Clinton Skakun

Just before the recent happenings with the economy in 2008 I was fortunate enough to get really interested in finance books. Even though the majority of my reading is business, sales, marketing and personal development I decided in my teens that money and wealth were very important and came to the conclusion that money was the cause of many people’s depression and family problems.

Knowing how to handle money shouldn’t be a special skill or talent, because really, everyone should know finance basics. They don’t teach you how to save in school. They don’t teach that if you spend more than you make, year after year, you’ll eventually hit rock bottom. Even though this is common sense, it’s not common practice. Another thing they are poor at teaching in schools is how to make money, and what to do with it when they get it. Most college students expect to coast off their degree or expect to end up broke in 5 years. In short, most college students don’t know anything about money.

You can be a CPA and still no little or nothing about money. So how do you learn about money? Simple, seek knowledge. Don’t rely on any educational institution to teach you all you need to know. Your life is too important to waste it on suffering because of financial ignorance. Who do you listen to? Authors like Thomas J. Stanly who study millionaires and can tell you what real rich people look like, what they drive and where they live. Or Brain Tracy, a life long student on the subject of wealth, riches and achievement.

Let’s take look at a few of the books that I recommend you read to educate yourself on the subject money:

My Personal Top 6 Wealth Books

1. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley

What do rich people look like? What do they drive and where do they live? You might be surprised if you never read this book. Millionaire Next Door Is a perfect read for anyone who wants to accumulate wealth but doesn’t make 6-figures in yearly income. Stanley outlines the steps in his book for joining the ranks of America’s wealthy. He explains that it’s quite easy to become a millionaire within a relatively short period(being 5-20 years, depending on your financial situation) by number one, living below your means, number two, choosing an occupation that suits you, number three, valuing wealth over social economic status(appearing rich).

In the book, Stanley defines wealth and what wealth REALLY is as opposed to what it’s generally viewed as. I need to read Millionaire Next Door a few more times. It’s truly one of the best you could ever read on wealth building. First time reading it, it blew my mind. There’s so much common sense packed in this book you begin to see how extremely brainwashed we’ve all been on the subject of money.

2. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker

T. Harv Eker introduces the concept of the wealth blueprint and provides steps on how to become aware of not only what your wealth blue print is but how to change it. The first few chapters explains where we got our wealth blueprint, our parents, our peers, our teachers, people in power that we admire. The last half of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind gives 17 lessons to contrasting between the rich-minded and the poor-minded and the results of each. Again, one of the best books on wealth, second to Millionaire Next Door.

3. Million Dollar Habits: Proven Power Practices to Double and Triple Your Income by Brain Tracy

Brian Tracy is one of my favorite personal development authors. I’ve listened to much of his audio collection and benefited greatly from his material. Tracy is a very down to earth, nose to the grind stone, common sense type of person. I listened to the audio of Million Dollar Habits, however I’m suggesting you read the book as well. In, Million Dollar Habits, Tracy goes over a few key wealth principles and gives examples of millionaires he’s studied.

4. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! by Robert Kiyosaki

What can I say about Rich Dad Poor Dad? Quick read, perfect for a younger audience that wants to learn business and wealth building concepts. Robert Kiyosaki gives the story on how he acquired wealth by building a business. He talks about modest beginnings and how listening to the advice of his Rich Dad allowed him to eventually accomplish a life long dream. He also talks about how his Poor Dad’s attitude towards money and lack of financial education eventually ruined him.

To be honest, much of Kiyosaki’s books don’t appeal to me, besides this one. I recommend you read a few of his other books, like Cash Flow Quadrant, which is not bad at the beginning but seems to dry up in the end. Also, take a look at Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump’s book, Why We Want You To Be Rich.

5. Money Grows on Trees by Alton Howard

Another simple book(wealth shouldn’t be complicated). The subtitle suggests that it teaches you how to make, manage and master money. The book is forwarded by Sam Walton, which I find somewhat impressive. Money Grows On Trees provides some insight on building your “money tree” which is your ability to build wealth. He also has a section in the book on how to become dept free in 24 months. Overall, I thought this was a pretty good read. Quite a long book, but not too much fluff. Very informative the whole way through.

6. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason

Ok, I’m going to use the word “simple” again. Because Richest Man in Babylon is one of the simplest books on wealth I’ve read yet. To be honest it doesn’t teach anything profound or anything you really didn’t know before. But then again, maybe it will teach you something about wealth. Each chapter is based on a very simple wealth principle, but each page is packed with thought provoking and inspiring insight on each principle. The whole book is basically a parable taken place in the time of ancient Babylon. I didn’t get to the last few chapters, but the book is one that everyone needs to read at least ONCE.

Enjoy…

Like I said earlier, there’s noting overly complicated or confusing about wealth. We’re just taught the wrong stuff. You need to seek understanding if you really want it. And if you don’t, have fun with that to

Why do some entrepreneurs, in the people business, who can barely speak English make $500,000 a year when there are so many perfectly spoken individuals who work on their business and barely make enough to survive?

How do high school drop outs turn into billionaires and smart, high IQ, college graduates leave, and 3 years later still don’t have a steady job?

What makes a person with mental disabilities smart enough to write literature that stands the test of time while other perfectly normal writers can’t capture interest of their readers.

What makes a salesperson who sells a mediocre product in the worst economy wealthy when there are other people who can’t sell free liqueur to alcoholics?

Does every great business start off with a 50-page proper format business plan?

Is conventional wisdom merely opinion, in a world were many opinions work and multiple points of views are right? If you look at a piece of paper from the thin side, and I look at it from the flat side? Who’s point of view is right?

What makes the least of us the greatest, and the greatest the least?

We Idolize Our Heros and Role Models, And Are Surprised When They Reveal That They’re Human Like Us!

Tiger Woods is a good example of this. We expect our role models to be totally transparent and to act in complete integrity. When they slip up and say the wrong thing or are caught doing something out of character or what the public suspects, we feel let down and disappointed.

But why do we let this surprise us? Haven’t YOU ever slipped up, compromised on your integrity just a little and gotten your hand caught in the cookie jar before? Maybe just once? Honestly, maybe more than once? I’ve been there, you’ve been there.

I’m not by any stretch condoning the Tiger Woods scandal or making out that what he did wasn’t morally or socially wrong. But, do I look at him as much less a human being than we was before? Maybe, maybe not.

Or what about Tony Robbins, world renowned Best Seller personal development and performance coach, who became divorced around in 2001. Robbins has worked with and has been payed millions by everyone from world-class athletes and CEOs of corporate giants to great musical artists and philanthropists. Did everything Tony Robbins say in his Best Selling books, audio CDs and tapes, seminars and courses get thrown out the window the second he got a divorce? It goes back to this thing about being human.

The Lie Of Perfection: Man Kind’s Illusion Of Successful People

Lately I’ve been amazed by how human many of my role models are. Some how when one man or woman writes a best selling book, or speaks on stage in front of thousands of people, makes lots of money and obtains any level of success we turn them into gods. It seems that they can do no wrong.

And then, we reach our small level of success and expect to feel different. Now, like we expect to be gods. Doesn’t happen. Even after you reach a level of success, you will still be who you are. You might be an award winning Olympic performer but are afraid of flying. You might be a billionaire, great at investing and money management, but you might not be great at speaking in front of people. Look at Richard Branson, multi-billionaire and owner of the Virgin brand companies totaling more than 25 billion in assets. Branson grew up with severe learning disabilities and admitted that, even later on in his career, he didn’t know the difference between net and gross income.

We can learn a lot from imperfect people who have made their mark in the world.

Why Some Of Us Never Speak Up Or Feel That We Have Anything Important To Say:

We create a picture in our minds of how things SHOULD be and scare ourselves out of TAKING ACTION until we’re perfect at what it is we’re shooting for. This fear is fear of failure and fear of criticism. There are a lot of people out there that will criticize us about things that really don’t matter.

From researching high achievers we can conclude that they don’t make it a habit to follow the rules, or do it right the first time. They often time don’t give a damn what people think and laugh at people who tell them they can’t do something that seems impossible.

Be Great, But Not At Everything!

To be great at everything is to be great at nothing. There’s not enough time to perfect each and every area of our lives. Chose a few things you want to “major” in and pour your heart into the few.

Parting Words

We all want to be great at everything. Great employee, great at finances, great at drag racing, hockey and home repairs. We want perfect health, perfect looks and drive the nicest car on the block. We have a “list” of what we look for in a perfect mate. Want to live a perfectly balanced life, have great communication skills and like to believe that our opinions are right. Seriously, I think we’d all enjoy life much better if we weren’t as picky and just threw up our hands once in a while and said, “let the chips land where they may. THIS is important to me. However THIS is less important. These are my goals and as for the rest…I’m open to surprises.”

What’s a sales-cycle? Well, simple put, the sales cycle is a series of decision making steps when a client decides to buy into your business or product.

So how does a sales cycle work? What Everybody Ought to Know About Closing:

You need to know what your sales cycle is and how to get your prospect to the next step. A sales cycle doesn’t need to be complicated and it’s better is it’s simple. Your goal should be to make the sales cycle as simple and short as possible.

Here’s an example of one of the businesses I work with:

Sales cycles are a great way to track your relationship with customers. The more prospects you move to the top, the more money you’re making. Simple. Some of your prospects may still be at the bottom. Meaning, they are either not interested at this time or you may need to do some follow up.

Give Me Your Sales-Cycle and 5-minutes and I’ll Show You Where You’re Going Wrong.

Sales cycles are not only a great way to track how far up the ladder your prospects are going but to track results and understand where YOU ARE GOING WRONG in the sales cycle.

Maybe you are great at contacts, finding and calling prospects, but you fail horribly at keeping clients for more than a month. Or maybe your information package is what grabs prospects in like bait, but your contacting sucks. Using this method will allow you to pinpoint where in the cycle you or your business needs work.

Get Rid of Sales Difficulties Once and For All:

Sure you have a sales cycle! But, do you know where your client and prospects are on that cycle?

In 15-minutes could you tell me where ANY of your prospects are in the sales-cycle? If you said yes good for you. If you said no, your client base is probably one big cloud of confusion.

• How do you know when one of your prospects are on the edge of taking the next step?
• Do you know where they are now?
• Do you take the effort to help push them over the edge?

The Lazy Man’s Way To Tracking Prospects:

Tracking clients and prospects doesn’t have to be complicated or hard. There are many ways to do it. Depending on the size of your firm and what you’re most comfortable with you can use anything from pen and paper to excel or an elaborate Contact Management System that gives you graphs, data integrity and the like.

I’m not fussy, I like excel spreadsheets:

My spreadsheets are anywhere from 100-1000 prospects at any given time. I can tell you within 5 seconds where each of my contacts are on the sales cycle. Whether they have bought or aren’t interested.

“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” - Luke 12:48 KJV

“Today we have learned in the agony of war that great power involves great responsibility.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Much of my blog topic is about money and wealth. With wealth comes power. Even though some of you may not agree, I believe that success and power are very close, and if not, one and the same. Why I say this is because we generally gage success on how much power or choice we have in our own lives. The more money we have often determines how much power we have in society.

Aside from money, there is such a thing as influence to power. Some times the poorest of people can influence people in high places to make decisions.

As one of the wealthy, you have access to things lesser wealthy people don’t. You have at your disposal, money mangers and people who can take care of your estate, in turn increasing your wealth. You may also have access to investments that the poor don’t. For instance, the ability to invest large sums of money in ventures that have a great potential for return.

With money comes the ability to turn the tables, buy men’s souls, and even “influence” the law. Even though they believe that they’re getting away with murder, they fail to grasp the fact that they’ve sold their own souls.

This temptation is the test of everyone who has great power.

My opinion is, if you have the power and money to elevate your family and the people you know to a greater well being, with out crossing moral and ethical standards, then why not? You SHOULD feel the need to use your power as long as it does not hurt other people.

The problem with people who want money, but don’t want to deal with the responsibility of it, are never ready to receive it and, as a result, their power is short lived.

My question to you is, if you were put into the position of being able to do anything you wanted, without immediate consequences or the hard work involved, what would you do and would it interfere with your moral standards?

Do you understand the gains and rewards to for staying true to your moral and ethical standards?

If you were given an extra $200k today, what would you do with it?

Do you seek knowledge to learn how to handle power or do you see money as a renewable resource, with no need to save, invest or plan ahead?

The true test of a man is to give him power.