Tag Archive for: wealth

Declare Your Own Independence Today

Just a quick message today before I go fire up the grill with my brother-in-law and jump in the pool with my son:

242 years ago, the Second Continental Congress unanimously declared the sovereignty of the thirteen united States of America from the British Empire. The Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, listed colonial grievances against King George III and asserted an individual’s natural rights:

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

Today, I believe that no matter where you come from, you and I are entitled to the same natural rights now more than ever.

Though (some) governments certainly serve a few useful purposes (sometimes), bloated bureaucracies tend to prioritize their own survival above your individual freedoms, no matter what the cost.

When it really comes down to brass tacks, it’s up to you to protect yourself, your family, your empire, and your freedom from those who would try to take them away from you. As history has shown many times, nobody else will hold them sacred for you.

There may come times when you will have to FIGHT for your life, FIGHT for your liberty, and certainly you will have to FIGHT for your own happiness.

Freedom is a paradox, because it comes with RESPONSIBILITY. You are responsible for defending your own life when the rubber hits the road, and you are responsible for the consequences of your chosen pursuits.

So while true freedom is the opportunity to make your own choices, living a truly free life REQUIRES taking full responsibility for your choices, your behaviors, and your results.

And if you don’t like your current results — your current reality — there is nobody to blame but yourself.

This can be a hard pill to swallow. Believe me, I understand.

When my business collapsed and my world came crumbling down, I wanted to blame ISIS. I wanted to blame repugnant sex traffickers and martial law in my wife’s home country. I wanted to blame Homeland Security for insisting that we uproot our family and relocate internationally in order to get travel documents. I wanted to blame the partner who betrayed me and cooked the books.

I wanted to blame my mother for getting cancer. I wanted to blame my wife for giving me a child. I almost wanted to blame my son for scratching my cornea during roughhousing and landing me with an eye infection that took me out of commission for a month.

Hell, I even wanted to blame the flesh eating parasites burrowing intolerably slow and painfully through my feet.

I was laying in the fetal position on the tile floor of my 4-bedroom condo in Chiang Mai, Thailand one night cursing God Himself.

But the Truth was that too much avoiding responsibility caught up with me.

It was me — I had made every choice that got me there on that cold hard floor, pulling my hair out, crying and throwing a tantrum like my toddler.

Declare Your Individual Freedom

I used to think that chasing “freedom” meant running away from responsibility.

For 10 years I wanted nothing but more time freedom, more financial independence, and more freedom of location.

And I got it. For almost a decade, I lived in 8 countries across four continents.

I built and experimented with five small companies. We sold two of them.

I dated women from around the globe, and enjoyed all kinds of travel misadventures across at least 35 countries. But I allowed myself to get too comfortable, I let myself become a “victim” of my own success, and bought into the lie of the “four hour work week”, pleasure seeking, fleeing from commitments, and basically drank and smoked away a literal fortune.

In the pursuit of riches, I wrecked my health, and then I carried on abusing my body probably out of sheer self-hatred.

But it was when I realized my real RESPONSIBILITY to show my son a good example, to do my damnedest to be a good role model, to teach him everything the world will neglect to teach him, to be involved in his life and guide him any way I can, that was when my own results began ever so slowly to turn around.

In order to achieve true freedom, YES, you must cultivate an ability to control your money, control your time, and eliminate the mindset that you are subject to any higher authority (at least not here on earth).

But avoiding responsibility, perhaps counterintuitively, will ensure your failure. It will ensure that your health and vitality go down the drain. It will ensure that you create strained, stressed, and broken relationships. It will ensure you create chaos all around you.

You must take RESPONSIBILITY for your Mindset, your Health, your Wealth, and your Relationships.

This Fourth of July, take stock of where you’re at, appreciate what you have, and accept radical responsibility for your current situation. Some things will be great. Others may be a trainwreck.

This is not about guilt or shame. We are all screwups.

For my fellow Americans, be grateful that you ARE the privileged 1% of the world. The USA is an imperfect mess, but it’s one of the safest, most functional places in the world. For my Canadian friends to the north, happy belated Canada Day to you!

Wherever you are, I invite you to accept the challenge to take responsibility for cleaning up whatever areas of your life that are lacking, to realize the necessity for balance in your life, and how your mental health, your fitness, your finances, your spirituality and your connections with people around you are all interconnected.

If you go through life on autopilot, chances are you are going to let at least one of these dimensions of your life completely deteriorate.

So take responsibility to give each of these areas of your life attention, to go through your life consciously, to craft a plan for how you can maintain balance in your life, and always be vigilant looking for opportunities where you can seize MORE responsibility for things around you.

Declare YOUR personal freedom from the mistakes you have made in the past, from your baggage, from your stories, and FIGHT for your life like the men who built America had to.

Declare your freedom from the TYRANNY of victimhood. Choose not to accept the role of “victim” in this life. There is nobody holding you down. Choose to rewrite those negative stories. Trust me.

It is Time for You to Choose FREEDOM, Sovereignty, and Personal Responsibility.

If you are ready to commit yourself to a higher purpose, to double down on yourself, and have accountability, systems, and structure to help you find balance across your Mindset, Health, Wealth, and Relationships, join us as we embark upon a 12-week Dragon-slaying challenge inside the Foundry accelerator this month to turboboost your progress toward your dream goals in Q3.

Normally $333, you can register for one of our remaining 12 lifetime seats in the program today for just $76! Nearly 80% off, in honor of the Founding Fathers (1776).

America homecoming

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32 Maxims for Men

Maxims are universal ethical rules of conduct that guide us when we encounter unexpected or difficult situations in life.

It was asked on Quora:

If you could write a rulebook for being a man, what “Man Law” would you write?

Don’t feel limited by anything. Think about what you would want to see in an ideal man. What are the qualities of a good husband, father, brother? What one thing would you want to see in your daughter’s boyfriend or husband?

Here is the wise list of guiding maxims espoused by Dr. Jordan Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto and clinical psychologist:

  1. Encourage children through play.
  2. Promote the best in people.
  3. Keep the sacred fire burning.
  4. Guard the women and children from harm.
  5. Confront the eternal adversary.
  6. Build the crystal palace.
  7. Confront death with courage and return.
  8. Dare to cut down a tree.
  9. Offer your sons up as a sacrifice to God.
  10. Protect your daughters from exploitation.
  11. Store up wealth for the future.
  12. Consult the ancestral spirits.
  13. Read great books.
  14. Speak the truth about unpleasant things.
  15. Pay close attention.
  16. Make a worthy temple for the Lord.
  17. Keep the howling winds of winter at bay.
  18. Stand up for the oppressed.
  19. Provide a warm and secure home.
  20. Be a prince of peace.
  21. Don’t be too civilized. (related video)
  22. Organize yourself with other men. (related video)
  23. Be faithful to your wife.
  24. Be hospitable to friends and strangers.
  25. Rout the wolves and chase the lions so the shepherds can eat.
  26. Establish a destination – and a path.
  27. Bring heaven to earth.
  28. Take on the sins of the world.
  29. Dig the wells and mine the gold and copper.
  30. Gather everyone to the banquet.
  31. Grow up and take responsibility. (related video)
  32. Resist pride in all things.

[source: Quora]

What would you add? Or what do you think needs more context?

For a more thorough understanding of maxims, see this video about Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy and conscience in the film Kingdom of Heaven, particularly at 1:45

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Ramit Sethi Illuminates the Path to Financial Success

personal finance wealth

Ramit Sethi was one of the earliest bloggers to inspire me when I first started writing my original site ‘Thrilling Heroics’ and building my professional network.

A Stanford alumni who studied technology and psychology, Ramit was one of the original co-founders of Silicon Valley startup PBworks, and runs the hugely successful I Will Teach You To Be Rich blog to help college students and young professionals take control of their personal finances and succeed with entrepreneurship.

I first met him in person in our hometown Sacramento, California, one chilly winter day in 2006 when he was home to visit his family, and I had the opportunity to interview him about his education, entrepreneurship experience, and his perspectives on new media.

One of the first bold moves Ramit made in his career was to call up Seth Godin and negotiate a job opportunity with him. He later consulted with Omidyar Network, the philanthropic social innovation firm started by Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar.

I Will Teach You to Be RichIn March 2006, Ramit published his definitive personal finance book, which immediately hit #1 on Amazon and made him a New York Times bestselling author. His educational background in social psychology translated well into a thorough guidebook that helps readers make real behavioral change:

At last, for a generation that’s materially ambitious yet financially clueless comes I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit Sethi’s 6-week personal finance program for 20-to-35-year-olds. A completely practical approach delivered with a nonjudgmental style that makes readers want to do what Sethi says, it is based around the four pillars of personal finance—banking, saving, budgeting, and investing—and the wealth-building ideas of personal entrepreneurship.

This week Ramit is adapting his bestseller into a six-week online bootcamp

After meeting recently with him in San Francisco, I’ve been wanting to bring him on for a video interview to share what has changed in the last three years. Here’s our fascinating discussion:

Check out the full video interview here for the following:

  • How Ramit turned his writing and personal expertise into a 6-week personal finance training program
  • The massive importance of TAKING ACTION
  • The value of FREE content versus INVESTING in your success
  • How to use a blog as a laboratory for launching your own business and life experiments
  • What defines a RICH life? (what Ramit values most)
  • How to leverage failures to reach SUCCESS
  • How Ramit made the leap from blogger to NYT best-selling author
  • Personal finance & entrepreneurship tips for travelers & expats

lifestyle design Ramit Sethi interview

To learn more about Ramit Sethi, social psychology, technology in business, scrappy startups, and x-man abilities, make sure you also read my 2006 interview with him.

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Sacramento Business Students Meet with Warren Buffett

I met the wealthiest man in the world when I was 22 years old.

Warren Buffett, born in 1930 Nebraska, the “Oracle of Omaha,” is renowned as one of the world’s most talented investors and money managers, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and has consistently been ranked among the world’s wealthiest people for at least the last 20 years (frequently in the top 2 or 3 for the last several years running).

Warren Buffett and Cody McKibben

In 2008, Forbes ranked Buffett as the richest person in the world with a net worth somewhere around $62 billion.

Buffett started out with the money he earned as a newspaper boy to buy his first income-producing assets, and despite his now immense fortune, he still lives in a home he purchased for $31,000 in the 1950s and embraces a frugal lifestyle.

In 2006, I learned that apparently Sacramento State University’s President, Alex Gonzalez, didn’t know Buffett’s reputation, and his office was ignoring calls from Buffett’s staff. I had long been an admirer of Buffett’s approach to value investing, as well as the wisdom of his vice chairman Charlie Munger (who’s writings on mental models are definitely worth a read).

I passed some information on to my boss and the Dean of the College of Business Administration where I worked.

A few weeks later, I’d worked with my supervisor Thomas Matlock to organize a meet and greet event for our Executive MBA students, and I had the opportunity to meet Warren myself briefly, shortly after his announcement in 2006 that he’d be giving away 85 percent of his fortune via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The College of Business was invited to a special reception with Warren Buffett in Rocklin, California.

EMBA students with Warren Buffett

Reprinted from our Business Futures Magazine, Volume 26, Fall 2006:

College of Business Administration Meets Fortune 100’s “Oracle of Omaha”

A 16-member group of faculty, staff, students and community business leaders from the College of Business Administration attended an “Exclusive Meet and Greet” on July 20, 2006 with Warren Buffett.

The reception and the ribbon-cutting ceremony that followed marked the official grand opening of the first California showroom for home furnishers RC Willey. Buffet, second in wealth only to Bill Gates of Microsoft fame, is the CEO and Chair of the Board of Berkshire Hathaway, which purchased RC Willey in 1995. The legendary investor and philanthropist was in the area to support the opening at the store’s new Rocklin location and took the opportunity to meet some of the community.

“Sacramento business was privileged to have Warren Buffet visit the region,” CBA Dean Sanjay Varshney said. “A business leader of his caliber wanting to meet with educators—and students—is a reflection of his character and humility. He enthusiastically chatted with our students and faculty, taking time to pose for pictures with each individual. This was truly an exciting opportunity to meet with the most successful investor on Wall Street—the Oracle of Omaha himself!”

oracle of OmahaDean Varshney and his assistant Thomas Matlock were accompanied to the event by Christopher Cady, President, Pulte Homes Corporation; Mitzi Caycendeo, Chipset Planning Analyst, Intel Corporation (EMBA student); Matt Cologna, VP Industrial Services Group, Grubb and Ellis; Karna Gocke, Associate Physician, UC Davis Medical Center (EMBA student); Kimberly Harrington, Sac State HR Training & Development; Chris Higdon, President and CEO, California Moving Systems; Earl King, VP/Branch Manager, Fidelity Investments (EMBA student); Cody McKibben, Administrative Support Assistant, CBA; Monoo Prasad, Senior Project Manager, Ebay; Tim Ray, Executive Director, External Affairs for Northern California, AT&T; Randy Sater, Senior VP, Teichert Land Company; David Snyder, Director of Economic Development for Placer County; Denver Travis, Professor, CBA; and Chiang Wang, Interim Associate Dean for Graduate and External Programs, CBA.

…

I can’t recall the words we exchanged verbatim, but I will always remember the impression Warren made on me. That moment he gave my hand a firm shake, and looked me in the eyes with a smile.

Though I was starstruck at the time, he was a surprisingly approachable and down-to-earth man. I asked him what advice he had for a young clueless college student who was interested in business but had no idea where to start.

In those short few minutes I had to interact with him, his attitude left a lifelong impression on me. He doesn’t have an entourage; no bodyguards; no driver. He doesn’t spend much money on toys. His idea of happiness is being able to watch his basketball games on a big screen TV in his sweatpants…

And it taught me that, this legendary business tycoon, who is idolized by many, is not some lofty superhuman god. He is still just a man, and a humble one at that. Warren Buffett looked me in the eyes with a sincerity that revealed, while he is very accomplished and in-demand, he still has respect and time for someone just starting out in life.

His tips for me essentially boiled down to:

1. Never stop learning.

Buffett was rejected by Harvard University in 1950. Maybe he just recognized the potential in a young nobody who, at the time, was desperate to break into Stanford University without the typical pedigree many ivy league students have.

Whether through formal schooling or self-guided learning, he started by admonishing me never to stop learning and reading. Like many hugely successful people, Warren is a voracious reader, who has estimated at times he spends up to 80% of his workday reading, 5 or more hours per day.

He was once speaking at the Columbia University School of Business when students asked what was the biggest key to success that he could share with the class? He held up a stack of reports and trade publications he’d brought with him and said: “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

2. Find something you absolutely love doing.

I remember very clearly he stressed the importance of finding my own thing that I enjoyed, and just focus on that. As he often does, he discourages copycats and reinforces how not everybody is cut out best to follow his exact path to success. Not everybody is great at finance or investment, and therefore they’re not going to necessarily have the same energy and consistency behind their actions as Buffett would. But everybody can find something they love to do.

In a 2006 CNBC interview, “The Billionaire Next Door”, he was asked “What is the Warren Buffett secret to success?”

His response: “If people get to my age and they have the people love them that they want to have love them, they’re successful. It doesn’t make any difference if they’ve got a thousand dollars in the bank or a billion dollars in the bank… Success is really doing what you love and doing it well. It’s as simple as that. I’ve never met anyone doing that who doesn’t feel like a success. And I’ve met plenty of people who have not achieved that and whose lives are miserable.”

“Really getting to do what you love to do everyday—that’s really the ultimate luxury. And particularly when you get to do it with terrific people around you.”

3. Start now

As far as wealth, while he’d made it clear not everybody is going to be the next Warren Buffett doing the same things he had done, he simply said, “start right now, just do whatever you can.”

Like reading, the main principle of wealth building that Buffett emphasizes is the power of compound interest — or how the simple fact is that when you start saving outweighs how much you save. The more years you stay invested in something, and leave your capital untouched, it can add up to a large sum, even if you never invest another dime.

I’ve carried these lessons with me until today.

Though I don’t keep up with Warren’s 5 hours a day, I spend a very hefty chunk of my personal time reading, watching documentaries, going through training courses, and researching topics for the blog.

I’ve certainly learned a tremendous amount more in my post-university, self-directed education, in areas that impact my business, my wellbeing and my bank account far more than most subjects in school, and I’ve enjoyed it more.

Though it’s taken me many years to hone in specifically on the things that I truly love doing with my time, I have made the sacrifices to build my life and my business around my own interests. I’ve learned to rely on my own skills and resourcefulness to make a living since I quit my job in 2007, and with years of practice, failure, learning, and trying again, I’ve finally built a business where I’m fortunate to do work that is deeply fulfilling, and makes me excited to get out of bed in the morning.

I’m not a rich man by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe I have met Warren’s definition of success: I enjoy my role in the world, what I get to do, and I am surrounded by my favorite people. I have invested in the right things to create a life of my own design, to create incredible personal freedom and flexibility in my career, and I continue to make sacrifices to invest in my own business above everything else — constantly reinvesting in my own platform that allows me to produce new income streams.

If I hadn’t shook hands with such a jolly, generous billionaire at such a young age, who knows, my life could have gone very differently.

Dean Varshney Warren Buffett Thomas Matlock

Mr. Buffett with my Dean Dr. Sanjay Varshney and mentor Thomas Matlock

I credit Warren Buffett for showing me it’s possible to march to your own beat, as opposed to following the typical template life path, and still manage to pull off incredible accomplishments.

Now I live in a beautiful tropical paradise with my wife and son, I’ve traveled over 35 countries, experienced more fabulous memories than I will ever be able to remember, teamed up with a stunningly beautiful young woman, and become a father to an amazing son. I am surrounded by fascinating people and supportive friends, and every day I get to spend my time with people I love.

It took me many years of near impossible struggle, but I’d say I’ve managed to manifest a very wealthy life. Thanks Warren.

Lesson learned: If the wealthiest investor and philanthropist in the world grew an astounding business from just a few dollars from his paper route, just maybe you can too.

Also recommended: How to Think Like Warren Buffett

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