Wealth Comes In Many Forms

My mentor, Bob Proctor, once said, “Don’t cry over anything that won’t cry over you.” People will often create tremendous suffering for themselves just because they’re in debt or have lost money. They’ll generate intense feelings of anger, sadness, and fear, all of which are destructive and actually make it more difficult for them to regain the wealth they lost. Because they’re upset, they may fight with their spouse over money or become severely depressed, not realizing that the power to create abundance for themselves once again is always available to them.

When you understand that money is simply one form of the tremendous force known as abundance or wealth, and that you can always receive riches from our ever-giving Universe, it becomes easier to let go of negative feelings about money and the destructive belief that material wealth is more important than other manifestations of abundance. Ask yourself how much money you would take in exchange for your eyesight and your abundant health. How much would I have to pay you for you to give up your relationship with the person you love the most? My guess is that your health, your eyesight, and the people you love are far too precious to trade for any amount of money.

If what you receive isn’t money, open yourself up to it with gratitude and joy. Allow your creativity to flourish and you can discover ways to convert the abundance into the form you could most use right now.

Wisdom and knowledge are types of abundance that we often overlook. An antiques dealer I know often purchased items from homeless people who brought him furniture and other objects they’d found in the garbage.

He was always gracious and kind to them, and one day one of his regular sellers, who was a homeless man, noticed that the dealer had recently acquired a gold record by a celebrity.

“You have that underpriced,” he said. “I used to work in the music business. I know.”

The antiques dealer listened to what the man had to say and decided to take his advice and quadruple the price. A few days later, the dealer’s dentist came in, got very excited about the gold record, and said, “Listen, I’d love to own that, but I don’t have that much in cash to spend. How about if I do that dental work I recommended to you, in exchange for the gold record?”

The antiques dealer was able to pay for expensive dental procedures he needed and couldn’t afford, because he valued the abundance that came to him from an unexpected source and converted it into something he could use.

Peggy McColl

Peggy McColl is an Author, Speaker and Consultant. Do you want to know the secret to attracting more abundance? Then get a copy of her latest book here: 21 Distinctions of Wealth

August 6, 2008 · Filed Under Financial Freedom

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Making The Best Of A Bad Situation

As long as I can remember, there have been two things, other than our children, that my husband has had a deep passion for; golf and flying. As a young 18 year old, I can remember our first date-a blind date I might add, in which, Steve was going to college full time, fueling airplanes after classes and working on his flight hours at night-this was his passion, his vision and his future and he had set out on a course to graduate from college, become a major airline pilot, and hopefully someday own his own company as well.

Within a matter of years, Steve became an airline pilot with United Airlines, I graduated with a Masters degree in Communication/Journalism and we lived the “American Dream.” Great house, beautiful children, money in the bank and the love and support of wonderful friends and family-until that day.

Arriving home from a three day trip on September 10, 2001, Steve walked into the random chaos of our home. With a two year old and three and a half year old, toys were always scattered everywhere, nothing was ever organized and sleep was a luxury, not a need. However, the sound of little feet running to greet him after each trip and a wife with a big smile on her face because she had a little bit of relief for the next 24 hours was what it was all about during that time. All in all, life was good, dinner was done, kids were bathed and Steve, who had been doing Boston-San Francisco trips all month, was home for 24 hours before flying to Chile for three days and then home for about a week-a week in which would include spending time with the kids and possibly a round of golf. Of course, his time on the course was not the same as it had been prior to kids-it was like sleep, a true luxury.

The next morning, our lives, as those of every American, were forever changed. In route to the store, Steve called, “come home, United has lost a plane in route to San Francisco.” The tone in his voice was one in which I will never forget. “This is your route and your airplane,” I remember screaming as we watched the horrific news that day. It had been speculated and later confirmed, that the terrorists had been in and out of the Boston airport, possibly on one of Steve’s flights the past week as a test run. As the phone rang with people calling to see if Steve was home, we cried and knew the worst was yet to come.

And boy did it come. It was apparent, that Steve could be laid off at anytime. By Christmas time, most of the lay-offs had happened on the pilot end of the company, and Steve was one of the lucky ones-but a 50% pay cut happened right before the holidays. But who were we to complain, Steve was alive and had a job.

We decided that if any opportunities came up for me to go back to work, we should seriously consider it. So in the winter of 2002, I began to contact my previous group of co-workers and business associates and Steve and I decided to join up with some of my fellow co-workers from the “pre-kid” days and start a series of community lifestyle magazines-Lifestyle Publications. The magazines focused on people making a difference in the community. By year 3, we were mailing out over a 100,000 magazines a month and were purchased by a large publishing group, due to an offer we could not refuse. Steve continued to fly and I was happy as a stay at home mom to three wonderful children, active in their school and loving life once again.

About the time when you begin to get really comfortable in your daily routine, inevitably life throws you a curve ball to see how you are going to handle it and once again, we had another one hit us.

18 months ago, Steve came home from an international flight with a stiff back, through some misdiagnosis and mistreatment, he suffered a ruptured disk within days, and within a matter of three months underwent 2 surgeries, 3 epidurals, countless pain pills and was told he could not play golf or fly an airplane for at least a year, possibly two. But then, as it has done throughout our lives, The LAW OF POSITIVE ATTRACTION kicked in again, just like it did after 9/11-Steve took this injury as an opportunity. An opportunity to begin to publish his dream magazine, one in which he had put on paper over 4 years prior-but with flying, the Lifestyle magazines and 3 kids-there was no time-until now.

Along this uncertain road, and at times tragic events that have occurred in our life, the determination to succeed, and the faith in God, our personal strengths, the unbelievable support of family and the positive people that we have met, we have risked it all once again and believe that the Law of Attraction has already delivered to us and will continue to deliver to us because we ask for the success every single day.

So here we are today-a year under our belt with Golf Fitness Magazine, a magazine that teaches you how to play your best golf by improving your body and mind. The magazine continues to grow and grow and grow- The people that we have met and the lessons we continue to learn, once again make this “extreme risk” an experience we would not ever give back.

We now live with the attitude that this will be the biggest and best Golf magazine in the country and that Golf Fitness Magazine can offer something for everyone.

In addition, Steve has been given the green light to go back flying and to play golf, and his vision since age 18, is now forever a reality.

Kristi Gomen

A year ago Kristi and her husband Steve founded Golf Fitness Magazine to fill a void in the market place. They understand the importance of making a positive impact in the lives of others. To support their great magazine please go to: www.golffitnessmagazine.com

August 6, 2008 · Filed Under Financial Freedom

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A Tale Of Two Start-Ups

The importance of selling during the start-up stage of business was exemplified some years ago by a profile of two entrepreneurs in Success Magazine.

One, a New York realtor, wanted to broker surplus office space through the Internet. He spent a year and most of $10,000 he had saved to build an impressive website. He told the magazine that he believed his site would be so good that it would make him “the next Jeff Bezos.”

His marketing plan was to lure customers to his website by offering free ads for a year and then renewing them at $59.95 annually. When the website was done, he was happy - until he activated it and discovered that nobody was rushing in to take advantage of his free offer.

He spent the little money he had left on a few desperate marketing schemes, but to no avail. He had exhausted all his resources building a professional-looking site with lots of bells and whistles, but he had never tested his basic sales assumption - that he could attract lots of free postings and then convert them into paid advertisers.

Meanwhile, another entrepreneur, a car repairman, had a very different business idea. He thought he could sell neon lights that attached to a car’s undercarriage. He called his venture Street Glow Inc.

When he started making this toy in 1990, he had only $1,000 to invest in it. He spent about $350 installing two crude prototypes onto his own car and the car of a friend. And then he spent all of his spare time and his remaining $650 selling.

He didn’t lease office space; he worked from his home. And he spent most of his time traveling to custom auto shops and automobile-themed events, trying to make sales. At first, people were curious but most were hesitant to buy. After talking to them, he made adjustments to his product, his pricing, and the way he presented it.

He worked fast. He took enough deposits to build the systems ordered, delivered them, and then reinvested the profits in selling more systems.

For months he earned nothing, because he was reinvesting his cash flow into sales. But at about the one-year mark, he was able to start pocketing profits. At that point, he began fixing up a shop, buying some new tools, and ordering inventory.

By devoting his attention to selling first and taking care of the other, secondary business concerns later, he ensured that his fledgling enterprise would not suffer the normal (and normally lethal) cash shortages most first-year businesses encounter.

By 2002 (the last year financial data was available for this privately held company), Street Glow Inc. had garnered $23 million in revenues and had shown a consistent profit, year after year.

Credits

Michael Masterson, author of “Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat”

August 6, 2008 · Filed Under Financial Freedom

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Financial Magazines and Web Resources

The prominent financial magazines have assembled impressive Web sites that can help readers in all aspects of personal financial planning.

Money magazine
Money magazine covers investing and spending to help readers achieve the lifestyles they want. There’s an emphasis on investing and stock and mutual fund picks, with articles like “10 places to put $1,000,” mutual fund ratings, etc., and enough information on retirement planning, debt management, buying/leasing cars, and other financial topics to make it appealing to those who are interested in subjects other than investing in the stock market.

Kiplinger
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine offers down-to-earth advice on managing your money and achieving financial security. It covers topics such as saving and investing, taxes, credit and debt, home ownership, college, retirement planning, and car buying. Like Money, it has an emphasis on investing in the stock market, but offers plenty of articles on other personal finance subjects, many of them short and to the point, and very easy to read.

SmartMoney.com
This magazine published by the Wall Street Journal has created an excellent Web site that focuses on stocks, mutual funds and bonds. This site also offers SmartMoney University, a comprehensive guide to investing and financial planning that the Editors highly recommend for beginners.

CNNmoney
From the editors of Money and CNN, this useful Web site provides information about numerous financial subjects such as investing, insurance and taxes. The site is very well organized, combining original content with helpful links to other Web sites relating to the applicable topic. While this site does not provide readers with the opportunity to search articles from past issues, readers who enjoy financial magazines will likely find this site helpful.

Worth.com
This Web site gives readers access to content from Worth magazine, including archives from past issues. The archives include past articles from Peter Lynch, Jim Rogers and Robert Cringely. Unfortunately, the site is poorly organized.

August 5, 2008 · Filed Under Financial Freedom

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