Do not pray for easier lives, pray to be stronger men

Lately, there have been cues for me to start searching within for answers. Answers to problems I have been trying to solve for years. The main issue is that of money. I lack it and all the wonderful things that can become because of it.

Last month, I officially lost both of my jobs. One was due to no more work available and the other was due to the company closing its doors in my town, Albuquerque. Regardless of the reason for leaving, I am still left without employment. I finally had to suck up my pride and apply for unemployment benefits.

Part of me plays the victim. The part that says, “It’s not my fault, they’re the one that closed down” or “Life is just too hard for me to survive.”

Just recently I came across a quote from John F Kennedy. He said:

“Do not pray for easier lives, pray to be stronger men.”
-John F Kennedy

After I looked it up, it’s really from a quote from bishop Phillips Brooks:

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.”

-Phillip Brooks

These quotes have really spoken to me since I have been feeling the need to step up. Step up in my life as a man that can provide for himself. As someone who someone else can look up to. I want to be a stronger person.

I have always heard people say that it’s too hard or takes too long  at some situations and I bock at that attitude. I think that they are just being a wussy - a coward. At the same time, I have felt the hope I had for anything better for myself fade away. A little bit of projecting I was doing in retrospect.

When it comes to money, the internal reaction for me has been one of avoidance. I will do anything to distract myself from the problem at hand. I will watch TV, eat, sleep, play games and anything else that keeps me my mind of the problem at bay. I’m running from my problems anyway I can.

I always had a strong self-identity about myself that I could do anything spectacular that I focused on. I could be the best. I could solve problems. That part of me is still alive, but I have made it feel helpless, useless, and powerless.

In no way have I figured out how to make money or to solve the basic problem at hand. However, there is a new hope that things can be different. A new sense of vigor can change your life.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad Chapter One

This is a book review chapter by chapter of Robert Kiyosaki's book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". I am going to review each chapter's ideas and put a bit of my own questions at the end of each chapter. I'm doing this because every time I read this book, I feel like it really could open up some financial opportunities for me. So, I decided to study in depth.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad
by Robert Kiyosaki

Chapter One


In the first chapter of this book Robert Kiyosaki sets up the premise of the idea of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He grew up with two fathers - one rich and the other poor. Initial the rich dad was not rich and the poor dad was not poor. Both dads taught him conflicting ideas about money. One said to go to school and get a safe and secure job with a corporation. The other said to own the corporation. This unique perspective gave the author an oppurtunity to choose what he thought for himself.

One simple idea that differentiated the two dads was the his poor dad had the habit of saying "I can't afford it." And his dad that would soon to be rich would ask himself "How can I afford it?". His rich dad was saying that stating that you can't afford something shuts your brain off and keeps it from looking for answers. By asking yourself how you can afford it, it opened up possibilities and made his brain stronger.

His poor dad tried to avoid risks while his rich dad tried to manage them. His rich dad said his house was his biggest liability while his poor dad claimed it as his biggest asset. His poor dad believed the government should take care of you and the rich dad spoke against entitlement mentality. His rich dad showed him how to make financial and business plans while his poor dad showed him how to make resumes.

His rich dad alwasy referred to himself as rich even in times of major financial setbacks. "There is a difference between being poor and being broke. Broke is temporary, and poor is eternal."

His poor dad told him to get a MBA to earn good money. His rich dad told him to study money so money can work for you. He then quotes "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. The poem accentuates his choice to choose his less educated but eventually rich dad.

His rich dad believed that money by itself is not power. Financial education harnessed the true power to any sort of freedom. Over a period of thirty years, Kiyosaki learned 6 basic lessons. He will teach these lessons in the remainder of the book. He fashions them as guideposts to financial education. The beginning of financial independence.

Josh:
The first chapter is a real hook. It sets up the idea of why the book is called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", and it gives a taste of what the book has to offer. The two conflicting ideas of each father really couldn't have been a better fit for a movie. One is less educated and studies money and becomes rich, the other has college degrees and his on the State Education Board of Hawaii but ends up poor.

As a reader, you do feel a sense of loss for the poor dad. Not only because he lost out after working so hard but because he reminds me of my parents and myself. I did exactly that went to school because all the adults around told me to. Now my seasonal job just ended and my permanent job decided to close down its facility in my town. The jobs I had were less than glamorous to begin with. Now I am left with a choice of getting unemployment or eventually not having a place to live.

Is it possible from my position to even make any progress on my way to financial independence? The answer has to be yes, but I have no idea how. The idea that the answer has to be yes is actually coming from the idea in this chapter of asking how you could afford it versus just saying you can't. How can I increase my financial outlook? What can I do to make it happen? The idea of thinking of yourself rich even when the money is not in your account must have played a pivotal role in the rich dads life when he went through some hard lessons.

So, lets take a look at the first of six lessons Kiyosaki's rich dad taught him...

You have two choices: Rich or Poor - No Middleclass

Kiyosaki sits down for a Time Magazine interview to promote his book "Conspiracy of the Rich". If you haven't read it this book already, I suggest you do. It may not have some incredible to do list on their but it does give you a good perspective on the world of money through the eyes of history.

In the video Kiyosaki says that you have two choices which is to be rich or to be poor. There is no middle ground or will be no middle class soon.

The other thing that stuck with me from this video was the question that asked if their was still a way for the little guy with little resources to become rich. He basically said absolutely but you have to get off your butt. He also pushed the point that you need a mentor.

How does one search for a mentor this specific? It seems to me that maybe he was lucky having his friend's dad be his Rich Dad, but what about those of us who are not so lucky?

YouTube: Why is it so successful?

  

     Every web designer and developer wants to create that one website that becomes a mega-success. The ideal would be to become the next Google or the next Facebook. The truth about a formula is that it doesn't matter who is making it, it will work every time. So, I wanted to take a look and see what made a website so successful. The domain in question: YouTube.com.

     It's pretty safe to say that everyone with a computer has heard of youtube. If you not an avid creator or watcher, you have at least followed a link from an email or some social networking site. It's huge. And it has made it's founders very rich.

     If you take a look for reasons why YouTube was successful you might hear that they made it simple for users to steal copyrighted material and share it with other. Through a legal loop YouTube made it okay for them to post material because it was the users responsibility. The whole Napter/Metallica debate all over again - bleh. Although, there is some truth to that, I want to look at some design elements of why it was successful and also some human perspective.

Easy to use

As far as design it is very hard to make a complex thing simple. Web developers struggle with this often. YouTube made it simple for users to put up videos and not worry about which format it was in. It automatically converted everything to Flash. Flash plays reliable across platforms both Mac and Windows.

Easy to understand

Whether you received a link or heard a mention on the news, once you are at the site, you understand it. You don't have to sign up to view videos. If you did want to it, it was just a basic sign up page.

Easy to share

You want to share it. YouTube wants you to share it. And they made it simple to do so.

I wish I could pinpoint the source of this interview but I will tell you what I heard. Upon asking one of the creators what made YouTube so successful, a very unique perspective was born. I'm paraphrasing here:

     Interviewer: So what made YouTube so successful? Was it the timing? Were you the first ones to host such a site?

     Creator: No, honestly, there were plenty of other website at that time doing exactly the same thing.

     Interviewer: So, then it must of been the the technology? Did you have top of the line video hosting software?

     Creator: Others sites had even more sophisticated setup.

     Interviewer: So the marketing then?

     Creator: We had very little marketing money?

     Interviewer: What made it so successful then?

     Creator: It's because we appealed to the user. Our slogan was "Broadcast Yourself" and people were  encouraged to do so. It was appealing to the human emotion to be seen and to see others in a new way that made it so successful.

Again, that's a  paraphrase, but the point remains valid. YouTube applied to the human side of websites. The human side of websites is practically the majority of web use and certainly of bandwidth. However, are there some ideas like this that have not been tapped into? Is there a website that needs to be created that will appeal to the human emotion, easily understood and operated and waiting for the right person or company to come along?

Mission Statements: Are they just useless corporate lingo?

Mission statements are the core objective of a company. They are usually stated in simple, easy to understand language. The idea of mission statement is to unify the company under one goal. Often the goal is very untangible. It's untangible in the sense that you may never know if you officially achieved that goal. For example, a mission statement of a barber shop might be "To provide the best customer service in town by not only providing friendly customer service but by providing exactly what the client wants to the best of our ability." With a mission statement like that it would be very hard to know when you have achieved such a goal.

I always thought originally that a mission statement was just something you put in  your business plan to attract potential investors. While that is still true, that is not its only function.

Let's take a look at Robert Kiyosaki's B-I Triangle. In his book Guide To Investing he explains that the B-I Triangle represents the components a new business has to have in order to succeed.

The other parts of the triangle we'll cover later but the base of the triangle is the mission. Kiyosaki's Rich Dad said, "Many people start a business only to make money. Just to make money is not a strong enough mission. Money alone does not provide enough fire, drive, or desire. The mission of a business should fill a need that the customers want, and if it fills that need, and fills it well, the business will begin to make money."

With the business part of the equation comes a second side to the mission statement, the spiritual side. The spiritual side of the mission statement could be like Henry Ford's mission to "Democratize the automobile". When automobiles first came out, they were only for the elite upper class. Ford's mission was to bring that kind of possibility to the masses. That mission filled his customers wants and filled them well. He was a millionaire because of it, and his legacy lives on way beyond his death.

Kiyosaki's Rich Dad's spiritual statement involved providing employment opportunities throughout his business. He did own several businesses that employed hundreds. Those business bought other business and created more and more jobs. Robert Kiyosaki's company Rich Dad has a mission statement to increase the financial IQ of its customers which would further allow them to be financially independent.

This whole idea that the mission statement is what drives your business really made sense to me. A lot of times when I try to create an idea to make money. It is really that - an idea to make money. It may work minimally for the short term but does not succeed. I think it is due largely in part to the lack of the mission I am set out to do.

This whole idea coincides nicely with the idea that if you want to be successful you have to provide massive value (which I talked about in a previous post.) Now, with all of this it seems clear to me that I have a very huge hole in my trading gap. In other words, the only way to make money is to exchange value for something. You need clothes so you are willing to exchange the money you have earned in order to buy those clothes. A lot of my plans were solely to make money. I had a very small video game exchange system online where the value I provided was selling games cheaper than anyone else did. I created that value by buying in bulk. Well, the most bulk that I could afford at the time. It really was not that much value though over my competitors.

Now, when I am trying to create an idea into a massive asset, this will be a part of my focus. I feel this idea has really educated me on the idea of creating value even though I though I understood it before.

Til Tomorrow,
Josh

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Dressed for Success

I remember back in high school there was a class that some students would take that would require them to dress professionally. Although they really did look nice, I thought it was kind of a stupid class exercise. However, since I have been working, I have noticed that just on a personal basis people will treat you with more respect. That idea that you should dress for the job you want is definitely overplayed by managers and the recruiters. However, I have found in my limited experience that it is true.

I work at a call center right now. A few weeks ago, I noticed that all my jeans were torn. I wore them anyway to work. I got all kinds of comments like "you need new jeans". I didn't really care about that because the environment is very casual dress anyway. However, I was tired of wearing the same jeans over and over again and started wearing nicer slacks. I felt more confident in them. I am sure I looked better. I was doing things on my job that normally I would avoid or wait until I got in trouble for. Doing your job better helps you increase to a better position. Also, when you look professional people who also look professional will connect with you more. And if you think about the well dressed people around your place of work, are the more successful people better dressed.


I start a job at a better paying call center on Monday. They specifically said that your denims must be in good repair. That it was business casual and not casual. I thought it was a good excuse to start my collection of comfortable business clothes. Over the next few months, I am going to be increasing my professional wardrobe.


Here is the counter argument for dressing for success at another blog.


Til Tomorrow,
Josh


Subscribe on the right hand side of the screen if you would like to hear more. Comment or email me at assetalchemist@yahoo.com.

Websites: Creating Money Making Ideas

I have my Bachelor's Degree in Media Arts. I am really good at all things in that field which includes designing and coding websites. That is a very strong skill especially in the Information Age. I have considered starting a web page to make money before now. I use to own the site joshdurant.com to get a professional job to make money, but that failed to help me in obtaining employment and really wasn't the kind of "making money" I was referring too. I'm more interested in receiving residual income from my websites by staying on top of them with maintenance and such.  

In all honesty, my blogs are a way of making money through ads. Just to get a taste of how to make money using ads. So far though, I have made nothing. I really was not expecting to have a million subscribers overnight. These blogs are really a way of getting out my thoughts out of my head and in black-and-white because others could possible see them. Plus, ideas in your head sometimes seem clearer than they really are. This has really helped me better define my ideas. I am starting to see clearly where my thinking is faulty and where my action is not effective.

So, I am going to start a website. I am going to design it as a business as Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad books, suggests you build any venture. It would take too long to describe exactly how to set that up here (and of course I am green at it), but I will be taking it step-by-step. Through each step of the method, I will be going through as I'm doing it as a way to look back at the process retrospectively and give others perspective on maybe a similar website and/or business they may be developing.

Here's a related Kiyosaki tidbit. When Robert Kiyosaki was fresh out of the military, he was broke and was trying to take the advice of his Rich Dad by starting a business to be rich. He was unemployed with no income. He asked his Rich Dad what he should do in order to start a business with no money. His Rich Dad said that he needed to get a job. Kiyosaki was pretty shocked considering how much his Rich Dad always talked about starting businesses was the way to become wealthy. His Rich Dad said that investments were not a good idea if you could not keep a roof over your head, and food in your mouth.

Down the road, Kiyosaki was employed and was able to sustain himself. He was going to get a second job in order to build up income for his investments. On quizzing his Rich Dad about the topic, his Rich Dad said that what he should do is not start a part-time job but start a part-time business. Kiyosaki took his advice and started a velcro wallet business that made him a millionaire. Kiyosaki did not know how to run his business past a certain size and eventually went under. However, the moral of the story is not to have a part-time job to build investments but to have a part-time business. The second moral, though, would have to be the need to be vigilant once the business is up and running. 

The next post will be about how different types of websites make money. Make sure to check that out.

Til Tommorow,

Josh

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