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

It’s the unconquerable soul of man, not the nature of the weapon he uses, that insures victory.” – General George Patton.

Why are some people absolutely unstoppable while others quit at the first sign of difficulty?

Why do some people manage to make it to the gym every morning while others only show up on January 1st and quit by January 7th?

Why do some marriages fall apart after 5, 10, 15 or the 20 year mark while some last "until death"?

Why do immigrants who come to a new country with nothing manage to get rich while others born with every advantage slip into poverty?

The people who manage to push through adversity all have one thing in common: They have a strong "Why".

A wise man once said "Some men have 1000's of reasons to fail, but they only need 1 reason to succeed".

Simon Sinek, a brilliant speaker, educator and researcher discovered the concept of "The golden circle".

Simon wanted to know what the difference was between the average person and the exceptional person. 

What Simon discovered was that behind every person, organization or business there is a WHY, a HOW and a WHAT.

The average person, business or organization focuses on the WHAT first, the HOW second and may never address the WHY. These people work from the "outside-in" and focus externally.

The exceptional person, business or organization focuses on the WHY first, the HOW second and the WHAT last. These people work from the "inside-out" and focus internally first.

The results between the average and the exceptional are both shocking and yield completely different results.

Consider two computer companies: Apple and Dell.

On one hand, communication from Dell operates from the outside-in:

1)    WHAT We make great computers,

2)    HOW they are beautifully designed and easy to use, "want to buy one"?

3)    WHY - ????

Communication from Apple on the other hand is from the "inside-out":

1)    WHY - With everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo,

2)    HOW - the way we challenge the status quo is that our computers are beautifully designed and easy to use,

3)    WHAT - we make great computers, want to buy one?

To compare the results of Apple to Dell in the last 5 years: Apple has become the most respected brand in the world many years in a row and the most valuable company in history, while Dell has fallen off the radar.

The golden circle can easily be applied to fitness as well.

The average person approaches the gym on January 1st every year with the following mentality:

1)    WHAT – I want to get fit this year and lose some weight

2)    HOW – I am going to buy a gym pass

3)    WHY – This is my new year’s resolution

This person is usually delinquent on gym attendance by the time February rolls around because a new year’s resolution is not a strong enough reason to ensure success.

The exceptional person approaches the gym with the following mentality:

1)    WHY – I must go the gym consistently to create and maintain the body I desire. This is integral to my self-image, self-esteem and personal success.

2)    HOW – I will go the gym every day

3)    WHAT – I will have a fit and healthy body that reflects my self-image, self esteem and personal success.

If I were a betting man, I would bet on the “exceptional” person every time for success because the “why” is much stronger and I know that the mission will be accomplished. 

When you compare the emotional strength of a “new years resolutions” vs. “my personal self esteem”, self-esteem will win every time because it is a much stronger emotion than an arbitrary goal set at a new year’s party.

When the golden circle is applied to marriage, it is very easy to see which married couples will “make it” and which ones won’t.

Divorce rates are at an all time high right now because many people set up their marriages with the following mission:

1)    WHY – We’re getting older, balder and fatter; we both want to raise some kids before it’s too late.

2)    HOW – We will get married because marriage is required to have kids.

3)    WHAT – Kids, aren’t they wonderful?

This relationship will last at a maximum 16-20 years because these people got married on the premise of raising kids. As soon as the kids are old enough to leave home, the marriage usually falls because the marriage was not built on the premise of a primary relationship; these two people are not committing to each other - they are committing to the kids.

A stronger marriage that would last “until death” would be:

1)    WHY – We are in this relationship to help the other person become the best he or she can be. My partner spiritually compliments me and I spiritually compliment him or her.

2)    HOW – We will spiritually commit to each other, make it official and get married

3)    WHAT – A spiritual union between two committed people through marriage - Children may happen.

The reason to succeed needs to be greater than the reason to fail; if the WHY is strong enough, then success is ensured.

Unfortunately, finding the “why” in our businesses, personal lives and relationships is not an easy task.

What can be even more cumbersome is the fact that many of us may be in our businesses or personal endeavors for the wrong reasons.

If you are in a business or relationship for the wrong reason, correct the mistake, establish a new “why” and watch your success reach new heights. 

Remember: a man can have thousands of reasons to fail, but he only needs one reason to succeed.

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

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” – Christopher McDougall

In every market whether business, jobs or investing, there are lions and there are gazelles. The lions are the fastest, strongest, fiercest animals in the field while the gazelle is a fast, light, pack animal that finds safety in numbers.

The lion represents the leader in the market: he feeds on his competition and swallows up the slowest weakest gazelles. There are few lions, and only the best can become lions in the field.

The gazelles symbolize the “herd” of average players that flood the market and swarm the terrain in packs. Where one gazelle goes, the rest follow.  Unlike the few lions on the field, there are scores of gazelles. As a gazelle, you do not have to be the best to survive. Instead, you must only be faster than your slowest competition to win another day of life.

The lion requires a complex skill set and a high standard of performance to live, He must become strategic while hunting and move contrary to the direction of the herd. He must appear where the herd does not expect him if he is going to kill and live another day.

The gazelles only need an average skill set and average standard of performance. The herd feels secure when everyone is the same and the gazelles organize themselves in a crowd. The crowd makes the gazelles feel safe because it gives them a thin veil of protection from the lions. This thin veil keeps the lion from focusing on any one gazelle, for the lion cannot catch them all. The lion can only catch one gazelle for his dinner and let the rest of the herd go. The gazelles know this and they base their survival strategy around this fact.

As an investor or entrepreneur, which would you rather be? The Lion or the Gazelle?

Would you rather have the illusion of safety and move with the herd as a gazelle?

Or would you rather have the freedom of the lion to hunt and kill on your own terms?

In my investment/entrepreneurial career, I have always chosen to become the lion.

In my opinion, the lion is a better choice in the investment/entrepreneurial world because I have always had a rule for myself: Whatever the average person does – do the opposite of it and you will succeed.

Most people are not successful at all, so if you do the opposite of the average person, logically you will be a success.

If the average person wants to buy, then sell.

If the average person drinks, then don’t drink.

If the average person smokes, then don’t smoke.

If the average person has a 60-inch plasma screen TV, then don’t own a TV.

If the average person has a PC, get a mac.

If the average person doesn’t exercise, then exercise.

The formula is quite simple and it works more often than not.

People are pack animals, much like gazelles. As mammals, we flock and freeze when we are scared. We form packs to feel safe and we want to belong to a group.

Unfortunately, groups don’t know how to make decisions or create good ideas. Decisions and ideas come from an individual and never a collective.

A committee of professionals built the titanic while one man built the Ark.

No matter which subset of the world or the market you look at, there is always a majority and a minority.

Pareto law states that 20% of your actions create 80% of your results. This relationship applies to markets and people as well. 80% of the market is dominated by 20% of the players.

In the case of the lion and the gazelle, it would be more skewed. Perhaps the lions as 5% of the animals control 95% of the gazelles.

In America, 1% control 99% of the world. This is exactly the same concept as the lions and the gazelles.


The question is, why would anyone want to be a gazelle when you could be a lion?



The truth is, most people are not lions because it’s easy and convenient to be a gazelle while it is extremely difficult to become a lion.

The gazelles have safety in numbers; they do not have to be fast (just faster than the competition), they can feed on grass, which is plentiful and at the end of the day they can go to sleep with a belly full of grass. They don’t have to worry about hunting and killing because they can graze all day. Gazelles know that tomorrow will be the same easy routine and find security in the herd.

Lions on the other hand hunt alone or in very small groups. They have to be much faster than the slowest gazelle or they starve to death. Lions cannot eat grass like the gazelle and require meat survive. Every day the lion must be tracking and hunting for his next kill.  If the lion fails to kill a gazelle, he goes to bed with an empty stomach and too many empty stomachs in a row means death for the lion. The lion has no security and must be better than the gazelle to survive.

To be a gazelle is to be average.

To be a lion is to be a champion, a performer and an athlete.

Every day, both the lion and the gazelle are running, to survive. But what makes the two animals different is “who” they must be on a daily basis to survive.

In every business, every industry and every market, there are lions and there are gazelles.

Every morning when you wake up, you must make the choice between running the field as a lion or a gazelle. No matter which one you choose, you are going to be running anyways.

Are you committed to being the best in your field and taking the lead as the lion? Or would you rather blend into the crowd and take your chances as a gazelle?

In the end, it doesn’t really matter which animal you are. Either way, you will be running. But if you’re running anyways, you might as well choose excellence and learn to be the lion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Speed
2. Distance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 4 Shortest Ways to Profit

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Remember to share this article if you found it useful!

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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

Speed is a virtue that has been coveted throughout the ages.

In the jungle, animals with speed would dominate the terrain over bigger slower animals. In evolution, animals that developed to be large with heavy armour always died out to animals that were lighter, faster and with sharp teeth and claws.

In warfare, throughout the ages, the faster more mobile armies were always able to wipe out  slower, heavily armoured forces. Whether we are referring to Atilla the Hun with his mounted archers vs the slow, heavily armoured  Roman Legion; or Hitler in WW2 with his Blitzkrieg forces that dominated the sedentary french and polish troops. 

Speed is a virtue in all arenas and is a key to victory.

Today in technology, companies that can embrace change and implement with great speed are the ones that survive. In the past, a company like Apple was able to innovate with products like the iPod, take the market by surprise and implement new ideas before any competitors could react. Apple would take over and dominate a market long before a competitor could think of stepping in.

Think of iPods... Small children call all music players iPods. A little girl will point to an analogue record player and say "look daddy, that's a big iPod!" - that is the power of speed.

In real estate investing, or investing in general, speed (in my opinion) is the difference between a novice, intermediate and advanced investor.

I was having dinner with a friend of mine tonight and we were talking about our goals for the upcoming year 2013. Every real estate investor, regardless of skill level, always wants to add more transactions and doors to their portfolio.

I mentioned to my friend that I was setting the goal of doing 100 transactions this year. This was way out of my friend's context and he couldn't comprehend that kind of volume or speed. He asked me how many transactions I have completed in 2012: "12-16 by the end of the year" was my estimate. He was impressed with my ambition and wanted to know how I was going to have an 800% increase in my business.

The answer is speed, some experts would say "velocity of money".

The general classifications for Real estate investors can be defined as follows:

1. Novice investors do less than 5-6 transactions per year
2. Intermediate investors do 1 transaction per month or 12+ transactions per year.
3. Advanced investors do 100+ transactions per year

The only difference between these three investors is speed. 

NOTE: There is likely little difference in the quality of transactions between skill levels. There are many astute and careful, slow, novice investors who can earn the same or better returns then an experienced advanced investor. However, the difference between the novice and advanced is that the advanced investor does more deals, executes them faster and utilizes opportunities to compound results. 

The advanced investor is a cheetah in the jungle and the novice is the turtle.

There is nothing wrong with being the turtle, however, the cheetah will be dominant in the market and will have access to the best opportunities and more capital due to visibility.

A problem I have had in my past businesses has been velocity. In the past, I gravitated towards slow "residual" type businesses.

1. One of my first businesses was a self-employed guitar practice where I traded my time for money. This was extremely slow because, although I had lots of clients and low over head, it was very difficult to compound or grow this business. The residual "cash-flow only business model" made it very hard to grow because there was never an injection of cash or credit. Every month I would take 22-25 little cheques into the bank and cash them. There was never a big cheque that could instigate growth.
2. Another business I started in my early twenties was my Debt buying business. Debt buying is a very simple concept. Debt buyers buy charged off, non performing credit cards (or other debt products) for pennies on the dollar and outsource them to collection agencies for residual income. However, this business is also a residual, cash flow business and it was very hard to grow this business without taking on large debt and long term risk as well.
3. My third business was my buy-and-hold Joint Venture real estate portfolio. This business was great because I could Joint Venture with many money partners and have growth every month, but the growth and speed was linear, and again, I was seduced by the cash flow of the business and was not looking at the speed of the business. A deal would take me 1 whole month to find, get under contract, find a JV partner, deal with the financing, deal with the legal, take over the property, fix the problems on acquisition, show the suite to tenants, lease up and then repeat. I became trapped in my own labour and the velocity of this strategy kept me small. I was a turtle.

All of these businesses are functional: However, the businesses above are slow, cannot grow on their own cash, cannot expand easily, cannot gain any market share and have a disproportionate amount of risk and liability when compared to the upside.

The debt buying business and the buy-and-hold JV's also are big and clunky because they rely on debt financing and bureaucratic approval from banks etc. to grow.

These models are the slow and heavily armoured roman legions that were destroyed by the fast moving mounted cavalry of Atilla the Hun. The Huns were fast, mobile, light, hit the battle field by surprise and cherry picked the best opportunities on the field.

My new strategy does not focus on buy and hold, instead it focuses on three FAST strategies:
 

1. Wholesaling
2. Lease options
3. Buy-fix-sell

Because my goal is to have 100 TRANSACTIONS and not hold 100 DOORS at the end of the year, I must focus on fast strategies. Speed is key and I don't want to get weighed down in a slow, long renovation or a long term buy and hold (although these are good models).

Three of the fastest Real Estate strategies (in my opinion) are wholesaling, lease options and buy-fix-sell.

However, to see the effects of choosing fast strategies, lets see the following strategies in terms of TIME so that we can compare them to the slower strategies I used to use.

1. Wholesaling has a time frame of less than 30 days, usually 7-14. It is a fast, no debt, "no buy" strategy that creates fast cash and fast transactions.
2. Lease options have a time frame of less than 30 days to fill or set up. They are fast, can have no debt, are a "no buy" strategy that creates fast cash and fast transactions.
3. Buy-fix-sell has a time frame of less than 90 days (I have completed some buy-fix-sells in 30 days, but that isn't every deal). These deals are fast, carry debt (sometimes hard money), require capital for acquisition but create more profits with slightly more work.

Every single strategy I am using can be executed within a 30 day time frame. Time is the real currency in the market, not money. Money can be manipulated and recreated after it is lost... Time is lost forever when wasted and it is the REAL limiting factor in any business.

Since I have chosen 3 fast, "light on debt and cash" strategies, I am confident that with the right team and systems, I can achieve my goal of 100 transactions and earn the rights to the title of "advanced investor".

If you are interested in working together on a deal for a share of the profits, please contact me on the freedomway.ca contact page and we will see if we have a fit.

In the meantime,

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

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