Posted by Brian Tracy on Aug 22, 2008
The Law of Capital – your most valuable asset, in terms of cash flow, is your physical and mental capital, your earning ability.
Your Earning Ability
You may not even be aware that, unless you are wealthy already, your ability to work is the most valuable asset that you have. By utilizing your earning ability to its fullest, you can bring thousands of dollars each year into your life. By applying your earning ability to the production of valuable goods and services, you can generate sufficient money to pay for all the things that you want in life. The amount of money that you are paid today is a direct measure of the extent to which you have developed your earning ability so far.
Use Your Time Well
The first corollary of the Law of Capital says: “Your most precious resource is your time.” Your time is really all you have to sell. How much time you put in and how much of yourself you put into that time, largely determines your earning ability. Poor time management is one of the major reasons for poor productivity and underachievement in every industry in America. It is the number one problem for both managers and salespeople in every field.
Invest Yourself Carefully
The second corollary of the Law of Capital says: “Time and money can be either spent or invested.” One of the smartest things that you can do is to invest three percent of your earnings every month back into yourself on personal and professional development, on becoming better at the most important things you do. In fact, if you just invested as much in your mind each year as you do in your car, that alone could make you wealthy.
Invest one hour of your time reading in your field every day. Listen to audio programs in your car. Attend every course that can advance you in your career. Get personal and professional coaching to help you to get the very best out of yourself.
Get Better At the Things You Do
There is nothing that will give you a bigger and better “bang” for your buck than reinvesting a part of your time and money back into your capability to earn even more. All wealthy and successful Americans have learned this sooner or later, and all poor and unhappy Americans are still trying to figure it out.
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Increase Your Return on Life
The third corollary of the Law of Capital says: “One of the best investments of your time and money is to increase your earning ability.”
The purpose of corporate strategic planning is to increase “return on equity” or ROE. This requires organizing and reorganizing corporate activities so that the company is earning a higher return on the capital invested in the organization. In your work life, your personal equity is your mental and emotional capital. Your job then is to earn the highest possible return on your human capital, to increase your “return on energy.” This way of viewing yourself must become a key part of your attitude throughout your work life.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:
First, take a list of your output responsibilities, the things you do that represent accomplishments, not activities. Examine the list and rank the tasks by priority, on the basis of the value of the work to your company.
Second, take a list of all the things you do, day in and day out. Take this list to your boss and ask him or her to rank your tasks in terms of how valuable he or she considers them to be. Then resolve to work on your most valuable tasks every minute of every day.
This is only 1 of 149 Universal Laws of Success and Achievement
Universal Laws are at work whether you know about them or not. These laws explain why some people are more successful than others. By knowing them, you can explain and predict the workings of the world – and allow them to work in your favor.
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Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Aug 15, 2008
Attitude is Everything
The most important attitude for financial success is long-term thinking. Successful people think a long way into the future and they adjust their daily behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term goals. In a longitudinal study done at Harvard University in the 50s and 60s, they studied the reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. They were looking for factors that would predict whether or not an individual or family was going to move upward and be wealthier in the future than in the present.
They studied factors like education, intelligence, being born into the right family, or having the right connections. In every case, they found individuals who had been born with every blessing in life who did poorly. They also found individuals who had been born or come to this country with no advantages at all who had been extremely successful. What was the distinguishing factor?
They finally determined that there was only one key attitude that mattered. They called it "Time Perspective." Time perspective refers to the amount of time that you take into consideration when planning your day to day activities and when making important decisions in your life.
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Time Perspective
People with long-time perspective invariably move up economically in the course of their lifetimes. When you spend weeks, months and years developing your skills and ability and expanding your experience in order to be successful, you have long-time perspective. The average professional person has a time perspective of 10, 15 and 20 years.
Begin to see that everything that you are doing today is part of a long-time continuum, at the end of which you are going to be financially independent or financially unfortunate. People with short-time perspective think only about fun and pleasure in the short term. They have what economists call "The inability to delay gratification." They have an irresistible tendency to spend every single penny they earn and everything that they can borrow.
When you develop long-time perspective, you develop the discipline to delay gratification and to save your money rather than spending it. The combination of long-time perspective and delayed gratification puts you onto the high road to financial independence.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to develop the attitudes of financially successful people:
First, think long-term about your financial life. Decide exactly how much you want to be worth five years, ten years and twenty years from today. Write it down. Make a plan. Take action on your plan every single day.
Second, develop the ability to delay gratification. Instead of buying something on impulse, put off buying decisions for a day, a week or even a month. Decide in advance to "think it over" before you buy anything. This can change the way you spend money almost immediately.
Time Power Package
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Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Aug 8, 2008
Start From Nothing and Become Financially Independent
More than eighty percent of self-made millionaires in America began with nothing or in many cases, less than nothing. I can certainly relate to that because when I was growing up and right into my early 30s, I never had any extra money with which to start a fortune. It seemed to me that there was always enough, if not more than enough bills, to absorb every penny I earned. I was always in debt.
Be Ready for Your Opportunity
And even if a great business opportunity did come along, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything with it. As I began studying financial success and self-made millionaires, I noticed that almost everyone around me was in pretty much the same boat. The idea of becoming really wealthy was a distant dream with very little possibility of coming true. You may be in the same situation, with more bills than money or assets.
Look at the Numbers
The statistics are a little scary. Of 100 people who reach retirement age, according to insurance industry statistics, only one will be wealthy. Four out of the hundred will be financially independent; fifteen will have some savings put aside. And the other 80 will be dependent on pensions, still working or broke – this after a lifetime of well-paid work in the most affluent society in human history. Now why does this happen?
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Why People Retire Poor
There are two main reasons why people retire poor. First, they never decide to retire rich. They wish and hope and pray, but they never make a firm, unequivocal decision that they’re going to do it. Second, even if they do decide to retire rich, they procrastinate until it’s too late. They always have some good reason for putting it off.
Start With Desire and Decision
If you sincerely want to beat the odds, to achieve financial independence and retire wealthy, there are four critical steps that you must take, all starting with the letter D.
The first step is desire. You must want it badly enough to make an unshakable commitment and to be willing to make sacrifices. The second D is decision. You must make a decision right now to do whatever is necessary, to be willing to pay any price, go any distance, to achieve your goal.
Practice Determination and Discipline
The third D is determination, which is to keep at it until you succeed in spite of all the problems and obstacles you will experience. And the fourth D is discipline – the discipline to master yourself to develop the habits necessary for achieving financial independence.
Those are the four Ds. Desire, Decision, Determination and Discipline. And you can measure how successful you’re going to be in the future by measuring how well you’re doing in each of those on a scale of one to ten.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, make a decision, right now, that you are going to be financially independent, no matter what obstacles you face in the short term. Then write it down, make a plan and start to work on it every single day.
Second, resolve in advance that you will persist in the face of every setback or obstacle you face. You will never give up. You will keep on moving forward until you finally achieve your goal.
Million Dollar Habits
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Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jul 25, 2008
W. Clement Stone once said, “If you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you.”
Throughout the history of American enterprise, you’ve heard the words, "work hard and save your money." Work hard and save your money. It is the oldest rule for success in America. It’s so important, as a matter of fact, that W. Clement Stone once said, "If you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you."
Saving is a Discipline
Why is it that saving money is so important? Because saving money is a discipline and any discipline affects all other disciplines in your life. If you do not have the discipline to refrain from spending all the money that you earn, then you are not qualified to become wealthy and if you do become wealthy, you’ll not be capable of holding on to it.
The Law of Attraction
A principle with regard to saving your money is the law of attraction. The law of attraction is activated by saved money. Even one dollar saved will start to attract more money. Here’s what I suggest that you do. If you’re really serious about your future, go down and open a savings account. Put as much money as you can into it, even if it’s only ten dollars. And then begin to collect little bits of money, and every week go down and put something into that account.
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Attract More Money Into Your Life
You will find that the more you put in that account, the more you will attract from sources that you cannot now predict. But if you do not begin the savings process, if you don’t begin putting something away towards your financial independence, then nothing will happen to you. The law of attraction just simply won’t work.
Invest Your Money Conservatively
Once you begin to accumulate money, here’s another rule. Invest the money conservatively. Marvin Davis, self-made billionaire, was asked by Forbes Magazine, "How do you account for your financial success?" And he said, "Well, I have two rules for financial investing." He said, "Rule number one is, don’t lose money." He said, whenever I’m tempted, whenever I see an opportunity to invest where there’s a possibility I could lose it all, I just simply refrain from putting the money in. Rule number two is, whenever I get tempted, I refer back to rule number one. Don’t lose money.
Get Rich Slowly
George Classon says, in The Richest Man In Babylon, that the key is to accumulate your funds and then invest them very conservatively. One of the characteristics of self-made millionaires, one of the characteristics of old money in America is that it’s very cautiously, conservatively and prudently invested.
Don’t try to get rich quickly. Concentrate rather on getting rich slowly. If all you do is save ten percent of your earnings, put it away, and let it accumulate at compound interest, that alone will make you wealthy.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply these lessons to your financial life:
First, open a separate savings and investing account today. From this day forward, put every single dollar you can spare into this account and resolve to never touch it or spend it for any reason.
Second, whenever you consider any investment of your savings, remember the rule, "Don’t lose money!" It is better to keep the money working at a low rate of interest than to take the chance of losing it. Be careful. A fool and his money are soon parted.
Learn more about financial success with
The 21 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Money.
Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jul 18, 2008
Eight Keys to MLM Success
If you’re looking at a multi-level marketing opportunity, here are eight key considerations. Look for a multi-level business that has, number one, quality products with a good reputation. Never waste your time trying to sell anything that is not of excellent quality. Quality products are the starting point of your success in business. No successful business can ever be built on an average or mediocre product.
Look for Competitive Prices
Number two, look for a company that has prices that compare favorable with the competition. Remember, nobody’s going to pay more for your product or service if they can get the same or equivalent somewhere else at a lower price. So check the price comparisons.
Demand a Money Back Guarantee
The third thing you look for is a 100 percent unconditional money-back guarantee. In other words, the product must be so good and the company must stand behind it so strongly that they’re willing to give a 100 percent refund guarantee on anything that they sell. That’s a very good rule for starting and building any business.
Carry a Small Inventory
The fourth key in finding a multi-level marketing opportunity is that there should be a small or zero inventory requirement. You should be able to get into a multi-level marketing business with very little money. Not more than a hundred dollars.
Keep Good Records
The fifth requirement is that the company provides prompt delivery and efficient internal bookkeeping. A multi-level marketing business that’s well organized will be able to deliver your products within 24 or 48 hours for you to sell, or deliver to your customers. They’ll also take very good care of the books and give you accurate financial statements each month.
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Seek a Strong Support Organization
A sixth thing to look for is a strong support organization. This is perhaps as important, if not more important, than anything else. Look for a support organization that will offer you training, that will give you seminars on product knowledge, that will give you motivation, and give you opportunities for personal and business development. Many people who have started with multi-level marketing companies have gone on to be very successful in their own businesses because of the training they got from the multi-level company. If the company doesn’t have a training system, try to find a company that does.
Honesty is the Best Policy
The seventh factor that you require is honesty and integrity. Make sure that the parent company has an impeccable reputation in the marketplace. Remember it has to be a company that you can be proud of. You should never have to make excuses for the company you’re working for.
Product Should be Consumable
Products should be consumable, leading to reorders and repeat business. You should try to sell a product that people use up on a regular basis, so that if they’re happy with it, they’ll continue to reorder and reorder and reorder. And once you get a customer, sometimes you can have a customer for years.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these ideas into action:
First, look for a product that you really like, use and enjoy yourself personally. You can only sell something to someone else if your heart is in it. And if your heart is in it you will enjoy using the product yourself.
Second, look for a product that has something new or special that makes it different and better than any other similar product in the market today. The number one reason that any product fails is because it is not superior to and different from the competition.
Customers for Life
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Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jul 11, 2008
What do wealthy people do or have that enables them to accomplish so much more than the average?
I believe that these people are successful as a result of what I call leverage. Leverage is the key to maximizing and multiplying your potential for success and financial achievement. Here are three examples of leverage that you can develop to achieve financial independence:
Become an Expert
First, become an expert in your chosen field. Read all the books, take all the courses, listen to all the audio programs. Second, specialize in those areas that are of greatest importance and greatest value to your company or to your customers. And the third key is know your product or service inside out. Aim to be recognized as the industry expert in your field. Remember the person who has the expertise has a far greater contribution to make than the person whose knowledge is just average.
Develop Your Skills
The second type of leverage is skill. The better you are at your job, the more you will be paid. The top 20 percent of salespeople earn as much as ten and fifteen times the average earnings of the bottom 80 percent. There are three keys to developing the leverage of skill. First, make a decision to be the best. Pay any price. Make any sacrifice. Go any distance to become excellent at what you do. Second, engage in continuous improvement. Never allow yourself to become satisfied or complacent at your current level of skill. And third, always strive to exceed the expectations of your customers, your boss, of the people you serve. Always do more and better than you’re paid for.
I’ve found the secret of how people become millionaires and I want to share it with you!
Visualize your own millionaire guiding you, step-by-step, sharing the SECRETS of how you can become a millionaire in your life time. Before you know it, you’re one of those successful multi-millionaires you’ve always wanted to become.
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Save Your Money
The third type of leverage is money. Money is a powerful source of leverage and usually follows the development of knowledge and skill in your field. One of the reasons that it takes money to make money is that the accumulation of funds is an essential step in the development of the personal qualities and character that must precede the achievement of financial independence. In other words, you become the person capable of becoming financially independent by accumulating the funds that are necessary for you to achieve it.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas on personal leverage into action:
First, resolve today to become an expert in your chosen field. Set it as a goal, make a plan and work every day to become a little bit better in the most important things you do.
Second, develop the habit of saving money out of every single paycheck. It was once said that, "If you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you." The very act of regular saving changes your character and gets you ready to achieve financial independence.
Money, Money, Money
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Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jul 7, 2008
The Law of Abundance- there is ample money for everyone who knows how to acquire it and keep it.
We live in an abundant universe in which there is sufficient money for all who really want it and are willing obey the laws governing its acquisition.
You Can Have All You Want
There is plenty of money available to you. There is no real shortage. You can have virtually all you really want and need. We live in a generous universe and we are surrounded on all sides by blessings and opportunities to acquire all we truly desire. Your attitude, of either abundance or scarcity toward money, will have a major impact on whether you become rich or not.
Make a Decision
The first corollary of the Law of Abundance says that, "People become wealthy because they decide to become wealthy."
They become wealthy because they believe they have the ability to become wealthy. Because they believe this completely, they act accordingly. They consistently take the necessary actions that turn their beliefs into realities. And you can always tell what your beliefs really are by looking at your actions. There is no other way.
The second corollary of this law says: "People are poor because they have not yet decided to become rich."
Decide to become rich and Get Out of Debt
Examine Your Own Thinking
In the book, The Instant Millionaire, by Mark Fisher, the old millionaire asks the boy who has sought his advice about becoming a millionaire, "Why aren’t you rich already?"
This is an important question to ask yourself. However you answer this question will reveal a lot about yourself. Your answers will expose your self-limiting beliefs, your doubts, your fears, your excuses, your rationalizations and your justifications.
Review Your Reasons
Why aren’t you rich already? Write down all the reasons you can think of. Go over your answers one by one with someone who knows you well and ask them for their opinion. You may be surprised to find that your reasons are mostly excuses that you have fallen in love with.
Whatever your reasons or excuses, you can now get rid of them. The world is full of hundreds and thousands of people who have had far more difficulties to overcome than you could ever imagine, and they’ve gone on to be successful anyway. So can you.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:
First, imagine that every experience you have ever had with money contained a special lesson that was designed just for you to help you to ultimately become financially independent. What are the most important lessons you have learned so far?
Second, analyze yourself honestly and determine your biggest block, your major self-limiting belief that holds you back from becoming more successful financially. Resolve to act from now on as if this block no longer exists.
Get Out of Debt
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Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jun 27, 2008
Financial freedom comes to the person who saves ten percent or more of his income throughout his lifetime.
One of the smartest things that you can ever do for yourself is to develop the habit of saving part of your salary, every single paycheck. Individuals, families and even societies are stable and prosperous to the degree to which they have high savings rates. Savings today are what guarantee the security and the possibilities of tomorrow.
Start With Yourself
The first corollary of the Law of Saving comes from the book The Richest Man in Babylon by George Classon. It is to "Pay yourself first."
Begin today to save ten percent of your earnings, off the top, and never touch it. This is your fund for long-term financial accumulation and you never use it for any other reason except to assure your financial future.
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Develop New Habits Regarding Money
The remarkable thing is that when you pay yourself first, and force yourself to live on the other ninety percent, you will soon become accustomed to it. You are a creature of habit. When you regularly put away ten percent of your earnings, you soon become comfortable living on the other ninety percent. Many people start by saving ten percent of their income and then graduate to saving fifteen percent, twenty percent, and even more. And their financial lives change dramatically as a result. So will yours.
Take Every Advantage
The second corollary of the Law of Saving says, "Take advantage of tax deferred savings and investment plans." Because of high and even multiple tax rates, money that is saved or invested without being taxed accumulates at a rate of 30% to 40% faster than money that is subject to taxation. Self-made millionaires, according to Dr Thomas Stanley’s book The Millionaire Next Door, are almost obsessive about accumulating their funds in assets such as real estate, self owned businesses and equities that increase in value without triggering tax liabilities.
Invest in company pension and retirement plans, 401(k) plans, IRA’s, Keough Plans, Roth IRA’s, Education Investment Accounts, stock option programs and whatever else has been approved by the IRS for long term financial accumulation. Make every dollar count!
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:
First, begin today to put away ten percent of your earnings. Set up a special account for this purpose and treat your contributions to this account with the same respect that you do your rent or mortgage payments each month.
Second, become a lifelong student of money. Read the best books, take courses and subscribe to the most helpful magazines. Know what you are doing so you can always make intelligent decisions when you invest your funds.
The Unbreakable Laws of Money Package
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Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on Jun 13, 2008
The Essence of Business Success
The essence of a successful business is really quite simple. It is your ability to offer a product or service that people will pay for at a price sufficiently above your costs, ideally three or four or five times your cost, thereby giving you a profit that enables you to buy and to offer more products and services.
Add Value in Some Way
The key to a successful business is to add value by bringing the product or service from another place to where you’re selling it, or by creating the product or service and selling it at a price higher than your total cost of production. You become wealthy by either selling a few products or services at high prices, or by selling many products or services at lower prices with smaller profits.
The Best Strategy of All
The best strategy, of course, is to aim to sell a larger volume with a smaller profit on each item. Most great fortunes in America have been made selling large quantities of products over a wide area, thereby broadening the market and reducing your dependency on just a few customers.
Go From the Known to the Unknown
Early in my business career, I learned another key rule for business success and it’s simply this. Start off in an established field and only experiment with new products or services out of your profits from your established business.
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Success Leaves Tracks: Follow Them
One reason many entrepreneurs fail is that they have grandiose ideas of being the first into the market with a brand new, untried, unproven product. Don’t you fall into this trap. As you begin to magnetize your mind with visual images of wealth and success, as you begin looking everywhere for profitable ideas, you will begin to attract into your life the people and opportunities you need to achieve your goals. I’ve learned from long experience that you must learn to trust your intuition, your gut feeling concerning any business decision.
Flood Your Mind With Ideas
Read every publication, explore every opportunity. Remain open to all ideas. But in the final analysis, trust yourself. Trust your inner voice to tell you the right thing to do. All great businesspeople become great by listening to their inner guide. It will never fail to lead you to your highest good and heaven help the person who refuses to listen to it.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start a successful business by trusting your intuition before you make a final decision:
First, always remember that the key to success in business is your ability to add value to your customers by providing them with something they want and need at a price that enables you to make a profit. Keep your thinking focused on the benefit that your customer will enjoy from what you are offering.
Second, get all the information you possibly can. Speak to as many people as possible. And finally, sit down quietly by yourself and listen to your intuition before you make the final decision. This is the best investment of all.
The Way to Wealth System
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Tags: Financial Success
Posted by Brian Tracy on May 2, 2008
Imagine that it’s possible for you to earn 10 times your current annual wage.
If you’re earning $25,000, imagine for a moment that it’s possible for you to earn $250,000, a 1,000 percent increase.
Believe in Yourself
The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn’t possible. One man said to me, "If you knew how many years it’s taken for me to get to what I’m earning today you wouldn’t be suggesting that I could earn 10 times as much."
There Are No Excuses
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation seems to be money, or the lack thereof, the average person has the inherent potential to earn far more than he or she is earning currently.
Can Someone Be 10x Better?
Is the manager earning $250,000 per year ten times as smart as the manager earning $25,000? Ten times as experienced? Does he or she work 10 times harder? Of course not. None of these are physically or mentally possible, but there are people in every business earning many times more than others with the same average age, experience and intelligence.
I.Q. Doesn’t Really Matter
In fact, a few years ago in New York, a thousand men and women were selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between the one having the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest, there was a difference of only two and a half times. But between the person earning the most, who by the way, was not the one with the highest I.Q. and the one earning the least, who was not the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a difference of 100 times in income.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start increasing your income.
First, identify the highest earning, most successful people in your field and find out what it is that they are doing differently from others who aren’t doing as well. Copy them every day.
Second, set a goal to double your income over the next two or three years and then figure out what you’ll have to do to achieve it. Get started!
Million Dollar Habits
Tags: Financial Success
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