Watching Your Life Pass By

Between now and January 1, I decided to wax poetic and mull heavy topics like the meaning of life and why am I here. So today I’m mulling the past and the importance of focusing on tody and tomorrow.

I was in my office recently and my partner’s son was in the office. My partners son (we will call him Wes) has just completed high school and like many young people is having a tough time finding his way. As I was working in the office Wes came in and sat at his dad’s computer and started watching high school wrestling videos. Wes was a champion wrestler in high school.

Periodically, I’d look up and see some of the video and I asked Wes if he missed wrestling. He told me he missed wrestling but mostly he missed the excitement of wrestling events. As I watched Wes look at high school wrestling videos on Youtube it struck me, Wes was watching his past and his present was going by and even at his young age, time was passing. Instead of Wes being excited about his future he seemed to be pondering the good times of the past.

I’ve done the same thing, spent time watching and dreaming about the past instead of being excited about the future, I’ve looked at my past hoping to reclaim the glory days (alleged).

But what’s the price I pay, whats the price Wes pays. Well, here’s what I know, time is ticking FORWARD not BACKWARDS. While my past may be great it is money spent, I can’t get it back, I can only plan for today and tomorrow not yesterday.

So, I don’t know about you but I’m a big fan of resolutions. I’m resolving this year and making those resolution public. I want and need the pressure. So in the next few days, lets resolve, lets make new years resolutions. Let’s resolve today to plan, create, mastermind and grow a better future for 2008. Let’s not watch our live pass by.

Dedicated to 2008, be a black genius.

Follow the advice of the Donald and Create a Financial Vision

One of the lessons that I’ve learned is that success leaves clues and one of the clues has been left by a very, very rich man, Donald Trump. Trump recently posted on his blog one of the keys to how rich people think.

Trump wrote “You might be surprised to learn that one of the most powerful habits of wealthy people is their ability to visualize a better financial future. They develop a clear mental picture of where they want to be financially, and then describe their financial vision in a simple and concise statement that serves as a constant reminder of where they are headed. This picture becomes a powerful motivator in their quest to produce and acquire wealth.”

His point is that rich people see themselves getting richer, that they “visualize a better financial future” and that is the amazing part to me.

Here is the question, what do you visualize as your financial future? Do you visualize a “better financial future” or do you visualize more of the same? Do you visualize your life getting better or getting worse or the same. The key is visualization, see the future how you want it to be, driving your future yourself instead of having circumstances drive you. Whats your choice? How do you want to live, driven by circumstances or guided by your vision?

Trump went on to write, “If you can get a clear picture of the way you want your life to look, that glimpse, quite often, may be enough to keep you moving ahead in pursuit of your personal dream of wealth.” He doesn’t guarantee a better financial future because you visualize but he does say based on his experience that having a vision, see the future as brighter “my be enough to keep you moving ahead in pursuit of your personal dream of wealth”. His point is that keeping the vision, in his experience will help you move ahead in the quest for financial freedom.

Trump continues “Let’s say that you have a plan to pay $900 a month to service your debt so that, in 18 months, you will your goal of becoming debt-free. That is your goal, to get out of debt. But your vision statement is something much bigger. It tells you what life will be like once you reach your goal. When you are debt-free, for example, you can invest some of the money that you will be able to save. Or you can enjoy the feeling of having the burden of debt lifted off your shoulders. Those are great motivators.”

His point is that having goals is NOT enough, his point is having a financial vision written down is as if not more important. A vision that creates a BENEFIT in your life that YOU WANT and that vision will help you stay focused on motivated towards achieving your goal.

So during this season when you may be setting goals and planning for a new year. Think bout Trump’s advice, I have.

My apologies to all

I recently fixed some problems on this blog and what I didn’t realize is that their where a bunch of messages stacked up. Those messages where sent all at one time and that was an error. Most of them where old posts. So I apologize for any inconvenience my error caused and will do my best to not have that happen again.

Once again please accept my apologies, I am truly appreciative of your permission to email and will not abuse it.

Thanks for your understanding.

Dwight Miller

Grateful for My Family, Friends and My Team

I always enjoy this time of yer between Thanksgiving nd the New Year packed with holiday cheer. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving but I enjoy the entire season. As we get closer the Christmas and the New Year my thoughts turn toward planning for the next year and being thankful for this year and all of my blessings.

So, I wanted to take the time this week to not talk about tactical things and more about my planning process. This week is all about the planning and preparing for to achieve goals I’ve set for next year. But first I need to give thanks. Thanks to all of the people that have made my life the joy it is, thanks to all of the people that have supported me and thanks for just living to see another year go by.

Over time, I’ve learned on thing in business and thats the importance of having a team and a mastermind group that can help you think and I have been very fortunate to have a GREAT TEAM. A group of people that have my back, that check me when I’m wrong, that congratulate me when I succeed but most importantly that think with me. I’ve learned that having someone think with you is more valuable than anything in the world. So thanks to my team.

Thanks to my friends, I am truly blessed to hve a few great friends. I don’t mean acquaintances or people that I hope are friends but real friends many like family. My friends are often part of an extended mastermind group because mny of them help me in the personal parts of my life. They act as counselors, advisors and sometimes just shoulders for me to lean on. Thanks to ech of my friends.

And my family, my wife, my mom, my brother and sister, nieces, nephews, cousins aunts and uncles. I love them all even when they get of my nerves and I am grateful for their presence in my life. Thanks to everyone.

I wanted to say thnks publicly because I’ve learned that gratitude is an important component of my success. I’ve learned that the more grateful I become the more successful I become so saying thanks for my blessing is important.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone of the people that read this blog. You support is important to me and each of you is important to me. Thank you for reading, thank you for commenting and thank you for supporting the blog. It is my goal to encourage and publicly celebrate your success so thanks and Happy Holidays.

A Beatbox Christmas to All from The Black Genius Network

Today is Christmas Eve and many of you will be oping presents, eating with family and enjoying the company of loved ones and like you I will be doing the same. But I will also be using the days after Christmas to plan my goals for 2008 in great detail and I hope you will be doing the same, so 2008 can be our best year ever.

Merry Christmas to ALL

P.S. Make 2008, the year you become a Black Genius

Whats the Secret to Starting a Successful Business, Pt 2

After a month, Karen knew a lot about her new business. She knew clearly who her clients where, what they needed to hear in her marketing to make them buy and she knew how much money her customers where willing to spend for her services. Karen also knew how many prospects it took to get a sale and she knew her expenses. So, Karen could predict how much money she would make in her business. By doing some simple math

Based on the math, she hired two of her former colleagues, ramped up her marketing based on the test and almost immediately found 5 clients.

After two years, Karen’s business had two million dollars in sales, was very profitable and Karen had 5 employees. Unfortunately for Bob, the manufacturing company found a location with lower labor costs and moved. Bob ended up looking for a job.

Also before I forget, Karen went to her office only two days a week.

What’s the difference between Bob and Karen? Why did Karen’s business explode with predictable profits and customers and Bob ended up back working for someone else.

Whats the Secret to Starting a Successful Business, Part 1

This is a first of two part post about starting a business, launching a new product or service regardless of the product or service.

It is the start of a special series I am doing soon on How to Start a Business Backwards. This teleseminar will focus on clearing up all of the mystery surrounding business startup and as importantly will focus on how you can launch a new business, product or service and reduce or remove your investment risks.

Read this post and see if you can find the secrets successes.

A few days ago, I posted two articles about starting a business for less than $100.00 and each example could easily be launched for that amount of money. But today I;m talking about how to really start a business. Let me give an example.

In 2004, Karen & Bob where laid off from their jobs and each decided to start a business. Interestingly, they both decided to start computer-consulting businesses exactly 50 miles apart.

Both Karen and Bob graduated from college with degrees in computer science. They both had years of experience in the computer field as network engineers and had a network of other computer engineers to recruit as potential employees.

Bob started his business quickly with one client that was a referral from a friend. He started supporting a medium sized manufacturing company’s computer network. He was responsible for everything making sure the server’s didn’t crash, backups and more. Bob was basically the company’s IT department. Bob worked hard everyday and many nights supporting the company, he worked harder even than he worked, as an employee except Bob didn’t get paid benefits and vacations.

Karen on the other hand started much slower. She decided in the very beginning of her business to implement systems and the first system she wanted to implement was a system to find out more about her potential customers.

Here is your chance to vote on who is more successful.

5 More Business’s You Can Start for Less Than $100

As promised, here are 5 more businesses you can start for less than $100.

6) Cafepress Store Owner - Are you an artist or have some great quotes, or brand. The a cafe press store will allow you to start a business based on your designs with NO money. You can sell T-Shirts, Mugs, Baby Wear and more. Want to see a Cafepress store check out the BGN Store by clicking here. (May as well take advantage of the opportunity)

7) Elder Care Provider -with baby boomers getting older more and more of them are going to need help taking care of themseleves. An Elder Care Provider, helps seniors with everyday chores and life challenges. An Elder Care Provider could drive seniors to grocery stores, social events and pharmacies. They could help ensure medication was taken on time and properly, they could act as a general companion. This is a great opportunity as the population growss older.

Personal Concierge Service - provides a similar service as an Elder Care provider except the service is geared toward busy people. A personal concierge helps organize closets, pickups dry cleaning, grocery shops and more. Again, very little initial investment needed other than marketing money and some organization outlay.

9) Personalized Gift Basket Product Business - you find out what a person likes than create a gift basket to meet their needs. Once again in a world where people are very busy this is another way to offer personalized service.

10) Bookkeeping Service - all you need is a computer, some accounting software and marketing and you are in business. Bookkeepers work from their home and are assets to any business, freeing the business owner to focus on running the business.

Thats it, these may not be the most exciting businesses, they may not make you billions or even million but every one provides can provide a reasonable full or part time living and help create a financial future. This is the start of financial literacy, participation in the world wide economy and job creation.

The time is now to start with a new year coming it’s time to begin the process. Over the next few days I will continue to outline a plan, a way to start and other opportunities. Lets make 2008 the year of financial literacy and business ownership for all African Americans.

BTW, I will be introducing a very special program soon that will help anyone start creating their own financial freedom. There will be more interview, more opportunities for everyone. So stay tuned

Dedicated to Your Success

Are you sitting on a 1 legged financial stool

What the h$$% are you talking about, a 1 legged stool. Well let’s look at the common advise we are still giving to people in this country. Go to school and get a job is the advice we give to people everyday, work hard and save is the additional advice. But let’s look at the reality. Going to school is necessary and we should encourage young people to go to school and go to college, but getting a job as the only source of your financial is a 1 legged stool strategy. Now let me ask you, how stable is a 1 legged stool.

In todays world, the 1 legged stool strategy is foolish. Today we all need to build at minimum a three legged stool and that stool in my opinion should include at minimum investments in real estate and business ownership. Now I’m not talking about a huge business but I am talking about a business that can be run with minimal effort and that will act as a steady leg if the job leg gets kicked out from under you. Thats my view. Now, on to the real estate investing, I am going to help people get a handle around that strategy with a very interesting interview I’ve done with a women who in a very short time created a multi-million dollar real estate investment business and then created a multi-million dollar real estate investment coaching program. This women ( for now I will call her Mrs X) is absolutely amazing and you can learn tons from just listening. So look out for this interview coming up soon.

Business that you can start for less than $100

As promised no excuses. Starting today we are going to go hard core. I’m gonna prove that there is no excuses to creating some type of business. So if you’ve ever wanted to have your own business, pick one of these damned one and just start. Don’t spend time wondering if you will like the business focus on what the business is meant to do and that is put income into your pocket. Just do something, don’t wait, start today. Pass this post on to the young people in your life and help them start, just do something today. Take a step today and read the post, we are dedicated.

So here goes, 5 of the 10 business you can start for less then $100 total

1) Consultant - this is the easiest because all you have to do is find a skill that you have and find people that need help with that skill. You can consult in anything dog training, how to dress, how to write, anything. The only requirement to be a consultant is for you to pick one of your skills and then find people that are willing to pay for them That’s it, so choose your skill, print some cards and start today

2) Personal Services/Shopping Services - another easy business, great for a young person. If you love shopping this is an easy jobm find people that hate to shop, get a list of the stuff they like and a budget and go shopping for them. You can even have them fund a prepaid credit card to control the budget

3) Online recruiter - there is a website Yorz.com, that is a basic job findins site except many of the jobs have a bounty. If you refer someone to a job with a bounty, you get the bounty. Some of the bounties are as high as $10,000. So it you are good at networking you can help people find jobs and get paid for your service.

4) Ebay Trading Assistant - all thats needed is digital camera, a computer with a high speed Internet connection and the ability to accurately and descriptively write about products for sale. A good marketing strategy is to go to garage sales and offer to sell the items not sold during the garage sale on eBay.

5) Have your car wrapped - Basically you charge businesses to advertise on your car while you drive around. The business owner pays for the car wrap and pays you for wrapping your car. If you drive anyway, whats the harm

These 5 businesses require little investment. They all have one thing in common and that is the ability to find customers. They all are easy to start and will provide income quickly. They are not wealth building businesses but they are a start on putting another leg down on your financial stool.

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