Thursday 21 November 2013

Buffer App, Awesome for Sharing Content to Social Media



Have you ever tried to manually share your content to social media? If we take Facebook alone, that can take all the time on your hands. Yet you have other things to do. And there’s also Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, App.net, etc. 

How can you handle all that without going crazy? 

The answer is the Buffer app.

Buffer was designed to offer you a personal more efficient manner to handle sharing on social media.
Buffer takes the headache out of the scheduling of your great content to social media. All you have to do is  just fill up your Buffer at one time in the day and automagically (please pay attention to that word again!) Buffer posts them for you through the day. And the other days? Simply keep that Buffer topped up and you will have a consistent social media presence all day round, all week long, and as long as you want.

Buffer’s custom scheduling, multiple accounts, team member access and detailed analytics make it the go-to social media management tool for more than 900,000 users around the world, and still increasing.

Buffer’s Philosophy

Honest and Authentic

Buffer aims at helping you create an authentic and honest appearance on social media because they know that there are no “short-cuts” to succeeding on a platform where engagement is so crucial. Conscious that Buffer is only one solution amongst many others, they recommend many other tools on their Twitter account or on their blog. Why? They are convinced that providing the best value for your particular situation is far more important than a quick sale of their product.

Consistent Support and Improvement

Buffer is working very hard and they iterate and improve their product over and over again. To this end, they encourage you to send them feedback about your experience with their products.

Buffer’s 9 Values

In Buffer's founding months, Joel and Leo (founder and co-founder), read, re-read and internalized Dale Carnegie's famous book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” from whose deeply impactful words many of the Buffer values are derived.
In January 2013, Buffer put together a list of its 9 Values which define their culture, which as with everything at Buffer’s, is a continual work in progress.
  • 1

Always Choose Positivity and Happiness

    • You always approach things in a positive and optimistic way
    • You never criticize or condemn team members or users
    • You never complain
    • You let the other person save face, even if they are clearly wrong
    • You are deliberate about giving genuine appreciation
  • 2

Default to Transparency

    • You take pride in opportunities to share our beliefs, failures, strengths and decisions
    • You use transparency as a tool to help others
    • You always state your thoughts immediately and with honesty
    • You share early in the decision process to avoid "big revelations"
  • 3

Have a Focus on Self Improvement

    • You are conscious of your current level of productivity and happiness, and make continual changes to grow
    • You have a higher expectation of yourself than Buffer does of you
    • You regularly and deliberately do things that make you feel uncomfortable
    • You practice activities and develop habits that will improve your mind and body
  • 4

Be a "no-ego" Doer

    • You don't attach your personal self to ideas
    • You let others have your best ideas
    • You approach new ideas thinking "what can we do right now?"
    • You are humble
    • You always ship code the moment it is better than what is live on our site - no matter what
  • 5

Listen First, Then Listen More

    • You seek first to understand, then to be understood
    • You focus on listening rather than responding
    • You take the approach that everything is a hypothesis and you could be wrong
    • You are suggestive rather than instructive, replacing phrases such as 'certainly','undoubtedly', etc with 'perhaps', 'I think', 'my intuition right now'
  • 6

Have a Bias Towards Clarity

    • You talk, code, design and write in a clear way instead of being clever
    • You over-communicate, repeating things more times than you would intuitively
    • You use more words to explain, even if it feels obvious already
    • You don't make assumptions, you instead ask that extra question to have the full picture
  • 7

Make Time to Reflect

    • You deliberately find time for reflection, because that's where your life-changing adjustments come from
    • You have a calm approach to discussions and ponder points in your own time
    • You find time to jump out of the trenches into the higher level thinking that will move the needle
    • You understand the value of patience and treat it as a muscle which needs practice to grow
  • 8

Live Smarter, Not Harder

    • You value waking up fresh over working that extra hour
    • You always aim to be fully engaged in an activity, or resting
    • You single task your way through the day
    • You are at the top of your game, as you focus on expanding capacity of your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual energy
    • You choose to be at the single place on Earth where you are the happiest, and most productive, and you are not afraid to find out where that is
  • 9

Show Gratitude

    • You regularly stop and are grateful for your circumstances
    • You are grateful for the work co-workers do to push the company forward and help you move faster
    • You approach customer conversations with humility and the knowledge that it's a privilege to serve these people
    • You have gratitude for platforms, tools and open source that laid the foundation for the possibility of the company: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" - Isaac Newton

Buffer, a better way to share on social media, for free.

Buffer shares your content at the best possible times throughout the day so that your followers and fans see your updates more often.

Start using Buffer to share for free on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.

Buffer for business

Buffer is also available for business.

Apps, Extensions & Extras.

Buffer Apps, extensions and extras make you get the most out of Buffer and easily share from your mobile, news reader, blog or anywhere! And should you be wondering, it’s all free…

The most powerful Buffer yet.

With Buffer for business, you get more social accounts, team members and additional features to take your social media management to new levels.

Buffer for business (in fact all Buffer) makes it easy to share great pictures, videos and links with your friends and followers across your social networks. Buffer lets you quickly share content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and App.net on your computer or mobile phone.

Custom Scheduling

Schedule your updates for any custom time in the future. Perfect for marketing campaigns, birthdays or any other event in the future.

Analytics & Insights

Get free, detailed analytics on all your posts to every social network. See how many likes, shares and retweets you get at a glance!

Multiple accounts

Post to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and App.net accounts easily and quickly from wherever you find great content!

Team members

Invite your whole team to make consistent sharing easier. Anyone can manage the account from all Buffer apps.

In your browser, on the go

Using Chrome, Firefox and Safari extensions, you can share any page in seconds! Buffer have native apps for iPhone and Android that make sharing on the go super quick and easy.

50+ Apps & Extras

Get the most out of Buffer and easily share from your mobile, news reader, blog or anywhere! Oh, and of course it's all free…
If you’re reading this on any social media, it’s thanks to Buffer.

The Awesome Plan

Take your social sharing to the next level. It's magical.
$10/mo
Cancel or get a refund anytime.

Sign Up for Free

You can do so much on the free Buffer plan, give it a try! Click here to sign up now, FREE!

Friday 15 November 2013

4 Dozen Laws for Creating Wealth



Now that the posting of the “4 Dozen Laws for Creating Wealth” in snippets (to enable most blog readers to easily digest them) is finished, today I’m going to publish it in its entirety for those of you who love EPIC content. Go ahead and enjoy it.







The 4 Dozen Laws for Creating Wealth are adapted from the e-book 48 Laws of Wealth by Johnnie Cass. (Get the book here http://www.unlimited-success.co.uk/wealth-and-lifestyle-blueprint/48-laws-of-wealth/us0098/). Finding it a powerful blueprint for getting money, I felt I should rewrite it as articles and share them with you. Like me, I believe many are locked into poverty by their attitude of mind and getting them out of there will be my way of giving to people like Johnnie has done.

Johnnie is one of the Co-Founders of Unlimited Success, a worldwide Life Changing Company committed to helping you Create a Future You Design. He is a trained coach, NLP master practitioner and a public speaker.

I’m infinitely grateful to Johnnie for his wonderful ideas. (Visit his website Visit his website here or here )
 
The proverbial ability to take the horse to the riverside but inability to force it to drink also holds in your desire to create wealth. If this teaching should work for you, you must believe that laws of wealth exist and apply them to make them work for you; otherwise you risk not achieving your financial dreams. It goes without saying that if you are doing the same things again and again in an attempt to create riches and not getting any financial results then you need to heed Einstein who said that:‘… insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.’

So get yourself into the right mind-set which will set you up for success right from the outset since that is what will enable you to find the ‘how to’ of financial success.

 If you faithfully apply the strategies and the Laws of wealth, you will not only be wealthy and successful but also happy and kind.

But before we delve into these laws, let’s agree on what is meant by wealth here. Certainly it is not the amount of money in your bank account; neither is it money given you, borrowed, or handed down to you but rather your ability to attract money, to find and create it to fill your empty bank account.

You would find some of these laws similar. That’s life. Isn’t your left hand similar to the right, and the eyes, ears, nostrils, breasts and legs too? Yet imagine how awkward your life would be if you didn’t have both of each!

The discussion will be structured as follows (the first parts of the titles are thankfully Johnnie’s whose writing inspired me to coin the second):

Section1: The psychology of wealth:

Law 1: Purpose: Know why you want to make money.
Law 2: Faith: Trust in yourself or a higher entity to make it against all odds.
Law 3: Passion and desire: Love what you do and wish the best for yourself.
Law 4: Belief: Trust that you can go higher and you will!
Law 5: Focus: You get what you think most about.
Law 6: Decision: Learn to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ instead of procrastinating.
Law 7: Diligence and Contingency: Plan and prepare your wealth and success.
Law 8: Persistence: Never ever give up.
Law 9: Discipline: Control yourself and your desires or urges for instant gratification.
Law 10: Commitment: Make sacrifices to achieve your goals.
Law 11: Anyone can do it. That includes You! Because money does not discriminate.
Law 12: Take personal responsibility now! Stop blaming others and circumstances.
Law 13: You, and not money, are the answer to everything.
Law 14: Have everything now: you are already well-equipped to succeed financially.
Law 15: Trust your instincts and intuition: listen to and obey your inner voice.
Law 16: Project wealth: always look one step better than your present self.
Law 17: Think BIG: small fire produces small heat and BIG fire gives out intense heat.
Law 18: Grow and accept change: for the only constant in life is change.
Law 19: Don’t be a sheep: don’t follow a direction because everybody else is taking it.

Section 2: Planning your wealth:

Law 20: Define what wealth means to you: how do you perceive wealth?
Law 21: Money for what?! Know exactly what you want money for.
Law 22: Ecology: make money in a clean way and avoid dirty tricks.
Law 23: See your journey before you: Where are you now and where do you want to be next?
Law 24: Be Realistic: About what you can achieve and when you can achieve it.
Law 25: Your wealth strategy: The road map that will lead you to money and wealth.
Law 26: Worst case scenario: things more often than not turn out not as anticipated.
Law 27: Know your exit strategy: when you must back out of a business before it sinks you.

Section 3: Creating your wealth:

Law 28: Teamwork: you need great people around you to help you succeed.
Law 29: Take action now! You can’t build wealth on mere intentions.
Law 30: Be Financially Literate: That is, speak and understand the language of money.
Law 31: Why you must be a ‘salesman’: Wealth is produced by sales.
Law 32: Adding value: Help raise other people’s lives and your wealth will grow.
Law 33: Leverage: Relying on the skills and talents of others to build your own wealth.
Law 34: Money attracts Money: Investing and reinvesting will bring you wealth.
Law 35: Think Long term sustainability: That’s how you become and stay wealthy.
Law 36: Know how to be good at saying no!: If it is for the best.
Law 37: Modelling: Studying the successful methods of the rich and replicating them.
Law 38: Price vs. Value: What you pay and what you get.
Law 39: Risk: Speculation, investment and gambling: Invest but don’t gamble.
Law 40: Deal making, and negotiation: Think cooperation, partnership and long term.
Law 41: The Art of borrowing money [and the rules!]: Borrow only if you must or is fruitful.
Law 42: Property and shares: Chosen carefully, they will return you long term wealth.
Law 43: Multiple avenues of income: is the way you significantly increase your wealth.
Law 44: Only buy quality: it saves you money in the long run and makes you feel/look good.
Law 45 : Work on your wealth not just in your job: Pause in your routine and plan to grow.

Section 4: Keeping and sharing your wealth:

Law 46: Remember how you got here: Through hard work so continue that way.
Law 47: Give back: pass the money on to others you feel would benefit from it.
Law 48: Pass on your knowledge: help others become wealthy too and feel good.



Section1: The psychology of wealth


Law 1: Purpose: Know why you want to make money.

Do you want to make money so that you can:

- help your family?
- own luxury things?
- leave a legacy or set up a foundation?
- grow a large business and offer jobs to many people?
- teach other people to make money too?

Pinpoint your real purpose for wanting to make money, and it will radiate like a magnet and attract the right type of people to help you reach your goal.


Law 2: Faith: Trust in yourself or in a higher entity to make it against all odds

Confidence in yourself or a higher entity is essential to achieving anything you set your sights on. Life is and will always be full of obstacles. The confidence—that you will eventually get where you want to get to—is what will give you the right psychology to confront the difficulties and challenges with reassuring calm. It will let you work smart and stay focused and consequently ignore the insistent voices discouraging you from continuing to tread the path of success.


Law 3: Passion and desire: Love what you do and wish the best for yourself

When you are passionate about your work and cultivate an ardent desire to become wealthy, nothing can stop you from becoming rich and happy. The reason is simple: we get what we focus hard on. Therefore, be money conscious, money literate and money focused!

It is also essential for you to know exactly how much you spend, what percentage it represents of your earnings, how much you save, how much you invest, etc.

You must also read publications on money and finance and autobiographies of the wealthy to grasp their psychology. Associate with them to know where they spend their time, what they do, who they consult and what they invest in so as to duplicate their every move and strategies. Remember, the money-making methods of the rich are tried and tested and following them can only propel you where they are now.


Law 4: Belief: Trust that you can go higher and you will!

Your beliefs about money and wealth are the most determinant factor of your financial height.

All the 48 laws of wealth outlined here will do you not an iota of good if you don’t believe to put them into practice to change your circumstances.

Do you believe that you can become a millionaire? If you don’t how on earth are you going to work to become one?

Do you think that the wealthy are ruthless, arrogant and greedy? If you do your subconscious will resist your becoming one.

The secret therefore is to give yourself, your family and other people value and you will always be worth far more than anyone could ever pay you.


Law 5: Focus: You get what you think most about.

Whatever you think most consistently about, you could realize it. This is because nothing happens by accident; everything comes by design. The expert in a particular field reached that height by focusing on the right books, the required studies and learning from the many mistakes they made, all of which gave them an appreciable experience.

The rich focus on wealth, money and business. So if you want to be wealthy, find a wealthy mentor to coach you, so that you can work out exactly what it is that they focus on the most.

Then focus on them and keep an open mind and be ever aware of the thousands of opportunities out there.


Law 6: Decision: Learn to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ instead of procrastinating

Napoleon Hill teaches: ‘Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.’

Heed that wise advice and take bold decisions, instead of indulging in indecision and over analysis which paralyze you into inaction.

This dragging of feet comes from the fear of venturing into the unknown. But what you need most is to be decisive. This doesn’t mean jumping into making hasty decisions. Rather counting on your knowledge, experience, intuition and contacts to make quick and well informed decisions.

Wealthy people do not hesitate to make decisions. Faced with choices, they make bold decisions and when that turns out to be a mistake they refine their strategy and move on. They know that decision allied with action bring results.

One more thing: decision is not only about saying ‘yes,’ but also learning to say ‘no’ when necessary.

To become wealthy therefore you need to become a firm decision maker.


Law 7: Diligence and Contingency: Plan and prepare your wealth and success.

If you want to be wealthy and successful you must plan and prepare for them.

Your due diligence, especially in the areas of career, finance and investment, will make you ready for all situations: expected and unexpected.

Don’t leave anything to chance: budget your daily, weekly, monthly and annually expenses. Make them not more than 70% of your earnings. Save some of the rest and never touch it. Save more for unplanned expenses, especially in accounts which pay you the highest interests. Find out how much tax free cash you can save each year. Determine which instruments [stocks, bonds, property] to invest in and how much for each. Estimate how much risk investment you can afford. In this regard, you must learn to differentiate investing from gambling and grasp risk assessment.

Everybody have their own agenda. So learn to know people’s wants and needs. This will help you not to rile them but rather strike mutually beneficial deals with them.

Don’t fail to check every word of a contract or agreement, even if they are in small print. Don’t be regular customer of banks, insurance companies and stores. Carefully check what interest rates you are being charged and what fees you are paying (especially when borrowing) and don’t hesitate to negotiate and shop around for a better deal. Don’t let fear nor politeness make you accept the first figure laid before you nor a deal you aren’t comfortable with.

Apply Law 21 to any financial advice or investment help you get and pay for it. Don’t entrust your money to just anyone. Find the best managers and do everything to keep them.

Listen to your best bets: the very rich, those very successful in endeavours you wish to undertake, and people who have the skills and knowledge that you need.


Law 8: Persistence: Never ever give up

Life has never been a straight road. (Not knowing this will make you give up at the first hurdle.) Rather, it is full of ‘twists and turns, potholes, road blocks, diversions, wrong ways up one way streets, speed cameras, slow drivers and all manner of challenges.’ Thank you Johnnie.

As for Winston Churchill, he is famous for saying: ‘Never ever give up!’ 

This is amply demonstrated by the stories of David Wood and David Sharpe, the co-founders of Empower Network. These homeless and construction steel worker dudes moved from sleeping in a van and nearly dying on drug addiction through debilitating bankruptcies to respected internet marketers who are now self-made millionaires. Had they given up they would have been dead and forgotten long ago.

Countless examples exist to remind us that ‘… every failure [is] … one step closer to [your] goal’. As Johnnie Cass says ‘with every challenge [I don’t really like to use the word failure] is a new opportunity and another step closer to your goal.’

So the best way to reach your financial goal is to be patient, to be focused and to keep on keeping on.

To finish, let’s hear Michael Jordan: ‘I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.’

Wow!


Law 9: Discipline: Control yourself and your desires or urges for instant gratification

According to Johnnie Cass discipline constitutes a very important mind-set in its own right.

To be successful, you must choose a strategy [Law 25] and stick religiously to it. This means not spending more than what you gain. At best fix a percentage of your income to spend. If yours is to spend 70% of your earnings, be disciplined enough to do exactly that and don’t touch even a percent more. The wealthy are very good at this, no doubt they remain rich.

Discipline is also knowing which offers to accept and which to decline. Ignore anything that seems too good to be true, such those about how you can be a millionaire in 10 minutes, or without lifting a finger and the scams, especially from Nigerian princes.


Law 10: Commitment: Make sacrifices to achieve your goals.

It seems it was Richard Templar who said: ‘You have to work hard to get rich enough not to have to work hard.’

Wow! Read that again.

This is telling you that if you’re not madly committed to your goals you will never achieve them. Why should it be otherwise when wealth and success, just like any other human endeavour, comes at a price?

To be financially successful, you must be ready to give or give up something. This is always habits or people who hold you back such as certain friends, bosses, jobs, environments, members of the opposite sex, watching television, playing billiards or being hunched over a jug of beer in the pub, or spending hours chatting over the internet for hours on end, etc. This doesn’t mean foregoing pleasure activities but knowing which are not contributing to your life and discarding them.

You see, the rich and the successful make sacrifices by starting their day earlier than the average Joe and finishing later too. They work harder, longer, smarter and more efficiently. They don’t waste their time chasing many rabbits. They focus. They don’t regret or resent the sacrifices they make and the price they pay, because they know what they want.

To be wealthy be 100% committed to the strategies that made others wealthy!


Law 11: Anyone can do it: That includes You! Because money does not discriminate

Law 4 says that anyone can become wealthy who believes it. You’ve been able to achieve something(s) in your life. Since you got there through some of the laws of wealth such as focus, belief, confidence, hard work, teamwork, commitment and concentration, you can replicate that success.

Money does not choose where to go to neither is there a shortage of it. There is even enough money out there for everyone to become multimillionaires. Did you see the recent Forbes rich list? Where a decade ago there were not any, millionaires and billionaires are mushrooming in Asia (especially China) and Africa of all places which has 55 now! (Get the proof here) This shows that you can become a millionaire irrespective of geographical location, family background, age, race, upbringing, creed, nurture, health, etc.

The secret is to believe that you can make it and then begin to use effective strategies and the Laws of wealth towards that end.


Law 12: Take personal responsibility now! Stop blaming others and circumstances.

It is easy for you to always blame other people—the boss, your partner—or something—the weather, the neighbourhood or bad luck—or even pity yourself—‘I’m the only one it ever happens to!’—for every thing which goes wrong in your life. You yourself never go wrong and nothing is ever your fault!

On the contrary, the wealthy and successful, inventors and businesspeople accept responsibility for their acts.

They blame anything which goes wrong with their investments, in their business or in their lives on their own diligence, faith, management, persistence and following of the Laws of wealth and not on market movements, their staff, or partners, confident that for the long term their attitude and decisions will right matters. They also don’t take praise for success; but attribute it to the members of their team.

This solution focused attitude, contrary to the problem one, empowers your collaborators as they feel bolstered by success and not deflated by guilt of failure.

Know that the more you take responsibility the more you will control your life.


Law 13: You, and not money, are the answer to everything

Money can’t solve all of your life problems; even more money will bring more problems. But you can take steps to solve your problems. Besides, the wealthiest do not see problems as difficulties but challenges or opportunities for more resounding successes.

You are the architect of your financial plans since no matter what your religious beliefs, political leanings, geographical situation, etc. you can still be wealthy. You can also accept to remain poor, which is not bad per se. That is how some people, like Mother Theresa, choose to be happy.

You are always in total control of the turn of your life. So you can decide to practice the laws of wealth and be rich or ignore them and stay poor. In the same vein, you can eat good balanced diet and stay healthy or consume junk food and spend the rest of your life in pain.


Law 14: Have everything now: you are already well-equipped to succeed financially.

Right now right here, with these laws as your tools and your guidance, you have all it takes to reach any imaginable financial height.

Do you want wealth, happiness, leisure time, social life, great family life (quality time with your kids and partner and frequent sex with the latter), regular holidays in a year, and breakfast in bed? This lifestyle can be yours now. You only need not be a person of little or no faith.


Law 15: Trust your instincts and intuition: listen to and obey your inner voice.

All your life experiences are ‘stored’ in your subconscious. Your instincts and your intuition have also been part of you since the day you were born. They determine who you are. These therefore give you the innate ability to make shrewd judgements.

Your instinct and intuition are at work to protect you and help you. Therefore you can trust yourself and what your subconscious tells you.

If you get a bad feeling about something or somebody, the chances are that your subconscious is warning you. If the signals are strong and persistent, back out of the deal. On the contrary, a ‘good feeling’ mixed with excitement is a green light to go ahead. However you must do your due diligence. To avoid good feelings leading you into problems, when you get it do research to back up your feeling.

There is no dearth of great, honest, skilled and trusted people, so why should you risk your wealth and future by working with people you cannot trust totally.

You would treat gold and family with loving care, wouldn’t you? So must you great and trustworthy employees whom you should not only do everything to keep but also reward generously.

The three-prong strategy to getting this law right is to:

First: Listen to your inner voice.
Second: Do your diligence: look for fact and experienced advice to buttress your gut feeling.
Third: Make your informed decision.


Law 16: Project wealth: always look one step better than your present self.

The way people perceive you is how they represent you. This is especially true of potential customers or clients. And since this is vitally important to our level of success, you better ‘fake it until you make it.’

The idea is not to act fake as such. But how you dress, talk, walk; how you present yourself and hold your head; and your body language and the language you use must all be one ‘step’ ahead of your present situation. Remember, if you look wealthy people will see you as such, and that will attract wealth and wealthy people to you.

You no doubt know the adage: “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” But what you may not be aware of is that most people form an impression of you in their subconscious minds within the first 30 seconds of meeting you. Worse, they stick stubbornly to this image (wrong or correct) of you!

Although you must project yourself at a higher level, be careful not to overdo it. Shun arrogance, grotesqueness, waste or thrift and do not flaunt your wealth. Be what and who you are, only a little bit more. This is how you project the confidence, power and inner calm of the very wealthy.

Don’t forget: your appearance is your ‘packaging’ and since packaging influences the products you buy, in the same way no wealthy person will like to work with someone who looks like a bum.


Law 17: Think BIG: small fire produces small heat and BIG fire gives out intense heat.

Our thinking determines our results. Think small and you get less. Think BIG and you get MORE.

To get more therefore you must raise your level of belief and faith. Hence if you want more money you must think bigger deals. That’s why people like Donald Trump do not waste their time on 1 bed property deals, but concentrate on towers and skyscrapers.

Remember Law 5: Focus: You get what you think most about?  How fast and what results you obtain on focusing on getting bigger things depend on you but you can work progressively higher. Imagine how much you can improve in a year if you just made a 1% improvement daily?


Law 18: Grow and accept change: for the only constant in life is change.

With the exception of inert objects, everything else changes in width, length, height or volume.  Even a person standing still is moving! As the others pass them and move forward, they are in effect ‘moving’ backwards.

When American Christopher Schole’s first typewriting machine was manufactured in 1872, he little thought that it would become the modern computer. Yet constant evolution has made it so.

Growth and the acceptance of change are crucial in your mind-set and in the achievement of wealth and success.

I remember when a German partner visited me over a decade and a half ago and saw an electric typing machine in my office and cried with horror, “You still using this museum piece?!” 

Today, with my computer I work smarter lending credence to the fact that those who do not stay abreast with change lose.

Johnnie Cass says that resisting change is so counterproductive and such a waste of energy. This reminds me of an old text on the evolution in the telecommunications sector. Remarking that some governments were resisting the privatisation of their state-controlled telecoms companies, it warned that they could delay the revolution but not prevent it. And if they tried, they would merely fail more spectacularly later. 

This also applies to you. Your growth—not only through adopting new objects but also changing within—will determine your wealth and success.

It is evident that with time your needs, age, education, emotional mood, business partners, society, environment, bank rates, value of money and many others will change. Since you can’t do anything about this, the best is to accept change as inevitable and adapt your strategy when necessary and stay focused.


Law 19: Don’t be a sheep: don’t follow a direction because everybody else is taking it.

If you followed everybody’s footsteps do you think you would get rich? Not at all. We know that most people control neither their wealth nor their lives. They find it comfortable to go with the flow instead of dictating their future and worse, they even lack the courage and the discipline to do something about their lives.

That shouldn’t be your case. You can decide not to drift with the current. Therefore be strong, steadfast with your strategy and weigh the pros and cons of the advice you get, especially if it is coming from an ordinary Joe.

While the sheep sell at the least sign of a property ‘crash’ and lose money, successful people with confidence in their strategy and themselves buy and hold and make a killing.

To be successful and remain so you must often be “quirky, individual, different, sometimes excluded, sometimes ridiculed, very often creative, individual, perhaps stubborn and focused, definitely courageous, mature, educated, experienced and open minded,” as Johnnie puts it.

Don’t ever forget: anything, absolutely anything, and no matter how big, can be achieved, with the right psychology.

With these 19 laws of wealth, you have that psychology to achieve the mind-set of a wealthy and successful person and attract great wealth into your life.



Section 2: Planning your wealth

This section of the laws of wealth, made up of 8 laws, concerns Laws of planning for wealth.

Wealthy and successful people leave nothing to chance, they plan meticulously.

As we said in the last section, here too you would find some of the laws similar to those already mentioned in the preceding 19 Laws.


Law 20: Define what wealth means to you: How do you perceive wealth?

Since wealth means different things to different people, it is important to know your own representation of it. What it is and how much it is are not important. What are paramount is that it suits you and can lead you to the life of your choice.

This should be a marker post for you. Do you want enough money banked for 5, 10, or 30 years? Property investments, for example, that grow by £x annually? Passive income from a business or investment? A specific salary?

Set it as realistic or as high as you want. If you have no exact idea, make your guess as accurate as possible. Anyway your definitions and strategies will be changing with time (life is a journey and not a destination, so you can always refine your definition of wealth).

Your idea of wealth, like any goal, value, idea or concept should be penned down, kept in a folder or file and placed in a secure place to be referred to, used as a guide, a rulebook, a checklist, a diary, a goal and a useful tool by which to measure your progress.


Law 21: Money for what?!: Know exactly what you want money for.

What do you want money and wealth for? See Law 1 and think of your purpose.

Do you want wealth for material things? For charitable purposes? To cause a revolution?

If you are not too materialistic, think about what you don’t want money for.

Write this also down and use it as a goal, a checklist, a reminder, a reference and as a tool by which to measure your progress!

To attract more money to you act as if money is not more important to you than the good you can do for other people and the value you will add to their lives.

You’re confused, aren’t you? Yes, this is supposed to be a contradiction. Life coexists with death, pain with joy, marriage with divorce, wealth with poverty (unfortunately!), etc.


Law 22: Ecology: make money in a clean way and avoid dirty tricks.

Johnnie Cass says that he was told by someone who had made a lot of money through legal and illegal means that it is far easier to use the first than the second to be wealthy. Making money legally is preferable because methods which are unsafe, detrimental to people or the environment create so much negative energy. That is why any act that does not add to other people’s lives ultimately come back to haunt you. Besides, why use illegal means when millions of legal opportunities to make large sums of money every day are all around us?

Therefore avoid what seems like the shortcut or the easy option to getting wealth. Work rather to add value to people’s lives, always guided by safety, fairness, value and legality when creating wealth.


Law 23: See your journey before you: Where are you now and where do you want to be next?

Use the law of attraction which says you can think and create things from the mind. Yes, what you focus most on is what you attract into your life. If you want to be successful in any venture, see your journey before you. The steps to doing this are:

1. Where are you now?

Evaluate your present situation with all honesty. What is your exact financial position to the last penny? Your monthly expenditures? Your budgets? Your cash flow? Your assets? Your liabilities (debt)? 

This total net worth will be your marker for your wealth and your progress. Get excited about the path you are about to embark upon.

2. Where do you want to be?

Know your exact goal.

Do you want to become a millionaire? Multimillionaire? Or you want just financial independence? Maybe an unencumbered asset base? Do you want to own 12 super cars? Or to have passive income for life?

To be able to measure your success, quantify your end goal. In this regard be specific with timescales, numbers and figures. The more real and tangible and specific you make it, the more possible it is to attracting it.

3. Have a plan

The lack of a specific plan and strategy is the main reason why many people are poor and others go bankrupt.

Fortunately you have some Laws here to guide you and you will soon get detailed specific strategies too.

Right now what is your plan? To get out of a job in the future and set up your own business? To invest in property? To leverage the skills of others to create you wealth? (More of this at Law 33). To build an empire and a legacy?

Know that age is not a barrier to becoming wealthy: Colonel Sanders got his wealth at an advanced age. Dominic McVey became a millionaire at 16! So the best time is where you are right now.   

Opportunities also are not in short supply. Those who seek find and opportunities will come to you only if you are looking for them. Therefore charting your path to wealth will sharpen your awareness to the tools, the people and the challenges you must face to get to your destination.


Law 24: Be Realistic: About what you can achieve and when you can achieve it.

Apparently another contradictory law, right? Right. Isn’t life itself full of contradictions? Many things come in opposites: day and night, good and bad, short and tall, thin and fat, north and south, etc.

To create wealth too you need the polar opposites and a sense of a middle ground.
Think big, of course. As big as you want. Believe that you can have anything you want.

But be realistic about your goals and your expectations of wealth.

Although wealth will come to you, it will demand lots of patience, hard work, working longer hours and smarter than before.

Therefore set yourself up to succeed, not to fail, by setting realisable targets and fixing believable timescales.


Law 25: Your wealth strategy: The road map that will lead you to money and wealth.

To be wealthy and successful you need to roll out a strategy, a plan, a line of attack based on what you know and are learning now to take you to your destination.

Don’t live life by accident. Don’t be a person without direction. Follow a strategy and update it when necessary so as to make it.

So, in two stages, let us set up a strategy, based on all the 48 Laws here to be your template or guide.

The first is understanding exactly where you are now:

1. Know how much you earn.

The crux of this is that don’t spend more than you earn. Obvious? Not when people live beyond their means as if they were earning more than they actually are!

2. Know really exactly how much you spend. 

Determine precisely how much you must spend on every area of your life. It is this lack of planning which make people overspend. Include unforeseen expenses in your budget and keep it in a separate account. And always pay off your debts first.

3. Know your attitude to risk.

How much money can you comfortably ‘risk’ or speculate in your investment strategy?

4. Know your potential avenues to earn.

How many different ways can you think of to earn income, especially passive income?

5. Cash flow and capital growth.

Your cash flow will come from a salary or a dividend certain businesses, careers and investments will bring you. But assets such as property will give you capital growth. Both must be part of your strategy for great wealth.

The second step of your wealth strategy is to set it.

Make it a goal that you can review. As your income increases, raise the last three columns above but not column 2.

Be disciplined [Law 9] and stick to this template and it will give you durable wealth. Don’t hesitate to adjust the figures as necessary based on monthly income:

Earned income: £1,500 [after tax and N.I.] Total living allowance [spend including living, debt and contingency]: £975 [65%] Tithing [giving back]: £75 [5%] Total saved and never touched: £150 [10%] Total invested: £300 [20%]

Attitude to risk: 20% [total invested]. Although fairly safe, you can invest more if you are young, ambitious, and single. But if you are a little older and need stability, have children and commitments then add more of your earnings to your ‘total saved’ column.

Now decide where to donate your tithing, what high interest account to deposit your 10% in and what to invest your 20% in.

If you want to invest in property—recommended—hold your investment until it becomes large enough for that.

Perhaps you want to invest 50% in shares and 50% in property of your total invested in the first year? Perhaps 33% in a business, property and shares? Develop your strategy as the years and wealth increase. Don’t change it at will. Give it the opportunity to work!

Review your strategy and your finances each year. Open and update it and do a financial check-up to see where you are [Law 42]. Compare this year’s strategy to last year’s to ensure you are making progress in the right direction.


Law 26: Worst case scenario: things more often than not turn out not as anticipated.

Know that it as a fact of business and life that things will not turn out right: they will always take longer than scheduled, be harder than imagined and more challenging than planned and cost more than budgeted. If you ignore this and think otherwise, the ‘how to’ of your plans will bring you heartaches.

What to do therefore is to work the worst case scenario into every business proposition or plan, as well as every investment decision or forecast: what if recession struck your business? What if you suddenly fell sick and could not work for months? What if interest rates doubled overnight? You’re warned: accidents and catastrophes are part of life and they don’t forewarn!

Your business plan forecasts profit from year 3; what are your plans if it doesn’t happen until 2 years later?

Work out your sensitivity analysis [projections of earnings/turnover] on low figures. Imagine what happens if you planned to turn over £1m in year 1 but actually get £50,000?

If you obtain an affiliate network website supposed to make you money in 1 month on autopilot, make it 2 months. People working with you, especially when subcontracting, will not act with the same vigour and urgency as you. Is it their business or yours?

Things have a way of costing more, especially if programmed over the long term. Therefore always factor in a good contingency [Law 7] to cover unexpected costs. So if you need £10,000 for marketing, budget £15,000 or best, £20,000.

Eagerly watch over your streams of revenue. That way you can back out of any threatening to dry up and move your investment elsewhere where it would be safe.

Know that millions of ways exist for money to be taken from you. Worse, the more you have the more people devise ways to rip you off!



Law 27: Know your exit strategy: when to back out of a business before it sinks you.

Do you check for the exit on getting into a crowded room? If not, where are you going to head in case of emergency? As with life so with business and wealth. They are full of force majeure (act of God). So go into any investment, business or career with a clear idea of how you can back out and liquidate efficiently and cost effectively when need be.

Therefore if buying property know when, where, how and how much to sell it. Know the total costs of buying and selling assets. Know lead times as they can mount up quicker than lightning. Don’t ignore your contingencies.

If you are refurbishing property over 9 months how will the extra mortgage payments affect your cash flow?

Never sign anything you don’t absolutely master, and without knowing how you can exit safely and cost effectively.

If you’ve had a bull run in your investments for a certain number of years, think about moving your profits to a safe place. Like every good thing, bull runs are not forever so know when to get in and when to back out.

What this law all boils down to is diligence, planning and foresight.



Section 3: Creating your wealth

This section is a ‘do’s and don’ts’ guide, an action one dating back to Roman times. With many of the basic principles time tested, these laws are going to teach you how to create and attract wealth using specific strategies and systems that bring results.


Law 28: Teamwork: you need great people around you to help you succeed.

It takes team work to make the dream work.” Johnnie Cass was quoted as having coined that beautiful phrase in his recent TV show and he is right.

Man is a social animal and business is a social venture. So you need great people as friends, family, coaches, mentors and advisors to help you grow and handle aspects of your businesses that you have neither the time nor the acumen to do.

Since you will need people to work with and for you, the amount of money you make will be directly proportional to the amount of value you give them. That is, the more you give people, the more they will help you make money. So don’t hesitate to add some kind of value to other people’s lives and you will always have wealth and abundance.

Now, how can you add value to people’s lives? Even a smile to make their day or a financial offering and opportunity will do.

To have a solid team, favour strong and trusting relationships with others and constantly seek to help them and add value to their lives. By giving out his ebook free, Johnnie Cass is adding knowledge and value to the lives of subscribers.

Have you ever heard of the 7 steps removed theories? It says that contact between 7 people can link you with everyone on earth [you have contact with A, who also has contact with B, who in turn has contact with C and so on...].

The way you received A could be damaging or beneficial to building your network and reputation. For who A knows might become your partner (spouse, investor, friend, bank manager or mentor)!


Law 29: Take action now! You can’t build wealth on mere intentions.

Knowing what to do to change your situation and not doing it is worse that ignorance of how to progress in life. If action is the way to get results (intentions keep you in lethargy), consistent action however is the only sure way to achieve wealth and success.

You may even be great at visualisation and manifestation, but without action absolutely no results will crown your efforts. Short, you’re wasting your time without taking action on your intentions.

How fast or how slow you act, which way you go or which strategy you employ are irrelevant; what counts is to continue taking action and be open to opportunities and growth. So do a little more each day and you will be on your way to wealth.

On this score let’s hear Alexander Graham Bell, “The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.” That’s clear enough.


Law 30: Be Financially Literate: That is, speak and understand the language of money.

To be rich you must master the language of money.

What this means is that you must be able to read a balance sheet and understand it; you must know the difference between margin and profit, the lifetime values of your clients, your net worth (watch whether it is going up year on year or down), your time worth on an hourly basis, the total running costs to your business, sensitivity analysis, and the difference between an asset and a liability.

You must carefully choose the books and publications you read, the websites you visit, your homepage and the people you spend the most time with.

For the more you’re fluent in the language of finance, the better you will be at it and the wealthier you will become.


Law 31: Why you must be a ‘salesman’: Wealth is produced by sales.

Sales are one of the three skills necessary for attaining long term wealth and success. We will see the two others—the Arts of deal making and of negotiation—in Law 40.

To sell is not only to exchange for money or its equivalent or to offer for sale or deal in or even to attract buyers but also to convince or cause people to accept you, your proposals or your ideas (the fact that you are right or knowledgeable).. In fact, this is what you do all the time with people (friends, bank manager, customers, colleagues, boss, partner and children).

So you see, you are a salesperson without even knowing it. What is demanded of you here is to be conscious of it and do it methodically. You need to be able to sell yourself, your ideas, via other people and other companies, on websites, in shops, at all prices with good margins, all over the world and even while you sleep. This is because being a successful salesperson will bring you great wealth using the other Laws in this book.


Law 32: Adding value: Help raise other people’s lives and your wealth will grow.

This is the proverbial give and you will receive. Being one of the most important Laws among the 48, Johnnie Cass calls it the “Law of life”.

It is known that when we add value (financially, by service or in kind) to other people’s lives, we earn more and our lives grow. In fact, the amount of our wealth is directly proportional to the value we give other people.

Take Virgin and Google for example. We all know they are successful companies. What we maybe ignore is that they employ (give value to) thousands of employees and help (add to the lives of) millions of people whom they treat very well, both within and outside the company.
Indeed, the two companies are known to give absolutely huge value to other people.

When you are going into a deal (business, sales, wealth, investment) in all areas of life you wonder ‘what’s in it for me?’

Your partner is also thinking of the value that you will give them. If we all remember this, then you will get the very best out of people and vice versa. Never forget: great results for other people mean great results for you.


Law 33: Leverage: Relying on the skills and talents of others to build your own wealth.

Leverage is when you depend on other people’s time, money and skill set to gain a greater advantage, result or wealth than you could do alone.

Take people like Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, etc. It is obvious that they don’t run their empires all on their own. They employ many people’s skills, time, money, advice, service, etc. to get their forecasted results and continue to grow their businesses and their net worth.

These are ways you can also leverage for wealth:

►Get experience from peers and bosses in your job.
►Hire a money mentor or business coach.
►Invest in property and pay your mortgage with a tenant.
►Use the internet to touch a greater audience.
►Get yourself a personal assistant.
►Subcontract.
►Use a spread sheet.
►Ride a bike.
►Use a ladder, get a piggy back...
►Have a small business on the side of your job and nurture it into a big one.
►Use drop shippers and copywriters.
► Join affiliate companies to get referrals and earn commissions.
►Do joint ventures to reach more people.
►Invest in property and shares [Law 42].
►Get professional help, but don’t forget your due diligence [Law 7] and your intuition [Law
    15]. Remember Law 11 and the use of a mastermind team? Then look for people who have
    the knowledge and skills you need to be wealthy and successful.
►Get other people to do what you lack the skills to do.    
►Be a great people person and never hesitate to offer great benefits to other people for their
    services to you.
►Be a great leader. To be one:

• Never ridicule a learner.
• Only reprimand in private and when absolutely necessary.
• Always praise good work publicly.
• Be personable and care about other people.
• Always involve people in your long term vision.
• Remunerate well and reward good work financially.
• Motivate, inspire and lead by example.
• Be consistent.
• Forgive.
• Be clear of the outcome before you start [Write this down somewhere you will see it often].
• Set realistic goals: set others up for success not failure.
• Earn respect and keep respect [which may involve distance and professionalism].

Learn to master the art of leverage and you will be wealthy beyond your widest expectations, plans and goals.


Law 34: Money attracts Money: Investing and reinvesting will bring you wealth.

Like attracts like, that’s why you use bait to trap fish. Money is not an exception. Money invested brings in more money. The more money you invest, the greater the returns you will get. This is the Law of compounding.

Johnnie Cass used a bet on a golf course to demonstrate it:

He started with a bet of £1 per hole and doubling your bet on each hole. That seemingly insignificant amount compounded over each hole becomes £256 in 9 holes. After the 15th hole the amount has compounded to £16,384. At hole 18 the compounded effect is £131,072!

Compounding is why and how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Well, both groups are attracting much more of what they already have (money for the rich and poverty for the poor).

Consider your wealth strategy and do invest and reinvest what can be invested.


Law 35: Think Long term sustainability: That’s how you become and stay wealthy.

Rome wasn’t built in a day neither was the money of almost all of the wealthy people and families.

Remember Law 9: Discipline: Control yourself and your desires or urges for instant gratification? Yes, if you want to become and stay wealthy, then you must think long term sustainability and not jump for immediate gratification.

Anytime you have to make a career, business or investment decision, ask yourself: will this contribute to my long term wealth? Is it sustainable? Will it create a good return on investment (ROI)?

If the product, investment or decision does not fit into the set parameters of your wealth strategy [Law 25] of long term wealth and sustainability, flee from it like a pest. That concerns get rich quick schemes like ‘Get from zero to a million dollars in no time and while you sleep’ type offers, ads and ‘opportunities’; network marketing companies in which most people are losing instead of making money; and most ‘home based business opportunities’ that give little money for even over 60 hours of work a week. You still remember all those Ponzi/Pyramid schemes that promised people heaven and earth but left them poorer?

Instead refer to Laws 15 [Trust your instincts and intuition] and 24 [Be realistic] and look for education, career, business and investments that will last and be sustainable. Think ahead (1, 2, 5 and 10 years) and about your future and your goals. Ask if your decisions to invest will draw you closer or remove you further away from these. Will that jewellery you’re itching to buy add to your long term wealth?

Build your wealth patiently on solid financial and educational foundations. Have many avenues of income spread over different vehicles. Insure yourself and your assets against recession and unexpected events. Always make and have contingencies. Learn how to be tax efficient.

Think long term and be forever wealthy for generations to come.


Law 36: Know how to be good at saying no!: If it is for the best.

You can’t hurt people’s feelings, so you are afraid to say no? If yes, know that sometimes the best thing to say is No: politely and firmly. And once you make that decision, stand your ground and don’t be bullied. As reggae singer Jimmy Cliff said in one of his songs, “Let your Yes be Yes and your No mean No”.


Law 37: Modelling: Studying the successful methods of the rich and replicating them.

Many wealthy and successful people did not become rich through luck but for a reason. This boils down to learned systems, strategies, mindsets and behaviours which constitute tracks that you can find, study and replicate.

It is often easy to do that since the wealthy are more willing than not to share their experiences with you. So take them out to lunch and ask how they did it, listen and stay open minded while they pour their hearts out and you will learn so much from them for your own success. You can also read books about wealthy and successful people. 

Know that learning from the mistakes and the successes of the wealthy can save you years of time, energy, trial and error in growing your own great wealth.


Law 38: Price vs. Value: What you pay and what you get.

Price is what you pay and value is what you get. That is why despite people focusing so much on the first they often buy on the latter because something is only worth what the market is ready to pay for it.

Nobody buys anything that they do not think is good value and many will be willing to pay premium prices for apparent value, sometimes regardless of cost.

You can therefore be as expensive as you want, and people will pay if there is perceived value. So always offer value and the money will pour in.


Law 39: Risk: Speculation, investment and gambling: Invest but don’t gamble.

Since you can’t get anywhere without taking any risks (the proverbial ‘nothing ventured nothing gained’), your attitude to risk will determine the amount of money you make. That is, the more you risk the more your financial success and the less risk you take the less wealth you make.

Although you must speculate, you must take only ‘calculated risk’. And like everything else, risk is relative and you must determine your own perception of risk and update it regularly.

On the other hand, any action (such as throwing your life savings into a procedure to resuscitate dinosaurs) which does not fit into an educated, well researched and carefully timed investment is a gamble. A billionaire pumping large amounts of capital into even an innovative business is not gambling but taking a ‘calculated risk’ because that decision is based on their increased attitude to risk.

So not only must Law 25 (which dwelt on wealth strategy and your attitude to risk) be your benchmark but you must also stick to it like a leech. What you must not forget is: only invest money you can afford to lose and never chase money that you have lost.

Your road to wealth begins with speculation and not gambling. Gambling is not based on much forethought while speculation is the result of your careful selection [Law 7]. When you speculate your money, you are investing it to produce a greater return for your long term wealth. And you don’t do so until after discussion with and advice from investors, mentors and successful people, combined with some careful thought [Law 7 again] and some action [Law 29].

Although carefully thought out, speculation is still a guess. So mistakes may crop up and you may lose some money. But that is all part of the game because you cannot get money out if you don’t put any in.


Law 40: Deal making, and negotiation: Think cooperation, partnership and long term.

Three skills necessary for attaining long term wealth and success are the Arts of sales [which we saw in Law 31], of deal making and of negotiation.

As they have the potential to return a life time of passive income, deals [such as negotiating a great property deal with discount and a high yield] can make you wealthy.

However to strike great deals you must understand negotiation.

You must never go into a negotiation with the intention to:

1. Get a cheap price by skinning people.
2. Obtain what you want by bullying people.
3. Make people sign to things they did not agree to or understand by conning, tricking or
    cheating them.

True negotiators avoid ego, barriers to entry or selfishness; they do not also seek to cut people too much on price because they know nothing is so guaranteed to make them pull out of a deal, change their minds sooner than later, resent you or portray you as a git!

People serious about making great wealth know that the true Art of negotiation consists in 1) highlighting perceived benefits to the other party, 2) helping them to the maximum and making the transaction as easy as possible, and 3) giving them the last word for them to get the feeling that they got the upper hand in the negotiation.

So, to build lasting relationships (not just in your job, business, wealth and success but also with your kids, family, friends and loved ones), think cooperation (not competition), partnership and long term benefits in any negotiation you enter into with people.

In any negotiation determine the maximum you are prepared to pay and stick to it. Say ‘thank you’ if the price is not your ideal and don’t be afraid to back out. That will not be the only deal in your life; and even in 30% of cases you might be contacted again.

In going into a deal, be cool and patient. Keep in mind that 60% of communication is non-verbal. So use the posture and the body language of those you are talking to as well as what their eyes are conveying to you to read into what they are not saying.

Get to know the emotions negotiations bring out in people: don’t make people crazy or take the ‘Michael’. Be diligent and educated about the deal. Be flexible and offer other benefits. Don’t give anything away but offer exchange. Let your vis-à-vis feel good about the negotiation; you aren’t giving up your only remaining kidney.

When you master the Art of negotiation you will have mastered half the art of being a great dealmaker.

That, however, requires:

Being a good negotiator: that is, knowing what value and price to put on a deal and shopping around and understanding relative value: a deal on its own might look good but compared to the market it might turn out to be anything but desirable.

Know your goal, what you want out of a deal and what the others are also seeking. Don’t make the biggest mistake most deal makers make by always stating from the outset that they want cheap or discount. The seller, of course, is not thinking of giving his product or service away for less than he sees it is worth.

Even be wary of such people. Either something is the matter with them or they have something up their shoulders. In either case they cannot contribute to your interests.

Be opportunistic. As you have things, products, services and knowledge that other people need, offer them in return. Get to know other people that can help. Be flexible, professional and personable.


Law 41: The Art of borrowing money [and the rules!]: Borrow only if you must or is fruitful.

A very careful consideration of your strategy should guide you in borrowing money. You can easily adopt the following Laws—that wealthy and very rich people follow when thinking about borrowing—into your strategy:

1. If possible don’t borrow from friends or family.
You remember Law 8 which taught that life has never been a straight road and 26 which said that things more often than not turn out not as anticipated? Should that happen when you borrow from close ones, you will have a hard time trying to avoid them and they will try very hard to catch up with you. Result? Your close relationships can be strained or lost.
2. Only break Law 1 above if you absolutely must.
If borrowing from friends or family is your last resort for cash flow and investment into your business, then go ahead and do it.
3. Borrow only to invest in income producing assets.
Never spend or borrow against the promise of future earnings. That may never happen. Borrow money to invest in liabilities only when you can afford to do so. For you could never set up a big business without ever borrowing money. You could also never buy a house without borrowing money. So when you have to acquire something that could potentially generate a lifetime of income far beyond the repayments, then there could be great leverage in borrowing money to do so. For example, with a little help from the bank you could use the equity in your own home to purchase other 5 or 10 properties.

However be warned that borrowing money can bring heartaches: people have lost everything, including their lives, in this regard; interest on loans can be crippling and emotional debt to someone even more so.

Your debts and loans are what you must pay off first. Just as the Law of compounding [Law 34] can work to make you rich, it can also destroy your finances in matters of compounded loan interests.


Law 42: Property and shares: Chosen carefully, they will return you long term wealth.

Property and shares will generate long term sustainable wealth for you and for many years if you choose them carefully.

No doubt while almost half of the people on the Times 100 Rich List made their great fortunes through property, the second richest man in the world, as well as many other famous and hugely wealth people, made theirs through shares.

Property and shares make you passive income (money while you sleep) through the art of Leverage [Law 33] and the Law of compounding [Law 34].

So you will grow your wealth if you buy shares from well-performing growing companies which will return you huge dividends. Shares not only are highly liquid [you can sell them and collect profit very quickly], but also they will assure you a good spread of diversity.

In the same vein investing in property from areas of increasing growth will yield monthly cashflow [with the right strategy] as well as capital growth.
Statistics: Property has doubled in value every 710 years over the last 40.

But like any investment, shares and property are not risk free. They appreciate (increase in value) and depreciate (decrease in value), and can do you in the twinkle of an eye. Remember the crash in the 80’s and the dot com crash on the NASDAQ?

Only make investments that you understand [Law 7] and can personally control [or can control the person that controls what you buy into]. [See Law 36].


Law 43: Multiple avenues of income: is the way you significantly increase your wealth.

If you want to increase your wealth then earn more by the one channel through which you already make income. But to significantly increase wealth you need to create multiple streams of income.

A good example is Alan Sugar who earns large amounts of money from his many companies: on ‘The Apprentice’ and multiple streams through television, books, DVD’s, sponsorship and advertising and the future benefits that will naturally materialise.

And you, how can you create multiple streams of income around your skill and expertise? What other benefits and value can your business or skill set offer that can make your wealth explode? Open an estore. Create a website. Open more shops. Franchise your business model. Sell a part of your business. Sell education based around your skills. Reach more people. Utilise the media. Create multiple avenues of income through your investments.

The more avenues you earn from and compound, the wealthier you will become. So master the Art of earning while you sleep and be well on your journey of great wealth.


Law 44: Only buy quality: it saves you money in the long run and makes you feel/look good.

In every purchase you make there is a critical point where quality as against price is at its optimum. You will see soon that it is only worth it to find and only buy good value quality items.

Cost cutting and small economies are not the way to ‘make money.’ You don’t necessarily make money by saving money. Besides, when whipped up to obsession, cost cutting can hinder wealth creation.

Craving cheap items (whether a business one such as stock or a personal possession such as a shirt) will very often end up costing you more money in the long run unless it was very well calculated. The law of quality specifies that there is a point at which the value is the greatest and not at the very cheap end; neither is it really at the high side end either.

Buying only quality also has to do with ‘utility’ and ‘feel good factors’. Where is the utility if you bought a Ferrari and kept it in the garage all year? But a M3 or an Audi R8, at one-fifth the cost, which you drive every day, will give you almost as good a feel good factor and are infinitely more value.

If you can feel good about your buys, cherish having them and know you have purchased value, you will enjoy money rather than thinking you were wasting it.


Law 45: Work on your wealth not just in your job: Pause in your routine and plan to grow.

To succeed in your small business and move forward in your career you need to understand what ‘working on’ and working in’ mean.

Working in a career or job is what most of us do every day. We accomplish our day to day duties at the job, we live month to mouth and get our pay cheque and maybe year to year for the end of year bonus.

Worker or self-employed however, you must work on your wealth as well as your job, career or business. This is what will push us forward. To accomplish it, “we must step outside ourselves and look for means to grow, improve, increase turnover, increase profit and margin, reduce costs and overheads and learn more that will give us the skills we need to succeed.” Thanks, Johnnie.

We can call this the ‘strategy’ part of your business or career. It consists in asking questions as: how can I work to get that promotion and higher salary? How can I grow my business or set up systems so that it is not entirely dependent on me?

Now, how can you work on your wealth?

That’s what you are doing right now by reading this material to get the right mind-set and psychology, the right strategies and systems, and taking action on the 48 Laws of wealth.

The most successful and wealthy people devote a great deal of time on growth, strategy and the future of their businesses. You must also find a specific and set time and use it to build your wealth. Do it at your most productive hour where there are no distractions. One hour every morning in a quiet corner of your house will do.

You also need monthly and yearly review of your finances.

Find out each month if you have worked within your wealth strategy [Law 25] and how much as a percentage you have spent/invested compared to what you budgeted.

Then every year do a thorough check up to review your net worth as compared to the previous year’s. Edit your spread sheets as you change your figures and increase the amount of money going in, debtors and creditors, expenses, investments, loans and interest, direct debits and standing orders, credit card balances and so on.




Section 4: Keeping your wealth


Law 46: Remember how you got here: Through hard work so continue that way.

Certain behaviours, mindsets and strategies enable you to be rich, successful and wealthy. It was not easy getting here so don’t ever undo all the years of hard work and growth by breaking any one of these Laws of wealth.

When you become wealthy remember those people who helped you so much and the others who received great value from you. Shun selfishness and arrogance. Don’t become over protective, possessive or paranoid about your wealth; continue in the same way using the same principles that have got you where you are.

It is very easy to get carried away with it all and end up with nothing, or even worse than that. Do not flaunt your wealth; you will lose it faster than saying hey!

Be therefore wise, consistent, thoughtful, gracious and understated.


Law 47: Give back: pass the money on to others you feel would benefit from it.

You really can’t take your money with you so think of giving it back: to children and grandchildren to educate and benefit them for their future businesses and careers and to foundations that would use it wisely for the benefit of less fortunate people. You got here adding value to other people’s lives, so do the same when you go. That will add a huge amount to your life. And Johnnie says might even get you to paradise!

The many ways to give money to others that save tax and don’t make them feel guilty or indebted are gifts and education and funds to set up businesses and property and investments and all such things. If undecided, contact a qualified financial advisor for what to do.


Law 48: Pass on your knowledge: help others become wealthy too and feel good.

If it feels good to be wealthy and successful, it feels even better to pass on your knowledge to help others become rich too and happy.

Passing on your knowledge is a must. Not only are there so many people out there who could use it, but also you would be assuring everyone this inalienable right.

In any case you have achieved this height through adding value to other people’s lives, so why not continue? Your life will become so much more abundant.

This strategy is not really about giving money as it is about education. You remember, teaching somebody to fish is far better than giving them fish?

You can’t imagine what fun it is to teach your kids, friends, family, and thousands others using the internet about the Laws of wealth and success. Doing so can even make you increase your wealth substantially.

It is Stephen Covey who said that once we have learned, we should all be teaching. So think how you can help other people be wealthy, successful and happy.

Get the ‘48 Laws of Wealth’ here, it’s Johnnie Cass’ way of giving to you. Sure, go ahead: Get it here


Go here to download FREE 347-page ebook on making money online: Yes, get it!



The Rapid African Plan To Liberation/ African American & Ghanaian Owned ...

The Rapid African Plan To Liberation/ African American & Ghanaian Owned ...