It is almost impossible for me to pass up a good contest, so I have entered one at Site Flip University (http://www.siteflipu.com). Bryan Clark is the webmaster and has a great site going. See the contest here:
The contest is to get an original site up and running and attracting visitors within 30 days. It does seem like a long time, but to get some good visitors it is no time at all.
How can you help? Sign up for my feed, and visit often. This may be against contest rules, but if you are not cheating (or maybe just bending the rules a little bit) you are not trying .
Again vote for me by subscribing to my RSS feed and my soon to be email list. Also don’t forget my competitors. Visit them also there are a lot of very talented people out there.
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.”
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.
If you have read Robert Kiyosaki’s books you know that one of his big griefs is that schools do not teach proper financial knowledge. After working in the school system, in primarily low income and first generation middle class schools, I have come to not only agree with this statement, but to say that this lack of financial Knowledge is about to seriously hurt us as a country.
I don’t to come across as a doomsdayer here. I don’t believe that we are already in full crisis mode, but I do see us racing toward that. Without the proper financial knowledge the poor and the middle class are just going to get weaker, and the rich are going to get stronger. There is going to be an ever widening gap.
For me growing up in a solid middle class family I was not given any financial knowledge at all. As a matter of fact speaking about money was almost as bad as speaking about sex. My parents were deeply in debt, and they still are. As I learn more I am beginning to realize that my parents are even deeper in debt than they think. It is a shame.
So who has to make up for it? Well in my case it is me, my brother and sisters. But are we going to be in any better shape? Not without learning on our own. The only financial knowledge I got in school was how to balance my checkbook, and an elective class on the stock market crash of the 20’s and the Great Depression, and most of that class was on the Great Depression.
It is an evil cycle to get into and very difficult to break out of. In our school we say we give education about finances but it still is taboo. I run a game at the end of my Algebra class that I call Rich Student. Yes it is a total rip off of Robert Kiyosaki’s books, but it does not have anything to do with his game. The discussions in the class are limited only due to time. We talk a little bit about how Real Estate works, a little bit about how the Stock Market and true investing works, and we talk about developing incomes on line. Some students get it right away and do well, some never understand. But, if the students don’t have me as a teacher they will go their whole career without getting any financial education at all.
Lets talk solutions, not problems. So what is needed?
Budgeting Skills
We need to go beyond balancing the checkbooks, beyond saying simple subtract our bills from our paycheck, and start teaching what the rich already know. We need to teach our students to pay themselves first and if they can’t pay their bills they need to either figure out how to eliminate some, or find more money somewhere.
Credit Scores
It seems to me that the middle class and the poor must rely on their credit scores more an more to get out of where they are at. How do we protect this? How do banks calculate this. Most students, and probably their parents, have no idea what this means. They need help to get out of where they are at. That help is so dependent on this score. Students need to understand more about this.
Real Estate
Not only do the students not understand about houses they are misinformed. Houses may be an investment if bought properly, but they are not an asset. Students have no idea that they can pay up to 4 times the purchase price for a home after all their payments are done. They have no idea that a larger down payment and a better credit score will result in lower payments. They have no idea how to buy a house that will result in an income generation.
Investing
Students are completely confused about investing. They think that their parents are investors because they have a 401K or some mutual funds. They have no idea what it means to be an investor and invest in companies. As a matter of fact most students are afraid of investing in companies because they think that it is too hard. They don’t understand how to do it so they don’t. They have no idea what the difference is between a mutual fund, a retirement plan, and what stocks, or shares in a company are.
It is a no wonder that underprivileged kids think that the only way that they are going to make money is to play sports, rap, or deal drugs. It is sad that those are their heroes. If you disagree substitute teach in a public city school and listen to the conversations. You may be surprised at what they talk about.
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.
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.
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.
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.
All top coaches are different. That is usually what makes them a top coach. Whether it is Coach Krzyzewski at Duke, Coach Belichick at New England, or your high school coach like , they all have a few of the same characteristics that we can learn from.
Set Goals
All coaches work around setting goals. They also set goals in a particular order: Biggest to Smallest. The biggest goal is always the same: Win a Championship. After they have set this goal and made it public they then forget about it. What good coaches do is set as big a goal as possible. Then they set goals that will lead up to that big goal. Once the goals are set they work only on the next step or the next goal. They completely forget about the biggest goal and focus intently on the task at hand. By doing this they are consistently the best in their sport.
Have a Plan
Once goals are set all coaches sit down and plan. They do their best to outline the best plan that they can. They also know that even the best laid plans can go out the window once the action begins. The point is not that they have a plan just to have one, but they make the plan flexible enough that it can change. I would recommend that everyone go to a big time college, or a pro practice someday. Most have open practices at some point. Watch how rigid the time is kept, how players and coaches move from task to task in a fluid motion. Notice how much they can get done in a planned two hour time frame. It is very impressive.
Practice Then Perform
Once the goals are set they reflect on what is needed now. Then they practice those skills that are needed for the next step. While practicing these skills they know that it will lead them to achieving the next goal, and ultimately the ultimate goal. Once they have practiced they perform. They know that without practice they will not be able to perform to their highest standard. They also know if they do not have to perform at some point they will never get better. Practice hones skills, performance makes champions.
Reevaluate
Once they perform all good coaches take time to reflect on what is needed next. They reset small goals, evaluate themselves, their assistants, and their team on whether or not they reached any of the preliminary goals. Many great coaches will win games and be completely disappointed in their performances because they did not reach goals that were set. Remember small goals are set to reach bigger goals. They can perform and win, but if they do not reach the goals that they have set for themselves then they set up their practices and new goals so that when they perform again they can reach their goals.
Never Give Up
Many times in games when the top coaches teams are winning by a large margin you will hear the commentators saying ‘look that coach is coaching right to the end’. It is part of never giving up. It is part of doing everything for one reason, to become the best that they can be. They also know that one loss or one setback does not make the entire season. Seasons are long. There are not many sports where you have to be perfect to be able to win the championship. If there is a setback and goals are not reached they do a simple thing, practice harder, push more, work harder, but never ever give up.
Recruit the Best
All coaches know that they cannot do it alone. They all need good assistants and good players. I have heard it said ‘We can sit around a talk X’s and O’s all day and we would get a lot accomplished. But when it comes down to it if your X’s and O’s are bigger, faster, and stronger than my X’s and O’s then I don’t have much of a chance of winning’. The same can be true for you. It does not matter if you are trying to make yourself better in business, or if you are just trying to make yourself the best you can be if you have yourself surrounded by losers it is going to be difficult to make yourself better. Surround yourself with winners, surround yourself with the best people possible. You control your own destiny, decide what you want and find similar people to help you achieve those goals.
Watch and observe. You can learn a lot about life from many many different sources.
I saw this video on Stumble and then went to YouTube to see if I could find it. So I typed in success to see how far and how hard I would have to look before I found it. I had to look all the way to the bottom of page 5 before I found it. My previous post from TED was on page one.
It is so sad to be in the schools every day and see just how little opportunity that the underprivileged kids have. I don’t just mean black students either. I have Latin Americans (Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, San Salvador), Kurdish, Africans (Congo, Egypt, Sudan), Laos, White kids, and more. They are all in the same situation. It is not that there are no opportunities, it is that they do not see any opportunities.
So this is the problem. These young, smart, men, and women on these videos are great. They are great role models. They are preaching the right message. They are preaching that everyone has a chance, everyone has a right to succeed and there is a simple way to do so. You work hard, you persevere, you don’t give up, and you simply work through all the negativity.
That is not so easy for these students. I try my best in my class to teach my kids not only Algebra, but to teach these students through education that they have a chance. They just have to work hard, they have to put in the time, they have to do something to be something.
It is great, I see their eyes light up, I see their posture change, they begin to smile, and they go to work.
They act like this because many times this is the only time that they ever have anyone say anything good about them. It is the first time that anyone has ever told them that they have a chance.
But what happens when they leave my class room? They hear profanity in the hall ways, they see their friends cutting up in class, they are told that they don’t have to do their home work. They go home to fatherless and motherless houses. They don’t have family around them when it is time for them to go to bed. They don’t have any positive influences.
They watch negative TV. They listen to negative music (and I don’t mean rap, I mean the violence and the sexual mistreatment in many of the songs that they listen to). They have nothing but negativity in their lives.
So what happens? The next day when they get back to my room they don’t have their work done. As a matter of fact they have not done one problem since they left my room the day before. I say what happened? Why did you not do your work? Do you not remember what we talked about yesterday?
The answers are all the same. “I lost it, I did not know how to do it, it is in my locker, I left it at home.” No, they did not do it. Not because of them, but because of the outside forces.
As a society we need to do something. We need positive role models to overtake all the negativity on the streets and on TV. We need to celebrate the good things that have happened. We need to treat everyone like they are the next best thing to happen.
We need to hold people accountable for who they are.
We need to hold people accountable for who they are.
Read it one more time very slowly.
We need to hold people accountable for who they are.
