I am responsible for my own success.

I am responsible for my own success.

I have the capability to think in new ways.

I have the capability to think in new ways.
I act on the knowledge I have.

What is rat race?

Accordingly to Wikipedia, rat race is a term used for an endless, self-defeating or pointless pursuit. It is just like a rat trying to escape whilst running around a maze or in a wheel.

In an analogy to the modern city, many rats in a single maze run around making a lot of noise bumping into each other, but ultimately achieve nothing (meaningful) either collectively or individually.

Rat race is a term often used to describe work or excessive work in particular. If one works, one is in the rat race. This terminology contains implications that many people see work as a seemingly endless pursuit with little reward or purpose.

The increased image of work as a "rat race" in modern world has led many to question their own attitudes towards work and seek a more harmonious Work-life balance. Many believe that long work hours, unpaid overtime, stressful jobs, time spent commuting, less time for traditional family life, has led to a generally unhappier workforce to enjoy the benefits of increased economic prosperity and a higher standard of living.

Are you stuck in the rat race?

If you work minimum 8 hours a day and trade your time for paycheck in order to pay bills, there is a high possibility that you are caught in rat race.

Escape from rat race? Why?

Don’t get me wrong that rat race is something very bad that you must escape from it. It is your choice whether you are happy to stay in the rat race or not. The only challenge that I see in rat race is that even if you win the race, you are still a rat. No matter what you do in the rat race, success is uncertain. However, if you do nothing about it, worry about your retirement is on the way.

Accordingly to surveys performed in US, it showed that if we take any group of 100 people at the beginning of their working career and follow them for 40 years until they reach retirement age, according to the Social Security Administration:



- Only 1 will be wealthy

- 4 will be financially secure

- 5 will continue working because they have to for a living

- 36 will be dead

- 54 will be dead broke and dependent on the Social Security checks, relatives, friends and even charity for a minimum standard of living.

These, of course, are US statistics. In the rest of the world, especially the developing world, the scenario might be far worse.

In short, there is only 5% of the population have enough to retire by age 65. There will be a high possibility of 95% that we will be either dead or dead broke by 65 years old. Isn’t that scary?

How do the rich escape from rat race?

The rich who is financially successful do not trade their time for money. Conversely, the rich leverage on other people money and time to make money.
Instead of working hard for money, the rich ensure money working hard for them through investment.

Property investors leverage on other people money by borrowing from banks to purchase properties or assets. They rent out the properties and have the tenants pay off the loans. Other than getting the tenants to pay off their assets, the property investors make even more money when their assets appreciate in value. Property investors leverage on other people money to make money.

Business owners like Bill Gates leverage on other people time by hiring employees to work for them. Investors, who invest in stock market, leverage on business owners and employees time to make money for them through capital gain from stocks.

Can an average ordinary person escape from rat race?

Absolutely Yes!

No doubt it is difficult to leave our comfort zone and risking the secure regular paychecks to pay off our bills. We need to take the first step and action to start somewhere. We need to change our mentality and reprogram our minds to mirror the millionaire minds.

At the same time, we have to start financial planning and saving to cumulate capital. Acquire the skills to generate passive income. Learn how to invest in assets like properties, stock market, etc or own and run businesses.

As our assets growing which in return generating more money, more money will increase our capability to increase the number or size of assets. The same “money working hard” cycle repeats by itself until such time that we no longer need to trade our time for money where we can live, work, play and give freely.

Congratulations! That’s the time that we are out of rat race and achieve financial freedom!

I am grateful for the things that come into my life

I am grateful for the things that come into my life.

"Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve." ~ Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich, written by Napoleon Hill, is a motivational book and a collection of principles for the attainment of wealth and financial freedom.

When Napoleon Hill was a journalist for Success magazine, he was sent to interview the richest man in America, steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie offered to give Napoleon “the greater part of his fortune”, which turned out not to be money but his accumulated wisdom on how anyone could become wealthy.

Napoleon who was a poor journalist, armed with just an introductory letter from Carnegie, set out to interview over five hundred successful people including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Elmer Gates, Charles M. Schwab, Theodore Roosevelt, William Wrigley Jr, John Wanamaker, WIlliam Jennings Bryan, George Eastman, Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, John D. Rockefeller, F. W. Woolworth, Jennings Randolph, etc, to find a success formula that could be used by the average person.

Napoleon then revealed this priceless wisdom of his research in the form of the thirteen steps to success in Think and Grow Rich. This book was essentially a condensed version of this larger work and a sum total of the numerous interviews and research by Napoleon about the rich people in the world.

Napoleon talked to these successful people at length and tried to devise out their paths to success. Napoleon also dealt with many more factors in his book about why some people attain success while some others do not. Andrew Carnegie had an obsession for being successful and wealthy. He wanted more and more people to achieve this level of success and money too.

Think and Grow Rich is the master book of all other wealth-creation or self-development books. It took twenty long years for Napoleon to collect and assimilate all the information in this book. The main and underlying message in the book is that you can achieve whatever you want in life if you have sufficient desire to achieve it.

Napoleon Hill drafts out the various success principles outlined in the success stories of the rich and successful. He divulges all the secrets of these individuals while on their rise to the top. Most of the top achievers of today are thankful to Napoleon Hill for helping them draft and chart their way to success and wealth.

Think and Grow Rich is a book written almost seventy to eighty years back. Therefore, the language is a bit formal and repetitive. I highly recommend this book despite these minor drawbacks. Rather, these do not amount to drawbacks, as the book is perfect for the written period. Even today, Think and Grow Rich is a very useful book.

Here are some interesting observations by Napoleon Hill, the greatest gurus on achieving success:

"Before us lie two paths -- honesty and dishonesty.

The shortsighted embark on the dishonest path; the wise on the honest.

For the wise know the truth; in helping others we help ourselves; and in hurting others we hurt ourselves.

Character overshadows money, and trust rises above fame. Honesty is still the best policy.”


"Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge."


"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements."


"Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit."


"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit."


"Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it."


"If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self."


"One must marry one's feelings to one's beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one's life."


"The ladder of success is never crowded at the top."


"The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail."


"Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy."


"War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man."


"When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal."


"You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee."


"I have proved, times too numerous to enumerate, to my own satisfaction at least, that every human brain is both a broadcasting and a receiving station for vibrations of thought frequency."


"If this theory should turn out to be a fact, and methods of reasonable control should be established, imagine the part it would play in the gathering, classifying and organising of knowledge. The possibility, much less the probability, of such a reality, staggers the mind of man!"


"The sixth sense is that portion of the subconscious mind which has been referred to as the creative imagination. It has also been referred to as the 'receiving set' through which ideas, plans and thoughts flash into the mind. The flashes are sometimes called hunches or inspirations."


"The sixth sense defies description! It cannot be described to a person who has not mastered the other principles of this philosophy, because such a person has no knowledge and no experience with which the sixth sense may be compared. Understanding the sixth sense comes only by meditation through mind development from within."


"After you have mastered the principles described in this book, you will be prepared to accept as truth a statement which may, otherwise, be incredible to you, namely:

"Through the aid of the sixth sense, you will be warned of impending dangers in time to avoid them and notified of opportunities in time to embrace them."

"There comes to your aid and to do your bidding, with the development of the sixth sense, a 'guardian angel' who will open to you at all times the door to the temple of wisdom.""

When you know what you want, and you want it badly enough, you’ll find a way to get it.

When you know what you want, and you want it badly enough, you’ll find a way to get it.

You Will Only Go As Far As You Think You Can Go!

You Will Only Go As Far As You Think You Can Go!

Michelangelo and the Flaw Stone

We admire perfection and it is always inspirational to see everything is perfect in life.

Often quick to reject thing which has flaw, we don’t realize that, in working around the flaws, some of the world’s most perfect masterpieces were created.

A massive, solid piece of Carrara marble lying unused in a field for 40 years.

The marble had been abandoned and forgotten.

A large gash scarred its side.

Today, that same piece of marble is visited by millions of people all over the world.

The abandoned and scarred stone was transformed into one of the world’s greatest masterpieces.

In 1501, Michelangelo Buonarroti won a commission from the Florentine elders to work on the flawed block of marble.

Other sculptors assumed the block would break under the strain of the huge gouge in its side.

Yet Michelangelo was able to see behind the ruined surface something that no one else could see.

With chisel and mallet, he worked around the flaw.

Weeks, months and years passed, as the master hammered and sculpted the scarred stone.

Finally, there emerged from under his skillful hands the figure of a man which was said to be so perfect that it lacked only life itself.

After 4 years of painstaking carving, Michelangelo was able to release the beautiful image of “David” from flawed marble.

In doing so, the transformed the block rejected by others into the most striking sculpture in Florence.

David’s eyes are watchful…the veins in his hands and arms reveal his strength…a stone rests in his right hand, his body, seems a reservoir of energy, standing poised for action.

When asked how he accomplished such an incredible transformation, Michelangelo said that David was already in the piece of marble…he merely removed everything that wasn’t David, including the flaw.

In the same way that Michelangelo saw David in a block of stone, then, chiseled away the flaw and the excess until David appeared, envision yourself, your life as you wish it to that image.

In doing so, you will discover that inside every person, even the scarred ones, there is a masterpiece waiting to be brought to life.

By SkyQuestCom.com

Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to...

"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage."

~ Niccolo Machiavelli

Learn to help people with more than just their jobs; help them with their lives.

Learn to help people

with more than

just their jobs;

help them with their lives.

Discover The Fortune That Lies Hidden Everywhere

A few tips discover from a network marketing book by Robert Kiyosaki, The Business School For People Who Like Helping People.

Robert Kiyosaki is the author of international bestselling book, Rich Dad Poor Dad. Robert is famous for his sayings that “we go to school to learn to work hard for money. I write books and create products that teach people how to have money work hard for them…so they can enjoy the luxuries of this great world we live in.”

In this book, The Business School For People Who Like Helping People – The 8 Hidden Values of A Network Marketing Business, Other Than Making Money, Robert emphasize again that the overall population can be divided into four major groups.

The first two groups can further be categorized as “Work” or individuals who income potential is finite. They are also called active income group because they have to exchange time for money. If they stop working, they stop earning money.

Who are the active income earners or “Work” group?

1. Those who are Employed or employees who work for a system (a business, a corporation, a government,…etc) or stuck in the rat race treadmills because they have to exchange their time for paychecks. There is not really a lot of favorable advantage for these groups of people from wealth accumulation and financial freedom perspective.

2. Self-Employed – self employed people (e.g. lawyers, doctors, ...etc.) themselves are a system. If they stop, there is no system left to work on its own. They, like the employed, must work and exchange their time for money, if not, they will not be paid or earn any money. There is also not a lot of favorable setup for the 2nd group self-employed people from wealth accumulation and financial liberty perspective, although they do have some added benefit of generating greater financial growth than employees.

The next two groups are categorized as “Network” where we usually find the rich and wealthy. More importantly, they are the ones who recognized the importance of operating as a team and their income potential is infinite. They are called passive income earners because these groups of people do not have to exchange time for money. In other words, they have both financial and time freedom. According to research, they are also the top 5% population who own 95% of the wealth in this planet earth. This network category is where all of us should eventually move to…

Who are the “Networkers”?

3. Business owners such as Bill Gates, Carlos Slim Helu, are those who own a system but do not work in the system. A business owner set up businesses in such a way that it is a system that can be run by anybody (just like a McDonald's franchise). They then hire workers to plug into the system, work for them, and bring them money.

4. Investors (e.g.Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world) are those who invest in a system (corporation, securities, stocks, foreign currency, commodities,…etc) but do not need to work in the system. An investor has investments in systems that work for them and make them big money.

Do you see the key difference between these two categories, the Work and the Network? The people in the first Work category have to exchange time for money or stuck in the rat race wheel. If they do not give up their time, they will not get the paychecks.

The people in the second Network category can choose to work or not to after the rat race. They may initially spend time setting up the system, but once it is up and running, they no longer have to exchange their time for money. They take back control of their time and this enables them to live life as they wish. The system works for them and brings them money even while they are sleeping!

How great is that ya?

So, the next question is, how can we move quickly from the active to the passive income group?

Well, there are several ways, but the most affordable, yet most overlooked, is network marketing.

A network marketing system that leverage on people might be one of the solution to escape rat race. Once the network is established, it allows us to have a much stable and controllable life and frees up most of our time so that we can do other things that we enjoy or even start another systems or businesses (because we have all the free time to do so)!

T. Harv Eker, multi-millionaire and author of the best-selling, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, says this about network marketing in his book:
"...network marketing can be a dynamite vehicle for wealth. But, and this is a big “but”, don't think for a minute that you are going to get a free ride. Network marketing will only work if you do. It will take training, time and energy to succeed. But if you do, incomes in the range of $20,000 to $50,000 per month - that's right, per month - are not uncommon."

Have a look at what Robert Kiyosaki has to say about network marketing. He says it is a great asset-producing vehicle, one that allows you to create assets that create more assets that create more assets that create more assets....

In other words, we recruit representatives (assets that add money to our pocket), who in turn recruit their own reps (more assets that add money to our pocket), who in turn recruit their own reps (more assets that add money to our pocket)...

So what makes network marketing so good when done in the right industry and with the right company?

Well, other businesses grow linearly while network marketing grows exponentially (rapidly becoming greater in size)!

Do you still need another reason?

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to an hour.

You don’t get paid

for the hour.

You get paid for the value you bring to an hour.

Penang Food Paradise

By LonelyPlanet

Inspire Someone's Dream!

A caring mum would like to stimulate inspiration of her little son’s dream on piano.

She brought her son to attend a concert by the great Paderewski.

Feeling bored waiting at his seat, the little boy left and wandered away.

Seeing a door marked “No Admittance”, he promptly entered.

He found himself on a stage with a grand piano in the center.

His attention was drawn to the beautiful grand piano with its glistering white ivory keys.

Suddenly the curtains parted and a sportlight lit on the piano.

Sitting on the piano stool and reaching for the ivory keys, the little boy started playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”

The Audience’s amusement turned to curiosity when the world famous pianist entered the stage.

He quickly walked to the piano and whispered in the boy’s ear:

“Don’t quit.”

“Keep playing.”

“You are not alone.”

Paderewski sat down beside the little boy and put his arm around the boy.

The great pianist began playing a counter medley as he whispered more words of encouragement to the little boy.

The audience was so fascinated that they couldn’t recall what else the great master played.

It only takes just a few moments to inspire someone’s dream – especially someone who looks up to you for encouragement.

The next time you see someone reaching for their dreams, come alongside with them and whisper in their ears:

“Don’t quit.”

“Keep playing.”

“You are not alone.”

By SkyQuestCom.com

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

Without a sense of urgency,

desire loses its value.

How People Made A Fortune With “Fool Idea” II

3. Setup Own Business

The other avenue to financial freedom is starting own business with an idea and be an entrepreneur.

Why?

“Money is just an idea!”

The richest self-made people in the world are successful entrepreneurs who turn ideas into money such as the founders of Microsoft, Walmart, Yahoo, Google, and many more.

Accordingly to Investopedia entrepreneurs are the people who have the skills and initiatives necessary to take good new ideas to market and make the right decisions to turn the ideas profitable. The reward for the risks taken is the potential economic profits that the entrepreneurs could earn.

So, if we have the creativities and determination to turn ideas into money, we can start to run our businesses. Most of the multimillion dollars business is started small by a single person or its founders who subsequently acquiring and leveraging the right resources, talents and leadership skill to expand the business idea nationally or globally.

It is not what happens to us, it is what we choose to do about what happens that makes the difference in how our lives turn out...

It is not what happens

to us, it is what we

choose to do about

what happens that

makes the difference in

how our lives turn out.

How People Made A Fortune With “Fool Idea”

After exploring the mindset required to achieve financial freedom, are you eager to achieve financial freedom now but do not know how?

Or you have an idea but do not know whether the idea can achieve financial success?

Whatever ideas we have, the critical factor is “leverage”, simply means “the ability to generate more and more income with less and less works”. If the strategy is to get paid for our time, we are not leveraging.

For example, if we are in the business of beauty products and get an order amounting to 10,000 bottles of facial mask, we just need to call the supplier and order 10,000 bottles of facial mask. Then, we can happily count our profit to the bank because we are leverage on the supplier’s capital and time to make money.

On the other hand, if we are a home based facial therapist, we are so popular to have 10,000 customers lining up waiting for facial appointments. Most likely we have to disappoint majority of the customers and especially the last on the queue that she has to wait till the Monday at 12 noon, 3 years from now!

In this case, we are not leveraging because we are trading our limited 24 hours a day for money. There is just a limited of 24 hours max that we can serve the customers each day. What about hire more people to serve all the customers? In this case, we are leveraging on other people time to make money. People who don’t know how to leverage will work harder for those who leveraged.

Today, more and more leveraged tools are being created such as computers, internet, wireless and many more to help us generate more with less. If we want to keep up with the rich and be rich, we need to understand the power of leverage and use the leveraged tools that the rich are using. The average use fewer leveraged tools than the rich. People who do not learn to use leveraged tools like computers and internet will fall behind financially or work harder and harder just to keep up.

Let’s explore some of the latest leveraged tools and ideas to attain financial freedom…

1. Make Money Online

One of the latest tools to achieve financial freedom is leveraged on internet whereby we can practically work any time and any where.

Why internet?

Internet spending is growing significantly year over year. More and more people are buying or spending online. Currently, there are over 1 billion users all over the world and we can practically sell to every internet users without geographical restriction to a country or region. In 2006, there was a total of US$170 billion spending by the internet users and it is reported by Forrester Research recently that this number will grow to US$229 billion by year 2008.

How to leverage on internet marketing as a way to financial freedom? The most common way is generating huge traffic to market and sell our websites. To drive a huge volume of traffic to our websites, we need to have the right skills making the content interesting and running some advertisement campaigns. In return, we can make money by selling services and/or products (digital or hard goods) to the visitors. We can earn money by getting people to advertise in our websites for instance through Google Adsense. On top of that we can redirect the traffic to other’s people websites and earn referral fees and lots more other way through Ebay, Amazon.com, etc…

For someone who likes to write, we can even make money by creating blog with interesting and niche contents. The most profitable blog use a mix of affiliate marketing and Adsense type advertising to make money.

No doubt internet business needs more time and effort at the initial stage but which business does not have the same requirement? Once it is up and running, we just need a minimum amount of time to monitor and maintain this business. So, practically, it is a great passive income tool to make money while we are sleeping or on vacation.

2. Network Marketing

The rich look for building and leveraging on networks.

The average look for works.

At the same time, the rich believe in “Your networth is your network”.

What is so great about network then?

Network marketing is also known as multilevel marketing (“MLM”) which is a business model that combines direct sales with franchising. MLM functions by recruiting people to sell products through word-of-mouth and offers additional bonus or commissions based on the sales of people they recruited into their organization who are known as downline. A downline includes direct recruits, recruit’s recruit, and so on.

The beauty of MLM is leveraging on people and the power of networking to turn the organization into a million dollar MLM business. The business leverages on word-of-mouth advertising which is the easiest and cheapest way to generate sales through personal sharing of experience and recommendation.

The start up cost is usually low and we will be given an established business system, services and/or products to sell directly to end users. MLM is a flexible business model where training will be provided and we can choose when, where and who to work with.

Despite the potential of earning significant passive income by leveraging on network marketing, people are skeptical because MLM does not have a good image. After hearing a lot about MLM scams, people are doubtful because it is hard for those who don’t understand the differences to differentiate a legitimate MLM business against the pyramid or Ponzi scheme, which is illegal in most countries.

The key difference between a legitimate MLM vs pyramid or Ponzi scheme is the latter can make money solely from recruiting people and receive “sign up fees” WITHOUT delivering any product or service to new recruits. If there are greater incentives on recruiting people and no focus of selling the products, or if downline are required to buy more products than they can sell, it is likely an illegal pyramid or Ponzi scheme.

Will explore more in the next post...

Part of success is preparation on purpose

Part of success is preparation on purpose.

"You can have all the knowledge and skills in the world, but if your "blueprint" isn't set for success, you're financially doomed." ~ T Harv Eker

In the book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T Harv Eker reveals 17 specific ways that RICH people think and act differently from POOR and MIDDLE-CLASS people. The book is a brilliant yet quick read.

Harv will share with you how he can predict your financial future by identifying what he calls your "inner blueprint" for money and success. Right now you're probably trying to figure out whether your own blueprint is set for wealth, moderate success or poverty. The answer is simple! Look at your results in the real world: your income, assets and net worth. Your results reflect your inner blueprint.

You can't build a mansion from a bungalow blueprint. In fact, the only way to become the architect of your new financial destiny is by revising your own internal blueprint and setting it for automatic success.

I am lucky to be given the access to a recording of a Teleseminar he hosted where he describes his foolproof methods for financial success. I now finally have the tools to be successful in ALL aspects of my life, especially in the financial arena!

I'm sharing this information because the seminar really worked for me and I'd like to see you benefit too...

You can learn from Harv on how to master the "inner game" of wealth in order to create outward success.

Harv seems to have a personal mission to help people realize their full potential by applying the principles he struggled to learn the hard way. These principles got him from debt to millionaire in only 2.5 years, so I figure if he can do it, so can I. If you can grasp even a few of the principles of success he outlines, you, too, can achieve financial freedom.

One of the things I learned from the seminar was that the most powerful truths are simple and indestructible; you can use them to create a foundation upon which to build your own "rich life," no matter how much or how little success you have experienced up until now. And a "rich life" is about more than just money...

You can transform your life from the inside out...

Find out how to develop your Millionaire Mind now!

During the Millionaire Mind Teleseminar, Harv will:
• Reveal the root causes of your money problems
• Demystify the destinies of the rich and poor
• Explain how (and why!) some people are programmed to fail
• Show you how to generate amazing results
• Help you expose your unconscious conditioning
• Spell out how you can reach your full financial potential

As if that isn't enough, at the end of the call you will learn how you can receive a bonus worth US$2,590!

Access the streaming audio Now!