About money - Part 1

• "You are a wealthy man now and one must learn to be rich. To be poor, anyone can manage." - Gustavo 'Gus' Fring, Breaking Bad.

Let's just cut through the crap right at the start, everybody wants more money, if someone says they do not want to be rich, they are lying. When it comes to status and power, two things that women find intoxicating, nothing boosts status and power more than money. It is no coincidence that the two most powerful men in the world, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are also two of the richest men in the world. It has always been so, and it always will be so. Alexander the Great, Rameses II, Ghengis Khan had massive armies and massive wealth. So anyone who chimes in with a "beta bucks" comment in this post will be severely punished with an internet downvote from yours truly. This post is about building wealth and power. This is a huge topic and no single post will get you far so this is merely an introduction.

YOUR IDEA:

• "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on" - John F. Kennedy.

The first thing you need is an idea. This is harder than it sounds. Most people will daydream for a moment and then spit out some lazy and impractical whim that has more to do with their leisure time than their skill set. Test this out on your friends and family, ask a group of associates, what do you think is a killer idea to get rich? They will generally say something like a pointless invention that will never sell, mention some throw away line about the stock exchange or real estate, talk about being famous or worst of all think that they can turn their hobby or interest into an income. Very few people will mention dedication and hard work. When you hatch your idea you are not going to daydream, you are going to be harsh and practical and expect that you will work your guts out and suffer to succeed.

Your idea should be based on your skill set, something you have shown proficiency at. Your idea should not be a daydream or one of your hobbies, or something you enjoy to do in your spare time, your spare time is for play. There is a reason we use the word "work", because if it is not hard it would be called "play". The quickest way to destroy your enjoyment of a hobby is to try and make a job out of it. So you are not going to engage that soft bitch part of your brain, you are going to think like a man who is preparing for a battle, or climbing a mountain, or building a mansion, or becoming president. You are going to think of all of the steps required, the difficulties and challenges you will face and then make a proper plan to deal with those challenges.

YOUR PLAN:

• "Do the math in your head and figure out how much money you will make in the first three years of your business. Now reduce that figure by 75%, if the number still makes you happy, then get busy making your idea into your reality." - 88Will88

Now that you have an idea which is firmly grounded in your skill set you need to do some math and planning. Do a written budget, if there is a range for anticipated costs use the mid or the high figure. If there is a range for anticipated returns, use the low or the mid figure. Start making notes and using a written plan. If you are not good at this then start googling some business plan templates and fill them out to the best of your ability. Do not talk about your plan to friends, family or potential competitors. No-one wants to listen to your dreams and secretly they want you to fail like crabs in a bucket. Keep your plan secret except to reveal required details to potential clients, creditors, partners or professionals.

Your plan should have stages and each and every step in your first stages should be within your current capabilities. Do not plan to spend money you do not have or cannot afford to borrow. Again, if you have a range in your head be conservative, do not be too much of an optimist in business because business is brutal. If being rich or self employed was easy then there would be no such thing as an employee. Think about your plan every day and work on it every day until you are convinced that it is practical. When your plan is solid take it along to your local bank manager or potential creditors and put it too them. They will quickly snap you back to reality if your plan is weak or poorly thought out.

SUMMARY:

• "Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it". - David Lee Roth

Get started on these two fundamental points before we discuss implementation and other principles in future posts. Bear in mind that according to Forbes 90% of startups fail. This is not like lifting or game, with both of those things if you put in the work, you will gain a measure of success equal to your commitment. In business you are overwhelmingly more likely to fail than to succeed. Using this metric it is safe to assume that 90% of our readership has 0% chance of success but that assumes that you charge in like a fool as most people do. You are not going to do that, you are an aspiring alpha and you are going to stack the deck in your favour before you take your first step. The 90% statistic also fails to acknowledge that failing is a lesson in itself.

• "Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for if we're never tested to our limits, how will we know how strong we really are? How will we ever grow?" - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Each failure is potentially a step on your road to success so just make sure that your plan does not overestimate your capabilities. You must look at your plan and say "well if I fail I will still be OK, I will not have lost more than I can afford to lose". If you cannot make that statement with confidence then you are not ready. A topic this huge cannot be comprehensively covered in an introductory post so I will tend this post and answer intelligent questions. It is my intention that the comment thread itself becomes a part of the post. So fire away.