Dream Toolbox

Welcome to The Dream Toolbox. I’ll explain what that means in a minute, but first I have an important question for you: do you have dreams for your life that always seem just beyond your reach? If so, this podcast, and the ones, which will follow, are very specifically for you. They are designed to open windows of economic opportunity that most people don’t know even exist and to provide a set of skill based tools to enable a better life to reach their dreams. What I will have to say is...

Welcome back to the Dream Toolbox. Let’s talk some more about belief systems because they control everything else that is in the Dream Toolbox. Belief in yourself and believing in your dream is a strange thing. With it, there is almost nothing you cannot achieve; without it, nothing will happen. Creating that belief--and making it so much a part of your brain that nothing can ever shake it loose--is a lot harder. The mind wants to say, “I must be crazy to think I could do that.” But you...

Welcome back to The Dream Toolbox. I promised you in the last session that I would talk about what you believe and why that matters. Henry Ford, who created the automobile industry we know today once said: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” There is no more important concept to understand than this. Our belief systems determine where we will end up in life. I am not talking about religious faith, although that can be a huge help if it is strong, but about...

Welcome back. I promised to give you another personal example of why beliefs matter. Quite a few years ago, I was approached by a man I knew only through a mutual friend. He had little formal education, but had a real estate license, a small real estate company, and the dream of building a high-rise office building using a construction technique that had never been tried in an earthquake area like LA. What he did not have was any experience or “track record” of having done such a thing. And...

Welcome back to the Dream Toolbox podcasts. How do you begin to change your belief system to redefine what you believe is possible? A simple and effective process for doing this can begin with something as simple as a piece of paper. Start with a blank piece of paper and give yourself 5 minutes to write down a list of all of the things you would really like to do if you knew you could not fail. Do it quickly and don’t edit the list in your mind as you go. Your subconscious will try to tell...

If your dream has anything to do with financial success, you need to learn something about what I call “The Entrepreneurial Mind.” There is a very famous statement made by the writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald that goes like this: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” Fitzgerald was both right and wrong. The rich are very different from most people, not because they have more money, but because, if they have made their own wealth and not just inherited it,...

Welcome back to the Toolbox. We’ve talked about broad based tools like belief systems and active imagining. Now let’s start getting more specific. No one would think of building a house without tools and materials, hammers, nails, lumber, etc. So what tools do you need for financial success? Over a lifetime, there may be many, but if you start with these two, all the rest can be mastered as needed. What are they? 1. Master the English language and how to use it to persuade others to meet...

Let’s talk about skills as investment assets. Consider these facts: 1. No wealthy person I know depends on a paycheck to live the life they live. They own assets, stocks, real estate, businesses that work for them while they sleep or play. 2. A quality investment can last a lifetime, and beyond. A job is only as good as yesterday’s paycheck. Most of the World’s wealthy people, particularly in the US, did not start out with a lot of investment assets. They first developed skills that had...

There is profound truth in the saying, “If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to have a dream come true?” But it sometimes needs to be changed to this: “If you don’t have a goal, how are you going to achieve it?” The difference is profound. A dream is something that floats in the air of fantasy and always in the future, a bit out of reach. A goal can be seen, can be measured, and progress toward it can be charted. And when you reach a goal, there is the chance to celebrate that you...

Perhaps the most striking difference between those who have an entrepreneurial mindset and those who don’t is how they approach the problems—whether in business or personal life—that everyone faces. The conventional thinker immediately looks to see if there are known solutions, on the Internet, in books, among friends, etc. If not, he or she concludes they can't proceed any further and looks to do something else. The person with an entrepreneurial mind almost instinctively sees every...

There is a myth that pervades the way most of us were brought up that success will somehow come (if it ever does) in some future “someday” because of a fortunate promotion, “being discovered” or gradually working our way up some ladder of success. Any of those things could happen, but what makes this way of thinking so destructive is that it ignores one of the most powerful tools we all have—the power of the mind. I know of no formal study that has ever been made, but my own experience with...

Let’s talk about Money. We can’t talk about the tools of success without talking about it. Most everyone thinks they know what “Money” is. And most everyone is wrong! Some people say, “Money is the root of evil”. It’s not. The real quote is: “The love of money is the root of evil”, which is a very different thing. In fact, until you do something with it, money has no value at all. You can’t eat it; you can’t drink it; you can’t wear it (except perhaps as a silly costume), and it won’t keep...

You have no doubt heard it said, “Money can’t buy happiness.” And that is true. I know many unhappy millionaires. But I know many more unhappy folks whose lack of enough money to feel safe in their daily lives creates its own unhappiness. The truth is that having enough money cannot assure happiness, but it can assure freedom from many of things that can turn even a happy life into an unhappy one. It is hard to be happy and joyful if: you are not sure how you will pay the rent, or the...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Everywhere you turn today, you hear people lamenting the income gap between the top 10% of earners and the bottom 50%, or below. Those people are half right. There is a big difference between those who earn the most and those who just barely get by. But, as we will discuss in detail later, it is not a gap but a pyramid, something else much easier to manage. The reality is that anyone who learns the skills they need and develops the mindset of the wealthy and...

We hear a lot of talk these days about “corporate greed” and many people, particularly young people, believe that their chances of success are being “oppressed” by the power and greed of big corporations. Let me let you in on an important secret: there is no such thing as “corporate greed.” To understand why that is true requires that we realize that corporations are nothing more or less than tools and the greed or altruism associated with them is no more or less than that of their...

Welcome back. We need now to talk a bit about one of the most important concepts you can ever learn about building wealth and financial freedom. It is actually quite simple and can be summed up in one phrase: “Success is not a zero sum game.” What does that mean? Think about any sports contest. Whether it is baseball, football, or any other competition, there is only one winner. Second place is only the first loser. But financial success is not like that. Think about Apple Computer, the...

We hear a lot these days about “White Privilege” and “Gender Bias”. If you can change the way you think about those things, you can increase your chances of success in business and life dramatically. First of all, everyone who is not blind to reality knows that in the United States (and most of the world), it is extremely helpful to be a white male instead of black or Hispanic or Asian, or a female. I would be lying if I did not say that in the United States today, it is a great advantage...

Believe it or not, one of the biggest obstacles to achieving financial freedom and an abundant and successful life can be summed up in three words: FEAR OF FAILURE. Notice that I did not say, Failure. I said Fear of Failure. In reaching any goal worth having there will be failures along the way—often many of them. No, it is the Fear of Failure that dooms most people to lives of frustration, living far below their potential. The reasons are actually quite simple. Fear of Failure does several...

Welcome back to Dream Toolbox. We have talked a lot about changing core belief systems, visualizing your dream and making it real in your mind, as well as creating useful waypoints to make sure you stay on track. There will be more to say about each of these as we go along. They are the critical pieces in making any dream come true. But now it is time to talk about more mundane things. The first of which is just getting started. For most people, dreams remain just that—dreams—and are never...

In life, lots of things go wrong for every one of us. What matters is not the event, but what we do with it. Suppose, for example, someone you trusted steals from you and causes you real harm. You have several choices: 1) You can blame the person who cheated you and always believe that, if not for that betrayal, you would have had wonderful success; 2) You can blame yourself and believe that, but for your foolish trust, you would have had wonderful success; 3) You can take responsibility...