How Not to Get Burned by an MLM Company’s Product

How Not to Get Burned by an MLM Company’s Product

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Have you understood your contract with your MLM company?

Have you understood your contract with your MLM company?

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Are you a genius?…

I recently read a book titled ‘Tiger Traits’ by Nate Booth. Booth describes how the same 9 principles of success that Tiger Woods developed over his career, that have driven him to the highest levels in his profession, can also be applied in business and life.

There is no doubt that Tiger Woods is naturally gifted golfer. He was born with this ability. But he would never have reached the level of genius in golf had it not been for his and his family’s careful nurturing of this natural ability. The ability was the seed. Consistent watering and enrichment ensured the seed germinated into a prosperous, healthy, strong tree.

The extraordinary ability Tiger Woods has developed as allowed him to become the highest paid sportsperson in history and sports’ first ever billionaire. Tiger has used his immense wealth for the betterment of the community. The Tiger Woods Foundation established in 1996 helps millions of children from around the world reach their full potential, just like Tiger has.

Every single person on this planet has a unique set of gifts and talents they can put to great use. Everybody benefits when you can use your talents to their full potential. Even those who have seemingly little, have a lot to give. The level of genius can be reached by anybody through determination and dedication.

The key is to identify your unique set of talents.

In the early 1980s, Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University, formulated a list different types of intelligence in his book ‘Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences’. They are…

• Linguistic intelligence. This is the ability to use language to express oneself, and the ability to use language to learn new things and accomplish one’s goals. Simply, it is the ability to read and write and to communicate to others through reading and writing. Teachers, writers, poets, speakers and journalists have this as a native intelligence.
• Logical-mathematical intelligence. This is the ability to analyse and solve problems logically and scientifically. People with this intelligence have an innate ability to detect patterns and reason deductively. Mathematicians, scientists, engineers and accountants are gifted with this intelligence.
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. People who are gifted with this intelligence learn best and solve problems through muscular movement or doing something physically. They are generally good that sports or dance and may enjoy acting. People who are skilled at manual arts, making and fixing things also possess this natural ability. Athletes, dancers, actors, surgeons, builders and soldiers are highly developed in this intelligence.
• Visual-Spacial intelligence. This is the ability to visualise and mentally manipulate objects and surroundings. It’s the ability to form mental pictures. People with this intelligence have very good visual memories, a good sense of direction and good hand-eye coordination. Painting, architecture, design and engineering are careers that would suit this intelligence.
• Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. Having this skill allows one to work effectively with others. People with this intelligence are very good communicators and have a natural ability to connect and empathise with others. People skilled in this area are often in positions of leadership. Salespeople, politicians, teachers, executives and social workers all possess this intelligence.
• Intrapersonal intelligence is the ability to understand oneself, one’s own feelings, fears and motivations. This intelligence can also be called Emotional Intelligence. Out of this list, it is possibly the most important intelligence because how a person controls his or her own life is a reflection of how emotionally intelligent he or she is. People who have this intelligence have an affinity for thought based pursuits such as philosophy. They also good at taking calculated risks. Philosophers, pscychologists, theologians, scientists and writers are examples of people who have a good degree of intrapersonal intelligence.

The problem with traditional schooling (from my experience anyway) is that it caters mostly to those who are linguistically intelligent and logical-mathematically intelligent. It’s not the subjects themselves, but the mode of teaching that makes learning difficult for those who possess the other forms of intelligence.

Most people would have found sitting in rows, being lectured to incredibly boring. And because traditional school fails to cater to the learning modalities of those who learn differently, many students never achieved the grades they were capable of achieving and deserved. The biggest fallacy here, of not having the best academic performance, is that many graduates think they could never be successful as those who did do well academically. Another case of learned helplessness.

Now, ask yourself, which are your natural forms of intelligence? What, in your life so far, as been the easiest to learn and easiest to do? Answering this question can give you a great clue in whereyour genius lies. And if your nurture that genius like Tiger Woods…?

 

What are your two biggest expenses in life?…

I’ve been a bit obnoxious in this post so be warned…

Your two biggest expenses in life are not what you think. Your biggest expenses are not (and in no particular order) your wife, husband, girl friend, boy friend, rent, alcohol, cars, kids, education and so on, although they often are significant costs. Your two biggest expenses in life, in fact are taxes and interest on loans.

Yeah! Isn’t that the most exciting thing you’ve heard all day? Don’t you just rip out of bed every morning and say with enthusiasm: “I just love paying taxes and interest!”? Isn’t that what you’ve always dreamed of?

This system has got you pretty good hasn’t it? It’s got you hooked. You need it. It pays you just enough not to have you homeless on the streets, but not enough so you keep coming back every Monday morning. It’s brilliant. You don’t know why, but you know your life depends on it.

So you’re going to work, going to work, going to work, going to work, going to work…only to have 60 – 70% of what you earn go straight down the drain into income tax and interest on that home you’re going to be paying for, for the next 30 years.

What are you going to do with the remaining 30%? Throw a big party? Go on that dream holiday? Buy some great stocks? Fund your retirement? I don’t think so…you’re barely surviving month-to-month, paycheck-to-paycheck. I guess that’s why they’ve termed the word J.O.B. as “Just Over Broke”. Quite a dream lifestyle, huh? And when a recession hits and you get the cut, then what do you do? Cry your heart out, give your house back to the bank and start over…

If you think you can pay off that house in just 7 years…good. But if you’re like most urban professionals you’ll be upgrading to a flashier one in that time, and another, and then another, so you can expect to be in debt for the rest of your working lives. Forty years man…going to work, going to work, going to work…never to have the time and the money to do what you really want. What a life!

When you finally get to retire at the age of 65, what level of income can you expect from all that “survival money” that you’ve worked so hard to save over the past 40 years? Statistics consistently show in Australia, for every 100 people at the age of 65 (dead and alive), 25 have already passed on, 20 have annual incomes below the poverty level, 51 have annual incomes below $35,000, only 4 people have an income level above this amount. Are you excited? Some people don’t even have the luxury of retiring anymore…

But, 1 person out of the 4 that have an income above $35,000 is very rich. A millionaire. How did he or she manage that? Did he the lottery? Maybe, but stats have also shown that windfalls have no effect on a person’s wealth in the long term. I bet you it was because he was financially savvy. Which means, he learned how to develop or acquire assets, unlike his counterparts who became very good at acquiring liabilities. He learned to play the game, while all the others were just pawns in the game. And the game rewarded him well.

He build and bought assets in the form of businesses, stocks and real estate that eventually paid him an ongoing income, whether he liked it or not. I bet you he did like it. Moreover, he protected those assets with legal entities, such as corporations and trusts, which resulted in him paying far less tax than the pawns. Very clever indeed.

It pays to spend a bit of time and money getting financially educated, doesn’t it?

 

An important lesson from Rich Dad…

Recently, I, along with many other co-workers were made redundant when the engineering firm I worked for swiftly moved to downsize itself in this Global Financial Crisis. Thus ending a very brief career as a mechanical engineer, pushing me into full-time entrepreneurship.

I welcomed the transition, even though it came unexpectedly. I was prepared for it. It was time for me to move on and I’m thankful my short career in corporate Australia made be realize what I did and didn’t want for my life. All of a sudden, I had a exciting project to get on with!

Some others were not so fortunate. Those who had a mortgage and a family to feed were devastated and scrambled to find employment right away.

In the ensuing days, I re-read the book that started me on this journey to financial freedom, the famed ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki. It is probably the best known personal finance book of all time. It has inspired millions of people, many of whom have gone on to become multi-millionaires. This book was first published 1996, but its content is more relevant than ever today.

Now, why were some of my co-workers so terrified when they lost their job? Because they’ve suddenly lost their main source of income. The job was probably their only source of income. Income that would feed the mortgage, the credit cards, the car loans and the family.

My co-workers belong to the quintessential middle class who’ve been told all their lives to go to university, graduate with good grades and find a ‘safe and secure’ job with great benefits at a blue-chip corporation. They were also told possibly the biggest lie of all – that their greatest investment would be their own home.

Now the mortgage, credit cards and car loans were eating them alive. They could lose everything if they don’t find another source of income. And the only way they know how to make money is to find another ‘safe and secure’ job.

How can this be? These people are engineers and scientists. They deal with numbers every single day. It’s their job to make sure the numbers add up. It’s their job to account for the worst case scenarios in the design of buildings, chemical plants, roads, power plants and machinery. Yet they couldn’t anticipate their own worst financial scenario. The answer is, they do not have strong financial education.

Their lack of financial literacy meant they didn’t understand the difference between an asset and a liability, one of the key lessons from Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So many people have purchased a home thinking they acquired an asset. Actually they did – not for themselves, but for the bank. And they’ll work for their homes for the rest of their working lives, never getting financially ahead.

Because of financial ignorance, most people will never fulfill their dreams and aspirations. Their two biggest expenses in life will be taxes and interest on loans. They’ll live in constant fear of losing their jobs. They’ll hurry off to work every Monday morning, not knowing why, but knowing they have to, even if they don’t want to.

If you’re like me, you didn’t get a good financial education from school. You probably didn’t get a good financial education from your parents or friends either. You won’t get a good financial education from the halls of academia. You will only get a good financial education by applying the knowledge gained from reading books on personal finance, investing, accounting and business or from attending seminars.

One of these seminars is Rich Dad Poor Dad Live in 2009 in Sydney and Auckland, where Robert Kiyosaki and his wife Kim, will share the strategies they used that allowed them to retire young and retire rich. If you want to take control of your financial future, I would strongly recommend that you attend this seminar. For more information, click on the banner below.

 

Education and the Global Financial Crisis

I was watching Insight on SBS about two weeks ago. The topic of the show was titled “Keeping your job”, which of course, is a major issue of concern right now. The guests on the show included several workers that had lost, or were close to losing their jobs, directors of small to medium businesses that been massively affected by the economic crises, a polititian, people in the recruitment industry, banking industry and superannuation industry.

Now, the businesses that had been hit the hardest had to cut down on executive salaries and staff numbers, but even worse, were not able to pay out staff entitlements (i.e. annual leave, sick leave, RDOs etc.) for those who had been retrenched, because cash flow had been so adversely affected.

Naturally, the workers who had also been adversely affected were unhappy that they did not receive their entitlements or had to use their entitlements to stay employed. In fact, some of them were quite distressed at the prospect of not being able to find another job.

There was a woman who previously worked for a gearbox manufacturer, who had lost $65,000 worth of entitlements. She said that she would retrain herself for another industry if it wasn’t for this situation. There was another guy who was earning $120,000 per year in a small IT company who was made redundant in November of last year. He had a redundancy package that lasted until Christmas. With a mortgage and a family of 4 and him being the significant income earner, he stated that he was now seeking counseling for anxiety and depression.

I felt sad for the plight of these workers. It was then I remembered some of the lessons I had learned from the book titled ‘Why We Want You to be Rich’ co-authored by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. This book was published in 2007, which seems like a distant memory in relation to what’s happening in the world today.

In the book, Trump and Kiyosaki expressed their concerns that America is in trouble, that it is becoming a two-class society. The Rich, and the Poor. They were concerned that the poor and middle class had lost their representation in Government. The laws were made to favour the rich. The social and economic stability of the world’s most powerful nation is threatened.

They stated one of the root causes of this shift and the demise of the Middle class was the lack of financial education. Robert Kiyosaki has been one of the most profoundly positive influences in my life and the lives of millions of others. He has written about the inadequacies of the traditional education system in many of his books. I agree with what he says. In hindsight, I, and many others, left school and University armed with a set of skills that would be of little use in the real world.

Most people leave the sanctuaries of education knowing only how to work for money, with very little knowledge of financial literacy. We are conditionally programmed to look for safe and secure job. Can you see what’s wrong with that, in light of the current situation? For a start, there is no such thing as a “safe and secure” job…

Now, those workers who were featured on Insight regrettably have little idea of what to do next, other than to seek help from the Government or to retrain themselves to look for another “safe and secure” job. I’m afraid that we have created an “Entitlement Mentality”. We have come to expect that the Government will be there when we lose our jobs, when we get to old to work and to bail us out of our own health and money problems. It’s only fair right? No, life’s not fair.

Life rewards those who take responsibility for their own circumstances. In all of Rich Dad’s books written by Robert Kiyosaki, he talks about how his real father, his Poor Dad, was a highly educated man, who worked very hard all of his life but had little assets to pass onto his children. He would have been destitute if it wasn’t for his Government pension. Yet his Rich Dad, his mentor, who was raised in a poor family and left school at the age of 13, became one of the richest men in Hawaii and left a great legacy.

If you do not want to face a similar plight as those workers featured on SBS, then educate yourself for the real world. Read good books. Read all the books you can on personal development, successful people, finance, leadership, business and communication.

Finally, speaking of Rich Dad, Robert Kiyosaki is coming back to Australia for the first time in 5 years! Rich Dad Poor Dad Live in 2009 will be a one-off, 3 day event held in Sydney and Auckland during the months of May and June. Click on the banner below for more information.

 

Seeing is Believing?

Belief or faith in your own abilities is the gateway to achieving anything that you truly desire. But developing belief in yourself is possibly the most difficult thing that you can undertake.

Who you are today is the sum total of everything that has happened to you and around you in your life. Your experiences, the activities you undertake, the friends and coworkers that you associate with, what you read or watch on television etc. directly influence your thinking and the result is the person you are today.

Just as old habits die hard, old beliefs also die hard. In fact, beliefs and habits are very closely related to each other. Over your life time, certain influences may have created “self-limiting beliefs” that are now buried deep in your subconscious mind, where everything is manifested. Limiting beliefs are major obstacles to success. They are the worst of all beliefs to have. They can be self imposed or externally imposed.

For example, if you failed numerous Chemistry exams at school and then conceded you would never be good at Chemistry, this is a self imposed limiting belief. If a friend convinced you that an idea you had would never work, that is an externally imposed limiting belief.

Sadly, these erroneous beliefs never have any solid basis. They are rarely based on facts. There is actually a mental law called the Law of Belief. This law states, whatever you believe with feeling and conviction becomes your reality, which brings me to the phrase: “Seeing is believing.”

We live in a world where people must be able to see it, feel it, taste it, hear it in order to believe in whatever it is. And if they don’t sense it, they don’t believe it. Logic would dictate that. Science often demands it. But the paradox, dilemma, whatever you like to call it, is that the opposite is true.

Your world is not what you see, but what you believe. Your career, the amount of money you have, the house you live in, and all other current situations in your life are a direct reflection of your inner beliefs. You are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.

And hence to change your reality, you must begin replacing self limiting beliefs with new beliefs in your abilities to achieve the level of success you desire. Here’s a quote from Henry Ford that says it all…

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.”

 

The only thing that can guarantee your success…

…And that thing is called BELIEF.

I don’t associate myself with any religion, but you can witness the power of belief at churches every Sunday morning. It moves people, this absolute faith in the miracles that one man performed 2000 years ago.

Belief can cure diseases. This is some times called “The Placebo Effect.” Studies have found in cases where doctors have prescibed a placebo (a tablet of no medicinal value), 30% of patients were relieved of their symptoms simply because they believed they were given the right medicine.

Therefore, belief does not even have to be based on true information.

The power of belief is truly extraordinary. History has demonstrated this over and over again. Take the example of Thomas Edision, who failed several thousand times before he perfected his electric light bulb. Or Henry Ford, whose engineers told him it was impossible to mass produce his complex V8 motor, yet persisted until it became reality.

If a little bit of belief can cure a disease, imagine what ordinary people could accomplish if they just believed in themselves.

Instead, the lack of belief in one’s own abilities seems pandemic across the human population. They reject the notion that they could be a better person, a genius in their chosen area, have a better relationship, or turn their dreams into reality.

Why?

Because their let the everyday comings and goings of their lives dictate their beliefs. They take the advice of friends who gave them 100 reasons why it can’t be done. They listened to the parent who told they wouldn’t amount to anything. They let the fact that they’re missing an arm or a leg limit their pursuits. They let their circumstances govern their emotions, and many other forms of “conditioning for mediocrity.”

Knowing what you want and setting goals is the starting point of success. But if you don’t believe that you can achieve them, you never will, no matter what you do. Your beliefs must be inline with your goals.

Belief can be developed. Here’s my 6-step formula for developing my own belief system…

1. Know what it is you want.
2. Read books or listen to audio programs on or written by influential people.
3. Think big. Dream big dreams and set big goals. Do not be afraid to set seemingly unrealistic goals. Only big dreams will inspire you to pursue what you really want.
4. Repeat the act of goal setting every single day.
5. Set a definite plan of action towards the attainment of those goals.
6. Never give up.

When you truly believe in something you know in your heart is right, nothing can stand in your way!

 

The Power of written Goals: Define your future in just minutes.

I went to the Borders today and picked up another book by one of my most positive influences to date, Brian Tracy. The book was entitled Goals!, which incidentally is what this post is about.

Last week I talked about reigniting those distant dreams and finding what it is you really want. It turns out the only way to turn these dreams into reality is to have goals. Otherwise, they remain dreams that just make you feel good when you think about them.

The action of setting goals is probably one of the simplest things in the world. All that’s required is a pad of paper, a pen or a pencil, and you. Having clearly defined written goals is extremely powerful and effective. It’s easy, yet only a small percentage of people do it.

Here’s an excerpt from the early chapters of the book Goals!…

Mark McCormack in his book What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School tells of a Harvard study conducted between 1979 and 1989. In 1979, the graduates of the MBA program at Harvard were asked, “Have you  set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” It turned out that only 3 percent of the graduates had written goals and plans. Thirteen percent had goals, but they were not writing. Fully 84 percent had no specific goals at all, aside from getting out of school and enjoying the summer.

Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers interviewed the members of that class again. They found that the 13 percent who had goals that were not in writing were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent of the students who had no goals at all. But most surprisingly, they found that the 3 percent of graduates who had clear, written goals when they left Harvard were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent of graduates all together. The only difference between the groups was the clarity of the goals they had for themselves when they graduated.

Wow!…that’s the power of clearly defined, written goals! Anybody can do it, yet over 90 percent of people don’t! Why?

It could be any of these reasons: They don’t know how to do it, they don’t know what they want, they don’t think it’s important, they fear failure, or they fear rejection from their peers. These are typical reasons that rob people of success!

So before I’m out, let’s go over the 4 most important aspects of goal setting…

1. Goals must be specific. It’s not enough to say: “I want to lose some weight.” or “I want more money.”
2. Goals must be in the present tense, as if you’ve already achieved what it is you want. E.g. write: “I easily earn $10,000/month from my job”.
3. Goals must have a specific deadline. E.g. write “By March 15, 2010, I earn $10,000/month from my job”.
4. Goals must be re-written and said aloud repeatedly every single day until they materialise. This is a form of affirmation imprinting, which sends the message deep into the subconscious mind, where your goals will manifest.

Just try it. From personal experience, I can tell you I’ve achieved more in the past few months than ever before simply because I’ve written my goals on paper and I re-write them daily.

 

How to find what it is you really want…

Last week, I emphasized that success comes from the achievement of what it is you really want in life. You could call this your heart’s desire. The thing that you were born to do.

Most people will say they don’t know what it is they want. I think this is because most people are unfocused. And this is not particularly anybody’s fault. We undergo a barrage of influences, positive and negative, every single day.

But deep down, you do know what it is you want.

For most, this internal burning desire has been smothered by fear, their own negative thoughts, negative words from other people, including those who they are close to and who care.

Young children always inspire me with the magnitude of their dreams. You often hear them say: “I want to be an astronaut” or “I’m going to be the Prime Minister of Australia” or “I’m going to be a famous cricketer” or “One day, I’ll be a rock star!”

Yet as they grow older and progress through life, these dreams slowly diminish through constant discouragement, such as poor grades at school, a lack of money, hanging out with the wrong people and many other things which I call “dream stealers”.

By the time young men and women graduate from school, these dreams are gone. The tragedy is many will look back and laugh at themselves for being naive and thinking they could achieve such feats.

So how do you fan the flames of that inner burning desire?

Think big. Here’s something you can do right now. Write down anything and everything you would like to be, have and do in the next 5 years. Everything…whether it’s material possessions, your health, improving your relationship, moving up in your career, whatever. It doesn’t matter if the thing you write seems unrealistic. If you want it, write it down.

Then, go through that list and highlight the one thing that would be most important for you to achieve over the next 5 years. Ask: Why is this thing important? Who will I be when I achieve it? What will I have?

Then ask: What will I have to do to achieve it?

I’ve discovered a peculiar thing recently. And that is, when you begin asking the right questions, the right answers appear in a very short period of time from the most unexpected places.