CREATING WEALTH 4 SUCCESS

In my last post I introduced you to Tony Christiansen, the first of the many inspirational people I found on my journey. In this and subsequent posts, I will introduce you to more.

Robert Kiyosaki

Most people who are on the wealth creation journey will have heard of Robert Kiyosaki. Best selling author, entrepreneur, investor and motivational speaker. His mission is to educate people on money and wealth creation and he does so primarily with his books, seminars and his popular board game series, Cashflow.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

I first became aware of Robert Kiyosaki from scouring the self-improvement/ financial education sections of various bookstores, where his number 1 bestseller “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” always stood out. I decided to buy the book after doing a bit of research into Robert Kiyosaki and I have to say it was a worthwhile investment.

The ability to read a book from cover to cover has never really been my forté, however this book seemed to hit the right note with me and I found myself engrossed in the content. One particular theme made a lot of sense to me and this involved the concept of financial education.

In his book, Robert Kiyosaki, highlights that education systems worldwide are failing to teach our children about money and how to manage it. He believes that schools today are still basing their teaching on ideas born in the industrial revolution and that they hold no place in the 21st Century. The old belief that we must get a formal education, find a job and then work our way up in order to become financially wealthy should give way to his belief that one can only become truly wealthy if you can generate a passive income from various means.

This concept is explained further in another of Robert Kiyosaki’s books, “Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad’s Guide To Financial Freedom”, an excellent addition to “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.

Cashflow Quadrant

The basis of the book revolves around 4 quadrants as seen in the image below;

• Employee
• Self-Employed
• Business Owner
• Investor

The idea behind the model is to move from the left side, i.e. the employee and self-employed to the right – the Business Owner and Investor quadrants, where you work less, earn more, pay less taxes and give yourself more free time.

This simple, yet effective idea is the reason that I am currently focussing on Internet Marketing. My future aim is to create passive income from this strategy as well as from share trading and investment properties, as means of creating wealth for success.

Colin Schedler © 2010

In my last post about positive mindset, I outlined the basics of what mindset means to me. In the next few posts I will introduce you to some of the people and books which have contributed to my own positive mindset and assisted me in getting started with my wealth creation strategies.

Tony Christiansen

In this post, I’ll introduce you to an extraordinary man who epitomises positive mindset in action.
If you have ever seen or heard a talk by Tony Christiansen, then you are unlikely to ever forget the experience. He is extremely funny, modest, self-effacing, informative and open. He has achieved more in his life than most people ever will;

• Successful Businessman
• Race Car Champion
• Triple Olympic Gold Medallist
• 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do
• Motivational Speaker
• Mountain Climber
• Surf Lifesaver
• Best Selling Author
• Qualified Pilot
• Qualified Scuba Diver

He appears to have no fear, no hang ups and he refuses to acknowledge the words ‘can’t’ and ‘won’t’.
You may be thinking that these are praiseworthy attributes and indeed they are, but the really inspiring thing about New Zealander Tony Christiansen is that he has achieved all these things despite having no legs.

Tony Christiansen on Youtube

Here’s a short Youtube clip so you can see for yourself how inspiring this man is;

Tony Christiansen has many inspirational quotes it seems, but the one that I feel sums him up best is:

“Don’t let people take your dreams away, life is for living, it’s full of passion. Believe that success is going to come to us because one of the challenges we face in life is just the belief in success”.

What better quote to remember and apply on the path to creating wealth for success.

If you want to find out more about Tony and his incredible achievements, check out his website.

You can also read the incredible story of Tony in Race You to the Top: The Tony Christiansen Story

In my next post I will introduce you to another inspirational person that I have found on my journey so far.

Colin Schedler © 2010

In my last post I told you about our first attempt at making money in the stock market by selling call options and how a big learning curve put us back on track by making us focus on our mindset.

What Is A Positive Mindset?

Without question, the key to creating wealth for success has to involve developing a positive mindset. Anyone can create a positive mindset simply by changing the way they think.

So what is mindset exactly? Well rather than launching into dictionary definitions and quotes from late or great people it’s probably best if I tell you what it means to me as this will relate best to my blog.

Mindset to me, is all about focus. Focussing on what you want from life instead of what you don’t want in your life is vital to developing a positive mindset. The start of this process involves appreciating and being grateful for what we already have. More often than not, we realise that the things we believe we lack in our lives, are actually not as important as we first thought and immediately we have started to shift our thinking towards a more positive mindset.

Developing A Positive Mindset

In our case, realising that losing a large proportion of the money we had borrowed in the stock market crash was not important in the scheme of our lives and instead we looked at it as a learning experience. If we had not developed a positive mindset, we would have been put off trying anything else and given up.

Simply by making a decision to think differently, we can start to turn negative thoughts around. This is just one example of positive mindset in action, and this principle can be used in any given situation.

The Benefits Of A Positive Mindset

The benefits of having a positive mindset are numerous, for me personally they include;

• Greater belief in one’s abilities
• Increased opportunities
• Improved overall health

Adopting a positive attitude has no doubt had a profound affect on me and the benefits, as listed above, have been evident in my everyday life and more so in my journey. As I’ve learnt and taken action in my wealth creation endeavours, I have gone beyond my comfort zone and attempted new things. As a result, new opportunities have arisen and as I’ve taken action and seen positive results, the belief in my abilities has become greater. This in turn has improved my confidence and strengthened my resolve, despite many set-backs, in pursuing my journey to creating wealth for success.

In my next post I will start to introduce you to some of the people and books that have had a positive influence on my journey so far.

Colin Schedler © 2010

In my last post I outlined the trust I had in Jamie McIntyre and his teachings which led me to buy his homestudy course.

21st Century Academy

So there it was, I was now an official member of the 21st Century Academy. An elite group of individuals who didn’t want to belong to the 96% of people who would be dead or dead broke at the age of 65, but were instead going to attain financial freedom and true wealth.

The homestudy course was well structured and easy to follow. It comprised of dvds and books to accompany them, along with mp3 recordings. I watched the dvds, read the books and listened to the mp3s with a religious zealous. I took notes and read and re-read them. I knew I was on the path to certain prosperity and I was on a high. I got to a point where it was time to take action. I had learned so much, but as my new mentor stated, knowledge is only useful with action to support it, so my wife and I made a bold move and took out a loan to buy shares. We were on to a winner. Buy shares, sell call options and rake in the money. So that is what we did.

An Income from Shares

For two months we wrote call options. Unfortunately this was back in September 2008. We bought the shares at what we considered to be a reasonable price at the time, and then on Monday the 6th of October, the stock market crashed. The $1000 we made in our first month was soon lost on paper as our share values plummeted. “No matter” we valiantly proclaimed, it’s only a paper loss, so we sold more call options the next month for $400. “Nothing to worry about” we consoled ourselves, but by then we were on to the advanced part of the course which was a more recent addition and where Jamie plainly stated that there was likely to be a global market downturn in 2008. Too late for us but boy, what a lesson to have learned.

Mindset For The 21st Century

It was at this point that we decided to go back to concentrating on our mindset. According to Jamie and many other wealth coaches, wealth comes from 80% mindset and 20% strategies. We had been so focussed on making money we had forgotten to look at ourselves and our thoughts. It helped a lot. A few months earlier we would have thrown up our hands in despair and given up but with our new mindset and knowledge we knew this was merely a lesson learned and we continued on, unperturbed. Much of the dvd content of the homestudy course involved presentations by guest speakers at 21st Century Academy seminars, each offering information and strategies related to wealth creation based on their own experiences and expertise.

One such speaker was Sean Rasmussen, a former 21st Century Academy student who had successfully applied many of the strategies in the homestudy, and as a result was invited to teach these to seminar attendees. Sean was concentrating on share market strategies at that time, however he later branched out, using his knowledge from the course and other sources, to his current passion of Internet Marketing. There is no doubt that the lessons he learned from 21st Century Academy had a profound effect on him and it was not only the strategies, but the emphasis on the importance of mindset, that led him to rewrite the classic Napoleon Hill book, Think And Grow Rich. Sean’s modernised version has been instrumental to our journey in creating wealth for success. There is a lot more to say about Sean Rasmussen, who has become our coach and mentor in our current endeavours but we will cover this in later posts.

In the next post I will continue on the important subject of mindset in creating a wealthy and successful life.

Colin Schedler © 2010

In my last post I told you I felt that my life was going nowhere and that I discovered a free dvd that changed everything.

Jamie McIntyre

The dvd contained information from a guy called Jamie McIntyre. He is CEO of 21st Century Academy, a personal and financial education services group. Whilst still in his twenties, he had managed to turn his life around from being $150,000 in debt and sleeping on a mate’s sofa, to becoming a self made multi-millionaire within 5 years. He had my attention!

Please note that at this stage in my life I had no money. I had no real debt either but certainly no money to invest in shares or a house – no credit history and no relatives to borrow from. There was something about this man, the way he spoke, his passion and his simple, no-bull attitude to creating wealth that finally convinced me to apply for a credit card and pay for his course. I had nothing but money to lose and a lot more to gain.

However, I couldn’t help feeling a little skeptical – Was he for real? Was it a big con? Before I was willing to part with a large amount of cash, I wanted to do some research.

The Real Deal?

I did multiple internet searches on Jamie McIntyre, but all I could find were more and more positive and compelling accounts of how his course had changed peoples’ lives for the better – financially and in other ways. His concept of good vs bad debt made sense to me. Bad debt is money spent to buy ‘things’ or money to live off. Good debt is an investment such as a mortgage on an investment property or a loan to buy shares or, as in our case, to buy a course that would be life changing.

Was I crazy? I had no debt but I was prepared to go into debt for around $4000 to buy a course based on a free dvd and a straight up looking Aussie guy with a good sales pitch.

It was more than that though. Jamie McIntyre has a way of making difficult concepts sound easy. It resonated with me when he told how at the age of 65, 96% of Australians will be dead, or dead broke. I was over half way there and I could see myself on that path and I wanted to change. NOW.

Homestudy Course

So I took the plunge. Got a credit card and applied for the course. My wife was fully on board with me and we were so excited about getting our hands on the course material, we even drove to the offices of 21st Century Academy to collect it.

With the Homestudy course hot in our hands, the next step in our journey was underway. With the help of Jamie McIntyre, we knew we were on our way to creating wealth for success.

In part 2 of “Lessons With Jamie McIntyre”, I will introduce you to some of the concepts of the Homestudy course and how this related to my own personal journey.

Colin Schedler © 2010