If you’re starting or growing a business you better be ready for the hard work of growing a community of 1,000 people. It’s much easier to grow from 1,000 subscribers (newsletter, podcast, blog readers, etc.) to 10,000 than it is to get your first 1,000.
I joke often that, in spite of my degree in finance and career in the banking world, had I just read the Book of Proverbs I would have gotten a much better – and much cheaper – financial education. In this series I’ll highlight a few key principles from Proverbs that you can apply to your finances today.
“A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished,” is written in Proverbs 28:20.
I’d like to tell you about an exciting opportunity a lot of people like you are talking about…
Ugh! I can’t stand the pitches – whether from people who corner me in a hardware store or from goofy infomercials with horrible actors – for a product, service, or “opportunity” that promises to deliver untold amounts of money with little or no effort.
Give me a break.
You don’t have to look far into the various layers of our economy to find people who’ve been burned by trying to get rich quickly. What I admire in this proverb, is the word “faithful.” When you commit yourself to a discipline of saving money over a long period of time, you are acting in patience and faithfulness.
A brief review of the performance of the stock market shows that those who invest regularly with a long-term time horizon (meaning they don’t jump in and out at the latest fad investment), tend to earn an average return around 11% annually. One recent study showed that the typical day trader – eager to get rich – will average around 7%.
Losing out on 4% might not seem like punishment.
If you invest $200 a month for 40 years at 11%, you end up with $1.7 million; if you invest $200 a month for 40 years at 7%, you end up with $525,000.
Losing out on $1.2 million is punishment to me.
Staying faithful to a disciplined, balanced investing strategy is part of being a good steward, and will surely help you avoid a million-dollar slap on the wrist.
Seriously. How many times have you tried to convince someone their idea was wrong when they didn’t ask for advice? I’m guessing that nearly 100% of the time they didn’t take your advice.
Roy Williams quotes a friend as saying “Unsolicited advice is abuse.”
Help the people who want and ask for your expert advice. Spend your time there. Everything else is wasting your time.
I have a big goal in 2010. By December I am going to have 10,000 downloads of our radio show. This morning I upped it to 15,000. This is pretty big considering it took us two years to get to the 1,000 mark.
I joke often that, in spite of my degree in finance and career in the banking world, had I just read the Book of Proverbs I would have gotten a much better – and much cheaper – financial education. In this series I’ll highlight a few key principles from Proverbs that you can apply [...]
I interviewed my friend John G. Miller (author of QBQ, Flipping the Switch and Outstanding!) on yesterday’s radio show and the issue of breaking the rules came up.
Breaking the rules could get you a big raise or even a promotion. It could also get you fired. What’s the difference? Management.
I want people on my team [...]
I actually mention in this video that you can’t. You can’t change what google shows and you shouldn’t even be worried about it. The truth will speak clearly. If bad reviews are truthful, they’ll always be there until you change your company. Only then will the good reviews overshadow the bad.
I just spent a week onboard a cruise ship with some of the brightest up and coming business people I’ve ever met. I lead events throughout the country (and now the world I suppose) on how to become successful in business and many of these people are going on to do some amazing things.
Normally [...]
I joke often that, in spite of my degree in finance and career in the banking world, had I just read the Book of Proverbs I would have gotten a much better – and much cheaper – financial education. In this series I’ll highlight a few key principles from Proverbs that you can apply to [...]