For those of you in the USA, I would like to wish you a belated Happy Thanksgiving. We celebrated it last week with a quiet day at home, spending time with family and adding final touches to the Christmas display so we could turn it on Thanksgiving Night.
Gratitude
I am going to assume that a combination of it being Thanksgiving in the US and some smart marketing by @ajjacobs for his new book “Thanks a Thousand – A Gratitude Journey” that made the topic of gratitude continue to appear in my media consumption. From a podcast of Jacobs talking about his inspiration to write his latest book to memes on Facebook, both expressing gratitude and admonishing for expressing gratitude one day, then scrambling for doodads on Black Friday the next.
It got me thinking about how if you truly embrace the idea of gratitude, it helps to relieve stress and anxiety. Where @ajjacobs takes it to the extreme to thank everyone involved in his getting a single cup of coffee in the morning, you don’t have to be that exhaustive.
Be thankful for what you have. Or don’t have. But also remember to not use that as an excuse to stop pursuing your goals.
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What am I grateful for?
My Family. Without my family, I would not be who I am or where I am today. Specifically, my wife. She inspired me to strive to be greater. She inspired me.
My career. I have learned many things that have allowed me to grow outside of my job.
My health. Yes, I have medical issues, but I am luckier than a lot of people. As a benchmark, as morbid as it is, I have lived longer than my father and plan to live longer than my mother and grandparents did.
My friends. They make me laugh and encourage me.
What are you grateful for?
Please comment here on the blog about what you are grateful for. I would like to know.
And, as always, let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story.
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Apologies for the sporadic posting. I kind of have a little more than usual to deal with. A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. And I go under the knife tomorrow morning to have it removed. It was caught very early and the outlook is very good. I busied myself getting work, home, and other segments of my life prepared to weather my hopefully short recovery.
Because I have this going on in my life, I decided to take the opportunity to go over handling bad news or adverse situations.
What is the first thought that comes to mind when something bad happens to you?
Do you immediately think “Why ME?” Do you look for reasons, actions, or people external to yourself to place the blame for the bad news?
I used to. My first thought would be “Why do I have such bad luck?” or “What did I do to deserve this?”
I eventually realized that no matter how much I worried or wondered or looked for blame, it did not better the situation.
Why “Why ME?” Doesn’t Work
The only thing to come out of it was that I added anxiety and stress on myself. This is not good for a person mentally or physically.
I think part of my realization of this was when I was about eleven or twelve years old. My parents were divorced and my father would arrange to take us for the weekend. Then he would not show up. After many times of packing a bag for the weekend, waiting all weekend for my dad to show up, then, on Sunday night, unpacking the bag because Dad never showed up or called, I finally realized that there was nothing I could do about it, so there was no point in making myself sick worrying about it.
I was a much happier person once I gave up worrying if he was going to show up or not. I reasoned, to myself, “He is still my dad. I will still love him. But I won’t trust or rely on him to make me happy.”
This approach of not allowing worry or anxiety to add stress to your life is very similar to the Serenity Prayer.
My take on the Serenity Prayer is:
Change the things you can
Don’t worry about the things you can’t
Memento Mori
Another way to approach this is as Stoics do…remind yourself daily of your mortality. There are variations on how to do it, but most involve asking yourself if any of what is bothering you will matter when you are dead.
It also helps to keep ego out of any decisions.
Tying back into what I currently have going on, I can’t influence the outcome of this surgery. The “after” will be only slightly different from my current lifestyle. A few more pills added to my daily regimen, the same doctor overseeing my diabetic care will also oversee my thyroid care (he is a top endocrinologist).
I am lucky because I only have thyroid cancer. It is slow-growing, does not spread like other cancers, and we found it very early, by accident. I currently have at least 5 friends that I can recall off of the top of my head who are dealing with various types of more serious cancers that could be/are life-threatening, in the near-term.
In summary, if you take anything away from this post, follow these rules for life:
Change the things you can
Don’t worry about the things you can’t
And, as always, let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story.
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This week I am bringing you a guest post from Kevin Paylow (kevin@deliberateconsulting.com), Consultant & Corporate Storyteller, Certified Corporate Storytelling Instructor, Innovation Consultant, Message Consultant, Strategy Consultant.
I saw this meme on Facebook and thought it was too good not to pass along.
Plus what kind of maniac doesn’t enjoy a good Inigo Montoya cultural reference?
But the advice here is great… though points 3 and 4 need to be fleshed out a bit.
Your personal link probably isn’t “You killed my Father”. Instead consider sharing WHY you’re at this particular networking event.
Except for some extreme situations, “Prepare to die” isn’t the best way to manage expectations. Instead tell them how you hope you can both benefit from meeting.
“Hello. My name is Kevin Paylow. I came to meet and hear the latest thinking from other innovators. I’d like to learn about you and your business and see if there’s a way for us to work together.”
Of course, this is just your introduction. I recommend planning ahead for extending the conversation – read this blog post I wrote a few months ago for some ideas.
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Welcome back to another installment of Things I Think About! This week I am going to go over a few books that I have read recently that have had an impact. While some of them cover a mix of topics, to me, they mostly fall into one topic. Because of this, I will break them out by topic and detail the crossover topics, and why I feel that way, for each book I also have them listed separately on my Recommended Books page, HERE.
Business
The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
This book speaks to my soul! I “read” the Audible version, (as I do most books due to my 3-hour plus daily commute), recorded by Michael Gerber himself. This book details why a lot of “Entrepreneurs” find themselves overworked, underpaid, and without the ability to grow. It is an interleaved mix of example stories with lessons explaining about each story. The main focus of the book is to explain why developing processes and systems for operating your business will allow you to employ other people to work IN the business so you can work ON the business.
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
A young Tim Ferriss relates how he figured out how to not be locked into common misconception of the American Dream…go to school, get a good job, work like a slave for 20-30-40 years, then retire at an age where there is a good chance that you will have trouble enjoying life. In the 4-Hour Workweek, he details the concepts of mini-retirements, becoming effective and efficient in whatever you do for work, and ideas for small businesses that require little to no maintenance to support you on an ongoing basis.
Granted, as even pointed out in the book, the goal is not to be able to lay on the beach drinking mai tais, it is to free you up to do the things you want to do, including world travel, learning languages, and/or working with non-profit organizations.
This book also qualifies as a personal Improvement book, because a lot of the recommendations for efficiency and effectiveness while working have helped me to reduce a lot of stress at my main job.
Rich Dad’s Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kyosaki
This book breaks out the different classifications of people earning money. ESBI stands for Employees, someone who works for someone else to make money, Self-Employed, a person working for themselves to make money, Business Owners, owning a business & employing other people, and Investors, those who employ their capital to buy assets. It promotes the idea to be either a business owner or, ultimately, an investor, as this usually provides the best returns on time & money.
Personal Improvement
The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday is a devoted Stoic. He has multiple books and a website dedicated to Stoicism. This book is kind of a manual for achievement. I really enjoy it because it basically lays out my philosophy on life. The short version is “Do what you can to change the things you don’t like in your life…Ignore the things you can’t change.” The Obstacle is the Way takes it a step further in that it guides you to figure out how to change either the situation or your thinking about the “things you can’t change”.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kyosaki
Robert Kyosaki tells the story of how he grew up a poor kid, but due to the tutelage of a friend’s father, learned to become a businessman. The book is a simple read but puts forth important concepts…assets are only assets if they will make you money, don’t spend foolishly, and educate yourself to grow. There is also a good bit of advice on real estate investment as a vehicle to become wealthy.
Principles by Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio is one of the richest men in the world and got that way by building one of the top hedge fund management companies, Bridgewater Associates. In Principles, he relates his lis life and how he got to where he is, developing his principles for business and personal life as an operating system along the way. This is another Audible entry where the author reads the book to you. It works.
Real Estate Investing
Long Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene
While I don’t invest in real estate outside of my back yard, (for now), this book is incredibly useful as a guide of how to do things. The methodologies and techniques laid out here will work even in a local market. It’s a mix of strategies, tools, and tips to be successful.
The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
This book is a thorough primer for anyone wanting to get into rental properties as an investment. It covers everything from finding properties to rehab tips and beyond.
The Book on Managing Rental Properties by Brandon Turner and Heather Turner
Hmmm…the title sounds a bit familiar…YES! This is the follow-up book to The Book on Rental Property Investing. It picks up where the previous book left off and takes a deeper dive into what you need to do to manage properties successfully.
Loopholes of Real Estate Investing by Garrett Sutton, Rich Dad Advisor
Another Audible author read, Loopholes covers the benefits of and hazards to watch out for when investing in real estate. I have probably listened to this book at least 6 times…right up there with the 4-Hour Workweek and The E Myth revisited. Lots of great advice.
And, as always, let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story.
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This week I am going to talk about how you send you time and how it affects progress towards goals. This is a topic that keeps coming up (for me) from various sources and every time it does, I get more of an urge to discuss this topic here. So…here we go.
“How do you spend your time?”
Ask that question of a hundred different people and you are likely to get a hundred different answers. Some people may list every detail, others may just give a twenty-thousand-foot overview.
Successful people have goals.
Successful people have a plan to reach those goals.
Successful people follow a process and their processes are habits.
Observations of Others
In a recent blog post, Dave Van Horn talks about a speaker at a recent investing summit who asked the question “What would you do if you were a billionaire?”
The answers were some form of the three below:
“I would travel more.”
“I would focus on my passion.”
“I would give to charity.”
Dave then goes on to point out that “billionaire” status is not needed to achieve these goals, as evidenced by the speaker, (not a billionaire), only that you budget your time as you do your money to its best possible use. Don’t waste your time doing things that won’t move you forward. You can pay someone to take care of that for you if your time would be better spent being effective.
He then relates how Tony Robbins asks similar questions:
What is an extraordinary life for you? – Hopefully this is something that you can achieve in the next six to twelve months.
What is preventing this from happening already? – What story do you give as an excuse for not having achieved it already?
What needs to change now? – This brings it back to taking action.
This may sound familiar. It is similar to what I outlined in how to resolve overspending.
Once you have set a goal, identified what is stopping you from achieving that goal, and put a plan in place to change things your goal, things may still not happen perfectly.
Life will always throw you curveballs. Our initial reaction is to get emotional and point to all the reasons why we are failures. We can come up with lots of feelings on the subject, but in reality, over the long term, they don’t make much of a difference in the long run. Life goes on.
The way we can get through this is to put it in perspective. Learn from failure. Defeat your emotions with logic. What important things are you missing because you choose to worry versus logically evaluating the facts? Just because you are in control of your emotions does not mean you don’t feel them, just that you are taking care of business so you can deal with your emotions at an appropriate time.
By thinking clearly rather than getting caught up in emotions, General Eisenhower, in WW2, was able to determine a way to defeat the German Blitzkrieg, a battlefield strategy that involved throwing everything they had at the allied forces in a single attack. It was scary and worked in lots of battles, with allied forces so surprised, shocked, and overwhelmed by the speed and ferocity of the attack, that they just gave up.
General Eisenhower realized that the Germans were putting everything they had into the attack, leaving their flanks and rear unprotected. His approach let the Germans attack, but held groups back to flank the German attack, thus surrounding & defeating them.
Here are some quotes that reflect this approach that I find helpful:
“What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger!” – Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Antagonist from The Fifth Element)
He wasn’t the originator but is as good an attribution as any. This means that you learn from your mistakes. Dealing with difficulty helps you to become more resilient, more anti-fragile.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Frank Herbert, from the book Dune.
It is OK to be scared, but don’t run from it. Face your fears. Once you face your fears, they have little power over you.
“Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. – Marcus Aurelius – Holiday, Ryan. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph (p. 1). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
This is similar to the “What doesn’t kill you” quote but goes a little deeper and touches on something that doesn’t seem common these days…the idea that by facing hardship, you grow. In fact, it is the reason for the title of Ryan’s book, “The Obstacle is the way”.
Do the uncomfortable things, if it will further your goals.
Grow from those experiences, so that next time, you either know how to handle it already, or if it is a big issue, avoid it altogether.
Learn from mistakes.
Budget your time.
Budget your money.
Grow, as a person and as a leader.
And, as always, let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story.
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This week I am going to discuss Accountability. I feel that understanding accountability is very important for succeeding in life. My grandfather told me that I have to be accountable for my actions and words when I was about 10 years old. I have tried to be true to that principle throughout my life.
After he passed away, a few years later, I figured out another lesson…that you should not rely on anyone else to guarantee your success.
The expectation was that we would all, (the grandchildren), continue in the family seafood business. I soon realized that I couldn’t depend on people’s promises to get ahead. That if I wanted something, I had to make it happen myself.
Because of my decision to take control of our future in the last few years, I started a journey of self-improvement. I have learned a good bit and implemented many of the things I have learned. Some things I was already doing, others were revelations. Below is a brief, non-exhaustive summary of what I have learned.
Be Accountable to Yourself!
Decide to Change
Nothing you want to change will change until you decide to change it. Griping and complaining about how bad a situation is will do nothing about it. Saying you will change or want to change will do nothing about it. Until. You. DECIDE. To. CHANGE.
Set Goals
Set goals you want to achieve. Things you want to accomplish. Places to visit. There are a couple of different ways to approach this. One is to take the bucket list approach. Detail everything you want to do. Tim Ferris suggests writing daily goals on a quarter-folded sheet of paper. This way, the list stays small and achievable. Whatever approach you take, remember this:
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”
Based on the above, unless you have a goal, you can’t really direct what you are doing. Which leads us to the next step…
Make a Plan
Once you have your goals in place, put together a plan on how to achieve them. Figure out what you will need to do, in the most efficient order you can think of. Try to mitigate risk by thinking of all the bad things that could happen along the way and have a plan for dealing with them.
Find an Accountability Partner
A lot of advice I have run across recommend having an accountability partner. Someone to express your goals to, review them on a regular basis, and help to keep you on track to succeed.
Grow! Achieve! Succeed!
All that is left to do now is to proceed…OK, it’s not that easy, but, the thing to remember is that you will run into setbacks. Things will go sideways every once in a while. Do not let that discourage you. Keep pushing forward and be the YOU you want to be. Like Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Learn to be resilient. Take responsibility and move forward, ever forward.
http://www.thatonerule.com/
And, as always, let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story.
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This week, I am going to take a swipe at answering the questions from Tim Ferriss’ book, Tribe of Mentors. These are questions distilled and honed from his interviewing many peak performers on his podcast. AND, just to be clear, Tim Ferriss did not ask me these questions. I thought they were interesting in and of themselves and decided to dedicate a post to them.
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?
I haven’t really gifted many books. But I’m trying to change that. As far as books that have greatly influenced me, I have three. Rich Dad,Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is a really good book for helping you to realize that what you weren’t taught in school about money can hurt you, or at the minimum, make you struggle to achieve your dreams and goals. Depending on your personality, it may rub you the wrong way, but it speaks volumes of truth about making money. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber provides excellent advice on how to systematize a business so it can run smoothly and grow. And, finally, The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. I really like because it provides you with principles to lead your life by. Mainly, set up a low-input business to pay for your needs, don’t kill yourself working as a trade-off for retiring at a later age, when there is a good chance that you will be too old or sickly to enjoy it. It fosters the idea of continuous “mini-retirements” throughout your life. And most importantly, with all the free time you create, do something important, do something you care about, do something to impact the world in a good way.
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)? My readers love specifics like brand and model, where you found it, etc.
A couple of things I’ve bought have made a positive impact…one is a set of wireless earbuds. I generally have issues with wired earbuds catching on stuff as I walk around or do work, so these are pretty neat in that they do not hang down very far past my neck. The other is a battery pack to charge my phone throughout the day. Depending on what I am doing, sometimes my phone will run down quicker than others. Having the battery pack available to boost it up is nice. Plus,it has enough power to charge the phone twice.
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?
I don’t really have a favorite failure,because there are too many to choose from! I have many failures, that if they would not have happened,I would not be where I am today. So I guess all of my failures are my favorites? Or better yet,the only real failure is the ones you do not learn from.
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it — metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions — what would it say and why? It could be a few words or a paragraph. (If helpful, it can be someone else’s quote: Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?)
If you don’t like something in your life, then do something to change it! If you can’t change it, then don’t waste time worrying about it.
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Could be an investment of money, time, energy, etc.)
So far, I would have to say that the most worthwhile investment I have made is buying a door manufacturing company with some friends. To date, it has been a trying experience and has strained some of the friendships,but i have learned more about operating a business in the past 14 months than I have in most of my career working in the Oil and Gas industry.
What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?
I tend to approach ideas/tasks/goals with lots of technical detail. For example, as a group, my partners and I decided to build a tool for tracking product shipments and invoicing on a per-order basis to allow forecasting estimated revenue. I visualized a quasi-CRM system with lots of inputs that would return lots of information, but what we really needed was just a spreadsheet similar to a Gantt chart to track the information. We will eventually implement a more detailed CRM system, but I over-engineered it in my mind.
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
Two things…realizing that a lot of the decisions I made in my past were most likely influenced by my being infected by the toxoplasmosis gondii parasite, thus helping me to further screen my decisions for risk, and understanding that my outlook / philosophy on life is actually based on stoicism. I don’t know how I arrived at that outlook, but it just made sense to me. Learning more about it has definitely improved how I view the world.
What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice should they ignore?
Don’t fall into the mindset trap of working most of your life, toiling away to reach retirement. Work for yourself. Resolve to mostly buy “assets”, things that will provide you with cash flow.
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
From the oil and gas industry: “Drill the well faster so we can finish faster!” In most cases, you can drill faster than you are able to transport the drilled cuttings out of the hole. It is better to drill at a sustainable rate and have no trouble pulling out of the hole or running casing, thus decreasing overall time spent on the section.
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? What new realizations and/or approaches helped? Any other tips?
I manage automated equipment and services operations and have done so for the last six years or so. Initially, whenever there were problems, I would access things remotely and resolve the issues, many times at all hours of the day or night. Then the next issue came along,and I would have to solve it also. I realized that if I stopped swooping in to save the day, the employees would be more inclined to solve the issue themselves. This has helped me to keep from feeling overwhelmed. I sleep a lot better now.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? (If helpful: What questions do you ask yourself?)
First, I have learned to say “no” to things. Second, I found that if I use Noisli, I am more relaxed and can focus on the task at hand. Plus it helps to block out unwanted noises and distractions.
I hope you like my “Tribe of Mentors” Q&A responses!
Let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story.
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“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.” -René Magritte
What is your goal with regards to financial stability? Do you want to be “a millionaire”? Do you want to be considered one of the richest people in the world? Do you want to retire early and follow a passion, such as world travel or support a volunteer organization?
Or do you just want to get to the point of being able to live comfortably and not have to worry about worrying? (FYI, these are not rhetorical questions. I really would like to know your goals)
There seem to be several ways of looking at this and all seem to contradict each other in some way, shape, or form.
If becoming one of the richest people in the world is your goal, there is a pretty good chance that you already are there. If you make more than $34, 200 per year in income, you are already in the top 1% of the world’s wealthy. If you are looking at Net Worth, you need to have a Net Worth of $770,000 or better to be in the top one percent of the wealthiest people in the world.
For those of you who want to retire early for travel or whatever, it is possible with a little effort and strategic thinking. Or, better yet, take the Tim Ferriss approach and set yourself up to take multiple mini-retirements starting now.
I kind of like the Tim Ferris approach and want to achieve that one day. And we are working towards that goal. In fact, I would venture to say that we are almost there.
I have worked most of my life with the goal of getting to this goal or that goal, then everything will be: easier, gravy, much simpler. But this past year, we had a revelation…over the last 15 years or so, every change in situation at work or uncomfortable conditions to be endured were rationalized by saying “this is only temporary and when I achieve “X”, things will be much better!” The revelation was that every time “X” was achieved, a new “X” would take it’s place. It’s a continual cycle of expanding goals.
Not long after realizing that this was continually happening in my work life, a speaker at a REIA (Real Estate Investment Association) that I attend in Lafayette, Louisiana covered the topic “Freedom Number?…Check! Now What? Albert Pellissier basically pointed out that you don’t need to be on a continuous roller coaster of “Striving for ‘X'” and spend more time with your family, enjoying your life.
That is what I intend to do. I also want to share tips, tricks, and ideas, through this blog, with all of you, to help you achieve your goals.
Let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story.
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If you do not know me already, my name is Clint Galliano. I live in Louisiana and have worked in the oil and gas industry for most of my career. But I also do other “stuff”. In addition to working in O & G, my wife and I invest in real estate and invested a door manufacturing business, which I sit on the board of.
I started this new blog because I wanted to start posting content mainly not related to my OFTAS Blog (Oilfield, Tech, And Stuff), and leaning more towards finance, business, and investing.
In addition, one of my partners challenged me to write more in 2018. I take it as a growth opportunity.
While 2017 was interesting for me and my family, I am ready to plow into 2018 and grow as a person and as an investor. I am going to set a goal of writing a post a week on this blog, minimum, for the whole year. I may post more, depending on current events.
Below is the list of topics I plan to cover:
Business Finance
Technology
Personal Finance
Automation
Current Events
Personal
Real Estate Investing
Holiday Lighting Displays
I hope You enjoy my posted and can benefit from them.
Leave me comment to let me know what you think about the topics!
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