow and tell me if it doesn't work wonders for you!

A Clever Way to Keep Track ...

This system can be complemented by a file-indexing system that a famously organized newspaper publisher showed me several years ago. It requires two accordion folders - one with a pocket for each month and another with pockets for 31 days.

As you go through your e-mail or read correspondence and memos, put aside anything you want to follow up on. Place it in the first accordion folder - in the pocket of the month in which you intend to address it. When that month arrives, there will probably be 30 or 40 sheets of paper stuffed inside. You sort through them and place them in some kind of manageable order in the second accordion file - in each of the days of the month. Then, as each day arrives, you simply extract from that day's pocket the material you've filed there. This is a very easy way to keep track of all your vital data and correspondence without resorting to large, messy stacks of paper.

Success Is What Happens When You Do a Little Bit Extra Each Day

I suppose it's possible for success to come in a single windfall, but most often it arrives bit by bit. My three-step morning routine is a way for you to make yourself super-healthy and give yourself a significant advantage over the people you compete with.

It actually gives you four advantages. You are smarter, fresher, and more enthusiastic - which makes you feel better and enjoy your work. You get a whole lot more accomplished than you would otherwise. You drastically reduce or (some days) eliminate emergencies that interrupt you and drain your energy. And, most important, you spend a much greater percentage of your time doing things that move you along toward the goals you desire.

Today's Action Plan

There is something about getting to work earlier that seems wiser, nobler, smarter, or just plain more industrious than working late. Getting to work earlier says something about being energetic, organized, and in control. Staying late leaves the opposite impression: that you are diligent but disorganized, earnest but erratic, hardworking but a drudge.

In How to Become CEO , Jeffrey J. Fox puts it this way:

"If you are going to be first in your corporation, start practicing by being first on the job. People who arrive at work late don't like their jobs - at least that's what senior management thinks. ... And don't stay at the office until 10 o'clock every night. You are sending a signal that you can't keep up or your personal life is poor."

So here's your Action Plan for today. I want you to figure out what time, on the average, you have been getting to work each day. And I want you to promise yourself that you'll get there at least 30 minutes earlier from now on. An hour earlier is better

Don't fool yourself. If you've been trying to get to work by 8:00 but get there at that time only two days a week, admit that your starting time is 8:15 or 8:30. Then fix your new objective.

Thirty minutes a day multiplied by 50 weeks is 125 hours of extra work. That gives you more than a two-week advantage over those you are competing against. You can accomplish a lot in two weeks, so don't underestimate what this will do for you.

It's not just about doing extra stuff. It's about getting a jump on things. Getting in early makes you better prepared, more thoughtful, better organized, and more effective in every area of your life.

Early to bed, early to rise. It will make you healthier this year ... and wealthier and wiser too.

2nd Philadelphia Rehab - 3bd / 1ba

2005-10-05T04:23:00.000-04:00

2nd Philadelphia Rehab 3bd / 1ba

Update:

10/5/2005 - Spoke with my partner. The contractor working on this is asking for $2k more to "finish" this. It will take at least $8K to complete this job and he says he will "honor" his word to finish this job. It is hard to believe as this job was supposed to be finished in July! It is obvious that he has given up on this project and has even misappropriated the funds for the heater. Supposedly he is waiting for his "friend" to fix it. There are alot of lessons to be learned here. Right now looking for a new contractor to finish this up.

5/12/2006 - Partner and I have been busy and now we have a reliable but not the best contractor to finish this up. It is a pain but we are looking to sell or rent out for a year and then sell.

12/19/2006 - We have finally made all the necessary repairs. This deal has been a very challenging one due to budget overruns and lack of a good contractor who does a complete job. We needed to hire handyman / laborers to get the job done. There is alot to be learned. We are using one of the top realtors in Philadelphia to market this for 3 months to see if we can snag a good buyer.

9/12/2007 - FINALLY the property sold... BUT at a loss :( Due to many things especially the budget, time, and rip off contractors this was a very painful lesson. It convinces me more to be on top of my game. I was marketing in the various papers in Philadelphia and most of the residents in Philly do not have cash or do not have the credit to close. The cash was the most important part. Right now it is a long arduous thing. I can't believe it is 2 years since we did this.

What's An Investor? by billionaire Mark Cuban

2005-10-04T00:04:00.000-04:00

I was reading some posts and I journeyed to self made billionaire Mark Cuban. He wrote his observations on what is an investor compared to other types of creating wealth such as a "speculator".

Check his blog:

http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000660060351/

Do You Fear Success Quiz?

2005-10-02T12:12:00.000-04:00

Interesting quiz to know if your fear prevents you from succeeding.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/quizzes/careers/fearsuccess_quiz.html

Leaving a Legacy - Principles to Live By by Jim Rohn

2005-09-27T23:51:00.000-04:00

Leaving a Legacy - Principles to Live By by Jim Rohn

(excerpted from Jim Rohn's Twelfth Pillar of Success: Legacy, Part Two of the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan)

You know me, I am a philosopher. I love principles. Yes, actions are great and I talk about them regularly, but the important stuff is what lies underneath--the principles.

Here are what I consider to be the principles that we must commit to if we are to leave the legacy we desire:

1. Life is best lived in service to others.

This doesn't mean that we do not strive for the best for ourselves. It does mean that in all things we serve other people, including our family, co-workers and friends.

2. Consider others' interests as important as your own.

Much of the world suffers simply because people consider only their own interests. People are looking out for number one, but the way to leave a legacy is to also look out for others.

3. Love your neighbor even if you don't like him.

It is interesting that Jesus told us to love others. But he never tells us to like them. Liking people has to do with emotions. Loving people has to do with actions. And what you will find is that when you love them and do good by them, you will more often than not begin to like them.

4. Maintain integrity at all costs.

There are very few things you take to the grave with you. The number one thing is your reputation and good name. When people remember you, you want them to think, "She was the most honest person I knew. What integrity." There are always going to be temptations to cut corners and break your integrity. Do not do it. Do what is right all of the time, no matter what the cost.

5. You must risk in order to gain.

In just about every area of life you must risk in order to gain the reward. In love, you must risk rejection in order to ask that person out for the first time. In investing you must place your capital at risk in the market in order to receive the prize of a growing bank account. When we risk, we gain. And when we gain, we have more to leave for others.

6. You reap what you sow.

In fact, you always reap more than you sow--you plant a seed and reap a bushel. What you give you get. What you put into the ground then grows out of the ground. If you give love you will receive love. If you give time, you will gain time. It is one of the truest laws of the universe. Decide what you want out of life and then begin to sow it.

7. Hard work is never a waste.

No one will say, "It is too bad he was such a good, hard worker." But if you aren't they will surely say, "It's too bad he was so lazy - he could have been so much more!" Hard work will leave a grand legacy. Give it your all on your trip around the earth. You will do a lot of good and leave a terrific legacy.

8. Don't give up when you fail.

Imagine what legacies would have never existed if someone had given up. How many thriving businesses would have been shut down if they quit at their first failure? Everyone fails. It is a fact of life. But those who succeed are those who do not give up when they fail. They keep going and build a successful life - and a legacy.

9. Don't ever stop in your pursuit of a legacy.

Many people have accomplished tremendous things later on in life. There is never a time to stop in your pursuit of a legacy. Sometimes older people will say, "I am 65. I'll never change." That won't build a great life! No, there is always time to do more and achieve more, to help more and serve more, to teach more and to learn more. Keep going and growing that legacy!

These are core principles to live by if you want to become the kind of person who leaves a lasting legacy.

Until next week, let's do something remarkable!
Jim Rohn

Day of Rememberance - September 11, 2005 NYC

2005-09-13T09:51:00.000-04:00

My photo album of this day

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20947237@N00

Success is Easy, But So is Neglect by Jim Rohn

2005-09-06T21:43:00.000-04:00

Success is Easy, But So is Neglect by Jim Rohn

excerpted from The Challenge to Succeed audio series)

People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn't matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Six years later, I'm a millionaire and they are all still blaming the economy, the government, and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.

In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as well as they could and should, can be summed up in a single word: neglect.

It is not the lack of money - banks are full of money. It is not the lack of opportunity - America, and much of the free World, continues to offer the most unprecedented and abundant opportunities in the last six thousand years of recorded history. It is not the lack of books – libraries are full of books - and they are free! It is not the schools - the classrooms are full of good teachers. We have plenty of ministers, leaders, counselors and advisors.

Everything we would ever need to become rich and powerful and sophisticated is within our reach. The major reason that so few take advantage of all that we have is simply, neglect.

Neglect is like an infection. Left unchecked it will spread throughout our entire system of disciplines and eventually lead to a complete breakdown of a potentially joy-filled and prosperous human life.

Not doing the things we know we should do causes us to feel guilty and guilt leads to an erosion of self-confidence. As our self-confidence diminishes, so does the level of our activity. And as our activity diminishes, our results inevitably decline. And as our results suffer, our attitude begins to weaken. And as our attitude begins the slow shift from positive to negative, our self-confidence diminishes even more... and on and on it goes.

So my suggestion is that when giving the choice of "easy to" and "easy not to" that you do not neglect to do the simple, basic, "easy"; but potentially life-changing activities and disciplines.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Reproduced with permission from the Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine. Subscribe at: www.jimrohn.com or send an email with JOIN in the subject to: subscribe@jimrohn.com

Hurricane Relief - What Can I Do About it?

2005-09-02T08:54:00.000-04:00

I spent 2 hrs online in the middle of the night instead of doing some work to look at the situation down in the New Orleans area from the wake of Hurriance Katrina. It is what it is. My faith in God has left me to still say God is God and God is in control. At the same time I look into myself ask how I am accountable for what is happening. I have spent time on foxnews.com and cnn.com informing myself. I have prayed and now see that the rescue operations current needs are cash. In that light I have donated. If you are inspired to be accountable with me you can donate or find more information at:

http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/katrinadonations.shtm

1st Deal in Philadelphia

2005-09-01T08:56:00.000-04:00

In Fall of 2004, I went to the Tax Deed Sheriff Sale in Philadelphia and bidded on a property in University City in Philadelphia.

How did I find it?
One of my friend's brother works in UPENN and just rode a bike and told me that he would live in the area as it was close to DREXEL UNIVERSITY. It was a shell that was completely boarded up or so I thought.

I went to the sale with a MAB or Maximum Allowable Bid of $27K as my initial comps were about $80K ARV or After Repair Value and thought that with sight unseen it was only about $15K to $20K of work. I did one drive by and it was an interesting area as around the corner was student rentals and even further was a school for the blind and various churches around. After the auction someone told me properties are going for 40K around the area - fixed up! I nearly choked when I heard that.

At the auction, I went head to head with a student who pushed the #s from 18K all the way to about 25K and .. I WON! It was the first bid out of 2 other bids that I made that I won! It was a great feeling and I was shaking after I went to the front to pay it off.

Excitingly we went there and opened the house and to my horror saw that the back extension was torn down with a wide gapping hole. Asking for a quick idea of how much it would be repaired for, a investor told me he can get a crew to do it for $36K.

In the meantime, I had an architect go through to draw plans on rehabbing the property. I have shopped the plans to over several contractors with prices from 45K to 120K !!!! Right now I plan to start rehab with my partner in the next 3 months as summer of 2005 is over but I believe I want to get ready for the spring time.

8/30/2005 - went to Philly with my friend and they are pricing the work out as they are contractors from NYC. I asked a realtor about how much is the value of this property and they said about 110K after fixed up with minimal "wow" factor. Just something clean. This is a big contrast to supposed comps around 40K last year! Talk about bad information.

9/29/2005 - I have taken over several construction bids on this. The range is from 35K to 120K! Suffice to say that one of my friends said it can be done for $50K without landscaping in the back. Another contractor told me if that they can do it they love to see the work done that low! Right now the shell is sitting and appreciating slowly but surely. In the future, I would be able to sell it as a shell but the creative part of me wants to do something for the community so I am still accepting bids. The insurance carrier hasn't gotten back to me on covering this shell.

1/5/2006 - I have been calling various lenders for a acquistion and rehab loan. I visited the house and a few people have taken off the wood and went inside without closing the property up. I am going to get it boarded in a week.

CREATING OPPORTUNITY by Jim Rohn

2005-08-23T01:22:00.000-04:00

CREATING OPPORTUNITY

An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.

To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. It's to be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities that present themselves...regardless of the economy.

A person with an enterprising attitude says, "Find out what you can before action is taken." Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful. Do all you can in preparation of what's to come.

Enterprising people always see the future in the present. Enterprising people always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it. And enterprising people aren't lazy. They don't wait for opportunities to come to them, they go after the opportunities. Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your ambition.

Enterprise is two things. The first is creativity. You need creativity to see what's out there and to shape it to your advantage. You need creativity to look at the world a little differently. You need creativity to take a different approach, to be different.

What goes hand-in-hand with the creativity of enterprise is the second requirement: the courage to be creative. You need courage to see things differently, courage to go against the crowd, courage to take a different approach, courage to stand alone if you have to, courage to choose activity over inactivity.

And lastly, being enterprising doesn't just relate to the ability to make money. Being enterprising also means feeling good enough about yourself, having enough self worth to want to seek advantages and opportunities that will make a difference in your future. And by doing so you will increase your confidence, your courage, your creativity and your self-worth - your enterprising nature.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Reproduced with permission from the Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine. Subscribe at: www.jimrohn.com or send an email with JOIN in the subject to: subscribe@jimrohn.com

August Update - What Have I Been Doing?

2005-08-23T01:11:00.000-04:00

* Learning whatever on the different corporate entities to shield me from liabilities as I have been doing it as a sole proprietor. I have came down to incorporating as an LLC and it being taxed as a corp (whether S or C).

I received alot of assistance from this thread:
http://dealmakerscafe.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=394

I am also consulting a CPA that I found from a referral.

* Working on getting my 1st rehab done in Philly. The contractor has not met our deadlines and is at the point where he underbidded and is working slower as he is looking for money to complete this project. We had a sticky meeting in which my partner and I are considering looking for someone to complete the work. The work is coming along but just slow. The contractor says he will not make any profit but he is completing it because he said that is what he would do.

* Finding deals in Philly for my contractor friend. I would put them up but I will wait until we are on the way. I want to put examples on what is going on rather than possibilities.

* Talking to my Great Life Buddies - we are living :) Things have been good and seeing them living is great. We have a special unsaid connection but for the most part it is a great memory in my life. We are all living and growing. Some are more happy and some of us are so busy that we don't have time to know if we are happy or not.

* Enjoying the NYC summer as I met one of my goals in watching the Shakespeare in the Park. It is really great! I am going to miss this summer.

SUPER SIZE ME

2005-08-09T17:39:00.000-04:00

SUPER SIZE ME

Thought provoking documentary on the way modern man eats. After watching this film, I had to put down my double cheeseburger from McDonald's! Here are some factoids from the website:

* each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant

* In 1972, we spent 3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than 110 billion

* McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day - more than the entire population of Spain

* French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America.

* You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac.

* In the U.S., we eat more than 1,000,000 animals an hour

* 60 % of all Americans are either overweight or obese

* One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime

* Left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America

* Obesity has been linked to: Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease, Adult Onset Diabetes, Stroke, Gall Bladder Disease, Osteoarthritis, Sleep Apnea, Respiratory Problems, Endometrial, Breast, Prostate and Colon Cancers, Dyslipidemia, steatohepatitis, insulin resistance, breathlessness, Asthma, Hyperuricaemia, reproductive hormone abnormalities, polycystic ovarian syndrome, impaired fertility and lower back pain

* The average child sees 10,000 TV advertisements per year

* Only seven items on McDonald's entire menu contain no sugar

* Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald - he was fired for being too fat

* McDonald's distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us

* Diabetes will cut 17-27 years off your life

* McDonald's: "Any processing our foods undergo make them more dangerous than unprocessed foods"

* The World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic

* Eating fast food may be dangerous to your health McDonald's calls people who eat a lot of their food "Heavy Users"

* McDonald's operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more then 100 countries on 6 continents

* Before most children can speak they can recognize McDonald's

* Surgeon General David Satcher: "Fast food is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic"

* Most nutritionists recommend not eating fast food more than once a month

* 40% of American meals are eaten outside the home

* McDonald's represents 43% of total U.S. fast food mark

Japanese Marketing Video - Using Humor to Sell smile

2005-08-02T18:21:00.000-04:00

Very Funny Japanese Ad., you can't guess what they're selling until
the last few seconds.

http://www.ad-awards.com/inc/video.swf?id=116

Transforming Bad Habits by Brian Tracy

2005-08-02T08:46:00.000-04:00

Transforming Bad Habits

by Brian Tracy

The habits of success have been studied by great thinkers and philosophers for at least 2,500 years. After personally studying the subject for more than 30 years, I have identified seven habits that you need to develop if you want to perform at your very best in everything you do.

1. You need to become goal-oriented - dedicated to setting and working from clearly written objectives every day of your life.

2. You need to become results-oriented. This involves two practices. The first is the practice of continuously learning so that you become better at what you do. The second is the practice of time management - setting very clear priorities and then concentrating single-mindedly on the most valuable use of your time.

3. You need to become action-oriented - the most important habit for material success. This is the ability to get on with a job and get it done fast. You need to overcome procrastination, push aside your fears, and launch yourself 100% toward the achievement of your goals.

4. You need to become people-oriented. Virtually all of your happiness in life will come from your ability to get along well with other people. And getting along well with other people is based on a set of habits that you learned, or failed to learn, in childhood: patience, kindness, compassion, and understanding. But it is never too late to develop those habits. . And the more you practice them, the more you will internalize those qualities and actually become the person you want to be.

5. You need to be health-oriented. This means that you must make a conscious effort to eat the right foods in the right proportions. You must exercise on a regular basis to keep your body young and fit. And you must get enough rest and enjoy leisure activities that will enable you, in combination with diet and exercise, to live a long, full life.

6. You need to be oriented toward honesty and integrity. In the final analysis, the character you develop as you go through life is more important than virtually anything else. You set very clear values for yourself and you organize your life around your values. You develop a vision for yourself and then you live your life consistent with your highest ideals. You never compromise your integrity or peace of mind for anyone or anything.

7. The seventh habit that you need - the one that guarantees all the others will happen - is that of self-discipline. Your ability to discipline yourself, to master yourself, to control yourself, goes hand in hand with your success in every area of life.

My favorite definition of self-discipline comes from Elbert Hubbard. He said, "Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."

Every one of the habits I identified above - goal orientation, result orientation, action orientation, people orientation, health orientation, honesty, and self-discipline - can be developed. Following is a seven-step method you can use to make any or all of those habits a permanent part of your character and personality.

1. Write down the habit as a goal in the form of a present tense, personal, positive affirmation. For example, if you want to develop the habit of self-discipline, you would write, "I am an extremely well-disciplined individual in everything I do."

2. Repeat that affirmation as often - and with as much enthusiasm - as possible. The more times you repeat it, the more likely it is that your subconscious mind will ultimately accept it and begin to adjust your thoughts, words, and behaviors to be consistent with it.

3. Visualize yourself as if you already had the new habit pattern. Imagine yourself as already being exactly the person that you want to become. Remember, your subconscious mind is activated and programmed by mental pictures. All improvements in your life and character begin with an improvement in your mental images. Use visualization on a regular basis in conjunction with your positive affirmations.

4. Emotionalize the affirmation and the visualization. Take a few minutes each day to actually experience the feeling of being the excellent, outstanding human being that you have decided to become.

5. Launch into your new habit with conviction. (See Word to the Wise, below.) Assume the role, acting as if you had been hired to perform it in a movie or play. The more you behave exactly as if you already had the habit, the more you actually become the person you desire to be.

6. Tell others that you have decided to develop this habit. When you tell others about a goal, you motivate and encourage yourself to achieve it. You also force yourself to consistently act in accordance with your new resolutions ... because you know people are watching.

7. Review your progress on a day-to-day basis. At the end of every day, briefly recap your behavior to see if you are living in a way that is consistent with the values and habits you are trying to develop. Give yourself points when you are strong, and be patient with yourself when you slip from time to time.

It's not particularly easy to change yourself. But with patience, determination, and persistence, you can do it.

TODAY'S ACTION PLAN

In today's main article, Brian Tracy identified seven habits of successful people. How many of them do you already have? How many do you need to develop? Take charge of your future by making the decision, right now, to make each and every one of them an integral part of you.

The Power of Choice – Success is a Choice by MJ

2005-07-31T11:18:00.000-04:00

The Power of Choice – Success is a Choice

The Power of Choice is the most fundamental power we have as individuals to achieve our goals. The power of choice encompasses our entire life – regrettably, most of us never realize it before its too late. This great power holds the key to unlocking not just financial independence, but your happiness as a human being.

Choice is an amazing thing. Embrace it and use it to your advantage.

When we reflect back into our lives, we have the capability of analyzing the forks in the road – and where those forks have taken us. The forks are simple choices, both large and small – but each share the common thread of having the magnificent power to take us somewhere different.

You see, your life as it exists now, is the cumulative result of your choices – millions of choices which you’ve made. If you’re dissatisfied in your life, your choices take 100% full responsibility.

Blame them

Yes, life is about choice. The choice to be positive. The choice to be negative. The choice to watch TV or read a book. The choice to eat donuts or eat fruit. The choice to sleep until noon, or rise at dawn. Choice surrounds us and our great country affords us that luxury.

Every day, you make hundreds of choices. You’ve chosen to read this. Not only does choice exist in our external actions, they exist in our internal mind.

The Power of Choice comes in two forms.

The Choice of Perception and the Choice of Action.

First, the Choice of Perception:

You choose to interpret events in your particular frame of reference. Your mind labels and categorizes events that surround you. When someone says “dog” some people see a poodle. Others see a Pit Bull. This is the Choice of Perception.

If you lose your job you can choose it to be a negative, or positive. When you’re pulled over for speeding, you can be angry or thankful. The Choice of Perception and its choices start right between your ears.

The other day while pumping gas in my car (the Lamborghini) I had a teenager ask me if he could snap some pictures of the car. “Sure, go right ahead!” I replied. After a few minutes of pictures and various rants and raves about the car, he exclaimed, “I gotta get as many pictures as possible cuz Ill never be able to afford one of those”.

Choice. He made a choice to believe he will never own one. Small choice? Or big choice? His Choice of Perception was poor. This poor choice of perception will forever lead him to average results. Unfortunately, he doesn't even know it.

Going back 11 years to my teen years, the difference between he and I was this: When I was 14, I saw my first Lamborghini sitting outside an ice cream store. As a gazed in wonderment, I thought to myself, “Some day I’m gonna own one of those”. My Choice of Perception was strong.

If you maintain strong choices of perception, your focus ultimately becomes your reality.

I moved to Phoenix in 1997 poor and broke. I mailed out dozens of resumes hoping to get a “safe secure job” – weeks passed and I received no phone calls. Instead of framing this event as a failure, I chose to be positive. I took further action and increased the work efforts of my small business. If I didn’t, I would have been homeless on the street as rent was fast coming due. I made choices; both in perception AND action.

The Choice of Action is the second choice power we have.

Not only are the choices you make in your internal mindset important, but the choices you make in your external activities.
To move ahead in life, you must understand that the smallest of choices impact your life. Most of us believe only the big choices impact our life; Should I take that new job? Should I marry Jennifer? Should I start a business? Should I buy that car? Do I get that MBA? This is false.

The smallest of choices, in your daily life, are the ones that can make the biggest impact.

Back in 1997 I made a choice to visit a chat room to “see what was going on” – at the moment, it was a very simple choice. It was nothing big as I was just wasting time on the Internet. However, in that chat room, I would meet my best friend whom forever would impact my life and my business. Had I not met my best friend, my life as it is today, would be 100% different. Where would I be had I not made that choice to enter that chat room?

What seemingly simple choices have you made that made the biggest impact on your life?

Watch out with the Choice of Action!

Its power can take you places and throw your life into bliss or chaos. Be mindful with the Choice of Action.

In 2004 I bought a new Viper. One month into ownership I decided to street race someone while having to much to drink. Unfortunately, not being that familiar with the car and having liquor in my system, I was unable to control the car – the car started to spin and crossed over into traffic careening into palm tree.

I made a choice and the choice was disastrous.

This poor choice would forever impact my life. That night I was lucky – I did not kill myself or anyone else. Had I killed someone, my life would have been 100% different – no amount of money in the bank can keep you from prison. No amount of money can purge your soul of the horror of being responsible for taking someone's life so foolishly.

That night I was carted away and charged with DUI. The Viper was totaled and I later found that I would have been killed had impact been driver side vs. passenger side. My life was spared as where others.

The Choice of Action can throw your life into chaos or bliss: I decided to illegally drag race. Conversely the Choice of Perception was this: Instead of being regretful that I got caught, I was overwhelmingly thankful – thankful I did not kill anyone or destroy other people’s lives. I now choose not to race anyone on the street – I now choose not to drink and drive and have adopted a zero tolerance policy. Choices. Choices of Action and Choice of Perception.

Choices.

We make good ones and we make bad ones.

All of them – impact our life and throw us into different directions. To be happy and live a life of success, make more good choices vs. bad choices.

Your choices become who you are. Your life is a reflection your choices, in action and perception.
At this very moment – whether its an trailer, apartment, house, or a mansion on a hill – YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE because you made those choices.

How do you choose to frame your surrounding events? What language do you use in your mind?
“Ill never …”
“I can’t. …”
“If I could only … “

Or do you choose better words?
"Someday”
“This is a challenge Ill overcome”
“I will”

The Power of Choice starts early in life -- its impacts are life lasting.

The choice to cheat on your English writing exams, or study.
The choice to have unprotected sex.
The choice to skip class, or attend class.
The choice to lie or to be honest.
The choice to watch TV, or read an educating book.
The choice to drive 105 mph in a 55 mph zone.
The choice to associate with negative people.
The choice to overindulge in food or liquor.
The choice to drive home after drinking too much.
The choice to cheat on your significant other.
The choice to steal a pack of gum from the supermarket.
The choice to go out with your friends when you really wanted to stay home

Some Choices Have Unintended Consequences

DAVID
At age 16, David thought it would be cool to ignite a smoke bomb in the school bus. This day he makes a choice. At the time it would seem like a harmless prank. 14 children suffered smoke inhalation that day. Fortunately, those 14 children recovered quickly. However, it was David’s 10-day stay in juvenile detention that would forever lead David’s life down a different path.

David met Rudy in juvenile hall. Rudy would later teach David the “rules” of the perfect burglary. For years, the rules which Rudy taught David allowed him to make thievery a career. David’s luck would soon run out and would later spend 9 years in prison. Today, he is homeless and still engages in petty crimes.

Had David not met Rudy, where would he be? A fireman? Banker? Businessman? Choice, and the path of its consequences, start early.

ALYSSA
At age 18, Alyssa leaves home to live with a 29 year old man she met at the local bar 4 months earlier. She has unprotected sex on multiple occasions and later becomes pregnant. Unfortunately, the pregnancy is unwanted and Alyssa is brutally beaten by her boyfriend when she tells him the news. Alyssa later aborts the pregnancy in a motel bathroom and leaves her boyfriend only to return home to her parents.

Had Alyssa not moved in with a man she did not know, she’d be able to conceive today. Alyssa will grow old childless. Choice, and the path of its consequences, start early.

ANDRE
A multimillionaire by age 28, Andre had everything: A beautiful wife, money, a healthy daughter, riches, and a thriving restaurant business. Andre is on top of the world. One Friday night after having a few drinks to celebrate his night manager’s birthday, Andre gets in his car and drives home drunk. He mentally chooses to think “I’m OK”.

On his way home he kills a family of 4 while traveling down the interstate. Andre is arrested for drunk driving and carted off to jail where after a trial, he will later spend the next 15 years of his life. His life will never be the same because of not ONE CHOICE, but multiple choices. The choice to drink. The choice to drive. The choice to think “I’m OK” – the series of choices is plentiful – his exit strategy was clear – he didn’t choose wisely.

Poor choices lead to poor results.

As you move forward in life, ask yourself, am I making good choices? Good choices of action? Good choices in perception? Do you choose to be a victim?

Do you blame others or take responsibility?

Someone once said, the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. If you continue to make the same choices, you can expect the same results.

If you are unhappy in your life, make better choices. There’s no time like today.

Peace Out.
MJ

For more on this article and replies to it, you can click here to go to the Rich Dad thread.

The Seminar Pitch: A Real Curve Ball by FTC

2005-07-18T09:49:00.000-04:00

The Seminar Pitch: A Real Curve Ball

Earn up to $100,000 per year!

At the world’s most successful seminar, we’ll show you how
to multiply your money in 6 months or less -- with little risk.

Our experts will teach you the latest insider secrets for making money fast.

You can’t afford to pass up this valuable opportunity.

What a pitch! You may have received a letter or seen an infomercial promoting a seminar or conference that promises to help you make a lot of money. Seminar hucksters say they’ll give you valuable information about how to invest successfully or operate a profitable business. Their "success stories" and testimonials seem to show that anyone who attends the seminar can make money from the investment and business program they’re selling. Some promoters may even claim to have gotten rich from their own investment in the program.

If you attend one of these seminars, you’ll hear a series of sales pitches for a variety of business opportunities and investments. Consumers who invest in these "opportunities" frequently find that the pay-off isn’t as promised -- and they can’t recoup the money they spent.

The Federal Trade Commission wants to alert you to the secrets of the seminar squeeze. Be wary of promotional materials or sales pitches that make these claims:

* You can earn big money fast, regardless of your lack of experience or training.
* The program or business opportunity is offered for a short time only.
* The deal is a "sure thing" that will deliver security for years to come.
* You’ll reap financial rewards by working part time or at home.
* You’ll be coached each step of the way to success.
* The program worked for other participants -- even the organizers.

Don’t Get Hit By The Pitch
Promises of quick, easy money can be a powerful lure. If you buy into a business opportunity at a seminar, you may find that the products and information you purchased are worthless and that your money is gone.

You can avoid getting hit by the seminar pitch. Here’s how:

* Take your time. Don’t be rushed into buying anything at a seminar. Avoid high-pressure sales pitches that require you to buy now or risk losing out on the opportunity. Remember, solid opportunities are not sold through nerve-racking tactics.
* Investigate the business you’re considering investing in. Talk to experienced business people and experts in the field before spending your money.
* Be wary of "success stories" or testimonials of extraordinary success. The seminar operation may have paid "shills" to give glowing stories.
* Be cautious about purchasing from seminar representatives who are reluctant to answer questions, or who give evasive answers to your questions. Remember that legitimate businesspeople are more than willing to give you information about their investment or sales opportunity.
* Ask about how much money you need to qualify for the investment or sales opportunity, and ask about the company’s refund policy. Get this in writing. Keep in mind that you may never recoup the money you give to an unscrupulous seminar operation, despite the operator’s stated refund policies. Taking precautions before you invest is a more effective way to safeguard your money than trying to get a refund after the investment’s been made.

To File a Complaint
If you’ve been victimized by a seminar promoter, contact your local consumer protection agency, state Attorney General, and Better Business Bureau.
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

NJ Deal - Sunnyside Terrace Short Sale

2005-07-12T14:20:00.000-04:00

My group finished its first short sale with a duplex in Sunnyside Terrace in NJ. It was good as my friend who is a loan officer got the lead and another friend who is an investor short saled with the bank. The #s are:

ARV = $220 to $250K
Fixup costs = $40 to $50K
1st lien bank mortgage = $175K as of Feb 2005
Other liens = $12K

Final payoff after short sale: $125K including all closing costs and paying off credit card judgements, taxes, and utility bills.

There were many challenges to this getting done as the title search revealed extra emcumbrances on title among other things. It found things that were paid off but was not dismissed or recorded as satisfied. This made the whole thing drag.

My friend and I agreed to take 25% of the finder's fee. It was flipped to our short sale teacher to rehab and rent or live in. He was going to be paid 50% net of flip value.

We were happy to close and now looking for more short sales. The client even said she was happy and she wanted to know if we would hire her as a paralegal!

It is a good win although a small one. Many are happy including the bank :)

Door Knocking on Saturday

2005-07-10T06:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went door knocking on several prospects that I have had in my file for the last 2 months. The purpose is to get rid of any fear in knocking on someone's door to speak with them about their foreclosure situation. The results were:

81xx 17ave - spoke with HO (homeowner) and they were visibly upset after several knocks, the HO was agitated with the multiple knocks and said, "I don't want to be a XXXX but..." SLAM the door! Alot of the dust moved from it. The HO gave feedback about the following - 1. lack of business cards and 2. lack of business address (as I previously proposed meeting at a Dunkin Donuts to outline a plan of attack)

87XX 17ave - spoke with tenant who was a very good guy who was sharing alot of info about where the HO was, I shared with them a little about the situation and asked him about the HO, I saw the HO and spoke with him. The house was newly renovated 2 months ago and is now being rented with negative cashflow. HO has import / export business that is viable. HO just was disorganized in paying the mortgage. Good person.

7x Bay 2x - HO wasn't home and dropped off a letter to his bro in law. Bro in law is a good guy working in NYS Sanitation.

2xx Bay 3x - HO wasn't home and dropped off a letter to followup.

5x Bay 3x - talked with neighbor regarding the reason for vacancy, the issue is it is in court for 2 parties fighting over ownership. 1 party has ownership due to unethically having the previous owner deeding property in the will before being deceased. The remaining heir is fighting for full rights to the property.

Lessons Learned:
* My style lends itself that I have business cards. Many of the HO in preforeclosure want to feel that there is someone reliable and professional to help with their situation. Female HO are very volatile.
* Better marketing collateral - business cards, letters, etc... (it is amazing how small things can build or destroy credibility in front of the client)
* Door rings no more than 3x. More than that it becomes a hard sell. If the owner is hiding then leaving a letter w/ business cards seem to be the best way.
* Fear is to be tamed. I don't feel it can be totally eliminated for myself. It is a defensive mechanism but instead I concentrate on the vision behind the vision to assist HO in preforeclosure and at the same time get paid for it. Building the system.

Twelve Outrageous Secrets of Success Your Guru Never Told You, But Your Mentor Will!! by Claude Diamond

2005-07-06T08:26:00.000-04:00

by Claude Diamond

Secret #1: If your Life Stinks, it's your fault. (Hey, I warned you!) Success begins when you take full, unmitigated, unequivocal RESPONSIBILITY for your life. You stop blaming lawyers (well, maybe lawyers), politicians, luck, the weather, etc. How many times do we hear from others how it's always someone else's fault? Your Success ALWAYS begins and ends with you.

Secret #2: Throw away your Useless 40 Pound Success Planner. These things are the most useless, supposedly time saving devices ever created. They are designed to save you time, but all you do is waste it by filling out the silly thing. Heck, you even need a three day seminar to learn how to use them. Try using a simple composition book (yep, the black & white one from grammar school) or a basic weekly calendar book. I use one and my appointments and goals are always in front of me. It works great! It's time to simplify.

Secret #3: Whoever said 'Money isn't Everything' never had any. Yes, Yes I know all about good health, etc. What I mean is how can you be a good
Husband or Wïfe, Mom or Dad, a role model to your kids, an upstanding person of character, a contributing member of your community, a person of faith when you are up all night sweating about paying your bills?

Secret #4: TURN OFF THE TELEVISION! Television is a narcotic for the
masses. The average household has a television on for 8 hours plus per day. Watching Gilligan and his buddies on that insipid island won't make you rïch, but what will get you to wealth is making more time for the goals you have set for yourself, for research, learning and implementing ideas. One of the biggest excuses I hear when Mentoring others is that there is no time for anything. Hogwash. There is all the time you need to find your greatness if you place a value on it.

Secret #5: Walking on Hot coals will only give you a hot foot! There are more silly ways for you to spend money in search of success than ever
before. I can't tell you how many folks I have Success Mentored who have literally spent tens of thousands on gimmicks. You don't need to find your center, eat tofu or wear a crystal from the planet Zongo. You just need to learn simple principles of common sense and apply them.

Secret #6: If you hang around or take advice from losers you will become one, too! You are a product of your environment. Oh boy, this is a toughy,
but let's go for it. I discovered a long time ago that when I hung around with losers I became a loser, too. How many times do you find yourself wanting to hang out with folks who have no desire for greatness, just recreation, gripping sessions, whining and the like. The good news is that if you surround yourself with Wïnners you can become one, too. You must create an environment of Success. It's that simple.

Secret #7: You can't petition the Lord (for wealth) with Prayer. (I heard this on some rock album in the 60's). NO, I am not trying to proselytize,
but I figure that praying to the Almighty to wïn the lottery while waiting in line at the 7-11 quaffing down your mango Slurpy™ isn't what spirituality is all about. Save your talks with the big guy for stuff that's really important.

Secret #8: You have to be your own Cheerleader. Nöw don't go into the attic and get your daughter's high school pom poms out. What I mean here is you have to be in your own corner. Success is about having self esteem, believing in yourself, having a little respect for YOU. If this sounds self centered then you're correct. It's all about you, your confidence, your attitude when you really get to the bottom of it.

Secret #9: Character does Matter. No matter what you see and hear from our politicians it really is smart to do the right thing at the right time. I
know this sounds corny, but when you do the right thing at the right time you feel good about yourself, you never have to look over your shoulder, you never have to remember a lie you told. Ask yourself this question. If you were walking down the street with your child and you found a wallet with the owner's ID intact would you have the character to return it or would you hope your child forgets about it and you pocket the loot? How can you expect anything more of your kid (or anyone else) when you, as their role model, can't lead by example?

Secret #10: Find A Mentor. Mentor defined: A wise and trusted teacher. I know of no other technique of Success that has given me greater results
faster than having a One-On-One relationship with a wïnner. The positive influence, guidance, teaching, motivation and laser like focus is what Success is made of. This technique goes all the way back to Homer's ancient Greece and has stood the test of time. Seminars, books and tapes are fine starting points, but there is no substitute for an ongoing supportive, role model relationship. Decide what it is you would like to do, learn and accomplish with your life, then find someone who is already doing it Successfully to help you to discover your greatness. Don't start from scratch or reinvent the wheel when you can have the life you want beginning today with the right Mentor.

Secret #11: Become a Coach or Mentor. Enabling others to stay focused and motivated is such a great feeling! There is no greater joy than sharing in the success of another person who you played a part in helping. Specialized niche Coaching & Mentoring is becoming the höme busïness opportunïty of the 21st century. Find a Mentor and Become a Coach or Mentor and make a difference in your life and in that of another person.

Secret #12: You have everything you need right nöw to Succeed. You are endowed with the same seeds of greatness as anyone you have ever envied or
admired. It's just a question of finding your passion, discovering your greatness and pursuing it with a disciplined HUNGER. So many people accept mediocrity as their standard when they are capable of so much more. Don't settle for less; excel and find the life you deserve, your greatness within and the life you are destined for. You have everything you need right nöw! So just go for it!

Thinking Like a Winner by Brian Tracy

2005-07-06T08:11:00.000-04:00

Thinking Like a Winner

by Brian Tracy

After studying the research done in cognitive psychology (see "Word to the Wise," below) over the last 25 years, I've come to a simple conclusion: The degree to which you feel in control of your life will largely determine your level of mental well-being, your peace of mind, and the quality of your interactions with people.

What cognitive psychologists call a "sense of control" is the foundation of happiness and high achievement. And the only thing in the world over which you have complete control is the content of your conscious mind. If you decide to exert that control, even when you are surrounded by difficult circumstances, your future potential will be unlimited.

Your aim should be to work on yourself and your thinking until you reach the point where you absolutely, positively believe yourself to be a total winner in anything you sincerely want to accomplish. When you feel unshakable confidence in yourself and your abilities, nothing will be able to stop you. This state of self-confidence comes from (1) understanding the functioning of your remarkable mind, and (2) practicing the techniques of mental fitness over and over, until you become a completely optimistic, cheerful, and positive person.

In his book "The Act of Will" , Italian psychologist Dr. Roberto Assagioli laid out a series of psychological principles that can help you understand the way your mind works and how you can take control of it. One of his principles is that images or pictures, either from within or from the outside, will trigger thoughts and feelings that are consistent with them. In turn, those thoughts and feelings will trigger behaviors that lead to the realization of the pictures.

This has been referred to as the Law of Reversibility, and is one of the most important success principles ever discovered. Simply put, you are more likely to act yourself into feeling than you are to feel yourself into acting.

For example, when you become absolutely convinced that you are a total winner and you are meant to be a complete success in anything that you really want to do, every picture or image that somehow represents winning to you will trigger thoughts of what you could do to achieve that same state. The picture will also trigger the feeling of excitement that will motivate you to take action.

A friend of mine who was a sales manager had a simple technique to make new salespeople successful, and it worked more than 90% percent of the time. When he hired a salesperson, he would take that person to a nearby Cadillac dealership and force him to trade in his current car for a new Cadillac. The payments on the Cadillac were substantially more than the new salesperson had ever imagined himself making, so he would strongly resist getting into the commitment. However, the sales manager would insist until, finally, the salesperson bought the new Cadillac and drove it home.

No matter how unsure or insecure the salesperson felt, when his spouse and friends saw the new Cadillac and he experienced the pleasure of driving it down the street, he began to think about himself and to see himself as a big success. And in almost every case, it turned out to be true. Those people went on to become great successes at selling their products.

Take every opportunity you can to surround yourself with images of what success means to you. Get brochures on new cars. Get magazines with pictures of beautiful homes, beautiful clothes, and other things that you could own as a result of achieving the success that you are aiming for. Each time you see or visualize those images, you trigger the thoughts, feelings, and actions that make them materialize in your life.

In her book "Wake Up and Live" , Dorothea Brande said that the most important success secret she ever discovered was this: "Act as if it were impossible to fail, and it shall be." She goes on to explain that you need to be very clear about the success that you desire, and then simply act as if you already had it. Act as if your success were inevitable. Act as if your achievement were guaranteed. Act as if there were no possibility of failure.

You can control your actions easier than you can control your feelings. So if you choose to exert control over your actions, those actions will have a "back flow" effect and trigger the feelings, thoughts, and images that are consistent with those of the person you want to be, of the person who lives the life you want to live.

Your brain is a multi-sensory, multi-stimulated, extremely complex, interactive organ. Everything that you think, imagine, say, do, or feel triggers something else. It's like a series of electrical impulses going out in all directions and turning on lights everywhere.

By understanding the way your mind works, you can make your mind work for you as a powerful engine of growth and development. You can consciously surround yourself with a series of sensory inputs that bombard you with messages and cause you to think and feel like a total winner.

And if you think like a winner and do the things that winners do to keep their minds positive and optimistic, you will be a winner.

Books by Brian Tracy

Knocking on Mrs A's Door

2005-06-29T18:37:00.000-04:00

Just came back from Mrs A's house. I was notified about the notice of default on her property from a foreclosure website. I dropped a letter offering my services to stop the foreclosure. It is a dreary rainy cloudy grey day.

I rung the door bell

ME: "Hello I am here to see Mrs. AM is she here?"

Mrs. A: "What is going on?"

ME: "I left a message with her and wanted to talk with her regardining an issue with the house."

Mrs. A: "She is not here and she will never come back" Slam the door.

* I waited for a few minutes debating on how to ring the doorbell and seeing what else I can say to start the conversation. I didn't want to talk with her about the foreclosure unless she is the owner. Many things going in my head. Next thing I know she opens the door*

Mrs. A: "Why are you here? I told you she is never coming back. Why don't you leave?"

ME: "I am a 3rd party vendor who talks with lenders regarding the house. I am here to help the situation."

Mrs. A: "Look you are not dressed professionally [I was in a white clean tee shirt, black jeans, and black sneakers with a napsack.], you don't have any identification for the 3rd party company you are from and you don't have any cards, you ring my doorbell and stand out here. Just get out of here."

ME: "I am here to help Mrs. Are you the owner of the house?"

Mrs. A: "Leave now or I am calling the police."

*Looking at the situation the shields are up with her and I wasn't sure how to take them down. I left in stride and went on my next run.*

It is a learning experience that I am still digesting. The 2nd was foreclosing but it was less than $12K in arrears. I figured some of the things gave me feedback:

* It would serve to have a stronger script and verbal rebounding skills.
* Dress more professionally.
* Offer the owner a business card for them to feel that I am for real.

Hopefully I can illuminate more with any successes that I do have.

What Constitutes a Good Life? by Jim Rohn

2005-06-29T13:13:00.000-04:00

What Constitutes a Good Life? by Jim Rohn

The ultimate expression of life is not a paycheck. The ultimate expression of life is not a Mercedes. The ultimate expression of life is not a million dollars or a bank account or a home. Here's the ultimate expression of life in my opinion, and that is living a good life. Here's what we must ask constantly, "What for me would be a good life?" And you have to keep going over and over the list. A list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation. What would constitute a good life? I've got a short list.

1) Productivity. You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. We must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity. What's the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life? It's to see what you can do with it. To try your hand, other people have tried their hand; here's what they did. You try your hand to see what you can do. So part of life is productivity.

2) Good friends. Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world. Don't deny yourself the time to develop this support system. Nothing can match it. It's extraordinary in its benefit. Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you. A few years ago I lost one of my dearest friends. He died at age 53 - heart attack. David is gone, but he was one of my very special friends. I used to say of David that if I was stuck in a foreign jail somewhere accused unduly and if they would allow me one phone call, I would call David. Why? He would come and get me. That's a friend. Somebody who would come and get you. Now we've all got casual friends. And if you called them they would say, "Hey, if you get back, call me we'll have a party." So you've got to have both, real friends and casual friends.

3) Your culture. Your language, your music, the ceremonies, the traditions, the dress. All of that is so vitally important that you must keep it alive. In fact it is the uniqueness of all of us that when blended together brings vitality, energy, power, influence, uniqueness and rightness to the world.

4) Spirituality. It helps to form the foundation of the family that builds the nation. And make sure you study, practice and teach. Don't be careless about the spiritual part of your nature, it's what makes us who we are, different from animal, dogs, cats, birds and mice. Spirituality.

5) Don't miss anything. My parents taught me to miss anything. Don't miss the game. Don't miss the performance, don't miss the movie, don't miss the show, don't miss the dance. Go to everything you possibly can. Buy a ticket to everything you possibly can. Go see everything and experience all you possibly can. This has served me so well to this day. Just before my father died at age 93 if you were to call him at 10:30 or 11:00 at night, he wouldn't be home. He was at the rodeo, he was watching the kids play softball, he was listening to the concert, he was at church, he was somewhere every night.

Live a vital life. Here's one of the reasons why. If you live well, you will earn well. If you live well it will show in your face, it will show in the texture of your voice. There will be something unique and magical about you if you live well. It will infuse not only your personal life but also your business life. And it will give you a vitality nothing else can give.

6) Your family and the inner circle. Invest in them and they'll invest in you. Inspire them and they'll inspire you. With your inner circle take care of the details. When my father was still alive, I used to call him when I traveled. He'd have breakfast most every morning with the farmers. Little place called The Decoy Inn out in the country where we lived in Southwest Idaho.

So Papa would go there and have breakfast and I'd call him just to give him a special day. Now if I was in Israel, I'd have to get up in the middle of the night, but it only took five minutes, ten minutes. So I'd call Papa and they'd bring him the phone. I'd say, "Papa I'm in Israel." He'd say, "Israel! Son, how are things in Israel?" He'd talk real loud so everybody could hear - my son's calling me from Israel. I'd say, "Papa last night they gave me a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." He'd say, "Son, a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." Now everybody knows the story. It only took 5 - 10 minutes, but what a special day for my father, age 93.

If a father walks out of the house and he can still feel his daughter's kiss on his face all day, he's a powerful man. If a husband walks out of the house and he can still feel the imprint of his wife's arms around his body he's invincible all day. It's the special stuff with the inner circle that makes you strong and powerful and influential. So don't miss that opportunity. Here's the greatest value. The prophet said, "There are many virtues and values, but here's the greatest, one person caring for another." There is no greater value than love. Better to live in a tent on the beach with someone you love than to live in a mansion by yourself. One person caring for another, that's one of life's greatest expressions.

So make sure in your busy day to remember the true purpose and the reasons you do what you do. May you truly live the kind of life that will bring the fruit and rewards that you desire.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Foreclosure FAQ on the RichDad Forum

2005-06-20T15:15:00.000-04:00

Locutus 9 started posting some good faq on how to start doing preforeclosures. I believe it is a great tool to learn more about it.

Click here to read Locutus9's foreclosure faq on the Rich Dad Forum

Steve Job's Commencement Address to Stanford Graduates 6/12/2005

2005-06-17T13:01:00.000-04:00

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

(http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/grad-061505.html)

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

One - The Campaign to Make Poverty History

2005-06-08T13:50:00.000-04:00

Be United to Beat AIDS, STARVATION, and EXTREME PROVERTY

I was watching the Diane Sawyer interview with Brad Pitt on ABC's Primetime tv magazine. I was touched by his devotion to bring peace and life to those suffering in Africa at the extreme poverty level there. How Americans can just share a slight bit of our blessings to others which can impact them forever.

Visit www.one.org and see how you can be part of the generation that can end poverty in the world!

Click here to the see the One video
Click here to see the video with Nelson Mandela

The Best Darn Document on the Planet (CYA) by Joe Kaiser

2005-06-03T15:31:00.000-04:00

I spent a dozen years in the real estate business before I ever really took a good long moment to just sit still and think about what I was doing.

A couple words of advise...start sooner.

Had I invested the time I should have really thinking things through, my life as a bona fide investor would have started a whole lot sooner, and sooner is definitely better than later.

I didn't think things through because I was too interested in the latest wild goose chase and my energies were always aimed at something other than work. Trust me, it's work to spend time thinking things through. But it turns out it's one of the most important things you should be doing early on in your real estate career.

Just as a life unexamined is not worth living, an investment strategy unexamined is not worth executing.

The problem is, when you're new, you don't have a clue about what to think about. Sure, you're considering trying to pull something off and have a general idea regarding what it'll take to make it fly, but you really don't have anything more than that. Frankly a general idea isn't much of an idea at all.
All the ways it could go wrong
Try this . . .

Think about all the ways it could go wrong. Seriously examine the weak spots and look to see where problems are likely to make their presence known. Make up your list of horribles that can affect your strategy, and then figure out a way to make sure those things are handled so they can't happen. If that's not possible, make sure you've figured out your position should those things actually come true.

There's a house I'm looking to buy from an owner facing foreclosure. She wants to stay in the house and rent it back from me and maybe buy it at a later day for significantly more than I'm paying her.

Good strategy, but do you see any problems? Years ago I would have just signed her up and been happy with it. In fact, I did a bunch of these kinds of deals with distressed sellers and never gave a second thought to the likely outcomes. Since I was only focused on doing another deal, I never stopped to just think things through. Had I done so, I could have saved myself countless hours of frustration along with the thousands of dollars lost when things ultimately went sideways.

I had one deal like this where the lady filed bankruptcy shortly after we closed. I hadn't planned for that and didn't have a clue what to do about it. That should have been an obvious likely outcome.

One guy sued me on a similar deal when I later refused to sell the property back to him. His checks had bounced a number of times, and his right to purchase the property was supposed to end when that happens. While that was my understanding, it wasn't his attorney's.

That, too, was easily predictable.

One gal claimed that I hadn't really bought the property from her at all. She said I'd agreed to make her a loan and all that other stuff she didn't understand.

One guy later told me he'd been on drugs when he signed the paperwork and now wanted out. Another had his attorney advise me that his hearing aids weren't working when I explained the terms of our deal to him and now he wanted the property back.
You need a good plan
Had I been smart, I would have had a plan in place for all these kinds of events. Remember, we're not talking about remote possibilities here. The problems that surfaced are obvious to anyone who spends more than a moment or two thinking about what could go wrong with this kind of deal, and you're advised to take that time and really think things through.

Unfortunately, when you're new, you really don't have enough of a background to hit all the likely outcomes. If that's the case, get together with someone who does, and the two of you brainstorm the deal out. Having an experienced person along for the ride is a tremendous asset and should not be overlooked.

No real estate friends?

Go hire one - that's why they make attorneys. Real estate attorneys who've been in business for any length of time have seen things you and I can't begin to dream about, and running your plan past them with an eye on anticipating and avoiding potential problems is money well spent. Don't overlook the benefits of having someone looking over your shoulder.

And don't just think about worst-case scenarios . . . figure out your exit strategy. you'll want to know with a high degree of certainty how things will end up and, most importantly, how you'll get paid when things do. With proper planning you really can predict outcomes and, if you're paying attention, and you fine tune along the way, the outcome you design into the plan can in fact be the outcome you end up with. Or at least be something that sort of resembles it. What you don't want is something entirely unanticipated entering into the picture and putting the crimps on your profit.
Final answer: The Seller Disclosure Statement
For years we've made sellers sign a disclosure statement that makes it difficult for them to later change their story and attempt to "unwind" our deal. When you're dealing with distressed sellers, it's mandatory to have something like this in the file, because you can be certain that once the problems are solved and the pressure is off, that friendly seller of yours is going to change his tune and decide you took advantage of him.

Here it is:
Seller's Acknowledgements

I ,_________________________________________________________ (Seller), on this ____ day of ______________________, 20_____, have agreed in writing to sell the property commonly known as ______________________________________________, (The Property) to ________________________________________ (Buyer) and or assigns, according to the terms and conditions contained in the Purchase and Sale Agreement (The Agreement) of even date, a copy of which is attached hereto. I further state as follows:

________ 1. OWNERSHIP OF THE PROPERTY: I am the owner of The Property (or I have an equitable interest in The Property) and am able to contract for its sale.

________ 2. ACCEPTANCE: I have reviewed the terms and conditions contained in The Agreement and have accepted Buyer's offer to purchase The Property.

________ 3. GOOD AND VALUABLE CONSIDERATION: I have received good and valuable consideration in signing The Agreement, and I acknowledge both the receipt and the sufficiency of the consideration.

________ 4. IN MY BEST INTEREST: I am satisfied with The Agreement and have agreed to sell The Property because it is in my best interest to do so.

________ 5. FULLY INFORMED AND NOT CONFUSED: I have signed The Agreement being fully informed and with sufficient understanding of all terms and conditions contained therein. I am not confused about any aspect of The Agreement.

________ 6. SATISFIED WITH THE SALES PRICE: I understand I may be selling The Property for less than market value but have chosen to do so because circumstances dictate that an immediate sale, even at a discounted price, is in my best interest. I am satisfied with the sales price I have negotiated.

________ 7. SALE IS FINAL: I understand by signing The Agreement, I have agreed to sell The Property to Buyer and am now bound by the terms and conditions described in The Agreement. I further understand that I cannot change my mind or cancel the contract at some later date, nor can I continue to market The Property to any other buyer.

________ 8. CONTINGENCIES MAY EXIST: I understand the sale may be contingent upon Buyer's inspection and approval of certain items described in The Agreement. I further understand that if Buyer does not approve of these items, Buyer may cancel The Agreement and if cancelled, I must return Buyer's earnest money in full.

________ 9. NOT A LOAN: I understand The Agreement I have signed is for the outright sale of The Property and is not intended to be a loan of any kind.

________ 10. AGREEMENT MAY BE ASSIGNED: I understand Buyer may assign The Agreement to another party and I may be closing the sale with someone other than Buyer.

________ 11. NO ESCROW: I understand Buyer may choose to close this transaction without the use of an escrow company and may record the conveyance documents himself.

________ 12. CLOSING DOCUMENTS: I understand there will be additional closing documents to sign and upon receipt, agree to sign and deliver the closing documents either into Escrow or directly to Buyer, as Buyer may direct, in a timely manner.

________ 13. COPIES OF THE PAPERWORK: I understand that copies of the paperwork I've signed will be provided to me in a timely manner and I acknowledge that circumstances dictate that copies may not be immediately made available to me.

________ 14. BUYER ENTITLED TO MAKE A PROFIT: I understand Buyer may resell The Property and may realize a profit in doing so. I agree Buyer is entitled to any profit that may ultimately result from the subsequent resale of The Property.

________ 15. LEGAL COUNSEL ADVISED: I acknowledge Buyer has advised me to seek independent legal counsel to review The Agreement.

________ 16. FINANCIAL REVIEW ADVISED: I acknowledge Buyer has advised me to seek an independent financial advisor to review The Agreement.

________ 17. FAIRLY NEGOTIATED: I understand Buyer has negotiated on his own behalf and likewise, I have negotiated on mine. I acknowledge The Agreement has been negotiated fairly and Buyer has not taken advantage of me or my current situation.

________ 18. NO PRECLUDING AILMENTS: I have no physical, mental or emotional ailments that preclude me from signing The Agreement.

________ 19. NOT UNDER THE INFLUENCE: I am not now under the influence of alcohol or any other mind-altering substance, nor am I taking medication that would cloud my judgment or make me unable to think clearly.

________ 20. NO OTHER PROMISES: I have not been promised anything other than what is described in The Agreement. There are no unresolved issues, no ¡°side agreements,¡± nor are there other terms not disclosed in The Agreement.

________ 21. NOT UNDER DURESS: I am not under duress and have signed The Agreement of my own free will, without any undue financial pressure. Buyer has in no way pressured me into signing The Agreement.

________ 22. FULLY SATISFIED WITH AGREEMENT: I am fully satisfied with all terms and conditions contained in The Agreement.

Dated this _____ day of ___________________, 20____.

___________________________ Seller (Signature)

___________________________ Seller (Signature)
Use THE BEST DARN DOCUMENT ON THE PLANET to put the finishing touches on your latest deal. There's no better feeling than knowing you've got that little beauty tucked safely away in the file.

Reprinted with permission by Joe Kaiser (www.foreclosureclues.com)

CNN Article - "No-money down mania: Wannabe millionaires are flocking to gurus who say anyone can get rich in real estate. Not exactly."

2005-05-22T15:21:00.000-04:00

Click Here to Read the Article

Great read that brings some healthy balance to the continuous upselling and "get rich quick schemes" by the numbers. I believe it holds water as alot of information is out there for free.

What is everyone's else experience about these courses?

Financial Lobtomy? - Review of T Harv Ecker's Millionaire Mind Intensive Workshop

2005-05-16T04:45:00.000-04:00

A few weeks I attended an intro to new best selling author T Harv Ecker who wrote THE SECRETS OF THE MILLIONAIRE MIND.

It was a very fun and high energy session as it used various NLP and
modern marketing and teaching methods to engage the audience to learn
how to change their psychology of wealth.

He writes... Give me five minutes, and I can predict your finanical
future for the rest of your life!

Many of my Cashflow members shared how great it was and I don't like to be sold but I was open to learning so I attended their 3 full day workshop called THE MILLIONAIRE MIND INTENSIVE.

The word I can describe is "VERY VALUABLE" - ok.. that was 2 words!
When I went into the workshop I was a bit skeptical as I have been to business seminars from Robert Allen, Business Week, Primerica, etc... and all of them were rather hard sells and promotions. I expected the same I quickly changed my mind as it resembles more of a motivational session with Anthony Robbins BUT I didn't have to pay thousands for it!

Each day is a full 12 - 14 hrs of experiential processes, lecture, affirmations, and group discussions for an intensive "surgery" of my psychology. Even after years of learning Rich Dad principles I still have things in me that was to be reminded and instilled in my heart. Each session is filled with strategies and techniques to TRAIN MY MIND on becoming a millionaire.

It is more than just the simple techniques in THINK AND GROW RICH but instead
something more sophisticated in behavioral technology.

I found out things like...
* I was too hard on myself.
* I didn't like receiving compliments.
* I choose hard instead of easy to get wins.
* I believe the rich are snobbish elite people.

I would say it is uses some of the principles and ideas from personal development
courses like The Great Life Foundation (aka Harmony Trainings) and Landmark Education.

The difference is that it applied those ideas into the area of finance and our
relationship with it. Overall I experienced an incredible blessing and signed
up for one of the courses.

If you would like to attend a FREE introduction session.
Just go to: http://www.millionairemind.com/preview/mme/
Please fill out and use the selection AMBASSADOR for how you heard about this intro. My code is 233818.

Again, it is the best seminar that has high value that I would pay to go into it again.

The Awakening - My Witness to Transforming Lives!

2005-05-08T11:12:00.000-04:00

What is the Awakening?

It is the first level of a life tranformation training called The Great Life Foundation (click here for their former site called Harmony Trainings) that I have been attending for the past several months. To further develop in my personal growth, the 4th level is STAFFING or serving others in the training to find their heart, spirit, or inner child.

I was part of a team of 10 staff with one trainer witness and faciliating the breakthroughs of 22 people who wanted something extra or next level in life. In 4 days, I saw and experienced them turning into half hearted, hard, and cold people to warm, passionate, loving, strong, courageous, and alive people! It was truly a breath of fresh air as their aura totally changed.

I was served an image of myself as I lead a small group of 2 people. One was analytical and another passionless. It reflected me as I see how they were like me in many ways. It served me a great lesson.

I have the opportunity to meet and staff the Awakening of Mark Archer and Exhibuilder.

What I am learning:
* Be accountable doesn't mean beat up time. Fault or blame is not the same as accountable. Being accountable means looking at how I contributed to my present and the power of decisions and meanings create how things look in my life. When I am accountable I am not a victim.
* I still feel uncomfortable at times moving out of my comfort zone with regards to relationships. Being open to people is still a challenge to me.
* It is good to connect with people I love and it takes living up to my commitment.
* It is inspiring when people open themselves and show their inner spirit and heart.
* I deserve to be in unity with powerful people as I am a powerful person.

Overall, I am honored to witness and be a part of the Awakening of wonderful people.

1st Assignment Flip in Philadelphia! Yahoo! :)

2005-04-30T15:02:00.000-04:00

My team purchased a property at 38th and Cambridge in Philadelphia close the Girard and Parkside as it is receiving heavy inflow of investors with the future Microsoft High School is being built around there area.

We made a bid for a 4br / 1ba after speaking with a neighbor about 2 door steps away who is a contractor. He told us it would take 25K to 35K to rehab and we took it face value when bidding at the Sheriff Tax Lien Sale.

We got the property for $11,2000 from the initial open bid of $5,000. We put our 10% down to secure our option on the property.

After opening up the property, we found that it requires exactly what the contractor said - 25K to 35K of work. During this time we were going to go ahead with it but we found a better deal in South Philly which we have built in equity in less than 3 months. We decided to let this go as there were better deals elswhere. Comparable houses were selling for 45K on average. After repair would would have broken even or have a little equity.

I started marketing the property on craigslist with the following ad:

$15000 - Handyman Special - Fairmount Park / Parkside Area
Date: 2005-04-02, 4:58AM EST

Semi attached 4 bd / 1 ba shell needs alot of TLC. It is about 1100 sq ft and great for a handyman wanting to own and live close to Fairmount park and Parkside.
Needs new plumbing, electrical, heat, back roof has burnt joists.
Cross section is 38th and Cambridge.

If you are seriously interested email the following:
Name, Telephone #, Proof of Funds

EMAIL ONLY IF YOU ARE SERIOUS

I received many bogus calls and usually the Philadelphia natives low ball as much as possible as there are usually other deals in the hopper. My strategy involved creating a buyer's list for future inventory and also getting a feel for what people may pay for properties out there. Most of the time any type of marketing is better than no marketing.

After 3 weeks of going back and forth I found 2 good buyers who was able to comply with the conditions set forth in the ad. They bidded the same bid and to end the stalemate I asked for a silent bid - "put your best offer in". One came up with $13,000 and we sold with an assignment of contract.

So for those who are into #s

Purchase Price: $11,2000
Sell Price: $13,000
Actual Cash Outlay: $1,120

Cash on cash Return (Purchase price - Sell Price / Cash Outlay): 160%

ROI (CCR for the year: in this case it took less than 2 months to close): 960%

For the most part if wanted to have long term wealth I would have definitely kept that house as I know the area is booming as we speak. I would say it will shoot up easily 25% appreciation in one year if not more. This is a definite buy and hold deal and we felt it the person receiving it would be well pleased.

LESSONS LEARNED:
* Create win win situations for myself - I could have won by holding or fliping. The more options I have the better.

* Create win win situations for others - it creates branding or reputation; the investor we sold it told me that they were cheated on another deal and were apprehensive about getting this done but I walked them through it

* Marketing is powerful - this deal was going to be a dead deal until some intiative is taken; my ad was not powerful but the exposure made it unique as it is rare to have a 5 digit property on it right now.

* Silent bids - I don't like going into bidding wars. No investor really likes it and in this case it was the same. I just ask for the "best bid" close to asking price of $15000. All good investors will ask for less than asking and it is expected. Price the property at near where you want it and ask for a silent bid if you don't want to go back and forth to push the price.

* Do not give a discount in high demand areas - we didn't give a discount and people STILL lowballed us. It is the nature of the game. Play it like that. First person that usually puts a # out there loses so unless warranted don't do it.

* Creating a buyer's list - now I have a list of buyers to pass on properties to. I created the list so it is more easier than blasting out on the Internet and getting bogus calls.

First Cashflow NY Round Table of 2005 - Playing Cashflow in REAL LIFE !

2005-04-22T20:34:00.000-04:00

The Cashflow NY that I am an organizer with had its first annual ROUNDTABLE. I got the idea from Locutus9 from the RichDad forums. It came down to the wire as we found a place to rent a room and filled it with 18 members who were all interested in playing the cashflow game in real life.

We brought together various speakers including:

* African REI investor sharing his current investments in the Philadelphia market and sharing his #s on the current deal and deals in NJ - he just completed his 1st rehab in South Philly.

* Single afro american mon raising her child and working full time as a REI investor and sharing her wealth mindset about manifesting wealth through her biggest assest -> HERSELF! Her team is working on preconstructions in Georgia

* Chinese enterpreneur sharing about his manufacturing business in China and work in website designs and his partnership with another 20+ Israeli enterpreneur

* Late 20's Israeli enterpreneur and his startup company tripe-e-soft (www.triple-e-soft.com) and collaborating with multi million dollar clients like Guess and New Balance while recently coming to USA!

* College student building a better web portal than CRAIGSLIST for classifieds!

These were some of the sharings that made the whole event GREAT! I felt real blessed to know so many people who are building abundant succes in their lives!

Thank you Locutus9 if you get to read this! :)

2nd Month at the Kings County Recorder's Office

2005-04-22T20:23:00.000-04:00

It is the beginning of the 2nd month of learning the County Recorders office. Right now it is a matter of getting the information and connecting with the home owners.

The following are methods that I gather from reading and speaking to some real dealmakers in real life like SuccessEnterprisesLLC. Some of which are:

1. Direct Mail.
2. Referral Networking.
3. Cold calling.
4. Door knocking or direct sales.

All are good. I am considering which system to use for the best use of time and money at this point.

On a side note many of the people that have gone through the cashflow group are starting to bud as they are becoming active (one of which is Dumbo and Reverendro's wife). Someone called me on some deals in Queens that they are short selling. It is an ok deal but the risk is high with low reward.

Being an ANGEL for Tai03 in The Great Life Foundation

2005-04-07T12:39:00.000-04:00

Today is the 2nd day for my buddy Tai03 attending the Awakenings for the Great Life Foundation. It has been awhile since my graduation from Lift Off and things seem to have been up and down which I create. When Tai03 approached me and said that he and his family are going to Utah to attend the training I was amazed and inspired that they trust in me that much to go look for themselves. The funny thing is that the when we declare that we are going for a vision that is when things come up to hinder us from achieving it. His wife had issues going, finding a babysitter, dealing with past limitations on what is right and wrong, etc... It is easier just to say yes and keep that commitment. For me I don't know what an Angel does but I was very happy that he choose to believe in himself and make it happen.

In the past 3 other people have said they are going to this training and then dropped out. It has hurt in my heart and I see that loving and caring does hurt. It doesn't mean I choose to stop loving which is my normal mode of things but it does feel like someone sidekicked me!

Right now he is into his 2 day of training. He is awesome and my buddies from The Great Life are there with him supporting him. What an awesome family I have!

SOLD ON EBAY!!! NOT!

2005-04-07T04:23:00.000-04:00

I finally got rid of most of my ebay inventory. I posted an ad on craigslist.org (a relatively free classified online system) and a coin crane machine business guy came over and bought the rest of my inventory. He bought it for $.35 per doll which was a fireside sale. I feel like someone who went through a large burden for awhile. The plush was selling but not at the rate I hoped. It was a good learning experience and I believe that if I learn from it I am so mucht the better. You can see my ebay account at id d-lifeenterprises.

Song Lyrics for Reach for the Light - Steve Winwood 1995

2005-04-02T19:20:00.000-05:00

This is on my mp3 playback repeat today:

________________________________________

REACH FOR THE LIGHT - Steve Winwood 1995

Deep in the night
the winds blow cold
and in a heartbeat
the fear takes hold

Deep in the storm
there's a place that's soft and still
where the road waits to be taken
if you only will

The voices inside you
can lead your soul astray
Believe in what you dream
Don't turn away
don't you turn away

*chorus*
Reach for the light!
You might touch the sky!
Stand on the mountaintop
and see yourself flying
Reach for the light!
to capture a star
Come out of the darkness
and find out who you are

Somewhere in time
the truth shines through
and the spirit knows
what it has to do

Somewhere in you
there's a power with no name
It can rise to meet the moment
and burn like a flame

And you can be stronger
than anything you know
Hold on to what you see
Don't let it go
don't you let it go

*chorus*

Now, there's no turning back
when your destiny is calling
Listen to the thunder roll
and let your heart break free

*chorus*

The #1 trait of a millionarie is....? by LesGee

2005-03-24T09:15:00.000-05:00

The #1 trait of a millionarie is....? by LesGee

If you understand this you too can have more money than you know what to do with.
It’s a two part answer.

Just one man’s bias opinion obviously. So why am I qualified to even write on the subject?
Done about 1000 tax returns and got to see lots of people’s finances.
Done about 200 mortgage loans by referrals only. I do not work for the general public hence my clientele allows me to work closely with them in a more financial planning mode. I get to see these people over many years. My average client I have refied about 5 times.
Real estate ACTIVE investor for 5 yrs.
Real estate PASSIVE investor for 5 yrs.

I recently been hearing people write,
“I have little money but want to get into real estate.”
“Can no money down investing work?”
“I have $2000 in credit card debt, should I pay off the debt first or
invest?”
“Should I get an equity line to invest?”

Yes, these are interesting topics however there is a more important fundamental issue that should not be overlooked. I can answer these questions but WHAT FOR? So they can make more money and still have no money later on? You see I know lots of people making 6 figures and still are broke. Off the top of my head I know of a couple that make $150,000/yr and are about $50,000 in credit card debt. So they make more money….letting them buy bigger toys. Big deal is all I can say.

My friend use to have a successful financial planning practice. He had one client deciding on bankruptcy yet he was making $1,000,000/yr as a successful doctor. He was spending over that each yr. They were startled they had to stop the practice of wearing clothes only once, buying the newest car, belonging to 3 country clubs. To them this was very necessary. What would the Jones think?

It is appalling, yet crystal clear when I see my close friends making good money, yet constantly buying toys! Digital camera, big screen TVs, cellular phones, video camera, and vacations…. I know they are going to be broke when they need the money later in life. Nobody continues to make the same. Things change. Two incomes before one. Medical problems, having kids, parents need help, … They just don’t have the mindset of a millionaire and live like a spoiled child “in the moment.”

I personally never made more than $30,000/yr in a job. (My last job was over a decade ago) Remember making $15,000 my first year out of college while my peers were making $30,000+. It didn’t matter, because I know that the number one trait of success is…..SAVING. That first yr by the way I save $7500. Every cent was watch closely down to buying soda at the vending machine. This changed to buying in bulk to bring it in. Then it changed to drinking water.

So the number one trait of making it I fully believe is SAVING! If you don’t learn to live below your means, then you are doomed to just have bigger toys, until your income goes down, and you lose it all. It is human nature to live at or above your current standard of living. So the income goes down, the person continues to live how they live as the savings is eroded. Now what?

Who knows how long before you can no longer make what you make? Be it medical problems for you or your love ones. Be it maternity for your wife. Be it downsizing or just feed up with your work. So from day one I use to say, do I want to be doing this when I’m 70 yrs old? If not, I’d better be saving like the dickens.

Now the second part of the equation. Learning to INVEST. Now with seed money, I can learn to invest and have those little employees of mine, called “CASH” work 24/7. They don’t complain and they continue to make money day in and day out. They make more money then I ever did. Man they are good workers.

Does a good successful farmer continue to eat his entire crop each year? That’s what most Americans do with their money. If you have a good year, save the darn stuff. Then learn to invest.

Think of storing for a 7-yr drought.

MOST millionaires I know make it by SAVING and basic boring INVESTING. Read the book, “The millionaire next door” and “The millionaire mind”. Also Robert Kiyosaki says the same thing. You can be a millionaire by simply saving and investing. Being an “E” or and “S” and learning to “I”.

Also read “the richest man in Babylon”. Human nature is such that Expenses = Income. Unless you learn to control the urge to splurge, you are doomed to a lousy retirement.

Yes, there are the exception of winning the lottery, but those folks will be broke in 5 yrs. Also what about the successful businessman. All I can say is I’m a statistician by education. I play the odds. And most of the folks I see that make it learn to SAVE.

Real estate investing is just one vehicle that helps the INVESTING side of the equation. But if you got no SAVINGS, so what if you can turn $50,000 in 1 month. You’ll just spend it on x or y. If you haven’t learn how to SAVE, then you are doomed to fail in financial terms. Truth be known I would be a millionaire if I continued to earn $30,000/yr since I had the mindset of a Millionaire Mind. Even as a 7-grade kid living in San Francisco, I would run home and beat the bus to save 5
cents. And it was healthier. So what if it was a mile each day.

Now the biggest argument I hear about savings is “you only live once”. I want to have fun. Who knows if I will live that long? My counter is if you hold off for say 5 yrs, while you save you can enjoy the riches most already had and are still paying for and who says you don’t have fun with little? Who is more blessed, the spoiled rich child OR the humble poor one.

You know it is like a spoiled child. Give a 2-yr. old candy and soda whenever they want and they become a miserable spoiled child. It’s the same with us. The more you “parent the child within”, a wonderful thing one hopefully discovers. The true blessing of doing without! Of being humble in nature and blessed in gratitude. Please begin to parent your own selfish child within, then learn to invest, and I’m not talking the stock market. Okay, I’m bias toward real estate.

Les

_____________________________

Real estate investing is 95% emotional and 5% technical.
Work on the emotional if you want to get into real estate investing.

Original Post: http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=274015&mpage=1&p=&tmode=1&smode=1&key=

Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.

Opps from the Sheriff Sale! Learning Lesson from Life!

2005-03-22T07:34:00.000-05:00

Ok. I am at the Sheriff Sale in Philadelphia and my team has purchased our first property off the Fairmount Park area. It was a good bid with it not going to high. We are going for our 2nd bid when the auctioneer starts with, "Starting bid is $9500. Do I hear any more?"

I stand up and say, "$9,600".

Auctioneer: "Going once, twice, SOLD for $9,600!"

I was very happy until I saw that NO ONE bid against me. This was TOO EASY and coming from the auctions there is usually another person bidding for any good property. I started to feel a bit worried. After the auction I drove as fast my hot foot can get me to the property site. To my horror and laughter I saw this:

Learning Lesson from theSheriff Sale!

A VACANT LOT!
What happened is we notated the wrong property on this street. We were going for a house that was several door steps away (which was postponed). Suffice to say this was a $1k learning experience! Life can be a hoot and I just laugh at my errors and learn from it! Cool Deal -> NEXT! *smile*

1st Week in the Kings County Court Offices

2005-03-19T01:03:00.000-05:00

This week moving to find out more about having power in my financial life. After reading a post on the Rich Dad community named "PLANE GIRL", I used her template to get to know the offices and get a feeling of the people as well as the information down there. Going down there was like any municipal area - full of busy and rushed people. After some hours of searching and asking questions I was able to:

* Find the lis pendens on not only KINGS but all of New York. The papers are only available for KINGS county though so the information is rather incomplete for the other boroughs.

* ACRIS and the NYC Property Taxes are online so I can find info that way also.

* Title examiners are nice but like the muncipal workers they are busy.

* Most city employees favorite word is "No!". I asked one if "Do you always say 'No'?" and they said "Yes". *smile*

* The employees are the key holders. Some keyholders are nicer than others.

* It is about creating relationships. Having sweets is a great way to make new friends. Met another investor that I can list my houses with now.

Overall it is a productive week for me as I am learning and creating more power in my life. I am still working on the County Clerk's office and learning. Next step is to find how to get a list of the Judgements of Foreclosure and Sales in the system.

The Art of Writing Goals are Useless, unless.... by Les Gee

2005-03-11T20:02:00.000-05:00

This was bumped up from the RichDad forums. Good read!

(warning long post)
(*) this denotes one of my more important post

I felt that I studied the art of success with the numerous audiotapes and books and seminars, which I won't bore the reader with, but total over 100 titles. What I am about to write was only discovered after taking a 100 hours of a 200 hour experiential seminar designed with one purpose in mind. To learn about me. What makes me tick? What drives me?

For example, a simple first day first hour process would be to look at a fellow student in the class without any talking for 1 minute. Then for the next 30 minutes the class would share their thoughts. This was quite interesting what people think and how one feels about themselves.

During the middle of the seminar (it gets harder), my individual task was to break bread with a total stranger that was extremely difficult for me to ask. First I ask a homeless man, who turned me down. Then I ask a beautiful lady and she turned me down. Well with the time limit running out, I ended up talking with an elderly father and we had a good chat. Unfortunately, it was not a stretch to do that. But, we learned you can pick up a conversations with anyone in a foreign land and have a good time.

If you are interested in this sort of seminar, the one I took went bankrupt even thought it cost about $2000. I believe lifesprings or EST is the same sort of seminar and they are national. In Salt Lake City Utah, it is called mindsprings? I would say that seminar was tied for the best seminar, I’ve ever taken. The other seminar is iahp.org on child brain development a completely different subject. I have taken a bunch of seminars from “how to flirt” to “how to protect your assets.”

Well back to our story of goals.
===

Many books are written on goals. They are vital to a successful person, yet I learned goals are generally useless to the masses. Unfortunately most people write goals miss the point because they don’t understand how to make a good goal. Yeah, yeah, it must be concrete, it must be in writing, yadda yadda yadda. If you don’t do that, which is in almost all the financial books, your goals are doomed to fail. You don’t write I’m going to be a billionaire in 1 month and you only have $5 dollars to your name. I’m assuming the reader of this post is beyond the basics.

Analogy: Take a look at how many books are written on dieting. How many people can actually lose 50 pounds and keep it off? But if I wrote a goal to lose 1 pound a week and in 50 weeks I'll be 50 pounds lighter wouldn't that work? Isn't that an attainable goal? Only 1 pound a week! If I look at that day and night, won't it work? Well as a statistician that I am, I would say your probability of losing 50 pounds definitely increased versus someone who did not write it down and look at that written goal daily.
I can even make a case for all those that did write it down and those that didn’t and say incorrectly see this is all you have to do, to lose 50 pounds. But if I were a betting man, I’d vote against you achieving this goal if that were all you did. So the next question would be how could I lose 50 pounds in a year, if this is my ultimate goal? What must I do?

Precious formula which I finally discovered after hundreds of hours in seminars and books:

PURPOSE => VISION => GOALS align them all and goals are easy as 1,2,3.

It is like a pyramid. At the bottom is the most important, purpose statement. Next comes vision and at the top goals.

VISION: is closing you eyes. How do you see yourself one yr. from now? If you still see yourself overweight, then your subconscious mind is working against you. You are not aligned and you goal of losing weight is doomed to fail. Vision is more important than goals. If however you see yourself a thin person then you have a chance. It is funny that most people spend their time on goals, yet more time should be spent on your vision. In the seminar we practice closing our eyes and seeing what we would like. How did it feel to us? What were we doing? What is the setting in our quiet place. For me it is myself in my office overlooking the town lights below.

I really fun thing we did was the instructor, showed us the folly of goals. Okay your goal is to get across the room, but you can not get across like anyone prior. Yeah, you can sit and think about all the ways and boy is that a trivial pursuit. The whole purpose of this lesson. We just did it. One would walk, then hop, then crawl, then skip, then cartwheel, and 30 minutes later we were still going across, in twos, with chairs, would it never end. Goals are simple and little time should the reader spend on it. We need more things to do.

PURPOSE: Ah, the most important element in the whole thing. So you see yourself thin and you have a goal to lose 50 pounds, but may I ask, what for? What is your purpose in life? If it has nothing to do with being thin, come on! no way are you going to do all this? Maybe your purpose it to raise your son to be a fine young man and you are an obese 60 yr. widower and have an infant child. Your doctor tells you, you have to lose some weight, and your cholesterol is seriously high. Now, you got a strong burning passion or purpose in life. Now you have an even stronger vision of a healthy you raising your child and playing with him at 10 yrs and 20 yrs old. Now you can set goals and look at them everyday with a vision and purpose. Now you got a fighting chance to lose the weight and keep it off. Give me PASSION. Align your GOALS with your VISION and PURPOSE. Purpose is the key. Find yours and vision and goals are a walk in the park.

So how does this look in terms of real estate or financial success. Why is it you want to be successful? What burning desire do you have to call 100 houses? Is it an empty goal to be rich, and for what? So you can say to your friends look at me? Come on get a life! Work on your purpose, pray about it, think about it, spend more than 50% of your time discovering it. Once you have it you have the war won. If it helps to see yourself before the creator, talking about your life then so be it. If it’s the lifeboat exercise, were we had to explain to our fellow students why we should be allowed to live with only 1 seat remaining in our sinking titanic, then use it. By the way in that exercise, we were allowed 2 minute to talk. Note that no one had any convincing reason to live. Quite interesting, no one had any passion or direction. You mean to say not one of us, can talk for two minute on why we should be allowed to live with any passion. Oh, and this was not a fun experience as they had us stand there with dead time until the time was up. A shocking example of lack of passion and direction in ones life.

Now that you have a burning, driving passion in life, now that you can see, taste, touch, and feel the darn thing, work on your VISION. It should be easy from here.

Heck, now Goals are very easy. That must be align with your vision and purpose. It’s like an afterthought and goals WILL BE done next time this year. It’s truly is easy and startling to see those new years resolutions getting done because you have a purpose which drives you and a vision of what that looks and feels like.

Hope this helps. Since the 10 yrs that I discovered this, I personally have been a more Powerful individual. Powerful in the sense of the ability to help others, having more of an impact to those that I contact. And for you die-hard, thick-headed, money-hungry, greedy readers, oh and yes, my financial net worth skyrocketed beyond what I even imagined. It was not about the money, but as one great book wrote, “You can’t but help be rich, if you help enough people get to where they want to get.” Okay, I paraphrased it to death, and of course to those pessimistic folks, what about Mother Teresa?, she’s not rich!. My reply to those folks are she is rich, in another sort of way (:

Les.

http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=7663&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#7663

Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.

How I began in RE and what you can do today! by LesGee

2005-03-11T17:01:00.000-05:00

Post by LesGee

X wrote:
-------------------------------
I am very interested in these products. Almost done with Rich Dad Poor Dad, and looking for more information on how to become aggressively involved with real estate. Also would like more info on what books or audio tapes will be beneficial in this area as well as smart investing. Will do whatever it takes to make it!!!!!!

les replies:
=======
how many times have i heard that before.

Will you pick up the telephone and call on ads on houses for sale? No, no say many beginneers, i don't know what to say? Tell me what to say? How about give me a break! Wing it until you get good at it. Nobody is going to hold your hand, no matter how many books you read.

Will you drive to a house if the seller sounds desperate and it sounds like a steal?
No, no say many beginners, I don't know anything about a house. Huh? Why not put a 14-day inspection clause in the contract, so you can hire people to look at it.

But I got no money? Yeah, yeah if you found a pot of gold at 30% discount, you can't sell it to a gold digger for 15% discount. Give me another "noise", that one is old.

Okay, I called, I looked, it's a steal, now will you sign a contract TODAY if you found a house for only $500,000 worth $700,000? No no say many newbies, I have to read more books. I never done this before. Huh? Stay with your day job.

Your mind is your greatest enemy.

=======
The post below and above is all you need to do it now. I just saved you thousand of dollars You don't need any books or seminar if you have half a brain.

Enjoy the reprint...
=========

HOW I BEGAN IN REAL ESTATE AND WHAT YOU CAN DO, by Les Gee

( someone sent me a personal email. I have delete the persons name and posted it on the board for all to learn.)

Ques: I know you are busy. I would ask for advice, but more so I am interested in where and how you acquired your knowledge...how you began to do what you do.

Answer: Long story 1990 was the year. I was driven, unlike 95% of the newbies. This is why some newbies consider me tough. Only 5% will actually do anything, and the rest are time wasters. They want to learn and learn and learn but do nothing, nothing, nothing. It is common knowledge in seminar circles that most attendees do knowing with the info. If I was charging hundreds of dollars, then my attitude would be please waste my time it’s your money.
SOMETHING IS NOT TRULY LEARNED UNLESS ACTED UPON.

When I started, my mentor had 2 other people working for him, and 3 others wanting to learn. I was the lowest on the totem pole, due to my age, shyness, and knowledge. I didn’t even know what an escrow was. 1 yr later I was the only one standing. All the rest were time wasters who long since left doing absolutely nothing. One was even a real estate broker already. I asked my mentor about that later. He said the difference was night and day between me and the others. Looking back I could see what he was talking about. Most people have too much psychological baggage. Let me ask you => DO YOU HAVE THE DRIVE?<= You need it since no one is going to kick your butt to do anything.

My personal plan was to start my own university of one teacher and one student, ME and ME!
It was a four yr plan. Heck, in college you don’t get paid for it, so money was not going to be in the plan for my university. It was all about learning and discoverying.

My Freshmen year, I read 20 hrs a week for a year, while hooking up with my mentor 2 hours roundtrip driving a day, and learned by being his personal assistant for zippo pay. He didn’t give me the time of day. Which worked out just fine as I learn to hustle for knowledge. Realize no one is going to hand you anything it must be win win.

It’s funny after 1 yr of reading, I packed up and found another mentor two states away, since I already surpassed this guys real estate knowledge long ago. This is the honest truth. One thing he had that others don’t is balls. That is much more important in this business than knowledge.
This is a big secret folks! You don’t have to be so smart as me. My first mentor was doing fine.

My mentor would buy for $50,000 all cash and sell for what he thinks would go for $70,000, while I use to sit there with my hp12c calculator and compute internal rates of return as a substitute for the real issue...sucking wind on my fears. But that was what I was taught in seminars. You have to analyze a deal. How to calculate yields, internal rates of return, etc. Now I understand why he won’t answer most of my questions, it was just noise in replace of fear. My mentor would just laugh. Later I noticed all he owned was a simple +-x/ calculator. Hmmmm, very interesting said my light bulb that first year. Here’s another saying, YOU DON’T STEAL IN SLOW MOTION.
I firmly believe Engineer types (like me) and Real estate Investors don’t mix well. It took me years to overcome my slow methodical style.

My next mentor had 100 students from around the country paying him $1000 for a phone expert on discounted mortgages. I was one of the 4 experts. Little ole me, only 1 yr in the business with 2 houses under my belt handed to me from my previous mentor. (of course I had to put up the money.) In this next gig that lasted two months at 20 hours per week on the phone constantly, I was never stumped with a GOOD answer! It was shocking to me that I knew all the CORRECT answers and by far was the best phone coach of the four, yet there were 2 real estate licensed brokers with 10+ yrs of experience. It dawned on me, I no longer needed mentors and hence moved on to better things. Been self-employed ever since.

I believe in the universal law of helping others. The end result, however, is the world will give back ten fold. However, it does not work if that is why you help. People are not stupid, they see a con if you are one. Work on your self and good things will happen.

A lot of people think you shouldn’t teach because you increase competition, blah, blah, blah. Heck, there is no competition! People can’t get past fear. Play cashflow 202 and try helping other players. It’s the same thing. People will be attracted to those with a gentle spirit, not a selfish attitude. In 11 years of doing loans, 100% of my business is from friends or referrals. I don’t have time for the general public, anyway they don’t know me from a hole in the wall.
Even now, us “rich guys” (yeah tell that to my wife, she’ll just laugh) are in need of money from time to time. It sure would help to have a team as opposed to be a solo player.

Even though both mentors didn’t teach me much personally, they did provide me with a vehicle to learn. It was because I was so driven to learn that I absorbed it like a sponge. And contrary to their lack of time with me, I think kindly and thoughtfully about both men. I really didn’t need them, besides to eliminate my fears. I paid for that cowardness as a mini-slave.

BTW (by the way) my goal for my sophomore year was 10 yrs per week reading. My junior year was whatever I wanted to read, but I graduated from my own university 2 yrs early.

Ques: Is the game (cashflow 101) something that I should invest in? Are there good books? Or
is just going out and doing a deal the best way to learn?

Answer: Cashflow is the best one item to do. Better than any one book I found for teaching financial intelligence. It helped me think about general strategies and also when watching others how pitiful and idiotic some thinking is. Hence, it warns me not to do that. I find that (95%) most players aren’t very good, so keep practicing. And practice with different tactics. One being buy all cash, buy big deals only, buy with partners, buy alone, etc…. Play at least 50 times, then go on to cashflow 202. Play by yourself or with others. But if you must read a book here are some gems.

Books wise: Richest Man in Babylon, this is my financial bible.
Think Like a Tycoon, by Bill Greene was is my favorite Real estate Book. Out of print.
How to Build a Real Estate Money machine, by Wade Cook was my first mentors recommendation.
Private Money Financing, by Carlos Royal, Out of Print.
How To buy at least 20% Below Market, by John Reed is a good basic analysis of 30 techniques. It will help give you an idea of which way to go or it may confuse you into giving you too many choices.
Nothing Down, By Robert Allen is good.
Multiple Steams of Income by Allen is also very good.
How I turned $1000 into five Million in Real Estate, by Nickerson is considered the grand father of creative real estate.

Note all books have value. Go to the library and start reading. In one year, you can read a bunch. This is like learning Spanish. The more you read the better you get at it HOWEVER,
by far the best way to learn is by

============================== MAKING PHONE CALLS =============

consistently to potential house sellers. I have seen more change over a short time with newbies that talk on the phone to live bullets then the Engineer type (me) reading or attending seminars. For my first mentor I was his personally answering services. Got to answer calls on people wanting money, people wanting to sell their house, and people looking to place money. Here are some simple ads in the paper he placed.

I buy house fast xxx-xxxx AND Bad credit give me a call xxx-xxxx

Investors wanted to earn high rates on houses xxx-xxxx

Reading helps, seminar helps, but there is no substitute for a real live game of phone calls.
If you just read, big deal, you are like the masses. If you make phone calls, now you are really learning. What if you found a seller that has a live one. You will be sweating when you hang up.
Your mind will be working. You’ll wonder seriously what to do.

This is how you do it! Are you guys listening? Is anyone home? Do I have to preface with pay me $10,000 and I will give it to you? Or can I just give it to you and hope 1% of you will help those buyers out there. Will maybe I should bracket the big secret.

=> ACTION ITEM TO DO TODAY IF YOU GOT BALLS AND REALLY WANT TO MAKE MONEY IN REAL ESTATE.
=> Every week your goal should be to call at least 10 For Sale By Owners, Or rentals trying to => buy a house profitably. Look at 2 of the 10 best. Make an offer on 1 after the first month.

If you can do that for 1 yr, you would have talked to 500 people, seen 100 homes, made 50 offers.

I ask you who would be smarter and closer to their financial dreams.

=>You today -VS- you in one year having done that? <=

Sink that in your mind, because that is what I use to think when I started and made those first calls and could be found in a suit in a downtown San Francisco skyscraper, negotiating on a multi-million dollar deals in my FIRST month. One week earlier I had to force myself to call an ad.

If you need to find a mentor, we are all cheap. Buy us lunch. The mentors that will charge an arm and an leg, forget them, they are in it for the money. Have you conscious be your guide. We all have it within us, if we will only listen.

Lastly, real estate is not that hard. You don’t need to understand everything. I surely have holes in my real estate knowledge. We all make mistakes. It thoses that have the drive that will ultimately succeed. If you find a question that stops you from moving forward, it is probably just NOISE, that overcame your lack of drive.

A real estate developer remembered the time he built his first house. He said he did everything wrong in the beginning. He had ordered all the parts and there where sitting at the site. His dad came by and said son, what do you have to do first? Oh, start the foundation and off he went.
He looked at the whole job, he would still be sitting there in a daze.

In real estate, what’s the first thing YOU have to do? Here’s one path there are many.
1) Read books for 6 months. (optional)
2) Make 10 phone calls a week (highly recommended, you are building your real estate brain muscle)
3) Look at 2 houses per week (will come on you have to look at houses)
4) Make 1 offer (hey, you could look at 1000000 houses, but no offers gives no money.)
5) Oops he accepted, now what? (inevitable if you make offers)
6) Find money. Hey guys I found a $100,000 house for $70,000 who wants it for $80,000.
7) Get it in contract
8) Close escrow
9) Collect money
10) Go back to number 2.

Les.

Ps. Share your success and failures with the group.

http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=181053&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#181053

Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.

What is Rich, What is Wealthy, and What is the Success Factor?

2005-03-10T12:50:00.000-05:00

Someone asked me what is the definition of rich, what is wealthy, and what are the traits of being successful?

RICH -
1. Possessing great material wealth: “Now that he was rich he was not thought ignorant any more, but simply eccentric” (Mavis Gallant).
2. Having great worth or value: a rich harvest of grain.
3. Magnificent; sumptuous: a rich brocade.
4.
1. Having an abundant supply: rich in ideas.
2. Abounding, especially in natural resources: rich land.
5. Meaningful and significant: “a rich sense of the transaction between writer and reader” (William Zinsser).
6. Very productive and therefore financially profitable: rich seams of coal.
7.
1. Containing a large amount of choice ingredients, such as butter, sugar, or eggs, and therefore unusually heavy or sweet: a rich dessert.
2. Having or exuding a strong or pungent aroma: “Texas air is so rich you can nourish off it like it was food” (Edna Ferber).
8.
1. Pleasantly full and mellow: a rich tenor voice.
2. Warm and strong in color: a rich brown velvet.
9. Containing a large proportion of fuel to air: a rich gas mixture.
10. Informal. Highly amusing.

Wealthy -
1. Having wealth; rich.
2. Marked by abundance: a wealthy land.
3. Well supplied: wealthy in compassion.

Successful -
1. Having a favorable outcome: a successful heart transplant.
2. Having obtained something desired or intended: was successful in stopping the leak of oil.
3. Having achieved wealth or eminence: a successful architect.

Here are 2 cool discussion on it:

DEFINITION OF RICH
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=390508&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=success%2Cfactors&tmode=&smode=&s=

SUCCESS FACTORS
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=372858&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=success%2Cfactors&tmode=&smode=&s=

My Take is...
I believe that one can be successful in one area and not the other. For me I believe in a holistic view of success. If I am great in business but have horrible health then it doesn't do it for me. This is one of the other reasons why I encourage others to take life trainings like Harmony / The Great Life Foundation.

Want Inspiration? Talk to Michael 1212

2005-03-05T21:29:00.004-05:00

I received a email on Wednesday March 2, 2005:

I would like to meet with your group if you did not mind. I am in Detroit and would be willing to drive out to NYC. I have never played the board game(or been to NYC). I read you are looking for people who realy understand the game, I do not . I would not want to hold the group up, maybee I could just sit in on the game. It would be worth the trip to me just to be around like minded people. I could make it as early as this friday if that is OK.

Michael 1212

I contacted him quickly as I shared with him the value of time and if he may want to contact other cashflow groups closer. After all of my suggestions, he said he wanted to come to NYC.

WOW!

I met Michael late afternoon on Friday to get to know him and show him a bit around Times Square. He was impressed by the energy of the city and the cleaniness (I still feel NYC is dirty though). My first impression is he is an unassuming guy with great positive energy. I enjoy talking with people that shine that. It gets me going!

After walking through the area, we moved to meet up with the CF101 Cashflow Group in NYC. The game started around 6:30PM in which it grew to over 30 people. Many people learned new things. I finally met Reverendro and his wife and also GuardianX. Reverendro had an great time as he wrote here -> [click here]. During this time Michael was playing CF101 and he looked like he was enjoying it.

After the game, we spoke a bit and Michael and went out with 2 other cashflowers. It was great hearing from Michael about his story and how he is primed in creating a beautiful powerful life. He has taken many steps and is not discouraged to make it happen. We spoke about his various ventures in business and using real estate as a vehicle to financial freedom. It was a good time as he also stayed in a oversized closet in the Habitat Hotel. There wasn't even room for a restroom!

All in all I am inspired by Michael as he saw the vision in his life and is creating it. Most others are not this enrolled in their visions and are hungry for their dreams. He affirmed that the power that I have to attract those who are powerful and like minded. He just came to play cashflow one night and then went home the next morning - talk about inspiring!

Thank you once again Michael, Reverendro, and GuardianX to take on your lives! You honor me!

PS You can read Michael1212's post -> [click here]

Harmony Trainings LIFTOFF !!!!! - Weekend 4

2005-03-03T23:13:00.000-05:00

Wow... it is about a week since my last day of training in Harmony (now called The Great Life Foundation). It seems like a year since then but at the same time it feels like I haven't really left at all.

This weekend was an affirmation of all the things I have learned for the past few months:

* I am worthy of success. Simple thing to say and it took me some processes to be aware that yes I am worthy of this life.
* Acceptance of myself as a human being with my strengths and weaknesses.
* I am not a failure when I fail. Failure is when I quit moving and learning in life. I keep on moving to success and making mistakes and failing are part of the learning process.
* I am loved. I have been told many times by people and felt the love of God at times. It was amazing feeling it from people who I just knew a few weeks. I saw people change from half fearful shells to giving, powerful, loving, amazing persons. It is inspirational. Most of all I am loved by myself. This is one of the greatest knowings of all. I ask myself "what is the most loving thing I can do right now?".
* I am responsible / accountable. Things in life happen. I am responsible for how I feel and think about them and even to an extent created the circumstances that I going through.
* I am a creator. I am made in the image of God the Creator so I am creating things in life from my emotions to my outward surroundings. I CHOOSE on how it looks and CHOOSE on how to appear in life.

In this weekend, I created something special. The limits were what I imposed on it and no one else. I created LOVE for people who were ailing and sick. I created flowers and gifts to share the love and acceptance I had for them and it brought tremendous energy for the people as they saw my smiling compassionate face. It was a true blessing.

To top off the whole weekend our Celebration was great! The theme was the 50's as I dressed up in a clean white shirt with rolled up dark blue jeans and Sketchers black cap toe shoes with white socks! To top it all off I had my hair slicked back for that hot look!

It was GREAT! One of my buddies did a firedance that took my breathe away! He breathed fire and laid the fire blade on his feet. It was simply awesome!

For myself I performed the song Arms of Love by Craig Musseau as I haven't performed this Christian worship song for 5 years in public. It was great to perform with my heart!

Overall it is bittersweet and MY TRAINING HAS JUST BEGUN!

Do I Need a Mentor?

2005-03-02T15:40:00.000-05:00

Great Article from DealMakers:

http://www.dealmakerscafe.com/Articles/New-Investor/Seeking-a-mentor-in-Oregon

Bottom line is who would care more about your success? Your mentor or you? From Harmony I realize that I have the power to create my world. Would it serve me to have assistance? Yes and for the most part I became my own mentor as I cared about my success more than anyone I have met. Do I say don't look for a mentor? No, just be aware that if you don't have one as of yet then continue to move and grow yourself. As Ray Como (real estate investor) says, "when the student is ready then the teacher will appear!".

Bob's Painful Foreclosure

2005-03-01T15:22:00.000-05:00

These last few months I have been visiting the Sheriff Sales in PA for properties up for foreclosure. It has been alot of work as I would get the list, look at the areas, determine which properties are worth the effort, drive to the property, and speak with the homeowners while looking at the condition of the property. It takes time but I like talking with people and seeing the actual properties.

This past month I visited one house located in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia in which the property was a 3br / 1ba. My partner and I approached the house and found the door was unlocked. Looking for the owner was not too hard as he came later. He was a guy named Bobby (not his real name) in his early 20s and I asked if he knew there is a sale on his house this month. He mentioned he knew as someone just told him.

We sit down and spoke with him and found out that his grandma owned the property and the taxes were not paid for years. It was owed 20K in total liens and there was damage on the side in which the frame wall was open and water was going down from the 2nd floor all the way to the 1st.

It was a slim deal as we had only 2 business days to work and the title of the house was still in his grandma's name. His relatives didn't care about the house and it hasn't gone through probate. After some discussion, I let him know it is a slim chance that I can do something about it but I will do what I can.

Getting back to home and doing research on it I found:

2br/1ba in strong blue collar area
Total Liens: 20K
Repairs: 15-25K (property had electricity, gas, water good; toilet was broken; about 8x8 ft of wall required repairs as water was seeping into the house; comestic work including new rugs and paint).
ARV: 80K

The main issue about the house was that it did not go through probate so the estate of the grandma was not settled. I called a few attorneys and most required at least 1.5K as a retainer.

Afterwards we would want to file bankrupcty 13 to stop the sale of the property or at least negotiate with the plantiff's attorney.

The amount of work with the little time didn't make sense for me to proceed as Bobby didn't get back to us on time. We found out that even if he did the liens was not the only issue but if he was named executor of the estate then he would be required to settle all outstanding debts. He didn't have the mindset to do so at this time.

I went to the auction and the property finally sold for 45K ish. It was incredible how many people wanted to bid high on this. It was a slim margin for net profit.

After the auction, I drove to see Bobby.

He was hunched in the backyard with his friends as called him. He was dejected as he came to me and he said, "I tried calling you but I couldn't get through to you." He murmured that a few more times as I told him that his house was sold. He was looking straight away from me and moving restless as he didn't know what to say. He kept murmuring he called me earlier.

I told him that the house sold and that he has about 1-2 months to move his things. I hoped for the best as he told me he can stay with his friends. It was very sad to see the hurt in his eyes. It was really tough to see that as he lived in that home since he was a baby. Right now because it went to foreclosure he left with NOTHING.

Working in preforeclosures provides the homeowner a solution that they can walk away with dignity and move forward into a new beginning.

How I am Playing Cashflow in Real Life!

2005-02-21T12:59:00.000-05:00

On Fridays, I am a host of the Rich Dad Poor Dad board game CASHFLOW in NYC. We meet weekly to network and learn more about creating financial freedom in our lives. For myself I have been playing this game for 3 years and the lessons I have learned have been very valuable and the people are superb!

Last Friday on Feburary 18, 2004, I delivered my first speech / talk titled "HOW I AM PLAYING CASHFLOW IN REAL LIFE?". There were 10 people in audience and it was received with high marks from most people. Lasting for 1 hour I spoke about how I started this journey to financial freedom many years ago after breaking up with my girlfriend. It was very hard as it took me 2 years to recover and at that time I realized that possibilities are infinite and I choose to live my life at my terms. From there I moved to reading finanical money management authors like Suze Orman, Ric Edelman, Andrew Tobias among others. The revolution came from the Rich Dad series which spurred me to read Napoleon Hill, George Clason, Jim Rohn, etc.... There are so many good books that moved me into thinking a greater life. I changed my finances to start saving in my 401k and Roth IRA and had a plan to retire in 30 years working a J-O-B!

In addition to the books, I started playing Robert Kiyosaki's cashflow game in which I practiced learning how to get out of the rat race with many different kinds of people. Many of which were newbies learning investment vehicles like Real Estate, Business, and Pape Assets. During this time I am reading and learning in the safety of my comfort zone.

The large change came from my downsize in June 2003 in which my company let me go and I decided to started to explore finanical freedom through learning about preforeclosures from a investor in LI. It was a learning experience but after some time I believed I wanted to learn more and move on. During this time I was involved in a few RE deals that created win situations for everyone.

In this time I talked with more real players in real life including LesGee from the RichDad.com forums. It is through this talk that we created the REST Training in NYC in Fall of 2004. It is an eye opener as LesGee plays the cashflow game in a larger national context and it truly impressed me.

Afterwards LesGee shared with me on the model of "BE DO HAVE".

BE DO HAVE model

BE a success
DO or act on tasks that create success
HAVE success as they are the results of my being.

v.

DO HAVE BE model
DO or act on tasks that create success
HAVE successful results
BE a success or feeling it.

These were the 2 paradigms and most people approach life with the 2nd model instead of the 1st model. LesGee challenged me to change my BEING in order for me to change my results instead of spinning my wheels. He challenged me to Harmony Trainings in Utah in which I am finishing it up this weekend.

IT IS AN EXCITING LIFE to life as if I am a success! Instead of concentrating on worry of how I concentrate on me feeling successful.

The talk lasted for 1 hour and if I outlined my "formula" for success with this:

Dreams / Vision / Mission
Desire & Affirmations
Strengths & Weaknesses
Plans
Goals
Strategies
Mastermind / Team
Tatics
ACTION
Results
Review and Followup

It is a simple formula from my experiences and learning from other successful people in life.

My Views on the 401K

2005-02-10T12:13:00.000-05:00

401k s are offered by for profit corporations for their employees to "invest" for their financial future. There are many laws and stipulations that come with it as the government has designed it to be part of your retirment strategy therefore are penalties for general withdrawals. In addition, your company has its own benefits added to it.

You can find more about the 401K although I suggest you to be critical of what to accept as each source has its own agenda:

http://www.investorwords.com/11/401k.html
http://www.fool.com/money/401k/401k.htm?source=LN

My general principle is put in enough for your employer to match. If they ask that you put up 5% and they will match up to that dollar for dollar or $.50 for every dollar you put up then it is at least 50% - 100% ROI or RETURN ON INVESTMENT with minimal effort.

My retirment plan is to invest in real estate (as I am more familiar with it) which provides me from 20% to Infinite ROI (when I take all my cash out). This is reviewed in RK book "Who Took My Money?". Basically one of the issues with 401k is that most people use it heavily to build long term wealth. Most 401k constrict the investments to mainly paper assets at the expense of profitable ventures in small business or real estate.

The more power you have to choose in your investments the greater the opportunity that you can make money work for you. Most financial advice revolves around mutual funds, stocks and other paper assets but I know that it is for those who want to be comfortable in 25+ years. For myself I see that I want to be free in 10 so I look for higher returns (aka tax liens or other real estate ventures). It is more stable and provide greater returns. Some are even tax free if you invest through a self directed IRA!

Educate yourself and formulate a plan that supports YOU and YOUR DREAMS!

Harmony Trainings LIFTOFF !!!!! - Weekend 3

2005-02-07T18:56:00.000-05:00

Came back from weekend 3 and it was about ABUNDANCE. Perfect for a blog about it right? Let's say that this week I have been humbled by the sharing of my fellow buddies and seeing the incredible abundance in their lives. More than once my fellow buddies have said that I am a powerful loving man. I was shocked at how many have told me that I have inspired them with my light. It is humbling. Of all the issues, it is me accepting myself to be a POWERFUL, LOVING, COMPASSIONATE man! During the stretches and other challenges I have been experiencing failure after failure. At times I have teared and cried about it as it does hurt to wonder how I caused this pain of failure. It is a learning process that I am going through.

Lesson: RESULTS do not lie. If my INTENTION is not clear and my ACTION is not committed then I have mixed results and FAILURE.

I found that my liftoff group is the last one of Harmony Trainings! They have changed the name to GREAT LIFE FOUNDATION to reflect a greater mission for them.

I had the opportunity to finally talk to a fellow cashflower named Harry. He is in liftoff 202 and we felt connected with a brotherhood though we haven't really spent much time. He told me of how another retired investor is taking Harry under his wing to develop him as a REI investor. I am so proud of him and it feels like the blessings are for me also.

Also I had lunch with another investor named John who is located in the Virginia area. He is implementing some principles from UtahInvestor's 300 posts. He is a trainee of Mark but I believe he is moving in another direction. It is inspiring to hear of how he is doing very well with his real estate business. He offered housing for me in Virginia. It is awesome to tap into the love and power of people!

1st REI Deal - SFH in Buffalo NY

2005-02-03T11:42:00.000-05:00

My 1st REI Deal - SFH Buffalo NY

This is a pic of my 1st REI deal in Buffalo NY. Purchased it as a REO (real estate owned from the bank after foreclosure). Due to the tight numbers after acquistion and rehab costs, I felt it was better to lease option it. My strategy was not to hold onto alot of these but instead cash out after 1 yr to lower capital gains taxes. It took us awhile to get it done but it is a great learning experience!

UPDATES:
9/29/2005 - for the most part the tenants are paying the rent but not paying all other associated costs such as sewage rent, water fees, etc... It is very frustrating to keep mailing them. The redeeming thing is to qualify them to purchase the property. Looking at the market, it has slowly appreciated and the area is still ok but I am keeping my eyes out on this. For the most part the exit is to sell it ASAP. It is over a year so we would be taxed long term capital gains.

1/7/2006 - we contacted the tenants and suggested that we get them a lender, we want to get out of the Buffalo market and find more profitable markets. The property is cashflowing very nicely.

Harmony Trainings LIFTOFF !!!!! - Weekend 2

2005-01-31T16:00:00.000-05:00

Wow! It was an amazing weekend in Utah for my 2nd weekend. The topic was ENROLLMENT. Before getting on the plane, I was getting the jitters for the new stretches as they seem not only 100 + 1 but more like 200% to get them accomplished!

Getting there it was great seeing my LiftOff family and it was good to be in a place where I have digged into my heart to find the light and darkness.

This week we have an INCREDIBLE and AMAZING experience. We were learning how about how to share ourselves with others and create more power and achieving our visions / dreams by ENROLLING ourselves and others into it. It is captivating for our group to be on the same page and working to the same goal. The energy was so powerful as each step was painful at first. Each failure taught us more and more about ourselves as our trainer was firm and direct saying, "are we clear? are we conscious?" in our lives. When we became honest and clear things are amazing. The energy from each other was mixed and after each moment it became so sharp and penetrating that it was flowing! After we achieved there was a moment of complete EXSTACY and pure JOY! It was an amazing achievement!

LESSON: If one is clear and everyone is enrolled, things are possible and dreams come true! Be conscious is required by all to make things happen!

The stretch after the exercise is usually a feeling of complete dread but through this time it was a feeling of CLARITY. It is a feeling of CERTAINTY that we are getting things done. The stretch confirmed our power as my group finished our stretch in less than 1 hr though we were given 2. We created a MIRACLE for a homeless family and it was totally amazing on the thrill and life we felt. It was pure beauty and love! Our spirits soared!

It has been a great week again and the energy lasts even today. Today sharing with people my experiences and how powerful the training is. I recommend it to most people when I have time to sit down and talk with them.

Amazing and Awesome!

When coming back after learning the lesson, I missed a coaching call and I totally felt horrible. It was a sick feeling and I started to beat myself up for it. It was typical until I stopped and forgave myself. How many times do I have to do this? Why did it happen? The lesson learned on Saturday became more personal in this failure - Live Life Consciously, Live Life with Myself Enrolled, If not then I fall back into my past weeks that have not served me.

There is a desire to share more in depth but it is really an amazing set of people in LiftOff.

Lastly I finally met with Harry. He is working on his first real estate deal in Seattle. Quest has opened the doors for him. It was great to see his Summit Celebration! I am so happy that he, like me, has found a new family that loves him and supports him in this world. I am sure that the joy he feels is worth the time, money, and energy that is invested in Harmony. Harry & Jennifer - both of you are awesome!

PS Harmony Trainings Institute is now called "Great Life Foundation".

What NOT to Do! - 17 Mistakes that Startups Make from a Millionaire!

2005-01-24T21:25:00.000-05:00

This is a good read. What is more important is WHAT TO DO!

Reprinted from the article from Enterpeneur Magazine:

( http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,312661,00.html )

1. Know your goals for the venture. "A lot of people see an opportunity without ever asking themselves what they're doing it for," says Russo. "Are they trying to make a quick buck? Create a legacy? Have a lifestyle? There are a lot of reasons. It's critical that you know from the beginning what your goals are, because everything else is going to revolve around that."

2. Recruit and hire the best people. "It sounds almost cliché now to say I'd rather have an A team with a B idea than a B team with an A idea. The right team can fix a lot of problems. If you don't have the right team, you don't have much of a chance," Russo says. "Get the best people available at the time."

3. Develop a forgiving strategy. "Things are going to go wrong," he says. "They're going to be harder, take longer and cost more money than you think. You have to have a strategy to survive. A lot of people put together a plan that will work only if everything goes right. It's not going to."

4. Be honest with yourself. "Recognize shortcomings, weaknesses and problems immediately. Do not ignore them or try to talk yourself out of them," Russo says. "Address them head-on."

5. Commit to the business. "You can't really do anything significant without fully committing yourself to it. A lot of people try to dabble," he explains. "They think they'll do it part time [and] see how it works out. If you plan to be successful, you have to commit."

- Peter Russo, director of Boston University's Entrepreneurial Management Institute

Test - What is your millionaire potential?

2005-01-17T21:07:00.000-05:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/millionaire1

What is yours?

I got 20 and it says:

You're in the top group - score 17 - 25
You've got top-dollar millionaire potential. You're careful with your money and have a healthy attitude to it. You're hard-working and determined to be successful.

It is good to be considered #1 by an online survey - LOL :)

NEWBIE POST: Your Mental Game in REI

2005-01-16T04:45:00.000-05:00

NEWBIE POST: Your Mental Game
( original post from RichDad.com http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?=279490&mpage=1&p=&tmode=1&smode=1&key= )

As I think back to my first attempts at success in REI as well as that of many of my mentoring students, I can’t help but realizing that the pursuit for success in real estate has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with real estate itself. Yes, there is a lot of money to be made and yes there are many benefits to choosing REI as your path, including appreciation, tax benefits, entity benefits, the many possibilities for both fast cash as well as passive income, the fact that everyone needs a place to live, etc. But none of these things comes close to being at the core of why we all share the dream for ‘having more.’

Some of you are asking yourselves, “This is starting to look like another long-winded yet worthless post without useful information.” BEWARE of thinking this. Here’s why I say that.

Since training and mentoring hundreds of people in real estate investing, I’ve realized something important:

The MENTAL GAME behind success in REI is even more important than how much actual real estate knowledge you have.

Does this mean that specific real estate knowledge isn’t important? Of course not – it too is vital to a degree. In both my own personal case as well as that of most of my past students, I have found that solid knowledge learned from someone who has ‘been there’ serves as major reinforcement for mental fortitude. HOWEVER, the Mental Game which must be played (and WON) is an even more important ingredient for success.

So what ‘Mental Game’ am I referring to? Simple (although not easy – there’s a big difference).

MASSIVE ACTION CURES FEAR.

Read those four words again. No, this isn’t some fluffy motivational BS that’s meant to be passed off as solid information – it’s the real deal. If you can *truly* live by the phrase above – if you can *truly* allow yourself to take massive action and make your future happen instead of waiting for it to occur – then, my friend, you can and WILL succeed in real estate.

You see, the ‘Mental Game’ I’m referring is probably the opposite of what most people think. In fact, it’s really about how to QUIET YOUR MIND (aka get rid of the noise) so that you get out of your own way to achieve the results that have been previously unattainable to you.

A lot of people thrive on outwardly motivational things to help them succeed, and I’m not necessarily knocking those things. However, while there are some decent things out there, few of them are able to get to the heart of the issue, which is achieving tangible RESULTS. And by that I mean profits - money in your pocket.

If you want to be motivated to succeed in REI, how about going to a closing where you walk away with a check for $10K?? Do you think you would be motivated by that? YOU BET. This is the way I approach real estate and the way I suggest you do too – that is, by taking a results-oriented approach.

You can study and study until you are blue in the face. But until you take massive and immediate action to get yourself to the next level, the RESULTS that you are seeking (in other words, the very reason why you are here) will continue to elude you.

See, taking massive action like this helps eliminate fear because there is no time for doubt in the midst of action. You are simply ‘going’ - you are taking action and moving forward – and there is a lot to be said for this.

Does that mean you should move forward frivolously without thinking about what you’re doing? Absolutely not. But neither does it mean that you need all the answers before you make a move. I’ve been investing for just over six years now and I’m still learning at every turn. If you want ‘all the answers’, you will need to learn by DOING. It’s time to take ACTION – immediate and massive action.

This is a huge part of the mental preparation I learned from my mentor and that which I teach to others. If you really want to see success in REI, and more importantly, if you really want the life of freedom that success in REI brings, it’s time to start quieting your mind through immediate and massive action. Being on this board is a great start, no doubt. It’s where I started as well as several other successful investors. But are you willing to go further?

Baby steps are key when starting out – as well as while moving forward. In my experience, baby steps add up to large leaps VERY quickly. Some examples of vital baby steps are:

Reading everything you can about REI – know the language (aka jargon)
Asking many questions and finding the answers to them
Connecting with other RE professionals in your area
building the beginnings of a team
Studying MARKETING and SALES – these two skills are a huge part of the foundation for success
Looking at properties and making written offers – when it’s all said and done, these are your profit-producing activities…period

This is only a start, but the things listed above are without a doubt a major part of why I’ve been successful so far. There’s no time like the present so start taking baby steps in these areas. I PROMISE you will begin to see leaps, but first you must put in the time to build your foundation. I learned this the hard way – it doesn’t happen overnight. But it will happen if your mental game is dictated by ACTION rather than fear.

Do yourself a favor and take a mental inventory of all the NOISE holding you back - all the questions, doubts, fears, and most importantly, the REASONS for those questions, doubts and fears. The more clear you are with these things the easier it will be for you to do the following:

Eliminate certain mental hang-ups that are holding you back
Accept the ones that are ingrained in you and allow yourself to move forward in action despite their existence (this one is big)
Be more comfortable taking massive and immediate action through baby steps since you have actually taken the time to work through some of the mental anchors that have been socially ingrained in you over the years

I hope these things get you thinking about the ACTION you will need to take if you want success in REI.

Warmest regards,

Ken Preuss National Real Estate Club

http://www.nationalrealestateclub.com/

Definition of Foreclosures and How to Buy Them

2005-01-13T18:20:00.000-05:00

Realty Trac has great information on what are foreclosures, the process of foreclosing , and generic info on how to buy them. It is a great read for newbies.

http://www.realtytrac.com/education/noframes/documentation/HowToBuyForeclosures.html

Harmony Trainings LIFTOFF !!!!! - Weekend 1

2005-01-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

It is amazing how it feels going to Harmony (aka Harmony Trainings). An fast tracker named LesGee has recommended this life transformation training to clear my being and be honest and grounded in who I am and what is my purpose in life. If I am successful then all the success will come to me (BE- DO - HAVE). This is distinct than saying I want success so I work for it and then I am successful (DO - HAVE - BE).

Some background of the 3 levels in Harmony's core schedule:

Level 1 - Quest - I learned that my past family issues really made me look at how unworthy I felt. Love was conditional and parents were always getting down on me in order to "teach" me how to be a better person. I learned accepting things as it is and moving on. It is a valuable experience as leading others can freak me out.

Level 2 - Summit - I learned alot about unconditional love and how people support me. It is really incredible to FEEL it rather than just "learn it". I received my mission in life and it is a grand mission that makes me happy about this life. It was really hard to leave some people.

Level 3 - LIFTOFF - I made 3 goals for me to create. It is life or death. Either I DO it or DO NOT DO it. No more stories but just doing and creating it.

In my first weekend, we did a ropes course and it was really great what I learned:

My relationships with women changed as I realize that I am a "hero" in a relationship. I believed that a man does everything and is responsible for everything in a relationship. I learned a lesson in PARTNERSHIP.
I can do anything that I set my heart to. Fear is a big motivator but ground myself and DO IT. The rewards outweigh the risk.
My team assisted me in my most difficult task. I didn't want to be the weakest link but everyone was into the win / win situation. They assisted me to continue on and they figured another way to get me on track - Truly Amazing! Without our love, it wouldn't have happened!
My lack of leadership kills! If I said something it would have changed the outcome of a situation. I didn't say what was wrong and it just killed everyone.

There are more. I would challenge anyone who wants something or someone that they consider doing Harmony! If you have questions let me know!

My Thoughs on Primerica

2005-01-03T10:55:00.000-05:00

From the RichDad Forum (my handle is asianwolf2001):

I was a customer of Primerica and considered becoming a IBO with them. I decided against it after some review. Here are my reasons:

the mutual funds were pricey compared to some small due diligence; I was allocated into the aggressive funds which tanked about 90% during the dot com bust.... a true CFP would have suggested that I diversify and even suggested index funds... they most likely won't because they can't make money from Vanguard's S&P 500 Index Fund
the insurance products push TERM over WHOLE but it depends on the client.... also their term products are higher priced than doing a simple Google search or going to www.term4sale.com
when I was looking into it, the sales collateral for the company was being developed (2001) I thought that the support for sales and team building was not mature
the people that were recruiting me were more interested in recruiting that actually providing a valuable and comprehensive service to their clients.. I don't feel right knowing that a Vanguard Index fund does a better job in diversification for a 25 yr old than a mutual fund that I make a 5% commission... most of the people were more interested in getting rich without the basic principle of servicing a customer with the best ethical service.

Overall I didn't get into Primerica. Since then I have spoken with other people and the feedback is it is ok. It depends on your upline for training if I am starting out. Also I believe World Financial Group among other MLMs provide comparable if not better service. For myself, I choose REI over MLM for the penetration into business and also support from my friends who do it. I don't discourage others with MLM as there are many positive things from it. I feel that for the most part unless you find a hot service or product or an growing market (such as health) or even have great team building, leadership, and/ or sales skills that many of the newbie MLMs will fail.

http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=380114&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=1&smode=1&s=#380270