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"Having amassed one of this world's greatest fortunes, I can speak with reasonable authority when I say that all acquisitions and material prosperity shrink to insignificance when compared to the joy which can come only from time freedom. I believe that the day anyone accepts responsibility for his or her own life, the day one gives up making excuses, is the beginning of freedom and the result of joy which just naturally follows. In the world where ninety-five percent of all people are busy creating excuses for their own mediocrity, any person willing to accept responsibility for his or her own life immediately removes himself of herself from all competition. Only five percent of all the people ultimately achieve the joy of personal freedom through excellence. The only competition exists among the ninety-five percent who consistently strive to justify their own inadequacies." J. Paul Getty Introduction Everyone has their own idea of what success means to them. The reason I have authored this web site is to share my ideas with you and maybe you will share your ideas with me. Throughout this site there are links to some of my favorite web sites for you to explore. There are also book and tape recommendations with links to online book sellers. If you buy books through my site I will get a small commission through the sellers associate programs, at no additional cost to you,. Commissions from your purchases help cover the web hosting fee for this free site, and I am grateful for your patronage.. This site is at best an outline of success and financial principals that have guided me in my life and investment career, and hopefully will create in you a desire to learn more on your own. Success is satisfaction from work, being loved by the people you love, having money left over after paying the bills. Success is enjoying life and the freedom that comes from inner peace. Most of this site will deal with financial success as this is the most easily type of success to quantify. Healthy finances can remove many of life's stresses. Most problems if you look deep enough have a financial root. This has been known for thousands of years, as a matter of fact the new testament of The Bible contains more references to money than it does to heaven and hell combined! Many of the same tools we use to create our financial success can be used in many areas of our life. Abraham Maslow developed the concept of a hierarchy of needs that we can use to develop a framework for personal and investment growth. Maslow identified five need states that must be satisfied in order from first to last, each accomplished before moving on to the next. The need states he identified are:
As investors our need hierarchy would look something like:
The exercise below is designed to give you an indication of the distance between your life style today and your desired lifestyle. Highlight and print the following work sheet. Then rate the amount of time, effort or comfort level with each activity. Rate each activity 1 through 10, one being the lowest ten being the highest. Remember this is a measure of time, energy or expertise. An example in the marriage column if you are not married but you are spending a lot of time and expending physical and mental effort trying to change your status give it a ten. If you are single and have no desire to become married rate it as a one or a zero. Then repeat the exercise in the third column by rating how you want to spend your time and energy. In the third column subtract the third column from the second column to give yourself an indication of the variance between where you are expending your current energies and where you would like to spend your energies. Pay particular attention to the larger variances plus or minus.
How did you do? How much does your life vary from your desires. In other words what are you doing with your life vs. what you want to be doing with your life. We cannot control time bur we can control our use of time, and we can have much more control over our lives than we usually give our selves credit for. Menus for Success is presented to you as an overview and exploration of the elements and stepping stones to improve your lifestyle and finances. With the goal of identifying the lifestyle you want, identifying where it differs from what you have and closing the gap between the two. If you want change in your life you must do something different. You cannot expect different results to come from the same behavior. This site will help you explore possible alternatives. There are no real secrets to success, but much of what we have been told about wealth and success is wrong. Chances are that our parents and teachers have passed on to us common-knowledge notions about success. Many of these notions are wrong. Lets look at some common misconceptions. Take for example the notion that hard work leads to success. How many hard working general laborers, tradesmen, or auto mechanics, do you know who enjoy an abundant finances and are looking forward to a comfortable early retirement Education will be rewarded. Yes and no. A good education can prepare you for a good job or for your profession, but remember, schools do not teach you how to save, invest, shelter your income from taxes, how to retire well or how protect and leave your estate to the people and institutions that you choose. I know several successful professionals who enjoy a high income and enjoy a high life style, but who have a low net worth. Often their home, clothing and a few stocks and little else who are looking forward to an uncertain retirement. Without investments, money making money, one must keep working, man earning money.. I also know several hourly workers, clerks, administrators who earn a marginal income, live a simple life style, but who have saved their way into early retirement and a comfortable lifestyle. Most of us must start from the position of working for money, but it can be your goal to evolve through savings, investments, and business ownership to money making money. We should never confuse earning a living with making money, did anyone learn that in school, I must have missed that lecture. I believe that the quality of our lives come from the decisions we have made in the past, and that the quality of our lives in the future will depend on the quality of the decisions we make from this day forward. Therefore I believe that by controlling our choices today we can control our lifestyle in the future. We become what we believe ourselves to be. Therefore, if we wish to change our station in life, we must learn to reprogram our thoughts. We must believe and act as if exciting opportunities will present themselves to us when we are ready to receive them. Believing in our ability to succeed makes it so.
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." Anais Nin
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