1. The RIGHT financial education.
2. Connections with the right people.
3. GUTS. The guts never to quit, make excuses, or run away.

Let’s talk about these three.

1. Financial education.

Kiyosaki points out in his four quadrants that you can be:

• an employee (quadrant 1),
• or a self-employed salesman / solopreneur (quadrant 2),

… and never get rich,

or you can be in quadrants three and four.

• Quadrant three is big business (500 employees or more),
• and quadrant four is having your money work for you.

Most people who don’t have money think it’s impossible to play in quadrants three and four, whereas DollarMakers shows you how to participate in big business through Joint Ventures and to make money from the investments of other people – anyone can do that. We don’t have money problems; we have thinking problems.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Why? Because the rich keep doing the things that made them rich, and the poor keep doing the things that made them poor.

2. Connections with the right people.

DollarMakers has hundreds of Members, many of whom have a great understanding of Joint Ventures, in 19 countries – all looking to do a deal with you. And we FIRE dishonest people who don’t abide by our Code of Business Ethics. We are constantly weeding the moochers and posers out.

Winners will link you with winners, and losers will introduce you to their loser friends. We provide various platforms and options for connecting with the right people. We’re not a networking group full of broke wanna-be’s.

3. GUTS.

If you are a weak, politically correct, passive-aggressive, excuse-making wimp, don’t join DollarMakers. Our Members have to take full responsibility for their own success – we’re not socialists or quitters, and we don’t carry passengers or pamper parasites. We’re excited, determined, motivated, and disciplined. Our goal is to MAKE MONEY. That’s why we’re called DollarMakers.

If you’re serious about success and you’re tired of watching your wealth go down the drain, join DollarMakers. Right now.

1.   Take Note of Their Mentors.

I know someone whose mentor had no respect for follow-up, didn’t return calls, was undisciplined, and slack. She is following his lead, of course, and will likely wind up with a scary lawsuit.

2.   Take Note of Their Friends and Associates.

Birds of the feather – similar values, beliefs, networks, standards, and aspirations. Where do they go? With whom do they spend their time?

3.   Their Customers and Vendors.

What is their reputation with people who sell to them or buy from them? How about their competition? How LONG have they known this person? Be especially careful of people who are new in the area and have a gray past. In many cases, they’ve run away from their bad choices in the past.

4.   The Internet.

Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, their websites and blogs – take the time to check them out. They will naturally have enemies and detractors if they’re well known, but judge the assault by the quality of their enemies.

5.   Their Philosophy.

What books do they read, what groups and clubs do they belong to, what religious and political affiliations do they have, where do they live, how do they spend their time? One’s philosophy drives ones motives and choices – it is a good predictor.

6.   Test Them in Small Ways.

Test them in small ways before opening up the big JV opportunities. Do they return calls and e-mails promptly, do they pay on time, are they cheap, are they well groomed and punctual, respectful, and professional? Are they loyal and honest? “Faithful in little, faithful in much.”

7.  How Do They Treat Others?

Their spouses, kids, friends, the waiter in a restaurant, animals, receptionists, their employees, and colleagues. Listen and watch – observe – because that’s how they will end up treating YOU.

8.   Take Your Time, There’s No Rush.

And don’t take the word of one person referring them – I now a successful businessman who has very little discernment in judging others. Over time, you will find out a lot more about them, good and bad. Over time, you will see patterns and tendencies – people hiding, making excuses, justifying, lowering standards, cutting corners. You will also be able to identify loser traits, like smoking, greed., ego, drinking too much, gambling, womanizing, and other addictions.

9. Beware of the Too Friendly.

Be careful of the too friendly, smiling, backslapping, always agreeing, politically correct funster. Those who are everyone’s friend and promise the world are usually sociopaths, or at the very least passive aggressive back-stabbers. Watch out for posers and parasites, too – there are many of them out there. If someone agrees with everything you say and has no opinion, he’s weak or dangerous. Either way, watch out.

10. Track Record.

Finally, look at the track record. That is a clear predictor of future behavior. Along with that, listen for EXCUSES and BLAME – the sure sign of a victim mentality. In that case, be aware that your prospect lives in the Victim/Persecutor/Rescuer world that denies personal responsibility.

Better to take the time and make the effort on the front end than to suffer later. The cost of discipline weighs ounces, while the cost of regret weighs tons. I would rather pay a good private detective up front than lose a lot down the road.

My cleaning lady would rather slave away and sell her time and sweat for $20 an hour than take the time to build a business. An employee who commutes three hours a day and works nine hours for a measly salary and no security would make a lot of money if he devoted twelve hours a day to brokering Joint Ventures.

• Why is it so difficult for people to move from cleaning closets and doing mind-numbing jobs to becoming successful entrepreneurs?
• Why do they need a boss to make sure they work?
• Why would someone spend twelve hours a day, doing what he hates (statistically, most people hate their jobs) to make $5,000 per month, when he can spend twelve hours to create financial freedom and retirement within a year?

It doesn’t make sense. Or does it?

I tested it – I gave my cleaning lady copies of three of my books and a few DVDs. I directed her to my websites. I told her I would be happy to answer any questions she had. She has never mentioned JVs again. She works hard, has a great attitude, and talks about cleaning and her family, and how much they need money.

Why People Are Stuck

Why are people stuck on their financial prisons, when they can free themselves with entrepreneurship?

1. The average IQ in North America is 98. NINETY-EIGHT.
2. And we are conditioned by the liberal media, the sly mystics, and the matronly academia to believe business and money is bad.
3. People pay $35,000 to get an MBA that they can use to get a better JOB. Crazy.

Stupidity, conditioning, fear of the unknown. “Better the devil you know”, “Too good to be true.” Sad, isn’t it? Not really. 98% of people will never become wealthy. That’s just the way it is. Accept it.

Here’s my point:

Entrepreneurs, let’s stop trying to rescue those who prefer to wallow in the waters of quiet desperation. Let’s stop casting pearls before swine.

• Let’s withdraw our generous offers and make people come and ASK for our help.
• Then make them PAY for it, so they recognize its value.

After all, they happily pay for their cigarettes and beer, don’t they? Atlas should shrug more often.

Stop wasting your time with losers, posers, parasites, and wanna-be’s. Make people prove themselves.

If they stop producing, cut them loose. That means FIRE them. Let’s become a lot more selective.

Why are cults so successful? They enforce very strict discipline and rules. They exact massive payment from their members. Perhaps we could learn from them.

Up the Ante

Let’s increase the quality of those with whom we communicate. Let’s up the ante. Let’s throw up more barriers and stop being so generous and altruistic. Make them ask, make them pay, and make them perform, and the eagles will soon reveal themselves.

The cream will rise to the top – it doesn’t need encouraging. The good ones will show up and motivate themselves. You don’t have top motivate a winner, and you can’t motivate a loser. The turkeys will stay away and attack you at every opportunity. DollarMakers has a new policy: we don’t accept Members back once they leave. And as we get more selective, the quality and income increases.

Stop trying to sell yachts to the homeless. Stop expecting idiots to read Shakespeare. You don’t see the price of Rolex going down. Stop begging people to succeed. Don’t give your cleaning lady books – give her a box of donuts.

1.  Outdated Advice:

“Look at me,” purrs the seminar leader, “I’m rich because I invested in real estate in Florida. Do what I did, and you’ll get the same results.” Fine, except that the real estate market, the money situation, laws, mortgages, and a host of other things have changed dramatically in the past eight years since the guru made some money. And did he make his money in real estate, or in the seminars he’s been running to teach others how to do it? The same goes for Internet Marketing, foreign exchange scams, investments, and on and on.

2.  Motive:

What does the presenter of the advice have to gain or lose when you accept his advice? What is his vested interest and agenda?

3.  Authentic Knowledge:

How do you know this person advising you actually has the authority and insight to offer you good advice? At the end of many of the talks and seminars I present, I have people slithering up to ask me if they can give me some “Constructive Criticism.” I ask them how long they have been presenting seminars, how many people they have spoken top in the past 23 years, and how much money they have made, before they advise me on my presentation. Most of them are passive aggressive losers who wish to castigate me for calling people “fat” or using the word “loser”. Go figure. Someone once said, “Never take advice from someone who doesn’t already have what you want”. I would add, “And make sure they earned it themselves, under the same circumstances you currently face.”

4.  Consider the Source.

Consider the source of the advice.  A bank manager or a teacher can’t tell you how to get rich – they aren’t making money themselves! Never take advice from people who even are more screwed up than you are. And let me assure you, truly wealthy people will NEVER tell you how much money they have, and they seldom flaunt it. Read “The Millionaire Next Door”. Anyone can put doctored income statements and fake checks on the internet as “proof” of how much money they made. The Internet is a dangerous place; it’s where the worst people hide. You can be anything you like on the Internet.

5.  Consider the Setting.

Are you being offered incentives, meals, drinks, and holidays in order to get you to hand over money? Are you getting whipped up into an emotional frenzy and told that if you don’t invest quickly, you will lose? Is there pressure to buy NOW? Are you being wined and dined, patted on the back, and manipulated? Is religion being used? Wake up and smell the coffee.

6.  Beware of Statistics.

Be very aware and careful of the use of statistics. Have you heard the one about the river-crossing statistician who drowns after determining that the water is, on average, only three feet deep? This, says author Sam L. Savage, is just one example of the “Flaw of Averages.”

7.  Manipulation Tactics.

Be careful of social manipulation, “Group Think”, peer pressure, greed, the use of sex, and quick, but short-term financial relief.

Personally, I have seen enough conmen and scammers to last me a lifetime, and the worst of them appear on seminar stages, behind pulpits, and at Franchise Shows. They come in all guises, always smiling and hugging.

Remove Risk

I hate risk, so I use Joint Ventures to create wealth. I do business with little time, no risk, no cost, no overhead, no marketing or sales budget, no selling, no employees, no inventory, and no sleepless nights. I create multiple streams of residual income so that I don’t have all my eggs in one basket, nobody can control of manipulate me, and everything I earn is 100% pure profit. If that appeals to you, check this link.

Never Compromise

I fired a client who was paying me $5,000 per month. He was arrogant and dishonest, and I don’t work with people I don’t like and respect. He said to me, “You’re new in Canada. Here, $5,000 per month is a lot of money to turn down.” I told him that it might be true for him, but that I wasn’t subject to his mental limitations. Today, I can buy and sell him.

We have many options, and we never have to compromise our values for money; prostitutes do that.

• The best way to predict the future is to create it.
• You don’t have to succumb to the limitations of others along the way.
• You don’t have to drop your standards or lower your expectations – that’s for weak people who don’t believe in themselves; they’re always looking for ran excuse to quit.

Can’t Afford a Ten-Dollar Shovel?

Someone asks you how he can get rich. You tell him he is standing on gold valued at millions of dollars, but to get to the gold, he needs to do some digging, and you have a shovel available for $20. He immediately responds, “But I can’t afford the shovel.” There can be a few reasons for this:

1. He’s stupid.
2. He’s lazy.
3. He doesn’t believe you.
4. He doesn’t believe in himself.
5. He’s a socialist and he expects you to give him the shovel, to do all the digging, and then give him all the gold.

It’s never a question of whether or not he can afford the shovel.

You Can “Find” the Money

When I have people showing up at our seminars and then telling me they can’t afford $497 to attend a Bootcamp that will teach them how to retire in a year with more residual income per month than they need to live on, I don’t even answer them. I don’t allow them to insult my intelligence.

If the toilet in their house broke down and they needed $497 to fix it, they would find the money. I focus on intelligent people who are prepared to pay and work. That’s less than 3% of the population.

Invest in Yourself

Would you spend $5,000 once (the shovel) to earn $5,000 every month for the rest if your life (the gold)? People who refuse to invest in themselves have no problem paying for hockey tickets, cigarettes, beer, and parties.

The average person would rather work for a salary with no chance of ever getting rich, than to take responsibility and spend half the time to get wealthy. That’s OK – I’m not looking for average people.

• I’m not looking for spoiled brats, socialists, arrogant children who think they’re entitled to everything,
• or cynical old men who think they know everything;

I’m looking for dishwashers who insist on owning restaurants, and people who are prepared to do whatever it takes to get rich, without compromising their values. We’re called DollarMakers for a reason.

• If your family doesn’t call you a workaholic fanatic and your spouse doesn’t have to beg you to “stop working”, you’re probably not doing what you love.
• If you regard what you do as “work”, you’re a mercenary / prostitute.
• If you have to be persuaded, reminded, cajoled, and threatened to do what you do, you’re simply a paid, robotic slave.

But if you can’t stop thinking about what you do, and regard it as a hobby, a mission, a cause, and a pleasure, you’re probably damn good at it, and you’re probably making serious money. If not, learn how to monetize it and get rich.

Going Through the Motions

Without passion, there’s no perfection, production, or power – simply automatons going through the motions to survive. You see them in most businesses – the glazed eyes, the apathetic attitude, the lackadaisical approach, the thinly veiled, passive aggression, and the sloppy, slow, sluggish movements. The indentured employees who sneeringly deign to serve you, but would obviously rather be sucking on smelly cigarette outside.

Wanted: True Believers

“Workaholic” is a word with a negative connotation that demonstrates that the person using it doesn’t understand someone who is passionate about their work. We wouldn’t call someone a “Golfaholic” or a Swimaholic” or a Vacationaholic”, would we? The word, “Fanatic” applies to true believers. When you believe in what you do, and your work creates value for others and profit for yourself, you should be pleased to be called a fanatic. It’s not like you’re strapping on a bomb to blow up a few local kids…

Living a Happy, Fulfilled Life

People who have been smart enough to align their values and beliefs, their passion and their purpose, with their lifestyles and work, who live a life of integrity and congruity, and who do what they love, create massive value and live happy, fulfilled lives. It’s a choice.

If you mix with like minded people whom you love, like, and respect, and who add value to your life, and design your life according to your own agenda instead of someone else’s, and only do what you’re passionate about, guess what? You’re probably rich, or getting there fast. Your passion will excite and energize you.

Designing a Life or Making a Living?

It helps to look at life in a “black or white” manner. We can either affect the world around us and be change agents, or we can be the scum on the water that is blown this way and that by any prevailing wind.

• We can either create our circumstances or react to them.
• We are either designing a life or making a living.
• You’re either buying jewelry and fur coats for your own wife or your boss’s wife.
• You’re either in control or being controlled.

Like the Cadillac advertisement that goes,

“They say the nail that stands up gets hammered down. Be the hammer.”

Passion Equals Profit

Passion equals profit. Conformity and compromise equals chagrin. Passion will change your life from privation and penury to power and pleasure.

• Do only what you love.
• Love what you do.
• …And take charge of your choices.

Passion will allow you to rise like the phoenix from indigence and fear to abundance and affluence. True passion opens the doors, crushes your competition, boosts your beliefs, and rockets you to riches. Passion is the horse that will take you wherever you want to go in life.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself, in order to move from tactician to strategist, and from selling your time to using your head:

1. What else could your customers buy, before, after, and during their purchase from you, and who could you arrange that they buy that from, while you receive a piece of all the resulting, ongoing transactions? Back end = 100% pure profit.
2. If you gave them an incentive, how many businesses / people could you arrange to enthusiastically, systematically, and consistently refer business to you? Unlimited, qualified referrals from a trusted source with a high closing ratio is the result.
3. How much extra value would you like to add to your current transactions at no cost or risk to you? This can increase transaction values and closing ratios and drop your attrition rate through the floor.
4. How could you piggyback on the distribution, excess inventory, unconverted leads, marketing, sales, and other resources of twenty other businesses? Scrap that marketing budget.
5. How can you arrange to stop paying for promises and only pay for results, which will essentially allow you to have an unlimited marketing budget? Fire those coaches and consultants right now.

When business owners realize that they’re working too hard and too long for too little, and that they’re only realizing around 10% of their potential profit, they suddenly open their eyes and start thinking like real business owners instead of broke, self-employed, salespeople who BS themselves even more than they do everyone else.

You can move from the soup kitchen to the Four Seasons faster than you think. Stop paying for a Rolex and getting a Timex. But remember that the man who wears a Timex can’t teach you how to buy a Rolex.