The Michael Masterson Collection

15- Ultimate Wealth Building Secrets

Extracted from the Journal of Multi Millionaire
Best Selling Author - Entrepreneur...and Advisor

MICHAEL MASTERSON!

The Michael Masterson Collection is nothing less than wisdom for the
ages. A priceless selection of fifteen thought provoking- profit
producing, soul searching essays, insights and golden nuggets all
serious wealth building students can not afford to be without... Jason
Holland, Associate Publisher Early to Rise

Copyright 2011 by Early to Rise

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing by the publisher.
Published by:
Early to Rise
245 NE 4th Avenue, Suite 201
Delray Beach, FL 33483
Website: http://www.earlytorise.com

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................3
What Does it Really Take to Change Your Life?......................................7
How to Change Your Work Habits and Become......................................11
a Success Machine
Taking the Big Leap....................................................................................15
What it Really Takes to Become Wealthy.................................................18
Three Ways to Get Rich..............................................................................20
Motivation.....................................................................................................28
Evolution, not Revolution...........................................................................32
The Passkey That Can Get You In With Hollywood Big-Wigs,............37
Fortune 500 CEOs, Famous Authors, and More
Getting Wealthy from Inflation...................................................................41
Riding the Trend Wave...............................................................................50
Are You Resilient Enough?........................................................................56
How to Think like a Multimillionaire..........................................................60
Tracking Your Success: Why You Should Keep......................................68
a Daily Journal.
Free Wealth Building Tips and Strategies from.......................................73
Real Experts.

Introduction

If youre an Early to Rise subscriber, you no doubt are among the thousands of
others who eagerly anticipate the arrival of the Michael Masterson Journal inside
your inbox, each and every Saturday.
And if the letters we receive from loyal ETR followers is any indication at all,
youre also among those who can barely contain your excitement as you wait for
your copy to arrive in order to find out if yet another wealth building insight,
success story, or leading edge program designed to fulfill your dreams of wealth
and freedom, is waiting for you to uncover.
Thats exactly what the Michael Masterson Journal is designed to do. And by all
accounts, thanks to readers just like you were doing just that.
Michael and the entire team at ETR are here to support you and we consider it a
distinct privilege to be able to provide you with:

Inspiration
Motivation
Encouragement
Support
Education
Guidance
And Ongoing Wealth Building Opportunities...

...That make it possible for you to acquire the level of prosperity you desire, and
the success you dream about.
Its letters like this one from Theo that make it all worthwhile.

I cant describe how helpful ETR is

Ive been subscribed to your newsletter for a long time, and I cant describe how
helpful ETR is. You give a lot of support and in most cases, your articles seem
to be written for me. Thank you for drawing my attention to some details which I
hope will finally put me on the path to a better, richer life.
Theo P.

Like all subscribers to the Michael Masterson Journal , you get to hear directly
from Michael himself, our Founder and Editor Emeritus. In each edition, he gives
you his off-the-cuff take on business and life.
The one common denominator we have discovered that binds every reader of
the Michael Masterson Journal can be described in two words...Success
Oriented.
This simply means you are an individual who actively searches for answers and
proven solutions that can remove the barriers that may be impeding and perhaps
even bringing a halt to your dreams and visions for acquiring the wealth, security
and peace of mind that allows you and your family to enjoy a life style free of
financial worry.
If this is you, youll quickly discover...The Michael Masterson Collection is nothing
less than wisdom for the ages. A priceless selection of fifteen thought provokingprofit producing, soul searching essays, insights and golden nuggets all serious
wealth building students can not afford to be without
Each and every chapter is and of itself a treasure trove of life enhancing,
business building and wealth creating insights.
You see, as Michael points out, sometimes what we need first is an attitude
adjustment, which is the topic we begin with in this collection.
What youll quickly realize as you move from essay to essay, is that each
succeeding chapter is one more piece of the puzzle that further enriches and
adds to the knowledge you need, in order to bring your own success story one
step closer to fulfillment.
While on the other hand, the thread which weaves through each lesson in this
anthology comes in the form of a realization that the attitudes, mind sets and
actions described in each of the selections, are the very same ones Michael used
to transform himself from a non motivated young person...into the super self
motivated over achiever, and multimillionaire we all know and look up to today.
He also knows from personal experience that oftentimes change starts with an
honest self assessment, combined with a full speed ahead effort and desire.
What will become abundantly clear as you delve in to these works is that Michael
Masterson is someone who not only talks the talk but walks the walk.
And like most others, your ah ha moments will come as you find yourself
absorbed in Michaels extensive 30+ year knowledge base of ultra successful,
no-holds-barred advice and insights on marketing, entrepreneurship, publishing,
investing, politics, alternative medicine, personal success, and so much more.

Regardless of where you are at in your own wealth creation journey, each pearl
of wisdom you encounter here will not only challenge you mentally, emotionally
and physically, but is sure to ignite a burning desire within you to fulfill and obtain
each and every personal and financial goal you have ever desired. And enjoy the
ride each step of the way.
Youre about to discover that inspiration, focus, determination and acting upon
the right kinds of information as laid out in the Michael Masterson Collection, is a
sure fire way to make your dreams of financial independence a living breathing
reality in the coming weeks, months and years.
Placing you in a position to enjoy the life you want, on your own terms!
Jason Holland, Associate Publisher
Early to Rise

What Does It Really Take to Change Your Life?

My great concern is not whether you have failed,
but whether you are content with your failure.
Abraham Lincoln

I was 13 when I first heard the word underachiever. Mrs. Growe, my ninthgrade English teacher, used it to describe a student who had, in her opinion,
failed to work to his potential. The student? Yours truly.
Mr. Masterson, she announced to the class, is the classic example of an
underachiever. He doesnt complete his work assignments. He shows up late for
class and then wastes his time daydreaming. As a result, he produces C work.
From a child with modest potential, I would be happy with mediocre results. In his
case, I am very disappointed.
I was not surprised at the assessment. It was accurate. I couldnt deny it. The
female maturation process held my interest at that time. That and football. And
goofing around with my friends. And just about anything else but schoolwork.
I wasnt a good reader. And I couldnt sit still during class. Much later I
discovered that I was suffering from a combination of dyslexia and what is now
called attention deficit disorder. But neither Mrs. Growe nor I knew about such
things then. As far as she was concerned, I was a perennial slacker. I shared her
opinion.
At least once a year, however, I promised myself that I would turn over a new
leaf. I sensed, as Mrs. Growe did, that I was not as dumb as my grades
suggested. And I felt, deep down in my bones, that eventually Id make a
success of myself.
But before I could be successful, I had to change something very fundamental
about myself. And that change began at the end of my senior year, when I woke
up one day and realized I was disgusted with myself.
I was tired of being the perennial screw-up. I was sick of getting lousy grades and
playing the fool in class. I wanted to become the person Mrs. Growe thought I
should be. But it seemed to be too late. There was only a month to go before
graduation, and it was obviously impossible to rectify four years of poor
performance in so short a time.

Since my grades were mediocre, I had no chance of getting a college

scholarship. And since my parents couldnt afford to help me with tuition, I had no
choice but to attend a local community college. The community college was
happy to take my $400 a year, and would be equally happy to give me the Cs I
had been earning in high school. But I wasnt willing to live that life any longer.
I realized that, oddly enough, my lack of success was a benefit in disguise. I was
about to put myself in an academic environment where mediocrity held sway
where I would be competing with other high-school screw-ups just like me.
What if I used the remaining time I had in high school to prepare for a new and
better life in college? What if I directed my energy toward developing skills and
habits that would help me succeed over the next four years?
And thats exactly what I did. The Saturday after I made my big decision to
change, I drove my 56 Bel Air to Nassau Community College in Hempstead, NY.
I gathered together everything I could about the school and the curriculum I was
going to be involved in. I brought it all back home with me and spent the rest of
the weekend carefully reading every pamphlet and brochure.
I was doing something I had never done in school: getting ahead of my
competition by planning my success. In the next few weeks, I became a minor
expert in that little college. I knew every course they offered, every major they
offered, and every teacher whod be teaching freshmen that year.
Taking the initiative to plan my success gave me a very positive feeling. I could
actually feel myself changing. I was becoming even before I began a serious
and committed student.
I realized that I would be starting college as a brand-new person. None of my
teachers would have heard about my high-school antics, and none of my fellow
students would be expecting me to be the class clown.
Starting college without the bad reputation I had established in high school was
like a gift from the academic gods. I could walk into my new classes as an
interested, enthusiastic student who was there to succeed.
And thats what happened. I showed up for classes in September on time,
prepared with the required texts. I sat in the front row and raised my hand
whenever the teacher asked questions. I did my homework assignments and
spent my spare time studying. Between attending classes, studying, and running
a house-painting business on the side, I worked 16 hours a day, seven days a
week.

By the end of the first semester, I had the reputation of being an A student.
Throughout the rest of my college and graduate-school career, I never
retrenched.
I sometimes think about what would have happened to me if I hadnt finally
become disgusted with myself. Or if I had failed to make those preparations that
allowed me to turn over a new leaf.
Its highly likely I would be grinding out a living somewhere, working a job I didnt
like, struggling to pay my bills and making futile resolutions knowing Id live out
my life as a habitual underachiever.
The difference for me was the simple realization that if I didnt change myself, my
life wouldnt change not then or ever. I had wasted my high-school years
making promises I never truly meant to keep. But I was tired of doing that.
Thinking back, I can see that there were several factors that allowed me to
change in a serious and committed way:

First, I had bottomed out emotionally. I had finally reached a point where I
truly detested myself for not achieving what I felt was my potential.
Second, I made a decision to change completely to go from being a C
student to the top of my class.
Third, I recognized that I would have to change not just my work habits but
the way I thought about myself. I would have to become the A student I
wanted to be.
And last, but not least, I took action immediately. I didnt wait till
September to make the change. I started right away by preparing myself
to succeed during my final months of high school.

Have you made resolutions that youve failed to keep? Held dreams of success
and happiness that youve failed to fulfill? Do you sometimes feel that, however
much youve done, you are still, in part, an underachiever?
If so, there is good news. Your past behavior has no bearing on your future work
habits. If you can change the way you work even just a little you can change
the way you live.
Most people reading this will think, I dont need another motivational speech.
What I need is a change of luck.
Im here to say that luck had nothing to do with the change in my life. And it
neednt have anything to do with whatever changes you would like to make in
yours. Had I waited for luck to come to me, I might be waiting still. My life
changed when I got fed up and started planning my success.

You, too, can change your life if you are: (a) dissatisfied with the lack of success
youve had so far; (b) willing to make a big change and not just a minor
adjustment; (c) prepared to start working differently and thinking about yourself
as a different kind of person; and (d) willing to start now by preparing yourself to
succeed.
The best way I know of to do that right now is to read my new book, The Pledge,
from which this essay was excerpted. You can order today.
One of my close personal friends and business associates, George Franklin, a
business owner, took himself from bankruptcy to millionaire in four short years
after following the same core principles in The Pledge.
David Kelly, an overworked South Florida doctor, went from working 80 hours a
week and squeaking by to having a net worth of seven figures all while slashing
his workweek down to just 15 hours. He credits the techniques I later wrote about
in my book.
Heres just a small taste of what youll find in The Pledge

Why most people never realize their dreams. Two key factors that get in
the way and how to avoid them.
Crucial step you must take before you set another goal. Or you risk
achieving the wrong goals and winding up miserable.
Crucial connection between your self worth and your ability to make
money. And a common, easily-avoidable mistake that ruins both.
Take charge of your time and make more steady progress towards your
goals. How to make sure you never let another day get away from you.
Escape the tyranny of the urgent. How urgent tasks both important and
unimportant burn you out and ensure that you never make progress
towards your goals.
Six simple steps you can take right now to become number one in your
class, job, or outside interest.

Order it here today.

How to Change Your Work Habits and Become a

Success Machine

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it,
change the way you think about it...Mary Engelbreit

Throughout the year, Ive been providing you with a blueprint for changing your
life. So far, weve covered the difference between goals, objectives, and tasks
and how to structure a plan for success.
You may be motivated to get to work on your plan, but worried because you have
never been able to work as hard as you know you will need to. Youve made
resolutions before. And youve even started to make improvements. But you
have been distracted by problems and unexpected events. And you have
stopped.
Thats the big problem you face now. How can you make sure you keep on
working?
The following story, which dates back 40 years, explains how I did it.
How I Became an A Student
Near the end of my senior year of high school, Mrs. Bigsley, the career
counselor, called me into her office.
Ive been looking at your grades and your aptitude tests and your conduct
reports, she said, thumbing through a stack of papers.
I waited expectantly. Mrs. Bigsley was the person in charge of getting students
into good colleges and universities. Maybe shes seen the potential I have, I
thought. Maybe she is going to help me get into an Ivy League school.
She put the stack of paper down on her desk and looked up at me.
In all my years of teaching, I have never seen such a complete waste of DNA,
she said. Your parents are college teachers, are they not?
I admitted they were.
And your two elder siblings were A students?

Yes, but
And they went to top universities on scholarship?
Yes, but
Ive talked to Mrs. Crow, your homeroom teacher. And Mr. Dean and Dr. Mackel,
too. They all say the same thing. You will never amount to anything that has
anything to do with reading, writing, or math. Your grades support their opinion.
But
Your performance in high school indicates only one career choice as far as I
can see: enlisting in the Army. I think you should talk to a recruiting officer. As
soon as possible.
I tried once more to protest, but Mrs. Bigsley and apparently Mrs. Crow and Dr.
Mackel and Mr. Dean had come to a fixed decision. I was a complete and utter
failure as a student.
It was the low point of my academic life. It was humiliating. I felt nearly defeated.
But Mrs. Bigsleys low assessment of me made me mad. I stewed about it that
night and woke up the next morning with a completely new frame of mind.
I decided I would no longer be a screw-up. From that moment on, I was going to
be a good student.
I started immediately by enrolling at the local community college. (If you have a
beating heart, they accepted you.) Then I planned my summer. When I wasnt
working, I would spend every waking hour reading and preparing for the classes
Id be taking.
Each day, I felt better about myself. I was learning what I should have learned in
high school. Day by day, I was making progress.
Still, I was afraid that when I started classes I might revert to my bad habits. To
make that scenario less likely, I found a nerd to share an apartment with and
refused to sign up for any sports or pledge any fraternities. I also told my friends
that I would be out of touch for at least a year. I explained my goals to them and
asked them to respect me by leaving me alone until the following summer.
What I was doing, I realize now, was making a radical personality change. I was
changing the way I thought about myself not by thinking positive thoughts but
by taking specific actions that made me feel like a good student.

When college began in September, I sat in the front row of every class,
something Id never done in high school.
I made it a point to always do at least 50 percent more than I was asked to do. If
the assignment was to write a 500-word essay on religion, Id write 750 words
and include a glossary of impressive sources. If the assignment was to read King
Lear by the following week, Id read it twice. And then Id go to the library and
read critical essays about the play so Id be aware of all the major interpretations.
I raised my hand every time a question was asked. And I turned in extra work,
even when it would get me no extra credit.
In short, I turned myself into a full-blown hardworking, overachieving, ass-kissing
A level student and I made sure my instructors, and my fellow students, saw
me that way.
In the beginning, other students in my classes did as much work as I did. But as
the weeks went by, many of them started slipping. Each time one of them fell
behind, I was motivated to work even harder. And I was thrilled when I got those
early test scores back. I had never before understood how good it could feel to
get an A or B+.
Those good feelings motivated me to push even harder. With each passing
week, the distance between me and the other good students widened. And by
the time freshman year was over, I saw myself as a completely different person. I
was no longer the funny screw-up Id been in high school. Id changed into the
Teachers Pet who sat in the front and had the right answer to every question.
Once my image of myself changed, my motivation became permanent. I was
among the best two or three students in every class. I was going to keep that
position, no matter how much work it took.
I maintained an A average for two years and easily got into City University a
tougher school where I continued to perform as I had become used to
performing. Two years later, I graduated magna cum laude. Two years after that,
I graduated at the top of my class at the University of Michigan. And later, at
Catholic University, I received honors on my doctorate work.
To become the hardworking person you must become, here is what you should
do:
1. Get up early, and give your day a jumpstart by doing something meaningful
first thing.
2. Work as late as you have to.

3. Do at least 50 percent more than what is asked of you.

4. Volunteer for challenging assignments.
5. Educate yourself on the side.
6. Become better than anyone else at the essential skills you need to accomplish
your goal.
Becoming top dog takes a lot of extra time, so youll have to make significant
sacrifices. If you are like most people, your biggest distractions will be television,
the Internet, friends, and family. Get rid of your TV. Limit your recreational use
of the Internet to one hour a day. And let your friends and family members know
that you wont be able to spend much time with them in the foreseeable future.
Work like mad until youve become number one in your class, job, or outside
interest. When that happens and it shouldnt take more than six months youll
feel great about yourself. And once you experience that feeling, youll never have
to worry about motivation again.
Well almost never. Everyone needs a motivational recharge once in a while.
But after the first time, youll understand exactly what you have to do to get
yourself going again.

Taking the Big Leap

Whether you think you can or think you can't
You are right. ~Henry Ford

Sometime in your business career, you will have a chance to do something

and it will be obvious to you that you are looking at a great opportunity. However,
you will realize that you simply dont have the time, the knowledge, or the
resources to meet that challenge. If you are sensible, you will probably say No
thanks, and bow out. But if the opportunity is really extraordinary you might
want to try the Grand Canyon Jump.
Im thinking of Robbie Knievels now-famous motorcycle jump over the Grand
Canyon. (Robbie Knievel is the son of legendary daredevil Evel Knievel.) The
story I heard was that the idea was based on his fathers failed attempt at the
same stunt.
I remember one of the very first times I took a Grand Canyon Jump albeit in
a much less bold way. It was more than 10 years ago. Early to Rise was brandnew, and I was still learning how to apply my direct-marketing background to the
Internet. I got an invitation to speak at a seminar about Internet marketing.
Trouble was, I knew next to nothing about the subject. Certainly not enough to
make a speech about it. (Number One Rule of Effective Speaking: Know what
youre talking about.)
But I agreed to make the presentation, because I figured it would force me to
think about this important and growing part of my business. Not only did I agree
to talk, I agreed to a title for my speech 7 Myths About the Internet and 7
Ways to Profit From It that was, given my experience at the time, audacious.
Since then, I have made the leap many times and it has turned out to be the
driving force behind my Ready, Fire, Aim philosophy.
When I really want to do something but have no idea how to do it, I dont just
agree to do it I promise myself that I will do it very well. I set a high hurdle for
myself.
I suppose what Im doing is fueling my will power with the fear of humiliation.
But it works. Most of the time.

In the case of my 7 Myths About the Internet speech, I pushed myself because I
had to. I did it by reading about what others had done. By observing what my
own employees were doing what was working and what was failing miserably.
By trying some stuff on my own. And I made remarkable progress. In fact, after
only two months, I had gotten to the point where 80 percent of what I read about
Internet marketing either (1) bored me because it was so simple, or (2) infuriated
me because it was so obviously wrong.
As the weeks passed and the day of the presentation grew nearer, I found myself
thinking harder about the subject. More than ever, I was aware of how other
media that I was well-versed in (direct mail, print advertising, etc.) reminded me
of the Internet. Bit by bit, it was coming together.
When the event finally took place, I had come up with about a dozen useful ideas
and observations that felt right. Many of these defied conventional wisdom. But
when I heard what other presenters were saying their accounts of what had
succeeded and failed for them it all made sense.
My presentation worked. It felt good. I was full of energy when I gave it, thinking,
Hey, this really is important! And I got a good reaction from the audience. Most
important, I got what I hoped to get: a foundation of ideas that have helped me
and will continue to help me make money on the Internet.
These days, trying to do anything in addition to holding onto your job may seem
like an enormous challenge. And rightly so. But thats all the more reason to
make the Grand Canyon Jump.
Think about one thing that you have not done or declined to do that could be very
good for your career long-term. It could be something general, like learning how
to sell on the Internet or something more specific, like making your next sales
presentation or pay-per-click campaign work.
The next step is to announce your intention. Contact the appropriate parties and
let them know what youve decided to do.
Finally, set a high standard for yourself. Set the standard so high that it seems
foolish or pretentious and then start thinking about how you can actually
achieve it.
You cant change the laws of physics. Robbie Knievel jumped over a narrow
section of the Grand Canyon but he got over it. And that gave him not only a
temporary career boost but also an achievement that he will always be
remembered for.

So whats it going to be? When and how are you going to make your Grand
Canyon Jump?
[Ed. Note: This essay is an excerpt from Michael Masterson's new book, The
Pledge: Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life. In the book, Michael teaches you
how to reinvent your life by putting together a personal master plan.
It's a formal contract between the person you are today (fed up with the problems
and lack of success you've been having) and the person you have decided to be
(the you who is healthy, wealthy, happy, and wise).
You will discover how to transform nebulous ambitions into specific objectives
and how to apply them to the important people, projects, and processes that will
give you success.
This is not a book on goal setting. It is a blueprint for fundamental change. Once
you have experienced even one day of Michael's revolutionary system, you'll be
hooked for life.

What it Really Takes to Become Wealthy

To dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of

the human mind. To do anything that you want to do.
That is the strength of the human will...
...To trust yourself to test your limits.
That is the courage to succeed. Bernard Edmonds

I dont have your attitude, Jeff said to me. I just dont have the mindset of
someone who can make a lot of money.
Do you want to make a lot of money? I asked him.
Thats the sad thing, he said, smiling wryly. I do.
Well then, I said, why dont you forget about your attitude and focus on your
behavior?
What do you mean?
Why dont you stop thinking about why you cant make a lot of money and do
something to make it happen?
Such as?
I handed him a piece of paper. Start by writing down how much youd like to be
worth in 20 years.
He did it.
Now, I said, lets talk about how you can build up to that number, year by year.
By the end of an hour, he had net worth goals for 20 years running. His target for
the current year was very achievable. He was motivated.
This is great! he said.
How do you feel about it?

I think I can do it.

Attitude can change behavior, but it is much more common for behavior to
change attitude.
To put it another way: Getting wealthy doesnt depend as much on whether you
are a positive person or a negative one as it does on the specific actions you
take, or fail to take. There is so much misinformation about this subject in the
self-help industry.
The wannabes out there want to believe there is a mental switch inside them
that, if they could find it, would instantly transform them from couch potatoes to
human money machines.
The switch is somewhere in your brain, they argue. Find it, trip it, and the rest
is easy.
Yes, it is easy to become wealthy if you follow the practical, action-oriented
wealth-building advice we give you in ETR.
But if the only thing you are willing to do is think about getting richer, you are
going to be disappointed.
You may not like what Im saying, but you need to hear it. Please trust me on
that.
I am not saying that I dont believe in positive thinking. I absolutely believe that it
helps in many ways.
When I brush my teeth every morning, I smile at myself in the mirror at least a
dozen times to give me energy and put me in a productive mood. And when Im
going to give a speech, participate in a wrestling match, or make a presentation, I
use visualization to mentally prepare myself to do well.
But those things are not going to turn me into a money magnet.
To develop the power to create wealth, you need to take certain very specific
wealth-building actions. And each time you complete one of those actions, you
will feel a deep change inside you.
Thats what you really need a change in your wealth-building habits and
behaviors.
Keep reading ETR and youll find out what those habits and behaviors are. If
youre not already a daily subscriber to Early to Rise, sign up here.

Three Ways to Get Rich

Financial education needs to become a part of our national curriculum
and scoring systems so that its not just the rich kids that
learn about money...its all of us. David Bach

Last night I watched Michael Moores documentary Capitalism: A Love Story. As

always with his films, I found it to be entertaining propaganda.
One of his primary arguments is that the rich have duped the rest of us (Moore
brilliantly aligns himself with the workingman) into believing in capitalism by
spreading the myth that anyone in America can become rich.
Its a wonderful irony. Here is a guy, the son of an autoworker from Flint,
Michigan, who gets rich in America through hard work and initiative and then
makes a movie whose premise is that you cant do that.
The truth, as Moore sees it, is that the only power the poor have over their
financial future is to vote in social democracy where the system works to put
more money in the pockets of the working and middle classes. (Though, as
history has proven, that doesnt usually happen.)
The reason socialists have a problem with capitalism is that it cannot make
everyone wealthy. And thats true. At ETR, we like the idea of making the world a
richer place. But we know from experience that it can be done only one person at
a time.
We have long given up on the idea of making every lazy, stupid Tom, Dick, and
Harry rich. We prefer to give individual people the tools they need to make their
own money.
And this brings us to the question Moore raises in his film: Is it possible for an
ordinary person without special contacts or resources to become wealthy in
America today?
Ive been studying that question since I started writing ETR 10 years ago. And its
clear to me that ordinary, unconnected, wage-earning Americans become
wealthy all the time.
Consider this: According to a study conducted by Merrill Lynch, there were 10
million millionaires in the world in 2009, 17 percent more than the year before.
And 3.1 million of them were in the U.S.

Ive mentored at least a dozen people who started out at the bottom and are now
multimillionaires. So Moores premise, Im saying, is bullshit. You can get wealthy
in America. And there are three ways to do it:

You can get wealthy by scrimping and saving.

You can get wealthy by hoping and praying.
You can get wealthy by earning and investing.

Getting Rich by Scrimping and Saving

The Millionaire Next Door, a bestselling book in 1996, made the shocking
revelation that the typical American millionaire didnt acquire his wealth by
starting a business or becoming a banker or through any of the other ways that
are celebrated in books and movies.
It turns out that most millionaires got rich by scrimping and saving.
Anyone and I mean anyone can get rich this way. You can start out broke.
You can be illiterate. You can be a minority. You can be handicapped. In fact,
you can be a dead-broke, illiterate, quadriplegic American Indian and you can still
get rich this way.
Why? Because if you follow the scrimping and saving formula, it is a
mathematical certainty. A 100 percent sure thing.
Start with $5,000 in the bank. Then set aside $470 a month in a conservative
savings program (say tax-free bonds) earning, on average, 5% (the 100-year
historical average). You will have just about a million in the bank when you are
ready to retire.
If you start when you are 20, youll be a millionaire no doubt about it when
you are 65 years old. If you continue to save for another 10 years, your wealth
will increase to $1.7 million. By the time you are ready to leave money to your
grandkids or the Metropolitan Opera, you will have a fortune of $3 million.
Getting rich this way doesnt require guts or brains. All you need is a commitment
to work enough to make enough money to save every month, and the discipline
to keep socking it away.
I recommend this method to anyone who is young enough to take advantage of
time. It is the primary wealth-acquisition program I recommend to college
graduates in Automatic Wealth for Grads and Anyone Else Just Starting Out.

If you are not young enough yourself, you can use this method to make your
children or grandchildren wealthy. (Justin Ford tells you how to do it in Seeds of
Wealth a superb book that all parents and grandparents should buy for their
progeny.)

Getting Rich by Hoping and Praying

Acquiring wealth by scrimping and saving is a sure thing, but it does take a long,
long time.
And even if we have the time, most of us dont have the patience for it. All other
things being equal, wed like our wealth served to us on a silver platter by
tomorrow morning, thank you very much.
Getting rich quickly the ultimate financial aphrodisiac. Is it possible?
The answer: Absolutely if you are very, very lucky.
You hear about it all the time how someone, somewhere in the world,
becomes enormously rich overnight by winning a lottery, hitting a jackpot in
Vegas, coming into a huge inheritance, or by making amazing leveraged bets on
stocks or bonds or real estate.
But the chance that you will get rich that way is very remote.
Your odds of winning a typical state lottery, for example, is more than 14 million
to one. Your odds of winning a million-dollar jackpot at a craps table is more than
2 million to one.
These are long, long odds. And though I have no moral objection to gambling, I
look at it as foolish and potentially addictive entertainment.
Speaking of the lottery, I should tell you that I happen to have made millions of
dollars from it. But I didnt get that money by buying lottery tickets. I made it the
old fashioned way by investing time and money in a business I understood
(direct-mail publishing).

Getting Rich by Earning and Investing

Heres the story: In the 1980s, I worked with a publishing company that put out a
magazine and several newsletters about lotteries local, state, and international
lotteries. We featured articles about winners and essays by mathematicians who
had systems for improving the odds of winning that sort of thing.

Those publications were very successful. I think at one time we may have had
100,000 subscribers people paying us $39 a year. You can do the math.
This brings me to the third way to get rich: by earning and investing.
Earning and investing is the way the great industrialists made their fortunes 100
years ago in America. It is the way bankers made their money, too, before they
abandoned earning and investing for getting rich quick by betting on derivatives.
It is this old fashioned method of getting rich that ETR focuses on.
We believe in scrimping and saving for the young. We dont believe in hoping
and praying. But we have great faith in getting rich by earning and investing.
Weve done it ourselves. Weve taught others how to do it. We know it works
even today when were suffering from the terrible national hangover that came
from the orgy of hoping and praying that got our country into so much debt.
There are two hitches with getting rich by earning and investing:

You cant do it overnight. It will take some number of years.

Its not a 100 percent sure thing, as it is with scrimping and saving.

How many years does it take to get rich by earning and investing?
Short answer: one to seven years.
Ive seen some people do it in as little as a year and some take as long as
seven years. The average has been somewhere in between.
When I sat down to write Seven Years to Seven Figures, I wanted to figure out
why, out of the many people who attempt to get rich by earning and investing,
only a percentage succeed.
So I interviewed eight people who had developed multimillion-dollar wealth in one
to seven years. I asked them exactly what they did. I looked for similarities.
Ultimately, I was searching for a common denominator.
As it turned out, I came up with three things that they had in common.
They had all:

Learned a financially valuable skill.

Started a business by finding an up trending market niche to apply their
financially valued skill to.
Spent considerably less than they made and saved the difference.

The Four Obstacles to Earning and Spending Your Way to Wealth

I was excited. I thought I had discovered a formula that would transform the
readers of that book into multimillionaires. I imagined getting hundreds or even
thousands of letters from people, thanking me for pointing the way.
I did get some nice letters but they were in the dozens or hundreds, not in the
thousands.
What about all the other people who had read the book? I had given them the
formula. Why hadnt they used it to make themselves rich?
There was only one way to find out. I had to ask them.
That, as it happened, was easier said than done. Its tough to ask a person who
has read your advice, Why didnt it work for you?
But I did ask although it was embarrassing for them and for me too. And what
I discovered is that those people who hadnt gotten rich had never actually
implemented all three parts of the formula. Some of them were stymied from the
get-go. Some got started but then got distracted. And some made good progress
but were ultimately frustrated.
But in speaking to them, a pattern emerged. The explanations I got fell into one
of the three following categories:
1. Ive been preoccupied with other things a full-time job that isnt getting me
rich, a family that needs my time, fences to mend, taxes to pay, etc. But Im going
to start fresh this year.
2. Im ready to start but I havent found my niche yet. I like the idea of natural
health, but Im also into photography and cooking. Which one do you think would
be best?
3. Ive tried various programs but they havent worked for me. I took a copywriting
course, but I couldnt get any clients. Then I took a real estate course, and the
market collapsed. Then I got into Internet publishing, but I think the market now is
too competitive.
You might see these as excuses. (He who is good at excuses is seldom good at
anything else, the old maxim says.) But I dont think they were. Many of these
people truly were busy with other things. Many were confused about the best
business for them to get into. And many who put their wealth-building plans into
action found themselves blocked in some way, became frustrated, and gave up.

And there is one more obstacle that Im sure all of them faced, though no one
mentioned to me. It is something that anyone who has attempted to become
wealthy or has succeeded at it knows very well.
Ill let you in on a little industry dirt. Many of the gurus who ply their trade selling
wealth-building opportunities have no respect for the very people who are paying
for their fancy cars and mansions. They call these people wannabes. If people
did what we told them, they say, wed be out of business!
I am not naive. I recognize that it is impossible to create a wealth-building
program that will have a 100 percent success ratio. Like programs that teach
foreign languages or guitar playing, even the best wealth-building program will
not be able to ensure that all of the people who buy it will use it and succeed.
But I still think that my number-one job as a teacher of wealth-building skills is to
create the highest possible level of success among my proteges.
Thats why I spend so much time talking to people at conferences and
corresponding with my readers trying to figure out what is blocking them. If I
can determine the major obstacles to success, maybe I can teach my readers
how to overcome them. That would make their success so much easier.
Im talking about fear, of course. The fear of failure. The fear of looking foolish in
front of your family, friends or colleagues. The fear of discovering something
about yourself you dont want to know.
There must be a hundred books and ten thousand articles written about fear of
failure but from the sample Ive read, 90 percent of them are dead wrong. Fear
is, indeed, an obstacle. But the solution to fear cannot be found in mantras and
visualizations and self-talk. The only sure way to defeat fear is through success.
The intelligent person should fear failure when he ventures into a new business.
After all, some 80 percent of new businesses fail. But if he understands exactly
how successful businesses are built, his fear will be less. And if he further
understands some of the most fundamental secrets of wealth building, his fear
will be small enough to overcome.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about the four major obstacles to success,
trying to discover if there wasnt some way to overcome them all with a single
jump. I was looking for a sort of unifying theory of success some explanation
that would show how successful wealth builders got beyond them.
And now, foolishly perhaps, I think Ive come up with something that works.

I call it my Special Theory of Wealth. It reduces the habits and practices of

successful wealth builders (including my own) into an equation that even a child
could understand.
This theory includes the key ingredients of wealth-building success: opportunity,
true value, and the compounding effect of time. And it explains a lot that cannot
be explained by many of the popular strategies for wealth building, including
some of the ideas I myself promoted when I first began this study 12 or so years
ago.
It explains why TM was able to build a million-dollar business in a single year,
while juggling the responsibilities of her marriage, children, and charitable
endeavors, and while writing and making public appearances and going to book
club meetings, and doing much more that I cant even remember.
The four obstacles to success did not deter TM, because she recognized them
for what they were opportunities. Had she not made this simple change of
perspective she could not possibly have gotten her business up and running in a
year, much less built it to one that has national reach and recognition.
My Special Theory also explains how SA became rich in less than three years by
being able to find his niche in less than 30 minutes and then direct his energies
into it. This increased his income by more than $2 million a year, and made him a
multimillionaire with a business (valued at more than $8 million) that practically
runs itself.
And it explains how LP finally stopped drifting from one business to another two
years ago, and finally started making a six-figure income.
The reason so many people dont achieve success is that one or more of the four
obstacles genuinely block them.
Without understanding this which is the foundation of all successful
moneymaking strategies it is impossible to find the time, choose the niche,
and then execute a game plan.
ETR will be publishing my Special Theory as complete wealth-building program
sometime next year and you will be able to invest in it then. (The cost will be
somewhere in the $200 to $700 range.)
Meanwhile, I have promised Jason Holland, ETRs Managing Editor, that I will
present it in 12 monthly essays that will be published in ETRs Liberty Street
League newsletter a newsletter that provides specific, wealth-building tools
and opportunities to its subscribers, and features only the ideas of people who
have become very wealthy through their own efforts.

So you can get the entire Special Theory of Wealth program now in monthly
increments (which will give you a chance to road test it as you go) by subscribing
to LSL at the special, introductory price of $49. (The regular subscription fee is
$99.)
Im pretty excited about this new program. I believe it will make a genuine
difference in increasing perhaps by multiples the wealth of most of those
who read it.
If youd like to learn about it right now, there is only one-way: You must subscribe
to the Liberty Street League newsletter.
This is a newsletter you should be reading anyway. It is, in my humble view, the
most realistic newsletter about wealth building published today. It contains, as
most financial publications do, recommendations for investing your money.
But it also tells you how to earn more money dozens of ways to generate extra
streams of income. Because you cant become very rich unless you have extra
income to invest.
The Liberty Street League newsletter is written by people who know what they
are writing about. When you get advice about rental real estate, for example (a
great investment to be in these days), youll get it from someone who has
earned, and is still earning, millions by doing what hes recommending. The
same is true for the experts who write about making money from the
import/export business or from Internet marketing or information publishing or
investing in coins and art and other collectibles.
As with all ETR publications, the Liberty Street League has a 100 percent
refund guarantee. If you dont find it to be what I claim it is the most useful and
practical guide to making money that is published today you can get your
money back.
But I dont think that will happen. Rather, I think youll be thrilled with the advice
youll be reading most especially with my Special Theory of Wealth.
The first two chapters have already been written. And ETRs customer service
people are ready to ship them to you the moment they get your order.
To order or find out more about the Liberty Street League, go here.

Motivation
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss,
Youll land among the stars. Brian Litrell

I was once characterized by a book reviewer as a motivational writer.

Apparently he felt that this moniker debased me. It didnt.
I am very happy that my writing sometimes has the effect of motivating people. I
find it hard to understand what is wrong with that. If he meant to imply that my
work doesnt have substance he should have said so. But I dont think he dared
say that because the book he was reviewing was about building businesses
and that is something I know a great deal more about than the average reader of
that book, including him.
Still, a lot of folks have the idea that motivating people is somehow less
legitimate than, say, just providing them with information. The thinking seems to
go something like this: Dont try to excite me. Dont try to get me moving. Just
tell me the facts.
But knowing the facts is only 20 percent of success. Testing the facts by putting
them into action is 80 percent.
I cant say for sure when motivation started creeping into my writing. But it was at
least 20 years ago well before I started writing books about marketing and
business. I think it began when I became a consultant and realized that I couldnt
force my clients to execute my ideas. If I wanted them to follow my suggestions, I
would have to take the extra step of motivating them to do it.
When I make presentations to a group, I try to motivate my audience to take the
action I want them to take by using the persuasive techniques that I teach
marketers to use in selling products. For one thing, I express the value of my
ideas in terms of how the people Im speaking to (not me or anyone else) will
benefit from them.
I also sell one idea at a time. I have learned that if I try to do more, they (and I)
will come away with nothing.
Whenever possible, I present my ideas through stories because stories, more
than any other information-sharing technique, have the power to inspire.

And I provide proof to support the claims I make. Tangible, relevant, and
impressive proof.
All this is good for group presentations. But when I am trying to motivate my
clients to implement my ideas, I have to do more. I have to work with all the key
people in the company the CEO, the top marketers, and the top product
people on an individual basis. It takes a lot of time, but its necessary because
every one of them has unique problems and concerns that have to be addressed.
Many business owners and senior executives dont bother to sell their ideas to
the people who will be responsible for implementing them. They think its enough
that they come up with the ideas in the first place. And they prefer to motivate the
troops by rewarding them financially, as well as with such gimmicks as business
retreats and employee of the month plaques.
One of my clients is a big believer in financial incentives. In fact, he attributes a
good deal of his success to the substantial, profit-based bonuses he gives out on
a regular basis. But I dont believe hes right about that. I think there are all sorts
of other motivating activities going on in his business that he is not fully aware of.
For example, his top people are very much involved with the people who report
to them. They congratulate them publicly for achieving their goals and they also
privately counsel those who have failed to hit the mark. This constant interaction
and support is, I think, the real reason his employees work so hard and keep the
business growing.
When I was a young executive I did what my client is doing now. But over the
years I recognized that automatic financial incentives failed to work as often as
they succeeded. I tried to figure out why that was. I talked to my employees. I
sought the counsel of my mentors. And I read books lots and lots of books
about motivation.
One thing I learned was that the best people arent motivated by money. They
certainly appreciate it. And they will not lose sight of the potential for a bonus as
they do their jobs. But what really motivates them is what some experts call
internal rewards the personal pride and gratification that comes from a job well
done. In other words, they work hard and smart to please themselves.
You only need to think of Enron to appreciate how things can go bad by attaching
business goals to financial incentives.
If you want your business to achieve its true potential you must be willing to give
your people personal attention. You have to eschew hard power (the sort of
power that Steve Jobs is famous for) and practice the soft skills of listening and
coaching and providing a purposeful environment for them to work in.

(Ive read a lot about purposefulness in recent years but almost nothing about
how important it is in business.) If you provide financial incentives, you have to
make sure they are fair. But you have to realize that they will affect people
differently. You cant just establish them and walk away.
I got involved in a discussion recently with a client who, I believed, was making a
mistake by ignoring his key people. Theyre doing fine on their own, he told me.
They dont need me meddling in their affairs.
Yes, they were doing fine. Still, I argued that he needed to stay in touch with
them. He needed to ask them questions and give them suggestions. He didnt
need to make demands or commands, but he did need to make sure that they
were feeling fulfilled by the work they were doing. If they werent, he was going to
lose them or they were going to stop caring about the business no matter how
much he was paying them.
Ive seen it happen too many times. An executive makes a fast rise and then
suddenly breaks though to the upper ranks. He continues to build the business,
bringing in smart people to help him. He motivates them with money because it
seems to work and because he doesnt know any better.
All the while, his income is getting bigger and he is acquiring spending habits and
pastimes that compete with his work. Eventually generally after seven to 10
years he finds that the business is running itself. He doesnt have to show up
every day, so he doesnt. Hed much rather spend time on his hobbies and
outside interests. He gets away with it so it becomes a habit.
A year or two later sales flatten out and profits decline. And he doesnt
understand why.
If you want your business to grow profitably and consistently, you must
understand that your job as chief motivator will never go away. You must be
willing to interact personally with everyone who reports to you. You must talk to
them constantly. You must give them guidance. You must give them freedom.
You must praise them and you must occasionally correct them too.
Let me give you an example of how important employee motivation is to the
success of a business.
This past year, I have been very much involved with a client whose business had
faltered.
I began by meeting with his key employees and trying to understand what they
were doing, what they were proud of, and what was frustrating them.

Based on what I learned, I recommended some radical changes in the structure

of the business and as a result, some people had to be fired. In deciding
which people to keep, my primary concern was whether any of the companys
employees would be open to new ideas.
I believed I had the knowledge they all needed but I had to be sure they would
listen to me. By eliminating the people who were past being motivated, I made
my job possible.
Once I had a good group of people that I could motivate, I knew that my ideas for
turning the business around could be tested.
To cut to the chase, they managed a miraculous turnaround in less than six
months. The improvement was only partially due to the new ideas we introduced.
Most of it was due to the fact that the entire team was motivated to execute those
ideas well and quickly.
[Ed. Note: You've just learned the right way to motivate your employees. It's a
key element of growing a successful business. And it's a major theme of Michael
Masterson's Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling book on
entrepreneurship, Ready, Fire, Aim.
Brian Tracy calls Ready, Fire, Aim "an extraordinary book -- full of practiced,
proven strategies and techniques to help you make more sales and greater
profits than you ever imagined possible."
And Robert Ringer says "What sets Masterson apart from most of the gurus who
write about how to do it is that he's actually done it -- over... and over... and over
again."
In Ready, Fire, Aim, Michael shares the business-building secrets he learned
while he took several businesses from scratch to multimillions in revenues. And,
as always, his contrarian advice flies in the face of the "wisdom" offered up by
most mainstream management and business gurus.
For example, you'll learn why...

Coming up with an original product idea... is usually a recipe for disaster

Failure is good thing
You should cooperate with your competitors
And much more...

Evolution, not Revolution

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in
what direction we are moving. Oliver Wendell Holmes

The average person believes that great wealth is created by revolutionary breaks
with tradition. The Instinctive Wealth Builder (IWB) believes in Darwin.
Its not surprising that so many people believe in revolution. Many best-selling
books have supported it. Read the popular biographies of Andrew Carnegie,
John Rockefeller, or Bill Gates and you will be regaled with explanations of how
they fundamentally changed the world.
Creative destruction is what we call it now.
Revolution is a more exciting concept. But it is a myth. The truth is that neither
Andrew Carnegie nor John Rockefeller nor Bill Gates was a revolutionary. They
all refined the ideas of thinkers of their time. In some cases, they bought those
ideas. In other cases, they stole them.
Take Carnegie. He was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of the
Bessemer process. It was an inexpensive way to turn raw iron into steel on a
large scale. And although it had been around for decades, not many steelmakers
were using it. But Carnegie understood that it would not only allow him to deliver
a superior product but also underprice the competition. As a result, he saw a
rapid expansion of his business and an equally fast surge in his personal wealth.
In the next few years, Carnegie Steel became the preeminent steel producer in
the world and Andrew himself became one of the worlds richest men.
Bill Gates bought exclusive rights to an early forerunner of the MS-DOS
computer operating software for just $50,000. He then licensed the program to
IBM for use in their PCs. But he kept the rights to the actual program and was
able to license it to other companies. That was the start of his multibillion-dollar
fortune.
In his bestseller, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell looked at the way new
products sometimes suddenly take over the consumer marketplace. How is it,
he asked, that some products such as Slinkies and Velcro and iPods
became enormous trends?

The traditional view, Gladwell pointed out, is that these are breakthroughs
completely different products that, for whatever reason, capture the imagination
of a given market.
But his research led him to a different conclusion: that trendsetting products are
not breakthroughs at all; rather, they are variations on ideas that were already in
the collective consciousness.
Gladwell is a researcher and writer. He is not and never has been an
entrepreneur. So I would have expected him to get this all wrong. But he was
right.
To explain his thesis, Gladwell used a metaphor he called the tipping point. It
refers to an experiment done in just about every high school science class.
A glass of water is filled to the brim with water, and then droplets of water are
added, one by one. What the students discover is that, contrary to their
expectations, the additional droplets remain for a while on top, forming a mound
of water that is actually higher than the rim of the glass.
Drop by drop, the mound gets higher. And then, suddenly, one single extra drop
causes the mound of water to collapse and run down the sides of the glass.
That is how consumer trends have always worked. And its how they work today.
In any given social context, many people share the same basic idea about some
innovation that is needed. Spurred by that common notion of what should come
next, individual innovators make changes. But most of these changes are
absorbed into the culture without producing any significant reaction. They are,
metaphorically, the additional droplets that form the mound.
These minor variations are noticed by other innovators who can see the trend
(the mound) forming and recognize that, eventually, the weight of all the little
changes will lead to a sudden overflow of movement.
And there is a good reason for this.
Consumers arent looking for brand-new products. They are looking for clever
new adaptations of products they already know and love. When it comes to new,
the human brain can take only a little bit of it.
The IWB knows that when you simply imitate something that is already being
sold successfully, you are following the market. But to have a multimillion-dollar
breakthrough, you have to anticipate the market.

The way to do that is not to create something brand-new, but to do something

that is just a little bit better than the hottest thing out there.
Remember, its the tipping-point effect you are going for, that one extra change
(droplet of water) that is added to many more that have been added before.
Gladwell gave these examples:

The rebirth of Hush Puppies, the old school shoe that became hot in the
mid-90s after being adopted by a handful of New York City hipsters, then
fashion designers and artists.
Blues Clues, which took the early learning concepts of pioneers like
Sesame Street and improved them to make a TV show even more
appealing to the preschool set.
The novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells,
which went from being a favorite of book clubs (made up of middle-aged
women) in northern California to a national bestseller.

My own experience in business confirms Gladwells conclusions.

As a mentor to the publishing industry, I have been directly involved in the
development of at least 50 publications. In the beginning, I made an effort to
create something new something the market didnt have. In every case, I
failed.
I remember, for example, trying to launch an investment newsletter for women in
the mid-1980s. Nobody had done one before. And yet we knew that there were
millions of American women who controlled trillions of dollars. Surely they
needed their own newsletter.
So we found a female financial analyst and built a publication around her. We
hired one of the best copywriters in the country to write the promotion. And we
loaded it up with premiums and sold it at a great price.
The result? A complete flop.
It turned out that women who were inclined to read investment advice perceived
our pitch for what it was a gimmick. I dont want information advice designed
for woman, one female subscriber told me. I want the best you have man,
woman, or hermaphrodite!
In the real estate development business in the early 1990s, I made a similar
mistake. My partners and I had the idea that we could sell super-fine luxury
homes in an exclusive golf course community. Instead of giving people what they
were already buying big white boxes with Sub-Zero refrigerators, as one of
my partners described them we offered truly well-built, customized homes.

But our prospects couldnt tell the difference between our products and the
grossly inferior properties that were selling like hotcakes.
The secret to innovation, Ive come to believe, is the old 80/20 formula. Give
them 80 percent of what they are already buying and only 20 percent of
something new. (As I said, when it comes to new, the human brain can take only
a little bit of it.)
The 20 percent matters. But the 80 percent keeps you in business.
Heres an extension of this idea that you wont hear anywhere else
If you come up with a tipping-point idea that sells very well, dont rest on your
laurels. Evolutionize it.
By that I mean start to think about the next step: what extra twist you can give
your hot product that will make it seem like yesterdays news in the near future.
I learned this lesson in the early 1980s. My partner and I were making out like
bandits with a very successful product but within a year, our competitors were
knocking us off. Most of them didnt come up with anything that worked very well.
But some of them did evolutionize our idea. And their products sold, sometimes
eclipsing our success. We didnt like that.
So what we began to do was to knock ourselves off.
Rather than wait for a competitor to knock off a good product, we would knock it
off but creatively, by inventing a new and better version almost as soon as we
knew the first product was a winner.
An example that quickly comes to mind is The Oxford Club. I created it in 1983.
Six months later, a competitor created a variation. That failed, but I realized that if
I waited much longer someone would come up with a better idea. So I got to
work and created a variation for a slightly different corner of the market. That
product is still in existence and is making its owner (we sold it, stupidly) a ton
of money.
Imitation doesnt work, because it is always too little and too late. But noticing
what products are working and then creating new products with features that are
somehow more advanced thats how you get the breakthroughs.
To think like an IWB, do this:
When you come up with a new moneymaking idea, search the Internet to see if
anyone else is thinking about it or doing it already.

If you cant find it anywhere, dont get excited; get depressed. There is a reason
you cant find it. And its not because it hasnt been thought of before. Its
because its been tried and it has failed. Dont invest any time or money in it.
When you come up with an idea that several or even many other people are
already working on, get excited. Ask yourself, Is my twist on this idea a useful
one? And by useful I dont mean it will improve the product. I mean it will make
it easier to sell.
Remember that the greatest tipping-point ideas are only partly new. Consumers
like things that are 80 percent or 90 percent the same and only 10 percent or 20
percent new.
Most important, ask yourself, Can I explain my twist on this idea in a way that
gets people excited? Write some advertising copy. Test it out in small samples.
Pay attention to the response. If it is not sensational, put that idea on the back
burner and think about it for a while.
The concept of evolution, not revolution works in all businesses, in any market.
But the fastest and easiest way to implement it is on the Internet. Online, you can
research your competition for free. You can test products, advertising copy, and
more very cheaply.
Even the cost of delivering your products can be nearly free. Plus, the Internet
allows you to react very quickly to changes in the market, take advantage of hot
trends, and get out the instant a trend starts to die down.
As a result, the process of starting a potentially super-successful online business
in your niche can take just a few days.
If youre worried that you dont have the marketing or technical experience to
start your own online venture, not a problem. The Early to Rise team has put
together a program to address that very concern.
At ETRs 5 Days in July Internet Business Building Conference, they will
teach you how to set up and manage your businesss website using intuitive
software that wont have you reaching for the instruction manual. And theyll
show you how to use the best tools for managing your marketing, product
creation, e-mail list building, and more. At 5 Days in July, youll get the complete
package including the same marketing techniques used by Early to Rise and
Agora Inc.

The Passkey That Can Get You In With

Hollywood Big-Wigs, Fortune 500 CEOs,
Famous Authors, and More

Position yourself as a center of influence - the one who knows the

movers and shakers. People will respond to that, and you'll soon
become what you project.

If you could grab the attention of one very influential person who would it be?
And how could making that connection change your life?
From my own experience, I can tell you that knowing how to connect with the
right people can

Get you a job. This is how our very own Managing Editor Suzanne
Richardson got hired at ETR despite the fact that Id never met her in
person, and she lived in New York rather than Florida.
Send your company soaring to new heights. If I hadnt known MaryEllen
Tribby through a few other marketers, I might never have known she was
the perfect pick for ETRs CEO and ETR wouldnt have skyrocketed
from an $8 million business to a $26 million business in just two years.
Expand your marketing reach, grow your customer list, and add millions in
sales to your bottom line. The relationships ETR has formed with joint
venture partners have brought in tens of millions of dollars for us. And
ETRs parent company, Agora, grew its investment newsletter business
from $1 million to $60 million in just 15 years, primarily through joint
venture marketing deals.

Master copywriter Bob Bly calls relationship building the most important factor
determining your success as an Internet marketer or in virtually any other
business.
The quality and quantity of your contacts and your relationships will have more
to do with your success than perhaps any other factor, says information
marketing superstar and self-development guru Brian Tracy. Knowing the right
people and being known by them can open doors for you that can save you
years of hard work.

Says entrepreneur Paul Lawrence, Making deals with powerful partners is one
of the best ways to leapfrog your way to a position of influence and profitability
in the blink of an eye.
Need Oprah to make your book a bestseller? Want to get Bill Gatess take on
your new software platform? Looking for business advice from Peter Drucker?
You might think these people are too famous for you to ever connect with.
But youre wrong.
Today, Im going to show you how to get the attention of practically anyone.
This surprisingly simple passkey to success comes from Larry Benet, who will
be on the panel of experts speaking at ETRs Info Marketing Bootcamp this
November.
Larry has rubbed elbows with Donald Trump, Larry King, Richard Branson, and
many other movers and shakers. Hes helped dozens of clients make
connections that helped them skyrocket their income and reach their dreams.
From Lowly Salesman to Master Connector
Larry discovered his passkey on the tennis court, of all places.
He had started his corporate career by working as a lowly sales guy. But then,
one day, he took a hard look at the three men he was playing tennis with.
All three were CEOs. Each was worth a couple of hundred million. They were
three of the most influential people in Larrys industry.
He thought to himself, How did I, once just a cog in the big corporate wheel,
manage to penetrate this inner circle?
He realized it had to do with his innate ability to connect with other people. And
soon he discovered that he could put his gift into easy-to-follow steps that
anyone could use.
One of the most effective steps in Larrys formula is to ask a simple question.
The Passkey to Making Critical Business and Life Connections
Whenever Larry wants to connect with someone, he asks, How can I help you?

These five words allowed him to connect with Larry King in under 60 seconds
and persuaded Richard Branson to hand over his personal e-mail address in
under 30 seconds.
If you use this powerful phrase correctly, and put it to work for yourself or your
business, Larry firmly believes you could easily add an extra $50,000 to
$100,000 to your bottom line. But I believe developing new relationships with
people in key positions in your industry can make you much, much more over
time.
Ive talked before about how critical the mentor/protege relationship is in
business. When youre just starting out, the advice and support of an
experienced person in your field will give you a shortcut to success as an
entrepreneur.
Then, later in your career, having a relationship with a superstar who can take on
some (or eventually all) of the burden of running your business is like striking
gold.
One of my biggest business assets has been the big-name relationships Ive
created and nurtured over the years, says Alex Mandossian, CEO of Heritage
House Publishing Inc. One notable example: his relationship with author Jack
Canfield, which expanded his customer list by thousands.
With Larrys passkey, you will have the ability to connect with anyone at any time
you wish.
Just imagine all the benefits that skill could bring you

You could meet celebrities

Get interviews with Fortune 500 CEOs
Find new clients, investors, or partners.

The sky is the limit.

Now this five-word passkey can get you in with almost anyone. But to maintain
the relationship and watch it grow into something profitable you need to master
a few additional strategies.
A Proven Formula for Making Your High-Value Relationships Grow and
Prosper
Larry will be unveiling these connection-forging strategies at ETRs Bootcamp
this November. Not only that, he will show you how to put these strategies to
work.

Thats what hes done for his top clients.

Carlos, for instance, was already a successful purveyor of business trade show
signs but he desperately wanted to get into the Hollywood scene. Hed been
trying for 10 years. Then he met up with Larry.
Within 72 hours of learning Larrys secrets to forging connections, Carlos had
landed his first two Hollywood clients. Now, you can see Carloss signage behind
the stars at red carpet premieres. (And Carlos is currently in the process of using
his connections to become an executive film producer.)
Then theres Geoff, a top recruiter for a financial services company whos been
working with Larry for over two years. In that time, hes been able to generate
hundreds of thousands of dollars by forming joint ventures with some of the
biggest names in real estate and investing.
And Larrys been putting his connection-forging strategies to work for himself,
too. Thats how he got an invitation to speak at ETRs Bootcamp!
The ONLY Event You Should Attend This Fall
Of course, Larry isnt the only expert wholl be telling all at Bootcamp. And his
relationship-building formula isnt the only cash-generating strategy Bootcamp
attendees will discover.
Bootcamp is going to be a showcase of the most mindboggling collection of
cutting-edge, breakthrough ideas presented by the finest group of marketing
geniuses ever assembled in one place.
When you leave this event, youll have a locked-and-loaded arsenal of real,
practical, and powerful techniques for building your wealth.
Laura and her team have assembled a world-class panel of moneymaking
visionaries from across the nation. Were talking about Rich Schefren, Joe
Polish, Mike Koenigs, Clayton Makepeace, Howie Jacobson, and many more.
These men and women will reveal EXACTLY how to start bringing in cash right
now and how to keep it coming in.
And every one of them has pledged to show you at least one specific technique
that could have you bringing in an extra $10,000 within the next 12 months:

The Missing Link in your business that could make you $5 million
The secret to reaching 4.5 billion (thats billion with a B) potential
customers
How to produce $5 million in online sales per month off a single product

And thats just a tiny sampling.

By the way, Ill be speaking at Bootcamp as well. Its the only presentation Ill
give this year, and I cant wait to blow you away with the hot wealth-building trend
I see coming down the pike.
Bootcamp is THE ONLY event where you can get access to the leaders in
information marketing. You wont find such a powerful concentration of gamechanging ideas and revolutionary strategies anywhere else.
We have just 250 openings for this years Bootcamp and registration begins
bright and early tomorrow morning.
Make sure you keep a close eye on your inbox, and reserve your spot at
Bootcamp as soon as registration opens.

Getting Wealthy From Inflation

Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you
used to get for five dollars when you had hair. Sam Ewing

Today, Im going to tell you how to make a lot of money.

If you are (a) not happy with the 0.5% return you are getting from your bank
account, (b) worried about inflation, or (c) uncertain about the future value of your
stocks and bonds, pay attention.
In fact, you might want to keep this issue of the Journal around so you can thank
me later.
Despite what Timothy Geithner and so many of the other media and government
squawkers are saying, the U.S. economy is not returning to health. Businesses
will continue to go bankrupt, homeowners will continue to lose their homes, and
unemployment will continue to rise.
The financial markets are becoming more precarious. Stock market indexes are
up since March of 2009, but PE ratios are now standing at about 24 which
means that most stocks are 40% to 50% overvalued. The bond market is
overvalued too.
Its enough to make you want to stay in bed all day.
But today, I am going to give you a user-friendly game plan for financial success.
It is a three-part strategy for protecting whatever wealth you have left and
building wealth, starting immediately, over the coming decade.
It is a program that is based on demonstrable logic and proven business
experience.
Im not going to charge you for this plan. You are getting it for free.
If you decide to follow through on my suggestions, I will recommend some
additional sources of information that will help you succeed. Buying them will be
optional. But the strategy itself will still be free.

How to Protect Against the Threat of Inflation

The biggest single threat to your wealth is not the overvalued stock and bond
markets but the very likely probability of a sudden and ruthless period of inflation.
You dont have to be an economist to understand why.
Inflation means rising prices. When the stock market went up from below 700 in
March 2009 to 1,200 in April 2010 that was stock inflation. When home prices
rose by 80% from 1997 to 2006 that was real estate inflation.
You can make a lot of money during inflationary periods if you buy early (while
prices are low) and sell later (when prices are high). But you can get killed if you
wait too long and buy late (when prices are high) and then are forced to sell
(when prices are low).
So the trick to profiting from inflation is to understand the trend. Getting in early
and getting out early.
Pretty simple so far, eh?
The reason the smartest moneymakers in the world are expecting inflation now is
because the government has been spending trillions of dollars to try to keep the
banks and brokers and insurance companies from going out of business even
though those same banks and brokers and insurance companies are responsible
for inflating the economy to begin with.
The government will never, ever allow these institutions to fail. Because if they
do, we will be in a real Depression and then all the politicians we voted into
office will worry about losing their jobs. Since their cushy jobs (and amazing
expense accounts) are their primary priority, they will always approve these huge
bailouts even though they know that, eventually, they will destroy the value of
the dollar.
It doesnt matter what party they belong to. The Republicans started the bailout
programs and the Democrats extended them. They fight about spending on
health care, but they dont fight when it comes to the big financial institutions.
The government didnt actually have the trillions of dollars they spent on bailouts.
They had to borrow it from the U.S. Treasury.
And how do they pay back the U.S. Treasury? There are only two ways. One is
by raising taxes; the other is by printing more dollars.

Countless economic studies have shown that there is only so much money the
government can get by raising taxes. If they tax people too much, the economy
slows down. And when the economy slows down, there is less wealth to tax so
the governments income actually drops rather than rises.
Obama knows that he probably wouldnt be able to raise taxes enough to pay off
the debt incurred by the bailouts. Still, he is going to try to tax Americans as
much as he possibly can.
Where will the rest of the money come from?
Obama also knows as does every other smart politician that there is a
sneakier and less risky way to pay back the Treasury. And that is to let the dollar
collapse.
Heres why: When the dollar depreciates (gets less expensive), it becomes
easier to pay off big debts. Who wouldnt want to be using todays dollars to pay
for gas that went for $1.50 10 years ago? Or to pay for houses that went for
$75,000, on average, 20 years ago? Well, thats what the government will be
doing 10 years from now: paying off a debt that wont seem nearly as big as it
does now because theyll be paying with inflated dollars.

My Three-Point Plan
Traditionally, there are three types of assets that appreciate during periods of
inflation. One is real estate. Another is precious metals. And the third is stocks
that are related to commodities.
For example, take a look at what happened to aluminum maker Alcoas shares
during the high-inflation years of the 1970s and early 80s

From 1972 to 1981, Alcoas Stock More Than Doubled

And golds best decade of the 20th century is no contest. It spiked during the
hyper-inflationary 1970s, as you can see in this chart

Since I dont have the space to go into detail on all three parts of my inflationbeating strategy today, Ill focus on the real estate opportunities. Ill talk about
precious metals and commodities in a future issue.
Real estate is a good place to start. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be made in
real estate by the smart money in the next five to 10 years. My cut of that should
be at least $10 million. Perhaps youd like to join me.

Your Real Estate Plays

Its no secret that half of the worlds richest entrepreneurs built their fortunes
through real estate. What is less commonly known is that most of their great
fortunes were made during inflationary periods like the one were facing right
now.

Opportunity #1: Taking advantage of real estate prices that are as

low as theyve been in 20 or 30 years
It is impossible (and foolish) to try to predict the bottom (or top) of this (or any)
market. But, by any measure, we have just gone through one of the biggest real
estate recessions in the history of the United States.

In South Florida, for example, you can find properties for less than half of what
they were selling for at the peak of the market. More important, you can buy
these properties with 20% down and start enjoying positive cash flow from month
one. (Four and five years ago, you couldnt get positive cash flow out of rental
units with 50% down.) So todays prices make sense from a businessmans
perspective.
My real estate partner Peter and I have been buying homes in the $120,000 to
$130,000 range (after closing costs and renovations). We are getting monthly
rents of $1,300 to $1,600 on these. I am financing our deals at 4% (which is good
for me). At that rate, we are making about 6% to 8% on our money, not counting
appreciation.
My brother is buying up residential properties and apartment complexes in lively
downtown areas, beach areas, and areas targeted for stimulus money
renovation.
He is buying at such deep cash flow prices that he is able to pay his investors
(including me) minimum guaranteed yields of 7.5% plus equity participation.
Because of this, he has raised a considerable amount of money in the last few
months, and he is using the money to do some very impressive deals.
He just bought a 14-unit building across the street from the beach for $725,000!
Think of that. Each beach-view, one-bedroom unit cost him only about $50,000
and this apartment complex could be worth several million in the not-toodistant future.
He also now controls three properties in the heart of a rapidly growing downtown,
zoned commercial and residential. And even though theyre in a prime spot, he is
generating yields of over 8%.
Whether with Peter, through my brother, or by myself, I will continue to invest in
real estate so long as prices are low. If they go down further, Ill buy more
aggressively.
I have no risk of losing money, because all the properties Im investing in are
making money on a monthly basis. Even if rents drop, I wont be losing money.
The 4% to 8% yield Im enjoying will cover me even if rents go down another
25%, which is highly unlikely.
I get immediate income from these deals. Instead of getting 0% on my cash, Im
getting a minimum of 7.5% fully secured guaranteed yields by loaning it to my
brother, and additional yield from the after-debt cash flow.

But the real opportunity is in the appreciation potential. As I said, I fully expect to
make an extra $10 million in appreciation in the next five to 10 years as inflation
pushes up real estate prices. I might make as much as $30 million, but Im trying
to be conservative.
There are some who say that real estate prices wont inflate with the rest of the
economy, but I think they will. Heres why. Buildings are built with core
commodities lumber, copper, aluminum, concrete, steel. Labor is another big
expense. You cant have inflation without a rise in those costs.
Plus, as my brother points out, properties in many areas are selling for less than
replacement value. In some cases, even if you got the land for free, you couldnt
build these homes for what you can buy them for today. Thats even after taking
depreciation into account.
Last but not least, in many instances, its already far cheaper to buy than it is to
rent. Eventually, this will turn the tide toward buying. Its just a matter of time.
So thats my first inflation-beating recommendation: Start buying undervalued,
quality rental properties now. Dont wait for the market to bottom. Just find
properties that will give you a net cash flow of at least 4% to 9% after all
expenses (including property taxes, maintenance, fees, etc.).

Opportunity #2: Taking advantage of alternative financing

If you dont have the money to invest directly in real estate at this time, you can
still make a ton of money by taking advantage of some programs out there that
are not being widely publicized.
Let me give you one example:
My brother just bought a large house from Fannie Mae. Its on a corner lot in a
good area, and includes a studio that can be rented separately. At the peak of
the market, it sold for $335,000. The county currently has it appraised at
$181,000. My brother bought it for $80,000 cash. Its an amazing deal. The rental
value is $1,750 a month, or $21,000 a year. It will produce about $5,000 in free
cash flow a year.
As I said, my brother bought this property for cash but it could have been done
with just 10% down through Fannie Maes HomePath program. That means an
$8,000 down payment would have gotten you in. If you then sold the property for
just half its former peak value in a few years, youd be selling it for $167,500.
That would be a capital gain of $87,500. More than a 1,000% return!

And that ignores the $5K a year in free cash flow or the few thousand youd pick
up in amortization (the reduction of a loan balance over time) money you
could have applied to closing costs and initial repairs.

Opportunity #3: Taking a position in businesses that are buying up

super-undervalued properties
One of the best-run companies buying up undervalued properties comes from
north of the border.
I had no interest in this company when real estate was booming. Their income
from year to year was lagging behind that of their U.S. peers. I chalked up their
bad numbers to poor management. But I recently noticed that their numbers are
much better and I had to find out why.
Turns out their reversal of fortune stems from how they treated their tenants
when property prices were soaring. Unlike their competitors, they refrained from
putting the squeeze on their tenants by raising rents to the max. As a result,
when the Great Recession hit and most real estate companies had a spike in
vacancies, this one kept the vast majority of its tenants.
It now has a much stronger balance sheet and more cash on hand than most
other real estate companies. And what is it doing with its cash? Buying up cheap
properties to take advantage of what it calls times of distress south of the
border.
This company is laying the groundwork now for long-term growth. Over the next
five years, I expect its stock to advance by 60%-100%.
The company, RioCan, is Canadas biggest real estate investment trust (REIT). It
owns Canadas biggest and best portfolio of shopping centers 261 retail
properties amounting to 60 million square feet. You can find it on the Toronto
stock exchange under the symbol REI-UN.TO.
RioCan just bought an 80% stake in seven grocery-anchored shopping centers
(thats what it specializes in) in the U.S. It acquired that stake by taking on Cedar
Shopping Centers Inc. as its American partner.
Before theyre through, the two companies will be buying up a slew of belowmarket-cost properties. Just based on what RioCans CEO Edward Sonshine
says, I can tell that theyre drooling at their prospects
Many of the properties coming available in the U.S. are of exceptional quality,
and are currently being held by stressed vendors, constrained by a lack of
liquidity.

These vendors are not disposed to sell due to issues with the property. Rather,
many of these operators have difficulty meeting demands of lenders and
satisfying more stringent conditions on accessing capital. As such, acquisitions
can be made at considerably less than replacement costs. In fact, we believe that
the next 12 to 18 months are a time of unique opportunities for [RioCan].
Besides shelling out $176 million for the seven aforementioned properties,
RioCan and Cedar just bought their first shopping center together for $20 million,
with RioCan paying $16 million of it. And this is just the beginning. Sonshine says
that the company has weathered the storm and is poised to seize the initiative.
It has the money. It has the local partner to help it. It certainly has the
determination. And the U.S. market is ripe for the taking. In other words,
everythings in place.
And its not like RioCan is biting off more than it can chew. This is the next logical
step for the company to take. Its already in Canadas most densely populated
areas. In fact, it expects to deal in the U.S. with many of the same tenants it has
in Canada.
Another great thing about this company? Its making its big move south of the
border from a position of strength. Its occupancy rate for 2009 was an impressive
97.4%. Its lease renewal rate last year was an equally impressive 92%, up from
86% the year before. Its rental revenues rose by $30 million in 2009, reaching
$762 million.
RioCan already ranks among the best of the top REITs in North America. Get
this: Its AFFO (adjusted funds from operations) is expected to go up 9% this year
and 10% next. Its U.S. rivals specializing in strip malls? Their AFFO, as a whole,
is expected to go down by 19% this year and 5% next year.
Amazingly, the price of RioCans shares is very reasonable. Shares for its U.S.
counterparts average 17 times AFFO. For RioCan, shares cost only 16 times
AFFO.
This cant last, and it wont. Im happy (and a little surprised) to be able to tell you
about this company before its shares have surged. But were on borrowed time
here. The company is for real solid and ambitious at the same time. Plus, it
gives shareholders 7.1% in cash every year just for owning its shares. In my
experience, a company like this doesnt stay below the radar for long.
So thats one company that you might want to consider investing in but there
are dozens of others. The folks at Liberty Street League have prepared a special
report on this that you can only get if you become a member. Find out more
and sign up by clicking here.

Riding the Trend Wave

I don't set trends. I just find out what they are
And exploit them Dick Clark

How to Live a $120,000-a-Year Retirement on

$40,000
Early to Riser Mark Fitzpatrick sent me an e-mail with some questions about
Central American real estate. He has owned some ocean-view property in
Nicaraguas Brito foothills for about six years. (It sounds like its near the
development I have an interest in, Rancho Santana.)
And he wants my take on what trends will play out in the next seven to 10 years.
Specifically, he wants to know:
Would an increase in tax burden in the U.S. prompt even more people to
consider retiring to places like Nicaragua?
And will Nicaragua being underdeveloped actually be able to develop using
the latest in technology (for communications), energy (considering the countrys
expansive geothermal potential), and industry (by becoming more involved as an
outsource destination for U.S. companies)?
Let me start by saying that Ive always said that you can live very well in
Nicaragua on an income of $40,000 a year.
Heres why:

Land is still relatively cheap. (You can buy a beach-view lot in Rancho
Santana for $70,000.)
Taxes are low. (Property taxes on one of those lots are just $150 a year. I
pay $50,000 on my main house in the U.S.)
Food is cheap. (You can eat great, fresh food for less than $10 a day.)
Help is cheap. (You can have a full-time housekeeper for less than $8 a
day.)
Entertainment is cheap. (You can hire a four-person band for a party for
$50.)
The cost of construction is relatively cheap. (You can build a house for
about $65 to $75 a square foot.)

Medical care is cheap. (This is not the country for brain surgery, but they
are very good at most routine procedures so long as you take advantage
of the good hospitals in Managua and the good local clinics, like the one
in Rancho Santana.)

What is not cheap is electricity (which costs about as much as it does in the
States), cars and car maintenance (again, about what you would pay in the
States), brand-name luxuries, and other goods that are imported from the U.S. or
Europe.
But what really makes retirement (or partial retirement) in Nicaragua and other
Central American countries inexpensive is the choices most people make when
they move there. They rarely go out to fancy, Western-style restaurants.
They prefer to enjoy the healthy and delicious food that is grown and prepared
locally. They dont build mega-mansions. They fancy beautiful little casas and
casitas that nestle into the beautiful natural topography.
When you create a retirement or second home in a tropical paradise, you are
looking for charm and ease of living, not fancy things to impress your friends.
And that makes life much less expensive.
Let me give you the best example I know: the Masterson family retreat in Rancho
Santana.
Rancho Santana, right on the Pacific Ocean in Nicaragua (and right over the
border from much more expensive Costa Rica) has been a fully functioning
community for many years. It has clean running water, reliable electric power,
sanitation service, trained workers, full security, an active homeowners
association, two restaurants, a pool and spa, and so on.
The community is a 20-minute copter ride from the capital city, which is a twohour hop from Miami. But it is also accessible via a highway and is considered to
be right in the middle of the countrys next big real estate market.
Our casa is big 5,000 square feet. I paid something like $40,000 for my lot and
spent about $300,000 over several years building and enlarging the house. It is
way bigger than we actually need, even though I use it for business when Im
down there. Still, it has been a very good value. About 18 months ago, I turned
down an offer for $900,000.

We employ two full-time people to take care of the property year-round. We also
employ a part-time person to manage them and, because we rent out the house
from time to time, a rental agent.
The total cost of these employees is less than $6,000 a year. And I am paying
above-average wages. (They also benefit from tips we and our guests leave
them. They are happy. So are we.)
When we are down there, we eat mostly at home. Our housekeeper cooks the
meals whatever we want. We buy local ingredients grass-fed beef, fish right
out of the ocean, and organically grown vegetables and it costs much less
than what we pay for the same kind of high-quality food in the U.S.
When we go out to one of the half-dozen restaurants on or near the ranch, we
seldom spend more than $12 a person, including drinks.
I can get a massage at the spa for $15, ride a horse for an hour for $10, play
tennis or bocce ball or horseshoes for free, and swim for free. I can rent a boat to
take me down to San Juan del Sur and back a day trip for less than $200.
Our total expenditure for our second home in Rancho Santana is well below
$40,000 a year. The equivalent lifestyle in the U.S. costs us almost 10 times that
amount. So the truth is, you can do much better than the promise I made in
headline I wrote for this essay.
You can enjoy a $400,000 lifestyle for only $40,000 there but whos counting?
And getting there is easy. You can fly in to the capital city of Managua or to
Liberia, Costa Rica, which is about 50 miles south of the ranch. From the airport,
you can easily arrange transportation.

Who Else Lives There?

Were not the only ones enjoying everything Rancho Santana has to offer. Its
home to many part-timers, many of whom bring in significant income by renting
out their places when theyre not there. There are also several full-time residents
(retirees and people who can run their businesses from outside the U.S.).
Retirees Sylvia and Dennis Green moved down from New England in 2003. They
actually drove down in their pick-up truck, packed with their personal belongings,
over 12 adventure-filled days. (Did I mention that they didnt speak Spanish?)
These days, they run the on-property market, which stocks such U.S. favorites as
bagels and nondairy creamer.

I really do believe Rancho Santana is the best place to be in this entire region
and coastline, says Sylvia. The progress theyve made over the years is truly
impressive. I have never been disappointed here it is wonderful; there are so
many avenues to take here, to be quiet or as busy as you like.
It is hard to find people who love this place as much as we do. Just down the
road in Costa Rica, they have the tourists and the fame, but we have the
fortune!
Fellow New Englanders Christopher and Maren Boothby come to Rancho
Santana throughout the year, staying connected to their work responsibilities
back home (she runs a speech and occupational therapy center for kids and hes
a county commissioner) through high-speed Internet and video conferencing.
Since they spend most of their time in the U.S., they are able to offset a lot of
their costs by renting out their home. (Homes in Rancho Santana bring in 10
percent higher rental fees than neighboring properties.)

Is Your Investment Safe?

With its history of coups and revolution, Nicaragua still has a bad reputation
among many in the United States. Perhaps that is why Costa Rica just to the
south is more popular with vacationers and retirees and so much more
expensive.
But those issues are in the past. The country has been a strong democracy with
a stable government for decades now. And international agencies and institutions
rank it as one of the safest places in Central America to both visit and invest in.
It ranks only behind Costa Rica in terms of safety, according to the Economist
Intelligence Units 2010 report.
And the World Bank Group cites Nicaragua as the top country in the region to
start a business. The same report ranked Nicaragua as number one in investor
protection.

What About the Future?

Do I think the economic situation in the U.S. (and the rest of the developed world)
will push more people to places like Nicaragua? Yes, I do. But I never make
investment decisions based on future predictions.
I focus on what a specific investment can do for me presently and in the near
future. And from that perspective, having a second home in Nicaragua is a nobrainer.

Regarding future technological developments ETR reader Mark Fitzpatrick

brought up a good point in his e-mail to me. Because Nicaragua never had a
national phone system (to speak of), cell phone communications exploded there
quickly and cheaply. I get better service in Nicaragua, and more cheaply, than I
do in the U.S.
The same is true for Internet communications. My service in Rancho Santana is
on par with my service here. And things are getting better every year.
Did I mention the other amenities of Rancho Santana?

On-site spa, yoga center, and gym

Market and grocery store
Lighted tennis courts
Equestrian tours
Full-time concierge in the clubhouse
Five private beaches (great for surfing)

The Bottom Line

If you can run your business from home (as I can), you could relocate to
Nicaragua and enjoy an amazing lifestyle for a fraction of the cost you are paying
in the U.S. One great example of what Im talking about is Marc and Kathy
Brown, who moved to Rancho Santana in 2005. (From what I hear, the surfing is
what originally attracted them to the community.) Marc previously worked in sales
for various software companies.
But when he came to Nicaragua, he worked in real estate. In 2008, he took over
the Rancho Santana sales office and helped increase sales by over 100 percent
in just his first year at the helm.
If youre interested in retiring overseas or having a low-cost tropical getaway, I
urge you to check out Rancho Santana. They are hosting a Caravan Weekend
from May 19 to 23. Its a great opportunity to check out the community and some
properties. You get a great deal on accommodations. Get in touch with Marc
Brown at marcb@ranchosantana.com to get all the details. Tell him I sent you.
And if you cant make it then, youre invited down anytime.
[Ed. Note: Looking for an ideal retirement haven -- or a winter getaway that you
can buy now? Have you been curious about whether it's actually possible to live
and work overseas?
As a member of the Liberty Street League, you'll learn that it's not only possible
to live in the most beautiful tropical paradises, bustling foreign capitals, and
more... it can be cheaper, safer, and a hell of a lot more fun than living in the U.S.

Each month, the League's premium, members-only newsletter details strategies

you can use to make your escape, while it pulls back the curtain on the world's
best hidden destinations.
On the top of that, you'll get some of the best wealth building advice from experts
working today in industries as varied as real estate, Internet business, precious
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Find out more about how the Liberty Street League can change your life here.]

Are You Resilient Enough?

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein

With the economy failing, companies making cutbacks, and your financial
future at stake, you might be feeling pretty grim. But dont even think about
throwing in the towel. There are lots of opportunities out there
opportunities to make loads of money and put more happiness and love
back in your life.
When youve been beaten down by anything, its natural to want to quit.
But quitting is a blind alley that leads to failure and despair. There is
another way to go. A way that will take you past your troubles and toward
your best life yet.
A few years ago, I read about this topic in the Harvard Business Review. A
company called Adaptive Learning Systems did a pretty comprehensive study of
the qualities it takes to be successful in life. They looked at all the expected
things: education, motivation, connections, etc. But they concluded that resiliency
deserved to be on top of the list.
The ability to bounce back from disappointment and even disaster, Adaptives
CEO Dean Becker said, counts more than education, more than experience,
and more than training.
Resilience has been an important factor in my career. In the early 1980s, my
partner and I took on more debt than we should have. I woke up one day and
realized that I owed a lot more than I owned. My net worth had dropped from a
meager but healthy $50,000 to a negative quarter of a million dollars.
That realization freaked me out. I imagined losing the little house I had just
bought. I imagined living in my car or, worse yet, living in the street. It was hard
to concentrate on work.
All I could think about was running away from my responsibilities. I had this
fantasy about changing my name, moving to a different state, and getting a job
as a check-out clerk in a supermarket.
In short, I was beaten down and I wanted to quit.

Luckily for me, I had an experienced partner who had suffered several major
setbacks in his business career and knew how to help me get through this one.
The first thing you have to do when times are tough, JSN told me when he saw
the dark circles under my eyes, is take care of your body. He reminded me of
the famous line Fatigue makes cowards of us all, and encouraged me to get
back to my exercise program and get plenty of sleep.
He also reminded me of my responsibility to our employees, and shamed me into
adopting a better attitude. Id rather you not come to work at all than come in
looking like you do now, he told me. Think of how it affects our employees.
They know things are tough, but they dont know how tough. They are looking at
us for clues. We have to keep them motivated.
I vowed to act chipper and fake a good mood. It was difficult at first, but within
days I found that I was actually feeling better from the inside out. My smile was
genuine. I was joking with my employees. They picked up on my improved spirits
and began working with more energy and optimism. That, in turn, made it easier
for me to work hard.
Recognizing that I was now mentally and physically ready to deal with the
challenge we were facing, JSN said, Okay, now were going to draw up a
survival and prosperity plan.
Just the sound of it filled me with hope. Where do we begin? I asked and he
laughed. I have no idea, he said, because this is the first time Ive been in this
particular situation. But Im sure if we put our heads together we can come up
with something.
For the better part of two days, we sat in his office and worked on our plan. As
near as I can remember, it included the following elements:

Keep a stiff upper lip, regardless of what happens.

Fire unnecessary or unhelpful people.

Get rid of unprofitable products.

Eliminate wasteful habits.

Focus on core marketing strengths.

Keep working.

Gradually, we started to see results. Some of our marketing efforts began to pay
off. Then, about three months after the bottom, one of our advertising campaigns
hit big. A week after that, another one did. A year later, I was a relatively wealthy
young guy.
That was my first lesson in the value of resilience. But it wasnt my last. In the 30
years that have passed since then, Ive run into trouble dozens of times. But
having overcome adversity once, I was able to bounce back again and again.
Still, my first reaction is often Screw it.
Just last week, for example, I headed up what I hoped would be a brilliant
brainstorming session. For four hours, I did my special thing with seven very
bright and creative people pushing and prodding, asking questions, and making
comments. The session began strongly but started losing steam halfway through,
and was barely moving when time ran out.
It was an embarrassing, dispiriting experience. I felt as if I had made a bit of a
fool of myself, trying out a newfangled brainstorming technique that I should have
known wouldnt work.
But the next morning, I woke up with a new resolve. I have to try again, I
thought. Bring the group back together and try something else. Forget about the
failure and my leading role in it, and get back to what we were there for to
create a breakthrough promotion.
So I wrote a memo suggesting just that. And since then, the ideas have been
coming better ways to get the work done, different approaches, new questions.
The anguish immediately started to subside, and a sense of positive expectation
set in.
Faith, guts, and the willingness to work. Thats the combination you need to
overcome obstacles and bounce back from failure.
But where does the faith come from? For Andrew Carnegie, one of the worlds
biggest successes, it came from an overriding belief in the power of God to
intervene in mens lives. For me, the faith must come from myself from the selfconfidence developed by making success a habit.
Carnegie said, The first thing to do about an obstacle is simply to stand up to it
and not complain about it or whine under it but forthrightly attack it. Stand up to
your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they havent half
the strength you think they have. Just stand up to it, thats all, and dont give way
under it, and it will finally break. You will break it. Something has to break and it
wont be you, it will be the obstacle.

But not all obstacles can be extirpated. Some are best dealt with in more subtle
ways. A wise man once said, If I cant get through a trouble, I try to go around it,
and if I cant go around it, I try to get under it, and if I cant get under it, I try to go
over it, and if I cant go over it, I just plow right through it.
Thats the course of action I recommend.

First, ask yourself if the obstacle can be ignored. Eighty percent of

the problems you face will go away the moment you stop paying
attention to them.

Next, see if you can get around the obstacle by using your wits. If
you can accomplish the same goal by using cleverness instead of
brute force, why not?

If you cant get over, under, or around the obstacle, stand up to it

firmly. This wont be easy, particularly if you are not used to
confrontation. But the more you do it, the easier it will become.

Thomas Jefferson had a similar idea about how to handle difficult situations. He
put it this way: Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
This resilience thing is something you may have to struggle with all your life. As I
write this, there is a wooden paperweight on my desk that JSN bought for me
from Levenger. It must have been more than 20 years ago soon after that that
time we worked together to turn our failing business around. Its a quote from
Winston Churchill: Never give in. Never give in, never, never, never
[Ed. Note: One of the best ways to bounce back from the current recession?
Start your own business. And ETR can help. Our exclusive Internet Money Club
walks you step-by-step through setting up a website, starting an e-mail
newsletter, creating your own products, marketing those products, and much
more. The Club is strictly limited to 250 members, so sign up today before
you're locked out until next year.

How to Think Like a Multimillionaire

To be a great champion you must believe you are the best.
If youre not, pretend you are."
Muhammad Ali

Most people, when confronted with an obstacle, suffer some degree of shock and
dismay. Even if they dont consciously acknowledge the problem, their bodies
respond in ways that make them less capable of bouncing back.
You may find it interesting to know, for example, that scientists have found that
testosterone the hormone that drives us to work hard and win actually
drops measurably in people who run into unanticipated problems. This clues the
body to move into a defensive mode. We feel the impulse to slow down or shut
down or run away.
Sophisticated scans have shown similar responses in the brain. Our pleasure
centers become less active, as do the parts of the brain that promote the will to
act and take risks.
Our bodies are designed to be enthusiastic and energized when things are going
well. But when things turn against us, they are programmed to retreat.
These are deeply ingrained instincts. Evolutionists tell us that we developed them
in order to survive life-threatening situations such as famine, extreme cold, and
attacks by predators.
And though these retrenching responses are necessary for survival when the
threats are mortal, they can work against us when the challenges are less
serious. That is why we so often feel momentarily defeated by soluble problems
the sort of problems we run into when we attempt to enhance our lives and
build our careers.

Change Is Possible
The good news is that there is plenty we can do to defeat our negative thoughts,
feelings, and responses. We can train ourselves, in other words, to overcome
just about anything if we learn certain skills skills that tell the body and mind,
This is something I can handle. In fact, I look forward to the challenge.
The people I call Natural Born Multimillionaires (NBMMs) face the same
challenges as average people. In fact, because they tend to be so ambitious,
they encounter more of them.

Some of these obstacles are technical. Some are financial. Some have to do with
physical or emotional handicaps. And many come in the form of people who are
jealous and/or resentful of anyone who wants to improve himself.
Think about a recent problem youve encountered an unexpected situation
that blocked you from doing something you wanted to do. How did you feel when
you realized you couldnt have your way? What thoughts ran through your head?
How did you respond? What did you say? What did you do?
That is what I want to talk about in this essay. Id like to tell you some of what Ive
learned about how to overcome obstacles, defy disappointments, and maintain a
feeling of personal power regardless of what happens.

Stop Worrying, Start Living!

One of the best-selling books of all time is Dale Carnegies How to Stop
Worrying and Start Living. In it, Carnegie makes the very good point that
successful people are able to differentiate obstacles that are insurmountable
and/or inevitable from those that are temporary or transient.
The wise man, Carnegie argued, does not waste his time fretting about problems
that cant be avoided. He accepts reality and moves on. By accepting reality, he
doesnt deplete the energy he needs to get past the problem at hand. He
develops new skills and finds new paths and succeeds despite the inevitability of
the obstacle that besets him.
In discussing this concept in his ETR essay on June 12, 2009, Robert Ringer
pointed out that history is strewn with examples of individuals who overcame
insurmountable/inevitable problems and went on to achieve great success.
Ray Charless blindness was an insurmountable obstacle, to be sure. But instead
of wasting his energy agonizing over it, he devoted himself to music. He learned
to play the piano and the guitar. He learned to sing. And when he was good at all
three, he kept learning. Eventually, he became one of the most skillful artists of
his time. And he became very rich too.
The same was true for Jose Feliciano and Andrea Bocelli two other blind men
who were not stopped by their handicap and went on to achieve world-class
status and fortunes to match.
As Ive suggested, the wisdom of Ray Charles, Jose Feliciano, Andrea Bocelli,
and other men of their caliber is twofold:
They recognized that life throws some problems at you that you cannot change.

At the same time, they knew that every obstacle comes with a plethora of
opportunities chances learn new skills, circumvent the obstacle, and go on to
enjoy a rewarding life.
God grant me the serenity, the old maxim says, to accept the things I cannot
change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the
difference.
Ive talked about Viktor Frankls brilliant book Mans Search for Meaning in ETR
several times. In the book, he explains how he overcame what for most of us
would be insurmountable. Frankl, a doctor and psychotherapist working in Berlin,
was imprisoned in concentration camps, including Dachau and Auschwitz, before
being liberated in 1945.
His wife, as well as his mother and father, were killed in the camps. He faced
starvation and extreme cold. He was slowly being worked to death, and saw his
fellow prisoners tortured and killed.
Despite the suffering and inhumanity all around him, Frankl came to understand
that no matter how painful the situation, life has meaning and is worth living.

These Are Times That Try Mens Souls

In the past 10 years, many, many people have suffered serious financial
setbacks unexpected events that destroyed their retirement plans and
bankrupted them, and in some cases left them homeless and without an active
income.
These are real and serious problems. Not even in my most panglossian frenzy
would I make light of them.
But none of them are insurmountable. There is no financial problem that can
destroy your life.
And yet financial reversals do destroy lives. It is almost impossible to read the
newspaper without encountering a story about some man or woman who, when
confronted with sudden and serious financial losses, took his/her life.
In ETR, I told you about a friend of mine who did just that.
He was in great health, had a devoted family and great friends. He had all that,
plus a successful printing business and a significant personal fortune. He was a
very charismatic guy always good-natured, upbeat, full of fun, and easy to like.
Then one day, his business collapsed. I dont remember the details, but,
suddenly, he was bankrupt.

I heard about it soon after it happened. When I called to console him, it was too
late. Sobbing, his wife told me that he had killed himself.
I couldnt understand why he did it. Hed had so many other things going for him
that, in my eyes, his business and the wealth it produced was just gravy.
Apparently, he didnt see it that way.
Read the biography of any of the great entrepreneurs and you will discover that
each of them overcame one terrible obstacle after another. Andrew Carnegie, for
example, who became one of the richest men in the country, came to the U.S.
with his family from Scotland.
They spent all their money getting here, so 13-year-old Andrew had to forgo
school and go to work at a cotton factory for $1.20 a week. By studying
bookkeeping at night, he was able to get a job as a clerk. By the age of 15, he
was working as a telegraph operator, a relatively well-paid position. Then his
father died, making him the familys sole breadwinner.
I remember my first significant experience with financial reversals.
It was right before the business I ran with JSN made its first million. At the time,
the business was in the hole by almost twice that. And I personally owed about
$200,000 four times my salary.
I was scared, psychologically burdened by that debt.
Luckily for me, JSN had lived through plenty of tough times, and he knew the
value of sticking it out. When all else fails, he told me, just close your eyes and
walk forward.
Bolstered by his pluck, I kept pushing myself. And one bright spring day, one of
our marketing packages started working. A week after that, another one did. And
a year later, I was a relatively wealthy young guy.
That experience taught me the value of resilience but one lesson wasnt
enough to make it a permanent, instinctual reflex. I continued to fail, and my
failures continued to hurt. But having had success once, I was able to bounce
back again and again sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
Without JSNs example, I am quite sure I would have given up my ambitions for
wealth and success, quit the business, and gotten a job working for some
humdrum corporation or big newspaper.

How to Survive Defeat

Dale Carnegie believed that most obstacles can be overcome through a
combination of determination, optimism, and being conscious of your connection
to some Conscious Universal Power Source.
I dont know if there is some Conscious Universal Power Source out there I
have my doubts but Im all in favor of feeling connected with it if it gives you
the energy you need to endure your difficulties and move on in life.
Conscious or not, there is a vast opportunity for change and growth in the
universe. And this opportunity is open to anyone who will allow himself to take
positive action, regardless of his religious or spiritual beliefs.

There are 7 things that you can do to change the way your mind
and body react to setbacks.
1. Understand which obstacles are truly inevitable or insurmountable. Keep in
mind that few are. Blindness is one. The death of a partner or loved one is
another. The weather is a third. Know the difference between unexpected
changes that you absolutely cant control and those things you can overcome.
2. Dont be emotionally defeated by inevitable change. Reframe the experience.
Ask yourself, Where is the silver lining? Dont stop asking until you find one.
There is always a silver lining. There are usually dozens of them.
3. Consult with other people who have experienced the same problem. Dont
complain. Dont seek comfort. Seek practical knowledge. Ask their advice.
4. Read something inspirational to make you feel better.
5. Recognize that the biggest threat to you is not the problem itself but how you
react to it.
6. Understand that if you give in to the problem, your body will begin to shut
down. It will deny you the energy you need to move on and succeed. Energy is
the key. Do everything you can to energize yourself. Rest, but not too long.
Meditate, but only to feel better. Walk or run or exercise, but again only hard
enough to stimulate energy.
7. Figure out how to have fun.

How to Have Fun

For many years, I believed that the very idea of having fun was a foolish notion.

I noticed that I often grew bored with activities that are generally considered to be
fun, and that this was particularly true of passive activities like watching
television and going to the movies. I argued that most of the real fun I
experienced came from working on projects I cared about.
I reasoned that to make fun itself a goal is both futile and self-deprecating.
Surely, there is a higher purpose in life than that. I suggested that by setting
goals that are outside yourself (that have the aim of leaving the world and its
population a bit better than you found it), you could have your moral cake and eat
it too.
In other words, that you could achieve an ethical goal and have fun doing it.
I have made those arguments many times in past ETR articles, and Im not going
to refute them here. But I have to admit that a few months ago, I did, in fact,
realize that I could be having more fun in my life. And I resolved to do something
about it.
Heres what happened
Number Three Son was forlorn about something. K and I were trying to cheer
him up.
Think about all the fun you have each day, I said.
He made a face.
Come on now, I said. Be honest. In the 16 hours you are awake every day,
how many of them would you consider to be fun?
Honestly? he asked. About two.
That seems about right, I said. Two hours of fun a day. Yes, thats seems
pretty good to me.
K was looking at me with pity in her eyes.
Whats wrong with that? I asked. How many hours of fun do you get out of a
16-hour day?
Sixteen, she said.
And I knew she meant it. Sure, she was exaggerating a bit. She does get upset
sometimes (like last night, when she woke up to find me clipping my toenails in
bed). But on an hour-by-hour basis, she is light years ahead of Number Three
Son and me in the happiness game.

And its not because she doesnt encounter problems. Its because she has
trained herself to feel the pain quickly and then to move on with optimism and
determination. She is committed to a life of happiness. And as a result, she has
it.
I learned something from K that day. From now on, I pledged, I will not allow
any obstacle to defeat me. I will accomplish all I want to accomplish, and when
the troubles come I will deal with them with enthusiasm and I will get around
them.

Fake It Till You Make It

Happiness is both the easiest and hardest goal to accomplish. It doesnt take
intelligence or even an intelligent plan. What it does take, I now know, is the
willpower to reject your bodys natural tendency to shut down when you run into
problems. You have to train your mind to accept reality and move on,
energetically, to accomplish new goals.
I realized that when I got myself into some sort of difficulty, I always had a
choice. I could allow myself to get frustrated. Or I could force myself to take on a
positive mental attitude and push forward.
I knew from my reading of another book by Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends
and Influence People) that complaints and self-pity only make bad situations
worse. I also understood that just pretending to feel positive about a problem
could often lighten my mood.
So that became my two-step plan for being successful and happy even when
things turn against me:
1. Accept the problem without feeling bitter about it.
2. Move quickly on to do something good.
Whenever something goes awry these days and someone asks me about it, I
resist the urge to complain even though it feels like that will make me feel
better.
I know that the only way around the obstacle is to begin go through the process I
outlined above. I do that immediately before I have a chance to talk to anyone
else. Then, when they ask me, I can say, Yes, it happened. It was bad. But Im
feeling optimistic now because I have a plan to overcome it.

To help myself stay positive, Ive added a simple five-minute routine to my

morning schedule that you might find useful. After I go over my daily task list and
determine my priorities, I spend an extra few minutes looking at each task and
asking myself, How can I make this fun?
That may seem like an odd thing to do a too-formal approach to having fun.
But it really works. I find that I joke more and get upset less.
Lets say I know that I am going to have lunch with a particularly difficult business
partner. I try to figure out some way to make the lunch enjoyable if not flat-out
fun. Usually, that involves changing my attitude about it. For example:

Deciding what I want to get out of the meeting, but remembering not to
care so much if I dont.
Reminding myself that my lifetime job isnt to improve all the difficult
people I run into. Telling myself, If I can get this one guy to cooperate with
one reasonable goal of mine, thats enough.
And to make sure I have fun during the lunch, I promise myself that if he
starts to irritate me, Ill visualize some of his more peculiar crotchets and
imagine myself laughing out loud at them. (Trust me. A few minutes of
visualization really helps.)

You will probably come up with your own ways to have fun when you have to
deal with a difficult person (or situation). But by starting with the question How
can I make this fun? you can usually come up with an answer.
For more help in enjoying life, no matter what it throws at you, check out ETRs
Personal Mastery Program. The creator of the program, Dr. Srikumar Rao,
teaches practical techniques for fundamentally changing the way you react to
setbacks and overcome obstacles. Lose your job your kid flunks out of
school your car breaks down in the middle rush hour Dr. Rao can help you
not only survive the crisis but master it and move on.
Find out more about the program here.

Tracking Your Success: Why You Should Keep

a Daily Journal
"People with goals succeed because they know where they are going.
It's as simple as that." Earl Nightingale

It may seem a self-centered pastime, but keeping a journal is actually an

excellent career-building tool. It can help you figure out new directions for your
life and then guide you as you go.
It can also be a very satisfying hobby. Ive been keeping journals for more than
30 years now, and the pleasure of writing them has only increased over the
years.
In my earlier years, I kept journals sporadically, usually when traveling or
involved in some interesting project. I kept a journal for two years when I lived in
Africa teaching English and philosophy at the University of Chad. I kept a journal
twice during summer vacations once in the French countryside and another
time in Rome.
But when I started writing ETR about 10 years ago, I began journaling every day.
I have done so pretty much nonstop since then.
I used to write my journals in a leather book with a fountain pen. I liked the feel of
writing out my words. And I enjoyed the way the sentences looked on paper. I
also drew illustrations cartoons, caricatures, and scenes. And sometimes I
pasted parts of letters or newspaper clippings or ticket receipts on the pages to
remind me of important experiences.
Since my thumbs became arthritic, I cant write longhand anymore, so I use a
computer instead. The result is not as aesthetically pleasing as the old leather
journals, but I find that I write much more these days and I dont have to worry
about losing the record of my life in some flood.
Over the years, my journals have evolved from the random observations of my
first travelogs to a more formal but more comprehensive format today.
At the top of each journal entry, I keep my monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
These I update daily, changing the color of the tasks from red to black as I
complete them.

My most important tasks are highlighted in yellow. I make an effort to complete

them first and when I dont, I work late until they are done. The less important
tasks can be pushed to the next day or even the next week if necessary. Ive
found this simple system has greatly increased my productivity.
Beneath my goals, I include certain daily tasks that I consider critical to my
personal development. I write a poem. I learn a new word. And I record a useful
or interesting (to me) thought.
Ive been writing poems on a daily basis for almost three years now. If I keep this
up, Ill have written more poems than Emily Dickinson by the time Im 65.
Learning a new word every day is simply fun. I make an effort to select only
words I might possibly use. Esoteric words have only passing interest for me. I
believe that a good vocabulary is a personal asset. It helps you communicate
ideas with precision. It conveys experience and conviction. It gives you power. It
helps you succeed.
Its not easy to come up with a useful or interesting new thought every day, but it
has become much easier since I started doing it. I collect thoughts on business,
on relationships, and even philosophical musings. These have been very helpful
in developing essay and book ideas. And they make me a better
conversationalist.
I transfer all my new words, thoughts, and poetry to separate journals. I edit them
once a month and use them, as I said, for books and articles, as well as business
memos.
Eighty percent of the good ideas we come up with are lost because we simply
forget them. Entering them into a journal and then editing them once a month
assures that most of them are remembered and profited from.
The next entry in my journal is a short diary of what has happened that day. I try
to keep this short and sweet. Ive found, from doing this so long, that most of my
daily activities are not as interesting in retrospect as they are the day I
experience them. The diary, I imagine, will be a source of pleasure one day when
I am old or invalid. Ill reread all the days of my life.
Next, I edit something that I wrote the day before. Often, its a poem or short
story. But sometimes its an essay for ETR. This requires a bit more mental
acuity. After a half-hour of editing, I can feel the creative engine kicking into third
gear.
Then I start my real writing. Fiction or non-fiction, this is the most important part
of my writing day.

My journal is also the place where I track my health information my weight, my

blood-sugar levels, my doctors appointments and results as well as the
progress Ive made on other goals in business and my personal life.
To me, your journal should be like your house. It should be filled with interesting
things that reflect the person you are. I hate houses that are designed by
professional decorators. You walk through them and they all look the same. You
know the people who own them, but you can find no evidence of their
personalities where they live.
Keeping a journal can help you change your life. It can help you do better work,
achieve your goals, communicate with friends and family, and get your working
day moving. And its a terrific way to leave behind a record of who you were and
what you were doing during your voyage through life.
If you are keeping a journal or thinking about starting one, here are three ways to
make that journal work for you.
3 Powerful Ways to Benefit From Your Journal
1. Keep track of your goals.
If you keep track of your goals like I do, you will find that it is much easier to
complete them. Every morning, all the tasks you want to do but havent done yet
are staring you in the face. They are shouting at you Hey, lazy one lets get
to work!
At the end of each day, note which tasks youve completed and which youve
failed to complete. If you are failing to complete highlighted (important) tasks, put
aside everything else the next day until you have taken care of those.
2. Stay creative and keep your writing fresh.
Writing in your journal every morning gets and keeps your creative juices flowing.
You can record ideas for new products or services draft memos to your team
or letters to colleagues jot down outlines for books you want to write even
practice your copywriting.
If you are a marketer, be sure to write marketing copy every day. Copywriter
John Forde recommends writing three pages of sales copy a day. He says it will
keep your imagination in top form. I believe hes right.

3. Remember things youve learned, books youve read, and observations

youve made.
Whether you segregate your thoughts as I do, or simply highlight them in your
diary, its helpful to keep a record of them and then refer to them later.
I also record interesting facts and figures from my reading. (I make it a point to
locate at least one useful fact or idea in every newspaper or magazine or
business book that I read.) And I use my journal to list recommendations that I
read or hear about: a new wine to try, a new book, a new CD from a favorite
singer, a new restaurant, an exotic destination that I want to travel to.
Its amazing how much good stuff you can accumulate once you get into the
habit of putting things that interest you into your journal and highlighting them for
future use.
So those are three important benefits of keeping a journal but there are many
more. A journal can also be a place to:

Record snippets of conversations that you can use later when writing your
next (or first) novel or screenplay.

List reasons why you deserve a big salary increase (or reasons why you
shouldnt be let go during your companys upcoming layoffs).

Identify all your assets and their locations, so your spouse or children can
get to them in an emergency.

Index your favorite recipes, quotations, images, etc.

Record the good deeds youve done and the blessings youve received.

Keeping a journal takes about 5 to 30 minutes a day well worth it when you
consider the payoff: It will help you make better plans and accomplish more with
your time.
And when you get much older, a journal can give you an unexpected bonus:
hours and hours of fun, reminiscing about your rich, rewarding, productive life.
(To help you see exactly what Im talking about, Ive included some recent
journal entries here.)
Bob Cox, the creator of our Epiphany Alliance program, knows the value of
keeping a journal. He has kept one his whole career. And thats why all his
students keep one a special journal specifically for goal setting.

At a glance, you can tell whether you are on track (completing the intermediate
goals on the way to your big life goals) or falling behind.
But thats just one small part of Bobs program. Through weekly letters and
regular teleconferences and even personal coaching from Bob you get a
complete guide to living your life on your terms. Accomplish anything you want.
Follow your most cherished dreams and live them. By using the success
techniques that Bob talks about in his program, youll learn:

How to completely reinvent your life so you can become the kind of
successful, on-top-of-things person you always wanted to be

The 12 steps to adding more time to your day and getting each day off to
the freshest, most productive start

How to remain completely stress-free no matter how busy you get

At least 3 ways of creating an ever-growing second income while keeping

your day job

The insidious character flaw that could double the time it takes you to
succeed (and how to get rid of it)

How to make consistent, daily progress toward your most-neglected

goals

And thats just small sampling.

If you asked him, Bob would tell you that all his techniques and strategies can be
traced back to one thing: time management. We all have the same amount of
time each day to make things happen. But Bob has written a letter explaining
how to accomplish more in 24 hours than most people do all week. You can
read it here.

Free Wealth Building Tips and Strategies

from Real Experts

In my book The Wealth Secrets of a Self-Made Multimillionaire, I make it crystal

clear that: I Dont Want You to Just Dream Your Dream I Want to Help
You Make It Happen.
You have a dream. Maybe its to become mayor of your town. Maybe its
to make a living as an artist. Or to make a million dollars.
You think about your dream at work. You talk about it with friends. You
dream your dream when youre sleeping. But it never happens.
Your 20s turn into your 30s. Your 30s soon become your 40s. Your 40s
quickly run into your 50s and, before you know it, your dream is gone.
You have lived a life someone else has figured out for you, not your
dream, and you wonder, Where did I go wrong?
Nine times out of 10, dreamers fail not because they dont have a goal
but because they need something to get them going. Thats what I hope I have
just done for you gotten you excited and optimistic and ready to do the
important work that needs to be done to achieve your wealth-building dream.
Take the first step, today, by identifying your No. 1 Goal. Write it down.
And make a commitment a promise to yourself that you are going
to turn that dream into a plan of action. Develop your own WealthBuilders mindset.
At Early To Rise we can put you on the road toward serious wealth building.
Well show you breakthrough wealth-creation tips like how to get out of debt,
take control of your finances, develop financially valuable skills, and dramatically
increase your wealth.
We can show you how to turn your life around in 24 hours and steadily get richer
by increasing the income you already have by adding a second, active
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markets and by living like a billionaire without spending like one.

You cant control the economy. You cant always predict the markets. You cant
ultimately protect yourself from disaster. But you can start today using wealth
creation strategies and make yourself richer tomorrow than you are today.
Theres always something you can do that moves you closer to your wealth
building goals. Work an extra hour. Sell an extra widget. Start a partnership.
Cook up a moneymaking idea. Now is the best time ever to build wealth.
Why?
Because now is always the best time to do anything important but especially
something that increases over time. Well give you plenty of ideas for wealth
building when you read ETR every day. You can do that, and you can do it right
now, cant you?
Now is always the best time to start something good.
Good things take time, and time is the one thing that is definitely limited. The
sooner you begin, the faster youll get there.
Again, if you havent already, click here and grab a free subscription to Early to
Rise!
Im a big believer in the proverb Where theres a will there is a way.
Thats why I am really excited about your prospects for success. So along with
the rest of the ETR team we look forward to hearing from you.

Michael Masterson