Speed Wealth

Another great book. Short and sweet, "Speedwealth: How to make a million in your own business in 3 years or less" by T. Harv Eker summarizes business essentials in clear cut language. Contrary to its title, Eker promotes thinking and habits for a long term financial growth rather than common get rich quick schemes.

He also concludes, which echoes many prosperity books I'm reading, that money is just part of wealth and that you won't get far if you don't address self-development and have a will to be happy .

For more on Eker, check out his company Peak Potentials and other related websites millionairemind and harveker.com .

Read More......

Science of Getting Rich

I've been so swamped with dozens of books on wealth creation that I have been jumping from one to another. But suddenly this book "Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles caught my attention and so far I think it will be the focal point of my small library. Written in the early 1900s, its lessons and ideas seem to have reverberated to every other related texts that I have been reading.

And there's something about the tone and usage of words that is so alive, hypnotic and mysterious yet somehow so undeniably truthful.

You have to read it...

Some links to check out:
http://wallacewattles.wwwhubs.com/
http://www.wallacewattles.com/
http://www.scienceofgettingrich.net/wally.html

Read More......

Filipino Books on Getting Rich (Part 1)

Today I spent hard earned P280 on a book "Negosyo: Joey Concepcion's 50 Inspiring Entrepreneurial Stories". It is the first Filipino book I've bought in a long time, not so much as I'm not impressed with Filipino authors but more because printing is usually of lower quality despite almost same prices of foreign counterparts. Lousy excuse, I know.

In any case, like so many aspiring entrepreneurs, I felt that even with access to books by Trump, Kiyosaki, Buffet and the like, there is something so very unique with Philippine economy that someone like me would need a more accurate map to navigate within our own business territory.

Indeed, there are universal rules of business (whatever they are, maybe in a future post) and obviously they should be applicable in any time and place - for example selling higher than what goods or services cost you. But for specific strategies, especially if an entrepreneur wants to apply the solid approach of "modeling", it is important to know how people who are more or less like you, a Filipino, succeeded in the Philippines.

There were lots of choices in the bookstore, but I wanted something light and inspiring to start. "Negosyo" was my pick as it would also help me in my subproject to choose and focus later on one particular Filipino businessman I can research in depth and maybe meet some day.

Too bad though, Sandy Javier who created the super successful Andok's Chicken franchise wasn't among the featured entrepreneurs. His, I heard, was a real classic rags to riches story.

Read More......

My VIP Life website

A great site that offers what I have been looking for in terms of my need for inspiration to really go for the gold.

It has been a habit already to write down in notebooks and pads my goals and "material" things to inspire me in pursuing those goals. But only recently did I take the advice of having these inspirations and aspirations to be visually available. The website myviplife.com completely provides this.

There's no argument that images (as well as sound and smell and touch) provide a deeper level of emotional impact rather than concepts in words, unless you are a creative genius. When you have that impact, you can keep your momentum in whatever it is you are focusing on despite the inevitable bumps and detours you will encounter.

Useful for my purpose and for those wealth seekers, the website bombards you with tons of the articles with all the pictures (even video clips) of luxury hotels, cars, gadgets, getaways and whatnot. Although not very exhaustive, a reference library of famous successful people with short articles and quotes is also a treat - all in one website.

It's sister site, a wiki , found at www.wikisuccess.org complements MyVIPlife. I booked marked the two websites immediately, made a wallpapers of Burj Al Arab Hotel and Bugatti Veyron car, and plan to print out a lot of images and stuff it in my notebooks and everywhere else.

Read More......

Rich and Poor Filipinos

How reading Kiyosaki books can change perspectives...

Like most Filipinos, I grew up with a secret hatred towards rich Filipinos we see on TV and newspapers. The outlook on them I must say is not uncommon and often very vocal - these guys could have only been rich by exploiting in one way or another the rest us. They're tax evaders, cronies from the fallen dictatorship, criminals, politicians or puppet masters of politicians, etc.

But recently, loading my brain with all the Kiyosaki books and other books on wealth/prosperity, the old perspective in my head was disrupted. Are these "filthy rich" individuals such "bad guys", or are we just jealous of their success, that they can make it in this society where most fail miserably? Aren't these Lucio Tan's and Henry Sy's keeping the nation afloat and should we not actually appreciate them?

Before the Rich Dad books, I remember my father (though never a businessman) had once defined business as creation and exchange of value. My mother (neither a business person much less rich) had defined money as a tool for freedom. I was young then and I only knew money can buy me more transformers and GI Joe's.

But strangely, those two comments by my parents were never repeated again or expounded on when I grew up. And honestly, now that they make sense, I never actually saw my parents apply these important concepts about wealth.

So I read the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book and the succeeding books and even got the game and audio courses. (By the way I first resisted reading books for years because too many liked them and in that I thought anything mainstream was probably crap)

In summary, it took a lot of rereading of Kiyosaki and at an appropriate time in my life to realize that there are really more deeper, less obvious reasons why there are rich and why there are poor and middle class people. They do and more importantly think things differently. Of course, the blame will never end - we were born here, the government doesn't protect us, we didn't get the right education, and so on.

Kiyosaki had discussed how the Robbinhood myth and mentality had worsened the plight of the poor and middle class by putting the blame on the rich. In this way, have-not's don't do much to uplift their lives because the situation they're in is not their fault anyway. And historically, the author says, taxes were promoted by the poor and middle class to get back at the rich. Obviously, it backfired.

Also, Kiyosaki's "rich dad" perhaps cruelly said that it's the poor people who tend to be selfish and rich people who tend to be generous.

At some point we have to realize we will always have our freedom to change our lives and our lives can only change by changing first and foremost our thoughts. In the issue of wealth and poverty, we must change how we think about money and everything that is related to it.

For me, I'm willing myself to change these thoughts - it is impossible for me to be rich, it's too difficult, money is not important, having too much is evil, only those born into wealthy families can be rich.

I think now, instead of contempt for the rich Filipinos we must see their contributions to the economy, providing more jobs, businesses, money for NGO's, infrastructures and so on. But beyond all that and ultimately rich people show us that it is possible to make it in this world and how it's done.

Why the trouble? Yes, man does not live on bread alone, but in this world we all live in money can make it a hell of a lot easier to do what we really really want in life. And corny as it may be, when all the fear and stress and daily grind die down, we all in the end want to accomplish something positive and something beautiful.

Read More......