Motivation 11: Your True Hourly Wage

Do you want real motivation to leave your job and get to work on your own business? If the cars, houses, vacations, and freedom haven't yet motivated you, then I am certain that this posting will. The activity that I am about to describe below is truly eye-opening.

Before we get into the details of the exercise, let me first give credit where credit is due. One of my FAVORITE all time books on money, Your Money or Your Life presents a ton of unique perspectives on careers and money, but none resonated with me the way that this exercise did. I would highly recommend clicking on the hyperlink above and picking up the book for yourself, but if nothing else, at least follow this exercise as directed below and you will be SHOCKED at the results.

The exercise is called "Calculating Your True Hourly Wage". It is designed to help you realize that the great "career path" you are currently heading down may not be as great as you imagined. Let's start with your current "hourly" wage. For the purpose of this example, I am going to use $20/hour. This is certainly considered a respectable wage in our society, but we are about to see just how deceiving (And disappointing!) that number really is. For the rest of the exercise, we will represent this hourly wage as a simple ratio as shown in the image below.
Makes sense so far, right? For an eight hour day, your employer pays you $160. Well this is where the exercise gets interesting. Now we are going to apply some modifiers to the top and bottom of this ratio to account for the conditions of the real world.

Let's start with the top. That $160 sounds nice until you start to adjust for taxes, lunch, fuel, car depreciation, and various supplies such as clothes, briefcases, etc. The numbers below are just examples, you should try and come up with your own numbers. In the example below, that daily take home pay quickly drops to $101.

Now let's move to the bottom of the ratio. Again, the 8 hours that your company pays you for is actually a much larger number when you add in your commute, your lunch break, your prep time prior to work, and finally your decompression (think Miller Lite and Seinfeld reruns) after a rough day at work. This example works out something like this:
Now with the top and bottom modified, let's revisit that equation again......
Ouch. No more twenty dollars per hour for you! As it turns out, the true reward for your toils in the office/restaurant/factory is far less than you realized. Kind of depressing isn't it?

NO!

It isn't supposed to be depressing, it is supposed to be liberating, motivating, and EXCITING! If you leave your job, you won't be leaving nearly as much behind as you thought! So what are you waiting for? Scroll through the list of alternate career paths on the right of the page and find the one that fits you. After all, what have you got to lose (other than that 9 measly bucks an hour?)?

Path 18: Following the Herd (ie. Technical Analysis)

Resources On The Topic:

Technical Analysis For Dummies by Barbara Rockefeller
Chart Your Way To Profits by Tim Knight
Yahoo Finance
Rob Black's Website and Podcast

When I say the word "lemmings", what comes to mind? Most of us think of a herd of lemmings following their leader off a cliff to a horrible mass suicide. While the legend of the lemming is pure fiction, the lessons learned apply extremely well to human nature. In fact, a whole genre of investment strategies have been born by studying this "herd mentality". That genre is known as Technical Analysis. We discussed Value Investing (aka fundamental analysis) in a previous posting, and now we will look at it's evil brother.

For starters, let's briefly discuss the herd mentality and talk about a case study, the recent housing collapse. Home prices escalated at an utterly unsustainable rate over the past few years, constantly luring in more and more investors. Many people who rode this wave up made millions as long as they were smart enough to jump out of the game before it all came crashing down. Technical analysis aims to use mathematical methods to look for these waves in the stock market. If a wave can be identified, investors can hop in, ride the wave up, and (HOPEFULLY!) hop out before it all comes crashing down.

While this posting is far too brief to dive into the full details of technical analysis, let's hit the basic concept:

These waves (known as trends) often occur in similar, repeatable patterns, which can be manipulated for financial gain.

Books such as Technical Analysis For Dummies do a great job of introducing these various trends, discussing their success rates, and helping you use the patterns to trade more effectively. If done properly, you will learn when to enter, how to set limits for your trades, and finally, when to exit in order to maximize your gains and minimize your risk of getting caught in a wave that's crashing down.

So how do you get started down this path to prosperity? Well this path really requires a LOT of studying. The most popular chart patterns take some serious skill to detect, so your best bet is to start by jamming your head into one of the resources above. After some time reading, your next move is to head over to Yahoo Finance. This site is a fantastic resource for studying and tracking stocks. They have a ton of powerful charting tools to help you easily spot and identify trends. You can add trending tools such as Bollinger Bands, Moving Averages, and MACD (Moving Average Convergence-Divergence). With a little knowledge of common trends and Yahoo Finance's powerful charting software, you can tear through a ton of stocks in a hurry until you find some that fit your trend criteria.
Now that you have found some charts that appear to be "trending", it is time to take the next steps.

1) Determine the right point to make an entry, and do it.
2) Set a trailing stop, basically an automatic selling point that protects against quick and unexpected reversals.
3) Follow the stock religiously, and when your selling rules are met, EXIT!

In the end, the true beauty of charting is that it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more people that study charting, the more times the patterns fulfill their expected outcomes. Of course, this also means that you will be competing against some brilliant mathematical minds, so set your rules, stick to them, and suppress any emotional responses. You may miss some big runs, but you will also be protected against those devastating drops. The key is to run with the lemmings, but do everything you can to jump out of line right before that cliff......

So what are you waiting for? Pick up a book, listen to Rob Black's podcast, and set up a fake portfolio on Yahoo Finance. You'll be talking the technical analysis talk and walking the technical analysis walk in no time!

Good Luck!

Keys to Success:

Study! You will be competing with some great minds, so don't bring a knife to a knowledge gunfight.
Set Rules and Stick to Them. There are a ton of different techniques, so pick one you like and follow it religiously.
Don't Be Afraid To Miss The Tail End Of a Run Up. Just ask any homeowner who got burned in the housing collapse and they will tell you how painful it can be. Better to jump out too early than too late.
Ask For Help. As great as Yahoo is, finding great trending stocks is not easy. Listen to podcasts, watch TV shows, and count on some others to help you find the big winners.

Entretool 3: The 4 Hour Work Week

Do you remember the famous quote from The Matrix?

"You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. "

In my opinion, reading The 4 Hour Work Week is the same as taking the red pill. Once you've read it, you will NEVER be able to return to your old life. Why? Most simply, the author has an uncanny ability to distort your image of the dream life. Where you previously fantasized about a big house and nice car, Ferriss will have you dreaming of a life without borders, filled with travel, unique experiences, and absolutely nothing holding you down.

The book's author, Timothy Ferriss is, among other things, an entrepreneurial genius. He developed a nutrition supplement and an incredibly clever system to market, sell, and distribute his product online with little to no effort. This system allowed him to generate a healthy income with a limited time commitment. He shares this simple money making program and all of it's secrets with his readers.

As if this system isn't enough to encourage you to pick up the book (This is an entrepreneurial website after all!), then the other concepts of the book will definitely draw you in. Timothy introduces and explains the concept of "The New Rich." This is an entirely new class of wealthy individuals, with goals that differ greatly from those of past generations. He rips apart the old traditions of owning multiple high price (and high maintenance!) homes in this country, in favor of a free lifestyle with "mini-retirements" in various locations around the world. These retirements of several months allow you to fully immerse yourself in different cultures. In Ferriss' case, he chose Germany, China, and Latin America. Leaving behind all of his worldly possessions, he traveled with the goal of immersing himself in the culture, taking in all of the wonderful things that these other countries had to share, and evolving as a person because of it.

In the end, this book is THE SINGLE BEST entrepreneurial motivator that I have ever read. While many books help encourage you to get up and get to work, none of them FORCE you to leave the security blanket of your current job the way that this one does. Mini-retirements are simply not possible without setting up a successful business venture and cutting the strings to your old career. Only then, can you truly experience the wonderful cultural revolution that is The 4 Hour Work Week!

So what are you waiting for? Go get the book right now!

Sidebar 6: Plan-Do-Check-Act

It's hard to believe, but this site is quickly approaching the 4 month mark (Fortunately for me, there is no way for you guys to vote me off!). Upward Lifestyle is designed as the ultimate alternative career guide and it's time to check and see if the site is headed down the right path.

When I launched this site, I had 2 goals. First, we wanted to present every method of wealth building that has helped the world's newest millionaires (and billionaires!) achieve that status. Second, we hoped to provide motivation for YOU to follow through on any one of these ways to get rich. Along the way we added an Entretools section that provides all the tools that you'll need to help you find your way.

Is it working? Have you found your path yet? Was it Blogging? Ticket Scalping? Cheapskating? Inventing?(or reinventing?) Card Counting?

If not, don't give up yet! We will help you find it. There are still a lot of paths remaining. In the next few months we will tackle even more avenues of entrepreneurship, but before we do it's time for one of the ugly necessities of any project. The CHECK phase. In the engineering world, we constantly rely on PDCA, and as an aspiring entrepreneur, you should too. Here is the process:


PLAN

DO

CHECK

ACT

For this site, the planning phase was a lifetime in the making. With my love for money, I have been studying and pursuing paths to wealth since I was a kid. After years of knowledge accumulation, I figured it was time to share this information with the world (or at least my 9 fans and 26 followers! Please join them, you will be glad you did!)

The doing was easy, thanks to great blogging sites like Problogger, Young Entrepreneur, and Blogger.

Now it's time for checking. This is where I need your help! I have added a new poll to the right side of the site. I need some feedback from you on the content. Is it what you were looking for? In addition, the comments section below can act as your sounding board. What do you think of my writing? Too boring? Too brief? Too long? Too many stupid jokes? Not enough stupid jokes? (PLEASE PICK THAT ONE!) And any other thoughts you may have. In addition, if you have a site that might help my readers out on their path, don't hesitate to throw it in the comments section as well.

Thanks for your feedback and here's to the successful business ventures coming down the road for all of you!

Motivation 10: Dupont Registry

For those of you not familiar with the duPont Registry, consider yourself lucky. Once you open those pages for the first time, you WILL be hooked. It's like a real life chocolate factory for testosterone charged men.

Started in 1985 as a classified magazine for exchanging high end cars, the Registry has grown to a whole new level by adding boats and real estate. The web site, DupontRegistry.com, is a nice addition but certainly can't replace the high end feel of the glossy old magazine.

In a nutshell, the registry is THE ultimate guide to high end toys. While Car & Driver and Motor Trend do a great job covering the factory produced vehicles in this world, only the Registry will expose you to all of the amazing customized cars, trucks, boats, and other toys that the wealthiest members of our society get to enjoy. Sure you've heard of Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini, but how about Ronn, Panoz, Koenigsegg, or N2A? If you haven't heard of them, you really don't realize what you're missing.

So what does this have to do with the Upward Lifestyle? Well, for those of you stuck in a dead end career, planning on slowly plodding along to a mediocre retirement, the magazine can make you realize just how much fun money can bring you. Flip through the pages, pick out the toy of your dreams and MAKE A PLAN TO GET IT! Do it right, and the automated wealth system you create will have you riding in your customized Spyker C8 Spyder in no time.

Good Luck!

Path 17: E-Booking It

Resources on the Topic:

The Well Fed Self Publisher by Peter Bowerman
Mastering Niche Marketing by Eric Van Der Hope
From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur by Stephanie Chandler
Internet Business Mastery Podcast

Did you know that around 80% of all internet searches are for information (you were thinking porn, right?) and only 20% are for products or merchandise? Thankfully this opens up a whole world to burgeoning writers looking for a new career. For those of you who are quick to give up on this article because you fear you lack the knowledge to educate others, just realize one thing:

YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT SOME TOPIC THAN 99% OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD


I don't know what that topic is, but I know it exists. Take my colleague Shahin for example. As an Iranian American, he had a great passion for a small, little known Iranian car company named Paykan. Throughout the years, he had accumulated a ton of pictures of Paykans. To share this passion with the world, www.paykanhunter.com was born. He was astounded at the results. As one of very few sites in the world dedicated to this niche, nearly every search led people to his site. In a world with over 6 billion people on the web, you would be amazed how many were looking for Paykans!

So what is your niche? Well this is a topic for another posting, but the quick and dirty is this. Pick a topic that you know and love, take fantasy baseball for example. This is your start, but to find true success you need to narrow your sights even further. There are millions of sites, articles, and blogs related to fantasy baseball. How will you stand out from the crowd? With a tightly defined niche. My specialty in fantasy baseball is finding great young starting pitchers in the late rounds of a draft using 3 specific metrics. The Cole Hamels, Tim Lincecums, and David Prices of the world are rare, but I have a great system for finding them and getting them at a great discount. This is the tightly focused niche that makes a great blog or E-book. We have already discussed blogs in a previous post, so now let's move on to the E-book side of things.

An E-book is simply a digital compilation on a particular topic. Simply type E-book into google search and you will get 323 million results. Put more simply, you WILL have a lot of competition in the E-book world. This is why your specific niche is so important. After the niche is selected, the E-book compilation can be completed in any word processor. Here are the key components:

- Cover Page: Make some unique and interesting graphics using a free graphics program such as The Gimp. This is important because you'll use this cover page when marketing your book.

- Table of Contents: Time is money, and most people don't want to waste time searching, so make it easy to find specific topics.

- Introduction: You will also use this when marketing your book, so make sure the grammar is flawless, the writing is witty, and purpose is clear. Many people offer the introduction free when selling their book, so it needs to be an absolute home run.

- Content: This is the meat and bones of the operation. You need to spend some time researching your niche. Include some humor, a lot of information, and a lot of helpful links.


Now that isn't so hard is it? Depending on the topic, your e-book length will vary. Some will need hundreds of pages, but most need far fewer, around 30-100.

When writing this e-book, you need to focus on one more KEY goal: Establishing long term customers. Your first e-book should lay the seeds for a long and successful relationship. Provide great information, plug your website, and plug your other (or future) product offerings. While one e-book sale is great, the referrals and future product sales that you can earn really make the difference between writing for a hobby and writing for a career.

Once the book is complete, you will want to convert it into a pdf file to make it easier to sell and distribute. You can purchase Adobe Acrobat, or you can use a free program such as PrimoPDF.

That wasn't too bad right? Now the fun really begins. Marketing your E-book can be done in a ton of different ways. Internet marketing will be a future topic, but let's hit on a few of the quickest and easiest ways to market your book:

- Your Own Site: Start with a free site like Webs.com, which can do everything from website design to order processing to email list management.

- E-book Sales Sites: Simply run a google search for Ebooks and you will find some of the most popular sites such as ebooks.com.

- Contact Other Sites In Your Niche: If you can contact other bloggers in your niche and offer them some kickbacks, they may help you promote your E-book.

- Affiliate Sales: Sites like Clickbank.com help match marketers with people selling products. You provide the product, they sell it, and you both share in the profits.

Let me just reiterate one key point again. To make this a career, you MUST establish loyal customers. Before your sales begin, get a website up and operating. Lead your readers to your site, and advertise future product offerings. Do whatever it takes to get them on your mailing list. This is the key to long term success in this industry.

So that's it! Writing and selling an e-book is a great way to kick off your entrepreneurial career. You can write and develop your web page in your free time, and slowly build a host of loyal readers! What are you waiting for? Start writing NOW and your sales will be off and going in no time!

Good Luck!

Keys to Success

Choose Your Niche Wisely: It must be interesting, tightly focused, and in-demand.

Work on Your Writing: If your writing skills aren't up to par then read, practice, and ask others for help. Bad writing will turn readers away quicker than a Ben Affleck Movie.

Build Long Term Relationships: Don't give it all away in the first book. Give your readers a reason to visit your site and buy future products.

Be Witty! You don't enjoy reading textbooks and neither do others, so give them something to remember.

Motivation 9: The Story of The Mexican Fisherman

I certainly can't take credit for this story, and I'm not sure that anyone knows the author, but it's certainly a story that everyone should read. Forward it on to your friends....

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, ‘only a little while.’

The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, ‘but what do you do with the rest of your time?’

The Mexican fisherman said, ‘I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.’

The American scoffed, ‘I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.’

The Mexican fisherman asked, ‘But, how long will this all take?’

To which the American replied, ‘15 - 20 years.’

‘But what then?’ Asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, ‘That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”

“Millions - then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”