Beginners guide to becoming WEALTHY

[The Message Boy]

Just a question, this thread is great but like just about ALL motivational/business/success books, articles, etc., why does it fail to pinpoint the real-life struggles of being successful?

I've read Rich Dad/Poor Dad, and I love the mindset but come on guys lol. If "anybody" can become successful at Real Estate why in the hell would I be selling my tips for any price? The millions I make are not worth selling my secret money-making tips to anybody.

That would be like me in the sales business, going and teaching how to make money in sales to other people, wouldn't I be creating my own competition? Now if my sales tips that worked years ago are getting stale, maybe I would do it then, but come on.

My question is, Str8up and others who have contributed, why is it that these motivational articles don't get more realistic and tell people:

1.) You can succeed but it's going to take yoru ability to manage "X" amount or risks, and "Y" amount or risks could do this or that.

Running a business is hard and EVERYBODY cannot do it. Yes, it takes creativity and really a different eye or vision or way you look at something that's different then the pack which allows the "strategy" to work, but in no way would you take that special vision that you see and put it in a book.

Great thread, very motivational, but like other success or motivational articles, it's way to pie in the sky and not more focused on the operational side.

My whole thing is that if you want to do REI do it, but understand how the market works, that your house MIGHT NOT go up in value, that you might not be able to find someone to fill the room, etc. etc.

Just like managing a real business, I'm in business and love it. But in no way should any legitimate person looking to own their own business (which is what you will be doing if you get involved in REI), take really any of these tips seriously if you ask me.

Just my personal rant.

BTW, great motivation though.

 

[HeyPachuco!]

I'm 21 now and currently a student in College, stuyding a Buisness Analyst BTEC DIPLOMA. What are you telling me to do exactly, being this age. I'm pretty grounded and patient as I've always got economy balanced whilst I study.

Are you telling me to BEGIN a course at College ASWELL as read the books recommended?

BEGINNING what to do in this field would help a great deal, if someone can actually tell me?

 

[Tao walker 2005]

well..you haven't really explained why hyperinflation WILL happen. saying that the US prints loads of extra cash doesn't lead to hyperinflation -- it just leads to inflation.

yeah ok so at the very least you admit that they are creating inflation, and now that some form of recovery is underway they actually could prevent the situation from getting worse BUT does anyone think that the political will exists at the moment for the government to reverse its stimulus packages and raise taxes? do you think the federal reserve is going to raise interest rates? because that is what it will take to reign in all the liquidity they flooded the economy with when they hit the panic button.

 

[The Message Boy]

Nice post Tao. It's funny how 10 companies can be so big, that if they fail the entire country fails. So those 10 companies are so important, that they can literally invest, do fraud, or do whatever but we as taxpayers need to kiss their ass and bail them out because if they fail we all fail.

Doesn't make any sense to me. If BOA or Citigroup fails I agree that a good portion of the economy would be ****ed for a short period of time, but eventually another Citigroup will emerge as the NEED for a Citigroup type of company in the economy is still present.

I would consider myself to be more of a moderate, but I think the current way that the US Gov is trying to "bring back the economy" is actually harming the natural recovery process.

When you spend more, you have to increase taxes.
When you increase taxes, that discourages people with money to invest.
When people with money don't invest, we don't have an economy.

I think as a country we should help the poor and low income. But helping those people does NOT cost trillions, just a couple billion a year that can easily be paid for with a low tax structure.

Our taxes are high now and going up because of fraud in the system and dumb ass waste.

I say:

1.) Help the poor with social programs that work and help get them to the working class. This doesn't cost much if done properly.

2.) Eliminate the dumb ass waste and fraud and dumb ass spending waste programs.

3.) Reduce the corporate tax rates and the income tax rates to 20% flat across the board. State and local tax maximums to 5%. Total of 25% max tax rate for all people. This is MORE than enough meony to help the poor and for defense spending.

The lower taxes will drive more investment and the stock market and job market will continue to explode into the future without a slow down.

The social programs for the poor will provide a great bottom for the enoncomy which is needed.

Provide the right level of regulation.

That's my proposal lol.

BTW, I think the flat tax is stupid and would not raise enough revenue for needed social and defense programs. But I think taxes should not be higher than 25% with fed and state combined.

 

[STR8UP]

Just a question, this thread is great but like just about ALL motivational/business/success books, articles, etc., why does it fail to pinpoint the real-life struggles of being successful?

One thing you have to understand is that when you get started in RE, business, investing, etc you need to be prepared to fall FLAT ON YOUR FACE, OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

Most people spend all day thinking of reasons why they CAN'T do something. If motivational materials focused on "real life struggles" instead of "Grab your balls, get out there and do it, and don't be afraid to fail", it wouldn't motivate one single person to get off of the couch.

Struggles are a GIVEN. If you don't think that you will have to put forth effort to get what you will have better odds playing the lottery.

And there are PLENTY of books, articles, etc. that will give you examples of real life struggles, but you need to be reading stuff like that after you have taken the plunge, when you have problems to solve, not when you are sitting in your chair THINKING about trying to one day build an empire.

I've read Rich Dad/Poor Dad, and I love the mindset but come on guys lol. If "anybody" can become successful at Real Estate why in the hell would I be selling my tips for any price? The millions I make are not worth selling my secret money-making tips to anybody.

Do you really think that these authors are worried about creating competition for themselves? Even if they DID create a flood of competitors and they were never again able to make money on their original project (although that would NEVER happen), who cares? They have parlayed their knowledge into ANOTHER business model that could make them even more money. Why pound the pavement when you make more money teaching others how to do it?

I am producing an informational DVD as we speak. It has nothing to do with money, but it could create "competition" for me in a different way. Why would I want to produce something like this to sell for $50 a pop? It's another way to use leverage to make money.

I have knowledge in a very specialized field. That knowledge can sit in my head and I can use it for my own benefit, or I can write books and articles and produce videos that show other people how to do it, creating a brand identity for myself and making my knowledge even more valuable. Each copy of a book of cd or DVD that get sold or each time someone pays to download my information I MAKE MONEY. Even as I sleep.

Get it?

My question is, Str8up and others who have contributed, why is it that these motivational articles don't get more realistic and tell people:

1.) You can succeed but it's going to take yoru ability to manage "X" amount or risks, and "Y" amount or risks could do this or that.

There is no way to quantify the "X" and "Y" values. You are looking for blueprints which do not exist. You are trying to eliminate risk which is impossible.

If you want comfort and safety you take the path that every other middle class American travels. If you want to become WEALTHY before you are too old to enjoy it, you stop trying to look for concrete solutions, and start getting out there and run face first into a few concrete walls.

Just like managing a real business, I'm in business and love it. But in no way should any legitimate person looking to own their own business (which is what you will be doing if you get involved in REI), take really any of these tips seriously if you ask me.

And your tips for owning a business are???

I think as a country we should help the poor and low income. But helping those people does NOT cost trillions, just a couple billion a year that can easily be paid for with a low tax structure.

Why?

Poor people are poor for a reason. You can't help someone who is unwilling to help themselves. Give a poor person $1000 and there will be a 52" LCD in the living room the next day.

I'm not kidding.

 

[The Message Boy]

One thing you have to understand is that when you get started in RE, business, investing, etc you need to be prepared to fall FLAT ON YOUR FACE, OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

Most people spend all day thinking of reasons why they CAN'T do something. If motivational materials focused on "real life struggles" instead of "Grab your balls, get out there and do it, and don't be afraid to fail", it wouldn't motivate one single person to get off of the couch.

Then Str8up they shouldn't get off the couch. Most people want to be rich and not have to go through the real life RISKS to get there, like risking losing all of their earnings, risking going hungry, risking extreme failure. So typically, the motivational material that you speak of will talk about how much MONEY someone can make with minimal risk. This is just not true. At all.

Yes failure is apart of the process but not everybody gets "lucky" enough to go at it a second, third, fourth, 10th, 14th, on and on time.

Some people need to put food on the table and can't wait while their "business" becomes profitable. Some people can't get enough financing. Some people just simply run out of time.

Success in any business venture is always a combination (in my opinion) of experience, timing, opportunity, financing, and vision.

I just don't think motivation and business venture should be used in the same sentence. IF the opportunity is real and the financing and experience is available, why would ANYBODY need a motivational quote to get off the couch.

People don't get off the couch because they think about the things I am writing about in my opinion and realize (and most times they are correct), that they DON'T HAVE what it takes to succeed. Have what it takes as in experience, timing, opportunity, financing, and vision.

Just my opinion, but I think this is a great thread.

If you want comfort and safety you take the path that every other middle class American travels. If you want to become WEALTHY before you are too old to enjoy it, you stop trying to look for concrete solutions, and start getting out there and run face first into a few concrete walls.

Str8up throughout this thread you inaccurately assume that if a person doesn't own their own business they cannot acquire wealth, this is wrong and even Robert K. himself included "Employee" in his Cash Flow Quad.

Str8up the simple fact of life is, not everybody is sought out to be a business owner. But that does not mean they can't be wealthy before the age of 60.

They can be very good at other things that do include having an employer, but many people that work under employers get great benefits and great salaries and AS WELL have structures in place to reduce their tax liability.

MANY people in business can't afford their own healthcare.

There's no one way to become wealthy and successful. There's many ways. And there's a flawed perception in my view throughout this thread, that just because you are a business owner you are now all of a sudden FREE. No you are NOT. You are owned by that business. You have no safety net. Of course you could succeed, but you could also fail and go hungry. The question is, are you prepared to fail and go hungry if need be? Do you have those risks covered? These are the questions a person has to answer, "motivational quotes" are a waste of time and really in my opinion, get people taken off of the things they SHOULD be thinking about when entering into this world.

The motivational talk would make a person, with no experience in business or REI or stocks, to think they can come in and be PROFITABLE to a point they can support themselves in no time. NO WAY. Absolutely no way. If it were THAT easy, trust me, NO ONE would be able to get into the industry AT ALL, because the people with all of the money and power would have DOMINATED and CLOSED the entrance.

For example, all commissioned sales reps. Well, ANYBODY can go and become one. And when they do, they will get alot of rah rah (that's similar to what's in this thread) about how they are going to make six figures a year if they just "WORK HARD." Not true. If it were THAT EASY, it would be difficutl to get in.

All commissioned sales reps ARE business owners, and ANYBODY can be a business owner because the RISK OF FAILURE is very high. When the risk of failure is low, it's difficult to get in.

My point, sorry if I'm ranting a little bit, but my point is that if you want to get into this world, in my opinion No Guru, no Str8up, and no one else in particular will give you the idea or strategy that will make you money and make you profitable. They can give you teh basics of the business, but I just believe that profitablilty comes from creativity.

And Str8up even you have to admit, just not ANYBODY is cut out with the creativity to CREATE profitable businesses. So why all the preaching as if anybody and everybody can do this?

You can do this Str8up, I can, some other guys in this thread can, but not anybody. That's like a Tax Accountant telling me that anybody can be a Tax Expert. Lol, I know I can't no matter how " HARD I WORK AT IT."

 

[The Message Boy]

Poor people are poor for a reason. You can't help someone who is unwilling to help themselves. Give a poor person $1000 and there will be a 52" LCD in the living room the next day

Str8up I'm surprised you would say this considering your motivational focus, 95% of the successful business owners today started poor with nothing. So you can't say that all of the poor aren't looking to help themselves. MOST of the poor are struggling to get ahead and just need a little help to keep things under water while they help themselves get stable.

I think you would make one hell of a motivational speaker though, you should be on Fox Business lol.

But I just wanted to point out some things that I questioned but I would still pay to hear you give out some motivational lol, but with me you are preaching to the choir so go figure.

 

[radiodude]

Message Boy-
I think what str8up was saying is that the poor CONTINUE to be poor again and again for a reason.



Alot of good points in this thread. Str8up hits it with the attitude and state of mind people need to be in to make money and become wealthy. Some of the books espoused here have good stuff in them. But don't become over-reliant on a book or system to take you to financial security. Learn the concepts of becoming wealthy and apply them to your life the way that fits you.

 

[Duffdog]

Yay. This thread is back alive. Let me sum up the finer points of life for you average people:

Life is about being lucky. If you happened to be born into wealth, you are wealthy. If you happened to be born attractive, you don't need PUA websites because you get laid all the time. If you happened to have your business endeavors work correctly out of sheer blind luck, you make lots of money and post your musings for the sole purpose of ego inflation (STR8UP).

If you are not a lucky person, be content with a subservient life, as that is all that you can ever hope to accomplish. Sorry, life isn't fair.

I just had a life changing experience this past week. I learned that no matter what you do and where you go, you cannot escape basic human nature. It is simply not possible and those who think that it is are just losers who are fooling themselves.

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

Yay. This thread is back alive. Let me sum up the finer points of life for you average people:

Life is about being lucky. If you happened to be born into wealth, you are wealthy. If you happened to be born attractive, you don't need PUA websites because you get laid all the time. If you happened to have your business endeavors work correctly out of sheer blind luck, you make lots of money and post your musings for the sole purpose of ego inflation (STR8UP).

If you are not a lucky person, be content with a subservient life, as that is all that you can ever hope to accomplish. Sorry, life isn't fair.

I just had a life changing experience this past week. I learned that no matter what you do and where you go, you cannot escape basic human nature. It is simply not possible and those who think that it is are just losers who are fooling themselves.

Nobody can discount luck. But the interesting thing is that luck has little effect (other than bad) on poor and lazy poeple.

To give you an example:
I recently read a book by one of Britians richest man (self-made, started dirt poor.) One of his first bruches with real money was when him and his friend were writing a biography on Bruce Lee (when none had existed.) Just before it was finished Bruce Lee died. They capatalized on this and made so much money....

However, it's not coincidental that rich people always have opportunities that poor people claim are luck.

I for one make my own luck. I used to believe, like my father, that I had bad luck. Then I started to have good "luck." Soon I realized that I didn't really have good luck so much as just being proactive in pursuing "luck."

Like I said, there is no escaping luck. Luck can make you and luck can break you. But, The harder you work the less bad luck effects you and the more good luck you will get.

Anybody who blames luck refuses to accept effects of their own actions.


BTW, I HATE it when people call me lucky. On the surface some of my successes (and I'm not talking financial) have appeared lucky. What people don't see is the amount of effort it took (before hand, during, etc..) to capatalize on the "lucky" opportunity.

 

[The Message Boy]

Teflon I agree. I don't think "luck" has more to do with it but rather experience and being able to discern a great opportunity.

There are opportunities all the time and everywhere. I'm willing to see more of Str8up's comments on this, but I still don't think that just "anybody" can discern great opportunities and succeed in this world like the motivational gurus seem to preach.

However, I think the basics of financial management and investing can be taught to anybody just like the basics of English. But just because I know the basics of English that doesn't mean I should become an English teacher or profesor, which is in my opinion just like saying just because I understand the basics of finances and investing that I should become an investor or business owner.

 

[Jon55]

Nobody can discount luck. But the interesting thing is that luck has little effect (other than bad) on poor and lazy poeple.

To give you an example:
I recently read a book by one of Britians richest man (self-made, started dirt poor.) One of his first bruches with real money was when him and his friend were writing a biography on Bruce Lee (when none had existed.) Just before it was finished Bruce Lee died. They capatalized on this and made so much money....

However, it's not coincidental that rich people always have opportunities that poor people claim are luck.

I for one make my own luck. I used to believe, like my father, that I had bad luck. Then I started to have good "luck." Soon I realized that I didn't really have good luck so much as just being proactive in pursuing "luck."

Like I said, there is no escaping luck. Luck can make you and luck can break you. But, The harder you work the less bad luck effects you and the more good luck you will get.

Anybody who blames luck refuses to accept effects of their own actions.


BTW, I HATE it when people call me lucky. On the surface some of my successes (and I'm not talking financial) have appeared lucky. What people don't see is the amount of effort it took (before hand, during, etc..) to capatalize on the "lucky" opportunity.

THANK YOU! "Luck" is one of the biggest jokes ever created. Luck is the excuse people use when they don't know what else to call their situation, or are trying to remove the blame from themselves (but never when they've had positive results). One thing's for sure, to get ahead you definitely do not want to follow what everyone else is doing.

And yay for this thread coming back to life! Let's keep it alive.

 

[Duffdog]

THANK YOU! "Luck" is one of the biggest jokes ever created. Luck is the excuse people use when they don't know what else to call their situation, or are trying to remove the blame from themselves (but never when they've had positive results). One thing's for sure, to get ahead you definitely do not want to follow what everyone else is doing.

And yay for this thread coming back to life! Let's keep it alive.

If luck is nothing more than a joke, how do you explain the fact that 90% of all business ventures fail within the first year? I guess all 90% of the people who started businesses were supposed to fail?

The fact is that 1% of the population controls 95% of the wealth in the world. There is no failsafe way to "get rich." You just happen to have everything work in your favor or you do not. People in general tend to look past the failures in the world and choose only to identify with the successful few. Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against them ever breaking into the ranks of the wealthy. It is far more likely that an average person wishing to be rich will purchase all types of materials, attend various seminars and make many attempts to create wealth and in the end, they will fall flat on their face and become broke.

The difference is that nobody ever makes mention of these people in their "get rich quick" schemes, it is far more profitable to sell a dream of infinite wealth and prosperity than it is to sell reality.

 

[The Message Boy]

If luck is nothing more than a joke, how do you explain the fact that 90% of all business ventures fail within the first year? I guess all 90% of the people who started businesses were supposed to fail?

No it's not like that Duffdog. A business can be started as basically an "idea" in someone's head, they don't have to incorporate or do anything, if someone decides they are going to open a "business" in their mother's basement they can.

There's a LOT of things that goes into running a successful business, which is why I criticize these "gurus" because they don't go over the real-life day-to-day situations that goes into running a successful business no matter if you are opening a shop, investing in RE, etc.

Str8up said something earlier in this thread that of the statistic of 90%-95% of businesses failing, other businesses are started by the same business owners that "failed."

In all truth and honesty, there's really no point in business that you "fail." You fail when you decide to close doors. What would be proper to say is that the business isn't "profitable," and this can be changed if the business owner examines how the business is being operated and managed.

The fact is that 1% of the population controls 95% of the wealth in the world. There is no failsafe way to "get rich." You just happen to have everything work in your favor or you do not.

I agree with the 1% of the population having the most assets. But "rich" can be defined in the eyes of the beholder if you ask me. Some guys say they are wealthy and rich if they build up a good passive cashflow of around $50,000 to $100,000 a year and pay little taxes on the money. Think about it, the person doesn't have to go to work and can sit on their investment. What's wrong with that?

What I just described is a reality in the world of business and investing, however, to GET THERE you will typically **** up hundreds of times in the beginning, the wins will start slow, and you will have to dig and dig and drive and drive.

What I don't like about the Gurus is that they claim getting the business positive where you have this passive income is easy, that is very WRONG and UNTRUE.

You most likely will fail, fail, and fail at it many times in the beginning before you get your "system" right, then you will start to build up the passive income.

The difference is that nobody ever makes mention of these people in their "get rich quick" schemes, it is far more profitable to sell a dream of infinite wealth and prosperity than it is to sell reality.

That I agree 100% with you on.

 

[strong like bull]

not everyone is cut out to be a business owner...

just like not everyone is cut out to be an all-star NFL quarterback.

all you can do is try.

what draws a line between many people though, is how they react to their own mistakes... their own failures. how they handle rejection. most people throw in the towel after facing their first or second set of challenges. rather than learning from their mistakes and moving forward, they are beaten down by their failures. ever hear the saying, "you only truly fail when you quit."?

let me give an example... a few months back i shook hands with a man who works in the same business as i. he was being awarded for his earnings in 2007.. a 12-month straight top earner award. wanna know how much...?

over $100,000 a MONTH

not "business generated" or "points" or whatever else

but his personal earnings. 100k / m for 12 months straight.

and this is a man who was an immigrant, still has very heavy asian accent, and faced many many challenges along the way to get where he is today. he overcame the challenges that many people arent determined enough to overcome.


any "guru" who says "anyone" can accomplish wealth... some people sell a lot of sizzle to generate sales. and if theyre not being honest about what it takes to succeed, shame on them.

the truth is "anyone" CAN accomplish wealth. if they are smart, determined and creative enough to learn from their mistakes, stay their course and see it through. anyone can make it, in the sense that only you determine whether youll make it or not. but make no mistake about it, not everyone is cut out for it. not to be mean, but honestly most people are simply too lazy and/or weak-willed to run a business.

and anyone who relies on "good" or "bad" luck to guide the course of their actions, is living a passive, reactive live and will probably never be enough of a "go-getter" to make truly great things happen. sorry, but if you think success in business is mostly luck, you might as well stick your head in the sand and spend all your money on lottery tickets. the future belongs to those who are proactive and ambitious enough to reach out for it.

-SLB

 

[Duffdog]

and anyone who relies on "good" or "bad" luck to guide the course of their actions, is living a passive, reactive live and will probably never be enough of a "go-getter" to make truly great things happen. sorry, but if you think success in business is mostly luck, you might as well stick your head in the sand and spend all your money on lottery tickets. the future belongs to those who are proactive and ambitious enough to reach out for it

.

Nobody said anything about "relying" on luck. Luck (as should be most broadly defined) is the "x" factor that makes everything happen or not happen. It is something which is completely out of your control but affects the outcome more than anything else. For instance, someone could do everything right with their business and get the most perfect business plan and be all ready to conquer the world...and all of the sudden, the US falls into recession. Whose fault was that? It was nobody's fault and nothing could predict it, yet it makes more difference with regards to ones ability to get rich than anything they can possibly do. No amount of "being a go getter" can solve it, no amount of internal rationalizing can fix it and there are no ways around it. Though you can purchase get rich quick materials and watch videos which proclaim the opposite.

Strange, that even the author of this thread owes his fortune to luck as well, since he had no formal education, no experience and no ability to draw on contemporaries. Obviously, people who just happened to be lucky and accidentally accumulated wealth will pin their success on "their hard work" and "diligence" when it is completely obvious that neither of those things had anything to do with their success. The proof that it didn't make any difference lies in the millions of people who worked just as hard and were just as diligent and still failed miserably. If you didn't have some indefinable "x" factor that was responsible for your success for which you had no control of, you would be just like the millions who failed. Fortunately, due to something entirely out of your control...you made some money!! If that is not a gamble, than I don't know what is.

The cold, hard fact is that everything in life is and forever will be a gamble. You can do everything right and end up broke, or you can do everything wrong and end up richer than Bill Gates. There is nothing one can do to ensure that they will even be alive tomorrow, much less accumulate wealth.

So stop with the idea that "all it takes is ___________ and you can be wealthy like meeeeee!!!" !

 

[The Message Boy]

Luck (as should be most broadly defined) is the "x" factor that makes everything happen or not happen.

And that X factor is proper experience, planning, and other things that goes into running a successful business. In other words, the X factor is the guy or girl running the business. If you put the right person in there the business can succeed, the wrong person can make it fail.

It is something which is completely out of your control but affects the outcome more than anything else. For instance, someone could do everything right with their business and get the most perfect business plan and be all ready to conquer the world...and all of the sudden, the US falls into recession. Whose fault was that?

Recessions are apart of business planning, if you are a competent business owner you have already pre-planned for recessions and other things including business insurance needs, plans if a hurricane comes and wipes you out, if taxes go up like hell (which everyone should be planning for), compliance with regulations, monitoring any regulation changes and adopting to them, etc. Again, all of these things goes into running a successful business.

It's like you have people on two different sides of EXTREME when it comes to this instead of being more in the middle and approaching it in a competent and mature fashion.

On one side you have the "rah rah" people that spend 90% of the time talking about how positive everything is and how much money we are all going to make some day, without the PROPER focus on knowledge, proper management, creativity, and other things that's needed to be able to MAKE money in the first place.

On the other side, you have the "it's a scam" people that spend 90% of the time talking about how success in this area is based more on luck or only a very few amount of people succeed where the majority fail.

Umm, must I state, MAJORITY of the employment in this country comes form small businesses. MOST of the employment comes from those small guys that took risks and eventually got their business ventures profitable and growing to employ others around them. So to say that it's IMPOSSIBLE or they are LUCKY, is just not correct.

Just like it's not correct to say that EVERYBODY can be successful in this venture.

Experience, planning, financing, creativity, vision, and other things that I haven't listed are what's needed for success in ANY business venture, and EVERYBODY does not have what it takes to put that into place and even the ones that DO have what it takes, it typically takes them AWHILE to get the system working properly meaning they will fail and make many mistakes in the beginning and some of the people just can't WAIT for the business to become profitable and have to choose other income sources on the side. As you can see, there's alot that goes into running a successful business.

The cold, hard fact is that everything in life is and forever will be a gamble.

Well, that's IF you don't take control of your life and leave your life up to chance. Either you are going to go to class and study, study, and study to THEN take the test and get a passing grade, or you are going to just walk into the testing room having not been PREPARED and just start filling in bubbles on the scantron.

The risk of investing in my opinion, is the unprepared investor, not the area that they are investing in.

 

[STR8UP]

.Nobody said anything about "relying" on luck. Luck (as should be most broadly defined) is the "x" factor that makes everything happen or not happen. It is something which is completely out of your control but affects the outcome more than anything else.

You know what the saddest thing is about your ideas regarding wealth, Duffdog?

It's that you are completely selling yourself short. You have this ridiculous idea in your mind that this "x" factor is the only thing that determines success and failure.

I acknowledge the "x" factor. It has screwed me a few times and it has helped me a few times. But at the end of the day, it was ME taking the steps to climb the ladder that gave me the resources that I have today.

I don't know where this ridiculous notion that luck is the biggest determining factor in becoming wealthy, but stuff like this is usually instilled in us as children by our parents who are often not very well off themselves trying to give their kids advice on money.

For instance, someone could do everything right with their business and get the most perfect business plan and be all ready to conquer the world...and all of the sudden, the US falls into recession. Whose fault was that? It was nobody's fault and nothing could predict it, yet it makes more difference with regards to ones ability to get rich than anything they can possibly do. No amount of "being a go getter" can solve it, no amount of internal rationalizing can fix it and there are no ways around it. Though you can purchase get rich quick materials and watch videos which proclaim the opposite.

So what you are telling me is that since I have businesses that were drastically effected by the economy, that there is nothing I can do to better my situation? Bollocks. I've been hit just like the next guy. Did I give up and go get a job making $40k a year and forget about business and investing? Hell no. I spotted an opportunity that would allow me to capitalize on my skills and I started a NEW business in the middle of the worst recession most of us will probably ever see in our lifetimes.

So if I make a ton of money on this new business, I was just lucky, huh? The fact that I have spent the past decade learning about marketing, branding, media production, and creative business strategies had nothing to do with it, right?

The fact of the matter is, your mindset is a direct insult to the years of blood, sweat, and tears that went into getting to the position that I am in today.

Strange, that even the author of this thread owes his fortune to luck as well, since he had no formal education, no experience and no ability to draw on contemporaries.

Now THIS is hilarious.

1. Your assumption that formal education is necessary to build wealth is flawed. Many of the wealthiest people in the world are not formally educated.
   
2. No experience? I can guarantee you that I have more experience with more things that 99% of anyone on this board. How did I get this experience? I got off my ass and tried new things. Most of them didn't pay off directly, but everything I have done allows me to do bigger and better things with each step I take.
   
3. This is the real knee-slapper! "No ability to draw on contemporaries"? How ironic, considering it is the very books, videos, seminars, etc that you bash that allowed me to draw from the experience of contemporaries! But that all a bunch of bunk, right?

Obviously, people who just happened to be lucky and accidentally accumulated wealth will pin their success on "their hard work" and "diligence" when it is completely obvious that neither of those things had anything to do with their success. The proof that it didn't make any difference lies in the millions of people who worked just as hard and were just as diligent and still failed miserably.

You're KILLING me here!

I hope it is as blatantly obvious to everyone else that reads this as it is to me that these "millions of failures" does not prove a damn thing, unless it goes to prove my point about the fact that you must FAIL in order to succeed. Over, and over, and over again.

Fortunately, due to something entirely out of your control...you made some money!! If that is not a gamble, than I don't know what is.

Building wealth is akin to rolling the dice and betting. Yea.

This thread has some 35,000 views. Some guys are going to read it, take something from it, and go out there and make it happen.

If you think it's all luck and refuse to try, go back to being self employed, content to earn a living and nothing more.

Stop trying to force your own self-limitations on everyone else.

 

[Duffdog]

And that X factor is proper experience, planning, and other things that goes into running a successful business.
wrong, by definition, the "x" factor is out of your control COMPLETELY


In other words, the X factor is the guy or girl running the business.
If you put the right person in there the business can succeed, the wrong person can make it fail.




Recessions are apart of business planning, if you are a competent business owner you have already pre-planned for recessions and other things including business insurance needs, plans if a hurricane comes and wipes you out, if taxes go up like hell (which everyone should be planning for), compliance with regulations, monitoring any regulation changes and adopting to them, etc. Again, all of these things goes into running a successful business.
complete bullsh1t. Nobody knows the future, nor can they "plan" for things that are unforeseen. Thats why we call it the "future", because it is not possible to "plan" for it.


It's like you have people on two different sides of EXTREME when it comes to this instead of being more in the middle and approaching it in a competent and mature fashion.

On one side you have the "rah rah" people that spend 90% of the time talking about how positive everything is and how much money we are all going to make some day, without the PROPER focus on knowledge, proper management, creativity, and other things that's needed to be able to MAKE money in the first place.

On the other side, you have the "it's a scam" people that spend 90% of the time talking about how success in this area is based more on luck or only a very few amount of people succeed where the majority fail.
These three paragraphs have no useful information whatsoever, you just repeated what I said with more verbosity


Umm, must I state, MAJORITY of the employment in this country comes form small businesses.
You are 100% wrong on this. Please show the bureau of labor statistics which back up your claim. Since you can't find them, I will save you the trouble and inform you that government is responsible for more than 50% of all employment in all sectors without any exceptions ever.
MOST of the employment comes from those small guys that took risks and eventually got their business ventures profitable and growing to employ others around them. So to say that it's IMPOSSIBLE or they are LUCKY, is just not correct.
Yes, it is. If you believe it is not, please show factual data supporting your counterclaim.

Just like it's not correct to say that EVERYBODY can be successful in this venture.

Experience, planning, financing, creativity, vision, and other things that I haven't listed are what's needed for success in ANY business venture, and EVERYBODY does not have what it takes to put that into place and even the ones that DO have what it takes, it typically takes them AWHILE to get the system working properly meaning they will fail and make many mistakes in the beginning and some of the people just can't WAIT for the business to become profitable and have to choose other income sources on the side. As you can see, there's alot that goes into running a successful business.
I run a successful business. I would like to say that it was because of my hard work and blah, blah, blah...but that is not the case. My competitors work far harder than I do and can't seem to approach my success. Honestly, I feel lucky that I made the purchases I did when I did because they gave me a competitive advantage. Did I in any way predict that it would have a future competitive advantage? Nooooooo, it just happened to work out that way. Now, they are struggling and I am not. I'm positive that they work harder than me and are more "go getters" than I am. Yet, I make more money. Explain that one!!!




Well, that's IF you don't take control of your life and leave your life up to chance. Either you are going to go to class and study, study, and study to THEN take the test and get a passing grade, or you are going to just walk into the testing room having not been PREPARED and just start filling in bubbles on the scantron.
I graduated college by filling in "key" on the scantrons and fvcking up everybody elses scores. How would a student competing against me in class prepare for that? Answer: They wouldn't and they had the unlucky fortune to get a lower score than me even though they studied harder, were more dedicated, blah, blah, blah. The point is: No matter what you do to prepare, your entire empire can come crashing down on you in an instant and there is nothing you can do to stop it.


The risk of investing in my opinion, is the unprepared investor, not the area that they are investing in.

word

 

[The Message Boy]

wrong, by definition, the "x" factor is out of your control COMPLETELY

complete bullsh1t. Nobody knows the future, nor can they "plan" for things that are unforeseen. Thats why we call it the "future", because it is not possible to "plan" for it

Okay well then if that's the case then LIFE is too risky for you then because you NEVER KNOW what can happen to you if you walk out your front door lol.

IF you plan professionally and diligently, you can avoid MOST and MAJOR things that have a high POTENTIAL of happening.

Yes, *anything* can happen of course, hell giant cats can come raining from the sky and can piss over all of your **** lol, but when you do proper planning you want to stay realistic and plan for what has an actual POTENTIAL of happening. Gee wheez, duh lol.

You are 100% wrong on this. Please show the bureau of labor statistics which back up your claim. Since you can't find them, I will save you the trouble and inform you that government is responsible for more than 50% of all employment in all sectors without any exceptions ever.

Yes, it is. If you believe it is not, please show factual data supporting your counterclaim.

Duffdog I don't have time to give you a more detailed breakdown from 2008/2009 but you can look at this chart from the Bureau of Labor Stats website: http://www.bls.gov/emp/empmajorindustry.htm. This was created in 07 and is projected to 2016, again I can provide a more current version but you can use this to see my point. If you scroll down the Federal and State/Local Governments DO NOT employ 50% of the labor force by a LONG SHOT.

The employment is mostly provided by the private sector and MAJORITY of the private sector are classified as SMALL BUSINESSES based on the number of employees and revenue that they have.

PLUS Duffdog to even state that the Government provides over 50% of employment doesn't make any sense. Government does not have any money, the only money that Government has is what they TAX like hell from us. So it's impossible for your claim of Government "creating over half of the jobs" to even be accurate. Now Government can of course PRINT money but that's another issue.

I run a successful business. I would like to say that it was because of my hard work and blah, blah, blah...but that is not the case. My competitors work far harder than I do and can't seem to approach my success. Honestly, I feel lucky that I made the purchases I did when I did because they gave me a competitive advantage. Did I in any way predict that it would have a future competitive advantage? Nooooooo, it just happened to work out that way. Now, they are struggling and I am not. I'm positive that they work harder than me and are more "go getters" than I am. Yet, I make more money. Explain that one!!!

Well Duffdog go back and re-read what I posted, I listed a lot MORE things than just WORK HARD. You can work and work and work doing the WRONG things and get no where. What I stressed was proper MANAGEMENT and there's a lot of things included in proper management from where to start the business, from when to start it, from what to sell, from how much inventory to carry, from how much financing you need, from how to handle taxes, from what to buy (if you do RE), etc., etc.

What you are saying, from my observation, is that you just "so happened" to have made the right investments and THAT'S why you are successful? So now since you see yourself as "lucky," then that means everyone who aspires to have success in business must also be as LUCKY as you were?

That's incorrect. I don't know the history of the investments you made and how you came to them, sometimes it takes years of mistakes to make a business profitable and sometimes it doesn't, there is no SET rules on success in this area. You can come in at the right time, at the right location, and make a killing and a guy that's been trying to invest for years might not have figured it out properly and thus doesn't have the success you have achieved. This doesn't mean that success in business is based on luck, the example I just described is more an exception to the rule if ANYTHING.

For example, a novice stock investor can decide to get into the market at the right time in the right stock, and that stock could just RANDOMLY go up and that investor could be a huge OVERNIGHT success. Now would it be ACCURATE for that investor to go and tell other investors not to spend time and money on financial education, etc., because it's all based on random luck? Lol, give me a break. What I just described DOES happen, but it DOES NOT happen all the time. If there ever was a "formula" for business success, I believe it's proper MANAGEMENT, financial education, creativity, and other related things that I went over earlier.