Read an Excerpt
Wealth Can't Wait
Avoid the 7 Wealth Traps, Implement the 7 Business Pillars, and Complete a Life Audit Today!
By David Osborn, Paul Morris Greenleaf Book Group Press
Copyright © 2017 Can't Wait, LLC
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62634-419-8
CHAPTER 1
A MATTER OF CHOICE
Every decision you make takes you one step closer to being wealthy ... or one step further away.
— Shay Olivarria
Building wealth requires making a choice. One day you wake up. And instead of going back into the matrix, you stop. You look at your life and ask, "What game am I playing?"
Maybe it was a life-changing event, be it positive or negative. Maybe you just picked up this book. It doesn't really matter. Regardless of the reason, it's moments like these that create an opportunity. They create a window of clarity to see your life from the outside in. At these moments you can stop and ask yourself, "Is the way I'm choosing to live my life leading me to the future that I really want?"
All of us are, to some degree, sleepwalking through our lives. However, in these reflective moments we have the opportunity to ask ourselves if our lives are truly in line with the lives we would choose if we could have anything we desired.
The Programmed Life
Many of us lead a "programmed life." Much of what we do is determined by our culture, family, values, friends, education, career path, and financial status. For example, Paul's parents thought that education and working as a professional — a lawyer, doctor, or engineer — was the right path for him. Think about it. Maybe your parents were blue-collar, middle class, like Paul's, and believed in the value of a good education and a professional career as a doctor or engineer. Twenty years later, you've made life choices that please your family and follow someone else's notion of what's right for you, but you hate your career. Thinking back on these choices, does it still serve you to live by someone else's rules? Does it even really serve them?
What Really Matters
It is important to know what matters to you in your life. Money doesn't really matter, unless, of course, you don't have any. But when you do have enough money to meet your basic needs, what really matters is what you can do with it. For example, money allows you to give your children the opportunity to get a good education. Money allows you to receive great health care. You can also travel more easily and contribute to great causes when you have money. Sounds like fun, right? And yet money still doesn't matter.
So, what matters then? Everyone's answers will vary, so we encourage you to come to your own conclusions as you ponder this important question. But we're going to give you a hint: It's not money.
Why Wealth Matters
Many people equate wealth to material goods and services, such as cars, houses, and taking lavish vacations. How many times have you heard the phrase, "Money isn't everything"? We agree — somewhat. So, what is wealth then? What value does it have at its core?
When you strip away all your material possessions, any preconceived ideas of the "good life," and all your attachments, you're left with three things:
1. Health
2. Family/Relationships
3. Freedom
Think for a moment: Can money buy you health? Well, it depends who you ask and when you ask them. If you ask former billionaire Steve Jobs, the answer, quite obviously, is "no." He died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. No amount of money could have healed his cancer-ridden body. However, if you consider the nearly 800 million people who don't have access to clean water or sufficient food, just a li bit of money would "buy" them a lot of health.
Can money buy you time? If you ask a dying man or woman, at most money can buy them only a small amount of time. Money is not good at buying time that's already lost. But money — if spent well — can buy you future time. For example, Paul's nephew recently rode a bus 26 hours from Chicago to Boston to see his cousin's graduation. In this instance, $500 could have bought him a plane ticket home and saved him 20 hours.
Can money buy you family and relationships? Again, it depends on whom you ask. If you have a strained relationship with your family, chances are you're going to need to do more than write a check. You'll need to work on rebuilding those important relationships. But if you are an infertile couple looking to adopt a child, money can definitely help you build a family. It's all a matter of perspective. In fact, the more we thought about it, the more we realized that money is a form of energy which is synonymous with choice, or, better yet, freedom.
Wealth Brings Freedom
Freedom is the power to choose and create. When you say yes to wealth, you're saying yes to your potential for freedom. You're acknowledging the power of possibility in your life.
The wealthy are free to express themselves as they truly are — kind and giving or selfish and insufferable. As Will Smith said, "Money and success don't change people; they merely amplify what is already there. "
In the absence of wealth, your choices are limited, and we believe this compromises your quality of life, work, and health. Wealth creates freedom, and freedom is the ultimate gift in life.
Building Wealth Is Saying "Yes" to Yourself
The lessons we share with you we learned through personal experience (both wins and losses) and from carefully observing other people and their approaches to building and maintaining not only wealth but also healthy and happy lives.
Wealth building positively affects your personal and professional relationships and inspires your day-to-day outlook. As you choose to embrace wealth and experience greater choice, over time you will feel a sense of heightened calm, satisfaction, and genuine security — and not just of the material variety.
Building wealth is a way of saying "yes!" to yourself and to those things that are important to you. It's a way to align with all that you love and all that inspires you on your journey each day. By adopting a wealthy mindset and practicing the skills we recommend in the chapters ahead, you get to focus on what matters most to you.
WEALTH ACCELERATOR
Wealth is just code for freedom, and freedom is the ultimate gift in life.
Wealth Can't Wait
If anyone suggests that your focus on building wealth is misplaced, just smile, thank them, and wish them luck. You alone are the captain of your wealth- building ship. And remember, you can't buy back your time — it's finite. So, make each day count. Commit to wealth and build your bridge to freedom now, because wealth can't wait.
We hope that you'll take the time to contemplate your life as you read this book. And if you don't like what you're doing or how you currently live, know that you can take action now that will produce positive change. We wrote this book to help you create the space and awareness so that you can alter your life in any way you choose.
BONUS CONTENT: JUMPSTART YOUR JOURNEY TO WEALTH
To reward you for taking this wealth-building journey with us, we're giving you some bonus material online. The bonus for this chapter consists of strategic questions to help you get in touch with the life of your dreams. The journey to building wealth begins when you determine what you want and take responsibility for getting there!
By visiting the link below, you will find questions, diagnostics, audios, and videos, all designed to jumpstart your journey to wealth. You can unlock them by going to www.wealthcantwait.com/futureQs.
CHAPTER 2
AN ISSUE OF COMMITMENT
The line of progress is never straight.
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Being wealthy, first and foremost, is a state of mind. It requires a commitment to winning the game of wealth. This will require you, at times, to look foolish, feel uncomfortable, be direct, and to purposefully focus your efforts and resources.
So, what does commitment look like?
Commitment is a knowing that permeates your being such that it becomes a part of you. It is a willingness to do whatever it takes. It's a way of weaving that knowing into your fiber so that it goes with you on each step you take every day. If you commit to something 100%, it's virtually certain to happen — unless you change your mind or die. That's how steadfast we can all be in our commitments as we walk around each day. That doesn't mean that we don't take days off, or procrastinate, or have moments of doubt; but our willingness to reignite our long-term vision and our commitment to our journey never wane.
To attentively build wealth, make these major commitments:
1. Save capital to invest. At almost any income level you can save capital. Ronald Read, a Vermont janitor and gas station attendant, proved this well: By spending less than he earned and investing the rest, he ended up saving $8 million over the course of his life!
2. Make saving a daily habit and revisit your spending and savings goals each month. By simply mastering the art of saving and investing, you could end up with a fortune the size of Ronald Read's!
3. Learn about wealth. You can accomplish this simply by reading or listening to four books a year about investing. Learning consistently leads to greatness over time.
4. Search for investments in your areas of choice. It's crucial to hunt down opportunities that produce a solid yield. Hunting is a way of life for a wealthpreneur. Keep looking until you find something that helps you win. Hunting will teach you along the way. Once you've found an investment that produces a good yield, maximize it and find another.
5. Take action. Knowledge without action is wasted potential. Follow these steps even when your knowledge is less than complete. Stop over-thinking and move!
To maximize your potential, commit to these five activities for the rest of your wealth-building life.
The Only Time You Lose Is When You Quit
What if you fail? Failure doesn't have to stop you from building wealth. It's part of the process. If you don't do something you committed to, then let it go and start over. If you commit to taking action, failing is a certainty. It's part of the journey. Create resilience by focusing on the present and future. Don't let a memory of failure, or success, hold you back.
If you've failed at something — that's OK. It won't matter in the long run. Failure happens all the time, so don't waste time beating yourself up. Get over it, dust yourself off, and get after it again. And remember: The only time you lose is when you quit.
The Upside of Commitment
Commitment has a massive upside. The more you keep your commitments, the better you function in all areas of your life. When you know you keep your commitments with every fiber of your being, it makes it so much easier to accomplish goals that are amazing.
WEALTH ACCELERATOR
Develop the skills of goal-setting and commitment to get more of what you want.
As you develop goal-getting skills and build goal-getting muscle, you get more and more of what you want. And as you get more and more of what you want, guess what happens? Your goals get bigger, your choices get bigger, your vision gets bigger, and your outcomes get bigger. More becomes possible. As shown in the illustration that follows, it's a positive feedback loop of choosing what you want, getting what you want, and deciding to get even more.
Develop the skills of goal-setting and commitment, and you will get more and more of what you want. As you get more of what you want, your passion for life will increase. And as your passion for life increases, you will find that you have the resources and energy to build an even bigger vision. It's a self- reinforcing process.
CHAPTER 3
AVOIDING THE SEVEN WEALTH TRAPS
Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never ... have enough.
— Oprah Winfrey
To build wealth, you must actively cultivate a can-do, make-it-happen, fully aware state of mind. This will help you avoid the seven wealth traps and make it far easier to reach your goals.
To build awareness and enhance your state of mind, think of someone who is less talented, less hardworking, less smart, and less of whatever it is you are good at, yet has more wealth than you. The odds are that person has escaped the wealth traps.
In nearly all things, the biggest obstacle we'll ever face is ourselves. By looking at the seven most common wealth traps, we can learn how to avoid these obstacles and achieve our wealth goals.
Wealth Trap 1: The Stable or Cushy Job
We all know folks like these:
A ski instructor who loves to ski
A bartender who enjoys the social part of her job
A flight attendant who values travel
All of these individuals are getting some subset of their needs met. But is it enough? And, do they have to quit their jobs? Not necessarily.
They could still achieve their wealth goals by doing something — even seemingly small — to make a big impact. For example, the skier could create a ski school. The bartender could save her tips and invest in rental properties. And the flight attendant could get a real estate license. Along the way, they can use their personal skills to build an incredible network that includes others with similar or complementary interests.
WEALTH ACCELERATOR
You can build a path toward financial freedom outside of work while keeping your job. There are many paths to wealth, but staying comfortable where you are will not get you on them.
Opportunities come every day. It's how we show up and our willingness to see opportunity that determines our success. Building wealth is a contact sport. It requires movement, action, and impact. Be purposeful and build a network that takes you closer to your goals.
Wealth Trap 2: Risk Avoidance
We all fear failure. We want to get it right. That is human nature. Ask yourself, "What is truly at risk?" Will you starve? Is your life at risk? Wealth is built alongside some risk. And, the longer you wait, the greater the stakes!
If you take your savings and buy a property — one you can fix up and rent out or sell — what's truly at risk?
Is it ego? Do you think you will get ridiculed for failing? More likely, most people will probably envy you for being bold enough to take such a risk. We're not going to sugarcoat this — building wealth involves taking risks. But it's overinflated compared to the risk of doing nothing. The biggest risk in life is not taking one.
Wealth Trap 3: Viewing Wealth as a Negative
At some level, do you view money as dirty? Do you feel like you have to apologize for wanting to build wealth? What positive impact could you have on your family, your friends, even on the world at large? Celebrate your pursuit of wealth and look at it as a pathway to freedom. And, steer clear from those who think money is a dirty word.
Wealth Trap 4: Not Staying the Course
The pursuit of wealth, like any path in life, has its ups and downs. You'll win some and lose some. We see people quit way too early. If you take an initial step and then have one bad experience, is it really time to quit?
When you face a setback, you have a choice: You can jump ship by focusing on the sting of the loss or stay the course and reap the value of the lesson. Just remember: You had courage before the loss, and now you have the power of more experience and information as you move forward.
WEALTH ACCELERATOR
If you failed, that's OK. Take the lesson and march forward with more experience under your belt.
Wealth Trap 5: The Victim and Negativity Trap
Bad stuff happens every day. Life can be really hard. Unfair things occur. And if you build a house in past misery, move in, and hang pictures on the walls of negative things that happened to you, you could easily get stuck there, maybe forever!
Victimhood leads to blame, apathy, and general malaise. It's hard to move forward with a positive vision when you are locked into an event from the past. Negativity tends to lead to inertia and despondence. Don't let a bad occurrence hold you back.
Wealth Trap 6: The Know-It-All Trap
There is someone who thinks that they know it all in every crowd. As Stephen Hawking said, "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." On the path to wealth, stay curious. The illusion of knowledge, the expert syndrome, stops curiosity, hinders teachability, and limits your journey.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Wealth Can't Wait by David Osborn, Paul Morris. Copyright © 2017 Can't Wait, LLC. Excerpted by permission of Greenleaf Book Group Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.