If you are a regular reader of my lessons, or listener of my podcasts, I hope that you have noticed that the words in these lessons come directly from the heart of the author. But for those words to be really meaningful, they must come from someone who not only believes them but actually walks his talk. Someone who dreams, plans, and executes his goals on a daily basis. Someone committed to improving his own life, as well as improving the lives of all who will listen. Someone who invests over 1000 hours yearly, in chunks of 21 hours per week, or 3 hours per day on the disciplines of listening to educational books on CD's; and reading for knowledge in periodicals; in an effort to learn about the greatest accomplishments this Earth has ever witnessed. Someone who has an unending thirst to learn from others experiences, frustrations, joys and sorrows. But most important, someone who takes ACTION!
You see, what you read about in this column or listen to in our podcasts is all possible. It just takes the proper discipline, commitment and passion to learn and gain more knowledge. But knowledge is only POTENTIAL POWER, until it comes into the hands of someone who TAKES EFFECTIVE ACTION. It's easy to get caught in the mental trap of seeing successful people and thinking that they were born with special gifts. But in reality the greatest gift they have over the average person is their ability to get themselves to TAKE EFFECTIVE ACTION. The metaphor "ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS" is absolutely true!
We live in a world with lots of "talk." Polls and projections are everywhere. Turn on the financial news and you'll hear them quote a top analyst who says that the XYZ industry is projected to do $100 billion in sales by 2012. Open the financial magazines and you'll see the same. In truth, this is all talk. Once 2012 comes along and the industry only scored $10 billion, rather than the "projected" $100 billion, you can't walk over to the analyst or financial magazine with your quote from 2008. They'll laugh at you. No one really cares if you lost money on their projection.
Politicians are also skilled at using projections (i.e. talk). But their projections are always under-estimated. A politician in 2005 proclaimed that the ABC "program" will cost tax payers $10 billion over the next 5 yrs. But once 2010 comes along, it turns out that ABC ended up costing $40 billion. Again, going to your politician and saying, "But you said back in 2005 that it would only cost $10 billion," will get you nowhere.
In both cases, the projections (i.e. talk) are used to separate you from your money. In the first case, it's to get you to invest in a certain industry, and in the second case, it's to get you to surrender your money to the taxman so that he or she could spend it instead of you.
So can anyone really project the future? And why do so many fail at it? The answer to the first question is "yes or sort of," but you better really know your stuff. Don't take some other person's advice and just look at a couple of pie charts and place your bets on a business or industry. Know the industry you are investing in inside and out. Don't leave any rocks UN-turned.
And about those politicians you vote for. Due diligence is just as important there as well. Don't listen to the news and vote for who's ahead in the polls. Politics is not a game. You need to invest some time in picking the best leaders. After all these leaders have the ability to tax you more than you can ever make in some investment. There are vast differences in their voting records and their philosophies regarding YOUR liberty. We were not born to be like sheep, which are herded in any direction our leaders want to take us. Stop talking and take action to learn about the politicians you vote for. Choose the ABSOLUTE BEST candidate possible based on your own research!
You want to be known as a person of ACTION, not a person who just TALKS. Don't tell people what you're going to do for them a year from now; SHOW them what you will do RIGHT NOW. If you say that you'll be there in an hour, get there in 50 minutes. If you say that it'll cost $10, get it done for $8.
With regards to your business, ONLY invest in people of ACTION, not in the TALKERS. Some of the richest people in the world became that way by investing their money in places where they had expertise and knowledge. They didn't invest on a "tip" from a magazine or TV show. They also surrounded themselves and invested in the most HONEST and BEST QUALIFIED people to get the job done efficiently and ON TIME.
So why not take the following steps today and decide precisely what you want. Plan exactly what you have to do to get it. And take EFFECTIVE ACTION to execute your plan! Take these steps for everything you want in life and enjoy the fruits of your labor!