#my salary being worth literally half of what it was worth last year in terms of letting me survive in the world is far more distressing

[boeing747]

btw i think its so cool when my life is worse due to worker strikes because when my life is worse constantly the rest of the time its due to the corporate greed of one million random faceless corporations who are grinding up the entire planet in a meat grinder so little numbers on a screen go up and stay green or whatever the shit

#my salary being worth literally half of what it was worth last year in terms of letting me survive in the world is far more distressing #then not being able to get somewhere or have a coffee

[chiara-klara-claire]

So Quick rundown about my life, I applied for an internship in Denmark at a big company, I got a call today offering me the job, got the email with details & the salary is quite low like 800€ of which half would go for the rent, and the whole thing is exciting but scary af cause I am scared to starve ✨ ✨✨🇩🇰✨The last 3 days had me busy and burning my own brain cells with an endless assignment from a German company, which I wouldn’t have if I had got the call a week earlier, (🇩🇪 kind of feels more like home I have to say.. closer, €..) then I wasted the entire day being mentally busy about the fact that the salary is low, INSTEAD OF writing my fucking cursed godforsaken thesis which I have to hand in literally when I’d leave for dk…and thank god were currently not that busy at work 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲 I finish working on the 26th July, I’ll leave for 🇳🇱 to my bf on 28thfor 2-3 weeks and come back home just 2 weeks before I’d have to leave again for dk, and then I’d go back home for my degree in the end of sept, so I thought maybe I’d have at least a month of peace but Not really? for a person like me it’s quite destabilizing I must say, and I am also anxious about his family’s judgement about me going abroad to a country which is not NL…….Another odd thing is that they have offices both in aarhus and brande (village where the brand is as founded) and I’d have to get lifts at least 3 times a week wtf what if one doesn’t find one ?? 🥹🥹🥹 🚗 👋 🥹🥹🥹Wanted to wait for the German company’s reply but I have to answer within Monday, 2 DAYS, so great 🤪 but ironical how when I was supposed to apply to Erasmus which I eventually didn’t I wanted to go to Dk for some reason?? and now I feel like I like NL more than dk (besides the population density) .. this would be like the Erasmus I didn’t do somehow, even better paid, but I still have to work 37h/week for this 💸💸💸🤯🤯🤯🤯I am SUPER confused, if the salary were higher I’d be totally up for it, but I’m just like, is it worth it? I hate how everything is also SUPER SHORT TERM, like I read companies start recruiting even one year prior than the job start😨 not like I will make a lot of money with such an internship so being calm for 3 months wouldn’t be bad but oh well … that’s what I got honestly I wish I could have some income with language lessons & art commission but I’m lucky if I make 50€ a year with that… like last summer I was super busy with German lessons for high school kids and made 600€ in an entire summer, and I don’t think I’ll get more 🥹🥹 and u know what’s also ironical? That at first when dreaming about this a month ago I was thinking, yeah I could even meet this and this and suddenly I feel like I don’t care anymore about seeing anyone and that’s… why am I NEVER happy with what I get? Germany was too mainstream, I was already used to NL, dk is not that appealing anymore, and most of all I always complain about I hate my home country but today my aunt came and I thought I wouldn’t want to leave home in a way, even if I always curse on it…. I am really not made for life sweet heaven

#diary #wish I had someone telling me what to do and whatnot #wonder if I’ll see spel idiot again but it’s my least thought #feel like maybe I’d just better off home? but then I’d feel hopeless about being stuck here? i don’t know really #im jaur anxious about my bf & family judgement #that they’ll think I’m stupid for going there and get so little money

[thrashxunreal]

lots of end of year thoughts even though i ended up in a truly vile mood on actual new year's and decided not to even recap the year even for myself because i just felt so awful about myself and my life that particular day

but regardless i really can't argue with the fact that there were highs this year that still feel like a fever dream... the biggest being going on tour which is still such a mindfuck and today i was re-reminded of it because someone on the crew who I had far too few conversations with found me on instagram and followed me, and i was just like oh yeah that was a really weird but unimaginably amazing thing that i was given the opportunity to do. now i have a tattoo to remind me of what that experience was like and to remind me to just say yes to things for that reason

also in professional terms [which i completely forgot to share because it happened as soon as i got to nashville] i got hired officially full time at my job, which means i'm salaried with a raise and have benefits now... which is so so so much more stability than I have ever had and it's relieving to not feel like I'm immediately going to be fired at all times for just being the expendable one. and separately, I also got told by a venue that i really love that whenever I want to shoot shows there all i have to do is ask. that got weird with covid spiking here but I'm certainly taking advantage of that, possibly even this month

over the summer I also went to new orleans with my best friend and it was the most incredible experience and i came to realize it's the only real vacation i've ever taken as an adult... Being friends with and even living with someone are their own things, but I genuinely realize that I love traveling with them too and there's no one I would rather do it with & now we're talking about going to europe this year...

and on one of the last days of the year I invited that same friend to go on this adventure that i originally intended to go on alone just for photo purposes - which was to go to this literal trash beach that's technically illegal to go to because of some slightly radioactive material that was found there once - and we didn't even know if we'd be able to get to it once we traveled an hour and a half there or if it would be worth going to but they trusted my desire to go anyway and the day ended up being so surreal and magical that i can barely describe it. we just scavenged neat litter from decades ago and every time a wave hit it sounded like wind chimes from all the glass pieces clinking together and the temperature was perfect and the only people we saw the entire day were two women, who kind of reminded us of older versions of ourselves, leaving the trail holding some collected treasures right where there's a gate to ward off trespassers as soon as we got off the bus i bartended on new year's eve until 4am and we were open until 8am so i stayed and hung out after my shift because my vile mood improved and naturally one of the first customers through the door after midnight was the dude i hooked up with on That Awful Night and then ghosted even though he still has my expensive ring at his apartment lmao life really decided to hand me a dose of "you need to deal with this unfinished business whether you like it or not" and I actually did?? I'll admit I was already kinda drunk at that point but I was super honest about how I really need my ring back (it's still safe) and that I wasn't really looking to hook up again (even though he still continues to hit on me) and even got a nice little confirmation that i didn't have to be concerned about the possibility of us having unprotected sex that i couldn't remember (i do actually trust his word there bc he's annoying but not really a scumbag)

Then the next day i had a hangover brunch at my friend's artist loft apartment and we just got bagels and went grocery shopping and had a nice conversation about how we really miss living together and now i'm actually going to pack up my life and move in with them again.... massive new year's day decisions but ultimately something that will even out financially very quickly (my rent is going to be literally half of what my current apartment is) and I think it's just going to make me happy?? I wanted to last a full year in my current place but I just need to be happy

#personal #lmao this is an essay

[jimlingss]

Jungle Park [22]

Chapter 21 - Chapter 22 - Chapter 23

➜ Words: 5.6k

➜ Genres: Fluff, Light Humour (?), Slice of Life, Workplace Romance!AU

➜ Summary: The equation is simple. Hoseok needs to hire someone. You need a job. Except like any actual equation, it’s not fucking simple at all! Not when you have to add the fact that he was forced to hire someone he doesn’t want in his office, he has little respect for your job in general, and oh yeah...once upon a time you might have—*CENSORED*.

Rarely do cases go on trial. Unlike most lawyer-related and crime television shows, family law has much less action than criminal or civil law. The most exciting things that happen are arguments that break out during mediation or reading case files and seeing all the things that transpired. Divorce can get ugly, that’s for sure.   But while you rarely get to see Hoseok in a court setting duking it out with his opponent, there’s still a lot of times when you get to see his passionate side.   Like now.   “God, have you tried this pineapple juice?! How did they even get this into a coconut. It’s spectacular! You have to try this!”   Okay, to be fair he wasn’t being passionate about his work right now, but it’s still cute and endearing. And you might just be a little whipped for this nerd.   “Isn’t this supposed to be a business trip?” You have your elbow propped up on the counter of the bar, cheek in your hand as you stare out at the ocean that reflects the afternoon sunlight, blinding your vision.   “It is.”   “Then why are we on the beach drinking pineapple juice?”   “Why not?” Hoseok smiles, all too casual in sunglasses, taupe cargo shorts and a loose flannel that screams he’s a tourist. No one would ever expect he’s a hot shot lawyer in this get-up. “Didn’t you tell me to loosen up and that it’s not always about work?”   “Yeah, but this just doesn’t feel like a business trip…..at all.”   “The trial finished early.” Jung Hoseok sips on his coconut, looking both cocky and comical at the same time. It was definitely a bizarre sight to behold. “I can’t tell you the details because of confidentiality, but the opponent may or may not have accepted our terms and now the father may or may not have his kids during weekends and thankfully those kids don’t or do have to be taken by the government.”   The beaming sun pierces in your eyes too painfully and you look away. “...you know, Jung.”   “Yes?”   “I’m kind of impressed you managed to bring me here since I literally have nothing to do with your trial.” The only people that were here was Taehyung, Seokjin, Naul, and then the two of you. It’s miraculous that the lawyer snagged you, an HR manager, to be here with him.   Hoseok merely shrugs. “I may or may not have a way with words.”   “I’m starting to feel like your sugar baby.”   The man’s mouth pulls into a smirk. He winks and leans closer until your knees and shoulders are bumping each other’s. “How much would I have to pay to spend a night with you, sweetheart?”   “Double my salary and we’ll talk,” you whisper back to him in a low voice, starting to like the sound of this.   His arrogant act almost crumbles into a fit of laughter, but he manages to keep it up. “How about I make this trip all-inclusive and you get free meals and you can spend two days in a hotel suite with me?”   You’re the first to break, laughing and pushing him away before the bartender walks past and really thinks there’s some kind of wild arrangement going on. “How can the firm afford this many trips?”   “I’m loaded, y’know.” Hoseok is being overly flirtatious and greasy — maybe the heat’s getting to him. But you hate that it’s actually working and that he knows it too. “In my wallet and in my pants.”   “Oh my god.” You snort. “You’re ridiculous.”   “Does that make me more appealing to you?”   “Would you really want me to be a gold digger?”   “You could be whatever you want and I still wouldn’t mind.” Hoseok openly ogles at your lips and your face hurts from your widening grin.   “What happened to being professional?”   He moves away on his own accord, laughing and throwing his arm over the back of your chair, returning to sipping on his coconut through the straw. “We stopped being professional the moment we both agreed to this. The attempt is still nice though.”   Your brow is lifted and you quip, “Agree to what?”   “You being my girlfriend and me being your boyfriend.”   “Hold up, hold up. I never agreed to that,” you point out, bringing this conversation to a halt. “I agreed to us dating.”   “And isn’t dating being boyfriend and girlfriend.”   “You make it sound so juvenile, like we’re high schoolers.”   “We’re still young, babe.”   “Yeah?” You play into his greasy act, smiling and staring at him like you’re being seduced by a stranger at a bar in the middle of your vacation. But then you deadpan, “Tell that to your declining eyesight.”   “Hey.” Hoseok sulks. “My eyesight is still good. At least I’m not blind like Namjoon.”   “Didn’t you tell me your back was hurting last week?” You reach over, stealing a sip of his drink. It’s indeed strange to be having pineapple juice from a coconut, but it’s very refreshing and makes you feel rejuvenated.   “That was because you blew out my back.”   You nearly spit out your mouthful. It ends up sliding down your throat into the wrong pipe while you do a double take, and you end up in a wheezing and coughing fit. Hoseok’s entertained watching you die, ignoring the old couple a few seats away who was eavesdropping and are now mortified. When you manage to see the light again, you wipe your mouth with the back of your hand, barely containing yourself. “Why are you like this?!”   “Why do I like you so much?” Hoseok grins, spinning around in the bar stool like a child with too much sugar. “Good question, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re too cute, too pretty, and too fun to tease.”   You slump into a pout. “You’re mean.”   “I know.” Still, Hoseok leans over and plants a kiss right on your cheek.   //   The three others decided to go on a sightseeing tour, a package offered by the hotel at a discount. But you and Hoseok opted out. He simply brushed it off by saying he wanted to finish something up and you said you just weren’t feeling up to it. In reality, you both ended up walking by the beach instead, having a little date on your own. You felt guilty for lying to them, but Hoseok made it all worth it.   “Hey.” He smiles, approaching them in the lobby, running into the group by coincidence. “How was it?”   “A lot of fun!” Taehyung already appears tanner, skin radiating with a healthy glow. “I got this hat, like it?”   “It’s nice.” You nod, admiring the round straw hat.   “Glad you got out and saw some sun too, Jung,” Naul notes in approval. “We thought you’d be cooped up all day working.”   “Nah. Y/N and I went to grab some of those fruity drinks the front desk were raving about earlier,” he stretches the truth without batting an eyelash. “It was pretty good. You guys should try some. And I finished all my work earlier, so I’m free for the rest of the day.”   “Are you guys doing anything now?” you ask them. “Do you want to eat somewhere later?”   “Actually…” Jin clears his throat, arms behind his back and revealing what he’s been hiding. They’re two slips that look like movie tickets, but they’re bright blue like the ocean. The paralegal tries to play it off nonchalantly as he sweeps his fingers through his hair. “I might've won two vouchers for a spa day earlier.”   Taehyung laughs and lifts his hands straight into the air, extending his arms above his head. “And he’s taking me! We also won tickets to watch a show tonight too!”   Hoseok’s impressed and he takes a look at the tickets. “Wow. You guys are lucky, huh?”   “Sorry.” Taehyung leans on him, smushed cheek on his shoulder and grinning mischievously. “Jin already promised to take me, boss. You can come too, but you’ll have to pay yourself.”   “It’s okay.” He hands them back.   “I’m going to my hotel room to rest,” Naul says, telling them about her plans. “I’m exhausted.”   “She fell asleep on the bus.” Jin hitches his thumb to the woman, appallment evident in his low timbre. “Didn’t enjoy the last half of the journey.”   “I’m old, I know.” She pats him on the back. “You don’t have to keep saying it.”   You nod. “Looks like you all have plans then.”   “Yup.” Taehyung shifts slightly, brown irises shining in his rounded eyes. “Did you want to do something with us?”   “No, it’s okay. We always have tomorrow morning. Hoseok and I might head out again after freshening up and using the washroom. There’s still a lot to see, so don’t worry about us and enjoy your spa trip.”   “Sounds like a plan.” Jin smiles. “Our appointment is starting soon.”   “Same with mine.” Naul already has her hotel card in her hand, envisioning the bubble bath and raiding the minibar for a nice drink. In the meanwhile, no one notices the way you exchange expressions with Hoseok. You’re satisfied either way as long as you’re with him.   //   The diner is small with few patronages. The fryer is heard sizzling from the kitchen, bell chiming every time the front door opens, and an old lady serves you with a smile, yelling at the cooks from where she stands. It’s a cozy atmosphere, a place you would imagine existing in a smaller town.   “Did Sunyi and Yoongi end up signing that form?” Hoseok cuts into his strawberry waffles with his knife, piercing it with his utensil and dipping it in the sweet syrup.   “They signed it.” You slice your own fluffy pancakes, holding it out and he eats it off your fork. “But apparently it’s complicated and they’re in the process of figuring it out.”   He hums, brows raising and sending an approval look at the taste. “I’m shocked that they’re...together.”   “You can never be as shocked as I am,” you snicker and he cuts his waffles again, feeding you. You stuff it in your cheek, sweetness exploding on your tongue, voice muffled as you chew, “but Sunyi complained about Yoongi every single day. I would’ve never guessed they were involved with each other like that.”   He agrees, exasperated at the thought. “And for two years?”   “Shh…” You giggle, ducking your head. “Keep your voice down.”   The corner of his lip tugs. “No one’s here.”   “Okay, yeah, but Yoongi never exposed us so we shouldn’t expose him either. Ah.” You open your mouth, twirling your fork in front of his own, this time feeding him and returning the favour.   Eventually, you’re both walking outside again. The breeze is cool, kissing against your warm cheeks, carding through the strands of his black hair. You’re both holding hands, fingers laced together, arms swinging back and forth, and making you laugh. “Do you think they’re a good match?” you ask in curiosity. “You’ve known them for so long...”   “To be frank...I do. Yoongi’s similar to me, but he’s only passionate about selective things. I haven’t seen him so happy to tease someone before in my life. They’re cute together,” Hoseok muses.   “And what about us?” You glance at him, blatantly fishing for compliments and being shameless about it. “Do you think we’re cute together?”   “We’re the cutest obviously because you’re the cutest.” He boops your nose, making a high-pitched sound and you giggle, shoulders tense and cringing at his gestures. But much to your dismay, Hoseok adds on, “also, I’m the cutest.” He puckers his lips, quirking his head to the side.   “Uh-huh. So cute it’s nauseating.”   The fountain show begins and you momentarily stop to watch. The water spritz up into waving streams, glittering with the multicoloured lights flashing from below. It creates a mist in the air, following with the rhythm of the music playing from the stereo. There are children gathered around with their parents, big eyes amazed at the show, friends and other couples around too.   “Are you cold?”   “Only a little bit,” you murmur.   Jung Hoseok gets closer to you. He bends his knees until his head is propped on your shoulder, arms coming to wrap around your frame before clasping his hands together. The man leans against you, giving you a side-hug, affectionate in his movements and you melt into his body heat. It’s comforting and calming, the same words you would use to describe his existence to you.   “Are you ever bothered by it?”   “By what?” he asks, matching your tender tone. You don’t notice that instead of looking at the water show, he’s staring at you softly. Your features are illuminated by the faint lights and it’s so pretty, Hoseok can’t keep his eyes away.   “That you don’t remember?”   “No...not anymore. Why? Are you bothered?”   “No. I’d be more bothered if you were bothered.”   He grins, slight dimples marking into each cheek. “Sometimes I feel guilty that I don’t remember, but then I look over and you’re here. We have the rest of our future together, right?”   A slight noncommittal noise is made in the back of your throat, and you finally look at him, smiling. It sounds exactly like something he would say. “To be honest, it doesn’t feel all that different. You’re not that different from how you used to be.”   “And how was I?” he asks while you walk away from the ice-cream parlor, mind still lingering on the topic. Hoseok’s eyes are pinned on your mouth and he motions for you to open. When you part your lips, he feeds you a spoonful of his chocolate ice-cream.   “Bright, energetic, outgoing…..annoyingly obnoxious.”   “Me?!” He gasps, wholly offended. “Annoyingly obnoxious?!”   You laugh, holding your hand out to placate him. The man is still not satisfied until he leans down and chops on part of your vanilla ice-cream cone. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”   “You’re beginning to sound like my sister.” Hoseok pouts, eating his own cold treat in his cup, scooping it up and eating with his mouth cutely downturned. “Are you talking to her these days?”   “No. I should though. How is she?”   “Fine. As usual. I don’t know what she’s doing these days aside from causing trouble. But speaking of which, I think my parents want you to visit soon. They keep asking me about you.”   “Have they found out about us?”   “No. They haven’t.”   Your shoulder bumps into his and you smile. “Then...should we tell them?”   Hoseok matches your smile, eyes slightly crinkled. “If you want to.”   After discarding the cup, spoon, and napkins, you both wash your hands. When you leave, he’s waiting outside the washroom for you, staring up at the night sky. But when you appear in his peripheral vision again, he eases and his warm eyes are all too inviting.   “We should tell them,” you decide. “It’s not good to keep your parents in the dark. I’m sure they would be happy anyways.”   “Okay.” He grins. “I’m just worried they’re going to cast me aside for you again.”   “Well it’s understandable. They’ve always loved me. Don’t you know how charming I am?”   Laughter bubbles from his throat. He never once disagrees and reaches down to hold your hand again, walking off with no destination in mind. “How does the weekend sound or is that too soon?”   “I’m fine either way. I miss Mickey too.” You turn your head, hesitating for a mere second before you decide to tell him, “you know...he used to be our dog.”   “What? Really?”   “Yeah, but we gave him to your parents before we moved and you went to law school.”   It’s quiet for a moment, Hoseok deep in thought. You wonder if it was a mistake bringing up the past that he doesn’t remember, if somehow he’ll end up feeling guilty for forgetting again even if it’s not his fault. But then— “Maybe we should take him back.”   “No.” You smile, poking his shoulder. “I’d feel bad for your parents. We can’t just take him back. Plus, he seems pretty happy living with them.”   “That’s true. But it’s no wonder he ran and jumped on top of you.”   You nod, looking over the horizon. The dim light of the stars appear ever so slightly, all spilling across the black sky if you stare for long enough and allow your eyes to adjust. Beside you, Hoseok slows down his pace, admiring them as well. “I think we should visit my mom too. She might not say it, but I know she’s been lonely these days.”   “Should we invite her to come with us this weekend then?” he suggests. “Didn’t you say my mom and your mom were friends?”   “Yeah…” You smile, happy that he remembers and is considerate enough to come up with the idea. “She’d like that.”   The pair of you continue on your stroll until he comes to a stop. Hoseok squats down on the side of the road and then he picks up a flower and jumps back up again. He holds the small daisy up. “Look! It’s me!”   You’re not impressed. “It’s you?”   “It’s me! See?” he happily announces, showing it to you. The delicate flower has white petals, and a bright yellow center that reminds you of the colour of the sun. It’s cute and you melt into a sheepish smile, about to agree just to placate him. But then Hoseok’s eyes flicker up and he gently tucks the flower behind your ear, right by your hair. “Wow...now there are two flowers side by side.”   “Oh my god,” you groan, pulling away and cringing while he laughs boisterously, quickening his pace to catch up to you.   “Why? Am I wrong?”   “You’re too cheesy. It’s giving me cavities.”   “But you like it!”   “Be thankful I like you because I wouldn’t be able to do this for anyone else.”   “What do you mean?”   Yet, as dumb and cute as Hoseok likes to act, you hate that he’s right. He could probably beg you to shave your head (and not like you would give in since you’re not a spineless idiot), but he’d get away with it. He could throw you into a flash mob right now, make you dance, and at the end of the day, you’d still be with this fool.   And that’s why you’re watching him fiddle with this baby blue bike that he’s just rented, like watching a two-year old about to cause chaos and doing nothing to stop it. It’s just too endearing to watch him this excited and upbeat. “C’mon, get on, Y/N!”   You look at the tiny rear passenger seat, sighing before getting on. “Do you even know how to ride a bike?”   “Course, I do! Learnt when I was five,” he boasts like it’s so impressive, having no clue just how hard it was going to be to pedal when there are two people on.   But Jung Hoseok manages. It feels like you’re in your youth again, jumping on the bike of some neighborhood boy and being taken for a ride. It’s like you’ve returned back to high school, a period before you even knew of his existence, when you were still young and naive and you didn’t know what you wanted to do. A part of you wishes you met him during that time.   The two of you probably would’ve never been high school sweethearts though. You did your own thing back then and he would’ve been that outgoing kid that was all too noisy — the biggest interaction you both would’ve had is you sending a glare across the room.   You quietly laugh at the thought of it.   “Y/N, let’s play a game.”   You hear him above the cool breeze whipping through your hair. Your arms are wrapped around his waist, head pressed against his firm backside, but you lift yourself up to make sure he hears your response. “If your game is leaving me on the side of the road, I’m going to push you off the bike right now to save myself.”   A soothing laugh tinkers into the crisp air. “No, why would I do that?” Hoseok inhales a breath. It’s an empty bike path, no one ahead or behind you at this time of night. The wide ocean is to your left, waters black but illuminated by city lights and reflecting the tall buildings and cityline. “Let’s play a game. Let’s pretend…..this is twelve years ago. But the difference is that I never left you and I never got into that accident.”   “Twelve years ago….?”   “Ready? Let’s start.” He slows his pedaling, sitting tall while your hands are still holding onto his waist, eyes pinned to the magnificent view. “We were in the same class together twelve years ago. How old were we again?”   “Twenty-one.”   “Wow, we’re old now, aren’t we?”   “You’re the old one, not me.” The corners of your lips raise meekly, shoulders slightly loosening from their tension.   “It was a finance class, right? You sat next to me?”   “We sat next to each other every day.”   “Then how was your first impression of me?” he asks with a tinkering laugh, sounding all too joyful and curious, mixing with the clinking sound of the metal chains when he stops pedaling and uses the built momentum to push you both forward.   “To be honest….I didn’t think anything of you.”   “What?! Was it not love at first sight?”   “No,” you manage through a fit of giggles. “You were just another face in the class of three hundred.”   “Unbelievable. Because I know for a fact that I would’ve taken one look at you and fallen head over heels.”   “Oh, yeah right!” You hit his shoulder lightly and the bike teeters from side to side, causing more giggles to ensue.   “I would!” Hoseok defends. “I would’ve taken one glance at you and I would be breathless. My entire world would stop. It was probably the most romantic thing in the universe, just like all the movies. We’d beat Romeo and Juliet.” Hoseok continues with a grin, listening to your laugh behind him, “And here on your side, you thought nothing of me! I’m offended!”   “You’re so full of shit!”   The lawyer lets out half a scoff and the other half is a laugh. You’re scared he might stop steering and you’ll both fall over, so you hug him tighter, listening to the sound of his melodic voice. You savour his warmth, his smooth timbre, lulled by the lights sparkling from the shops, a mosaic of hues fading together like watercolour paints. “Who was the one who spoke first?”   “You did.”   “See? If I was the one who talked to you first, then it means I was probably already in love!”   “I think you asked me for the previous class’ notes cause you missed it.”   “It was a tactic, a tactic!” he tries to convince you.   Eventually, the two of you get off the bike and he walks it beside him, enjoying the stroll even if you’re a bit lost and not sure where the hotel is anymore. There’s still a slight bustle on the other side of the street, a few on the shore and enjoying games. It’s an atmosphere worthy to get lost in.   “—and after I bailed on meeting you at the library, you sent me a huge angry text message. I had to scroll through the entire thing, that’s how long it was. I was so scared.”   You continue to recall the memories, one after another spilling from your lips, pouring all out without restraint. And Hoseok listens, providing his own commentary and thoughts, humming along. “It’s part of the push and pull tactic. You gotta show them your cold side and then your warm side. Jimin taught me.”   “You didn’t even know Jimin then!” Your cheeks ache, lips upturned and unable to be put down.   “He sent me a telepathic message from the future,” he says to you so confidently.   You tell him about the time you ran into him at the library, the time you didn’t end up meeting him to work on the project, the time he held your hand and you were so surprised that you thought it was an accident, the first date, the first time he kissed you. You end up recalling each and every one of these memories — memories that you thought were a burden….but they aren’t.   They feel like fun stories, tales that you remember were never sad in the moment until you made them that way. You recount each of them to him, some fuzzier than others and when you can’t recall the details, he fills in the blanks with his own silly thoughts, like how he wasn’t mad at you or that he probably wanted to kiss you a hundred times more.   You talk about history and he talks about the future.   “And then when we were twenty-five…” An inhale is stolen through your lungs and when you look at him, he already knows and squeezes your hands comfortingly.   “That was the year we got engaged with each other.” He leans in with a soft smile, affectionately brushing his forehead against yours before pulling away. “Thankfully, it was just a pregnancy scare because I’m sure neither of us were ready for kids yet.”   You snicker, agreeing. “Yeah.”   “You were pretty stressed about planning the wedding and I was too, but it got a lot better when we handed it off to both our moms who took a hold of it,” Hoseok’s ranting and you listen to every syllable of his story, believing this fantasy as reality. His side of the story that you never knew, he fills in with whatever he wishes. The gray areas become coloured, no longer a mystery held over your own head. “Of course, they would’ve taken too much control, but we were able to pick out the little things, like the colour schemes and the kinds of flowers we wanted.”   “Daisies.”   “A bunch of me’s.”   A rush of air comes out of your nose, too tired to laugh, but finding it still funny. “Yellow and violet colour scheme.”   “I like that,” he notes in approval before moving on. “And then when we finally got married, it would be such a relief that it was all over. Not that you were turning into bridezilla or anything….but you were kind of turning into bridezilla.”   “Well, of course, I want our wedding to be perfect.”   “I’m just happy that we’re getting married.” Suddenly, he stops. Hoseok halts his footsteps and turns you to face him. He swallows hard, eyes locked into your irises before flickering down to your mouth. He leans down and in, tilting his head timidly and planting a kiss on your lips. It’s soft and hesitant, feather-light. It’s as if you were standing at the aisle, under the arch with people watching, sealing the union and promise of forever with a kiss.   When he pulls away, a smile is on his face, watching as your eyes flutter open so slightly and you stare up at him through your lashes. You’re so beautiful, he feels an urge to kiss you again.   But Hoseok represses it, pulling you along, walking and listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the sandy shore. “Our honeymoon was a nightmare.”   “How so?” Something blooms in your chest, butterflies tickling your stomach and you curl your fingers around his tighter, feeling him squeeze back in response.   “We got stuck at the airport overnight because our flight got delayed, but thank god we made it.”   “And where were we?”   Hoseok sings a low note, considering all the places in the world before settling on one destination as he returns the rental bike. “Somewhere in French Polynesia.”’   “Fancy.”   “You deserve the best.” He flashes a grin and a wink. “We’d spend a lot of time by the beach.”   “Like right now?”   “Like right now,” he confirms. “We’d take a helicopter ride around the island and go to a vanilla bean farm and pick fresh vanilla beans for my dad and your mom. You’d probably tell me I’m picking up too many seashells after it takes up three quarters of our luggage. But also, let’s be honest here, we wouldn’t leave our little, private overwater bungalow that often.”   The mischief twinkling in his orbs only makes you give him a knowing look. “Why not?”   “Well, until we break the bed and we have to call the front desk, I’m not sure I would ever want you to leave.”   You expected nothing less from the man but the thought of getting maintenance and having to switch rooms because of a broken mattress makes you slightly embarrassed. While strolling together, you lean against him. Jung Hoseok is detailed, carefully describing year after year, filling in the missing time of your lives. And it sounds all too nice.   “—even though Jung and Park would’ve been running for three years, Jimin wouldn’t mind us taking time off together.”   “Are you sure he can handle running the office without his partner and without his HR rep?”   “He can handle it and if anything, you could hire a few more people before we take the break. Didn’t you say you wanted to run an entire HR empire and be their ruler?”   “I never said that.” You scoff, lightly smacking his chest. “I only wanted an assistant.”   “Sure, have your little, hot, young assistant.” The way he jokingly emphasizes each word makes it sound sexual and you don’t know if you want to smack him again or if you want to laugh. “But let me tell you, I won’t be jealous.”   “Why? Wouldn’t you have gotten bored of me and found me stale after being married for so long?”   “Course not!” Hoseok jumps up, blinking his big eyes, and being playful all at once. “I’m just saying I wouldn’t be threatened since you’re mine. And I’d never be bored of us. Every time I’d look at you, I’d be blown away.”   “That sounds exhausting,” you consider it realistically. “You’d be blown away constantly.”   He laughs. “But you being pregnant would make me even more blown away!”   “Wait. How many kids are you even planning? We still haven’t had this talk and we already have a kid on the way! And we’re still paying mortgage on the new house! Shouldn’t we be more responsible?”   “Okay, okay. Five.”   “Five?! Are you out of your mind?!” You’re almost screeching, for once being as loud as he naturally is. “You’re going to have to put insurance on my uterus!”   Hoseok grins, hugging your side again. “How many kids do you want?”   “Three. Or actually two seems like a good number.”   “One girl, one boy?”   “If it’s possible.” You nod, finding it the right number for a picture perfect family.   “How about three girls?” Hoseok muses.   “You don’t want any boys?”   “I’d like it if they were like you,” he says. “Three little angels with mommy’s personality and daddy’s beautiful looks. What do you think?”   Even if you’re joking around, you send an accusatory expression his way. “You wouldn’t want them to look like me?”   “Well, if they’re too much like you, my heart might just explode with love. But I’d love them regardless, so looks like I’m getting a heart attack either way.” He dramatically shuts his eyes, placing a hand over his chest like he’s about to go into cardiac arrest.   You keep walking ahead, mumbling about how ridiculous he is, but your smile is unmistakable.   At the end of the lovely night, you both manage to make your way back to the hotel, tired and sleepy. Neither Taehyung, Naul, or Seokjin are around to notice how you sneak into Hoseok’s room. It feels like you’re breaking the rules or back when you sneak into each other’s houses during spring break without either of your parents knowing.   You slip off your shoes, exhausted after spending the entire day outside, and you collapse on the plush bed side-by-side with Hoseok as he finishes writing up the future. “—and then at one hundred years old, we would die together, just like this.”   “Like this?” You turn and he does too, both facing each other in the peacefulness of the room.   “Together. Peacefully sleeping in bed….or like that old couple in the titanic.”   You prop yourself up onto one elbow, eyeing him. “Isn’t this too morbid?”   “Is it?” The corner of his mouth lifts and spreads into a grin. Hoseok opens his arms and rolls right on top of you. You’re stuck in your spot and he laughs, tickling your sides slightly until you wheeze and beg for mercy. Then he calms down, nuzzling against you like some kind of cuddle bug. “I mean, we’d be reborn and we could do it all over again.”   “Are you sure you want to spend lifetime after lifetime with me?” You stare into his eyes, murmuring from your slightly parted lips, caught off guard with what a hopeless romantic he is.   The man lifts his arms and holds your cheek in his palms, legs on either side of you. He leans down, pecking your lips once gently, finding no need to deepen the kiss and seek something different. “It would be my absolute pleasure, Y/N.”   You melt into a sheepish smile and after another extended moment of silence, of feeling his body pressed against yours, his scent surrounding your frame, you muse, “It sounds nice.”   “Which part?”   “All of it.”   “I’m glad.” Hoseok finally lays down, slightly crushing you, but he places his ear over chest, right where your heartbeat is. He shuts his eyes and listens. “It’s my goal to make you happy.”   You wrap your arms around his head, holding him close, becoming more and more sleepy. “I’m very happy, Jung Hoseok.”   And you mean it. You’re happy that he’s here. Happy that he’s in your life again. Happy that you’re both slowly, but surely going to make all these dreams and fantasies into reality.  

#bts fanfic #bts scenario #hoseok fanfic #hoseok fluff #hoseok scenario #UGH this fluff #get it out outta here

[child-of-sunshine]

Just gotta rant for a minute so this is going under a cut

I can’t stand the way tumblr in general talks about “rich people” (which they can’t define to save their fucking lives) and particularly when they mention “millionaires” as though it actually means something significant in terms of wealth. 

First, no one seems to understand that by today’s inflated standards, a million dollars really isn’t that much. A quick google search will tell me that the average “middle-income” parent in America will spend over 250k to raise a child from birth to 18 years old. If a couple has 4 kids, they’re already spending over a million dollars on those kids. Yes, that’s over 18 years, but it’s still meaningful.

If a person makes 100k, which is supposedly the 85th percentile of income, it only takes them 10 years to make a million dollars. And yes, obviously they’re spending money too, and it’s not like their savings or their net worth are going to be a million in that time, but people don’t even seem to comprehend that their earnings over that time would literally be a million. Someone earning the average American income, let’s say 50k because I get conflicting information from various sources, would only take 20 years to earn a million dollars.

And calling “millionaires” (putting that in quotes because people (a) do NOT understand the difference between net worth and actual liquid assets or even income) rich, particularly in the context of the “eat the rich” rhetoric, is ridiculous. I know this site has a serious problem with black-and-white thinking, but for fuck’s sake.

Let’s take a look at my parents.

My dad grew up in a relatively low-income household. His mother’s grandparents came straight from Italy with a few dollars in their pockets and nothing else. Her family struggled to get food on the table at times. She worked very hard as a seamstress and married a man who had a good job at Ford back when that meant actual benefits including into retirement, and so they managed to raise two boys without having to worry too much about being able to afford food or housing. They saved like crazy and spent the minimum that they possibly could on themselves, so that when they reached retirement, they had a pretty decent amount of savings for the rest of their lives and could finally enjoy some luxury vacations and get a small but nice house in Florida.

My mom grew up in a truly low-income household. She was the youngest of five siblings living in a tiny, shitty town in Nowhere, Michigan, with two parents who smoked constantly, in a house that sat next to some kind of horrifying mystery waste pond (she and both of her sisters had cancer, my mom at just 36, and one of her brothers died from some kind of unknown neurological deterioration). Her father got TB and spent time in a sanitarium, after which he became a withdrawn alcoholic and then died relatively young. Her mother became depressed, stopped working, and died of cancer. My mom lost both of her parents in her early 20s, before she even met my father.

Both of my parents were gifted with the great privileges of great brains and being white. Even in their crappy hick town in the middle of nowhere, my mom managed to be in the top of her class (of 56 whole people) in high school and earned a scholarship to a state university, literally the only way she could have afforded to attend. My dad worked to pay for his college as far as I know (because back then you could actually do that). They both got bachelor’s degrees. My dad became an engineer, a good career, and quickly found a job with a relatively new, small local company. He worked extremely hard, long hours for years and moved up to being a manager, and the company has grown a lot over the 25+ years he’s now worked there, with the result that he now makes a low six-figure salary. My mom took a computer programming course after realizing her journalism degree wouldn’t get her much paid work, and has worked as a programmer for 25+ years now, switching jobs sometimes, usually making somewhere in the 60-70k range in the last decade or so.

My mother got pregnant with my sister around the time she and my dad got engaged. She was working a crappy programming job and he’d barely started as an engineer, making nowhere near six figures. They lived in a trailer park, in a trailer with a hole in the floor and steps that were a safety hazard. She’d spent some time living with her sister, who’s 13 years older than her and never had children (thus had a house and some savings). My dad’s mother, the seamstress, made my mom’s wedding dress for free as long as my mom bought the material for it, which was just about all they could afford. They had a nice, small wedding when my sister was about 2 (she was afraid of my mom’s dress lmao) and one of my cousins took the pictures.

Four years after my sister was born, my parents had saved up enough to put a down payment on our house, a moderate-sized family home in a suburban neighborhood that was just being built. The house was a little over 200k. She got pregnant with me and the house was finished just after I was born.

My mom got cancer when I was 2 years old. They haven’t talked to me much about it. Her sister spent a lot of money to buy her a really nice wig made of animal hair (which, unfortunately, she could rarely wear because it made her very itchy). She went through surgery, chemo, and radiation. She spent months sick as hell and miserable, while trying to raise two young daughters. Thankfully, they’d saved enough to be able to handle the medical bills, particularly with my dad’s good job that had good benefits and, by then, was paying him a pretty decent salary. My mom recovered, thankfully (over 20 years in remission now!).

In 2008, when the recession hit, my mom lost her job quickly. She tried finding new ones but couldn’t. No one was hiring programmers, they were getting rid of them. Her depression got a lot worse. I was in high school and depressed myself (in large part because of the situation at home, though my parents don’t know it, that became suicidal depression a while afterward), and they had to start paying for therapy for me. My sister was in college and had to try to pay for it herself because my parents’ college fund for her hadn’t gone as far as they’d hoped. My dad’s company supplies machines to auto manufacturers. They were worried. They laid off some people, thankfully not my dad, and others had to take pay cuts. My parents started sitting down and seriously going over finances. My mom and I had to completely quit figure skating, my only physical stress outlet (like I said, that contributed a LOT to the severe depression). We had to cut down the grocery bills and think about not buying gifts for family members’ birthdays and such. My grandparents, happily retired by then with good savings, paid off the rest of our mortgage and told my dad to pay them back without interest whenever he could, so that no matter what happened with the jobs, we at least wouldn’t have to worry about losing our house. I listened to my parents scream at each other over money and I cried myself to sleep a lot of nights.

Guess what? My dad is a millionaire. Definitely not in liquid assets, but in net worth he probably just barely hits 1 million. He now makes a low six-figure salary and when the economy is doing okay, he invests some of it in the stock market, mostly in low-risk stocks that are guaranteed to have payouts (I don’t know a lot about this, so that’s all I’ll say). He inherited/learned his dad’s extreme money-saving ways and saves as much as possible. He’s an engineer and very handy, so whenever possible he does home and car repairs himself to save a lot of money. I managed to get a scholarship that covered almost all of my undergrad tuition, I lived at home for half of undergrad and all of med school to save money, I worked in retail in undergrad and as an EMT in med school to pay for some of my own stuff, and they didn’t pay for any of my med school tuition, so that’s it for their educational expenses for me. My mom’s had a good, stable job for the last few years that pays in the low 80k range, I think. We live in a house worth ~250k that we now fully own thanks to my grandparents. 

A few years ago, my dad’s brother bought a crappy, tiny, nearly-condemned cabin in the woods up north for about 20k (seriously, it was shit). He and my dad put in a few hundred dollars and a TON of time and manual labor to fix it up, and now we pay half the bills on it and both of our families use it for vacations. We have a small (19ft) boat that my dad bought as a gift for my mom when she had cancer--he got it extremely cheap from a guy who’d bought it, barely used it, and just wanted rid of it. It’s a 1994 and full of problems now, but we’ve managed to keep it going (barely, at times) and my dad has taken really good care of it over the years. A friend of my dad’s got him into snowmobiling about a decade ago and once his brother bought the cabin and they fixed it up, my dad got a cheap, crappy used snowmobile, which he used for a few years before reselling it and upgrading to an actually nice, new one, because yeah, he could afford it. He’s upgraded a couple times, good for him. When I actually have the time off, I go up with him in the winter and ride one of his old ones that he kept and fixed after it had an engine problem. It doesn’t cost much to renew the trail permits each year and I borrow my uncle’s gear for riding, so other than the initial cost of the sleds, it really costs us nothing to go riding (gas is extremely negligible in snowmobiles, they can go 120+ miles on a single 8 gallon tank, and we store them ourselves at the cabin so we don’t pay for that). We store the boat in our garage at home (like I said, it’s small) so other than the permit and gas for that when we take it out, again, really no continuous expense.

My parents pay all of their taxes without trying to do any bullshit work-arounds. They don’t have a lawyer or a tax accountant or a financial advisor, my dad does it all himself. He keeps track of all of our finances himself. We don’t pay a landscaping service or a cleaning service or any of that crap, we do it all ourselves like any other middle-class family. My mom donates regularly to charities for cancer, animal rescues, and injured veterans. 

But to tumblr, incapable of seeing nuance, we’re “one-percenters (absolutely nowhere near true) who own a house and have a ‘vacation home’ and a boat and recreational vehicles” so we’re pretty much just as bad as Bezos, because anyone who isn’t actively struggling to put food on the table or in horrible medical debt because of our disaster of a system is apparently “rich” and there’s no such thing as shades of gray.

#sorry that was insanely long #no one will read it though so it doesn't matter #that's why I made the read more #just needed to write down thoughts and bitch #I hate the politics on this site #so many good ideas SO badly implemented #the splitting on here is completely fucking ridiculous #and I'm really sick of seeing things that imply me or my family are evil and inherently bad for existing comfortably #and going on occasional vacations #and being able to afford the medical bills when I got a tumor and needed surgery

[remindme2breathe]

NO- it’s not an option

I am in the process of Selling my home (beyond the process I guess, we are in the middle of closing escrow!!! Woohoo!!!) I’ll be honest, it took 4 days to sell my home, so I hope what I’m saying doesn’t sound like a complaint, this entire entry should be the complaint, ha, ha, just kidding- kinda. My home is smaller then my next home (which is also in process, 3 weeks!!) but it doesn’t lack comfort. Although I have never been a true fan of this particular home, it has allowed us to experience a lot of family-like ‘adventures’ (don’t worry, you’ll hear about some of those sometime in the future). My new home is sitting pretty on 4 and a half acres of clean, flat land! My home has enough bedrooms for EVERYONE to have their own space! This next home is a blessing that I can never describe with all the words in the world. Not only is it gorgeous, but thanks to the help of my parents, I got it all on my own! All they really did was sign, but I managed to save, fix my credit and get approved all on my own. Being grateful doesn't even begin to compare to the actual feeling! What did I do to accomplish that? Refused to let anyone convince me that NO was an option. 

There are 3 things I’ve said to my kids more then necessary. 1. Quiting is not an option 2. Being rich doesn’t mean your successful 3. Always be of service to people

What do I do for a living? You’d be surprised how many people actually thought I was involved in something illegal... no, really... You’d be surprised! It’s gotten so old that now all I do is smile and nod. I’m not telling you this to make anyone think I’m showing off, no, it’s not about that. I don’t like to struggle, I hate to work, and I don’t understand financial technical terms like dows and percentage and whatever other fancy words they wanna use to shine up the real process. Let me tell you what I did, but first let me give you the scale in which it’s impacted my family. 

I grew up with working parents, both held full time jobs, their own businesses, investments, and had the ability to raise my siblings and I with the little luxuries we wanted (the occasional toys r’ us runs, little things like that). They were financial STABLE, but not rich. They opened their own business about 10 years ago and now both are worth about 3 million each, or so says their business person. I saw first hand the struggle my parents went through when they started up their business, my mom even said that there was a handful of times that they didn’t even have money to buy us food. But when success came for them, it came fast! 

When I turned 16 I took a dab at DJ-ing. Yes, I really was THAT cool back then! I did that for about 4 years. I worked for an actual radio station when I was 17 1/2, I did all their overnight programming and special events. At 18 at these big events I thought I was at the top of everything! My paychecks I spent on myself! All of it! Every dime. It was as through I was allergic to money and needed to spend it quicker then when I got it. My dad then brought it to my attention about my non-existent money management skills. He was right. What was my solution? Open a savings account? No, I’d still spend it. Save hard cold cash? Nope, I’d spend that too. I had to do something. At 18 money beckoned me. I decided to start doing side jobs; weddings, quinceaneras, anything! All that money I’d hand over to my dad and asked him not to give me a dime no matter what I tell him. WHO KNOW HE WOULD TAKE THAT SO LITERALLY! But it worked, I would save about 2800 every month, give or take. And some months he wouldn’t see anything- com’on! I had to have a life too! At 18 I graduated High School and started school to get my nursing degree. At age 20, with only 10 months left to graduate I got pregnant. I worked as long as I could and tried to do as much in school, I didn’t want to be a statistic! I will not be a number on the ‘’lets blame the baby’’ list! I was determined. AND I FINISHED! Once my baby was born I quit the radio station because it was more important for me to be with him then to be in clubs at night. After he turned 1 I decided to get into my field. I was lucky and got into an ER right away. It was exciting, super fast paced! The problem was the 12 hour shifts! I wasn’t being a baby... I wanted to be with my baby. While I worked there I continued to give my dad cash to hold, it wasn’t as much as before (because raising a baby comes with extra costs). But it was imperative that I saved because now my fear was providing for my child. But the hours were tough, mentally and physically, I went part time after 3 years. One day I had a patient that completely changed my life. PUT A PIN IN THAT!!!! He’s worth the story! Anyway this patient ended up influencing me way more then I could have hoped for! This man was put in my path for a reason. 

Closer to today: Last year I asked my dad how much I had finally saved. I never asked him because I was worried I’d be tempted to use it wrongly. Mind you, this was a savings I have accrewed over a span of about 22 years. I never kept track, I never wrote it down. This money had to be OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND. I saved $264,464.10, that means I managed to save almost 12,000 a year! A little over $1,000 month! AGAIN!!!!! I didn’t do it religiously! I remember when the $0.10 happened: I TOLD YOU! Sometimes I wasnt able to, but my system was the following: I would carry $60.00 in cash every week on me for any little thing we might want, eating out, treats, toys, medicine, etc. A WEEK! That number went up when I had more people around me. I kept 1,000 in my bank account after bills at all times (this was also never garenteed: THESE BILLS CAN GET A LITTLE OUT OF HAND! If I had over 1,000, I would withdrawl and give it to my dad, no matter the amount. All the change that was under $5 (bill) I would save in an envelope I kept in my dresser and would seal and turn that change over to my dad at the end of the month (that change adds up QUICK!). Any extra cash- tax refunds, these stimulus... it is wasn’t I always had like a paycheck, it was considered extra and I would send it on its way. HOWEVER!!!!! YES I’VE BEEN TEMPTED! I STILL HAVE THAT TEMPTATION! My dad said to invest it to make money on it. Yea, that’s nice but no. I’m too impatient to wait for someone else to put my money to work. Well, I guess I kinda ate those words: here’s what I did. I have a close family friend who has tons of friends all of which could use a job. I made 3 businesses with $10,000 each. THIS WAS A STRETCH! But it’s do-able for WAY LESS!!! I just couldn’t help over buying, geez! 

Long story short, I started a gardening company. I do nothing but cover costs and pay wages. I collect on that and let me tell you- AMAZING. If you intend to do this let me disclose the following: People can be shitty! People CAN steal from you especially is the customers pay cash. PAY YOUR WORKERS WELL AND THEY WILL TREAT YOU WELL! I supply them with the extras. My kids fill refrigerators with snacks and waters or sodas. We supply uniforms at no cost, they get paid time off of two weeks, and rain or shine they get their salary! My son also said MOBILE CAR WASH is good too! There we went, now him and his friend run that truck. They make money, I make money. The 3rd one is a Pool Cleaning Service. This one was a little work because most people with pools have friend references. But this actually holds up pretty good. All three trucks are on my property by 8 pm, my son will fill the tanks, check the interiors, and supplies for the next pick up date. It works out. 

Doing this has allowed me to stay home with my kids. I have been a house mom for the last 8 years. And now, I’m buying my 4 acre property! Thank God! 

It’s tough, especially because I like expensive things! I love to spend, I love to travel. And believe it or not, I was still able to.

Wow, if this wasn’t an epic RAMBLE, I don’t know what would be! Sorry in advance. I’m so excited! I can’t wait to move! Hopefully someone has a small savings that they want to put to work and maybe this helped you get your mind thinking. 

#Financial #had2save #cashHOME #tricks2mytrade #mutiply

[toddbirchard-architect]

A Question Unanswered: "Why Did You Want to Become a Product Manager?" https://ift.tt/2TgGxLf

I've painted some pretty grim personal perspectives on Product Management in the past- perhaps comically so. There was that one time I dared make the sweeping generalization that most  PMs have no interest in technology itself, but instead favored the glory of power and implied intellect. Or that other time, when I suggested oversaturation of the space could push the title towards meaninglessness... similar to the fate of marketing departments recent fall from grace to what is best described as “MailChimp Coordinators.”  Brutal stuff.

That was around the time I decided to distance myself from Product. I figured this bubble of egotistical hustlers would pop at some point. I’m afraid I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Product Management: Bigger and Badder Than Ever

I mean “bad” in the literal sense, of course. Let’s rest on that for a moment to acknowledge what is objectively true: Product Management is certainly getting bigger. Bigger not only in the sense of volume, but salaries as well; reports are showing that average product management salaries have been on a steady upward trend (I'll post those them here once I find them). One report had the average salary of senior/director PMs overtaking Data Scientists: a perceived front runner for “sexiest job” thanks to a stupid article the Harvard Business Review wrote a hundred years ago. (On a side note, can we please never reference this article again? It’s excruciating to read field-based work without some subtle reminder that the author is “sexy.”)

In terms of volume of product managers, I don’t need to search for data to know something is wrong. Of the teams I’ve worked with in the last 10 years, whether they be external clients or departments in my org, it’s overwhelmingly common to see technical team breakdowns have as many or more Product Managers than actual engineers. In extreme cases, I’ve lobbied, begged, and cried for more Engineering staff in exchange for guaranteeing deadlines. The response, of course, is always the same: hire more managers. The thought process I imagine happening is “hey, there’s something going on there, we better bring in a Skilled Manager to figure that out!” Assuming that poor management is a company’s culture, the safest thing any upper-manager can do to hide their own cluelessness is place more buffers between themselves and problems.

My moment of Zen came to me after I had just started with a large company. Our team had a product team, as did the other (hundreds?) of teams in the same firm. With a straight face, our team’s Head of Product delivered the year’s initiative: to teach all the other Product Managers the concept of Agile Development. I paused. Looked around. Raised my hand, and could do nothing but say:

...Are we not addressing the more significant problem at hand here? How have we somehow managed to hire hundreds of PMs, each without the slightest clue as to how to do their jobs?

One person chuckled. As the head of product gave a political no-answer, I watched a room full of people trying not to internalize that statement. I was “taught” agile 4 times that year. I had been implementing Agile Development practices for 8 years prior.

Why Do You Want To Be a PM?

Ask any PM how they got into the profession, and I’ll almost guarantee you’ll receive some story of transitioning out of marketing or recruiting (neither of which have anything to do with product) because an opportunity opened up way back when. My personal answer to this question started by defining what I didn’t want.

It was a rainy day in Philadelphia. Now 10 years ago, the Comcast headquarters had just been completed as the tallest building in the city, and I held a gig on the top floor... as a Flash Developer. I was nearing the end of my contract, and a bit relieved to know that “White Shirt Wednesdays” and “Blue Shirt Mondays” would no longer remain in my vocabulary. As a favor, one of my bosses asked me to deliver a USB drive to a fellow on my floor whom I’d never actually met. After some quick directions to this gentleman’s office, I was beginning to see why he’d be hard to come by.

I was directed to what must have been a hallway perhaps 3 feet wide, and 10 feet long. One of those big-office “alleyways” to connect two sides of a floor. Strangely, one wall of this alleyway had a door- no, an entire office, looking out into the blueish grey wall 3 feet away. This was the guy.

I explained my business and delivered the USB drive. “The guy” wasn’t worried; in fact, he immediately laid back in his chair, hands folded behind his head, and let out a breath of self-satisfaction. “So you’re a developer, huh,” he asked.  “Let me ask you this: what you want out of life?” Before I could think to respond, he continued: “I mean, look at all this,” gesturing around his 8x8 foot office. “If you stayed here at Comcast, all this could be yours too someday, you know.”

So there I was, on the 50-somethingth floor of the city’s tallest building, shrouded in storm clouds, sitting in a fluorescent-lit closet in a corporate office back alley. As the seconds ticked by, it became evident that this wasn’t a hilarious joke. At that moment, one thing was clear: I wasn’t sure what I wanted out of life, but I sure as hell didn’t want to be that guy.

(...And I definitely didn’t want to get to be that guy by building throwaway corporate apps in Adobe Flash).

Finding What I Wanted Out of Life

From that moment, I thought a lot about what I didn't want out of life. I knew that I loved coding, but after having picked up handfuls of Flash contracting jobs, I began to realize a trend. The more I created things for other people, my sense of autonomy diminished, the less individuality I had, and therefore, the less I enjoyed the act of coding. In a board meeting, one company referred to me as "the secret weapon." Another dubbed me the "the bullet," both of these things implying the same truth: when assigned a project, I would dissect it, refactor any nonsense, and over-deliver under time, and under budget.

That's all great, but I didn't want that. The problems I had with this type of heads-down work were the questions I had no authority to ask, such as:

Why are we building this in the first place? Is it really worth this much budget, as opposed to a simpler and cheaper solution?

Does anybody honestly believe that this feature will resonate with users? Imagine yourself using this app, except it wasn't your app. Is there any point of building this feature other than a stakeholder's personal need to have a sense of ownership over something?

We have meetings every week about problem X. Why don't we consider building Y to solve this issue?

As I analyzed "what I wanted out of life," I began to notice other things happening around me. I was putting in 18+ hours a day of work attempting to save a final project for University, which happened to be a video game. Thanks to some administrative nightmare, 6 people of our 9-man team became virtually unreachable midway through the project (it's a long story). I found myself taking point and scheduling check-ins (standups?) with the remaining troops. Despite their limited coding experience, we found ways to play to our strengths. We had one man on audio and soundtrack, one guy on visuals, and me on... everything else.

I lost the better half of a year and a relationship to that project. It was miserable. Meanwhile, the other fully-staffed projects were doing fine; in fact, they were flourishing. It didn't matter that the other teams didn't deliver anything technically impressive, or in some cases, finished. The teams which did best were significantly rewarded for the idea they had, despite being virtually unchanged from day 1. What's more, those receiving the highest credit contributed nothing but the concept itself (typically stolen from a project at another university, mind you).

Nobody cared that I personally pushed the limits of web browsers at the time to create a multiplayer RPG. Nor should they, in retrospect: nobody had attempted to do this; thus, nobody had any barometer for the effort or complexity involved. That was Lesson 1: Nobody Who Matters Cares How Impressive Your Code Is.

Meanwhile, professors were euphorically celebrating projects they could understand: which were typically simple apps which leveraged social media somehow. Word on the street was that each of the "idea guys" got taken out for drinks in celebration of their genius. Lesson 2: Hard Work And Originality Does Not Equate to Success.

Our project got abysmal scores. Begrudgingly, we went along with an event to showcase all projects that year and set up a station where anybody could sit down and play. We had 4 computers running the app over a local network, and the crowd loved it. Despite being cast into a dark shadowy corner of the room, it turned out users knew what they wanted more than professors. Lesson 3: The World Has Too Much Clueless Leadership. If you're not careful, you could spend your entire life programming something that had no place in the world to begin with. 9/10 startups fail, which I think is a high success rate considering 9/1000 ideas I hear regularly are abysmal.

How I Became A Product Manager

I didn't become a Product Manager because I was transferred, or promoted as an intern, or failed as a developer. I became a Product Manager by searching for Product Manager jobs out of college, and I landed it.

Everything I had learned from that final year of University taught me so many things that lead to a single conclusion: I am not happy in my career unless I am:

Collaborating with intelligent people.

Always having a say in defining what it is being built.

Building something meaningful.

I became a Product Manager because I was born to be a Product Manager. I love to code, but there isn't a single job description that reads "code what you think is best for the company." In fact, if we were to translate most job descriptions, they'd probably be closer to "code the thing that will get the person above you a promotion." I couldn't bear to watch my hobby become something I hated, and I knew the world is filled with developers who live that reality daily. I wanted to help them.

I would challenge all organizations to ask PM candidates why they've chosen the path. If a candidate cannot articulate a purpose which is unselfish, or legitimately speaks to their interests, they should not be hired. End of story.

Transitioning to a technical lead role allows me to do some  of the things I set out to accomplish as a PM, but perhaps not as much as I'd like. The notion of switching back feels uneasy: the world has far too many Product Managers as it stands, regardless of how mediocre they may be. And let us not forget the "walled garden" effect: PMs can only become PMs because they know PMs. Shitty PMs hire more shitty PMs, and so on. I can say this from my personal experience interviewing at shitty companies I had no intention of joining: shitty PMs hate me. Misery loves company.

If I truly want to stick to what I love, a Principal Engineering role or equivalent feels like the next logical step for somebody like me to take. I can only hope the world's Product Management Hyenas can stay off Google Calendar and Slack for long enough to not to kill hope in the people I hope to help before then.

March 20, 2019 at 11:12AM

[toomanysinks]

Timing and why we’re all VCs

Timing is the single most valuable skill of the modern economy, but I would argue its’s the least understood and also the least practiced.

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should you start a company? What company should you start? When should a VC invest? When should you join a company? When should you switch industries? When should you back a candidate for public office?

Every single one of our professional decisions is about timing, and yet, we do so little to practice and perfect it. Most employees only make 3-4 major career decisions in their lifetimes — hardly enough feedback for this skill to mature. Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces.

Most of us want to make more money and accelerate our careers, but the truth is that these opportunities are few and far between. Most jobs have limited growth potential. Most startups die. Most VCs don’t make money. Most political candidates fail to get elected. The difference between success and failure sometimes has to do with hard work and tenacity, but far more often with the strategy of timing.

It’s obvious that we can be too late to these decisions of course. We can miss the round of financing, we can start a company a year or two behind someone else and lose the first-mover advantage. But we can also be way too early, ahead of the market and losing out on alternative opportunities that might have been more valuable.

Now, some perceive that “timing” is synonymous with “luck.” There is some truth there, in the sense that life is random and sometimes — completely unintentionally — people stumble upon a treasure chest of gold.

Don’t be distracted by that, because there are also people who just seem to have timing nailed. There are engineers (I know because I have seen their recruiter profiles) who have joined three unicorns in a row in the first handful of employees. There are VCs who get a string of wins that is far from chance. There are CEOs that always seem to guide their companies to the right place at the right time and drive their stock valuations up.

We talked a lot about why we can’t build infrastructure in America yesterday. One of the challenges is simply timing: so many things have to happen at once for these projects to get off the ground, and most governors and mayors lack the timing skills required to get them over the finish line.

How can you practice timing? Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. Check in with the companies you talked with a few years ago — how are they doing? Ditto people you met a while back. Start evaluating your predictions: were they correct? Were they too early or too late?

More importantly, start cultivating networks of friends who have a sense of pulse on the frontiers of the economy. That could mean someone at the edge of a new science (quantum computing or AI) or someone who gets marketing to new demographics, or someone who tracks new regulatory and legal changes. Find a peer group of people who get timing and practice it as a craft.

Between TechCrunch today and my former roles in venture capital, I’ve had the opportunity to practice timing a lot. I have a list of companies that I would have backed, and some have turned into unicorns while others have ended up on the ash heap of history. I’ve predicted some trends well, while flubbed others. I’ve been way too early (a huge bias for me), and sometimes stupidly late.

But all along, I am practicing that timing muscle. It’s the only way forward in capitalism, and it’s worth every investment you can make.

Mithril Capital, management fees, and VC strategic drift

Peter Kim via Getty Images

Theodore Schleifer at Recode reported a rare deep dive into the internal intrigue at a prominent VC firm, in this case Mithril Capital. From the article:

Mithril had its best moment yet last week when a portfolio company, Auris Health, sold to Johnson & Johnson for more than $3 billion — returning at least $500 million to the fund.

All appears well. But behind the scenes, a far different story has been unfolding.

The late-stage investment firm has been a slow-burning mess for the past several months, angering current and former employees, limited partners, and, crucially, [Peter] Thiel himself, sources say.

Among the issues is the firm’s huge management fee … and I guess lack of expenses?

The firm is likely collecting as much as $20 million a year in management fees, sources familiar with the figures say.

We don’t know exactly how much the firm spends, but people close to Mithril say they can’t imagine that the firm, given its staff size, is spending more than half of that on operational expenses. [Mithril Capital founder Ajay] Royan’s salary, like that of other venture capitalists, is not publicly disclosed.

One limited partner called the fees, given the size of Mithril’s staff, “outrageous.”

What? I don’t understand this line of reasoning at all. The firm negotiates a fairly standard agreement with its limited partners, and then the LPs are pissed because the firm isn’t spending the money on massive staff and large, expensive offices? The whole point of delegating investment decisions to a GP is to empower them to organize their firm to win deals and get stuff done. If — and it’s a big if of course — they can do that on the cheap, then why should an LP care at all? Burn the management fee in a fireplace if it makes the deals happen.

Ajay Royan told Bloomberg in 2017 that Mithril does not “charge excessive fees.” But he was not exactly known for being thrifty with management money. Former employees describe Friday catered lunches where costs could run over $100 per person, and Royan was known internally for a “book ordering problem” — a former employee said that “unbelievable amounts of books” would be delivered each week to the office by Amazon to maintain the firm’s extensive library.

Pro tip: take on the mantle of book editor for a major tech publication, and the publishers will mail you books for free. We get at least a dozen at the TC offices every week, which is why we write about books so often around here these days. Alas, no $100 catered lunches.

The wider story here though appears to be one of a firm completely strategically adrift. Mithril is struggling to compete against ferocious competition in the growth-stage equity market. The best deals are obvious to dozens of firms, and the ones that are less obvious have huge risks attached to them that make it hard to write the big checks required.

“[Royan] literally did not want to compete. If there was a process or bidding war or something resembling a competition, he would just walk,” the employee said. “And he would just say, ‘I don’t want to outbid.’”

Mithril is hardly the only VC firm that is strategically adrift. Every time I go back to SF, this seems to be the norm these days among venture capitalists. There is a huge amount of money sloshing around, and very few deals that are in that sweet spot between obvious and highly risky. Startups either get three dozen term sheets or none at all, since every firm is walking around with the same frameworks and metrics in their head.

It’s so rare to actually hear a VC strategy that isn’t generic capital, that has some differentiation on sourcing, and picking, and growing businesses beyond the “we invest in great companies.” VCs don’t like strategy because it means making choices, and making choices means saying no to certain things, and those things might be the next Facebook. So they do everything, all the time, which really means they do nothing. And so we get book ordering problems and expensive lunches and weirdly angry LPs. What a boring mess.

Quality tech news from around the web

Written by Arman Tabatabai

Carl Larson Photography via Getty Images

South California is also seeing declining seed investment

Today, the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) published its updated economic forecast for LA and the Southern California region. One interesting note in the report is an observed slow down in early-stage venture investing. The report highlighted that while growth-stage investments in CA were hitting record highs, total deal count and seed investing — both in terms of total seed dollars and seed deal count — were at their lowest points since 2012.

The data points in LA, Southern CA, and the rest of the state seem to follow the trend of declining seed rounds seen in the rest of the country. While the topic is one we’ve previously discussed and one which has heated up in recent weeks with commentary from Marc Suster, Fred Wilson, and others, it’s interesting to see the trend occurring even in more nascent startup markets.

Will “Diet CA-HSR” even get done as feds look to pull back California funding

The federal government announced that it would be pulling back $1 billion in funding that was slated for the California high-speed rail project through 2022, while also pursuing legal action to help recoup the $2.5 billion it has already coughed up. The Federal Railroad Administration is arguing that the state’s updated plan — completing only a route from Bakersfield to Merced — is starkly different from the plan for which the funds were originally allocated. Ouch.

As stock exchanges compete to attract IPOs, unicorns and investors win?

It might be getting easier for companies to go public around the world. With ample late-stage capital keeping more companies staying private for longer, looser rules from the SEC and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange may be on the way to help entice more IPOs.

In the US, the SEC proposed allowing all companies to market themselves to investors before announcing IPOs versus just those that fall under the agency’s “emerging growth” definition. Across the Pacific, Bloomberg reported that Chinese tech companies have been lobbying the HK Exchange for a number of more favorable rules, including allowing companies to maintain extra voting rights and letting major shareholders buy extra stock in the process. With a serious number of Chinese companies opting to list on foreign exchanges last year, the HK Exchange might be feeling pressure to cough up concessions that could help them win local listings — especially if the US moves forward with friendlier rules.

How Japan lost half its citizens with poor data

The Japanese government failed to pay out billions of yen in government benefits for years due to faulty data. If that wasn’t bad enough, Nikkei Asian Review reported yesterday that the government is struggling to even locate roughly half of those who are owed since they don’t have their current addresses on file.

As simple as it may seem, tracking the indebted is actually a tall task since citizens have changed residences, changed names, and since the Japanese government has historically destroyed benefit applications (containing address info) after the period required to maintain them. At this point, it’s unclear whether everyone who is owed will even end up getting paid, with the Japanese government now offering a prime example of how poor data maintenance and not just poor data collection can make a situation go from bad to a whole lot worse.

Can the race to build roads in Southeast Asia avoid development gridlock?

As we harp on our “Why can’t we build anything?” obsession, infrastructure development in Southeast Asia is continuing to heat up and everyone seems to want a piece of the pie. Japan announced plans to further accelerate investment into infrastructure and urban development in the region — where China is also actively engaged — with initial expansion talks focused on Cambodia and the Philippines. At the same time, a newly unveiled government budget in Singapore and the ongoing election in Indonesia have brought infrastructure development strategies into the spotlight, with open debate on how these projects have been and should be funded.

Obsessions

More discussion of megaprojects, infrastructure, and “why can’t we build things”

We are going to be talking India here, focused around the book “Billonnaire Raj” by James Crabtree

We have a lot to catch up on in the China world when the EC launch craziness dies down. Plus, we are covering The Next Factory of the World by Irene Yuan Sun.

Societal resilience and geoengineering are still top-of-mind

Some more on metrics design and quantification

Thanks

To every member of Extra Crunch: thank you. You allow us to get off the ad-laden media churn conveyor belt and spend quality time on amazing ideas, people, and companies. If I can ever be of assistance, hit reply, or send an email to [email protected].

This newsletter is written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/20/timing-and-why-were-all-vcs/

[fmservers]

Timing and why we’re all VCs

Timing is the single most valuable skill of the modern economy, but I would argue its’s the least understood and also the least practiced.

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should you start a company? What company should you start? When should a VC invest? When should you join a company? When should you switch industries? When should you back a candidate for public office?

Every single one of our professional decisions is about timing, and yet, we do so little to practice and perfect it. Most employees only make 3-4 major career decisions in their lifetimes — hardly enough feedback for this skill to mature. Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces.

Most of us want to make more money and accelerate our careers, but the truth is that these opportunities are few and far between. Most jobs have limited growth potential. Most startups die. Most VCs don’t make money. Most political candidates fail to get elected. The difference between success and failure sometimes has to do with hard work and tenacity, but far more often with the strategy of timing.

It’s obvious that we can be too late to these decisions of course. We can miss the round of financing, we can start a company a year or two behind someone else and lose the first-mover advantage. But we can also be way too early, ahead of the market and losing out on alternative opportunities that might have been more valuable.

Now, some perceive that “timing” is synonymous with “luck.” There is some truth there, in the sense that life is random and sometimes — completely unintentionally — people stumble upon a treasure chest of gold.

Don’t be distracted by that, because there are also people who just seem to have timing nailed. There are engineers (I know because I have seen their recruiter profiles) who have joined three unicorns in a row in the first handful of employees. There are VCs who get a string of wins that is far from chance. There are CEOs that always seem to guide their companies to the right place at the right time and drive their stock valuations up.

We talked a lot about why we can’t build infrastructure in America yesterday. One of the challenges is simply timing: so many things have to happen at once for these projects to get off the ground, and most governors and mayors lack the timing skills required to get them over the finish line.

How can you practice timing? Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. Check in with the companies you talked with a few years ago — how are they doing? Ditto people you met a while back. Start evaluating your predictions: were they correct? Were they too early or too late?

More importantly, start cultivating networks of friends who have a sense of pulse on the frontiers of the economy. That could mean someone at the edge of a new science (quantum computing or AI) or someone who gets marketing to new demographics, or someone who tracks new regulatory and legal changes. Find a peer group of people who get timing and practice it as a craft.

Between TechCrunch today and my former roles in venture capital, I’ve had the opportunity to practice timing a lot. I have a list of companies that I would have backed, and some have turned into unicorns while others have ended up on the ash heap of history. I’ve predicted some trends well, while flubbed others. I’ve been way too early (a huge bias for me), and sometimes stupidly late.

But all along, I am practicing that timing muscle. It’s the only way forward in capitalism, and it’s worth every investment you can make.

Mithril Capital, management fees, and VC strategic drift

Peter Kim via Getty Images

Theodore Schleifer at Recode reported a rare deep dive into the internal intrigue at a prominent VC firm, in this case Mithril Capital. From the article:

Mithril had its best moment yet last week when a portfolio company, Auris Health, sold to Johnson & Johnson for more than $3 billion — returning at least $500 million to the fund.

All appears well. But behind the scenes, a far different story has been unfolding.

The late-stage investment firm has been a slow-burning mess for the past several months, angering current and former employees, limited partners, and, crucially, [Peter] Thiel himself, sources say.

Among the issues is the firm’s huge management fee … and I guess lack of expenses?

The firm is likely collecting as much as $20 million a year in management fees, sources familiar with the figures say.

We don’t know exactly how much the firm spends, but people close to Mithril say they can’t imagine that the firm, given its staff size, is spending more than half of that on operational expenses. [Mithril Capital founder Ajay] Royan’s salary, like that of other venture capitalists, is not publicly disclosed.

One limited partner called the fees, given the size of Mithril’s staff, “outrageous.”

What? I don’t understand this line of reasoning at all. The firm negotiates a fairly standard agreement with its limited partners, and then the LPs are pissed because the firm isn’t spending the money on massive staff and large, expensive offices? The whole point of delegating investment decisions to a GP is to empower them to organize their firm to win deals and get stuff done. If — and it’s a big if of course — they can do that on the cheap, then why should an LP care at all? Burn the management fee in a fireplace if it makes the deals happen.

Ajay Royan told Bloomberg in 2017 that Mithril does not “charge excessive fees.” But he was not exactly known for being thrifty with management money. Former employees describe Friday catered lunches where costs could run over $100 per person, and Royan was known internally for a “book ordering problem” — a former employee said that “unbelievable amounts of books” would be delivered each week to the office by Amazon to maintain the firm’s extensive library.

Pro tip: take on the mantle of book editor for a major tech publication, and the publishers will mail you books for free. We get at least a dozen at the TC offices every week, which is why we write about books so often around here these days. Alas, no $100 catered lunches.

The wider story here though appears to be one of a firm completely strategically adrift. Mithril is struggling to compete against ferocious competition in the growth-stage equity market. The best deals are obvious to dozens of firms, and the ones that are less obvious have huge risks attached to them that make it hard to write the big checks required.

“[Royan] literally did not want to compete. If there was a process or bidding war or something resembling a competition, he would just walk,” the employee said. “And he would just say, ‘I don’t want to outbid.’”

Mithril is hardly the only VC firm that is strategically adrift. Every time I go back to SF, this seems to be the norm these days among venture capitalists. There is a huge amount of money sloshing around, and very few deals that are in that sweet spot between obvious and highly risky. Startups either get three dozen term sheets or none at all, since every firm is walking around with the same frameworks and metrics in their head.

It’s so rare to actually hear a VC strategy that isn’t generic capital, that has some differentiation on sourcing, and picking, and growing businesses beyond the “we invest in great companies.” VCs don’t like strategy because it means making choices, and making choices means saying no to certain things, and those things might be the next Facebook. So they do everything, all the time, which really means they do nothing. And so we get book ordering problems and expensive lunches and weirdly angry LPs. What a boring mess.

Quality tech news from around the web

Written by Arman Tabatabai

Carl Larson Photography via Getty Images

South California is also seeing declining seed investment

Today, the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) published its updated economic forecast for LA and the Southern California region. One interesting note in the report is an observed slow down in early-stage venture investing. The report highlighted that while growth-stage investments in CA were hitting record highs, total deal count and seed investing — both in terms of total seed dollars and seed deal count — were at their lowest points since 2012.

The data points in LA, Southern CA, and the rest of the state seem to follow the trend of declining seed rounds seen in the rest of the country. While the topic is one we’ve previously discussed and one which has heated up in recent weeks with commentary from Marc Suster, Fred Wilson, and others, it’s interesting to see the trend occurring even in more nascent startup markets.

Will “Diet CA-HSR” even get done as feds look to pull back California funding

The federal government announced that it would be pulling back $1 billion in funding that was slated for the California high-speed rail project through 2022, while also pursuing legal action to help recoup the $2.5 billion it has already coughed up. The Federal Railroad Administration is arguing that the state’s updated plan — completing only a route from Bakersfield to Merced — is starkly different from the plan for which the funds were originally allocated. Ouch.

As stock exchanges compete to attract IPOs, unicorns and investors win?

It might be getting easier for companies to go public around the world. With ample late-stage capital keeping more companies staying private for longer, looser rules from the SEC and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange may be on the way to help entice more IPOs.

In the US, the SEC proposed allowing all companies to market themselves to investors before announcing IPOs versus just those that fall under the agency’s “emerging growth” definition. Across the Pacific, Bloomberg reported that Chinese tech companies have been lobbying the HK Exchange for a number of more favorable rules, including allowing companies to maintain extra voting rights and letting major shareholders buy extra stock in the process. With a serious number of Chinese companies opting to list on foreign exchanges last year, the HK Exchange might be feeling pressure to cough up concessions that could help them win local listings — especially if the US moves forward with friendlier rules.

How Japan lost half its citizens with poor data

The Japanese government failed to pay out billions of yen in government benefits for years due to faulty data. If that wasn’t bad enough, Nikkei Asian Review reported yesterday that the government is struggling to even locate roughly half of those who are owed since they don’t have their current addresses on file.

As simple as it may seem, tracking the indebted is actually a tall task since citizens have changed residences, changed names, and since the Japanese government has historically destroyed benefit applications (containing address info) after the period required to maintain them. At this point, it’s unclear whether everyone who is owed will even end up getting paid, with the Japanese government now offering a prime example of how poor data maintenance and not just poor data collection can make a situation go from bad to a whole lot worse.

Can the race to build roads in Southeast Asia avoid development gridlock?

As we harp on our “Why can’t we build anything?” obsession, infrastructure development in Southeast Asia is continuing to heat up and everyone seems to want a piece of the pie. Japan announced plans to further accelerate investment into infrastructure and urban development in the region — where China is also actively engaged — with initial expansion talks focused on Cambodia and the Philippines. At the same time, a newly unveiled government budget in Singapore and the ongoing election in Indonesia have brought infrastructure development strategies into the spotlight, with open debate on how these projects have been and should be funded.

Obsessions

More discussion of megaprojects, infrastructure, and “why can’t we build things”

We are going to be talking India here, focused around the book “Billonnaire Raj” by James Crabtree

We have a lot to catch up on in the China world when the EC launch craziness dies down. Plus, we are covering The Next Factory of the World by Irene Yuan Sun.

Societal resilience and geoengineering are still top-of-mind

Some more on metrics design and quantification

Thanks

To every member of Extra Crunch: thank you. You allow us to get off the ad-laden media churn conveyor belt and spend quality time on amazing ideas, people, and companies. If I can ever be of assistance, hit reply, or send an email to [email protected].

This newsletter is written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York

Via Arman Tabatabai https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

[selfhelpqa-blog]

Think and Grow Rich Part 1

New Post has been published on https://selfhelpqa.com/think-and-grow-rich-part-1/

Think and Grow Rich Part 1

THINK AND GROW RICH

PART 1

by

Napoleon Hill

Author’s Preface

IN EVERY chapter of this book, mention has been made of the money-making secret which has made fortunes for more than five hundred exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of years.

The secret was brought to my attention by Andrew Carnegie, more than a quarter of a century ago. The canny, lovable old Scotsman carelessly tossed it into my mind, when I was but a boy. Then he sat back in his chair, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and watched carefully to see if I had brains enough to understand the full significance of what he had said to me.

When he saw that I had grasped the idea, he asked if I would be willing to spend twenty years or more, preparing myself to take it to the world, to men and women who, without the secret, might go through life as failures. I said I would, and with Mr. Carnegie’s cooperation, I have kept my promise.

This book contains the secret, after having been put to a practical test by thousands of people, in almost every walk of life. It was Mr. Carnegie’s idea that the magic formula, which gave him a stupendous fortune, ought to be placed within reach of people who do not have time to investigate how men make money, and it was his hope that I might test and demonstrate the soundness of the formula through the experience of men and women in every calling.

He believed the formula should be taught in all public schools and colleges, and expressed the opinion that if it were properly taught it would so revolutionize the entire educational system that the time spent in school could be reduced to less than half.

His experience with Charles M. Schwab, and other young men of Mr. Schwab’s type, convinced Mr. Carnegie that much of that which is taught in the schools is of no value whatsoever in connection with the business of earning a living or accumulating riches. He had arrived at this decision, because he had taken into his business one young man after another, many of them with but little schooling, and by coaching them in the use of this formula, developed in them rare leadership. Moreover, his coaching made fortunes for everyone of them who followed his instructions. In the chapter on Faith, you will read the astounding story of the organization of the giant United States Steel Corporation, as it was conceived and carried out by one of the young men through whom Mr. Carnegie proved that his formula will work for all who are ready for it. This single application of the secret, by that young man-Charles M. Schwab-made him a huge fortune in both money and OPPORTUNITY. Roughly speaking, this particular application of the formula was worth six hundred million dollars. These facts-and they are facts well known to almost everyone who knew Mr. Carnegie-give you a fair idea of what the reading of this book may bring to you, provided you KNOW WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT.

Even before it had undergone twenty years of practical testing, the secret was passed on to more than one hundred thousand men and women who have used it for their personal benefit, as Mr. Carnegie planned that they should. Some have made fortunes with it. Others have used it successfully in creating harmony in their homes. A clergyman used it so effectively that it brought him an income of upwards of $75,000.00 a year.

Arthur Nash, a Cincinnati tailor, used his near-bankrupt business as a “guinea pig” on which to test the formula. The business came to life and made a fortune for its owners. It is still thriving, although Mr. Nash has gone. The experiment was so unique that newspapers and magazines, gave it more than a million dollars’ worth of laudatory publicity.

The secret was passed on to Stuart Austin Wier, of Dallas, Texas. He was ready for it-so ready that he gave up his profession and studied law. Did he succeed? That story is told too.

I gave the secret to Jennings Randolph, the day he graduated from College, and he has used it so successfully that he is now serving his third term as a Member of Congress, with an excellent opportunity to keep on using it until it carries him to the White House.

While serving as Advertising Manager of the La-Salle Extension University, when it was little more than a name, I had the privilege of seeing J. G. Chapline, President of the University, use the formula so effectively that he has since made the LaSalle one of the great extension schools of the country.

The secret to which I refer has been mentioned no fewer than a hundred times, throughout this book. It has not been directly named, for it seems to work more successfully when it is merely uncovered and left in sight, where THOSE WHO ARE READY, and SEARCHING FOR IT, may pick it up. That is why Mr. Carnegie tossed it to me so quietly, without giving me its specific name.

If you are READY to put it to use, you will recognize this secret at least once in every chapter. I wish I might feel privileged to tell you how you will know if you are ready, but that would deprive you of much of the benefit you will receive when you make the discovery in your own way.

While this book was being written, my own son, who was then finishing the last year of his college work, picked up the manuscript of chapter two, read it, and discovered the secret for himself. He used the information so effectively that he went directly into a responsible position at a beginning salary greater than the average man ever earns. His story has been briefly described in chapter two.

When you read it, perhaps you will dismiss any feeling you may have had, at the beginning of the book, that it promised too much. And, too, if you have ever been discouraged, if you have had difficulties to surmount which took the very soul out of you, if you have tried and failed, if you were ever handicapped by illness or physical affliction, this story of my son’s discovery and use of the Carnegie formula may prove to be the oasis in the Desert of Lost Hope, for which you have been searching.

This secret was extensively used by President Woodrow Wilson, during the World War. It was passed on to every soldier who fought in the war, carefully wrapped in the training received before going to the front. President Wilson told me it was a strong factor in raising the funds needed for the war. More than twenty years ago, Hon. Manuel L. Quezon (then Resident Commissioner of the Philippine Islands), was inspired by the secret to gain freedom for his people. He has gained freedom for the Philippines, and is the first President of the free state. A peculiar thing about this secret is that those who once acquire it and use it, find themselves literally swept on to success, with but little effort, and they never again submit to failure! If you doubt this, study the names of those who have used it, wherever they have been mentioned, check their records for yourself, and be convinced.

There is no such thing as SOMETHING FOR NOTHING!

The secret to which I refer cannot be had without a price, although the price is far less than its value. It cannot be had at any price by those who are not intentionally searching for it. It cannot be given away, it cannot be purchased for money, for the reason that it comes in two parts. One part is already in possession of those who are ready for it. The secret serves equally well, all who are ready for it.

Education has nothing to do with it. Long before I was born, the secret had found its way into the possession of Thomas A. Edison, and he used it so intelligently that he became the world’s leading inventor, although he had but three months of schooling. The secret was passed on to a business associate of Mr. Edison. He used it so effectively that, although he was then making only $12,000 a year, he accumulated a great fortune, and retired from active business while still a young man. You will find his story at the beginning of the first chapter. It should convince you that riches are not beyond your reach, that you can still be what you wish to be, that money, fame, recognition and happiness can be had by all who are ready and determined to have these blessings.

How do I know these things? You should have the answer before you finish this book. You may find it in the very first chapter, or on the last page.

While I was performing the twenty year task of research, which I had undertaken at Mr. Carnegie’s request, I analyzed hundreds of well known men, many of whom admitted that they had accumulated their vast fortunes through the aid of the Carnegie secret; among these men were:

HENRY FORD WILLIAM WRIGLEY JR. JOHN WANAMAKER JAMES J. HILL GEORGE S. PARKER E. M. STATLER HENRY L. DOHERTY CYRUS H. K. CURTIS GEORGE EASTMAN THEODORE ROOSEVELT JOHN W. DAVIS ELBERT HUBBARD WILBUR WRIGHT WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN DR. DMTID STARR JORDAN J. ODGEN ARMOUR CHARLES M. SCHWAB HARRIS F. WILLIAMS DR. FRANK GUNSAULUS DANIEL WILLARD KING GILLETTE RALPH A. WEEKS JUDGE DANIEL T. WRIGHT JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER THOMAS A. EDISON FRANK A. VANDERLIP F. W. WOOLWORTH COL. ROBERTA. DOLLAR EDWARD A. FILENE EDWIN C. BARNES ARTHUR BRISBANE WOODROW WILSON WM. HOWARD TAFT LUTHER BURBANK EDWARD W. BOK FRANK A. MUNSEY ELBERT H. GARY DR. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL JOHN H. PATTERSON JULIUS ROSENWALD STUART AUSTIN WIER DR. FRANK CRANE GEORGE M. ALEXANDER J. G. CHAPPLINE HON. JENNINGS RANDOLPH ARTHUR NASH CLARENCE DARROW

These names represent but a small fraction of the hundreds of well known Americans whose achievements, financially and otherwise, prove that those who understand and apply the Carnegie secret, reach high stations in life. I have never known anyone who was inspired to use the secret, who did not achieve noteworthy success in his chosen calling. I have never known any person to distinguish himself, or to accumulate riches of any consequence, without possession of the secret.

From these two facts I draw the conclusion that the secret is more important, as a part of the knowledge essential for self-determination, than any which one receives through what is popularly known as “education.”

What is EDUCATION, anyway? This has been answered in full detail. As far as schooling is concerned, many of these men had very little. John Wanamaker once told me that what little schooling he had, he acquired in very much the same manner as a modern locomotive takes on water, by “scooping it up as it runs.” Henry Ford never reached high school, let alone college. I am not attempting to minimize the value of schooling, but I am trying to express my earnest belief that those who master and apply the secret will reach high stations, accumulate riches, and bargain with life on their own terms, even if their schooling has been meager.

Somewhere, as you read, the secret to which I refer will jump from the page and stand boldly before you, IF YOU ARE READY FOR IT! When it appears, you will recognize it. Whether you receive the sign in the first or the last chapter, stop for a moment when it presents itself, and turn down a glass, for that occasion will mark the most important turning-point of your life.

We pass now, to Chapter One, and to the story of my very dear friend, who has generously acknowledged having seen the mystic sign, and whose business achievements are evidence enough that he turned down a glass. As you read his story, and the others, remember that they deal with the important problems of life, such as all men experience. The problems arising from one’s endeavor to earn a living, to find hope, courage, contentment and peace of mind; to accumulate riches and to enjoy freedom of body and spirit.

Remember, too, as you go through the book, that it deals with facts and not with fiction, its purpose being to convey a great universal truth through which all who are READY may learn, not only WHAT TO DO, BUT ALSO HOW TO DO IT! and receive, as well, THE NEEDED STIMULUS TO MAKE A START.

As a final word of preparation, before you begin the first chapter, may I offer one brief suggestion which may provide a clue by which the Carnegie secret may be recognized? It is this-ALL ACHIEVEMENT, ALL EARNED RICHES, HAVE THEIR BEGINNING IN AN IDEA!

If you are ready for the secret, you already possess one half of it, therefore, you will readily recognize the other half the moment it reaches your mind.

THE AUTHOR

Chapter 1

Introduction

THE MAN WHO “THOUGHT” HIS WAY INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH THOMAS A. EDISON

TRULY, “thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a BURNING DESIRE for their translation into riches, or other material objects.

A little more than thirty years ago, Edwin C. Barnes discovered how true it is that men really do THINK AND GROW RICH. His discovery did not come about at one sitting. It came little by little, beginning with a BURNING DESIRE to become a business associate of the great Edison.

One of the chief characteristics of Barnes’ Desire was that it was definite. He wanted to work with Edison, not for him. Observe, carefully, the description of how he went about translating his DESIRE into reality, and you will have a better understanding of the thirteen principles which lead to riches. When this DESIRE, or impulse of thought, first flashed into his mind he was in no position to act upon it. Two difficulties stood in his way. He did not know Mr. Edison, and he did not have enough money to pay his railroad fare to Orange, New Jersey. These difficulties were sufficient to have discouraged the majority of men from making any attempt to carry out the desire.

But his was no ordinary desire! He was so determined to find a way to carry out his desire that he finally decided to travel by “blind baggage,” rather than be defeated. (To the uninitiated, this means that he went to East Orange on a freight train). He presented himself at Mr. Edison’s laboratory, and announced he had come to go into business with the inventor. In speaking of the first meeting between Barnes and Edison, years later, Mr. Edison said, “He stood there before me, looking like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined to get what he had come after. I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really DESIRES a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win. I gave him the opportunity he asked for, because I saw he had made up his mind to stand by until he succeeded. Subsequent events proved that no mistake was made.”

Just what young Barnes said to Mr. Edison on that occasion was far less important than that which he thought. Edison, himself, said so! It could not have been the young man’s appearance which got him his start in the Edison office, for that was definitely against him. It was what he THOUGHT that counted. If the significance of this statement could be conveyed to every person who reads it, there would be no need for the remainder of this book.

Barnes did not get his partnership with Edison on his first interview. He did get a chance to work in the Edison offices, at a very nominal wage, doing work that was unimportant to Edison, but most important to Barnes, because it gave him an opportunity to display his “merchandise” where his intended “partner” could see it. Months went by. Apparently nothing happened to bring the coveted goal which Barnes had set up in his mind as his DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE. But something important was happening in Barnes’ mind. He was constantly intensifying his DESIRE to become the business associate of Edison.

Psychologists have correctly said that “when one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.” Barnes was ready for a business association with Edison, moreover, he was DETERMINED TO REMAIN READY UNTIL HE GOT THAT WHICH HE WAS SEEKING.

He did not say to himself, “Ah well, what’s the use? I guess I’ll change my mind and try for a salesman’s job.” But, he did say, “I came here to go into business with Edison, and I’ll accomplish this end if it takes the remainder of my life.” He meant it! What a different story men would have to tell if only they would adopt a DEFINITE PURPOSE, and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession!

Maybe young Barnes did not know it at the time, but his bulldog determination, his persistence in standing back of a single DESIRE, was destined to mow down all opposition, and bring him the opportunity he was seeking.

When the opportunity came, it appeared in a different form, and from a different direction than Barnes had expected. That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity. Mr. Edison had just perfected a new office device, known at that time, as the Edison Dictating Machine (now the Ediphone). His salesmen were not enthusiastic over the machine. They did not believe it could be sold without great effort. Barnes saw his opportunity. It had crawled in quietly, hidden in a queer looking machine which interested no one but Barnes and the inventor.

Barnes knew he could sell the Edison Dictating Machine. He suggested this to Edison, and promptly got his chance. He did sell the machine. In fact, he sold it so successfully that Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market it all over the nation. Out of that business association grew the slogan, “Made by Edison and installed by Barnes.”

The business alliance has been in operation for more than thirty years. Out of it Barnes has made himself rich in money, but he has done something infinitely greater, he has proved that one really may “Think and Grow Rich.” How much actual cash that original DESIRE of Barnes’ has been worth to him, I have no way of knowing. Perhaps it has brought him two or three million dollars, but the amount, whatever it is, becomes insignificant when compared with the greater asset he acquired in the form of definite knowledge that an intangible impulse of thought can be transmuted into its physical counterpart by the application of known principles.

Barnes literally thought himself into a partnership with the great Edison! He thought himself into a fortune. He had nothing to start with, except the capacity to KNOW WHAT HE WANTED, AND THE DETERMINATION TO STAND BY THAT DESIRE UNTIL HE REALIZED IT. He had no money to begin with. He had but little education. He had no influence. But he did have initiative, faith, and the will to win. With these intangible forces he made himself number one man with the greatest inventor who ever lived.

Now, let us look at a different situation, and study a man who had plenty of tangible evidence of riches, but lost it, because he stopped three feet short of the goal he was seeking.

THREE FEET FROM GOLD

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the “gold fever” in the goldrush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the “strike.” They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again-all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to QUIT. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some “junk” men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where it was found!

The “Junk” man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up. Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.

Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.

Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, because he STOPPED three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say ‘no’ when I ask them to buy insurance.”

Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his “stickability” to the lesson he learned from his “quitability” in the gold mining business.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of men do.

More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning.

It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach. A FIFTY-CENT LESSON IN PERSISTENCE

Shortly after Mr. Darby received his degree from the “University of Hard Knocks,” and had decided to profit by his experience in the gold mining business, he had the good fortune to be present on an occasion that proved to him that “No” does not necessarily mean no.

One afternoon he was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm on which a number of colored sharecrop farmers lived. Quietly, the door was opened, and a small colored child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door.

The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, “what do you want?” Meekly, the child replied, “My mammy say send her fifty cents.” “I’ll not do it,” the uncle retorted, “Now you run on home.” “Yas sah,” the child replied. But she did not move. The uncle went ahead with his work, so busily engaged that he did not pay enough attention to the child to observe that she did not leave. When he looked up and saw her still standing there, he yelled at her, “I told you to go on home! Now go, or I’ll take a switch to you.” The little girl said “yas sah,” but she did not budge an inch. The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, picked up a barrel stave, and started toward the child with an expression on his face that indicated trouble.

Darby held his breath. He was certain he was about to witness a murder. He knew his uncle had a fierce temper. He knew that colored children were not supposed to defy white people in that part of the country.

When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her shrill voice, “MY MAMMY’S GOTTA HAVE THAT FIFTY CENTS!”

The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, then slowly laid the barrel stave on the floor, put his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar, and gave it to her. The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered.

After she had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and looked out the window into space for more than ten minutes. He was pondering, with awe, over the whipping he had just taken. Mr. Darby, too, was doing some thinking. That was the first time in all his experience that he had seen a colored child deliberately master an adult white person. How did she do it? What happened to his uncle that caused him to lose his fierceness and become as docile as a lamb? What strange power did this child use that made her master over her superior? These and other similar questions flashed into Darby’s mind, but he did not find the answer until years later, when he told me the story.

Strangely, the story of this unusual experience was told to the author in the old mill, on the very spot where the uncle took his whipping. Strangely, too, I had devoted nearly a quarter of a century to the study of the power which enabled an ignorant, illiterate colored child to conquer an intelligent man.

As we stood there in that musty old mill, Mr. Darby repeated the story of the unusual conquest, and finished by asking, “What can you make of it? What strange power did that child use, that so completely whipped my uncle?”

The answer to his question will be found in the principles described in this book. The answer is full and complete. It contains details and instructions sufficient to enable anyone to understand, and apply the same force which the little child accidentally stumbled upon.

Keep your mind alert, and you will observe exactly what strange power came to the rescue of the child, you will catch a glimpse of this power in the next chapter. Somewhere in the book you will find an idea that will quicken your receptive powers, and place at your command, for your own benefit, this same irresistible power. The awareness of this power may come to you in the first chapter, or it may flash into your mind in some subsequent chapter. It may come in the form of a single idea. Or, it may come in the nature of a plan, or a purpose. Again, it may cause you to go back into your past experiences of failure or defeat, and bring to the surface some lesson by which you can regain all that you lost through defeat.

After I had described to Mr. Darby the power unwittingly used by the little colored child, he quickly retraced his thirty years of experience as a life insurance salesman, and frankly acknowledged that his success in that field was due, in no small degree, to the lesson he had learned from the child.

Mr. Darby pointed out: “every time a prospect tried to bow me out, without buying, I saw that child standing there in the old mill, her big eyes glaring in defiance, and I said to myself, ‘I’ve gotta make this sale.’ The better portion of all sales I have made, were made after people had said ‘NO’.” He recalled, too, his mistake in having stopped only three feet from gold, “but,” he said, “that experience was a blessing in disguise. It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.”

This story of Mr. Darby and his uncle, the colored child and the gold mine, doubtless will be read by hundreds of men who make their living by selling life insurance, and to all of these, the author wishes to offer the suggestion that Darby owes to these two experiences his ability to sell more than a million dollars of life insurance every year.

Life is strange, and often imponderable! Both the successes and the failures have their roots in simple experiences. Mr. Darby’s experiences were commonplace and simple enough, yet they held the answer to his destiny in life, therefore they were as important (to him) as life itself. He profited by these two dramatic experiences, because he analyzed them, and found the lesson they taught. But what of the man who has neither the time, nor the inclination to study failure in search of knowledge that may lead to success?

Where, and how is he to learn the art of converting defeat into stepping stones to opportunity?

In answer to these questions, this book was written. The answer called for a description of thirteen principles, but remember, as you read, the answer you may be seeking, to the questions which have caused you to ponder over the strangeness of life, may be found in your own mind, through some idea, plan, or purpose which may spring into your mind as you read.

One sound idea is all that one needs to achieve success. The principles described in this book, contain the best, and the most practical of all that is known, concerning ways and means of creating useful ideas.

Before we go any further in our approach to the description of these principles, we believe you are entitled to receive this important suggestion.. ..WHEN RICHES BEGIN TO COME THEY COME SO QUICKLY, IN SUCH GREAT ABUNDANCE, THAT ONE WONDERS WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN HIDING DURING ALL THOSE LEAN YEARS.

This is an astounding statement, and all the more so, when we take into consideration the popular belief, that riches come only to those who work hard and long.

When you begin to THINK AND GROW RICH, you will observe that riches begin with a state of mind, with definiteness of purpose, with little or no hard work. You, and every other person, ought to be interested in knowing how to acquire that state of mind which will attract riches. I spent twenty-five years in research, analyzing more than 25,000 people, because I, too, wanted to know “how wealthy men become that way.

Without that research, this book could not have been written. Here take notice of a very significant truth, viz:

The business depression started in 1929, and continued on to an all time record of destruction, until sometime after President Roosevelt entered office. Then the depression began to fade into nothingness. Just as an electrician in a theatre raises the lights so gradually that darkness is transmuted into light before you realize it, so did the spell of fear in the minds of the people gradually fade away and become faith.

Observe very closely, as soon as you master the principles of this philosophy, and begin to follow the instructions for applying those principles, your financial status will begin to improve, and everything you touch will begin to transmute itself into an asset for your benefit. Impossible? Not at all!

One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average man’s familiarity with the word “impossible.” He knows all the rules which will NOT work. He knows all the things which CANNOT be done. This book was written for those who seek the rules which have made others successful, and are willing to stake everything on those rules. A great many years ago I purchased a fine dictionary. The first thing I did with it was to turn to the word “impossible,” and neatly clip it out of the book. That would not be an unwise thing for you to do. Success comes to those who become SUCCESS CONSCIOUS.

Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become FAILURE CONSCIOUS.

The object of this book is to help all who seek it, to learn the art of changing their minds from FAILURE CONSCIOUSNESS to SUCCESS CONSCIOUSNESS.

Another weakness found in altogether too many people, is the habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by their own impressions and beliefs. Some who will read this, will believe that no one can THINK AND GROW RICH. They cannot think in terms of riches, because their thought habits have been steeped in poverty, want, misery, failure, and defeat.

These unfortunate people remind me of a prominent Chinese, who came to America to be educated in American ways. He attended the University of Chicago. One day President Harper met this young Oriental on the campus, stopped to chat with him for a few minutes, and asked what had impressed him as being the most noticeable characteristic of the American people. “Why,” the Chinaman exclaimed, “the queer slant of your eyes. Your eyes are off slant!” What do we say about the Chinese? We refuse to believe that which we do not understand. We foolishly believe that our own limitations are the proper measure of limitations. Sure, the other fellow’s eyes are “off slant,” BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT THE SAME AS OUR OWN. Millions of people look at the achievements of Henry Ford, after he has arrived, and envy him, because of his good fortune, or luck, or genius, or whatever it is that they credit for Ford’s fortune. Perhaps one person in every hundred thousand knows the secret of Ford’s success, and those who do know are too modest, or too reluctant, to speak of it, because of its simplicity. A single transaction will illustrate the “secret” perfectly.

A few years back, Ford decided to produce his now famous V-8 motor. He chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block, and instructed his engineers to produce a design for the engine. The design was placed on paper, but the engineers agreed, to a man, that it was simply impossible to cast an eight cylinder gas engine block in one piece.

Ford said, “Produce it anyway.” “But,” they replied, “it’s impossible!” “Go ahead,” Ford commanded, “and stay on the job until you succeed no matter how much time is required.”

The engineers went ahead. There was nothing else for them to do, if they were to remain on the Ford staff. Six months went by, nothing happened. Another six months passed, and still nothing happened. The engineers tried every conceivable plan to carry out the orders, but the thing seemed out of the question; “impossible!”

At the end of the year Ford checked with his engineers, and again they informed him they had found no way to carry out his orders.

“Go right ahead,” said Ford, “I want it, and I’ll have it.” They went ahead, and then, as if by a stroke of magic, the secret was discovered.

The Ford DETERMINATION had won once more!

This story may not be described with minute accuracy, but the sum and substance of it is correct. Deduce from it, you who wish to THINK AND GROW RICH, the secret of the Ford millions, if you can. You’ll not have to look very far. Henry Ford is a success, because he understands, and applies the principles of success. One of these is DESIRE: knowing what one wants. Remember this Ford story as you read, and pick out the lines in which the secret of his stupendous achievement have been described. If you can do this, if you can lay your finger on the particular group of principles which made Henry Ford rich, you can equal his achievements in almost any calling for which you are suited.

YOU ARE “THE MASTER OF YOUR FATE, THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SOUL,” BECAUSE…

When Henley wrote the prophetic lines, “I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul,” he should have informed us that we are the Masters of our Fate, the Captains of our Souls, because we have the power to control our thoughts.

He should have told us that the ether in which this little earth floats, in which we move and have our being, is a form of energy moving at an inconceivably high rate of vibration, and that the ether is filled with a form of universal power which ADAPTS itself to the nature of the thoughts we hold in our minds; and INFLUENCES us, in natural ways, to transmute our thoughts into their physical equivalent.

If the poet had told us of this great truth, we would know WHY IT IS that we are the Masters of our Fate, the Captains of our Souls. He should have told us, with great emphasis, that this power makes no attempt to discriminate between destructive thoughts and constructive thoughts, that it will urge us to translate into physical reality thoughts of poverty, just as quickly as it will influence us to act upon thoughts of riches.

He should have told us, too, that our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and, by means with which no man familiar, these “magnets” attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.

He should have told us, that before we can accumulate riches in great abundance, we must magnetize our minds with intense DESIRE for riches, that we must become “money conscious until the DESIRE for money drives us to create definite plans for acquiring it.

But, being a poet, and not a philosopher, Henley contented himself by stating a great truth in poetic form, leaving those who followed him to interpret the philosophical meaning of his lines.

Little by little, the truth has unfolded itself, until it now appears certain that the principles described in this book, hold the secret of mastery over our economic fate.

We are now ready to examine the first of these principles. Maintain a spirit of open-mindedness, and remember as you read, they are the invention of no one man. The principles were gathered from the life experiences of more than 500 men who actually accumulated riches in huge amounts; men who began in poverty, with but little education, without influence. The principles worked for these men. You can put them to work for your own enduring benefit. You will find it easy, not hard, to do.

Before you read the next chapter, I want you to know that it conveys factual information which might easily change your entire financial destiny, as it has so definitely brought changes of stupendous proportions to two people described.

I want you to know, also, that the relationship between these two men and myself, is such that I could have taken no liberties with the facts, even if I had wished to do so. One of them has been my closest personal friend for almost twenty-five years, the other is my own son. The unusual success of these two men, success which they generously accredit to the principle described in the next chapter, more than justifies this personal reference as a means of emphasizing the farflung power of this principle.

Almost fifteen years ago, I delivered the Commencement Address at Salem College, Salem, West Virginia. I emphasized the principle described in the next chapter, with so much intensity that one of the members of the graduating class definitely appropriated it, and made it a part of his own philosophy. The young man is now a Member of Congress, and an important factor in the present administration. Just before this book went to the publisher, he wrote me a letter in which he so clearly stated his opinion of the principle outlined in the next chapter, that I have chosen to publish his letter as an introduction to that chapter. It gives you an idea of the rewards to come.

“My dear Napoleon:

“My service as a Member of Congress having given me an insight into the problems of men and women, I am writing to offer a suggestion which may become helpful to thousands of worthy people.

“With apologies, I must state that the suggestion, if acted upon, will mean several years of labor and responsibility for you, but I am en-heartened to make the suggestion, because I know your great love for rendering useful service.

“In 1922, you delivered the Commencement address at Salem College, when I was a member’ of the graduating class. In that address, you planted in my mind an idea which has been responsible for the opportunity I now have to serve the people of my State, and will be responsible, in a very large measure, for whatever success I may have in the future.

“The suggestion I have in mind is, that you put into a book the sum and substance of the address you delivered at Salem College, and in that way give the people of America an opportunity to profit by your many years of experience and association with the men who, by their greatness, have made America the richest nation on earth.

“I recall, as though it were yesterday, the marvelous description you gave of the method by which Henry Ford, with but little schooling, without a dollar, with no influential friends, rose to great heights. I made up my mind then, even before you had finished your speech, that I would make a place for myself, no matter how many difficulties I had to surmount.

“Thousands of young people will finish their schooling this year, and within the next few years. Every one of them will be seeking just such a message of practical encouragement as the one I received from you. They will want to know where to turn, what to do, to get started in life. You can tell them, because you have helped to solve the problems of so many, many people.

“If there is any possible way that you can afford to render so great a service, may I offer the suggestion that you include with every book, one of your Personal Analysis Charts, in order that the purchaser of the book may have the benefit of a complete self -inventory, indicating, as you indicated to me years ago, exactly what is standing in the way of success.

“Such a service as this, providing the readers of your book with a complete, unbiased picture of their faults and their virtues, would mean to them the difference between success and failure. The service would be priceless.

“Millions of people are now facing the problem of staging a come-back, because of the depression, and I speak from personal experience when I say, I know these earnest people would welcome the opportunity to tell you their problems, and to receive your suggestions for the solution.

“You know the problems of those who face the necessity of beginning all over again. There are thousands of people in America today who would like to know how they can convert ideas into money, people who must start at scratch, without finances, and recoup their losses. If anyone can help them, you can.

“If you publish the book, I would like to own the first copy that comes from the press, personally autographed by you. “With best wishes, believe me,

“Cordially yours,

“JENNINGS RANDOLPH’’

Chapter 2

Desire: The Starting Point of All Achievement

The First Step toward Riches

WHEN Edwin C. Barnes climbed down from the freight train in Orange, N. J., more than thirty years ago, he may have resembled a tramp, but his thoughts were those of a king!

As he made his way from the railroad tracks to Thomas A. Edison’s office, his mind was at work. He saw himself standing in Edison’s presence. He heard himself asking Mr. Edison for an opportunity to carry out the one CONSUMING OBSESSION OF HIS LIFE, a BURNING DESIRE to become the business associate of the great inventor.

Barnes’ desire was not a hope! It was not a wish! It was a keen, pulsating DESIRE, which transcended everything else. It was DEFINITE.

The desire was not new when he approached Edison. It had been Barnes’ dominating desire for a long time. In the beginning, when the desire first appeared in his mind, it may have been, probably was, only a wish, but it was no mere wish when he appeared before Edison with it.

A few years later, Edwin C. Barnes again stood before Edison, in the same office where he first met the inventor. This time his DESIRE had been translated into reality. He was in business with Edison. The dominating DREAM OF HIS LIFE had become a reality.

Today, people who know Barnes envy him, because of the “break” life yielded him. They see him in the days of his triumph, without taking the trouble to investigate the cause of his success.

Barnes succeeded because he chose a definite goal, placed all his energy, all his will power, all his effort, everything back of that goal. He did not become the partner of Edison the day he arrived. He was content to start in the most menial work, as long as it provided an opportunity to take even one step toward his cherished goal. Five years passed before the chance he had been seeking made its appearance. During all those years not one ray of hope, not one promise of attainment of his DESIRE had been held out to him. To everyone, except himself, he appeared only another cog in the Edison business wheel, but in his own mind, HE WAS THE PARTNER OF EDISON EVERY MINUTE OF THE TIME, from the very day that he first went to work there.

It is a remarkable illustration of the power of a DEFINITE DESIRE. Barnes won his goal, because he wanted to be a business associate of Mr. Edison, more than he wanted anything else. He created a plan by which to attain that purpose. But he BURNED ALL BRIDGES BEHIND HIM. He stood by his DESIRE until it became the dominating obsession of his life-and-finally, a fact.

When he went to Orange, he did not say to himself, “I will try to induce Edison to give me a job of some soft.” He said, “I will see Edison, and put him on notice that I have come to go into business with him.

He did not say, “I will work there for a few months, and if I get no encouragement, I will quit and get a job somewhere else.” He did say, “I will start anywhere. I will do anything Edison tells me to do, but before I am through, I will be his associate.”

He did not say, “I will keep my eyes open for another opportunity, in case I fail to get what I want in the Edison organization.” He said, “There is but ONE thing in this world that I am determined to have, and that is a business association with Thomas A. Edison. I will burn all bridges behind me, and stake my ENTIRE FUTURE on my ability to get what I want.”

He left himself no possible way of retreat. He had to win or perish!

That is all there is to the Barnes story of success! A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, “You see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice-we win-or we perish! They won.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a BURNING DESIRE TO WIN, essential to success.

The morning after the great Chicago fire, a group of merchants stood on State Street, looking at the smoking remains of what had been their stores. They went into a conference to decide if they would try to rebuild, or leave Chicago and start over in a more promising section of the country. They reached a decision-all except one-to leave Chicago.

The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild pointed a finger at the remains of his store, and said, “Gentlemen, on that very spot I will build the world’s greatest store, no matter how many times it may burn down.” That was more than fifty years ago. The store was built. It stands there today, a towering monument to the power of that state of mind known as a BURNING DESIRE. The easy thing for Marshal Field to have done, would have been exactly what his fellow merchants did. When the going was hard, and the future looked dismal, they pulled up and went where the going seemed easier.

Mark well this difference between Marshal Field and the other merchants, because it is the same difference which distinguishes Edwin C. Barnes from thousands of other young men who have worked in the Edison organization. It is the same difference which distinguishes practically all who succeed from those who fail.

Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money, wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.

The method by which DESIRE for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of six definite, practical steps, viz: First. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.”

First. Be definite as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness which will be described in a subsequent chapter).

Second. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.)

Third. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.

Fourth. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Fifth. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.

Sixth. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU READ-SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.

It is important that you follow the instructions described in these six steps. It is especially important that you observe, and follow the instructions in the sixth paragraph. You may complain that it is impossible for you to “see yourself in possession of money” before you actually have it. Here is where a BURNING DESIRE will come to your aid. If you truly DESIRE money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to become so determined to have it that you CONVINCE yourself you will have it.

Only those who become “money conscious” ever accumulate great riches. “Money consciousness” means that the mind has become so thoroughly saturated with the DESIRE for money, that one can see one’s self already in possession of it.

To the uninitiated, who has not been schooled in the working principles of the human mind, these instructions may appear impractical. It may be helpful, to all who fail to recognize the soundness of the six steps, to know that the information they convey, was received from Andrew Carnegie, who began as an ordinary laborer in the steel mills, but managed, despite his humble beginning, to make these principles yield him a fortune of considerably more than one hundred million dollars.

It may be of further help to know that the six steps here recommended were carefully scrutinized by the late Thomas A. Edison, who placed his stamp of approval upon them as being, not only the steps essential for the accumulation of money, but necessary for the attainment of any definite goal.

The steps call for no “hard labor.” They call for no sacrifice. They do not require one to become ridiculous, or credulous. To apply them calls for no great amount of education. But the successful application of these six steps does call for sufficient imagination to enable one to see, and to understand, that accumulation of money cannot be left to chance, good fortune, and luck. One must realize that all who have accumulated great fortunes, first did a certain amount of dreaming, hoping, wishing, DESIRING, and PLANNING before they acquired money.

You may as well know, right here, that you can never have riches in great quantities, UNLESS you can work yourself into a white heat of DESIRE for money, and actually BELIEVE you will possess it.

You may as well know, also that every great leader, from the dawn of civilization down to the present, was a dreamer.

Christianity is the greatest potential power in the world today, because its founder was an intense dreamer who had the vision and the imagination to see realities in their mental and spiritual form before they had been transmuted into physical form. If you do not see great riches in your imagination, you will never see them in your bank balance. Never, in the history of America has there been so great an opportunity for practical dreamers as now exists. The six year economic collapse has reduced all men, substantially, to the same level. A new race is about to be run. The stakes represent huge fortunes which will be accumulated within the next ten years. The rules of the race have changed, because we now live in a CHANGED WORLD that definitely favors the masses, those who had but little or no opportunity to win under the conditions existing during the depression, when fear paralyzed growth and development.

We who are in this race for riches, should be encouraged to know that this changed world in which we live is demanding new ideas, new ways of doing things, new leaders, new inventions, new methods of teaching, new methods of marketing, new books, new literature, new features for the radio, new ideas for moving pictures.

Back of all this demand for new and better things, there is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning DESIRE to possess it.

The business depression marked the death of one age, and the birth of another. This changed world requires practical dreamers who can, and will put their dreams into action. The practical dreamers have always been, and always will be the pattern-makers of civilization.

We who desire to accumulate riches, should remember the real leaders of the world always have been men who harnessed, and put into practical use, the intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity, and have converted those forces, [or impulses of thought], into sky-scrapers, cities, factories, airplanes, automobiles, and every form of convenience that makes life more pleasant.

Tolerance, and an open mind are practical necessities of the dreamer of today. Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they start. Never has there been a time more favorable to pioneers than the present. True, there is no wild and woolly west to be conquered, as in the days of the Covered Wagon; but there is a vast business, financial, and industrial world to be remoulded and redirected along new and better lines.

In planning to acquire your share of the riches, let no one influence you to scorn the dreamer. To win the big stakes in this changed world, you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past, whose dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value, the spirit which serves as the life-blood of our own countryyour opportunity and mine, to develop and market our talents.

Let us not forget, Columbus dreamed of an Unknown world, staked his life on the existence of such a world, and discovered it!

Copernicus, the great astronomer, dreamed of a multiplicity of worlds, and revealed them! No one denounced him as “impractical” after he had triumphed. Instead, the world worshipped at his shrine, thus proving once more that “SUCCESS REQUIRES NO APOLOGIES, FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS.”

If the thing you wish to do is right, and you believe in it, go ahead and do it! Put your dream across, and never mind what “they” say if you meet with temporary defeat, for “they,” perhaps, do not know that EVERY FAILURE BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT SUCCESS.

Henry Ford, poor and uneducated, dreamed of a horseless carriage, went to work with what tools he possessed, without waiting for opportunity to favor him, and now evidence of his dream belts the entire earth. He has put more wheels into operation than any man who ever lived, because he was not afraid to back his dreams.

Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity, began where he stood to put his dream into action, and despite more than ten thousand failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical reality. Practical dreamers DO NOT QUIT! Whelan dreamed of a chain of cigar stores, transformed his dream into action, and now the United Cigar Stores occupy the best corners in America.

Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black slaves, put his dream into action, and barely missed living to see a united North and South translate his dream into reality.

The Wright brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly through the air. Now one may see evidence all over the world, that they dreamed soundly.

Marconi dreamed of a system for harnessing the intangible forces of the ether. Evidence that he did not dream in vain, may be found in every wireless and radio in the world. Moreover, Marconi’s dream brought the humblest cabin, and the most stately manor house side by side. It made the people of every nation on earth back-door neighbors. It gave the President of the United States a medium by which he may talk to all the people of America at one time, and on short notice. It may interest you to know that Marconi’s “friends” had him taken into custody, and examined in a psychopathic hospital, when he announced he had discovered a principle through which he could send messages through the air, without the aid of wires, or other direct physical means of communication. The dreamers of today fare better. The world has become accustomed to new discoveries. Nay, it has shown a willingness to reward the dreamer who gives the world a new idea.

“The greatest achievement was, at first, and for a time, but a dream.”

“The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. DREAMS ARE THE SEEDLINGS OF REALITY.”

Awake, arise, and assert yourself, you dreamers of the world. Your star is now in the ascendency. The world depression brought the opportunity you have been waiting for. It taught people humility, tolerance, and open-mindedness.

The world is filled with an abundance of OPPORTUNITY which the dreamers of the past never knew.

A BURNING DESIRE TO BE, AND TO DO is the starting point from which the dreamer must take off. Dreams are not born of indifference, laziness, or lack of ambition.

The world no longer scoffs at the dreamer, nor calls him impractical. If you think it does, take a trip to Tennessee, and witness what a dreamer President has done in the way of harnessing, and using the great water power of America. A score of years ago, such a dream would have seemed like madness.

You have been disappointed, you have undergone defeat during the depression, you have felt the great heart within you crushed until it bled. Take courage, for these experiences have tempered the spiritual metal of which you are made-they are assets of incomparable value.

Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start, and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they “arrive.” The turning point in the lives of those who succeed, usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their “other selves.”

John Bunyan wrote the Pilgrim’s Progress, which is among the finest of all English literature, after he had been confined in prison and sorely punished, because of his views on the subject of religion.

O. Henry discovered the genius which slept within his brain, after he had met with great misfortune, and was confined in a prison cell, in Columbus, Ohio. Being FORCED, through misfortune, to become acquainted with his “other self,” and to use his IMAGINATION, he discovered himself to be a great author instead of a miserable criminal and outcast. Strange and varied are the ways of life, and stranger still are the ways of Infinite Intelligence, through which men are sometimes forced to undergo all sorts of punishment before discovering their own brains, and their own capacity to create useful ideas through imagination.

Edison, the world’s greatest inventor and scientist, was a “tramp” telegraph operator, he failed innumerable times before he was driven, finally, to the discovery of the genius which slept within his brain.

Charles Dickens began by pasting labels on blacking pots. The tragedy of his first love penetrated the depths of his soul, and converted him into one of the world’s truly great authors. That tragedy produced, first, David Copperfield, then a succession of other works that made this a richer and better world for all who read his books. Disappointment over love affairs, generally has the effect of driving men to drink, and women to ruin; and this, because most people never learn the art of transmuting their strongest emotions into dreams of a constructive nature.

Helen Keller became deaf, dumb, and blind shortly after birth. Despite her greatest misfortune, she has written her name indelibly in the pages of the history of the great. Her entire life has served as evidence that no one ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.

Robert Burns was an illiterate country lad, he was cursed by poverty, and grew up to be a drunkard in the bargain. The world was made better for his having lived, because he clothed beautiful thoughts in poetry, and thereby plucked a thorn and planted a rose in its place.

Booker T. Washington was born in slavery, handicapped by race and color. Because he was tolerant, had an open mind at all times, on all subjects, and was a DREAMER, he left his impress for good on an entire race.

Beethoven was deaf, Milton was blind, but their names will last as long as time endures, because they dreamed and translated their dreams into organized thought.

Before passing to the next chapter, kindle anew in your mind the fire of hope, faith, courage, and tolerance. If you have these states of mind, and a working knowledge of the principles described, all else that you need will come to you, when you are READY for it. Let Emerson state the thought in these words, “Every proverb, every book, every byword that belongs to thee for aid and comfort shall surely come home through open or winding passages.

Every friend whom not thy fantastic will, but the great and tender soul in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace.”

There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being R EA DY to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage, and belief. Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty. A great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:

“I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store.

“For Life is a just employer,

He gives you what you ask,

But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task.

“I worked for a menial’s hire,

Only to learn, dismayed,

That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid.”

DESIRE OUTWITS MOTHER NATURE

As a fitting climax to this chapter, I wish to introduce one of the most unusual persons I have ever known. I first saw him twenty-four years ago, a few minutes after he was born. He came into the world without any physical sign of ears, and the doctor admitted, when pressed for an opinion, that the child might be deaf, and mute for life.

I challenged the doctor’s opinion. I had the right to do so, I was the child’s father. I, too, reached a decision, and rendered an opinion, but I expressed the opinion silently, in the secrecy of my own heart. I decided that my son would hear and speak. Nature could send me a child without ears, but Nature could not induce me to accept the reality of the affliction.

In my own mind I knew that my son would hear and speak. How? I was sure there must be a way, and I knew I would find it. I thought of the words of the immortal Emerson, “The whole course of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey.

There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word.”

The right word? DESIRE! More than anything else, I DESIRED that my son should not be a deaf mute. From that desire I never receded, not for a second.

Many years previously, I had written, “Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds.” For the first time, I wondered if that statement were true. Lying on the bed in front of me was a newly born child, without the natural equipment of hearing. Even though he might hear and speak, he was obviously disfigured for life. Surely, this was a limitation which that child had not set up in his own mind.

What could I do about it? Somehow I would find a way to transplant into that child’s mind my own BURNING DESIRE for ways and means of conveying sound to his brain without the aid of ears. As soon as the child was old enough to cooperate, I would fill his mind so completely with a BURNING DESIRE to hear, that Nature would, by methods of her own, translate it into physical reality.

All this thinking took place in my own mind, but I spoke of it to no one. Every day I renewed the pledge I had made to myself, not to accept a deaf mute for a son.

As he grew older, and began to take notice of things around him, we observed that he had a slight degree of hearing. When he reached the age when children usually begin talking, he made no attempt to speak, but we could tell by his actions that he could hear certain sounds slightly. That was all I wanted to know! I was convinced that if he could hear, even slightly, he might develop still greater hearing capacity. Then something happened which gave me hope. It came from an entirely unexpected source.

We bought a victrola. When the child heard the music for the first time, he went into ecstasies, and promptly appropriated the machine. He soon showed a preference for certain records, among them, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” On one occasion, he played that piece over and over, for almost two hours, standing in front of the victrola, with his teeth clamped on the edge of the case. The significance of this self-formed habit of his did not become clear to us until years afterward, for we had never heard of the principle of “bone conduction” of sound at that time.

Shortly after he appropriated the victrola, I discovered that he could hear me quite clearly when I spoke with my lips touching his mastoid bone, or at the base of the brain. These discoveries placed in my possession the necessary media by which I began to translate into reality my Burning Desire to help my son develop hearing and speech. By that time he was making stabs at speaking certain words. The outlook was far from encouraging, but DESIRE BACKED BY FAITH knows no such word as impossible.

Having determined that he could hear the sound of my voice plainly, I began, immediately, to transfer to his mind the desire to hear and speak. I soon discovered that the child enjoyed bedtime stories, so I went to work, creating stories designed to develop in him self-reliance, imagination, and a keen desire to hear and to be normal. There was one story in particular, which I emphasized by giving it some new and dramatic coloring each time it was told. It was designed to plant in his mind the thought that his affliction was not a liability, but an asset of great value. Despite the fact that all the philosophy I had examined clearly indicated that EVERY ADVERSITY BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT ADVANTAGE, I must confess that I had not the slightest idea how this affliction could ever become an asset. However, I continued my practice of wrapping that philosophy in bedtime stories, hoping the time would come when he would find some plan by which his handicap could be made to serve some useful purpose.

Reason told me plainly, that there was no adequate compensation for the lack of ears and natural hearing equipment.

DESIRE backed by FAITH, pushed reason aside, and inspired me to carry on.

As I analyze the experience in retrospect, I can see now, that my son’s faith in me had much to do with the astounding results.

He did not question anything I told him. I sold him the idea that he had a distinct advantage over his older brother, and that this advantage would reflect itself in many ways. For example, the teachers in school would observe that he had no ears, and, because of this, they would show him special attention and treat him with extraordinary kindness. They always did. His mother saw to that, by visiting the teachers and arranging with them to give the child the extra attention necessary. I sold him the idea, too, that when he became old enough to sell newspapers, (his older brother had already become a newspaper merchant), he would have a big advantage over his brother, for the reason that people would pay him extra money for his wares, because they could see that he was a bright, industrious boy, despite the fact he had no ears.

We could notice that, gradually, the child’s hearing was improving. Moreover, he had not the slightest tendency to be self-conscious, because of his affliction. When he was about seven, he showed the first evidence that our method of servicing his mind was bearing fruit. For several months he begged for the privilege of selling newspapers, but his mother would not give her consent. She was afraid that his deafness made it unsafe for him to go on the street alone.

Finally, he took matters in his own hands. One afternoon, when he was left at home with the servants, he climbed through the kitchen window, shinnied to the ground, and set out on his own. He borrowed six cents in capital from the neighborhood shoemaker, invested it in papers, sold out, reinvested, and kept repeating until late in the evening. After balancing his accounts, and paying back the six cents he had borrowed from his banker, he had a net profit of forty-two cents. When we got home that night, we found him in bed asleep, with the money tightly clenched in his hand.

His mother opened his hand, removed the coins, and cried. Of all things! Crying over her son’s first victory seemed so inappropriate. My reaction was the reverse. I laughed heartily, for I knew that my endeavor to plant in the child’s mind an attitude of faith in himself had been successful.

His mother saw, in his first business venture, a little deaf boy who had gone out in the streets and risked his life to earn money. I saw a brave, ambitious, selfreliant little business man whose stock in himself had been increased a hundred percent, because he had gone into business on his own initiative, and had won. The transaction pleased me, because I knew that he had given evidence of a trait of resourcefulness that would go with him all through life.

Later events proved this to be true. When his older brother wanted something, he would lie down on the floor, kick his feet in the air, cry for it-and get it. When the “little deaf boy” wanted something, he would plan a way to earn the money, then buy it for himself. He still follows that plan!

Truly, my own son has taught me that handicaps can be converted into stepping stones on which one may climb toward some worthy goal, unless they are accepted as obstacles, and used as alibis.

The little deaf boy went through the grades, high school, and college without being able to hear his teachers, excepting when they shouted loudly, at close range. He did not go to a school for the deaf. WE WOULD NOT PERMIT HIM TO LEARN THE SIGN LANGUAGE. We were determined that he should live a normal life, and associate with normal children, and we stood by that decision, although it cost us many heated debates with school officials.

While he was in high school, he tried an electrical hearing aid, but it was of no value to him; due, we believed, to a condition that was disclosed when the child was six, by Dr. J. Gordon Wilson, of Chicago, when he operated on one side of the boy’s head, and discovered that there was no sign of natural hearing equipment. During his last week in college, (eighteen years after the operation), something happened which marked the most important turning-point of his life. Through what seemed to be mere chance, he came into possession of another electrical hearing device, which was sent to him on trial. He was slow about testing it, due to his disappointment with a similar device. Finally he picked the instrument up, and more or less carelessly, placed it on his head, hooked up the battery, and lo! as if by a stroke of magic, his lifelong DESIRE FOR NORMAL HEARING BECAME A REALITY! For the first time in his life he heard practically as well as any person with normal hearing. “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.”

Overjoyed because of the Changed World which had been brought to him through his hearing device, he rushed to the telephone, called his mother, and heard her voice perfectly. The next day he plainly heard the voices of his professors in class, for the first time in his life! Previously he could hear them only when they shouted, at short range. He heard the radio. He heard the talking pictures. For the first time in his life, he could converse freely with other people, without the necessity of their having to speak loudly. Truly, he had come into possession of a Changed World. We had refused to accept Nature’s error, and, by PERSISTENT DESIRE, we had induced Nature to correct that error, through the only practical means available.

DESIRE had commenced to pay dividends, but the victory was not yet complete. The boy still had to find a definite and practical way to convert his handicap into an equivalent asset.

Hardly realizing the significance of what had already been accomplished, but intoxicated with the joy of his newly discovered world of sound, he wrote a letter to the manufacturer of the hearing-aid, enthusiastically describing his experience. Something in his letter; something, perhaps which was not written on the lines, but back of them; caused the company to invite him to New York. When be arrived, he was escorted through the factory, and while talking with the Chief Engineer, telling him about his changed world, a hunch, an idea, or an inspiration-call it what you wish-flashed into his mind. It was this impulse of thought which converted his affliction into an asset, destined to pay dividends in both money and happiness to thousands for all time to come.

The sum and substance of that impulse of thought was this: It occurred to him that he might be of help to the millions of deafened people who go through life without the benefit of hearing devices, if he could find a way to tell them the story of his Changed World.

Then and there, he reached a decision to devote the remainder of his life to rendering useful service to the hard of hearing.

For an entire month, he carried on an intensive research, during which he analyzed the entire marketing system of the manufacturer of the hearing device, and created ways and means of communicating with the hard of hearing all over the world for the purpose of sharing with them his newly discovered “Changed World.” When this was done, he put in writing a two-year plan, based upon his findings. When he presented the plan to the company, he was instantly given a position, for the purpose of carrying out his ambition.

Little did he dream, when he went to work, that he was destined to bring hope and practical relief to thousands of deafened people who, without his help, would have been doomed forever to deaf mutism.

Shortly after he became associated with the manufacturer of his hearing aid, he invited me to attend a class conducted by his company, for the purpose of teaching deaf mutes to hear, and to speak. I had never heard of such a form of education, therefore I visited the class, skeptical but hopeful that my time would not be entirely wasted. Here I saw a demonstration which gave me a greatly enlarged vision of what I had done to arouse and keep alive in my son’s mind the DESIRE for normal hearing. I saw deaf mutes actually being taught to hear and to speak, through application of the self-same principle I had used, more than twenty years previously, in saving my son from deaf mutism.

Thus, through some strange turn of the Wheel of Fate, my son, Blair, and I have been destined to aid in correcting deaf mutism for those as yet unborn, because we are the only living human beings, as far as I know, who have established definitely the fact that deaf mutism can be corrected to the extent of restoring to normal life those who suffer with this affliction. It has been done for one; it will be done for others.

There is no doubt in my mind that Blair would have been a deaf mute all his life, if his mother and I had not managed to shape his mind as we did. The doctor who attended at his birth told us, confidentially, the child might never hear or speak. A few weeks ago, Dr. Irving Voorhees, a noted specialist on such cases, examined Blair very thoroughly. He was astounded when he learned how well my son now hears, and speaks, and said his examination indicated that “theoretically, the boy should not be able to hear at all.” But the lad does hear, despite the fact that X-ray pictures show there is no opening in the skull, whatsoever, from where his ears should be to the brain.

When I planted in his mind the DESIRE to hear and talk, and live as a normal person, there went with that impulse some strange influence which caused Nature to become bridge-builder, and span the gulf of silence between his brain and the outer world, by some means which the keenest medical specialists have not been able to interpret. It would be sacrilege for me to even conjecture as to how Nature performed this miracle. It would be unforgivable if I neglected to tell the world as much as I know of the humble part I assumed in the strange experience. It is my duty, and a privilege to say I believe, and not without reason, that nothing is impossible to the person who backs DESIRE with enduring FAITH. Verily, a BURNING DESIRE has devious ways of transmuting itself into its physical equivalent. Blair DESIRED normal hearing; now he has it! He was born with a handicap which might easily have sent one with a less defined DESIRE to the street with a bundle of pencils and a tin cup. That handicap now promises to serve as the medium by which he will render useful service to many millions of hard of hearing, also, to give him useful employment at adequate financial compensation the remainder of his life.

The little “white lies” I planted in his mind when he was a child, by leading him to BELIEVE his affliction would become a great asset, which he could capitalize, has justified itself. Verily, there is nothing, right or wrong, which BELIEF, plus BURNING DESIRE, cannot make real. These qualities are free to everyone. In all my experience in dealing with men and women who had personal problems, I never handled a single case which more definitely demonstrates the power of DESIRE. Authors sometimes make the mistake of writing of subjects of which they have but superficial, or very elementary knowledge. It has been my good fortune to have had the privilege of testing the soundness of the POWER OF DESIRE, through the affliction of my own son. Perhaps it was providential that the experience came as it did, for surely no one is better prepared than he, to serve as an example of what happens when DESIRE is put to the test. If Mother Nature bends to the will of desire, is it logical that mere men can defeat a burning desire?

Strange and imponderable is the power of the human mind! We do not understand the method by which it uses every circumstance, every individual, every physical thing within its reach, as a means of transmuting DESIRE into its physical counterpart. Perhaps science will uncover this secret. I planted in my son’s mind the DESIRE to hear and to speak as any normal person hears and speaks. That DESIRE has now become a reality. I planted in his mind the DESIRE to convert his greatest handicap into his greatest asset. That DESIRE has been realized. The modus operandi by which this astounding result was achieved is not hard to describe. It consisted of three very definite facts; first, I MIXED FAITH with the DESIRE for normal hearing, which I passed on to my son. Second, I communicated my desire to him in every conceivable way available, through persistent, continuous effort, over a period of years. Third, HE BELIEVED ME!

As this chapter was being completed, news came of the death of Mme. SchumanHeink. One short paragraph in the news dispatch gives the clue to this unusual woman’s stupendous success as a singer. I quote the paragraph, because the clue it contains is none other than DESIRE.

Early in her career, Mme. Schuman-Heink visited the director of the Vienna Court Opera, to have him test her voice. But, he did not test it. After taking one look at the awkward and poorly dressed girl, he exclaimed, none too gently, “With such a face, and with no personality at all, how can you ever expect to succeed in opera? My good child, give up the idea. Buy a sewing machine, and go to work.

YOU CAN NEVER BE A SINGER.”

Never is a long time! The director of the Vienna Court Opera knew much about the technique of singing. He knew little about the power of desire, when it assumes the proportion of an obsession. If he had known more of that power, he would not have made the mistake of condemning genius without giving it an opportunity. Several years ago, one of my business associates became ill. He became worse as time went on, and finally was taken to the hospital for an operation. Just before he was wheeled into the operating room, I took a look at him, and wondered how anyone as thin and emaciated as he, could possibly go through a major operation successfully. The doctor warned me that there was little if any chance of my ever seeing him alive again. But that was the DOCTOR’S OPINION. It was not the opinion of the patient. Just before he was wheeled away, he whispered feebly, “Do not be disturbed, Chief, I will be out of here in a few days.” The attending nurse looked at me with pity. But the patient did come through safely. After it was all over, his physician said, “Nothing but his own desire to live saved him. He never would have pulled through if he had not refused to accept the possibility of death.”

I believe in the power of DESIRE backed by FAITH, because I have seen this power lift men from lowly beginnings to places of power and wealth; I have seen it rob the grave of its victims; I have seen it serve as the medium by which men staged a comeback after having been defeated in a hundred different ways; I have seen it provide my own son with a normal, happy, successful life, despite Nature’s having sent him into the world without ears.

How can one harness and use the power of DESIRE? This has been answered through this, and the subsequent chapters of this book. This message is going out to the world at the end of the longest, and perhaps, the most devastating depression America has ever known. It is reasonable to presume that the message may come to the attention of many who have been wounded by the depression, those who have lost their fortunes, others who have lost their positions, and great numbers who must reorganize their plans and stage a comeback. To all these I wish to convey the thought that all achievement, no matter what may be its nature, or its purpose, must begin with an intense, BURNING DESIRE for something definite.

Through some strange and powerful principle of “mental chemistry” which she has never divulged, Nature wraps up in the impulse of STRONG DESIRE “that something” which recognizes no such word as impossible, and accepts no such reality as failure.

Chapter 3

Faith Visualization of, and Belief in Attainment of Desire

The Second Step toward Riches

FAITH is the head chemist of the mind. When FAITH is blended with the vibration of thought, the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibration, translates it into its spiritual equivalent, and transmits it to Infinite Intelligence, as in the case of prayer.

The emotions of FAITH, LOVE, and SEX are the most powerful of all the major positive emotions. When the three are blended, they have the effect of “coloring” the vibration of thought in such a way that it instantly reaches the subconscious mind, where it is changed into its spiritual equivalent, the only form that induces a response from Infinite Intelligence.

Love and faith are psychic; related to the spiritual side of man. Sex is purely biological, and related only to the physical. The mixing, or blending, of these three emotions has the effect of opening a direct line of communication between the finite, thinking mind of man, and Infinite Intelligence.

How To Develop Faith

There comes, now, a statement which will give a better understanding of the importance the principle of auto-suggestion assumes in the transmutation of desire into its physical, or monetary equivalent; namely: FAITH is a state of mind which may be induced, or created, by affirmation or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of auto-suggestion.

As an illustration, consider the purpose for which you are, presumably, reading this book. The object is, naturally, to acquire the ability to transmute the intangible thought impulse of DESIRE into its physical counterpart, money. By following the instructions laid down in the chapters on auto-suggestion, and the subconscious mind, as summarized in the chapter on auto-suggestion, you may CONVINCE the subconscious mind that you believe you will receive that for which you ask, and it will act upon that belief, which your subconscious mind passes back to you in the form of “FAITH,” followed by definite plans for procuring that which you desire.

The method by which one develops FAITH, where it does not already exist, is extremely difficult to describe, almost as difficult, in fact, as it would be to describe the color of red to a blind man who has never seen color, and has nothing with which to compare what you describe to him. Faith is a state of mind which you may develop at will, after you have mastered the thirteen principles, because it is a state of mind which develops voluntarily, through application and use of these principles.

Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind is the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith. Perhaps the meaning may be made clearer through the following explanation as to the way men sometimes become criminals. Stated in the words of a famous criminologist, “When men first come into contact with crime, they abhor it. If they remain in contact with crime for a time, they become accustomed to it, and endure it. If they remain in contact with it long enough, they finally embrace it, and become influenced by it.”

This is the equivalent of saying that any impulse of thought which is repeatedly passed on to the subconscious mind is, finally, accepted and acted upon by the subconscious mind, which proceeds to translate that impulse into its physical equivalent, by the most practical procedure available.

In connection with this, consider again the statement, ALL THOUGHTS WHICH HAVE BEEN EMOTIONALIZED, (given feeling) AND MIXED WITH FAITH, begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical equivalent or counterpart.

The emotions, or the “feeling” portion of thoughts, are the factors which give thoughts vitality, life, and action. The emotions of Faith, Love, and Sex, when mixed with any thought impulse, give it greater action than any of these emotions can do singly.

Not only thought impulses which have been mixed with FAITH, but those which have been mixed with any of the positive emotions, or any of the negative emotions, may reach, and influence the subconscious mind.

From this statement, you will understand that the subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent, a thought impulse of a negative or destructive nature, just as readily as it will act upon thought impulses of a positive or constructive nature. This accounts for the strange phenomenon which so many millions of people experience, referred to as “misfortune,” or “bad luck.” There are millions of people who BELIEVE themselves “doomed” to poverty and failure, because of some strange force over which they BELIEVE they have no control. They are the creators of their own “misfortunes,” because of this negative BELIEF, which is picked up by the subconscious mind, and translated into its physical equivalent.

This is an appropriate place at which to suggest again that you may benefit, by passing on to your subconscious mind, any DESIRE which you wish translated into its physical, or monetary equivalent, in a state of expectancy or BELIEF that the transmutation will actually take place. Your BELIEF, or FAITH, is the element which determines the action of your subconscious mind. There is nothing to hinder you from “deceiving” your subconscious mind when giving it instructions through autosuggestion, as I deceived my son’s subconscious mind.

To make this “deceit” more realistic, conduct yourself just as you would, if you were ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MATERIAL THING WHICH YOU ARE DEMANDING, when you call upon your subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind will transmute into its physical equivalent, by the most direct and practical media available, any order which is given to it in a state of BELIEF, or FAITH that the order will be carried out. Surely, enough has been stated to give a starting point from which one may, through experiment and practice, acquire the ability to mix FAITH with any order given to the subconscious mind.

Perfection will come through practice. It cannot come by merely reading instructions.

If it be true that one may become a criminal by association with crime, (and this is a known fact), it is equally true that one may develop faith by voluntarily suggesting to the subconscious mind that one has faith. The mind comes, finally, to take on the nature of the influences which dominate it. Understand this truth, and you will know why it is essential for you to encourage the positive emotions as dominating forces of your mind, and discourage and eliminate negative emotions.

A mind dominated by positive emotions, becomes a favorable abode for the state of mind known as faith. A mind so dominated may, at will, give the subconscious mind instructions, which it will accept and act upon immediately.

FAITH IS A STATE OF MIND WHICH MAY BE INDUCED BY AUTOSUGGESTION

All down the ages, the religionists have admonished struggling humanity to “have faith” in this, that, and the other dogma or creed, but they have failed to tell people HOW to have faith. They have not stated that “faith is a state of mind, and that it may be induced by self-suggestion.”

In language which any normal human being can understand, we will describe all that is known about the principle through which FAITH may be developed, where it does not already exist. Have Faith in yourself; Faith in the Infinite.

Before we begin, you should be reminded again that: FAITH is the “eternal elixir” which gives life, power, and action to the impulse of thought!

The foregoing sentence is worth reading a second time, and a third, and a fourth. It is worth reading aloud!

FAITH is the starting point of all accumulation of riches!

FAITH is the basis of all “miracles,” and all mysteries which cannot be analyzed by the rules of science!

FAITH is the only known antidote for FAILURE!

FAITH is the element, the “chemical” which, when mixed with prayer, gives one direct communication with Infinite Intelligence.

FAITH is the element which transforms the ordinary vibration of thought, created by the finite mind of man, into the spiritual equivalent.

FAITH is the only agency through which the cosmic force of Infinite Intelligence can be harnessed and used by man.

EVERY ONE OF THE FOREGOING STATEMENTS IS CAPABLE OF PROOF!

The proof is simple and easily demonstrated. It is wrapped up in the principle of auto-suggestion. Let us center our attention, therefore, upon the subject of selfsuggestion, and find out what it is, and what it is capable of achieving. It is a well known fact that one comes, finally, to BELIEVE whatever one repeats to one’s self, whether the statement be true or false. If a man repeats a lie over and over, he will eventually accept the he as truth. Moreover, he will BELIEVE it to be the truth. Every man is what he is, because of the DOMINATING THOUGHTS which he permits to occupy his mind. Thoughts which a man deliberately places in his own mind, and encourages with sympathy, and with which he mixes any one or more of the emotions, constitute the motivating forces, which direct and control his every movement, act, and deed!

Comes, now, a very significant statement of truth:

THOUGHTS WHICH ARE MIXED WITH ANY OF THE FEELINGS OF EMOTIONS, CONSTITUTE A “MAGNETIC” FORCE WHICH ATTRACTS, FROM THE VIBRATIONS OF THE ETHER, OTHER SIMILAR, OR RELATED THOUGHTS.

A thought thus “magnetized” with emotion may be compared to a seed which, when planted in fertile soil, germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over and over again, until that which was originally one small seed, becomes countless millions of seeds of the SAME BRAND!

The ether is a great cosmic mass of eternal forces of vibration. It is made up of both destructive vibrations and constructive vibrations. It carries, at all times, vibrations of fear, poverty, disease, failure, misery; and vibrations of prosperity, health, success, and happiness, just as surely as it carries the sound of hundreds of orchestrations of music, and hundreds of human voices, all of which maintain their own individuality, and means of identification, through the medium of radio.

From the great storehouse of the ether, the human mind is constantly attracting vibrations which harmonize with that which DOMINATES the human mind. Any thought, idea, plan, or purpose which one holds in one’s mind attracts, from the vibrations of the ether, a host of its relatives, adds these “relatives” to its own force, and grows until it becomes the dominating, MOTIVATING MASTER of the individual in whose mind it has been housed.

Now, let us go back to the starting point, and become informed as to how the original seed of an idea, plan, or purpose may be planted in the mind. The information is easily conveyed: any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought. This is why you are asked to write out a statement of your major purpose, or Definite Chief Aim, commit it to memory, and repeat it, in audible words, day after day, until these vibrations of sound have reached your subconscious mind.

We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment.

Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment, and to build your own life to ORDER. Taking inventory of mental assets and liabilities, you will discover that your greatest weakness is lack of self-confidence. This handicap can be surmounted, and timidity translated into courage, through the aid of the principle of autosuggestion. The application of this principle may be made through a simple arrangement of positive thought impulses stated in writing, memorized, and repeated, until they become a part of the working equipment of the subconscious faculty of your mind. SELF-CONFIDENCE FORMULA

First. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.

Second. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality, therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that person.

Third. I know through the principle of auto-suggestion, any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it, therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of SELF-CONFIDENCE.

Fourth. I have clearly written down a description of my DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.

Fifth. I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice, therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself.

I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once a day, with full FAITH that it will gradually influence my THOUGHTS and ACTIONS so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful person.

Back of this formula is a law of Nature which no man has yet been able to explain. It has baffled the scientists of all ages. The psychologists have named this law “auto-suggestion,” and let it go at that.

The name by which one calls this law is of little importance. The important fact about it is-it WORKS for the glory and success of mankind, IF it is used constructively. On the other hand, if used destructively, it will destroy just as readily. In this statement may be found a very significant truth, namely; that those who go down in defeat, and end their lives in poverty, misery, and distress, do so because of negative application of the principle of auto-suggestion.

The cause may be found in the fact that ALL IMPULSES OF THOUGHT HAVE A TENDENCY TO CLOTHE THEMSELVES IN THEIR PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT.

The subconscious mind, (the chemical laboratory in which all thought impulses are combined, and made ready for translation into physical reality), makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought impulses. It works with the material we feed it, through our thought impulses. The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by FEAR just as readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by COURAGE, or FAITH.

The pages of medical history are rich with illustrations of cases of “suggestive suicide.” A man may commit suicide through negative suggestion, just as effectively as by any other means. In a midwestern city, a man by the name of Joseph Grant, a bank official, “borrowed” a large sum of the bank’s money, without the consent of the directors. He lost the money through gambling. One afternoon, the Bank Examiner came and began to check the accounts. Grant left the bank, took a room in a local hotel, and when they found him, three days later, he was lying in bed, wailing and moaning, repeating over and over these words, “My God, this will kill me! I cannot stand the disgrace.” In a short time he was dead. The doctors pronounced the case one of “mental suicide.”

Just as electricity will turn the wheels of industry, and render useful service if used constructively; or snuff out life if wrongly used, so will the law of auto-suggestion lead you to peace and prosperity, or down into the valley of misery, failure, and death, according to your degree of understanding and application of it.

If you fill your mind with FEAR, doubt and unbelief in your ability to connect with, and use the forces of Infinite Intelligence, the law of auto-suggestion will take this spirit of unbelief and use it as a pattern by which your subconscious mind will translate it into its physical equivalent.

THIS STATEMENT IS AS TRUE AS THE STATEMENT THAT TWO AND TWO ARE FOUR!

Like the wind which carries one ship East, and another West, the law of auto-suggestion will lift you up or pull you down, according to the way you set your sails of THOUGHT. The law of auto-suggestion, through which any person may rise to altitudes of achievement which stagger the imagination, is well described in the following verse:

“If you think you are beaten, you are,

If you think you dare not, you don’t If you like to win, but you think you can’t,

It is almost certain you won’t.

“If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost For out of the world we find,

Success begins with a fellow’s willIt’s all in the state of mind.

“If you think you are outclassed, you are,

You’ve got to think high to rise,

You’ve got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a prize.

“Life’s battles don’t always go To the stronger or faster man,

But soon or late the man who wins Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”

Observe the words which have been emphasized, and you will catch the deep meaning which the poet had in mind.

Somewhere in your make-up (perhaps in the cells of your brain) there lies sleeping, the seed of achievement which, if aroused and put into action, would carry you to heights, such as you may never have hoped to attain.

Just as a master musician may cause the most beautiful strains of music to pour forth from the strings of a violin, so may you arouse the genius which lies asleep in your brain, and cause it to drive you upward to whatever goal you may wish to achieve.

Abraham Lincoln was a failure at everything he tried, until he was well past the age of forty. He was a Mr. Nobody from Nowhere, until a great experience came into his life, aroused the sleeping genius within his heart and brain, and gave the world one of its really great men. That “experience” was mixed with the emotions of sorrow and LOVE. It came to him through Anne Rutledge, the only woman whom he ever truly loved.

It is a known fact that the emotion of LOVE is closely akin to the state of mind known as FAITH, and this for the reason that Love comes very near to translating one’s thought impulses into their spiritual equivalent. During his work of research, the author discovered, from the analysis of the life-work and achievements of hundreds of men of outstanding accomplishment, that there was the influence of a woman’s love back of nearly EVERY ONE OF THEM. The emotion of love, in the human heart and brain, creates a favorable field of magnetic attraction, which causes an influx of the higher and finer vibrations which are afloat in the ether.

If you wish evidence of the power of FAITH, study the achievements of men and women who have employed it. At the head of the list comes the Nazarene. Christianity is the greatest single force which influences the minds of men. The basis of Christianity is FAITH, no matter how many people may have perverted, or misinterpreted the meaning of this great force, and no matter how many dogmas and creeds have been created in its name, which do not reflect its tenets.

The sum and substance of the teachings and the achievements of Christ, which may have been interpreted as “miracles,” were nothing more nor less than FAITH. If there are any such phenomena as “miracles” they are produced only through the state of mind known as FAITH! Some teachers of religion, and many who call themselves Christians, neither understand nor practice FAITH.

Let us consider the power of FAITH, as it is now being demonstrated, by a man who is well known to all of civilization, Mahatma Gandhi, of India. In this man the world has one of the most astounding examples known to civilization, of the possibilities of FAITH. Gandhi wields more potential power than any man living at this time, and this, despite the fact that he has none of the orthodox tools of power, such as money, battle ships, soldiers, and materials of warfare. Gandhi has no money, he has no home, he does not own a suit of clothes, but HE DOES HAVE POWER. How does he come by that power?

HE CREATED IT OUT OF HIS UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRINCIPLE OF FAITH, AND THROUGH HIS ABILITY TO TRANSPLANT THAT FAITH INTO THE MINDS OF TWO HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE.

Gandhi has accomplished, through the influence of FAITH, that which the strongest military power on earth could not, and never will accomplish through soldiers and military equipment. He has accomplished the astounding feat of INFLUENCING two hundred million minds to COALESCE AND MOVE IN UNISON, AS A SINGLE MIND.

What other force on earth, except FAITH could do as much? There will come a day when employees as well as employers will discover the possibilities of FAITH. That day is dawning. The whole world has had ample opportunity, during the recent business depression, to witness what the LACK OF FAITH will do to business. Surely, civilization has produced a sufficient number of intelligent human beings to make use of this great lesson which the depression has taught the world. During this depression, the world had evidence in abundance that widespread FEAR will paralyze the wheels of industry and business. Out of this experience will arise leaders in business and industry who will profit by the example which Gandhi has set for the world, and they will apply to business the same tactics which he has used in building the greatest following known in the history of the world. These leaders will come from the rank and file of the unknown men, who now labor in the steel plants, the coal mines, the automobile factories, and in the small towns and cities of America.

Business is due for a reform, make no mistake about this! The methods of the past, based upon economic combinations of FORCE and FEAR, will be supplanted by the better principles of FAITH and cooperation. Men who labor will receive more than daily wages; they will receive dividends from the business, the same as those who supply the capital for business; but, first they must GIVE MORE TO THEIR EMPLOYERS, and stop this bickering and bargaining by force, at the expense of the public. They must earn the right to dividends!

Moreover, and this is the most important thing of all-THEY WILL BE LED BY LEADERS WHO WILL UNDERSTAND AND APPLY THE PRINCIPLES EMPLOYED BY MAHATMA GANDHI. Only in this way may leaders get from their followers the spirit of FULL cooperation which constitutes power in its highest and most enduring form.

This stupendous machine age in which we live, and from which we are just emerging, has taken the soul out of men. Its leaders have driven men as though they were pieces of cold machinery; they were forced to do so by the employees who have bargained, at the expense of all concerned, to get and not to give.

The watchword of the future will be HUMAN HAPPINESS AND CONTENTMENT, and when this state of mind shall have been attained, the production will take care of itself, more effectively than anything that has ever been accomplished where men did not, and could not mix FAITH and individual interest with their labor.

Because of the need for faith and cooperation in operating business and industry, it will be both interesting and profitable to analyze an event which provides an excellent understanding of the method by which industrialists and business men accumulate great fortunes, by giving before they try to get.

The event chosen for this illustration dates back to 1900, when the United States Steel Corporation was being formed. As you read the story, keep in mind these fundamental facts and you will understand how IDEAS have been converted into huge fortunes.

First, the huge United States Steel Corporation was born in the mind of Charles M. Schwab, in the form of an IDEA he created through his IMAGINATION!

Second, he mixed FAITH with his IDEA.

Third, he formulated a PLAN for the transformation of his IDEA into physical and financial reality.

Fourth, he put his plan into action with his famous speech at the University Club.

Fifth, he applied, and followed-through on his PLAN with PERSISTENCE, and backed it with firm DECISION until it had been fully carried out.

Sixth, he prepared the way for success by a BURNING DESIRE for success.

If you are one of those who have often wondered how great fortunes are accumulated, this story of the creation of the United States Steel Corporation will be enlightening. If you have any doubt that men can THINK AND GROW RICH, this story should dispel that doubt, because you can plainly see in the story of the United States Steel, the application of a major portion of the thirteen principles described in this book.

This astounding description of the power of an IDEA was dramatically told by John Lowell, in the New York World-Telegram, with whose courtesy it is here reprinted.

A PRETTY AFTER-DINNER SPEECH FOR A BILLION DOLLARS

“When, on the evening of December 12, 1900, some eighty of the nation’s financial nobility gathered in the banquet hail of the University Club on Fifth Avenue to do honor to a young man from out of the West, not half a dozen of the guests realized they were to witness the most significant episode in American industrial history.

“J. Edward Simmons and Charles Stewart Smith, their hearts full of gratitude for the lavish hospitality bestowed on them by Charles M. Schwab during a recent visit to Pittsburgh, had arranged the dinner to introduce the thirty-eight-year-old steel man to eastern banking society. But they didn’t expect him to stampede the convention. They warned him, in fact, that the bosoms within New York’s stuffed shirts would not be responsive to oratory, and that, if he didn’t want to bore the Stilhnans and Harrimans and Vanderbilts, he had better limit himself to fifteen or twenty minutes of polite vaporings and let it go at that.

“Even John Pierpont Morgan, sitting on the right hand of Schwab as became his imperial dignity, intended to grace the banquet table with his presence only briefly. And so far as the press and public were concerned, the whole affair was of so little moment that no mention of it found its way into print the next day. “So the two hosts and their distinguished guests ate their way through the usual seven or eight courses. There was little conversation and what there was of it was restrained. Few of the bankers and brokers had met Schwab, whose career had flowered along the banks of the Monongahela, and none knew him well. But before the evening was over, they-and with them Money Master Morgan were to be swept off their feet, and a billion dollar baby, the United States Steel Corporation, was to be conceived.

“It is perhaps unfortunate, for the sake of history, that no record of Charlie Schwab’s speech at the dinner ever was made. He repeated some parts of it at a later date during a similar meeting of Chicago bankers. And still later, when the Government brought suit to dissolve the Steel Trust, he gave his own version, from the witness stand, of the remarks that stimulated Morgan into a frenzy of financial activity.

“It is probable, however, that it was a ‘homely’ speech, somewhat ungrammatical (for the niceties of language never bothered Schwab), full of epigram and threaded with wit. But aside from that it had a galvanic force and effect upon the five billions of estimated capital that was represented by the diners. After it was over and the gathering was still under its spell, although Schwab had talked for ninety minutes, Morgan led the orator to a recessed window where, dangling their legs from the high, uncomfortable seat, they talked for an hour more.

“The magic of the Schwab personality had been turned on, full force, but what was more important and lasting was the full-fledged, clear-cut program he laid down for the aggrandizement of Steel. Many other men had tried to interest Morgan in slapping together a steel trust after the pattern of the biscuit, wire and hoop, sugar, rubber, whisky, oil or chewing gum combinations. John W. Gates, the gambler, had urged it, but Morgan distrusted him. The Moore boys, Bill and Jim, Chicago stockjobbers who had glued together a match trust and a cracker corporation, had urged it and failed. Elbert H. Gary, the sanctimonious country lawyer, wanted to foster it, but he wasn’t big enough to be impressive. Until Schwab’s eloquence took J. P. Morgan to the heights from which he could visualize the solid results of the most daring financial undertaking ever conceived, the project was regarded as a delirious dream of easy-money crackpots.

“The financial magnetism that began, a generation ago, to attract thousands of small and sometimes inefficiently managed companies into large and competition-crushing combinations, had become operative in the steel world through the devices of that jovial business pirate, John W. Gates. Gates already had formed the American Steel and Wire Company out of a chain of small concerns, and together with Morgan had created the Federal Steel Company.

The National Tube and American Bridge companies were two more Morgan concerns, and the Moore Brothers had forsaken the match and cookie business to form the ‘American’ groupTin Plate, Steel Hoop, Sheet Steel-and the National Steel Company.

“But by the side of Andrew Carnegie’s gigantic vertical trust, a trust owned and operated by fifty-three partners, those other combinations were picayune. They might combine to their heart’s content but the whole lot of them couldn’t make a dent in the Carnegie organization, and Morgan knew it.

“The eccentric old Scot knew it, too. From the magnificent heights of Skibo Castle he had viewed, first with amusement and then with resentment, the attempts of Morgan’s smaller companies to cut into his business. When the attempts became too bold, Carnegie’s temper was translated into anger and retaliation. He decided to duplicate every mill owned by his rivals. Hitherto, he hadn’t been interested in wire, pipe, hoops, or sheet. Instead, he was content to sell such companies the raw steel and let them work it into whatever shape they wanted. Now, with Schwab as his chief and able lieutenant, he planned to drive his enemies to the wall.

“So it was that in the speech of Charles M. Schwab, Morgan saw the answer to his problem of combination. A trust without Carnegie-giant of them all-would be no trust at all, a plum pudding, as one writer said, without the plums.

“Schwab’s speech on the night of December 12, 1900, undoubtedly carried the inference, though not the pledge, that the vast Carnegie enterprise could be brought under the Morgan tent.

He talked of the world future for steel, of reorganization for efficiency, of specialization, of the scrapping of unsuccessful mills and concentration of effort on the flourishing properties, of economies in the ore traffic, of economies in overhead and administrative departments, of capturing foreign markets.

“More than that, he told the buccaneers among them wherein lay the errors of their customary piracy. Their purposes, he inferred, bad been to create monopolies, raise prices, and pay themselves fat dividends out of privilege. Schwab condemned the system in his heartiest manner. The shortsightedness of such a policy, he told his hearers, lay in the fact that it restricted the market in an era when everything cried for expansion. By cheapening the cost of steel, he argued, an ever-expanding market would be created; more uses for steel would be devised, and a goodly portion of the world trade could be captured. Actually, though he did not know it, Schwab was an apostle of modern mass production. “So the dinner at the University Club came to an end. Morgan went home, to think about Schwab’s rosy predictions. Schwab went back to Pittsburgh to run the steel business for ‘Wee Andra Carnegie,’ while Gary and the rest went back to their stock tickers, to fiddle around in anticipation of the next move.

“It was not long coming. It took Morgan about one week to digest the feast of reason Schwab had placed before him. When he had assured himself that no financial indigestion was to result, he sent for Schwab-and found that young man rather coy. Mr. Carnegie, Schwab indicated, might not like it if he found his trusted company president had been flirting with the Emperor of Wall Street, the Street upon which Carnegie was resolved never to tread.

Then it was suggested by John W. Gates the go-between, that if Schwab ‘happened’ to be in the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, J. P. Morgan might also ‘happen’ to be there. When Schwab arrived, however, Morgan was inconveniently ill at his New York home, and so, on the elder man’s pressing invitation, Schwab went to New York and presented himself at the door of the financier’s library.

“Now certain economic historians have professed the belief that from the beginning to the end of the drama, the stage was set by Andrew Carnegie-that the dinner to Schwab, the famous speech, the Sunday night conference between Schwab and the Money King, were events arranged by the canny Scot. The truth is exactly the opposite. When Schwab was called in to consummate the deal, he didn’t even know whether ‘the little boss,’ as Andrew was called, would so much as listen to an offer to sell, particularly to a group of men whom Andrew regarded as being endowed with something less than holiness. But Schwab did take into the conference with him, in his own handwriting, six sheets of copper-plate figures, representing to his mind the physical worth and the potential earning capacity of every steel company he regarded as an essential star in the new metal firmament.

“Four men pondered over these figures all night. The chief, of course, was Morgan, steadfast in his belief in the Divine Right of Money. With him was his aristocratic partner, Robert Bacon, a scholar and a gentleman. The third was John W. Gates whom Morgan scorned as a gambler and used as a tool. The fourth was Schwab, who knew more about the processes of making and selling steel than any whole group of men then living. Throughout that conference, the Pittsburgher’s figures were never questioned. If he said a company was worth so much, then it was worth that much and no more. He was insistent, too, upon including in the combination only those concerns he nominated. He had conceived a corporation in which there would be no duplication, not even to satisfy the greed of friends who wanted to unload their companies upon the broad Morgan shoulders. Thus he left out, by design, a number of the larger concerns upon which the Walruses and Carpenters of Wall Street had cast hungry eyes.

“When dawn came, Morgan rose and straightened his back. Only one question remained. “ ‘Do you think you can persuade Andrew Carnegie to sell?’ he asked.

“’I can try,’ said Schwab.

“ ‘ If you can get him to sell, I will undertake the matter,’ said Morgan.

“So far so good. But would Carnegie sell? How much would he demand? (Schwab thought about $320,000,000). What would he take payment in? Common or preferred stocks? Bonds? Cash? No-body could raise a third of a billion dollars in cash.

“There was a golf game in January on the frost-cracking heath of the St. Andrews links in Westchester, with Andrew bundled up in sweaters against the cold, and Charlie talking volubly, as usual, to keep his spirits up. But no word of business was mentioned until the pair sat down in the cozy warmth of the Carnegie cottage hard by. Then, with the same persuasiveness that had hypnotized eighty millionaires at the University Club, Schwab poured out the glittering promises of retirement in comfort, of untold millions to satisfy the old man’s social caprices. Carnegie capitulated, wrote a figure on a slip of paper, handed it to Schwab and said, ‘all right, that’s what we’ll sell for.’

“The figure was approximately $400,000,000, and was reached by taking the $320,000,000 mentioned by Schwab as a basic figure, and adding to it $80,000,000 to represent the increased capital value over the previous two years.

“Later, on the deck of a trans-Atlantic liner, the Scotsman said ruefully to Morgan, ‘I wish I had asked you for $100,000,000 more.’

“’If you had asked for it, you’d have gotten it,’ Morgan told him cheerfully.

“There was an uproar, of course. A British correspondent cabled that the foreign steel world was ‘ appalled’ by the gigantic combination. President Hadley, of Yale, declared that unless trusts were regulated the country might expect ‘ an emperor in Washington within the next twenty-five years.’ But that able stock manipulator, Keene, went at his work of shoving the new stock at the public so vigorously that all the excess water-estimated by some at nearly $6oo,ooo,ooo-was absorbed in a twinkling. So Carnegie had his millions, and the Morgan syndicate had $62,000,000 for all its ‘trouble,’ and all the boys,’ from Gates to Gary, had their millions.

“The thirty-eight-year-old Schwab had his reward. He was made president of the new corporation and remained in control until 1930.”

The dramatic story of “Big Business” which you have just finished, was included in this book, because it is a perfect illustration of the method by which DESIRE CAN BE TRANSMUTED INTO ITS PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT!

I imagine some readers will question the statement that a mere, intangible DESIRE can be converted into its physical equivalent. Doubtless some will say, “You cannot convert NOTHING into SOMETHING!” The answer is in the story of United States

Steel. That giant organization was created in the mind of one man. The plan by which the organization was provided with the steel mills that gave it financial stability was created in the mind of the same man. His FAITH, his DESIRE, his IMAGINATION, his PERSISTENCE were the real ingredients that went into United States Steel. The steel mills and mechanical equipment acquired by the corporation, AFTER IT HAD BEEN BROUGHT INTO LEGAL EXISTENCE, were incidental, but careful analysis will disclose the fact that the appraised value of the properties acquired by the corporation increased in value by an estimated SIX HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS, by the mere transaction which consolidated them under one management.

In other words, Charles M. Schwab’s IDEA, plus the FAITH with which he conveyed it to the minds of J. P. Morgan and the others, was marketed for a profit of approximately $600,000,000. Not an insignificant sum for a single IDEA!

What happened to some of the men who took their share of the millions of dollars of profit made by this transaction, is a matter with which we are not now concerned. The important feature of the astounding achievement is that it serves as unquestionable evidence of the soundness of the philosophy described in this book, because this philosophy was the warp and the woof of the entire transaction. Moreover, the practicability of the philosophy has been established by the fact that the United States Steel Corporation prospered, and became one of the richest and most powerful corporations in America, employing thousands of people, developing new uses for steel, and opening new markets; thus proving that the $600,000,000 in profit which the Schwab IDEA produced was earned.

RICHES begin in the form of THOUGHT! The amount is limited only by the person in whose mind the THOUGHT is put into motion. FAITH removes limitations!

Remember this when you are ready to bargain with Life for whatever it is that you ask as your price for having passed this way. Remember, also, that the man who created the United States Steel Corporation was practically unknown at the time. He was merely Andrew Carnegie’s “Man Friday” until he gave birth to his famous IDEA. After that he quickly rose to a position of power, fame, and riches.

THERE ARE NO LIMITATIONS TO THE MIND EXCEPT THOSE WE ACKNOWLEDGE BOTH POVERTY AND RICHES ARE THE OFFSPRING OF THOUGHT

Chapter 4

Auto-Suggestion: The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

The Third Step toward Riches

AUTO-SUGGESTION is a term which applies to all suggestions and all self-administered stimuli which reach one’s mind through the five senses. Stated in another way, auto-suggestion is self-suggestion. It is the agency of communication between that part of the mind where conscious thought takes place, and that which serves as the seat of action for the subconscious mind. Through the dominating thoughts which one permits to remain in the conscious mind, (whether these thoughts be negative or positive, is immaterial), the principle of auto-suggestion voluntarily reaches the subconscious mind and influences it with these thoughts.

NO THOUGHT, whether it be negative or positive, CAN ENTER THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND WITHOUT THE AID OF THE PRINCIPLE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION, with the exception of thoughts picked up from the ether. Stated differently, all sense impressions which are perceived through the five senses, are stopped by the CONSCIOUS thinking mind, and may be either passed on to the subconscious mind, or rejected, at will. The conscious faculty serves, therefore, as an outerguard to the approach of the subconscious.

Nature has so built man that he has ABSOLUTE CONTROL over the material which reaches his subconscious mind, through his five senses, although this is not meant to be construed as a statement that man always EXERCISES this control. In the great majority of instances, he does NOT exercise it, which explains why so many people go through life in poverty.

Recall what has been said about the subconscious mind resembling a fertile garden spot, in which weeds will grow in abundance, if the seeds of more desirable crops are not sown therein. AUTOSUGGESTION is the agency of control through which an individual may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind on thoughts of a creative nature, or, by neglect, permit thoughts of a destructive nature to find their way into this rich garden of the mind. You were instructed, in the last of the six steps described in the chapter on Desire, to read ALOUD twice daily the WRITTEN statement of your DESIRE FOR MONEY, and to SEE AND FEEL yourself ALREADY in possession of the money! By following these instructions, you communicate the object of your DESIRE directly to your SUBCONSCIOUS mind in a spirit of absolute FAITH.

Through repetition of this procedure, you voluntarily create thought habits which are favorable to your efforts to transmute desire into its monetary equivalent.

Go back to these six steps described in chapter two, and read them again, very carefully, before you proceed further. Then (when you come to it), read very carefully the four instructions for the organization of your “Master Mind” group, described in the chapter on Organized Planning. By comparing these two sets of instructions with that which has been stated on auto-suggestion, you, of course, will see that the instructions involve the application of the principle of auto-suggestion.

Remember, therefore, when reading aloud the statement of your desire (through which you are endeavoring to develop a “money consciousness”), that the mere reading of the words is of NO CONSEQUENCE-UNLESS you mix emotion, or feeling with your words. If you repeat a million times the famous Emil Coue formula, “Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better,” without mixing emotion and FAITH with your words, you will experience no desirable results. Your subconscious mind recognizes and acts upon ONLY thoughts which have been well-mixed with emotion or feeling.

This is a fact of such importance as to warrant repetition in practically every chapter, because the lack of understanding of this is the main reason the majority of people who try to apply the principle of auto-suggestion get no desirable results.

Plain, unemotional words do not influence the subconscious mind. You will get no appreciable results until you learn to reach your subconscious mind with thoughts, or spoken words which have been well emotionalized with BELIEF.

Do not become discouraged, if you cannot control and direct your emotions the first time you try to do so. Remember, there is no such possibility as SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. Ability to reach, and influence your subconscious mind has its price, and you MUST PAY THAT PRICE. You cannot cheat, even if you desire to do so. The price of ability to influence your subconscious mind is everlasting PERSISTENCE in applying the principles described here. You cannot develop the desired ability for a lower price. You, and YOU ALONE, must decide whether or not the reward for which you are striving (the “money consciousness”), is worth the price you must pay for it in effort.

Wisdom and “cleverness” alone, will not attract and retain money except in a few very rare instances, where the law of averages favors the attraction of money through these sources. The method of attracting money described here, does not depend upon the law of averages. Moreover, the method plays no favorites. It will work for one person as effectively as it will for another. Where failure is experienced, it is the individual, not the method, which has failed. If you try and fail, make another effort, and still another, until you succeed. Your ability to use the principle of auto-suggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to CONCENTRATE upon a given DESIRE until that desire becomes a BURNING OBSESSION.

When you begin to carry out the instructions in connection with the six steps described in the second chapter, it will be necessary for you to make use of the principle of CONCENTRATION.

Let us here offer suggestions for the effective use of concentration. When you begin to carry out the first of the six steps, which instructs you to “fix in your own mind the EXACT amount of money you desire,” hold your thoughts on that amount of money by CONCENTRATION, or fixation of attention, with your eyes closed, until you can ACTUALLY SEE the physical appearance of the money. Do this at least once each day. As you go through these exercises, follow the instructions given in the chapter on FAITH, and see yourself actually IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY!

Here is a most significant fact-the subconscious mind takes any orders given it in a spirit of absolute FAITH, and acts upon those orders, although the orders often have to be presented over and over again, through repetition, before they are interpreted by the subconscious mind. Following the preceding statement, consider the possibility of playing a perfectly legitimate “trick” on your subconscious mind, by making it believe, because you believe it, that you must have the amount of money you are visualizing, that this money is already awaiting your claim, that the subconscious mind MUST hand over to you practical plans for acquiring the money which is yours.

Hand over the thought suggested in the preceding paragraph to your IMAGINATION, and see what your imagination can, or will do, to create practical plans for the accumulation of money through transmutation of your desire.

DO NOT WAIT for a definite plan, through which you intend to exchange services or merchandise in return for the money you are visualizing, but begin at once to see yourself in possession of the money, DEMANDING and EXPECTING meanwhile, that your subconscious mind will hand over the plan, or plans you need. Be on the alert for these plans, and when they appear, put them into ACTION IMMEDIATELY. When the plans appear, they will probably “flash” into your mind through the sixth sense, in the form of an “inspiration.” This inspiration may be considered a direct “telegram,” or message from Infinite Intelligence. Treat it with respect, and act upon it as soon as you receive it. Failure to do this will be FATAL to your success.

In the fourth of the six steps, you were instructed to “Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once to put this plan into action.” You should follow this instruction in the manner described in the preceding paragraph. Do not trust to your “reason when creating your plan for accumulating money through the transmutation of desire. Your reason is faulty. Moreover, your reasoning faculty may be lazy, and, if you depend entirely upon it to serve you, it may disappoint you.

When visualizing the money you intend to accumulate, (with closed eyes), see yourself rendering the service, or delivering the merchandise you intend to give in return for this money. This is important!

SUMMARY OF INSTRUCTIONS

The fact that you are reading this book is an indication that you earnestly seek knowledge. It is also an indication that you are a student of this subject. If you are only a student, there is a chance that you may learn much that you did not know, but you will learn only by assuming an attitude of humility. If you choose to follow some of the instructions but neglect, or refuse to follow others-you will fail! To get satisfactory results, you must follow ALL instructions in a spirit of FAITH.

The instructions given in connection with the six steps in the second chapter will now be summarized, and blended with the principles covered by this chapter, as follows:

First. Go into some quiet spot (preferably in bed at night) where you will not be disturbed or interrupted, close your eyes, and repeat aloud, (so you may hear your own words) the written statement of the amount of money you intend to accumulate, the time limit for its accumulation, and a description of the service or merchandise you intend to give in return for the money. As you carry out these instructions, SEE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.

For example :-Suppose that you intend to accumulate $50,000 by the first of January, five years hence, that you intend to give personal services in return for the money, in the Capacity of a salesman. Your written statement of your purpose should be similar to the following:

“By the first day of January, 19.., I will have in my possession $50,000, which will come to me in various amounts from time to time during the interim. “In return for this money I will give the most efficient service of which I am capable, rendering the fullest possible quantity, and the best possible quality of service in the capacity of salesman of (describe the service or merchandise you intend to sell).

“I believe that I will have this money in my possession. My faith is so strong that I can now see this money before my eyes. I can touch it with my hands. It is now awaiting transfer to me at the time, and in the proportion that I deliver the service I intend to render in return for it. I am awaiting a plan by which to accumulate this money, and I will follow that plan, when it is received.”

Second. Repeat this program night and morning until you can see, (in your imagination) the money you intend to accumulate.

Third. Place a written copy of your statement where you can see it night and morning, and read it just before retiring, and upon arising until it has been memorized.

Remember, as you carry out these instructions, that you are applying the principle of auto-suggestion, for the purpose of giving orders to your subconscious mind. Remember, also, that your subconscious mind will act ONLY upon instructions which are emotionalized, and handed over to it with “feeling.” FAITH is the strongest, and most productive of the emotions. Follow the instructions given in the chapter on FAITH.

These instructions may, at first, seem abstract. Do not let this disturb you. Follow the instructions, no matter how abstract or impractical they may, at first, appear to be. The time will soon come, if you do as you have been instructed, in spirit as well as in act, when a whole new universe of power will unfold to you.

Scepticism, in connection with ALL new ideas, is characteristic of all human beings. But if you follow the instructions outlined, your scepticism will soon be replaced by belief, and this, in turn, will soon become crystallized into ABSOLUTE FAITH. Then you will have arrived at the point where you may truly say, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul!”

Many philosophers have made the statement, that man is the master of his own earthly destiny, but most of them have failed to say why he is the master. The reason that man may be the master of his own earthly status, and especially his financial status, is thoroughly explained in this chapter. Man may become the master of himself, and of his environment, because he has the POWER TO INFLUENCE HIS OWN SUBCONSCIOUS MIND, and through it, gain the cooperation of Infinite Intelligence.

You are now reading the chapter which represents the keystone to the arch of this philosophy. The instructions contained in this chapter must be understood and APPLIED WITH PERSISTENCE, if you succeed in transmuting desire into money.

The actual performance of transmuting DESIRE into money, involves the use of auto-suggestion as an agency by which one may reach, and influence, the subconscious mind. The other principles are simply tools with which to apply autosuggestion. Keep this thought in mind, and you will, at all times, be conscious of the important part the principle of auto-suggestion is to play in your efforts to accumulate money through the methods described in this book. Carry out these instructions as though you were a small child.

Inject into your efforts something of the FAITH of a child. The author has been most careful, to see that no impractical instructions were included, because of his sincere desire to be helpful.

After you have read the entire book, come back to this chapter, and follow in spirit, and in action, this instruction:

READ THE ENTIRE CHAPTER ALOUD ONCE EVERY NIGHT, UNTIL YOU BECOME THOROUGHLY CONVINCED THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION IS SOUND, THAT IT WILL ACCOMPLISH FOR YOU ALL THAT HAS BEEN CLAIMED FOR IT.

AS YOU READ, UNDERSCORE WITH A PENCIL EVERY SENTENCE WHICH IMPRESSES YOU FAVORABLY.

Follow the foregoing instruction to the letter, and it will open the way for a complete understanding, and mastery of the principles of success.

Chapter 5

Specialized Knowledge, Personal Experience or Observations

The Fourth Step toward Riches

THERE are two kinds of knowledge. One is general, the other is specialized. General knowledge, no matter how great in quantity or variety it may be, is of but little use in the accumulation of money. The faculties of the great universities possess, in the aggregate, practically every form of general knowledge known to civilization. Most of the professors have but little or no money. They specialize on teaching knowledge, but they do not specialize on the organization, or the use of knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE will not attract money, unless it is organized, and intelligently directed, through practical PLANS OF ACTION, to the DEFINITE END of accumulation of money. Lack of understanding of this fact has been the source of confusion to millions of people who falsely believe that “knowledge is power.” It is nothing of the sort! Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end.

This “missing link” in all systems of education known to civilization today, may be found in the failure of educational institutions to teach their students HOW TO ORGANIZE AND USE KNOWLEDGE AFTER THEY ACQUIRE IT.

Many people make the mistake of assuming that, because Henry Ford had but little “schooling,” he is not a man of “education.” Those who make this mistake do not know Henry Ford, nor do they understand the real meaning of the word “educate.”

That word is derived from the Latin word “educo,” meaning to educe, to draw out, to DEVELOP FROM WITHIN. An educated man is not, necessarily, one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others. Henry Ford comes well within the meaning of this definition.

During the world war, a Chicago newspaper published certain editorials in which, among other statements, Henry Ford was called “an ignorant pacifist.” Mr. Ford objected to the statements, and brought suit against the paper for libeling him. When the suit was tried in the Courts, the attorneys for the paper pleaded justification, and placed Mr. Ford, himself, on the witness stand, for the purpose of proving to the jury that he was ignorant. The attorneys asked Mr. Ford a great variety of questions, all of them intended to prove, by his own evidence, that, while he might possess considerable specialized knowledge pertaining to the manufacture of automobiles, he was, in the main, ignorant.

Mr. Ford was plied with such questions as the following:

“Who was Benedict Arnold?” and “How many soldiers did the British send over to America to put down the Rebellion of 1776?” In answer to the last question, Mr. Ford replied, “I do not know the exact number of soldiers the British sent over, but I have heard that it was a considerably larger number than ever went back.”

Finally, Mr. Ford became tired of this line of questioning, and in reply to a particularly offensive question, he leaned over, pointed his finger at the lawyer who had asked the question, and said, “If I should really WANT to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer ANY question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, WHY I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”

There certainly was good logic to that reply. That answer floored the lawyer. Every person in the courtroom realized it was the answer, not of an ignorant man, but of a man of EDUCATION. Any man is educated who knows where to get knowledge when he needs it, and how to organize that knowledge into definite plans of action. Through the assistance of his “Master Mind” group, Henry Ford had at his command all the specialized knowledge he needed to enable him to become one of the wealthiest men in America. It was not essential that he have this knowledge in his own mind. Surely no person who has sufficient inclination and intelligence to read a book of this nature can possibly miss the significance of this illustration.

Before you can be sure of your ability to transmute DESIRE into its monetary equivalent, you will require SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE of the service, merchandise, or profession which you intend to offer in return for fortune. Perhaps you may need much more specialized knowledge than you have the ability or the inclination to acquire, and if this should be true, you may bridge your weakness through the aid of your “Master Mind” group.

Andrew Carnegie stated that he, personally, knew nothing about the technical end of the steel business; moreover, he did not particularly care to know anything about it. The specialized knowledge which he required for the manufacture and marketing of steel, he found available through the individual units of his MASTER MIND GROUP. The accumulation of great fortunes calls for POWER, and power is acquired through highly organized and intelligently directed specialized knowledge, but that knowledge does not, necessarily, have to be in the possession of the man who accumulates the fortune.

The preceding paragraph should give hope and encouragement to the man with ambition to accumulate a fortune, who has not possessed himself of the necessary “education” to supply such specialized knowledge as he may require. Men sometimes go through life suffering from “inferiority complexes,” because they are not men of “education.” The man who can organize and direct a “Master Mind” group of men who possess knowledge useful in the accumulation of money, is just as much a man of education as any man in the group. REMEMBER THIS, if you suffer from a feeling of inferiority, because your schooling has been limited.

Thomas A. Edison had only three months of “schooling” during his entire life. He did not lack education, neither did he die poor. Henry Ford had less than a sixth grade “schooling” but he has managed to do pretty well by himself, financially.

SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE is among the most plentiful, and the cheapest forms of service which may be had! If you doubt this, consult the payroll of any university.

IT PAYS TO KNOW HOW TO PURCHASE KNOWLEDGE

First of all, decide the sort of specialized knowledge you require, and the purpose for which it is needed. To a large extent your major purpose in life, the goal toward which you are working, will help determine what knowledge you need.

With this question settled, your next move requires that you have accurate information concerning dependable sources of knowledge. The more important of these are:

(a) One’s own experience and education

(b) Experience and education available through cooperation of others (Master Mind Alliance)

(c) Colleges and Universities

(d) Public Libraries (Through books and periodicals in which may be found all the knowledge organized by civilization)

(e) Special Training Courses (Through night schools and home study schools in particular.)

As knowledge is acquired it must be organized and put into use, for a definite purpose, through practical plans. Knowledge has no value except that which can be gained from its application toward some worthy end. This is one reason why college degrees are not valued more highly. They represent nothing but miscellaneous knowledge.

If you contemplate taking additional schooling, first determine the purpose for which you want the knowledge you are seeking, then learn where this particular sort of knowledge can be obtained, from reliable sources.

Successful men, in all callings, never stop acquiring specialized knowledge related to their major purpose, business, or profession. Those who are not successful usually make the mistake of believing that the knowledge acquiring period ends when one finishes school. The truth is that schooling does but little more than to put one in the way of learning how to acquire practical knowledge.

With this Changed World which began at the end of the economic collapse, came also astounding changes in educational requirements. The order of the day is SPECIALIZATION! This truth was emphasized by Robert P. Moore, secretary of appointments of Columbia University.

“SPECIALISTS MOST SOUGHT AFTER ”

“Particularly sought after by employing companies are candidates who have specialized in some field-business-school graduates with training in accounting and statistics , engineers of all varieties, journalists, architects, chemists, and also outstanding leaders and activity men of the senior class.

“The man who has been active on the campus, whose personality is such that he gets along with all kinds of people and who has done an adequate job with his studies has a most decided edge over the strictly academic student. Some of these, because of their all-around qualifications, have received several offers of positions, a few of them as many as six.

“In departing from the conception that the ‘straight A’ student was invariably the one to get the choice of the better jobs, Mr. Moore said that most companies look not only to academic records but to activity records and personalities of the students.

“One of the largest industrial companies, the leader in its field, in writing to Mr. Moore concerning prospective seniors at the college, said:

“’We are interested primarily in finding men who can make exceptional progress in management work. For this reason we emphasize qualities of character, intelligence and personality far more than specific educational background.’

“APPRENTICESHIP” PROPOSED

“Proposing a system of ‘apprenticing’ students in offices, stores and industrial occupations during the summer vacation, Mr. Moore asserts that after the first two or three years of college, every student should be asked ‘to choose a definite future course and to call a halt if he has been merely pleasantly drifting without purpose through an unspecialized academic curriculum.’

“Colleges and universities must face the practical consideration that all professions and occupations now demand specialists,” he said, urging that educational institutions accept more direct responsibility for vocational guidance. One of the most reliable and practical sources of knowledge available to those who need specialized schooling, is the night schools operated in most large cities. The correspondence schools give specialized training anywhere the U. S. mails go, on all subjects that can be taught by the extension method. One advantage of home study training is the flexibility of the study programme which permits one to study during spare time. Another stupendous advantage of home study training (if the school is carefully chosen), is the fact that most courses offered by home study schools carry with them generous privileges of consultation which can be of priceless value to those needing specialized knowledge. No matter where you live, you can share the benefits. Anything acquired without effort, and without cost is generally unappreciated, often discredited; perhaps this is why we get so little from our marvelous opportunity in public schools. The SELF-DISCIPLINE one receives from a definite programme of specialized study makes up to some extent, for the wasted opportunity when knowledge was available without cost. Correspondence schools are highly organized business institutions. Their tuition fees are so low that they are forced to insist upon prompt payments. Being asked to pay, whether the student makes good grades or poor, has the effect of causing one to follow through with the course when he would otherwise drop it. The correspondence schools have not stressed this point sufficiently, for the truth is that their collection departments constitute the very finest sort of training on DECISION, PROMPTNESS, ACTION and THE HABIT OF FINISHING THAT WHICH ONE BEGINS.

I learned this from experience, more than twenty-five years ago. I enrolled for a home study course in Advertising. After completing eight or ten lessons I stopped studying, but the school did not stop sending me bills. Moreover, it insisted upon payment, whether I kept up my studies or not. I decided that if I had to pay for the course (which I had legally obligated myself to do), I should complete the lessons and get my money’s worth. I felt, at the time, that the collection system of the school was somewhat too well organized, but I learned later in life that it was a valuable part of my training for which no charge had been made. Being forced to pay, I went ahead and completed the course. Later in life I discovered that the efficient collection system of that school had been worth much in the form of money earned, because of the training in advertising I had so reluctantly taken.

We have in this country what is said to be the greatest public school system in the world. We have invested fabulous sums for fine buildings, we have provided convenient transportation for children living in the rural districts, so they may attend the best schools, but there is one astounding weakness to this marvelous system-IT IS FREE! One of the strange things about human beings is that they value only that which has a price. The free schools of America, and the free public libraries, do not impress people because they are free. This is the major reason why so many people find it necessary to acquire additional training after they quit school and go lo work. It is also one of the major reasons why EMPLOYERS GIVE GREATER CONSIDERATION TO EMPLOYEES WHO TAKE HOME STUDY COURSES. They have learned, from experience, that any person who has the ambition to give up a part of his spare time to studying at home has in him those qualities which make for leadership. This recognition is not a charitable gesture, it is sound business judgment upon the part of the employers.

There is one weakness in people for which there is no remedy. It is the universal weakness of LACK OF AMBITION! Persons, especially salaried people, who schedule their spare time, to provide for home study, seldom remain at the bottom very long. Their action opens the way for the upward climb, removes many obstacles from their path, and gains the friendly interest of those who have the power to put them in the way of OPPORTUNITY.

The home study method of training is especially suited to the needs of employed people who find, after leaving school, that they must acquire additional specialized knowledge, but cannot spare the time to go back to school.

The changed economic conditions prevailing since the depression have made it necessary for thousands of people to find additional, or new sources of income. For the majority of these, the solution to their problem may be found only by acquiring specialized knowledge. Many will be forced to change their occupations entirely.

When a merchant finds that a certain line of merchandise is not selling, he usually supplants it with another that is in demand. The person whose business is that of marketing personal services must also be an efficient merchant. If his services do not bring adequate returns in one occupation, he must change to another, where broader opportunities are available.

Stuart Austin Wier prepared himself as a Construction Engineer and followed this line of work until the depression limited his market to where it did not give him the income he required. He took inventory of himself, decided to change his profession to law, went back to school and took special courses by which he prepared himself as a corporation lawyer. Despite the fact the depression had not ended, he completed his training, passed the Bar Examination, and quickly built a lucrative law practice, in Dallas, Texas; in fact he is turning away clients.

Just to keep the record straight, and to anticipate the alibis of those who will say, “I couldn’t go to school because I have a family to support,” or “I’m too old,” I will add the information that Mr. Wier was past forty, and married when he went back to school. Moreover, by carefully selecting highly specialized courses, in colleges best prepared to teach the subjects chosen, Mr. Wier completed in two years the work for which the majority of law students require four years. IT PAYS TO KNOW HOW TO PURCHASE KNOWLEDGE!

The person who stops studying merely because he has finished school is forever hopelessly doomed to mediocrity, no matter what may be his calling. The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge. Let us consider a specific instance. During the depression a salesman in a grocery store found himself without a position. Having had some bookkeeping experience, he took a special course in accounting, familiarized himself with all the latest bookkeeping and office equipment, and went into business for himself. Starting with the grocer for whom he had formerly worked, he made contracts with more than 100 small merchants to keep their books, at a very nominal monthly fee. His idea was so practical that he soon found it necessary to set up a portable office in a light delivery truck, which he equipped with modern bookkeeping machinery. He now has a fleet of these bookkeeping offices “on wheels” and employs a large staff of assistants, thus providing small merchants with accounting service equal to the best that money can buy, at very nominal cost.

Specialized knowledge, plus imagination, were the ingredients that went into this unique and successful business. Last year the owner of that business paid an income tax of almost ten times as much as was paid by the merchant for whom he worked when the depression forced upon him a temporary adversity which proved to be a blessing in disguise.

The beginning of this successful business was an IDEA! Inasmuch as I had the privilege of supplying the unemployed salesman with that idea, I now assume the further privilege of suggesting another idea which has within it the possibility of even greater income. Also the possibility of rendering useful service to thousands of people who badly need that service.

The idea was suggested by the salesman who gave up selling and went into the business of keeping books on a wholesale basis. When the plan was suggested as a solution of his unemployment problem, he quickly exclaimed, “I like the idea, but I would not know how to turn it into cash.” In other words, he complained he would not know how to market his bookkeeping knowledge after he acquired it.

So, that brought up another problem which had to be solved. With the aid of a young woman typist, clever at hand lettering, and who could put the story together, a very attractive book was prepared, describing the advantages of the new system of bookkeeping.

The pages were neatly typed and pasted in an ordinary scrapbook, which was used as a silent salesman with which the story of this new business was so effectively told that its owner soon had more accounts than he could handle.

There are thousands of people, all over the country, who need the services of a merchandising specialist capable of preparing an attractive brief for use in marketing personal services. The aggregate annual income from such a service might easily exceed that received by the largest employment agency, and the benefits of the service might be made far greater to the purchaser than any to be obtained from an employment agency.

The IDEA here described was born of necessity, to bridge an emergency which had to be covered, but it did not stop by merely serving one person. The woman who created the idea has a keen IMAGINATION. She saw in her newly born brain-child the making of a new profession, one that is destined to render valuable service to thousands of people who need practical guidance in marketing personal services.

Spurred to action by the instantaneous success of her first “PREPARED PLAN TO MARKET PERSONAL SERVICES,” this energetic woman turned next to the solution of a similar problem for her son who had just finished college, but had been totally unable to find a market for his services. The plan she originated for his use was the finest specimen of merchandising of personal services I have ever seen.

When the plan book had been completed, it contained nearly fifty pages of beautifully typed, properly organized information, telling the story of her son’s native ability, schooling, personal experiences, and a great variety of other information too extensive for description. The plan book also contained a complete description of the position her son desired, together with a marvelous word picture of the exact plan he would use in filling the position.

The preparation of the plan book required several week’s labor, during which time its creator sent her son to the public library almost daily, to procure data needed in selling his services to best advantage. She sent him, also to all the competitors of his prospective employer, and gathered from them vital information concerning their business methods which was of great value in the formation of the plan he intended to use in filling the position he sought. When the plan had been finished, it contained more than half a dozen very fine suggestions for the use and benefit of the prospective employer. (The suggestions were put into use by the company).

One may be inclined to ask, “Why go to all this trouble to secure a job?” The answer is straight to the point, also it is dramatic, because it deals with a subject which assumes the proportion of a tragedy with millions of men and women whose sole source of income is personal services.

The answer is, “DOING A THING WELL NEVER IS TROUBLE! THE PLAN PREPARED BY THIS WOMAN FOR THE BENEFIT OF HER SON, HELPED HIM GET THE JOB FOR WHICH HE APPLIED, AT THE FIRST INTERVIEW, AT A SALARY FIXED BY HIMSELF.” Moreover-and this, too, is important-THE POSITION DID NOT REQUIRE THE YOUNG MAN TO START AT THE BOTTOM. HE BEGAN AS A JUNIOR EXECUTIVE, AT AN EXECUTIVE’S SALARY.

“Why go to all this trouble?” do you ask?

Well, for one thing, the PLANNED PRESENTATION of this young man’s application for a position clipped off no less than ten years of time he would have required to get to where he began, had he “started at the bottom and worked his way up.”

This idea of starting at the bottom and working one’s way up may appear to be sound, but the major objection to it is this-too many of those who begin at the bottom never manage to lift their heads high enough to be seen by OPPORTUNITY, so they remain at the bottom. It should be remembered, also, that the outlook from the bottom is not so very bright or encouraging. It has a tendency to kill off ambition. We call it “getting into a rut,” which means that we accept our fate because we form the HABIT of daily routine, a habit that finally becomes so strong we cease to try to throw it off. And that is another reason why it pays to start one or two steps above the bottom. By so doing one forms the HABIT of looking around, of observing how others get ahead, of seeing OPPORTUNITY, and of embracing it without hesitation.

Dan Halpin is a splendid example of what I mean. During his college days, he was manager of the famous 1930 National Championship Notre Dame football team, when it was under the direction of the late Knute Rockne.

Perhaps he was inspired by the great football coach to aim high, and NOT MISTAKE TEMPORARY DEFEAT FOR FAILURE, just as Andrew Carnegie, the great industrial leader, inspired his young business lieutenants to set high goals for themselves. At any rate, young Halpin finished college at a mighty unfavorable time, when the depression had made jobs scarce, so, after a fling at investment banking and motion pictures, he took the first opening with a potential future he could find-selling electrical hearing aids on a commission basis. ANYONE COULD START IN THAT SORT OF JOB, AND HALPIN KNEW IT, but it was enough to open the door of opportunity to him.

For almost two years, he continued in a job not to his liking, and he would never have risen above that job if he had not done something about his dissatisfaction. He aimed, first, at the job of Assistant Sales Manager of his company, and got the job. That one step upward placed him high enough above the crowd to enable him to see still greater opportunity, also, it placed him where OPPORTUNITY COULD SEE HIM.

He made such a fine record selling hearing aids, that A. M. Andrews, Chairman of the Board of the Dictograph Products Company, a business competitor of the company for which Halpin worked, wanted to know something about that man Dan Halpin who was taking big sales away from the long established Dictograph Company. He sent for Hal-pin. When the interview was over, Halpin was the new Sales Manager, in charge of the Acousticon Division.

Then, to test young Halpin’s metal, Mr. Andrews went away to Florida for three months, leaving him to sink or swim in his new job. He did not sink! Knute Rockne’s spirit of “All the world loves a winner, and has no time for a loser inspired him to put so much into his job that he was recently elected Vice-President of the company, and General Manager of the Acousticon and Silent Radio Division, a job which most men would be proud to earn through ten years of loyal effort. Halpin turned the trick in little more than six months.

It is difficult to say whether Mr. Andrews or Mr. Halpin is more deserving of eulogy, for the reason that both showed evidence of having an abundance of that very rare quality known as IMAGINATION. Mr. Andrews deserves credit for seeing, in young Halpin, a “go-getter” of the highest order. Halpin deserves credit for REFUSING TO COMPROMISE WITH LIFE BY ACCEPTING AND KEEPING A JOB HE DID NOT WANT, and that is one of the major points I am trying to emphasize through this entire philosophy-that we rise to high positions or remain at the bottom BECAUSE OF CONDITIONS WE CAN CONTROL IF WE DESIRE TO CONTROL THEM.

I am also trying to emphasize another point, namely, that both success and failure are largely the results of HABIT! I have not the slightest doubt that Dan Halpin’s close association with the greatest football coach America ever knew, planted in his mind the same brand of DESIRE to excel which made the Notre Dame football team world famous. Truly, there is something to the idea that hero-worship is helpful, provided one worships a WINNER. Halpin tells me that Rockne was one of the world’s greatest leaders of men in all history.

My belief in the theory that business associations are vital factors, both in failure and in success, was recently demonstrated, when my son Blair was negotiating with Dan Halpin for a position. Mr. Halpin offered him a beginning salary of about one half what he could have gotten from a rival company. I brought parental pressure to bear, and induced him to accept the place with Mr. Halpin, because I BELIEVE THAT CLOSE ASSOCIATION WITH ONE WHO REFUSES TO COMPROMISE WITH CIRCUMSTANCES HE DOES NOT LIKE, IS AN ASSET THAT CAN NEVER BE MEASURED IN TERMS OF MONEY.

The bottom is a monotonous, dreary, unprofitable place for any person. That is why I have taken the time to describe how lowly beginnings may be circumvented by proper planning. Also, that is why so much space has been devoted to a description of this new profession, created by a woman who was inspired to do a fine job of PLANNING because she wanted her son to have a favorable “break.”

With the changed conditions ushered in by the world economic collapse, came also the need for newer and better ways of marketing PERSONAL SERVICES. It is hard to determine why someone had not previously discovered this stupendous need, in view of the fact that more money changes hands in return for personal services than for any other purpose. The sum paid out monthly, to people who work for wages and salaries, is so huge that it runs into hundreds of millions, and the annual distribution amounts to billions.

Perhaps some will find, in the IDEA here briefly described, the nucleus of the riches they DESIRE! Ideas with much less merit have been the seedlings from which great fortunes have grown.

Woolworth’s Five and Ten Cent Store idea, for example, had far less merit, but it piled up a fortune for its creator. Those seeing OPPORTUNITY lurking in this suggestion will find valuable aid in the chapter on Organized Planning.

Incidentally, an efficient merchandiser of personal services would find a growing demand for his services wherever there are men and women who seek better markets for their services. By applying the Master Mind principle, a few people with suitable talent, could form an alliance, and have a paying business very quickly. One would need to be a fair writer, with a flair for advertising and selling, one handy at typing and hand lettering, and one should be a first class business getter who would let the world know about the service. If one person possessed all these abilities, he might carry on the business alone, until it outgrew him.

The woman who prepared the “Personal Service Sales Plan” for her son now receives requests from all parts of the country for her cooperation in preparing similar plans for others who desire to market their personal services for more money. She has a staff of expert typists, artists, and writers who have the ability to dramatize the case history so effectively that one’s personal services can be marketed for much more money than the prevailing wages for similar services. She is so confident of her ability that she accepts, as the major portion of her fee, a percentage of the increased pay she helps her clients to earn.

It must not be supposed that her plan merely consists of clever salesmanship by which she helps men and women to demand and receive more money for he same services they formerly sold for less pay. She looks after the interests of the purchaser as well as the seller of personal services, and so prepares her plans that the employer receives full value for the additional money he pays. The method by which she accomplishes this astonishing result is a professional secret which she discloses to no one excepting her own clients.

If you have the IMAGINATION, and seek a more profitable outlet for your personal services, this suggestion may be the stimulus for which you have been searching. The IDEA is capable of yielding an income far greater than that of the “average” doctor, lawyer, or engineer whose education required several years in college. The idea is saleable to those seeking new positions, in practically all positions calling for managerial or executive ability, and those desiring re-arrangement of incomes in their present positions.

There is no fixed price for sound IDEAS! Back of all IDEAS is specialized knowledge. Unfortunately, for those who do not find riches in abundance, specialized knowledge is more abundant and more easily acquired than IDEAS. Because of this very truth, there is a universal demand and an ever-increasing opportunity for the person capable of helping men and women to sell their personal services advantageously. Capability means IMAGINATION, the one quality needed to combine specialized knowledge with IDEAS, in the form of ORGANIZED PLANS designed to yield riches.

If you have IMAGINATION this chapter may present you with an idea sufficient to serve as the beginning of the riches you desire. Remember, the IDEA is the main thing. Specialized knowledge may be found just around the corner-any corner!

END PART 1 OF 3 PARTS

[rebeccahpedersen]

Top-Ten Burning Questions For The 2019 Real Estate Market (Pt3)

TorontoRealtyBlog

I sure hope the blog readers are up early on a Friday!

We all know that Friday blogs only get one weekday of display on TRB, but they do get Saturday and Sunday, for what it’s worth.

Here’s hoping that “Burning Questions” #4 through #10 get the eyes they deserve…

–

4) How many condos will be cancelled, and will changes to the Condominium Act result?

In short: several, and no.

That’s a pessimistic viewpoint, right?  Well, it’s a realistic view-point as well.

I literally had this conversation with a colleague of mine today when he told me, “You’re being pessimistic.”  I told him that as much as I’d love to be optimistic, I can’t help but be realistic.  I don’t go through life seeing the cup as half-empty, but I sure as hell don’t ever want to fall into the segment of society that willfully delude thesmelves into seeing something that isn’t there.

Being realistic means you’re less likely to be caught off guard.  And perhaps that’s a mantra that every pre-construction condo buyer should adopt.

We saw more condo cancellations last year than that any year I can remember, and the media coverage was ramped up too.  It makes for a sexy story, especially when you have whiny buyers who will mug for the cameras while telling their sob stories.  Remember, it’s always somebody else’s fault!

Since, in my opinion, politicians aren’t actually in the business of helping people, but rather in the business of self-preservation, I don’t believe that at any point in the near future, we will see changes to the Condominium Act that will prohibit developers from cancelling more condo projects, for any reason they see fit.  There’s just nothing “in it” for a politician to enact change.  Don’t get me wrong – politicians will stand in front of podiums at some point, lamenting the evil developers and promising to help the poor, infantilized pre-construction condo buyers, but once the flashbulbs stop, those politicians will simply go back to City Hall and work on their giant paper-clip chains at their desks.

Remember, I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic.  There’s a difference!

At some point, developers will cross the line, and maybe, just maybe, something will be done.

Take the Cosmos Condo, for example.  In 2018, Liberty Developments cancelled the 3-tower, 1,453-unit complex, citing the cliché “financial constraints” as the reason.  And only a few months later, Liberty filed an application with the city of Vaughan to build two “new” condos on a plot of land that they own right next door.

Is that fair?

Well, yes, of course it is.  Because, 1) Liberty was permitted to cancel the project as per their clauses in the Agreements that buyers signed, and, 2) Liberty can file an application to build a condo on any plot of land that they own, as they see fit.  Liberty is free to suggest that one project has nothing to do with the other, and while we know that’s not the case, it doesn’t matter.

Is that case enough to cross the line?  Or is it just business as usual?

We will soon find out!

Because on February 13th, 2019, a class-action lawsuit against Liberty Developments finally goes to court!

Suing a condominium developer is never easy, and when it comes to suing for a cancelled condo, I have never seen a class-action result in a “win” in Toronto.  Correct me if I’m wrong.

The website www.cosmoscondoscancellation.com will tell you all you need to know about this class-action, as well as what is required for a class-action of this statue.  In order to proceed, the law firm requires 400 people to provide a non-refundable fee of $500 plus HST, which represents a paltry $200,000 retainer for the firm.

It should be noted that the law firm, Charney Lawyers, is perhaps the most experienced firm in Toronto when it comes to condominium lawsuits.  According to their website, they have class actions against Festival Tower, X-Condos, Emerald City, Murano, and One Bedford, just to name a few.  And according to THIS article, the firm is poised to take on the developer of Iconica Condos, which was the second major condo cancellation in Vaughan in 2018, this one even larger than Cosmos, with 3-towers and 1,633 units getting the axe.

According to Urbanation, in 2018 there were 12 buildings in 9 developments, representing 4,202 units, that were cancelled.

In 2017, there were only eight buildings and 1,658 units cancelled.

In 2016, a mere 379 units were cancelled.

Will this trend continue in 2019?

–

5) Will we open up the Greenbelt to development?

I mentioned this in December’s year-end blog, specifically including in the “Future of the City of Toronto” story, which I felt represented Story #1.

I wrote that blog about two weeks after the Ontario government launched Bill 66, the “Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018,” and mere days after the media had grabbed on to the story, and the reaction.

The Toronto Star sought out mayors and twenty municipalities for statements, and while Mayor John Tory was the only one to dance around the issue and not provide any comment of substance (no surprise…), most mayors were wholeheartedly against the idea of residential development on the Greenbelt.

But here’s what’s interesting about the idea of building on the Greenbelt: it’s not for the benefit of municipalities other than Toronto.

At least, not in my opinion.

The biggest reason why the Greenbelt would be opened to residential development would be to alleviate the massive imbalance of supply and demand in Toronto, and potentially reduce prices and/or stop rapid appreciation.

I don’t think that Doug Ford is even considering what’s best for Aurora in all of this, but rather what’s best for Toronto.  Ironic, considering he’s known as the mayor who doesn’t care about Toronto, and panders to voters outside the GTA (ie. his desire to build subways north of the city, rather than a downtown relief line).  That is the only reason why I think, maybe, Doug Ford will do what’s best for the Greenbelt, rather than what’s best for the real estate market.

And of course, that raises a good discussion point!  With regards to whether or not to build residential real estate on the Greenbelt, what comes first: a) what’s best for the Greenbelt, b) what’s best for real estate values and affordability to those in southern Ontario, in the long-term?

Is this simply a case of, “If you want to make an omlet, you need to break a few eggs”?

Are we naive for thinking that we won’t ever need that land?

Every time I see a movie based hundreds of years ago, and there’s nothing but green land surrounding the quaint little town, in every which way, it makes me think about what existed on the site of my home, or office, one hundred, two hundred, or five hundred years ago.

Call this line of thinking exaggerated if you please, but don’t people acknowledge that at some point, we’d have to consider building on the Greenbelt in order to house the people who want to live in the Golden Horseshoe?

Or do we just continue piling people on top of one-another in the downtown core until the house of cards implodes?

–

6) Will there be any changes in the mortgage market?

I believe that as things stand right now, this is the most confusing time for the mortgage market in a decade.  Maybe more.

There have been worse times, ie. 20% interest rates, vendor take-back mortgages, et al.

But in terms of being able to know, with a modicum of certainty, what interest rate you will end up with, before purchasing, I don’t know that there’s been a stranger time than now.

5% down?  20% down?  House?  Condo?  Variable?  Fixed?

There’s absolutely zero consistency across the board, and what’s worse is that most buyers are making assumptions that are entirely incorrect.

For example, would you assume that if you have a 20% down payment, you would get a better interest rate than the buyer with a 5% down payment?  I think that’s a reasonable assumption, right?

Wrong.  Dead wrong.

Buyers will 5% down get better rates than those with 20% down.  Buyers who are better qualified financially are punished by the banks, who charge them higher rates.  For those of you that work in banking, we can call this semantics, and yes, I’m being a dramatic.  But you get my point.

The “pre-approval” is ironically both more necessary, and useless, than ever before.  It’s necessary because lenders have tightened up their criteria and no longer should a buyer simply rely on an online calculator, or loosey-goosey conversation with a bank or mortgage broker with respect to a pre-approved amount.  But the pre-approvals are useless because so much changes in the mortgage market, week-to-week, and literally day-to-day.  Not only that, a buyer looking at different property types, at different prices, will ultimately get very different terms from a lender.  So what good is a pre-approval if the terms are going to change between the day the ink on the document dries, and the day the purchase is made?

I’ve heard anecdotally that most banks have a November 1st year-end, so after that date, they “turned off the taps,” so to speak, and made far fewer loans.  This wouldn’t make sense to many people who simply assume that banks are in business to lend, 24/7, 365.  But having experienced exceptional years, most banks realized the need to let employees catch their breath, and prepare for 2019.  Based on this, I would expect restrictions to loosen this month.

I’ve also heard that CMHC will be releasing new policies in April that will be groundbreaking, although exactly what those new rules are, remain to be seen.  I’ve heard rumours that this is mainly to do with self-employed, contract, and commission-based individuals, who have been hit hard over the last couple of years.  It’s amazing, because I’ve had clients who are commission-based with exceptional incomes get turned down for loans that salary-based individuals, with half the salary, would have had no problem obtaining.

–

7) Will we continue to see a mass exodus from the city?  Where will buyers go in 2019?

Over the past six years, two of my friends have moved from Toronto to Mississauga, one has moved from Toronto to Montreal, one has moved from Toronto to Kingston.

Work, life, and family played a role.

But you can’t think for a second that the cost of living in Toronto wasn’t a major factor.

As I’ve mentioned before many times, it can actually be faster to get to work, living outside the city and having access to better transit, than living downtown in a poorly-serviced spot.  I always reference my friend who moved to Mississauga and walks 8-minutes to the GO Station, takes a 16-minute train to Union, and walks 5-6 minutes to his office.  He used to take 40 minutes to get to the same office from Bathurst & Queen’s Quay.

Some clients of mine who live east or west of the city are seeing absolutely zero point in living in the core, although to be fair, I just received an email from a client who works at Yonge & Finch, who’s wife drives to Mississauga, and who wants to live in midtown.

But whereas moving outside the core used to be a last-resort, and one that was fought by the parents and friends, and much debated among the buyers, it has now become a realistic discussion point at the start of many searches.

I also think, and this is one of the rare times when you’ll hear me say this, that people are becoming more reasonable.  Don’t get me wrong, the good folks that protested the B.C. pipeline on the Bloor Viaduct in Toronto (John Tory clearly had no issue with this) on Wednesday night, during rush hour, with their e-vapes and man-buns, who went back to their parents’ houses when they were finished, will still clamour for the government to pay for their lives, and everything in it.  But the actual working-class in Toronto seem to have accepted that if you can’t afford to buy a property in Toronto, then you can look outside the city.

I understand.  Change is hard.  Acceptance is harder.  But it seems as though more and more people are accepting that, 1) The market crash of 50% that will enable them to buy their dream home, isn’t coming, and 2) The universe is not going to solve their problem.

Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Milton, and Brampton have all seen an uptick in activity in the past few years, despite the ups and downs of the market.  The same can be said for Ajax, Oshawa, Whitby, and Pickering, although prices have suffered there, as mentioned on Monday.

People are going to continue moving out of the city.  People will continue moving into the city, ie. those who can afford it, but I just don’t see all those with the means and desire to own a freehold property outside the city hanging on here any longer.

–

8) Will condos continue to get smaller and smaller?

Absolutely.  No question about it, in my mind.

But isn’t this a necessary evil?  I mean, if buyers are objecting to prices, and rapid appreciation, then isn’t buying a smaller condo the obvious alternative?

Paying more, to get less.  That’s the theme in today’s condo market, and I don’t see it changing.

I always point to The Art Shoppe as a classic example of what to expect moving forward.  There are studio plans of 321, 325, 331, 339, 379, 379, 418, 431, and 559 square feet respectively.  One-bedroom plans of 321, 480, 487, 510, 543, 567, 569, 607, 663, 867, 889, 893, and 1,004 square feet respectively too.  I’ll admit, the 800+ square foot 1-bedroom layouts are very rare, but this doesn’t offset the fact that this development has seven different floor plans of under 400 square feet.

Once upon a time, we thought that a sub-600 square foot condo was small.  When I bought my first 585 square foot condo, the people around me marvelled at what a tiny space it was.  I remember when condos started being built in the high-400’s, and it was just laughable.  The low-400’s came after that.  But the low-300’s?  This is something new.  And not altogether; I mean, there are 350 square foot bachelors in older buildings.  But in pre-construction, off floor plans?  This is a relatively new phenomenon.

–

9) Will pre-construction condo prices continue to make zero sense?

Oh yeah, we’re into bizzaro territory now.

Magic beans.  That’s what this has come to.

“King Toronto Condos” was launched last fall by Allied Properties & Westbank, and it was written up in the major newspapers, ie. THIS article in the Globe & Mail which drooled over the Danish architecture.

But what’s different about this condo isn’t just the architecture, which most people don’t actually care about, but just pretend to because it’s trendy, but rather the major difference between this condo and any other King West condo is the price.

How about $1,604 per square foot?

The 16-storey, 514-unit building will offer units starting at $659,900 and starting at 390 square feet.

For the love of GOD, who is paying $1,091,990 for a 681 square foot, 1-bed, 1-bath?

Apparently, “investors” are.  Yup.  Smart investors.  That’s the ticket…

–

10) Will “housing” be a major discussion point in the 2019 Federal election?

No question about it.  And if you know me, and you know my view on politics (ie. what’s written in point #4), you won’t be surprised to hear me say that this will be more pandering to voters.

I would love to see more affordable housing built across Canada, specifically in Toronto.  But with that comes about 1000x as much rhetoric which I just can’t stand.

I fully expect every politician, from every party, to appeal to the cash-strapped, gee-shucks Canadian who can’t afford they home that they want, whether that’s simply a roof over their head, or the 4-bed, 4-bath detached with a walk-in closet that they believe they “deserve.”

I fear we’ll get away from the idea of subsidized housing for those at the lowest-end of the spectrum, and waver into politicians promising that every Canadian can have what they want.  Because that’s been the theme in most elections of late, and I’m not sure that you’ll gain the vote of the middle class by promising housing for those holding the bottom-rung.

Liberals, PC, NDP, and whatever party Maxime Bernier seems to have started, will all make housing a major part of their platforms.  And while I don’t think it will dominate the election, I think voters who don’t feel as affected (ie. don’t care) about some of the bigger issues, will focus in directly on campaign discussions that affect them.

–

So there you have it, folks!

Ten burning questions, and probably fewer answers than we’d hoped to have.

The discussion after Wednesday’s blog was fantastic, and the readers even went through a few number-crunching examples for investment properties, which I thought was really cool.

More questions in today’s blog, albeit less appealing.  But I invite you to have your two cents either way…

The post Top-Ten Burning Questions For The 2019 Real Estate Market (Pt3) appeared first on Toronto Realty Blog.

Originated from http://bit.ly/2H6JVrg

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Goalies again – lots of goalie chatter. Also Nylander, Neal, Aberg and more (Dec 3)

Ramblings: Goalies again – lots of goalie chatter. Also Nylander, Neal, Aberg and more (Dec 3)

***

In fantasy hockey, goaltending is key. Goaltending is also the Achilles heel. There are literally only five or six goaltenders you can count on today that you know* will be helpful two seasons from now. The rest are on a dart board and you hope you have the guy that the right dart lands on. The best you can do is go after the ones with the best opportunity and follow the contract. Teams are amazingly loyal if a goalie gets that Golden Boy status – and that happens if he’s a high pick, signed to a high contract or a big asset was coughed up for him.

If you have a Top 30 list of the goalies getting the most fantasy points, and a Top 30 list of the actual talented goalies, those are two completely different lists. And in fact, 10 of those goalies that are on one list won’t be on another. The Blues are following Jake Allen right into the black hole. The Sharks are doing the same with Martin Jones. The Oilers will do the same with Cam Talbot and the Penguins with Matt Murray. The loyalty lasts as long as two-plus seasons, or even longer depending on just how bad things get. But all we can do is follow the opportunity, regardless of how we feel about the goalie’s actual talent.

This is my long-winded way of saying – if you went after Scott Darling a year-and-a-half ago, you made the right move. Myself, I didn’t go after him hard as I didn’t like his talent at all, only his opportunity and contract, but I certainly would have loved for him to fall into my lap. Getting him was the right move. He started 47 games for Carolina – that means that after 46 portions of a dog’s breakfast that he served up, they still gave him another start. And this is an example of a team giving up on him quickly – most teams would keep trying until 100 games or more (ahem, Allen) of futility. In advance, if you tell me that Goalie X is going to get 30 starts over the next 40 games I am going to be interested in owning Goalie X 10 times out of 10.

*

Side note (but related): my confidence in Matt Murray getting his act together and becoming a good starter sits at 99% due to the above Golden Boy rule and ongoing opportunities. My confidence in Cam Talbot getting his act together sits at 85% because he’s struggled a little longer (twins still keeping him up at night? Exhausted wife?), and because his contract actually runs out soon. But I harken back to when he first arrived in Edmonton and “lost” the starting role by late November to a red-hot Anders Nilsson. He got the job back then and he’ll get the job back now.

*

Early in the season when he was off to a great start I mentioned Jakob Silfverberg as my favorite breakout candidate (actually mentioned this in the summer a lot, too). But man, he relies on his linemates. As in – a lot. He clicked with Ryan Kesler and had some good seasons that way, but that’s when Kesler was good. And without Kesler, Silfverberg’s numbers suffered. Well, his great start was due to a combination of being in his prime now and clicking really well with the talented Max Comtois. As a Silf owners in one league, I was happy when Comtois’ injury was over with…and then crushed when Comtois was sent to junior. Now Silfverberg has fallen off the map. Because not only is he back on a line with Kesler – but Kesler is now an anchor offensively with just 19 points in his last 68 games. It’s like being paired with two enforcers, for all the offense that Kesler and Andrew Cogliano offer to Silfverberg. When, and I do mean when, Silfverberg gets a bloated contract somewhere else next summer, it will be interesting to see how well he does with talented linemates. He relies on them, sure, but when he actually gets them he’ll put points on the board.

*

Michael Grabner suffered what, in looking at the picture circulating Twitter Sunday, appears to be pretty devastating and he is out indefinitely. Not to be morbid and to just gloss over that, but sliding my fantasy hockey hat back on I like how this shakes up the Vinnie Hinostroza line. Perhaps Vinnie gets another chance with a quality winger and center (and sheds his other linemate, Brad Richardson, in the process). Hinostroza has 12 points in his last 21 games and points in each of his last two. Not great, but after Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz he’s been the next best forward. His points-per-60 is 1.9.

*

William Nylander has signed, as you well know, and he signed at a number that was higher than what was rumored to be his asking price – and definitely higher than what we heard was the rumored offer. This is a shocking loss by Kyle Dubas and I can’t help but think there will be more to this and that the book has not closed. Yes, signing Nylander late means that the cap hit will be much higher now (over $10.2) for this season. And yes, that will mean that his salary will be hard to move. But not impossible. And I am almost certain that Nylander will be traded before next October. For what it’s worth, Arizona, Philadelphia, Colorado, New Jersey and Carolina have the cap space and are a trade fit in terms of giving up a defenseman. In the book The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh, Walsh was quick to trade away any disruptions to the team or to his overall philosophy and long-term winning strategy. Dubas truly respects what that book has to say and I really don’t think we’ve seen the end of Nylander-gate.

*

Nikita Scherbak getting claimed by the Kings is an interesting one. I still respect Scherbak’s skill set and I think he has scoring-line upside, but that upside has seriously eroded thanks to all the injuries that have retarded his development. A prospect can only miss so much action during key years before it takes a bite out of what they can do in the future. I doubt the Kings can coax any of that out of him, but I always root for the player. The bigger name prospects who get waived and then claimed almost always fail. We, as fantasy owners, still get excited over the claims because it offers a glimmer of hope. But really – it’s only a glimmer. Valentin Zykov is another example – I hope for the best, I think if given a chance he could do well, but in the end my money is on failure. And with Zykov it’s a damn shame because we’re literally two months after calling him one of our favorite sleeper picks.

Another point on Zykov – the Oilers gave up Ryan Strome for another Zykov, but in that case his name is Ryan Spooner. To give up an asset to acquire a skill set…and then a couple weeks later acquire that skill set for free, seems short-sighted.

*

With 26 minutes left in regulation the Ducks were losing 5-1. They scored five times in 21 minutes to win it. Braden Holtby just folded like a cheap tent, giving up the five goals on just 10 or 11 shots (not exactly sure). Holtby had been playing well lately though, winning five in a row, so not really sure what happened other than perhaps fatigue.

Pontus Aberg tallied three points and has six in four games still playing with Ryan Getzlaf and Rickard Rakell. It’s time to start taking this guy seriously now. He’s streaky, but as long as Randy Carlyle is coaching (ahem), it looks as though Aberg will stay on that line even if his cold drought lasts a dozen games. We just saw it happen – four points in 12 games (before the six in four) and still stayed on that line.

*

Josh Morrissey, as told here dozens of times, is the recipient of the bulk of the PP time with Dustin Byfuglien out. But Jacob Trouba won’t be ignored either. In the five games that Big Buff has missed so far, Morrissey has seen 59.5%, 66%, 84.5%, 50% and 58% of the available PP time. Generally speaking, Morrissey gets about 30% in the games that Byfuglien plays. Morrissey has tallied five points in those five games, with three of them coming on the power play. He has definitely made him case as the heir apparent for that big PP slot and could probably start taking it over on Buff sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, Trouba usually sees minimal PP time (this year). But while Buff is sidelined he has seen 0%, 0%, 15.5%, 50% and 42%. No PPPts (none on the season overall, in fact), but something has sparked him as he has four points in the last three games during Byfuglien’s second injury stint. He’s still paired with Morrissey at even strength, so perhaps he’s just feeding off the hot hand that Morrissey is wielding coming off the power play. Regardless, an injured Byfuglien means a productive Morrissey and Trouba.

Mark Scheifele has marched into the NHL’s Top 10 in scoring 19 points in his last 12 contests. He has 14 SOG in his last three games.

A couple people tweeted to me their concern about Connor Hellebuyck yesterday, and wondered if I still rank him in the top-two on my keeper goalie list. In short: yes. And I think with goaltenders you can’t be emotional about their roller coaster rides. The Jets aren’t going to get worse over the next couple of years, they’re only going to get better. Hellebuyck is making $6.2 million per year for the next six seasons. Even if he Martin Joneses his way through games, he’s still going to get lots of W’s. I happen to think he won’t suck, but even if he does – the wins will be there. I’m not even looking at his peripheral stats right now since the W’s are still happening – I’ll worry about the lack of quality starts after another 20 games. Fantasy owners like to micro-manage and tend to panic quickly. And if your league counts SV% and GAA and he’s hurting you more than the wins can help, what are you going to do – drop him? Trade him for a lesser goalie who is currently doing better? I don’t think that’s wise.

*

I make a Martin Jones sucks joke the night he makes 40 saves on 41 shots, but I stand by it! He’ll get the W’s as long as the Sharks a good (that clock is actually ticking though), but his peripherals will never be great.

Evander Kane has six points in his last 18 games. He’s playing with the Twin Finns Joonas Donskoi and Antti Suomela.

*

Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog are unstoppable. I’m going to stop checking Colorado summaries. If it’s 3-0 then MacKinnon and Rantanen have three points each, Landeskog with two. If it’s 5-4, then MacKinnon and Rantanen enjoyed five-point nights. There, I just became more efficient – no more Colorado box scores.

It’s worth noting that Semyon Varlamov is 6-0-1 in his last seven, and his SV% is 0.925%. Contract Year 101. If only Cam Talbot and Sergei Bobrovsky would pay attention in class.

*

Vancouver placed Brendan Leipsic on waivers. An interesting name that I hope gets claimed (there’s that “glimmer of hope” crap again)

*

Unless James Neal gets traded, and that’s doubtful because they just signed him, he is not going to get better. His production is shot, his ice time is low, his linemates are weak and there is no reason to believe any of this will change. Plus, he’s a Band-Aid Boy and he hasn’t had his regularly scheduled injury yet. In case you were holding onto some hope for him and just needed a nudge, there it is. Nudge. He picked up a point Sunday, but it was a secondary assist and it was on the power play when the Flames spent half the game on the power play. Not really a scenario where you can expect points to come flying in regularly.

My law of starting goaltenders is beginning to bear fruit with Mike Smith, who has won his last three starts and has allowed four goals on 67 shots (22.3 shots per game so the team is coming together for him now, too).

*

Henri Jokiharju saw 5:11 on the power play Sunday and came up empty, including zero shots. He has three points in his last 14 games, but is “the guy” on the power play for Chicago under the new coach so don’t give up on him just yet.

*

See you next Monday.

*We don’t really know, who are we kidding? We thought we knew about Carey Price and well, here we are.

      from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-goalies-again-lots-of-goalie-chatter-also-nylander-neal-aberg-and-more-dec-3/

[andrewdburton]

An Interview With The Man Who Never Needed a Real Job

“Dear Mr. Money Mustache…

I’d like to retire soon. I’ve had a good career and the numbers say I’m just over the threshold, but I’m still afraid.

It would help if I had a solid plan for what to do after retirement – perhaps even make some money eventually. Because I think it would help boost my confidence to pull the plug at the old law office. But as an attorney, I’m trained to see the pitfalls of everything and frankly I’m afraid.

How do all of you fearless Mustachians just go out and start businesses and make money, when it is so hard to get started – so many details and contingencies to account for?

– the Skittish Scottsdale Solicitor

Dear SSS,

To answer a question like yours, it sometimes helps to look at a role model who has some of the traits you would like to cultivate in yourself. So this seems like the perfect time to share a story I have been wanting to tell here on MMM for at least five years. And the funny part about this tale is that it keeps getting more interesting, the longer I wait to share it.

It is the story of my long-time friend Luc, who has earned a reputation in our own community as the honey badger of entrepreneurship.

The Honey Badger

Luc takes a brief rest from digging out 30 tons of dirt from his own basement and hand-pouring a new foundation while his son supervises.

From painting houses to raising edible insects, selling handmade pine coffins to writing  and shooting his own feature length film in Scotland, all while never becoming too proud to take a literal Shit Shower while cleaning the sewer lines in his own rental properties, Luc’s story never fails to amaze. And it can be especially useful for those of us on the other end of the spectrum – wannabe entrepreneurs who are still hesitating to open our first small business checking account.

This story is a great financial lesson as well. Luc’s family* has gone from zero to financial independence without the benefit of the easy tech salaries that got my own household there back in the mid 2000s. Like most of us, they have seen windfalls and setbacks over the years, but the biggest factor in getting them to a better financial place has been continuing to get the work done, while choosing not to squander all of the proceeds on an ever bigger lifestyle.

So from this interview I’m hoping you will pick up both some inspiration for continued down-to-earth hard work, and a perspective to just go out and try new things, especially in the area of entrepreneurship.

If you do it right, there is upside waiting around every corner. So let’s get into the questions!

The Man Who Never Got a Real Job

MMM: The first moment we met was in July 2005, when I had just retired and we bought our first house in old-town Longmont, with a baby on the way. Walking through my new backyard, I immediately noticed two thirtysomething dudes in dirty clothes, working up on the roof of the old garage on your side of the fence. And I thought to myself, “These are my type of people!”, and walked over to meet you.

What was going on in your life at that moment, in both life and business?

Luc: Well, considering our daughter was born nine months later, it was near the end of one phase and the beginning of the next. At the time, my primary business was a house painting company that I had started in the late ‘90s, after my biology degree wasn’t enough to get me a job at a pet store (in Boulder you need advanced degrees for that sort of thing).

I had worked pretty hard to get that painting company up and running, starting as a one-man show, then employing as many as 18 people at one point. It was a good gig in that I had a lot of free time to work on other projects in the winters, and even went back and got my Master’s degree along the way.

By 2005, though, I had severely downsized the company and I was back to a small crew. I was beginning to think about what I wanted to be when I grew up.

One project we started that year was buying and quickly fixing up a house a few blocks from our place on a street called Carolina Avenue. This was primarily achieved by leveraging the equity we had built up in our first house. I still own and rent out that place (which you subsequently helped me do a more extensive renovation on).

MMM: So then we both had these children born at almost the same time, and all six people in our two families became friends. We both started helping each other with construction projects, but when Longmont denied my building permit application to expand our tiny 600 square foot house, I decided to move out and turn that one into a rental, and move into a bigger place a few blocks away. What was the catalyst that made you leave the little leafy paradise of that street? (and yes I realize this is a leading question :-))

Luc: The first thing is that old Happy Street is a pretty busy street, and with a young daughter, we thought it might be nice to live on a quieter stretch. One day my wife and I went for a walk and picked our favorite blocks in the neighborhood. There happened to be a “beautiful” old fixer upper for sale on one of those blocks, and within a few days we were under contract.

That we were willing to take the plunge so quickly was largely because of you and your construction company. At the time, I hadn’t done any extensive remodels, but because you were willing to help me out, I figured we could make it work.

At the time, my wife was certain that it would be a fix-and-flip and there was no way she would actually live in the house. Because it started out in such bad shape, it was hard to imagine it ever becoming a nice family home, but it really did in the end. So we we moved in at the beginning of 2008 and here I sit, typing away in the office.

The Rental Real Estate Projects

MMM: So, our biggest collaborations over the years have been in fixing up houses, often rental houses that one of us owned (okay most of them were yours.) We started with The Foreclosure Project  in 2011, then went back and did a major upgrade to one of your other places here in town. Most recently we did The Atwood Project, which was the inspiration for my post on Installing your own furnace.

How has your experience been in owning single family rental houses, while doing your own management and maintenance? Is it a reasonable return on your investment and labor?

Luc: There are a lot of real estate/rental experts in the Mustachian fold – I am not one of them, but real estate is the main reason we’re now financially independent.

We bought our first house in 1999 with $5000 from my dad and a $3000 courtesy check from Chase. We chose the house because it had a mother-in-law basement, with its own entry and kitchen – we went from paying over $900/mo in rent to having a tenant and paying around $300/mo toward our own house. We were fortunate enough that soon thereafter Longmont housing prices had a nice little bounce.

In 2003 I took out a home equity line of credit and we bought a condo in Fort Collins. A realtor soccer friend had given me a handy little spreadsheet that detailed all the ways to make money from real estate, and at the time it was hard to find cash flow properties in Longmont.

In hindsight, that first condo was a mistake. It was an hour commute to deal with any issues, it wasn’t a place I had much emotional attachment to, and it didn’t attract tenants who cared about it – it was a soulless investment. Nonetheless, we held it for over ten years, and finally saw some significant appreciation in the last few years (and it gave me my first taste of YouTube success with a video on How To Finish a Subfloor.)

I sold the condominium on Craigslist in 2015 and did a 1031 exchange for the Atwood Project – probably the most soulful investment I’ve made.

The lesson I learned from that first condo was that I wanted properties that were in my neighborhood, that I cared about, and that, when fixed up, made our community nicer. And of course they had to make money, too. Again, I was lucky enough that all those things were achievable here in Old Town Longmont, even through the recession.

Over the years, we leveraged our way into four rental properties in Old Town (moving into our current place along the way and turning that original home into a two-unit rental). The cash flow alone allowed me to spend less time painting and more on other pursuits. And my wife was able to move her teaching career down to half-time.

In 2016, I spent an average of under 10 hours per property – over the whole year – on maintenance and administration. Yes, there are occasional shit showers when cleaning out an old lead P trap, but most of it is more pleasant than that.

After finishing up the remodel work on the fourth and final property, we had 100% occupancy in all places and pulled in about $92,000 in rent; $36,000 after expenses.

Meanwhile, our longer term gamble on the livability of Old Town has paid off, as home prices have more than doubled here in the last several years, leaving us with equity close to $1.5 million (including the home we live in). The best example is the Foreclosure Project, which we bought for $113,500 in 2011, put about $25K into it, and is now worth over $300K.

To take some of that appreciation money off of the table, I chose to sell the most expensive of these houses last year, and re-invest the cash into standard stock market investments.

This is where MMM will probably caution you that not all real estate investment will go so well.

Building DIY Electric Cars

Although it’s no Tesla, this little homemade contraption was my first peek at the world of electric cars.

MMM: One of the most technically impressive things to me, was the time you read a book on converting an old gas-powered GEO Metro econobox car into an electric vehicle (EV), using basically a trunkload of golf cart batteries. And then decided to team up with a friend and try the same thing yourselves.

Not being auto mechanics yourselves, what possessed you to do this? And did it turn out to be a good business idea in the end?

Luc: Ha, this was a terrible business idea. I can remember sitting in the office of the City of Longmont fleet manager, trying to convince him to let us convert some of their gas pickups to electric; Fox News was blaring in the background and he was staring daggers at me. Needless to say, we didn’t get that gig, and that was probably a good thing, considering we didn’t have the expertise or capital to pull off truly decent EV conversions.

We did do a couple GEO conversions and an old Ford pickup, which was a lot of fun, but they were novelties more than anything. That was 2009, and it was an exciting time in the electric vehicle world. Lithium batteries were becoming more reliable and less expensive, the movie Who Killed The Electric Car? had come out a few years prior, Tesla was starting to make some waves, and of course addressing climate change was becoming more urgent. I wanted to do something meaningful, and I thought electric cars were the future of transportation. The cash flow I was getting from rentals had given me more free time. And I’m slightly crazy, so why not start an EV business?

At the time, Colorado had an amazing incentive for people to buy EVs. One of my favorite parts was arguing with the clueless administrator of the law for months, and then lobbying for sensible changes and clarification when they wrote the new law.

We spun off a new company, Boulder Hybrid Conversions, with two other guys (with more EV expertise), in which we converted Priuses to plug-in hybrids by upgrading them to a larger battery.

Meanwhile, largely thanks to my partner, our original business morphed from being a handcrafted car conversion hobby, to a reseller of electric car batteries and other components. It became one of the larger businesses of this type in the country, grossing over $1 million a year. I had a lot of other ideas for how we could expand the business, but my partner didn’t see it, so he ended up buying me out for about $125,000 (which, for all the time I put into the biz, turned out to be decent but not extravagant hourly compensation).

Boulder Hybrid Conversions became Boulder Hybrids, specializing in hybrid and EV maintenance and repair. One partner bought the rest of us out, and he continues to grow that business. I now own a 2013 Nissan Leaf and a 2015 Prius wagon (my off-road vehicle) and one share of Tesla, and I look forward to the day when I can buy an autonomous mini-van that will safely transport my family and me to Wisconsin overnight while we sleep.

Dead Pine Trees for Dead Bodies

A handcrafted biodegradeable coffin takes shape in the handcrafted workshop. (image credit: Mat Bobby / Longmont Colony)

MMM:

One day, I got an email from you that said, “Well, I’ve done it again – decided to start yet another business. Building coffins from reclaimed beetle-killed pine planks”

So we both reviewed the simple plans from a book you had found in the library, built a prototype of this Dracula-style “toe pincher” coffin, and then you photographed it and put up a website. I gladly worked alongside you because I like hanging out and building things, but I remember thinking, “Luc’s really gone off the deep end here  – who is going to buy our DIY coffins??”

What was the motivation and the eventual fate of that coffin venture?

Luc: I started Nature’s Casket in 2009 for the same reasons I started the EV business: to do something meaningful for the environment. And because it was different and exciting. And because I wanted to help my brother with more hours when we had downtime from painting. All the remodel work we had done meant I had most of the woodworking equipment I needed to build coffins. And it was nice to have some technical, logistical, and, hell, labor support from old MMM to get it going.

The green burial movement, already well-established in the U.K., had been growing in the U.S., largely as a result of the Ramsey Creek Preserve,   a conservation burial ground that conserves the land in a natural state. Green burial is traditional burial: simple and environmentally friendly (none of the swimming pools full of formaldehyde that are pumped into cadavers, no unsustainably harvested wood, stamped metal caskets, toxic paints, concrete vaults, or pesticides and copious water for manicured cemeteries).

Here in Colorado, the pine beetle epidemic was devastating our lodgepole pine forests, but leaving a lot of dead trees with beautiful blue grain (from a fungus that feeds on the beetle’s waste).

With some support from Karen Van Vuuren, who runs a nonprofit helping families direct their own funerals (and has now started The Natural Funeral), I was able to start getting the word out and selling a few caskets here and there. And it turns out that the media is really interested in things like death and beetlekill wood.

The Denver Post ran a front page article on my business in 2010 – many people saved that article, and when they’re ready, I get a call for a casket (to this day I’m still getting calls from that article). The New York Times mentioned Nature’s Casket (they never contacted me, so my mom was the first one to tell me about that). The Wall Street Journal sent a guy out to do a piece on beetle kill (I wasn’t mentioned in the article, but had a lot of time in the accompanying video). National Geographic sent one of their photographers out to take photos of the caskets at a funeral, but we didn’t make the magazine. There was also a nice story in Longmont’s Times Call newspaper.

Soon I was shipping coffins around the country. One of the most interesting gigs was when we built and reinforced eleven oversized caskets (with MMM on welding and metalworking support) that could hold up to a ton; these were for the reinterment of a 19th Century family cemetery in Virginia that was being moved to make room for a high school football stadium (most of the remains were biodegraded, so they included all the dirt from each plot).

This is where I should mention that I’m kind of success-averse. Nature’s Casket could have been a large business with an industrial shop and a storage warehouse if I had pursued that path. Instead I stopped shipping (too onerous and stressful) and ceased most advertising. Now it’s just a local business, and I average less than one casket a month – it’s still quite rewarding, but there are other projects to focus on.

Miscellaneous Mini Businesses and Pursuits

MMM:

Scattered in among these years were a few smaller things. The time you started designing your own greeting cards and printing them on fancy textured recycled paper. Then there was Simple Brew Kits, which was just assembling the required components for converting good grocery store cider into booze. A photography pursuit that started with just taking your daughter to over twenty of Longmont beautiful parks and ended up culminating in a show at the city’s museum.

Oh! And then of course the time you went to Scotland with two friends and some quickly researched photo equipment and shot a feature length film that ended up in the Front Range Film Festival – despite the fact that none of you had any experience or training in filmmaking. What was that all about?

Luc: Recycled Greeting Cards was actually born in the late ‘90s, around the time I started the painting biz. At one point I had pretty high hopes for RGC, even attending the National Stationery Exhibit in New York. That business was mostly a failure, although I have one loyal business customer who still buys a thousand or so cards a year.

Simple Brew Kits was a business I started for a blog post that I never published titled “How To Start A Business In One Day.” And that’s essentially what I did, filling out all the paperwork and putting up the website in a day. I didn’t sell many, though, until your post about the business, after which I was suddenly inundated with hundreds of orders. That slowly tapered off, and recently I decided to shut it down for good. Again my success aversion won the day. But we made a lot of fun (and some disgusting) drinks out of that whole deal, and I’ll still occasionally bust out some fermented cider or grape juice.

The photography gig was a byproduct of becoming a parent. My daughter was born in the spring of 2006. After my wife’s maternity leave, I became a stay-at-home dad off and on for a couple years. I wanted a project that would get us outside, but that would also provide me with something exciting. I decided we would visit each one of Longmont’s city parks and take pictures. I just had a little point-and-click dealio, but it took decent pictures.

A few years and thousands of pictures later, I chose one photo from each park and submitted the project to the Longmont Museum. To my surprise, they accepted the show, and even helped me publish a book of the photos. It was a gratifying experience and has led to more photography projects – something I’ll continue to pursue.

The Scotland film, Carve The Runes, came from an idea I had many years ago to get a group of friends together, rent a castle in Scotland, and produce a music album (despite having no musical talent). Over time, the idea morphed into making a film instead. I was able to convince my brother Isaac and a good friend, Ian, that this was in fact a realistic and good idea.

And so, in 2015, we spent ten days traveling around Scotland, filming and, well, just filming – we didn’t have time for anything else. I had envisioned some time for fly fishing and golfing in between shoots, but damn, making a movie is hard.

The film is about two brothers, one of whom has a terminal illness and goes to visit his brother in Scotland, where he’s doing climate change-related research. The basic idea for the film was laid out beforehand, but most of the script was written on the fly (I didn’t think we would use a script). Ian was cinematographer/sound guy/key grip/best boy, and maybe more important, moral support. We didn’t sleep much, and we drank a lot of scotch. It took us a couple years, but we finally finished post-production at the beginning of 2018.

We submitted it to a number of film festivals, and were happy to be accepted into our local Front Range Film Festival, where we won Best Feature (out of a limited selection). The acting and cinematography are suspect, but the soundtrack (friends and acquaintances) and screenplay, if I may say so, are legit; I’d love it if we could remake this with some real producers and actors (Francos, Afflecks, are you reading this? Or maybe the leads should be sisters).

A Quixotic Urban Oasis and the Big Dig

A few thousand pounds of concrete? all in a morning’s work.

MMM:

Surely the most concentrated demonstrations of your varied efforts and interests is in your own house. Because we restored it together from its original tippy skeleton into a solid and classy residence. But then a few years later went on to add a two story addition all the way up from the hand-dug structural piers. And then to build the garage workshop which has turned into an enviable hobbit-like enclave of living and productivity, both inside and out.

But all of this pales in comparison to the most recent upgrade, the Big Dig where you hand-dug about 60,000 pounds of concrete and soil out of your own basement (with occasional help from a beer-fueled team of other local Dads) to upgrade it from the typical Victorian house storage cellar into a very functional Man Cave complete with golf simulator and workout room.

What has driven you to go so far, when some people won’t even change a furnace filter? Any downsides and pitfalls?

Luc’s Hobbit-esque backyard oasis and workshop/garage, carved from an area that was originally just weeds and concrete.

Luc: I have labeled myself an eclectic: someone who loves to continually explore new ideas and embark on new adventures. The peril is getting so wrapped up in the novelty component that one never finishes anything – what I call dilettantism. This is part of my success aversion: I love to get a project or a business up and running, but it’s hard to continue to find it rewarding once it becomes quotidian. Routine is anathema to eclectics. Most of my projects reach a level of fruition that’s satisfactory to me, but I still think I can strike a balance that leaves things more complete.

To use my house as a metaphor, I’ve completed a number of satisfying projects (with a lot of help from people like you (mostly you, in fact)), but in the meantime many of the details have been overlooked: we need a new kitchen faucet, a toilet needs to be re-seated, I could organize the cookware situation better (and oh, by the way, I should probably spend a little more time with the family).

In the mid-aughts, I was working on figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up – I decided to embrace my eclectic nature. Now in the late teens, I’m realizing I need to fine tune that to incorporate more focus, responsibility, meticulousness and perseverance.

Physical Fitness and Doing Experiments On Yourself

MMM: Another unusual trait I’ve noticed is that you seem to operate in extremes. You can eat a plate of cookies or drink a bottle of wine in one sitting, but then also go for three days straight with zero food during a fast. You’ve tried a variety of 30-day experiments in different eating styles, following them up with weigh-ins and blood tests to see how they affect your good and bad cholesterol counts. You adopted weight training and have stuck with it for many years now.

This is different from my own approach, where I eat roughly the same thing year after year, making only small tweaks – like I lift heavier barbells and eat more carbs if I want to gain weight, and cut out beer and go to bed hungry when I need to lose fat.

Have you noticed anything about the Human body and what makes it function best? Any advice for people who are prone to binging, on getting control of their eating and drinking habits?

Luc: Oscar Wilde, perhaps after bingeing on absinthe, said “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” That was kind of my motto for much of my youth, and it fits well with the eclectic personality. But if you only practice moderation in moderation, I discovered, you tend to feel like shit a lot and you weigh about 20 pounds more than you should. I’ve modified the motto to Everything in moderation, including gluttony.

I think everybody’s different in terms of what works best for them to stay in shape and feel healthy, but there are some common threads. In our simple carb-y society, one of the easiest ways to eat better is to cut out most simple carbs (but, if you’re like me, allow yourself an occasional plate of cookies).

After all my fasting and intermittent fasting and super low fat and super low carb and alcohol temperance experimenting (and reading the research), I’ve come to a few fairly simple conclusions. First, a low glycemic diet (like the Mediterranean diet) seems to be the best. And eating within a fairly small window each day, say from noon to 6, is healthy. Of course, less alcohol on a daily basis is good.

With the new gym, I plan to have a regular but varied workout that includes weightlifting and short bursts of intense cardio on the bike. And, for eclectics like me, mixing it up and allowing myself to occasionally break the rules is key to continued success.

The YouTube Channel and Online Pursuits

At some point, I remember you started documenting your projects on YouTube. This has grown into a bit of a “channel” where at least one of your videos has over 100,000 views.

I have always hesitated to put up videos myself, because so much of YouTube is slickly produced and well-edited today and I am shy to put up my amateur work – much like the fearful theme that started us off on this whole article today. But you didn’t seem to care, and you just did it, and now the channel is out there.

How has your YouTubing experience been and do you have advice for anyone else? How hard would it be for a YT channel to become a successful business?

Luc: Ha ha, yes, the YouTube project has been quite an adventure. Currently there are three videos with over 100,000 views, including the Atwood remodel video, with over 750,000 views (you’re in that video – how does it feel to be a rock star?). What’s funny is the Atwood video was really poorly produced, yet it still somehow went semi-viral in the spring of 2017, spiking from an average of about 400 views a day to a peak of 21,000 views. That tapered off over the next year and a half, but I’ve made almost $1500 on that video. I’ve been trying to push the traffic from that vid to an updated and better produced version of the video, with limited success.

Like a lot of my other projects, the YouTube project has been a gung ho endeavor, jumping in with both feet in spite of limited skill and experience. A more well-thought out plan, executed with better focus, may have lead to more success. Then again, it might not have gotten off the ground if I had been too cautious.

In my newly grown up and focused life-phase, I hope to grow the channel into one that attracts more subscribers and maybe even provides enough income to buy more than a meal out on the town every month. Still, I have to keep that eclectic feel – I mean who doesn’t want to see everything from remodel work to creative pumpkin carving to insect eating to casket building to Trump parody to crazy body hair shaving? I have about 30 projects in the can as we speak, just waiting to be edited and uploaded.

(MMM note: did you catch that? Thirty projects we haven’t even mentioned in this article, including the time he tried to earn a Guinness world record by carving a 27 foot “Mustache” into his own body hair?)

The best advice I can give to aspiring YouTubers is don’t have a shaky camera – man does that drive people nuts, as I’ve been told again and again by people who watch the original Atwood video (there’s a lot of anger out there, as you well know, MMM). There’s something to be said for the amateur folksiness of YouTube, but there’s a balance between unwatchability and being too slickly produced (I’m still working on finding it). I’m probably the wrong guy to ask about what people want to see, but I imagine it’s pretty much anything you have an interest in, as long as the video is useful or entertaining.

Financial Independence and What’s Next?

Neighbourhood friends sampling Luc’s Sauteed Crickets at a party

MMM: As the years have gone on, you’ve remained a self-employed person and never stopped working hard on things. But I have noticed your work progressing from hardcore grinding out of professional painting jobs near the beginning, to more eclectic stuff now that is less income oriented. For example, the time you raised edible insects in your basement and researched and wrote an academic paper on how good it would be for the world if we switched some of the rich world’s meat consumption over to nutritionally superior stuff like cricket flour or bee brood. Not a lot of money in that type of thing, at least not to pay this month’s grocery bills.

What has been your secret to this decreased pressure on income making, and would you say you have a better work-life balance now than you had back in 2005?

Luc: Primarily because of my real estate investments, I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where most of my projects don’t need to make money. To me, the end goal in life is fulfillment, and the only way to achieve fulfillment is by making the world a better place, whether through service to the community, producing beautiful works of art, fighting for peace and justice in the world, writing a blog that denounces materialism and promotes sustainable living (wink wink), or just by being a good person to those around you.

A lot of my projects still focus on things that improve my own life, but more and more I hope to work on projects that help others, from the hyperlocal (being a better father and husband and friend) to the local (being more involved in our community) to the global. On the local front, one project you and I have worked on a little together is trying to get more solar power in Longmont. On the global level, I’ve been working with my father, E.G., on The Cooperative Society Project, a decades-long project that looks at the potential for humans to make the transition to a new stage of human interaction: one driven by cooperation rather than conflict.

The way I see it, the beauty of financial independence isn’t freedom from work, it’s the freedom to work on a fulfilling life.

An Afterword from MMM:

So this is a long article. What does it have to do with YOU and your own financial independence?

I have wanted to share these tales because they’re a great example of the idea of living with less fear. The neat thing about Luc’s entrepreneurial ventures is that he is willing to do things, even if he’s not skilled or experienced at them.  They often don’t pan out, and that’s okay, because it’s okay to fail. In most cases, failure is just a lesson that leaves you further ahead than when you started, with some great stories to show for it too.

But to minimize the damage of failure and maximize the chance of success in entrepreneurship, Luc and I have both noticed a pattern over these thirteen years:

Start Small and Just Sell Something – most failed businesses start with borrowing and risk. Instead, you should find a customer first and get them interested in buying your stuff. Only after the sales come, should you reinvest some of this money into a bigger business.

Hard Work Can Save You from your Mistakes – when you’re getting started in anything, you will make expensive mistakes. But you can dig in harder and correct them and learn from them.  You need to be willing to launch the business out of your spare room, be your own janitor, and make late night runs to the supply store or the post office to get those shipments out. Plenty of time for kicking back and gathering passive income later on, once the business is profitable

Keep Life Simple, Frugal and Stay Focused – a business takes time to build and it takes a while for it to start producing money. But if you enjoy it as your source of entertainment, it will naturally get the time it needs: Spend your weekends in the workshop instead of the golf course or the ski hill. And if you let go of material desires, you won’t be nearly as hungry for money. So while a $20,000 per year hobby business won’t even cover the lease payments on your neighbour’s pickup trucks, it may be more than enough to keep you well fed and happy, for life.

If you’ve got a lifestyle business that you love, feel free to share it in the comments beow and inspire the other people reading alongside you.

—

* In this article I profile Luc, but he is of course part of a hardworking and resilient family of four. His wife is also a friend of mine and an equally wonderful person, but I have kept this story just focused on Luc in the interest of the privacy of the rest of the family. 

Further Reading:

Poppa’s Cottage YouTube Channel

Poppa’s Cottage Blog

Updated Atwood Remodel Video

Carve The Runes Trailer

How To Build A Coffin Video

Portraits of Longmont Parks

The Potential For Entomophagy To Address Undernutrition

  from Finance http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2018/11/08/honey-badger-entrepreneur/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[beardedwinnerobject-blog]

cheapest liability only insurance

"cheapest liability only insurance

cheapest liability only insurance

BEST ANSWER:  Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://financeandcreditsolution.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr 

RELATED QUESTIONS: 

Insurance for Spanish registered car?

I live and work in the uk, but I have a car in the canary islands spain, I only return to the ca66naries about 6 times a year for a week at a time, does anyone know of an insurance company that can cover my car insurance for only 1 week at a time when I need it. The car is locked in my underground garage when not in use. I do not see the point in paying for a yearly insurance for a car that is only used for max of 6 weeks in the year. Its a Spanish plated car reg number""

Insurance companies will have 32 million new customers because of Obamacare. How is this socialism?

The Affordable Care Act was modeled after a Republican health care plan by the Heritage Foundation and was first implemented by a Republican governor. All this bill does is makes sure that insurance companies have 32 million new customers. I could understand if you called Single Payer socialism (which I highly support), but calling Obamacare socialist is pretty stupid.""

Where to find affordable life insurance at 64?

Where to find affordable life insurance at 64?

I am planning to buy medical insurance. Which insurance company provides affordable service with good service.

I am 25 working as a consultant but my company doesn't provide insurance. I am looking for a good insurance company to provide me with affordable service. Also what does term Plan type, Deductible, Coinsurance and Office visit mean in simple terms. I work in seattle.""

Cheapest Car Insurance Rates - Chicago?

Not sure if my fathers age has anything to do with rates, but he is 65 years old and pays $600 for six months (for one of his two cars) a 2003 Toyota Corolla with over 100,000 miles on it. He's currently with State Farm. Are there any companies that are as good (not sure what qualifies as being good , but heard that State Farm is good ) but for half the price? And is $600 for six months a lot for the above car? I know insurance covers more than just damage to the car (like injuries caused to others), but the car probably isn't even worth more than a couple grand. So not sure if paying that much is even worth it. Any thoughts?""

What is affordable car inssurance for new drivers?

What is affordable car inssurance for new drivers?

Small and cheap to insure ideal first cars?

first car for a 17 year old, no more then 1800, MUST be small and cheap to insure and preferably a respectable looking car :')""

Do you need proof of insurance when getting license in alabama?

i know you need it but i cant get it by tomorrow. is it ok because they have the information stored in the computers? i need help!!

Motorbike insurance quote 1202 (UK)!?

Could someone please let me know as to why my motorcycle quote is so high? I'm 18 years old and have recently passed my CBT. The bike I am purchasing is a 2009 YZF-R125 with a value of 3000. My friends bike, a CBR125, only costs him somewhere around the 400 per year mark. I don't understand it... Thanks for any replies.""

1999 Camero Insurance Question.....?

Hi, my son is turning 16 and our friend has a camero that his is going to give him a good deal on and I know because its a sports type of car insurance is going to be expensive and he is young...... does anyone have a quote or in the business and has a ballpark number? Thanks""

""Would insurance be high for a 1999 VW Jetta? My first car, 16y/o girl?""

I'm looking at a 99 VW Jetta on Craigslist for $2000. Here's the exact listing: http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/3371425857.html Obviously this would be added on to my parents car insurance since I'm still a minor. I have to pay my insurance though, so how much do you think it would be?""

Can I have military health insurance and Regular Health Insurance?

1.Am I allowed to have both military and normal health insurance? 2. Can I see regular nonmilitary doctors with Military health insurance?

Can someone obtain car insurance in CA with no drivers license?

I have a friend who will be a first time driver at age 30 (she had no need for driving where she previously lived). She has the opportunity to buy a car, but cannot register it until she has car insurance. Now, normally, she could just wait to buy the car when she finally gets licensed, but she's been offered an amazing deal and would have to buy now. Is there any insurance company that will cover an unlicensed driver or even someone with a permit? Thanks!""

Will you encourage health insurance to be sold across state lines?

I can buy car insurance anywhere but not health insurance. Why? If competition brings down prices then selling health insurance across state lines should bring prices down. I have not heard any candidate mention this.

Buying a used car insurance question?

i'm buying my first car soon and i have a question. I dont have my license yet so obviously i wont be able to drive it home, my parents will. do they need insurance on it to drive it home or is there an acceptance on that?""

How much would car insurance cost an international student in Winnipeg?

I just got my license from my country. I am going to winnipeg in August I will be attending winnipeg university and I need a car. How much would insurance cost for an international student with the least rates and coverages?

""Which company offers the best health insurance policy in Delhi, India?

I want a health insurance as it saves tax. I am 21 Male

Has anyone heard of 21st.com car insurance? They gave me a quote that was 500 dollars less than Geico!?

I gave the agent everything on my Geico policy and they quoted me with a 500 dollar six month premium which is less than what I pay for with Geico (almost 1000 dollars!!) Sounds to good to be true. Is it? Has anyone had a bad experience with them? Good experience? Please share.

Penalty points and insurance?

if i take out insurance with no points on my license then a couple of months later get 3 points for a ts50 do i have to contact my insurance company to tell them or not?

Which is better car insurance?

$500 per year with an excess of $1150 or $560 per year with an excess of $900 These are the 2 best insurance quotes i can find. Both are big reliable companies.

Cheapest car and insurance for 18 year old?

Hello, i'm looking for a cheap first car which looks alright for a 18 year old? a car which also has quite cheap insurance -_-""

Does it matter if you tell the insurance company?

that you are keeping your vehicle at 'X' address instead of your real address which is 'Y' address. Reason being that X is a way cheaper premuim than my Y premium. And its only for TPO insurance. Thanks

Is health insurance portable from state to state ?

If I purchase health insurence from a company like Coventry One of Kansas and move to Florida, can I take the Coverage with me ?""

My wife backed our truck into a parked car how does the insurance deductabe work?

like i said she backed into someone (her fault) do i pay the insurance deductible up front before they will fix their car and how will my insurance rates be affected by this (state farm). this would be our first claim ever and ive had the policy for around 8 years.

Can the insurance handle it?

I was parking and accidentally bumped into someones car and made a small scratch. The bmw driver made a big deal over it and got my insurance information.he supposedly got an estimate and tried to handle things under the table without having to go thru the insurance.however I think the estimate is tooo much money for fixing a little scratch that literally can be buffed out.I think he already got it fixed and still wants me to pay cause he said the supposed estimate also incluided a three day shop fee.will the insurance still cover me?what can I do?how do I handle this situation?this accident happened last week on Tuesday and he gave me the estimate Saturday.

cheapest liability only insurance

cheapest liability only insurance

How much do you pay for health insurance per month?

Just your portion/ per month / your age I am 30 and did not choose a health plan at work because I think $170 a month for basic HMO is too much for a single healthy person. I used to pay $60 with dental and vision at my last job (which I know is really cheap). When I interviewed here they told me they had a great health plan. Well, guess what they lied! I will definatly be asking more questions about health insurance when I talk salary for my next position.""

How do I prevent myself from getting taken advantage of by the car insurance companies?

What steps do I need to take in order to always be well ahead of the tricks that car insurance companies would want to pull on me?

How do you get cheap classic mini insurance when your 17 and its your first car?

My friend (also 17) got his insurance for 998, i asked and he said about classic mini insurance and joining a mini club, can someone explain and help me?""

Moped/Scooter insurance???

Hi everyone. How much would it cost for me to be insured on this bike? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/125cc-125-cc-Scooter-Moped-Sport-Learner-Legal_W0QQitemZ200232549719QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200232549719&_trkparms=39%3A1|65%3A7&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1308 I am 19 years old and have a provisional driving licence. (I'm just using that bike as an example but that is the size engine I want as I'm going to be traveling quite far to work and is working out a fortune for bus fair). I'm new to this so if you need more information about me or anything else please say. Thanks xx

Who has the cheapest auto insurance?

I'm about to come back from active duty overseas and I just bought a 2004 Ford F150 4x4. I'm 28 and havent had any accidents or driving infractions in the past 5 years. Which provider is generally the best to use? Thanks.

How bad would a 2006 nissan altima be on insurance for an 18 year old?

I'm on my moms policy right now as the primary driver of a 20 year old sports car and it costs 900 a month. I used to be the primary driver of a small 2002 kia rio sedan and it cost about 700 a month. How much will it be if i am now the primary driver of a 2006 nissan altima? Also how much would the insurance for the actual car be? My mom drives an 06 taurus and she pays 800 so i'm guessing around that price?

Does having a commercial drivers license affect my insurance rates?

I don't drive commercially for a living, so I'm wondering if having my CDL (which I do have) would affect my auto insurance rates positively or negatively. I have my CDL because I drive a bus every once in a while for the university where I work. Thanks for any help you can give.""

Where can I get the best price on private medical insurance?

Where can I get the best price on private medical insurance?

Does my parents insurance still cover me?

I'm 19(turning 20 on Dec 1) & I live in California(southern CA) Not in school right now, still looking into trade schools will attend school in spring '11. My parents have health insurance but since I was 18 it stopped covering for me. Insurance covers almost all costs though sometimes we have to pay a small percentage. Now this new bill has passed & I was wondering if it will cover me? Or should I apply for Medicaid? Currently looking for my 3rd job. Previous jobs did not give me health insurance. Thanks""

Provisional insurance for young driver?

Looking to get insured on my mums car but my mums insurance company wont put me on her insurance,,,, could i get insured by a company such as provisional marmalade? Any other suggestions?""

How much would extra would i pay for another car on my policy?

I currently own 2 cars and am looking to buy another one. It is a 99 crown vic police int P71. I dont want collision or anything extra, i want the lowest insurance policy that i can get. Im taking that, that would be a liability only policy, am i correct? If not what kind of policy do i ask for? Also, how much more a month would this cost? No one will steal it because its a former cop car, but you couldnt tell and i doubt i will reck it.""

Does anyone know who is the cheapest for insurance for piaggio zip 50cc scooter?

Does anyone know who is the cheapest for insurance for piaggio zip 50cc scooter?

What should I get first insurance or car register?

So here is what happen. I went to pay for my sticker at dmv the insurance was done. They void my car sticker and gave a orange one that says void. Couple months I started working now I save up to get insurance to get my car sticker. But they when I went to get insurance they all asking for registration paper. So I lost those paper I looked everywhere. What should I do first get registration paper at dmv then go to insurance because then go back to dmv to get the sticker? Or get insurance first then go to the dmv??

Insurance after driving ban?

Does anybody know of any cheap car insurance company's that deal with drivers that have recantly been banned?

Whats the cheapest insurance out there?

whats the cheapest insurance out there for a 1998 Pontiac grand prix!!

50cc Scooter Insurance Help?

I'm 16 in 9 days, and I'm going to celebrate with a Peugeot V Clic Silver Sport. However, I'm going to need insurance. I live in a quiet area, and my scooter will be kept in a locked, secure garage with four other scooters. I'm also very responsible and won't be thrashing it and doing wheelies. Does anyone think this will reduce the cost of insurance?""

Temporary Car insurance for 17 year old?

I've just bought a car, it's only a 6-7 minute drive away but I've been assured I don't want to be caught without insurance when picking it up and driving it home. I've had a look and all day or month insurers only insure 21+. I'm pretty stuck, as I obviously have to do get it home and I don't have the kind of money to insure it for any decent length of time Any sites you know of that could sort me out? Cheers.""

What would be a good and cheap car insurance here in TX?

What would be a good and cheap car insurance here in TX?

WHATS THE CHEAPEST AUTO INSURANCE COMPANY IN SOUTHERN CAL?

I used to be with wawanesa but the reps tried to rip me off a couple of times, now I'm done with them. Anyone have a suggestion on affordable auto insurance coverage.""

Cheapest for motorcycle insurance?

Got a 2000 zx6r ninja today and need insurance what company seems to be the cheapest. I dont need full coverage bought bike cash.

Can i get new york insurance while maintaining a florida tag?

Can I get new York insurance while maintaining a Florida license plate?

I might be pregnant where do i go to get a test were i have no insurance?

I have taken a HPT and it came up negative, but i didn't get my period. I have no insurance I just moved and started a new job. So where do I go without paying a lot of money?""

""If i just got my permit, can i drive my moms car without insurance?

I just got my permit and want to drive my moms car. Do i have to be on her insurance if i only have a permit?

Cheap Car Insurance For Young Adult?

I am 19. I just bought a car that needs to be plated. Its a 2002 Daewoo. (model name Lanos). I need to know the cheapest insurance I can put on the car. Ive never had any tickets or violations or trouble with the law. Ive never even been pulled over. I live in Indiana. Any suggestions please let me know. Also, I just moved to Lake Station from Elkhart. I guess you have to go through emissions to get plates but since its an 02 I dont believe I need to do it this year. However, I may plan on going back to Elkhart & thats where my lincence is from. Could I tell the BMV that and they plate it as Elkhart? & I wont even have to go through emissions?""

Cheapest Car Insurance Companies For A 17 Year Old Boy?

i got given a quote for 1307 for a 1.1L Peugeot 206 2004. that is for when i get my full license , is that a reasonable price??""

cheapest liability only insurance

cheapest liability only insurance

""Car accident, no insurance?""

Hi, i got into an accident Friday. I was cut off on the highway and when I went on my breaks my car started to skid out of control due to ice. A car in the left lane struck mine. I am on my fathers insurance and found out when I called my insurance company to report the accident that my policy was cancelled last July. My car and registration and insurance is all in my dads name, i am just a registered driver. If the state of RI decides to fine me for not having insurance, or the other driver decides to sue me for it, will that go against my father or myself? Thanks.""

Mass insurance?

why is it that in massachustts that if you have a deductable of $500 on your car insurance policy and put in a claim for $900 dollars you are charged a surcharge of $360 for 6 years why do we have insurance and pay a high premium to start with. they should pay the claim for the $400 difference without a surcharge. i have 3 cars insured and it seems that i pay for the insurance but have no benefit from it.

Young (new) driver Car insurance?

Ok so i passed my test a few days ago and am now ready to drive. my mum owns the car, and my dad has insurance down on his name only (main driver). I called up his insurance company and they said they couldn't add me as second driver, i need at least 2 years of experience, but how would i get experience if i can't drive without insurance? derp.. Anyway, i looked at conventional comparison websites and the prices where ridiculous. So, my question is, if i was to start a new quote on my name only, would it be cheaper? and would it conflict with my dads insurance? if my mum transferred the car to my name would it come cheaper for me? and would that action conflict with my dads standing insurance?? im so confused and distraught, does my dad need to cancel hi insurance, make me the main and him the second driver?? please halp :)""

Where can I get Affordable Life Insurance?

Where can I get Affordable Life Insurance?

Lower insurance premium because of replaced roof?

I filed a claim last year for roof damage. After a typical fight with the insurance company, they replaced the my roof. As a result, my rates increased (Same concept as purchasing toilet paper and then getting punished when you use it - same concept!) Anyhow, my question is: Since I have a new roof, could that make me more eligible for a lower annual premium at another ins company even though the new roof was a result of a claim? Thanks for your assistance in advance.""

Teen car insurance question?

Hello. We moved this past summer and I currently reside with my grandparents for the purpose of keeping my job and staying at school. So he got a car insurance statement today saying that he has to pay nearly double his total amount just for me, a 17 year old driver, driving two of his cars. I only have a level 1 license by the way. They drive 2 new 2012 cars and trucks, would this price be accurate? Thank you.""

Is it true people cannot afford health care insurance?

Is it true people cannot afford health care insurance? Or would many rather spend their money on weed, crack, strippers, whores, booze, cigarettes, gambling, body piercings, tattoos, cell phones, internet, cable, eating out, fast-food and other luxuries? People can afford health care; they chose to spend their money on other things.""

Whats a good affordable car insurance company in dfw?

would like to pay no more than 100 dollars a month liability but i was looking for suggestions for insurance companies for my car to check out, a company that offered raodside ...show more""

Dental insurance ? Or medical insurance payment plans ?

Hi I'm a 20 year old and I currently am looking for a dental insurance an in California but I don't know what good company is good and not as expensive since I do live on my owns and stuff. I really need to go get my teeth checked up but I can't afford to go in a visit with no dental insurance. Someone please help. What are good entail company's that get get me approved on a good payment plan or something pease ans thank you for your time?

Does residency matter in determining auto insurance for a college student?

I'm a current college student in the middle of transferring schools and getting a new insurance policy. I have two schools in mind, one is 5 minutes from home in a suburban neighborhood and the other is 200 miles away in an urban city environment. Depending on where I attend, will this affect my new insurance policy? Will living at home going to school close-by have a lower insurance rate than going to school outta town and living by myself?""

How long can I drive my car with out insurance?

I am buying a used car that isn't from a dealership. How long can I drive the car before needing to buy car insurance?

""Looking for auto and home insurance recommendation in Castle Rock, Colorado?""

We will moving from Wisconsin to Castle Rock, CO in January, 2007. We are building a new home there. We would appreciate any auto and home insurance company recommendations & comments in that area for the best coverage & service at the lowest cost.""

Insurance or not insurance?

hi i had 4 years insurance no claims bonus last april 2011 on my car , i changed it onto a van and drove ir for a year, ... in october i was in court for handling stolen goods ... which i did not disclose to the insurance company at the time because i thought the offence was dropped as it had happened in 2009, anyway in november i had to renew farm insurance with a different company in november and they declined the renewal because of the criminal conviction,.. so i asked the company that my van was insured with for a farm quote and again was declined, i asked about the van insurance being valid and was told to inform them at the renew in april,... in april they declined to renew the van insurance because of non disclosure of criminal conviction,... and told me last years insurance was void and i would be refunded premium and not be intilted to my 5 year no claims bonus,.. two days later they decided not to refund and have gave me my 5 years no claims bonus,.. ??? as the insurance was valid and that they covered me while they knew i had a conviction and non disclosure , do they have the right to refuse me renewal and , why can i not get a quote of them for renewal, the quote i got of some one else is 3 times last years price , need advice thanks""

Car insurance help!!!!!!!?

how does the car insurance work if your car was stolen but had full coverage

List of cheap auto insurance in Georgia $40-$50 a month?

cheap auto insurance in Georgia .looking for where I can pay btw $40-$50 a month

What the hell is wrong with my insurance quote?? Help please?

Hi, I've just been to confused.com and obtained a quote for the car I want - FORD MONDEO VERONA 16V 1997-2000 1796cc 5 DOOR HATCHBACK Manual Petrol - this 2nd hand car has done around 12,0000 mileage My cheapest premium was 4329?? Why on earth is it so expensive?? Is it the fact that I'm a 20 year old male? Or that I've just had my licence for a month? Or I've only lived in the UK for 3 years? Engine size?? State of car??? Please let me know than you""

Where can i get the cheapest car insurance?

i live in virginia

What kind of yearly insurance can my sister expect to pay for a 2000 Nissan Pathfinder 4WD in NY suburbs?

with 140,000 miles, given that she, 1) is a middle aged driver for 30+ years 2) drives less than 9000 miles a year 3) has not been in an accident 4) never was DUI or anything reckless (other than a speeding ticket) 5) hasn't had any ticket in 10 years 6) wants collision & theft and the minimum liability insurance. Does this include the low insurance rate for low mileage per year drivers because I think she's being ripped off.""

If the policy holder on car insurance crashes does it affect the named drivers?

I am wanting to get a car and been 19 it will cost a lot , my insurance drops below 1000, if i put my parents as named drivers. I was wondering if the policy holder (me) had a crash would it affect their insurance or is it just the other way around, if they crash as named drivers it will affect the policy holder? As they have no claims discount and i have none , so i can not apply NCD protection ? Thank you :)""

How much would the insurance for the 16 year old with a 07 impala?

I am 16 years old and have been working for awhile, i have been working for a new car. i have found this 07 impala that is in GREAT condition. I need a rough estimate of what my insurance might be if I get this car.""

California mat do away with mandatory auto insurance. How much will rates go up?

The insurance industry has already said they will raise rates. A few years ago when insurance became mandatory, they raised the rates too. As much as 100%. What's your guess as to how badly the will gouge their customers this time?""

Can my husband take life insurance out on me without me knowing in the military?

hey my husband is in the military and he has a life insurance policy on him and i only have a small portion of it and everything else goes to his mother but i just recently find out he has life insurance out on me way more than i would get from him and i didnt sign anything so im wondering can he do it without my consent? and can i cancel it?

How much does speeding ticket cost in California?

I got pulled over going 92 on a 55 mph because I went by to pass a slow car in front of me. I switched to the passing lane and sped up to pass. I was just wondering how much the ticket cost me. Does age matter? I am 18, and I'm wondering if that adds up the cost too.""

Car insurance?

i currently have a car and am insured fully comp on this. my partner is about to purchase me a new one but as i still own the other one i'm not sure what to do about insurance. i'm tempted to take out another policy with a diffenret company for fully comp and run them both until i sell my old one. any suggestions

How much will my car insurance be? Where should I go?

Hello! I got into a car accident that left my car totaled and my parents kicking me off their insurance plan. I bought myself a car and now I want to get insurance but I want to see a guess of what I'll be paying a month. The accident is listed as my fault with the insurance records. Please don't judge or be mean to me I just honestly need help with this question before I go shop around I want to get a guess of what people will tell me. I'm a 17 year old female, Caucasian. I have one major accident on my record. I live in El Paso, TX I am driving a 91 BMW E30 318i that is in good condition. How much would you guess I'd pay a month for the CHEAPEST insurance? I have a friend with no major wrecks paying on her own with good student discount $50 a month. What's the lowest I may be able to pay and what's the highest I may be able to pay? Thank you so much for your help! Have a nice day :)""

cheapest liability only insurance

cheapest liability only insurance

What is the cheapest car insurance in New York?

What is the cheapest car insurance in New York?

""I'm 15, pregnant, and have NO insurance?""

I don't qualify for medicare. My parents make to much, can anyone give me any ideas of what I can do for insurance? Please, No hateful comments. I'm really being serious here.""

Why are my auto insurance quotes so expensive?

I am an 18 year old male trying to get coverage on my 1994 toyota camry le 4 door. I just acquired my license today and I've never had an incident. I am also single and living ...show more

Insurance premiums in the U.S.?

Did Insurance Companies increase their premiums in the U.S. for all customers (regardless of location) after Hurricane Katrina? If they did, is this a common practice? Don't insurance companies ever lose?""

How much does liablity insurance go up after a DUI?

How much does liablity insurance go up after a DUI?

Best Home/Condo Insurance Companies?

I am looking to obtain insurance for my condo in British Columbia, and was wondering if someone could recommend the best company to with. Currently I am just familiar with BCAA who ...show more""

My car insurance company is screwing me over?

I was just recently in a car accident. my front end recieved some harsh damage. The hood was folded towards the windshield, transmitiion was busted, the front lights were busted and the front frame was pushed back to where i could not get my front doors open. My insurance company is saying that it is a complete loss. However the garage where i took it to said that it was fixable. My car is a 2001 neon. They want to take the car and probably give me 2000 dollars for it, and they wll fix it and sell it for more. My question is should i just hand it over to my insurance company and take the 2000 dollars? or does anyone have any suggestions?""

What Auto Insurance Company do you use and would recommend?

And have you ever heard of western general insurance company / Insure Express? They have a pretty good rate, but I've never heard of them before.""

Help with insurance terms?

Hi, i am having trouble working out what my insurance guy is telling me... what is a premium, and how often is it payed, and what is excess, and how often is it payed? what should i be asking and checking for? Thanks""

Health insurance for wrestling..?

hi im a soon to be freshmen joining the wrestling team, and i dont have health insurance.. coach says i do, or i cant play. can someone please tell me a cheap health insurance coverage? my family is not financialy strong.. so please help me out here""

Life insurance maturity after 7 years?

I have a case where an insurance company will owes xxx amount of dollar after 7 years because the life insurance claim made to a person is missing. Insurance company won't pay till this person is certified dead which in state of IL wait for that is 7 years. So the question is when this person do gets paid will the insurance company pay it 7 years interest on it? + the premium that is paid for the next 7 years after the claim is made.

Is insurance on jeeps more expensive?

im thinking of buying a jeep 1995 or older most likly (YJ, TJ) do they tend to be more or less expensive on insurance then the average car?""

Can I get life insurance on a family member without their consent?

I'm interested in getting a life insurance policy on my mother because unfortunately she will not be around forever and I want to make sure my sister and I are able to take care of financial obligations that would have to be resolved including funeral expenses. Obviously this is a very difficult situation, no one wants to have to plan for a loved one's passing. Anyone know if this is possible? thanks.""

What happens if I want Homeowners and Car insurance with the same company?

Say my car insurance is with Company C and expires October 31 and my homeowners insurance is with Company H and expires January 31. I saw somewhere that if I have both insurances with the same Company then I save money. How do I line up the two insurance renewal dates so that I do not waste the money I paid for homeowners insurance between October 31 and January 31?

What is average insurance rate for liability only for a 19 year old female?

in N. C. on a family type car

What would happen if we lowered the cost of health insurance?

I have to write a paper on health care insurance.

Anyone know where to get affordable international health insurance?

I am wondering where I can get some decent health coverage to cover me during my international adventures . Does anyone know where to look for this stuff? Please give websites and phone #'s if you have them. Thank you.

How much does insurance through an employer cost?

I just got a job offer and was told that health insurance will cost $210 a month. That sounds really steep to me, is that normal?""

Insurance cost for Dump Truck?

Without knowing a lot of information right now except it would be in the 1990's year range what would the APPROX. cost of monthly insurance be for a dump truck? We are in Ontario, Canada.""

Do I have to have my own insurance?

I live in Washington state and I am 16. I turn 17 in February. I have my own car but it is under my dads name because I am not old enough to have a car under my name. I can get my license in march. Once I do can I still drive it with my parents insurance on it or do I have to have my own insurance? Thanks!

Insurance on a 1998 corolla?

i am a male, 19, g2 license, no dimerits, how much will it cost to insure a well sustained 1998 corolla? live in canada ontario, no dimerits at all, no tickets! (this will be under my name, my family has 2 cars under they're name already, the insurence company said they cant put my mom and dad's name under more than 2 cars so the third car would have to be under my name) also, would it be cheaper for my name to be under a brand new 2012 acura TL?""

Best car insurance for over 60 male?

Had a DR10 drink driving in 2009. (Long story and yes should not have done it but) Require best option for fully comprehensive covering legal etc. Any idea of which car insurance company is best?

Which cheap car insurance companies send the documantetion by Email only?

NOT by post, by EMAIL only""

How much do I pay monthly to insurance to cover a Acura rsx?

I am 19 thinking of buying an Acura rsx but I've been doing research & noticing that the insurance for that car is very high? Does anyone know how much a month would I have to pay & if anyone knows the best insurance company to get for the car? I'm looking for the cheapest deal? Help please

How much would you estimate the annual cost of living to be in central New Jersey?

This would be for a simple lifestyle- one bedroom apartment, utilities, food, clothing, phone, internet, cable, basic car, car insurance, gas, car maintenance, computer, pet, gifts, and a one-week basic vacation. You can provide an estimate both with, and without, a basic health insurance plan premium. I am just trying to figure out about how much it would cost to live in this area. Thank you for your advice.""

cheapest liability only insurance

cheapest liability only insurance

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/kristy-has-whole-life-insurance-policy-300000-face-value-ryan-valdez/"

[trendingnewsb]

These teachers work up to 6 jobs. Now they’re fed up and ready to walk out

(CNN)Craig Troxell steps precariously across a customer’s roof, marking hail damage from yet another Oklahoma storm. He still smells of the freshly cut grass from the swanky side of town, where he had just mowed lawns to make a few extra dollars.

“Teacher morale gets worse every year,” said Troxell, who also drives a school bus before and after school. “I’ve heard a lot of my (teacher) acquaintances walk away and get a different job. They don’t want to do it anymore.”

Why Craig Troxell still teaches in Oklahoma

Oklahoma is among the bottom three states for teacher salaries, where educators often work about 10 years before reaching the $40,000 salary mark. And they haven’t gotten a raise from the state in 10 years.

While educators nationwide have seen slight paycheck bumps over the past decade, when adjusted for inflation, teachers have actually lost 3% of their income from 2006 to 2016, according to the National Education Association.

Recently, the Oklahoma teachers’ union called for $10,000 teacher raises, $5,000 raises for support staff and more than $200 million for education funding.

Lawmakers agreed on an average teacher raise of $6,100, $1,250 for support staff and a $50 million increase in education funding — a measure Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law Thursday.

But many teachers say it’s not enough. So on Monday, Troxell and thousands of other teachers will walk out — prompting some schools to shut down indefinitely.

“We’re at the end of the rope,” Troxell said.

He’s far from alone. Several teachers told CNN they’re working multiple jobs in food delivery, retail, rideshare driving, restaurants and even surrogate pregnancy to pay the bills. Some now rely on a food bank to feed their own children.

The teacher with six jobs

Almost every morning, Jonathan Moy’s two daughters ask him the same heartbreaking question:

“Are we going to see you today?”

He gets visibly emotional thinking about how many days he tells them no.

“It’s really tough when your daughters get sad because you tell them you’re not going to see them,” said Moy, 40. “And it almost breaks your heart, because it’s not their fault. It’s not my fault. It’s the situation that we’re in.”

Moy teaches high school algebra, drives a school bus in the afternoon, coaches football and wrestling, umpires Little League baseball and drives for rideshare services.

All of that combined, Moy said, brings home about $36,000 a year after taxes.

“Last night I drove Lyft and Uber for six, seven hours,” Moy said. “When you have to do that to help supplement your income, it’s tough when you don’t get home when your kids go to bed.”

But he fights off the exhaustion by the time the bell rings at Yukon High School, just west of Oklahoma City. As 32 teenagers fill his classroom, Moy’s demeanor is as cheerful as the yellow and blue lights strung all across his ceiling.

“Half of teaching is having them just enjoy coming into school,” Moy said. “If you can actually get them to enjoy coming into your classroom with your atmosphere, your jokes or just having a good time, that’s half the battle.”

When explaining a new algebra concept, Moy draws analogies to jelly beans and tacos. He plays “Hotel California” and “Roll With It” as students practice factoring polynomials.

Moy’s unorthodox style has paid off.

“I was looking at your STAR (standardized) test we took,” he told his class of mostly freshmen. “You started the year at a 7th grade level. Now you’re above a 12th.”

Freshman Zach Ennis said Moy has made algebra easier to learn.

“I really like him, he’s a really good teacher. He explains stuff really good,” Ennis said.

Ennis said he supports his teacher walking out next week, even though he might have to make up school days in the summer.

“It’s kind of sad that he has to do that many jobs,” Ennis said. “He should be able to concentrate just on teaching.”

What drives Jonathan Moy to stay in education

Moy said he wants to keep teaching in Oklahoma, where he was born and raised. But he and his wife Kendra, who’s an elementary school teacher, can’t understand why educators in their state are paid so little compared to neighboring Texas and Arkansas.

“The salary in Fort Worth (Texas) is starting at $51,000 to work at Fort Worth public schools,” Moy said. “In Oklahoma, the starting pay is $31,000. And even if you’ve been teaching 25, 30 years, it’s really tough to get to that level of income as a teacher.”

Despite their meager incomes, the Moys said they spend a combined $2,000 on their classrooms each year — including crayons and glue sticks for Kendra Moy’s 3rd grade students. At her school, the entire student body qualifies for free or reduced lunch.

Their 10-year-old daughter Karlie said she wishes her dad could go to more of her basketball and softball games. But she understands why he keeps teaching and working so many jobs.

“I just want him to do what he likes,” she said. “He’s just trying to help our family out.”

The teacher who’s also a surrogate mother

When Allyson Kubat started teaching at Mustang High School, the school had no debate program.

Just three years after launching one, Kubat’s getting ready to take her undefeated debate team to the most elite tournament this June.

“We’re going to nationals this year, which is kind of crazy,” said Kubat, 29.

It will be her final act as a teacher.

“I decided, as hard as it is, that next year I’m not going to be teaching anymore,” Kubat said.

She realized the 60 to 90 hours a week she works to support her kids meant that she rarely got to see her kids. The epiphany came when her 9-year-old daughter called her after school one day.

“She said, ‘Mom, are you coming home today? Or are you going back to work?’ Because I leave work (at the school) and I go to my second job, or my third job, and I don’t get home until she’s in bed or almost in bed.”

Kubat’s other jobs include event coordinating, food delivery and surrogate motherhood — a venture that puts a significant strain on her body but pays more than her teaching salary of about $33,000.

“One of my students asked, ‘So what’s your other job?’ Because the kids in this state know that their teachers are not just teachers,” she said. “They know that we have to do something else to survive.”

Her husband, Clint, is an office manager who doesn’t make much more than his wife’s teaching salary. Before she started her second surrogate pregnancy this week, he said, the couple had already budgeted for that income.

After this school year, Kubat will become a full-time event planner — a bittersweet move, given how passionately she loves teaching.

“It is hard to give up what I’ve worked so hard to become,” Kubat said. But she’s tired of sacrificing crucial family time for teaching.

“It’s time to stop being a martyr.”

The rookie teacher and waitress

By 8 a.m., Jennifer Winchester is teaching language arts to 5th graders. By 8 p.m., she’s hoisting trays of enchiladas at a Mexican restaurant.

As a first-year teacher, Winchester “always understood” she would struggle financially.

“In college, they would show us the pay increments … from zero to 25 years,” Winchester said.

She said a guest speaker came into her college class and “literally begged us to stay in Oklahoma,” telling prospective teachers to think of the kids and realize “it’s not their fault.”

So Winchester pursued her passion, even if it meant moonlighting as a server to help pay the bills.

“I can remember back in the 4th grade, my teacher told my mom at a parent-teacher conference, ‘If she doesn’t become a teacher, I’ll be very disappointed.’ Even in the classroom, I’d help other students,” Winchester recalled.

Now, as a professional teacher, she again finds herself going the extra mile for students. Despite her $31,000 teaching salary, she spent about $1,200 getting her classroom in shape for this school year, buying new shelves and books and replacing worn-out desks.

“I tried to stop tracking those receipts, because it depresses me,” she said.

Why Jennifer Winchester wants to keep teaching

Winchester’s long-term goal is to be a high school counselor. But she doesn’t want to take on a master’s degree in counseling until she’s paid off her $23,000 in student loans.

For now, she’s hoping her nearly 10-year-old car “with as many dents as you can find in it” doesn’t break down, since that could spell financial disaster.

She fantasizes about owning a slightly nicer car one day.

“My goal is to have automatic windows and locks,” she said.

The teacher with 2 degrees and 2 mall jobs

Shontée Branton has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in early childhood education. But when she gets to the checkout lane at the grocery store, she has to turn around.

“In my mind, I’m like, ‘What do I need to put back?’ Because I know I can’t afford all of this,” said the 1st-grade teacher at Epperly Heights Elementary.

“Maybe I want the strawberries, but I can make it without.”

Branton, who’s been teaching for nine years, said she makes about $36,000 a year.

She supplements that by tutoring, teaching summer school and working at Macy’s — both on the retail floor and in the human resources office.

“Normally, I leave from the school and go straight to Macy’s and clock in,” she said. ‘”There’s times I leave my house at 7 in the morning, and I don’t come home until 10 o’clock at night.”

That’s when her 3rd-floor apartment looks more like a mountain summit.

“I literally come home and sit in my car for 30 minutes because I can’t muster the strength to go up the stairs,” she said.

Branton said she’s thinking about moving to Texas, where a teacher with her experience and education can earn about $20,000 more a year. But she feels a calling to teach in Del City, where she grew up and where all the students at her school qualify for free or reduced lunch.

“I grew up with a single-parent home; both parents struggled with drug abuse,” she said. “When I see those kids, I see myself. And I had a teacher or two who believed in me.”

Branton said she’s walking out Monday not just for teachers’ raises, but for another key demand: more funding for education in the state. She said she never wants to teach an overstuffed class of 34 students with only 25 textbooks again.

“A lot of people are saying we’re walking out on our kids. And that’s been one of the most hurtful things, because we feel like we’re walking for our children,” Branton said.

“People are expecting us to do a job without the proper resources. And not only is it not fair to educators, it’s not fair to the kids.”

Why Shontée Branton still teaches

So what if she had to choose one or the other — increasing teachers’ salaries by $10,000 or adding $200 million in funds for statewide education?

“It would have to be the kids. I mean, that’s non-negotiable,” Branton said. “Yes, I need more money. I’m tired of working multiple jobs. But in the grand scheme of things, if we educate these kids, then that’s better for society.”

If neither of those demands are fully met, Branton said, Oklahoma could lose yet another teacher.

“If it’s not passed, I probably will leave,” she said. “It would be the hardest choice.”

The state superintendent’s response

Joy Hofmeister says the teachers’ frustration is justified.

“Our teachers are right — they have been underpaid,” the state superintendent said. “We know that the frustration is high, that it’s something that comes after a decade-long reduction to public education funding.”

The Oklahoma teachers’ union wants:

$10,000

raises for teachers

$5,000

raises for support staff, such as janitors and cafeteria workers

$200 million

in education funding

What just got signed into law:

Average teacher raises of $6,100

$1,250 raises for support staff

$50 million

in education funding

But “the legislature can’t reverse in one bill the cuts that have come over a decade.”

She said the main reason why it’s been so difficult to increase spending for teachers and education is because in 1992, the state constitution was changed to require a supermajority approval — 75% of the legislature — before taxes could be raised.

“It’s been 28 years since Oklahoma has raised taxes,” Hofmeister said. “We’ve been operating with the same dollars as 2008, but with more than 50,000 more students.”

She said it’s “unconscionable” that some teachers work three to six jobs to make ends meet.

“Our teachers deserve better,” she said. “And that was answered with this historic teacher pay raise. This is an important step forward. But it’s not the only thing that is needed.”

The food bank that serves teachers

Lori Decter Wright admits there’s a stereotype about those who rely on food banks. Maybe they work at fast-food restaurants. Maybe they got hit with an unexpected medical bill.

Then, starting around 2015, she noticed a shocking trend: teachers, including some with master’s degrees, also needed supplies of cereal, beans and canned vegetables.

“We have teachers near the poverty level,” said Decter Wright, executive director of Kendall Whittier, Inc. — a ministry that runs an emergency food pantry in Tulsa.

“I really had to start asking the question, ‘What is going on in Oklahoma that full-time, working professional teachers have to rely on services like ours to make ends meet?”

Michael Turner is one of the teachers who came in to the food pantry, embarrassed that he needed assistance.

“You’re used to taking care of yourself. No one likes to ask for help, and that’s pretty tough,” said Turner, a recently divorced father of a special needs daughter.

Turner said he “answered a call to action” when he became a special needs teacher.

“There was a big push in the state of Oklahoma to hire veterans to teach special ed at the middle school level,” he said.

“It’s very, very difficult to be a teacher … I knew that it was hard, but teaching today is much more difficult.”

And when he comes home to his own child, he faces the guilt of seeing a kitchen pantry with empty shelves.

Turner says he’s grateful for the food bank’s assistance and regrets not reaching out for help months earlier.

“I always fought the notion that I would be the one asking for services, asking for help,” he said. “I’d much rather be giving it.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/31/us/oklahoma-teachers-profiles/index.html

from Viral News HQ https://ift.tt/2FGCXmO via Viral News HQ

#IFTTT #Viral News HQ

[giancarlonicoli]

At first he said he deserved his £110m bonus, and resisted all the pressure to assign a large chunk of it to charity. Then he said he would give some of it to good causes, but not how much (“a private matter”). Finally, on Friday, after three months of hectoring by the media and investors, he said he’d forgo . . . £25m.

I’m referring to Jeff Fairburn, chief executive of the housebuilder Persimmon and the principal beneficiary of a remarkably generous share-based incentive scheme that has sprinkled more than £500m of equity around 140 of the company’s “top individuals” as if from a fairy godmother’s wand. Except it doesn’t come out of thin air, but by diluting all the ordinary shareholders’ stakes in the business.

Their representatives — pension fund managers, principally — have spent those past three months moaning about it. But when the incentive scheme was drawn up in 2012 — linking the rewards to share price performance and dividend payments — it was approved by 85% of shareholders. So Fairburn’s resistance is understandable; and, indeed, Persimmon’s investors have done fine — since 2012 their shares have quadrupled in value.

But the main reason is not the ingenuity of Fairburn and his colleagues. No, if there was a fairy godmother in this, it was George Osborne. As chancellor, he launched the help-to-buy scheme, which economically crazy but politically astute subsidy supports about half of Persimmon’s recent house sales. We as taxpayers are not directly funding those £500m worth of bonuses, but we have underwritten the personal mortgages that made that colossal windfall possible. Don’t mention it, Jeff: happy to help.

The person most annoyed by this is actually a lot richer than Fairburn — and another housebuilding boss. Steve Morgan, the head of Redrow, complained: “For somebody who has not taken a salary for 20 years it sticks in the craw, being called a greedy housebuilder because of that one company.” And why has Mr Morgan not taken a salary for 20 years? Because he founded Redrow in the 1970s and is worth about £830m. He would be a billionaire (according to the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List) had he not passed £226m of Redrow shares to his charity, the Steve Morgan Foundation, which supports disadvantaged and disabled people in north Wales and northwest England.

Here we see, in instructive proximity, the sort of wealth that compels admiration and the sort that provokes contempt. That stark divergence is not because Morgan has been philanthropic. It is because he has created his own business and, at the outset, would have been at personal risk if it had not worked out (perhaps, like so many entrepreneurs, he had offered whatever he owned as security for bank loans). Fairburn had a good story to tell, too: he began in the building trade as a youth training scheme apprentice, studying to become a quantity surveyor while mixing concrete. But he did not create the firm of which he is, after all, just another employee: he is taking the rewards of entrepreneurialism without the risks.

He is not, in the true sense of the word, a capitalist. But Morgan is. And the point is that while there has in the decade since the credit crunch been a gale blowing the sails of those who denounce “capitalism”, the public hostility is actually — and rightly — directed against those who are not capitalists (as Karl Marx defined them), but who have seized capital from its owners. After all, that is what the discredited banking executives, both here and in America, did. They leveraged the capital of which they were merely managers, to generate vast bonuses for themselves: when that blew up the banks, the exploded corporate balance sheets were rescued by the taxpayer . . . while the executives kept all their winnings.

In his latest book, Skin in the Game (which I review today) Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls this “the Bob Rubin trade”, in (dis)honour of the former US Treasury secretary who kept his $120m compensation from Citibank: “When the bank, literally insolvent, was rescued by the taxpayer, he didn’t write any cheque — he invoked uncertainty as an excuse.”

The risk — to the market system now under attack from the unreconstructed Marxists at the helm of the British Labour Party — is that the bonny baby of entrepreneurial endeavour will be thrown out with the dirty water of executive self-dealing.

Much of that self-dealing — which I first wrote about as long ago as 1989 in a Spectator cover piece titled “How the bosses help themselves” — is promoted by the argument that it makes senior managers behave more like proper owners, rather than mere time-servers. Specifically, the executive compensation committees of FTSE companies have argued that through the awards of share options, the interests of those managers are aligned with the investors who, collectively, own the businesses.

It is a theory generally accepted and, like many such established doctrines, false. The ordinary shareholders have actually paid for their equity, so if things go pear-shaped, they stand to lose what they have invested; and those who have created businesses can lose everything, even their homes. But share options are free. There is an upside, but as no capital is at risk, no real downside.

One result is that share option schemes have encouraged undue risk-taking by executives, for example by borrowing heavily to finance acquisitions — which is what happened at Carillion. It also encourages a more short-term approach to business-building than a true owner would adopt: share option schemes tend to last for a few years, not the decades that a good business should be measured in.

I should confess, at this point, to having been a beneficiary of just such a scheme. When I was an executive of the Telegraph group I was assigned, for the first and only time in my life, some share options . . . and within just a few months they were most unexpectedly realised when the majority shareholder decided to buy out everyone else. Without any effort on my part — other than just continuing to do my job of editing a newspaper — I was suddenly presented with a cheque sufficient to pay off my mortgage.

I was delighted, of course. But it also felt wrong, somehow. I suppose I might feel the same way if I won the national lottery, although that is most unlikely to happen, and not just because of the odds: I don’t enter it. At least the lottery winners have paid for their stake. We should expect our best-remunerated business leaders to have done the same.

[email protected]