Garrett B. Gunderson: Killing Sacred Cows 📙

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Introduction

Sacred cows

  • Find the sacred cows, slaughter them, sell the meat, make a profit. (Dan Sullivan) (S. v)
  • „In the financial world, sacred cows are the myths and traditions that distort our thinking about money, wealth, success, and prosperity. These myths are widespread and constantly reinforced through advice from friends and relatives, financial institutions, and the financial media.“ (S. v)

Subtle lies

  • „Blatant lies are easy to recognize and avoid; the subtle lies can ultimately be more destructive because they are much more difficult to detect and uproot. Subtle lies seem to make sense and to carry a certain air of credibility. They are often supported by supposed proof and factual evidence that spread and perpetuate them. Many times they appear in the form of half-truths, or truths taken out of context.“ (S. xiii)
  • „[Subtle lies] appeal to the baser side of human nature. They make destructive paths seem better by focusing on short-term rewards while disguising long-term consequences; by their very nature they encourage shortsightedness. They make us forget the big picture and lure us into focusing on unimportant, trivial matters.“ (S. xiii)

Redefining prosperity

  • „One of the most important subtle lies we must combat — one that lies at the root of so many other myths — is that prosperity is nothing more than the accumulation of material wealth. The elusive obvious is that true prosperity is different for every person and rarely has much to do with how much money she has in the bank or how many cars he has in the garage.“ (S. xiv)
  • Vgl. Ramit Sethi: The Rich Life

Take this book personally

  • „My challenge to you is to take this book personally. As you read, think about how you can apply these concepts and how they would be useful for you. When you feel compelled to have a conversation about what you are learning, engage in one. If at any time you question what you’re reading, think it through and apply the concept in your life. Keep reading, learning, and questioning the assumptions and beliefs you face every day. Live extraordinarily; this may not be easy, but it is more than worth it.“ (S. xviii)

Myth 1: The Finite Pie

Myth: All resources are scarce and limited. If you want something for yourself, you‘ll have to take it from someone else.

Reality: There‘s enough for everyone, and we can always create more. We can prosper with others, not just at their expense.

The scarcity mindset

  • „In the scarcity mindset, we take it for granted that our society does not have enough resources or productive capacity to fulfill everyone’s needs and desires. Consequently, we believe that our material gains come only as a loss to others, and that when others possess more it means less for us. It’s easy to see how a culture that accepts the notion of scarcity quickly becomes ultra-competitive and selfish.“ (S. 3)
  • „But the scarcity mindset is predicated on false beliefs, misinformation, outdated ideas, and fear.“ (S. 3)
  • „At some point or another in their lives, most people experience scarcity as a reality on a personal scale. But to extrapolate this beyond its true importance and adopt the belief that scarcity represents the nature of our economy, our culture, our environment, or even our universe is destructive and limiting in every aspect of our lives.“ (S. 4)
  • „Scarcity is about so much more than money and material resources. It’s a mindset, a way of viewing and interacting with the world, and it permeates everything we think and do. […] It robs us of hope, steals our dreams, presents us with supposed evidence for living small and treating others badly, and renders us impotent, despite our infinite potential to create and make the world a better place.“ (S. 8)

Greed

  • „When we live in scarcity, greed can blind us to common sense.“ (S. 8)

A mentality of abundance

  • „Abundant thinking says, “How can I afford this?” or “I know I have unlimited options; I just have to find a way to realize them,” or “How can I create more space so I have time to pursue my passions?” (S. 11)
  • „We were born to be creators and to make our lives extraordinary with the gifts we’re given. By becoming consciously aware of our own nature, we can begin to let go of scarcity and fear and begin to accept and express abundance. As we begin to think abundantly, the changes in our thoughts and behavior are manifested externally.“ (S. 24)

Financial Freedom

  • „Our quality of life is closely tied to our level of financial freedom. I define financial freedom as the choice that money will no longer be the primary factor in our decision-making processes. This doesn’t mean that it’s not afactor — it’s just not the main factor.“ (S. 18)
  • „This is the point at which we scrub phrases like, “I can’t afford it” from our vocabulary.“ (S. 18)

Myth 2: You’re In It For The Long Haul

Myth: Put all your money in a 401(k) and forget about it. Retirement is going to cost you everything you can possibly save and maybe a little more.

Reality: Don’t let your money stagnate beyond your control. Put it to productive use immediately so it can benefit you now and in the future.

What good is money if we don’t use it?

  • „A big bank balance gives us an erroneous feeling of security, as though nothing can touch us, even though the money is just sitting there and not actually benefiting us in any way.“ (S. 28)
  • „But why are we accumulating money, if not to use it? We put off the moment at which we dip into our rainy-day fund for as long as possible, afraid it will run out and we’ll be left with nothing. Even when we finally want to use it, we’re afraid to— afraid to risk our nest egg, our net worth, our security. The irony is that if we don’t use the money, we have hoarded it all these years for nothing. We end up feeling like we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.“ (S. 28)
  • „What good is money if we don’t use it? Utilizing money â€” that is, putting it to work and using it to provide services to ourselves and others, rather than simply accumulating it and putting it into so-called safe investment vehicles — is the most direct way to achieve our goals, increase our happiness, provide value to others, and realize all of the options we have to increase our true wealth.“ (S. 29)
  • „Utilization is also about our own immediate enjoyment of life, as well as creating favorable conditions for long-term enjoyment, rather than locking up our assets for fear of losing them.“ (S. 29)

Invest in your Soul Purpose (and human life value)

  • „Here’s what I’ve discovered that the accumulation theory never takes into account: It’s far more productive to base our investment and planning for the future on our Soul Purpose and human life value […].“ (S. 32)
  • „In short, Soul Purpose is the mission that you were born to fulfill, and every individual was born with a unique and powerful Soul Purpose. You can recognize yours by identifying what you would do all day long whether or not you got paid to do it.“ (S. 33)
  • „Human life value is the knowledge, skills, abilities, ideas, and relation- ships that you have, the qualities that let you produce value for others and the most important source of wealth. Applied human life value is the source of all money, prosperity, and progress. The more you increase your human life value, the more value you will provide for others and receive in return.“ (S. 33)
    • „How can I use my assets to live my Soul Purpose and incease my human life value?” (S. 46)
  • „The lesson is that we are the geese that lay golden eggs, and if we want more golden eggs (or money), we must focus more on developing our human life value and our ability to create value for others and less on the actual dollars.“ (S. 41)

Accumulation theory creates the „broke millionaire“

  • „What I’ve found in my financial services practices is that the (very few) people who actually do accumulate such large amounts of cash spend their retirement years living like they are broke, in scarcity, suffering from the constant fear of loss. It took them so long to accumulate their nest eggs that their constant thought is to preserve it at all costs.“ (S. 34)
  • „The accumulation theory often creates the proverbial “broke millionaire,” a person who has millions of dollars and yet lives like a pauper because of fear of loss.“ (S. 34)
  • „Why do we buy into this kind of thinking? Why do we think that this is financial freedom? Truthfully, it is the opposite of freedom; it is a subtle yet powerful form of bondage. It causes us to be constantly worried about interest rates, inflation, and taxes because we’re so worried about protecting our hoarded money.“ (S. 34)
  • „Fear, doubt, and worry are mental viruses that originate from a scarcity paradigm, which itself arises from an ignorance of prosperity principles. Fear evaporates when we alter our perspective and begin to consider what other people want and how we can create value for them. Ironically, this shift in focus away from self results in the greatest personal rewards, both in terms of wealth and happiness.“ (S. 38)

Value creation

  • „The accumulation mindset distracts us from any effort to produce and create value.“ (S. 36)
  • „Yet the way to provide for security is to cultivate the ability to produce value in the world under any set of circumstances. The way for you to get what you want is to give others what they want; to make yourself valuable to others.“ (S. 37)
  • „The accumulation theory teaches us to focus on the byproduct of value creation (money) and not the source(human life value applied in the service of others).“ (S. 39)
  • „Focusing on accumulating money is like wanting to harvest the fruits of a tree while ignoring the roots. As we accept the accumulation theory, most of us become frustrated with the lack of fruit on our tree—or the lack of money in our bank accounts. And what do we do to solve this problem? We focus on the fruit only, rather than tracing the fruit to the branches, then to the roots. The real solution is to nourish the roots; then the fruit will naturally follow.“ (S. 40)

The fallacy of „enough“

  • „Being prosperous and financially free isn’t about whether or not you need a big home, a nice car, or a high income. Having enough money and resources to fulfill your desires is no excuse to stop creating value for others.“ (S. 42)
  • „What many people attempt to pass off as frugality and wisdom is actually selfishness or shortsightedness. It may be true that your desires are relatively basic, but what do other people desire that you can provide? How is your small thinking negatively affecting others?“ (S. 42)
  • „The fallacy of “enough” allows us to think small, limited thoughts and prevents us from thinking and dreaming big. When we are working to provide value for others and realize our potential, we’re not driven by greed or consumption, and we can use greater resources to create more value.“ (S. 42)

Velocity of money

  • Wie „produktiv“ ist dein Geld? Wie viel Output bekommst du fĂźr den Input?
  • „Through the use of technology, markets, and various distribution channels, and by building more and better relationships with people (thus tapping into and leveraging the Soul Purpose of others), anyone can increase output without dramatically increasing input.“ (S. 49)
    • Vgl. Wie kann ich anders helfen, damit ich mehr Menschen erreiche, ohne dass meine Hände voller werden?

Cash flow vs. Net worth

  • „When it comes to monetary prosperity, cash flow, not net worth, is the single most important indicator of our financial health and success.“ (S. 52)
  • „This doesn’t necessarily mean that the more cash flow I create, the happier I become; it just means that I’m effectively utilizing my assets, and hopefully I’m utilizing them in a way that contributes to my overall happiness, my ability to live my Soul Purpose, and my achievement of my human life value.“ (S. 53)
  • „When it comes to financial success, one of the most important things to understand — and one of the most overlooked by the financial industry — is that learning to convert net worth to cash flow can bring you more financial success than all of the books, magazines, and TV and radio shows on personal finance combined. It’s that simple.“ (S. 54)
  • „Converting net worth to cash flow requires that we use net worth assets to create value for others in such a way that people will pay us on a regular basis for the use of the asset.“ (S. 54)
  • „Net worth is only potential value — it is worthless until realized, just as a person’s potential is worthless until it is realized through serving and creating value for others.“ (S. 55)
  • „The way to bridge the gap between the potential of net worth and the productivity of cash flow is through creating value â€” finding ways to meet the perceived needs and wants of other people. To be financially successful, we must stop focusing on accumulating net worth and focus instead on providing goods and services that other people value.“ (S. 55)

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Myth 3: It’s All About The Numbers

Myth: Wealth means numbers on account balances, and you better hope they’re big numbers.

Reality: Wealth is doing what you love to find joy and fulfillment. Focusing primarily on numbers often prevents us from achieving true wealth.

Der Fokus auf Zahlen (allein) fĂźhrt uns in die Irre

  • As Frederic Bastiat, Henry Hazlitt, and others have explained well, the art of economics is learning to see what the eye cannot see, and to anticipate the indirect consequences of all our theories and actions.
  • The myth that prosperity can be reduced to and quantified by math destroys our human life value because it is focused on the effect, rather than the cause of prosperity. […] It causes people to work for money and to pursue a number on their bank balance or a calculation of net worth instead of creating value, and it leads us to make unwise decisions regarding money.
  • Can you quantify what it’s costing you to stay tied to a miserable job because it has good „benefits“ and maybe even pays well, rather than finding and living your Soul Purpose? Is there any way to assign a number to what the world is missing out on because one person sacrifices Soul Purpose to a false sense of security? It’s impossible.
    • Man muss immer auch in Opportunitätskosten denken. Nicht nur an die Bottom Line.
  • Our perspective and all of our decisions are heavily influenced by the value that we place on abstract numbers.
  • Base financial decisions on happiness, the only true indicator of prosperity.

Millionär anders definieren

  • Our goal should never be to become millionaires; our goals should be based on what will bring us our ideal quality of life and the highest level of happiness.
  • For example, if your goal has always been to be a millionaire, why do you want to be one? What can a million dollars add to your life that you don’t already have?

Prosperity = Happiness

  • Prosperity means to be truly happy, and to be free of worries and stress about money.
  • I would argue that people can make far more money living Soul Purpose than they ever can doing anything else or anything less. But even if people will actually make less money in the short run living Soul Purpose than they can make in a different career, they will still be happier for doing so.
  • Money is important and useful, but if you think that money will fix your problems, that thought is the problem.
  • If you want to prosper, find out what it is that will truly make you happy. Seek, find, and live your Soul Purpose. Focus on the cause of money — creating value for others — and let the effect naturally follow.

Myth 4: Financial Security

Myth: Financial security means steady paychecks and benefits. We’re entitled to protection and benefits from a corporation, the government, or someone else.

Reality: We are ourselves the only source of security in this life, but unlike those who depend on external forces, we can make ourselves truly secure.

Wahre Sicherheit kann nur von innen kommen

  • Any time our sense of security is derived from sources outside of ourselves and we don’t take responsibility for everything that happens to us, we’re setting ourselves up for failure.
  • People want financial security so badly that they expose themselves to the single greatest risk of losing financial security, and that is not living up to their full potential through living Soul Purpose, which can only be achieved through freedom.

Entitlement mentality

  • Those who feel that they are entitled to benefits are the ones who focus far less on how they can serve and what they can give, and far more on what they want to receive. They seek to provide the least amount of value possible in exchange for the greatest amount of benefits possible.
  • Sowas gibt es, interessanterweise, auch unter GrĂźnder*innen.

Stewardship

  • It’s the concept of ownership that gives capitalism a bad name, and rightly so. Ownership-oriented capitalists exploit the earth and other people for their gain.
  • stewardship: the responsibility to take care of our resources to ensure that they are sustainably managed for current and future generations.
  • Stewards are the types who plant two trees every time they cut one down. They leave everything better than how they found it. They focus on how they can ensure that others, including posterity, can enjoy the earth and our resources. And this type of caregiving only occurs in people who understand that things aren’t theirs to do with whatever they feel like doing.
  • Implicit in the concept of stewardship is the idea that none of our material blessings ultimately belong to us. Stewards recognize that they come to this earth with no material resources, they leave with nothing, and everything they enjoy throughout life is a gift to be used wisely, and ultimately must be accounted for.
    • Vgl. Bibel – gute Verwalter vs. „du Narr“
  • By living a life of stewardship, we become attuned to the call to greatness — the call to become equal to our potential. We have a responsibility to multiply our talents and to create as much value as possible in the world. In short, through stewardship, we awaken to our Soul Purpose and start living life at much higher levels.
  • Part of stewardship is investing in things that help me increase my Soul Purpose. I don’t look at investments in terms of products. I also don’t look at money’s value in terms of net worth and savings accounts. I look at what allows me to serve others at the highest levels, enjoy life to the fullest, and to be the most productive person possible. My education and my mindset are the most important things I could ever invest in. They offer me the very best return on investment that I could ever possibly make, because education and mindset are what allow me to be more productive and continue to live life to the fullest in every sense.

Producers vs. consumers

  • The goal of all this development, the effect of maximizing our human life value and living our Soul Purpose, is to become producers instead of consumers. I mean this on a much deeper, more comprehensive level than what we traditionally think when we hear those words.
  • Producers know that people, not material things, have intrinsic value. They love people and use material things to serve others. They operate in abundance, and they view the world through eyes that see limitless possibilities for value creation.
  • Security for a producer is the power to understand as many variables as possible, and therefore create favorable conditions for production.

Myth 5: Money Is Power

Myth: You have to have money to make money. Money is evil but it’s power.

Reality: Money is nothing more than an expression and byproduct of value created by people.

Ein grundlegendes Missverständnis

  • Instead of viewing money as power, we must recognize the power of value creation and how it promotes our own prosperity and the prosperity of others.
  • If you shun the pursuit of money as greed or corruption, you hurt your purpose as well as yourself.
  • When people claim that they have transcended the base need for money, what they are really saying is that they have no intention to provide value to anyone but themselves.
  • But more money can never solve any problem in and of itself; the real solution is to increase human life value, leading to better stewardship over the resources that we already have, increased productivity, and ultimately, more resources, monetary and otherwise.

Million Dollar Ideas

  • Ideas are potential value, not value in themselves. If you don’t follow through on a good idea, it won’t improve anyone’s life, not even your own.

The „love of money is the root of all evil“ paradox

  • We believe money is evil, yet we want more of it. So we’re either stuck in the misery of having none, or we’re evil for wanting or having it. It puts us between a rock and a hard place, and the only way to get out of the predicament — or so it seems to us — is to resign ourselves to a life of limited resources, or toss our morals out with the garbage.

Money does not make us evil

  • To love money — an inanimate paper object representing an abstract concept — inspires us to want to get dollars without creating value, and this is a form of thievery. It’s the destructive attitude of wanting something for nothing.

You don’t need money to make money

  • You don’t need money to make money — you need human life value, and this is something that you can improve without money.
  • If we find ourselves in a situation where we have less money than we want, the way out of that situation is to share our human life value with people.
  • It’s also important that we are careful not to utilize our human life value improperly. The goal isn’t to do whatever we can just so we can make money; the goal is to find and live Soul Purpose â€” to do those things that we are best suited for, that align with our core values, that create the most value in the world, and that bring us the highest levels of joy and fulfillment.

Myth 6: High Risk = High Returns

Myth: Safe investments yield low returns. High returns come from risky investments.

Reality: Investments that support or align with one’s Soul Purpose have less risk and more return.

Worrying ≠ taking responsibility

  • There is a counterfeit of responsibility that many of us do engage in, however, and that is worry. We all want to make sure that we are fulfilling our obligations, paying our bills, making ends meet, and preparing for retirement. But every moment we spend worrying about these things is a moment that we are not thinking about producing value.

Love & Service

  • Love and service are the essence of living Soul Purpose.

How to decrease risk in business:

if you’re starting a business, here are a few questions and factors to consider to decrease your risk.

  • How much do you know about the industry?
  • What evidence do you have that there is actual demand for your product or service?
  • How soon can you start generating revenues?
  • Do you have enough experience to succeed? If not, are there ways for you to gain that experience, possibly by working for another company for a time?
  • How much money does the business need to start? Do you have that amount in cash, or will you need to borrow it?
  • If you borrow money, will that require you to give up a portion of control of the company?
  • Are there seminars, books, or other outlets for you to deepen your knowledge of your business, and of business in general?
  • Are there ways to collateralize your investment, or in other words, will you be buying hard assets that could be sold if the business is struggling?
  • Are there partners you could team up with who could add needed knowledge and experience?

Value Proposition

  • Your primary concern with any investment — more important than the potential returns — is the value proposition. If you know exactly how you are creating value in the marketplace, your chances of failure are significantly reduced.

Invest in yourself and your human life value

  • There’s one critical litmus test to perform on yourself whenever you are wondering what to invest in. The answer is always — without exception — to invest in yourself. If your human life value were developed enough and if developing it was your first priority, you would never need to ask what to invest in, because your path would be clear. The best investment you can ever make is to increase your human life value, or your ability to utilize your knowledge and abilities to create value in the world. Turn inward for personal improvement and value will flow outward to those around you.
  • Your 401(k) isn’t going to make you rich — only you can do that.

Myth 7: Self-Insurance

Myth: Spend as little on insurance as possible; it’s nothing but a drain on your resources.

Reality: Get the best insurance you can. It decreases your risk (when understood) and increases your productivity.

Mythos Self-Insurance

  • The fact is that there’s no such thing as self-insurance; either you have insurance or you don’t. You either have a way to transfer your risk of loss, or you retain that risk. Simply having a lot of money in no way protects you from the loss of that money. In fact, the more money and assets a person has, the more important insurance becomes to protect him from the risk of loss. Self-insurance is really no insurance and the unnecessary assumption of risk.
  • Many people view insurance as a necessary evil at best, and they fail to see the benefits that it provides. Under the myth of self-insurance, the focus is only on the price of insurance. Those who base decisions on price alone fall prey to anyone who is able to provide goods and services cheaper, with less quality, and with more risk.
  • The philosophy ignores critical unseen factors in our decisions regarding wealth. It is based on an ignorance of the fact that we are our own single most important investments, and the individual person must be protected above all other considerations, including income and material assets. It is our human life value that we must protect and that is in greatest danger of being lost when we don’t adequately insure ourselves.
  • The less worry we have in our lives, the more productive we will be, and insurance is one excellent way to legitimately eliminate worry.

Replacing Self-Insurance with Risk Transference

  • In my financial services practice I have a core philosophy regarding insurance: buy as much of it as possible, and get the best coverage available.
  • Producers love insurance because they focus less on the price of premiums and more on the cost of not being properly protected. They ensure that their human life value is viable and productive in any situation that they can control, whether they are sick, disabled, or dead. They are able to see the intangible benefits of insurance beyond the tangible premiums and paid claims. By ridding themselves of fear of loss, they ensure that they maintain a productive mindset.

Wer sich „selbst versichert“, braucht viel Cash

  • If a person is going to be truly „self-insured,“ she must keep on hand a cash amount at least equal to all of her other assets.
  • Let’s suppose a person has a house with a market value of $1 million, and also has $1 million in a bank account. She thinks that she is „self-insured,“ at least for the value of her house. But what’s more expensive — two thousand dollars per year for a homeowner’s insurance policy, or not being able to use that $1 million in cash, because it must be available to indemnify the possible loss of her home?
  • Insurance gives us a permission slip to utilize all of our other assets. It unlocks the productive potential of our assets because, when insured properly, we are free to utilize them without fear of loss.

Human Life Value Protection

  • Ignoring insurance protection is not only unwise as relates to our wealth, but it’s also irresponsible. What is the difference between a man who abandons his family in the middle of the night and a man who dies without life insurance protection? Does the family not experience the same economic impact in both scenarios?
  • As we explained in the last chapter, you are your best investment. If you want to protect your investments, or provide a way to indemnify them in the case of loss, then why would you ever consider not protecting your most critical investment, and your only true asset? Why are you concerned about insuring your home, but not the source of your home’s value?
  • When we begin to get a sense of our stewardship and responsibility to produce, we then start thinking of how we can continue producing in the worst possible scenarios.

Myth 8: Avoid Debt Like the Plague

Myth: Debt is bad, dangerous, and scary. Keep out of it.

Reality: Understand the difference between debt and liabilities and wisely incur and leverage the right liabilities to increase your prosperity.

Debt vs. liabilities

  • To create a foundation for this chapter, let me first explain a critical point. Debt is not the same thing as having liabilities. A liability is something that is an expense in our life, including many of the things we think of as debts, such as mortgages, car loans, small-business loans, and so on. The only time we are in debt, in the true accounting sense, is when our liabilities are greater than our assets, those things that provide income or potential cash flow in our lives.
  • If we perceive debt to mean having liabilities, and we hate, fear, and want to avoid debt, how can we function financially? How is it really possible to eliminate liabilities from our lives and be productive? I argue that it is not, and this is where the concept of avoiding debt goes awry. We do want to avoid true debt (having more liabilities than assets), but we don’t want to avoid incurring liabilities (owing something to someone else) that can be beneficial to our productivity, value creation, and prosperity.

Der Mythos ist angstgetrieben

  • It is fear and a desire for security that gave us the myth that all forms of borrowing, all liabilities, should be avoided.
  • It is fear that tells us that we can derive security from paying all of our liabilities off. We believe that when we have liabilities, somebody or something else is in control of or could even take possession of our material resources.
  • One of the main reasons that we’re so afraid of debt is because we’re afraid of expenses. We’re not trying to escape from the concept of debt so much as we’re trying to avoid the expenses that „debts“ incur.

Schulden, um Wert zu erzeugen

  • I’m completely with financial pundits when they are teaching people to stop borrowing for personal consumption. Yet it’s frustrating to me that the misperceptions in their teachings are crippling our ability to really create value in the world.

Myth 9: A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned

Myth: Price is what matters more than anything else — don’t spend your money if you can avoid it. Except, of course, if you find a good deal.

Reality: Price is a small concern relative to value. Focus primarily on value, and you will make and save more money in the long run.

Replacing prize with value

  • „Price is (or should be) a relatively petty concern when it comes to making financial decisions. It should be onefactor, but it should never be the most important factor. We, individual people, must learn to make decisions based on what we want, rather than what we think our current income limits us to. We don’t have to be subject to prices.“
  • The bottom line is that if we are able to break through the destructive price myth, we can stop spending and saving, and instead start utilizing and velocitizing. Our focus will turn toward productivity, and as we improve our ability to produce, we will stop simply consuming and start maximizing our previously unused potential.
  • If it truly is part of your Soul Purpose, and if it really does bring you joy, then by all means mow your own lawn. But if it’s not, stop thinking that you save money by doing it yourself because it’s simply not true. The opportunity costs you aren’t considering are substantial enough to outweigh any immediate reduction in expenses.
  • The most important thing to consider with all of our purchases should be value, with the corollary of productivity. Before we ever ask, „How much does it cost?“ we should ask more important questions like, „Will this help me to increase my productivity?“ „Is this item of a high enough quality to meet my wants?”
  • Another important consideration when we’re weighing value is other people who supply us with products and services and their applied human life value. […] We should want to see other people succeed every bit as much as we want to succeed ourselves. When we’re living abundantly we’re focused on the value that people bring into our lives, not the prices of their products and services. Although price is still one consideration, our goal is to compensate them for the value that we are receiving,

Creating an ideal world

  • Every dollar we spend is a vote for the kind of world in which we want to live, and in which we want our children and grandchildren to live.
  • My vision of an ideal world is one where every person is developing and living his Soul Purpose in the service of others. As we all do what we were born to do and thereby serve each other, we eliminate so much wasted time and opportunity.
  • There is a direct relationship between our spending and the quality of our lives, both individually and collectively. Every dollar we spend is an invitation to whatever we spend it on to be a part of our lives; it is tangible evidence of what we consider valuable. Every time we buy a mediocre product we send the message that we want to live in a mediocre world. When we purchase high-quality products, we send the message that quality and value are more important to us than price alone.

Defeating The Myths: The Formula

  • We’re handing away our human life value on a silver platter because we don’t know what to do with it.
  • You can guarantee success by aligning with principle, but it takes a dedication to education, a willingness to act, and the courage to break through the stronghold of the myths and not follow the crowd. It takes a consistent effort to choose faith in principles over the fear of how you might look to others.

Soul Purpose

  • The ultimate end of every one of our decisions — financial and otherwise — should be to get us closer to finding and living our Soul Purpose.
  • Our Soul Purpose is the reason that we were born. It is the thing that brings us the most joy and creates the most value for others. It is the development of our full potential. It is what causes us to reach far beyond the mediocrity of social agreements. It is what gets us beyond a „normal“ life to live extraordinarily.
  • Soul Purpose is what to look for, and, once found, it will give you the desire, courage, and strength to break through the fear caused by lies and mistruths.
  • I would argue that it’s incredibly selfish to allow ourselves to be blown about by the wind of mediocritybecause we’re not grounded in and aligned with the principle of Soul Purpose.
  • Following Soul Purpose doesn’t mean that everything we do should be based on our selfish desires. Rather, we must know exactly how we’re best suited for creating value in the world, and then do everything in our power to be as productive as possible. We should never feel guilty about following our Soul Purpose.
  • Understanding the power of Soul Purpose is one of the best ways to cultivate judgment regarding financial advice.

Here are some questions to ask yourself that will aid in the discovery of your Soul Purpose:

  • If money were of no concern, what would you spend your time doing?
  • What would be so exciting that you would want to jump out of bed early each morning to get to it?
  • What strengths, abilities, skills, or advantages do you feel you bring to the table that could be utilized to create maximum value in the marketplace?
  • In what areas do you have superior skill and extreme passion?
  • What things could you do all day long, without thought of fatigue, or what could you do that would create energy?
  • What do you do that brings compliments?
  • What do you believe in and consistently talk about?
  • What causes are worthy of your life?
  • What activities offer you the most fulfillment?
  • If you were doing exactly what you wanted, what would that be?
  • What are your priorities?
  • What are your values?
  • What opportunities or circumstances do you currently have that may be helpful in creating value for others?
  • What people do you know who have tremendous success, knowledge, and ability? What do they do? How do they think? What can you learn from them?

Value Proposition

  • A value proposition is simply the identification of how value is created for others through specific actions, investments, business proposals, etc. A good value proposition comes in the form of a very clear and concise statement that explains how value is being created and how it will be sustained. The value proposition must be simple and easy to understand, and it must make good economic sense â€” that is, the receiver must truly value what’s offered, and the giver must be able to provide it efficiently.
  • What most people fail to realize is that high returns follow solid value propositions.

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