The road to financial independence from Bodo Schaeffer (Part 1)
I continue to write notes from famous books from this list from Milfgard . Today this is a very famous book by Bodo Schaeffer, The Path to Financial Independence.
The author tells how personal success and money in general work.
The book describes four ways to earn the first million (meaning dollars):
You can earn your first million seven years after you begin to apply the principles described in the book.
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Money always has exactly the value we give them. The tense financial situation makes you think about money with tension. It turns out a vicious circle: people do not do what they enjoy, because they do not know how you can earn this business.
The solution is: take your favorite hobby and build a career on it. However, this can only work if you take the time to analyze what you really enjoy and in what area you have talent. Rich people say: "Who works all day, there is no time to earn money." Obviously, you need to give yourself time to think. “Get to know yourself and find out what gives you pleasure. And then think about how you can earn money with it. Ask yourself this question every day and every day look for the best answer. ”
It is important to optimize, not minimize our life. In many companies, in the era of crises, the term optimization has been adopted, but usually this means a simple reduction in costs for all items. Optimization is a deliberate process aimed at the most efficient use of resources: time, opportunities, talents, money, employees.
Planning: if you do not plan your life yourself, it means someone does it for you. This could be your employer, client, relative or tax inspectorate. It is better to make plans and do some things in advance before the consequences take you off guard.
The four pillars of independence:
Regularly look at these points and think about the answers to these questions.
Whom you blame, that you give power. It's very simple: if you decide that someone else is to blame for your problems, then someone else will control your life. Take responsibility for yourself and manage your life. If it really doesn’t depend on what is happening (some villain has crashed into your standing car), just manage your reaction to what is happening.
Responsibility means being able to give the best answer. The word answer itself - this implies ownership. In English language is exactly the same: responsibility = response + ability. Answering a dispute with a dispute or provoking a war is not the best solution.
The general scheme is this: an external influence occurs → we answer → we reap the result.
But often people blame the result not for themselves, but for some external factors: genes, parents, and the environment.
Take responsibility for your life. Remember who you were seven years ago: what were your hobbies, goals, occupation, financial situation. And then think about who you want to be in seven years.
Control zone.
There are things that you directly control and that you can influence. But there are other things that you are interested in, but you cannot influence. These are two concentric circles enclosed one in another and a circle of control less, than a circle of interests.
The control zone is constantly expanding. In childhood we had almost no control, but with age comes some kind of influence. And due to what is this zone expanding? - Responsibility, knowledge, experience. As soon as we take responsibility, gain new knowledge and gain unusual experience, our zone of control expands. A new unusual experience is acquired only if we go beyond the boundaries of the comfort zone.
Problems give a good chance to increase the zone of control. They are therefore problems that lie in the zone of our interests, but outside of our control zone. Each solution to the problem is an extension of the control zone.
In order for a million not to be a miracle, we must complete the transformation on five levels:
Miracles happen if there are changes at the third, fourth and fifth levels and we can prepare these changes. The books help in this (it is necessary to learn the technique of fast reading). Read and ask successful people about the best five books they have read and read them yourself. Keep a log of success . Write in it every day about your achievements. Focus on the positive and consider yourself meaningful enough to write about yourself. Attend seminars. The price we pay for professional development is much lower than what we pay for ignorance. You can start with a clear rule: 4 workshops per year. Take the risk. What is really worth doing is scaring us. If you do not have enough fear before you take a new step, then this step is not significant enough.
The above are very simple things, but when it comes to systematically following simple rules, it becomes difficult.
Bodo Schaeffer points out similarities between people who earn little:
As long as you think about money what you think, you will have what you have. To analyze the situation, you can try to answer the following questions:
The author proposes to identify the three most important dogmas of faith and write them down in writing (he suggests a list from which to choose). I only got six points, of which I highlighted the three most important for me at the moment:
And now you need to think about the impact of these beliefs on our lives? Our beliefs are greatly influenced by the people with whom we spend the most time. We need to make a list of three people with whom we spend time and understand what their financial beliefs are, how they handle money and what advice they give us. In principle : never take advice from someone who is not who you would willingly become.
Bodo Schaeffer offers to think about who you want to be, what you want to do and what you want to have: a) after seven years; b) in three years. Then you need to think about what the tenets of financial faith hinder the achievement of these goals. Personally, I did this exercise in my personal diary and it turned out that there wasn’t much difference between the seven-year list and the three-year list.
Debt is when we want to live in the future now. We have not earned anything yet, but we want to use what we have not earned. The main recommendation is not to do consumer debt. They are destructive and stupid, destroy the motivation to work and lead into a vicious circle. On the other hand, there are two important supporting positions, without which rapid growth of your business is hardly possible: other people and other people's money. Thus, debts for starting a business are a necessity, but debts to provide for one’s own “needs” are slavery.
Bodo Schaeffer gives an example of how in ancient Babylon 2/3 of all slaves became slaves on their own, simply by collecting debts. These were ordinary citizens, who took the money on bail themselves and as a result fell into slavery. The author dwells on this point in sufficient detail and gives comprehensive recommendations on how to get rid of debts. It is better to read the original and immediately perform the exercises.
A couple of recommendations: do not listen to other people, avoid sympathy, you should always have cash, it is better to choose the right time for bankruptcy.
I earn as much as I deserve. Work for 110%: if you get paid for 8 hours of work, do good, as if you were working 10 hours. Be interested not in rights, but in duties. “Do not think about what your country can do for you, think about what you can do for a country” (JF Kennedy).
Do it without fail , as soon as possible. Trust your intuition and don't be afraid of mistakes, if 51% of your quick decisions will be right, you will become rich. Make yourself a sport out of striking everyone with your speed. Give answers to letters within three minutes, respond immediately, do not tolerate delays.
All that is generally worth doing is to be done well . Email, phone call, conference room chairs, etc. Always give out 100%, do everything great, because only remarkable achievements impress others.
Become indispensable. Take responsibility even for what is not your direct responsibility. Each company has one or several people, without whom nothing is obtained. They are irreplaceable. Expand your sphere of influence, get involved in the organization of projects, accept the installation: “The company is me”. In this case, you do not have to do everything yourself, otherwise you will become a slave of the company. Just take responsibility and be ready to delegate your tasks and authority to others.
Do not bypass the problem. If they arise, call yourself to solve them. Volunteer when difficult tasks are distributed.
Prove yourself as a specialist. If you can do as much as everyone else can do, then you stand no more than everyone else. When you do everything, you yourself will have to look for clients, but when you have established yourself as a specialist, clients will look for you. What have you done to be considered a specialist? Make decisions based on the fact that after three years you will become an expert in your field. Imagine today that you are a specialist of the highest category and behave accordingly: read the relevant literature and think like a pre-class specialist. But to become a specialist you need to spend time on it. Allocate time for advanced training in the daily amount of work.
Salary for the entrepreneur. If you are an entrepreneur, pay yourself a salary and divide the company’s money from your own money. Determine the amount based on the pessimistic forecast of the turnover of the enterprise and transfer to your personal account. There should be no different monthly sums and bonuses: “in October I did a good job and pay myself a bonus”. This is the wrong approach, which leads to laxity in personal finances, and in the worst case, to debts.
Do not put all your money in your company. This is a mistake that many make: they create no state other than a firm. If you want to really develop your company, use other people's money. This may be a loan or loan, but not a consumer, but for a business.
What is the income:
The author dwells on each item in detail and tells how to develop them and highlights four sources of income: products, knowledge, services, ideas.
PS: in the first part exactly half of the book climbed in, although, I wanted to confine myself to one article.
Please write in the comments if you have applied any of the above and how successful.
The author tells how personal success and money in general work.
The book describes four ways to earn the first million (meaning dollars):
- Saving a certain percentage of income
- You invest the money saved
- You increase your income
- You save a certain percentage of each revenue increase achieved.
You can earn your first million seven years after you begin to apply the principles described in the book.
')
What do we really want?
Money always has exactly the value we give them. The tense financial situation makes you think about money with tension. It turns out a vicious circle: people do not do what they enjoy, because they do not know how you can earn this business.
The solution is: take your favorite hobby and build a career on it. However, this can only work if you take the time to analyze what you really enjoy and in what area you have talent. Rich people say: "Who works all day, there is no time to earn money." Obviously, you need to give yourself time to think. “Get to know yourself and find out what gives you pleasure. And then think about how you can earn money with it. Ask yourself this question every day and every day look for the best answer. ”
It is important to optimize, not minimize our life. In many companies, in the era of crises, the term optimization has been adopted, but usually this means a simple reduction in costs for all items. Optimization is a deliberate process aimed at the most efficient use of resources: time, opportunities, talents, money, employees.
Planning: if you do not plan your life yourself, it means someone does it for you. This could be your employer, client, relative or tax inspectorate. It is better to make plans and do some things in advance before the consequences take you off guard.
The four pillars of independence:
- Dreams. What would you do if your time and money were not limited
- Goals How you want to be, what you want to do, what you want to have
- Moral values. What is really important to you and why this is what is important.
- Strategy Do you have enough knowledge and ability to get something. what do you want to possess?
Regularly look at these points and think about the answers to these questions.
A responsibility
Whom you blame, that you give power. It's very simple: if you decide that someone else is to blame for your problems, then someone else will control your life. Take responsibility for yourself and manage your life. If it really doesn’t depend on what is happening (some villain has crashed into your standing car), just manage your reaction to what is happening.
Responsibility means being able to give the best answer. The word answer itself - this implies ownership. In English language is exactly the same: responsibility = response + ability. Answering a dispute with a dispute or provoking a war is not the best solution.
The general scheme is this: an external influence occurs → we answer → we reap the result.
But often people blame the result not for themselves, but for some external factors: genes, parents, and the environment.
Take responsibility for your life. Remember who you were seven years ago: what were your hobbies, goals, occupation, financial situation. And then think about who you want to be in seven years.
Control zone.
There are things that you directly control and that you can influence. But there are other things that you are interested in, but you cannot influence. These are two concentric circles enclosed one in another and a circle of control less, than a circle of interests.
The control zone is constantly expanding. In childhood we had almost no control, but with age comes some kind of influence. And due to what is this zone expanding? - Responsibility, knowledge, experience. As soon as we take responsibility, gain new knowledge and gain unusual experience, our zone of control expands. A new unusual experience is acquired only if we go beyond the boundaries of the comfort zone.
Problems give a good chance to increase the zone of control. They are therefore problems that lie in the zone of our interests, but outside of our control zone. Each solution to the problem is an extension of the control zone.
Is a million a miracle?
In order for a million not to be a miracle, we must complete the transformation on five levels:
- Dissatisfaction with their position. Need to act.
- You do not achieve the desired results. Ask yourself: “How can I achieve the desired results with the least amount of effort?”
- You found an example for inspiration . When there is someone to take an example from, it is much easier to live and achieve success.
- You change your worldview. Change your glasses and the world will seem different to you.
- You change your own personality and look at yourself. For example, when a seller considers himself a seller, he must please his customers. But if he considers himself an expert, the clients are interested in him.
Miracles happen if there are changes at the third, fourth and fifth levels and we can prepare these changes. The books help in this (it is necessary to learn the technique of fast reading). Read and ask successful people about the best five books they have read and read them yourself. Keep a log of success . Write in it every day about your achievements. Focus on the positive and consider yourself meaningful enough to write about yourself. Attend seminars. The price we pay for professional development is much lower than what we pay for ignorance. You can start with a clear rule: 4 workshops per year. Take the risk. What is really worth doing is scaring us. If you do not have enough fear before you take a new step, then this step is not significant enough.
The above are very simple things, but when it comes to systematically following simple rules, it becomes difficult.
Bodo Schaeffer points out similarities between people who earn little:
- they cannot determine what wealth is (concrete numbers and desires)
- they don't make wealth a goal (set small goals instead of big ones)
- they do not make wealth a necessity (every goal must be absolutely necessary)
- they don't stand (never, never, never give up)
- they do not take responsibility
- they are not ready to live 110% (they are satisfied with what they have and do not grow)
- they don't have a mentor
- they focus on their weaknesses, not their merits
What do you really think about money?
As long as you think about money what you think, you will have what you have. To analyze the situation, you can try to answer the following questions:
- Have you ever spent more money than you wanted? Why?
- Have you ever tried to lose weight, but it did not work out? Why?
- Did you commit to save, but did not do it? Why
- Have you ever tried for at least three months not to buy any clothes, but it didn't work out? Why?
- Have you ever exceeded your bank account? Why?
- Have you ever made a firm decision, but still did not do anything? Why?
The author proposes to identify the three most important dogmas of faith and write them down in writing (he suggests a list from which to choose). I only got six points, of which I highlighted the three most important for me at the moment:
- Money flows through my fingers
- Money makes good
- Money is not everything
- Money brings a lot of good
- Poverty is bad, miserable, bad
- There are things more important than money.
And now you need to think about the impact of these beliefs on our lives? Our beliefs are greatly influenced by the people with whom we spend the most time. We need to make a list of three people with whom we spend time and understand what their financial beliefs are, how they handle money and what advice they give us. In principle : never take advice from someone who is not who you would willingly become.
Bodo Schaeffer offers to think about who you want to be, what you want to do and what you want to have: a) after seven years; b) in three years. Then you need to think about what the tenets of financial faith hinder the achievement of these goals. Personally, I did this exercise in my personal diary and it turned out that there wasn’t much difference between the seven-year list and the three-year list.
Debts
Debt is when we want to live in the future now. We have not earned anything yet, but we want to use what we have not earned. The main recommendation is not to do consumer debt. They are destructive and stupid, destroy the motivation to work and lead into a vicious circle. On the other hand, there are two important supporting positions, without which rapid growth of your business is hardly possible: other people and other people's money. Thus, debts for starting a business are a necessity, but debts to provide for one’s own “needs” are slavery.
Bodo Schaeffer gives an example of how in ancient Babylon 2/3 of all slaves became slaves on their own, simply by collecting debts. These were ordinary citizens, who took the money on bail themselves and as a result fell into slavery. The author dwells on this point in sufficient detail and gives comprehensive recommendations on how to get rid of debts. It is better to read the original and immediately perform the exercises.
A couple of recommendations: do not listen to other people, avoid sympathy, you should always have cash, it is better to choose the right time for bankruptcy.
How to increase your income.
I earn as much as I deserve. Work for 110%: if you get paid for 8 hours of work, do good, as if you were working 10 hours. Be interested not in rights, but in duties. “Do not think about what your country can do for you, think about what you can do for a country” (JF Kennedy).
Do it without fail , as soon as possible. Trust your intuition and don't be afraid of mistakes, if 51% of your quick decisions will be right, you will become rich. Make yourself a sport out of striking everyone with your speed. Give answers to letters within three minutes, respond immediately, do not tolerate delays.
All that is generally worth doing is to be done well . Email, phone call, conference room chairs, etc. Always give out 100%, do everything great, because only remarkable achievements impress others.
Become indispensable. Take responsibility even for what is not your direct responsibility. Each company has one or several people, without whom nothing is obtained. They are irreplaceable. Expand your sphere of influence, get involved in the organization of projects, accept the installation: “The company is me”. In this case, you do not have to do everything yourself, otherwise you will become a slave of the company. Just take responsibility and be ready to delegate your tasks and authority to others.
Do not bypass the problem. If they arise, call yourself to solve them. Volunteer when difficult tasks are distributed.
Prove yourself as a specialist. If you can do as much as everyone else can do, then you stand no more than everyone else. When you do everything, you yourself will have to look for clients, but when you have established yourself as a specialist, clients will look for you. What have you done to be considered a specialist? Make decisions based on the fact that after three years you will become an expert in your field. Imagine today that you are a specialist of the highest category and behave accordingly: read the relevant literature and think like a pre-class specialist. But to become a specialist you need to spend time on it. Allocate time for advanced training in the daily amount of work.
Salary for the entrepreneur. If you are an entrepreneur, pay yourself a salary and divide the company’s money from your own money. Determine the amount based on the pessimistic forecast of the turnover of the enterprise and transfer to your personal account. There should be no different monthly sums and bonuses: “in October I did a good job and pay myself a bonus”. This is the wrong approach, which leads to laxity in personal finances, and in the worst case, to debts.
Do not put all your money in your company. This is a mistake that many make: they create no state other than a firm. If you want to really develop your company, use other people's money. This may be a loan or loan, but not a consumer, but for a business.
What is the income:
- Professional level. How good are you in your field
- Your energy. How much energy are you willing to spend on your professional success
- Development. Do you satisfy many people with your product or service?
- Self-esteem. How confident are you? Do others think well of you? Do they appreciate you as a specialist?
- Ideas. Are you a creative person? Do you write down your ideas right away? How developed is your personal idea factory?
The author dwells on each item in detail and tells how to develop them and highlights four sources of income: products, knowledge, services, ideas.
PS: in the first part exactly half of the book climbed in, although, I wanted to confine myself to one article.
Please write in the comments if you have applied any of the above and how successful.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/284006/
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