RPF-0016

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00:00:30.920 | Radical Personal Finance, episode 16.

00:00:35.920 | Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance podcast.

00:00:55.120 | I'm your host, Joshua Sheets, and today is Wednesday, July 9, 2014.

00:01:01.520 | Today's topic is, what advice would I have given to the 18-year-old me,

00:01:07.920 | knowing what I now know?

00:01:09.800 | I've got one, two, three, 13 different pieces of advice here.

00:01:14.520 | Stay with us if you're interested.

00:01:16.920 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:01:19.920 | So today was a busy day for me as I record this.

00:01:27.920 | It's late in the evening, and hopefully we'll get this out as soon as possible.

00:01:31.120 | But usually I try to record the show in the morning.

00:01:33.320 | But today was a busy day, had a lot of appointments,

00:01:35.120 | and wasn't able to get to the show.

00:01:36.720 | So was-- and I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do the show on today.

00:01:40.920 | There are lots of meaty topics that I could dig into,

00:01:43.400 | but yesterday was pretty deep, pretty meaty.

00:01:46.320 | Hopefully you all enjoyed it.

00:01:48.120 | Hopefully you were able to dig through it and gain some good tax planning

00:01:52.720 | advice that would be helpful, or at least the basics of understanding

00:01:55.720 | how to approach tax planning advice that would be helpful for you

00:01:59.120 | in the future.

00:02:00.120 | But those types of shows take a long time to prepare.

00:02:02.520 | I mean, what is that?

00:02:03.720 | Yesterday's show was like an hour and 40 minutes, I think.

00:02:06.320 | And the preparation time of getting my notes lined up,

00:02:09.120 | getting an outline, trying to think, is this going to make sense?

00:02:11.820 | Pretty challenging.

00:02:12.920 | So today I certainly didn't have the time to do a long show like that.

00:02:16.720 | And was considering what I wanted to do.

00:02:18.320 | Had a couple of show topics, and got on Twitter this morning,

00:02:20.820 | and started talking and mentioning and saying,

00:02:23.920 | what do you want to ask a financial planner?

00:02:25.720 | And so I got a couple of interesting responses back,

00:02:29.120 | and really enjoyed that.

00:02:30.320 | But one of the questions that I thought was super fun came on Twitter.

00:02:34.320 | The Twitter handle for the person is @RobbyPC30.

00:02:39.920 | I guess a man named Robby.

00:02:41.320 | And Robby, thanks for the question.

00:02:43.120 | He reached out to me, and his tweet back to me-- and by the way,

00:02:46.820 | if you're interested in being a part of the Twitter conversation,

00:02:50.420 | the Twitter handle for the show is @RadicalPF.

00:02:54.420 | So @RadicalPF, P-F for personal finance.

00:02:57.920 | And then my personal Twitter handle is @JoshuaSheets,

00:03:01.920 | Sheets with an A, S-H-E-A-T-S.

00:03:04.120 | So @JoshuaSheets.

00:03:05.620 | Follow us either way.

00:03:06.920 | Both of them are me.

00:03:07.920 | I just imagine that the show one will be show topics, and me,

00:03:10.420 | you'll get a lot of other stuff as well if you're interested.

00:03:12.520 | So feel free to follow either place.

00:03:14.820 | So Robby tweets back to me and says, knowing what you know today,

00:03:18.320 | what financial advice would you have given your 18-year-old self?

00:03:22.020 | Doesn't just have to be financial.

00:03:23.920 | So a topic like that.

00:03:26.320 | How's that for a setup?

00:03:27.420 | How's that for a fun topic for somebody to go back and think?

00:03:31.420 | What would you have told your 18-year-old self?

00:03:35.220 | And as it happens, the interesting thing is that I have

00:03:40.220 | wanted to create an essay written basically entitled

00:03:44.420 | "Advice for a High School Junior,"

00:03:46.320 | because I've got some ideas on what a high school junior should do.

00:03:49.520 | I'm not going to go through that today,

00:03:50.820 | but I've got some specific topics and some specific financial ideas

00:03:55.220 | that I think would be interesting for a high school junior to pursue.

00:04:00.920 | And although I could do that, I'm not going to focus on that.

00:04:04.520 | But I had prepared some of that stuff in an essay in the past,

00:04:07.420 | but I struggled to write well.

00:04:09.820 | Speaking, I've learned that there's actually a learning style.

00:04:13.620 | I don't remember the name for it,

00:04:14.620 | but there's a learning style I think is called a verbal learner.

00:04:17.120 | And I actually learn well by speaking.

00:04:19.120 | And so it's one of the reasons why I'm doing a podcast and not writing essays,

00:04:23.520 | but I learn really well by speaking.

00:04:25.620 | And so it's a lot easier for me to sit down and say,

00:04:28.320 | "What would I tell an 18-year-old me?"

00:04:30.120 | So I've got 13 things here that I would tell an 18-year-old me,

00:04:33.720 | and they are all related to finances,

00:04:36.720 | but there's not an IRA or the instruction to really save money anywhere here.

00:04:42.720 | And the reason for that is because I think,

00:04:45.220 | you know, one of the things I've learned is that the technical stuff,

00:04:47.620 | it's important.

00:04:48.320 | And as you can see, we're going deep into the technical knowledge.

00:04:51.320 | But does that stuff really make a difference?

00:04:54.220 | It does, but it doesn't make nearly as big of a difference as some other things.

00:04:58.520 | So today's show is going to be light, fun, and fast.

00:05:00.420 | We're going to talk through Joshua's 13 pieces of advice for the 18-year-old self.

00:05:05.420 | And we'll see how it goes.

00:05:07.020 | So number one, Joshua, don't be scared of people.

00:05:11.620 | Or Robbie, don't be scared of people.

00:05:13.820 | Or whomever.

00:05:14.520 | If I were talking to an 18-year-old me, I would say,

00:05:17.220 | "Don't be scared of people.

00:05:18.820 | Everyone else is just about like you."

00:05:22.220 | And this one was a tough lesson for me.

00:05:24.820 | Because, you know, we all want to be liked.

00:05:27.420 | We all want to be accepted to some degree.

00:05:29.520 | And so we wind up trying to please people.

00:05:32.320 | And when we're trying to please people, we wind up,

00:05:35.020 | I don't know, I think we wind up with a lot of fear.

00:05:37.720 | Where does this come from?

00:05:38.620 | I don't know.

00:05:39.620 | Sometimes I wonder about the way that our social structure works.

00:05:44.320 | I wonder about school.

00:05:46.420 | It seems to me like the social environment that we're raised in,

00:05:49.520 | specifically speaking to my experience in the United States,

00:05:52.520 | is, you know, it starts out good.

00:05:54.020 | It's pretty easy when you're a little kid.

00:05:55.720 | Gets pretty awful in middle school and high school.

00:05:58.320 | And then it gets better as you go on, whether college and into the work world.

00:06:02.020 | And if you think about all of the social pressure that comes at people,

00:06:05.520 | the cliques, the groups, the peer pressure that comes,

00:06:09.420 | you know, it seems like elementary school,

00:06:10.920 | the early years of elementary school,

00:06:12.420 | the way our society is structured are pretty low-key and pretty easy.

00:06:17.820 | By the way, we're on the topic.

00:06:18.720 | This has never made sense to me.

00:06:20.220 | So I'll share it with you.

00:06:21.020 | And if you can tell me why it's like this and why we continue this system,

00:06:24.220 | you let me know.

00:06:25.020 | But we start off in elementary school.

00:06:26.720 | And we start off in elementary school, and it's pretty good.

00:06:30.220 | You know, kindergarten's pretty fun.

00:06:31.520 | First grade, pretty fun.

00:06:32.420 | Second grade, pretty fun.

00:06:33.720 | Somewhere towards that later part of elementary school or middle school,

00:06:36.920 | it seems like the social dynamic changes.

00:06:39.920 | And it seems like if you're a middle school kid,

00:06:41.920 | you're well acquainted with the idea of cliques and groups and the cool kids

00:06:47.020 | and the not-so-cool kids.

00:06:48.020 | And you're well acquainted with where you fit in that social structure.

00:06:52.320 | And then in high school, does it get worse or better?

00:06:55.420 | I don't know.

00:06:55.920 | It's pretty bad for some people and pretty great for others.

00:06:58.120 | So if you were a socially successful person,

00:07:00.220 | high school is probably pretty great.

00:07:01.720 | And if you're not an unsuccessful person socially, not very popular,

00:07:05.520 | high school may be pretty tough.

00:07:07.320 | And then it seemed to me, when I went to college,

00:07:09.320 | it seemed like in college you had this first opportunity for people

00:07:12.520 | to finally be who they wanted to be and kind of live how they wanted to live.

00:07:18.220 | And it seems like in college, when you're not put together

00:07:20.820 | in such a crazy environment like middle school and high school were,

00:07:23.920 | that you can kind of finally find your group.

00:07:25.920 | And you can find out, wow, there's other people just like me.

00:07:28.520 | Then you get to adulthood.

00:07:29.920 | And in adulthood, you have complete freedom of choice.

00:07:33.620 | So you have a complete freedom of choice with who to hang out with,

00:07:37.020 | who to be with, who to work with.

00:07:38.820 | So school seems like this crazy artificial environment

00:07:41.520 | where you're kind of pushed into this forced socialization,

00:07:45.420 | if you can call it that.

00:07:46.420 | And again, some people really have a great time in school.

00:07:48.820 | Some people don't.

00:07:50.420 | That was probably pretty middle of the road.

00:07:52.120 | I didn't have a horrible time, but it also wasn't the best years of my life.

00:07:56.820 | So it's this totally artificial environment.

00:07:59.420 | And unlike being an adult where you get to choose who you're with,

00:08:03.820 | choose who you hang out with, choose who you work with,

00:08:07.320 | which by the way, we all have a choice in who we work with,

00:08:10.320 | no matter how difficult the situation, you don't get that choice.

00:08:13.920 | You're kind of forced.

00:08:14.620 | Parents and the school and the government says,

00:08:16.420 | you've got to be in this environment.

00:08:19.820 | As an adult, you get to change your circumstances.

00:08:22.020 | You get to learn.

00:08:22.620 | And I feel like I'm just now learning.

00:08:24.920 | I'm just now learning really not to be scared of people.

00:08:29.720 | And it sounds silly and hopefully that's not too, I don't know,

00:08:33.620 | namby-pamby, even that, look at that, socialization.

00:08:36.420 | Hopefully that's not too crazy to admit it,

00:08:38.820 | but it seems like everyone is scared of other people.

00:08:41.220 | And whether that's you're trying to reach out to somebody to sell somebody

00:08:45.220 | on your new product or your new idea, you're scared what people will think,

00:08:49.220 | you're scared what people will say.

00:08:50.920 | I mean, just don't be scared of people.

00:08:52.620 | And the thing I've learned doing financial planning,

00:08:54.420 | which has been so interesting, and I don't know if I could,

00:08:57.520 | I probably could have learned it in another way,

00:08:59.120 | but I learned it doing financial planning,

00:09:00.820 | is that when you sit down and you talk with people about their goals

00:09:03.620 | and their dreams every day, you quickly find that everyone

00:09:07.820 | has just about the same goals and dreams.

00:09:10.620 | It's remarkable when you start talking to people.

00:09:13.820 | And whether that's the things like, well, if you don't own a house,

00:09:17.520 | many people want to own a house.

00:09:18.820 | If you don't have kids, many people want to have kids.

00:09:21.620 | If you're not married, many people want to get married.

00:09:23.520 | These are kind of common goals.

00:09:24.920 | If people want to get a promotion at work, they want to make more money.

00:09:28.020 | But then there are the bigger picture goals.

00:09:29.820 | And who was it?

00:09:30.920 | I think Zig Ziglar.

00:09:32.520 | I used to love listening to Zig Ziglar,

00:09:34.620 | which incidentally, Zig Ziglar was actually my first podcast.

00:09:38.520 | I learned podcasting, I started listening to podcasts back in 2007

00:09:43.920 | when I found the Zig Ziglar, I don't even remember what the name of it was.

00:09:47.720 | I haven't listened to it in a long time,

00:09:49.020 | but it was like inspiring others or something like that podcast.

00:09:52.220 | And it was his company started releasing some of Zig's motivational materials

00:09:57.920 | online for free.

00:09:59.220 | And that opened my eyes to the world of podcasting,

00:10:02.020 | which was for me an amazing experience.

00:10:04.120 | Because since then, I've consumed a lot of podcasts

00:10:07.420 | and now I'm trying to contribute to it.

00:10:09.620 | But I owe a debt of gratitude to Zig for a lot of things.

00:10:13.020 | But I used to listen to Zig Ziglar seminars,

00:10:15.220 | which I highly recommend.

00:10:16.320 | If you can find them, go look on eBay, you can probably find them.

00:10:18.620 | But I used to listen to all of his seminars

00:10:21.920 | and Zig would say that basically everybody wants just about the same things.

00:10:26.020 | And I think it was eight things.

00:10:27.720 | He would say that people want to be happy,

00:10:30.220 | everyone wants to be happy,

00:10:32.820 | everyone wants to be healthy,

00:10:35.420 | everybody wants to be at least reasonably prosperous,

00:10:39.520 | everybody wants to be secure,

00:10:41.520 | everybody wants to have friends,

00:10:43.420 | everybody wants to have peace of mind,

00:10:46.420 | everybody wants to have good family relationships,

00:10:49.120 | and everybody wants to have hope,

00:10:50.920 | hope that the future is going to be better than the past.

00:10:54.720 | Those were his eight categories.

00:10:56.320 | I don't know if he made them up or if he learned them or what,

00:10:58.720 | but those have stuck with me because I heard him say that so many times.

00:11:01.420 | Everybody wants to be happy, healthy,

00:11:03.820 | reasonably prosperous, secure, have friends,

00:11:06.620 | peace of mind, good family relationships,

00:11:09.320 | and hope that the future is going to be better than the past.

00:11:12.220 | And so incidentally, look on iTunes.

00:11:15.320 | What do you find with all these podcasts?

00:11:17.820 | There's a podcast on happiness, there's a podcast on health.

00:11:21.520 | I'm creating a podcast on how to be reasonably prosperous.

00:11:25.020 | There are podcasts on security,

00:11:27.020 | although security branches, you know,

00:11:28.420 | connects in my mind to financial planning in a large degree,

00:11:31.420 | but although not, you know, security may be things like faith,

00:11:36.120 | eternal security, those types of things,

00:11:39.720 | just this sense of security.

00:11:41.620 | Everybody wants to have friends,

00:11:42.720 | so there's podcasts on communication, on leadership,

00:11:45.220 | peace of mind, good family relationships,

00:11:48.120 | there's marriage podcasts, and then there's hope.

00:11:50.520 | Those are kind of the inspirational podcasts,

00:11:52.320 | and that kind of cuts across so many different categories.

00:11:55.320 | But everybody wants the same thing.

00:11:57.020 | And so for some reason, I don't know,

00:11:59.420 | I just feel like I spend a lot of my life being scared of people,

00:12:02.020 | not for anything specific.

00:12:03.120 | No one's ever hurt me. I'm a pretty big guy.

00:12:05.320 | I've never been in a fight.

00:12:06.920 | But so there's just kind of this idea

00:12:09.020 | that we're scared of what our parents are going to think.

00:12:11.920 | You know, if we follow our dreams,

00:12:13.520 | if we drop out of college, if we go to college,

00:12:15.220 | we're scared of what, and this affects every area of life,

00:12:18.020 | we're just kind of scared of what people will think.

00:12:20.220 | And so I'm pretty pleased, you know, I think I've learned this,

00:12:24.820 | but you know, I've still got a ways to learn.

00:12:27.020 | Frankly, it's still, it's scary for me to do a podcast

00:12:30.320 | because you lose your anonymity,

00:12:31.720 | and now you're pushed out there on the front lines,

00:12:34.220 | kind of telling your ideas, and you're on the record.

00:12:36.620 | So now somebody can come, and just like I do to other people,

00:12:39.020 | somebody can come, take my words, and take issue with them,

00:12:41.820 | and so that's scary.

00:12:43.320 | But I would just say, don't be scared of other people.

00:12:46.720 | Everyone else is just about like you.

00:12:49.520 | And once you realize that, at least for me,

00:12:51.520 | I found that there was an incredible freedom in that idea.

00:12:54.820 | That's number one.

00:12:55.320 | Number two, give up on impressing other people.

00:12:59.420 | And I still struggle sometimes with how to balance this one.

00:13:02.820 | And there's kind of this fight, this war,

00:13:07.520 | this struggle between not just trying to impress other people,

00:13:11.620 | but then not necessarily trying to cut against other people,

00:13:15.620 | and not trying to needlessly offend.

00:13:24.520 | I think about this in the area of dress.

00:13:26.020 | Should you dress to impress other people?

00:13:28.820 | No.

00:13:29.420 | But then again, is there validity in the ideas of dress for success?

00:13:33.820 | Yeah.

00:13:34.620 | The way that you dress affects how people perceive you.

00:13:38.320 | Should you try to look great for other people?

00:13:40.420 | Well, not necessarily to impress them,

00:13:42.120 | but then again, should you try to look great?

00:13:46.620 | I think you should.

00:13:47.720 | So I'm not sure how to temper this one,

00:13:51.420 | but basically the idea is many of us kind of struggle.

00:13:55.020 | We want to impress people.

00:13:56.220 | But the thing is that if you go on,

00:13:57.920 | if I try to be impressive, and I try to sound impressive,

00:14:01.220 | and I try to speak about, look how impressive I am,

00:14:05.320 | you'd turn me off in a minute.

00:14:07.120 | You'd say, this guy's a dumb-dumb.

00:14:09.420 | He's full of himself.

00:14:10.720 | It's all about him.

00:14:11.620 | It's completely arrogant, and I'm just done with it.

00:14:15.320 | The best way to impress other people is to be impressed by them.

00:14:18.920 | The best way to be admired is to admire other people.

00:14:22.620 | The best way to be liked is to like other people.

00:14:25.120 | The best way to be respected is to respect other people.

00:14:27.820 | I mean, this is the way the world works.

00:14:31.620 | And so as a young person, we're so concerned,

00:14:34.420 | kind of connecting through with being scared of people,

00:14:36.920 | we're so concerned with impressing people.

00:14:39.820 | And then it seems as time goes on, at least I've learned,

00:14:43.320 | no one really cares that much.

00:14:46.020 | If you look at the people that are probably most admired in our society,

00:14:52.620 | they're usually a little bit unconventional.

00:14:55.620 | I always think of rock stars.

00:14:57.920 | The rock stars, we pay them lots of money,

00:15:00.620 | and they're really unconventional.

00:15:02.520 | They're always looking to get attention.

00:15:04.620 | But they don't get attention by fitting in.

00:15:06.320 | They get attention by being different.

00:15:08.020 | And millions of people, for a well-respected rock star,

00:15:11.220 | will spend all of their time and all their money

00:15:13.520 | just simply admiring this person.

00:15:15.520 | But it's completely different.

00:15:17.020 | It's a free thinker, and people are drawn to that.

00:15:19.520 | People are drawn to--

00:15:21.720 | the weird thing is people are drawn to being unconventional.

00:15:25.320 | Unconventional.

00:15:26.920 | Chris Guillebeau, my favorite essay--

00:15:28.320 | I've mentioned on the show before,

00:15:29.420 | one of my favorite financial planning essays

00:15:31.320 | that I would encourage people to read

00:15:33.020 | is his essay from years ago when he first got online.

00:15:36.220 | He wrote an essay called, "Would You Rather Drive an SUV

00:15:40.320 | or Visit 100 Countries?"

00:15:41.820 | And basically the gist of it is that you have a choice.

00:15:45.920 | It will cost you the same amount of money

00:15:47.520 | to buy an SUV as it will to visit 100 countries.

00:15:52.120 | And if you look at that, most people just automatically

00:15:56.620 | buy the SUV, but yet I admire someone

00:16:00.120 | who's been to 100 countries.

00:16:01.620 | To me, that's far more interesting,

00:16:03.420 | but it's the atypical choice.

00:16:05.420 | And if you just simply give up on impressing other people

00:16:10.220 | and live according to the way that you want to live,

00:16:13.420 | it seems like, strangely, that's actually

00:16:15.620 | what impresses other people.

00:16:17.320 | So give up on impressing other people by trying to fit in.

00:16:19.720 | More financial mistakes are made this way than anything else.

00:16:24.320 | And the weird thing is that you'll spend all the money--

00:16:28.020 | you'll spend all your money trying to impress other people,

00:16:30.420 | and they're not impressed.

00:16:31.620 | But if you forget about doing that,

00:16:33.820 | people will often be impressed by you,

00:16:36.020 | no matter how much money you have.

00:16:38.220 | I've never met Chris.

00:16:39.220 | I hear he's a great guy.

00:16:40.420 | I mean, he seems just like a really awesome guy.

00:16:42.520 | I read a couple of his books, and I've

00:16:44.220 | read his blog for years.

00:16:46.320 | But frankly, he's kind of a nerdy guy.

00:16:49.420 | And he's kind of this real soft-spoken, real gentle,

00:16:52.320 | nerdy guy.

00:16:53.420 | And best of my knowledge, I don't think he owns a car.

00:16:56.420 | He lives in an apartment in Portland or Seattle

00:16:58.420 | or something like that.

00:16:59.620 | Not necessarily-- I mean, does he have money?

00:17:01.920 | I don't know.

00:17:03.220 | I assume he does.

00:17:04.320 | I hope he does.

00:17:05.020 | He seems like he's got an awesome business,

00:17:06.820 | got some really cool products.

00:17:08.120 | I hope he has a lot of money.

00:17:09.520 | But the value is that he didn't set out for that.

00:17:13.420 | And so the money is almost unnecessary.

00:17:15.120 | If you don't own a car, you don't need to bother with it.

00:17:17.220 | He's impressive, because he went to every country in the world

00:17:19.020 | by the time he's 35 and started something called the World

00:17:21.920 | Domination Summit.

00:17:22.820 | How does it get better than that?

00:17:24.720 | Consider-- one of my other favorite online guys

00:17:27.120 | I really enjoy reading is a guy named Benny Lewis.

00:17:29.420 | And he writes a blog called "Fluent in Three Months."

00:17:32.220 | If you're interested in languages, check it out.

00:17:33.720 | Highly recommended.

00:17:34.920 | But Benny Lewis, when he turned 21 years old,

00:17:38.020 | if I remember his story correctly,

00:17:40.320 | he only spoke English.

00:17:41.620 | And then since then, he's gone on

00:17:42.920 | to learn a dozen or two languages

00:17:44.920 | that he speaks with varying degrees of fluency.

00:17:47.820 | And every three months, he embarks on another language

00:17:54.220 | learning mission.

00:17:55.620 | Again, kind of a nerdy guy, but what a cool story.

00:17:59.020 | He lives on the road, travels to a new country every three

00:18:01.420 | months, it seems like, and has this awesome internet business

00:18:04.820 | just based upon what he's interested in.

00:18:06.620 | But if you go out and try to impress somebody down

00:18:08.720 | at the club-- I live in West Palm Beach,

00:18:10.420 | and you go down to Miami.

00:18:11.720 | Now if I'm going to go impress somebody at the club,

00:18:14.620 | I'm going to buy a fancy-- I don't even

00:18:16.320 | know the right lingo for that world--

00:18:18.020 | I'm going to buy a fancy car, and I'm

00:18:19.520 | going to pull up and live the Miami lifestyle.

00:18:23.020 | Not that impressive.

00:18:24.520 | So I think just stop trying to impress people,

00:18:27.220 | and really focus on just being you.

00:18:33.320 | And the people who are interested in what you're doing

00:18:35.660 | will be drawn to you, and they'll be impressed by you.

00:18:38.420 | I'm interested in languages, so I'm impressed by Benny Lewis.

00:18:41.380 | But someone who's not interested, I don't care.

00:18:43.720 | No big deal.

00:18:44.740 | Let them go on their way.

00:18:45.780 | I'm impressed by him.

00:18:47.100 | I'm impressed by Chris Gillibook.

00:18:48.500 | I admire what he's done.

00:18:50.020 | Let someone else go on their way.

00:18:51.400 | I think it's awesome.

00:18:53.300 | But you don't need to worry about impressing other people.

00:18:56.220 | Do what you want.

00:18:56.900 | They'll be impressed if they want to be.

00:18:59.260 | Number three, don't be scared to fail.

00:19:02.060 | In our society, Western society, it's almost impossible to fail.

00:19:08.140 | Take the risk.

00:19:09.100 | What are you going to lose?

00:19:10.620 | And here's what I mean.

00:19:13.580 | Again, speaking to primarily, I would

00:19:16.340 | assume, a US-American or at least a Western audience,

00:19:19.980 | in the Western society, failure has a very low cost.

00:19:22.900 | There are almost no actual consequences to failing.

00:19:26.420 | Now, in other parts of the world, that's not true.

00:19:27.900 | You may lose your life if you fail in some place.

00:19:30.100 | And there are certain things.

00:19:31.320 | If you are practicing some extreme sport

00:19:33.660 | and you fail at that, you may die.

00:19:35.980 | But I'm just talking about the things that most of us

00:19:38.420 | are scared of.

00:19:39.060 | How in this country-- how is it possible to fail?

00:19:43.140 | Think about this.

00:19:43.820 | What is the risk?

00:19:44.820 | You want to take a big trip.

00:19:46.060 | You want to start a business.

00:19:47.280 | You want to change jobs.

00:19:48.820 | What's a money failure?

00:19:50.780 | Let's say, worst case scenario, you lose all your money.

00:19:53.180 | Is it possible to fail by losing all your money?

00:19:55.500 | That's not failure.

00:19:56.900 | You run out of food.

00:19:57.700 | Guess what?

00:19:58.260 | There's food stamps, or whatever they're called now, UBT, SNAP.

00:20:00.780 | I don't know.

00:20:01.500 | There's food stamps.

00:20:03.020 | They'll give you money for food every month.

00:20:04.900 | And that's enough money to support your family.

00:20:06.860 | So if you've got three kids or four kids or five kids,

00:20:10.420 | you're going to have enough to feed your family.

00:20:12.420 | Or if you're a single guy or gal,

00:20:13.780 | you're going to have enough to feed yourself.

00:20:15.660 | There's charities.

00:20:16.700 | If you're homeless and you don't have any money,

00:20:18.900 | there's a charity that will feed you.

00:20:20.460 | Your mom will feed you.

00:20:21.460 | Your dad will feed you.

00:20:22.660 | And I'm not going to feed you forever.

00:20:24.140 | But so you're not going to run out of food.

00:20:26.340 | You're not going to starve.

00:20:27.380 | Now, there's some place in the world where you are.

00:20:29.260 | There's places in the world where

00:20:30.100 | you're starving right now.

00:20:31.180 | But I would assume that if you're hearing my voice,

00:20:33.740 | you're not in that situation.

00:20:35.420 | And we need to work to help people in those situations.

00:20:38.260 | But in the US, come on.

00:20:39.580 | You're not going to run out of food.

00:20:41.080 | Are you going to be homeless?

00:20:42.180 | You're not going to be homeless.

00:20:42.940 | There's Section 8 housing assistance.

00:20:44.540 | The government will stick you in a place to live.

00:20:47.700 | There's housing charities.

00:20:50.020 | My favorite thing on housing--

00:20:51.300 | I just think one of my favorite movies I've always enjoyed,

00:20:53.800 | which should be probably pretty obvious why,

00:20:56.900 | is "Pursuit of Happiness," the story of Will Smith portrayed

00:21:00.500 | Chris Gardner, who started--

00:21:02.580 | was it Gardner?

00:21:03.500 | I don't remember the name of his firm.

00:21:05.140 | But he started a large financial firm, which was sold,

00:21:07.020 | which was sold, which was sold, which always

00:21:08.460 | happens with financial firms.

00:21:09.660 | But a guy in the filming of the movie,

00:21:12.420 | he's sleeping in a subway bathroom.

00:21:14.460 | But so what?

00:21:15.820 | He's not out in the cold.

00:21:17.180 | He's sleeping in a subway bathroom.

00:21:19.220 | One of things I think about, OK, you lose everything

00:21:21.380 | if you have a car.

00:21:22.140 | Live in your car.

00:21:23.340 | Is it so bad?

00:21:24.060 | Well, to one person, it's bad.

00:21:25.380 | To another person, it's an adventure.

00:21:26.940 | Go online.

00:21:27.500 | Find somebody who's living in a car.

00:21:29.780 | And again, hopefully-- I mean, you can get a minivan.

00:21:32.220 | Minivan is the ideal car to live in if you're

00:21:34.060 | trying to live cheap.

00:21:36.060 | Is it really so bad?

00:21:37.660 | I don't know.

00:21:38.260 | Look at it as an adventure.

00:21:39.860 | I remember a story that has stuck out to me about--

00:21:46.100 | I think the author--

00:21:46.980 | I think the author was Tynan, who

00:21:49.420 | writes an interesting blog over at Tynan, T-Y-N-A-N dot com,

00:21:52.540 | Tynan dot com.

00:21:53.660 | And he writes about-- he lives in an RV.

00:21:58.340 | And his RV story is kind of interesting.

00:22:00.500 | He moved from a big, fancy condo into an RV.

00:22:03.460 | And read his essays on it.

00:22:04.940 | It's rather interesting.

00:22:05.940 | But he lives in an RV by choice, not

00:22:07.280 | that he can't live somewhere else.

00:22:08.700 | He chooses to live in a small RV.

00:22:10.460 | And I think if I'm citing the story correctly--

00:22:13.220 | I'll have to Google it when I'm done.

00:22:14.760 | But if I'm citing the story correctly,

00:22:16.420 | he's parked on the street one day.

00:22:17.820 | And he comes out of his RV.

00:22:19.980 | And he looks across the street, and there's another RV.

00:22:22.580 | And the guy on the other side's coming out of his RV, too.

00:22:25.260 | So he walks over.

00:22:26.300 | And he says, hey, man, how you doing?

00:22:27.880 | Guy responds, how's it look like I'm doing?

00:22:30.660 | I'm living in an RV.

00:22:32.340 | I think Tynan says, come on, man.

00:22:35.460 | And he didn't know what to say.

00:22:36.900 | Because by him, living in an RV was awesome.

00:22:39.020 | It's an awesome lifestyle.

00:22:40.780 | So I just thought, wow, what a difference

00:22:43.820 | of perspective makes.

00:22:49.220 | So things like that, just viewing the struggle that

00:22:51.900 | can be part of the adventure.

00:22:53.780 | You're not going to fail.

00:22:54.900 | You run out of money, guess what?

00:22:56.100 | They'll give you cash payments, welfare cash assistance

00:22:59.100 | programs, or whatever it's called.

00:22:59.980 | I don't remember what the formal name of it is.

00:23:01.900 | Is it going to be a lot?

00:23:02.900 | No.

00:23:03.400 | Is it going to be enough?

00:23:04.420 | Probably.

00:23:05.780 | Why on earth would you go and slave in a job

00:23:09.380 | when you can build a business, if you

00:23:10.900 | want to build a business, or if you have a dream?

00:23:13.660 | Why would you not go and follow that?

00:23:15.300 | And all this stuff is there.

00:23:16.460 | Take it.

00:23:16.820 | Use it.

00:23:17.380 | That's what it's there for.

00:23:19.020 | Somebody's going to get it.

00:23:20.180 | Why not you?

00:23:22.340 | Medical care?

00:23:24.020 | Obamacare?

00:23:25.220 | Medicaid?

00:23:25.860 | Medicaid was massively expanded in the last couple years.

00:23:28.700 | You can walk into any hospital in the country,

00:23:30.740 | and if your leg is bleeding, they will take you in

00:23:33.660 | and they will fix you.

00:23:36.020 | They give you a cell phone if you don't make any money.

00:23:38.340 | So you can run your business.

00:23:40.460 | If you want to start a business, and you fail,

00:23:42.740 | and you run out of all your money,

00:23:43.860 | and you get kicked out of your apartment,

00:23:45.220 | and you're behind on your bills, you can go down.

00:23:47.460 | You can live in Section 8 housing.

00:23:48.940 | You can get an internet connection from the coffee shop

00:23:51.980 | next door.

00:23:52.900 | Get a $200 Chromebook to run your business on.

00:23:57.620 | They'll give you a cell phone to pay and some money for food,

00:24:01.380 | and start your business.

00:24:02.540 | I mean, I wouldn't say that would be the primary thing,

00:24:06.980 | but I guess a lot of my life, you're always

00:24:09.020 | just worried about failure.

00:24:11.260 | Oh, go into debt.

00:24:12.140 | OK, so you go into debt.

00:24:14.460 | All right, you can't pay it.

00:24:16.420 | Well, don't pay it.

00:24:17.380 | You get behind on your bills.

00:24:21.380 | There's lots of people that have gotten behind on their bills.

00:24:24.000 | So don't pay it.

00:24:24.980 | Run your household on cash.

00:24:26.260 | Change your phone number.

00:24:28.260 | Worst comes to worst, you can't pay your bills,

00:24:30.420 | declare bankruptcy.

00:24:32.500 | You borrowed a bunch of money on student loans,

00:24:34.420 | which aren't bankruptable.

00:24:35.540 | Well, go into the black market.

00:24:36.540 | I mean, the drug dealers figure out how to live.

00:24:38.700 | The illegal immigrants figure out how to live.

00:24:42.660 | Figure it out.

00:24:44.140 | The thing that is driving us is the fear of failure

00:24:48.820 | is not usually a rational fear.

00:24:51.660 | Again, you're not going to fail.

00:24:53.300 | What is failure?

00:24:53.980 | You're going to die?

00:24:54.820 | You're not going to die.

00:24:56.460 | What the actual fear of failure is,

00:24:58.540 | is the actual fear of failure is a mental construct.

00:25:03.100 | It's a fear of looking foolish.

00:25:04.580 | It's a fear of other people lowering their opinions.

00:25:08.900 | It's a mental game.

00:25:11.820 | Now, do I think that you should do all those things?

00:25:14.780 | Well, actually, I do if you're using it for something.

00:25:18.260 | If I had my way, I'd snap my fingers

00:25:19.820 | and eliminate all of them.

00:25:20.900 | But guess what?

00:25:21.520 | No one's electing me president.

00:25:23.100 | I'd eliminate all those programs.

00:25:24.580 | And I'd keep it in the hands of private charities.

00:25:27.500 | But no one's asking me.

00:25:29.640 | And no matter how I vote, it doesn't

00:25:33.940 | seem to change anything.

00:25:35.020 | So I say, I can't do anything about the national situation,

00:25:38.140 | but I can do something about my life.

00:25:40.140 | And so if worse comes to worse and I fail,

00:25:43.300 | that's what it's there for.

00:25:44.900 | And if worse comes to worse and you fail,

00:25:47.260 | that's what it's there for.

00:25:48.580 | You're not going to die.

00:25:50.020 | And then the other thing is that if you look at it-- so

00:25:52.820 | failure, fear of failure.

00:25:54.180 | I'll use the example of starting a business.

00:25:56.020 | Fear of failing because we're going to start a business.

00:25:58.340 | Well, there's no rational-- under the scenario I just

00:26:01.020 | laid out, there's no rational fear of dying.

00:26:04.460 | So then it's a mental fear of taking charity,

00:26:07.180 | of being dependent, of being on the dole.

00:26:09.980 | Again, I'm kind of against all those things.

00:26:12.980 | I'm a card-carrying libertarian, but about as far out

00:26:16.260 | on the kooky political fringe as possible.

00:26:19.300 | But it exists.

00:26:20.020 | Why not use it if you have to?

00:26:22.340 | So you say, OK, well, then it's a fear of looking foolish.

00:26:26.020 | Well, is your mom going to love you less because you start

00:26:28.340 | a business and you lose all your money?

00:26:29.940 | Is your best friend not going to go have a drink with you

00:26:35.580 | because you started a business and you went bankrupt?

00:26:38.740 | I mean, in this country, the bankruptcy laws

00:26:41.300 | are the most amazing thing ever.

00:26:42.740 | Consider-- who to consider?

00:26:45.660 | I mean, there's dozens of examples.

00:26:47.120 | Consider-- Donald Trump was a-- go read his book,

00:26:50.660 | "The Art of the Deal."

00:26:51.700 | A billion dollars in debt.

00:26:54.380 | A billion dollars negative net worth.

00:26:57.740 | A billion dollars.

00:27:00.820 | They turned it around.

00:27:01.740 | And the financial-- Dave Ramsey, in the financial world.

00:27:08.060 | I guarantee some of you listen to Dave Ramsey.

00:27:10.540 | What did Dave Ramsey do?

00:27:11.820 | Starts a business, fails at it, does some dumb stuff

00:27:14.820 | with his financing, does dumb stuff, declares bankruptcy,

00:27:17.980 | and starts all over again.

00:27:19.500 | And today, makes millions of dollars

00:27:22.180 | every year with one of the highest-rated radio

00:27:25.180 | shows in the country, plus all of his other 83

00:27:29.420 | different lines of income.

00:27:32.020 | He's an amazing business guy.

00:27:33.260 | His other 83 lines of income coming into his company.

00:27:36.740 | And the whole thing is based upon-- I declared bankruptcy.

00:27:41.420 | I was stupid, so let me tell you how stupid I was

00:27:43.740 | and how not to be stupid.

00:27:45.140 | I mean, it's laughable.

00:27:46.380 | And yet, here's the American dream.

00:27:48.060 | Goes deeply into debt.

00:27:49.660 | Can't pay it off.

00:27:50.540 | Declares bankruptcy.

00:27:51.900 | Starts afresh.

00:27:53.060 | And today, makes millions of dollars a year

00:27:57.180 | teaching people how not to borrow money,

00:27:58.820 | how not to do what he did.

00:28:00.340 | But yet, what did he do?

00:28:01.500 | He declared bankruptcy and wiped away his debts

00:28:04.900 | and started fresh.

00:28:06.620 | So I mean, he's a great guy.

00:28:09.380 | I have lots of issues with him, but he's

00:28:11.860 | done an amazing amount of good for a lot of people.

00:28:13.980 | But the reality is that he is a financial advisor.

00:28:17.340 | Or he's not a financial advisor.

00:28:18.860 | He is a financial entertainer who his entire business

00:28:25.540 | is based upon his history of failing.

00:28:27.700 | And yet today, there are millions and millions

00:28:30.620 | and millions of people across this country

00:28:32.780 | who look up to him and appreciate the work

00:28:34.780 | that he does.

00:28:35.660 | So who defines failure?

00:28:38.580 | Is failure an event?

00:28:40.740 | Is failure winning?

00:28:42.340 | Or is failure quitting?

00:28:44.800 | There are a lot of people who go to the Olympics

00:28:46.760 | and only three of them get a medal.

00:28:48.260 | But are they now not Olympians because they didn't win?

00:28:50.500 | Winning is a stupid definition of success.

00:28:52.900 | I mean, well, I guess it depends on how you define winning.

00:28:55.360 | But not everyone's going to come out on top.

00:28:57.500 | So you get to define failure.

00:28:59.420 | Zig Zig, back to Zig Ziglar.

00:29:01.820 | My favorite quote of his--

00:29:03.740 | I can hear his voice.

00:29:05.020 | I can't do a Southern drawl.

00:29:06.580 | But here is what he'd say over and over again.

00:29:08.620 | And it's my favorite saying to say to myself.

00:29:11.060 | Failure is an event.

00:29:14.060 | It's not a person.

00:29:15.860 | Yesterday really did end last night.

00:29:18.740 | Today is a brand new day.

00:29:21.780 | And it's yours.

00:29:24.420 | Again, I wish I could do his Southern drawl.

00:29:26.500 | Or I should go find a recording of him.

00:29:28.120 | But failure is an event.

00:29:30.620 | It's not a person.

00:29:32.340 | Yesterday did end last night.

00:29:34.020 | Done.

00:29:34.620 | Gone.

00:29:35.460 | Today is a brand new day.

00:29:37.260 | And it's yours.

00:29:38.780 | So I just say study the worst that can happen

00:29:41.620 | and be OK with it.

00:29:43.780 | I think one of the particularly useful tips

00:29:45.620 | in Tim Ferriss's book, "Four-Hour Work Week,"

00:29:47.660 | was-- and I think this is key--

00:29:50.660 | is consider the worst case possible scenario,

00:29:53.700 | worst possible scenario that could happen

00:29:56.220 | under a course of action.

00:29:58.060 | And then ask yourself if you're willing to accept it

00:30:01.180 | if it happens.

00:30:02.500 | And then work like crazy to make sure it doesn't happen.

00:30:05.100 | So if the worst case scenario of--

00:30:08.660 | again, worst case scenario for me,

00:30:11.540 | changing, leaving the business that I had

00:30:13.260 | and changing to some new ventures,

00:30:16.340 | primarily this podcast.

00:30:18.380 | OK, so I walk away from a business.

00:30:21.420 | I lose all my clients.

00:30:22.940 | I lose all my money.

00:30:24.300 | I wind up going deeply in debt.

00:30:26.580 | I wind up bankrupt.

00:30:28.380 | I don't plan for that to happen.

00:30:29.800 | I work pretty hard to make sure it doesn't happen.

00:30:31.340 | But let's say I spend all my money.

00:30:33.060 | And I go wind up bankrupt.

00:30:34.260 | Guess what?

00:30:35.220 | I can start again.

00:30:36.460 | And I'm willing to deal with that

00:30:38.180 | because I fear the pain of regret

00:30:43.900 | more than I fear the pain of failure, the pain of bankruptcy

00:30:48.260 | or the pain of a business closing.

00:30:50.580 | There's businesses that close every day.

00:30:52.220 | Walt Disney, what did he go bankrupt three times on his way

00:30:54.620 | to starting Disney World?

00:30:55.700 | But you don't remember him for his bankruptcy.

00:30:58.460 | Again, Dave Ramsey, bankrupt?

00:30:59.940 | Yes, but you don't know him today for his bankruptcy.

00:31:03.260 | There are lots and lots of people that have failed.

00:31:06.060 | I don't remember what the numbers are.

00:31:07.660 | I could look them up.

00:31:08.340 | But we won't worry with actual numbers today.

00:31:10.380 | Lots of people have failed.

00:31:11.820 | So study the worst that could happen and be OK with it.

00:31:14.380 | And the other thing I've learned is

00:31:15.500 | that no matter what the worst case scenario is,

00:31:17.260 | there's a way to make it really good.

00:31:18.820 | I remember this when I worked with a prospective client who--

00:31:23.140 | my actual client was a family member of this person.

00:31:26.900 | And they referred me to the family member.

00:31:29.900 | And they said, hey, maybe you can meet with this person

00:31:32.220 | and help him.

00:31:33.100 | So I meet with them.

00:31:33.940 | And what I find out is that the person has no money.

00:31:36.580 | And they're living on Social Security disability.

00:31:39.820 | But yet the person is living on a sailboat.

00:31:42.780 | And here in West Palm Beach, in part of the year

00:31:45.380 | in the Caribbean, I thought, what an awesome, awesome

00:31:48.780 | example of taking what some people would say

00:31:51.660 | is a really awful lifestyle--

00:31:53.180 | I'm living on Social Security disability--

00:31:55.420 | and figuring out how to make what a lot of people

00:31:57.500 | would say is a really awesome lifestyle out of it.

00:31:59.900 | I remember a friend of mine had a friend who would come.

00:32:05.780 | And this person would come down to Florida.

00:32:07.580 | And this person was a really great gentleman,

00:32:10.620 | an elderly gentleman, kind of the big, kind of bearded

00:32:13.500 | mountain man that you'd run into at a folk music festival.

00:32:16.980 | And this person lived in his car.

00:32:18.700 | And he lived in a van.

00:32:19.820 | And he lived on, again, Social Security, I think.

00:32:23.700 | It was a very small Social Security payment.

00:32:25.780 | But he would come down.

00:32:26.780 | And my friend would let him park in his yard.

00:32:29.080 | And he would have a free place to stay every winter,

00:32:31.280 | in Florida in the winter.

00:32:32.320 | And he'd go up to New England in the summer.

00:32:35.020 | How's that for a great way to make a great life?

00:32:37.180 | Now, I don't particularly want to live in a van,

00:32:39.380 | or at least not--

00:32:40.000 | I don't particularly want to live in a van

00:32:41.760 | with a large family, one person that might be cool.

00:32:44.780 | But the reality is that it's a lot better than slaving away

00:32:48.820 | in cubicle nation.

00:32:50.220 | So you can make any situation fun

00:32:52.540 | if you learn the skills of how to do that.

00:32:54.700 | I think of the early retirement extreme book, which

00:32:57.180 | highly recommend, if you haven't read it, buy it and read it.

00:32:59.780 | But you've got Jacob, who talked about how he lived,

00:33:02.380 | I think it was $7,000 a year of expenses,

00:33:04.540 | even though he had plenty of money that he could spend,

00:33:07.460 | and with skills, supplanted the need for the high income.

00:33:11.980 | So that's the key.

00:33:14.460 | Which brings us on to number four, which

00:33:16.420 | my piece of advice number four is study skills

00:33:19.060 | that actually matter.

00:33:22.060 | How important is it, really, in the age of Google,

00:33:25.660 | to be able to name exactly what the capital of every country

00:33:28.620 | in the world is?

00:33:29.620 | Not that important.

00:33:31.260 | But how important is it to know how

00:33:32.780 | to have successful relationships?

00:33:35.860 | Pretty important.

00:33:37.900 | How important is it to have communication skills?

00:33:43.020 | Pretty important.

00:33:44.540 | How important is it to understand finance?

00:33:47.900 | Pretty important.

00:33:49.140 | How important is it to have skills of creativity

00:33:53.060 | and ideation, like the ability to come up with new ideas?

00:33:57.700 | That's pretty important.

00:34:00.060 | How about the skills of how to make stuff, build stuff,

00:34:02.980 | create stuff?

00:34:03.820 | How about studying the things, creating success skills?

00:34:08.300 | Those things are pretty important.

00:34:09.860 | And all of those things are really, really learnable.

00:34:14.580 | Our society is so crazy.

00:34:16.220 | We talk about skills constantly in our world.

00:34:18.500 | We talk about skills like how to keep an empty inbox at work.

00:34:21.860 | Inbox zero, right?

00:34:23.060 | Super useful.

00:34:24.220 | Do my best to do it.

00:34:25.300 | Fail a lot of the times.

00:34:26.340 | But super useful.

00:34:27.740 | What about skills like building your own house?

00:34:31.660 | Read an essay one time.

00:34:32.700 | I'd love to find it, but thought, what a great idea.

00:34:34.900 | But the essay was advice for-- I think

00:34:36.580 | it was a high school student.

00:34:38.060 | And the advice was basically, don't go to college.

00:34:40.620 | I mean, unless you want to go to college.

00:34:42.340 | But the advice was essentially, consider another way.

00:34:44.860 | Consider, instead of going to college,

00:34:46.500 | consider going into the trades and learning

00:34:49.060 | how to work in some of the trades

00:34:50.580 | and learning how to build stuff.

00:34:52.420 | Go and work in construction, work

00:34:54.020 | in various aspects of construction.

00:34:55.460 | Hire yourself out at minimum wage

00:34:57.140 | as an apprentice across various trades.

00:34:59.660 | And then save money, live cheap, save money, work hard.

00:35:04.140 | And then buy the materials and little by little

00:35:06.340 | build your own house.

00:35:07.380 | And the plan, I don't remember, it was mid-20s or 23 or 25

00:35:11.020 | or something.

00:35:11.700 | But now you're living in a paid-for house

00:35:13.440 | that you built yourself.

00:35:14.340 | You don't have to deal with a mortgage payment

00:35:15.760 | for the rest of your life.

00:35:16.940 | And you've been able to set this up.

00:35:19.820 | That's a pretty good plan.

00:35:21.980 | But all of that comes from having those skills.

00:35:24.460 | Investing in skills, which is what

00:35:26.540 | this point, the major point that I'm trying to make,

00:35:28.860 | investing in skills pays all kinds of dividends.

00:35:31.500 | You see this all the time in the trades.

00:35:33.180 | If you have friends or if you work in the trades,

00:35:36.100 | many people have one skill.

00:35:37.580 | I am an electrician.

00:35:40.780 | Well, when the electrical market goes down,

00:35:44.340 | you've got to have another backup skill.

00:35:46.420 | You've got to have other skills that you can fall back on.

00:35:48.980 | It would be really nice if you had multiple businesses

00:35:51.260 | and you can just slide between them.

00:35:52.940 | We've replaced skills with money.

00:35:55.580 | Back to Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme,

00:35:58.780 | he talks a lot about that in his book.

00:36:00.400 | He says that you can either choose to spend money on stuff

00:36:03.740 | or you can have the skills to do it.

00:36:05.580 | And neither is right or wrong, in my opinion.

00:36:07.500 | If you want to spend your money and hire a person to do that,

00:36:09.700 | that's great.

00:36:10.220 | There's lots of things I don't like doing

00:36:11.920 | and I'd rather hire someone to do.

00:36:13.340 | But then again, if you don't have the money

00:36:15.020 | or don't want to spend the money,

00:36:16.420 | replace it with the skills.

00:36:17.540 | You can't take skills away.

00:36:19.460 | People are all worried about--

00:36:21.940 | it seems like half the society these days

00:36:23.640 | is all worried about the economy blowing up

00:36:26.220 | and the country melting into chaos

00:36:29.660 | and trying to figure out what's going to save

00:36:32.660 | your lifestyle in that situation.

00:36:37.420 | What's going to save your lifestyle in that situation

00:36:39.660 | is exactly what's going to make you rich before that situation,

00:36:42.700 | and it's skills.

00:36:44.700 | If you're a skillful, valuable person

00:36:46.980 | and you've got a strong social network,

00:36:49.380 | that's going to be incredibly valuable to you

00:36:52.340 | if you had a societal collapse.

00:36:54.540 | Who were the Jews that got out of Germany under Hitler?

00:36:58.980 | They were the ones that had money, yes, but also a lot of them

00:37:02.060 | that didn't have money that had some kind of social support

00:37:04.560 | structure that could funnel them out of the country,

00:37:06.980 | or they had connections.

00:37:09.620 | Those people got out too.

00:37:10.780 | So you can have connections.

00:37:12.020 | You can build skills.

00:37:12.900 | This is not a financial thing.

00:37:16.900 | I just say, if I were talking to an 18-year-old me,

00:37:19.100 | I'd say, skip Cubicle Nation.

00:37:20.460 | I worked in Cubicle Nation for one year.

00:37:22.940 | Sorry to steal-- what was that, Pam Slim's book, I think?

00:37:25.820 | I don't remember who the author of that book was,

00:37:27.940 | but I hope I'm not infringing on her trademark.

00:37:31.220 | But skip Cubicle Nation.

00:37:33.260 | There are millions of people stuck in Cubicle Nation.

00:37:36.460 | Work on skills.

00:37:38.380 | Again, go join a construction crew and learn to build houses.

00:37:41.220 | Learn finance.

00:37:42.100 | Learn a skill, and you can get out and then

00:37:45.220 | build a business on that.

00:37:46.620 | That is what will ultimately really make

00:37:49.620 | a lot of freedom over time.

00:37:51.580 | Number five, explore.

00:37:54.260 | So I would just say, give up on dogma and have an open mind.

00:37:57.820 | So take the classes you enjoy.

00:38:00.220 | One thing I wish I'd done differently in college

00:38:02.260 | is when I was in college, I was trying to finish my degree.

00:38:04.720 | I was paying for it.

00:38:05.540 | I was trying to finish my degree.

00:38:07.020 | So I just took courses in my degree.

00:38:08.860 | And now I look back and say, what an awesome time

00:38:11.820 | that I could have had to sit back and just learn

00:38:16.340 | without-- and take classes that I'm interested in,

00:38:18.700 | not because I care about the credit,

00:38:20.420 | but just go to all these classes that are offered.

00:38:22.780 | That's what I love so much about the world we live in today.

00:38:25.900 | I can go to iTunes U. I can go to Creative Live.

00:38:28.980 | I can go to Coursera.

00:38:30.500 | I can go to all these places.

00:38:31.740 | I can take these courses.

00:38:33.340 | And I've got YouTube.

00:38:35.140 | I've got everything right at my fingertips

00:38:37.020 | of all the wacky things that I'm interested in.

00:38:39.460 | So I can explore things with no cost.

00:38:41.780 | What an amazing world.

00:38:43.060 | And the idea of exploration is don't set out

00:38:46.220 | and say, I'm going to make this thing work.

00:38:48.140 | The best ideas are usually probably unplanned.

00:38:51.300 | But go out and explore things.

00:38:53.420 | And don't be concerned with being right all the time.

00:38:57.060 | I have made that mistake for a long time,

00:38:59.020 | is that I just want to be right.

00:39:00.620 | And these days, hopefully, I'm learning to be done with that.

00:39:05.220 | Don't worry about being right.

00:39:07.020 | Be fascinated.

00:39:08.460 | Be fascinated with life.

00:39:09.940 | Be fascinated with other people's stories.

00:39:11.760 | Be fascinated.

00:39:14.180 | Financial planning, I've learned the hard way

00:39:16.060 | to have an open mind.

00:39:17.380 | Because I used to say and tell people

00:39:19.420 | how they should live their life.

00:39:21.420 | Now I've learned, hopefully-- you

00:39:23.900 | have to ask someone that's actually

00:39:25.400 | worked with me to prove it-- but I've

00:39:27.300 | learned how to listen a lot better.

00:39:30.420 | And then just understand.

00:39:31.540 | Again, we give a few ideas for after listening,

00:39:34.860 | a few ideas for how I think they might

00:39:37.620 | be able to get a little closer to what they're trying to do.

00:39:40.980 | The dogma and the closed mind on things.

00:39:45.740 | I'll give you one of my personal struggles.

00:39:47.500 | For years, I picked on Dave Ramsey earlier.

00:39:51.460 | And I'm sure I'll pick on him a lot.

00:39:53.700 | Because he's the front runner.

00:39:55.300 | And that's what happens when you're out in the front

00:39:56.620 | and up on top.

00:39:57.500 | But I always struggled.

00:39:59.740 | Because for years, I would listen to Dave Ramsey.

00:40:03.100 | And Dave Ramsey would preach, don't lease a car.

00:40:05.180 | Don't lease a car.

00:40:05.900 | Don't lease a car.

00:40:06.640 | Don't lease a car.

00:40:07.820 | And buy a car.

00:40:09.020 | Buy a car.

00:40:09.540 | Don't lease a car.

00:40:10.380 | Now do I agree with him?

00:40:11.100 | Yeah, I do.

00:40:11.980 | I've never leased a car.

00:40:12.980 | Don't plan to.

00:40:13.640 | Don't really want to.

00:40:14.900 | But then you read something like "4-Hour Workweek."

00:40:17.940 | And in Tim's book, you read about the process

00:40:21.980 | of dreamlining.

00:40:23.260 | And you say, OK, let's start with dreamlining.

00:40:25.740 | And the example he uses in there is, let's say

00:40:28.160 | you want to buy an Aston Martin.

00:40:29.820 | Well, guess what?

00:40:30.740 | You can go down and you can lease an Aston Martin for,

00:40:32.980 | I don't know what it was, $1,500 a month.

00:40:36.860 | That makes sense.

00:40:38.660 | Really.

00:40:39.220 | If you had a business that was creating $1,500 a month,

00:40:42.180 | why is it somehow morally superior to wait until,

00:40:48.700 | I don't know, 40 years or 30 years

00:40:50.900 | until you can somehow have so much money

00:40:53.540 | that you've put your money in retirement

00:40:55.220 | and you can lease the Aston Martin?

00:40:57.380 | Now, I personally am not interested in leasing

00:40:59.820 | an Aston Martin.

00:41:00.700 | Because I'm more interested in being financially independent.

00:41:03.660 | For me, I value the ability to be completely financially

00:41:07.980 | independent more than I value the ability

00:41:10.260 | to drive the Aston Martin.

00:41:11.860 | But I think it's a cool idea to go rent one.

00:41:13.940 | Rent one for a couple of weekends

00:41:15.300 | and get the feeling of it.

00:41:16.780 | If that's what you like to do, awesome.

00:41:18.380 | Go for it.

00:41:19.460 | So the dogma of those things, don't lease cars,

00:41:25.820 | which is fine.

00:41:26.860 | He can run his show how he wants to,

00:41:28.860 | but I'll run my show how I want to.

00:41:30.700 | But that dogma winds up just kind of destroying things

00:41:34.380 | instead of saying, you know what?

00:41:35.980 | All of us, we can choose to rent a car.

00:41:38.260 | That's what leasing is.

00:41:39.180 | It's called renting a car.

00:41:40.660 | And if we want to do that and it makes sense, good for that.

00:41:43.260 | Good for us.

00:41:45.100 | This whole idea of paying cash for businesses

00:41:47.460 | versus starting with debt.

00:41:48.500 | Most people start with debt.

00:41:51.180 | I don't think-- I think it's probably smarter

00:41:53.100 | to start with money.

00:41:54.300 | And it forces to be more agile.

00:41:56.260 | But guess what?

00:41:56.900 | Most businesses, I think--

00:41:58.380 | I don't know about most.

00:41:59.700 | I shouldn't be so loose with--

00:42:01.140 | I don't know the percentage.

00:42:02.320 | But a lot of businesses start with debt.

00:42:05.300 | And so this idea that it's only done one way,

00:42:08.180 | it may be a better way.

00:42:09.220 | We can sell the way.

00:42:10.780 | But this idea that it's only done one way is damaging.

00:42:14.060 | Number six, get clear on your priorities in life,

00:42:20.100 | your priorities.

00:42:22.060 | And be OK with them changing.

00:42:24.300 | Understand all your options.

00:42:25.500 | So much of our lives, it seems, we

00:42:30.020 | live according to other people's priorities.

00:42:33.340 | We buy houses because other people think we should,

00:42:36.860 | rather than because we want to.

00:42:39.000 | We think we want to, but it's for other people's priorities.

00:42:41.660 | And a lot of people, I think, would prefer--

00:42:44.580 | I mean, if you were to give this either/or thing to me--

00:42:48.140 | and let's assume that I'm single,

00:42:49.540 | so I can just do what I want to do.

00:42:50.980 | And let's assume that I could do whatever I want to do.

00:42:53.860 | If you give this either/or to me and say, Joshua,

00:42:57.380 | you can buy a house and live in one town all the time

00:43:02.780 | and take two-week vacations, or you can choose to rent

00:43:06.460 | and every three months go to a new place,

00:43:08.960 | I would probably choose the three months if it were just me

00:43:11.420 | and I weren't interested in being close to family.

00:43:14.040 | At this point, I've consciously chosen

00:43:15.620 | not to live that kind of lifestyle,

00:43:16.800 | but I think that would be awesome.

00:43:18.300 | And there are a lot of other reasons

00:43:19.220 | why I've chosen not to do that.

00:43:20.560 | But there are people that have done that.

00:43:22.260 | But I never knew when I was 18 years old

00:43:24.140 | that that was even an option.

00:43:25.580 | I never knew that I could do something like--

00:43:27.820 | let me see.

00:43:28.640 | I think the website is Where Is Kyle Now?

00:43:31.860 | And the man, his name is Kyle.

00:43:34.780 | I don't know his last name, but his website

00:43:36.580 | is Where Is Kyle Now?

00:43:37.940 | And here you have this man named Kyle

00:43:40.100 | who got sick and tired of living in an apartment

00:43:42.780 | as a web programmer or computer programmer of some kind,

00:43:45.140 | went and bought an Airstream trailer.

00:43:46.380 | And for the last two, three, four years,

00:43:48.140 | something like that, he's gone and traveled

00:43:50.340 | all over North America, staying in different places,

00:43:53.380 | been to all 50 states, every province in Canada,

00:43:55.460 | something like that.

00:43:56.580 | What a cool lifestyle for someone who's a web programmer.

00:43:59.180 | There's people all over the place that are doing this.

00:44:01.420 | There's people online.

00:44:02.540 | The Tropical MBA folks are all living in Thailand,

00:44:05.500 | doing these things.

00:44:06.580 | I never knew that was an option when I was 18 years old.

00:44:09.660 | Well, frankly, it probably wasn't an option

00:44:11.620 | when I was 18 years old.

00:44:12.620 | But today, it is an option.

00:44:14.780 | And so be aware of all your options,

00:44:19.020 | and then get clear on what your priorities are.

00:44:21.820 | I live where I live because that's where my family is,

00:44:24.380 | and that's where I'm involved with the people,

00:44:26.540 | and the church, and the place that I want to be.

00:44:30.140 | But a lot of people just kind of live where they grew up,

00:44:35.460 | not intentionally choosing to live there.

00:44:37.580 | Understand what your priorities and your options are.

00:44:41.300 | Number seven, focus on building good habits.

00:44:43.700 | I'm convinced that health and wealth are largely habits.

00:44:49.740 | Health is not achieved in a pill.

00:44:52.860 | It's achieved in having good lifestyle habits.

00:44:56.540 | Wealth is not achieved in a pill.

00:44:58.940 | It's achieved in having good lifestyle habits.

00:45:01.980 | So the idea of spending less than you make, that's a habit.

00:45:08.180 | The idea of building your skills, and your knowledge,

00:45:11.540 | and your income, that's a habit.

00:45:15.020 | Focus on building the right habits,

00:45:16.940 | and the end result will take care of itself.

00:45:19.820 | Number eight, I would say to the 18-year-old me,

00:45:21.900 | carefully consider your high school and college decisions,

00:45:25.700 | especially the college decision.

00:45:27.540 | Consider all your options, and just be careful

00:45:30.420 | that you don't limit your choices.

00:45:32.740 | In today's world, there are a lot of choices.

00:45:35.060 | And I'm going to do some shows on college.

00:45:37.820 | And you have two things that are very popular.

00:45:42.420 | The most common, still mainstream,

00:45:44.300 | is you need to go to college so that you can get a good job

00:45:46.940 | and pay money.

00:45:48.100 | And now it's become quite popular to say, well,

00:45:50.540 | you don't shouldn't go to college.

00:45:51.940 | You should just start a business instead.

00:45:54.500 | I don't believe either of them are right.

00:45:56.220 | And we're going to pour through some of the data.

00:45:58.380 | It's very interesting, the data, because education,

00:46:01.020 | formal education, still has a dramatic, dramatic effect

00:46:07.740 | on earning potential.

00:46:09.380 | And this is by far one of the best financial investments

00:46:13.140 | that somebody who is right for college

00:46:15.100 | and who's going to finish college can make.

00:46:17.860 | However, when you dig into the data

00:46:20.620 | and you pull out the people who don't make it through college,

00:46:24.740 | then you find a very different story.

00:46:27.900 | And so I would say get clear on your priorities

00:46:30.860 | and carefully consider the college decisions.

00:46:33.860 | For some people, going to college

00:46:36.260 | at a mainstream four-year university

00:46:38.240 | is going to be the perfect decision.

00:46:40.540 | And for other people, the perfect decision

00:46:42.880 | is going to be made based upon going to iTunes University

00:46:48.100 | while living on the road in 80 different countries

00:46:51.640 | for four years and blogging your way through it.

00:46:54.380 | These are not right or wrong.

00:46:56.100 | They're only right or wrong if they're made hastily and not

00:46:58.980 | thought out.

00:46:59.940 | But there are a lot of options.

00:47:01.460 | And there are a lot of options.

00:47:04.060 | And I'll leave that one with that,

00:47:05.460 | because I'm going to do an entire show on that

00:47:07.420 | in the future.

00:47:08.260 | Number nine, stay flexible.

00:47:10.180 | And so by flexible, I mean in this situation,

00:47:13.100 | things like don't have a lot of stuff and don't borrow money.

00:47:18.380 | So I think two powerful ideas that

00:47:20.300 | can be really useful for financial planning

00:47:23.900 | are the ideas of minimalism and debtlessness.

00:47:29.420 | And the reality is here is that minimalism, basically

00:47:33.300 | a consciously choosing to live life

00:47:35.700 | with fewer or an appropriate amount of things

00:47:37.900 | rather than always trying to pile up as many things as

00:47:40.020 | possible, that can be really freeing.

00:47:43.700 | Because if you don't have so much stuff that you

00:47:45.660 | need a five-bedroom house, you have a lot of options.

00:47:49.660 | Guys like Tynan, who I mentioned earlier,

00:47:52.220 | if he can live in a backpack, he can go anywhere in the world.

00:47:55.260 | And that's what he does.

00:47:56.420 | I think he still does it.

00:47:57.460 | So if you have all your stuff that fits in a backpack,

00:48:00.220 | or in his case, in a very small RV, you can go wherever.

00:48:05.220 | And now you have options.

00:48:07.500 | And then the idea of debtlessness,

00:48:09.500 | if your income is not committed, if your future income is not

00:48:12.420 | already committed, which is what debt is--

00:48:15.180 | debt is just simply a pledging of future income

00:48:17.220 | and future dollars to things that are already done--

00:48:21.440 | then you have choices.

00:48:24.180 | And so if you lose your job, consider these two things,

00:48:27.180 | these two scenarios.

00:48:28.540 | You have a large house with a large payment

00:48:31.420 | and a bunch of other large payments and a bunch of stuff,

00:48:33.900 | and you lose your job.

00:48:35.140 | And you can't find another one in the town that you're in.

00:48:37.740 | Or you lose your job, you have a little bit of stuff,

00:48:40.900 | not too much, and you have no debt,

00:48:43.620 | whether that's because you rent or because you don't own a home.

00:48:51.060 | And if you rent, what an awesome situation.

00:48:53.400 | And no matter where you are in a 12-month lease,

00:48:56.080 | in less than 12 months, you can be out of there.

00:48:58.680 | Try selling a house three or four years ago

00:49:00.900 | when you're in this two-year sales cycle world,

00:49:03.360 | this weird real estate world that we were in for so long.

00:49:06.800 | You weren't selling a house in four months

00:49:08.820 | and going to another town to start a new job.

00:49:11.000 | But that's what flexibility can get.

00:49:13.560 | Now, with flexibility comes certain disadvantages.

00:49:16.760 | So I own a home.

00:49:18.560 | I'm not that flexible.

00:49:19.800 | However, I gain other value from the home.

00:49:22.500 | And that's a perfectly rational decision to give up on that.

00:49:25.460 | But for the 18-year-old me, for that beginning phase of life,

00:49:28.320 | I would say maintain flexibility and consider

00:49:31.500 | the value of the ideas of minimalism and debtlessness

00:49:35.320 | in your planning.

00:49:37.140 | Number 10, invest in yourself and follow your hunches.

00:49:41.060 | The best investments are always in yourself

00:49:44.100 | and in something that you know, whether that

00:49:47.020 | means through formal education, whether that

00:49:49.200 | means through informal education.

00:49:51.580 | And I think it's really freeing to follow your hunches.

00:49:57.900 | In some ways, I feel like this is a lesson

00:49:59.740 | that I've only just learned and am only just learning.

00:50:02.740 | I've done a lot of different things.

00:50:04.300 | But doing this podcast is kind of, for me, is a hunch.

00:50:08.780 | I think that there is a desire.

00:50:11.780 | I see this desire online.

00:50:13.540 | I feel like there's this desire for financial knowledge

00:50:16.860 | that goes deeper, that goes a little bit deeper than just

00:50:19.740 | the surface fluff, not the mainstream.

00:50:21.540 | And I would never expect this show

00:50:22.960 | to appeal to the mainstream.

00:50:24.220 | But I see this hunger for information.

00:50:26.900 | And I don't see it being served.

00:50:28.460 | Now, I've got a hunch that this whole podcast medium

00:50:31.740 | is going to be a major, major area of growth

00:50:39.220 | over the coming five years.

00:50:41.600 | Five years ago, if you told someone, I'm a blogger,

00:50:45.100 | no one knew what you were saying.

00:50:46.460 | But today, everyone would know what that means.

00:50:48.940 | And everybody reads blogs.

00:50:50.020 | Well, podcasting is still non-mainstream.

00:50:52.780 | Very few people know what a podcast is.

00:50:54.380 | Very few people listen to them.

00:50:55.980 | Very few people know how to do that.

00:50:57.740 | Five years from now, I believe it's

00:50:58.900 | going to be very different.

00:51:00.100 | And you're going to have a world of people looking

00:51:04.260 | for information, especially on the things they're

00:51:06.980 | interested in.

00:51:07.620 | Some of those people are interested in finance.

00:51:09.580 | So by creating the kind of show that I

00:51:11.660 | want to create that I would like to listen to-- excuse me.

00:51:14.100 | By creating the kind of show that I want to listen to,

00:51:16.740 | then it's fun for me to create.

00:51:18.860 | And I'm hoping, I believe, that there's at least a few hundred

00:51:21.660 | people out there that are probably pretty similar to me,

00:51:24.000 | because we're all pretty much like each other.

00:51:26.060 | And I think that over time, my hope

00:51:28.340 | is that it could build into a business.

00:51:30.220 | And I can serve you, the listener,

00:51:34.300 | I can serve you with clear, straightforward financial

00:51:37.340 | education that covers the technical and the actual.

00:51:41.700 | I've got to come up with another name.

00:51:43.280 | If you know a better name, please let me know.

00:51:44.980 | I don't know how to compare this dichotomy between what

00:51:47.260 | I call the technical and the behavioral,

00:51:48.980 | or the technical and the-- I'm struggling with the name.

00:51:53.940 | But the idea is that these kinds of things

00:51:56.300 | that I'm talking about today, these, in my opinion,

00:51:58.460 | make far bigger of a difference than saying,

00:52:00.660 | open a Roth IRA on your 18th birthday.

00:52:02.540 | And yet, I think opening a Roth IRA is awesome.

00:52:04.740 | But I want to start with what actually matters,

00:52:06.860 | which is things like, don't be scared of people,

00:52:09.700 | because so many people are scared.

00:52:11.940 | And when you're scared, you take a junkie job

00:52:14.920 | that you don't want to have, and then you

00:52:16.500 | ask your financial planner, how can I get rich,

00:52:18.300 | and how can I have lots of money when I can only

00:52:20.300 | afford to save $100 a month?

00:52:21.980 | The answer is you can't, period, unless you

00:52:25.980 | do something more and different.

00:52:27.620 | Now, can $100 a month over 40 years at 10% make you a millionaire?

00:52:30.460 | Yes, probably.

00:52:31.220 | I've got to rerun the numbers.

00:52:32.540 | But yes, it could.

00:52:33.580 | But nobody does it.

00:52:34.460 | Nobody has done that.

00:52:35.620 | And nobody does it.

00:52:37.380 | So you've got to do something else.

00:52:38.820 | And you've got to figure out who you are

00:52:40.580 | and how to be OK with yourself.

00:52:42.900 | So rant over.

00:52:43.740 | But if you know of a word--

00:52:45.380 | I'm trying to come up with a difference

00:52:47.260 | between the technical, what guys like me, people

00:52:51.220 | think guys like me do for a living,

00:52:53.260 | and the behavioral, the emotional, the psychological,

00:52:59.140 | the inspirational, that type of thing.

00:53:03.660 | Because they've got to go hand in hand.

00:53:05.940 | Again, the reason people are fat, the reason I'm fat,

00:53:08.620 | is not because of lack of technical knowledge

00:53:11.140 | or techniques that are unproven.

00:53:12.900 | There's lots of technical knowledge and techniques

00:53:14.980 | that are unproven.

00:53:15.940 | The reason is all of those psychological things,

00:53:18.300 | all those other hang-ups.

00:53:19.620 | I'm trying to figure out how to describe that.

00:53:21.540 | So you can help me with that.

00:53:23.100 | Back to invest in yourself and follow your hunches.

00:53:26.180 | Consider, give things a go.

00:53:29.380 | And so my point was that with the podcast,

00:53:31.380 | I've done a lot of interesting things.

00:53:32.960 | But I'm following a hunch.

00:53:34.420 | I've taken a completely blind jump off a cliff.

00:53:37.660 | And I'm willing to go splat, so that's OK.

00:53:39.940 | But I'm just following a hunch.

00:53:41.420 | But yet, I love doing it.

00:53:44.020 | It's so fun.

00:53:45.060 | And I enjoy-- yesterday, prepping that big, long show

00:53:48.340 | and trying to dig through it.

00:53:49.540 | It's a lot.

00:53:50.300 | But I really enjoy it.

00:53:51.900 | And I think it's just super fun.

00:53:53.740 | So I'm following a hunch.

00:53:54.780 | And it's so freeing to be out there on the edge.

00:53:57.240 | That's where the fun is, right?

00:53:58.580 | Talk to any extreme sport athlete.

00:53:59.980 | It's not playing it safe, where you

00:54:01.900 | get that rush of adrenaline that's out there on the edge.

00:54:04.380 | Well, I'm not an extreme sports guy.

00:54:06.020 | No interest in it.

00:54:07.060 | But I can do exactly the same thing with business

00:54:09.300 | and with ideas like this.

00:54:10.860 | So follow your hunch.

00:54:12.340 | Consider investing in yourself through things

00:54:14.540 | like the personal MBA.

00:54:16.660 | If you're not familiar with the personal MBA,

00:54:18.580 | Google it and read 100 books on business.

00:54:21.980 | And you'll gain a huge amount of knowledge.

00:54:23.820 | You may still want to go back and get a traditional MBA

00:54:26.340 | with a certificate.

00:54:27.980 | But follow things like that.

00:54:29.900 | If you look at the guy who wrote that,

00:54:31.480 | I think his name is Joshua--

00:54:34.540 | blanking on his last name.

00:54:35.820 | But the author's name was Joshua something or other.

00:54:38.140 | And he wrote the personal MBA.

00:54:40.460 | And he was working a corporate job,

00:54:43.700 | started reading all these books.

00:54:45.040 | And today, he's got this incredible business,

00:54:47.460 | this online business, where he does exactly what

00:54:49.620 | he wants to do every day.

00:54:51.340 | My favorite thing about his site--

00:54:55.260 | if you want to be inspired, go look at his About page.

00:54:58.180 | Go look at his page where he says Availability.

00:55:01.780 | And what you'll find is that he says--

00:55:06.100 | give me just a second.

00:55:07.020 | I'm going to pull this up.

00:55:08.100 | It's Josh Kaufman.

00:55:09.500 | And I've got it here, joshkaufman.net, K-A-U-F-M-A-N.

00:55:14.020 | And if you look here on his site, then what you will see

00:55:17.980 | is he's got a thing on here called Status.

00:55:20.760 | And listen to this.

00:55:21.580 | How's this for-- so this man, I've never talked to him.

00:55:24.460 | I just read his book.

00:55:25.500 | And I've read-- I really have enjoyed

00:55:27.000 | a bunch of his blog posts.

00:55:28.540 | And so you've got a man named Josh Kaufman.

00:55:30.820 | And he said-- so he started-- his story

00:55:32.700 | is that he started in the corporate world.

00:55:34.460 | He was working for some big Fortune 500 company,

00:55:36.820 | started reading a bunch of books on marketing

00:55:38.700 | and on business and all these things.

00:55:40.340 | And then over time, he started writing reviews of them.

00:55:42.900 | And he compiled them into the Personal MBA, which

00:55:44.940 | is his list of 100 books that he curates this list,

00:55:48.660 | that these are the best 100 books

00:55:50.200 | for every area of business.

00:55:51.420 | It's really great.

00:55:52.580 | I haven't finished all of them, but I've read a lot of them.

00:55:55.260 | And I really encourage you to consider doing the same thing.

00:55:58.940 | So you go on his website.

00:56:00.860 | He's a young man.

00:56:02.140 | And it says, it's joshkaufman.net/status,

00:56:05.740 | if you're interested.

00:56:06.740 | Josh Kaufman status, bestselling author, business

00:56:09.100 | and learning expert.

00:56:11.140 | And at the top, every day I receive

00:56:12.820 | many requests concerning my availability for consulting,

00:56:16.140 | interviews, and new projects.

00:56:17.980 | In the interest of saving time, here's

00:56:19.500 | my current status and capacity.

00:56:21.780 | Summary, unavailable.

00:56:23.140 | How awesome is that?

00:56:28.700 | I have very young kids at home.

00:56:30.140 | As a result, I am unavailable for travel, interviews, media,

00:56:34.140 | speaking, consulting, book reviews,

00:56:36.420 | and new speculative projects.

00:56:38.340 | I'm curtailing my interview availability,

00:56:40.500 | have no capacity to examine book galleys for reviews

00:56:43.380 | and blurbs, and my guest post docket is full.

00:56:46.180 | Publishing on this site will continue sporadically

00:56:48.300 | as time and energy permit.

00:56:50.140 | Regarding partnership requests and speculative projects,

00:56:53.340 | unfortunately, I'm going to have to pass.

00:56:55.540 | I'm forcing myself to turn down new opportunities

00:56:57.900 | so I can stay focused on my research and publishing

00:57:00.100 | projects.

00:57:01.020 | I'm honored that many people want to do business with me,

00:57:03.620 | but my capacity is limited for the foreseeable future.

00:57:06.460 | Thanks for thinking of me.

00:57:08.100 | Regarding speaking engagements, in general, I

00:57:10.500 | avoid travel as much as possible.

00:57:12.380 | I have young children at home, and my wife

00:57:14.120 | runs a business as well.

00:57:15.460 | So travel is very disruptive for all of us.

00:57:18.260 | Thanks for thinking of me, and I hope you have a great event.

00:57:21.060 | Regarding feedback on business ideas,

00:57:23.300 | I do not provide personalized business advice at this time.

00:57:26.460 | Understanding your business, industry,

00:57:28.140 | and personal objectives well enough to provide useful advice

00:57:31.060 | isn't a five-minute endeavor.

00:57:33.020 | I would like to say that about financial planning as well.

00:57:36.780 | Continuing, and I have more requests

00:57:38.460 | than is possible to accommodate.

00:57:40.220 | In the interest of preserving capacity for research

00:57:42.580 | and publishing, I'm not able to provide individual feedback

00:57:45.480 | on your business or idea.

00:57:47.020 | Thanks for understanding.

00:57:48.580 | Regarding blurbs, recommendations,

00:57:50.540 | and endorsements, I only mention or recommend

00:57:52.900 | resources I've personally used.

00:57:54.900 | If you have a resource you think I'd find interesting,

00:57:57.540 | send me the link via Twitter, and I'll check it out

00:57:59.900 | as capacity permits.

00:58:01.300 | No need to follow up.

00:58:02.940 | Regarding book review requests, in general, I

00:58:05.460 | enjoy receiving new books to review,

00:58:07.380 | but I'm unable to guarantee your book will be reviewed.

00:58:10.000 | If you have a book you'd like me to look at,

00:58:11.820 | there's no need to contact me first.

00:58:13.620 | Send it here to this address.

00:58:15.380 | Books and resources provided will not

00:58:16.960 | be returned and become the property of blah, blah, blah,

00:58:19.300 | blah, blah.

00:58:19.940 | To main editorial integrity and prevent conflicts of interest,

00:58:23.980 | all reviews are non-paid and are provided only

00:58:26.340 | when a particular book is worth reviewing.

00:58:29.620 | Is it just me, or is that not awesome?

00:58:32.780 | You have so many people in the world that are saying,

00:58:35.820 | look at me, look at me here.

00:58:36.980 | Come hire me.

00:58:37.660 | Come look at me.

00:58:38.340 | Come see me.

00:58:39.420 | I'm certainly in that phase of life,

00:58:41.260 | trying to say, come look at me.

00:58:42.600 | Come check out what I'm doing.

00:58:44.340 | If I can talk to you, if I can help, I can promote my stuff.

00:58:46.900 | And here's someone who says, you know what?

00:58:49.020 | I've achieved the things I want to achieve,

00:58:50.820 | and right now I'm staying at home

00:58:52.180 | and I'm taking care of my kids and I'm

00:58:53.420 | working on the projects that I think are important.

00:58:55.780 | And what does more money do you?

00:58:58.500 | Where do you need to go?

00:58:59.540 | If you have enough income coming in, which he does,

00:59:02.300 | it's clear from his blog post.

00:59:03.540 | Go and read them.

00:59:04.260 | I recommend them.

00:59:05.060 | It's clear that he has enough income coming in

00:59:06.840 | to maintain his lifestyle.

00:59:07.860 | What do you want?

00:59:08.340 | And still save some.

00:59:09.140 | What do you want more than that?

00:59:11.100 | What on earth are you going to buy more than that,

00:59:13.820 | that you need more money than that?

00:59:15.380 | So follow your hunches and just kind of explore things

00:59:19.020 | and see where they lead.

00:59:20.380 | And I commend his site to you.

00:59:24.500 | 11, 12, and 13, we're going to wrap up quickly here.

00:59:26.940 | Number 11, run your life like a business.

00:59:29.500 | And in this sense, this can mean two things.

00:59:31.820 | This can mean two ways.

00:59:33.820 | Number one, it can be on the financial side.

00:59:35.700 | And I think that that is a really valuable financial tip.

00:59:39.220 | Run your life, your financial life, like a business.

00:59:43.300 | However, in this case, I mean more than that.

00:59:46.020 | Run your life like a business and get a sense of detachment.

00:59:51.700 | So consider, OK, Joshua, if you were advising you,

00:59:56.220 | how would you advise yourself?

00:59:58.180 | And it sounds so dumb, but to me, that helps me a ton.

01:00:00.860 | If you were sitting across the table,

01:00:02.420 | and somebody was telling you this, this, this, this, this,

01:00:05.020 | what would you tell them to do?

01:00:06.700 | And somehow kind of get yourself in that idea

01:00:08.860 | of being the CEO of your life, of running your life

01:00:12.420 | like a business, thinking things through, doing projections,

01:00:15.180 | doing analysis, doing due diligence,

01:00:17.540 | carefully considering time, resources, money, energy,

01:00:21.260 | lifestyle, what the business is doing.

01:00:23.260 | Consider the highest and best purpose.

01:00:25.300 | Consider the speculative things that you

01:00:27.020 | do want to explore, because there

01:00:28.380 | may be great opportunities.

01:00:29.700 | And run your life like a business,

01:00:31.100 | and you get a sense of detachment.

01:00:32.660 | You get away from that being scared all the time.

01:00:35.220 | Number 12, recognize the fact and appreciate the fact

01:00:42.540 | every day or as often as possible

01:00:44.180 | that we live in an amazing world, an amazing world.

01:00:47.740 | Consider the lifestyle that we can live today.

01:00:50.380 | This has never been possible in the history of the world.

01:00:54.460 | Consider the fact that some of these people,

01:00:56.860 | these online personalities that I've mentioned to you,

01:00:59.900 | they can live anywhere in the world and run a business.

01:01:03.540 | 100 years ago, you had to be the sultan of Brunei.

01:01:07.260 | I think that's still a country.

01:01:08.580 | You had to be the sultan of Brunei.

01:01:10.260 | And even then, you can go away for six months,

01:01:12.540 | and you've got to come back.

01:01:13.300 | Otherwise, you're going to have a military coup that's

01:01:15.460 | going to overthrow you.

01:01:16.500 | You couldn't do that kind of thing.

01:01:17.960 | You had to be so vastly wealthy to go and travel.

01:01:21.220 | And you had to maintain your business at home with letters,

01:01:25.700 | or I guess telegrams, 2014, 1914.

01:01:28.380 | Telegrams, phone calls at that point.

01:01:30.700 | So just consider the world that we live in,

01:01:32.660 | that you can be anywhere in the world.

01:01:34.500 | And I have no idea where Robbie is,

01:01:36.700 | who sent me this tweet today.

01:01:38.340 | But he could be in West Palm Beach, Florida,

01:01:41.060 | next door to me, or he could be on the other side of the world.

01:01:44.820 | I have no idea.

01:01:45.980 | What an amazing world.

01:01:47.180 | What an amazing opportunity.

01:01:48.700 | What an amazing gift of the fact that if you're listening to me,

01:01:52.660 | it's very likely that you're living in a place

01:01:54.620 | where you probably can't fail.

01:01:56.380 | Why would you not go for the things that you want to go for?

01:02:00.260 | So what?

01:02:01.140 | So it doesn't work out.

01:02:02.340 | What an amazing opportunity that we have.

01:02:05.980 | Consider the careers that you can have.

01:02:08.420 | Consider the fact that you can do work that's interesting.

01:02:11.140 | You can do work that's enjoyable.

01:02:12.900 | You can do work that you really find a spark of creativity in.

01:02:18.300 | And compare that to the drudgery that so many people in the world

01:02:21.100 | today still live under.

01:02:24.060 | So many people in the world all through history have lived under.

01:02:28.100 | Recognize that fact and start from that place of abundance

01:02:31.220 | of what an amazing world we live in.

01:02:33.180 | The poorest person among us has a pretty good life.

01:02:37.700 | Incidentally, Joshua's tip, if you're a poor person in Chicago,

01:02:41.980 | come to Florida.

01:02:42.700 | It's a lot better weather down here.

01:02:44.940 | Number-- I don't understand why there's homeless people in Chicago.

01:02:49.500 | I digress.

01:02:50.140 | Number 13, finally, read.

01:02:53.340 | And if I have to say that anything else has served me well

01:02:58.020 | and that I would continue to encourage my 18-year-old self to do is read.

01:03:02.660 | Read, read, read.

01:03:03.780 | Because your ability to see through mistakes

01:03:09.500 | and to avoid some of the big errors that can happen

01:03:13.340 | is going to be based upon, I guess, your exposure and your mentors.

01:03:17.940 | And the reality is, however, that you can be mentored by anybody

01:03:23.660 | that you want to be mentored by that you really respect and admire.

01:03:28.100 | If you really respect them and admire them

01:03:30.060 | and they're a close acquaintance to you, just go and talk to them.

01:03:33.100 | And they won't need to have written a book.

01:03:36.300 | But usually, if it's somebody farther away from you

01:03:39.020 | that you respect and admire, they've probably written a book.

01:03:42.100 | So you could go and be mentored by all 44 presidents of the United States

01:03:46.540 | of America.

01:03:47.100 | Every one of them has some kind of book that was written by them

01:03:50.980 | or some kind of book or many, many books that was written about them.

01:03:56.060 | And both of them are valuable.

01:03:57.900 | So if you admire Barack Obama and you want to be mentored by him,

01:04:01.340 | go read his books and then read the books that are written about him.

01:04:04.180 | And wait a few years and after his political life is done,

01:04:08.340 | then go read those books.

01:04:10.020 | If you admire George Bush, go read his book.

01:04:12.900 | If you admire Bill Clinton, you go back all the way back.

01:04:16.260 | And go and read their books.

01:04:17.620 | If you admire the great business leaders or the great humanitarian leaders

01:04:20.980 | or these great people, go read their books.

01:04:23.900 | Read their blogs, especially today.

01:04:25.580 | That's the other thing.

01:04:26.540 | And you can choose anybody in the world to be mentored by.

01:04:29.340 | What an amazing opportunity that we have.

01:04:31.900 | And then go watch their TED Talks.

01:04:33.900 | Go on YouTube.

01:04:34.940 | Just get exposed to great ideas.

01:04:37.420 | And that type of knowledge, that type of education, in my mind,

01:04:44.060 | there's nothing better.

01:04:45.220 | That will pay off in spades.

01:04:48.460 | The return on investment for the cost of a book--

01:04:52.020 | I used to hear Jim Rohn used to say, just paraphrasing here,

01:04:56.900 | which I highly recommend.

01:04:58.140 | What a great man he was.

01:04:59.580 | But Jim Rohn used to say, rich people all have libraries in their house.

01:05:03.380 | Now here's the question.

01:05:04.860 | Did they have a library before they were rich?

01:05:07.860 | Or did they get rich first and then get a library?

01:05:11.820 | I'll let you figure that out for the day.

01:05:13.940 | So with that, that's my show for today.

01:05:17.060 | Kind of a little bit different and a little bit looser, a little bit more fun.

01:05:21.020 | These are just some ideas that I've had.

01:05:22.660 | And I'm sure if I were to make this list tomorrow,

01:05:24.740 | there would be 13 other things.

01:05:26.700 | Same thing for you.

01:05:27.540 | These are just things that I was thinking about today

01:05:29.780 | with regard to my life circumstance.

01:05:31.300 | I hope they're helpful to you.

01:05:32.580 | I hope you enjoyed them.

01:05:34.380 | I love the feedback.

01:05:35.380 | Thank you for those of you interacting on Twitter.

01:05:37.820 | Keep in comment.

01:05:38.420 | I'm going to keep asking questions.

01:05:39.860 | And I think on Friday, probably, I will put together--

01:05:43.180 | I've got some other good, great questions.

01:05:44.980 | I'll put together a Q&A show going into a lot of other topics.

01:05:48.740 | So if you would like to be a part of that, please shoot us a tweet at--

01:05:52.140 | tweet me @radicalpf.

01:05:53.980 | And let me know what you're interested in my talking about.

01:05:56.400 | Let me know what your question is.

01:05:57.860 | Please, if you haven't done so, come by the blog

01:06:00.220 | and sign up for the email newsletter.

01:06:02.020 | Sign up for the email newsletter.

01:06:03.400 | It's only going to be used to publish posts

01:06:05.580 | with information on the show notes.

01:06:07.540 | So you can find out when the show is published.

01:06:09.620 | When I hit Publish and the show is published,

01:06:11.580 | that email goes out within 10 or 15 minutes.

01:06:13.900 | So you'll know that the show is live.

01:06:15.580 | And you'll know what the show notes are, so you know the show topic.

01:06:18.300 | Really appreciate that.

01:06:19.460 | And thank you so much for those of you who were helping me

01:06:21.940 | with the show promotion.

01:06:23.700 | I appreciate it.

01:06:24.500 | It means the world to me that you would put a tweet out there,

01:06:27.800 | tell somebody about the show.

01:06:29.640 | That means the world to me.

01:06:30.880 | I just-- I thank you so much.

01:06:32.600 | So with that, go live your dream.

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01:07:23.740 | No, seriously.

01:07:24.660 | Go.

01:07:25.780 | Go live your dream.

01:07:28.260 | Cheers, y'all.

01:07:29.660 | Wake up at Holiday Inn Express to a can't-miss breakfast

01:07:32.620 | that's free with every stay.

01:07:34.340 | Count on all the hot, fresh coffee you need and an incredible breakfast

01:07:37.660 | buffet that has something for everyone, like eggs, cinnamon rolls,

01:07:41.300 | and even hot, fresh pancakes with all the toppings you crave.

01:07:44.540 | Next time, do yourself a favor and stay at a Holiday Inn Express

01:07:48.340 | with a can't-miss breakfast that's free with every stay.

01:07:51.300 | So when you wake up at Holiday Inn Express,

01:07:53.980 | you'll wake up happy, a part of IHG Hotels and Resorts.