Make Life Long Learning a Goal

I am excited to be heading off this week for some training at a national convention in Louisville, KY. I plan to learn a lot, come home inspired, and also have a great time while I am away. I expect my business will improve as a result of attending this training.

Successful investors make life long learning part of their business plan. No matter how simple or complex the business, there is always something that can be learned. It may be a tweak of something that the investor is already doing. Many investors know that learning - and implementing - just one new item from a training may generate many thousands of dollars more than the cost of that training.

Trainings take many forms, but when they involve meetings with other like-minded investors, the networking opportunities may far exceed the actual learning. I always bring lots of business cards and try to meet as many new people as possible. If I am facing an issue or an obstacle in my business, someone at the meeting may have already successfully addressed something similar. Maybe I need a mentor, or some private money. Keep an open mind when meeting new people and opportunities will materialize.

Trainings may help push us out of our comfort zone, where we need to be in order to succeed. If something worked for someone else, why not give it a try?

Most of all, learning should be fun. There is something innately exciting about the novel, the new, the untested, and the possible. Stay curious and listen carefully. You will never know it all, and answers may come from surprising new directions.

In the mean time, I am ready to squeeze in a little fossil hunting, a little ziplining in an underground cavern, be inspired by the dedication of someone like a Muhammad Ali, and maybe sip a little bourbon whiskey before I jump into class this weekend.

Happy Investing!

Path to Success

Want to make 2015 the year of success in achieving your investment goals? Take a lesson from one of the Masters: The steps to success are easy, you know what they are, and you can do them. Here is the secret to your success in 2015:

SUCCESS IS EASY, BUT SO IS NEGLECT

by Jim Rohn

People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn't matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Six years later, I'm a millionaire and they are all still blaming the economy, the government, and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.

In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as well as they could and should, can be summed up in a single word: neglect.

It is not the lack of money - banks are full of money. It is not the lack of opportunity - America, and much of the Free World, continues to offer the most unprecedented and abundant opportunities in the last six thousand years of recorded history. It is not the lack of books – libraries are full of books - and they are free! It is not the schools - the classrooms are full of good teachers. We have plenty of ministers, leaders, counselors and advisors.

Everything we would ever need to become rich and powerful and sophisticated is within our reach. The major reason that so few take advantage of all that we have is, simply, neglect.

Neglect is like an infection. Left unchecked it will spread throughout our entire system of disciplines and eventually lead to a complete breakdown of a potentially joy-filled and prosperous human life.

Not doing the things we know we should do causes us to feel guilty and guilt leads to an erosion of self-confidence. As our self-confidence diminishes, so does the level of our activity. And as our activity diminishes, our results inevitably decline. And as our results suffer, our attitude begins to weaken. And as our attitude begins the slow shift from positive to negative, our self-confidence diminishes even more...and on and on it goes.

So my suggestion is that when given the choice of "easy to" and "easy not to," you do not neglect to do the simple, basic, "easy," but potentially life-changing activities and disciplines.

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Thanks to Paul Carag for sharing this reminder with us! 

Happy Investing!