Archive

May 26

I Remember when Michael Jordan was Terrible

By NickNo Comments
Former basketball player Michael Jordan
Image via Wikipedia

Michael Jordan was probably the best athlete to ever play the game of basketball.  Not only was he naturally talented, he consistently worked hard to improve his game.  He was a legendary competitor.  In every facet of the game, he outthought, outfoxed and outworked his opponents.  Then, at the peak of his success, he decided to switch sports. 

Michael Jordan’s 2 year effort to become a professional baseball player was a terrible experience to watch.  Many of the things that brought him success playing basketball did not desert him.  The work ethic, the physical skill, the competitive spirit were all still there, but he languished playing in the minor leagues.  So why didn’t he succeed, where success followed him before?  He couldn’t hit a breaking ball.

Financial success is the net result of a series of good actions and smart decisions made over time.  It requires work ethic, talent, persistence and smart decision making.  Take one of these things away and it becomes a much longer and uncertain road to success. 

Explosive earning power comes from working in your talents, doing things you love and doing them over a long period of time so others come to appreciate your work.  If you don’t love what you are doing, even if you are talented at it, the quality of the work will suffer and/or you will become so burnt out you will not succeed.  If you aren’t talented in what you do, the quality of the work will never be high enough to generate large wealth.  Without persistence, you will never develop a following that is a key driver of creating that wealth.  

We parents are always watching our children.  We often see their flaws and we try to correct them. We sometimes can see their talents and we are grateful that at least that is one area where I can take more of a “hands off” role.  Maybe we look at the marketplace and try to steer our children into the roles that we think will bring them security and success.  This is the wrong approach.  People don’t outgrow who they are.  A child who struggles with math probably won’t make a good actuary.  Another child may be very talented at math, but becomes exhausted by doing a problem set.  People have many talents, but only a few of the talents really allow us to experience a life we love.

Parents have enormous influence over their children.  Sometimes a simple throwaway comment given at a critical time may set a child on a wrong course that may take years to correct.  There are millions of people who currently work in careers which began because a well-meaning father said something like, “I think you would make a great architect.” 

Work ethic, persistence and brainpower can take a young person very far.  But she will only thrive if she is working in the right field.  We parents have a responsibility to be careful observers of our children.  Our children need to be allowed to discover their gifts and ultimately their calling.  Be mindful of what you are saying to your children.  Talk frequently about their talents, what they enjoy doing and, as they grow, what they could see themselves loving to do every day of their adult lives.  Nurture your child’s talents and find the ones that he really enjoys exercising.  These will be the key to not only wealth, but self esteem and general happiness.  As they get into adolescence, start working on a career path.  Perhaps visit a career counselor. Encourage your child to experiment with a few opportunities.  The choice of a career is one of the most important choices a person faces.  Careful work, great deliberation and time will create the best chance that your child will make the best choice. 

Michael Jordan eventually went back to basketball, where he returned to winning form, but he lost the chance to do what he loved for 3 years.  Do what you can to help your child do what they love as soon as possible.  Three years is a long time.

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May 24

Asked and Answered: How are Middle Class Americans Going to Survive?

By NickNo Comments

I ran across this question on LinkedIn and felt I had to respond.

How are middle class Americans supposed to survive these economic times? With high prices on everything, health insurance, gasoline and the salaries not going up as high as they used to, it seems that for the middle class, single parents and other Americans is getting harder and harder to save. How are we supposed to overcome this period?

My response:

Your question contains within it a solution.

If you think about it, what are the things that even the strained middle class, continue to struggle to pay despite the difficulty. Why do people continue to pay for health insurance, food, gasoline, etc. Simply put, these things are valuable to everyone.

Americans live in a freer market than nearly anywhere else of the planet, which means that people spend their money on items which they find to be of value. People who struggle right now are having difficulty in showing their potential customers (including employers) that they are valuable. Every day wealth is being created. Productive energy is constantly creating wealth. This means that money and wealth are NOT dwindling resources. Our task is just to find the ways we can encourage others to share it us. This is only going to happen when we convince those that have or those who make that we are of value to them.

Too many of us walk through life focusing on what we do. We have been paid in the past by doing what we have done, so we think that by continuing to do these things, we will continue to be paid for doing them. But the world is always changing.

Consider the world of tax preparation, H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt have been hit very hard by TaxCut and TurboTax. Many people no longer see $100 to $300 of value in tax preparation. They see $0 to $25 of value in these activities due to the prevalence of cheap, easy to use software. The world is changing for all of us and what may have been valuable in the past may be of lessor or no value now and in the future.

Our task is to look inward to see how we can use our own individual strengths, experiences, resources and talents to generate value for others. By marrying that value to a business case, each of us can find personal wealth and prosperity.

 

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Oct 02

Book Review: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

By NickNo Comments

For this review, I discuss another great book on financial education.  The first book Robert Kiyosaki wrote, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, presents simple, but powerful lessons on managing personal financial affairs using simple stories and easy to follow concepts.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

This book does the wonderful task of explaining such dry accounting concepts of income statements and balance sheets in a very readable and understandable format.  It shows the cash flow patterns of poor people, middle class people and rich people.  It also shows how from a strictly financial standpoint that it is the middle class cash flow pattern that is the absolute worst one to have.

But more than the accounting concepts, it discusses that rich people just think differently about money, how to use it, the powers of it and virtues of it.  I have long observed that the United States is a country which craves success, but hates successful people.  Too often, I have seen people vilified whose only crime is that they worked hard and achieved success and wealth.  When I was younger, I, too, shared many of these opinions.

Granted, there are a few people, who act as leeches and make a living sucking the financial marrow out of the lives of others (pay day loan people and many sellers of financial product come to mind), but by and large, most people who have achieved wealth have done so through hard work and being of service to others.

One of the most powerful concepts is the fact that you will only earn so much by working for a paycheck.  It is possible to get rich working for others if you start early and manage your cash flow well.  However, if you open your own business on the side, the potential for reward is much higher as a business owner.  In addition, as an employee, you serve the employer in a designed role.  This means that, most likely, the role was not designed specifically for you and consequently, wasn’t designed to take advantage of your unique gifts and talents.  It is only when you have the opportunity to craft a role just for you, will you have the best opportunity for success.  Finally, when you work for a paycheck instead of profit and you can count on a safe and steady stream of income, you often subconsciously turn off part of your creative centers of your brain.  When your financial well-being is tied to generating new ideas, you will be surprised how much more you can dream up and give life to.  Unless you are trained to look for opportunities, you will pass them by.

The most vital learning to gain from this book is a realization that the employee mindset is a limiting one. The employee as is largely understood today is a relic from the industrial era and the factory culture.  Prior to the industrial era, money was generally earned by farmers and tradespeople buying and selling the fruits of their labor.  In effect, everyone was self-employed.  In the 1800’s and much of the 1900’s, roles were designed for people to act as cogs in the manufacturing process.  Tasks were developed by managers into established procedures and the last thing the managers wanted was for an employee to use their brains to redesign the system or dream up ways to change things.  In exchange for doing things exactly the way the managers told you to do them, the employee was paid a wage.  The belief in the infallibility of management decision making has thankfully gone away in most workplaces, modern management thinking is moving much more in the employee designed workplace that is paid based on performance and production.  But the factory/employee mindset is still alive and well.  It is very dangerous to have in economic climate of the 2000’s.  To remain competitive in a global economy, you need to be able to leverage the talents and creativity of your people and the employee mindset is a real obstacle businesses need to overcome.

By rejecting the employee mindset and adopting a self-employed mindset (even if you are an employee) you are not only going to distinguish yourself to your employer, you are also going to continue to exercise and grow your creative muscles and your ability to identify and capitalize on opportunities.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a great book that brings you several great lessons.

If I have inspired you to pick up Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I encourage you to click on the links in this post or on my page.  YouthFinancialEducation.com is not only a great place to learn how to succeed financially, it is also a place that I am constantly leveraging my creativity and skills to bring you value.  By clicking on links from here, you help reward me for bringing that value to you.

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