Daily Intent

 

“Reality can destroy the dream, why shouldn’t the dream destroy reality” - George Moore

Last week I had the fortune of speaking to a classroom full of Cal Poly students from the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity.  The men all showed up in suits and ties, and the ladies in classy business attire.  From the outset I was impressed.  Over the course of the hour I shared with them the key points in my life thus far that led to my career in the home lending business and recent sabbatical to South America to carry out microfinance work for KIVA.org.  Listed below are 49 motivators I came up with when brainstorming the talk.

I didn’t touch upon nearly all of these ideas with them, but felt it might be of value to you all to peruse at your leisure.  I’d appreciate your feedback, support, stories, and even contrarian points of view to my list below.  Being that this list is long, I would suggest you bookmark this page and come back to it over and over, chewing on a couple at a time.  Our future looks bright from my perspective…thanks to the Delta Sigma Pi members.

1. Regularly Talk to People Much Older Than You — Preferably Senior Citizens. 
   1. Learn from their perspectives.  Get a sense of how the stages of their life played out.  When did they have energy and interest to do certain things? Travel, Kids, Play, Learn, Work, etc…How did their priorities change over time?
   2. Then compare these realities and perspectives to how you want to live your life.    What do you want to look back upon when you are their age and be proud of?
   3. Then when you grow older, be sure to talk to people much younger than you.  Stay up-to-date on the latest opportunities.  This way you stay young at heart, connected, and excited about waking up in the morning.
2. Don’t get ahead of the era you are in.
   1. If you are in your 20’s and it is the best time for you to do X, Y, or Z, do it.  There are certain things that you can only do when you are 25 that you can’t do when you are 60 without a lot of effort and strain. If it means waiting a little longer to buy a house, get a dog, have kids, this is okay.
3. Choose jobs / careers / projects as if you are going to live until you are 150 years old. 
   1. Too many people get out of college or wake up in their late 20’s and freak out.  They are fearful they aren’t getting ahead fast enough.  They aren’t making enough money, yet?  They suffer through jobs that don’t inspire them, that don’t teach them, that don’t offer them freedom.  All they do is pay them.  They bear it because they want to retire early with good benefits.
   2. Work on projects that inspire you.  Work around people that inspire you.  Work on problems that propel you deeper into understanding.
4. Be Curious
   1. Ask Questions.
   2. Are you still asking “why?” as frequently as you did when you were 5?  Why not?  Did you figure it all out?  If so, please share!
   3. This scientist is awfully curious.  He is curious to know, to discover, to learn.  He is okay with uncertainty.  Whether you agree with his spiritual point of view or not, I believe you can appreciate his curiosity.  Enjoy.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRmbwczTC6E
   4. If you aren’t watching Ted.com, start doing so regularly.  http://www.Ted.com.
5. You will never have 100% certainty when making decisions in life.  Get over it.
   1. I dreaded English until my senior year of colleges because I never felt like I knew the right answer or way of writing a perfect paper.  There wasn’t one!  Now I happily write appreciating the challenge of effectively communicating my ideas to you and my clients.
   2. School teaches you that there is only one answer often times.  Business and most all aspects of life teach you there are many different avenues that can lead to the same results.
   3. So do your homework, research, ask others with experience and perspective you trust, but at the end, it is up to you to trust yourself, your experience, your judgment, and make the leap of faith.
6. Always be on a steep learning curve. 
   1. What ever you are doing, make sure you are being challenged, you are growing, you are developing your skills and your perspective.
   2. When life becomes stagnate, either dig deeper to see if you are being too shallow in the experience, or get out.
   3. Always be learning.
7. Take care of yourself. 
   1. Don’t be a martyr.
   2. Schedule a meeting with yourself each day.  Either for brain development time.  Or physical development time. Or for resting the mind and body.
   3. If you are not personally happy and well, you can forget about taking care of others on a long-term basis.
8. Write handwritten thank you notes. 
   1. Start with getting your friends and families addresses.
   2. There’s a joy in receiving mail that isn’t spam or bills.  It’s an easy way to make someone’s day.  And it’s an easy way to remind yourself of that which you are grateful.
9. Compounding YOU
   1. Have you heard of the rule of 72?  It is a mathematical fact about compounding interest.  It is used for people to quickly determine how fast their money is going to grow.  The way it works is you take an interest rate of return.  Let’s say your return is expected to be 8%.  Now let’s say you have $1000 and you want to know how many years it will take the $1000 to turn into $2000.  How long will it take to double?  To figure this out, all you do is divide 72 by your interest rate of return 8%, drop the actual percent sign, and you get…9.  So 9 years from today your money will double.  Assuming the same rate continues at 8%, you can then predict your money will double again within the next 9 years, leaving you with $4000 18 years later.
   2. Now let’s use the same rule for your understanding and knowledge of life.  Let’s now assume your goal is to gain 6% more knowledge each year going forward.  Perhaps you decide to learn 6% more vocabulary words.  Within 72 divided by 6 years you will be twice as knowledgeable.  12 years from now you will be far wiser and more intuned.  How does that sound?
   3. You can use this rule of 72 for anything.  What do you want to be better at?  Then determine how soon you want to be twice as good.  Let’s say I want to be twice as good at playing the guitar in two years time.  How much do I have to improve this year?  Exactly, 36% growth this year.  Which wouldn’t be that hard since I have yet to complete a full song.
10. Get your sleep.
    1. If you aren’t able to get done what you need to get done in the day and still get 7.5 hours of sleep, you might need to work smarter.  Too many people I see lead with their emotions throughout the day because they didn’t get enough sleep.  They are inconsistent.  They are grouchy.  Then happy.  Then sad.  Then apathetic.  Make life easier on yourself and get your sleep.
    2. Indeed there are certain deadlines that one needs to meet from time to time leading to less sleep, but this should be the exception.
11. Staying out of the bad deals is far often more important than getting into a good deal. 
    1. Bad deals can send you into bankruptcy set you back quite far.
    2. This doesn’t mean you should be overly conservative; it does mean to do your homework and make decisions with which YOU are confident.
    3. A 50% hit to your portfolio is huge.  You need to gain a lot more than 50% to gain that loss back.
12. You can only dream as big as your experience allows. 
    1. I consistently see people having dreams restricted by their limited experience.
    2. If you have never been to Chicago, had a friend from Chicago, or watched some form of media on it, you would never conceive that it could be a place where you could live and grow in a business career you love.  This goes for any other city or company.
    3. As your experiences grow, so will your dreams.
13. Travel outside the United States. 
    1. There are perspectives in Europe that are unique to yours that will better enable you to make decisions, see opportunities, and grow.
    2. Travel outside your city, state, region, country.
    3. China is fascinating.  South America is full of different cultures and people and growth.  Singapore is tremendously interesting as well.
14. Which problems are you solving?
    1. When starting a company or talking to an interviewer, your main goal is to first identify the problem of which you’d like to solve.
    2. Engineers are great at this.  They are always working to solve problems.  The rest of us seem to forget this detail.
15. Be ethical.
    1. Don’t cut corners, even if all others are doing the same.  Arrive one day later to your goal if you have to.
    2. Nice guys can finish first. – Barrie Bergman
16. Find Great Mentors
    1. Find people that can keep you accountable and push you to new heights.
    2. You might need to hire a trainer or coach.
    3. Make sure they have an even better ability than you to see the big picture, dream big, and see your talents.
17. “You are already unique.  Be entrepreneurial.” – Catalyst for Thought
18. Surround Yourself by Great People. 
    1. People that are positive.  People that are better than you at whatever you want to do.
19. Don’t blame the economy for you not having a job.
    1. Blame it on your creativity, willingness to move, and willingness to create your own job.  Take advantage of the fact that you get to choose.  If it’s not available, create it.
20. Think like a foreigner in your own hometown.
    1. Be hungry to meet people, experience new things, ask questions, and live without a sense of entitlement.
21. Consistency is most often the key to personal and career growth. 
    1. Can the people most important to you rely on you?
22. Join a non-profit on the side of your day job only if…
    1. I’m all for it as long as you choose wisely.  Position yourself to succeed.  Board members will tell you to join their particular non-profit because they want young talent.  It is tempting because the people typically on the boards have pretty awesome stories of business experience.
    2. Do it only if your interests and talents align with the non-profit’s needs.  If they don’t, you will slowly fade in excitement for the tasks needed to be carried out, and you will quickly fade in the views of those you were initially trying to impress.
23. If the program or job is not how you like it, add to it, or create.
    1. The non-profits I’ve heavily involved myself in over the years have recruited me for an entirely different job title than I ultimately ended up creating.  Do what you love, what you are best at.  There is no sense wasting time in a space you are terrible at.
    2. Create a new position for yourself that adds tremendous value to the organization.
24. Learn how to write clearly and effectively.
    1. It is noticeable when are unable to do so.
    2. Practice.  Fail.  Have others with solid grammar skills butcher your work.
25. Don’t fall in love with the deal, assume the deals closed before it’s closed, or spend the paycheck before the money is in your bank account.
26. Don’t spend money until you have it.
27. Credit is meant to better your future not take from it.
    1. Before taking on debt make sure the debt is going toward an investment that has a good chance of a positive return.  Debt is taking money from your future to fund an endeavor today.  If funding the endeavor today does not make your future better, then you are going to be worse off in the future because of taking the debt today.
28. Is an item a need, want or investment?
29. Invest in yourself, especially while you are in your 20’s.
    1. Make sure you are sound of mind and body before you enter into an engagement with another.  Pay for coaching, counselors, motivators, mentors…whatever it takes to ensure you come to the end of your twenties knowing yourself, how you work, and the best environments to place yourself in to ensure success.
    2. Go to classes.  Watch free online learning courses.
30. Understand what success means to YOU.  And what it doesn’t mean.
    1. Perhaps you are Italian and a successful life is living great days through great relationships.  Success is not calculated in business terms.
    2. Whatever it means, live by it and do it.
31. Care about what you are doing.
32. Be the first to laugh at yourself.
    1. If you are taking risks, being in front of people, there will be plenty of times when you goof up publicly.  Sincerely apologize or laugh at yourself, depending on the need.
33. Experiment in ways that don’t jeopardize your life, but may jeopardize your comfortability for moments of time. 
    1. Stretch your imagination and ability.
34. Who is your market?
    1. What do they need?  Can you provide what they need at a price they are willing to pay?  If not, figure out a way to do so or move on to the next idea.
35. If you don’t make money, you don’t stay in business.
36. Get to know the world.
    1. They are your brothers and sisters.  Country lines change, the citizens of the world do not.  We are in this together.
    2. This can be done without even leaving the country.  There are plenty of internationals, at least on the coasts of the USA.
37. Find a way to be YOU whilst being someone people trust.
38. Acquire perspectives any way you can.
39. Your gut is a sum of your experiences and perspectives.  Trust it. 
40. It’s all about context.
    1. In one setting, a super-model will give you the cold shoulder.  In another, she will talk to you through the evening.  The only difference, you were introduced in the right context, by a trusted friend.
41. Just because they know more than you doesn’t mean they are an expert.
    1. You may still have to do more research.
42. If you aren’t an expert, figure out a way to be one.
    1. I started this blog to keep myself accountable to the up-to-date market news.  Over time I became a trusted resource for my readers.
43. Care about psychology.
    1. The mind is one of your and all others main drivers.  Try to understand it.
44. Team up with people you look up to.
    1. Hopefully they look up to you as well.  You will be complements that create unimaginably awesome products and services.
45. Community service.
    1. One that leaves you better as well as the recipient is the best community service one can do.  Team in Training bettered both the runner/walker and the community battling cancer.
46. Listen.
47. Have confidence in your ability to contribute to society. 
    1. We all have something to contribute.
48. Coffee/Tea Walks are a fun, interactive ways to carry out a business meeting.
    1.  You see the town, you promote health, you send extra blood flow to your brain.
49.  “Reality can destroy the dream, why shouldn’t the dream destroy reality?” - George Moore

TELL ME.  IT’S EASY: 
I want to hear about your motivators.  Take a moment and contribute to this growing community.  Write one or two sentences below.

BUZZWORD: Moral Suasion
“A persuasion tactic used by an authority (i.e. Federal Reserve Board) to influence and pressure, but not force, banks into adhering to policy. Tactics used are closed-door meetings with bank directors, increased severity of inspections, appeals to community spirit, or vague threats. A good example of moral suasion is when the Fed Chairman speaks on the markets – his opinion on the overall economy can send financial markets falling or flying.

 

POINTS TO PONDER: 
Visit The Jeff Bochsler Daily.  It is a compilation of my Twitter feeds (CompoundingYou) in newspaper form.  I only follow global, newsworthy sources that further my understanding of economic development.

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Live and Be Well,

Jeff Bochsler
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