Ever wonder what happened to Ed McMahon? You know the one who was Johnny Carson’s side kick, Or the one who promised to visit you with a million dollar check. You know “You may have already won.”

Well Look at this headline:

Ed McMahon’s home in danger of foreclosure

By CHRISTY LEMIRE

LOS ANGELES (AP) - For years, Ed McMahon promised wealth, comfort and happiness as a pitchman for the American Family Publishers’ sweepstakes. Now, he could use some of that cash himself.

So what happened? Like I tell me students all the time: You have to know how to read the numbers. Ed McMahon could not read the numbers.

Read the article and you will see that he had a 4.8 Million Dollar Mortgage. 4.8 Million dollars? How can that happen from this man? Did he not make enough to put down a larger down payment? Clearly he did not know or understand the situation. He took out the 4.8 Million loan and took out a $300,000 home equity line of credit. This was after he received a $7.2 Million Dollar settlement for problems related to mold.

My favorite quote from the whole article is this

Bragman said there was “a certain irony” in the fact that McMahon has always tried to connect with average Americans, and now he’s experiencing some of their same problems.

Well it is true and it is sad. So many people, including me, put too much emphasis on your home growing in value. It is OK to roll all your debt into your home because it is always going to go up right? Well not always.

It may make sense to invest in a piece of property for capital gains in a long term investment. Or in other words if you want to buy a house to get more money out of it is to do it in the long term. Too many people see this and take money out almost yearly. And for what? To make more investments, to increase their financial portfolio? Or is it to buy a new flat screen TV. It is to put in a pool to increase the “value” of the house. But if you are taking out a loan for this it really is not increasing the value is it. It is counter productive. The value may go up, but your equity. You used it up with the loan.

So this gets back to financial education. When you don’t understand completely how things work you get taken advantage of. We are in America having problems with house lending. Ed McMahon proves that it is happening to everyone. Everyone is in jeopardy. But, are the banks in jeopardy. No they are still making money. They still have properties to foreclose on. They will get paid in the end. They may not get as much as they hoped, but they will still get paid.

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“Poor people have jobs, Rich and Successful people have careers.” - Colin Cowherd ESPN Radio

I heard this over the radio one day and it took me a while to figure out what he meant. It was one of those days where I just had a few minutes to tune into the radio. As soon as I turned it on I heard this. I don’t know what lead up to this statement but it struck me and stuck with me.

I brought up this statement with my students, most of whom fall into the poor or poverty social class, and they all understood exactly what I was saying.

I explained it like this:

Poor people have jobs. They work for money and nothing else. So what happens? Is a person who makes $250,000 a year poor? Maybe not by money standards but what is their life like? How much do they work? How much do they enjoy themselves?

If they just have a job that pays well they are probably not completely happy. Actually if they are like most of us they have a job that they just don’t like. It is nice to make a lot of money but are they happy?

What is the sense of making a lot of money when all they do is work? Then what happens? When people work in a job that they are not happy in they need to supplement this unhappiness with something. Some buy toys, a bigger house, new cars, and more. Then what happens? They have to keep working to pay it off. Some are more destructive and turn to alcohol or drugs. Still others take their frustrations out on others.

Rich and successful people have careers. What do they work for? They typically don’t work for money, they get money as a result of their effort and their hard work. Instead of working for money they work to learn. They learn what it takes to get to the next step. That next step may be the next rung up the corporate ladder (something I have no interest in). For some the next step is to open their own business. For others it simply is a case of lifelong learning.

These people may not be rich with money, but they are rich and successful with their life. They are happy because they are doing things that they love to do. They are successful not because they work hard, but because they enjoy their work. Since they enjoy their work they tend to spend more time with it, and they tend to do a better job.

So what are you doing? Are you happy with your job? If you are maybe you should begin to learn and turn it into a career. What is the next step? Where will it take you in the future? If you are just starting out don’t worry about the money right now. If you work for money you will rarely get ahead. If you work for your career then you will find the opportunities will come to you and you will get paid soon. The money comes as a secondary result of how well you develop your career.

Be patient, I know it is hard, I fell into those same traps, but there is a payoff in the end.

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You want a really powerful technique that will knock the socks off your competitors and your customers? Just act as if.

Act as if you have already made the sale, you will sell more.

Act as if you have already beat your competitors, they will pick up on that and begin to panic.

Act as if you are already successful and people will begin to treat you that way.

My father was a master at this. He was a great salesman and later a great teacher. We would go to a college campus, or a football game, or sometimes just be out and about. I am always curious and would ask about a building, or I would say out loud how I wish we could go in there.

Off he would go, just pulling on doors to see which one was unlocked. I would get scared, but he would turn to me and say, “Act as if you were supposed to be here and no one will say anything different”.

Guess what? He was right, he was always right. We would get inside the private practice facilities of major sports programs (I will not tell you which). One day we decided to go into the science building of a large university. Before we knew it we were in the reptile lab with several graduate assistance and they were pulling out exotic snakes, lizards, turtles, and things that I did not know even existed.

Why? My father just went in and started asking quesitons. He was genuinely curious. When he asked he acted as if he expected them to answer him. He was not rude or disrespectful. He was not loud and boastful. He was not overbearing. He simply asked and waited for them to answer in a very polite and respectful manner.

You know what? They always answered. They always were happy to answer. No one ever questioned why we were there.

He acted as if. It was great fun, it was harmless, and I got to see many things that I never thought I would see.

Just act as if, and see where it gets you!

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We have always been taught backwards. This coming from a teacher.

I remember going into the guidance office and they said “Coach Kip, what would you like to do with your life?”

Heck I didn’t know, at that time I still wanted to be a professional football player. I had no idea what my career was going to be. I stammered “A teacher I guess?”

And so it was, from that point on I was defined by what I wanted to do. I was put in classes that helped me get into college. I was advised on the best colleges for teaching. I went to one of the best Universities in Michigan for teaching, Northern Michigan University. I then promptly dropped out of the teaching program.

Why?

I was beginning to see how that would define me. As I got into my teaching classes I found that students were already getting cynical. I found that I was not getting support for math and sciences in our open discussions in class. I was finding it difficult to write papers on philosophies and issues that I did not agree on. I would not let it define me.

I got a degree in physics instead. Why? I thought physics was cool. I had no idea why. I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I just liked science and physics. So I graduated.

I got a good job but it did not satisfy me. Heck I lived in Russia for four months, I lived in Argentina for a month, and in Dubai for three months (I stayed in the original buildings that are shown with the arrow). Besides that I traveled all over the United States. Still not very fulfilling to me. It was not me. It was not the definition of who I wanted to be. So I went back to school.

I got a teaching degree along with a mathematics degree. I became a teacher. I was lucky. I did not get a teaching degree because I wanted a job, I got one because that is who I am.

So what does that mean to you?

Define - Learn - Do.

The better question that the guidance counselor could have asked is “what do you want to be?” I may have answered a professional football player, but hopefully she would have steered this 145 pound weakling in a different direction. I could have decided who I wanted to be. What I wanted to be. How I wanted to live. What I wanted to have. I could have formed a decision on that

Define

Instead of finding something that you want to do, define who you want to be. Once you define who it is that you want to be the steps are more simple. The steps are also in reverse order that we usually take them in.

Learn

Once you have defined yourself you learn how to become that person. For some it is education, and schooling. For some it may be an internship. For others it may simply be setting a stricked budget to get what they want.

Do

Once you have learned how to get what you have defined for yourself it is a matter of doing it. This can be very difficult because you are bound to make mistakes. Guess what, making mistakes is part of living. It tells you that you are alive. So make mistakes.

Let me give you a little secret. Instead of doing what it is that you think you need to do to get to your definition of life…that sentence and the process is very difficult to understand, I know I have done it that way for a long time…FIND SOMEONE WHO HAS DONE IT BEFORE AND DO WHAT THEY DO.

I am not yelling, just using it for emphasis. Don’t reinvent what has already been done. Just find someone who has the life that you want and copy what they do. Will that make you successful alone? No. But it will get you started. It will then be your task to make it your own. Making it your own, and living the way you want to live will be your success.

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Why do I like golf? To me golf is a meditation. It is a way for me to get away and be free from the day and the happenings around me. Why do we all need a place like this to go?

We all need a simple place to go to get balance back in our lives. In most of the World our lives are very stressful. Meditation is a great way to retain this center. It is a great way to get back to our basics to relax, to enjoy our lives, to slow down.

Life is fast. Many times in the last year I have been in school teaching all day, then coaching until the late evening, I get home and get on the computer and do some web design or some writing. For what? Is that what I really want out of my life? What am I working toward? I am working toward a simpler more free life. A life that lets me do the things I want to do.

Guess what. Sometimes we work so hard to get something that we think we want, or that we actually need that we sometimes overlook the fact that we already have that. Mediation, slowing down, taking time to reflect lets us see things that may be right in front of us.

One of the things that I would like to do is play more golf. It is a great mental and physical challenge. Probably the most mentally and physically challenging games there is. But I have been concentrating so much on working to get toward that goal I have hardly played in the last 8 months. Now that my sites are working and my life is changing and moving toward the goals that I wanted in the first place I have to slow down and play a little golf. I find that after I just go to the driving range I have a much easier time concentrating and getting things done.

Find what it is that works for you. Find your meditation. For some simply sitting in a quiet place with no outside distractions is their meditation. For others it is sitting down with a good book, and for still others it is some other hobby. Find what helps you relax and you will find that you may already have many of the things that you are working so hard to get.

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Who owns your life? You do. Actually the only thing you truly own is your life. I got that from a Los Lobos song called A Matter of Time. It is a great song.

It struck me that too many people go through life thinking that they are a part of life, that life owns them, they can only react to what life gives them. It is completely the opposite.

In the path of discovery we must first go through this step. We must, as Dr. Phil says, ‘get control of ourselves before we can ever begin to grow’. Of course I am paraphrasing but it seems that the messages are almost all the same.

It does not matter who you talk to, or listen to, or watch, they have a similar message. Life does not take you where you want to go as the popular saying goes, you take life where you want it to go. You own it.

Take control.

Take charge.

Live life and have fun.

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It

Coach Kip

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Up until now you were used to making friends through friends, work, your relatives, maybe school if you are at that age.  Very rarely did we not make friends through random contact.  But now Social Networking is fast changing the social norms of our society.  There is another medium to make friends.  For the first time user it may sound a bit strange to talk to someone you cannot see but this is the way friendship is bing offered on social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, or Facebook.

Being Yourself

Be careful you may just like it.  There are many reasons why the social networking sites have become so popular.  MySpace and Facebook are having a virtual battle for who is going to be the most popular.  MySpace is huge with the youngsters, and Facebook is gaining huge recognition among the Generation Xers and above.  To get on one is easy.  All you have to do is develop your profile on the social networking site.  You do not need to be an expert on the Internet to do this.  Often with just a little trial and error and some help from your friends you can have your very own profile.  Once your profile is active you have hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people just waiting to be your friend.    Before making friends with these people you have the chance to learn all about that person through their profile.  If it is not what you are looking for that is ok.  That just is not possible making friends the traditional way.

No Membership Fees

One way for people who were new to an area before was to join a club or group.  This is almost the same, but with no fees.  There are some sites that charge a fee to join, but the biggest, like Facebook and MySpace are free to join.

Extra Services Included

Facebook has recently opened its platform to developers.  This is great for you because now you get to join groups, engage in hobbies or pastimes, exchange information on any subject.  With the creativity of programmers you can add many things to your profile site such as music, videos, blogs, interactive calenders, and more.  The sites are exploding, and the usability seems endless right now.

Business Development

With the development of these sites people are finding that they can include their business on their profile and profit from it greatly.  In making new friends and relationships you can build clients, and joint venture opportunities.  Start now that aspect is just beginning to be developed.

Seeking friendship and relationships on social networking sites is a good way for any adult to make new friends, business relationships, and seek new ideas.

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What an interesting experiment. I had a great time doing so and it has been a complete eye opener to me. Here is what has happened.

After reading all the get rich quick, and make money now posts on the Internet I decided to see if it was real or not. I decided to see if it really was possible to make money quickly on line. So I set a goal. A big goal (at least to me). I decided to see if I could make $10,000 in about 4 months. This seems very possible if you read the Internet gurus, and the blogs about people who have done so.

I would not get rich, but it would prove that it could be done. I like money, and I thought that money would help us out a lot. But things change.

I was trying to do this while I was working two full time jobs. I am currently an Algebra I teacher in a Metro School in Nashville, TN. I was an Assistant Varsity Football coach who coached the Receivers in a Spread Offense, and the Outside Linebackers in a 3-3 Stack Defense. I also played a very significant role on Saturdays in planning for our opponent for the next week. For those of you in the know Receivers in a Spread Offense are a very key component. We threw for over 2,000 yards this season. Outside Linebackers (Bandits, Rovers, each defense has a different term) are a very important position on the defense.

I worked from 6:30am to 2:00 pm on academic related issues and from 2:30 to 6:30 on football issues. I woke up in the morning at 5:30am and went to bed at 9:30 pm.

So here is my time breakdown:

• 8 hours of sleep
• 7 ½ hours of academic time
• 4 hours of football time (7 hours on Saturday morning)
• 19 ½ hours dedicated to time that I could not work on the business. I really thought I could do some things while I was at school and my students were working on things. I forgot that I cared about my students and most of that time is taken up answering questions and solving 9th grade crisis’s.
• 4 ½ hours is all I had left to work on the business, eat dinner, try to stay fit (not working out too well), spend time with my wife, and be social.

So things change.

I recently spoke with the rest of the coaching staff and informed them that I will not be coming back next year. That alone frees up 4 hours a day and 7 hours on Saturday.

One of the best changes that happened is that I have a completely different view on what I want to accomplish. I no longer am tied to money. I no longer pray to the money god for guidance, a new house, and a brand new car. Those things were not the motivating factor in me becoming an independent business owner, and working from home. TIME! Time was the factor. In trying to do what I was doing the biggest thing I found was that I had no time.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved coaching. And I will coach again. I just plan on taking a year off to set up some income streams. I like teaching. But I do not see me going back in the classroom for a while. I am going to do some personal coaching and that will keep me connected with students, and able to still teach. I love getting on the Internet and developing businesses and business ideas. What I had a hard time doing was following through with those plans. I had a very difficult time staying focused on things. To me coming up with a plan is the easy part. Executing is not hard either. What I have a difficult time with is finishing.

Let me relate it to coaching. I love coming up with the game plan. I love coaching during the week. I love Friday nights under the lights. There is nothing better on earth. For those of you who have not been to a high school football game lately you should go next year. Just sit and enjoy it. They are great. The best part of Americana. Ok back on track.

Games are not the end point to me. The Championship is. The championship is the end of the season. Games individually are great but they are just one step closer to the end. The championship. In all my high school career, playing and coaching, I have always made the playoffs. It is great, and I am very greatfull for that. But we always got beat. Actually in all my high school career I have always lost to a team that made it to the finals.

I never got to finish a season. I never got to the end. I always was stopped. I don’t think that I am sabbatogeing myself toward my goal. I think that I desperately want to find the end. I desperately want to get to the end.

What is the end? The end for me is having a steady income stream that is passive. Something that I do not have to put a lot of time into to keep going. Something that will give me time. TIME TIME TIME! I like doing things. I do not like working. So I need to have something that will give me time.

Step back for just a minute.

My stats up until now are as follows:

9/9/2007 Begin $0.00
11/16/2007 Previous $345.17
12/7/2007 Gross $105.66
12/7/2007 Expenses ($49.92)
12/7/2007 Net $400.91

Which is pretty good considering I have done virtually no marketing other than social marketing.

If you look back at the stats, when I was primarily doing marketing I was making about $100 a week with just two products. I think that it is very plausible to make $1000 a week on ten products. But I decided that is not the direction that I wanted to go. Expenses were about ½ to ¾ of the profits. This still leaves you with a good income. But it takes a lot of time to keep up with them. It takes time to write the ads, and make sure that the keywords are still active. Google and Yahoo frequently change the price of keywords so it is a constant battle of changing keywords and bids to keep profits as high as possible. So I stopped doing that. It was too much work for to little profit.

What I have done is this:

• I have collaborated on two ebooks.
  I have updated and revised the 3-3 Stack Defense on EZ Playbook.
  I have written a book for Professor Moolah that is awaiting approval from Clickbank for marketing and sales.
• I have done a lot of back end work on Professor Moolah to get it set up for a complete learning and teaching site.
• I have in the works a complete redesign of EZ Playbook that will launch in February of 2008. This will add many interactive functions to the site and develop it into a social site for coaches, players, and fans. There is a lot of back end work being done so that the site can develop and grow in the future.
• I have done a complete custom WordPress design for http://www.trekkingaround.com and have begun the launch of the site. To do these things right it takes a lot of time.

So what is Trekking Around? It is me and my wife’s site about traveling. More specifically it is about us taking a year off and getting a boat to travel the Great Loop. A tour that will start in Nashville, TN this spring. We will travel up the Mississippi and cross over into Lake Michigan. We will go around the Great Lakes and end up in the Atlantic on the Easter Seaboard. From there we will travel down to the Bahamas or the Caribbean for Christmas and then we will either end up traveling back up to New York, or we will travel back to Nashville. That all depends on the next adventure.

As we travel we will promote Green living and run our Diesel engines on Biofuel. We are currently contacting boat manufacturers to find a live aboard that we can use in promotion and travel. We will use the boat to test the viability of Biofuel in a pleasure cruiser, and we will promote the manufacturer along our route by hosting open boat tours for people who are interested in boating, and doing so with low environmental impact.

We are far from hippies, and we are not into Greenpeace. We simply live in the environment and like it. So why not find ways that are inexpensive and low impact? We will be answering that question.

Plug plug – if you are interested in helping or sponsorship you can contact us directly at sponsor@trekkingaround.com until the site is fully up and running. Until then we hope to hear from you soon – end plug

Whew! I have done a lot. Nothing that will get me $10,000 by December 31st, but I have done a lot that will get me an income stream that will allow me to take a year to study environmentally low impact boat travel, and put my life on track for independent living in the future.

And I am Happy!

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It.

Coach Kip

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The first part of any adventure, project, or rebuilding of one self is Conceive It.  Conceive It is simply setting goals, determining how one is going to reach those goals, and setting a time line for those goals.  Sounds simple, but we have all done these many times, sometimes with success, sometimes without.  What makes the difference between being successful and not?  Taking the right approach.

Starting off on the right foot is never given enough credit.  Probably because too many people use it as a cliché.  The true meaning of Conceive It is getting your ideas in order, reflecting or meditating on it, and setting up a process that cannot fail.  We can all do this, and this is how:

Setting Goals:  This will soon be another post on the subject, but we can set up some standards here.  Goals should be set in two ways.  Always set goals in a positive manner.  Never be anti something, never be against something.  Always set goals in a way that achieves something.  This can be a little tricky at first but it gets easier as you get the hang of it.  Always set goals in the now.  By setting goals in the now we begin to act as if we already have it, or have done it.  Setting goals in the now also makes you review constantly to see if you have achieved that goal.  Quick example:

Bad Goal:  I will lose 20 lbs by next year.
Reason Why:

1. It is negative.  Lose is a negative word.  We don’t want to see negative words all the time.  What fun is trying to get something that is negative.
2. It is in the future.  If I have not lost 20 lbs then that is ok because I have not failed in my goal.  I still want to lose 20 lbs, so I still have that goal.
3. Not a firm deadline.  Next year is vague.  What happens in 2008?  Well if I have not lost 20 lbs then I still can in 2009.  No goal reached, no goal to reach.

Good Goal:  I weight 170 lbs on January 24th of 2008.
Reason Why:

1. It is in the positive.  I weigh.  Nothing negative about that.
2. It is as if I already weigh 170 lbs.  At the time of writing this I have just come off of a 6 month season of constant coaching.  Unfortunately this also means stress.  When I get stressed I drink soda, coffee, and I eat sugar.  I currently weight almost 190 lbs.  I have a small frame so that is big for me.  Saying I weigh 170 lbs and seeing that goal all the time gives me something to work towards.  It is a constant reminder that this is where I need to be at.
3. It has a definite time line.  I gave myself until the 24th.  That is just before the Superbowl.  This will give me time to get through the holidays, and a few extra weeks for watching the rest of the football season.

Learning:  Part of the Conceive it part is learning just what it takes to get what you want.  As you are setting goals you are learning.  You are learning from yourself just what it is that you want.  As you are learning you are adjusting your goals to make them realistic and to narrow them into what you want.  It is human nature to change.  As you learn about what you are trying to Achieve you are narrowing in on the final result.  This is part of the Conceive process.  You are forming and reforming your ideas, and your goals.

Doing:  Once the goals are refined, and the research into what you really want is done, it is time to start doing.  This is the ending of the Conceive stage.  Initially as you begin there will be adjustments and refinements to goals and to what you want as your end result.  It is ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from these mistakes.  Edison said he did not fail 10,000 times before he made the light bulb work.  He just found 10,000 ways that it does not work.  It is part of the Conceive stage.  Action always beats inaction.  Standing still never got anyone anywhere.  If you are making mistakes then that is one less that you have to make on your way to success.  If you are standing still you still have to go through all those mistakes before success anyway.  So move forward.  Get going.  Get doing.

Conceive It

Coach Kip

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