Whether it’s climbing Mt. Everest or any other challenging mountain it’s not safe to scale it alone.

The potential for danger is high; and like most journeys in life, having someone with you who’s been there before and who has your back — to guide you, encourage you to climb higher, and to warn you of any roadblocks or dangers — is critical to your success.

Guides make all mountaintops attainable. And the same goes for success and building wealth.

Having guides, coaches, or teachers to help you climb that mountain of financial freedom is one of the most important principles to guarantee your life success.

 

Learn And Model From Others Who Have Succeeded Before You

What does “model” mean?

It means to emulate or follow someone else’s method.

If you were to climb Mt. Everest, would you try finding your own way up the whole mountain on your own? Or would you maybe get an experienced guide to show you the way and lead you up the mountain?

I think you’d get a guide, yes? Why? Because otherwise you’d be dead.

It’s really simple. It’s no different when it comes to success in any field of endeavor. Why on earth would you try to figure everything out on your own when you can learn from others who have succeeded before you?

That is one of the best things about the network marketing industry, for example.

In what other business would other people who sell the same product as you, actually do whatever they can to help you? It would never happen. People selling the same stuff as you would usually never help you.

Yet there are tons of people in the network marketing industry earning $20,000, $50,000, $100,000 or more per month.

Why isn’t everybody earning that kind of money in other industries?

It’s simple. They’re not willing to learn and follow the method to earn that kind of money, to be rich and financially free.

Why? Because they have to do it their way.

I’m not saying copy every blink the person who teaches you makes. But when climbing Mt. Everest, the difference between stepping directly in your sherpa’s footprint and 12 inches outside of it could be the difference between life and death.

I want to remind you of something I tell all of my students:

Your way has gotten you exactly where you are. I’m not saying that that’s bad, but it may not be all that fantastic either.

If you want something different, you’re going to need a new and different way. Your way doesn’t work like that.

You have to be willing to follow your teacher’s guidance to the letter and do it exactly the way that they tell you to do so.

You do that for a certain amount of time, then you can do it your way.

How much time do you try it their way? It’s simple. Until you’re rich! When you’re rich, then do it your own way. Until then, you do it the way of the person who is successful ahead of you.

Don’t be a smarty pants and say, “I know better. It’s my life, this works better.”

Well… I’ll say it again: Your way has gotten you exactly where you are. Are you happy with that?

Now I want to share with you one more bonus principle that radically changed my life and I believe it will do the same for you.

 

Rich And Financially Free People Admire Other Rich And Financially Free People

I want to share with you a philosophy that changed my life.

It comes from Huna, an ancient Hawaiian philosophy of life:

“Bless that which you want.”

If you see a beautiful car, bless that car and the owner of that car…

If you see a beautiful house, bless that house and the person who owns the house…

If you see somebody with a wonderful, amazing business, bless that business and that person…

Why? Because anything that you negate, you can never have.

It doesn’t mean don’t be uncritical of the principles of the rich and successful folks you admire, but even then, there’s no room for jealousy.

The more you can learn to admire their achievements, the more you will spiritually be open to learning how they did it.

So when you find a teacher, a coach, or a person in a field of area doing really well that you relate to…

  1. Learn and model from them
  2. Admire them
  3. Follow their lead and don’t veer from it until you’ve made it to the top!

Want to discover exactly how T. Harv Eker and others trained by him became financially free, and how you can become free too?

Then watch the encore of T. Harv Eker’s free signature web class, The Fastrack To Freedom8 Critical Elements To Becoming Financially Free Quickly

Click here to reserve your seat now and pick a time that works best for you!

Now, tell us what you think. Who were the teachers or mentors in your life that changed your life? What were some of the most important lessons you learned from them? Share your insights. We want to hear from you!

For Your Freedom,

The time and date is set. You made sure you arrived early because you wanted to do everything you could to make a good first impression. It’s your favorite “after-work” haunt so you’ll feel right at home.

You’ve rehearsed your intro, keeping things light and hopefully funny, but you’re anticipating the words that’ll give you an opportunity to really get the conversation going. At the end of the day, though, you just hope you like them and they like you.

Sounds like going out on a first date, yes? My partner and I “date” as much as we can, but a first date has been so long for me I’m not sure I’m the guy you want dating advice from!

I do know something about creating great first impressions with potential clients or business partners. Just like any other human connection, there are things we can do to give ourselves a chance of making a great impression and set ourselves up to get what we’re looking for.

In fact, most of the top marketers in the world hardly ever talk about product! They talk to get people to like them, so when the moment comes the selling is easier.

The one thing that’s critical for everything in life—not just in negotiations but in making a connection with anyone—is to create affinity. Affinity is closeness, warmth, and likeability. People generally act based on emotion (Something to remember when marketing!), and then they justify their decisions with logic.

In other words, people will usually give a much better opportunity to someone they like.

I’m not talking about flattering butt-kissing. That’s fake affinity. More than likely most people will sniff that out and get turned off quickly. Genuine affinity means genuinely intending to make an honest and real connection with the other person.

We do it all the time and probably don’t think about it much: finding something in common. I’m like you is another way of saying I like you. Take this to another level by stating your intention for a win-win situation early and often. It’s as simple as saying something like, “I want to make sure this works for you.”  

Also, think about how disempowering the word “but” can be in a conversation. Think about what it feels like when you are trying to get your point of view across to someone, and they respond by saying, “Yeah, but …” It’s as if everything you just said was negated. It stings. Avoid “buts”.

These things work great for when you’re trying to convince your partner to see the movie you want to see, or get your kids to eat their vegetables, or get a vendor to give you the pricing you’re looking for.

There is another level to this, though, a spiritual warrior component. Your intention has to be genuine caring for what the other person wants, and the focus and confidence to know that you can create the win-win. How Zen can you get?

Over the next week or so, use due discretion and try to make connections with strangers if the moment is appropriate. You don’t have to try to “get” something from them. Just create affinity. Use phrases that show you understand. If you disagree, make your point without saying “but”. Do this with people that you know! Let us know what happens!

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That’s the easy part—it only seems difficult sometimes if we feel guilty about wanting what we want or scared of what others might think. Once you get over stuff like that, knowing what you want isn’t that hard.

Among the many things we all want in life, more money tends to be in the Top 5. Money makes life a little easier, at least financially. You can do more things with more money. That leads to another connected want on most everyone’s list—greater happiness, which includes less stress about financial security, more personal time, more freedom, greater joy.

These are things that lots of people say they want, but most people aren’t financially secure and barely get by while working jobs. This job might be “more money” than they were making before, but is that the road to financial freedom or simply retirement, and how long will it take to get there playing the money game like we were taught?

And is that a joyful way to live?

That second key to getting what we want in life is the “Why”: why do you want what you say you want? Does it really mean something to you? Is that someone else’s imposed thoughts echoing in your head or your own, from your spirit?

I always wanted to be free. I love doing what I do, but the worst thing I could think of is being forced to do this. I wouldn’t love it anymore. People just don’t like to be forced to do things. You want to do it from choice.

That choice has to be backed by reasons that are honest, true and excite you to your core, like a kid who can’t stop jumping up and down and clapping in anticipation of pure joy.

In my experience working with thousands of people, more than 50% of the people that do this one simple action doubled, tripled or even quadrupled their income within a year:

Write down want you want. It must be clear and it must be absolutely important to you. Write at least five reasons why you want what you want, especially in terms of wanting more money. Put that sheet of paper on a wall you can’t avoid.

You want to see miracles in action? You’re not sure Spirit exists?  Think the Universe is trying to support you if you would just get out of the frickin’ way? Do this!

It’s unbelievable, but you have to do your part, and it starts with putting it right up there front and center in your consciousness.

Now give us stories of your miracles in action. Did a door that you didn’t expect open for you after making a life-changing decision? Were there times when your income jumped drastically? What choices were you making at that time? What goals are you proud to have checked off your list?

Share your stories! Together we can continue to grow and learn with each other!

For Your Freedom,

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Last month we explored how sometimes we just need to be able to identify what we’re frustrated at in order to begin addressing it. When there are consistent frustrations in a business, we can usually address them by putting systems in place that minimize inconsistencies and produce more of the results we’re really looking for.

It’s another one of those no-duh, no brainers that may not appear like much until those frustrations build to the point of blinding us from the most direct solutions.

But we now want to articulate the impact of that frustration on our business condition. How does this thing impact you? What results aren’t you getting? What’s happening? What’s not happening that you want to happen, or don’t want to happen?

We don’t want to be working on anything that doesn’t really matter. If you’re frustrated because your partner starts their day later than you do, does it really matter as long as the work is getting done? But if that lateness means missing calls from earlier time zones, that could have an impact, yes?

So it’s one thing to name a frustration, and it’s another to know exactly what that frustration translates into toward your bottom line. You’ve got to probe, measure, and quantify that frustration. You might find at the end of the day, you’re really getting bothered over something trivial—or you could find that your frustrations are indeed warranted.

If you have a complex system you’re looking at, this process can take months. So how about a more simple formula?

“The real problem in my business is the absence …” It could be a system that will cost effectively generate leads rather than be a costly guessing game every time. Or a system that staff can follow consistently rather than doing it their own way each time, producing mediocre or inconsistent results. Or it could be the absence of a system for strategic planning rather than primarily responding to a competitor’s moves.

It’s just a generic way of focusing. You’re not actually formulating a system yet. What you’ll find is some of these things that you describe can actually be purchased as software programs, or you can easily hire consultants who do them much better than you would. But once you’ve figured out what the problem actually is, reformulating starts to become easier.

“The real problem in my business is the absence of a system that will …” Fill in the blank with that generic system solution and then write down your original frustrating condition.

You should start to feel a shift in your energy in terms of some of these things that are frustrating you. The question that you simply have to ask now is: Is this frustration worth fixing? Is this frustration that you named—if it’s not stemming from within you—something you have to address quickly or is it lower on the priority scale?

Do you really want to remedy this frustrating condition or would you rather just live with it? That’s the question that you have to answer.

What do you think? What are some frustrating aspects of running a business that you’ve encountered, and how did you remedy them? Did you find value in naming and understanding the impact of those frustrations? Were some of them really nothing? Make sure to leave me a comment and let me know your experiences with frustrations in business (and how you handled them) – or even how you handled frustration and overcame it in other parts of your life!

For Your Freedom,

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When we get frustrated by our conditions, we inevitably end up becoming frustrated with ourselves. It can take us over and we tend to run with it. It can creep into every aspect of our lives, from how we relate to the people around us, to how it will impact our business.

If the frustration builds for too long, pretty soon we might forget altogether what the hell we were frustrated at in the first place, yes?

This happens in business all the time, especially when in the early stages of the business, cash flow can fluctuate maddeningly, which then leads to all other kinds of frustrations from payroll to profits.

There’s an energy attached to frustration that sucks the life out of your business, and if you’re not dealing with this as a business owner, it’s only going to go downhill from there.

Moving back away from whatever the problem is, step one toward a solution is simply being able to classify your frustrations. Is it with your team? Your results? A process that doesn’t seem to flow efficiently?

Some typical early-stage business frustrations include time (there never seems to be enough of it), feeling like you’re too bogged down with menial detail-work instead of bigger-picture tasks, or relying on people to get things done that don’t follow through. Just to name a few.

This is where the importance of systemizing your business processes plays a huge role. First you name your frustration, and then you develop the system to address it.

So if you’re having problems with freeing up your time yet ensuring that essential tasks still get done, then the real problem is the absence of a system that will hire the right people rather than you doing it all yourself. That way, not only is your time freed up, but the right people will also help micromanage the way processes continue to develop and flow.

The good news is that frustrations within your business are fairly easy to identify and deal with, though they may take time. Inner frustrations, on the other hand, not only take more time and energy to deal with, but may also be harder to identify in the first place. You could be mad at yourself because you’ve done something poorly for so long, and you get frustrated about not seeming able to turn the corner. Or worse, you externalize that frustration toward everybody else—the customers, the suppliers, the vendors, the client; everybody but yourself.

We know the power of blueprints, so we won’t address that here.

When it comes to outer frustrations that we can identify, though, the questions are much simpler. What’s my frustration? What’s the gap in the system? What system is missing altogether?

If your frustrations begin with ‘I’, it’s about you. It’s inner directed. If it’s about ‘them’ or ‘those people’ or ‘those lousy clients’ or ‘those suppliers’ or ‘that lousy machinery’ or ‘that way' of doing something, it can then be addressed systematically and objectively.

What do you think? Have you experienced similar or even different kinds of frustrations, and how did you address them? Did systemizing play a role? Leave me a comment and let me know your experiences and how you overcome those frustrations (or are still working on identifying/overcoming them).

For Your Freedom,

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There’s no way around it: those who aren’t extraordinary athletes or entertainers but who still want to get rich have to get good at sales. Whatever that may be, even for artists, or whoever. You have to more specifically not only get good at sales, but good at closing sales.

Now how do you close a sale? There’s three or four ways to do it. The best way is the invitational close. ‘Do you like this? How does this sound?’ You invite feedback. ‘If it sounds pretty good, why don’t you give it a try?’ Assume that when you’ve answered a question or an objection, it’s the equivalent of them having decided to buy.

Or you can use what’s called an alternative close. ‘Would you prefer this or that?’ You offer a choice between A or B. The probability of them picking one or the other goes up dramatically if they have a choice, and whichever one they say ‘Yes’ to, you’ve made a sale.

Here’s a neat trick from one of the masters, Brian Tracy: if you get the customer to give you a single piece of information, you’ve successfully used the power of suggestion. ‘How do you spell your last name exactly?’ If they give you the spelling of their last name, they’ve bought the product. It’s very powerful.

In the end, the most important quality for sales success is boldness. All qualities are habits, habits of thought and action. Because of childhood conditioning, we have these fears of failure and rejection, but those are learned because children have no fears. We learn them as we grow up, but that also means we can unlearn them. The way you unlearn the fear of failure and rejection is by doing the opposite of what you would do in a failure or rejection situation.

When we back away from the fear, it grows and grows. Soon it dominates our whole life, and it paralyzes us. But when you confront the fear; when you do the thing you fear, it gets smaller and smaller and becomes manageable. So for the rest of your life, you make a habit of doing the thing you fear. You make a habit of confronting the fear.

Pretty soon, you develop the habit of courage. You reach the point where you’re not afraid of anything. The key to your success as a person and as an entrepreneur is to develop the habit of courage. The way that you do it is every single time you feel a little bit scared or nervous, you attack. You move toward the fear situation. You pick up the phone. You make the call. You knock on the door. You ask for the order.

Whenever you feel afraid, do the thing you fear. In a week, a month, a year from now, your fears will diminish. As your fears go down, your confidence and your self esteem go up, and you start to feel fabulous about yourself. You start to feel unstoppable.

What were some of the fears you’ve had to overcome in your life that held you back from success? What once seemed like a mountain but now more resembles a molehill? Give us your feedback. We want to hear from you!

For Your Freedom,

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“Can you hear me now? Good!”

I’m a marketing fanatic as many of you know, so I try to appreciate great ideas communicated brilliantly when I see it. Verizon’s cell phone television ad campaign articulated and took advantage of a simple but powerful truth— with other cell phone carriers, lots of people were experiencing the frustration of dropped calls in the middle of important conversations.

You’ll never have to worry about that with us, Verizon basically said, with commercial after commercial of the same Verizon field test guy in the most remote areas of the country still being heard, still good.

The number of Verizon subscribers jumped from 32.2 million at the start of that campaign in January 2002 to 43.8 million in two years. They also poured billions into their network infrastructure; continually investing in what they said they would deliver on—fewer dropped calls anywhere.

I’m not a Verizon spokesman or advocate, I just use the example to illustrate the power of a simple message communicated to the tune of more customers, and more money. The money is in the message. Marketing and promotion is how you get customers to your business, and customers are how you get more money.

This is exactly the problem most businesses have, though—communicating clearly and concisely what they do and how it benefits their potential customers. It’s one thing for you to know what you do, who you help and how they benefit, but it’s quite another thing for other people to know the same thing.

One of the most essential skills you can have is the ability to articulate what you do in a powerful and concise way. Clarity leads to power, for both you and your customers. It empowers them to understand exactly what you can do for them and why they should buy from you. The reason most people fail in business is that they have a very poor message.

Your message has to cut through like a knife to the core. You have to be very selective and specific about what you say. You might have lots of different things to offer, but you can’t put them all in a 30-second sound bite. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Keep it simple. Less is more. You want to leave people saying, “That sounds interesting.”

What’s your “thumbprint”? What’s unique about you? Why should someone do business with you versus the person next door?

If you don’t have this, you are chopping your income in half. As soon as you have a strong sound bite, and deliver on your promise, you can double your income.

The only way you'll ever know what works is to try something out and see if it works. You always test first, and then you sprint out of the gate when you have a winning proposition.

How about you? Have you experienced a difference in success when you changed your persona—your “calling card” so to speak—as you sold yourself or a product? What was it that specifically made a difference? Was it how you perceived yourself or how others perceived you? Let us know in the comments below!

To Your Success,

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Many of you know I embrace Buddhist wisdom as part of spiritual knowledge and growth. These kinds of things are choices we make for ourselves hopefully because we find this knowledge relevant and helpful to our lives. Many spiritual philosophies share similar teachings that could be just as true for people from completely different cultures.

That’s the beauty of the Oneness that most of them point toward, whatever different words one wants to use to describe it. We’re all together, all energy; all one thing.  We just think we’re separate.

If we’re going to strive for spiritual growth, we have to be willing to put concepts into practice in our everyday lives, in all relationships with all people. You can’t separate your “spiritual life” from your “work life.” They’re both your life!

In the same vein, you can’t separate money and happiness. You can try, but you won’t live a very happy life.

How you’re going to make your money has to reflect your spiritual truth as if you were attending a spiritual ceremony. The physical, material world is simply a printout of what’s going on inside us. To think any different is to fall into the illusion of separation.

So before you find the right job, business, or relationship, you have to find the right you! It’s about matching what you do with who you are. Then you get the right knowledge and the right way for you to become more prosperous and happier.

I realize there are some people who disagree with spiritual concepts, or maybe are just uncomfortable with the topic. That’s okay. We don’t have to go deep or New Agey with this. Finding the Right You is as simple as this: JOY. What are those things you do that give you absolute joy?

Joy is a clue from the heart, not to be confused with pleasure. When you evoke the feeling of joy, you are tapping into your higher nature, your truest self, and the source of your full power, your full creativity, your full wisdom. Then you’re generating passion.

Passion creates energy, and energy creates enthusiasm. It’s very contagious. When you are passionate about what you do, it comes through!  Will people want what you’ve got?  Yes and yes! Mostly because of the energy transfer, that’s it!

The most important thing about your business, whatever vehicle is appropriate for you, is you have to frickin’ believe in it to where you would shout it from the top of the roof to everybody, every minute of every day!  If you can’t do that, you don’t believe in what you do enough—and ultimately, you don’t believe in yourself. You’re not being your “Right You”.

When you find something that you really believe in and get it into your subconscious, the obstacles that block you seem more like minor interruptions compared to the passion of operating from your true Self.

Unless you are passionate about what you do, it is very difficult for you to be successful or happy. Right livelihood comes down to finding work that matches who you are.

Tell us your experiences with finding your “Right You.” Have you truly found your “Right You” yet in your life? What was the turning point that made you realize you weren’t being the real you? What was the transformation like? Share your thoughts and comments with our community, your feedback is very valuable!

For Your Freedom,

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Whatever's coming at us in life – is it happening because we somehow deserve it? Did we ask for it?

Sometimes it’s our blueprints that limit what the Universe brings into our lives. People unconsciously punish themselves over something that happened a long time ago but they haven’t forgiven themselves. Or they feel guilty about actually getting what they want. Sometimes there’s a part of us that feels like we don’t deserve more.

Other times, things happen out of nowhere; extreme challenges hit us out of the blue, and if we’re honest with ourselves, there’s a part of us that will ask, however briefly, “What did I do to deserve this?”

How we think about what we get in life—the meanings we attach to events and circumstances—will impact the quality of our lives. So it doesn’t pay to give too much credit to the Universe when things go right, nor too much blame when things go wrong and we don’t get what we want.

Success starts with us and our attitudes—and we’re grateful when the Universe gives us a nudge in the right direction.

We have the power to ask for and get what we want. People who are successful at it are considered “smooth-talkers,” with just a hint of resentment behind that tag, as if they’re just lucky to be born with the gift of gab.

There does seem to be some people that are better at it than others, but the power of persuasion is a learnable skill. If a kid in a marketplace can do it, for heaven’s sake so can you!

Most people, though, either go into a negotiation assuming that they’re going to get raked, and either don’t bother trying to negotiate out of fear or talk themselves out of getting the deal they want by not believing they can get it or deserve it.

That’s actually a big thing for a lot of people—the belief that getting what they want must mean that they’re taking something away from someone else. Of course that’s not true—the best negations are win-win scenarios.

In business and in life, ask for what you want! What’s the worst that could happen? The other person says no? So what if they do? People are so afraid of receiving “no” into their lives they don’t even try.

The best negotiating tool is the truth. Let the other person know how you’re feeling. The idea of good negotiations is to work together so you both get what you want and you both feel good and you feel the deal is fair.

When you ask someone, “What do you want?” they’ll usually tell you what they want. When you ask, “What do you think is fair?” they’ll usually tell you what they think is fair and balance your part of the equation.

Don’t get attached to the whole thing, and it’s actually a lot of fun. There’s a feeling of success that builds confidence once you become good at it, but there’s also a sense of fulfillment when you actually get what you deserve.

And as the saying goes, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you can negotiate. Let the Universe sort the rest out for you.

Tell us your experiences with stepping outside your comfort zone to get what you want. Was it a business experience? A personal experience? We want to hear from you!

Practice makes perfect, right? Wrong!

First of all, nothing’s ever perfect. I’d even say you don’t really want anything to be “perfect.” Why not? Well, once you’ve reached it, where else is there to go but backwards or, even worse, nowhere?

No, the point of practice isn’t perfection. We want to strive for perfection, yes, but that’s only going to work if you understand that it’s not just about the destination but the journey as well. That’s why it helps to look at the process when it comes to those outcomes we’re reaching for. Because what would be the point of getting to where you always wanted to be if you’re beat up and worn out by the time you get there? Where’s the happiness in that?

Happiness is a process as much as an outcome. Don’t get me wrong – a hard-earned victory is awesome. But think about it; should happiness in life be restricted to success in finances, or business, or career, or the attainment of goals?

We have all been there at some point in our lives, saying something like, “If only I had [fill in the blank], I’d be so much happier.” Hey, sometimes we may even get whatever it is we think will make us happy, but what usually ends up happening? We’re psyched for a little while—if at all—and then we find out it wasn’t really enough to make us as happy as we thought it would. There’s always more.

You can work your butt off to get to where you want to be by practicing your delivery, your backhand swing, your investment strategies—you can practice anything until you get it down, but that doesn’t mean things are always going to turn out perfectly. Practice doesn’t make perfect.

Practice becomes habit, and habits become permanent unless we consciously change them. We’re practicing something all the time through our habits, even when we’re not really thinking about it. If you practice the thought that “I’ll be happy when [fill in the blank] happens,” then guess what? You’re always delaying your happiness until [fill in the bank] happens. Not because things will never be great, but because you’ve become a master at being unhappy. Unhappiness will be your habit!

You have to practice being happy no matter what is going on in life; whether you win or lose, succeed or experience temporary setbacks, whether everything is the way you have always dreamed or if you are still on the road to your next major destination.

Practice whatever you want to be in the future now. If you want to be more patient and less reactionary, then practice patience now. If you want to be a manager of your own personal wealth, start managing your finances now no matter how much money you earn. If you want to be successful, then practice being successful now. Start small. Engage in things that you’re already good at and challenge yourself to be better, even if it’s just in small increments.

The key is to enjoy the process and the journey. We can have moments of perfection, times where we wouldn’t want a single thing to change, but it’s unfair and unrealistic to ask that of life all the time. But it’s totally within our control to practice being whatever we want to be right now!

So now it's your turn:  What are you going to practice right now?  What's that one thing you want to achieve and are willing to enjoy the process while making it a habit?  We want to hear from you!