#Really!?! Entrepreneurs work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40?

[jaijai28]

MY LEARNINGS IN OPPORTUNITY, RECOGNITION, AND IDEATION❤

"If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you're not sure you can do it, say yes - then learn how to do it later". A saying by Richard Branson that gives us motivation to try many things really help me in motivating myself. Opportunity was defined a favorable set of circumstances that creates a need for a new product, service, or business. I've learned that there are three ways to identify an opportunity. First, observing trends that create opportunities for entrepreneurs to pursue. Observing trends have 4 changes and forces which are the economic forces, social forces, technological advances, and the political action and regulatory changes. Second, solving a problem sometimes identifying opportunities simply involves noticing a problem and finding a way to solve it. And lastly, finding gaps in the marketplace is often created when a product or service is needed by a specific group of people but doesn't represent a large enough market to be of interest to mainstream retailers or manufacturers.

I've also learned that entrepreneurs have personal characteristics and these are the Prior Experience, Cognitive Factors, Social Networks, and the Creativity. There are also techniques for generating ideas. Brainstorming is a technique used to generate a large number of ideas and solutions to problems quickly. Focus groups are used for a variety of purposes, they can be used to help generate new business ideas. Library research are an often underutilized source of information for generating new business ideas. And lastly, targeted searches are also useful. I will conclude my learnings by the quote of Lori Greiner "Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week".

[lanaisnotwool]

398 Avoiding Entrepreneur Burnout - Interview with Kristin Molenaar

http://moneyripples.com/2020/06/12/398-avoiding-entrepreneur-burnout-interview-with-kristin-molenaar/

Chris Miles, the "Cash Flow Expert and Anti-Financial Advisor," is a leading authority on how to quickly free up and create cash flow for thousands of his clients, entrepreneurs, and others internationally! He’s an author, speaker, and radio host that has been featured in US News, CNN Money, Bankrate, Entrepreneur on Fire, and spoken to thousands getting them fast financial results. Listen to our Podcast here:

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/moneyripples/2020/05/08/398--avoiding-entrepreneur-burnout-interview-kristin-molenaar-1

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Chris Miles (00:01): Hello, my fellow Ripplers! This is Chris Miles. Your Cash flow Expert and Anti-financial Advisor. Welcome you out for a wonderful show. It's for you and about you. Those you work so freaking hard for your money, and you're ready for your money. Start working hard for you. Now! You want that freedom. That cash flow. That prosperity today. Not 30 or 40 bazillion years from now, but right now. So you have that life that you love to do what you love and to be with those that you love. But it's so much more than your own comfort and convenience, because it's about you guys be able to live the life of meaning of purpose by blessing other people's lives. Because as you become free, as you become blessed, you can be able to do the same for other people too. And so I appreciate you guys allowing me to create a ripple effect through your lives and be able to see the massive impact you're making. And again, thank you so much for tuning in. I know you guys have been bingeing on it. You keep sharing more and more. You keep going back to the crappier crappier episodes, and I appreciate you guys still listening in and learning stuff because, Hey, you know, I appreciate that. So thank you so much for doing that for share it with other people. It's awesome.

Chris Miles (01:05): Here's a quick reminder, go visit our website MoneyRipples.com. There's a great, great blogs on there. Great content you can look at as well. And also I keep forgetting to mention this. I have a YouTube channel, go check out Chris miles, Money Ripples YouTube channel. We've got some great videos on there as well. So check it out.

Chris Miles (01:21): Alright! So today I've got a special guest here for you. Again, I get pitched guests all the time, right? And most of them, I usually say, you know, that's cool, not my thing or not. You know, that's not what my listeners want, but this one I thought was perfect. Especially given the time that we're in and with all the uncertainty of the world. I know more and more of you guys, whether you're in business or not. You're definitely looking for leverage. You want to be able to work less, make more, which is kind of what we talked about in the show anyways. And that's exactly what my guest Kristin Molenaar is all about because you know, the big thing that I see happening with a lot of people now is they burn out. They can't make it, right? They don't know how to really avoid that. They've ended up creating a business that becomes a really sometimes high paying job. Sometimes it was a crappy paying job where you're like Napoleon Dynamite saying, "That's like a dollar an hour, gosh!" You know, it's kinda like that.

Chris Miles (02:12): You know, we don't want that. So we want you guys to be able to be free and to be happy and actually love what you do. And so it allows you to let you know a little bit more about Kristen here. She's an entrepreneur enthusiasts who lives by the mantra, work less, make more, right? This has enabled her to build a six figure business while working average and just get this guys, five hours a week. So this is like a woman after my own heart here, right? Permissions to eradicate entrepreneurial stress and burnout that fuels her passion for sharing these three step blueprint. Both she and her clients have been able to put into place and achieve true freedom in business. She's also the founder of the virtual agency, YesBoss VA. Where she helps her team be able to really alleviate burnout, solopreneurs, and entrepreneurs and empower them to be able to create, you know, through this online business management and digital marketing support. She runs this business for you. So it creates this online business for you guys. So you can scale it like a boss. So Kristin, welcome to our show.

Kristin Molenaar (03:05): Thanks so much for having me, Chris, I'm excited to dive into this conversation with you.

Chris Miles (03:09): I agree. So tell us about your journey. I mean, were you at the burn-down entrepreneurial at one point yourself or?

Kristin Molenaar (03:15): I was the entrepreneur that didn't know how to make a dollar. That's my story.

Chris Miles (03:21): You got a great hobby, huh?

Kristin Molenaar (03:21): Yeah. Right. So in October, 2014, I left my last corporate job. And I was in the beauty industry at that time doing brand management. And my thought behind leaving was I can do this on my own. Like, look, I'm an incredible employee. I would make a fantastic business owner. And I proceeded to struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle for about 12 months. I ended up in what I'm doing right now as I call it was my entrepreneurial failure. Like I had been struggling for a year living in my in-laws guest bedroom with my husband and two dogs, like feeling very suffocated. And I thought, I just need to make a dollar. So I went on HireMyMom.com and said like, anybody just please pay me as long as I don't have to go back into an office. Like I just want like freedom to work where I want. Right? So what very quickly happened though, is I wasn't able to turn off those entrepreneurial ambitions. Within three weeks of getting my first client, I was tasked with a blog post. Hated blogging. Thought I could do this, sat down to write it and thought, this is, this sucks! At the time the client was only paying me $15 an hour. Like that's how desperate I was just to make a dollar. I had convinced him to hire me for $15 an hour. And I proved myself in 30 days. And he would bump me to $20 an hour! Make it a lot! So what happened is I was tasked with writing a blog and I thought, you know what? I hate this. I would rather find an intern to write this for me. I'll pay them $8 an hour, which is minimum wage in their state. I would rather make $7 an hour, not doing anything than $15 an hour doing something that I hate. I became addicted to that and everything like nothing's been the same since then.

Chris Miles (05:01): Isn't it kinda funny. We almost accidentally find something that works. And you think, why didn't I think of this before, when I was trying to find the answers, right?

Kristin Molenaar (05:09): Yeah. I was making it too complicated. That's really what it boiled down to.

Chris Miles (05:14): That's right. So what do you see with other entrepreneurs? Like what happens in their lives that you think causes this?

Kristin Molenaar (05:21): Yeah. So I see a couple things happening that causes this like stress and burnout. One. I think that a lot of people have heard of this 80-20 principle. And I've been talking about this so much lately. I think that now is like the time to look at the 80-20 principle now is the time to figure out, okay, I've seen and heard that this makes sense. How does it apply to me? The principle says that 20% of your work will yield 80% of your results. I would say that entrepreneurs are getting stuck in burnout and stress because they're functioning in every capacity. They're doing all of the things. I love the analogy. I love giving this as like a visual with drilling for oil. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, they know that when you drill for oil, you have to drill really deep in order to strike oil. Right? What they do is they drill all these different little holes like this is them going from webinars to, you know, like passive income funnels, to group trainings, to Instagram lives. Like they're doing all the things. And the problem is with that lack of focus and that lack of like staying in your lane and doing the thing persistently, they're like an inch away, probably from striking oil, but they've jumped ship too soon or they're scattering their efforts all over the place. So that's like one of the foundational things that I see as just pursuing too many things. Obviously another one is continuing to do it alone for way too long. You know, a lot of people hit the six figure mark and they're like really burned out. I think that I see this happen very often is that six figure mark becomes like a, Holy cow! I can't do any more. I've got all these things on my plate and it's like, well, why, you know, I would even say like, why didn't you think a little bit more like me when I was making that $15 an hour, you know, I'd rather do nothing and make $8 or $7 an hour, then do everything. So, you know, would you rather make a hundred dollars an hour or a hundred thousand dollars a year to be completely burned out? Or would you rather make $60,000 a year and have so much bandwidth to grow your company even bigger? I think it's just a mental shift that people need to have so that they can start putting into practice the things that are really going to catapult their growth rather than just putting money in their pocket and hoarding it.

Chris Miles (07:30): Yeah. It's funny, you mentioned that because this is a perfect time for people to really reassess and say, what do I really like doing, right? Cause I remember I went through that same process a few times. Like I always had to keep evolving through my business. And I remember happening again for me about five years ago, I went through a divorce. That was like, I was so emotionally drained, right? That I couldn't work much more than five hours a week. So that's kinda how I started working at five hours a week was, alright! What's the absolute essential part of my business and what can I delegate out? And then the next thing I know I made more money than I ever made working 50 or 60 hours a week. Right?

Kristin Molenaar (08:04): Yeah. And that's why I think, you know, I don't know when this episode is going to air, but amid like COVID, right? COVID, there's so many people that are being forced to work less. And I think that, well, a lot of people may at first think that this is a disservice to their business. I think that it actually is a huge benefit, because think about how little you're able to work during COVID and when this is over, you got all this extra time on your hands.

Chris Miles (08:29): Right! That's true. But what do you think are good ways for people to figure out how to get in that lane? Like what is actually their lane versus things they should not be doing? How do you decide that?

Kristin Molenaar (08:39): Yeah, so like, I, like you mentioned in the little intro, we have like a three step process that we put into place. Like our three step. Work less make more blueprint. The very first thing is to eliminate all non-essentials, which I kind of touched on a little bit. There are a series of questions that I really encourage people to ask if they're like, well, what is it that I should be doing? One. I think that it's really important to give yourself the space and the time to go back to what your original plans for your business work. Like I think that what happens is we get so stuck in the trenches and in the tactical stuff of our business, that all the creativity just get shut down. But as entrepreneurs, like, we need to be visionary. Like that is our role that we need to take on. So entrepreneurs are visionaries that put people and processes into place. Entrepreneurs are not people that just poured all the work and get stuck in task work all the time. That's what's going to lead to that burnout. Right? So think about what it is like, why did you get into business? What were your dreams? And I love going back to that beginning stage, because I feel like that's, when things felt so free and new and exciting, and there wasn't any of that fear or like those mental games that you're having to break through. None of that existed when you were just starting out. So I love going back to that. And then I think that you have to look at your business in two categories. So looking at like, what are you doing for marketing? And what are you doing for like your monetization or the things that you're offering? And figure out in those two things separately, figure out what things really light you up. So I say to people, for me, it's so important that my business energetically fuels me up. Because when I leave my business I go to become a, you know, I walk away and I'm a wife and I'm a mom and I have other things I'm doing. And I don't want my business to deplete me. Cause I don't want to show up to the rest of my life depleted. So in your business, what things are lighting you up? What can you do, that you're walking away from your business feeling like you're ready to take on the world. And then what, look at the data too. So what is the data that supports the efforts that you're putting into it? Because it needs to be of, you know, you need to follow your heart and there needs to be that data there. And then that's telling you like where that 20% of your effort is yielding that 80% of your results.

Chris Miles (10:52): That's right. It's kind of like the eeky guy, right. That diagram that people use all the time is, you know, what do people want you for? What do you like doing? You know, what are you good at? And combining all those elements together. Right?

Kristin Molenaar (11:03): Absolutely. Yeah. Let's build businesses that we love. Like if we wanted to do work that we didn't like we could go work for the man, I guess, control of our own journey here. Let's start doing things that light us up.

Chris Miles (11:15): Yeah. It's true. Like there's been times like I'll be, be kind of a grumpy mood at the beginning of the day. Like maybe like my wife and I getting a little spat, you know, and then it's like, Oh, you know, and you have to have that state change. Right. And maybe it's easier for men to kind of shut that part of your brain off and just go like cut it off. But I notice that sometimes if I'm actually doing the meetings, I love doing, you know, doing that kind of stuff. Like I can walk away and be in a totally better mood and be like, I love you. Like, like nothing is like, world's perfect. Like that was stupid. You know? Like it's kind of cool. Like versus like saying man, this day just sucks. Like this is the worst day ever. You know? And I think that's the difference. There is really fine. What does let you up?

Kristin Molenaar (11:54): Yeah. Yeah. It's essential in the cool thing is we're in control of all of it. We're running businesses that we don't like, it's like, well, who are we going to blame for that?

Chris Miles (12:03): Yeah. Yeah. That's true. You can't blame anybody else for your, your decision. Right? They know you're the boss. Or you're supposed to be, at least. Unless you're trying to be the victim. Right?

Kristin Molenaar (12:12): Exactly. I guess you have to make that decision for yourself. Right?

Chris Miles (12:15): Absolutely. What are other things that people can do to actually help, you know, get themselves away from their business and this stuff that they're not just working in it, they're now working on it.

Kristin Molenaar (12:24): Yeah. I love this question and let's move on. Like you've just teed it up for me to move on to the next steps in our three set process. Honestly. So the next step for me is to automate and delegate. So I like to put these two things together because for me, I have seen just so much fruit out of delegation that I actually delegate the automation in my business. I don't do the automation myself, but this is really up to where you are in your business and where your strengths are. If you geek out on, you know, automation go for it, but it doesn't light me up. So you need to think about automating and delegating. Now this has to come after you've determined what things are essential. Don't automate non-essential things. Don't delegate, non-essential things like, you know, we help solopreneurs. We actually are that driving force and that team behind solopreneurs. And we tell them, don't give us stuff. That's not essential in your business because what's going to happen is you're going to bring us in as a team. And you're going to be sharing the vision of your company with us. And we're going to get really excited about us. And then when things get hard, if you've not given us essential tasks, we're going to be the first person that's cut out. And you've spent all this time investing in this team that you're building and they're not bringing anything to the table that really matters in your business. So yeah, the automation, I think that there are a lot of people that might be on the fence about, well, what things do I automate or should I get this platform or that platform? I like to use a very simple math formula. You know, if the platform that you're wanting to use to automate like a CRM or whatever, say it's a hundred bucks a month and you're spending 10 hours a month manually doing it, you need to assess, am I worth $10 an hour? Probably not. So it's time to automate that thing. So that's number two in my process. And then number three is generating effort free income. So this for me was like a big game changer. We internally like calling it white labeling, but essentially what happens is you build a team internally that produces profits for your business. This can look different in a variety of different businesses, but I think for a lot of people, what makes sense is figuring out how you're serving your clients right now and what is a way that you can add additional value to them. But in a way that's like can be systematized and taught to somebody else so that they come in, they provide that support and you make money on the backend.

Chris Miles (14:48): Give us example of that.

Kristin Molenaar (14:50): I was just going to say that! I'd love to give an example because I think that sometimes it's hard to understand how this could work for you. So you have a client who does coaching for people who want to speak on stage. And so what she does is she does all that coaching. So she's showing up and telling her clients how to do that stuff. Well, some of our clients are like, I don't have time. Like, can you just do it for me? And so what she does is she white labels, our outreach service. So for $750, YesBoss does all of the speaker research and outreach for her clients. But because she's in this elevated expertise level, as the coach, she's able to sell that same package for over a thousand dollars. Every time she sells, it puts no work on her back, but it gives her an additional 250 plus the profit margin to pull it into our business. And I think that we should be doing this with all kinds of things in our business. It adds value to our clients. It puts profit in our pocket and it continues to employ people and keeps the money going through other entrepreneurs.

Chris Miles (15:53): That's awesome! Yeah. That's the thing that many entrepreneurs never take the time to take it to that next level, which is all right. How do I duplicate me? Right. And be able to allow this to really grow beyond my own capacity. Right?

Kristin Molenaar (16:06): Yeah. I like to think about being a CEO or building a company. And that's when these things start to like, okay, if you think about, I'm building a company here, I'm not building a job for myself. Like everybody in a company brings value to the company.

Chris Miles (16:21): Yeah, that's right. And then you really just can not have freedom. If anybody's like me, listen to this right now, you probably went to business like I did. And when I did this almost 20 years ago is, I was going in because I wanted control of two things, primarily, you know, my money and my time. Right. Like it really controls my destiny, you know, overall. And I knew I would never get that. Just working in corporate America. I knew that had to be something that went beyond that. But the thing I learned, and I know that you're talking about as well as so many entrepreneurs are saying, yeah, I become the CEO. Yay. I'm free. And then you just created another job that really, in some ways sucks more because if you were like me, I mean, I remember seven, eight years ago after I launched Money Ripples and it's trying to do it from the ground up. Like it got to a point where I started to fantasize about a job. Like I remember thinking like if I could just have a job where I did have to think I could just do one task, that would be so awesome. I wouldn't have to think about all the elements of business with every aspect that has to be done. I can just focus on one job and be brainless. Not to insult any of you guys. So they know a lot of you guys are working W2 jobs and you're not brainless. I know that, but it's that thing that there's so much mental energy to be a business owner. And like you're saying just kind of to become the owner and say, yes, we can look at big picture, but we don't have to be in the trenches with each one of these areas. So, well, I appreciate having you on today, Kristin, and this is awesome. So thank you so much. If you want to learn more about your three steps and how that would apply to their business because they're wanting to be free. Right. What would it be the way they could do that?

Kristin Molenaar (17:51): Yeah. So you can get access to the blueprint. I mean, we went through a very, very quick version of this. I feel like I spoke faster than I've ever spoken before, but you can pick that up at YesBossVA.com/WorkLessMakeMore. If you're a solopreneur, that's feeling burnt out and you're like, don't tell me how to do it. Just do it for me. You can check us out at YesBossVA.com. But yeah, it was a pleasure chatting with you. We covered some really good material really fast.

Chris Miles (18:18): We sure did. Well, Hey, it's that whole like, you know, fast, little rabbit punch, you know, like it's perfect. So that was a lot of value. I really appreciate you being here today.

Kristin Molenaar (18:27): Thank you so much for having me. It's been a privilege.

Chris Miles (18:29): You bet! Everybody else. Thanks for joining us. And again, remember your life doesn't change unless you act upon, unless you do something about this. So if this really resonated with you go to the website, we'll have that in the show notes. So you guys can go there, but yes, this is the perfect time right now to, in a sense, reinvent your business to be the way that you always wanted it to be. So go take action. Check out the link in our show notes, everybody. I hope you make it a wonderful and process week and we'll see you later.

[angelikabozh]

New Post has been published on https://www.nearshoring-info.ch/benefits-of-nearshoring/

What Are the Biggest Benefits of Nearshoring

Nearshoring in business is a trend with a granted type of attention. Some entrepreneurs find it useful and profitable, but for others, it is still an unexplored area. One of the first benefits of nearshoring is the ability to cut costs and concentrate on more competencies of the performers you hire. The outer nearshoring companies are to handle business functions of the client: customer care, human resources, collections, and software development as well. It works especially well in case of the companies, which need IT products like website or application but have nothing common with the IT sphere.

But before we go to the nearshoring benefits, let’s find out what it really is. Nearshoring is a model of outsourcing which allows companies to delegate business processes including software development to the companies or freelancers in the nearby countries.

In the USA business owners use nearshore outsourcing benefits already since the 1990s. They expected cost savings of up to 80% from it. However, now it is more likely to be about 20-40%, depending on the country you choose as an outsourcing destination.

Benefits of Nearshoring According to the Statistics

Nearshore development provides many of the same positive sides of offshoring, at the same time allaying a row of its concerns. And nearshore benefits assure the further growth of this model of work. The statistics also show the popularity of the nearshoring model around the world. For example, according to the data from Stastista website, in 2018, the amount of the global outsourcing market, including nearshoring, reached 85.6$ billion.

The leading countries in outsourcing are America and European countries. The smaller part of the projects came from the Asia Pacific region. In the TOP-20 of the nearshoring destinations, there are Poland, Bulgaria,  Romania, United States, Latvia. Ukraine, Belarus, the Czech Republic, and Hungary are also popular countries for outsourcing in Eastern Europe. The statistics of the financial attractiveness, people skills and availability, and business environment, looks like the following:

According to the type, you can divide all the outsourcing work into two categories:

Business process outsourcing.

Information technology outsourcing.

In 2018 the nearshore business process outsourcing brought the revenue of 23.6$ billion. The delegation of work in the IT sphere appeared to be more popular during the last 8 years. For example, in 2018 it generated the revenue of 62$ billion.

More and more countries every year estimate the nearshore advantages as something worth trying. This type of work is used either as the primary delivery model or as a part, combined with onshore resources. It is practiced so often mainly due to the similar or even the same time zone. And also it is difficult to overrate the benefits of nearshoring in cost-effectiveness.

How It Works: a Smart Way to Use the Advantages of Nearshoring

If you want to get all the advantages of nearshore development, you should know for sure, how it works and where you can find the programmers. As we already found out, there is a well-known practice among the companies to outsource the software development tasks to the dev companies with greater knowledge and experience in this field. If you choose the company from the neighboring or very close country, we call it nearshore outsourcing.

When a company chooses nearshore outsourcing, it should be ready for the hard work, because outsourcing it is not such a simple process as it seems to be. If you are about making the decision now, we have some guidelines for you. With these simple pieces of advice you will get only nearshore outsourcing advantages and avoid pitfalls:

Think about the product you need. Distinguish the main features of your future website, application or anything you need: why do you need it, which functions it should perform, which needs it should satisfy, how it should look like, which profit or result you want from this product.

Find out who will work at this project. If you want to hire a single developer, you may not get all the advantages of nearshoring, because you still have a piece of work to do. The other option is the hiring of a dedicated team. It usually works under the guidance of the project manager, who coordinates the coders’ work and communicate with the customer. It makes work faster and more efficient.

Wind out which skills you want the performer to have. If you need a website, search for the specialists, proficient in HTML and CSS. A programmer with JavaScript skills will create a functional application. For big data projects, you can choose a Python developer.

Communicate with future performers. You can find them, posting a vacancy on the international job portals or just write in Google something like “Java developers in Ukraine”. Get in touch with the developers, discuss the details of work and price, choose the performer and enjoy the nearshoring advantages.

The process doesn’t look too difficult, isn’t it? In fact, it is very easy to start working with remote developers. But only if you are aware of the pitfalls.

Nearshoring Advantages and Disadvantages: All You Should Know Before You Start

All the spheres of work have positive and negative sides. And if you are ready to fill all the advantages of nearshoring, pay attention to the pitfalls you may meet on your way. Both the experienced offshorers and companies, who are only planning to go this way want to know about the pros and cons of onshore nearshore and offshore models to estimate the risks. We’ve distinguished the TOP-3 pitfalls of the nearshore development:

Relations difficulties. Collaborating with the company from the neighboring country can give an impression of “us and them”. This feeling can appear because of the mentality, way of thinking or even way of talking. The prejudices also add to it. As a result, the cooperative work at one project doesn’t go well. How you can cope with it? Get to know the people you are working with. Communicate every day and discuss the workflow to avoid problems with nearshoring.

Not enough preparation. Work with the remote developers differs a lot from the in-house work. Prepare to have Skype sessions several times a week (or more often), agree on the standards, develop a rhythm of work and nail down the responsibilities of the employees – and the work will become more efficient.

Poor organization. It is impossible to give a task to the dedicated team of developers, agree on the budget and leave them with it for a couple of months. Such work needs you to be constantly involved. And it is also crucial to be ready to changes.

However, you can find many companies using nearshoring pros and cons for their success. Startups, corporations, and businesses can get profit from this model of work, and we have some stories of success:

WhatsApp©. The cross-platform messenger has been launched in 2009. The creators of the project have delegated practically all of the development process to the programmes from Eastern Europe. As a result, we can make voice and video calls, send messages, multimedia files and documents through this application. Today the company costs $19 billion.

Basecamp©. A tool for project management has been created in 2004. It includes such features like corporate messenger similar to the forums, to-do-lists constructor, time tracking, file sharing and more. Many of the business areas of this application have been outsourced. Now the amount of active users is about 15 million, and the approximate cost is $100 billion.

GitHub©. An online repository hosting service was founded in 1999. It was created to share the code among programmers. Basically, it is a service made by outsourcers for outsourcers. In the beginning, the founders only got consultations from the remote coder, but finally, the remote worker has developed the backend of Git. Now Github costs about $2 billion.

Nearshore outsourcing advantages and disadvantages are also well-known for the other big and famous startups. We bet you know these projects, and they are built using software development outsourcing:

Slack – a company built on outsourcing from the very beginning now costs about $3 billion.

Fab – the startup started work with the remote developers after the first signs of growth of their business.

Skype – the company used a dedicated team from Estonia to run the business.

AppSumo – the company cooperates with freelance nearshore workers in marketing, content and IT spheres.

Opera – the company relied on the developers in other countries to create their platform. Who knows, maybe they also have faced some disadvantages of nearshoring.

Mindspark – this company creates mobile applications and uses an outsourcing model of work.

As you already know about nearshore outsourcing disadvantages, we can proceed to a more pleasant part. Why do so many businesses choose to outsource software development to people from neighboring countries? They know about the positive sides of it.

The biggest benefits of nearshoring:

Lower cost. The companies usually delegate software development to the countries, where prices for these services are lower. It is a popular way to save the budget.

Qualified performers. Choosing nearshoring you don’t have to worry about the quality of work. The development teams consist of skilled professionals, who pay all the attention and effort to the software creation.

Few language and cultural barriers. Most neighboring countries have something in common in the way of thinking and work. And if you cannot communicate in one or another language, there is always English.

Time zone. The neighboring countries often are located in the same time zone. And even the difference about 1-2 hours is not a problem.

No more long trips. Sometimes it is very important to meet your foreign partner face to face. And if you outsource the development process to some far away country, it may be a long and expensive flight.

Nearshoring Pros and Cons in Short

Now we can put nearshoring advantages and disadvantages together and find out if it is an option you need:

Nearshoring Advantages Nearshoring Disadvantages Comfortable time zone – you don’t have to work late at night or early in the morning. Low proficiency – bad luck, if you are living close to the countries where it is difficult to find an IT specialist (like Argentina or Costa Rica) Lower price – possible to choose the country, where the development is cheaper than at home. Higher price – the close country may offer more expensive services than the offshore one as well. Qualified developers – choose the coders, who are true professionals in their work. The atmosphere of “others”  – who are those strangers working at our website? Few cultural barriers – neighbors are almost like brothers. A feeling of the “employer” – often for the successful cooperation you need not the subordination, but a partnership. Few language barriers – people from close countries often know or at least understand the language of the neighbor. Not enough preparation – outsourcing needs more work and attention than the local work. No far trips – don’t waste time and money for the long flights. Poor organization – either pay enough attention to the workflow or hire the project manager.

Why It Is Useful to Choose Nearshoring

Now you know about the main nearshoring advantages and disadvantages and can decide if it is an option for your business. While many people still think that outsourcing is only about offshore development, you have one more option – outsourcing to the close country with some local benefits. The main reason many business owners choose it for work is an ability to save a significant amount of money and make everyday work and communication with the developers much easier.

The choice of the outsourcing company depends deeply on your project’s features and goals. If you want it to be a success, remember about nearshoring pros and cons, be ready to make compromises and solve unusual problems. Finally, it is a true opportunity to get an outstanding result!

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Melvin Feller MA Looks at How this Year is the Year You Finally Get What you Want!

Melvin Feller MA Looks at How this Year is the Year You Finally Get What you Want!

Melvin Feller is known as “The Entrepreneur’s Mentor” because Melvin walks his talk. Melvin Feller has been there and done that and more importantly, Melvin Feller knows how to transfer the skill set for success.  This is main reason that he has been the sought after coach to hundreds of small business owners, entrepreneurs, Realtors, Real estate investors and service professional internationally. Melvin Feller’s main talent is to show you how the step by step process to build and enjoy a successful 6-figure plus business while having a balanced life.  Melvin Feller maintains an office in Texas.  Melvin Feller is currently pursuing another graduate degree as an MBA.

 Ways to Keep Your Goals

 1. Make it Nonnegotiable Promise yourself that you are absolutely going to do it. When you do it, where you do it, how you do it can, and most likely will, change according to circumstances. But that you will do it is not open for consideration. Call it a vow, a promise, a pledge, a commitment. Whatever you name it, making it choice less is a tool for overcoming backsliding after your initial enthusiasm fades. You do not negotiate with yourself about brushing your teeth. You just do it. I bet you usually honor your commitments to other people too. Treat yourself equally well. Make your resolution a nonnegotiable commitment in your life.

 2. Make it Actionable Is your goal concrete enough? Many of us fail because we have not turned it into something to actually do. Yesterday, a client said he was going to focus more on himself and his family and less on his job. "How are you going to put that into action?" I asked. There was silence on the other end of the phone. Here are some resolutions I have recently heard: to have more energy... to learn to relax... to learn to make decisions. There is nothing wrong with these desires. However, they must be translated into actions. Actions tell you HOW you're going to do something—I'm going to go to bed earlier and exercise 30 minutes daily to have more energy; I'm going to spend 1/2 hour a day relaxing with my feet up on the couch; I'm going to make a decision about the vacation by Friday. To succeed you must know what actions you are going to take.

3. Come Up with Solutions for Your Usual Excuses What is your usual litany of excuses and rationalizations? One way to think about this is to ask yourself what has gotten in your way in the past when you have tried to do this goal or any other. Forgetting? No time? Losing interest? Not knowing how to begin? In addition, what are the rationalizations you give yourself when you gave up in the past? It does not matter. It is not that bad. It is too hard. Instead of just hoping it will be different this time, write down your typical excuses and rationalizations and create strategies in advance for dealing with them. That way you will not get stopped in your tracks and lose forward momentum when they arise. In addition, yes, they will! Because of the way our brains are hardwired, we have a strong tendency to repeat behavior repeatedly.

 4. Use Procrastination to Your Advantage Business coach Melvin Feller claims that 60% of the population is "pressure prompted," as it's called on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It is a preference, usually labeled as procrastination, to take in information for as long as possible before being forced into action by some external deadline. The other 40% of us are "early-starters," who prefer to get the ball rolling and avoid pressure. If you fall into the pressure-prompted majority, find a deadline that will help you get into motion—a reunion, a vacation, a wedding, a performance. One would-be diet-and- exerciser finally got off the starting line when he got the lead in a local production of The Full Monty, which required him to parade around in a G-string in three months’ time. A woman finished her Ph.D. thesis that had been languishing for years when she got a job that required its completion. To work most effectively, the deadline must be real and come from the outside. Pressure-prompters tend to blow off self-created ones.

 5. Schedule It In Before Jan. 2019, I never exercised a day in my life. Since then, I have kept my resolution to exercise 30 minutes a day about 80 percent of the time. How did I do it? Put into my day planner and treated it as an appointment with a client. Otherwise, it's too easy to schedule all my time away with things I enjoy more (which is everything). Want to write every day? Block it out on your calendar. Want to start looking for a date on Match.com? Schedule it. Make a specific, time-bound appointment with yourself and you will be much more likely to do it.

6. Do it Daily Someone asked the Dalai Lama to describe in one word the secret to living a healthy life. His answer? "Routines." Bad habits imprison us; good ones bring us closer to our heart's desire. The more you make what you want part of your everyday life; the more it will become so routine that soon you will not even have to think about it. If you want to have more work/life balance, for instance, find a way to do a little something each day: leave the office 1/2 hour earlier, take a walk with the family after dinner, read a novel before bed.

  7. Monitor Your Behavior Research shows that when you monitor your behavior in writing, you are more likely to do better. That is because monitoring is a key to self-regulation, the capacity to do what it is you say you want. Monitoring can take the form of a food diary, counting the number of times you keep your temper in a day, logging the successes you have had with not worrying, etc. You also monitor yourself when you put your full attention on something—not eating and watching TV at the same time, for instance.

 8. Focus on the Horizon Take a tip from high performance athletes. Look at how far you have come, not how much you have left to do. Scientists call this the horizon effect. It creates encouragement—"I've done twice as much as a week ago!" and builds determination—"I've made it this far; I might as well keep going." Focus on the ten pounds you did lose; the closet you managed to clean; the $1,000 debt you have wiped out; the evening you carved out for yourself. Do not forget to ask yourself how you have accomplished the task so far, so you can mine your success for ideas on how to keep going.

9. Take It One Choice at a Time When we think about changing something in ourselves, it can feel overwhelming. But in truth, our entire lives are constructed of the minute-by-minute choices we're making, many of which we're not even aware of. As Gary Zukav reminds us, "An unconscious choice is a reaction... A conscious choice is a response." Bring your choices to consciousness. If you're having trouble sticking to your resolution, for a day, try this practice: when you're doing the bad old thing, stop and say, "I'm choosing to: eat this Twinkie, not work out, stay at the office to finish this project, blow up, look at my email rather than clean my desk, etc. Do you like yourself when you make this choice? You can choose differently, moment to moment. The next day, make the positive choice visible to yourself: I'm choosing to throw this catalog away rather than go on a spending spree; I'm choosing to take a few calming breaths before speaking; I'm choosing to get my taxes done today rather than wait till April 14th. The more you focus on the positive choice you can make this very day, without worrying about forever, the more you will live yourself into the new habit.

 10. Find Someone Who's Doing What You Want and Imitate Them I have a friend who wants to lose weight. When we are together she says, "I'm going to watch what you eat and follow suit." When I set out to become more kind, grateful, and generous, I made a study of people, I knew who had those qualities and tried to do as they did. It can be useful to read books or listen to tapes. However, when it comes to changing human behavior, there is nothing that beats good old-fashioned role models. Babies learn by imitation; why shouldn't adults? Who do you know that is good at what you want to learn? What do they do that you don't? The more you intentionally watch those who are living the habit you desire, the more you have to draw on when you are by yourself. Watch and learn—and don't be afraid to ask questions: How do you get all of your work done and still have time for your family? Teach me your dating secrets. What makes you able to take risks? Most people love to teach if given the opportunity.

 11. Teach It to Someone Else A great way to really cement a new habit is to become a mentor. I was reminded of this the other day when a client of mine, who would come to me to learn patience, said, "You'd be so proud of me. I was helping an employee of mine be more successful and I found your words coming out of my mouth about understanding when it's time to push and when it's time to hold back. I realized how much I've learned about patience, and my teaching reinforced the merits for me." One crucial tip to make this as effective as possible—whatever you suggest to someone else, practice yourself. In other words, be sure to take your own advice on the topic. It is a way to really walk the walk.

12. Treat Yourself Kindly "Anything you know you forget. It's all about getting confused and getting unconfused." That is a piece of wisdom from Buddhist teacher Sylvia Boorstein to remind us that we are only human. We are doing the best we can. We will mess up or forget. When we do, our task is to hold ourselves in love. You and I are human beings dealing with the challenges of growth. When we treat ourselves with kindness, we do not collapse into shame or guilt, but can try again with greater wisdom for having faltered.

Melvin Feller MA is in Texas and in Oklahoma. Melvin Feller founded Melvin Feller Business Group and Melvin Feller Ministries in the 1970s to help individuals and organizations achieve their specific Victory. Victory as defined by the individual or organization are achieving strategic objectives, exceeding goals, getting results or desired outcomes and a positive outreach with grace and as a ministries. He has extensive experience assisting businesses achieve top and bottom line results. He has broad practical experience creating WINNERS in many organizations and industries. He has hands-on experience in executive leadership, operations, logistics, sales, program management, organizational development, training, and customer service. He has coached teams to achieve results in strategic planning, business development, organizational design, sales, and customer response and business process improvement. He has prepared and presented many workshops nationally and internationally.

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Hey everyone,I thought this would be useful for those looking to outsource tasks for their business or wanted to find ways to reduce the amount of time they spend on non-important tasks. The book was quite long, so below I've first put my summarised version, and below that is a much longer version of my original written notes that i made whilst reading the book.I've also made an animated version of them here: https://youtu.be/K4JXPebwedU, so you can go over my summary notes via whichever form you prefer.Summary notes:Hello, optimum insight here, in today’s post I’m going to summarise ‘The 4-hour work-week’ by Timothy Ferriss.Now this kind of work week is said to be for the new rich. Who are the new rich, you ask? The new rich are those whose currencies are time and mobility. They use these currencies to achieve full lifestyle design.Why is lifestyle so important, well think about this: when people talk about having £1m, usually what they really mean is that they want to have the lifestyle that this money can provide. Thus, the new rich focus on the lifestyle they want and leverage factors like currency differences to help them achieve this faster.The goal of the book is for you to obtain the lifestyle that the new rich have. The key to this lifestyle is to free your time and automate your income. This income must be location-independent, as once you free your time and location, your money is automatically worth 3-10 times as much.The point of this kind of freedom is to give you options as this is what real power is in life, having the ability to choose.Now there are four steps to achieving this life which anyone can follow.These four steps can summarised by the word: DEAL, which stands for definition, elimination, automation and liberation. This is the order I will follow in this video, but for those of you watching that are employees you must follow this as DELA, focusing on liberation from your job before automation.So the first step is definition. We all have different goals and priorities, Tim recommends having defined dreams to chase with timelines and written-out steps. Most people will never know what they want, hence the first step is the most important. The book specifies that these goals are not for happiness, they are for excitement which is actually a more practical synonym for happiness. So to help you with the definition step here are two things I want you to do:Firstly, Ask yourself what would excite me?Secondly, Use dreamlining to set goals. This is simply where you apply timelines to dreams. Tim splits his dreamlining into three parts, which are having, being and doing, for both a six and twelve month timeline. After having goals for each category, there is a number you must calculate called your required target monthly income. You work it out add the monthly cost of reaching these goals and add 1.3 times your monthly expenses to them represented by A+B+C+(1.3*monthly expenses).Now the second step is elimination. To eliminate inefficiencies in any tasks, following the Parkinson's law and the 80/20 rule is vital. Parkinson’s law states that a task will swell in importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted to it. For instance, the more time available to write an essay, the more important and complicated the task may seem.The 80/20 rule on the other hand says that 80% of your outputs come from 20% of your inputs.Now looking at automation, you must learn how to outsource and be able to define clear rules and processes for assistants to follow before hiring them. Tim recommends that you identify your top five time-consuming non-work tasks and five personal tasks you could outsource for sheer fun. The result of this should be that you have more free time, whilst still creating large work outputs.Now outsourcing is important, but having the right type of business can increase your chances of success. The ideal business for those who want the 4-hour work week lifestyle would be one where you sell information products which you can micro-test with advertisements. Before I move on, remember that the goal is not to automate everything, you first want to eliminate as many things as possible, and thus only automate what is left, which should only be what is most important.The final step to be part of the new rich is liberation. For employees this means persuading your company to let you work remotely, which the book tells you how to achieve. Liberation means having a business or job giving you cashflow and location independence, whilst you put in fewer inputs and achieve higher outputs.One last thing I’d like to mention is that the dream lifestyle mentioned in this book is more doable that most people think. Why? Well because travelling can actually be very cheap, and furthermore rather than trying to retire completely, why not just have mini-retirements? why not work for 2 months and retire for one month and then repeat?Remember: true freedom is about having enough income and time to do what you actually want to do with your life.If you liked this post, please support me in making more by subbing to my channel 'Optimum Insight,' thank you.My full notes:My story and why you need this book:Tango for 5months, 6hr practices vs. couples with average 15 yrs together, they won.Epidemic: job descriptions = self-descriptions.New Rich (NR) use the currency of the NR: time and mobility = Lifestyle Design.Leverage currency differencesPeople don’t want £1m, they want the lifestyle it can provide.Test the most basic assumptions of the work-life equation:How do your decisions change if retirement isn’t an option?What if you could use a mini-retirement to sample your deferred-life plan reward before working 40 years for it?Is it really necessary to work like a slave to live like a millionaire?Goal: free time and automate incomeBe a dealmaker:Manifesto: Reality is negotiableDeal: definition, elimination, automation, liberation.Employees must implement as DELAChronology of a Pathology:‘Karooshi’ - phenomenon where people work themselves to death.Speed reading classes: found a market before designing the product = smarter.Chp1: Step1: D is for Definition:Different goals/priorities, e.g. not the boss, but to be the owner.E.g. make a ton of money, but with specific reasons and defined dreams to chase, timelines and steps included. What are you working for?Rather than big payday, aiming for cashflow first.‘If you can free your time and location, your money is automatically worth 3-10 times as much.Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: What you do, when you do it, where you do it, and with whom you do it. This is called the freedom multiplier.’Using this as criterion: the 80-hr per wk $500k pyear investment banker is less powerful than the employed NR who works ¼ hrs for $40,000, but has complete freedom of when, where and how to live.Options - the ability to choose = is real power.Options are limitless but first step: replacing assumptionsChp 2: Rules that Change the Rules:Won gold medal in Chinese Kickboxing National Championships by exploiting opportunities in the rules.Sports evolve when sacred cows are killed, when basic assumptions are tested. Same is true in lifeDifferent is only better when it is more effective or more fun1.) Retirement = a hedge against becoming physically incapable of working and needing capital to survive. Shouldn’t be goal because:Based on assumption you hate what your doing.Most people will never be able to retire + maintain a good standard of livingYou’ll get damn bored.Thus, retirement shouldn’t be the goal, but yes do plan for the worst case.2.) Interest and energy are cyclicalAlternating periods of activity and rest is important, thus do mini-retirements for higher productivity overall = having cake + eat it too.Timothy does 1 month overseas relocation or high-intensity learning for every 2 months of work projects.3.) Less is NOT lazinessOur culture rewards personal sacrifice rather than personal productivity. Thus, not lazy to do less meaningless work to focus on things of greater personal importance.Focus on being productive instead of busy.4.) The Timing is Never Rightconditions are never perfect, but if its important to you, just do it and correct course along the wat.5.) Ask for forgiveness, not permissionTry it and then justify it, as long as not going to devastate those around you.6.) Emphasise strengths, don’t fix weaknesses7.) Things in excess become their oppositeGoal is not idle time, but more positive use of free time doing what you want as oppose to what have to do.8.) Money Alone is not the solutionBy pretending money is solution you create a constant distraction preventing you from seeing just how pointless it is.The problem is more than money9.) Relative income is more important than absolute incomeAbsolute income is measured via one variable: the dollarRelative income uses two variables: the dollar and time, usually hours.10.) Distress is bad, Eustress is goodNew Rich (NR) don’t aim to eliminate all stress.Distress: harmful stimuli that make you weaker, less confident.Eustress: healthy. Role models push us to exceed are limits.Its destructive criticism we need to avoid, not criticism in all forms.Chp 3: Dodging bullets:Conquering Fear = Defining Fear. Once defined, looked at how he could deal with these scenarios.Pure hell forces action, but anything less can be endured with enough clever rationalisation.Define nightmareWhat steps could you take to repair the damage?What are outcomes of more probable scenarios?If you were fired today, what would you do to get things under financial control?What are you putting off out of fear?What is it costing you to postpone action?What are you waiting for?Chp 4: System reset:Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic.As 95% people are convinced incapable of achieving great things, they aim for mediocre. The level of competition is most for “realistic” goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming.Having an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides endurance to go along with any goal.Most people will never know what they want.Goals are not for happiness, are for excitement which is the more practical synonym for happiness. E.g. follow your passion (your excitement).Thus real question is not what you want or your goals, BUT it is what would excite me?Boredom is enemy not some abstract failure.He uses ‘dreamlining’: applying timelines to dreams. Differs from goal-setting:1.) The goals shift from ambiguous wants to defined steps2.) Goals have to be unrealistic to be effective3.) It focuses on activities that will fill the vacuum created when work is removed. Living like a millionaire requires doing interesting things and not just owning enviable things.Gave students tasks of reaching impossible people. Goal is to have 3-4 email exchanges before asking for help from these powerful people.Dreamlining process:1.) What would you do if there were no way you could fail? If you were 10 times smarter than the rest of the world?2 timelines (6 months, 12 months) - list up to 5 things you dream of:2.) Drawing a blank? 5 being questionsOne place to visitOne thing to do before you dieOne thing to do dailyOne thing to do weeklyOne thing you’ve always wanted to learn3.) What does “being” entail doingConvert each being into a doing to make it actionable.4.) What are four dreams that would change it all?5.) Determine the cost of these dreams and calculate your target monthly income (TMI) for both timelines. A+B+C+(1.3*monthly expenses)6.) Determine three steps for each of the four dreams and take the first step now.Step 11: E is for Elimination:Aim is not to do more, aim is to accomplish more by doing less via eliminationLast chapter you defined what you want to do with your time (definition), now you have to free that time whilst maintaining or increasing your income.Remember its DEAL, but employees must do DELA. Entrepreneurs can automate, then liberate themselves in turn.Effectiveness: doing things get you closer to your goals.Efficiency: performing a given task in the most economical manner possible.1.) Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.2.) Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.WHAT you do is infinitely more important than HOW you do it.Apply efficiency to the right things using Pareto rule: 80/20 principle80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs.Goal: find your inefficiencies in order to eliminate the and find your strengths to multiply them.Tim didn’t realise that working from every hour from 9-5 isn’t the goal; it’s simply the structure most people use, whether it’s necessary or not.Maximum income from minimal necessary effort is the primary goal.Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness - lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.Being selective is the path of the productive.Employees should have goal of negotiating a remote work arrangementParkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.Solution: use Parkison’s and 80/20 to identify few tasks contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines.Poisonous people don’t deserve your time, to think otherwise = masochistic.Have clear list of priorities made the day before.Learn to ask yourself “if this is the only thing I accomplish today will I be satisfied with my day?No multitaskingMake shorter deadlines - use a countdown timerChp 6: The low-information diet:Cultivate a selective ignorance - learn ignore all things are irrelevant, unimportant or unactionable.Reading 200% faster in 10 minutes, no comprehension loss:a.) Use pen or finger under each lineb.) Begin focusing on third word then move third from last word = peripheral vision.c.) Try again but with only two snapshots/fixations per lined.) read too fast for comprehension but with good technique for five pages, then go back to reading at a normal speed.1.)Go on immediate one-week media fast.Use LeechBlock to block sites for certain time.2.) Develop habit of asking yourself, “Will I definitely use this info for something immediate and important?”3.) Practice the art of nonfinishing: starting something doesn’t automatically justify finishing it.Comfort challenge: get phone numbers - 2 per day for 2 days.Chp 7: Interrupting Interruption and the Art of Refusal:Learn to be difficult when it counts, e.g. school, having reputation of being assertive will give you preferential treatment without having to beg every time. E.g. asking 2-3 hrs of questions when don’t get an A.Interruptions:1.) Time wasters: e.g email that is unimportant.2.) Time consumers: tasks need to be done but often interrupt high-level work, e.g. responding to emails or phone calls, personal errands.3.) Empowerment failures: times where someone needs approval to make something small happen. E.g. fixing customer problems.First limit email consumption and production, never do first thing in morning, do most important task first.Have 2 times for checking emails, tell your colleagues. Or call if emergencies.Have 2 phone numbers = 1 urgent and 1 non-urgent.Don’t encourage people to chitchat, make them get to point immediately.It is your job to train those around you to be effective and efficient1.) Order preference/urgent nature of issues; email, phone, in-person meetings.2.) Respond to voicemail via e-mail. Use ‘if...then’ structure. This prevents follow-up questions.3.) Make sure they define PURPOSE of the meeting. ‘What are topics? Thanks in advance’ then answer these questions/topics via email so no need for meeting.4.) If you cannot stop a call from happening, define the end time.5.) Again pretend your busy if someone comes to your cubicle, wear headphones/fake phone call. Ask intruder to email you.6.) Puppy dog close: use to help superiors develop the no-meeting habit. Say, “lets just try it once” reversible trial.Make sure you achieve more outside of meetings to covert to permanent routine.Time consumers:Only produce in batch - utilising economies of scale.Apply batching to other things, e.g. bill payments, you will save time which you can measure the cost savings off via working out your hourly rate.Can do this by removing 3 zeros and halving your annual salary to get hourly rate approximate.If problems from batching E.g. losing sales, cost more than time savings, then scale back to a less-frequent batching, otherwise increase batching time gaps.Empowerment failures: establish rules to give employees power, e.g. to fix problems themselves as long as cost is under $100. Suggest a one week trial to your boss.Summary of this chapter:Create systems to limit your availability via e-mail and phone and deflect inappropriate contact.Batch activities to limit setup cost and provide more time for dreamline milestonesSet or request autonomous rules and guidelines with occasional review of results.Tools:EvernoteGrandCentralYouMailDoodleTimedriverXobniJottCopytalk (dictate up 4 mins, get transcription in hrs)FreedomComfort challenge: say no for next 2 days to all that won’t get you fired.Step 111: A is for Automation:Chp 8: Outsourcing life:1.) Get an assistant - even if you don’t need one. Learn to command, start with a test projectUse domestic help for language-intensive tasks and foreign assistants in the early stages.ElanceVirtual assistant ($6.98)Remember your goal is to free your time to focus on bigger and better things.Remember: eliminate before you delegate/automate - make sure its important.Principle one: define rules and processes before adding people.Hiring a team rather than solo VA is safer, e.g. if gets ill.Forbid VAs from subcontracting work to untested freelancers without your written permission. Brickwork is good.Never use debit cards for online transactions or with remote assistants. Reversing unauthorised credit card charges is painless.2.) Start small but think bigLook at what has been on to-do list the longestEach time change tasks or are interrupted, ask “could a VA do this?”Examine pain points - what causes you the most frustration and boredom?3.) Identify your top five time-consuming non-work tasks and five personal tasks you could assign for sheer fun.4.) Keep in sync: scheduling and calendarsBusySyncSpanningSyncWebEx OfficeChp 9: Income Autopilot 1:This chp is for those who want not to run businesses but for those who want to own businesses and spend no time on them.Ideal model: a product where test less $500 and can lend itself to automation within four weeks, and when running can’t require more than one day per week of management.Cash flow and time: with these two currencies, all other things are possible.1.) Pick an affordably reachable niche marketFind your market, then develop a product for them.Ask yourself:What groups do you understand? What do you own and what groups of people purchase the same? Find related magazines and find out cost of advertising2.) Brainstorm (do not invest in) productsCreate a premium image and charge more than competitionSo can sell fewer unitsLower-maintenance customersHigher profit margins = safer. 8-10x markup.Should take no more than 3-4 wks to manufacture.Option 1: resell productOption 2: License a product.2 parties:Option open to most people = option 3: create a productMake prototype, then take to a contract manufacturer or find generic or stock product that can be repurposed for a specific market. Have then make, stick a custom label on it = “private labelling”INFORMATION products meet our criteria bestChp 10: Income Autopilot 11:You must micro-test your products using inexpensive advertisements1.) Market selection2.) Product brainstorm3.) Micro-testing, e.g. auctioned products on eBay to test demand before purchasing inventory.4.) rollout and automationChp 11: Income Autopilot 111:Once you have a product that sells, it’s time to design a self-correcting business architecture that runs itself.Contract outsourcing companies and allow them to communicate among themselves to solve problems and give them written permission to make most inexpensive decisions without consulting you.The more options offer customer = more indecision and so fewer orders.Art of “undecision” minimizing the number of decisions your customers can or need to make.Not all customers are equal: prevent problem customers from ordering in the first place. Those who spend the most complain the least.Use a ‘lose-win’ guarantee, e.g. delivered in 30mins or less or its free.Look Fortune 5001.) Don’t be CEO or founder2.) Put multiple e-mail and phone contacts on website3.) Set up Interactive Voice Response (IVR) remote receptionist.4.) Do not provide home addressesStep IV: L is for Liberation:Chp 12: Disappearing Act:Steps for employees to work remote:1.) increase investment: want company to invest in you as much as possible, so larger cost if you quit.2.) Prove increased output offsite, e.g. by calling sick.3.) prepare the quantifiable business benefit4.) Propose a revocable trial period5.) Expand remote timeSherwood ensures his days outside of the office are his most productive to date.Alternative: Hourglass approach: where you get a short remote-agreement and then negotiate back up to full-time out of the office.Practice the art of getting past ��no” before proposing.6.) Extend each successful trial period until you reach full-time or your desired level of mobility.Don’t underestimate how much your company needs you. Perform well and ask for what you want. If you don’t get it over time, leave. It’s too big a world to spend most of life in a cubicle.Chp 13: Beyond Repair:Most people aren’t lucky enough to get fired and die a slow spiritual death over 30-40 years of tolerating mediocre.The phobias keeping people on sinking ships:1.) Quitting is permanent. No it isn’t, can continue career at later point.2.) I won’t be able to pay the billsWell you should have a new job or source of cash flow before quitting.Also, not hard to eliminate most expenses temporarily and live on savings for a brief period.3.) Health insurance and retirement accounts disappear if i quitUntrue.Can get medical and dental coverage for $300-500 per monthTransferring 401 (k) took less 30 mins4.) It will ruin my resumeDo something interesting and make them jealous.Fine as long as you don’t sit on your ass after quitting.Chp 14: Mini-Retirement:Most people dream of pot of gold at end of career rainbow. But travelling can be done VERY cheaply.Why not redistribute usually 20-30 yr retirement throughout life instead of all at end.Mini-retirements are recurring = lifestyle. E.g. Tim does 3-4 per year.True freedom is more than having enough income and time to do what you want.Must also be free from the stresses of a speed- and size-obsessed culture, for which you must be free from the materialistic addictions, time-famine mind-set.Use credit card points for free travel and purchase tickets far in advance (3 months or more) or last minute, and aim for departure and return between Tuesday and Thursday.You may realise that travelling the world and having time of your life can save you serious money.Clutter creates indecision and distractions, consuming attention.Tim says take absolute minimum with you when travelling, and set aside a “settling fund” to purchase things needed.Most lifestyle for dollar: Argentina, Thailand, Berlin.Minimalism: eliminate 80% belongings. Keep 20% use 80% of time.Give a trusted member of family and/or your accountant power of attorney.Get all required and recommended immunisations and vaccinations for your target region.Chp 15: Filling the Void:Don’t want too much idle time, want to live more.Questions: if you can’t define or act upon it, forget it. Be smart and put your effort where it can make the biggest difference for yourself and others.Continual learning and service is key in lifeTo live is to learn - go abroad and learn language + one kinesthetic skill, e.g. sport.1.) Revisit ground zero: do nothing2.) Make an anonymous donation to the service organisation of your choice.3.) Take a learning mini-retirement in combination with local volunteering.4.) Revisit and reset dreamlines5.) Based on the outcomes of steps 1-4, consider testing new part- or full-time vocations.Chp 16: The top 13 New Rich Mistakes:Perform a 80/20 analysis every two to four weeks for your business and personal lifeSurround yourself with smiling, positive people who have absolutely nothing to do with work.Review:I would give this book an 8/10, I thought it explained the steps very well, but I still think Timothy could've explained better how employees could actually gain the location independence he mentioned as in many jobs I still think gaining liberation is the hardest step.If you've reached the end of this post, thank you so much for reading, I hope you learnt a lot and would appreciate hearing your thoughts in the comments!

[marcusssanderson]

40 Elon Musk Quotes On Success & The Future of Space

Our latest collection of insightful Elon Musk quotes that will inspire you to live with power.

Elon Musk’s massive success has spanned products, online payment systems, electric cars, energy production and now space adventure. Musk is an icon for start-up success and is paving the way for a new innovative future for social entrepreneurs.

We have had a great time searching the web for some of our favorite Elon Musk quotes and wanted to provide a wide range of insights from one of the worlds most influential billionaires. Elon is defiantly Living with Power!

A Few of Elon’s Accomplishments

Elon Musk is an entrepreneur with a massive edge. At 23, he founded Zip2, his first company and sold it for $300,000,000. From the sale of Zip2, he used $10 000 000 to fund, create and launch Paypal.

SolarCity was the next company he created for the purpose of making solar energy more affordable. Besides, Elon is the founder of SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla Motors, who are driven to make inexpensive (relatively inexpensive, of course) electric cars.

To inspire your success and happiness, below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and thought-provoking Elon Musk quotes and sayings, collected from a variety of sources over the years.

Elon Musk Quotes and Life Lessons About Impact, Innovation and Success

1.) “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” – Elon Musk

Elon is defiantly not afraid to fail. With his companies almost going bankrupt in the past, it has caused him to re-evaluate, re-launch and come back 10X stronger.

2.) “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” – Elon Musk

Don’t focus on the odds, focus on what gives you and your life some meaning. Odds are meant to be defied.

3.) “(Physics is) a good framework for thinking. … Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.” – Elon Musk

Start with the basics and build from there. You can’t master something by overlooking the fundamentals.

4.) “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.” – Elon Musk

Focus on who you are and what your creating. Your brand will follow.

5.) “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then  – probability will occur.” – Elon Musk

Whether it’s through science, logic or imagination – decide it’s possible. Once you do that,  you’ve already increased the odds of the desired outcome.

6.) “You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that’s wrong with it and fix it. Seek negative feedback, particularly from friends.” – Elon Musk

Real friends who have your best interest at heart are not giving you negative feedback to crush your dream. Use it to correct the flaws and come back stronger.

7.) “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.” – Elon Musk

Yes it might be scary, but if you want something great to happen you have to go ALL IN! In our gut, we know when we are fully committed and when we are not. Don’t just focus on the result, focus on aligning your actions so that each task completed moves you one step closer, even if it’s a baby step.

8.) “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” – Elon Musk

Many times we quit just before we are about to have a breakthrough, make a new connection or have given appropriate time for the desired results. Be committed for the long haul.

9.) “My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.” – Elon Musk

Many times the hard skills, such as there skills that are needed for the job are much easier to teach and learn than the soft skills needed for teamwork, leadership and influence. Skills can be learned, but intention comes from within. You can’t teach or train heart.

10.) “You want to have a future where you’re expecting things to be better, not one where you’re expecting things to be worse.” – Elon Musk

Creating a personal and professional culture of optimism and vision is essential for any dynamic and innovative organization.

Elon Musk quotes about being driven

11.) “You have to be pretty driven to make it happen. Otherwise, you will just make yourself miserable.” – Elon Musk

12.) “People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.” – Elon Musk

13.) “Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.” – Elon Musk

14.) “I came to the conclusion that we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask. Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.” – Elon Musk

15.) “Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive and determination of the people who do it as it is about the product they sell.” – Elon Musk

16.) “Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.” – Elon Musk

17.) “If something’s important enough, you should try. Even if the probable outcome is failure.” – Elon Musk

Elon Musk quotes about impacting the world

18.) “When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world. Now I am.” – Elon Musk

19.) “If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.” – Elon Musk

20.) “I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.” – Elon Musk

21.) “My motivation for all my companies has been to be involved in something that I thought would have a significant impact on the world.” – Elon Musk

22.) “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” – Elon Musk

23.) “You shouldn’t do things differently just because they’re different. They need to be… better.” – Elon Musk

24.) “I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems… It’s got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.” – Elon Musk

25.) “The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst. It sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I’d be super-duper bored. I like high intensity.” – Elon Musk

A Conversation with Elon Musk

Elon Musk quotes about vision and the future

26.) “Going from PayPal, I thought: ‘Well, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?’ Not from the perspective, ‘What’s the best way to make money?” – Elon Musk

27.) “I’m interested in things that change the world or that affect the future and wondrous, new technology where you see it, and you’re like, ‘Wow, how did that even happen? How is that possible?'” – Elon Musk

28.) “Why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? And if the future’s not including being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, it’s incredibly depressing if that’s not the future we’re going to have.” – Elon Musk

29.) “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.” – Elon Musk

30.) “I always have optimism, but I’m realistic. It was not with the expectation of great success that I started Tesla or SpaceX…. It’s just that I thought they were important enough to do anyway.” – Elon Musk

31.) “Don’t delude yourself into thinking something’s working when it’s not, or you’re gonna get fixated on a bad solution.” – Elon Musk

Other motivational Elon Musk quotes

32.) “Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.” – Elon Musk

33.) “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.” – Elon Musk

34.) “If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic – being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago.” – Elon Musk

35.) “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” – Elon Musk

36.) “I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” – Elon Musk

37.) “Don’t be afraid of new arenas.” – Elon Musk

38.) “I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.” – Elon Musk

39.) “Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success.”  – Elon Musk

40.) “As much as possible, avoid hiring MBAs. MBA programs don’t teach people how to create companies.” – Elon Musk

Which Elon Musk quote is your favorite?

At age 12, Elon Musk programmed a computer game and sold it for $500. Since then, he’s founded multiple successful companies and established himself as one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs the world has ever seen.

Through his courage to take great risks to achieve success and bring innovation, Elon has made a massive impact on the universe. Hopefully, these Elon Musk quotes have motivated you to think outside the box.

Did you enjoy these Elon Musk quotes? Which of the quotes was your favorite? Tell us in the comment section below.

The post 40 Elon Musk Quotes On Success & The Future of Space appeared first on Everyday Power.

[therealestatesparkblog]

How Adopting 7 Kids at Once Led Me to Launch My Real Estate Investing Career

The truth is that I did not get involved in real estate in a meaningful way until later in my life. I have been a chiropractic physician for 29 years, but Im really an entrepreneur at heart. I have started or purchased six multi-discipline medical clinics in my career and have been involved in a number of other businesses. None, however, have matched the combination of relative safety and potential returns afforded by real estate. Still, for some reason, I could never pull the trigger and launch my real estate investing career. Unfortunately I sat on the sidelines for a number of years. I hoped to get started but never did. Like many of you, I read Robert Kiyosakis Rich Dad Poor Dadand a few other real estate books, but it wasnt enough. Looking back now, I can point to several life events that lit a fire under me and finally got me off the bench and into the game. Over the past few years, I have flipped a couple houses, owned a small apartment complex, developed a large commercial retail strip center, syndicated a 125-door multifamily townhome complex, and am just finishing the co-syndication of a large self-storage deal. I am in my 50s and wish I had started earlier. No matter your age, though, if you are procrastinating like I did, hopefully you can use one or more of the following five steps to get started. 5 Steps to Launch Your Real Estate Career1. Find your passion. Twenty years ago, my wife and I became interested in adoption. We had two biological kids at the time and wanted to adopt a third child. While working with an organization that facilitated the adoption of Eastern European orphans, we heard about a sibling group of seven Russian children that the Russian government was going to split up and send to three different countries. My wife decided she would make it her personal mission to find a family that could keep these siblings from being separated. The idea of someone taking that many kids into their home blew us away, and we made a list of all of our friends and acquaintances that we thought might be able to afford such a monumental task. The Russian government announced they would be separating the children in a few months. As the date approached with no takers in sight, we began to ask ourselves if there was any way we could adopt them ourselves. Its a very long story, but fast forward to August of 1988. We were told at the U.S. Embassy that we had completed the single largest adoption in U.S./Russian history (at a single time). It was a big culture shock to bring seven Russian speaking kids into our home for sure. But the real shock was just around the corner when the financial reality of our decision began to hit home. Nine sets of clothing, nine bikes, nine soccer teams, nine college educations, nine weddingsyou get the picture. The financial pressure began to build. I rapidly set out on a course to produce more income. I started or purchased six different medical clinics. I developed anathletic club, which eventually grew to 1,500 members. I purchased a sports performance enhancement franchise. And we even started a coffee shop/deli. Some produced more cash flow than others, but the one problem all those businesses had in common was that they took immense amounts of my personal time. I was fairly successful at creating additional income, but I was killing myself. My family life was suffering. I quickly realized working 70-80 hours a week would not work. There are few things that I am more passionate about than my family, so I threw myself into a massive search for ways to create passive income. It was this search that eventually led me to real estate. You can do the same thing. Figure out what you are passionate about. Focus on the end results. Getfired up and use that passion to fuel your real estate dreams.

Related: If I Started My Real Estate Business Again Today, THIS is What Id Change 2. Harness fear. As humans, nothing makes us react quite like fear. Fear comes in all shapes and sizes. There are literally hundreds of types of fears and phobiasfear of pain, of disease, of injury, of tight spaces, of rejection, and of failure, to name a few. People will do just about anything to avoid their fears. If they are forced to face fear, they go into fight or flight mode or they are paralyzed by fear and do nothing at all. Fortunately, a random encounter with a couple of patients changed my investing mindset forever. It was March 6, 2009, and the stock market was in the final throes of its great crash. I walked into a treatment room, and there sat a patient with tears streaming down his face. It was odd because this was a big burly guy who had just retired from a local factory and was a pretty tough character. I soon found out he was not crying because of his back or neck pain but because he had just lost almost all of his retirement savings in the stock market. Apparently, this gentleman had taken his retirement payments as a lump sum and had recently dumped it all in the market. As he sat on my exam table, he explained how in a few short days, he had lost more than 70 percent of his retirement savings, and those savings had taken him 40 years to amass! I am not usually at a loss for words, but nothing in my medical training could have prepared me for that moment. A couple of days later, I was seeing another patient. Mrs. Smith (not her real name) was a 50-something retired school teacher and seemed to be in a better mood than normal. I noticed her cheerfulness and asked her why she seemed so happy. She went on to explain how she and her husband had taken all of their retirement funds out of the stock market about a year previously and had used the funds to buy rental property. Their rentals were leased, and frankly, they were really enjoying retirement. Fortunate to have gotten out of the market when they did, this new landlord was not affected by the downturn in the markets at all. I had really never trusted the stock market. I mean, with the almost-daily headlines of one major bank after another caught cheating their clients or gaming the system somehow, this ladys message really hit home with me. Even so, I had always been too afraid of missing out on that once-in-a-lifetime Amazon or Microsoft stock pick to shift my investing away from the stock market. Right then and there, it finally hit home. When it came to real estate, I was afraid to make a mistake that would cost me money. Since I was not sure when or where to start, I just sat doing nothing for years. I had analysis paralysis, but I realized I was much more scared of ending up like my first patient, crying in a doctors office somewhere having lost the majority of my retirement. I finally made a commitment that real estate would be my investment vehicle of choice. 3. Find your motivation. A few years back, an MRI revealed I had a torn rotator cuff, torn labrum, and arthritis in my shoulder. Decades of occupational abuse and years of chasing baseball scholarships had taken their toll. My orthopedic physician announced I could either give up my chiropractic career immediately, or in about four years, I would need a shoulder replacement. Suddenly, I was heading toward for an untimely retirement. I was shocked. I had dedicated the last 29 years of my life to helping people heal. My entire identity was tied up in being a healthcare provider. At the same time, Obamacare was rapidly eroding away my practice of two-plus decades. I had no idea what I would do, but knew I needed a plan and needed one quick. After much angst and a considerable amount of prayer, I decided it was time to jump in with both feet. I still have a medical practice, but am working full-time on a plan to exit healthcare as soon as possible. Even though I didnt recognize it at the time, life circumstances helped me find my motivation. Each individual has their own unique mix of life experiences and desires that fuel their drive for success. For some, its the thought of a penniless retirement. For others, it is the commitment to never let their children grow up in poverty (like they did). Some people say that success is a lake home or traveling the world. Others have an altruistic motivation to give back to those less fortunate. There are 1,001 books on ramping up personal motivation. For me, however, it boils down to a very simple concept: Focusing on my goals 10 times more than I focus on the roadblocks. Every time I run up against what seems like an insurmountable roadblock, I pull out my list of goals and focus on what I want to accomplish. Time spent focusing on what matters most turbocharges my motivation levels. The roadblocks seem to work themselves out. Whats your motivation? Related: How to Jumpstart Your Investing Career as a Multifamily Deal Finder 4. Hire a mentor. Every athlete from t-ball to the big leagues has a coach. They need someone they can learn from who is more experienced. Someone who knows the ins and outs of the game. Its no different in real estate. If you are serious about learning the craft, you need to find someone to teach you the ropes. When I finally got serious, I hired a mentor. I knew if I spent my hard-earned money on a program, I would take it seriously. There are lots of mentors and training programs on BiggerPockets. For me, I knew the more expensive the program, the more commitment I was likely to have. I am not talking about a weekend seminar with a few handouts. I chose a company called 37th Parallel Properties. Their program is a comprehensive year-long mentorship. It includes visits to real assets across the country (much like getting an MBA in multifamily investing). Dont get me wrongnot everyone needs to pay for a mentor, but dont attempt to go it alone. Learn from someone elses mistakes. Its one of the many reasons I am such a big fan of BiggerPockets. You can learn so much just by hanging out in the community and reading the advice of experienced investors. Whether you hope to invest in single family homes, self-storage units, large multifamily communities, or mobile home parks, there is always someone with expertise willing to share.

5.Leverage the experience of others. Maybe you dont need to change careers like me. Maybe you just want to use commercial real estate to turbocharge your portfolio. Maybe you just want to be a passive investor and have very little interest in toilets, tenants, and trash. If you are an accredited or sophisticated investor, syndicated deals may be the best approach for you. Some companies offer syndicated real estate investments. They specialize in sourcing lucrative real estate assets and packaging them up for passive investors. They typically underwrite the project, perform all due diligence, line up debt, and complete the purchase. The companies then operate and oversee these assets so that their investors can realize great profits minus the headaches. Choosing a company that you feel comfortable with is the key to any syndicated investment. While it is a much quicker way to jump into the fray, be careful! Take your time and choose the specific deal and syndicator carefully. Ask lots of questions and always check references. So, what is holding you back? Whats it going to take to get you off the sidelines? Dont procrastinate like I did! Hey, if an old chiropractor can do it

What motivation led to your first investment? What did your journey there look like? Take a moment to share what it took to make your first real estate investment! https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/seven-child-adoption-launch-real-estate-career

[omgtaxtwerk]

Top 10 Reasons To Start Your Own Online Business!

Online business appeals to so many people for many different reasons,.

For some it can be the fact that they can fit in work around various other responsibilities and for others it may just boil down to the fact that it’s possible to attact an incredible amount of money online.

Some variables are more important to some people than others so with that in mind here are the top ten reasons for starting your own online business.

You can start a legitimate online business to make money online with just a very small amount of start-up funds; it’s not unusual to start an affiliate marketing venture for example, for just a few dollars.

If you have kids to look after, you’ll have the ability to fit your company around looking after your kids. You might be amazed to learn that many people operate in this way when they are starting out (myself included).

With a legitimate online business, you can work anywhere in the world, as long as there is an internet connection you are ready to go.

It is possible to purchase an internet company in a box and more or less get started directly away. These type of internet businesses are much less costly than those from the offline world, and $100 could well be enough to get you started.

You can set your own online business up to more or less turn on autopilot. That way you could very easily find yourself earning money while you sleep by using automated systems.

In the case of affiliate marketing, you can start selling branded products without the need of holding any inventory. You simply set up a simple blog or site and market many products from there. If someone clicks on a link that you have provided and goes on to make a purchase, you’ll get a generous commission for doing practically nothing… The company that’s managing the sale will take care of absolutely everything else including the fulfillment of the goods or service.

It is up to you how much money you want to make. As with all businesses, if you are prepared to put the work in you will see the results but with an internet marketing business, the outcome that you will see can be described as life-changing.

With an internet business, you can outsource many of the tasks that are expected to become successful. This can dramatically decrease the time it can take to find the money start to come in.

Never before have there been so many sound opportunities to start an internet marketing company and it would be reasonable to state that there’ll be something that you feel satisfied with.

Finally, it’s perfectly acceptable to start an internet business and when you’re running it for some time, sell it as a going concern. Тhіs іs уеt аnоthеr mеthоd оf Сrеаtіng аn аwful lоt оf mоnеу frоm аn оnlіnе busіnеss іn а vеrу shоrt sрасе оf tіmе.

“Entrepreneurs are willing to work an 80 hour work to avoid a 40 hour week”

Lori Greiner American inventor, entrepreneur, and television personality.

Conclusion

We hope that this article has been helpful in helping you discover if you really want to grow your own online business. Remember that it really is a ‘business’ like any other and it does require 100% commitment and courage to grow it each and every single day.

Faithful in your success!

Want More? Did you find this post useful… Would you be interested in an easy and detailed guide on how to make money online? If you would, or you have questions regarding this post, let me know in comments below. Questions? Ask in comments >> Did you like this post / method?… Let me know in comment.

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The post Top 10 Reasons To Start Your Own Online Business! appeared first on Tax Twerk©.

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[marshallbarbour]

Will Your Pension Plan Expire Before You Do?

Is Your Pension Plan Enough?

What will last longer: you or your money? It's been something that has crossed my mind more and more, I started thinking about this every year as I would see my family and friends around me retire. Growing up the oldest in the family, I had a different experience and feel for responsibilities. I noticed my parents would put everything into us as children and now watching what my parents do to take care of my grandparents has inspired me into planning for the future.

As the oldest, I felt responsible to ensure that this was taken care of for my family financially so we could enjoy our time together, not stress about where the money will come from.

Life is too short to stress over a financial struggle. To create financial wealth is a choice, we can all start to learn more about a topic that will drastically change our lives forever.

"He who fails to plan is planning to fail"  - Sir Winston Churchill

This is simply about how much of your wealth you can keep as you develop your long-term plan.

Most people decide that we have lots of time to look at retirement and this is our first mistake... You see if you had just taken the time to do it right as soon as we become working adults, we could retire by the age of our choice! 10 years is more than enough time to create a real financial edge in your life I know because I achieved that, but more importantly, I lost it as well and this is where I gain my true experience and insights.

Is it safe to depend on your place of work for your retirement?

What would happen if that company went out of business?

What happens if the economy changes a few years before you're ready to retire and they have to lay you off?

I started asking myself these questions when the company that I thought had the end all be all of retirement plans completely changed the retirement packages, I was now left with a significantly different outcome for my future.

Think about this... You have retired, you are 75 years old and you've run out of retirement income... what if you have another 20 years? All of a sudden you are too old to get a career and you are having to go back to work for minimum wage! You aren't a spring chicken anymore, and your cost of living goes up because your body just isn't what it used to be. This is a REAL problem! How do you survive? Well, your family is now affected, and you know that can also be a struggle if there was no planning for this.

What can you do in this situation? The best thing to do is think ahead of the what if's... CREATE a PLAN.

Here is how I look at the situation.

What monthly income do you desire? When you know that number then you can start with the end in mind and plan backward!

Every $500 of passive income a month will equal $100,000 invested making you 6% a year as a benchmark.

If you would like to make $60,000 a year then you will require $1,000,000 of seed capital. This means you will only live off of the money you make on an annual basis. To protect yourself from any unforeseen changes in your income you will want to create multiple streams of income. My target is to achieve 10 different streams of passive income. Now, this could be overkill but it's a goal that I set for myself and I intend to complete it.

How It Works: An Example in Real Estate

To give you an example, I started to create my first stream in real estate. Let me break down what this would look like... I figured that my pension plan would only carry me for so many years and never be more than what I was making at my job which is very accurate. My understanding of retirement before I started my journey was that I would work 40 years at 40 hours a week to live off of 40% of my income because I would have my house, car and any other loans paid off by the time I was ready to retire. 

What I did was look at one single family home rental valued at $500,000. If I found the right deal I could get that home and rent it for a positive cash flow. Which means after the mortgage and bills are paid for I would make a few extra hundred dollars every month... but more importantly, after 25 years I would have a home completely paid for free and clear. This is the point where you can now collect the full rent as passive income! To further that one more step I would borrow back up to 80% of the value of the home on a line of credit at an affordable interest rate from the banks for some more private deals or even another couple properties, which could be done before the 25-year mark.

What this might look like at the time of writing this you could borrow this money at 4% and let's say you invest this capital and earn 8% you would be profiting 4% in your pocket. Example $400,000 x 4% = $16,000 cost to borrow then your 4% profit gives you $16,000 income, rinse & repeat.

To recap say ball park $30,000 a year rental income after some expenses and the home valued at $500,000 with no mortgage. Reinvest $400,000 of that mortgage free home at a cost of 4%($16,000) a year to make you 4%($16,000) more income on top.

$30,000 + $16,000 = $46,000 a year from one rental... now just keep adding to your portfolio. Sounds easy right...? Well it isn't that easy if you are doing this on your own, you will need guidance and learn some skills which may only come from experience of doing the task at hand.

You Can Do This Too!

You see, this whole path came from me wanting to secure my financial future and it does work... if you work. However that is not where it stops. Continue to create multiple streams of income as you free up your time and this is where the real work begins. I made it my personal goal to create 10 streams of income to reduce the damage done if one stream got hit, as it would only hurt 10% of my wealth.

Another noteworthy rule is never to risk it all into one new venture or deal: as you grow your wealth you will want to leave room for error. I found it extremely difficult to get re-centered when you have the feeling of something to lose. I have since improved my mental game to ensure I can be level headed under pressure.

The best part of doing this early on is you have time to recover from any mistakes you may make. Once you have been challenged as an entrepreneur you will learn pretty quick what your limits are when is comes to your growth plan. Just remember at the end of the day you are working on freeing up your time. More money can be made but your time cannot be replaced, so invest it wisely.

A few ways to create more income for your future are as follows: real estate, coaching, traditional businesses, online businesses, paper assets, commodities, private investing, start ups, etc.

What you want to avoid is putting it off. The plan should be simple and you must be consistent. I recommend you consider taking a percentage of your income off the top of every paycheck and start building your wealth. This could be for something under $10 a day when you really think about it. At a certain age your lifestyle will change, due to health, interests, passion or skills. At the end of the day, your future is your responsibility and to ignore that will only lead to hurting those closest to you.

If you don't know where to start I would suggest you start with grabbing some books from the business section (or audio), understand that skills are the real value. Wealth creation is a learned skill and will allow you to always be ready for life's curve balls.

The following blog post Will Your Pension Plan Expire Before You Do? Find more on: Marshall Barbour Marketing

[linguooapp]

7 Things You Need to Stop Doing to Be More Productive, Backed by Science

When I was 17 years old, I used to work and study for about 20 hours a day. I went to school, did my homework during breaks and managed a not-for-profit organization at night. At that time, working hard landed me countless national campaigns, opportunities to work with A-list organizations and a successful career. As I got older, I started thinking differently. I realized that working harder is not always the right path to success. Sometimes, working less can actually produce better results.

Consider a small business owner, who works non-stop. However, working hard won’t help him compete with his multi-million competitors. Time is a limited commodity. An entrepreneur can work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week (the most amount of time anyone can work, really). His or her competitor can always spend more money, build a bigger team and spend a lot more time on the same project. Then why have small startups accomplished things that larger corporations couldn’t? Facebook bought Instagram, a 13-employee company for a billion dollars. Snapchat, a young startup with 30 employees is turning down offers from tech giants Facebook and Google. Part of their successes were based on luck — the rest is based on efficiency.

The key to success is not hard working but smart working.

There’s a notable distinction between being busy and being productive. Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being productive. Being productive is less about time management and more on managing your energy. It is the business of life. We need to learn how to spend the least amount of energy to get the most benefits. I am so lucky to work with an amazing team here at Filemobile. Everyone always challenges me and helps me sort my priorities to become more productive. I learned to reduce my work week from 80 hours to 40 hours, and get a lot more work done in the process. In other words, less is more.

Here are 7 I things I stopped doing to become more productive.

1. Stop working overtime and increase your productivity

Have you ever wondered where the 40-hour work week came from? In 1926, Henry Ford, American industrialist and founder of Ford Motor Company, conducted experiments with interesting results: when you decrease your daily working hours from 10 to 8, and shorten the work week from 6 days to 5, your productivity increases.

Source: Calculating Loss of Productivity Due to Overtime Using Published Charts — Fact or Fiction

The more you work, the less effective and productive you are going to become over both short and long term. “Scheduled Overtime Effect on Construction Projects”, a report issued by The Business Roundtable in 1980 states.

“Where a work schedule of 60 or more hours per week is continued longer than about two months, the cumulative effect of decreased productivity will cause a delay in the completion date beyond that which could have been realized with the same crew size on a 40-hour week.”

Source: Calculating Loss of Productivity Due to Overtime Using Published Charts — Fact or Fiction

In an article for AlterNet, editor Sara Robinson referenced research conducted by the US military that revealed that “losing one hour of sleep per night for a week will cause a level of cognitive degradation equivalent to a .10 blood alcohol level.” You can get fired for coming to work drunk, but it is deemed acceptable to pull an all-nighter.

Irrespective of how well you were able to get on with your day after that most recent night without sleep, it is unlikely that you felt especially upbeat and joyous about the world. Your more-negative-than-usual perspective will have resulted from a generalized low mood, which is a normal consequence of being overtired. More important than just the mood, this mind-set is often accompanied by decreases in willingness to think and act proactively, control impulses, feel positive about yourself, empathize with others, and generally use emotional intelligence.

Source: The Secret World of Sleep: The Surprising Science of the Mind at Rest

It’s important for us not to overwork ourselves and get enough sleep to maintain a high level of productivity. Next time you’re wondering why you may not be working productively, the reason may be simple as you being one of 70% of people who doesn’t get enough sleep.

Did you know?

Leonardo da Vinci took multiple naps a day and slept less at night.

The French Emperor Napoleon was not shy about taking naps. He indulged daily.

Though Thomas Edison was embarrassed about his napping habit, he also practiced his ritual daily.

Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, used to boost her energy by napping before speaking engagements.

Gene Autry, “the Singing Cowboy,” routinely took naps in his dressing room between performances.

President John F. Kennedy ate his lunch in bed and then settled in for a nap—every day!

Oil industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller napped every afternoon in his office.

Winston Churchill’s afternoon nap was a non-negotiable. He believed it helped him get twice as much done each day.

President Lyndon B. Johnson took a nap every afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in order to break his day up into “two shifts.”

Though criticized for it, President Ronald Reagan famously took naps as well.

Source: 5 Reasons Why You Should Take a Nap Every Day — Michael Hyatt

On a personal note, since I started getting at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a day, I’ve noticed a change: I became a lot more productive and got a lot more work done than when I worked 16 hours a day. Who knew sleeping was such a great tool for marketers?

2. Don’t say “yes” too often

According to the Pareto Principle, 20% of the effort produces 80% of the results; however, 20% of the results consumes 80% of the effort. Instead of working harder, we should focus primarily on those efforts that produce 80% of the results and forgo the rest. We will have more time to focus on the most important tasks. We should stop saying “yes” to tasks that bring low or almost no result.

“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything.” — Warren Buffet.

This begs a question: what should you say “yes” and what should you say “no” to? If you can’t figure if something is going to be worth your time, consider running a simple split test. Track everything you do and optimize if it is possible.

Most of us say yes more often than we should because it is so much easier than saying no. Nobody wants to be the bad guy.

In a 2012 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers split 120 students in 2 groups. One group was trained to use “I can’t”, while the other was trained to use “I don’t”. The results were interesting:

The students who told themselves “I can’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bar 61% of the time. Meanwhile, the students who told themselves “I don’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bars only 36% of the time. This simple change in terminology significantly improved the odds that each person would make a more healthy food choice.

Next time you need to avoid saying yes, say “I don’t”.

Another great trick to avoid activities that don’t add enough value into your life is the 20-second rule: give yourself 20 seconds longer for activities you shouldn’t be doing.

Lower the activation energy for habits you want to adopt and raise it for habits you want to avoid. The more we can lower or even eliminate the activation energy for our desired actions, the more we enhance our ability to jump-start positive change.

Source: The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work

3. Stop doing everything yourself and start letting people help you

At some point in my career, I was managing a very large community and couldn’t handle it. I tried to do everything myself. I burnt out, but the community ended up taking over and managing itself. Surprisingly, members did a better job than I have ever done. I learned the power of community and why brands need user-generated content.

Consumers understand what they want and how they want it better than any marketer. Did you know that, according to Octoly, user-generated videos are viewed 10 times more than brand-generated videos on YouTube? When seeking information about a particular brand,over half (51%) of Americans trust user-generated content more than the content on the brand website (16%) or media coverage on the brand (14%). It’s important for marketers to open up and seek help from the brand’s community.

Source: Earned Media Rankings on YouTube — Octoly

Being a great content marketer is not about creating the best content, but building a great community that will generate high-quality content for you.

It’s important for us to realize we can seek help when needed. We cannot do everything ourselves. It is better for you to let someone who can do a better job taking over some of your tasks. It will give you more time to focus on your most important tasks. Instead of wasting your time trying to figure something out yourself, let the experts help you.

A lot of time, even if your friends can’t help you, having them around can help you become more productive.

4. Stop being a perfectionist

“We found that perfectionism trips up professors on the way to research productivity. The more perfectionistic the professor, the less productive they are,” Dr. Simon Sherry, a Dalhousie University Psychology Professor who conducted a study on perfectionism and productivity, tells University Affairs magazine. Dr. Sherry found a robust correlation between increased perfectionism and decreased productivity.

Here are some problems associated with being a perfectionist:

They spend more time than required on a task.

They procrastinate and wait for the perfect moment. In business, if it is the perfect moment, you are too late.

They miss the big picture while being too focused on small things.

Marketers often wait for the perfect moment. In doing so, they end up missing it.

The perfect moment is NOW.

5. Stop doing repetitive tasks and start automating it.

According to a research study conducted by Tethys Solutions, A team of 5 people who spent 3%, 20%, 25%, 30% and 70% of their time on repetitive tasks respectively reduced this time to 3%, 10%, 15%, 15% and 10% after 2 months of enhancing their productivity.

Source: Using Automation Software To Increase Business Productivity & Competitiveness -Tethys Solutions

A week ago, I spent 15 minutes writing a basic Python program. The idea was to generate content from the data, which I pulled from Twitter API using a Ruby bot, and use Hootsuite to bulk schedule them. While it used to take me an entire day to accomplish, it now takes me less than 5 minutes. Nowadays, whenever I do something repetitively (more than 5 times), I would ask myself if I can find a program to do it for me.

You don’t have to be a coder to able to automate your repetitive tasks. It’s nice to have the skills or the resources, but it’s not a requirement. If you cannot build it, buy it.

People often forget that time is money. People usually do things manually because it’s easy and requires almost no research. It is manageable to moderate 30 images on Instagram for your user-generated campaign. But if you have to manage 30 000 photos and videos from 5 different platforms, you need a good digital asset management software. At Filemobile, we help people to solve that problem generate even more user-generated content. Just like managing rich media, you can easily purchase a software to solve almost all of your problem on the internet.

If you still can’t find a solution, you can hire an expert to help you. Keep in mind that you need to spend money to make money and that time is your most valuable commodity.

Tips for marketers: check out GitHub or Google app script library. Often times, you’ll find free ready-to-use open source code that requires very little programming knowledge.

6. Stop guessing and start backing up your decisions with data

If you can optimize websites for search engines, you can optimize your lives to grow and reach your maximum potential.

There are so many research studies out there that can provide answers in a range of areas. For instance, did you know that most people are more easily distracted from noon to 4PM? This random statistic comes from recent research led by Robert Matchock, an associate professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Even if you can’t find the data you need, it doesn’t take a lot of time to run a split test.

For instance, last week we did a few tests to figure out the best way to optimize images for Twitter in-stream preview.

Keep asking yourself how you’re going to measure and optimize everything you do.

7. Stop working, and have do-nothing time

Most people don’t realize that we’re essentially locking ourselves in a box when we are too focused on something. It’s important to walk away from our work once in a while and have some alone time. Alone time is good for the brain and spirit, according to The power of lonely , an article in The Boston Globe.

It‘s important for us to take time for reflection. We often find the solutions when we’re not searching for them.

We don’t become more productive overnight. Like everything in life, it requires efforts. Change doesn’t happen if you just sit there and wait for it. It’s important for all of us to learn more about our body and find ways to optimize our energy for a more successful and happy life.

Source: medium.com

The post 7 Things You Need to Stop Doing to Be More Productive, Backed by Science appeared first on Linguoo.

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[jaijai28]

"If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you're not sure you can do it, say yes - then learn how to do it later". A saying by Richard Branson that gives us motivation to try many things really help me in motivating myself. Opportunity was defined a favorable set of circumstances that creates a need for a new product, service, or business. I've learned that there are three ways to identify an opportunity. First, observing trends that create opportunities for entrepreneurs to pursue. Observing trends have 4 changes and forces which are the economic forces, social forces, technological advances, and the political action and regulatory changes. Second, solving a problem sometimes identifying opportunities simply involves noticing a problem and finding a way to solve it. And lastly, finding gaps in the marketplace is often created when a product or service is needed by a specific group of people but doesn't represent a large enough market to be of interest to mainstream retailers or manufacturers.

I've also learned that entrepreneurs have personal characteristics and these are the Prior Experience, Cognitive Factors, Social Networks, and the Creativity. There are also techniques for generating ideas. Brainstorming is a technique used to generate a large number of ideas and solutions to problems quickly. Focus groups are used for a variety of purposes, they can be used to help generate new business ideas. Library research are an often underutilized source of information for generating new business ideas. And lastly, targeted searches are also useful. I will conclude my learnings by the quote of Lori Greiner "Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week".

[ronaldmrashid]

Do You Want To Be Rich Or Do You Want To Be Free?

I play tennis mainly at two different locations.

The first location is a public park in the Parkside district of San Francisco. Every Tuesday and Thursday there’s Tai Qi from 8:30am – 10am. Every Wednesday, there’s Zumba blaring in the background from 10:30am – noon. And every Friday there’re beer cans and cigarette butts strewn all over the court, just waiting for players like me to clean them up. The graffitied walls are a nice final touch. It’s the price for being free.

The second location is my tennis club. To join requires a main sponsor, four letters of recommendation, plus a one month vetting period during which any member can black ball you for any reason. The club has an initial member fee of $12,000, after which you pay monthly dues of about $225 – $500, depending on consumption.

The courts are pristine, there’s no noise pollution except for the occasional excessive grunt. Decal chairs adorn the sidelines along with neatly folded towels next to always full water coolers. After a match, players will often get a drink at the bar, play some dice, and then head to the sauna before showering.

It’s obviously much nicer to play at my club than at the public courts. However, I play on the free public courts twice as often. Why is this? Simple. Most people at my club don’t have time to play!

Player Profiles

In San Francisco, the best time to play tennis is between 10am – 3pm. The morning dew has evaporated by then. The temperature is warmer. And you never have to wait for a court because most people are working. Unfortunately, very few people at my club can play during these times.

Even my wealthiest friend who has a nine figure net worth can only play before 9am because he has to be at work by 10:30am. Come on buddy. YOLO! If I was the big boss, with mega bucks, I’d ban meetings before 11am and keep them to no more than 15 minutes.

Here are profiles of four players I recently played tennis with at my club:

1) Top 5 undergrad, Top 3 MBA, entrepreneur, son of a high ranking government official. Age 42. White. 4.0 USTA rating.

2) Big state school undergrad, Top 3 MBA, ex-head of a Private Wealth Management division for a top investment bank, currently a private wealth manager at a smaller shop. Age 52. White. 4.0 USTA rating.

3) Top 3 undergrad, Top 20 MBA, and entrepreneur. Father was head of a private equity business that killed it in the late 90’s. Age 46. White. 4.0 USTA rating.

4) Top 3 undergrad, Top 3 MBA, co-founder of a VC that invested early in the likes of Uber, Airbnb, and Slack. Age 44. White. 4.0 USTA rating.

Clearly all of these players have outstanding academic and professional resumes. Their kids will have incredible advantages and I don’t think any of them will ever have to worry about money. More importantly, they’re also humble and friendly people to hang out with. They have the same problems as everybody else when it comes to relationships, hopes and dreams for their children, doing better at work, etc.

Despite them all working way more than 40 hours a week, I’m always suggesting we play at a more reasonable 4:30pm to avoid the after work rush. But I never succeed because nobody can actually get there by 4:30pm! Even if they commit on rare occasion, there’s always at least two who arrive 15-30 minutes late. By the time we warm up, we often don’t get started until 45 minutes  later.

Here are the player profiles of guys I recently hit with at the public park:

1) Didn’t go to college. Works as a wheelchair assistance operator at San Francisco International Airport. Age 43. Filipino. 4.5/5.0 USTA rating.

2) Didn’t go to college. Retired at age 52 after working for 20 years as an IT help technician at the largest retail bank on the west coast. Bought a four unit building 25 years ago and lives off the rental income. Drives a 1986 Nissan 240Z. Age 62. Indian. 4.5 USTA rating. We literally played 32 matches last year.

3) Didn’t go to college. Works as a cook at a Chinese restaurant. Hooks me up with some free dumplings every time I visit his work. Age 38. Chinese. 5.0 USTA rating.

4) Went to a local state university. Teaches elementary school. Age 39. Half white, half Chinese. 4.5 USTA rating.

Guess when we are always playing? Between 10am – 3pm! None of these players make more than $65,000 a year, yet they get to play during the best time of the day because they are either retired or have a late shift.

Further, seldom is anybody ever late. We are constantly playing for 2 – 3 hours a session because we don’t have anywhere urgent to go. Also, notice how all their USTA ratings are higher as well, probably because they get more time to practice.

At my club, the average playing time is only about 1.15 hours because after rushing to the club from work, the players have to rush home to see their families, attend some work related event, or go to some fundraiser party.

“My wife is going to kill me,” is a most common excuse I hear for folks jetting early. Most of the public court players also have families, but their kids are usually in school while they play. Or, their kids are playing in the playground next door to daddy. By the time they finish, they still have plenty of time to run around with their kids and eat dinner.

Which Is A Better Lifestyle?

You can have all the money in the world, but if you have no free time to spend it, what’s the point of being rich? The public court players aren’t poor, they just aren’t very wealthy. Yet their lifestyles are pretty wonderful if you ask me. The private club players also have nice lives, they are just time constrained due to their jobs.

For those of you who are obsessed about getting rich, think really hard about trying to kill yourself so that one day you can live the lifestyle that everyday, middle class people get to live right now. And for those of you who’ve already achieved a comfortable level of wealth, what are you really trying to prove? Making more money when you already have so much more than most people is so meaningless. Take a step back and think about creating more purpose instead.

Here’s what happens when you get richer:

You pay a larger percentage of your income to taxes.

You’re accused of not paying your fair share even though you pay way more taxes than the person accusing you of not paying your fair share.

You’re subject to retroactive taxes voted by people who don’t have to pay more taxes.

Rich politicians pandering for votes demonize you while also asking you for campaign contributions on the side.

The media also demonizes you, even though journalists often come from relatively well to do families, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to afford joining a structurally declining industry.

Expectations of you increase to levels of unreasonableness.

People start liking you for your money instead of your personality.

Somebody always wants something from you.

The demand for your time goes way up.

You can never play in the middle of the day because you’re just too important or too busy.

You can never drop off or pick up your kids at school, let alone hang out with them after because you’re always traveling for work.

You get so wrapped up in your work that you forsake other relationships and interests.

As a high earning corporate employee for 13 years and then as an unemployed writer for five years, I’ve seen both sides of the fence. I can say with 100% certainly life is better earning less! Not poverty level less, just enough to have all your needs and some wants covered.

I don’t miss the fancy meals or business class trips to Asia because at the end of the day, it was still work. I am totally content eating a $2.60 In N’ Out cheeseburger instead of a $80 wagyu steak as well. Further, I couldn’t give a baboon’s ass about prestige or power. Being the Vice President of a company whose main goal is to get you hooked on a sugary drink isn’t very honorable. Running a company that tries to get you to sign up for another 24.99% APR credit card you don’t need is filthy.

The best combination is to probably be rich and free. But even that lifestyle is not much better than that of a regular income earning person who is living a purposeful lifestyle. Appreciate what you have right now. Being rich is not an amazing panacea. Being free with the consistent ability to help other people is.

Readers, do you feel people are wrongly chasing riches instead of freedom? Why can’t we just be happy with our current wealth? Did you ever achieve a magical number you thought would make you happy, only to discover you wanted more because nothing changed? Is it easier to tell people to stop chasing riches if you are already rich?

Related:

Shoot To Retire By A Certain Age, Not By A Certain Financial Figure

How To Live Like The Top 1% Without Being In The Top 1%

from http://www.financialsamurai.com/rich-or-free/

[businesscreatorsinstitute]

For The “Crazy” Entrepreneurs Who Don’t Work The Ol’ 9-5, M-F  

The Morning Adam™ has heard the same thing from so many entrepreneurs and business creators.

You quit your J.O.B., went all-in on the Entrepreneurial Freedom Dream…

…and here you are, still working at it past 9:00 pm some nights.

Or, Saturday night comes along and you’re contentedly hanging out at home, with your laptop, a glass of whatever, and your cat, taking massive action on that big idea that hit you at the pool earlier, while cranking some great music.

They say,

“I thought you were your own boss. You really need a life. Maybe you should get a regular job and enjoy life again.”

OK: we’re not even going to bring up the old saw about entrepreneurs working 80 hours per week to avoid a 40 hour per week job.

(Ok, so we just did.)

The point is, being crazy entrepreneurs ourselves, we at The Morning Adam™ want to point out the following:

While others wake up at insane hours to shrill alarm clocks, only to sit in traffic and lose the entire day even before showing at the office, we entrepreneurs wake up when we’re done sleeping, having organized our entire business and life to support this.

While others have to beg and plead for a day off to attend an amazing industry event that will really help us, then are ordered to take the red-eye home on Sunday night and be in the office 8am Monday regardless because it “wouldn’t be fair to take Monday off when you already were out Friday”, we entrepreneurs book 6 days for a 3-day conference and enjoy seeing friends and gaining experiences in a different city.

While others use vacation and sick days to squeeze in a dentist appointment, following a week of suffering and having to convince their boss the whole company won’t collapse if they leave two hours early, we entrepreneurs walk into the dentist’s office at 10:00 the next morning and pretty much straight into the chair for instant care.

While others take great pains to be “on the phone or away from their desks” (God we hate that phrase) as little as possible, we entrepreneurs work wherever there’s a good WiFi connection, with scheduling software and virtual assistants ensuring we’re off the phone just about all day long, except for the things that truly matter (like people who give us big money, and reporters eager to quote us).

While others receive nasty cubicle drop-bys if it’s 8:13 AM and they haven’t answered that e-mail yet, followed by lectures about being a “team player”, we entrepreneurs control our space and our zen. We don’t take on the world of email/phone/social until we’ve already done something to make money. We start on a winning streak.

While others rush to the nearest slop joint to wolf down a junkburger and be back exactly on time from their 45-minute lunch, we entrepreneurs make lunch the biggest meal of the day. Then we take a nice swim, where the zen of the calm water kickstarts our creativity as we return to our work on a money-making tear! Still in our swimsuits, on the balcony, with our laptops.

So you’re still saying entrepreneurs are crazy?

If that’s what you call crazy, then call us The Crazy McCrazertons – we’ll take it!

As we see it, “crazy” is living in a 9-5, M-F box fantasizing about the weekend.

On the other hand….

Spending a lot of time doing stuff right at the intersection of our brilliance and passion, at odd and random hours when we really feel like doing it?

Sounds pretty sane to us.

[intigro]

Really!?! Entrepreneurs work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40?

[marcusssanderson]

40 Elon Musk Quotes On Success & The Future of Space

Our latest collection of insightful Elon Musk quotes on Everyday Power Blog.

Elon Musk’s massive success has spanned products, online payment systems, electric cars, energy production and now space adventure. Musk is an icon for start-up success and is paving the way for a new innovative future for social entrepreneurs.

  We have had a great time searching the web for some of our favorite Elon Musk quotes and wanted to provide a wide range on insights from one of the worlds most influential billionaires. Elon is defiantly Living with Power!

  A Few of Elon’s Accomplishments

Elon Musk is an entrepreneur with a massive edge. At 23, he founded Zip2, his first company and sold it for $300,000,000. From the sale of Zip2, he used $10 000 000 to fund, create and launch Paypal.

  SolarCity was the next company he created for the purpose of making solar energy more affordable. Besides, Elon is the founder of SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla Motors, who are driven to make inexpensive (relatively inexpensive, of course) electric cars.

  Elon Musk Quotes and Life Lessons About Impact, Innovation and Success

  1.) “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” – Elon Musk

Elon is defiantly not afraid to fail. With his companies almost going bankrupt in the past, it has caused him to re-evaluate, re-launch and come back 10X stronger.

  2.) “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” – Elon Musk

Don’t focus on the odds, focus on what gives you and your life some meaning. Odds are meant to be defied.

  3.) “(Physics is) a good framework for thinking. … Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.” – Elon Musk

Start with the basics and build from there. You can’t master something by overlooking the fundamentals.

  4.) “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.” – Elon Musk

Focus on who you are and what your creating. Your brand will follow.

  5.) “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then  – probability will occur.” – Elon Musk

Whether it’s through science, logic or imagination – decide it’s possible. Once you do that,  you’ve already increased the odds of the desired outcome.

  6.) “You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that’s wrong with it and fix it. Seek negative feedback, particularly from friends.” – Elon Musk

Real friends who have your best interest at heart are not giving you negative feedback to crush your dream. Use it to correct the flaws and come back stronger.

  7.) “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.” – Elon Musk

Yes it might be scary, but if you want something great to happen you have to go ALL IN! In our gut, we know when we are fully committed and when we are not. Don’t just focus on the result, focus on aligning your actions so that each task completed moves you one step closer, even if it’s a baby step.

8.) “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” – Elon Musk

Many times we quit just before we are about to have a breakthrough, make a new connection or have given appropriate time for the desired results. Be committed for the long haul.

  9.) “My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.” – Elon Musk

Many times the hard skills, such as there skills that are needed for the job are much easier to teach and learn than the soft skills needed for teamwork, leadership and influence. Skills can be learned, but intention comes from within. You can’t teach or train heart.

  10.) “You want to have a future where you’re expecting things to be better, not one where you’re expecting things to be worse.” – Elon Musk

Creating a personal and professional culture of optimism and vision is essential for any dynamic and innovative organization.

    Elon Musk quotes about being driven

11.) “You have to be pretty driven to make it happen. Otherwise, you will just make yourself miserable.” – Elon Musk

  12.) “People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.” – Elon Musk

  13.) “Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.” – Elon Musk

  14.) “I came to the conclusion that we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask. Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.” – Elon Musk

  15.) “Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive and determination of the people who do it as it is about the product they sell.” – Elon Musk

  16.) “Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.” – Elon Musk

  17.) “If something’s important enough, you should try. Even if the probable outcome is failure.” – Elon Musk

Elon Musk quotes about impacting the world

18.) “When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world. Now I am.” – Elon Musk

  19.) “If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.” – Elon Musk

  20.) “I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.” – Elon Musk

  21.) “My motivation for all my companies has been to be involved in something that I thought would have a significant impact on the world.” – Elon Musk

  22.) “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” – Elon Musk

  23.) “You shouldn’t do things differently just because they’re different. They need to be… better.” – Elon Musk

  24.) “I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems… It’s got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.” – Elon Musk

  25.) “The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst. It sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I’d be super-duper bored. I like high intensity.” – Elon Musk

  A Conversation with Elon Musk

Elon Musk quotes about vision and the future

  26.) “Going from PayPal, I thought: ‘Well, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?’ Not from the perspective, ‘What’s the best way to make money?” – Elon Musk

  27.) “I’m interested in things that change the world or that affect the future and wondrous, new technology where you see it, and you’re like, ‘Wow, how did that even happen? How is that possible?'” – Elon Musk

  28.) “Why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? And if the future’s not including being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, it’s incredibly depressing if that’s not the future we’re going to have.” – Elon Musk

  29.) “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.” – Elon Musk

  30.) “I always have optimism, but I’m realistic. It was not with the expectation of great success that I started Tesla or SpaceX…. It’s just that I thought they were important enough to do anyway.” – Elon Musk

  31.) “Don’t delude yourself into thinking something’s working when it’s not, or you’re gonna get fixated on a bad solution.” – Elon Musk

  Other motivational Elon Musk quotes

  32.) “Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.” – Elon Musk

  33.) “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.” – Elon Musk

  34.) “If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic – being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago.” – Elon Musk

  35.) “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” – Elon Musk

  36.) “I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” – Elon Musk

  37.) “Don’t be afraid of new arenas.” – Elon Musk

  38.) “I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.” – Elon Musk

  39.) “Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success.”  – Elon Musk

  40.) “As much as possible, avoid hiring MBAs. MBA programs don’t teach people how to create companies.” – Elon Musk

Which Elon Musk quote is your favorite?

At age 12, Elon Musk programmed a computer game and sold it for $500. Since then, he’s founded multiple successful companies and established himself as one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs the world has ever seen.

Through his courage to take great risks to achieve success and bring innovation, Elon has made a massive impact on the universe. Hopefully, his words have motivated you to think outside the box.

Did you enjoy these Elon Musk quotes? Which of the quotes was your favorite? Tell us in the comment section below.

The post 40 Elon Musk Quotes On Success & The Future of Space appeared first on Everyday Power Blog.

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Note: This post is the expression of my opinion and experience only and is not meant to give a statistically accurate representation of work at all consulting companies or all jobs at large companies. It’s one specific case, to take in consideration along with others. -- also posted a similar version of this story on Medium with nice illustrations (https://medium.com/@jeancharlesgasche/8-things-i-learned-while-leaving-a-startup-to-go-work-at-a-big-firm-7a9ce524313).Deep inside, all indie hackers, entrepreneurs and others working at startups have a big question. The source of much FOMO and hesitation. “Given my resume, shouldn’t I join one of these large, prestigious, well paying companies and just chill?”I could find a million stories over the internet of people explaining why they left consulting to go work at a startup, but much less explaining what it’s like to do the opposite.In August last year, I made a radical change in my career. I had just decided to leave ForestAdmin, a company building a spectacular product with an actual product/market fit, at the moment we were raising a €3M seed round, also spectacular by European standards, and where I was the business counterpart to the founder.Having never worked in a company of more than 30 employees, I was facing many more questions and options than I had anticipated. Not knowing whether I should start over a new business from scratch, join an early team, or join a more mature startup.My curiosity, the hope to learn a lot of different things, and probably some part of FOMO about the idea if just having a regular, simple job made me give a shot at another option I had always dismissed: joining one of the “prestigious” fortune 500 juggernauts. A few weeks and an offer later, I was starting at the very attractive Digital service line of a major consulting company.[0] I’ll start with the good things that I learned, from both Consultants, but also Americans in general, which I think are two subsets of humans that are unconsciously obsessed with a process-ization habit. The US is based on repeatability and mass production, no need to look far to see that: everything man-made here looks and feels the same anywhere you go. In a way even people here were made this way. Let’s call these things out by their names: process and framework. They’re everywhere. In practice, this means that you won’t just find a way to get something done well and fast and move on, it’s never the goal. Instead, work consists mostly of designing a set of instructions for each task, defining responsibilities and documenting everything extensively, so that not one person can do it once, but many people can repeat this task many times. They have come up with some pretty elaborate ways of designing repeatable tasks, a lot of which you can find online, and this is a brick I might have been overlooking when thinking about scaling a business.Well done America! ... But work doesn’t feel the same way:[1] As I started working, I quickly realized that I was clearly an outlier. My work habits, my intuitions about what was right to do just seemed to be off, and the underlying logic behind it wasn’t even understood. Starting right away with the biggest issue: Working hard or smart is useless. Promotions are the only good outcome you can expect (apart from ridiculously unappealing yearly bonuses of a few thousands — at least that’s not what thrills my life), and they happen based only on your seniority in the firm*. Doing more just feels like trying to swim faster in a vacuum by moving more.If you get more things done than planned, you’ll receive a nice congratulation award PDF by email from your manager with eventually a gift card. Do like me and if you receive one of these, print and gold-frame your PDF to remind yourself that you have no impact.[2] You have to live up to the expectation that consultants are busy. Everyone works really hard and you clock in incredible hours that are all billed to the client. You’re billed at least $400 an hour, so that’s $4,000 on a normal day. Everyone creates things to do, email threads with problems that don’t matter, and inefficient 20-people skype meetings to keep themselves busy. Drinking a lot because you have a passion for wine is very different from drinking a lot because you have nothing better to do or are expected to. The same goes for work.[3] When you’re at a startup in a team of 10, you represent 10% of the output of the company. Your everyday decisions and work determine if you will be in business in a few months. In a bigger company, you represent 0% of the total output. You’re as important as a high-end secretary making powerpoints.[4] You don’t make friends at work, you network. You’re just one of 60,000 employees, people don’t have to get along or create a connection with people around them. So people usually don’t. You’ll be on another engagement in a few months anyway, so why would you bother? Just like you wouldn’t invest to improve an appartment that’s temporary, no one invests in a team that’s temporary.[5] In a startup, you lovingly care about your product and the features you’re responsible for. In a big company, few people have any personal goal, vision and passion for the work they’re doing. The temporary nature of consulting takes this next level. The biggest chunk of time in your life provides no excitement. I’ve never run to work in the morning a single time (after the first day) because I was excited to get started early.[6] There are no metrics that everyone is constantly watching to assess how amazing, well, fine, or terrible we’re doing. Once the project is sold, there is no good or bad work, there is only one indicator: done or to do. No one is going to come up with an elegant solution or creation that others will notice and compliment. There is no empathy for your users in your work. Because there is “so much work”, managers always bring in more people that need to be put up to speed and synched with. A week after bringing more resources, you’re not further along, and not going faster. You’re just more people with more overhead now.Here is how I'd tell the truth about all this: "Nice Powerpoints but a startup would get the same outcome with 1/10th of the resources and finishing work at 4PM every day."Working at a startup for me has felt like being the pilot of an F-15, while consulting felt like being in the economy class of a 747. F-15 pilots always fraternize over their war stories, they go fast and agile on a battlefield on which they know they might not get to see tomorrow. The 747 is more comfortable than the F-15, gets everyone to its destination without a risk of being shot down, but you’re surrounded with people you don’t really want to talk to. You might also be seated next to a smelly guy.Consulting companies provide real value to their clients, which are already really above-average companies that can afford that kind of service. I’m in no way implying that hiring consultants isn’t even the best thing for these client companies: for many of them consultants provide a structure and practices that they’d never be able to come up with, being too focused on their day-to-day emergencies. I’m mainly sharing my experience for people working in small or on their own business, thinking of going to work in a bigger company. If you’ve never worked at a startup, you probably don’t agree with everything I said. You’ve probably always been satisfied with all the points I mentioned, and maybe wouldn’t enjoy more a world with different rules. You may even love every one of the folks you’re working with on your engagement. My point is to say that it feels quintessentially different when you’re not on an engagement, but on a mission with everybody else.For substantiation, you’ll like this very well written story of someone very satisfied of everything in consulting who made the move to a startup and only then realized: https://blog.keen.io/why-i-left-consulting-and-joined-a-startup-bea26a93a8a7Coming from a different world, having priorities ranked differently, I’ll quote Ali Mese, who 3 years ago encapsulated in a few sentences in his story the feeling of going the other way around, from consulting to starting his own business:“Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week. It all started by little wake-ups in the middle of the night. At the beginning, it was because I was too excited about my ideas and I had so many of them. I simply couldn’t wait for the morning to arrive so that I could start working again. Then came the exaggeration phase. I was working too much because I never had enough of working for my idea and I wanted to do more.” (https://medium.com/swlh/how-quitting-my-corporate-job-for-my-startup-dream-f-cked-my-life-up-3b6b3e29b318)If you feel like you wouldn’t enjoy going from being the pilot of your F-15 over hostile territory to being an economy passenger on a regular 747 flight, don’t leave your startup.What big firms will never provide as perks of working the job is vision, passion and empowerment. No matter what social pressure and FOMO might make you believe, there is real excellence coming from building something out of nothing, and you know what you’re doing at your scale much more than they have figured their things out at their scale*. They’re just confidently riding a 747.Don’t make the opposite mistake of thinking you know it all. We all know nothing, but we’ve seen things and patterns in our field.