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What is a Millionaire?

A millionaire is someone who has a net worth of over $1,000,000. What is a net worth?

A net worth is all your total assets minus all of your debts. So if you have $1,800,000 in assets and $700,000 in debt.

$1,800,000 - $700,000 = $1,100,000

You therefore have $1,100,000 in net worth and are considered to be a millionaire.

So try it now. Add up the value of your total assets and then minus the value of your total debts and see if you are a millionaire.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

I have put this story on my site as inspiration to show everyone that it is possible to make money online and do it full time (it is kind of more inspiration for myself because I DREAM of this happening).This comes from the blog ZEN HABITS….check it out 

I am officially a ProBlogger now. 

Yesterday morning, I turned in my resignation from my day job (I work with U.S. military veterans for the Guam Legislature). OK, it doesn’t actually take effect until the end of next week, but still.

Woo hoo!

It’s pretty liberating. And very very very scary.

My Dream Come True
Well, to be honest, this hasn’t been a lifelong dream. I never knew that I wanted to be a full-time blogger until just last year (2007), when Zen Habits began to do really well (March, April, May). I started to realize: it’s crazy, but I might actually be able to do this full time!

Blogging on Zen Habits was then, and still is, so much fun that I couldn’t believe it could actually become a full-time thing. But it became a dream of mine, and I thought: maybe by this time next year, I could quite my day job!

So I created a mantra for myself. It was one word: Liberate.

This mantra was repeated every day. Everything I did was geared toward that mantra — blogging became a way to liberate myself. New projects were steps along that path. And it has been an exciting and rewarding path at that.

So now that dream has come true. A few months early too.

How I Did It
I thought you might be interested in hearing about my path to make this dream become realized. Now, this should be obvious, but I’ll stress it here: this is what worked for me. It won’t necessarily work for any other human being on this planet. I share it only because I know I like to read the success stories of others — sometimes they’re instructional, and other times they’re simply inspirational.

That caveat aside, here are some of the stepping stones along my path to liberation:

1. Blog from the heart. I decided early on that while I would draw inspiration from many other blogs, from Lifehacker to Get Rich Slowly to Lifehack.org to The Happiness Project to 43 Folders to Dumb Little Man to ProBlogger and many more …. that inspiration would be simply inspiration, and not copycatting. I wanted my writing to be my own, true to myself, and from my heart. As a result, many people have commented that they enjoy my writing, which is gratifying … and even better, I have enjoyed doing it immensely. Writing this post for example … it’s pure joy.

2. Be insanely useful. My goal with every post is to be as useful as possible to my readers. Of course, I don’t always succeed, but it’s been a worthy goal. And I think the usefulness of many of my posts is what attracts readers, and attracting readers has been the key to the growth of Zen Habits.

3. Focus my efforts and my writing. This won’t be any surprise to you guys, if you know me, but simplicity has been central to much of what I’ve done. My goal is always to keep things simple, to focus my efforts on those things that I love the most and that pay off the most, to be able to focus on my writing instead of the money or the stats or anything else. Time with my family is very important, so I’ve had to make sure that I eliminate unnecessary tasks and projects so that my work doesn’t overwhelm my family time.

4. Ask for donations. A few months back, I told you guys about my dream to become a full-time blogger, and asked for your help. You came through, big time. In fact, I still get donations, and each and every one of those donations have helped bring me closer to my dream. I couldn’t have done this without you guys. Seriously. Thank you. (Btw, donations are still welcome!)

5. Write and sell an ebook. To ensure that I had multiple income streams, besides the ads and the donations, I wrote and sold my Zen To Done ebook. It turned out to be extremely successful. Again, your purchases have helped my dream come true. With the success of the ebook, I was able to finally eliminate my debt — see below for why that’s important. Again, thank you guys!

6. Focus my ads. I’ve been experimenting with different forms of advertising all year long. I’m still doing so. Basically, I have been continually dropping ads that don’t do very well for me. My goal is to have just one set of ads, to keep things as simple as possible. If you’re interested in becoming a Zen Habits sponsor, you’d be very welcome.

7. Interact with readers. Readers should be the focus of any good blog. Your interests, your needs, your comments, your emails. I try to make time to respond to comments and emails, although I have to admit that I cannot always keep up with the volume of comments, questions, requests, and emails. It’s very important to me, though, and I do my best.

8. Transition from day job. I decided, from the beginning, that I would do a gradual transition from my day job to full-time blogging. Slowly, I’ve increased my blogging income while making the day job less important. I’ve reduced my work at my day job so that I can focus on my writing. Today, that transition is complete.

9. Get out of debt, save an emergency fund. These two financial moves were prerequisites for me. I wasn’t going to quit my day job without getting out of debt first, and without an adequate emergency fund. It’s why I didn’t quit several months ago, when my blogging income was sufficient. I have a family to worry about. I have since eliminated my debt and saved a decent emergency fund, though it’s not as large as I’d like. I plan to continue to add to the emergency fund all year.

10. One other big thing I can’t announce yet. Something else big has happened in the last month that sealed the deal for me, financially. I will announce it within the next week. It’s big, for me at least. And while I could have quit my day job even if it hadn’t happened, it made it that much more sure for me. I can’t wait to tell you about it.

Where I Go From Here
So now what? What happens now?

Well, not that much will change, for Zen Habits at least. I plan to continue to focus on putting out the best content I can. I plan to continue to interact with you guys. I won’t be increasing my posting frequency, mainly because I don’t want to overwhelm you, but also because I have other projects planned.

I will announce two of those projects in the coming week. But my focus, as always, will be on writing. I don’t want to overwhelm myself either.

Financially, if nothing changes, I will be just fine. If anything changes, I anticipate it changing for the better, and if so, I will be making investments this year. But if it changes for the worse … I will always be able to find another day job. That safety net is always there … I know the market here on Guam well enough to know that I can easily get a job in a half dozen places … and I know that there are opportunities online that my success here at Zen Habits have opened up, so that’s a possibility too if necessary.

It’s scary, being self-employed. For the first time in my life, I don’t have a boss, and I don’t have an editor to answer to. I am my own boss, and my own editor, and I can do whatever I want. Failure and success are dependent completely on me.

Scary, yes … but amazingly amazingly liberating!

What is a blog?

Definition from www.blogger.com (where you can host a free blog)

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

How can I set up a free blog?

You can quite easily set up a free blog at www.blogger.com (Google’s version of the online blogger) or by using www.wordpress.com 

Personally for beginner bloggers I would use Blogger because of it’s ability to ad in Google adsense (or any other advertiser). But we will talk more on making money in a second. Blogger is simple and easy to set up and you can literally create a blog in a matter of minutes and start getting visitors. You can easily change your content and your web style. Why not try it today?

How can you make money from a blog?

You can make money from a blog in two major ways. You can make money from advertising (by showing advertisements on your site and getting paid for it) and by selling products or services from your blog (either your own products/services or someone elses products/service).

Advertising: You can make money online by “Publishing Ads”. This involves placing advertising on your site for your readers to see. You make money in two way.

1. You make money everytime someone clicks on the ad (this is called pay-per-click advertising)
2. You make money per how many people see the ads (this is pay-per-impression advertising)

Often it is a combination of 2.

The most popular advertiser and publisher (especially for beginners) is Google Adsense (www.google.com/adsense). Other advertising publishers include www.adbrite.com (which I use) | www.bidvertiser.com and many more. Simply search “adsense alternatives” into your search engine of choice.

To start making money from advertising simply sign up and then create an ad space using the process your publisher provides and then past the HTML code which they will give you into the side of your blog. On www.blogger.com there is a special option for adding Google adsense which you may like to use.

Note: It will take time to make a lot of money from advertising. The more visitors you get (and the more visitors that return to your site) the more money you will make from advertising. The buildup of readership on your blog will be slow (give it about 6 months before you can even hope of earning a significant amount of money) but it is possilble. If you love to write, then blogging is the perfect place for you.

Products/Service - You can sell your own products and services on your website and make money everytime someone buys something, and you can also sell other people’s products through your website and make a comission every time a sale is made (this is called affiliate marketing). People will always prefer to buy from people they trust, so get a trusting audience on your website. Write good content and write consistently, then once you have everyone’s trust it will be much easier for them to buy your quality products?

For example. I am currently selling a report “How to Make Money Online With $0 Start Up Cost” which teaches people how to make money online starting from scratch. I am also working on a teaching series to be released in the next month called “How To Make Money Out of Thin Air”. You can get both of them by CLICKING HERE

Do you trust me? If you do you will be more likely to by my products. I believe in them and I know they will be helpful to you, but if you don’t trust me you will never buy my products. In the same way that you want to trust me first, your visitors want to trust you first. So give them a reason to trust you.

More on making money from scratch to come

When you decide to become a millionaire everyone will have their two cents about what they think about you and how they think you should do it…and if they think you can do it. Here is a great tip, don’t listen to everyone. Be selective about who you listen to because frankly some people just talk rubbish.

Some people are just negative and are always trying to pull people down. I know someone who used to be my friend, but he is ALWAYS negative so I never hang out with him. He saw my website and starting asking me if my website was a joke and was trying to shut me down…what did I do? I simply just didn’t listen to him. I walked away.

Sometimes your good friends will tell you that you are being stupid, and maybe you might not walk away but you need to believe in yourself enough to know what you are doing is right. I go to church and I see so many people leave church after starting a relationship with God because of the pressure of their non church friends. They let the wrong voices speak to them and it led their life in a different direction. Who you let speak into you life will greatly effect what your life will turn out like.

Learn to take criticism well. Don’t get angry at people when they criticise you, don’t get upset because he is a proven fact. NOT EVERYONE IS GOING TO LIKE YOU. They have done studies on this, you cannot be liked by everyone. Around 10% of people will always not like you. So what do you do? Focus on pleasing those who do like you.

When it comes to business, take crticism on board and wherever you can improve then improve. But focus on pleasing the customers who like you and keep coming back, because you can never please the sceptic.

So don’t take it hard when people criticise you, remember not everyone will like you.

This post originally comes from Zen Habits  Check them out.

Last week, I asked you all to give me your best advice for getting out of debt. And boy, did you deliver. More than 70 of you chimed in with some amazing advice, and shared your success stories, and shared your failures.

It was overwhelming, and I applaud you all.

To take advantage of all the great advice you gave, I’ve compiled a list of the best tips below. I hope it will serve as inspiration for those who are trying to get out of debt.

It is not a step-by-step guide. It is a list of ideas and advice from different people. There are many redundant suggestions, but I’ve included the redundant ones because they gave a different twist on the same thing that I really liked. For example, there are several tips about being creative so that you spend less on entertainment, eating out, and the like. They are basically the same tip — but with different suggestions. I kept them separate because I liked them all.

There are also contradictory tips. One says to pay off the credit cards with the highest interest, for example, while another says to pay the one with the lowest balance. They are both valid approaches with solid reasons behind them, and each will work for different people. Find the tips that will work best for you, and try them out.

I hope this serves as a valuable resource — let me know what you think in the comments, and feel free to add your tips!

1. Don’t get into debt. Use cash for all your purchases and don’t take on any debt except home and auto.
2. Spend less than you earn.
3. When debt is closed out, put 60% in savings and enjoy the remain 40%.
4. Take stock of all your liabilities, so you know exactly how much you owe to the world. Put them in a spreadsheet, with monthly payments, interest amounts, balances, and a running grand total of all your balances. Update it monthly as you pay off debt, and watch the overall amount go down slowly. It’s very motivational.
5. Have only one credit card with a low limit, and only one loan with monthly payment not exceeding 25% of income.
6. Build up an emergency fund first. If you come into extra money (tax returns, etc.), use it to build an emergency fund and pay off debt after that.
7. Cut up your credit cards.
8. Speak to a credit counseling service to help work out a plan: your “must pay” outgoings, arrange with creditors to freeze interest and accept a revised monthly payment. Warning: a reader informed me that using a credit counselor will show up on your credit report and adversely affects your FICO score — not as bad as a bankruptcy, but it is coded, and lenders can see it.  Only exercise this option if you’re really in dire straits.
9. Stop using credit cards to make it to the next paycheck. Stop getting further into debt.
10. Don’t overpay your debts — leave enough so you have enough for regular expenses too.
11. Avoid eating out. Cook your own meals, except on very special occasions.
12. For entertainment, visit friends and be creative on how to entertain yourselves and your family without spending a dime.
13. Don’t pay off your credit card balance from the emergency account. Don’t touch the emergency account at all — it doesn’t exist!
14. Look for expenses coming up in the future and plan for them, so you don’t have to go into debt when they come up.
15. Make a budget - Purpose every dollar (including some buffer).
16. Snowball the debt - Pay minimums on everything, attack the smallest balance with all the extra cash you can assemble, then move on to the next one.
17. Be on the same page as your spouse or partner. Competing interests are suicide.
18. Recognize your spending tendencies (and your family’s) and place limits on them. Develop good habits instead.
19. Read Dave Ramsey. Read “Your Money or Your Life”.
20. Keep trying and don’t give up. Make a commitment, and if you aren’t getting out of debt slowly but surely, revisit that commitment. Change is difficult and it takes drastic change in mindset and behaviors to get out of debt. Anyone can do it - as long as you really want to do it.
21. Stop spending! You have to really, truly want to do this. Otherwise, you’ll put yourself on a financial diet and then crash and burn and find yourself justifying why you deserve to spend so much money on a new iPhone when you have a perfectly good phone and $20,000 in debt.
22. Praise yourself for every small accomplishment. But, don’t praise yourself by spending frivolously.
23. Find the tools that work for you and stick to them. If the tools aren’t working, find new tools. There are plenty of tools and ideas out there - for free.
24. Change yourself. If you have a spouse or partner that is contributing to the debt, it can be a big challenge to get them to change. Focus first on changing your behaviors and attitude.
25. Be realistic. If you started accumulating debt three or four years ago, realize that it will probably take you more then three or four years to get out of debt and stay out of debt.
26. Create a realistic budget. Put as much money as you can towards paying down debt and having an emergency fund, but allow for a little bit of. Only the truly dedicated can live with no social/recreational activities for the amount of time it takes to become debt-free.
27. Eliminate. Take a hard look at what’s truly necessary, and be willing to make compromises. Cable TV, satellite radio, and lunches in the office cafeteria are not necessities. If you have a hard time letting go of these things, run your numbers through a debt calculator twice - once with your current budget, and once with additional money currently paying for niceties. You’ll be amazed at how much of a difference those few extra dollars make.
28. Get creative. If there’s something you think you don’t have time to do more frugally, find a way around it. For example, cooking at home is much cheaper than eating out. If you don’t have time to cook, try investing in a crock pot.
29. Be patient. Debt reduction is a long, slow process. Depending on the method you use, you may see no significant progress at first, but it will happen.
30. Stop borrowing money - no matter what! This means no more credit cards, no more car loans, no more cash advances, no more home equity lines, etc. If you can’t afford to buy something with CASH you have now, then YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO BUY IT.
31. Save up the money and buy it with cash. By the time you’ve saved up the money, it’s very likely you will have realized you don’t even need the item you were thinking about buying anyway. This happens all the time.
32. Track your expenses in a software program like Quicken. Categorize your expenses and report out how much you spent in each category so you can easily spot your problem areas (eating out, clothes, gas), then target those for reduction. Always know exactly how much money you have in your checking account.
33. Maximize your 401K contribution. Every time you get a raise, increase your contribution by 1-2% because you won’t miss the extra money if you don’t ever see it.
34. Pay yourself 10% first. Put this into an account that is hard to touch. A money market account can earn good interest. Make sure it is a chore to get the money out (you have to drive to the bank), so you will only tap it consciously and for major expenses.
35. Make a plan … ANY plan. You’re better off with a mediocre plan than no plan at all. When in doubt, the “snowball method” is simple and works well.
36. Leave yourself some “wiggle” room. Life throws some unexpected expenses your way, so include some slack in your plan for these little setbacks.
37. Have a long range vision. Keep your eyes focused on where you will be five (or ten, or fifteen) years from now, because getting out of debt takes time.
38. Turn off your television, and discard catalogs and other advertisements immediately (but not coupons!). Do this, and your urge to buy stuff you don’t need will plummet.
39. Move into a smaller place. Forcing you to get rid of a lot of stuff that you’re probably still in debt for will show you just how little any of it matters.
40. Find your purpose. Is it your children, to start your art business, work from home, free money so that you can give? Finding motivation beyond the money drives our passion. Otherwise our drive is limited. This passion will lead us find out the ‘right’ things to do like stop borrowing, creating budget, etc. Take a look at the things you value deeply and view that framework to judge your actions buy.
41. Examine your expenses and eliminate the unnecessary. Thing about gym memberships you’re not using, cable TV, Netflix, other types of subscriptions and see which are least necessary.
42. Got a raise coming up? Bookmark it. Pretend it didn’t even happen, and funnel all of the new money into the debt relief.
43. Focus on the debt and getting out of it. Not focusing and humming along on credit is what gets people in trouble every time.
44. Change how you think of money. Calculate how much money you make (net) per hour. Do this regardless of whether you are a business owner, salaried or hourly employee. Now apply the time factor to any purchase you make. For example, is that 32″ flat screen television you’re thinking of purchasing worth 10, 20 or 30 hours of your time. Once the dollar amount was removed from the equation and the time factor applied, spending habits can change overnight.
45. High interest. Pay off the cards with the highest interest first.
46. Balance transfers. By transferring balances on credit cards, you can consistently pay an average of 4%. One thing to look out for is transfer fees: make sure that the fee isn’t greater than the interest you would save.
47. Optimize small long-term advantages instead of large short-term payments — for example, go for the difference between 8% and 6% on a note, or cancel satellite TV and save/invest/pay debt with the difference.
48. Educate yourself on your alternatives. Sometimes we spend a lot on things because we assume there are no alternatives. Is cooking at home as bad as you think? What about ten-year-old cars? Roommates? Cheaper parts of town? Thrift stores? Libraries? Bicycling? Wearing a sweater and fuzzy slippers inside in the winter so you can turn down the heat? Ask questions, do some experimenting, do some research. Find your biggest expenditures and do some brainstorming and some googling.
49. Think about your goals. The author of The Tightwad Gazette was willing to work harder to save on food, clothing, and entertainment so she could spend more on housing, have more kids, and let one parent stay home with the kids. Quit spending money on stuff you don’t care about.
50. Pay attention to whether you’re buying stuff just because of societal norms or parental expectations or keeping up with the Joneses. Hang around people who are the way you want to be so that peer pressure can be used for good instead of evil!
51. Pay more than the minimum.
52. Make it a habit. You’ll be very happy when you have some extra spending/saving money after your payments stop.
53. Think about wealth rather than debt. If you think “I’m going to get out of debt” you will keep thinking about debt. If you think “My financial situation will contribute to my overall wealth,” that thought can keep you going.
54. Extra cash. When you make extra money from overtime or bonuses, use it to pay debt.
55. Debt slavery. Realize that (almost any) debt = slavery. If you don’t mind debt, why get out of it?
56. Read personal finance books, publications, blogs. Self-development blogs like this Zen Habits are also great.
57. Think positive. Telling yourself “no” stinks, choosing to not go on vacation stinks, looking around and feeling like everyone else has more money than you stinks, even if you make a good chunk’o’change. Instead think about how each month you owe $1 less is a good month.
58. Pay off your smallest debt first to get the momentum going. Some people go by the rule to pay the highest interest ones off first, but others like the rush from paying a card off completely and closing it. It’s a great motivation to continue.
59. Be willing to make sacrifices. Remember, you own things. They do not own you. We had to sell one of our cars and get a “beater” but this was the best move we could have made. It was so empowering not to have a car note hanging over our heads.
60. Put a note in your wallet with this text: “DO I REALLY REALLY NEED THIS?”
61. See yourself as completely debt free. FREEDOM! What is that gonna feel like. Imagine it.
62. Use supermarket fliers and plan menus for the week, clip coupons, and put the amount of money you save from coupons each week into a savings account.
63. When you make your budget, be honest. Make sure you budget for gifts, entertainment and whatever other things we all spend too much money on and don’t like admitting.
64. Find free or low cost entertainment. Check the local newspaper, or look online and see what upcoming events are going on. Many towns have free concerts in local parks, the local libraries often have fee arts and crafts classes, get a state tourist guide and see what’s going on in your area, and be a tourist in your own town.
65. Be creative. Learn to paint or refinish hand me down furniture, or sew curtains and pillows. I have been reading DIY blogs and gotten some really great ideas for my home.
66. Start a garden. Grow tomatoes, peas, beans, and herbs in pots if you don’t have a yard.
67. Make more money. Sometimes you can only stretch your current income so far. But how can you start an online business, without spending a lot of money? And without your own product? By selling other people’s products - as an affiliate.
68. Educate. Above all else, teach your children early so they don’t make the same mistakes as us!
69. Create a balance sheet and update it every month. List your assets on one side and your liabilities on the other. Assets should only include things you can easily sell and there approximate value. Liabilities should include all of the money you owe others. If your starting value is negative your goal should be to make that number smaller every month. If your number is positive your goal should be to make that number larger every month. The real value of this exercise though is it puts you in the habit of checking your financial situation every month which will reinforce habits that are increasing your wealth and hopefully allow you to catch and stop habits that are decreasing your wealth.
70. Credit documentary. Watch the PBS documentary about credit card companies. Get mad, really mad and start hating the credit industry. They are enabling you to do some terrible things to yourself. Cut up your cards and pledge to never use them again. It is a form of slavery.
71. And another. Another movie that looks critically about credit cards is MaxedOut.
72. Oprah. Great advice on Oprah’s Debt Diet along with great forms to help you find out where you are and plot a course out.
73. Read the book: How to Get Out of Debt, Stay out of Debt and Live Prosperously by Jerrold Mundis. Once you’ve read it, read it again

I recently wrote a post that explains that content is key to a websites success. In the same way they say “Location, Location, Location” about real estate they say “Content, Content, Content”. CLICK HERE to view that post

But sometimes it can be hard to find things to write about. So what are some tips we can use to spark our creative writing? Well keep reading to find out:

Look at The Keywords People Are Using To Find You

If you don’t already have some tracking software installed on your site then this is a MUST HAVE for all webmasters (people who run a website). Google offers a fantastic and free data tracker at www.google.com/analytics. Using this you can track how many people come to your site and what they do whilst they are on the site. Sign up today and insert the HTML code into every page of your website you want tracked (don’t worry it can be invisible so people don’t see it).

Now once you have that set up and it has been running for a couple of days go into your stats and find out what keywords people have been using to search for your website. Have a look at all the different keywords and see if you could create a post out of them. Personally for me I recently did this and someone had found my site by typing in “How To Become a Millionaire From Scratch” and this has inspired many posts, on how actually do you become a millionaire starting from scratch.

Do this technique and you can find so many things to post about.

Write Posts Related To Specific Dates

Maybe it is mother’s day or Christmas day, or a birthday. Write a post related to that specific special event. There are so many special event that occur in your life every month. Have a look through your diary and on those special even days write a post related to that special event.

Answer Comments People Make

When people comment your site don’t just think “whoop di do I got a comment” actually read it. If it is a question respond to it in a new post, if it was a controversial statement then write about it. If they said something cool then use it in a post. This not only helps you find new topics for posts but it also helps your visitors feel rewarded for you using their comment in a post.

Read Other Blogs For Inspiration

Check out a few other blogs or websites that are out there who are writing similar stuff to you and get inspiration from them.

Remember keep writing content sonsistently, it is a proven way to build a large readership. Keep finding new inspiration to write new things.

I have recently come down with an illness and have been forced to spend much time at home. This has been good and has allowed me to work hard on my website. It has also allowed me to watch a few movies one of which was armageddon. This is a movie about the end of the world. What struck me in the movie was that the earth had no plan B. If these guys failed then that would be it. I want to talk a bit today about having no plan B

What is a plan B? A plan be is a “if this doesn’t work” plan. Like “I’ll become a millionaire…but if that doesn’t work I will just work a simple day job earning minimum wage and struggling for the rest of my life”

I want you to get out of the plan B mindset. Because the plan B mindset is always focusing on the past.

Look at the great piece of writing by John Boe

“In battle, the ancient Greeks established a well-deserved reputation for bravery, discipline, and determination. They were successful because they were well trained, well lead, and most of all, well motivated. The Greeks were master motivators who understood how to instill commitment and prepare their soldiers for victory. To infuse their army with a spirit of commitment, the moment they landed on the enemy’s shore, the Greek commanders would give the order to “burn the boats.” Imagine the tremendous psychological impact on the soldiers as they watched their boats being set to the torch. There was no turning back. Once their boats were burned, they realized that the only way they were going home was through victory.

The ancient Greeks understood the power and the absolute necessity of commitment. In your sales career you are not asked to commit to battle, but make no mistake, commitment is required. Your battles are not fought on enemy shores, but within the confines of your own mind. A truly committed person does not have the luxury nor the time for the self-indulgence of negative thinking. Until you have made the decision to be fully committed, there is hesitancy and the possibility to withdraw. The moment one definitely commits oneself, magical things begin to happen. The true underlying motivation for all success is a deep and unwavering commitment to the task at hand. The sales profession is a demanding and challenging career, but it is also highly rewarding and lucrative for those fully committed. If you are being pushed around mentally by thoughts of fear, anxiety, and worry, it’s time to “burn your boat” and become fully committed to your sales career!”

Are you fully committed? Have you burnt your boats? I have certainly burnt my boats and burn my plan B strategy. I quit my part time job working as a sales assistant in a chemist and I am now working online and studying. I cannot and will not go back to working a day job that I absolutely hate. I need to make this work.

You need to have that same attitude. No more plan B. Burn your boats and go after your dream 100%, it is the only way to achieve it. 

When it comes to wealth what you do with what little you have will also determine what you do with the massive amounts you could have in the future.

Look at what the bible says about it.

Luke 16:10 - “He who is faithful in the least is also faithful in much. And he who is unjust in the least is also unjust in much.”

Now you may not believe in the entirety of the bible but the principle that is outlined here is 100% true. If you are faithful with your money when you only have a little bit then you will be faithful if you have hoards of wealth. If however you are unjust and stupid with a little bit of money you will do the same when you have loads of money.

I have a friend who doesn’t have a lot of money. But whenever he gets money he spends it onstupid things like lots of expensive clothes. Then he can never afford to hang out with us and go out for dinner because he has no money left. Now if I gave him $1,000,000 he would act the same way with that $1,000,000. He would spend it unwisely on clothes and on other things.

However myself on the other hand, I am dilligent with what I have (which is not a lot right now as I am in a start up business) but I am dilligent and I save up money and invest money whenever I can. If you gave me $1,000,000 I would be very grateful but I would also be very dilligent with that $1,000,000. I would simply invest it and live of the investments.

What about you? Are you faithful with the little you have? or do you waste it?

Here are some tips on how to be faithful with what you have right now

Budget

Know where you are spending you money and allocate areas to spend your money on before you actually spend it. Budget so you can live wellbut so you ahve some left over at the end to save and invest.

Save and Invest

This simply means spending less than you earn (that’s saving) and then putting your leftover money into somewhere where it will earn you interest (that’s the investing part). If you could invest just $12,000 into an investment account earning 10% p.a. Then you would be earning $1,200/year (or $100/month) for doing nothing.

Give

Don’t be stingy. Don’t ever say “I will wait until I am rich to give to the poor”. Start giving at least 10% now, because if you don’t give now you won’t give when you have more money, and if you do give now then you are likely to keep giving when you are richer.

So be faithful in the little you have and then you can be entrusted with much more.

Ever found it hard to find time to work on your website? Here is an overview of the points I made in the video post.

15 minutes before you go to bed - 15 minutes when you wake up

Have a journal on you at all times

Use your lunch break effectively

Use a diary - make a date with your website

Hire someone to do the paperwork

You have to dare to dream a little. My mum doesn’t like my dreaming, she wants me to be more realistic.

Here is my dream office

Ok maybe that is taking it a little to far. But my point is this. You have to have dreams.

Dreams are your driving force. I hope you dream of a better life than the one you currently have and that is why you are on this website today.

The ability to dream is what makes our country so different from so many other countries. I am an Australian but I know many Americans who are so grateful for the ability to dream. Without it we would perish I think

So have a dream. Take some time out of your day today. Maybe 5-10 and use it to deram a little. Dream of what your future could be like, dream of what you want it to be like. Like I am dreaming of an office (My office is currently a tiny desk in my bedroom on which I work on my laptop). I dream of an office with a big table and a good computer, with a great view.

What do you dream of?

Write it in the comments below. Lets inspire each other with our dreams