By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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In North America, for the past 100 years, we’ve had an astounding progression of wealth. Every generation from 1900 has enjoyed a better life with more opportunity and more amenities than the last. Our grandparents (the war generation) who lived on the farm gave their children a better life by moving to the city. The children (the baby boomers) grew up and got manufacturing jobs, then the next generation grew up, went to university and got middle management or intellectual careers (Generation X) and today we are at the next step in the progression: Generation Y.

Unfortunately, where other generations had an “easier” time claiming a better life than their parents, I can see that Generation Y will be the first generation to be poorer than their parents.

The poorest person today in North America has far more amenities than a wealthy man 200 years ago ie: flushing toilets, heated water, refrigerators etc. Even in the poorest households in Canada, first world amenities are available. We live in a very wealthy time, but unfortunately, like musical chairs – the music cannot go on forever and eventually someone is left without a chair. In the game of inter-generational musical chairs, generation Y will be the generation “without a chair”.

I know first hand how difficult it is for Generation Y to fit into the ever-changing economy. I’m born in 1986, graduated from high school in 2004, university in 2008 and hit the job market later in the same year. I did everything conventionally ie: go to school, get good grades, get a degree, get a good job and instead of landing a promising career, I wound up with post grad depression and lay on the couch for months while trying to find something that matched my talents, skills and useless degree.

The sad part is, in 2004 after high school, I took a summer job painting houses for $10 per hour and I worked that summer job every year until I graduated university in 2008. In 2004, minimum wage was $6.50 per hour, so $10 per hour was a great deal. By the time I finished school in 2008, minimum wage had inflated to almost $10 per hour. My first job out of school was a dead end, telephone sales, straight commission, middle of the night job that earned $10 per hour even after hitting my sales targets and ranking in the top 5 sales people. I felt like I had sold out and was sold a fraud. I was better off skipping school and opening up a house painting business. I remember seeing that skilled painters could make around $30 per hour and I was now making $10.

Today in 2013, in Winnipeg, Manitoba where I live, minimum wage is now $10.45 and it will be increasing again next year – along with the price of every single commodity in the economy.

But forget my first hand experience, why is it that Generation Y will be poorer and have a more difficult life than their parents, the baby boomers?

Here are 15 reasons why:

1)    Faster changing job market

a.     Generation Y will statistically change jobs every 4 years. It is no longer feasible to get into a career or company and stay for life – the world is changing too rapidly and labor is always in flux. There is a high probability for Generation Y to learn and relearn skills many times throughout their lives and they will not be able to stay in one place very long.

2)    Highly skilled knowledge workers are needed and formal education does not offer young people what is required.

a.     We live in a primarily knowledge based economy today where the skills to survive are not readily available. For myself, I am an entrepreneur and the knowledge and skills required are unavailable from traditional education institutions like universities and colleges. Apprenticeships and internships are coming back so that young people can actually learn practical skills needed for a successful career. For the last 10,000 years, humanity has acquired skills through apprenticeships. Universities, as trade schools are a relatively new idea, and an idea that fails to deliver what it promises.

3)    Too many options

a.     Having no options can be a luxury, in today’s world, too many options is certainly a burden. Making a choice to commit to a career is more difficult nowadays because young people are bombarded with hundreds of options. In reality, we only need one path to become successful, but the illusion of too many options creates doubt and inaction.

4)    No mentors/parents

a.     Where the baby boomers enjoyed a nuclear family ie: Mom, Dad and a collection of brothers and sisters. Most of the Echo boomers or Gen-Y families are divorced. Many young people don’t have access to the guidance or mentorship that other generations had access too. In the old days, if your father was a blacksmith, you were a blacksmith and he mentored you. Today, you barely know your father, hardly see him and when you do see him, he has nothing valuable to say.

5)    Increasing inflation ie food/clothing/shelter

a.     The economy is inflating at a rapid pace. Items like food, clothing and shelter get increasingly expensive every year while wages stay the same. A rising minimum wage doesn’t help because when the bottom rises, so does everything else in relation to the bottom. Buying a house was once a necessity for the baby boomers and for the echo boomers it may become a luxury or impossibility.

6)    Increasing education costs and education fraud/deception

a.     Education is increasingly expensive year after year in both Canada and the United States. In Canada, we have a much easier time financing education, but sadly, many students leave school with a mortgage of student debt (minus the house). In contrast, our parents could finance education with a few months of work at a summer job at the end of the school year.

7)    Fewer workers are required

a.     Businesses require fewer and fewer workers to do the same tasks. Between my laptop and cell phone, I do not need to hire a secretary because the technology can handle the work of many people. Other technologies wipe out entire classes of workers like 1) ATM’s replacing bank tellers and 2) automated factories have mostly replaced human assembly lines ie: the decline of Detroit in the last 60 years.

8)    Manufacturing has moved overseas – global competition, not local

a.     Generation Y not only has to compete with the local boys and girls for jobs, they also have to compete with their peers in India, China and around the world. I can hire a graphic designer for $300 in Toronto, or get a similar product for $30 from Pakistan. Sadly, $30 goes a long way in Pakistan and the designer in Toronto can’t even make the rent on $300.

9)    Increasing household debt

a.     Not only does Generation Y have more debt through student loans, the entire household that they come from has more debt than ever. Low interest rates has made debt affordable and not only is Generation Y loaded with credit card debt, The boomers (their parents) have remortgaged their home with a Home Equity Line of credit, have multiple auto loans, and maxed out credit cards.

10) Parents who cannot retire and will become a burden

a.     We are sold a fantasy of retirement in North America that at age 55 (or 65) you will get to golf and lie on a beach all day. The reality is that the vast majority of baby boomers will never retire and shortly after the “kids” move out (generation Y), the “parents” (baby boomers) will be moving back in with the kids (to their small home or apartment that is unaffordable). However, this isn’t too terrible, around the world in Europe, Japan, China, India, and even North America 100 years ago, it was normal for inter generational families to live together. Unfortunately, the dream of the retirement that the “war” generation had is smashed forever for the sweeping majority.

11) The deception that 30 is the new 20, lost time

a.     Somehow, generation Y is one of the most “babied” generations in history. Adulthood is now pushed towards 30 because of overbearing parents and over sheltered kids. It also takes more resources and more time to do things that were once normal like 1) Moving out of Mom and Dad’s basement and 2) Starting a career that can provide a living. Losing an extra decade to school or “finding yourself” will severely affect your long-term wealth and ability to invest for your future. An extra 10 years for your money to grow can in theory allow you to have twice as much principle in the future.

12)  Less work ethic

a.     Along with an over sheltered generation Y is a poor work ethic. Generation Y is more interested in Facebook and Twitter than they are with putting in the time and getting ahead. Bill gates used to say “Your grandparents had a word for flipping burgers, they called it opportunity”. It amazes me to see how little interest there is in “getting your hands dirty” or “starting from the bottom”. Gen Y wants to be handed the corner office on a silver platter.

13)  More materialistic

a.     Because Mom and Dad were “keeping up with the Jonses”, their children, Generation Y, are much more materialistic than their parents were. Their parents had to slave away and save for years to afford the house in the suburbs and two brand new cars (purchased on credit). Without ever working to earn, young people want to keep up with the illusion of success and have financed their glamorous lifestyles on 1) student loans 2) credit cards or 3) hand outs from mom and dad. Sadly, all of the resources above will eventually run out and when they do, the over spending youngers will be hit harder than a heroin addict going cold turkey.

14)  The attitude that “we should have it better” than our parents, when in fact, we will have it worse.

a.     Many young people do not even try to enter the job market or start at the bottom and work their way up. They remain underemployed working at Starbucks while trying to become an actress, artist, musician, writer or some other esoteric dream without facing reality. The truth is, generation Y will have a much more difficult time growing up and raising a family than the boomers did and we will have to work much harder than our parents ever did to achieve the same lifestyle.

15) Technology changes the game every 5 years or less

a.     The last threat to Generation Y is that technology is changing every 5 years (or less). New jobs are being created and old jobs are being deleted just as fast. We can never predict which technologies are coming next and which industries will be forever changed or wiped out. Think of Blockbuster getting annihilated by Netflix or the traditional record labels becoming wiped out by Napster and online music. There are always young and hungry entrepreneurs looking to wipe out the dinosaur businesses of the past.

I don’t want to appear to be overly pessimistic in light of all of the facts above. There is more opportunity in the world than ever; new jobs, new markets, new technologies and new businesses can be created in record speed and magnitude. However, it will take a smarter, harder working, and more creative generation to capture such opportunities and that is what Generation Y must focus on becoming.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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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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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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Today I received a magazine in the mail that read on the cover “Why Canadian Real Estate Will Plummet 20% and Stay Down For Years”. After seeing the title, I immediately stopped what I was doing, put my schedule on hold and had to read the doom and gloom article.

Canadian real estate is such a broad term that it is impossible to make a general statement about it. Canada is the second longest land mass on the planet after Russia and we cover so many square kilometers that for all intensive purposes, comparing Vancouver to Toronto to PEI to Winnipeg really makes no sense. The Canadian cities are so spread out and so independent of each other that each market is influenced by a completely different set of forces.

The article claims that Canada will plummet 20% and only mentions speculative real estate in Vancouver and Toronto. More specifically, when “experts” talk about Canadian Real Estate, they mostly focus on the Toronto Condo market, which has been red-hot with record sales of 28,000 units and another 240,000 units to be built in the near future.

Detached homes in Toronto were seeing buyer mania with buyers bidding $100,000 over asking price for a detached home. When cheap, dumb money enters a market, idiotic buyers will pay $100,000 over asking for a single detached home in Toronto.

… But what is Cheap, Dumb Money?

Cheap, Dumb Money is cheap because interest rates are at an all time low. Money has never been this cheap in history, so buyers make crazy decisions that they normally wouldn’t. Along with being cheap, the money is also dumb because it comes from someone who is ignorant and uneducated about the market making a speculative play on a piece of real estate. In investing, when cheap, dumb money enters a market, it’s time to sell. When the dumb money is leaving the market, it’s time to get in. In investing, being smart is easy - just do the opposite of what the stupid people do!

When we compare Canada’s real estate to the USA’s markets, Canada has been steadily climbing since the early 2000’s while the US took a nosedive in 2006. Many uneducated people think that Canada and the US are so similar and so connected that Canada is due for a crash as well.

However, what we don’t consider is that the US did not really have a housing crash. What the USA had was mass mortgage fraud. The prices that homes in the US sold for in 2006 were completely fictional and fraudulent prices that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Cheap, Dumb Money entered the US market via NINJA borrowers (No income, No Job, No assets) and suddenly clerks working at Safeway could own 5 brand new homes in the suburbs where they were planning to “flip” them for a profit. Everyone was speculating with Cheap Dumb Money and prices went insane. The banks underwrote mortgages on completely insane lending standards and lots of fraud happened. The US market crashed because mass mortgage fraud occurred. The low prices we see today in the US are very low compared to the fraudulent prices that were paid in 2006, but they are in line with construction values and rental values in many ways. Real Estate in the USA right now is worth a value closer to the intrinsic value of the actual property and that makes the US market a good place to buy right now.

In my home market in Winnipeg, I write 5 to 25 offers a week and have to acquire a property every 15 days to run my business. I am seeing a divide in the Winnipeg market that has been red-hot for quite some time. Some sellers think that their house is red-hot and needs to sell for an insane valuation; other sellers think that real estate is going down right now and will settle for less. The market is fragmented between those who think the mania that went on in Winnipeg for the last 2 years will continue forever and the realists who think that the market is correcting.

For myself, I think that real estate in Winnipeg will correct in the next 12 to 24 months, and that is only because Winnipeg has been hot for so long. Cheap Dumb Money has been running around in the Winnipeg market for far too long and things have been selling for prices that don’t make sense. It’s not that Real Estate in Winnipeg is “going down” or “getting worse”, it’s just that the mania has to stop. We will likely see less bidding wars, less homes selling over asking price and less insanity in the market.

For myself, I am very happy about this, but I am a professional. Whether the market goes up or down, I’m happy; I can make money either way. All that this means for me, and for you, is that Canadian Real Estate in many markets will be easier to buy in the next 12 months than it has been in the past. Negotiating will be easier, getting discounts will be easier and for myself, the business will become more fun (I love to buy).

Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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In North America, the middle class is quickly becoming an endangered species.

In many ways, opportunity for middle income jobs is disappearing quickly as the jobs migrate overseas to India, China, Brazil and other up and coming economies.

In both Canada and the USA, we are quickly becoming a third world country.

The best definition can find for a third world country is: A country where there is no middle class – only rich and poor.

There are many factors that threaten and endanger the middle class, some of which are:

1)   Unions and inflated labor prices in North America that keep the USA and Canada from competing on the world market

2)   North American consumer demand for the lowest possible prices of consumer goods aka: Wal-mart. North American consumers will not pay premiums for locally produced goods.

3)   The death of American manufacturing

4)   The Federal Reserve, Quantitative easing and inflated money supply

5)   Rising oil, food and real estate prices as a result of Quantitative easing.

6)   Rising minimum wage while middle income earners have stagnant earnings

7)   Technology that eliminates certain jobs every year, ie: Clerical jobs replaced by automation.

8)   Rising taxes and fiscally irresponsible governments

All of the above factors are a threat to the shrinking middle class and as the world becomes more global, many more middle-income jobs will disappear.

Why hire an assistant in Winnipeg for $12-$15 per hour when you can hire a virtual assistant who speaks perfect English with better education in the Philippines for $1.50-$4 per hour?

An MBA graduate in the USA costs a company $300,000 a year while the same MBA graduate from India costs $30,000 a year.

The world is changing rapidly and, for many, it is time to make a decision between joining the ranks of the rich or poor.

Eventually, there will be no middle ground in the North American economy. If a person wants to keep living a middle class lifestyle, he or she may have to move to Brazil.

If given the choice between living rich or poor, everyone always says they would choose to be rich. However, when you survey the actions of the average person, it is quickly evident that most people choose  a life of poverty over a life of wealth.

The top 5 reasons why “Poverty Sucks” and why you need to be Rich in the next 10 years.

1)   You don’t get what you want in life: People who choose a poverty mindset over a wealth mindset ask themselves “what is the cheapest thing I can afford?” For these people, life is controlled and dictated by prices – not value. When you go to a restaurant for dinner, do you order the cheapest thing on the menu? Or do you order what you actually want to eat?

2)   Lack of Freedom: When you have a poverty mindset, other people make critical decisions for you. Most people are 100% controlled by their government and their employer. If you want the freedom to make your own decisions, it may be time to build a wealth mindset. Every great experience in life has a price of admission, if you want the experience, you have to pay for it. America’s jails are filled with people who have absolutely no freedom. Most American prisoners made less than $10,000 per year before entering the prison system. When you are impoverished, you are stuck in survival mode and cannot get into “creation mode” where you can freely create wealth and the life you want.

3)   Lack of confidence and health: Lack of funds creates stress. Everything in life is difficult if you cannot pay the price of admission. Stress is a major threat to health and wealth. Lack of funds also creates a lack of confidence, which can be a vicious cycle. No funds equals no confidence and no confidence equals no funds. If you are in this cycle, break it immediately.

4)   Broken Homes: The #1 cause of broken homes and divorce is financial stress. Financial infidelity aka: hiding bank accounts, secret spending and secret credit cards ruins trust and relationships. Divorced families are much more likely to be faced with poverty and financial problems.

5)   Debt: Nearly 50% of the families in the USA are 1 paycheque away from bankruptcy. We live in a paycheque to paycheque society where overspending and money mis-management makes debt a necessity for survival. Today with credit cards, it’s easier than ever to get into debt. Although debt is a convenient way to take care of immediate problems, it is a double-edged sword. Debt will let you do the things you want today while robbing you of the things you want in the future.

All of the above reasons can create cycles of poverty that are very difficult to break.

Unfortunately, in the future, there will only be rich and poor in North America unless some major changes are made. I have heard many experts say that next 10 years will be the biggest wealth transfer in history and best time in history to become very rich... or very poor.

The USA is in a recession that may turn into a depression and this means that businesses, real estate and other assets will be on sale. There will be more opportunity than ever to become wealthy.

The best part of living in a free country like the USA or Canada is that each of us has the ability to choose between becoming Rich or Poor.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
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Retirement for many North Americans is a dream that many people wish to have. The first wave of baby boomers is starting to retire in the next few years, however, many of them are not prepared to stop working.

The definition of retirement is “to take out of useful service” and what happens to so many hard working people is that they die shortly after being “taken out of useful service”.

Working at a job is a a social pursuit that can add purpose and meaning to a person’s life and so many people highly value the social aspect of working.

If a person decides to retire and loses the social environment that they have been in for the last 10, 20 or 30 years, they can suffer a serious blow to their happiness and life can become very difficult.

If you look at human history, there are virtually no examples of societies that have a “retirement” with golf courses, meal plans and retirement homes.

Life spans have been short throughout history and people generally worked until they died. In some cultures, the elderly would live with their children and help out around the home, but they still did a considerable amount of domestic chores and kept “working” without retirement.

Many baby boomers have the vision of retiring on a golf course like their parents did and sadly, I don’t think this will be a reality for most of them. My opinion of the “golf course” retirement is that it has been an anomaly that only one generation in human history has been able to enjoy.

Unfortunately, the “golf course” retirement has been artificially created by the WWII generation before the baby boomers.

The WWII generation financed their “retirement” on debt and fiat currency. Like most debts, they have been able to pass the bag onto their children (the boomers).

Historically speaking, the “golf course” retirement was created early in the industrial age and it was mathematically engineered by highly skill actuaries. They calculated that for every year a person worked after age 55, the worker’s lifespan decreased by a proportionate amount of years.

“67” is the magic year because it the shortest amount of retirement that the company would have to pay. Age 67 is the year that the average worker would statistically die after working until age 65.

What this means was that many retirement plans were designed around a worker working from age 18 to 65 with a 2-year retirement followed by a quick death at 67.

“Retirement” plans were never designed to support people and their families into their 80’s, 90’s and 100’s. These retirements span 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years and they were fundamentally designed to support 2 years.

Most companies with defined benefit plans were betting on their employees dying 2 years after 65. Statistically today in North America, both men and women live to be nearly 80 years of age and the number is climbing as healthcare improves.

I saw a statistic the other day that said that between Obamacare, social security and medicare, the United States has 80 Trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities. The amazing thing is, 80 Trillion dollars is more money than the entire world’s money supply.

No one can pay this liability, not even the USA with it’s unprecedented money printing abilities.

The USA could print their way out of the problem, but would completely devalue their currency into oblivion in the process.

Many of the pension funds, retirement funds and mutual funds that the Boomers are relying on for retirement are all invested in the paper assets that are extremely vulnerable to market fluctuations.

Furthermore, these assets are all timed to liquidate at the same time. The baby boomers are the largest demographic in North America and in other parts of the world as well. These people will be selling their large family homes at the same time (in specific suburban sub-markets), liquidating their stock portfolios and will begin systematically withdrawing from the markets in 2016.

What happens when everyone reaches his hand into the cookie jar? Although there should be, there are not enough cookies in the jar for everyone and some of us won’t get a cookie. The stock market works like this and when everyone wants to sell, values deflate and many people will not get their full (inflated) value on their assets.

When the baby boomer garage-sale begins, who will be in line to absorb these large suburban family homes, stock portfolios and other assets?

My prediction is that the younger generations, namely the echo boomers, will not have the purchasing power to absorb their parents’ assets. There has been a large shift in the middle class and the entire middle class workforce has migrated from North America to Asia.

As well, the purchasing power of the echo boomers has been damaged by long term no-value university programs and many do not enter the work force until mid twenties or later.



Furthermore, many echo boomers are loaded down with student debt racking up into the hundreds of thousands.

It is common for students nowadays to leave school with a houseless “mortgage of student debt”.

What is most unfortunate is that these students cannot go bankrupt to get out of their debt obligation.

I don’t have a crystal ball to predict how these demographics, fundamentals and laws will pan out, but there will be chaos and chaos brings opportunity.


If you are a savvy investor, you will be able to find some serious bargains on assets in both Canada and the USA.

However, if you are on the other side of the equation and expecting to retire in the next few years, you may need a back up plan to hedge against your current investment portfolio.

I don’t want to preach doom and gloom; I prefer to be optimistic about the future. However, we are set up for a perfect storm in the next few years and I truly believe that we will see a major transfer of wealth.

It’s up to you to get educated on the things I have written about in this article and do your best to prepare for the perfect storm… Otherwise, it may be better to die at 67.

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

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 if you found this article helpful!

Photo: The iconic, Slash from Guns and Roses.

"A rock star is the intersection between who you are and who you want to become" -Slash, Guns and Roses.

Years ago between the ages of 16 and 22 I focused heavily on my dream of becoming a "rock star". I wrote songs, put a band together, promoted local rock shows, created websites, sold merchandise and focused on the dream of "rockstardom."

Looking back on the things that I loved about the concept of  becoming a "rock star" was:

1. To be recognized
2. To perform at a high level in front of an audience
3. To have my own business
4. To be in control of my own future
5. To have creative control of my art-form
6. To travel the world
7. To have passive income
8. To build a collection/portfolio of work
9. To earn a nice living
10. To be free from answering to a boss or a J.O.B.

When I look at my life today, at age 26, I have achieved all of the above and I no longer have a band.

I have a theory that we never really love music, art, dance, poetry, fine food, travelling or anything else that we are passionate about...

Instead we love the FEELINGS that we get from experiencing music, art, dance, poetry, fine food, travelling etc.

Rock music doesn't matter, what matters is the feelings we get from the music.

Although I "quit" pursuing the "rockstar" dream at age 22, I have achieved all 10 of the things I wanted in Music from Real Estate instead.

The work doesn't matter, what matters is the feelings that come from the work.

You don't need a band to be a rock star: you do, however, need a BRAND.

The concept of a rockstar really is a concept from the 1970's. Bands/musicians like Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison etc. embody the glory of rockstardom.

When we translate the 1970's concept of a Rockstar into today's market of 2012, there are virtually zero universally recognized modern rock stars.

A list that I was reading for fun the other day was the "30 richest drummers in the world" when measured by net worth.

What interesting about the bands/drummers on the list was that NONE of them started after the year 2000. Most of the bands/musicians on the list are from the glory days of rock'n'roll in the 1970's and the rest are scattered throughout rock history. A select few became famous in the 1990's at best.

Many people have said throughout history that "rock is dead" and I would agree; especially when we examine a list like the one above. 

Although "rock is dead", living life as a rockstar has never been more alive.

The only difference between the rockstars of today and the rockstars of the 1970's is that the rockstars from the 70's all had bands. 

The rock stars of the new millennium have BRANDS instead of bands.

I believe that it is much more important to build a brand than a band/business because a successful brand can be attached to a business very easily ie: Gene Simmons of KISS has attached his brand to 100's, if not 1000's of products and is able to spawn dozens of businesses and licensing deals. KISS is a brand that has made more money than The Beatles and will likely continue to do well after all of the KISS members are dead.

Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and Jimi Hendrix are all examples of excellent brands that make approximately $50 Million dollars per brand annually, even though the "rockstar" behind the brand has been dead for years.

A modern example of a "rockstar" would be Mike "The Situation" from MTV's Jersey Shore.

All of the reality TV stars on Jersey shore are devoid of talent, however, they are highly visible and have a well defined brand with broad appeal. In 2010 alone, Mike "The Situation" made $5 million dollars just off of endorsements and other deals.

The formula is simple, create a great brand, attach a business, rinse and repeat.

Up and coming musical rockstars have lost most of their power, especially rock'n'roll musicians because there is no longer any centralized distribution for music: Traditional radio is fragmented and listenership is down, Satellite radio is highly fragmented, online music is highly fragmented and no one has really figured out how to properly monetize and control the internet. Television is more fragmented than ever and channels like MTV do not feature music or music videos anymore.

Creating a rock star brand is not as easy as showing up on American Band Stand or the BBC as it once was because of all of the fragmented channels.

Modern musicians (especially rap musicians) are focusing more on building great brands and attaching satellite businesses to their back-end. Some examples I can think of immediately are:

1. Lady Gaga,
2. Jay-Z
3. Kanye West
4. Beyonce
5. 50 Cent

The brand is greater than the band.

Both music and business are trending towards brands in the modern economy.

All of this information may be great if you are in the music/entertainment industry, but what does this mean for you and your business?

All of this information means the following:

1. Brand value is more important than ever, focus on creating a visible, high quality brand at all costs. Brands can be monetized later if they are built properly.
2. Visibility is more important than ever. Find a niche, become visible and become the leading expert in the niche.
3. You don't need talent or a band to have a great brand. Consider Mike "The Situation".
4. Focus on monetizing the "back end" of your brand and not the front end. Modern musicians like Kanye West look at their music as a "commercial" for themselves and make money on the back end NOT the front.
5. Build a great brand and diversify your back end as much as possible. No one has a crystal ball and we never know what the next trend is going to be. Have a mother brand with a diverse portfolio of back-end businesses (think of Virgin, Richard Branson's brand with 400 companies under it).

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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

What does Coca-Cola, the 59th company on the Fortune 500 and the multi-trillion dollar illegal drug industry have in common?

Both Coca-Cola and Illegal Drugs have:

1. Worldwide organizations
2. Highly addictive consumable product
3. Both have insane profit margins
4. Can operate in areas where governments fail (such as war torn zones and socially unstable areas of Africa)
5. Line ups of customers waiting to purchase a specific product and will accept no imitations
6. There is a concentrated "producer" in both models and a large network of "distributors". Coca-Cola makes it's own syrup and hundreds of "bottling companies" distribute and bottle the mix of water and syrup.
7. Established networks of dealers who get paid to move product

Years ago, I was watching a documentary on a war-torn country in Africa. The government had been wiped out and it was nearly impossible to re-establish a government because of civil unrest. Local warlords were constantly threatening any group that wished to take power and the entire country was in chaos.

The documentary also enlightened me as to why Coca-Cola was able to operate in an environment where there was no government or regulatory body to protect their supply chains from bandits, child armies and criminals.

One African man who worked for Coca-Cola attributed the success of the company to the fact that "everyone who touches the product gets paid". This means that everyone who carries it, sells it, distributes it, transports it or markets it gets paid. Government protection or not, this business can function ANYWHERE.

The multi-trillion dollar network of illegal drugs works in the same way that Coca-Cola does. These organizations face daunting odds and have gone to "war" with formidable foes like The United States of America. However, these cartels function and thrive because they have the same philosophy driving their business:

"Everyone who touches the product gets paid".

The farmers who farm the raw materials get paid, the people who process the ingredients get paid, the drug mules get paid, the networks of dealers get paid etc.

Coca-Cola and Illegal drugs have the exact same supply chain philosophy and can operate anywhere in the world against all odds. Both entities have a "Pay Everybody" philosophy and have created an extremely smooth, well organized, well oiled machine.

But what does this mean for you and your business?

Only 2% of business owners understand Joint Ventures, although most of the Fortune 500 companies derive significant revenues from creating joint ventures. 

A joint venture is where two companies, people or organizations align their goals for mutual benefit.

The most simple joint ventures are referral commissions: If a customer is referred to a company, the company receiving the referral will pay an ongoing commission on all business done between the new customer and the business. This is extremely lucrative for both the referral client and the receiving company. Ongoing revenue is what keeps the relationship strong and creates incentives for the referral client to continuously send business.

Understanding joint ventures is a huge component to becoming the leader in your market or industry. Since only 2% of entrepreneurs truly understand Joint Ventures, you can have an unfair advantage in your market.

In my own business, I have adopted a "Pay Everybody" policy and have had wild success with the program.

I have access to private real estate deals first before they hit the open market, I have access to Capital that I would not normally have access to, my phone rings all day with opportunities for deals and capital and I don't have time to take every call.

This is an extremely good problem to have.

Most businesses/entrepreneurs spend HUGE budgets on advertising and marketing, I spend virtually zero dollars, but I pay for results.

If someone refers me a private deal, they receive a handsome $500 "thank-you" fee. If another investor has a good deal under contract, I will generally pay $1000-$5000 to purchase the contract and take on the deal myself. I have similar programs in every aspect of my business and I don't spend any money on advertising because:

I pay for results, NOT promises.

In the past, I have been murdered on advertising. A year ago I spent $2700 on a print ad that generated ONE PHONE CALL for my business!

One pathetic inbound phone call and NO SALE. Just a $2700 lead.

I was furious, felt like I had been ripped off by the advertising company and vowed to never ever repeat this mistake. I felt like I was the victim of a ridiculous joke and I will be extremely cautious to repeat any form of print advertising.

Nowadays, I spend $0 on advertising and my phone rings off the hook because I have learned a lesson from Coca Cola and Drug dealers... I make sure everyone who touches my product is paid. I make sure everyone is paid well and happy to work with me. If someone doesn't like working with me, I let them leave and work with someone else. I surround myself with a network of outstanding peers and highly competent people who get my phone to ring off the hook.

Unfortunately, so many entrepreneurs are too short sighted or too cheap to pay commissions to keep their people happy. This is why so many companies cannot retain good talent, spend huge dollars on advertising and eventually become weak and vulnerable from attrition to their teams and advertising budgets. There are few things in business that are more expensive than employee attrition and advertising.

Learn from Coca Cola and Drug Dealers and implement the "Pay Everybody" strategy in your business. If you build a good program and stick with it then you will see wild results in 30 days.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Share this article if you found it educational!

Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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

There is a moment in my life I will never forget...

I was watching 50 Cent, the famous rapper, on an interview on TV. He was wearing a suit and dressed like a businessman - not a rapper or a drug dealer (contrary to his brand). The interviewer was marvelling at 50's business acumen and his successes outside of music. There are two parts of the interview that will stay with me forever:

1. 50 Cent made a huge profit selling "Vitamin Water". From what I understood in the interview, he was a Venture Capitalist on the deal and sold the company for around $300 Million dollars to Coca Cola. 50-cent chose Vitamin water because it had the same mark-up as crack cocaine (his first business as a child)
2. When the interviewer asked about the economic recession, 50 cent replied "recession? what recession? Where I come from, there is always a recession... The recession is a middle class problem, not one for the rich or the poor."

When 50 cent said those words, they had a striking effect on me that changed the way I thought about business.

I had always known that there were only two places you wanted to be in the market if you want to be successful and sustainable.

1. Be at the top, the luxury level, have the highest margins. OR
2. Be at the bottom, have the lowest price and win on volume.

Any market is an assortment of prices, values and products. What I look for as an entrepreneur is MARKET PRESSURE.

I want to know where the pressure points are in the market.

For example, I live in Winnipeg right now and we have a shortage of rental units. This shortage is caused by the government who has put such strict regulations on land lords that developers and investors have taken their money elsewhere. Consequently, we have 500 vacant rental units in the whole city with a population between 750,000 and 800,000 people. The average household income is slightly lower than other cities and the purchasing power is usually around $30,000-$50,000 for most renters.

This means that if you have a rental unit under $1,000, you will have a line up of people applying to rent it because there is far too many people at bottom of the market. These people have no purchasing power and are fighting to get in. There are limited options at the bottom and it's EASY to make a sale.

This same principal is why slum lords make so much money. Slum lords set their rents so low that there is always a line of renters and they never repair anything because they know they will always have customers. Their customers are on social assistance or another form of welfare and the revenue comes directly from the government, who is the most stable customer around. This is what it is like to be at the bottom of the market, there is NO SUCH THING AS A RECESSION. Slum lords are at one of the most stable pressure points in the market because they are the bottom. The bottom always has lots of customers because many customers are cheap and just want the basic, bare minimum product. Other examples of recession proof "bottom market" businesses are McDonalds and Wal-Mart. Many customers only go to those two establishments because of the price.

In contrast to the bottom of the market, is the top of the market. The top of the market is often called "luxury" and reserved for those who can pay. Donald Trump, when he built Trump Tower decades ago, chose to build the most luxurious amazing apartments in Manhattan. These units were so stunning that the most wealthy luxury clients in the world would compete just to live in the iconic Trump Tower. In Real Estate, Donald Trump caters to the global elite who do not care what they pay for goods and services as long as they have the best in the world. For Entrepreneurs who sell to the top of the market, money is not an issue for their customers because luxury clients will pay any price just to be the best.

When I used to work at an internet company that sold Luxury Hotel rooms in 2008, we would always have middle class tire-kickers phoning in "trying to get a bargain because there was a recession". I had to remind these people daily that "in luxury products, there is never a recession and that luxury products only ever offer modest discounts (if at all). Customers will pay full price because they want the best. When you are at the top in the market THERE IS NO RECESSION. Luxury clients will always pay premiums to have the best, money is not an issue for these people, as long as the product is the best.

But between the TOP of the market and the BOTTOM of the market is "no man's land"... also known as the MIDDLE.

I absolutely hate being in the middle of the market because this is where recessions destroy businesses and entrepreneurs.

Consumers at the middle of the market are usually middle class people, who have jobs, bills to pay, credit card debts, car loans, mortgages, piano lessons, hockey for the kids, ballet, once a year vacation, savings for retirement, rainy day funds and still like to eat lunch at a restaurant 3-5 times a week.

These people are usually loaded down with so much debt and liability that they are walking a tight rope. If they make a mistake in their budget or lose $100 to an emergency, they suddenly have to cancel their trip to mexico...

If you are the mexican hoping to sell the vacation your middle class friend, you are out of luck and have just lost a price sensitive customer who can no longer afford your product.

The middle market people are extremely price sensitive, every single sway in the economy shakes them and they drop like flies when things get really bad. 

What's worse about selling to them is that they have enough purchasing power to be choosey, but not enough to be luxury. It's hard to determine what they want and they are mobile enough to be fickle with you as a customer.

There is lots of loyalty at the top, as long as you are the best.

There is lots of loyalty at the bottom, as long as you are the cheapest.

There is NO loyalty in "no man's land" and it is a savage place to be.

Whenever I look at a business, design one or analyze one, I always want it to be at the TOP or the BOTTOM of the market. The middle is the scariest place to be.

Recessions can wipe out the middle in a heartbeat, especially since the middle class are an endangered species. If your customers are wiped out, so are you.

It's my policy to avoid marketing to the middle, because that is where all the problems are for two reasons:

1. They are price sensitive enough to be fickle with the bottom
2. Do not have the purchasing power to have luxury at the top

They float between the top and the bottom and land wherever they feel like.

The top of the bottom operates on the emotion of WANT... The bottom of the market operates on the emotion of NEED...

I always want my customer to either NEED or WANT me. In the middle, your clients neither NEED or WANT you and this is a huge threat to your business.

In my mind, there is no such thing as a recession because I always focus on the top or the bottom of the market and let other people take the risk of the middle.

Although I may look like a "risk taking" entrepreneur, I am actually extremely risk adverse and like to bet on "sure things". By focusing on the right pressure points in the market, and executing your businesses properly with attention to detail, there is no reason why your business cannot become recession proof.

Where do you usually choose to play in the market?

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share if you found this article educational!

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Today I spent the day in Edmonton with one of my money partners at the Fast Track SuperConference hosted by Darren Weeks. Darren is the Canadian Rich Dad, one of my mentors and a man who taught me a lesson that has made me successful to this day. I owe much of my success to Darren because I developed a skill set that very few people have (and one that is almost impossible to obtain because so few people teach the art of raising capital). When I worked for Darren I learned 1) How to sell and 2) The art of raising capital.

Darren Weeks is an extremely successful Canadian entrepreneur. His company, the Fast Track Group has been in the top 100 of the fastest growing companies in Profit magazine 3 years in a row, and when I worked for Darren, his team was the 40th fastest growing company in Canada. In my opinion, Darren's personal talent is his ability to identify and assemble groups of amazing people and with unbelievable talent who are motivated by a mission greater than themselves.

Contrary to traditional business models, The Fast Track Group was built around giving out "more education than anyone in the industry". There are few businesses who give first and receive second.

Darren prides himself on the fact that he provides more FREE value to the market than anyone else. To some people, giving out FREE information and building a business around it sounds insane, costly and risky... but I think that consumers nowadays expect FREE gifts and services before they buy - it's the trend in modern business. 

Business models that revolve around FREE gifts and services are especially strong in the financial and real estate sectors right now.

When I was 22 I attended the Fast Track Super Conference in Edmonton, I was absolutely blown away by the calibre of the company. I loved the mission, I loved the people and I loved what the company was doing for Canadians. I wanted to be a part of the group, I could feel the energy and it was infectious.

One thing Darren always used to preach when he was educating his audiences was "if you want to get rich, work for FREE." He would often pick out a young man or woman in the audience who would be just entering the work force and ask them "can you afford to work for FREE?"

Almost every time, the young man or woman would say "absolutely not!" and then Darren would teach the lesson.

The difference between the rich and the middle class/poor is that the rich do not work for money, they work for FREE. This may sound completely ridiculous to your belief system, but hear me out:

Lets consider two scenarios. 

In my personal life, when I was in my early twenties, I had two jobs at two different times. At my first job I worked for money, at my second job I worked for FREE.

MY FIRST JOB (WORKING FOR MONEY):

At age 22 I worked at Frito Lay Canada and my job was to merchandise (which is a fancy word for putting bags of chips on the shelves at 4 in the morning at Wal-Mart).

My primary motive for working with the company was the salary and the hours. I was truly chasing the dollar in every sense of the word. I wanted a salary so I could get mortgages to buy real estate. I took that job for the wrong reasons, didn't learn the proper skills in the field and it became harder and harder to get out of bed every day when I worked there. I had no passion for the industry and felt that there was nothing to learn.  

When I left the company, I had maxed out my purchasing power for properties and but had acquired ZERO skills towards building my own business. Since I had chased the dollar, I had a small cash reserve on hand, however, I had built NO SKILLS or contacts. Although I had made a little bit of money, I had built no human equity in myself, no skills and had no way of propelling myself forward towards my goals, hopes and dreams. In a way, I had traded time for money, lost my time and had crippled myself in a way.

Most people don't consider the skills they learn at work. My advice to young entrepreneurs is to leave their job once they stop learning the skills required to do it. Always work to learn. Move from job to job until you have all of the skills required to run the business of your choice.

Lesson: When it comes to work NEVER chase the dollars, find what excites you, find where your heart is and chase your passions. The money doesn't matter and it always gravitates towards the most enthusiastic people.

MY NEXT JOB (WORKING FOR FREE): I had heard Darren Weeks say on stage "If you want to get Rich, work for FREE". I took his advice, although it challenged my belief system, but I had nothing to lose so I and volunteered for his company whenever he was in town.

Every time Darren was in town, I would dress up in a suit, show up early, leave late, pack and unpack books, process paperwork, seat people, help out with sound-production and do any task that was required of me. I expected NO financial compensation and just wanted to be on the team.

I volunteered for Darren for three years and I applied to work for his company three times. Twice I was rejected for the job and the third time I applied I said, "I have been volunteering at this company over the past 3 years, I have applied twice and been rejected, I will keep applying until you hire me".

I then flew to Edmonton and volunteered at a Fast Track Super Conference event shortly after my interview. Darren Weeks noticed that I had flown from Winnipeg to Edmonton (on my own money) to volunteer to work for him. After the event, he personally took the time out of his evening to offer me a job with the company. 

What Darren didn't know was that I had already been hired to start work with the company and on the following monday I was to begin formal training.

Consider the lesson: working for FREE and volunteering had grabbed the attention of the founder of the company and had brought me onto the team OF MY CHOICE.

Now that I was positioned in the only company I wanted to work for, I got paid to learn more about the topics I was already passionate about. I was in heaven.

I got paid to sharpen my skills and become an extremely valuable asset to myself. I learned the art of sales, how to do public presentations, how to run an office, how to recruit good employees, how to fire bad employees, prospecting, sales tracking, databases, securities regulations and public speaking.

Most importantly, I learned how to raise capital and work with investors. This has been my "secret sauce" in my business and it's what sets me apart from other real estate investors who DO NOT have the skill set.

These skills are the base of my empire and the building blocks of my portfolio. I have based my entire career and current business around skills that I acquired by working for FREE.

Had I not volunteered at the company first, I would have had no chance of working with them. I would be of no value to their tribe and I would not have learned the skill set that makes me valuable today.

Every morning, you would still see a wandering soul putting bags of Doritos on the shelf at Walmart at 5:00am. I would have throttled passions and big dreams, but no way of executing them or aligning with other people who matter.

Lesson: Every week I meet young people who are passionate about a certain field or career. Many people say they are passionate about music, art, acting, sports, television, radio etc. and don't know how to break into those "hard to enter" industries. Whenever I study a highly successful person, I notice that almost all of them worked for FREE scrubbing toilets, mopping floors or doing the most pointless jobs at the bottom of the barrel just to be a part of the industry of their choice. Unfortunately, young people today do not see such opportunity.

Steven Spielberg began his brilliant career in film by just "showing up" to the movie studio, wearing a suit and pretending to be a director in an abandoned office. He was a film student who pretended to work there and snuck into the studio every day. The people at the studio assumed he worked there and eventually his passion for film brought him an opportunity to make his first film.

Steve Jobs of Apple was too poor to pay for his college education so he collected aluminum cans on campus and would cash them in to eat his next meal. Jobs had no money, so he would sit in the university classes for free and let his mind absorb the information. The FREE classes he attended for no credit became the building blocks of the apple philosophy. Steve was genius who blended liberal arts with technology. If he were paying for the classes and chasing marks/credits, he would not have been so creative and open in his approach.

Trent Reznor, the frontman of of the iconic band Nine Inch Nails, got a job as a janitor at a recording studio where he mopped floors and poured coffee for 8+ hours a day. He shared an apartment with a friend and ate peanut butter sandwiches for years just so that he could earn studio time to make his debut record in the middle of the night when the studio was vacant.

The most brilliant people in the world, the people who are at the top of their game and dominate their fields with enthusiasm, passion and leadership often started at the bottom working for FREE.

The reason why working for free is so powerful is:

1. It gets you in the door, an employer can't say "no" to free labor
2. You make contacts in the industry of your choice immediately
3. You learn the business form the "ground up"
4. When a job opens up, you are first in line because you are at the business and eager to work anyways - you are the best choice!
5. If you aren't passionate about the industry you won't last long, you will weed yourself out to find your true passion
6. Over time you gain experience and you will either be hired by the company you are volunteering for OR A COMPETITOR of theirs. This is a no lose strategy if you stick with it.
7. You free your mind from "chasing the dollars" which can limit your creativity. You will approach the industry with a creative, fresh perspective. This is priceless in the long run.

If I lost everything tomorrow, had no skills, no money, no contacts and no experience I would re-discover what I am excited about and offer to work for FREE in the industry.

Of course I would need some income to live, so I would get a job at McDonalds for 8 hours of the day (or another McJob) that is not too stressful, then work for the company of my choice for FREE in the other 8 hours. I would continue this 80 hour a week routine until I am hired by the company of my choice and then I would quit my McJob.

I would then gain all of the skills I need to be successful in my industry and re-evaluate my position. I would likely find a way to start my own business in the same industry and leave as fast as possible as soon as I stop learning.

Exercise: Take a step back from where you spend your time on a daily basis. Ask yourself: Are you chasing dollars? Or are you building valuable skills in an industry of your choice? Is your work based on passion and enthusiasm? Would you keep working there if they stopped paying you?

I used to say when I was in the music industry "You know you're in the right industry when you can work 18 hours a day, lose money and still wake up the next day to do it all over again." Follow your heart and make a choice of passion and NOT logic.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of having dinner with Shawn Shewchuk, Author of "Change Your Mind, Change Your Results" and the #1 results coach in the country (when measured by results and speed of results.)

I was introduced to Shawn because he is currently coaching one of my real estate mentors on his personal growth and business.

Shawn mostly works with high achievers, entrepreneurs and executives to take their "game" to the next level.

Coaching can be a very nebulous thing to many people, it can be viewed as extremely expensive (Often $5000 to $25,000+) and (to the average person) can be viewed as a "rip-off" or a "liability". What I find to be fascinating about coaching is that the world's most successful people have multiple coaches and the more successful a person is, generally, the more coaches they have. 

What I have learned in my short time from working with a paid coach and mentor is that an unsuccessful person will view a coach as a liability, while a successful person will view a coach as an asset.

Of course, not all coaches are created equal; there are good coaches and awful coaches. You must discriminate with extreme prejudice. The best way to choose a coach is to find successful people and gather referrals, ask who is coaching them in their success.

Many coaches focus on one topic such as; business, investment, health, life, and success. What I found intriguing about Shawn was that he has built his coaching practice, business and life around a holistic approach to success. He believes that success must be achieved in all areas of life - not just one. 

Shawn believes that "Success is not available without balance".

As an entrepreneur, shawn has built businesses, sold businesses and has made very good money in his life, but understands that personal, relationship, health and career all have to work together because "money is important, but (it's) not everything."

As a young, driven, aggressive, male entrepreneur, I asked Shawn about balance. I often find myself too focused on business, goals and success. I will sacrifice anything for success (whatever that means) and I challenged Shawn's idea of balance or holistic coaching by asking him about the Dragon's on CBC's hit venture capital show Dragon's Den.

I have studied many of the successful Canadian entrepreneurs on Dragon's Den and have noticed that three of them have stated on television that "balance does not exist" in their lives. The Dragons are all very driven and successful business people who have sacrificed immensely for their success. When I asked Shawn about his opinion on balance when compared to the Dragon's on balance he replied "There is no such thing as balance; balance is what you make it".

A profound answer indeed. I have always thought of balance as being an subjective pursuit. Never did I imagine that balance could be different for everyone. This really challenged my thinking.

While we were exploring balance, Shawn pointed out that one of the Dragon's had lost his family in pursuit of financial success. Family, no matter how difficult they can be are a priceless once-in-a-lifetime experience. Family members are irreplaceable and trading primary and secondary relationships for a few extra dollars is unacceptable in hindsight.

The #1 concept I am learning from my current coach and from talking to Shawn has been that Coaches get you results and collapse time frames.

What may take a person 5 years to achieve alone, may take 6 months with the help of a qualified coach. I have seen results similar to this in my own business just from a single coaching call and a few emails, my growth has gone from linear to exponential and geometric. I used to do one deal a month and now I'm getting bombarded with opportunities and have achieved 3 deals in a week.

Most people are procrastinators, but what is the opposite of procrastination?

Sometimes it can make sense to define a word by it's opposite.

Shawn defines Strategic accountability as the opposite of procrastination. Where the average person will sit on the couch and eat potato chips, Shawn builds strategies with his clients and holds them accountable to their goals and plans.

Procrastination is an absolute killer for most people because it kills ideas, kills actions and ultimately kills dreams. "Most people don't think, they float through life" All ships that float without a navigator end up smashing up on the rocks eventually.

Shawn has worked with over 6000 people in his career and only 3 have not been successful in their pursuits after working with him. What was their key to failure? People who fail with coaches think that they are going to get a magic bullet to solve their problems over night. I used to experience this years ago when I used to teach guitar lessons to young people. Too many of these young people wanted to be sprinkled with a magic pixie dust instead of taking the REAL steps towards success.

After speaking with Shawn for 30 minutes about coaching and the benefits of hiring one, I asked Shawn the $1,000,000 question:

"How many coaches do you have?"

This is the million dollar questions because whenever someone is in a business or industry, I always want to know how much of their own product they consume. It shows integrity and congruence.

Shawn's reply was very good: "I have three." Although Shawn is located in Calgary, his coaches are scattered across North America on the east coast USA, Toronto and Western USA. I was impressed to learn that Shawn's first coach was Bob Proctor; the man behind the hit movie/book The Secret.

I personally have two coaches at the moment and the strategic planning and goal setting alone has made my business explode in the last 30 days. If you want to speed up your rate of success, begin to search for a coach, and don't hesitate to spend some money. Nothing is free in this life and you get what you pay for. Free advice, although attractive at the beginning, is ALWAYS the most expensive of all in the long term.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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