Simplicity

Wouldn’t it be great if you could write about ’simplicity’ and all you had to say was the word itself and people would ‘get’ it?

OK … likely not that easy.  I am reading The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness, by Steven Levy.  I love Levy’s writing, in part because I am technology geek at heart (at least part of me is) and his writing combines technology with social aspect of the time(s) along with plenty of smart insider jabs and commentary that keep things rolling (his book Hackers should be read by anyone who uses a computer).  Enough about Levy.

There is a quote in the book from Steve Jobs who, as you might guess, figures prominently in any Read more

Exercising With God

We have this really cool elliptical trainer in our TV room.  One of the ways I “incentivise” myself to exercise is to watch movies while I am laboring away on the trainer for 30-40 minutes (I love movies … there is a very important success skill buried in this behavior that I will talk about in a future post …  think about on your own if you’re interested).

I was watching “No Way Home” the Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan yesterday.  This particular scene was Dylan playing solo acoustic guitar on Desolation Row (to give you an idea of what a Dylan nut I am, I actually wrote an English paper on this song in High School).  Just as with The Gates of Eden, Visions of Johanna and others, DR is classic Dylan at the height of poetic power.

I heard the opening lines: Read more

College Program Testimonial(s)

Just a couple of comments I had on my program this week (people saying nice things about me!).  All of you Student and Career Services folks looking for someone who is going to make a difference in your students lives need to listen up!

“… another instructor and I were discussing what we liked best about Mark’s talk to (the Business Club). We both agreed on how grateful we were that he encouraged the students to add value to everything they do….whether they are presently flipping burgers or someday going to be pushing numbers as accountants.

Mark was the perfect person to make this suggestion because he was doing it as he spoke to our students. Mark exemplified value as he shared his knowledge, time and energy with 110% enthusiasm, spirit and soul.”

- Professor Elaine Bienvenue, Business Department, Sierra College. Read more

Your Inner Expert at College

I did a free program for a local community college the other day.  It was the “general” talk that I give on Why Choose a Major, Choose a Life with some modifications I am seeing a need for based on the chaos in the economy.

My platform to date has been:

1. Understand the Rules
2. Understand Yourself
3. Understand what you want
4. Understand what to do - apply Your Inner Expert to owning your own business or investing

At the end of the day, it’s about creating value and building wealth.  That is where the business owner and investor part comes in as a part of the applications noted in Number 4.  However, with the recession we are now in (tell me this is not news to you … please!), I have added a couple of elements to the program (I pretty much did it in real time during my presentation the other day … kinda scary). Read more

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

There has been so much going on in the world economy that it hard to keep track of it.  Stuff that happened two weeks ago seems like it was months ago.  A lot of people are showing signs of being quite lost.  Optimism is in short supply.

A friend was talking to me about how we would all be “hunkering down” for the winter in floppy sweaters (’cuz we can’t afford to heat the house), eating homemade soup and bread together and playing games (’cuz none of us can afford to go out and do anything).

She was saying this like it was a bad thing.

This country is going to go through some dramatic changes.  They may not seem desirable at first but, quite frankly, I think we have lost our collective soul.

We get back to basic values, get back to saving, move away from the idea that we should get more than we need, return to the things that made the United States the most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Yeah … I mean that.

I wrote about about the possibility of our current reality in my book (The Wealth Manifesto), the writing of which was more or less done just about a year ago.  I mentioned that we were going to be on our own as far as employment, retirement, and our financial future.  This is a given; what has happened in the last couple of months have only more than guaranteed this.  We are so wrapped up in the credit mess, we have not even got to the real impending disaster of Social Security and Medicare.  One of the best things we can do is not forget to leverage what we do best: innovate.   There is an entrepreneurial imperative at hand that should be something everyone takes to heart, not just the software junkies of Silicon Valley.  We can even make lemonade out of the supertanker full of lemons that we are being handed:  this bailout mess has the possibility of opening up all kinds of new opportunities for products and services that didn’t exist before.  There is always great opportunity in change.

What really needs to change … is us.

Attitude is NOT Everything

The phrase “Attitude is everything” makes me cringe a bit.  It is true that attitude is hugely important and one of the things that will determine your present and future more than many other things one might consider.  Your attitude will give energy to your intention which will indeed manifest the reality you are creating for yourself.

It is not however … everything.  My attitude is not going to allow me to become a world class sprinter.  You need to start with the physical gifts that support your success in that kind of competitive endeavor.  You need to work hard and find the resources ($$) that will support you training to do something like that.

Your attitude will not make the stock market go up.  It will however put you in a place where you accept what is the rest of the world’s reality (economic downturn, credit crisis, widespread fear) and react accordingly.  Study the market, use a system, make money …. dont be a lemming and/or an Eeyore following the crowd and moaning about what a tragedy it all is.

And on and on …

Your attitude is a big part of the classic equation (used by Jack Canfield and others): Event + Reaction = Outcome.  All you control is your reaction; this has a lot to do with both the reality and the perception of the outcome (some may say those two are the same thing anyway!).

Don’t spread the fear … the Dark Side is counting on your help.  Without a conduit to spread the negativity, it will die off like a vampire dragged out into the bright light of day.

Move towards the light, take a deep breath and be grateful for everything you are.

And watch Sponge Bob…always a good idea if you need a laugh.  Dumb?  Yeah, but it works!

Namaste.

The 9 Steps to Wealth, Part 3

This is the last in a three part series of the 9 steps to wealth where we are going to finish up with Steps 7 through 9.  Check the archives for the other installments.

Step 7: Develop Your Entrepreneurial DNA

Author and speaker Jim Rohn once commented that the best thing about being a millionaire was the type of person you had to become to get there. Being a successful entrepreneur is sort of like that as well (even if you have not yet got to millionaire status). You have to be clear on what you want, willing to use everything you got to get there and rely on proven entrepreneurial skills and systems to streamline your path.

Once you get through all of that, you are likely to be a heckuva fine human being!

The principles of entrepreneurship help you to monetize Your Inner Expert.  You don’t necessarily have to take a lot of risks, you don’t have to be a “techie” or invent something (the latter wouldn’t hurt however).  You don’t have to be lucky (although that doesn’t hurt either).  What you do have to do is find the market niche that is willing to pay you for your expertise.  Do you remember Venn Diagrams from 5th or 6th grade math?  You have to look for the “intersection of sets” between the expertise you have to offer and the market need you have identified.

For more on what I think are the essential entrepreneurial skills, check out Chapter 11 in my book, The Wealth Manifesto.

Step 8: Apply It To The Market Read more

Mark T. Rafter, Radio Guest (OK, OK … Radio Star!)

Yesterday, I was interviewed by Wayne Kelly, the morning show host of KBS Radio out of British Columbia (yes, Virginia, that is in Canada, eh?).  I talk about making money doing what you love, some ways just about anyone can get into some short term cash and a few other aspects regarding Your Inner Expert.  Good Stuff!

There is a link to the interview on Wayne’s blog this morning … I’ll post the audio for the interview on my own site in the next few days.

Check it out

The 9 Steps to Wealth, Part 2

A few days ago, I posted part 1 of this three part series on the 9 Steps to Wealth.  Today I’m going to do the second installment covering steps 4, 5 and 6.  This material is adapted from my book The Wealth Manifesto, which you can pick up on amazon.com or elsewhere here on my website (shameless plug but what the heck … it’s a good book!)

Step 4: Identify What You Want - In order to be wealthy, you have to know what wealthy looks like to you, what it feels like to you, what it means to you.  I teach people that wealth is abundance and satisfaction in all areas of your life that are important to you.  Just as an aside, if you go back to Part 1 of this blog series where I talk about systems … these are the Outputs of your wealth building system.

So, we have to identify those dimensions and what you want.  I spend about 2 hours going over this in my workshops so for now, a list of the most common dimensions people work with will have to do.  I say most common because a) your list might contain different things and b) it might only be a few things.  So, the top 9 dimensions of wealth are:

1. Health and fitness (physical)
2. Learning (mental)
3. Relationships (relational)
4. Service (charitable)
5. Self-esteem / Self-worth (personal) Read more
   Filed Under: Systems, Wealth Potential
   Tagged: Identify Your Expertise, synergy, wealth and well being