Clint Walkingstick

WARNING: If you love using credit cards please don’t read the rest of this post. 

 

 

Yes, it’s a rant. Yes, I’m happy you think I’m wrong. Yes, we can still be friends.

 

Debt is acid that eats your wealth. -Dave Ramsey

 

What’s in YOUR wallet? Sulfuric acid apparently. Because credit cards help you to bleed money. 

Bleeding money is stupid, especially when you don’t have/earn much of it.

Folks that use credit cards want to feel wealthy. They like the feeling of having available money to do whatever they want with no consequences. Yeah, that’s a good feeling. That feeling will last, until the bill comes. Then you’ll feel stressed and poor again. You’ll feel locked to a job you probably hate (because you are) and the worst part is, you did it to yourself.

 

Feeling wealthy is great, but freedom from debt…feels worlds better.

Don’t DISCOVER the heavy chains of financial slavery. Don’t accept a card for a MASTER. No, life does not take VISA, it sucks away the very freedom that makes you feel alive.

A credit card is a tick. No one needs a tick. Don’t let ticks suck your blood, no matter how many airline miles, Disney Vacations or free hats they offer you.

Track what you spend and where you spend it. Paper and pencils and Google spreadsheets are free. But they only work if you use them. You have the maturity to use them. But you must prove you have it every day. Will you choose to be mature? Or will you choose to be a lazy child?

Your behaviors (not your income) will either make you wealthy or leave you broke.

Shhh, listen. Hear that. I can hear you whining and making excuses. Can you hear it? That sound, like someone slowly letting air out of a balloon. That’s what you sound like in real life when you defend the marketing efforts of giant banks that treat you like you’re stupid.

I don’t think you’re stupid. I think you’re trapped.

Did you know that money problems have nothing to do with money. Money problems are behavior problems.

What you DO matters. I want you to DO great and wonderful things. I want you to have the means to do a bunch of great and wonderful things. The wise use of money brings scale to good deeds. Money helps to give you the means to work miracles. 

You CAN make the world a better place. It starts with your behaviors.

Questions from: The Richest Man In Babylon by George S. Clason

First, a history lesson: George Samuel Clason was an American author who is most associated with his book The Richest Man in Babylon (first published in 1926).

George was born in Louisiana, Missouri. He attended the University of Nebraska and served in the United States Army during the Spanish–American War. Clason started two companies, the Clason Map Company of Denver Colorado and the Clason Publishing Company. The Clason Map Company was the first to publish a road atlas of the United States and Canada, and did not survive the Great Depression.

George is best known for writing a series of informational pamphlets about being thrifty and how to achieve financial success. He started writing the pamphlets in 1926, using parables that were set in ancient Babylon. Banks and insurance companies began to distribute the parables, and the most famous ones were compiled into the book The Richest Man in Babylon – The Success Secrets of the Ancients. He’s credited with coining the phrase, “Pay yourself first.”

His book dispenses financial advice through a collection of parables set in Babylon. Through their experiences in business and managing household finance, the characters in the parables learn simple lessons in financial wisdom.

Here’s a challenge: This weekend, answer these questions for yourself and take the few simple steps it takes to put these ideas into practice. They won’t help you unless you help yourself.

Don’t wanna read the whole book? Here’s a Youtube link to an audio version.

Here’s a good article about the book. And let’s not forget the Wiki page which goes into a bit more detail about each idea.

Questions from: The Richest Man In Babylon – George S. Clason

1. Start thy purse to fattening
2. Control thy expenditures
3. Make thy gold multiply
4. Guard thy treasures from loss
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment
6. Insure a future income
7. Increase thy ability to earn

The 5 laws of gold:

• Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
• Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
• Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
• Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.
• Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

1. A part of all you earn is yours to keep
2. Men of action are favored by the goddess of good luck
3. Better a little caution than a great regret
4. We cannot afford to be without adequate protection
5. Where the determination is, the way can be found

If you wanna read the book (which I totally recommend that you do) here’s a link. Speaking of books, I’m writing one but I need your help.

I need answers for the following questions:

1. Who is this book for?

2. Who does it help?

3. What should it be called?

Enter your email address for updates about it and I’ll send you some digital goodies including the initial chapter listing, a link to my idea archive, and some wallpapers (for phone, tablet, and monitor) that you can use right now. I appreciate you.

— Clint’s Notes —

How to Think Like an Entrepreneur

by Philip Delves Broughton

 

 

Caution: This on gets a little…ranty.

“Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator, one of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial incubator programs, says the underlying reason most startups fail is that they become demoralized.”

Hearing the word “No” tends to take the wind out of your sails. Hearing it a bunch can be a huge gut check. It may begin to feel like no one believes in what you’re doing. You may even start to feel lonely and start questioning if you’re crazy. That’s why it’s so important that you deeply care about what you’re building. If what you’re building truly helps, you will eventually find your audience. Finding them may take dedication and long hours. But, I always say, “Hard work is the minimum requirement.”

Your level of optimism WILL be tested when starting a business and working to get it off the ground.

 

“The economist Daniel Kahneman writes: The emotional, cognitive and social factors that support exaggerated optimism are a heady brew, which sometimes lead people to take risks that they would avoid if they knew the odds. There is no evidence that risk takers in the economic domain have an unusual appetite for gambles on high stakes; they are merely less aware of risks than more timid people are.”

I’d argue that crazy folks like me who set out on their own are VERY aware of the risks. The very real presence of financial failure is one of the biggest motivating factors in determining how hard you’re willing to work to minimize that risk.

I have this daydream, day nightmare?…Daymare? Anyway, in my head I picture my kids going to the fridge, opening it up, finding nothing to eat. They then turn to me and say, “Daddy, we’re hungry.” THAT is just one of the horrifying thoughts that push me toward working hard to make sure that never happens. I’m not going to tell you about the other awful thoughts that spook me into working hard, you ain’t my therapist.

“You get to decide how to work, what to work on, and how to divide the rewards.” This is one of the best and worst things about being your own boss. If you win big, good job. If you don’t, the only person to blame is in the mirror.

My wife and I have talked about how ruined we’ve become to the rest of the working world. We have such little tolerance for poorly led and operated businesses that to work for someone else would drive us crazy. Here’s a distinction you’ve gotta make. Kacey (my wife) works with people, not for them. I work with clients, not for them. See the difference? We laugh and say that someone would have to offer us an obscene amount of money and authority for us to ever work for someone else.

Once you taste the freedom of calling the shots for yourself, it’s very difficult to give it up. On the other hand, some folks are more comfortable with someone else calling the shots. The world needs folks who’d rather show up, do a job, go home, and do it all over again the next day. That just ain’t me, nor is it my wife.

“Entrepreneurship is a powerful means of arranging life to enable one’s fulfillment, and it is this ineffable opportunity which colors people’s view of its risks.” Daniel Kahneman writes on, “When action is needed, optimism, even of the mildly delusional variety, may be a good thing.”

Yes, It’s a very good thing. I’d rather be a mildly delusional optimist who took the risk to work for himself, rather than a rat chained to a computer monitor getting my fluorescent lighting tan on. Now, Mr. Kahneman is great, go watch his TED talk. 

Howard Stevenson, a professor at Harvard Business School defines entrepreneurship as: “…the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resource currently controlled.”

Um, no Howie, I have a huge amount of “regard” for the “resources” I currently control. In fact the more “regard” I have for it the more careful I am about making business decisions. Especially when it comes to the opportunities that I create for myself. I have tons of ideas, almost all of them are crap. The small number of ideas I more forward with are carefully considered and are pursued non-fatally.

What!? Non-fatally, what does that mean Clint? I do things with cash. Cash that I have in the bank. Doing so allows me to try new ideas from a stable financial platform. It also means that I don’t try things that would leave the bank account completely empty if the idea fails. Because if the idea fails, I’m not financially sunk. Nor am I stuck owing money to banks or other financial institutions.

But, but, doesn’t this mean you’ll miss out on some opportunities!?!? Yes, yes it does. Oh well. If I have to use debt to do the idea, the idea probably isn’t that good anyway. What this means is that I grow slowly. I grow solidly. I grow with a solid cash platform under feet so when I fail, I don’t fall very far and don’t endanger my ability to provide for my family.

Some “entrepreneurs” find my perspective untenable, and that’s just fine. It’s a free country with plenty of space for folks like Howard Stevenson. But, I have no investors, banks, or credit card companies breathing down my neck to pay them. If I have to grow a little more slowly, to have the peace that comes with having no one to answer to, then I choose slow and peaceful. And remember kids, slow and steady wins the race, every time I read that book. That’s the wisdom of the tortuous for ya.

 

“If you can find your customer’ pain and heal it, how you do it and how much you charge will scarcely matter.”

 

That’s an idea I can get behind! If their pain is great enough, they’ll pay you to fix it. But, some folks are comfortable with their pain. That’s fine, all that means is that they aren’t your customer, yet. If they’re just cheap, that’s fine too. Let them go be cheap to someone else. And keep this quote in mind: “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” – Red Adair

“Entrepreneurs must also be many things: thinkers and doers, artist and scientists, lone decision-makers and dependable team-builders.” Having an idea is great but ideas are a dime a dozen. Having an idea and doing something about it is even better. Having an idea, telling folks about it, getting them onboard with your idea, and accomplishing the goal of the idea with their help is where the magic is.

“In 2011, when Bill Gates visited the University of Washington, a student asked him how she could become as rich as he was. Gates said he started out with the goal of being super-rich. ’Most people who have done well have just found something they’re nuts about doing. Then they figure out a system to hire their friends to do it with them.’”

“Money can be a wonderful reward for entrepreneurs. But it’s not the one my one. And to think like an entrepreneur, you need to know what it is you value most and to stick to it whatever distractions come your way.”

I agree with this idea as well. If “getting rich” is your aim your perspective is skewed. It’s the folks that enter the marketplace with a mindset of service that have the highest potential for financial gain. What you value, you protect. Your values are the lens through with you do everything in your business. If you value only money, folks will smell that and keep away. If you value serving, your customers will want what you have to offer and be proud to tell their friends about you.

On why people with more experience (read older) tend to be paid more than younger folks in the same field: “The fact that we tend to improve our human capital (the sum total of our education, training, health and subtler qualities emerging from experience) over time explains why older people are paid more the younger people in most organizations.”

In some cases, monetarily rewarding experience (read: wisdom gained by applying acquired knowledge to the real world of the marketplace) is a requirement to keep good people on your team. However, I believe this principle breaks down when it’s misunderstood as “I should get paid more because I’ve been around along time.” I fully disagree with the latter sentiment.

The question you’ve got to ask yourself daily is, “If I had to hire this person again today, would I?” If the answer is no, set them free to find a more healthy work environment. If it’s yes, make sure you’re doing everything you can to train, guide, and support that person as they serve you and your business.

I refuse to work in environments where the people that stick around the longest get paid more, even long after their marketplace value has significantly declined. To me, that’s a sign of piss poor leadership that I won’t tolerate. Filling a chair for a lengthy amount of time has no bearing on how much pay you should receive. Your pay should be based on the value you bring to your organization, period.

“…process of intense self-observation and self-awareness is vital to anyone thinking of embarking on an entrepreneurial adventure.”

This makes me think of the quote: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” — Mark Twain

Spend the time to figure out who you are and how you can best help folks. Knowing that will shape everything you do in your business. Do the work necessary to uncover and rediscover what you really care about. Find out what makes you tick and how by spending some time thinking about your strengths. Here are some question to help you get started:

• What are people always asking your advice about?
• What can you do that others find amazing?
• When someone asks for your help, what kind of help do they ask for?
• What business tasks energize you to take action?
• What business tasks drain you?
• What business tasks do you avoid?
• What do you find yourself doing/thinking/making when you’re avoiding you’re ’work?’

For more, read How to Think Like an Entrepreneur by Philip Delves Broughton

How to Keep Your Perceptions In Check

 

Your perception does not shape your reality. It simply colors reality to suit your desires, goals, and feelings.

 

Okay, I can tell you think I’m nuts…again. So, here’s some proof:

Have you ever felt you were correct but discovered you weren’t?
Have you ever discovered you have misjudged someone?
Have you ever tried to cut your own hair?

In those cases your perception abruptly met uncolored reality. It’s how we learn about the world around us. We’re governed by physical and spiritual laws that act as guardrails to our perception. This helps to keep our spirits and our bodies healthy.

How you choose to respond to these quick perception adjustments reveal the strongest or weakest parts of your character.

 

It’s up to you to explore where your perceptions color your world. Everything in your life can be viewed through these two lenses of perception and reality. Getting comfortable with justifying one with the other can be a source of great clarity.

My encouragement is to get intentional about examining your perceptions. Justify them with the spiritual and physical laws of reality. Doing so will create much fewer jarring moments of realignment. The more often you perform this realignment, the easier it will become. You’ll also gain a much more even keeled perspective.

The easy reaction to an abrupt perception alignment is often anger. Jolted, we often dig back into our skewed perceptions. This is because it’s often scary to align our perceptions with reality. When we choose to respond by taking a step back, we gain wisdom from seeing the forest, instead of the trees. When we take a mature look at where our perceptions skew, we will gain much needed perspective. That new perspective can help us to gain a new understanding of the people and things in our lives.

Here are some questions to answer for yourself:

• What relationships are positively or negatively being colored by my perception?
• What must I intentionally do to realign this relationship with reality?
• Is my perception positively or negatively affecting how I treat others?
• Is my perception positively or negatively affecting how I speak to others?
• Is my perception positively or negatively affecting the things I tell myself?
• What must I intentionally do to realign my perception with reality in each of these cases?

How to Expand Your Comfort Zone and Enjoy Your Life Even More

 

I recently did this exercise after reading the book How To Stay Sane by Philippa Perry.

This, like any other exercise, only helps/works if you do it. So, do it and prove me wrong. Or, go through the exercise and stop caring about proving people wrong. Either way, you’ll benefit.

 

Draw an egg sized circle in the middle of a piece of plain paper. In that circle write examples of things/activities you feel completely comfortable doing.

Around the edge of the circle write examples of activities that you can do but that you have to push yourself a little bit to do – those activities that may make you nervous in some way, but not so much as to stop you from doing them.

Draw a larger circle around this circle of activities like you’re making a bullseye.

In the next band, write activities that you would like to do, but find it difficult to get up the courage to do. Draw another circle around this ring of activities.

Last, write the things you are far too scared to try, but would like to do.

It’s useful to consider what we are comfortable with and what we are not, and then to experiment with expanding our area of comfort. Remember, whatever you try is for yourself alone. It does not matter what anyone else will think. The big idea is to expand your comfort zone in small steps.

When you start to push out from your center circle to gradually include the other zones, you’ll feel more confident about all the challenges inside the center circle.

 

Also, when you set yourself do-able challenges and succeed, your self esteem and confidence will rise in all areas. If you don’t succeed, what you’ll learn will prove to be invaluable about how to tackle the next challenge.

If you don’t keep testing your limits, your comfort zone shrinks back. So keep pushing!