Today I want to talk about the consequences of your decisions, and the fact that you have to own them, and that by only by facing the fact that you own the decisions that you make, can you really lead to success in anything.

When you start on a path and make choices, you are affecting your future, both personal success and family.

I had a headhunter give me a call, and she was talking a little bit. I decided: “Wait a minute,” there were a couple of things that she was saying, and I just decided to switch the subject a little bit and talk about Life Unsettled, what we’re talking about, and how the 45- to 64-year-old age group has so much to worry about today, and many people aren’t really facing it. Some are, some aren’t, whatever. It made me decide to change the episode that I was about to do.

We talked about the lack of savings that people have, and also what they were facing: the layoffs, the low income because they were in the baby boom, and they’ve entered a period where they should be in the net savings group, and they really have to have a lot more to save for a much longer lifetime. Part of Life Unsettled. Yet, the 65-year-olds, 97% of them can’t write a cash check for $600. Yes, they can put their credit card and put it on credit of some sort – that’s borrowing it; that’s not what I’m talking about. They don’t have $600 in cash to pay off an emergency.

I was thinking about: How do you motivate people, and how can that be passed on? The last few days, I was watching football. I’m looking at the news and stuff, and seeing people that really have a substantial income coming in. How do they get motivated, and why aren’t they motivated by the fact that when they make a bad decision, they lose a lot of money? We can take a look, for example: Johnny Manziel of the Cleveland Browns, his story. Realize that he signed an 8.3 million dollar deal. 4.3 million signing bonus, but 8.3 million dollars. He’s on the verge of killing his career, or possibly getting kicked out. He’s not the only example; there are many of them. He can’t go and make a decision and prevent himself that might cost him a million or more dollars, not to go out and party some night? If he can’t do that, how do you motivate somebody that doesn’t have a promising income to motivate themselves to pick up and earn more? That’s a very perplexing thing.

Even on the low end, you’re going to have people making $450,000 to $500,000 in a year, as I looked at it because I just looked over the salaries as they’re published of a few different teams, and they have at least a million dollars coming in this year, plus next year. That’s a lot of money. To think that if they’re going to risk that… I started relating that and said: “If they’re going to risk that income and not do what they need to or are supposed to do…” I’m not talking about performing well. I’m talking about just showing up, not going out and partying and getting drunk, or taking drugs, or something else. If they can’t do it, how’s the ordinary person going to do it?

One thing, I will give the person who’s in sports a little bit more slack than I will give you or I when it comes to things like drugs, because some of them get caught up because happens is they’re in pain from day two of training camp and they are being given different kinds of painkillers, and that could be another kind of problem. For that, I can sort of understand how that could affect somebody, but they still have to somehow get out of it. That can happen. That’s not you and I. How do you motivate the individual person, and what do we have to do?

Back in college, one of the things I noticed was the way people did things for tests, reports, and other things they had to do.

Today I want to talk about these buy local programs. It’s a chance to talk about the difference between good and bad economics, and feel good in reality.

While everyone screams 'Buy Local', businesses fail. Business needs a path not a rhyme.

What do I mean by that? First of all: Yes, there are some things that can be good about buy local programs, but they mostly feel good. They’re not sustainable. I’ll get to all of these, but there are some good things and some bad things, and there are some ways to make some of it work, but not if it’s done the wrong way. I

First of all, let’s start out with a basic premise. Let’s say the program is out there saying you should buy locally. Well, somebody’s telling you to buy locally because it is good, as compared to say, buy it on Amazon, have it delivered to your home, etc., and save $10 or save x%. When is it good, and when is it bad? First of all, just the idea of buying locally, while it sounds good, can you imagine walking down the street and you’re passing by a shop, and you really like the guy and you like his shop, so you walk in and say: “Here’s a $5 bill. I just really like your shop.” You walk out again, and go on. Isn’t that the same as buying local for the wrong reason?

Before I go on to some of the other parts: Yes, there can be some very good reasons, and one of them happens to be in the food area. Some things with locally-grown food… Forget the idea of just supporting the farmers for the sake of supporting the farmers, but think of the idea of what you’re really getting, because it’s the value, the perceived value of what you receive; fresh, locally-grown goods. Those tomatoes that are either locally grown or hydroponically grown. Yes, they can be grown all winter; they are in northwest and southern British Columbia. They’re grown in large green houses, hydroponically, so you’re getting something that is just about ripe as it pulled from the vine. I grow tomatoes and have grown tomatoes in my dinette, hydroponically. They grow like crazy and they taste great, so that makes sense. It might not make sense the way I do it, but it makes sense that it can be done commercially, and it is. Getting fresh things like that, what is the difference? They have more value because they taste better, they’re fresher. There is a true and perceived value difference.

On the other side of it, where I live right now, the Redmond farmers market has things, but the prices are actually higher by the “locally-grown farmers” than they are in a grocery store, and in many cases, the local farmers, because of where we are in Washington, are supplying the grocery store, too. In essence, you’re just paying more for the idea of supporting the farmer. That not only doesn’t make good sense when that happens, but it doesn’t really feel like the farmer is reciprocating in that buy local program of treating you right. At the same time, those same farmers, I can go down to Kent, Washington, and they’re selling them for about a quarter of the price that they sell them at the Redmond farmers market. Now, they’re not worth driving that far, but it’s just kind of interesting. The local farmer, which is just a few miles away is selling them based on the price as much as he can get out of whichever group he gets them, and depending on what neighborhood you live.

What about the local stores and shops? If you’re walking into a local store or shop, there should be some perceived or added value for you to go there. Keep in mind that if there isn’t something there, what are you doing? You’re really just contributing. That sounds good and sounds nice, and they have lots of different reasons that they say you should do it. Some of it is that if you’re buying locally, there’s more likelihood that they’re going to turn around (than a big chain store), that they’re going to spend their money that they receive, locally, so in a sense it does stimulate the economy.

Today I want to talk about these buy local programs. It’s a chance to talk about the difference between good and bad economics, and feel good in reality.

While everyone screams 'Buy Local', businesses fail. Business needs a path not a rhyme.

What do I mean by that? First of all: Yes, there are some things that can be good about buy local programs, but they mostly feel good. They’re not sustainable. I’ll get to all of these, but there are some good things and some bad things, and there are some ways to make some of it work, but not if it’s done the wrong way. I

First of all, let’s start out with a basic premise. Let’s say the program is out there saying you should buy locally. Well, somebody’s telling you to buy locally because it is good, as compared to say, buy it on Amazon, have it delivered to your home, etc., and save $10 or save x%. When is it good, and when is it bad? First of all, just the idea of buying locally, while it sounds good, can you imagine walking down the street and you’re passing by a shop, and you really like the guy and you like his shop, so you walk in and say: “Here’s a $5 bill. I just really like your shop.” You walk out again, and go on. Isn’t that the same as buying local for the wrong reason?

Before I go on to some of the other parts: Yes, there can be some very good reasons, and one of them happens to be in the food area. Some things with locally-grown food… Forget the idea of just supporting the farmers for the sake of supporting the farmers, but think of the idea of what you’re really getting, because it’s the value, the perceived value of what you receive; fresh, locally-grown goods. Those tomatoes that are either locally grown or hydroponically grown. Yes, they can be grown all winter; they are in northwest and southern British Columbia. They’re grown in large green houses, hydroponically, so you’re getting something that is just about ripe as it pulled from the vine. I grow tomatoes and have grown tomatoes in my dinette, hydroponically. They grow like crazy and they taste great, so that makes sense. It might not make sense the way I do it, but it makes sense that it can be done commercially, and it is. Getting fresh things like that, what is the difference? They have more value because they taste better, they’re fresher. There is a true and perceived value difference.

On the other side of it, where I live right now, the Redmond farmers market has things, but the prices are actually higher by the “locally-grown farmers” than they are in a grocery store, and in many cases, the local farmers, because of where we are in Washington, are supplying the grocery store, too. In essence, you’re just paying more for the idea of supporting the farmer. That not only doesn’t make good sense when that happens, but it doesn’t really feel like the farmer is reciprocating in that buy local program of treating you right. At the same time, those same farmers, I can go down to Kent, Washington, and they’re selling them for about a quarter of the price that they sell them at the Redmond farmers market. Now, they’re not worth driving that far, but it’s just kind of interesting. The local farmer, which is just a few miles away is selling them based on the price as much as he can get out of whichever group he gets them, and depending on what neighborhood you live.

What about the local stores and shops? If you’re walking into a local store or shop, there should be some perceived or added value for you to go there. Keep in mind that if there isn’t something there, what are you doing? You’re really just contributing. That sounds good and sounds nice, and they have lots of different reasons that they say you should do it. Some of it is that if you’re buying locally, there’s more likelihood that they’re going to turn around (than a big chain store), that they’re going to spend their money that they receive, locally,

Today let’s talk about success. Success in the form of getting what you want, and I’m not talking about the children and stuff like this, but having the money, the investment, the resources that can take care of you and your family. That is: Do you really want to succeed?

I know that sounds like a funny question, but how many people are really willing to put in the effort to get that house on the hill or on the waterfront? Every day I see something on TV or in the news that talks about the rich and how lucky somebody is. Let’s get back to the truths, and where we really are. Want to see what can be done, and who can do it?

First, it’s been widely studied and reported that 80% of those who are wealthy actually started poor. Even Warren Buffett, 90% of his money was made after the age of 50. Additionally, I’ve often heard stories about how people came up from nothing, etc., and we’ve all heard those. Why did these people do it? What did they do? Do they work so hard for so many years to get what they finally have gotten?

Two different times when somebody saw that I was saving my money for college, I was asked the following question: “Why are you saving? You might die tomorrow.” The first time I heard this, my response was immediate, and I said: “What if I live?” During the last couple of weeks, I talked to some people and asked them some questions about saving for the future. It was interesting. Many times I got the reply: “But we just wanted such-and-such now.”, “We just wanted a new car.” You have to make those choices.

Back to my question: Do you really want to succeed? We’ve all heard the stories about people saving, and the effect of compound interest after 30 or 40 years. That will make you a millionaire, a multimillionaire, but very few people are actually willing to do it. It’s actually kind of interesting. If somebody else is willing to give up some of their current income for savings and investment, some of their time in their future, why shouldn’t they be amongst at least the very well off? Are you willing to give up a little for your future? There are a couple of key things: Time and money, for savings.

A little bit of reality: Many years ago, I read a book called The Millionaire Next Door it was by two professors in I believe it was Dartmouth University. There were a couple of key items that the book pointed out that really were surprising to me, and very, very interesting. First of all, many of the wealthy, that is “millionaires” were from non-high-profile jobs. By “high-profile,” I would mean ones where you get the visibility; people notice you, the way you dress, the car you drive, etc. I’ll explain why in a moment. The authors pointed out how one of the rich was actually the owner of a junkyard, and many others were plumbers or other independent business owners in trade’s professions. When I heard that, it was kind of funny to me because the guy at the top of the hill in my neighborhood, which is a new neighborhood, also owned a junkyard. Had a beautiful home with columns in the front, etc., and it made me think.

The second thing is: What happened to the executives, or the up and coming management personnel? What happens to them, and you I bet see this amongst your friends, like to breed jealousy, and: “Look what I’ve got,” sort of scenario. They always spend more than they’re currently making in order to appear they were already at the next level. The middle management wanted to make it look like and be accepted by the directors, the directors wanted to be accepted by the next level executive, so they always had more than they really had in order to look like they fit into that next category. But, they’ve got these homes that they couldn’t quite afford yet, so they were overspending their income in order to look like they were already at the next level.

The interesting thing, and I’ve mentioned this before, the remarkable thing is that everybody who moves into one of these houses that th...

Today let’s talk about success. Success in the form of getting what you want, and I’m not talking about the children and stuff like this, but having the money, the investment, the resources that can take care of you and your family. That is: Do you really want to succeed?

I know that sounds like a funny question, but how many people are really willing to put in the effort to get that house on the hill or on the waterfront? Every day I see something on TV or in the news that talks about the rich and how lucky somebody is. Let’s get back to the truths, and where we really are. Want to see what can be done, and who can do it?

First, it’s been widely studied and reported that 80% of those who are wealthy actually started poor. Even Warren Buffett, 90% of his money was made after the age of 50. Additionally, I’ve often heard stories about how people came up from nothing, etc., and we’ve all heard those. Why did these people do it? What did they do? Do they work so hard for so many years to get what they finally have gotten?

Two different times when somebody saw that I was saving my money for college, I was asked the following question: “Why are you saving? You might die tomorrow.” The first time I heard this, my response was immediate, and I said: “What if I live?” During the last couple of weeks, I talked to some people and asked them some questions about saving for the future. It was interesting. Many times I got the reply: “But we just wanted such-and-such now.”, “We just wanted a new car.” You have to make those choices.

Back to my question: Do you really want to succeed? We’ve all heard the stories about people saving, and the effect of compound interest after 30 or 40 years. That will make you a millionaire, a multimillionaire, but very few people are actually willing to do it. It’s actually kind of interesting. If somebody else is willing to give up some of their current income for savings and investment, some of their time in their future, why shouldn’t they be amongst at least the very well off? Are you willing to give up a little for your future? There are a couple of key things: Time and money, for savings.

A little bit of reality: Many years ago, I read a book called The Millionaire Next Door it was by two professors in I believe it was Dartmouth University. There were a couple of key items that the book pointed out that really were surprising to me, and very, very interesting. First of all, many of the wealthy, that is “millionaires” were from non-high-profile jobs. By “high-profile,” I would mean ones where you get the visibility; people notice you, the way you dress, the car you drive, etc. I’ll explain why in a moment. The authors pointed out how one of the rich was actually the owner of a junkyard, and many others were plumbers or other independent business owners in trade’s professions. When I heard that, it was kind of funny to me because the guy at the top of the hill in my neighborhood, which is a new neighborhood, also owned a junkyard. Had a beautiful home with columns in the front, etc., and it made me think.

The second thing is: What happened to the executives, or the up and coming management personnel? What happens to them, and you I bet see this amongst your friends, like to breed jealousy, and: “Look what I’ve got,” sort of scenario. They always spend more than they’re currently making in order to appear they were already at the next level. The middle management wanted to make it look like and be accepted by the directors, the directors wanted to be accepted by the next level executive, so they always had more than they really had in order to look like they fit into that next category. But, they’ve got these homes that they couldn’t quite afford yet, so they were overspending their income in order to look like they were already at the ne...

Today we’re going to discuss: How are, or did you raise your kids? It sounds like I’m actually talking about raising kids. Wait, it’s really going to be about you and success, but it’s a great way to do it analogically (if that’s the right word).

At times it is useful to reflect on how you educate your kids if you want to see how to have business success

Remember a couple of episodes ago when I talked about immigrant mentality, and the strong desire to be better and succeed, and how they did this? But there was a generational problem. One of the things that is a problem is that passing on to the sons of the sons, or the daughters of the daughters, etc., that’s lost over time. “I want to make sure my kids have all the things I never had,” has that ever approached your lips, or how many people have you heard say it? If you really want the kids to have the things that you want; you have to let them build upon what you built; build beyond what you did; take what you teach and bring it on further. This is tough, particularly with peer pressure both on you and your kids.

It’s interesting, you go and take a look, forget the kids for a second, but just think of what happens when somebody buys a new house. Every neighborhood I’ve moved into, I’ve noticed that right away… Now, there were new homes in the neighborhood so that may be part of it, but anytime somebody does that, what do they do? They stretch themselves far beyond their means, something that really can’t quite afford yet, but they’re figuring they can afford it in a year or two after their increases in salary. Within six months, all of those people buy a car that they can’t afford on top of the house that they couldn’t afford, and they still haven’t received their pay raise, and it’s all peer pressure.

Do you teach your kids how to fight peer pressure? You’re facing it, too. You teach them, you also are teaching yourself. For example, there was one situation, there was a young girl who was halfway through middle school, who was a little bit concerned because she was a follower. She followed all of her friends. One of the things we told her was we talked about peer pressure. Did anybody every tell you: “You’re scared”, “You’re scared to do this”, “You’re scared to do that,” or: “Come on, come on, what are you afraid of?” What I did was say: “Turn around to them and say: ‘I’m not afraid. I’m telling you no,’” and then point to the rest of people that are standing around calling her “chicken,” or whatever, or “afraid,” and say: “They’re the ones that are afraid. They’re the ones that are afraid to stand up to you.” That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.

You have to do the same thing in your own environment, that is, not cave nor try to keep up with the Joneses. Part of it happens with the way people talk to each other and address each other. In a little more sophisticated way as they are with adults, such as the thing with the car. I’ve had people say to me in that same situation: “You going to get a new car?” I’d say: “No way. No. It works great. Bought it for cash. Bring it in and get it fixed up regularly. Heck, I hope the thing gets to 200,000 miles.” I’m probably never going to go that far, but the idea is that you have to push it off, and you have to show your kids and other people around you that you’re just pushing it off. Then I follow up with: “I don’t know anything on any of my cars, on anything, actually, except small mortgage that feels great.” You’re setting and making a statement. The idea is that you have to fight it right away, and show your family, show your kids that you’re doing it. It’s not just your kids success, but yours as well depends on strong independent decisions.

What happens with this generational loss of this crucial motivation? One example was my Great-Grandfather was extremely wealthy. I didn’t know this until I was a little bit older, and I verified it with other relatives.

Today we’re going to discuss: How are, or did you raise your kids? It sounds like I’m actually talking about raising kids. Wait, it’s really going to be about you and success, but it’s a great way to do it analogically (if that’s the right word).

At times it is useful to reflect on how you educate your kids if you want to see how to have business success

Remember a couple of episodes ago when I talked about immigrant mentality, and the strong desire to be better and succeed, and how they did this? But there was a generational problem. One of the things that is a problem is that passing on to the sons of the sons, or the daughters of the daughters, etc., that’s lost over time. “I want to make sure my kids have all the things I never had,” has that ever approached your lips, or how many people have you heard say it? If you really want the kids to have the things that you want; you have to let them build upon what you built; build beyond what you did; take what you teach and bring it on further. This is tough, particularly with peer pressure both on you and your kids.

It’s interesting, you go and take a look, forget the kids for a second, but just think of what happens when somebody buys a new house. Every neighborhood I’ve moved into, I’ve noticed that right away… Now, there were new homes in the neighborhood so that may be part of it, but anytime somebody does that, what do they do? They stretch themselves far beyond their means, something that really can’t quite afford yet, but they’re figuring they can afford it in a year or two after their increases in salary. Within six months, all of those people buy a car that they can’t afford on top of the house that they couldn’t afford, and they still haven’t received their pay raise, and it’s all peer pressure.

Do you teach your kids how to fight peer pressure? You’re facing it, too. You teach them, you also are teaching yourself. For example, there was one situation, there was a young girl who was halfway through middle school, who was a little bit concerned because she was a follower. She followed all of her friends. One of the things we told her was we talked about peer pressure. Did anybody every tell you: “You’re scared”, “You’re scared to do this”, “You’re scared to do that,” or: “Come on, come on, what are you afraid of?” What I did was say: “Turn around to them and say: ‘I’m not afraid. I’m telling you no,’” and then point to the rest of people that are standing around calling her “chicken,” or whatever, or “afraid,” and say: “They’re the ones that are afraid. They’re the ones that are afraid to stand up to you.” That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.

You have to do the same thing in your own environment, that is, not cave nor try to keep up with the Joneses. Part of it happens with the way people talk to each other and address each other. In a little more sophisticated way as they are with adults, such as the thing with the car. I’ve had people say to me in that same situation: “You going to get a new car?” I’d say: “No way. No. It works great. Bought it for cash. Bring it in and get it fixed up regularly. Heck, I hope the thing gets to 200,000 miles.” I’m probably never going to go that far, but the idea is that you have to push it off, and you have to show your kids and other people around you that you’re just pushing it off. Then I follow up with: “I don’t know anything on any of my cars, on anything, actually, except small mortgage that feels great.” You’re setting and making a statement. The idea is that you have to fight it right away, and show your family, show your kids that you’re doing it. It’s not just your kids success, but yours as well depends on strong independent decisions.

What happens with this generational loss of this crucial motivation?

Today I want to talk about something that really can pull everybody down, and that is jealousy in business as well as personal life. Now, by jealousy, there are two types I’m talking about: You can be jealous of others, and others can be jealous of you. In either case, it can be debilitating. I want to go through how you can prevent either one of them negatively affecting you. In actuality, I want to explain how to use jealousy in a positive way.

First, and most important is that they really do something to you both physically and mentally. They can make you angry, aggressive, depressed, etc., a whole bunch of things. As jealousy increases, your potential for success declines. Sometimes jealousy is a mental safety mechanism, in a sense, because you’re feeling a little jealous, you act as a way of realizing or accepting the fact that you’re not going to succeed in something, but let’s get that aside because we’re going for personal and business success.

First, one of the things that happens is others get desirable things that you don’t, somebody else gets something you don’t, whether it be a job, or a position, or whatever they got. First of all, life’s not fair. You’ve heard it over and over again. Get over it. But we have to go beyond that. You want to increase the odds that you’re going to get the things that you really desire. How do you increase those odds?

First of all, what is jealousy? By its very nature, if you’re jealous, it is a comparison to somebody else. Remember what I’ve said in previous episodes: The best way to succeed is you already know what you don’t know about a particular subject, you know what your weaknesses are within a certain area or expertise, so competing with yourself is far more productive and better than to be looking at somebody else. The only way you look at somebody else is to learn from others. If you have the slightest feeling of envy or jealousy, you should be identifying what it is and how you can learn. Why even compare yourself to others, except to learn and understand how to do something?

Also, a jealous person emits negative emotions that makes them both undesirable and undesirable to be around. A person will rarely receive help and any support if they’re extremely jealous or they emit these feelings that other people don’t like. What we want talk about is how to convert jealousy.

First eliminate the idea of the lottery. If somebody goes and wins the lottery and you’re jealous of them, that’s kind of silly, because when you think about it, what’s the chances of winning the lottery anyway? Something like 1 in 200 million? So really you’re going to be jealous about something…? If you’re actually putting your money into the lottery, you’ve got to go back to episode one and start over on the whole series, because if you’re putting any money at all in the lottery, you really have to go back and get yourself together, because that’s the way to actually just waste money. If you put that same money aside, you would get someplace.

Holding onto jealousy does no good either. We know that, so we need to expel it quickly, get rid of it quickly. Not just get rid of it, but get rid of it quickly. This isn’t something that’s over weeks; this is something that’s over seconds. First, change the perception. Yes, if you end up being jealous of something that somebody else earned, you really should be admiring what they are doing, or what happened, or how they got there, and/or how you can learn from it. The person who had success: What skills did they have? What did they do? How did they do it? How did they learn to do it? Yes, there are some places where you could say: “Well, the person was just in the right place at the right time.” Just make options available to yourself. How do you do that? If you’re focusing on success and expanding yourself and expanding what you know and you have, options open up all over the place. They open up because people see you as a growing,

Today I want to talk about something that really can pull everybody down, and that is jealousy in business as well as personal life. Now, by jealousy, there are two types I’m talking about: You can be jealous of others, and others can be jealous of you. In either case, it can be debilitating. I want to go through how you can prevent either one of them negatively affecting you. In actuality, I want to explain how to use jealousy in a positive way.

First, and most important is that they really do something to you both physically and mentally. They can make you angry, aggressive, depressed, etc., a whole bunch of things. As jealousy increases, your potential for success declines. Sometimes jealousy is a mental safety mechanism, in a sense, because you’re feeling a little jealous, you act as a way of realizing or accepting the fact that you’re not going to succeed in something, but let’s get that aside because we’re going for personal and business success.

First, one of the things that happens is others get desirable things that you don’t, somebody else gets something you don’t, whether it be a job, or a position, or whatever they got. First of all, life’s not fair. You’ve heard it over and over again. Get over it. But we have to go beyond that. You want to increase the odds that you’re going to get the things that you really desire. How do you increase those odds?

First of all, what is jealousy? By its very nature, if you’re jealous, it is a comparison to somebody else. Remember what I’ve said in previous episodes: The best way to succeed is you already know what you don’t know about a particular subject, you know what your weaknesses are within a certain area or expertise, so competing with yourself is far more productive and better than to be looking at somebody else. The only way you look at somebody else is to learn from others. If you have the slightest feeling of envy or jealousy, you should be identifying what it is and how you can learn. Why even compare yourself to others, except to learn and understand how to do something?

Also, a jealous person emits negative emotions that makes them both undesirable and undesirable to be around. A person will rarely receive help and any support if they’re extremely jealous or they emit these feelings that other people don’t like. What we want talk about is how to convert jealousy.

First eliminate the idea of the lottery. If somebody goes and wins the lottery and you’re jealous of them, that’s kind of silly, because when you think about it, what’s the chances of winning the lottery anyway? Something like 1 in 200 million? So really you’re going to be jealous about something…? If you’re actually putting your money into the lottery, you’ve got to go back to episode one and start over on the whole series, because if you’re putting any money at all in the lottery, you really have to go back and get yourself together, because that’s the way to actually just waste money. If you put that same money aside, you would get someplace.

Holding onto jealousy does no good either. We know that, so we need to expel it quickly, get rid of it quickly. Not just get rid of it, but get rid of it quickly. This isn’t something that’s over weeks; this is something that’s over seconds. First, change the perception. Yes, if you end up being jealous of something that somebody else earned, you really should be admiring what they are doing, or what happened, or how they got there, and/or how you can learn from it. The person who had success: What skills did they have? What did they do? How did they do it? How did they learn to do it? Yes, there are some places where you could say: “Well, the person was just in the right place at the right time.

This is a very special episode, it is episode number 50. It’s hard to imagine that there are 50 episodes already. Also, I really appreciate all the great, kind comments and reviews that I’ve seen in iTunes. I read every single one of them. If you haven’t done that, please do it. It helps a lot with the exposure of the podcast, and I appreciate it. Now for the episode. What we’re talking about today is Breakthrough Success. It actually came about as I was talking to a person who I’m using as a coach, an excellent person, and what she was doing was explaining to me as I was talking about what she saw in what I’m doing, both in the book Mechanics for Breakthrough Success, as well as in the podcast. That is, first of all, what is breakthrough? As she put it: “It’s something that somebody themselves can’t even see for themselves.” That is, their goal is something beyond what they normally would look at and see. Maybe you would see for them or somebody else would see for them. I’ll explain in a little bit about that, because it has a lot to do with how we set our goals and how we really reach out to goals that may not even seem quite realistic; they’re almost dreams, etc., or things that we want and we’d like to see about ourselves and around us, but are outside what seem to be reasonable right at the moment. Let’s see how we go about doing that. First, let me repeat a story that I used a long time ago, and that is to the moon shot. When most people are talking about it, and John F. Kennedy as President said that he wanted to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. They didn’t know how they were going to do it. In essence, there were several things that had to be discovered, invented, or created before that original shot to the moon, that is before the rocket took off. Everybody else talks about how you’re making those adjustments or course corrections and how that is success. That’s not the significant part. The significant part was having to overcome or break through different things that they didn’t even know we could do. At the end of this episode, I’m going to announce something that I’m giving away to help you in not only setting those goals for yourself, but also get you along the way. First, one of my most disliked expressions that you hear all the time, and maybe it’s because it’s overused, is “to the next level.”, “Get to the next level.”, “We’re going to get you to the next level.”, “You’re going to get to the next level.” All of the times that I hear that, it implies some things that I don’t like. One of which is that you’re going to go to some place and stop, that is that’s where you are. Then you go maybe to someplace else and stop. It is a very, very interrupted path to take. One quick example was in weightlifting. When I was taught weightlifting by a champion, he explained to me as I would start to seem to be slowing down at a particular level, that is I’m putting more weight on, then all of a sudden two or three times in a row, I’m using the same weight. He would just say: “Wait a minute. Slap on some extra weight.” It was actually easier with that extra weight. Why? Because in my mind, I had expectations of where I was and what I was able to do. Instead of driving through and continuing on progress, I had my vision of getting to start bench-pressing at 285 or 315, or something, whatever the number was, and when I hit that, I sort of adjusted my expectations to be where I was, rather than where I was going which is higher. Another situation is in direct marketing. This is interesting, and it was pointed out to me actually by the person who was on episode number two, Steve Thompson. He pointed out how an awful lot of people target to get to a particular position; they want to be promoted to a certain position. The reason they want to get there is because at that point they can make a lot more money. But they get to that new position, and immediately stop and don’t do anything. Which is kind of crazy,