1. Your most valuable asset is TIME. That’s right, forget money, homes, cars, investments and all other material things. None of those will be worth sh*t when you don’t have time. All the money in the world will not buy you any more time either. When you’re time is up, that’s it! You’re done and you can’t get anymore. If you only had one day left to live, would you be spending it sitting curb side next to an Apple store to be the first to get the new iPhone (yes, the same iPhone that you can get a week later in 5 minutes with all the initial bugs taken care of)? Use the time that you have left very wisely!
2. And speaking of assets, let’s just clarify the difference between an “Asset” and a “Liability.” An Asset is something that “makes” you money. A Liability is something that “costs” you money. Why is it so hard to understand? I keep running into people that tell me that their home is their most valuable “asset” yet they have 25 years left in their mortgage. Folks, please understand that your home, unless you own it and it is completely paid off, is your largest LIABILITY. And if you don’t believe it, just quit paying your mortgage for a couple of months and see how quickly, what you thought was your most valuable “asset,” is taken away from you. And the same applies to cars, or any other thing that you buy on credit or that cost you money month after month. The more you buy on credit, the more liabilities you have.
3. Can I afford it? This is a good one. When we want to buy something that we like (but probably don’t really need) we play these silly mind games to convince ourselves that we can afford it. But can we? Well, here’s a good test. When you’re checking out at the grocery store and you decide to buy a pack of gum, do you ask yourself “Can I afford this pack of gum”? Obviously not. You don’t think about the repercussions of buying a pack of gum, the adjustments that you need to make to your weekly savings, or future sacrifices to make up for that purchase, and on, and on, and on. No! you just buy it because you know “you can afford it!” Well, it is no different for everything else. When a multi-millionaire buys a Lamborghini, it is because for him buying a Lamborghini is about the same sacrifice as for most people buying a pack of gum. None! In other words, that purchase will not require any later sacrifice or lifestyle adjustment for him. If you need to think whether you can afford to buy something any more than you think whether you can afford a pack of gum, chances are, you can’t really afford it. Not at that point in your life anyway.
4. Don’t chase money. Nowadays, people spend so much time chasing money! “Get rich quick” schemes are everywhere! The ultimate “money chasing” event is to play Lottery. What a ridiculous way to take an entire shortcut in your life and expect an immediate pay-off. There’s a reason why most of the large-sum lottery winners end up as real losers, broke, divorced, drunk, in jail, or some combination of the above. Instead, live your life making a difference to others, don’t waste time, limit your liabilities, offer good value to your clients, and more than likely, money will take care of itself. In other words, you will be “attracting” money rather than chasing it.
5. The elusive magic pill. We’ve grown to live in a society that demands a “magic pill” solution to all of our problems. We drank too much last night? No problem, just take these pills to help you with the hangover. That succulent dinner is giving you acid reflux? That’s ok, here’s some pills for that too. Oh, you mean, that succulent dinner happens almost every night and you’re now too fat? There’s a solution for that too. How about getting a Gastric Band operation so you don’t eat so much next time… or ever? How many times do you see people ordering a double-cheese burger with extra mayo and large fries but, oh yeah, they’re having a Diet Coke with that. Are you kidding me? These are the same people that will later line up at the drugstore to get an overdose of “fat burning” pills. Who are they fooling other than themselves? Stop relying on the magic pill, don’t take shortcuts and instead, take action and work every day on getting rid your bad habits!
6. Make money work for you, not the other way around. Everybody knows that successful people also master the formula to make money work for them rather than them working for money. It is no chance that successful entrepreneurs are usually financially independent. It always makes me laugh when I hear people complain about how so and so is so rich, and he pays so little taxes, and he works so little time, blah, blah, blah. In reality, the same people that make those uneducated comments, are the ones who keep chasing the “magic pill” (see #5 above) and want to take a shortcut and keep buying lottery tickets hoping that one day, they too will be like the person they are criticizing. In the meantime, they continue to buy more than they can afford, they are in debt up to their eyeballs, they live paycheck to paycheck, and they take no action to get out of their rat race. There’s a reason why successful people are successful. They work very hard so that step by step, they rely less on working for money and create opportunities to have money work for them.
7. Work location independent. if you want to be really successful in the future, you must find an occupation that is “Location Independent.” Any job that requires you to be in an office 9 to 5, will be just that, a job. You work for other people, trade your time for a weekly paycheck and do the same thing week after week. If you like that type of life, this article is not for you. If on the contrary, you want to grow into the unlimited possibilities of becoming “Me.inc” you must be able to be Location Independent or in other words, a “Laptop Entrepreneur.” The world doesn’t work 9 to 5; opportunities come around all the time at any time; money never sleeps… this doesn’t mean that you have to work 15 hours a day. Quite the opposite. It means that you don’t have to spend two hours a day stuck in traffic while commuting to and from your office. It means that you can take any time of the day off to take care of a personal matter. It means that you can adjust your daily schedule to fit your individual lifestyle. It just means that you are free and “Location Independent.” Either that, or you leave your home each day at 7:00 AM to go to work and get back home at 7:00 PM, after a so-called “eight-hour-day” in which with so many distractions, you only worked effectively six of those hours, if that. Work the same six hours from any other location (including your home), under your own schedule, without distractions, and you’ll find yourself right away with six extra hours every day! See point number 1 above!
