By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
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Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

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The great Zig Ziglar said it best “Money isn’t everything, but it ranks up there with oxygen.”

We live in a world that is ruled by money. Almost everything we do on a daily basis is tied to money in some way. We live in homes that are purchased with money, we drive cars purchased by money, we wear clothes purchased by money and we eat food that is purchased by money. More money can mean a better life, more money can mean fewer problems. Typically when we are asked how much money we want, the answer deep inside of ourselves is always “more”.

Many people struggle and work hard each day to earn more money. The sad thing is, many of these people do not understand what money is. How can you earn more of something that you do not understand? How can you master something if you don’t know what you are trying to master? Sun Tzu the great military strategist said:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

The translation of this famous quote from war to money would be: 1) If you know yourself, and understand money, you will never have to worry about money and will always have it. 2) If you know yourself, but do not understand money, you will suffer a loss for every gain you make with money. You will never get ahead. 3) If you do not know yourself and do not understand money, you will lose money whenever you encounter it and will be broke and constantly in debt.

Most people think that money is a from of exchange, or a currency, or a lubricant for life (why scrape through life when you can slide on by?) All of the above definitions are true, but the best definition for money that I have ever seen is:

“Money is an idea backed by confidence” -Ron Hubbard.

The man who works hard for money, works hard for another man’s idea that has become confidently supported by others. Companies become real when investors gain confidence and invest in them. The dreams of great visionaries like Apple by Steve Jobs or Disney by Walt Disney have become concrete once their visions and ideas gained the confidence of others.

Today, brands like apple and Disney have supreme confidence and are worth billions of dollars in stock and revenue. Apple has gained so much momentum it is now the most valuable company in history.

Money only has value, because enough people are confident in the idea of the money itself. In history, sea shells have been used as money, gold, silver, fur, salt, pepper, paper and digital numbers have all been money at one point in time. All of these systems are flawed and none of them have any real intrinsic value. The confidence that backs the ideas is much more important than the actual money itself.

Con men (short for confidence men), throughout history, have been successful at swindling fortunes by exploiting the human weaknesses of others through dishonesty, honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naiveté or greed.

Con men present an idea, create confidence and once those two elements are in place, the victims fall prey to their weaknesses and will transfer their money to the con man who will promptly disappear with a fortune.

There is very little difference between an illegitimate Con Man and a real deal entrepreneur like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney in that they 1) create a clear idea and vision and 2) sell the idea with confidence.

The primary difference between a Con and a legitimate businessperson is that the Con has no real business, asset or investment, while the real businessperson has a tangible business asset or investment. Regardless of the validity of the scheme, the sales process for getting the money is the same.

But how does this affect you?

We all want more money, and since money is an idea backed by confidence, to create money, you must first create confidence. The amount of money you have will directly correlate to the amount of confidence you create.

Self confidence and trusting your decisions is the base of all wealth and is a pre-requisite for attracting money either through sales or through investor capital. Break a man’s confidence and you will also break his bank account. Raise his confidence and you can make him into a god.

Here are 12 Quick ways to raise your confidence:

1)   Get a makeover and create a professional appearance

2)   Keep a physically fit body

3)   Learn to speak well and have a wide vocabulary

4)   Keep well groomed

5)   Show up on time

6)   Have an assertive and firm hand shake

7)   Start small in your business and grow fast

8)   Take on projects that are easy to complete and slowly increase the complexity over time.

9)   Become the expert on your subject; know everything there is to know.

10) Get a coach or mentor to guide you through your studies

11) Share your successes with others, analyze and study your defeats

12) Teach others to sharpen your skills

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Aarnio

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

A wise man once said: " Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t." -Unknown

Everyone dreams of having the rewards of a successful entrepreneur. We all want more free time, less work, less stress, more money, more vacations, the best spouse possible, a great family, more satisfaction at work, a creative outlet, independence and more cheques in the mailbox than bills. However, everything in life has a price and usually in life, the higher the benefit, the higher the cost.

The truth is that entrepreneurship can provide all of the above benefits that we all want, but it can also become a burden that is far too costly for most to bear. Most employees have dreams and fantasies of quitting their job, firing their boss and living on a beach with lots of passive income. Many employees who have this kind of dream will join a network marketing company, start dabbling in investment real estate or start a traditional business. Some of these employees will dabble with entrepreneurship through all of the above methods and may eventually decide to make the leap and quit their job. However, very few survive.

Entrepreneurship has one of the highest failure rates out of any career path. There is no traditional school that teaches entrepreneurship correctly, and in reality, it is something that cannot be taught or learned from one source. It takes many years, many experiences, many sources of knowledge, coaches, mentors, seminars, books, tapes, mistakes, failures and relationships combined with consistency and a commitment to success at all costs to become victorious in entrepreneurship. The process takes at least 10 years, likely more, and it can never be mastered.

So why do most people fail?

In my opinion, most WANTrepreneurs (aka entrepreneurs who still have day jobs and practice business on the side) are generally crippled by one under-developed skill set.

What is more amazing is that this skill set is not even considered a skill by most educators and it is rarely taught (or poorly) taught in schools and business schools of the world.

The secret sauce that most entrepreneurs are missing is the ability to sell.

When an employee attempts to make the leap into entrepreneurship and then is forced back into his job because he cannot survive, it means that he cannot sell.

I have "quit my job" 3 times in my life. The first two times, I didn't know how to sell and foolishly quit without the adequate skills, credit or cash to survive. The third time I quit and never looked back.

What made me different on the third time? When I was ready to quit the third time, I had worked for a direct sales company and had learned how to become a top performer on the team. I knew how to hire, how to fire, how to train, sell, present, cold call, farm a database, build a database, put on events, sell from stage, fill events and watched my mentor build one of the fastest growing companies in Canada.

The experience was scary at times, it was stressful, uncomfortable and I wanted to quit, but I became successful at my vocation and earned the right to become a full time entrepreneur and never need my resumé again.

When you consider Robert Kiyosaki's cashflow quadrant (as it's displayed in the photo above), there are 4 quadrants. 2 of them actively work for money on the left, (the E for employee and S for self-employed), while the quadrants on the right (the B for large business owner and I for investor) do not work for money.

So many E's and S's dream of being on the right side of the quadrant and they wish they had residual "passive income" to fund their ultimate lifestyle, but they try to "make the leap" to the right side of the quadrant without knowing how to sell.

Selling is the difference between the left and the right. The right side of the quadrant must sell to survive and grow, the left mostly trades time for money.

Too often, people on the left try to go from the E quadrant and make the leap to the B or I without becoming an S or self employed. This, in my opinion, is one of the most dangerous moves a person can make.

The S quadrant is a great training ground for becoming an entrepreneur and it is the place that most professional salespeople live in. Robert Kiyosaki explains in his book that the most natural progression towards financial freedom is to start as an E (or employee), become a salesperson (self employed), then become a B or (Business owner) then finally end up as an I (or investor).

This progression is very natural and the skills learned in each quadrant compound on one another. For myself, I had been in the S quadrant for most of my life and my progression looks like this so far: S E S I

1) My first S - I was a self employed guitar teacher running an all cash business out of my mother's home in university

2) My first E - I was a phone sales employee taking inbound calls in the middle of the night.

I quit this job and tried to become a "B" (or business owner) and failed.

I then became a merchandiser "E" (or employee) stocking chips on shelves for one of the largest chips companies in the world.

I then quit my job and tried to become an "I" (or professional investor) (I failed and had to get a job)

3) After failing again on my own, I became an "S" again, worked for a direct sales company, got the skills I needed and built my own "I" (investor) company.

Today I am out of the rat race and run my own successful business. I work when I want to on projects that I am excited about and have the honour and privilege of growing the business of my dreams. My life is better in every way because I know how to sell. Selling is the #1 skill in my business and I continue to study it meticulously to become a superstar. As my sales skills improve, so does my income, and I love being in control of how much I earn.

Ever since I learned to sell, I have earned the right to operate in the "B" and "I" quadrants on the right side of the diagram and survival is no longer a concern for me. Instead of trying to "scrape by", I use my energy towards thriving, building a legacy of value and anything I set my sights on is possible!

Action Step: Can you survive on your sales skills alone? Have you become a student of selling? How can you benefit from improving your sales skills? Please share your comments below!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

Jim Rohn, an american entrepreneur, once said "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."

I always struggled with the idea of getting a job. Some people call their job a J-O-B which stands for Just, Over, Broke.

From age 17 to 24 I struggled every year with employment. When I was in university, every summer, I had to go out and "get a job" to pay for next year's tuition. Every year I would procrastinate, the idea of a job bored me, and I felt in my heart that I didn't want to work for someone else. Every summer was different, I worked at Tim Hortons, local restaurants, odd painting jobs, and even had a short taste of direct sales. Nothing felt good and every year as the summer would approach I felt myself feeling depressed.

In 2008 when I graduated from university with an Arts degree, the game was over. My parents and society both agreed that it was time to leave the fantasy world of school and join the "real world" and get a "real job".

I had made most of my money in university by teaching guitar lessons out of my mother's living room and had made a good little cash business out of it. I also played numerous music gigs throughout the city and had experienced the life of being self-employed. Now that I was done school it was time to "wake up", shut down my little business and join the real work force.

I followed the advice of my parents, society and the status quo and got a real job in telephone sales. I worked in the middle of the night, on straight commission and although I was one of the top performers in the office, I only made about $10 an hour selling on the phone. My life was completely upside down, I was making less money at my "real job" than I was making it my guitar teaching business, my quality of life was the lowest it had ever been, and I was isolated by working the graveyard shift.

After a few weeks of working my real job, I fell into a depression. Everything I had done was "right". I went to school, got a degree, and got a job, but I was living a miserable life and was making less money than I made in school doing things I enjoyed less.

What was wrong with me?

Looking back, I realize that I was living a life of convenience, not a life of choice. Everything that was in my life came to me by way of convenience. Nothing was consciously chosen by me and this was the source of my unhappiness.

They say there are only two sources of unhappiness in the world:

#1 is not getting what you want
#2 is getting it (not what you want)

When we get something we do not want, unhappiness ensues.

The downward spiral of unhappiness and dissatisfaction continued for years until I learned to take control of my own mind and use it towards endeavours of my choice.

As the great Napoleon Hill writes in his book "Think and Grow Rich":

Everyone comes to this world with the privilege of controlling the power of his mind and directing it to whatever ends he may choose.

At birth, everyone carries the equivalent of two sealed envelopes:

1. The RICHES You May Enjoy If You Take Possession Of Your Mind & Direct It To The Ends Of Your Own Choice.
2. The PENALTIES You Must Pay If You Neglect To Take Possession Of Your Mind & Direct It

In the contents of the first envelope named RICHES are the following blessings:

• Health
• Peace Of Mind
• A Labor Of Love Of Your Own Choice
• Freedom From Fear And Worry
• Positive Mental Attitude
• Material Riches Of Your Own Choice & Quantity

In the envelope labeled PENALTIES are the prices one must pay for neglecting to take control his/her own mind:

• Ill Health
• Fear & Worry
• Indecision & Doubt
• Frustration & Discouragement Throughout Life
• Poverty & Want
• The Evils of Envy, Greed, Jealousy, Anger, Hatred and Superstition

For many years I allowed others to take control of my mind and I drifted through life living a life of convenience with very few elements being of my own choosing. After I hit "the bottom" through depression, poor health, fear, doubt, worry and debt, I began to design the life that I wanted.

Today, I have made drastic changes and every aspect of my life has been chosen by me. Perhaps there are parts that are not 100% of my choosing, but every single aspect is improving steadily towards my vision and my ideals.

All of the improvements in my life came from having a concrete vision of what I desired. I began to write down my goals, my wants, and my vision. I began to reverse engineer and design the life that I wanted. I am very happy to enjoy the blessings that Napoleon Hill names above and be free of the penalties he warns against.

In your own life, ask yourself: Are you living a life of convenience or a life of choice? If you are living a life of convenience, begin to write a vision plan detailing every aspect of your ideal life. When your vision is put into words and written down, the subconscious brain will begin working towards the life of your dreams.

Thanks for reading,
By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

Better than a thousand days of study is one day with a great teacher. – Japanese Proverb

When most people get started on the path to "self made wealth", many of us choose one of the following:

1) To become a real estate investor
2) Start a business with an MLM company aka Multi Level Marketing

Both of these paths are very difficult and there is no easy way to success. For myself, I chose to become a full time real estate investor and dedicated all of my resources towards success in my field. In some ways, I envy the people who start with MLM companies because MLMs are:

1) Cheap to start
2) Come with training
3) Have an "Upline" of information (aka coaches and mentors are part of the system)
4) Build a residual income by establishing a team or downline
5) Offer great and cheap personal development programs

When I look back on the resources, time, money, opportunity cost and risk that I spent to get into professional real estate investing, I am astounded at the "startup cost" of the business. In many ways, an MLM would have been safer, cheaper, and faster than becoming a pure real estate investor. Here is why,

Real Estate Investing is:

1) Expensive to start (down payments are expensive and training is expensive)
2) Mistakes are expensive
3) Risk and leverage can crush you
4) No set path for success
5) Coaches and mentors are hard to find

However, as I advance further into Real Estate Investing, I begin to see more similarities between Real Estate and MLM's than differences.

The first similarity is what I would call an information "up-line".

THE UPLINE

One of the biggest mistakes that I made when starting out in business (first music, then debt buying, then real estate) was that until fairly recently, I had absolutely no informational up line. I define an informational up-line as a coach, mentor or teacher who has more experience in the business, a higher degree of success and has accomplished what I was trying to do. Completely ignorantly, I fumbled around in the dark for far too long making costly mistakes. Appropriate coaches and mentors could have prevented 90% of my mistakes, but I was too cheap to hire one.

"The only way to know the right steps to take is to study with those already taking the right steps. Douglas Vermeeren"

MLM's are smart businesses because many of them come with an up-line of information. The up-line shows you the ropes and teaches you how to achieve success in the business. In real estate investing, I have paid some obscene fees to coaches and mentors to correct my past mistakes and take my business to the next level. What is even crazier than the fees I pay are the results. Although the fees are high, the results are always worth it. If you are in real estate investing, and don't have an "up-line" to help you on your path, I would suggest that you get one immediately. Of course, your "up-line" will have to be paid somehow, so consider paying a fee or give them equity in a deal you are doing. One of the reasons why I love real estate is that it is a blank canvas, whatever you wish to create, you can create. The possibilities are endless.

A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside of yourself – Oprah Winfrey

THE DOWNLINE

In multi level marketing, there is an up-line of experienced mentors to help you in the business, and of course, you have a downline underneath you to push you to higher levels of success. In real estate investing, you must build a downline as well. The downline, in my opinion, is everyone on your team who helps you build a passive income. These people are:

1) Your contracting teams
2) Your wholesalers
3) Your bird dogs
4) Your realtors
5) Your property managers
6) Other investors who invest in you and refer business to you

I have made it my mission to adopt the Coca-Cola philosophy and "pay everyone who touches the product". Anyone who refers business to me, whether it be realtors, bird dogs or other investors, will always get paid in cash or equity because these people make me income, and mostly passive income. It's my job to be the up-line and train everyone on the team to work together, work efficiently and work the way I want them to work. I must educate them so that they can be the best team members possible and help me achieve success.

THE SUMMARY

The more I study the business of real estate investing, the more I see that real estate is the same as an MLM company. If you are not yet started in real estate, I would recommend joining an MLM for the training to learn how to run a business. More investors fail to become professional investors because of a lack of soft skills in general business. Many investors know how to do deals (real estate is very primitive), but have no idea how to run a business. The skills you can learn by joining an MLM are priceless. I chose to bi-pass this education and paid a much higher price for my skills. Looking back, having an MLM business on the side would have saved me a lot of time, money and effort. If you are in real estate today, make sure you have an up-line and build a profitable down-line - It's imperative to your success.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable

What do the world's top athletes, actors, and salespeople all have in common?

They are the three highest paid positions in the world.

No one makes more money in a JOB than actors, athletes and salespeople; and contrary to popular belief, Actors, athletes and salespeople have much more in common than the average person may think.

What stands out to me when I think of top Actors, Athletes and Salespeople is that each of these top level positions requires more than 10,000 hours of practice to compete at the top level of performance.

All of these positions are PERFORMANCE based and at the starting level, the pay is absolutely ZERO.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you hired a rookie actor to entertain you? The answer is likely never.

When did you last hire a rookie Athlete to endorse your product or service? Likely never.

When was the last time you paid a fat commission cheque to a rookie salesperson who doesn't know how to sell? Likely never.

However, when was the last time Nike hired a PRO athlete do endorse it's products? Everyday.

When was the last time that Disney or 20th century FOX hired a PRO actor for a production? Everyday.

When was the last time a top level sales performer cashed a huge commission cheque for dominating his or her market? Everyday.

There are people making obscene amounts of money in these positions everyday. However, most people perceive these roles as feast or famine.

Why not feast everyday?

Most parents will encourage their young children to be Doctors, Lawyers or Accountants because they can grow up and earn a high guaranteed rate of pay.

Parents overlook actors, athletes and salespeople as REAL jobs because these positions are perceived as "risky". Of course, all parents generally hate risk when it comes to their children.

Many people attribute success in acting, athletics or sales to politics, luck, good looks, genetics or connections.

The truth is, success in Acting, Athletics and Sales takes all of the above, but most people overlook the hard work, preparation, hours of study, and persistence that separate the top from the bottom.

Success is a science that needs to be studied and engineered on a daily basis. However, most people are too "busy" to bother studying success.

For myself, I have become a student of success early in life and have achieved marginal success in acting and athletics. However, I have achieved professional success in sales by becoming a national sales leader very quickly after entering the field.

What made me different?

What makes anyone different?

I had the very fortunate experience of being coached by a veteran salesman who had sold kirby vacuums door to door for years: 

If you can show up at someone's house unannounced and sell them a vacuum that they do not need or want then you can sell anything. If you can do this consistently over many years, you are a sales professional.

Unfortunately, most salespeople today, namely realtors, don't know how to sell kirby vacuums. In some ways, the study of sales is a lost art-form.

I had a great respect for my veteran coach; he showed me how to engineer success in sales and create a science out of the mysterious "sales art-form".

My coach was a left-brained engineer who was NOT a natural salesperson. Most natural sales people are right-brained, conceptual, outgoing people (the exact opposite of an engineer). In many ways, my coach was a greater teacher than most because he was NOT naturally gifted in the field. He had to learn, practice and prepare for success on a daily basis. Since he had learned to prepare every day for decades, he taught me how to PREPARE for success on a daily basis and manipulate my results.

PREPARATION: HOW TO STACK THE ODDS IN YOUR FAVOUR:

The first thing my coach taught me to do was write down the following:

LESSON #1

actions = money
money does not equal actions

What he meant by this statement was that if we analyzed our daily actions, we could find which actions made money and which ones didn't.

In sales and in business, actions equals money.

However, the opposite is not true. Money does not equal actions.

If you tell someone to make $1,000,000, often they cannot figure out which actions generate the money...

Money is not an intrinsic motivator and should never be used to motivate a sales person - or any person for that matter.

If you figure out how much money you want to make, and figure out which actions make money, you can reverse engineer the amount of actions required on a daily basis to create the dollars desired.

For example, 50 phone calls (actions) will generate 10 conversations which will generate 2 meetings which will generate 10 meetings a week. 40% of the meetings will results in a sale valued at an average sale of $20,000... 4 average sales a week will generate an average of $80,000 a week.

If I consistently made 50 calls a day, annually I would generate $4.16 Million dollars for the company, of which I would get 3% or $124,800 annually. If I made 50 calls a week for 52 weeks, that totals 13,000 calls. $124,800 annually divided by $13,000 calls is $9.60 per call JUST FOR DIALLING THE PHONE.

All I needed to do was:

1. Be prepared on a daily basis
2. Call 50 people a day
3. Book 2 meetings
4. Conduct 2 meetings
5. Close 4 per week

The actions that drive the whole model are CALLS. I could directly control my income by the number of CALLS I made. 

CALLS = ACTIONS = DOLLARS

If most people legitimately collected $9.60 per number DIALLED on a daily basis, I guarantee that most people would be dialling numbers until exhaustion.

Years ago, some scientists hooked a rat up to a button that released dopamine (a pleasure drug released by the brain). The rat would push the button consistently until it would die of exhaustion. The rat wanted the dopamine so badly that it would sacrifice it's well being to get the pleasure-drug. As humans, we are exactly like the rat. When we earn money, dopamine is released. If we know that dialling the phone generates money, in theory, we would be dialling the phone until we drop dead... correct?

Incorrect.

In reality, we do not dial the phone until we die of exhaustion because:

Average people hate sales, they are scared of sales, they freeze and won't pick up the phone.

They freeze because they have not associated dialling numbers with pleasure (aka dollars).

The average person thinks that they make money when they CLOSE a sale, however, they actually EARN money when they dial phone numbers.

CLOSING IS AN EFFECT
DIALLING IS A CAUSE

Life is CAUSE and EFFECT.

To get an EFFECT, we must create a CAUSE.

No matter how good of a salesperson you are, you cannot close every sale. This is a fundamental truth of sales. However, you can always make another call or dial another number. Control your actions, because actions are the only things you actually control. If you control your actions, you will become the master of your results.

The most important action in the business of sales is calls. Every time we call, we increase our probability of winning. It's like buying another lottery ticket, except the lottery ticket is free and has much higher chances of success.

Sounds too good to be true, but it isn't.

If we understand the science of success in sales, then why would athletics or acting be any different?

All fields take preparation and can be reverse engineered into daily actions that compound over time.

The trick is to understand which actions create results that move us forward and move us backward and waste our time.

To obey the 80/20 rule. 20% of our actions create 80% of our results. We must find the 20% and ONLY do the 20% to increase our success.

In the sales example, my coach taught me that CALLS were the 20% that drove the business. Without calls, you may as well go home.

Take a moment to think about your business or your job and find your 20%. Which actions bring you your results? How can you do more of these actions? How many dollars do you make per action?

Know these numbers inside and out and the next level of success is yours to be had.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful

 "All I know is that I know nothing"
-Socrates

Why is it that in life, the smarter we become, the less we know?

When I was 7 years old, I was the smartest person in the world. I knew everything there was to know about space, the planets and the solar system.

When I was 7, the facts of the solar system were as follows:

1. We have 9 planets
2. A sun
3. A bunch of stars

If I knew these basic facts, I knew everything there was to know about outer space and received a gold star.

With this limited knowledge, I knew 100% of what there was to know about space and was an expert until junior high when suddenly, the subject of outer space expanded and became more complicated.

I started to learn that I was no longer an expert on outer space because now we had to know:

1. That the sun is made of gas
2. Gravity holds the solar system together
3. The planets have multiple moons that orbit them etc.

Suddenly, I went from being a 7 year old expert to a 12 year old ignoramus who had to re-learn the facts of the universe.

When I was 7 I knew it all, when I was 12 I suddenly became ignorant about the universe.

In high school, I ran into the same problem. New information about the universe flooded my context through physics and chemistry. My knowledge base exploded and I could not keep up with all of the new information. With each new level of proficiency, I learned that in-fact, I knew nothing about the universe.

With each new level of information,  I knew less and less. The more I studied, the less I knew.

Today I know virtually nothing about space and the solar system.

Even facts that used to be true are suddenly un-true. For example: We used to have 9 planets and now there are 8. 

Pluto is no longer a planet... what changed?

What I used to know is no longer relevant in today's world. 

As Einstein says: "change is the only constant in the universe".

How is a person supposed to keep up with all of the new information that is introduced to us every day in this brave new world?

We become experts in a field, learn everything there is to know and suddenly the information changes, the market changes, or we find the "next" level in our field.

No matter what we do, we know nothing.

ENTER ZERO BASED THINKING

Zero based thinking is the concept of always knowing nothing. 

In zero based thinking, we are always at the beginning... we forget everything we used to know.

The reason why we must forget our prior knowledge is because what we knew yesterday no longer applies in our current context. 

The same concept applies when we want to take our business or our life to the next level and bring it into the future.

"If you do what you have always done, you will receive what you have always got."

Zero based thinking applies when we want to take our life and our business to the next level.

For example, when you are a child and begin to earn money, you are 2 figure earner or a 3 figure earner. You get a paper route, work part time, save up your pennies and make dollars.

When you're in high school, you have a part time job babysitting or flipping burgers and become a 4 figure earner working 2 or 3 months of the year at a summer job. Becoming a 4 figure earner is a different process than becoming a 3 figure earner.

Of course, the chain continues...

To become a 5 figure earner, you enter the world of "full time employment". Through promotions and proficiency in the corporate world, you can transform into a 6 figure earner. However, this is where most people get stuck.

When we become 6 figure earners, our context usually becomes frozen. We think we know everything there is to know and our egos keep us from learning how to get to the next level.

To jump to the next level, we must use Zero Based thinking and forget everything we used to know about earning money because a 7 figure earner follows a completely different process than a 6 figure earner.

Usually a person can reach 6 figures by pure effort and energy. Hard work, blood, sweat and tears can produce 6 figures quite easily these days and many people achieve this accomplishment.

However, to reach 7 figures is completely different. 7 figures is a different set of actions and a wildly different mind set. Hard work alone will not allow a person to jump from 6 to 7 figures.

To become a 7 figure earner, we must "build a business", build a team, build systems, build marketing campaigns, manage people, sell, and essentially run an enterprise.

We must unlearn what we used to know as a 2 figure, 3 figure, 4 figure, 5 figure and 6 figure earner stages because 7 figures is a completely different ball game.

Naturally, the chain continues. 8 figures is completely different from 7 and 9 figures is completely different from 8.

But what is the lesson?

No matter what "level" we are on in life, we must always employ Zero based thinking and approach our situation with fresh eyes. We must deconstruct what we used to know and re-learn the new facts of the world as they become relevant to us in a new context.

Unfortunately, egos and pride stop us from using zero based thinking consistently and often, we need outside personal help from a coach or mentor to expand our context and allow us to see outside of our tiny "box".

For myself in my business, I have completely changed my thinking this year from January 2012 until now December 2012.

I started off with a 5 figure mindset and through coaching and mentoring, I have been able to expand my context. This year alone, I have expanded to a 6 figure mindset and am now approaching a 7 figure mindset.

All that I have to do is execute actions based on my mindset and let the results catch up to my thinking. This process will likely take 12-24 months.

What is wonderful about expanding the mind through Zero based thinking is that: "an expanded mind never returns to it's original size".

What becomes challenging throughout the process, however, is to keep the Zero based mindset and to refrain from becoming a "know it all". 

This year I have re-built my website 4 times, re-designed my business cards 6 times, changed my business model 6 times and will likely re-brand before the year is over.

I am constantly "back at the beginning" in my learning process and this is where major growth comes from.

If you are interested in taking your business to the next level,  using Zero based thinking can be a simple process.

Find someone who is more successful than you and get them to coach you to the next level.

To become 6 figures, you must learn from a 7 figure.
To become 7 figures, you must learn from an 8 figure.
To become 8 figures, you must learn from a 9 figure etc.

The chain never ends and goes on forever... this is the beauty of life.

The real question is, where on the chain do you want to stop?

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful!

Two men are laying brick, and one man is miserable. He lays brick after brick and curses each brick as it’s laid upon mortar. The other man is excited and filled with joy to be laying the exact same brick.

What makes these two men different?

One man has vision: he is building a beautiful cathedral.


The other does not: he is merely laying brick.

These men are identical men, performing an identical task in an identical way, but one is energized and overjoyed while the other miserable and depressed.

I recently hired a coach to take my life and business to the next level. The first thing my coach had me do was fill out my “vision” board. I was unprepared for a vision board because I had not spent much time creating a vision for my business and myself.

After being assigned to create a vision, I started to spend serious time to thinking and took action to construct the vision that will fuel my life and my business.

What do I want my life to look like? What do I want my home to look like? What do I want my health to look like? What do I want my bank account to look like? What do I want my workday to look like? Etc.

The list goes on.

Vision is so powerful because once we have a great vision, we can literally reverse engineer our reality from the blueprints of a great vision.

Just like the two men, one can see the lines of a cathedral in his vision and he feels like he is contributing to a larger mission and a beautiful creation.

The other man can only see bricks and mortar. Each brick he lays is painful, his body is exhausted and he works like a slave.

Which man would you rather be?

After becoming more conscious of vision and spending some time to create my own “vision plan”, I feel like I can no longer offer advice to the people who ask me for advice.

When someone asks me for advice, I always ask, what his or her vision is.

It startles me to find out that very few people have visions for their lives. Most people are satisfied with just laying brick. Only a very select few are building a cathedral.

Many people have goals, hopes, and dreams but few have a vision. The vision, in many ways is more far more powerful than transactional goals, baseless hopes and action-less dreams.

The reason why I prefer a vision plan to all of the above is because a vision can be reverse engineered into actionable steps that can be executed each day.

Goals are often one-dimensional, hopes are for the hopeless and dreams are for dreamers. However, a strong vision that has been reverse engineered into daily actionable steps is unstoppable.

We must create the vision of our cathedral and then begin laying brick – one brick at a time.

If we are consistent and persistent in our “bricklaying” actions, eventually our Cathedral will begin to manifest and the vision will come to life.

The people with the strongest visions are the leaders in all facets of life. Visionaries like; Steve Jobs, Gandhi, and Henry Ford all saw the world differently and worked towards their vision.

Through a powerful vision, reverse engineering of that vision into a blueprint, and execution of the small actionable steps of the blueprint, the world can be changed one “brick” at a time.

The future belongs to those of us with strong visions, clear blueprints for achieving the vision and a specific plan of daily actionable steps.

In your life today, are you laying brick or building a cathedral?

Whose cathedral are you building? Your own? Or someone else’s?

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca

facebook.com/stefanaarnio

https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio

http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Photo: Stefan Aarnio and Doug Vermeeren

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending some time with Doug Vermeeren. Doug is a very successful entrepreneur who has studied and worked with 400 of the world’s top achievers. Fox News calls him the modern day Napoleon Hill because he has studied the secrets and formula for wealth. He created the sequel to the movie “The Secret” called “The Opus” and has been able to turn $1 into $1,000,000 in six months.

I spent the greater portion of the day yesterday with Doug and my colleague, Shaun Furman from Millionaire Mentors Today. As we helped Doug set up his event in Winnipeg, he shared a short questionnaire that he used to interview the top 400 achievers in the world.

One question that I felt was extremely relevant to wealth generation is:

“A million dollars cash for you is on the other side of a field of explosive land mines. What do you do?”

A) Stay put

B) Make a run for it and hope for the best

C) Go slow and steady

D) Follow someone who knows the safest route

My initial reaction for what I have done in the past was; “B” make a run for it. In my career, I have earned my education at the “School of Life” and have paid my tuition with blood sweat and tears. I have stepped on a few “landmines” on my journey and fortunately, have not been wiped out by doing so.

THE 4 WAYS TO CROSS THE MINEFIELD TO WEALTH

Option 1: STAY PUT

If a million dollars were sitting on the other side of a field filled with explosive land mines, most people would stay put. For most people, any sort of risk is too much risk and they would rather have total safety and security. Unfortunately, you cannot become wealthy by just “staying put”. You must take action, make moves and make mistakes to cross the field. People who stay put never become wealthy.

Option 2: MAKE A RUN FOR IT AND HOPE FOR THE BEST

Making a run across a field of landmines, regardless of the reward is absolutely reckless. You cannot “make a run”, take a blind risk and “hope” that it works out. Hope is for the hopeless. People who “make a run” in real life will take on so much risk that they end up getting hurt or financially wiped out. Some of these people may start risky businesses that they do not understand or “put all of their eggs in one basket”. Although this strategy could pay off, and pay off big, I do not personally recommend it. I have made a few “runs” in my life and have risked everything on some deals. In hindsight, making a “run for it” has far too much risk and there are so many better ways to cross the minefield of wealth.

Option 3 GO SLOW AND STEADY

Going slow and steady across the minefield is much lower risk than “making a run for it”. However, you may not be able to cross the field in time. Time is the most important currency in life and in wealth. Wealth is not actually measured in dollars, but in time. If you spend all of your time being cautious, and not crossing the field fast enough, you may not ever cross it. Caution is always important in the pursuit of wealth, but we need to balance caution and action so that we get to our destination on time.

Option 4 FOLLOW SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE SAFEST ROUTE

Finding a coach or a mentor who has crossed the field is the option that most wealthy people have chosen to build their wealth. This is the option that I have chosen to pursue (after trying to “make a run for it”). Coaches and mentors can show you where the landmines are. They can also show you where they have failed and can get you across the field safer and quicker than you could alone. HOWEVER, to have the advantage of a mentor or a coach, there is always a cost to this. Usually you have to pay your coach or mentor either in time or money.

NOTE: Paying for success in time or money is much easier than paying in blood, sweat and tears. Mistakes can be very costly and the stress is never worth it.

Find the person that has what need to cross the minefield and find out what they need to educate you. Life is very simple when you understand who you are, what you want and who can help you get “across the field”.

I find it interesting that most wealthy successful people all answer the previous question the same way. There is a formula and a code for wealth and when you study enough people, we can see that there is no such thing as luck and that success is a choice.

In life, we are all faced with a minefield that stands between where we are today and where we want to be. The two questions we must ask ourselves are;

1)   How will we cross the minefield? and

2)   What will you pay to get to your destination?

Thanks for reading,

Stefan AarnioFreedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio


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By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you find it helpful!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving a talk to a group of 50 local real estate investors in Winnipeg. The subject of the talk was "how to raise capital and take the limits off of your real estate investing career."

In business, raising capital is the #1 skill any real estate investor or entrepreneur needs to be in business. So many entrepreneurs fail because they can’t get funding for their businesses initially or they can’t expand to a profitable level.

While I was giving the talk to the 50 investors in the room, I was shocked by the following:

• 0 people claimed that “Sales and Marketing” was their #1 skill
• 0 people had raised capital for a “no money down” joint venture (1 person may have raised his/her hand, but wasn’t confident so I wasn’t sure)

• 0 people had a “Capital Raising” binder/presentation ready to show to investors

Many of the investors in the room have purchased at least one or more investment properties in the past few years, but were still using their own cash and credit.

Statistically, most seminars have a 2% success rate. In any given room of 100 people , 2 people will apply the knowledge they are learning and 98 will fail to apply anything.

Statistically speaking, out of the 50 people I was speaking to, 1 will apply the knowledge shared, 49 will not.

Yesterday, there were many real estate investors in the room who wanted to take their businesses to the next level. I think most of the audience in the room saw value in learning how to raise capital. Most investors want to use“other people’s money” to purchase investment properties, but many do not know how to do it.

Although, what I was teaching was the "missing piece of the puzzle" for many of the people in the audience:

• 0 people approached me after the event for any for of help or advice.

Perhaps I gave a bad talk.

Perhaps not.

I did receive numerous compliments on the content and delivery of the speech and I think the audience enjoyed the presentation for both entertainment and content.

More often then not, when I attend a seminar, talk or presentation, I approach the speaker after the event to

1. Thank them for speaking and
2. inquire about how I can learn what they had to offer (whether I can afford it or not)

My primary objective with attending a seminar, talk or presentation is to learn something and find a way to bring change into my life.

Why don’t we change?

Why don’t we take action? 

Why don’t we pursue freedom at all costs?

The answer is simple.

A wise man once said “everything we want is on the other side of fear.”

Some call this invisible wall of fear the “terror-barrier”. 

The Terror-Barrier is the only thing that keeps us from having what we want in life.

In my life, the terror barrier has held me back many times, and the only way I could break through it was by getting myself in a “no options” situation.

For change to occur, the pain of staying the same has to be greater than the pain of making a change.

People are mysterious creatures and I find that we are all motivated more by pain than by pleasure.

The average person will go to great lengths to avoid pain but will do very little to achieve joy or pleasure.

There are two decision making centers in the body:

1)   The head (The brain)

2)   The body (made up of the gut and the heart)

All thoughts pass through the head, but all actions are made through the body.

There are 4 phases of change and only in phase 4 do we achieve freedom.

Phase 1)

In phase 1, we have an “old idea” in our head, and our body (who controls the actions) performs the “old actions”.

An example of this would be a person who says: “I’m a smoker” and as a result; he or she smokes regularly.

Phase 2)

In phase 2, we get a “new idea” in our head, but our “old idea” co-exists with the "new idea". The body, who controls our actions, still acts on the “old idea”.

An example of this would be a person who says “I’m a smoker, but I’d like to quit” and as a result; they smoke regularly and show no actions that indicate quitting.

Phase 3)

We get a “new idea” in our head, and our “old idea” co-exist. The body who controls the actions acts on both the “new idea and the “old idea”.

An example of this person who says “I’m a smoker, I’d like to quit” and as a result; this person will smoke sometimes and quit sometimes.

Phase 4 is where freedom and change happen. However, few people achieve phase 4 of change because they are held back by the Terror-barrier.

The terror-barrier is a fancy way of saying “irrational fear” and the cure for fear is a disciplined, rational approach or "the luxury of no options".

However, I know first hand how hard it is to break through the barrier and in my own life, I have most often penetrated the Terror-barrier against my will.

The Terror-barrier is so strong for most people that they will never change unless they experience a divorce, job loss, large financial loss, bankruptcy, cancer, death or deadly illness.

These catastrophic life experiences push you through the terror barrier because most often “the worst” has already happened.

Once we have experienced "the worst", we become free of fear. We suddenly play the game with nothing to lose.

Usually people in these very uncomfortable situations have “the luxury of no options” and become very successful after failing. 

Phase 4)

In Phase 4, we achieve freedom. We have a “New idea” in our head and the body, who controls our actions, acts on the “new idea” only.

An example of this would be a person who says “I’m quitting smoking” and as a result, they quit.

Change is never easy, but it’s a necessary process in life. 

Einstein used to say “change is the only constant in the universe”. 

Learning how to adapt and change ourselves according to the fluctuating conditions of life is the new primary skill set in this modern world. 

This skill set is especially valuable in the new economy that we live in today.

In the past, a man or woman could count on having a career from college to retirement. Today, young people change career paths every 4 years or less.

The future does not belong to the fastest, strongest, best looking or smartest. It belongs to those who can change the fastest and re-adapt to surroundings as external change occurs.

In the information age, we experience accelerated change at an unprecedented rate and learning to change will be #1 skill set in the very near future.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share this article if you found it helpful

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you find it educational!

Photo: Soldiers in the Afrika Korps with an 88mm gun.

A wise man once said "wars are won by legs, not by arms".

One interpretation of this quote is: battles are won by distance covered, not by physical strength exerted in one battle.

By covering more distance, smaller armies throughout history have been able to wear down massive opponents and take victory over large distances.

Atilla the Hun was able to wreak havoc on the much larger roman legions by having a fast, small, elite, mobile force. 

Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps were able to beat the british into the submission in World War II with a small elite, mobile force.

Lawrence of Arabia employed similar tactics in the pre World War II era that have evolved into modern day guerrilla warfare.

There are two commonalities between Atilla the Hun, Erwin Rommel and Lawrence of Arabia. All 3 men employed the following into their strategy and tactics:

1. Speed
2. Distance

In the days of the Roman empire, business and war were synonymous - there was no separation between business and war. Business was war and war was business. Men in Roman society became wealthy through the spoils of war and later in life would venture into real estate, trade or politics. This is why books like  "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu are found in the Business section of the book store and not the War section. The same principles that apply in warfare also apply in business.

Speed and Distance are just as powerful on the battlefield as they are in the boardroom and let me elaborate on why.

In business, speed wins. First mover advantage, speed of implementation, and velocity of money are all concepts that revolve around speed. In business if you have a chance to be fast or slow, most of the time it is better to be fast.

In business and warfare, distance is just as important as speed. Strategically, we need to have a short position, a medium position and a long position. Whether we are building a company or managing an investment portfolio.

Our ability to win over distances whether short, medium or long is imperative to success.

Strategies that are effective in short positions may not be effective in medium positions and medium positions will not offer the same advantages as long positions.

In business, we need to have an effective mix of 3 types of strategies to be effective over distances and become a leader in the market.

In my past businesses, I focused too much on "long" positions and neglected my short and medium positions.

I would load up my real estate portfolio with long position buy-and-hold cash flow real estate. In my music business, I would pour my time, effort and energy into producing a long term brand strategy and forget my short term strategy. In my debt buying business, again, I had a long term cash-flow strategy but no short or medium position.

These businesses were aggravating, painful and hard to grow because there was no short or medium strategies to generate the cash needed to properly grow and expand.

This summer I began to study JT Foxx. JT Foxx is a very successful real estate investor who has transacted over 500 deals in five years, partnered with some very large money partners and currently owns a huge speaking and coaching business.

JT has very good business acumen and I noticed that he has weighted his business transactions around short positions and the "shortest ways to make money".

The 4 Shortest Ways to Profit

1)   Flipping real estate - Flipping real estate has always been one of the fastest ways to make money in history. Real estate allows an investor to make huge leveraged gains with little or no work and if you do your homework, real estate can be turned in 30-90 days with little to no effort. If you're in real estate, this should be a strategy used often as part of your portfolio and overall strategy.

2)   Local marketing/branding other people - Selling marketing and branding services to local businesses is a very fast way to make large profits. Most business people have no clue about marketing and branding and will pay large sums of money to learn marketing and branding techniques. This is especially apparent in Real Estate Investing and Internet Marketing. Where there is pain, there is profit and branding/marketing is place where many entrepreneurs feel lots of pain. Many companies make large fast profits by relieving this pain.

3)   Public speaking - Donald trump charges $250,000 an hour to speak in public. Raymond Aaron and Tony Robbins have both made over $1,000,000 in an hour giving speeches. Most people would rather be dead than to be speaking in front of an audience. However, this is one of the fastest, most lucrative endeavours for an individual if executed properly. There is enormous leverage in public speaking and tons of branding opportunity. Consider the value of this avenue for a short term strategy in your business. This strategy can be offered for free (just for branding value and lead generation) or it can be monetized - who doesn't love options?

4)   Joint ventures - This year I built my company from the ground up using none of my own money because I used joint ventures to build it. Joint ventures are the fastest, highest leverage business tool available. Only 2% of entrepreneurs know how to use Joint Ventures and this gives savvy entrepreneurs an advantage. Credit Card companies and fortune 500 companies derive major profits from Joint Ventures while small entrepreneurs try to do everything themselves. Whenever I am missing a resource, I will source a JV partner; "why try to own everything?" I have become a specialist in Joint Ventures and I am never low on resources because I know how to create favourable deals for everyone. Some greedy entrepreneurs don't like Joint Ventures because they have to give up a percentage of their business for access to extra resources. In the words of Mark Cuban; "Would you rather have half a watermelon or a whole grape?"

After learning the 4 "shortest ways to profit", I began to re-think my business. I have began restructuring it and adding short and medium positions to my long positions and have begun to find balance. Today my business is healthier than ever and my strategy going forward is more sound. I recommend you review the "4 shortest ways to profit" and plan to implement at least one of the 4 strategies into your business in the next 60 days.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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