Awaken your potential, expand your contributions to the entire human race and the realize the promise inherent in your God given abilities.
INTRODUCTION Rich men are not Gods, they are people like you, mortals made from flesh with blood flowing through their veins. They stand apart from others because of their thoughts, their skills and their consistent action toward a specific vision. It makes them a force for change and empowerment of themselves and the world around them. Building wealth is first and foremost a psychological state. Wealth is not something reserved for special people or something written in the stars for some. You can have it too, if you make the right choices and engage in the correct behavior consistently. That is a principle as true today as it was 2 000 years ago. All people are inherently born with this capability, the question is whether they use it or not. In these pages, in this book are highlighted some of those principles that grant Rich Men and Women their prosperity. This is a toolkit to unlock the potential within you to be fantastically wealthy and make incredible contributions. Its the kind of advice I wish I could have gotten when I was 16, it would have made a bank account full of difference. These principles and ideas are not for everybody, they are specifically for those, that have becoming millionaires while young and able, to enjoy the status’s possibilities front and center in their goals. If you don’t want to be that, then this book is really of no value to you. This book is not a candy coating of the truth and aims at the honest opinion about how to go from where you are today to where you are supposed to be. To go from dreaming to living your amazing dream in 3D reality.
L.T. Maruwasa
o1 Will today be the day?
Everyday the universe asks you a
question so silently that you don’t even hear it. The question is; will you continue as you are or will you reach for more? Your answer is what you choose to do and focus that day. This happens every time the sun rises. Some of us have been asked this question for years and our answer was, I want to stay in bed, work is too much – I don’t want to do it, or I will do it tomorrow not realizing that procrastination is throwing away the potential of the moment. With the time I have wasted before this day, I could have worked out to Arnold Schwarzenegger proportions, I could have written 20 novels, dropped 4 albums or run a series of 20km marathons and definitely made a million in any currency of my choice. The problem is I didn’t respect time. I thought I was winning
and being smart by indulging in my weakness and in not living up to my greatness. So, the genie simply stepped back only to return 24 hrs later and ask me the same question; will today be the day? By my age Alexandria of Macedonia had conquered the great Persian empire and crushed the Greeks. By my age Charles Dickens had written and published his novels. By my age Tupac would have had a dozen more movies and albums than the many he already had on his passing. By my age men and women have invented the future, liberated countries and made our world a better place to live. I have the same potential, as do you, it starts by understanding that each day is a question about our potential and what we do with that day is the answer which takes us forward or keeps us in the same place.
Each day is a gift and a chance to be more than yesterday. If used right.
o2 God made you powerful and majestic
No, this is not a church sermon but just a statement of a fact. You are the product of God not a man. Therefore, how other people define you is not who you are. It does not matter if others call you red neck, Negro, chappati head or more, none of those definitions given by men are above God’s definition of you. Only God the maker, infinite in capability, gave you the power to create and be like he is; a source of miracles and wonders. Man was given dominion over the world not other men. None but God should have dominion above you. Consider that once doctors in the service of uncivilized governments attempted to forge a science that would prove that the differences in skin color (an environmental adaptation) was a difference in intellect and potential. They famously tried to use this
science against the Jew and the Negro with pronouncements like; Negroes could never fly combat aircraft because their primitive brains could not function in the demanding g force environment of flight or the thin air of altitude. To their dismay, the Tuskegee airmen blew German pilots out of the sky over Europe with such skill, the Germans feared the Red Tails more than others. The American government was forced to deal with the shame of contravening God’s law and attempting to define what God already defined pre installed with indelible talent and potential. Was it not a crew of colored girls whose vast grasp of mathematics that made NASA able to compute with sheer volume of thought the trajectories for the US space program? Once against shaming those contravening God’s law. Was it not British women who helped decipher and do the mental hauling required
to defeat Nazi Germany in the battle of Britain and beyond, even when men defined women as inferior? You cannot term what God made superior as inferior and try to remake the rules as put down by the maker of all things. That is like a VCR telling a telephone it is a microwave and then expecting it to heat up some mushroom soup rather than making calls as its real maker intended it to. Men/women are as batteries to God, forged perfect and ready to do their work. You are filled with talents, intellect, will, imagination and physical movement that makes it possible for you to live the most abundant of lives. God really wants you to be wealthy, rich and healthy. Is he not the one that gave this world its diamonds, gold and fish? Did he not gift to you air for free, sunshine, bellowing laughter and a beautiful
mind to comprehend the vastness of existence? Is it not he, that gave you an immune system hardened by trial to defend against the dangerous pathogens of this world? Doubt not the power and majesty of God and his desire to see you prosper. Doubt not your capability to be the light of justice, progress, peace and abundance. If this is a lie, show me the man that birthed himself, the man that breast fed himself and changed his own nappy? Or the man whose word spoke into existence neutron stars, gravity wells, birds, soil, metals and water. Show me this man and I will let him define what I am. If such a man tells me I am a monkey, I will believe it, leap into the nearest tree casting aside foolhardily pursuits of human life and be an ape for evermore.
There is no such man but there is such a God. This God is all you should hold dear in understanding the force that you are. To conclude that you are inferior because you have a lighter or darker skin is blasphemy against God. It is the greatest sin because it is the corruption of the purpose which he set you for. Every rich man/woman knows that it is the connection to this divine force that makes wealth possible. As your father meant it to be, the world is yours!
God made you capable of great works and wonders.
o3 Let the bad call you out
When things don’t go right or terrible things happen, we can tend to look at the universe/the creator/God as being nefarious and things not going right as evidence of displeasure with our existence. If you ask yourself why things never work out for you, stop and rather ask how can I make things work right for me?
people and dump their bodies in the ocean, but you have got to keep it together and realize bad things happen and some people are real bastards and b**tches. In the same vein, it means there is absolutely no force predisposed to stopping you from having millions or billions or a yacht to sail to Monaco.
For some reason, I never realized that life comes with good and bad, that there are bad days when everything does not work, when every thing you try crumbles like old cookies. When those moments happened I would despair and get terribly depressed.
There may be men, but not a force sent by God against you, that is why they say the one for whom God is for none can stand against. Good or bad is down to one person; you!
The reality is, there is no force is running amok seeking to torture you like in the Japanese Warau Sales man anime. Life is the ying and the yang. Withstand the bad and make the best of the good. At times it will make you angry, you will want to kill some
So chose your fate, because like James Cameron always tried to prove with his Terminator franchise, there is no fate other than that which we make for ourselves. A snake cannot choose to fly, drive, watch TV nor can an ape or a whale. But man can choose to sing, fly,
drive, build, destroy, laugh or cry. Choose your fate against the challenges that come your way, choose the path to good and do not let the bad diminish your power or potential. In fact, let it call you out and force you to shine brighter. Challenges are the polish of your metal. See the bad as two fold; an attempt to bring our the best of you and second as lessons you need to learn making themselves known to you. All leading to a better and more capable you.
There is no fate other than that which we make for ourselves James Cameron
o4 Love money
Growing up, I thought loving money was the deepest sin. Yet I was an avid reader of Forbes as a teenager, I loved business, industry and capitalism. I read encyclopedias and marveled at the annual output of cars of the US and Germany economies, thinking what a marvelous thing this GDP was. I would look in Boat international at the splendor of yachts of the billionaires and millionaires of the world, fascinated. It didn’t occur to me that a belief that money is bad was always going to get in the way of my ability to run a business and make any money. It was only later in life with teachings from the likes of Anthony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki and Rev. Ike that such thinking was countered and begun to dissolve. You see money is not evil and piety is not virtuous before God or anybody else. Money is like water or air, it is a force of
good and can be a force of bad. It can give life or kill. Like all things, it has a duality. The objects we love are the ones we seek to fill more of our life’s with. We joyously spend time getting to know the things we love to understand and experience them better, its called passion. You can’t hate money and at the same time learn how to make it. You have to love money for the good it can do, it can feed the hungry, heal the sick and build shelter against the elements. Money is your friend, a family member and lover. But do not love money above all else. Money is a creation of man and it bows to us, do not bow to or worship it, simply understand its nature and accept its good. Do you worship watermelons or turkey legs? No, but you enjoy the joy of the taste of their eating. This is the same with money.
Money has no emotions or care of whom you are, as long you figure out how to make some, it will come to you in bags, EFTs and clink of coin. It will chase after you down the street with affection. Money is democratic, it can love all people equally. It will never deny what you ask it to do. It is the ultimate enabler.
Don’t be afraid of it or be nervous as if on a first date around it. Don’t chase it, instead ways to seduce it to come your way. Get comfortable with having lots of it.
Money is the highest of servants, able to travel the global in minutes. Able to reach into a factory in Sweden and retrieve a car for you. To see a handbag that goes great with your outfit and make it yours. Able to leap tall buildings in a private helicopter ride or dive beneath the surface in a submersible. Money is a super power but never forget; it is a servant. One you must love measuredly before it will obey you. Millionaires command armies made of it. And its your turn to command your legions.
Money is your friend, family member and lover.
o5 Eat by skill
Look around neighborhoods and you’ll find houses that look dilapidated, cars that are rusty and falling apart at some houses and houses that have pristine well maintained or new cars. The difference between the two is not luck, it is skill. It is not fate, it is choice and a series of actions. If you are poor, it is because your parents or you did something to be where you are. Yes I know, this is a hard pill to swallow, but we all have to take this medicine to get better. You can’t blame other people for your poverty or your circumstance because then only other people can get you out of them. When you realize that you are to blame and responsible for your bad or good, your mood and more, you begin to see that you have the power to change it. Do you build skills that are valued by society? Do you spend
time learning to be better and stronger in your field and acquiring new skills every year? When I realized I was very smart but did not have enough skills to earn as I wanted to earn, I set about acquiring new skills, I took up mechanics and advanced my skills in graphic design and product drawing. That being just the beginning, because every year for the rest of my life ,I will seek a new and commercially viable skill that builds on old ones and creates new ones. A man with many skills to do the valuable will never lack income or drive a car that can hardly stay together. So, if your account echoes like Tarzan is swinging in it , do your self a favor, get more valuable skills. Most people then run off to universities to get PHDs and masters’, that is not what I mean, I mean invest in skills; the ability to do something specific and valuable. Plumbing,
fixing a car, building a house, flying a plane and repairing computers are hard skills while accounting and human resource management are soft skills. Always balance the two out. There are many holders of masters’ degrees in nothing of value who can’t make a single dollar from their expensive educational investment. Don’t become on over educated waiter. I suggest you look at skills and abilities in STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
The difference between the rich and poor is opportunity,action and skill.
o6 Thy shall not be a loser
Drugs are a great danger to any want to be millionaire. Next to laziness and lack of knowledge/skill. Drugs are portrayed as cool on TV and video games. Kids think it cool to smoke weed, down some pills, have some supposed magical effects and steal a car. Its just fun they say. The reality is that so called cool kids doing the drugs turn out to be the broke adults with nothing but pity for themselves. Lethargic, poor and with their best years behind them. Drugs automatically rob you of the will to act towards your dreams and the ability to enjoy them. Drugs are for losers because from the get go they want you to lose things: your health, your mind, your money, your family, your friends, your self esteem and your life. If God thought you needed cocaine to function, he would have made you an
exotic caterpillar that lives in Colombia. You can put ideas of wealth and prosperity out of your mind the minute you put drugs in to your system. This goes for abuse of over the counter and prescription drugs too. You only need to be a celebrity watcher to see how many go down on that one. Name one person on the Forbes list with an extensive drug problem. You know why? Because the two are diametrically opposed. Bill Gates with a billion to snort, can you imagine that ever happening? Not on your nelly! Stay off the drugs, stay on the prosperity!
Substance abuse is a fast track to poverty.
o7
You are here to create and produce not just consume
Look around you at the world you live in and at all the things you like and think are awesome - apart from birds, whales and cute puppies of course. All these things down to the clothes you wear everyday are the products of human manufacture and creation. Every spoon, car and plane was made by people. People are a force of creation, we inherently desire to create and bring things into existence. This is a force you can tap into by being creative anywhere; the kitchen, the workplace, the art studio or the soccer pitch. Creating and creativity are the ways we indulge the most important human ability: the ability to think. It is also the way we express the nature of the God within us. Like muscles, creating must be exercised to be strengthened, it takes practice and patience, but once you get good at it, you can apply it to specific challenges. If you can’t find a job, no worries, you create one! Can’t
find something to wear? Create it. Start small and go bigger as you go along. This is also how you can add value to your life but also to the entire world. And the best thing about this power is…you already have it in you. But why bother with creation? Because it is the thing that generates all wealth. Richard Branson created Virgin, Bill Gates created Windows, Henry Ford created Ford and Rockefeller built standard oil of New Jersey. All these were born in the creative minds of these men, they used the power within them to forge themselves into giants of industry with fortunes vast. It is this power that will give birth to the idea and innovations, as well as, see the opportunities that will make you U$ 10,000, then a million and finally multiple millions.
o8 Money is best served slow
Fast money is like a fast car in the hands of a sweaty teenager trying to impress a girl. It will sooner crash than anything else. So when you hear of fancy quick money makers like Bitcoin and other businesses that deal in fancy and weird things like derivatives, you are asking for some financial hurt by investing. If a business does not generate value by creating physical things OR offering a physical service OR deal with physical things via virtual means like Ebay, then I would suggest steer clear. We see ads on social media promising fast buck in Forex Trading, this guy made a million they say. Trust me, it is a con, there is no one on Earth who would have a great deal that makes them cash by the bucket load that would run to get everyone in on it. If some faceless businesses offer trips to islands and quick returns, chances are it is as it sounds; too good to be true. Business is a time consuming process on the journey to
correct size and decent profit, hence why there is a break even point in business planning economics. You have to be patient and groom the seed of your idea past germination to mighty tree. Depending on the industry you chose, it might be months or decades before your business becomes a juggernaut in your field. Overnight success is always near to overnight bankruptcy, while businesses that grow organically and with real foundations in the physical realm tend to survive and last longer. The world’s oldest company Kongo Gume was 1400 years old when it was sold. It dealt with construction . Remember Warren Buffet’s warning, don’t get involved in anything that you don’t understand. If you have no idea what a crypto currency is or how it works, then do yourself a favor, learn a ton about it or walk the opposite direction. Steer clear of exotic investments, they can be nothing but illusions cast by others to take your money. Making you a fast fool.
o9 Crime pays with deadly Interest .
Next to fast money is the idea of ill gotten money, an equally deadly pitfall. Growing up I watched the God Father, Scarface, read biographies of men like Joe Valacci, Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino as well as Lucky Luciano. I was fascinated by the crime families in New York, Sicily and Nevada. I went on to look into the Yakuza and the Triads. No matter how one looked at the splendor and wealth, the one thing that kept showing up was how it always came crashing down. You could get to the top like John Gotti or be untouchable like Niki Barnes for a while. You could even hold the country at your mercy like Pablo Escobar, but the inevitable would always be they’d lose it all to an over zealous lieutenant, a special police unit like the DEA or be gunned down like an animal in a barber shop. Crime never gave people peace nor a legacy that is easy to pass onto their children.
With crime, you will have enemies lurking in shadows, from the rival gangs, to law enforcement all the way to the lone wolf whose father you killed 20 years ago. Furthermore crime requires brains as much as it does bravery. Crime is a short term and dead end gig. You leave it dead, hiding in witness protection or addicted to the very vices you made your fortune from. Now compare the Gambino’s to the Rothschild’s or the Grosvenor’s. These families remain rich and prestigious to this day, over 200 years after the death of their principle founders. This is proof of which way of making money is better and healthier. Of which way will have you frolicking in your Gucci bed sheets at night in your sky scraper with no fears of waking up to a severed horse head in your pillows.
10
Its not magic nor witchcraft .
Ever hear people say that someone got rich because they must be doing something criminal, sinister or that they must be engaging in some form of witch craft to be successful? “They came from where I come from!” they say or, “ His mother was poor, she used to sell tomatoes by the street corner”. “It must be stolen, this must be money stolen from some deal or someone else!”. These are the words that those who don’t see the knowledge in your head, the moves that you make. There are many a man and woman that would worship a keg of beer and spit on the idea of reading a 400 page book to seek answers and ideas on how to launch their own business o make their existing enterprise more successful. Therefore when others that come from where they come from succeed, some people start to look within themselves for an answer but they can’t find it because in them sacrifice is something they can’t contem-
plate, therefore success becomes impossible and must be because of some evil external force or power others obtained. I I am no psychologist but I believe the true reason is that if someone comes from where they come from, and can succeed so greatly, then it must be because the person who doesn’t is weak, unintelligent, lazy or doing the wrong things. No one wants to admit that their blade is not good enough to make the cut, it is far easier to pretend they are the best and that their lack of success is because they have been cheated out of it by monsters like the friend from their neighborhood who drives an AMG. Or to believe they are in the Illuminati, a devil worshiper, a witch or a warlock. When the simple fact is, it is hard work, skill and taking massive action never magic which delivers success.
11
You will have to work
We all have wished for a magic wand and insta awesomeness. Life does not work that way. Look at the cities around you, none of these buildings took four weeks or one day to make, they took months to years. Look at the cars on the roads, they were built in hours based on a production line, a design and research that took years and billions of dollars to put together. Look at your clothes, your watch, and the many things you want to buy in life, they all took time to build and required massive amounts of background preparation, sacrifice and resources. If you look at Jack Ma, Dangote or the late Steve Jobs, they never got anything on a silver platter nor in one day, it took them lots of effort, lots of failure and lots of time before they succeeded. That is the same for you. Don’t expect a fast track to millionaire status, you will have to work hard on weekdays, weekends, nights and mornings for more than one year before it all comes together in a beautiful house,
car, or bank account balance. Look at all the kids in university now, what are they doing? Are they not investing money and time in an outcome? That outcome may not be a million dollars but it is an outcome they know takes time to get, and if you have been to college, you have done it too, it is a slow process of building toward something. That is why becoming a millionaire is exactly like a degree program at university, you spend lots of hours thinking, writing, being tested, passing and failing to get a degree of success, except in this case the paper you get is the type that is universally accepted by everyone; hard cold million dollar cash! You will have to trade ideas, time and sheer effort for the wealth you want. It is a rule that cannot be over written, in physics it is F = MA. For every force there is an equal and opposite reaction. You have to pay the cost to be the boss.
12
Skill to see the gap .
Imagine segments of small lines next to each other. Between each line being a small amount of space. Viewed from far, they appear as one line. But when you get closer you clearly would see that there are gaps between the lines. The closer you get to the gaps, they bigger they would get. The more space to maneuver you would find. The line represents a skill. A skill like computer science, mathematics or acting. The more you immerse yourself in the skill and learn to use it, the closer you get to the line and the bigger the gaps become. The gaps are the opportunities to do new things and generate value. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan and Trevor Noah are close to their lines. In other theories of skill excellence it has been referred to as flow. To succeed and create the most value, you need to gather enough knowledge about a
subject to see and take advantage of those gaps. It does not matter what field it is, if you amass more skills than others with regard to it, you can do what they can’t and get results they never imagined. In martial arts they would call you sensei when you get to that level of skill. So grass hopper, become the sensei. If you can’t see the gap, it means you don’t have enough skill or have not considered something. It may take hours, months or many years to see a gap, so be warned, it is a hard journey to making the gap appear and the secrets of your field to be revealed. But once they are, the benefits can be exceptional.
13
There is no weekend
Weekend yeah...no! There is no such thing as a weekend, this is one of the secrets of the Chinese and Japanese rise as global industrial powers, the disregard of the weekend and the gain of work hours.
closer to a business, more revenue or creating new ideas to exploit. Don’t you deserve rest or a break? Yes you do, but don’t make it an excuse not to do things. Make it a habit to sacrifice some weekends to work. After all, once you are a millionaire, you These additional work hours allow can take the kind of breaks that are them to do more with any given legendary; such as a trip abroad to week than others. This is true for the places few go to enjoy doing things entrepreneur and business person that make up for all the Saturdays as well. If you want to be a millionyou gave up to get there. aire, you must commit anytime you have to getting ahead. If that time Remember that bills, debt, unexhappens to fall on a weekend, then pected expenses, malicious people, so be it. As I write this, its a Saturinflation and taxes don’t take day, sure I could be drinking a beer weekends, holidays or naps. They somewhere or be at a barbecue, but are at your door month in and month that won’t write this book nor will out like whip carrying slave masters it give me the time to formulate my demanding every single dollar you thoughts further. The weekend is an have. You want to move faster than employee level indulgence, not a boss they do, the time you need to over level indulgence. And certainly not a take them can be found late nights millionaires indulgence. and on weekends. Those most likely to succeed is the one toiling on a Saturday to get
14 Plan your life
You need a blue print of where you are going today, tomorrow and the years to come. You must know what to do, what to focus on, where to go to get where you want to be. Your plan is not fixed in stone, so yes it will change as the world changes but the destination must stay fixed. Change the destination only after great thought and deliberation.
slacking, because it has a time line attached to it.
Create a plan that excites you. Be realistic with your plan. Don’t put things down just because they sound nice or acceptable. If you would be happy just having a log cabin and living on a mountain then thats what your plan should have with a time line. It should have concrete For me it has always been to have milestones to get there. To help, the wealth to be able to create the speak it out, say it and record it so good I have always wanted for myself you can hear it. It will be very silly and the world. I released that ideas at first but let it sink in. RememI had plenty, I do not lack imaginaber there was once a silly guy who tion of what to do with vast sums of though about turning a desert into a money in business and society. You global city called Dubai and a crazy figure this out by answering the big sales man who saw a world fed by a questions; where will you be by 35, 15 cent burger from a place called 45, 55 and beyond if blessed with McDonald’s. more time? Having a plan will let you know when you are off course or when you are
15 Small is big
A lot of us always want to go big as fast as possible. We want the biggest shop on the block and to be number one and at the top of the charts. So, when we have to start small with a small little operation out of our garages some of us even feel ashamed and embarrassed about it. You need to become comfortable with starting small, it is the only way you will become big. Just like a seed grows into a large tree with the right nurturing, so do businesses. It is the only way this works. Nothing is born an adult, it always starts as a cute little version of its future self. A million seems big but to get to it you start with $ 1000, then $ 10 000, then $ 100 000, then several hundred thousand and finally a million. It is a gradual process and you can get stuck in one of the levels for a while. You may be in $ 1000 for a week, $ 10 000 for months, $ 100 000 for a year or three. As long you work
vigorously to get to the next decimal place, you are going the right direction. You also have to think in revenue and profit. First your aim for N$ 1000 in revenue then aim to grow it to a N$ 1000 in profit, then you go up the steps in the same way steps work at any building. Don’t ever under estimate the potential of the smallest business or idea, Starbucks, 7 Eleven, Walmart and Apple all started as small enterprises. Consider all growth and wealth accumulation as walking up the side of a step pyramid. You will get to the top but you have to take one step up at a time. Before you can walk splendidly, you will have to crawl lethargically.
16
No one needs to believe in you
To do great works we need to work with others and collaborate towards a common goal. However there will be many times that you will find many will not believe in what you are doing nor support it. Some of those people will be your parents, friends or even your partner. They will doubt your ideas, not just calmly but sometimes aggressively. You have to stay on the path and believing in your chosen direction. It is difficult to deal with people doubting that you know what you are doing or are doing the right thing. To achieve something and anything in life you need to first believe in it. That is the only belief you need. Be guarded and hide from those who would break that belief down with their vicious words and doubts. Steel your resolve and use their doubts to see the weakness in your vision. Always fix your plan, research and
prototype it even harder to ensure success. Seek to find the counsel of the wise who have tried something similar or have value to add to your vision. Don’t spend time worrying about whether people support you or not, but rather on building skills to making your plan better. People doubted Ray Croc and the idea of a vast hamburger chain. People doubted Richard Branson and his Virgin Group owning an airline JK Rowlings had her manuscript rejected multiple times by publishers. Kanye West was rejected by Capitol Records before Rockefella signed him. The presence of doubt in your dream by others is not fact that your idea will fail or advanced foresight on its weaknesses. It can simply be that those who have doubt do not understand or know enough about the idea
to be able to make a proper assessments of its value. Mark Zuckerberg could have explained Facebook to a group of Masai and asked for capital to start it, chances are they would have not understood and told him it makes no sense. Maybe an app to warn of cattle raiders perhaps? So, be analytical of the nature and source of your detractors. Remember there are people that will dissuade you from being productive, so you don’t compete with them. There is a reason why Europeans go on about how expensive it is to produce cars and create very hard to meet emissions rules, it increases entry costs into the market and eliminates competitors in the future. It all hinges on the other party believing that the other is right and telling the truth. Use your own judgment and believe in your own capabilities and in your idea.
Though hurtful, the fact is your spouse/partner does not need to believe in you, nor your friends and others. Even your parents dont have to believe in your idea or your plan. That is your job.
The only person who truly has to believe in you, is you.
17
Ready your sword for the fight
The ancient Spartans had a system where children from birth were groomed to be warriors, to fight aggressively without fear. As the narrator in the movie 300 said: “From the time he could stand, he was baptized in the fire of combat. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death on the battlefield in service to Sparta...was the greatest glory he could achieve in his life. At age 7, as is customary in Sparta... the boy was taken from his mother and plunged into a world of violence. Manufactured by 300 year of Spartan warrior society... to create the finest soldiers the world has ever known. The agoge, as it’s called, forces the boy to fight. Starves them, forces them to steal... and if necessary, to kill. By rod and lash the boy was punished... taught to show no pain, no mercy. Constantly tested, tossed into the wild. Left to
pit his wits and will against nature’s fury. It was his initiation...his time in the wild...for he would return to his people a Spartan... or not at all.” The reason the Spartans did this was because they understood clearly; nature is filled with challenges and men that are evil and vicious, you will either fall before them or they will fall before you. Like many thinkers I have always made the mistake of automatically bestowing upon others great intellect, morality and depth, considering that all people were like me fearful of God and karma. Lovers of the prosperity and progress of others. Believers in the Godly nature of all man. Losses in business, betrayals and confusion later, it dawned on me, I was wrong, the Spartans were right, there are monsters in the world that must be slayed. These are
uncomfortable truths we have to accept. The world is not only filled with men with heart’s of good but men with hearts of evil. In this world we will have to battle and defeat them without mercy. In business you will enter not an honorable society but a brutal field of battle, where some of the fighters will use dirty and underhanded means. Consider a man who opened a food store and was soon approached by a competitor at his door step trying to intimidate him, questioning like a detective who was the owner, did they have a fitness certificate? This was a sign the business was viable and a threat. That is how business truly is. Like the Spartan boy learning to be a warrior, you will have to face the circling wolf and be a warrior verbally, legally, physically and strategically. You will either return from the field of battle
a business success or not at all. Verbally you shout back, physically you punch back, and legally as well as strategically you think and think again and outsmart the enemy, yes they are your enemies! Don’t delude yourself in to thinking that all your competitors will come against you simply by doing better with their resources and improving their offerings. Consider an airline that entered a new market protected by a national airline with no desire to compete with others fairly. Rather, the national airline lobbied the government and attacked the legal basis of the new operator. The new operator foolishly had not made sure that every paper that should be filed had been filed and that every weakness had been detected and protected from exploitation. They were found legally
in contravention of requirements to fly in that market and that was the end of their new route and venture. Don’t leave your business unguarded, competitors are like detectives, they will look for any possibility to remove you from the market. Be clever, leave them one; improving their offerings. This is true in the slums of Kenya as the corporate pinnacles of Seattle. Consider that Boeing has taken Bombardier to the Trade Commission to stop them selling their new CS regional jet in the US market even though Boeing makes no regional jet that competes with Bombardier. What Boeing sees is the long game, it sees only how Bombardier becoming successful in that space will embolden to build a bigger plane which will compete directly with the Boeings. Boeing intended to strangle the infant at birth like King Herald of the
savior king. It backfired for Boeing just like King Herald, instead Bombardier run straight in to the arms of Airbus and formed a new company assembling the very plane in the US and giving Airbus a product lower in its offerings ladder to sell globally. Boeing has helped birth a fierce new rival that is more dangerous than having simply allowed Bombardier to enter the regional market. It is to be seen if Boeing gets smart and makes a dash to acquire a regional jet maker like Embraer for instance. Know the game is brutal, prepare yourself for it. Staying in business may leave you with the same realization as the US Navy in its infancy when harassed by Barbary pirates from cities in present day Libya, you don’t cower, you take the war to them and bloody their nose. From that day they will respect and fear you enough to avoid battle whenever
they can. Enemies will use media, government ministries, sabotage, and actual physical force. And if you are the incumbent, don’t resort to skull daggery to remain in control of a market. I can guarantee you the VW emissions scandal was not discovered by some random individual, it was its competitors that tested its products and found a weakness that could cripple VW’s ability to grab more market share at least for two to three sales cycles. They, then fed the data and accusation to the proper authorities to act on it. There is only one way to defeat competitors, study them and be better. The British car industry of the 70’s was absolute bullocks and hardly able to build a great car due to strikes and bad management spiced with sheer arrogance. Whilst
abominations like the Austin Allegro spewed forth from British Leyland factories, the Japanese studied the British product, manufacturing practices and sales tactics. With that they built a slew of cars (and thanks to the oil crisis) that were just perfect for the British market. To this day Britain has never recovered and even nearly stopped making cars all together at some point. This strategy employed by the Japanese is the type to be adopted against any business that pops up against your own. Even smarter, let small competitors come up and stay, their new ideas of how to improve the business, are free R & D. Look at how daylight running lights started on one car make and everyone soon followed. Your competitor’s can be useful!
18
Live by the contract .
People in hip hop music sometimes say, “My Word is Bond”. A bond is a financial instrument that promises the holder specific amounts or payouts in return for giving money over to the bond holder for a specific period. US treasury bonds for example. It is a solid and hard to break obligation, hence if your word is like it, then your word is bond. This is a romantic notion however, the world is filled with fork tongued individuals and scaly handed abominations masquerading as humans. This is why hand shakes and words mean nothing if there is no contract to prove terms and punish violation. America is the world’s largest economy with China a close second. America has the world’s largest legal industry, there are more lawyers in America than any country on Earth. Why? It is an off shoot of transactions volume and size, an economy that is as large as the US has a large number of compa-
nies, government rules and transactions that need to be governed and kept true by contract. Hence the more contracts, the more lawyers to draft and over see them, as well as to deal with their violation. Never do business without legally binding contracts signed by all parties. Peoples’ words mean nothing, the contract is how they can speak with seriousness and weight of intention. Never deal with anyone that shys away from contracts like a vampire to light. There is a reason they want to stay in the shadow and it never bodes well for your business. Not having contracts is like dropping a bar of soap in the prison shower. Whether dealing with government, private banks, individuals, your spouse or family, always have a contract in place written clearly in black and white.
19
Success is an everyday activity
You can’t take a break from wanting to be successful or say I did something last week, so I don’t to have to do anything today. Success is an everyday, every week and every month type thing. The R n B artist Chris Brown did not get successful over night nor did Tiger woods, they spent years and years practicing and living in the space of their goals and acting toward their success until it happened. This is a fundamental truth of being successful. Its like exercising to gain muscle, once you have the prefect body, keeping it is about continuing to work out and do the things that got you the body in the first place. Every morning you wake up and get a chance to work towards your dream and goal, get to it. Its like a building, it does not get built on day one but , there comes a day when it is built.
If you were to stop at any point, you would not have a complete building. It requires consistent work over a period of time for it to get floor 100 then more action to maintain it once its up. You can’t afford to take a break from your dreams .
Every day adds to the progress you want, so keep pushing everyday.
20 Never bet thy whole farm
Business is about calculated risk, and it is not a calculated risk for all your fortune and assets to ride on one deal. It is reckless and a fast track to empty accounts and debt. If you have 1 million, you don’t bet the whole million. You put $ 250 000 in an account for rainy days, you bet $ 250 000 on a high risk high return move, you bet $ 250 000 on low risk low return moves and you use $ 250 000 to handle your expenses. I call it the FOUR QUARTER investment strategy. Further each quarter must be legally defended from the other, this means that the liabilities of your $ 250 000 investment must be legally separate from your other quarters. If the business falls to pieces and the $ 250 000 you invested turns to ash, any debtors owed will not be able to go to a court and take your other three quarters. That is why registering companies with limited
liability becomes key. If one quarter is depleted, you do not take the cash from another quarter, you take that as a wake up call to re-evaluate the one quarter that is not performing. You can take money from one quarter to another, only if you are taking it from dividends or profits in that quarter but you may not touch the principle amount. So if $ 250 000 in the bank yields $ 15 000 in interest, that is the amount you can move to another quarter but not the 250 000 principle. Too many people have bet their entire livelihood on one sure deal because they thought it would the biggest payoff ever. Don’t make that mistake, it is too dangerous to start from scratch when you have made it so far.
21
Profit is a hard place
Reading business magazines can make you think business is easy; you invest and voila you get returns, no stress, no sweat. You hear stories of guys that went from rags to riches, and you think, wow I want that too! You don’t realize that the magazine has limited space and cuts out the despair the entrepreneur went through, or the late nights filled with doubt about their choices, the churning stomach while thinking about how they would make payroll. It is begging bankers for overdrafts, it is being shouted at by a client like a child, it is knowing other people’s livelihoods are in your hands. Business sounds great and fun from the outside but on the inside, its trench work, it is late hours, putting out fires and juggling responsibility. Business can lead to nervous break downs or even outright insanity. It is challenging, grueling no walk
in the park type stuff. Most of the time we only see the glitz and the glamour not the dirty warehouses the business man or woman spent the last four months in. So, don’t get in to business thinking it will be all roses, there will be thorns and they will prick painfully. Your return and profit will have to be big enough to make all that worth it.
22 Know thy why
The reason you do anything will always determine and rule how you do it and the passion you do it with. The stronger the why, the more willing you will be to do it and make what must happen occur sooner. Your why must be compelling and clear and help you find the way to your goals.
To be fair to them and their needs. To express potential - To be the most of myself - doing as much in the finite thread of life we are all granted
To obtain knowledge - To gather it as well as to share it with others so they too can enjoy all the points exFor instance my whys are: pressed above. To enjoy the wonders To be productive - completing the act of the universe and the experiences of creation as God intended for those it offers. like him to create objects tangible and intangible to express the Godly The tool I use for these are a mulnature within me. To contribute to titude from motivational speaking society as it as contributed to me. to mechanics and photography. It may change over time but the under To be creative - The constant expres- lying reasons for it will not. Knowing sion of my ability to solve problems my purpose helps me to get things and forge new perspectives moving, done and with passion. To be Just - The freedom to think as I will and do as is desired within the confines of society and non infringement against the rights of others.
Your why will similarly drive you to move forward with ferocity.
23 Cut the BS
Many of us are good at lying to ourselves, we tell ourselves that we are better than we are. We convince ourselves we are awesome in the things we do without validating it externally to determine if we are correct or delusional. We are the world’s greatest singer yet we have no album nor sang to anyone but ourselves. This warped self image is ego driven and crippling. It retards us from actually working at growing in the way required to succeed at building wealth and experiencing a better life. The truth certainly sets you free to be more than you have ever been tomorrow compared to yesterday. It starts with accepting when you are bad at something, or not knowledgeable enough about it. Pretending otherwise will keep you poor and unable to progress in life. This one capability will make you practice and work harder. It will
make you never comfortable with your gifts and efforts. You won’t believe you can sing until you get 100 000 likes for your video on youtube. or until you get compliments from certain peers or you see others enjoying the sound of your singing. Before that, you are crap and must practice like hell and keep your ears critical. Never ever lie to your self. The entire premise of the show Pop Idols is this psychological condition of lying to ourselves about how good we are. Don’t be the guy who is all ego no skill. Start by assuming you are terrible then improve every single day.
Those who lie to themselves will never know the truth of success.
24 Choose thy network from school up
As children we never realize the value of the right school and even when some of us become parents we still don’t. We don’t see that if we can afford to send our child to Eaton, we should, because the people that our children meet and get to know is an important factor in their future success. Simply going to Princeton or Harvard and not even finishing the degree makes you more likely to get work and business with those who went to or didn’t go to such a school. Just hearing you went to Harvard makes people act differently towards you; magically you are smarter than other graduates from elsewhere ex evidence. Its not fair but that’s the reality. Choose schools on the strength of their halo effect and the nature of their network. If there is a school that has more Fortune 500 CEOs and alumni, that’s the school you send yourself or your children. It also why people join fraternities.
Look for opportunities to attend short courses or degree programs that allow you to connect with the best and the brightest. At worst you will learn a new volume of knowledge, at best you will meet people who may help you build the income generating machine that gives you financial freedom.
Your network is your net worth. Schools are great places to build them.
25
Don’t be emotional but emotionally Intelligent
Human beings are complex, that includes you. Be aware that your emotions are filters that taint what you do and say. If you had an argument with your wife or your husband this morning, chances are it will lend itself to everything after that, the same energy and negativity. You may find yourself going to a meeting and getting angry and aggressive with people because you did not change your energy state between the fight and the meeting. Most of us are unaware of the energy and emotional state we are in when doing business, some people are so blind to it they engage others with a spirit of anger and antagonism so often they don’t realize that they are to blame when other people reciprocate and it becomes a full verbal duel or worse. Be aware of your emotions and how they effect your behavior from one place to the next. It is okay to create buffer zones, so if one event in the day makes you angry, go calm down and try change the mood before go-
ing to the next thing. It is better for you to cancel interactions with staff and associates for a whole day then to emerge a monster ready to kill and destroy everything brought before you. It can chase away employees, permanently damage relations with associates and ebb the support others are willing to give to you. Be calm and measured in how you deal with things or people will avoid your volcano type nature as much as they can. Further practice learning what mood others are in and gauging their emotional state and needs. You can’t go see a banker when he is in a bad mood after just being attacked by his boss or another customer, they won’t get what you want done or it will not be done right. Best to take them for lunch and improve their mood and come back another day.
26 Don’t be an Alien
Being a non national in any country can be very frustrating when you want to make a life for yourself and to build a business. It can get in the way of even the most basic things, from getting a bank loan to walking down the street in peace. There are countries in the world where permanent residency is unnecessarily difficult or near impossible to acquire There are places where you can’t even buy property as a non national. Regardless if you love the country in question and want to contribute to make it greater, there are nations that will not consider commitment to them as eligibility for that residency or citizenship. You have two options in such situations, you can stay and try slug it or you can move to another nation that offers you the peace and space to contribute as well as add to the good of that nation with your ideas and your business. Even the US, a nation renowned for its welcome
to immigrants fails at giving every migrant a space to settle and make a difference, hence why some people give up and move to Canada which is more welcoming. Don’t waste time trying to serve a nation that will not accept you serving it. Human potential is too great a tool and asset to be wasted. So, if you are foreigner in any state and intend to stay there, find out the legal requirements and apply early. Most states are interested in you buying a home, getting married or simply being wealthy as a means of eligibility. And if you have children, apply for them early. Don’t disadvantage their future by not sorting out such issues soonest. Even if you want to move back to India or where ever you were born when you retire, give your kids the choice, apply for the documentation to make it so.
27 Join a hive
Those you go up against in business will sometimes be a collection of colluders who intend to strangle any new entrant in the field in their infancy. You too must be a colluder, not of the illegal kind but of the legal yet shadowy sort. You are not being asked to make blood oaths and vow to never betray the Cosa Nostra lest you choose death. It is not illegal for a group of people to meet at a temple or a coffee house and determine how to block your entry in to a market they believe should be theirs and theirs alone. Therefore, you will have to be ready for them by creating your own collective defense network. A network of those that can help you counter attempts to destroy or cripple your business is vital. Build it as soon as you can. With this network of independents you can negotiate for better supplier deals or collectively push new product development. McDonald’s’ used this collective
planning and strategizing of its independent and corporate owned restaurants to develop new products and to get better deals and quality from potato suppliers. Others have used networks to share common resources making it cheaper for each operator to make a profit. Collaboration with those that compliment your business is crucial to your business getting bigger. Attend network events of business owners that have been in business a long time and of events organized by government entities that oversee your area. The contacts you make will be invaluable in pursuing greater success. You can be certain that those you compete against will use every person in their network to stop you gaining market share or getting deals they believe are theirs. Counter them with the activities of your own hive.
28
Gather a team but prepare to act alone
It is no coincidence that king Arthur needed the knights of the round table or that Jesus had disciples. To achieve great things we need a myriad of skills that maybe more present in others than ourselves. We need complementary spirits that together with our talents make us unstoppable. They keep us on our toes and help us face difficult times. Seek these people but do not be handicapped if you cannot find them, you are able to move alone and to achieve alone. Einstein was alone when he worked out his great theories on time and the atom. Isaac Newton saw the existence of gravity by himself as did Marconi engage in what others deemed madness in concluding there existed radio waves. Success is a team sport on many levels but do not underestimate your own ability to succeed alone when you have no choice but to move by yourself. There will times to be a
duck flying in formation with others and there will be time to soar high and fast as an eagle in quest of success. Wait for no one to join you. Act and more forward. I put this in to a saying coined by myself; “You will have no allies until you are strong enough to defeat your enemies�
29
Thy shall not eateth alone
When you are making fortunes, making sure those that work for you also enjoy the benefits of such abundance is critical. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is for your own good as disgruntled employees can feed your enemies information and strategize to destroy you. Further, in many countries it is customary to let others taste some of your wealth for normal business to happen. In China gifts are signs of respect of the deal and the people you are dealing with, in Europe it is bribery but you can show people respect in other ways. The main thing to consider is that you must let others enjoy the benefits of your wealth especially those that can impact your business negatively. Lobby groups in Washington DC don’t throw fancy shindigs for nothing. In Africa this fear of not eating has created vast destruction as incumbent leaders never want to leave power because they won’t get
a crumb from the new guy or will get investigated for graft by those that feel they didn’t eat enough in the last election. It is also why some CEOs and Ministers in some countries want to die in their office, they fear not eating should they leave the building. Make sure people know your deals are WIN-WIN, never structure deals to screw over other people, you are not a rapist and should not act like one. Your business dealings should be the type that leave everyone with worthwhile value and benefits. People should clamor to deal with such a fair and giving person of wealth. Take a page from the last supper painting, eat together with others. This principle underpins why stock exchanges can exist as they offer people the opportunity to support and eat from the endeavors of others, hence billions continue pouring into the stock markets.
WIN WIN is a powerful way to do business. Don’t be the man who makes millions but has siblings and friends who have their ribs showing. Unless they have squandered all opportunities to assist them or are destructive in thought and actions, always try to ensure you build ragged teams of siblings and associates. Remember wealthy friends make for less rainy days. When you are deal poor, they might have a deal to put you on. And if they don’t subscribe to this philosophy, cast them out of your circle, never hang with the greedy and stingy. This refers to not just money but also knowledge. Blessed is he who asks the rich man for nothing but wisdom on how to be wealthy also. Too often people approach rich men with hands out, rather approach with an ear out and catch the words of wisdom like the soils catch the
rain with great joy. Do however be careful not to feed pigs. Don’t spend your money on people that never share with you or always ask for more but give nothing. It can be simple to see such people, they are the ones you always buy drinks but never buy you even a bottle of water. They are the ones that ask you for money but never pay back. They are the ones that hear of opportunities that would be good for you but conveniently never tell you. These are people that want to see you starve. These people have no business even licking the left over sauce on your fingertips. Remove them from your guest list, make sure they never find their way to your dinner table.
30
The others have thy money
Money is like rain drops and trickles down the hills and valleys of the Earth. They glide gently here and cascade there until they pool into vast oceans, lakes and mighty rivers. The drops are the pockets of the many who you share your city, town or nation with. The force that pulls the water to the lake is the gravity of desire and need that people have for the thing they exchange their money for. The lake and ocean are the place you build for the money to go. It can be a bank, a stock exchange or a city. You must be where the money goes. You must be where the money just feels so natural and happy to flow. The resistance to coming to you must be as little as possible. And where that money comes from is the pockets of others. Rupert Murdock did not print the billions cuddling in his bank account whispering seduction to his ego, every dollar he has came from another human being giving it to him.
That is where money truly comes from, other people giving it to you! Do you not give your money over for restaurant meals, a cellphone, clothes and a gas at the gas station? You give your money to others who have built paths that allow them to accumulate it by meeting your needs and desires. If you want money, you have to know that the millions you seek are already in existence, waiting to be seduced to you. as you give to others, now learn to build a way to receive it as well.
31
Thou shall go global
Millionaire ambition requires growth, you never stop with one shop, one office, or a handful of clients. You start where you are and use the profits from that to grow global. You chase down money from everywhere on the planet via partnerships, the Internet and franchise. There is more money beyond your neighborhood than you have ever seen. You must be like a virus, aggressive in how you spread from your source. The more places the machine you create can collect money from at more times and more ways the better. The more money you will have to fund your vision and your business. This is especially true for those in Africa who allow the most barriers to exist between themselves and the world. Their only solution is the aggressive expansion into the African region and beyond. Only a specific segment of South Africa is presently showing this tendency and reaping the benefits.
You can also take advantage of global market places to raise capital for your ideas and businesses. The interest rates of one region of the world can see money looking for another place to grow and be used. This is because money only gains value from being used. It is up to you to declare to the world that you have a place for their money to go, and in the process make yourself a millionaire. With ever less conventional venture capital opportunities being created by new technologies, such as Patreon, kick starter and GoFundMe. They are officially called crowd funding sites or platforms. These can be an interesting way to use the global market to bring your idea to market. Don’t over look the reach of technology to take your business from in a house in Oshakati or Kansas to
the door step of clients in Frankfurt, NewYork or Johannesburg. Try every technology that is available and expand your business . There may be only 100 people in your town but there are billions of people on this planet, a good number of them with money that can come to you. Consider the of island of Japan, a collection of islands that are resource poor in terms of minerals required by the modern economy. Angola and the DRC in Africa each have more minerals than Japan at their disposal. Yet Japan is a global giant and they are not. This is because Japan has learned the art of going global from cars to TVs, fridges and computers. Japan has more car companies than Germany; the inventor of the car. The export led thinking has made Japan incredibly wealthy and a global power. In the same vein, you can create a business that resides in your part
of the world while being completely sustained by the expenditures of people from across the globe. Regardless if you are in Mongolia, a village in Benin or an apartment in Ohio, you can export to the world. You can build a product and company that can scale up and spread across the globe.
Export.Export.Export!
32 Pay thy taxes
Al Capone and Wesley Snipes went down for this. Wesley is out of jail but doing movies that are beneath the man’s stature. The government does not take the act of not paying taxes lightly, you may get away with it in the short run but eventually by luck or skill they will find out you did not pay and come looking for the principal sum plus the penalties. If you can’t pay, you will find yourself in jail. I am not going to say taxes help build roads, schools etc. Rather I am going to say, building wealth is too important to have it derailed by government taking everything you have to pay tax. Factor tax in everything you do. Government is one less worry you need. The shadow hand of the revenue service could catch up with at any point and destroy your great works in life. Don’t let it happen. Further if you have businesses and a personal accountant, hold them
responsible for every dollar, request reports and have them audited by someone that does not like your accountant. If you have never seen your personal accounting details from your accountant and he or she claims all is well, guess what, you are getting screwed and might end up in jail or even worse broke with no idea where it all went. The IRS wiped out Chris Tucker when they put a lien on his earnings and assets. You do not want to be in that space ever! There are legal tax reduction strategies and though newspapers try to make it look like Panama companies are sinister, they are not, they are legal tax reduction entities allowed by law. Don’t let the newspaper have you thinking like a poor man. Your financial services counsel especially when you have large sums of money is an important component of your plan to be wealthy and to remain wealthy.
33 Teach thy child
Rich people teach their children to be like them. They do not leave their futures to chance, they do not depend on a schooling system that in some countries is dismal and incapable of teaching children even the basics. Make sure you children learn more than the school curriculum offers, make sure they get the best education even if you cannot send them to the most expensive schools. It is the ideas that count not the expensive school. They must learn history, mathematics, indulge in the autobiographies of some of the world’s wealthiest men and women. They must be able to read a balance sheet, understand a bank loan, house loan, business plan, understand shares, dividends, debentures and petrol dollars. If you can, take them to shareholder meetings and investment seminars. And by God, teach them a skill while they are young, it can be carpentry, electronics, art
painting or accounting. Teach them a skill to help them focus and to be balanced. Give them something they can fall back on. Let it enter their blood while young that they are doers and people of wealth, that they are creators and forgers of the way forward for the next generation. They are the bearers of the family name and all it stands for. Do not waste away the lineage of your family by trying to play to a modern concept called the suburban family or ordinary folk philosophy. You are not ordinary folk, you are extra ordinary people seeking to do extra ordinary things and the way you raise your children must reflect it. The future is computers, so make sure your kids have a computer and learn to use it properly, not just to play games but to code and use software for productive purposes.
For instance when I was in grade three in UK schools, they taught as how to program with a language called LOGO. In some countries, children learn nothing about computers until university, so how can they seriously ever hope to compete in a modern world? Tools like Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad and Poor Dad board games can help teach financial education. They can help your children understand the workings of the capitalist world which is the one your children have to survive and thrive in, not to mention take over your family business. To this day Fords are in the Ford motor company, to this day Rockerfellers remain active and wealthy not to mention the extremely successful Rothschild’s and the house of Windsor. Honda’s son remains wealthy and active not in the Honda corporation but with his own motor company Mugen. Education of these people
by their parents not schools made this possible. If your child is fine today, take money and put it into an investment that is guaranteed. This investment instrument should be for the child’s University Education. Imagine if you take $10 000 or $100 000 if you come from countries with weaker currencies and put it aside for your child’s university education. How much will it be worth by the time they need to attend college? Put it beyond the reach of layoffs, bad business cycles or even your own passing. Create instruments that use the magic of compounding to take care of the future expenses of your children’s education. No man or woman is truly rich if he does not pass on his knowledge, his name, his fortune and the potential to do great works to his children. For your greatest asset will and shall always be your children, your family and its name.
34 Keep thy job.
Most of us are not the children of millionaires or even of thousandaires. This means we have to start building our wealth from the bottom up. The most likely first source of income in your life is going to be your salary. You want to make sure you get a good salary as soon as possible, therefore good skills and education are vital. Once you have a steady job, the next level is to see your salary as a source for two main things: 1. Savings; and 2. Investment Capital. Open an account labeled investment capital and put money in it for that purpose. Savings are for rainy days or should you lose your job etc. While investment Capital is completely for the business you are going to start or assets you will invest in. To accelerate this process you will have to be brutal, cut out holidays, fancy clothing and buying new cars.
You must race to a point where you are able to invest in your own business because unless you become CEO of a large enterprise, most people will never be a millionaire by being an employee. A job is not for living the life, it is for investing in tools to live the life via owning assets and businesses. Analyze your pay cheque well. look for places to buy food cheaper than the large brand retail stores, wash your own car not go to car washes, buy non brand clothes that you put together well. Don’t be seduced by ideas like I need to have all the cable TV stations coming into my home, rather read business, property and asset management journals. Your salary managed properly can help you jump into a higher tier of financial prosperity. Don’t under estimate its ability. Always Maximize the space between Income and expenses.
35 Use thy bank
Banks can be useful to you, debt is not evil if it is used for PRODUCTION not CONSUMPTION. Don’t borrow money or use credit for clothes and video games, use it for investment. It would make sense to take a credit card limit of $ 2000 and pour it in to buying shares in a bank or a low risk asset. Or even to start a business you manage after work. Banks offer overdrafts and personal loans that can be used as business capital. Typically these facilities are easier to make use of than actual business loans because banks are incredibly risk averse. They will give you hell and high water to put money on a business idea. I am assuming that you are starting from zero, so this advice will not consider that you have a farm the size of Switzerland to put up as collateral. Start applying for these tools as soon as you have at least a year’s worth of relationships with a bank. If you
already have a business, as well as your job at present, then transfer amounts equal to your pay slip in to more than one account at different banks. This is because banks give preference to those who deposit their salaries in to that bank’s accounts, so it would definitely be better to be able to approach three different banks for personal loans and get three times the cash for business or asset buying. The trick is that when asked for a pay slip, the money going into each account monthly must be equal to it an d labeled salary. Banks love cash flow, so at times move large sums through your account. If you have a powerful network of associates who can front you money, you can use it to beef up your balances on a temporary balance before sending it back. This infusion drives up your average cash access and flows in the bank’s records. Meaning you can borrow more.
36 Know thy credit
Credit is not the same. There is expensive credit like that you find at cash loans and there is cheaper credit at the commercial banks. Find out what the central bank lending rate is and what the commercial banks bench mark off it. The advantage of America, Europe and Japan is that credit is so cheap, that even low performing investments become viable. While in Africa for instance credit is so expensive that only the most profitable investments are viable. No lower level return ideas can be brought into operation. Credit can also come from multiple sources such as venture capital firms, angel investors, banks and special banks like a development bank. For any idea you have look at all these possibilities and see which one best suits your needs and is more favorable to supporting you, but do apply in multiple locations with a strong business plan. You could even do a Warren buffet and go to friends, and
the community to raise the money. I would also recommend testing the faith of your fellow church, synagogue or mosque members in an idea, and see if maybe they would not like to be great investors. After all you see them every time you go to worship and can have a meeting on progress right after the mass. Credit comes in seven major forms in my model of credit categorization: Short term Long term High cost Low cost Collateral dependent Earnings dependent Unsecured (Rare) Also be weary not to take money from people just like that, you want to be sure you have financial partners that are good for the business not those that will show up after two
weeks demanding returns when the plan said 6 months or those that will then send their relatives and friends to you for employment because they own some of the business in their eyes. Be careful of whom you take money from or you will find yourself in the position of Greece and Africans that take aid too eagerly; getting told what you should do, when and how. In any case of finance, do the projections and see what the actual cost of the loan is in terms of money and control of the business. Jack Ma almost lost his business because of whom he allowed to buy part of his business. Remember hostile take overs are real. People can kick you out of your own business using the money you borrowed as the entry point.
Be careful who you borrow money from.
37 Protect thy legacy
Being young often makes most of us not think of what happens when we pass on, so we don’t plan for what we would want to say or do before that day comes. Embracing mortality sobers you up and makes you realize that you really don’t have as much time as you think. It makes you work faster, knowing full well that some time in the future your journey will end. It also makes you learn to stop fearing it, it is as part of life as is birth. It also forces you to ask yourself, what is important to you? What must you definitely do with this life? In getting ready to die, you get ready to live the best you can right now. This means you also need to have a will, especially as an aspiring high net worth individual. This means you need to codify in a document what you stand for and what your family stands for. Share it with your children and your family. Create a family
banner and raise it on the mantle of your home. You are not just some random person, you are the first of your name and need one worthy of passing on to you children. Consider how today we still look at the Rockefellers and the Rothschild’s with respect. It is no accident, their ancestor did what they could to establish a name and assets that could be transferred generations into the future. Only through your deeds will yours be remembered. I borrow from a fictional character Tywin Lanister whose words said something profoundly true with regard to this: Tywin Lannister: Your mother’s dead. Before long I’ll be dead, and you and your brother and your sister and all of her children, all of us dead, all of us rotting underground. It’s the family name that lives on. It’s all
that lives on. Not your personal glory, not your honor... but family. You understand?
Fear not death but fear not living.
38 Act now
Nothing in these 37 points before this one matter, if you do not take action. You must take not just a little but incredible levels of action or nothing will change in your life. Staying in a comfortable bubble will not stretch you to grow. Becoming wealthier requires you to grow your contributions and your productivity in order to receive the growth in money and prestige. You have to do more to have more, that simple. There is no negotiating or running away from that. There is no one out there just waiting to help you become rich, you have to do it yourself. It is a do for self. DIY. You have to get up from what ever level you are on now and start working a clear and concrete plan to get to move up and forward. It does not matter if all you are earning now is 10 bucks, as long as you plan to earn 15, then 20, then 30 and so on until
you reach a million. It takes baby steps before you will be able to make leaps. Everything you do must push you toward your goal. Every book you read, every person you choose to spend time with and everything you think about.
Take massive action. Run, jump and crawl forward. Just succeed!
39
Choose your partner well
The person that wakes up next to you can be the greatest champion and a source of strength in the tough times. That person can also be a force of distractive potential. The wrong partner can derail or slow your ability to get ahead in life. Finding the right partner therefore becomes a critical issue that affects everything from being and staying successful and to how you raise your children to take over after you.
If they don’t or don’t support it, consider if the relationship is for you.
We have all had relationships with someone who just takes, they never give, they just take. They become a net transfer of energy from you to them. That is also not viable for those chasing success, as that energy is required to focus and achieve those big goals. Additionally unhealthy money habits in your partner can destroy any chance of savings and of building a portfolio. It Relationships have two levels; can also mean that should you not be Romantic Love and Reality of Life there, all you have built will crumble Together. Flowers, evenings out and quickly in the hands of your partner. I loves you will not always be there Attitudes to money, raising children everyday, there will come times and to supporting dreams must be on when routines, children and work will the same level. Education levels must consume so much time that all you be equally yoked as well. Intellectual share is a place to sleep. When that miss match will only lead to drift in happens how will you both hold up? time to come. Further do you know what your partner lives for and do they know what If you find yourself talking about the makes your heart beat faster and challenges you face and the hiccups where you are going with this life? you encounter while working to move
forward and your partner seems as interested in that as they are in mopping floors. You might need to reconsider your choice. If crisis arrives and your partner is not front and center in the fight with you, reconsider your decision. If your partner doubts you, undermines you and verbally and otherwise indicates that they feel you are not ever going to do much or they feel all you is talk and nothing gets done whilst you truly are taking action stumbling forward; reconsider your decision. Handsomeness and beauty as well as romantic love can be a powerful force that makes us do things we should not. When it comes to wealth and being a millionaire, failure to decouple from your emotions and think straight can spell doom. Further look at your partners family, what are they like, are they productive and organized people or are they leeches
who come to your door for money on a monthly basis? Does your partners family impinge on your relationship? If so, you need to think carefully, if its a worthwhile choice. A family that is needy and is allowed by your partner to intrude into your life with their neediness and to be a further tax on your dreams is a family that will pull you back. Consider whether the two of you truly can create a productive life partnership. Most importantly look at yourself in the same way and give what you expect. Be supportive, tell the other person they are strong and cheer them on. When they face crisis, help them meet it. If you have needy relatives with bad manners, keep them away from your partner and be the castle wall against their attempts to intrude on the good that is between you and your partner.
40
You are not your brother’s keeper
We love our brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, parents and more. However there should be a limit to how far that love can go. We should never be burdens to them. At all costs , we should aim to ensure the only thing they have to give to us is time and love not add us to their budgets or cram us on their list of responsibilities. Only in the most extreme of cases should we ever ask our friends, relatives and parents to bail us out. We must also divorce ourselves from false responsibilities. In some parts of the world, you will find one individual as the only bread winner in an entire family of more than ten members. Even worse, you will find that those other people are not disabled nor in jail but simply choosing to beg their friend, cousin or sibling for money versus getting off their lazy behinds and working. This type of behavior is a key destroyer of wealth and easily drags even the most determined person into a space of no progress and no
savings. There are situations where people will even dump their children on the one relative who makes money, turning them into instant foster parents. We must realize, we owe others nothing. We don’t owe our family or friends and much less distant relatives a silver cent. In the same way they don’t owe us their car because they are our parents or their money because they are our siblings. If you have to move towns, cities or countries to escape dead beat friends and family, do it! No one has a right to make their endless laziness and bad planning your issue. Be kind and helpful but don’t be stupid. These dream killers are the most dangerous because they appeal to your core desire to be a good human being.
41
Determine your worth
The biggest reason to start a business and to have a large number of assets generating income is to determine how much you are worth via your own hand not an HR department averaging you out against others in the market space as a simple of tool that fulfills a job description. To be worth more you need to contribute more than a job description in a set function in an organization. A 9 to 5 is great to amass some money to begin the journey to financial independence and to learn vital skills to grow your ability to contribute more. And there is nothing wrong with staying there if that is what fits you best and it allows you to generate the income to build passive income streams. They should be sufficient to give you the life you want and allow you to share as well as enjoy the experiences with your family that you desire. But for most of us the way to succeed is not to stay and push to the top of large corporations
to earn the large salaries. Can the world really be better off with your contribution, that answer is a resounding yes. You have to make contributions in as many places and points in time as possible for other people. Rich people are those who contribute to the rest of humanity on an ever larger scale and in return for the good they do, they are given money in exchange. Money is a measure of the good you do for others. To be worth more, you have to do more for others. You can’t leave someone else to determine the value of that good that you can do, which is why salaries can be dangerous. for some. As an IT man Bill Gates the employee would never have been valued anything near his present net worth. For most of us this will be true of being employed by others.
42 What do they get?
People invest to make money, and to avoid losing it. Its simple but most people don’t speak in these dimensions when pitching to others why they should invest hard earned money with you. Banks and investors don’t just pick their money off the street, they work to get it, even for those banks that practically rip their clients off by charging for every little thing, they work hard to swindle their clients to get that money, so they are very reluctant to give it to others. They will only do so if there is a big benefit and profit for their outlay. To do so, you have to speak in terms of answering only one question: what do they get for investing in you? You have to paint a vivid picture backed by facts and figures and beautiful visuals. You have to bridge the gap between the idea and reality with your presentation. For instance I would say, here is how I am going
to double your money or give you a return higher than the average market return while exposing you to minimal risk. Echo their fears. Put your own money down first. Show them how every dollar in will flow through your system and return to them multiplied ready to make their wealthier and give them resources to invest even more elsewhere. Give them extreme confidence. That is what Apple created with its Steve Jobs annual addresses and product launches. It gave people confidence in the stock and the company’s earning potential. It was not just cool, it was functional and very good business sense. Consider in your own country or town, how many companies do as Tesla, Samsung and Apple do with large addresses by product men and CEOs to excite the stock market and the buying public? Be like those three global giants, not the invisible normal, boring firms who don’t make as much money.
43 Let them say no
Put together your idea and the paperwork and make a pitch to those who have the money to provide capital, make the pitches constantly. You are not interested in who says no, you are only interested in why those who say no say no to get to those who say yes. Remember NO is a multi dimensional word, people will say no because of many reasons. It can be because the risk profile is not their taste, it can be because they don’t like your nose, it can be because they don’t know the industry you are in. In fact you might get twenty nos and none of them has anything to do with whether the idea is viable or not. This principle was very hard for me to understand and comprehend. When people said no to something I was proposing or did not quite support something as I expect them to, I took it to mean the idea did not work. I gave their no such great
importance, it was the sole force of determining whether an idea becomes reality or not. That’s why you have to practice taking the punches and hearing the negative while still keeping your composure, in order to make the plays under pressure to get the win. You have to be doing something and trying something to hear no, if you don’t hear no. You probably are doing nothing.
There is no limit on what you can achieve. There is no limit on the joy you can get from life. There only limit you will face is your willingness to dream and to work to make it a reality. Live unlimited.
44 Cash up
Always keep cash on hand. Anything can happen, the bank can get hacked, some disgruntled or incompetent bank employee could freeze your accounts, the economy could nose dive and the bank closes then all your numbers on the computer screen disappear. What happens if the power goes out and the ATMs stop functioning, you need to have cash somewhere. The richer you are , the more money you should have in cash. If you have 20 million in liquid currency, then you should have 2 million in crisp bills, hidden of course. This is the one time you have to think like a drug dealer, have cash in places no one knows except very specific trusted people. That money is for legal emergencies, payment system failures and just for the flexibility. It is not illegal, it is simply common sense. Especially for those that have a lot of bank debt, transfer assets out of your name into the hands those you trust - consult a law firm first. If you default, the bank will take everything but the things that
don’t belong to you on paper but actually do. If the bank takes your house and your car, but you left a car in the name of your cousin and some re-up cash at a law firm or with an associate for any such possibility, you will still be able to make a quick come back. There is nothing worse than to get to Bentley money levels and come falling like Icarus with borrowed wings, land in the sand face forward like Mr Bean dusty with 50 bucks to your name. People will celebrate your demise, further many so called friends will be less seen and heard from (parasites only feast on plenty). Always have cash for those moments. Unless you are Floyd Mayweather, don’t flash it on social media or to guests because it will attract criminals and the loathing of the average person. Everyday people have a problem processing the possibility that it is possible to have a million in cash in your house and it is not stolen. Keep it to yourself. And if the police ever do bust through your door for whatever reason, because we all know you would never do anything illegal as mentioned
in crime pays with deadly interest. Any money they would find would have receipts from banks, audited records and of course the security cameras rolling to a remote off site server in case a cop decides to become rich by borrowing your money versus reading this book and doing. The digital era has brought many wonderful advances, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that physical money is old school. Ask people in Zimbabwe and Venezuela how that ended up in a bad place because of digital money.
45 Ego dangerous
So many times we think we are smart, stronger, sexier and much wealthier than we really are. We believe that we are special and the laws of the universe will not apply to us just because we are us. God surely does love us and has given us a brain and potential to do a vast amount of things, he however has also safeguarded the world by creating laws of nature. Thinking we are attractive as hell while our bellies hang over our belts will not turn that over hang into abs, only exercise will, that is the nature of the universe. Not preparing to deal with competitors and just magically thinking you are better will not save you from losing market share or money. Only hard work, research and action can do that. This is the trick of the world; you can have what you want, you must just work at it and do
the right things to make it happen. Ego is a powerful drug, it can delude and blind you to obvious things. It can be the state of your health, your marriage, your business or your latest hairstyle. Ego can have you revealed as a naked emperor. Don’t believe too easily in how great you are, work hard as hell just in case it may not be true.
46 Multiples maketh wealth
Imagine if you could clone yourself right now and make ten copies. What would happen? Maybe you would send copy one to clean the house, another to the grocery store, yet another to job number one, an additional copy to job number two and the others to yet more jobs that earn even more money and so on. With each clone bringing back money daily and monthly to you. The more clones you have and the more income you’d make. It may be decades before we will be able to clone ourselves, but there is a technology that allows you to sort of clone yourself, it is called multiple income streams. Multiple incomes streams other than the 9 to 5 hustle mean that you can make money while snoring terribly at night. It means that while you read a book on new ideas, money will literally be forcing itself into your account. Wealth requires more than one source of income and further for you to figure out how you can leverage off the labor of others to earn more.
Whether it is shares, bonds or a flat on Air B n’ B, the more streams of money flowing to you, the richer you get at a quicker rate and the more stable your wealth becomes. Consider it like a tub of water with the income streams being cups someone is using to fill the tub. The more cups being used, the faster the tub fills. On top of that should one cup be removed, your tub will still remain being filled. Rich people look to getting as many cups as possible to fill their tub while a salaried individual has only one cup. Remove that one cup and that persons life starts to collapse. Think of the same tub as having a whole at the bottom called expenses, whose size you determine. With no cups refilling the tub, it drains completely. Poor people have a whole tin theirs the same size as the volume of the cup they pour into the tub. To get rich and wealthy, get multiple streams pouring in now.
47 Build product
People exchange money for goods or services. These are goods that others make and you purchase but they can also be products that you create. They can be inventions that you make with your skills and imagination. Do not discount the power of yourself as a source of new ideas and products. Products don’t have to be complex and advanced pieces of technology.
You would save others time finding out what works best and in driving around to get them from difference places for themselves. Building product is about experimenting and maximizing value with your imagination. So, if you are wondering what a future millionaire like you should spend down time doing, the answer is create new ideas and products.
For instance I went into a shop one day and saw a pack of beers from several countries that someone else had bundled into an international six pack. It was a new product and profitable to him/her, even though the products bundled were available as individual products. Its the same as bundling car care products you get off the shelf such as a micro fiber cloth, a windscreen wash and car body spray. They may all be available on their own, they may be things you can buy in a few places but by the simple act of bundling them and putting a promise on it you value. How?
After reading this book, you should practice building your own products. They are the source of present and future income. Consider the book: Lord of the Rings, the writer did not make too much off them when he was alive but his heirs have made fortunes from it via cartoons, reprints and of course the record breaking box office movies made out of them. Tolkien made a product and his children and great grand children are enjoying the benefits now and will do so into the future. Build product. It will pay dividends many times over.
48
Get others to build your dream
You are not an octopus nor a spider with multiple legs or tentacles to do many things at once. Humans beings can only do so much in the limited time of a given day. However you can multiply your efforts via buying the time of others or co-opting people to your dreams. For instance, notice how everyone says Alexandria the great conquered this or that or Edison invented the light bulb or Tesla gave us a electricity. Yet they did nothing by themselves. It was vast numbers of followers that made their achievements possible. They bought the fighting spirit, thinking mind and tinkering hands of others to magnify those of their own. These men working for them were paid in money and prestige. The same way many companies and their owners continue to do today. This is the magic of controlling mass labor via wages. By the employment of others, you gain access to their time, their energy and capabilities. You can gain 240 hours in one day by simply
employing 20 men to work for you ten hours a day. Scaling up you could gain 2 400 hours of outcome a day by hiring 200 people for ten hours a day! Who would be able to match your day of progress? The world is filled with men and women that have no direction and those who have direction but are happy to follow someone’s else dream or goal rather than their own. These people are a resource that can make your objectives come true sooner and much faster. To find such people you need a clear direction to lead them and resources to make it worth their while in the monetary sense and also in the psychological reward. Handled this right, you can build an organization with tens of thousands of people who all get something out for giving their talents to you. The sooner you start doing this, the quicker you build and multiply your fortune.
49 Make it your way
Often times we scratch our heads about how we will make money. Where will it come from we quip? The answer is everywhere. There is money everywhere! Anything people are willing to pay for can make money. It can be lipstick, cars, hair shampoo or plastic animals. The world is filled with people who have made their money from things that seem so silly, its hard to believe that one could make enough money to amount to $ 1000 not to mention a million. Consider these ridiculous millionaire rises; Mathew Osborne gained riches via pooper scooper services, while Phil Ozersky became U$ 3 million richer by catching and selling a ball during a crucial baseball game, in which he caught the legendary ball as it flew his way amongst the spectator stands. Frank Warren cleverly asked people to send him postcards with their secrets written at the back. Once he amassed a room full of these cards
, he wrote books based off their secrets and became a millionaire. So don’t worry too much, there is money to be made. The key is to come up with an idea and to execute it. It may seem silly to other people, but if you think it can work, go ahead and make it happen. Felix Kjellberg for instance made his money on youtube by creating video game walk throughs, that means he made videos of how to play video games! What ever idea you have, even if you think it is crazy, don’t be too harsh someone has already made a million in a lot weirder ways than you can imagine. Why not you? This also means look in places others do not, go your own way and interrogate your own imagination for the crazy ideas.
50 A very sexy danger
If you have not heard of the hashtag ME TOO than you need to pay attention. If you have not seen the fall of Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, then you need to wake up to a danger that follows men and women. An inappropriate touch, kiss and spank on the butt that might have been brushed off as nothing in 1965 will today land you in social and real court. You can lose your prestige, financial support and dim your fortunes by not being careful how and when you interact with people of the opposite sex. Dominique Strauss Kahn was slated to be the next French president when on a trip to New York city he was arrested for inappropriate behavior toward a woman that worked at the hotel he was staying. A future French presidency was destroyed in mere hours. Do not underestimate this danger. Never touch people in a manner that
may be misunderstood nor make comments worthy of Donald Trump grabbing things by places they should not be. Protect your mission and everything you build. Dave Chapelle once had a skit about the need for a legally binding concessional sex act contract, it was a funny reminder to our times and a real point to consider adopting. There will be those that will want to engage you so as to create something they can use to blackmail you. Don’t under estimate the lows others will go to get some of what you have. Nor the cost of the wrong touch. Keep your hands off other people and rather on your goals.
51
Temper thy anger
Anger can be like an atomic weapon, detonating it, can spew energy that shreds everything around you to pieces. There are times where it can be tactical to use it but there are also times to keep the nuclear briefcase close and not start world war three. It can also be used against you if clever people figure out that you are quick to anger. Anger floods your body with emotion that blinds your mind from calculated thought and action. Keeping your cool allows you to move more intelligently and smoothly. In 71 BC, the wealthiest man in the Roman empire Crassus defeated the uprising of the Thracian Spartacus, however he was later out outmaneuvered by the astute Pompey who took the victory as his own by reporting it first after his own troops engaged
a band of separate warriors from Spartacus’s group. Crassus did not anger at the revelation but instead agreed that indeed Pompey had defeated the great Spartacus. Julius Caesar wanted to do something about it but Crassus knew better than to anger easily to his own disadvantage and to rather be clear headed and continue to build his fortunes instead. This does not mean never anger, know when to use it as a tool and when to stay composed. A person of destiny tames the primitive forces that rage within him or her. The same Crassus at another point used decimation, a brutal discipline technique to punish cowardice in his men. It was an appropriate means to keep his army intact and the spirit to fight fierce in that era. Let anger rule you and your enemies and situations will always control you.
52 Kill the disease
Becoming a millionaire is like sewing a seed, tending it and waiting for it to grow and give up its fruits. This is a law of nature. It takes time and for you to see the results of the things you do today, you need to be alive to see them. Aside from accidents and unfortunate events, check ups and safe behavior can help you avoid pathogens and death before your time. Cancer is no joke, so get used to getting screened for it every year if you can. Our world has chemicals in it that never existed when man was younger and less inventive. These new elements expose our bodies to things that can lead to cancer as does exposure to the powerful rays of the sun. For readers in Africa, and other places where unknown diseases are attributed to mysterious forces, please do yourself a favor, cut the BS and go see a GP. Don’t take your health lightly. This also means you have to minimize or not smoke, eat healthy and work out. It is amazing how many
men think a pot belly that deforms their bodies and puts a large sack of bloat in front of them is acceptable and healthy. Don’t buy into the its okay to be that way philosophy. Being wealthy and enjoying it requires a healthy body. Take vitamins and balance the diet. Look after your eyes, they get weaker with age. Further don’t forget to look after your brain, your mind is far more important than any limb. Mental illness is as terrible as physical illness. It is possible to age gracefully with the full mobility and strength of your body. People like Gianluca Vacchi who at 50 can give 20 year olds a run for their money in looks, dance moves and style proves that age does not mean you have to be an old person. Use the Internet to look for information on the risk areas in your age group and in your region of the world.
53 Build for the IPO
When Alibaba registered on a stock exchange and floated it shares, it created the world’s largest Initial Public Offering by raising U$ 25 Billion. That is a war chest bigger than the GDP of Botswana in Africa, even with its large diamond mines. With the offering Jack Ma acquired the means to grow his company into an ever larger e-commerce giant to dominates Chinese on line shopping. VISA’s IPO in 2008 raised U$ 17.9 Billion while Facebook raised U$ 16 Billion in 2012. Why does this matter? Because all these businesses were created by people like you who built companies and steadily increased their value to a point where other people would find them attractive enough to buy into. This is very important as it means you can build a business with a specific desire to sell it when it starts to demonstrate cash flows and earning potentials worthy of buying. The markets where you can list for an IPO are many, you can list in the
United States on several different exchanges with the New York Stock Exchange being the most prestigious and powerful. You can look towards Canada, China and Africa. Money is flowing in mighty streams controlled by trusts and pension funds looking for places to send it, if you can create a place for it to be adsorbed by offering good dividends and growth prospects for shareholders, you can practically become a billionaire. And the stock exchange is not the only place you can go to sell your company. SAB Miller; a South African brewery built a healthy global portfolio that allowed it to attract a U$ 107 Billion take over bid from Inbev, which it accepted. That was around 20% of the GDP of the entire Republic of South African for one South African company and four times more than the IPO of Alibaba.
You are rich in ideas, in strength, and courage. Mirror it with a richness of action, sacrifice, positive attitude and determination. And your bank account will overflow with deposits. And your life with the gifts of joy and abundance. L. Maruwasa