Who are you?

Several posts ago I wrote about a statement I came across by Shelly Wilson. “I am a spiritual being having a human life experience.”

It is a really really hard concept to get because it feels like I am a human being that has spiritual insights, rather than vice versa. And being human really limits what I can do. It also boggles my mind and would take the biggest leap of faith to live as if I were a spiritual being and observe my human behavior and quirks as an experience rather than reality.

However, my friends and family know that I am weird and I subscribe to all kinds of financial, self improvement, health and well being sites. Some very conventional and useful, i.e. cooking with Nagi from recipetineats.com, some controversial, many blog sites of friends and friends of friends. Some are naturopathic, some are strange.

Today, I got an email from Nick Polizzi of Sacred Science about a video series called Inner Alchemy. As a teaser, we get 3 parts for free. The 1st part was the question, “Who Am I?” It is a short 7 minute video with Nick talking about that query. The assignment is to take a few minutes and write down our own answers.

I liked the exercise. Maybe you will too. And that’s my post for today.

What is YOUR Calling?

Lani KwonAunty went to a HiMa (Hawaii Internet Marketing) meeting this week.  Aunty joined a few months ago – not sure why since Aunty is a non-techie, non geekie, non-social media type – but the folks that run it are super nice and they always have pizza and water, and interesting subject matter.

The recent meeting was about finding our life’s purpose.  What a big topic – but, what the hey, if anything, there would be pizza, right?

The guest speaker was Lani Kwon, a life coach, mother, speaker, and transformer.  After a few minutes of intro, tidbits and pleasant stories, the nitty gritty happened when we started filling out some worksheets.

The first question was, “What would you do if anything were possible?”  Sounds simple enough, but take a few minutes and ask that question of yourself.  Anything.  Nothing holding you back, the sky and beyond, no limits.  You have a free pass to life’s candy store.

We were then walked through a series of questions about what holds us back, what keeps us stuck, what we need, visualization, solutions, action planning.  The last step of the night was signing a contract with ourselves.  A very simple contract.  Commitment.

W.H. Murray wrote about commitment in “The Story of Everest”.  The moment one defiantly commits oneself, then providence moves too.  It is very powerful.

The next step

One’s life purpose(s) can seem very selfish because it is personally fulfilling.  However, there is nothing wrong with figuring out what we want and then getting it, unless it is harmful to others.

Perhaps it is time for Aunty to finish up tidying, turn off Korean dramas, put away excuses, and dive in and commit to her life purposes.

Lani Kwon has tickled the tiger (actually, Aunty is a dragon).  Awakening the dragon, hmmm.  To quote German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

Please sit down and take some time to figure out your life purpose.  Please share, if you are willing.

 

3 Magic Words

Bibidibobidiboo!Aunty just recently subscribed to Bug Free Mind’s free trial offer – 5 chapters of the program and access to their website (after registering and logging in).   Aunty also joined as an affiliate to the program – just in case this really is what it promises to be.  A review of the program will be forthcoming, but it really does seem to be mind set changing – the first change necessary for any improvement in our lives.  Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki preaches this all the time, and his Cash Flow game changes one’s mindset from stuck in the rat race to unlimited passive beautiful income.

An article in the Bug Free Mind website was entitled “3 Magic Words that Eliminate Stress Immediately!”

Hmmm.  What could those be?  “You won $1,000,000” would work for Aunty.  “Honey, I’m home!” used to work long ago in the honeymoon phase of marriage.  “Just go shopping” was an action that used to work wonders.

Well, according to the article, those 3 magic words are, “Accept what is.”   Hmmm.   Accept what is.

It almost sounds too simple, but on further reflection, they are words of wisdom and really can relieve stress.  Try it out on a situation in your life that creates stress.  Acknowledge that the problem, condition, circumstance exists, because it does.  It is what has happened, what is, and all the worrying and stressing about it does not change it.  Glare at it, swear at it, cry over it, and then accept that that is what you own.

The magic happens after that – when you can look at those stress producing piles of crap and decide on a plan of action to eliminate or deal with them.

Can’t figure out a plan of action?  Another article in the Bug Free Mind says to sleep on it.  Just before falling asleep, ask the questions for which you have no answers.  “What can I do to improve my relationships?”  “How can I pay my bills?”  Ask, out loud or silently, just before you drift into slumber.

In the morning, in those first 10 – 20 minutes of arising, the answer(s) may be there.  If not, repeat until you get the answers.

Does it work?  It doesn’t hurt to try.  Aunty will try and let you know later.  Let Aunty know how it goes for you, mahalo.

[note from Aunty:  once you register for the free trial, a rather aggressive email campaign to get you to opt into the full program will begin.  Aunty’s suggestion is that you just ignore these for now, just get the free stuff, cruise through their website before signing up for anything more.  The good thing about their aggressive email campaign (done with excellence, btw) is how your affiliate relationship with them is supported automatically.]

Rich Dads say, so Aunty listens

2013-10-04_13-03-14Aunty’s favorite Rich Dad is Robert Kiyosaki.  He had this to say about the recent US government shutdown:

“The U.S. Government, due to partisan finger pointing and squabbling, has shut down.   Neither side could reach an agreement on a spending plan for the government.  Mail will still be delivered, the military will still be active, Congress will still get paid, but there are those many other services that will stop, affecting over 800,000 Americans – who will be out of work.  Focusing on what will or won’t change with the shutdown will not matter.   Instead, learn the lesson and message that lies within this mess.

This Government shutdown should ultimately remind us that we are in charge of our own financial future and we can’t depend on any government to take care of us.   Even if the shutdown is only temporary, even when they are “open for business,” the Government will still be faced with a mess, one that they created.   Their limiting solutions are:  a) pay the national debt, b) default on the debt, or c) continue with “Quantitative Easing” by printing more money. The problem is that any of these options will eventually lead to an economic crash.

And here lies the lesson that many can’t—or won’t—see:

Looking to the Government for financial solutions is like closing your eyes in traffic and hoping you don’t get hit.  You want to make sure that you and your family are prepared regardless of what happens with our economy or our government.  Understand what the rich already know and do what they do.  It’s never too late to get started.” 

Many people have their eyes closed and have not gotten hit – yet.  I truly hope they never do.  I hope that government subsidies for the needy never ends, that retirement benefits continue to be paid, that we do not encounter an economic crash, hyper-inflation, deflation, etc.

But, what if it does happen?

Are you doing what you need to do to safeguard, grow, be independent?  Aunty may not recommend that you run out and sign up for Rich Dad classes (see Aunty’s review), but if you do take control and start to save, invest, protect, and grow your own financial picture of well being, you will be better off – even if you count on your company’s or the government’s programs for retirement.  Start learning in chunks, little pieces, whatever way you can.  Robert Kiyosaki even has his own Rich Dad blog – highly recommended, and it’s free!

Do, or don’t?

Jeff Olson & AuntyJeff Olson, in an audio recording for Nerium distributors, talks about the price of neglect.  “The price of neglect is far more painful than the price of discipline.”

Please take the time to really think about this quote and actually weigh the consequences of inaction over action.  Candy Crush Saga or taking a seminar?

I consider Jeff Olson a Rich Dad because of his leadership, success, and his heart.  His book, The Slight Edge, has 10 simple rules that anyone can incorporate in their lives, to better their lives.

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.”  Henry Ford

From time to time, I listen to words of wisdom from Bob Procter.  He also learns from “Rich Dads”, one of them being Napoleon Hill.  To quote Bob Procter:

In his best selling book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote, “You will never have a definite purpose in life; you will never have self confidence; you will never have initiative and leadership unless you first create these qualities in your imagination and see yourself in possession of them.” He went on to say that, “… imagination is the most marvelous, miraculous, inconceivably powerful force the world has ever known.”

Have you ever thought of what your perfect life would be like?  Just that thought is the start of the process and fulfillment.  Write it down, draw it, dream board it, or post it here in a comment!  Brick by brick, step by step, build that perfect life.

Think it, learn it, do it

Sounds simple?  It really is.

Thinking it is the easiest part of it.  What does your ideal life look like?  Dream big.  Dream ENORMOUS!  Dream for real – do you REALLY want to have 15 cars that you won’t drive in a huge mansion that you get lost in?  Is your dream a nice little small house near a beach park with cash flowing rental real estate and a dividend paying stock portfolio with someone else who cooks and cleans for you?  (ahem, that’s also Aunty’s dream…)

Learning it means turning off the tv or limiting Candy Crush saga and picking up a book, a course, a seminar.  Be careful how much you pay – even though coaching gurus will tell you that they are worth every cent.  The world wide web has made it possible to advance your knowledge at your speed, whenever you want, however you want it, for free or for a fee.  Learn, digest, learn, digest.

Doing it – now this is what takes focus, commitment, and not listening to those who care about you.  I don’t know if Einstein would be considered a Rich Dad, but his definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Walk a different path.  It will not be an easy one (price of discipline), but it sure beats going nowhere (price of neglect).

Mahalo Robert, Jeff, Henry, Bob, Napoleon, Albert

To all the Rich Dads that I know, and even the ones that I have yet to discover, mahalo.  If you know of any others, please share it with us in the comments section along with what a summary of what you have learned from them.  Also, please share your dreams – if not with Aunty, with somebody else.  Build your brick house just in case the straw houses crash.

Notes from Genius Tour – Meir Ezra

Genius Tour June 14, 2013 Meir Ezra

Meir Ezra WOWed all of us.  His presentation was filled with so many golden nuggets of information, splattered with exercises of both the mind and body, as well as some pretty funny dirty jokes in his rather strong and charming Israeli accent.  When he comes to town again (he LOVES Hawaii!!), please go.  [Update:  Meir will be teaching again on August 17 and 18 at the Hyatt Place.  To sign up, go to The Genius Tour and choose Hawaii.]

Here are the notes that I took from this intense 2 day seminar.  Most of them are stand alone ideas that deserve time to absorb:

What do you expect from the seminar? If you don’t know what you expect, how will you know that you arrived there? We must define what we want.

Essence of genius is simplicity. Know the definition of words.

A professional is one who thinks it is simple.

What is truth? Exact time, place, form and event. Does not contain continuation.  A Lie is the opposite time, place, form and event, and continues.

People are ethically good. We are the worst judge of ourselves, so when we do something bad, we feel bad. When we do something good, we feel good.

Must understand the mind – everything you deal with are minds.

How do you find a purpose, how do you find what your purpose is?  It is your Fuel of the soul.  What is your purpose?  Write down your purpose.  Look up the definition of purpose.

Ideas are conveyed by sentences.  Sentences are conveyed by words or symbols. If you do not understand the sentence it is because there is a word or words that you do not know in the sentence.  If you do not understand the sentences, you will not get the idea. Your IQ is defined by the number of WRONG words you know.  Increase the number of words that you do know, and you increase your IQ.

People become criminal because of the number of words that they don’t understand. A good man comes across a word or symbol that he does not understand, which causes confusion, which causes sins. Once you go past a misunderstood word without figuring out what it means, your understanding goes away. The more words you do not understand, the stupider you become. Learn definitions of words from the dictionary.

The first dictionary was written by Webster in order to empower people to understand words so they have power and cannot be cheated.

Ethics – ability of the individual to uphold the moral code.

Justice – when an individual violates the moral code, the group puts force to get the individual to be ethical.

Moral code – a set of standards, laws, or rules that we hold ourselves to, based on our own group consensus.

If you have a problem, look at all the data of the problem in order to find a solution. For a problem to be a problem, it must contain a lie.  If something becomes complex, it contains a lie. Find the lie and you will solve the problem. Simple brings the result immediately. (Task:  change IX to 6 using just one continuous line *see solution at end)

An authority is someone who knows good P.R. Look at their result, by their actions, you can judge how they are.

Insanity is not being there – being in the past when you need to be in the present.

Spirit – this thing that knows. We need to clear false data.

Love is the flow of admiration and sympathy. Love is very close to hate, flipping very fast. Love can be used to control and cage. Use love to take the person to full potential, not cage or control.

The view point that you take defines your life. If you think you can, you can. If you think you cannot, you cannot. 99% of the people do not try, are not willing to show up.

Clever = ability to recognize truth. Smallest number in the universe is 2 = force, counterforce.

Greatness is ability to continue to love man despite all invitation to do otherwise. If you can continue to love them, no sorrow or pain. Handle the spirit, not the physical.

 

 BREAK – after we came back, Meir had us do exercises – squat against wall, push ups for men

Prerequisite for success is to become unserious, charging toward your purpose and be sure of your success. Success is ability to experience motion, as well as the ability to control motion.

What is seriousness – when interest is intense because of penalty. Attention is stuck in the past. I better do that or else something will happen.  When you are serious, you get slow and stuck on what you do not want – one always gets what his attention is on.  You get what you validate.  Look at the problem from an unserious point of view.

Child rearing. If they are doing something bad, ignore it (non validation). Every child has a job that they have to do – it is an agreement that they help – more than just chores, it is their job and responsibility. Let your children make their own decisions in order to complete their jobs.

Competence is the ability to do what you do when you are doing it.

Any area where you are serious about you are also incompetent. The past influences your present behavior to such a degree that if you are not aware of it, you cannot control it. A being causes his own feeling. Smile when you feel lousy. Force yourself to be the cause. After an impact you make a decsion – a resolution to act in a certain way “I will never do that again” = no-no because you have taken away your free will.

Whenever we do something wrong, rather than find or make excuses of why we did that wrong deed, just be able to admit that we are wrong.

Serious people are not serious because of what is happening now, but because of what happened in the past. To combat, look at data in front of you, not what happened.  Evaluate with what is in front of you – look at everything as “interesting”.

When you are serious about something in your life, you fail.  Measure by statistics, not by feelings.

When you make a decision, you feel better. Crisis is a moment of decision. People never lose their ability, what you lose is your willingness. Easy to ignite the willingness by igniting your purpose.

The less decisive you are the more emotionally bankrupt you are.  Stress is the sum of all indecisions.

 

Cycle of action = Start, Change, Stop.

When you start something, you also need to have closure. Exercise = make a list of ALL the open cycles that we have in our life. Do a target list with closure date, and take one or two a day. Stress is only the sum of all your open cycles.

Unluckiness is too many open cycles of action. Close the cycles.

If you have a past time in your life that “money is bad”, and you change your thinking and decide that you want money, you must go back to the exact time, place, form and event that you formed your original idea and eliminate it – it is not your current truth. Anything that you know about, you can control it.

Example with daughter relationship: find the point in time that caused the problem. The problem is that you want to be right all the time, so people do not change because in order to change, you must be able to admit you are wrong. Learn correct data to make decisions to fix problems.

Production is basis of morale.

Knowledge, Responsibility, Control work together.

Fear – a state of imperception, almost always true that it doesn’t exist. Getting info from what is in your past, not the present.

Power is speed of particle flow.

A person becomes old when they think they can become hurt. Being careful = being serious = slow.

When you want cooperation, align their purposes with yours.

Force does not bring solution.

When you are in a painful or negative situation, you are missing tools. You are good in one area, but the other 6 areas you are not good at.

Coaching – what do you do, what do you want, what else do you want.  Quantify with result of result and time.  Define targets.

Training is key for success = getting better results with less effort. If no training = growing upset. Beginning of any upset is an incomplete cycle of action. Usually upset because not willing to communicate or look at the problem. Get the ability to look.

 

AFTER LUNCH BREAK

 

Difference between a professional and an amateur

An amateur

thinks things are complicated and unpredictable

happy with good enough

frustrated – he is the victim, bad luck, etc

operates from fear (state of imperception – what you do not see, feel, hear), and tries to win

avoids risk – does not confront. When you don’t confront, it becomes a lie, it stays

loves to be comfortable

focus on the past (insanity-stuck on the past)

being the problem – everything is a problem

they know what they know and accept that life is like that.

focuses on present time and future while he ignores the past being the solution –

A professional

knows things are simple and can predict the results and time

happy with perfection only, no plan B, only plan A

effective, he is the cause of the good AND the bad – trusting your decision

confident and knows he will win.

Manages risk – confronts.

Ignores current comfort level for future, higher comfort level (price of neglect is higher than the price of discipline)

Professionals learn and improve continuously.

 

Mind thinking

The past is always different from the future. We learn continuously to learn from our past, then we go forward knowing, and then inventing new truths.

Exercise to show the mind. Close eyes, imagine a cat, point to where the cat is, open eyes. We all pointed to out side of ourselves, not our brains.  Thus, our mind is not our brain, but it is a series of pictures, millions of pictures that we have taken over our lifetime(s).  Our brain takes 20 pictures per second.  The purpose of our mind is to keep us safe.  Sometimes, it goes coo-coo or on auto pilot and thus we do things that are not good for us out of fear or past conditioning.

Logical thinking is ability to see similar things as similar, different things asdifferent, identical things as identical.

Analytical is ability to take data and compute with it.

 

TONES (Aunty thinks this was one of the most powerful and useful knowledge of the seminar)

Did you ever try to communicate to a person and communicating to that person was like hitting your head on the wall.

The emotional tone scale – 24 tones on a scale from 0 – 4.0.  People have 2 tones: chronic and social.  The people with tones on the upper scale are more productive and those on the lower scale will try to bring you down.

IMG_0674

 

The WORSE tone is 1.1 = covert hostility (hostile but they don’t want you to know about it)  These are those people who Meir calls vampires.  They smile at you but stab you in the back.  If you have people like this in your life, get away, stay away from them, for they are the source of many of your problems, downfall.  Traits of the Covert Hostiles:

  1. speaks in generality (always, everyone),
  2. finds the wrong source of the problem, makes other people wrong
  3. cannot complete cycles of action, blaming others for incompletion
  4. doesn’t improve
  5. has friends and associates who do not succeed in life
  6. are never sick mentally – only their children or their friends are sick
  7. when act as relay, will only relay bad news
  8. no sense of ownership, will take your things

(in Meir’s Ethics and Finance class – he will teach how to recognize these vampires)

People are operate at their own certain tone will not be able to communicate with others on different tones. Must be at same tone level or close to the same tone.  If different levels of tone, lower tone people will want to take everyone down.

If a person is below antagonism (low tone), you cannot sell them.  Low tone people will find anything wrong with everything.

To “read” the tone of the person, listen to their communication delay or lag. If there is communication lag, the person is in low tone, i.e. saying “I don’t know” or “I’ll get back to you”, or not answering the question.

To sell someone, you must be in the same tone as them to reach them, and bring them up to a higher tone.

Marketing

Most business do not need branding, they need marketing that sells whatever you are selling. To sell, survey your customers find out what they want.

Example of veterinarian’s business. Found out that people are upset about fleas and ticks, so put ad “FLEAS FLEAS FLEAS TICK TICKS  We kill them all. Call 1 800 kill fleas”.  Give mystery, and they will call.

Example of Sausage business: did survey: 2 most important: size of cases & grills well. Changed size of boxes, put “grills well” on box. New box sold 68 times more sausages than the standard. Tone of people who barbeque – very high – enthusiastic – used bright colors.

Use written, verbal surveys of the marketplace. If you know the tone scale, know the survey results, know the business organization.

 

DAY 2

Showed us pictures and asked what was wrong. Many of us invented what we thought we saw. We see a part of what is front of us and we assume the whole. When we assume, we are incorrect. To be able to observe without assumption is to be able to see what is really there. When we assume, we can be cheated. Our responses are automatic, but we must get off of our automatic responses and assumptions, but must raise our observational skills and really look.

All the pictures that Meir showed had nothing that measured data, such as scoreboard, control panels.

In business, you must have measurements at every time period of every department, every personnel.

 Start – Change – Stop  A robot does the tasks assigned to it. When you tell a person what to do and they do it, they become robots.

When you communicate what it is you want to have (the Stop), and they figure out what to do, and they become the person you need.

 Start is what you are/mind

 Change is the doing/body

 Stop is the having/product

A product is an exchange, and exchange is a product. Product is a completed thing that has an exchange value within or outside the activity. It is not a product unless it has been exchanged.

 

Exchange is giving something for something else.

Exchange – four types

  1. criminal exchange – stealing. Giving, giving, giving to friends and you don’t demand anything back is a criminal exchange.
  2. Partial exchange – promise something but don’t deliver exactly what is agreed upon
  3. fair exchange – payment for what is agreed upon
  4. exchange in abundance – give more than what was agreed – they will give you something

Exchange either flows or it is stuck. You can improve exchange in any one or more of these ways:

1 .quantity

2. quality

3. give more time

4. extras

 

DRILL write a list of everyone that you are in an exchange relationship with and look at what type of exchange you have with them.

Make a table:  list of people, what condition of exchange they are in, what am I going to do.

Look over the list, and give in abundance, i.e. thank you letter, gift, acknowledgement,

 

What is the product?

Must be able to identify the product in order to be successful. The product must be defined. Only if you can define the product can you measure it. If you cannot see or define what the product is, then you cannot achieve it. When you do not succeed, it is because your ability to name/define the product is missing. You can measure only if you define what the product is..

 

A product of a teacher = student duplicating the materials taught and uses it successfully to improve their lives and the lives of others bringing about a new civilization.  A good teacher cares more about the students than cares about the money. “You are important to me” is what reaches people.  Rather than “I am interesting” people want to know that you are interested in them.  To be interested, you need to be a professional and not an amateur.

A product of a business owner = viable expanding, prosperous organization with increasing money to owner’s reserves and a very well paid staff.

A product of an army = an opponent with a more ameniable state of mind.

A product of a husband and wife is a spouse who maximizes their potential and is succeeding in their life. Should not be caging of the other person.

 

Business Structures

People typically do a business structure with the Director on the top with different departments under it such as marketing, management, sales, accounting, legal.

Meir’s structure is a very LONG big chart of columns that is on a continuum – a cylindrical chart, like a barrel.  Steve Jobs got from E. Hubbard the cylindrical chart of 7 areas and Apple took off.

Every company needs 7 areas, even if the company is just one person.  The area that is the lowest defines our overall product. Shows what they need to produce and how to measure.

Everyone pushes to same direction so the energy is output, not input = no fighting.

7 areas of the cylindrical chart:

  1. Executive
  2. Human Resource
  3. Sales
  4. Treasury
  5. Technical
  6. Qualitycontrol/correction division (corrected organization and its people) income/# of people
  7. New public

 

Success definition: Achieving the postulated (self created truth) results or more of the desirable results compared to an earlier time. You become the CAUSE of changes, not the EFFECT.

An individual who is not working in life to remedy or to make better the actual conditions which he finds around him is not liable to succeed. And if you want a good definition of success, it would just be that: a person who can look around him and see what has to be done, what has to be remedied, what’s actual, and then actually can do and does do something about it. And that person is about eighty-four light-years above normal.

How does one know if he has achieved more, less or the same of the things wanted? By using MEASUREMENTS.   Every area of our life is measurable.

Without measurement:

  1. one cannot know who won
  2. one cannot know if he failed or succeeded,
  3. one cannot know what needs to be corrected
  4. once cannot know if change is needed
  5. one does not know what is right and what is wrong
  6. you can not have management even if one measures but doesn’t inspect, one cannot manage. It is here that we have operating on opinions and rumors vs. operating on facts, or you are guessing.

The universe is divided in two:

  1. those things that can be measured and;
  2. those things that cannot be measured.

In business, only one thing cannot be measured:  that which has not been done or produced.

A person who resists measurements:  1. is too unorganized and so has no time for anything and is already non productive, or,  2. is producing nothing of value.

Why do we need to measure our success? Without measurements we will make mistakes. Balance sheets are for the government – to show how much taxes we need to pay. They are not a true picture of success. Many businesses that measure with profit and loss statements and balance sheets show profit, but the owner has nothing in their account.  Meir’s system is a different way of measurements, formulas, specific steps to give an accurate picture of how the business is doing, and how to improve production and profit.

 

STATISTICS

The purpose of statistics is to maintain accurate and continuous visual (graphed) records of the activities of the organization for the use of the executives and board of directors in planning future activities and analyzing past and current activities. To help the growth of the organization by maintaining a historical record of that growth.

Get your statistics, and you will be able to improve.

From info, put into graphs, look at the statistics.  You cannot get the true picture just looking at numbers.  You get the picture when it has been put into a visual picture, i.e., a graph line.

 

IMG_0697

Statistics behave 6 ways. Conditions are states of operation. Each condition has specific steps, formulas in order to improve.

  1. Non Existence – brand new, bankrupt (very low graph)
  2. TheDanger – moving but not in control (not organized yet)
  3. Emergency – handle it and go to normal, don’t handle, can go down
  4. Normal – exact formula
  5. Affluence (very fast up)
  6. Power (affluence goes to new normal)

Affluence is most dangerous stage because many people cannot handle it.  Most people will spend and lose their money when and if they win a million dollars.  If you win a million dollars, first economize, then you pay down every possible bill, invest in what already makes income for you, find a new way of affluence and continue.  This then becomes Power.

Beyond Non Existence is a liability, not helpful, but bad , then enemy, then treason (betrayal after trust), then confusion.

You inherit the condition that you fail to assign or deal with.  In an emergency situation, you must promote promote promote. Use what worked in the past. Change your operating basis, get the employees working. Economize, find the cause of your problem.

Other ways for a business to succeed other than the org. chart, statistics, ethics and money, finance: 1) no ethics, cheating, 2) product is amazing (like Google), 3) unbelievable founder (like Steve Jobs).

When the explanation for lack of success does not push the statistics up, the explanation is incorrect.

 

The Source of Delays

Normally, the CEO shoots orders, the VP level is shocked/bypassed, and the staff does policy strategy from direct orders from the CEO. The CEO gets non compliance, leads to emergencies, leads the manager to want to know everything, leads the manager to stop the flow of production. Happening because of lack of control of the manager who blocks production, tries to recreate by themselves.

The inability to correctly manage workloads by staff and executives is the main reason for delays. The solution is to have a tool to manage the workload.

The purpose of time management is efficiency. Efficiency is minimum effort for maximum result.

Your power is defined by how fast you are. The more efficient you become, the more powerful you will be. The more delays, the less power you have. People delay because they do not want to confront. When you introduce a delay, you always bring about a problem.

The prosperity of a business is directly proportional to the speed of the flow of its particles.

To prosper, service must be as close to instant as possible. Remove delays.

Anything that stops or delays the flow of a business or delays or puts a customer or product on WAIT is an enemy of that business.

Speed of service is of comparable magnitude to quality of service, and where exaggerated ideas of quality exist they must become secondary to speed. Quantity before Quality.

 DRILL:  Write down all the places in your business where speed is slow – it can be customer service, issuing of quote or invoice, answering the phone, replying to emails, etc.

 Your homework is: improve the speed of all the slow points.

Why are you not as efficient as you should be?  Executives and staff lacking workable management tools. People don’t like a job if it has been assigned to them and they haven’t agreed to it.  Important to make agreements that all parties accept and agree to.

 

CONFIDENCE

Money is an idea backed by confidence. If you can create confidence, you will have money.

Idea – a formulated thought or opinion

Backed – to support by material or moral assistance or assured.

Confidence – trustful; without fear or suspicion, faith that one will act in the right, proper or effective way.

How do you get confidence? Meir drew a triangle. These are the component parts of Understanding.  Life is about understanding. Only life trusts life.

1st point is Affinity – your level on the tone scale, a scale of emotion, closeness to each other.

2nd point is Reality – level of agreement (I like this, you like this too)

3rd point is Communication – having your ideas accepted.

Confidence is reality. If you create enough agreements, you will have a sale. You need 650 agreements to get a deal.

To be successful in sales, you must learn to create reality. There is exact technology on how to get reality, confidence.

 

The next time that Meir comes to Hawaii, he will be doing a 2 day workshop for us, spending one day on Businesses and the next day on Parent Academy. His son Michael is a fine example of great parenting, as Meir, very proudly, showed us his graduation ceremony/speech to his fellow schoolmates at a school in Florida, with a curriculum program that you could only pass with 100%.

It was an awesome weekend.  Time literally flew and Aunty’s brain felt like it was exploding in different directions.  Wow.  Hope you all can be there next time.

*2 solutions to make IX = 6 with one continuous line .  1.  Add a “S” = SIX, or 2. Add a numeric 6 = IX6 = 6.

 

 

Beginning “The Pledge”

IMG_0521Aunty recently joined the Wealth Builders Club (will give more details in a future post) and one of the bonuses of that program is getting Michael Masterson’s new book “The Pledge” in the mail.  I like getting a “real” book, especially if they are hardcover.  Somehow having pages to turn and paper to smell makes it of more value to me than an e-book.

I posted about Michael Masterson before – as the man with many names.  Regardless of how many identities he has had, he delivers, and delivers very very well.

Upon flipping through it to get a sense of what this book was about, a test on page 2 of the Introduction stopped me in my tracks and I knew it was something worth sharing.

The heading of the section was asking the reader how good is their life? and take this test.  The test/questions define the quality of your working life.  The questions are:

  1. What will you do?
  2. With whom?
  3. Where?

Simple questions which we already have the answers to right now.  You are already working or have a career or will embark on a career or path, you already have an employer, co-workers, clients, vendors, partners, and you already are somewhere.

Aunty then skipped to almost the last chapter to get the purpose of these questions.  You probably already know what the questions will evolve into:

  1. What would I really enjoy doing?
  2. Who would be the best person(s) to do it with?
  3. Where would I most want to do it?

This last set of questions do not only apply to your working life, but also your personal, retirement, and spiritual life.

Aunty isn’t the best of readers – finding time in the day to sit down and read is luxury time that I don’t have.  However, Jeff Olson in “The Slight Edge” prescribes reading just 10 pages of a good book per day.  Aunty can do that.  And when I am done with this excellent book, I’ll do a book report/review if it turns out to be as good as I think it will be.

 

Gavin Tsuda’s Tactics

Gavin’s 8 steps for small business leadership was in military speak.  He has used these steps in combat and still uses them today in all aspects of his life.  Planning parties, business objectives, investing – following these 8 steps is the recipe for success.  Although these seem like “duh, I know that already” because you think you know these steps, ask yourself if you actually implement them.  If you do, you are most likely to succeed.

Step 1 is Receive the Mission.  Decide what it is you want to do, what the problem is, what your objective is.  Think about the end state.  Remember METTTC – Mission, Enemy (competition), Terrain (area, geography, place), Troops (support people), Time, and Civil Considerations (customers).

Step 2 is Issue the Warning Order.  This is a pre-announcement to subordinates that something will be happening.

Step 3 is Make a Tentative Plan.  Have 3 possible plans or course of actions, apply the “what ifs” to each, choose the best one.

Step 4 is Start the Necessary Movement.  Give initial directions, start everyone on a process.  Whenever a task is given, it is very important that everyone knows the task and the purpose of the task.  That way your team understands why and can use their own initiative to achieve the result you are wanting to achieve.

Step 5 is Reconnoiter.  This is where you do research, checking things out, doing due diligence.  Whatever is discovered will either confirm or deny your initial assessment.

Step 6 is Complete the Plan.  Have all the pieces in play.  Designate the main effort – the person or team that will actually do the leading, and the others are support.  All orders start with “The purpose of the operation is…” then explain how.  State the end state – what you want to accomplish.

Step 7 is Issue the Order.  Give commands, write it out.

Step 8 is Supervise.  If any unforeseen problems occur, you need to be there.  Always have a contingency or back up plan.

After all this is done, you and your team will have charged up the hill and planted the flag in triumph.  Keep the plans and review them, reuse them if it worked.  Learn from the mistakes.

I can see why Gavin is so respected.  He carries himself with dignity and yet is humble.  If I were in his troop, I would charge when he gives the command.

Find your Focus

I have read or tried a lot of excellent techniques on time management, setting goals, achieving greatness, etc.  I start off in one direction, then get side tracked and move in another direction, and many times at the end of the day/week/month, I haven’t done much.  My problem was too much of everything.

Having too many wants, passions, concerns, goals, techniques will pull you in too many directions and your mind cannot handle the chaos of having too many things to do for too many projects.
A powerful way to “realize” the best direction to focus your energies, talents, drive, and resources is by ranking each want/goal/need on a scale of 1-10 in categories of passion, execution, and financial upside.

Being able to pinpoint where your focus should be will help you excel at one new business opportunity or income stream, rather than be mediocre at many.  This technique helps you narrow down all the choices you have and choose the direction best suited to YOU and YOUR GOALS.

Here is how it works:

Create a grid and list three or four (or all) of business opportunities, ventures, or current positions.  Keep these on the left.

Across the top list these three categories:
Passion / Execution (ease and probability of achieving)/ Financial Upside over 3 years (choose your own time frame)

Rank across each opportunity (1-10) in each category.  10 is the high number, i.e. high passion, highly achievable based on how much time and training you will need, high compensation.  Try not to use the same number ranking in any column.  Be true to yourself and rank honestly.

Complete all columns BEFORE you total the rankings in the last column.
Here’s a sample:

Opportunity                           Passion         Execution       Financial Upside       TOTAL

Real Estate Multi-Unit               6                     4                           9                               19
Real Estate single family            9                     9                           8                               26
Ebay sales                                      3                    10                          5                               18
Collectible sales                            4                     7                           4                               15
Tupperware sales                          1                     6                           3                              10
Clothing design                            10                    3                          2                               15
Karaoke singing                            2                     1                           0                                3

From these numbers, I can see that single family home real estate investing is most likely where I should direct my focus, and forget about entering a karaoke contest.  Although my passion is high for clothing design, the financial viability is low, the time commitment extremely high, so that goes on the back burner.

I hope this helps you find your compass setting.  Emotions, opportunities, and financial needs will change constantly.  Every once in a while, retake this “test” so you can stay on track.  I think it will help me stay the course too.

Mangoes and Lost Opportunity

2013-04-01_18-51-38We have a white pirie mango tree in our yard.  Our good friend Charin gave it to us as a sapling.  I waited for years for the little sapling to grow bigger and bigger, and one year it gave fruit!  It was delicious.  Juicy, sweet, smooth, ambrosia for the senses and tongue.

Unfortunately for any of our plants, one of my interests is bonsai trees.  I love the look of spreading branches, controlled growth and proportioned shapes.  Because of that, after a few piddly seasons of fruit, I decided to trim the mango tree into a pleasing shape that would allow for an open middle.  I removed all branches going straight up, trimmed off all branches that hung downward, and evened out the tree.  It looked quite nice!

However, the tree rebelled and stopped producing, much to the disappointment of Uncle and the kids, who were quick to blame me for not letting the tree grow and give fruit.

Just this year, my well shaped tree (imho) had a good crop.  I am in mango heaven.  I will hold off trimming the tree for as long as possible.  However, I do believe the tree has matured enough to stand for a good trimming and continue to fruit all season long.

Here is a lesson I would like to teach, if you don’t mind.

When our mango harvest was piddly – that is, I could count 12 mangoes in entirety on the tree and each was looked at on a daily basis – I longed for the day I could pick the perfectly ripe fruit off the tree and eat it.

The very first ripe mango was picked and lovingly brought into the house.  I smelled it, held it, and told the family we would eat it later when the time was right.  The second mango was ripe enough soon after, and I picked that one, put it out to show on the table, then put the first one in the refrigerator to keep it for a while.

This went on for about 2 weeks.  Meanwhile, the refrigerator had several ripe mangoes and we hadn’t cut and eaten any – I was saving it for the right time.

Uncle does not think like me.  One day, he peeled and sliced all the mangoes I had picked and stored for everyone to eat.  It was delicious, though most were over ripe because of the lapse of time from harvest to eating.  Many were too soft to slice, and a few were rotten and shriveled up from being in the refrigerator too long.

Because I was hoarding the mangoes instead of eating them right away, the majority of them were wasted.  The lesson learned is this:  Mangoes need to be picked and then eaten.  Waiting is wasting.  I now eat mango almost every day when it is in season, or I give the away to friends and family who appreciate them.

Here is the investing lesson that correlates to mango:  Learn and do your research (grow the tree, pick the ripe fruit), then do it (peel, slice, eat).  Jump in instead of waiting on the sidelines.

I meet a lot of people in investment classes that are learning as much as they can and researching this or that, but they are not investing.  They have great excuses.  I had a great excuse about not eating our mangoes – not the right time.  It was a bogus excuse and the cause of lost opportunity.

Please eat and enjoy your mangoes instead of putting them aside for a better time.  In your life, do something other than just watch on the sidelines or wait for the perfect time.  The time is now.  Get in the game to enjoy the victory and perfectly ripe delicious mangoes.

Here is a mentor minute from Raymond Aaron with the same message, though not about mangoes:  Achievements connected to Action.

Chicken or Egg?

Here’s a thought for you that can hopefully change your mindset about financial well being and action:

2013-03-31_18-09-30Imagine your savings, home equity, retirement funds as being eggs.  If you have your funds in stocks or mutual funds sitting in accounts, they are also eggs.  As a matter of fact, people actually call these their nest egg!  When you need to draw out from these eggs, you will have to crack them or take a bite (if they are hard boiled.)  You then end up with less egg in your nest of financial options.  This goes on until your nest egg is gone.

In money terms, you will be using up your funds each time you make a withdrawal unless your earnings or value increases by more than the amount withdrawn.  You might be able to survive if you have a huge amount of funds to last a good many years, or the amount you withdraw is piddly enough to never diminish the principal.

We have taken our egg (specifically our home equity) and bought a live chicken that lays eggs.  The eggs in our nest accumulate because the chicken keeps laying them eggs.  Now, when we need to draw out funds, we take it from the pile of eggs and leave the chicken alone.  We can even buy more chickens with our ever growing pile of eggs!

In money terms, we used our funds to buy an asset (investment property) that pays out cash flowing rents (eggs).  That cash flow pays our bills and will fund our retirement.  The asset (chicken) remains intact.

That is sweet chicken!