Neville's Financial Blog

One of my favorite books EVER is How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis.

Towards the end of the book in chapter 19 he attempts to summarize the entire book into eight very-condensed bullet points.

I have written them out verbatim in order to remember them better:

I was just interviewed by Andrew Warner of Mixergy for a video course on how to improve website or email copy….

…and one of my favorite things to say when he asked the question:

“What’s better: Short copy or long copy?”

I answered with the old adage:

Hahahaa!

You should be able to see the full course on AppSumo.com this Friday (5-6-2011).

I believe it will be 100% free for one day.

This will be really useful if you write, as it explains exactly how I made AppSumo a ton of money through emails.

This is one of those quotes I read in an interview that just stopped me cold and I had to write down:
http://www.layogamagazine.com/issue18/Departments/bikram.htm

This applies to business as well as relationships of all kind:

After doing MyBodyTutor for the Six Pack Experiment for several months….everyday…..I learned something:

The sheer power of consistency.

It’s blatantly obvious being consistent in something is powerful, but I never really HAVE been consistent at anything.  Look at my blogging habits for example.  Right now I’m blogging everyday, but there have been MONTHS in between posts at times.  Inconsistency.

Even through school I would have strong periods of doing well in all my classes…followed by a total fall-behind.  Inconsistency.

So when I did the Six Pack Experiment and used MyBodyTutor I had to answer everyday to Adam (whom I didn’t want to disappoint), and also to NevBlog readers (whom I also didn’t want to disappoint).  I also had a solid end goal in mind (getting a six pack) which I didn’t want to miss.  TRIPLE accountability definitely helped me stay on track.

Adam probably used the word “Consistency” more than any other during that experiment…and how true it was.

As Earl Nightingale put it:

Plan out what you want to do for the day.  Accomplish it, and that will be a successful day.

Have 5 or 7 successful days in a row, and you’ve had a successful week.

Do this 4 times and you’ve had a successful month.

…then year.

…then lifetime.

Imagine a bricklayer building a wall.  He starts with laying a single brick.  He may be able to lay 200 bricks in a day.  Everyday he continues laying the bricks, and after a while an immense building can be made.  However it all happened with single bricks, day after day, week after week of diligent work.

It’s such a simple concept I truly don’t think I’ve ever applied till this Six Pack Experiment!  Imagine…I’m 27 years old and never ONCE have been consistent for over 3 months in anything.  Definitely a late bloomer.

However lately I’ve been keeping the consistency up.  I learned that after about 120 days of MyBodyTutor the eating habits I developed stuck around.  I’ve done 30 day experiments before in consistency, but it seems it takes me 4X longer to learn than most people to learn.

The crazy thing is, when I’ve applied consistency to something and its done very well….I wasn’t even working that hard! Usually I would just do a moderate amount of work each day towards the goal, and if I do that little work EVERY DAY it usually ends in a BIG RESULT.

SO I can either be inconsistent and garner decent results with periods of laziness followed by working very hard.

-or-

Just be moderately productive EVERY DAY and garner BIG results.

I choose the 2nd.

One of my favorite things on this Earth is:

Sitting at the state capitol building.
…in the wee hours of the morning
…alone
…reading

I have easily spent hundreds of hours here.

It’s open 24 hours, heavily guarded, meticulously maintained, and extremely quiet at night.

There is something that is simply marvelous about sitting on one of the war memorials inscribed with the names of thousands of people who have died, sacrificed and fought for the unbelievably cushy and enjoyable life I get to lead.

I sit there and read.  Or plan. Or think.

It’s truly a humbling experience that reminds me we all stand on the shoulders of giants.

I sometimes wonder if others have such a remarkable place to call their own.

I write this for two reasons:

1.) I am starting that 6-pack experiment in April and have begun preparing for it by eating ultra-clean and ultra-lean. Pretty much all day I’m eating 100% raw foods only…that’s not the plan for the whole month, but it’s been my diet for the last week.  It’s not hard as I expected (because I’ve been eating well for a few months now), but keeping this up for a full month and resisting the urge to pig out at social events gets HARD.

However for the month of April I want to see a dramatic change in the way my stomach looks…and for that I need to be calorie deficient for weeks at a time.  I can easily keep my current physique with the way I’m eating now, but my diet must be extra-ordinarily good to see those extraordinary results.

2.) As you know I own a business called House Of Rave which is all online.  Over the last year I made a lot of small tweaks which cut down on the number of customer support inquires and time spent getting orders out.  At a bare minimum I need to spend less than 30 minutes every weekday administering the site…the rest runs on it’s own.  That alone can pay all my bills and still save money.

Pretty cool eh! 30 minutes of work per day!

Well…I also like the business to GROW….so to maintain AND grow the site takes about 2 hours per day (mainly spent adding product photo/video reviews).

I will admit…over these first few months of 2010 those small required amounts of time have spoiled me. I’ve stopped updating the site as much as I should.  The 1st quarter is never a FANTASTIC time for a business like mine (which sells party supplies) and is also enduring a bad economy, but I think I’ve been slipping quite a bit on my responsibilities to it.

Extraordinary effort doesn’t necessarily mean long hours (although that certainly helps)….because with this business a very consistent tweaking of small things every day can make a HUGE impact.  I’ve proved this many times, including one time I documented 30 small changes I made with very clear results (aka MO MONEY)!

I think what I’ll do in April is one day blog about a small HoR change, then the next day document the diet and steps I’ve taken to get a ripped-ass six pack.

Find merchant supplies and POS terminals at Moneris Solutions.

I made the original Seinfeld Calendar post 4 months ago.

It’s simply a giant year calendar that faces my bed so I see it all the time. If I accomplish my daily to-do list, I put a checkmark. If I don’t finish the to-do list, I put a dot:

The whole reasoning for this calendar is to make finishing my daily goals consistent. The quote I keep on top of the calendar sums it up:

Excellence is not an act, but a habit
–Plato

Here’s the number results of these four months (weekends included):

Good Day: When my written-the-night-before to-do lists get completely finished.
Bad Day: When to-do list not fully finished. Most of the bad days are weekends.

UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES:
The to-do lists I give myself are generally quite a bit of work. A standard to-do list generally will keep me occupied for a full 8-12 hours. Sometimes it takes less, sometimes it takes more. Most of this work involves me staring at a computer, so 8-12 hours of this per day gets a little straining.

I noticed when I tried getting a checkmark 7 days of the week, I burned myself out! The following days would be very unproductive and filled with low quality work because I was burning myself out. So after figuring out different ways of becoming more productive, I found out the best way is to allow myself about 2 bad days per week. This can be the weekdays or weekends…whatever I feel. This way the work is enjoyable and I still get large amounts of work done.

Here is a recent shot of the filled out calendar:

The first month I was getting REALLY pissed if I didn’t fill out a checkmark for the day, so I started working very hard the next day to fill it out. After a while I started making checking these off a habit. It’s helped me stop procrastinating as much, because in the middle of the day I think, “I can either continue to screw off and get a dot for the day, or just start doing this work, getting it out of the way and get a checkmark for the day.”

I also have less fun going out if I don’t finish all my work. When I finish off a great day of work, it feels good and well deserved to go out. So being more productive actually allows me to have more fun!

Anyhow, I’d highly recommend this Seinfeld Productivity Calendar method. It’s definitely helped me become more focused and productive through the day!

Whenever I come across a good quote from anything…a book, interview, podcast, magazine, TV show etc…I write it down either in a notepad, my Google Desktop bar or my iPhone.

Here is my quote bank:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
–Aristotle

Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of a neighbor, will feel pleasure in the reverse.
–Franklin

Man is made for bustle and movement. A ship in motion, a fine woman dancing.
–Abigale Adams

People have everything we want.
–Earl Nightingale

Eating with utensils is like making love with your clothes on.
–Placemat in Indian restaraunt in South Africa from Diana Nightingale book

When asked if one should marry or not, Socrates responded, “You will repent it either way.”

The great majority of people do not achieve unusual success; why would we expect that getting in the same line as them in any endeavor would result in any sort of remarkable success?
–Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery page 118

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.
–Anti

Good looks help and constitute an asset if the rest of the person is in balance.
–Earl Nightingale

The only thing about a man that is a man is his thinker. Everything else you can find in a pig or a horse.
-Archibald mcleish

Your stomach should be filled 1/3rd with food, 1/3rd with water and 1/3rd empty to be at your most productive.
–Muslim quote

If you can’t poke fun at yourself, you’re not much.
–George Steinburner

He who has health, has hope, and he who has hope, has everything.
–old Arabian proverb

The atitude must preceed the accomplishment.
–Nightingale

When a man doesn’t know which harbor he’s sailing to, no wind is the right wind.
–Senneca

You can’t have your Kate and Edith too.
-Statler Brothers

If it feels right, smells right and tastes right, it’s almost surely the right thing to do. It really is as simple as that.
–Captain Michael Abrashoff

Talking about men in their forties experiencing a mid-life crisis:
“Suddenly the past seems a humiliating reminder of risks untaken, women unconquered, and chances ignored.”
–Nancy Mayer

If someone says a particular person spoke critically of you, just smile and reply, “I guess they don’t know about all my other faults. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have mentioned only these”
–Epictetus

Books are the training weights of the mind.
–Epictetus

Man cannot remake himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor.
–Alexis Carrel

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet attested their wealth stems in part from being born in America where “innovation and risk are rewarded”

Aristotle said, “Happiness is a byproduct of healthful and successful activity.”

Everytime you do something, you throw a boomerang. Eventually the result will come back to you.

It’s true some of the best things in life a free, but it’s funny….have you ever tried getting them without money?

To get a great idea, come up with lots of them.
–Thomas Edison

Write as well as you can and finish what you start.
–Ernest Hemingway

When asked for the formula of success, Andrew Carnegie said, “Put all your eggs in one basket, then watch that basket.”

The purpose of ANY organization is to help man enjoy a more meaningful existence.
–Direct Line 18B towards end

I cannot become who I want to be by remaining who I am.

The bedrock values instilled by Sam Walton and his early lieutenants were all-american values: Hard Work, frugality, discipline, loyalty, a restless effort at constant self-improvement.
–The Wal-Mart Effect

Sam was no genius…he was a workaholic. He was not driven by money, but by competition. He could be playing tennis with a one-legged man in a wheelchair and would show no mercy.
–The Wal-Mart Effect

Any business needs to concentrate on two things: order volume and avg order value.

Like an hourglass, only one grain at a time can pass through. If we go one grain at a time, slowly buy surely we can get an enormous quantity done.

Willis H. Carrier:
I have bee using this same anti-worry technique for 30 years:
Step 1.) Analyze the situation fearlessly and honestly and figure out what’s the worst that could possibly happen.
—-
Step 2.) after figuring out the worst outcome, I reconciled myself into accepting it if necessary.
—–
Step 3.) from that time on I devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally.

Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw the stars.

Greek proverb: The best things are the most difficult.

To make things more pleasant for others is a reason for being.

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men often go astray.
–Robert Burns

Wise men ne’er sit and wait their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.
–Shakespear

A man is what he thinks about all day long.
–Emerson

Our life is what our thoughts make of it.
–Marcus Aurelius

I had the blue because I had no shoes,
Until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.

Find a problem, then ask the opposite.

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.
–Dr. Seuss

It’s nice to be part of something that will last a little longer than you will.

Doctors give up a year of life to specialize, but they reap the rewards for decades to come.
–The Dip – Seth Godin

Scarcity creates value.

Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.
–Benjamin jowett

We could be playing cards right now and I’d want to kick your ass. Not win, but kick your ass. There’s a difference.
–Tiger Woods

When asked, “What is your idea of happiness?”…Alfred Hitchcock replied, “A clear horizon.”

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.
–Zig Ziglar

Don’t write about what your readers want you to write about. Write about what you’re passionate about.
–Mark Cuban/Tim Ferris

If you don’t know what to write about, write about what makes you angry, but don’t attack people.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit.
–Plato

Talent is the desire to practice. You love something so much, you’re willing to make a large sacrifice for it.
–Malcom Gladwell

It doesn’t take any more time or effort to dream a big dream than a small dream.

I’m a great believer in saying yes and not no.”
–Richard Branson

It HAS to be something you like, or you WILL bail.
–Joe Liemandt

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.
–Andrew Carnegie

You don’t go in the studio and think, “Ok, what would people want to hear me sing about.” I go in there and think, “Ok, what just happened this weekend? You just gotta keep it real with yourself”
-T-pain interview (Yes, I just included a quote by T-pain…you can learn something from everyone)!

If you could put a silver bullet in one competitor, which one would it be? You’ll quickly find out who the best is
–Warren Buffet

If you risk something that is important to you, for something that is not important to you, it’s just foolish.
–Warren Buffet

Build a moat around your business. When I invest in a company, the only guidance I give the managers is to continue building that moat. Make it bigger, make it deeper, throw crocodiles in it.
–Warren Buffet

The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.
–Paraclese

If you stay ready, you never have to GET ready
–Will Smith

Take what you love to do and apply it to something profitable.

Almost everything you do should be building upon somthing which you can look back at in its entirety and be proud, or sell.

If your competitor is so dull they can’t come up with something original about their own products or services and have to steal things you create, they won’t be competition for long.

Define success:
A=X+Y+Z
A= Success
X = Work
Y = Play
Z = Keep your mouth shut
–Albert Einstein

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call “deliberate practice.” It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.
–Malcolm Gladwell

Rules prevent disaster, but they ensure medicrity
–Barry Schwartz

There is only one goodness, it is knowledge. There is only one evil, it is negligence.
–Socrates

It may be that taking the focus off your own happiness is what makes happiness possible.
–From a satire article in Cracked

We tend to play things ridiculously safe…it seems as if some people think they’re going to live forever.
–Earl Nightingale

When asked where all his success comes from, Ted Turned simply replied, “Thinking. I read and I thought.”

Stanger, if we pass each other and you desire to speak to me, why should you not? And why should I not speak to you?
–Walt Whitman

If you’re just a distributor, where will you be in 5 years when the major suppliers begin vertically integrating?
–Ted Turner

In chess, a 1 or 2 ahead player always gets beat by someone who looks 7 or 8 moves ahead. I always wanted to think a few moves ahead of the competition.
–Ted Turner

When asked about the secret to longevity in show business, George Carlin replied, “Productivity.”

Lasting a long time is a function of pleasing a wide range of people.

To make more money: Motivate yourself by trying to solve peoples problems, not looking to sell them something.

If you give a child too many gifts, he will take them for granted. However we have been given a gift beyond measure (power of the mind), and we do much the same.
–Earl Nightingale

Beauty without intelligence is like a masterpiece painted on a napkin.

The man who has least fear for his carcass, has much time to consider others.

Conform to their style and they’ll remember you a day. Create your own style and they’ll remember you forever.

Humans must always have a carrot on a stick
–Maslow

Everybody is creative, and everybody is talented. I just don’t think everybody is discipined.
–Al Hirschfeld

Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses.
–Isabel Allende

It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.” –W. Somerset Maugham

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
–Mark Twain

Creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget.”
–Jaime Lerner

At the age of 24 I began setting clear, written goals for each area of my life. I accomplished more in the following year than I had in the previous 24.
–Brian Tracy

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
–Vidal Sassoon

If you sleep you can have sweet dreams…if you work hard you make dreams come true.
–Professor Kwag

Train yourself to let go of the things you fear to lose.
–George Lucas

In the words of William Arthur Ward, “Study while others are sleeping, work while others are loafing, prepare while others are playing, and dream while others are wishing.”

——update: 10-05-2009———

When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.
–Warren Buffet 2008 shareholder letter

People don’t like gadgets, they like experiences. iPhone ads never highlight the technology or show the charger.
–Steve Oskoui

Stop thinking about how to get from people, and start thinking how to create value for them. Massive amounts for them.
–Eben Pagan

If you will take your best ideas, give them away, then people will presume what you’re selling is worth more.
–Eben Pagan

Strong men are honest about their desires.

Our capitalistic society ensures there will be competition.

I have told so many of my students that when you’re 1% unhappy it’s time to get out. Now it’s time to follow my own advice.
–Perry Belcher

Loving the twitter spam messages promoting worthless MLM and easy money systems. Whatever happened to hard work and a killer product?
–Mitchell Harper

Everybody says my website is a little like McDonald’s…it may not be healthy for you, but everyone likes it.
–Perez Hilton

The way we manage her brand is plan it out like a lawyer would create a case plan, then follow that plan.
–Paris Hilton Inc. Movie

Living with a woman is like working backstage.
–Ray Croc biography

If you want to conduct an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd.

I work with many CEO’s and celebrities and one common trait among these patients is they all imagined themselves attaining success before realizing their goals.
–Excerpt from a self-hypnosis book

Success leaves clues. Study people you admire or want to be like.
–Tony Robbins

If merely looking up past financial data would tell you what the future holds, the Forbes 400 would consist of librarians.
–Warren Buffet 2008 shareholders letter