By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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Too many people wake up in the morning at an average time, go to an average job, settle for an average relationship and live an average life.

There is nothing wrong with average, but the sad thing is, there is nothing right about being average either.

Years ago when my rock band split up and my dreams of becoming a rock star were smashed, I felt myself slipping from special to average. I was no longer the cool guy with the band, instead, I was just an average guy, with an average job, an average degree and I had no way to distinguish myself from other people. My identity was lost.

If there is one thing in life that I feared most, it was becoming average… But why did average scare me?

Average people with average lives scared me because I observed that they neither won nor lost. If life were a game, they were only playing to avoid a loss. Winning isn’t even an option for most average people because they are so terrified of losing that the thought of winning becomes an impossibility.

Unfortunately for everyone, average or not, life begins when we decide to “play to win”.

The Dalai Lama when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered “Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future, he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

So many people, every day, live their lives avoiding failure, avoiding loss, avoiding their dreams, their passions and their callings. We want to avoid pain, but when we avoid pain, we also eliminate the possibility of pleasure and joy. When we eliminate the possibility of losing, we also eliminate the possibility of winning.

Imagine a hockey team where every single player on the ice is playing defense. Imagine a real estate investor who never buys a single property. Imagine an entrepreneur who takes no risk and no action.

All of the examples above are destined to fail, by being unwilling to be exposed to failure, risk, pain and the possibility of loss, winning is an impossibility.

As an artist, I learned that art, to be art, must contain an element of risk. Art without risk is meaningless junk. The artist who takes no risk, produces no art. Surely, there will be hundreds or thousands of failures, but the true artist needs only one success and to justify a thousand failures.

Thomas Edison failed nearly 10,000 times before he discovered the light bulb. As an enlightened man he said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

Venture capitalists know that only 1 out of 27 companies they invest in will succeed.

World class salesmen know that they have to knock on hundreds of doors to make a sale.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and later became the most celebrated basketball player in history.

The Beatles were rejected by numerous record companies before landing a record deal. Today the Beatles are regarded as “the best band of all time” and they will likely hold the title forever.

Oprah Winfrey was told that she would never make it on television. Today Oprah is one of world’s richest women win the world and has her own TV network.

However, all of the above people have become world class successes and timeless success stories for the history books because they made a decision in their lives to 1) Stop playing the game of life so defensively aka: “not to lose” and 2) Start playing to win.

We only get one chance at life, we only get “one shot”, so make it count.

“If you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted. one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?”

-Eminem

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!

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!

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and I asked her for her opinion on the local Asper school of business.

Her answer surprised me "needed for some, not for others."

Formal education usually has mixed reviews in the business world. Some people love it and swear by it, others think that it is an outdated dinosaur of the industrial age.

Although I did attend the University of Manitoba, and did take classes at the Asper school of business, I am a business school drop-out. My ambitions for taking classes at the school were quickly quenched when I learned that they were grooming me to become an employee and not an entrepreneur. No matter how much education is received from an institution like Asper, the teachers are employees and they train people to think like employees.

Many of the world's greatest entrepreneurs were drop outs: Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook, Henry Ford and others. These men build their businesses on passion, experience, and practical hands-on-study in their fields. 

"Formal education will make you a living, Self education will make you a fortune." - Jim Rohn

With enough hands on study and experience, these great entrepreneurs build the most valuable asset of all - sound business acumen. The greatest difference between most WANTrepreneurs who have day jobs and real entrepreneurs who derive their livelihood directly from their businesses is:

1) Entrepreneurs live off of their business acumen
2) WANTreprenerus trade time for money

Where entrepreneurs can turn their ideas and passions into assets that create strong enough income to reach their dreams, many WANTrepreneurs are stuck trading time for money building someone else's dream.

In Robert Kiyosaki's game CashFlow, there are two circuits:

1) The Rat Race, a wheel that the players circulate around in collecting pay checks. In the Rat Race, these players have jobs and trade time for money. It doesn't matter if the player has a low paying job like a Janitor or a high paying job like a Doctor. All of the players in the Rat Race trade time for money, have a limited earning potential, are susceptible to the pitfalls of relying on a fixed income i.e.: players may become downsized and lose 100% of their income for a short period.

2) The second circuit in Cash Flow is called the Fast Track and on the Fast Track players move much faster. The Fast Track is reserved for players who have strong enough business acumen to create enough passive income to exceed his expenses. In other words, these players have become smart enough to not need their jobs  and live off of their ability to invest and create income. Players on the fast track make disproportionately more money, have larger deals, cannot be downsized, and are unaffected by many other disadvantages of the rat race.

One circuit relies on trading time for money, the other relies on business acumen.

Many new investors and WANTrepreneurs want to make the transition from the Rat Race onto the Fast Track, but the sad thing is, many of these WANTrepreneurs refuse to invest in their financial education - the most important asset of all.

Your education and business acumen is the greatest asset, far more valuable than Gold, silver, cash, stocks, real estate, companies. All of these "real" assets mean nothing if there is not a strong base of skill and education backing these symbols of wealth.

But if formal business school teaches most people to be employees, then where can one get an entrepreneur's education.

There are many places to get an entrepreneur's education:

1) Books written by real entrepreneurs
2) Seminars for teaching business put on by real entrepreneurs
3) One on one coaching from real entrepreneurs
4) Mentorship or apprenticing under a real entrepreneur

The key word with all of the above is REAL entrepreneurs. When choosing to learn about entrepreneurship or business from someone, it is counterproductive to learn from a good employee. Employees are trained to think differently from entrepreneurs and they collect pay checks instead of build companies.

ACTION STEP:

In your life, ask yourself; "are you living off of your business acumen?" Or are you trading time for money?

What do you need to get to where you want to go?

Who do you need to help you get there?

Thanks for reading,
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!

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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

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

Robert Kiyosaki defines intelligence as “the ability to make distinctions”. For example, an interior designer will be able to make distinctions between 15 shades of blue giving them specific names like “azure”, “indigo”, “sky blue”, “royal blue”, “navy blue” etc.

A cigar connoisseur will know the difference between a fine Cuban cigar and a fake.

An investor should know the difference between money and wealth. Unfortunately, most investors do not know the difference.

Everyday we wake up and chase the pursuit of happiness. For most people, money is part of the equation. Everyone would like to be rich and rich means an abundance of money. However, there is a huge distinction between money and wealth.

A person can be wealthy and not have any money. Logically, the opposite is true as well; you can have lots of money and zero wealth.

Sports stars that make millions of dollars per year and lottery winners are examples of people who can make lots of money but have zero wealth.

On the other hand, a retiree with a solid income from their investment portfolio may have wealth but very little money to throw around.


What is wealth? What is money?

Wealth is measured and defined in time. The question we must ask is “if I stopped working today, how long could I survive?” If the answer is “forever”, then you have wealth. Many people who live paycheque to paycheque could only survive for a few months if they stopped working. These people have very little time to survive and very little wealth.

I recently heard a statistic that over 50% of American households are 1 paycheque away from bankruptcy. This may or may not be true, but it paints a grim picture of the lowest level of wealth. One paycheque is only 2 weeks worth of wealth and a very low level of survival.

Money on the other hand is much easier to define. Money is measured in dollars and all we have to do to measure dollars is count. The key with money is to learn to exchange dollars for wealth.

Traditionally speaking the rich are very good at trading dollars for wealth (assets that produce passive income), the middle class are good at trading dollars for liabilities (houses, cars, cottages) and the poor are good at trading dollars for expenses (flat screen televisions, booze, rent).

This year in my Real Estate portfolio I focused mostly on wealth rather than money. I built wealth this year through multiple income streams of both business and real estate. To myself, I consider it important to build income streams early in my life. I wanted to create wealth and the ability to survive “forever” without a paycheque so that I could become creative in my free time.

At the time of writing I have multiple income streams and can survive “forever” which means that my passive income is greater than my expenses. However, wealth alone is not enough to win the game of money. We need both cash and wealth to get the most out of life because dreams aren’t cheap.

In the words of the American billionaire Bill Bartmann “Cashflow buys you time, profits buy you praise”. Both cashflow and profits are required to win the game, the question is which one do you focus on today.

For most people with a paycheque, they should focus on learning to create wealth and multiple streams of passive income through real estate, dividend bearing stocks, internet businesses, traditional businesses, or joint ventures.

For people with wealth, they may be interested in creating more cash and liquidity through business, real estate and joint ventures.


The game of money is a game of balance and this year for myself, I will be starting the year off with a “cash” strategy; I have achieved a level wealth, which has freed up my time and will be pursuing my strategy to take my brand to the next level.

What are you doing this year to take your game to the next level? Will you be pursuing cash, wealth or both? Please discuss your strategy in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
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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 enjoyable!

Everyone loves perfection.

We demand perfection when we go out to a restaurant for dinner. We demand perfection when we go the dentist to get a tooth drilled. We demand perfection when a relative goes into the hospital for surgery.

Of course, perfection has a cost - perfection is not cheap!

For our perfect dinner, we need 5-10 people working in the restaurant dedicating their lives to our dining experience plus all of the suppliers of food, contractors who built the restaurant, interior designers who designed the restaurant and everyone else who indirectly created our experience.

When we see the dentist, he usually has a team of 5+ people working in the office plus nearly a decade of post secondary education to earn the right to work on your teeth.

The surgeon is has a similar team and education to the dentist.

Perfection is something we all want, but is it something we need?

Studies show that Top Achievers, the world's most successful entrepreneurs, actors, sales people, sports stars etc. strive for perfection but choose improvisation over perfection.

Top achievers improvise.

Consider the 80/20 rule, 80% of our results come from 20% of our actions. If we want to achieve the last 20% the "law of diminishing returns" comes into effect. After a certain point, the same actions will yield no further results and the last 20% becomes nearly impossible to reach.

Perfection is an ideal, something that we all strive for, but something that we cannot achieve without an irrational amount of effort. Therefore, top achievers will reach their point of satisfaction, improvise and will move onto the next task. 

You are better to grab the first 20 cents of every dollar than to try to grab 100 cents of every dollar because the last 80 cents are so hard to achieve that the return on time yields no measurable result.

Improvisation is a key skill for success. In his book Lynchpin, Seth Godin talks about the concept of "shipping". When creative, influential people are working on a project, they set a deadline and on that day they "ship" the product whether it is ready or not. The deadline benefits the author twofold:

1) It gets the product out the door in it's first revision, the product is imperfect, but it exists and is ready to go.
2) The product no longer has the risk of never becoming completed

Instead of perfection, we have a shipped product that is ready for use and is ready for improvement.

Microsoft (love them or hate them) has a very practical business model. They always "ship" their software - ready or not, bugs and all. The software that they ship is not always ready, but with patches and revisions, it eventually becomes functional and the company is able to earn revenue and serve it's customers. Bill Gates became the richest man in the world by "shipping" his software like this and improvising rather than seeking perfection.

If software companies would hold onto their software until it's perfect, they would all go out of business before the software is ready. The fact of the matter is that perfection should be reached for, but we cannot wait for the "perfect" product to ship because perfect does not exist.

What is much more practical is to produce a good product and slowly adjust it towards perfection.

Even companies like Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of World of Warcraft, the most profitable video game of all time are known for "taking their time" to produce their product. They will develop a title over 10 years and reach the closest they can to perfection without achieving it. After 10 years of development, they will release the imperfect software and continue to patch it to bring it closer to perfection over a 5-10 year period on the back end.

Are you addicted to perfection? Is your addiction holding you back from achieving your dreams?

For myself, I have renamed my company and brand nearly 6 times this year, I have gone through 6 runs of business cards, I have created and re-created 6+ websites to get the exact message I want. My motto is to "ship" whether or not it's perfect and adjust as necessary. The benefits of shipping when it's functional instead of perfect vastly outweigh the drawbacks. For example, I won the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine's Joint Venture Partner of the Year award for 2012 because I had started blogging on an imperfect blog and gained some visibility.

My business was exactly the same with or without the visibility, I still did 12 deals, however, because I had an imperfect blog with imperfect articles distributed in an imperfect way, I was visible and nominated for the award.

Had I not "shipped" my blog until it was perfect, I would not have won the award. The deals still would have been done, but I would have lost out on $30,000 of press and exposure.

Perfection is a fickle mistress, chase her as an ideal, but do not succumb to her allure. Favour the maiden of improvisation and all will be well.

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 enjoyable!

 

For centuries, alchemists searched for the "Philosopher’s Stone"; a magical instrument that could turn lead into gold and they never found it. Every day fools buy lottery tickets hoping to turn “lead into gold”.

 

Explorers searched the globe for centuries looking for the "fountain of youth" only to never find it. Every day women in department stores spend millions of dollars to cling onto their fleeting youth.

 

Every night audiences in the hundreds of thousands stay up late into early morning watching infomercials promising "get rich quick schemes", "get rock hard abs now" and dating programs that promise that the woman of your dreams is "one phone call away".

 

We all want success to be easy.

 

We all want the silver bullet or the magic wand that will make things “easy” and change in an instant.

 

We all want the secret sauce that will make us an overnight success. These days, it takes 10 years to become an “overnight success”.

 

Success is never as easy as it looks!

 

What if we could increase our probability for success by focusing on one certain personality trait?

 

There have been hundreds of studies on success and scientists have found that it has nothing to do with intelligence, talent, luck, resources, contacts or education. However, studies have proven that there is a specific personality trait called "grit" that is directly correlated to success.

 

Grit is a psychological trait that indicates a person's passion for a particular long-term goal. Grit is associated with perseverance, resilience, ambition, need for achievement and tenacity.

 

To make a long explanation short, the grittier a person is, the harder they will fight to succeed.

 

People with high levels of Grit are concerned with winning the marathon, not the sprint. They are long-term thinkers that aim to achieve long-term goals and are less concerned with short-term challenges and failures. A person with a high level of Grit will move from failure to failure and keep their eyes on the prize.

 

To quote Winston Churchill; "success is moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm". Churchill understood Grit and he was able to capture the hearts and minds of the British people in World War 2. Throughout nearly the entire war, Britain was the underdog; suffering defeat after defeat from the Nazis. However, Churchill was able to inspire his people to become gritty, dig in and hold on. In the end, the Nazi war machine ran itself to destruction and the British were able to claim victory by sheer tenacity despite being the underdog for nearly the entire war.

 

Many of our parents/grandparents who were who were born in 1920's became extremely gritty due to the fact that at age 10 they were in the great depression, by age 20 they were fighting in a world war. If they were strong enough to survive those two events, they came home, built themselves a house with their bare hands, raised four or more children and worked like a slave until they retired (or died).

 

The World War 2 generation was a very gritty group of people compared to the baby boomers or the echo boomers. The World War 2 generation understood that:

 

1)    Life is not easy

2)    Persistence wins

3)    Hard work is required for success

4)    Giving up is not an option

5)    Life is not always fun, but keep going

 

Today’s young people are not conditioned to be gritty like their grandparents/great-grandparents. Today we live in a world of instant text messaging, facebook, twitter, video games, instant microwave dinners and soccer tournaments where the losers are taken out for ice cream.

 

Gritty people are able to delay gratification and often, this is the #1 key to success. Unfortunately, we are conditioned today to want instant gratification and many of us forget how tough our grandparents had to be to survive and thrive in the last 90 years.

 

If you are a success-minded individual, you should focus on becoming more “gritty”. To do so:

1)    Set long term goals

2)    Train yourself to not be discouraged by failure

3)    Learn to delay gratification

4)    Become passionate about your cause

5)    Never give up

6)    Focus on winning the marathon, not the sprint

7)    Reward yourself for lasting power, do not become a flash in the pan.

 

Consider Aesop’s fable; The Tortoise and the Hare. The Hare is speed, he is flashy, he is loud and in the end he is the loser. The Tortoise is slow, persistent, consistent and gritty.


Be the Tortoise, not the Hare: the future belongs to you.

 

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

“Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision.

We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.

Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade (a deadly poison). He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land…and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.

As it's written in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Remember the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants – one corn, one poison.”

-Earl Nightingale

Earl Nightingale who was one of the best self-development minds of all time had an unbeatable analogy for the human mind.

Nightingale compared the human mind to a fertile piece of land where we can plant whichever seeds we choose to plant.

The mind is neutral and much like fertile land and will return whatever we choose to plant.

What I find amazing on a day-to-day basis is to see what people plant in the fertile earth of the mind.

Instead of studying success, listening to lectures, reading books on success, attending seminars, creating visions, creating plans, and visualizing what we want; most people fill their brains with garbage.

Most people “mind feed” on mainstream news, mainstream radio, CNN, Fox News, Dr. Phil, Maury, daytime television, infomercials, video games, soap operas, sitcoms, Hollywood movies, magazines, pornography and trash fictional novels (which can also be pornography aka fifty shades of grey).

Finish this sentence…

Garbage in…

Garbage out?

Most people will finish the sentence “garbage in” with “garbage out” implying that if we put garbage into our brains, we will receive garbage as output.

The truth is, the results are much worse…

In reality, Garbage goes in, it festers and multiplies by three. “Garbage” has “Garbage Babies who turn out to be triplets” and morphs into a debilitating emotional cancer.

All of the above “garbage” in our mind feed sources can create a cesspool of poison in our emotional brain that breeds fear and inhibits our ability to take action.

We are given the most powerful, fertile land known to man and unfortunately; most of us are negligent farmers who fail to plant corn.

Even worse, instead of planting corn, or better yet – planting NOTHING; we plant an abundance of the deadliest poison of all.

THE DEADLIEST POISON

If good, clean, positive, empowering, affirming thoughts are corn, then what thoughts account for the deadliest poison?

Steve Chandler, a man who spent the majority of his life studying how the brain works as an psychological warfare specialist, defines the brain as working in one of two ways:

1)   The brain either functions with an OWNERSHIP mentality

2)   OR the brain functions with a VICTIM mentality

The ownership mentality represents the brain working as it was designed and this is where creativity, success, opportunity, fearlessness, and happiness come from.

Those of us with an ownership mentality are planting corn on a daily basis.

The opposite of an ownership mentality is a victim mentality. The victim mentality is the exact polar opposite of the way that the brain actually works. From an early age, through school and traditional upbringings, most children are taught to use their brain in the exact opposite way that it functions.

We teach people in our school systems to plant nightshade instead of corn and most people plant far more nightshade then corn every day.

Lets briefly compare an OWNERSHIP mentality to a VICTIM mentality.

18 differences between an OWNER and a VICTIM:

1)   Owners are Positively charged, Victims are negatively charged.

2)   Owners are happy from the inside (all children are born happy), Victims believe that happiness comes from the outside.

3)   Owners see and seek opportunity; Victims expect to have opportunities “presented” to them.

4)   Owners use the brain for creating; Victims do not create and feel needy instead.

5)   Children are born as owners: 90% of young children believe that they are good at poetry, dancing and singing. Most adults have become conditioned to be victims: 75% of people aged 30+ believe they have no ability at dancing, singing and poetry

6)   Owners are fearless; victims are fearful

7)   Owners actively seek wisdom in every experience; they say “what can I get from this situation”? While Victims turn their brain off and passively float from experience to experience. Victims say “I don’t want to know” or “I’m trying to get through this experience”.

8)  Owners actively create situations, Victims passively react to situations

9)  Owners are the authentic YOU; Victims are YOU reduced down to an animal level

10) Owners say “I use life”’; Victims say “life uses me”

11) You were born an Owner; Victims are “added on” to your personality through conditioning.

12) Owners say empowering words of intent like “I want to”, “I will”, “I Choose to”; Victims say de-motivating words that crash the higher brain functions like “I should”.

13) Owners eat to live; Victims live to eat

14) Owners pull up their socks and complete tasks that others don’t want to do. It’s “horrible” to work 12 hours a day towards a goal that you have chosen. However, Victims take no action and live life as “miserable”. Life is a choice between the horrible and the miserable.

15)  Owners have an internal self-rewarding belief system. Victims have an external belief system that was inherited from someone else.

16) Owners operate from a place of LOVE while Victims operate from a place of FEAR.

17) Owners find satisfaction in measuring small improvements and tasks over time. Victims seek success with an “all or nothing” mentality. If they don’t have 6 pack abs after 10 sit-ups, they quit.

18) Owners create a vision of who they want to be and start living in that reality NOW while Victims are living a life as one half cynic and one half skeptic.

In my own mind, I have become a diligent farmer and have “weeded out” most of the nightshade that has grown in my brain. To me, planting corn is very important and I have hired a coach to ensure that I can produce the best crops possible.

The mind can be a brilliant machine that creates wonderful art, health, wealth and life or it can be a prison that kills dreams.

Take some time to go through the list of the 18 differences between owner and victim mentality and isolate any limiting beliefs you may have.

Strive to become a diligent farmer and produce the sweetest crop of corn that has ever grown.


Thanks for reading,

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

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

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

In the early 1900’s, an author by the name of Napoleon Hill was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie (The steel magnate) to interview the top 500 richest people in the world and create the common formula for great riches. After many years of hard work, Napoleon Hill published his masterpiece “Think and Grow Rich”. The book contained the formula for great riches and Napoleon Hill became very wealthy himself by teaching people around the globe the secret to creating great wealth.

Throughout history, many people have searched far and wide for the formula for riches. Some people would call it the Philosopher’s stone (the stone that could turn lead to gold) or the fountain of youth.

The truth is, Napoleon Hill’s formula for great riches is all of the above. It can turn lead (or even thin air) into gold and can also preserve youth and beauty if used correctly.

Man has scoured the earth for these arcane abilities and yet, everything a person needs to know about success is in the book “Think and Grow Rich”.

Relatively recently, a Canadian entrepreneur and author by the name of Doug Vermeeren studied the formula for wealth and decided to do a modern study of Napoleon Hill’s work.

Doug interviewed the top 500 achievers in the world including CEO’s of major corporations, sports stars, actors, athletes and many types of people that were excluded from Napoleon Hill’s list (which were mostly industrialists, inventors and entreprneurs).

Throughout Doug’s study, he has been able to add extra insight to Napoleon Hill’s work and in some circles Doug Vermeeren has been given the title of “the modern day Napoleon Hill”.

I recently had the privilege of spending a day with Doug Vermeeren and I was fortunate to have him pass on some knowledge to me.


One concept that Doug shared was “the 3 pillars for achievement”.

Throughout Doug’s studies, he found that there are 3 things that top achievers all have:

THE 3 PILLARS FOR TOP ACHIEVEMENT:

1)   Affectionate Loving Parents

2)   A supportive partner

3)   A deep religious faith

The common denominator between affectionate loving parents, a supportive partner and a deep religious faith is that every one of the “pillars” supports achiever in the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual realms.



In other words, the top achiever is not succeeding alone, but has extra support in all aspects of life. This person has the power of many, but is perceived as succeeding alone.

To paraphrase T Harv Ecker, money is created in the physical realm because it is a “print out” of the mental, emotional and spiritual realms.

Wealth and riches are created inside of us in intangible realms and the results are manifested through physical success. We see the results of the wealth physically, but do not see the mental, physical, emotional changes, shifts and support systems that manifest physical wealth, money and success.

When we examine the three pillars for top achievement, we can easily see why top achievers have a higher probability of success if they possess all three pillars.

AFFECTIONATE LOVING PARENTS: Affectionate loving parents are very important for top achievers because parents form the base of a child’s self esteem. Self-esteem is crucial to becoming a top achiever because it allows a person to take a risk. I call self-esteem “emotional capital” and people with high self-esteem are able to take risks and withdraw from their “emotional bank account”. People with abusive parents or absent parents may have depleted emotional bank accounts and will have a much harder time taking risks. Unconditional love from a parent is very important when taking risks because the risk taker will know that no matter how bad they fail, their parents will always be there to support them emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually.

A SUPPORTIVE PARTNER: When Warren Buffett was asked to give advice to a graduating class of Ivey League students he bluntly offered one pearl of wisdom: “Marry the right person”. When a top achiever is going to “put it all on the line” and chase their dream, they require their partner/spouse to do one of two things:

a)   Actively pursue the dream with them OR

b)   Passively support their partner emotionally, physically, mentally and most importantly, spiritually

Top achievers will go through hell and back to become the best in their field. There is an unwritten law in the world that states, “When you push on the world, it pushes back” and oftentimes, people who pursue excellence in their field are met with great adversity at every turn. Whether it is jealous peers, rivals or other unsavory people, the road to the top is not easy. Emotional and spiritual support from a primary relationship is absolutely essential for success to take place. Without this key support, a person will easily be crushed when faced with enough pressure and adversity. A supportive spouse will make a top achiever twice as strong and twice as resilient when “the world pushes back”. If you are single, make sure you heed Buffett’s advice and marry the right person.

A DEEP RELIGIOUS FAITH: Faith is a key ingredient to great success and achievement. I have shifted my spiritual belief system many times in my life but have always retained one key factor called “faith”. Faith is an extremely important part of success because faith allows a person to make leaps in logic.

For example, if we want to be the best salesperson in the country, but have only made a handful of sales, logic would tell us that our outcome of becoming the best to be very unlikely. If we listen to logic, we will always give up without trying.

However, if we feel it in our heart, guts, mind, body, and soul that we believe that we will become the best salesperson in the country, then faith will allow us to leap over the logical argument and pursue our vision with burning determination.

Faith is one of the most powerful techniques that top achievers use because it can help us to achieve things that are unbelievable, improbable and super-human. Faith allows us to harness the greater invisible spiritual forces around us that some would call “the power of intention”, “infinite intelligence”, “the universe” or “god” and use these forces to achieve our wildest dreams against all odds.

WARNING: Although faith can be extremely powerful in the positive sense, faith itself is a double-edged sword. Faith allows the user to leap in logic, which can be used in a positive way to achieve greater goals with no prior experience. However, faith can also leap logic in the wrong direction and create a closed off mind that can completely cripple a thinking mind. Use faith wisely and consider the cause and effect of such a wildly powerful tool. As the label often reads on potent substances: read the manual, consult a professional and use with extreme caution.

Although we often see success in it’s physical manifestation, true success is first created in the non-physical realms of the spiritual, mental and emotional. Only once “inner” success has been found can “outer” physical success be manifested through wealth and riches.

Having a strong support system in the intangible realms through loving parents, a supportive spouse and a strong religious faith are the foundation of the structure that is required to reach the stars and become a top achiever.

Take a moment to take an inventory of your life and your support system. Ask yourself “Which parts of this system do I have today?” and “which parts are lacking?” find ways to strengthen your deficiencies and create stronger relationships.

In the end, no one succeeds alone and great relationships can make the difference between wild success and crushing defeat.

Like grass, relationships require watering and maintenance. Take care of your relationships, water them, fertilize them, manicure them and watch them grow. Consistently be mindful of your support network, treat your support network better than gold and your results will be startling.

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 helpful!

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio

A wise man once said "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

Today was an exciting day in my life. Less than a month ago, I was nominated for Joint Venture Partner of the year in the Top Investor Awards by Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine. Competing in my category were 5 other very competent investors, all of which I admire greatly.

I had a fair amount of time to think about the strategic possibilities of my nomination and ran through all of the possible scenarios that such recognition would bring.

My competitors were all very successful investors, and depending on the metrics used to determine a "winner", any one of us could have won the award.

Three ways to determine a winner would be:

1) The winner could be determined by dollar volume, in which I would certainly NOT be the winner.

2) The winner could be determined by profits, in which I would certainly NOT be the winner.

3) Or the winner could be determined by story, in which I would have a chance to win.

I had to prepare myself for two scenarios:

1. A scenario in which I win
2. And a scenario in which I do not win

It is truly an honour to be nominated alongside such successful investors and the nomination alone is worth a tremendous amount of value to me.

I thought about the two scenarios above for a long time and determined that I would rather lose to a champion than win over an inferior competitor.

In my head, I created a no-lose scenario.

I would either win the award and run with the temporary boost to my brand/marketing or lose and still run with the temporary boost to my brand/marketing.

The only way to create a no lose scenario is by learning to create profit from failure.

I have failed in my life more times than I have succeeded.

They say that the formula for failure is to try to please everyone.

The formula for success is to take your current rate of failure an double it.

I have doubled my rate of failure many times over and continue to  increase my quota. I am not afraid of failing because when life gives me lemons... I have learned how to squeeze out a delicious glass of lemonade.

I have made lemonade so many times in my investing career that I could open up a lemonade stand.

Although, I have had many chances to wrestle with failure, many people have not had the luxury of having so many experiences to study and learn from failure.

The school system conditions us to avoid failure at all costs. In school, we treat failure like the same way we treat death: if you fail, you don't get good grades, you can't get into a good university, you can't get a good job and you will starve to death on the street because you have no money.

In many ways, we are learned to treat failure like death.

In reality, failure is the essence of life.

We learn our greatest lessons when we fail and often, we use these experiences to craft our identities, our character, our philosophies and our stories that make us into champions that can press forward against all odds.

My thinking has changed dramatically over the years when it comes to failure.

I used to get upset when I failed. However, I no longer get upset. When I fail in my current endeavours, I identify and correct my mistake as fast as possible. I then ask myself, "how can I prevent this in the future?". Failing is no longer a negative emotion for me, in fact, I get excited to fail now because it means that I will get an opportunity to learn a lesson. Lessons make me smarter and increase my chances of winning in the future.

FAILURE MANAGEMENT 101

Imagine you are an olympic athlete for an obscure sport like Javelin in which you take a running start to throw a single spear as far as possible.

You train for 10 years, put in 10,000 hours plus of training, forgo sex, good food, alcohol, sleep, professional career opportunities, children, money and lifestyle for a chance at winning the olympics.

The day of the olympics comes and you get one chance, one throw and in that moment you will become one of two things:

1. A winner, a medalist and you will become immortalized in the olympic hall of fame
2. A nobody, you do not qualify, you miss the distance required by inches and your javelin efforts vaporize into thin air

On monday morning, when you get back to your home, what do you do when you sit down at the kitchen table and ponder your next move?

Had you achieved success, you would have got a sponsorship, a great career opportunity, recognition, and fame, etc.

However, you failed... What next?

How do you make lemonade out of the lemons?

How can you create success from the experience?

I have been in situations like this many times. Life is a performance based sport, you often only get one chance to make something happen and if you don't, how do you deal with it?

It's not what happens to you in life that matters, it's how you deal with it.

Today when I was waiting for the speaker at the podium to announce the winner of the Joint Venture Partner of the Year award I had fully prepared myself for failure.

I desired success, understood that it was possible, but the final decision was out of my hands - I did not worry.

In hindsight, I was 95% prepared for failure and only 5% prepared for success.

I was shocked to learn that I had won the award and did not have a speech ready. I winged a few words at the podium, thanked everyone I could think of and proceeded with my "success plan" that I had to quickly engineer.

I was so convinced that my competition would win the award that I had given up the idea of success. To avoid disappointment, I had created a plan to deal with failure and had a solid plan to create an asset out of failing to win.

I have become so good at losing and dealing with situations that go wrong that I had forgot to plan for situations that go right.

Getting good at losing, however, is one of the major pillars of success. It helps us take risks and allow us to win - even when we lose.

Life becomes very easy when you can find ways to win from failure, especially when we learn to monetize these situations.

When I think about the Joint Venture award that I won, I am convinced that my story is what captured the judge's imaginations.

I did not have the biggest deal, the biggest profit, the highest dollar volumes or the sexiest deal.

However, I had a great "rags to riches" story that explains my investment career. My story for 2012 begins with failure and ends with success.

Most people give up when they fail, I have learned to push through failures until I can turn them into successes.

In your own life, learn to spot the "good" in the "bad" and package it into a marketable asset that you can use to your advantage.

Failure is a necessary ingredient to success and many people do not understand that success comes in cycles and is more like a wheel than a destination.

Picture the ferris wheel at the local fair. When you are at the top of the wheel (success), the only way to get back to the top (success) is to go through the bottom (failure).

Life is much like a ferris wheel: to get the top, we must rotate through the cycles at the bottom.

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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Anyone who has ever become successful in reaching their dreams has always had a series or roadblocks to overcome.

Whether you are a Real Estate investor who has dreams of building an empire, a Entrepreneur with the next great idea or an Artist with the next great vision, we all have a series of challenges to face before we can become successful.

One common challenge that everyone has to face when chasing our dreams is that somewhere along the way, we require capital.

This is true for absolutely everyone. Whether you are the Real Estate investor requiring capital for buildings, the Entrepreneur requiring capital for a venture or the Artist requiring capital for an Art-form. The requirement is universal and every business/successful person requires funding at some point in his or her path to success.

Unfortunately for many people, raising capital is a "black box of voodoo" that many do not understand. Some of us are held back by limiting beliefs that "we do not deserve" to have capital or that we need to be born with it to be successful.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Raising capital is a science and an art form. It obeys the law of certainty much like everything else in this world.

If certain things are done in certain ways, certain results are certain to occur.

With that being said, here are 5 Secrets to Raising Capital shared with me by the very-successful capital-raiser JT Foxx:

1. Dress to impress: We only have one chance at making a first impression. The timeframe for establishing a good impression is a very short window between 3 and 30 seconds. As social animals, we are constantly looking for reasons NOT to do business with other people and we will scrutinize every minor detail to disqualify a newcomer. Some key details for dress are: the quality of suit, polished shoes, quality of business cards. Anyone who is idealistic enough to think that these things don't count is delusional. Even legends like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Hugh Hefner had to wear suits early in their careers. Dressing to impress is an easy way to ensure success.
2. Pay attention to your branding: Effective branding is extremely important for anyone who wants to raise capital. However, branding is so much more than just a name, a colour and a logo. Branding is a feeling and an emotion surrounded by you and your company. What feeling does an audience get from you? Some easy ways to find out if you have effective branding or not are; Do you show up effectively in Google? Do you have pictures of yourself with successful people? Branding is what separates the top from the bottom in any business and it ensures a potential investor that you are not a fly by night operation.
3. Know your numbers and be conservative: If in doubt, always be conservative. The worst mistake so many people make is that we try make our deal look better than it really is. A savvy investor will always poke holes in your strategy and call you on a plan that is too optimistic. If you appear to be misrepresenting something then you will scare away your investor and their money. Provide a "best case", "realistic case", "worst case" and "nightmare case" scenario. If your investor is ok with the "nightmare case", then you know that you have a deal.
4. Back end is more important than the front end: Congratulations! You raised the Capital! Now what...? In a perfect world, raising the Capital is easy. What is much more important, however, is how you manage the "back end" of the deal. How good are you at "taking care" of the investor's money? Savvy investors are very hesitant to part with their money and you need to show them some accurate monthly reports with precise information. One of the worst things you can say to an investor is "I run the business and I do my own books." Investors want to see audited financials by a certified account. If you can provide this information you show that you are a professional, understand what they need to feel secure and have built a competent team.
5. Make it about more than the numbers: Relationships are always the most important thing in business. When you pitch a deal or yourself based on the numbers, you are selling yourself short. If you are placing all of your value on the numbers alone, you are in big trouble. Don't be known as "the 12% guy", because later when the "13% guy" comes along, you will be finished. Instead, focus your presentation on your relationships, philosophy and results. Sell the vision of the big picture to your investors and have strong, realistic numbers. If you can provide all of the above, then investors will be calling you looking for a good place to put their money.

Raising capital is a skill that very few people have mastered. It's a skill that revolves around sales, marketing, branding, relationships and understanding the numbers. If you can focus on the 5 fundamentals above, then raising the capital required to build your dream will always be easily found.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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