Get certified and make more money
Part of building wealth is maximizing your income in the first place. Many times the difference between making good money and making great money comes down to some additional skill sets and a sheet of paper that proves you have them. No where is that more true then in the IT and Technology industries. Yet a lot of IT professionals work long hours so how do you take time for more training and make sure you get proper credentials to go along with it? One solution may be to take technology or Microsoft Training from QuickCert.
Right now the technology sector is hot and I mean red hot. Trust me I know in my businesses I have to hire people to fill various positions and the IT/Tech people are the hardest to find and attract. Many IT people don’t even take real “jobs” any more preferring the higher rates from contract positions and the flexibility and travel that come with them. I know a few that work 3 month projects, take a month or so off and then basically have their pick of the next assignment. Opportunities like this will only grow in the future.
So if you’re an IT pro that wants to build wealth by maximizing your income consider adding to your skills and certifications by visiting QuickCert.
Save money and become better shot
If you have read much of this blog then you know I am a big supporter of both saving money and the second amendment. In fact I take it a step further as I actually consider it a “duty” for law abiding and sane adults in the United States to be trained on how to use and to own a firearm. In fact I rank it right up there with your duty to vote and exercise free speech.
The other thing I am of course huge on is saving money. Now let’s face it ammunition can be expensive to buy especially for some calibers and makes of gun. In order to be proficient you of course have to practice a lot. The other issue with practice is time, if you live out in the country and can set up a range in your back yard, great, for the rest of us though every practice session is a trip to the gun range. Again this is costly in both time and money.
For me a big part of the solution is high quality replica air guns. I have used such guns to keep in practice and as a great first step in training new people. Air Gun Depot is an excellent source for high quality air guns and you may want to visit their site and see what they have available. The beauty is today’s replica guns are great training aids for a variety of reason’s
- They by and large are the same size, weight and dimensions as actual firearms
- To a high degree they function very similar to the guns they represent
- You can fire them indoors with appropriate safety measures or in many back yards again with proper safety measures so you can practice more often
- They help you teach safety and at the same time are safer then a real fire arm in the hands of a new shooter
- They are very inexpensive to shoot so you can practice a great deal on trigger control etc.
- They don’t develop trigger jerking or flinching in new shooters
In short I think air guns (both airsoft and conventional) are great training aids worthy of use by all firearms enthusiasts. They let you have a lot of fun for very little cost and will make you a consistently better shooter at the same time.
Filed under Business & Marketing | Comment (0)My Heros in Business and Investing
If you really want to be successful financially you have to follow the intuitive wisdom of the 12 year old that plays Pop Warner Football. That 12 year old sees himself as Bret Farve or Randy Moss or whoever his favorite player is when he takes the field. In his head he hears the crowd and when he makes the catch, tackle or completes a pass for a second he is that superstar.
When you want to build wealth and success you need to do the same thing. You need your own heroes to follow and model yourself after. Here are some of mine and why I follow their lead.
Donald Trump - I admire Donald Trump for a large number of reasons. His success as an entrepreneur and real estate investor of course speaks for itself. On the personal side, Trump often comes across as a real jerk but that is just who he is. Believe it or not I admire that as well, despite being in the public eye he does not try to make the public happy. He is who he is and if you don’t like it, tough! I respect that a great deal.
Trump is also completely honest with people (this is a big part of why he is considered a jerk) about the way he sees things. I never have felt that Trump is someone with a hidden political agenda, he is a patriot, a success and a tough business person with a world class team around him. Trump has also put great deal of effort into establishing educational programs for real estate investing and other financial education programs.
Richard Branson - Branson is a real entrepreneur and has a life envied by many but experienced by very few. Despite being amoung the richest people in the world though he is remarkably down to earth and even reasonably accessible. When you hear him interviewed you think he could just be a bit of an eccentric British guy that lived next door to you.
He owns Necker Island where he maintains his primary residence which was recently featured as the number one celebrity home ahead of Hugh Hefner and Bill Gates! Yet if you met him in a bar tomorrow he would sit down and have a beer or three with you. He has failed more times then he has succeeded in building companies yet he keeps doing it because he loves being a true entrepreneur.
Warren Buffett - Warren began working in his fathers broakrage firm at the age of 11 and never looked back. Known as “America’s most successful investor” I can’t help but admire him. Buffett employed a three pronged approach
- Generals: undervalued securities that possess margin of safety and meet expected return-to-risk characteristics
- Arbitrages: company events that are not related to broader market changes, such as mergers and acquisitions, liquidation, etc.
- Controls: build sizable holdings, ally with other shareholders or employ proxies to effect changes in companies
This approach has made him one of the richest men in the world but was actually a very “safe approach” to investing.
Jimmy Buffett - No not Warren’s brother and that is no typo either. I am talking about party hardy, parrot head, Margaritaville singing Jimmy Buffett from Mobile Alabama. Jimmy speaks to my fun side, the part of me that takes 15 days off, lays on a beach and just lets everyone else deal with my businesses two times a year. He is my “someday” archetype. The old man I want to be when all my battles have been fought and I fish on the beach and drink rum from a coconut.
There is more to Jimmy though, Mr Jim is rich my friends, very, very rich! He has worked branding magic around the “Margaritaville” theme and now owns bars, merchandising and a premium Tequila label. At the same time he has only done what he loved doing. When he first went to Nashville he was rejected by 18 consecutive record label executives, so he kept playing bars and clubs and being who he was.
The rest is history and now despite not having a top ten record in two decades he still sells out just about every show he does and his fans still want more. There are Buffett fans (Parrot Heads) from 8 - 80 and their numbers continue to grow. Why, Jimmy created an image, a brand and did so by being himself. To me that makes him a very successful business person.
Henry Ford - Henry could never have gotten into college even with a bribe, he did not have the grades, the desire or the “book smarts” for it. Yet he is more associated with the automobile then any of the people that actually invented it. Henry took automation to the extreme and made the assembly line a reality and brought the car to the average American. That one achievement may have had more influence on the wealth and growth of the United States then any other person from his era.
Not content to just make cars though, Henry was a master of efficiency. When suppliers bid on supplying him with engines he required the crates they came in to be made to specific specifications. Wanting his business his suppliers agreed, the crates were then disassembled by his workers and formed the floor boards of the Model T. Despite that he had massive amounts of scrap wood from all the shipping crates so he teamed up with E. G. Kingsford, who was a local real-estate agent, to buy land for a massive wood production and charcoal processing plant. With all the waste in government and business today we could use some guys like Ford around.
So those are my heroes in business! I have others but those are my big ones when it comes to money, building businesses and investing. I suggest you assemble your own heroes list. Be inspired by them, know their stories and utilize that creative visualization children do so well in back yards and school stadiums to reach further then you can on your own.
Filed under Wealth & Investing | Comment (0)