Financial Intelligence – There is no secret to becoming wealthy and there is no magic to it either. However, there is a trillion-dollar industry focused on convincing us otherwise.  The financial industry wants your money to invest so that they can charge fees for below average results.  Below describes the impact of fees on a simple investment:

Imagine that you are 21 years old and decide to begin investing for your future (Congratulations!).  You invest $10,000.  Your friend makes the same decision and invests $10,000.  You and your friend enjoy a 6% return on this $10K investment for the next 25 years (all or any dividends reinvested).  Your friend ends up with $16,000 but you end up with $33,000.  What is the difference?  The difference is that your friend paid 2% in fees each year and you paid no fees.  Investing with just a 2% yearly fee wipes out 40% of your investment value over 25 years.  I had no idea about fees...

Healthy Choices –  You won’t do well if you don’t feel well.  Our youth is a veil masking the long-term consequences of poor choices.  Jim Rohn always said, “Everything affects everything else and not to think so is naive.” This is especially true when it comes to our health.  There are three pillars to health:  physical, mental, and nutritional.

Physical exercise done properly will lead to endurance and stamina.  Endurance and stamina help us to stay strong when the going gets tough and the desire to quit is nearly overwhelming.  The great news is that it doesn’t require hours in the gym to increase your physical resilience.  It only requires 30 to 45 minutes of your time three or four days per week.  Surely you can spare 2 hours per week to increase your overall satisfaction with life.  Science has proven that exercise improves our brain function, increasing our cognitive skills and enhances...

This talk will be a little different than the talk about the birds and the bees. This talk is for young adults entering the world on their own. It might also be a good reset for adults struggling to find their place in the world. I have often reflected on my life in an effort to better understand how I arrived at my current station.   Reflection is a powerful exercise for a better future because when we understand what got us here, we will know what might get us there. Wherever “there” is for you. As for my story after college, I was a bit train wreck. After four years at Purdue University, I moved back to my hometown of North Vernon, Indiana. My first job was my dream job because I was working at Cummins Engine Company. As a kid growing up in Southern Indiana, we didn’t have much money, but I realized that the kids that had money also had parents working at Cummins. That became my goal!   Fresh out of college I was ready to change the world and...

Have you ever had anyone tell you you’re crazy?  If so, congratulations!  If not, why not?  When my friends tell me I am crazy, I know I am pushing beyond the standard norm.  I know that my dream is big and makes them uncomfortable.  Living boldly is not conforming.  Living boldly often results in folks telling you that you are crazy.

We begin life with zero constraints on our potential.  In time, we conform.  Our parents tell us something that sticks with us for the rest of our lives.  This is how the box we keep ourselves in begins to form.  Society tells us that everyone in our race is a certain way, so almost unconsciously, we begin to conform.  We grow up in a certain region that has a particular stigma, so we adopt it unknowingly.  The box continues to shrink in on us and further defines our behavior.  Someone told you that you were lazy once, so you became lazy.  Someone tells you that you will never...

Maya Angelou said “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It occurred to me that this statement applies to more than just conversations or interactions with others. It can be applied to nearly all aspects of life and work. If you want to leave the person you are interacting with feeling good about themselves, or a customer feeling good about your company, just focus on a happy ending.

First let’s go over the fundamentals of attentively interacting with another person or company:

1. Be present when they are present. What comes to mind when a person you are talking to looks at their phone or watch?  They aren’t paying attention, or maybe there is something more important for them to tend to. Wherever you are, being there is fundamental to building meaningful relationships and maintaining sanity in this ultra-connected world. Think of your...

Our society’s lust for comfort and entertainment is insidiously reducing its ability to observe reality.  The further society moves away from observing reality, the faster it will collapse.  History has demonstrated that societies rise and fall as do businesses.  The battleground in a democratic society supported by capitalism appears to be between government and business.  What are they battling for is the question?  Our attention is the answer!  They apply different strategies for capturing our attention.  For example, the media (media is a business posing as a third-party informant) knows that negativity and sensationalism appeal to our primal nature.  Humans are hard-wired for fight or flight at every turn.  The media (and politicians) exploit this natural tendency at every turn.  Businesses exploit this tendency by limiting quantities through supply management.  Nothing sells better than scarcity.

This article...

Opportunities and activities abound.  Everyone is ready to occupy our time with this or that.  In my studies of success and high performers, a common thread has emerged.  Learning to say “no” is a significant contribution to their long-term success.  Saying no is difficult.  We naturally desire to please others or take advantage of what appears to be an amazing opportunity that could further our career or grow our business.  Opportunities come at us left and right, so how do we choose?  Why should we say “yes” to this opportunity, and “no” to that activity?  Is there a strategy that can help us say no with confidence that we are making the right decision?  I have developed a strategy that has become helpful to me and I hope it is helpful to you.

Step #1 –

Have a list of goals and priorities accompanied with a list of non-negotiable core values.  When we have a clear vision of...

Recently, I quit a professional group that I had been a part of for several years.  In this professional group, I had built intimate relationships with fellow members.  The perceived social pressure to continue with this group can be significant.  I dreaded the decision.  What would my group mates think about me quitting?  I was concerned about how the conversation would go.  I avoided the decision for several months even though I knew it was the right thing to do given my availability.  Finally, I quit.  It turns out nobody gave it a second thought except for me.  Their lack of shock doesn’t mean they don’t care that I won’t be with them but I had built it up in my head as though it would. It is truly a microcosm of life itself.  We think everyone is watching us.  We think that our decisions to serve our own lives will get extra scrutiny.  The truth is, nobody cares but us.  No one has invested in...

My father battled depression for many years. This drug, that drug, this therapy, and that therapy. He struggled as his enthusiasm toward life became non-existent. He was excited about nothing. The medication seemed to flat-line his emotions. We would be planning a fishing trip and he would be apathetic. Fishing is a passion for him, but not while medicated. Eventually, he was off the medication but still having ups and downs. Then something remarkable happened. His hobby of making pen holders out of mesquite wood blossomed into a service. He began to give pen holders that he had made to service men and women. First, it was one here and one there. Over time, it has grown to hundreds each month. He goes to the VA each week to express his gratitude to our veterans and present them with a pen holder. He began to serve others. His transition from depression to gratitude has resulted in relief from the depression that haunted him for years. His regular expression of gratitude toward...

There are only two types of people in this world.  The first type of people believes in a better future, positive outcome, the potential, finding a way, and hope.  The second type of people are full of doubt, negativity, frustration, blame, anger, and general gloom.  That is it, two types.  Which are you?  In my experience, most pessimists are absolutely clueless about their gloomy outlook.  They fancy themselves as realists.  After all, you can’t just go around fooling yourself into thinking everything is sunshine and rainbows.  These are the folks that make a snarky comment about everything and justify it as just joking when challenged, or maybe they say “Hey, keeping it real.”  They look at the beautiful sunset but can only see the power lines partially obstructing the view.  They can’t help themselves.  If there is an opportunity to cut someone or a situation down, they go for it.  They use their...