BEING THE PRIZE

Life’s breakdowns are like lactic acid. When you are not eating healthy, stretching properly or out of shape the lactic acid reminds you of this. It makes you soar and it makes you question whether or not you should continue exercising.

Similarly we have breakdowns in life as we are looking to grow and expand and it’s important to realize that we must work through them and understand that we are expanding our potential.

I am so “soar” right now, but it’s good and I’m growing slower than I would like. I’m confident that I’ll wake up one day and realize that I’ve become much stronger than I previously thought.

I’m expanding my potential in many areas right now. I’m growing the business and my costs are about $20,000/mo before I even turn a profit. The costs are greater becomes I’m growing the business and I am bringing on a mechanic as well as a sales staff and 4 full time vehicles (I’ll have 8 + on before a 12 mo period)

I’m moving into a house by myself because it makes me happier to have my own space (I think it’s a territorial thing, It feels so primal)

I’m now going to get myself a Christmas gift: Image Here

Plans on getting the vehicle at a reduced rate:
Call manufacturer and explain to them the win-win possibility by describing my talents and see which ones would benefit their company the most.
Sending pictures and bio to mtv for Pimp My Ride because they have never done a classic jaguar for the show.

I posted this late, but will post again tonight after I get off of work (2am or so)

I am currently making an account of all the resources that are currently available to me.  Based on that I will be able to have a better idea of what direction I want to take with this project.   Leverage is vital in this kind of projects, and I will need to fully utilize everything in my disposal in figuring out an effective plan to accomplish my goal.   An update is to follow….

Here is a goal that I am committing to, My combined debt amount is $35,000.00 I am committing to paying off my debt by the beginning of 2008. Which effectively gives me just over 2 1/2 month.

Ambitious – definitely, but many people were able to do this before me based on the numerous autobiographies that I have read. Do I have experience of making that much in that period of time, no. I do however have all the knowledge, tools and resources to make it happened and that is exactly what I am going to do. I will update my progress on this blog.

I will have a plan of action by the end of this week, which I will follow to reach my goal. I am currently not certain on the exact blueprint I will follow to reach it, but will have something definite by the end of the week. I am thinking it might be a combination of online/off line strategy.

Without implementing anything new I believe I can get a steady income of $200/day by modifying the two online products that I currently have. I will need to be making about $700/day by the end of the month to reach my goal. $700 x 60 days = $42,000 which will allow me to pay off the debt and pay for my living/business expenses.

By the end of the week I shall have a plan of how to manifest it.

Goal:

earn $ 42,000 in 2 and 1/2 month

I’ve analyzed my 6 month goals that are due in November and it’s interesting how many goals I’ve yet to complete. The major problems have been with my Integrity. I’ve been inconsistent in following through with my commitments because I’ve found “reasons” to circumvent them. Now it’s down to the wire and I’m forced to find a way to be consistent with my objectives.

The fact is that we all have challenges we put before ourselves and when we load ourselves up with countless desires to become perfect overnight we have little chance of succeeding.

I had a professor named Dr. Cox in college and one of the most memorable things he taught was that one must have realistic life expectations to be successful in life.

Now analyzing this comment through the concept of the Prize Mentality could lead to one dismissing such a comment.

I have come to understand that a foundation must be set before one can start to construct a beautiful structure.

The foundation is to engrain the Prize Mentality into one’s self through constant reminders and action. Building muscle memory into our thought and actions and creating consistency in every aspect of our lives.

The Prize should be balanced and avoid being overly anxious to take on every challenge in their life. By taking on the baseline and underlying structure in our lives we create the Possibility to accomplish future goals. By approaching challenges with this state of mind we lead ourselves to success.

I’ve recently seen how powerful the Prize Mentality is in creating a work environment that can produce extraordinary results. I’ve been at fault of avoiding harnesing my overzealous nature (inconsistent with the Prize Mentality) and I’ve seen how powerful deliberate planning and the implementation of systems in life and business will free us to create incredible results.

If one analyzes what they truly desire (the underlying drive behind a challenge or a goal), not the goal itself but the core of the goal, you will see that that by working on that area you will produce a more efficient way to accomplish all goals. wich by defaultlt will eventually result in a conquest over the challenge/goal itself. (is this making sense?)

Sharpen your axe and your saw before you spend days cutting down trees with dull equipment. Better yet, find a fantastic company to send your saws and axes to and then get to work cutting down your trees and eventually hire individuals to do the cutting for you. Be efficient by setting realistic goals and avoid stretching yourself too thin. The lion does not set out on a hunt with the hopes of killing as many animals as it can, instead it sets out on a hunt to simply satisfy its imediate hunger. Remember to be patient and calm and find time for yourself because even the Lion needs to rest.

I am Recommitting to the following goals by End of November 2007:

Physical:
• Exercise 3X a week
• Take Vitamin’s daily
• Eat a solid diet daily and never skip a day without eating

Mental
• Make a Blog entry 5 days a week (part of my work duties)
• Read something new 30/min twice weekly
• Add a vocabulary word once a week (signed up for wordsmith.org)

Emotional
• Travel once a month for at least a day

Spiritual
• Meditate once a week for 30 min (down from daily)

Community
• Family dinner once a month

Financial
• Net $200,000 in future 12mo income from new source of revenue (not sure how exactly this will happen right now, most likely working on vehicle wraps)
• Start to create a secondary or tertiary source of passive income (web based most likely figuring out how to outsource implementation of my ideas)

I’m back from my family reunion. I’ll post my entries from my time there tomorrow night. Today I want to write about carrying rocks.

I was working at a coffee shop today and I sat next to a woman and a young man who were discussing Metaphysics and life. I put in my ear buds and listened to my tracks on the computer so as not to be distracted. I took a brief break to use the restroom and when I returned the woman had noticed my wallpaper that displayed the Prize Mentality.

She noted the coincidence to their conversation. I ended up talking with them, as I felt there was not really any other option that I wanted to pursue. The young man had just purchased 60 gumball vending machines and was claiming to make between $6-7k/mo only working 10 hours a week. (so doing some quick math that’s 6000/60=100/.25=400 gumballs per location in one month.) I’m not saying it’s not possible, but not likely. He also offered me to make $50,000/year for the rest of my life if I could help him find an investor for a product he knows nothing about because he is helping someone else he doesn’t really know. I just need to come up with $300,000 for my 1000% return he was offering. (i’m not sure how that really equates, but it sounds like a lot of money)

The woman was unemployed and said she had been fired a lot. The two were in a yoga class together and the young man was waxing on about the law of attraction and the law of money (something about how poor people are always poor because the way they see money)

I started to talk to them about some books that might be useful and engaged them to find out some passions to maybe help the woman find a job she would love. Carrying stones is an old habit. The young man never wrote the names down to any of the books even though there was a book store attached to the coffee shop. The woman told me every excuse in the book why it wasn’t possible for her to make money and be around horses (even though countless people around the world make money and probably a lot of it dealing with horses daily)

I’m hoping to resign from preaching and just get back to being. I figure that the people who are interested in learning will ask and If they ask and still choose not to receive, then I’ll smile and wave goodbye.

You’ve met these people before, that need constant charging of their batteries. They are invigorated and inspired in your presence and believe that anything is possible. When they depart and your light is no longer there to charge their batteries, the energy wanes. The next morning they are on empty and look outside for a source of power.

I’m working on keeping my power plant going for myself and only sharing with those that can learn to harness the energy in them. I think it’s safe to say that these people are far more rare and easier to spot.

I think the two of them are on a path that will eventually lead to some greater understanding about where they are blind. I had this interesting sense of reincarnation while sitting with them. I felt (not in an arrogant way) on a different plane. They seemed to be in a different stage of searching. The woman seemed so lost for being so late in years. They both seemed lost, but the young man even more so. He was lost because he wasn’t even aware that he was lost. (I hope it’s not the same for me)

In the end, I’m going to focus on harnessing my energy more and distributing in more judiciously.

I was at a networking event today and I met a guy who works a lot of hours and would like to find a way to work less and have more money. It was interesting when I started to learn about his mentality regarding money.

He is an Engineer originally from Denmark. He has a wife and an interesting relationship with money.
he “Loves money more than anything or anyone in the world”, including his wife and apparently she feels the same way.

He told me he would rather drive home drunk than pay for the cab ride so that he can hold on to his money.

The people who have disregard for money and the people have too high a reverance are relegated to the same prison. There will never be enough money for these people and nothing will quench their desire. On top of that, the ability to create wealth will almost be non-existant. They will be trapped if they don’t hold on to enough of it and they will be trapped if they hold on to too much of it.

The guy wants to meet with me. I will offer him a few books as well as a different perspective and hopefully he will find a new relationship with both money and his life. If not, no worries. It’s an interesting experience that reinforces how much abundance is necessary to live a truly free life.

I’ll be in Wisconsin till Monday. If I have internet access I’ll post. If I don’t I’ll write daily and post when I return.

My retreat was a success on many levels. I exercised well, I relaxed well, I ate well, I drank well (fantastic brewery in Sedona). I did not spend as many hours in front of a pad of paper or my computer as I originally anticipated, but it was time well spent. I cleared my mind and came away with a sense of peace that my life is free for me to do with it what I will.
I used to go to skate parks when I was a kid and I had so much fun. Sedona has a great skate park and while I hadn’t been skating in almost 10 years I decided to go. I was surprised at how much muscle memory I had. The tricks came relatively easy to me and I’m sure the old man with the beard was an interesting novelty for the younger children. (I’m not even 26 yet, but old in comparison)

I am thinking about moving to Sedona for about 6 months. My logic is that I am working on building systems to allow my company to operate effectively without any interference. If I were to die tomorrow I would like my business to continue on as if I was not even there. Right now, it would most certainly crumble in a matter of months, or at least limp along for a few years. If I’m going to build a business that is not dependent on any one person, I need to remove myself in order to truly test its viability.

I am going to build systems and operations into place that create a company that grows seamlessly and organically as a unit. I have to build a culture and a foundation for that culture to grow on. I will most definitely cause more problems than I would help by staying too active in the business. If I’m the super star the business can only be as bright as I am on my own. If I build a company comprised of fireflies and use my systems to magnify their presence and efficiency, I’ll build a company brighter than the sun.

I’m going to build it and then let it run like a little experiment to see where the flaws instead of hiding the flaws by constantly catching people’s mistakes. I’m going to fill the business like a bucket of water and then see where the holes are. I’ll let the team patch itself up and eliminate the people who are poking the holes in the success of the company.

By stepping away from the business I’ll be able to focus on who I would like to become. I’m torn so much because I’ve rarely taken the time to consider who I truly am and what I truly want. Six months alone in the woods will go a great way towards discovering who I am. I’ll work on any projects that I choose to (in addition to continually refining the Limousine company)

My main obstacle will be creating a culture that not only understands my absence but appreciates it as a part of the business culture. I will have to educate them on my past and demonstrate my work ethic as well as the concept of systems and the entrepreneurial structure.

I’m in Sedona right now. I drove up late last night. The air was perfect, the sky was crystal clear with specs of starts dotting every inch. My car was not so great. I borrowed my brothers car because mine was having trouble and then a few miles outside of phoenix I noticed this truck was acting strange. I think it’s something wrong with the transmission or the fuel injectors because I had no power every 15 minutes or so. Let’s just say coasting on dangerous roads at 15mph is not the safest thing. I checked the transmission fluid and that’s about all I could do.

Anyway I made it and I’m glad that I’m here. Waking up to birds chirping and views to mountain tops definitely has some appeal. I will definitely live outside the city for the second portion of my life. I’d like to save enough money to buys some land out of country in the five to ten years. I see the real estate market going to horrible world wide. I’d like to take advantage of some affordable property in Chille and my ideal would be some type of Island in Brazil as well. I saw them advertised for $2-3mill U.S. about four years ago. I guarantee the markets will soften to return prices to that point.

I’ll have to have a net worth of about $10-15 million to justify that especially since I think credit will tighten heavily and prevent a reasonable interest rate.

Today is the start of my multi-million dollar retreat. I’m the only one in attendance and I’m the only instructor. I’m here to create a master plan for growing my knowledge, love, and energy into millions of passive dollars. I’m starting with the transportation business and I want to gross 1million dollars in the next 12 months. I am developing my plan around one idea. Create a culture that attracts the best team members, customers, and partners and has them feeling that this is the best company they have ever been apart of in their entire life. I’m building my business around the people and creating systems that remind me that systems fail not people.

I’m going into my retreat with an open mind and I will hopefully walk away with some innovative and specific methods of operating my business that indulge peoples sense of community and comradery to create an unstoppable money making machine that can be easily replicated at ease.

I will update the blog daily as I am supposed to (as long as the internet access that I’m “borrowing” stays active)

Often times when we don’t know what to do we decide to push against walls. It feels like we are working hard (and we are). But what is it getting us? It’s getting us nowhere obviously. I am restructuring my business and I find myself pushing against walls the past two days. Today I decided to stop and I’m going to take a 2 day retreat to sort things out.

I will come back with the vision of the company and the specifics that it will take to create that vision. I have the emotion and the steps and the ideas inside my head, but I need to translate them onto paper and share them with the people that will be part of this next stage of my business development.

I bought $300 worth of domain names the other day and I’m working on commissioning a website template that will allow me or anyone else to rapidly deploy a new site within only a few hours. I am taking systems to a new level in my business and burning them into the culture and landscape of my company.

I will either franchise my company or expand it to other markets using my systems and the mantra “People don’t fail, systems fail.” I am devoted to the idea of systems as a means for freeing the self employed person from the confines of business and releasing them to the realm of the entreprenuer.

I will have a minimum of 3 fulltime staff members next year and I want to do $1 million in revenue in 12 months time. I will then re-evaluate and my secondary goal will be to convert the company into a 50% profit margin producing machine.

I will also patent, produce and sell a product that I’ve been thinking about for a few years. I will have it on QVC within 12 months time.

I will also be traveling once a month to different markets looking for a way to expand the magazine as a franchise format.

How will I do all of this, when before I had “no time?” I freed myself of being self employed when I realized that my partnership was not working. I will no longer be a work horse except when it calls for it. I will be the CEO and I will lead my companies in a way that allows individuals to produce more and me to work less. I will be the visionary and the implementation coach. I will be a leader and embrace the title of leader. I will harness the power that other people posses and create a culture of passion and discipline that rewards all for partaking in the success of the company.

I will come down from the mountains this weekend inspired with the light that Moses had in his eyes in the story of the ten comandments. I am going to be consumed with the vision of this new company and I will inspire others as the sense the coming of a new company. A company that will allow all members to say to everyone they know. “I’ve never been a part of something so incredible and I’m proud to be a member of this team”

This is why I have decided to stop pushing on walls and adjust my eyes to the light in order to find the door.

Is it really the case that we have “ups” and “downs” in life? I move forward and then hit what appear to be obstacles. There are so many things spinning around, it often feels like you just need a moment to get off of the amusement ride and catch your equilibrium. Take a moment to reflect and determine what reality is. I think that my lack of meditation (that I committed to) is a source of the imbalance. It’s hard to know where to walk when you don’t know where you are going.

I have given my business partner so many options and opportunities to walk away having a great opportunity at future success. His sphere of influence is causing him to make choices that have pushed me too far. I am not a punching bag and while I will not allow someone to “hit” me, I still grow tired of the punches being thrown.

Sometimes money means nothing and principle means everything. People need to know the limits to their powers and often in life people allow for a false sense of reality for the people around them. By submitting to the desires of aggressors you do yourself as well as them a disservice.

The people around you that should be helping you, often hinder you. When their bias towards you clouds their opinions they can lead you down a path that is harmful to you and your interests. If my partner would listen to his gut and his heart this situation would have been handled weeks ago. Instead he is fearful of himself and trusts the judgment of others over his own convictions. This has caused the current state, in which I have decided to stand firm at any price. There are things in life that mean much more than money and one must be willing to stand firm for their convictions. I have learned that tens of thousands of dollars are simply meaningless in a life that will produce millions and millions of dollars are meaningless in a life that will produce countless lessons and memories.

I’m teaching myself to trust a deeper intuition because I’ve learned that I can argue so many sides of an argument logically that I’ll spend all day in a mental court. Knowing what feels right is not always easy, but when you find it you know your answer and you must stick with that answer even if others question your decision.