http://www.earlytorise.com/HowtoAchievetheNewAmericanDream.pdf

Playing Up a Level in Life

Bringing Out the Best in You

Surely you've heard the old saw, "You're the average of the five people that you hang around the most." If the five people you see the most are Norm, Cliff, Carla, Sam, and Woody, then just imagine how you'd turn out. On the other hand, imagine you hung around the best and brightest and most positive people you knew. Don't you think that would make a huge impact on your success? Today, let's talk about doing that. Let's see how you can play up a level in life and bring out the best in you.

Craig Ballantyne

"Your network is your net worth."

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By Craig Ballantyne

Twenty-one years ago this month, one of my most significant accomplishments occurred. It happened on a soccer field, and it involved two of my best friends (still to this very day), along with eight other guys that have also been lifelong mates.

It was on a sunny September afternoon in my hometown of Stratford, Ontario, that we became the Southwest Ontario Regional Under-16 champions. It was a long journey to the top, one that spanned seven seasons and many, many losses. But it was one loss in particular that actually turned the tide and changed our mindset from losers to champions. More about that in a moment. 

When we first started out, as a rag-tag group of misfits in the Under-10 division, we lost every game that season. We were the perennial Bad News Bears, traveling to larger cities on an old school bus and getting thumped 4-0, 6-0, even 9-0.

But each year we got a little better and our opponents scored on us a little less (especially when they stopped putting me in net). While we still lost, we actually started scoring a few goals of our own. Suddenly we began beating the mediocre teams in the league. 

Each spring the same core group of boys from last fall would come together, one year older and closer to being the young men we would be on that Under-16 team. Our pre-season indoor training brought optimism and as each one of us improved, so did the others.

Finally, one year we made it to the second round of the playoffs. We were up against the city of Guelph, a perennial powerhouse and a team that we had never beaten. In fact, we considered it a moral victory when we held them to under three goals. That night, in that playoff game, the young boys that we once were played like the young men we had become. 

We traded goals with them in the first half, played on a soggy pitch just outside the world famous Stratford Festival Theater. It was an odd place to have a soccer field, with the theater on one side and a river on the other. Every game was certain to be interrupted by an old couple taking a shortcut across the playing field or a ball getting lost in the river, and adopted by one of the local swans as one of their own.

In the second half, Guelph scored early, but we battled back to a 2-2 tie. Only minutes remained, and overtime - and penalty kicks - loomed. Alas, on nearly the final kick of the game, Guelph scored. They were relieved. In fact, looking at the two teams as the final whistle blew; you might even think that we were the victors.

We might have lost the game, but we won the battle. We had played up a level.

You see this in sports all the time. Perhaps your children have played an exhibition game against a team a year older than them and nearly won - or perhaps even achieved an upset. It happens in the pros and the Olympics too. Small countries, just 1/100th of the size of America, such as Lithuania, come within just a few points of beating the "Dream Team" headed by multi-million dollar superstars.

Why does this happen? And how can we take these lessons and put them to use in our lives?

The answer is to play up a level. You only do that by getting out of your comfort zone. In that game where your child played the older team, there were two perspectives out on the field or court that day.

First, there was the team that was taking the competition lightly - the older kids. "This will be so easy," they thought, "I'm not even going to try." But do you see what happens when this mindset is adopted? It's a loser's attitude and a no-win situation when you play down a level, because even if you do win, there's nothing to be gained. There are no learning experiences when you don't give yourself competition or surround yourself with people that push you to perform.

On the other hand, your youngsters on the underdog team enjoy a mix of sheer terror (look how big these guys are!) and excitement (just imagine if we can score on them first!). Each positive result from a great pass to an excellent block boosts their confidence. Each second that went by with the score tied at zero, or even in their favor was another notch on their belt. 

Each tick on the clock changed their perception from "Can we do this?" to "We can do this" and finally to "We CAN do this!"

Your children grew up that day. Not physically, that takes years, but mentally. Giant leaps forward occur because their coach and mentors knew that only by taking the players out of their comfort zone could they see their true potential.

(When you're done reading this essay, please send a big "Thank you" email to your child's coach for doing this, if you haven't already.)

Now back to your life. How can we incorporate this lesson into your career or into building your business?

The answer is simple. You must put yourself in situations where you have to play up a level. You must surround yourself with positive people that push you to your peak performance. You must volunteer when the boss offers up a terrifyingly difficult opportunity. You must raise your hand when the committee asks for volunteers to lead a group through a monumental task. You must book your plane ticket, register for the conference, and put yourself out there at the seminar and in the post-event networking opportunities. 

You must, you must, you must play up a level any chance you get.

Surround yourself with the best. Build a better network of people that you spend the most time with. Increase your average. Find opportunities that challenge you, terrify you, and bring out the best in you.

That night, after our season ending loss to Guelph, eleven young men left the field as different people. The boys that walked on ninety minutes earlier were nowhere to be found. That feeling never left us over the winter and when it came time for indoor practice, there was a sense of purpose and potential like never before.

As the next season began, each week our confidence grew. We beat Kitchener, a team of untouchables that averaged seven goals against us for many years. We split a home-and-home series with Cambridge, the team we would eventually meet in the finals. And yes, we even beat Guelph. 

Those teams had taught us too many lessons over the years. The students had become the masters. And then, on one sunny Saturday afternoon, just a few miles from where I write to you today, we left the field as champions. That was a feeling that you could never take away from us, and a lesson that will never be forgotten.

Find your opportunity to play at a higher level. Get out of your comfort zone, and seek to be pushed to that potential you are capable of achieving. It's the only way to know what truly resides inside of you.

The Truth About Money

This Message Matters

What you're about to read will likely offend one-third of our audience and mystify another third, while delivering a big breakthrough to the remaining third. If you're in the latter third, it's for you that this message matters the most. When you finally get the truth about building wealth, you'll finally be able to direct your energy to the activities that give you the greatest results.

Craig Ballantyne

"You have much more opportunity to earn more money than you do to 'not spend' money, and yet most people spend hours upon hours clipping coupons and perusing daily deal sites instead of brainstorming how to earn more money and solve people's problems." - Susan Fujii, Kung-Fu Finance

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By Craig Ballantyne

Today is the day you discover the politically incorrect truth about money.

This lesson will probably be much different than the one your parents taught you. I know my mother would disagree with what I'm about to say, such as...

Pinching pennies is a losing game. And that obsessing about cutting costs is a waste of your valuable time and energy.
You see, the only way to truly create financial independence and take control of your future is by adding value to the world and creating your own economy.

You don't save your way to wealth by extreme cost cutting.
Instead, you save your way to wealth by increasing your income so you have much more money to save and invest.
And the best way to increase your income today is with an online business.

"But Craig", you might protest, "right now all I can do is try to cut expenses".

I understand. I've been broke.

Unfortunately, personal "austerity" can only get you so far.
Sure you can cut and slash expenses to the bone, but eventually the fact remains that you always do get down to just the bone.

However, you have to eat. You need a roof over your head. And there are always going to be emergencies that come up.
Those are mandatory expenses, and you can't cut them.

Let's take a look at a $40,000 per year income.

In the United States, a person making that much money, with no dependents, would be getting about $600 per week in take-home pay. Let's say your monthly expenses are $600 for rent, $300 for transportation, and $300 for food.

You're left with $1200 per month for everything else (and let's be frank, you're living a spartan existence - albeit a Westernized version - on the above expenses).

But wait, there's more. Reality usually throws in a spouse, a child, even a pet, and things start to get tight. Real tight. Real fast.

That leaves with you two choices.

Put your positive energy into earning more money.

Or exhaust yourself with the negative mindset of cutting costs.

You can only do one or the other.

As NY Times best-selling author Ramit Sethi eloquently put it:

"We have limited cognition and attention, so each additional thing we try to focus on means an overall reduced amount of willpower and attention."

If you had to use your limited willpower to cut back on $2 a day of something you love, versus learning how to negotiate a $10,000 salary increase, which would you rather do?"

Exactly.

Stop trying to cut costs to the bone.

Now you might find this callous or cold, that's fine.

But I'm asking you to trust me...and to take all the energy that you put into slashing your budget and transfer it over to creating value.

It will make all the difference in the world to your wealth building efforts.

Let me tell you a little story.

As you know, I just returned from Europe, specifically Scandinavia. Norway, the first country I visited, is expensive. Outrageously expensive.

In fact, Norway is the most expensive country in the entire world.

Last week's issue of The Economist had Norway at the top of their annual "Big Mac" index. It showed that the iconic burger costs TWO times as much in Norway as in America. And a gallon of gas in Norway is $10. In Toronto, only $6. In America, even less.

And while I had boots-on-the-ground in Bergen, Norway, we decided to check out a McDonald's restaurant (NOTE: I didn't eat anything there.)

Want to guess how much a Big Mac combo costs?

$15 USD.

In Toronto, that same combo costs $7.61.

As a result of Norway's high prices, two of my traveling partners spent most of the time complaining about costs and discussing ways that they could cut travel expenses.

While they complained, I sat there. *Shrug*.

$4, $14, or $40 Big Macs, I really don't care.

No big deal, I thought. If I want a Big Mac (which I don't, of course), I'll just go up to my room, write an email, add value to someone's life, and persuade them to invest money in my business in exchange for giving them more value via one of my products.

Fair deal.

That's how a free market works: Add value. Earn reward.

Essentially, unlike these other guys, I can virtually "create money out of thin air".

Doesn't matter when or where it is, nor how expensive the Big Mac might be, having a global online business allows you to "write yourself a swimming pool", as John Lennon is alleged to have once said.

Normal people, those that don't think like you and I, can't do that.

They don't have a positive outlet for economic energy. All they can do is turn money into a negative issue.

It's too bad they haven't discovered what you and I know.

And that secret is the bottom line.

It's easier - and more positive - for you to ADD value to the world and earn greater rewards than it is for you to try and cut costs.

It's easier to make money than it is to slash expenses.

Now before you disagree, just hear me out.

Making more money is a simple equation.

After all, you are already making money with your skills, right?

So to make MORE money, all you need to do is take your skills, add the way you create value and do it for more people.

That's it.

Add more value = make more money.

It's not rocket science.

Nor is making money the root of all evil.

The correct phrase is:

"The love of money is the root of all evil." - 1 Timothy 6:10

BIG difference.

And not only is money NOT evil, but in fact, money is the answer to a LOT of life's problems.

Don't believe me?

Try going without money for a day.

You might be able to do it if you spend all day in bed, but you sure as heck better not allow your browser surf over to Amazon.com...because you'll wish you had money then.

So back to your money problem.

If you need more money, the best thing for you to do is to switch from a negative cost-cutting mindset to a positive value-adding approach.

If you need money, you must find a way to MAKE more of it.

You can only slash your spending so far. At some point you'll hit the bone of necessity - and you can't cut that.

So you need to switch your energy over to creating more value.

Better to do it now while you're young and full of energy.

Yes, this message is politically incorrect. And yes, it goes against everything that you and I were brought up to believe...

That making money is hard.

That getting rich probably involves something shady.

That it's better to be frugal and clip coupons and drive an extra mile to save a penny on gas (even though this is the ultimate waste of time). That approach is WRONG.

I dare you to believe me...that you can add value to the world, make it a better place, AND make more money ALL at the same time.

In fact, when you make more money, dozens of people will directly benefit from it.

All you need to do is identify the right way for you to add your unique value to the world.

The Mindset of a Champion

The Empowering Belief

At Early To Rise, we preach self-reliance. After all, and this ispolitically incorrect, the only person you can ever truly rely on is yourself. And when you understand that, things will begin to change for you. You will have more mental freedom, knowing that you are in control of your life. Never forget this empowering belief, "You are the one that got yourself into this (whatever 'this' may be), and you are the only one that can get you out of it. Rely on no one else. It is up to you and you alone." Combined with Michael Masterson's politically incorrect advice today, you will now have what you need to develop the success mindset.

Craig Ballantyne

"Don't fret about what you can't control. Focus on building your wealth and protecting it. There is nothing else you can do." - Mark Ford

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By Michael Masterson

Do you have the mindset of a champion?

Are you able to look at your career challenges and feel certain you can overcome them? Do you feel, like Mohammed Ali and Michael Jordan must have felt, that you have greatness in your soul?

If your answer is "no," don't worry. I don't have that mindset either.

I never did. I never felt like a natural-born winner. I never had the confidence that the people I admired seemed to have.

I doubted I could ever fully understand anything about business when I started writing about it in 1976. Just back from a two-year stint in the Peace Corps, teaching literature to students in Chad, I got a job with a newsletter called African Business & Trade. I remember looking at that name on the door my first day and thinking, "What is the difference between business and trade?" I learned fast.

My next business-related position was as editorial director for a fledgling publisher in Florida. I had a half dozen freelance writers reporting to me. My job was to edit and polish their work. But I could barely understand what they were talking about: robotics and professional practice management and agribusiness, etc. How could I presume to tell them what to do? Again, I learned fast.

When I set out to create and market my own investment newsletter, I was nearly paralyzed with fear. I was not just worried about failing, I was sure I would. But my doubtfulness was proven wrong once again. That publication earned millions of dollars its first year. Today, it has mushroomed into a $70 million investment publishing franchise.

When I first retired at 39 and spent my days writing poetry and fiction, I didn't imagine for a moment that I'd get any of it published. But in the 12 to 14 months that I did that writing, about a dozen of my stories and six poems were published in literary magazines. Three of them won prizes.

In 1992, Bill Bonner asked me to help him grow his publishing business. I took the job because he made me an irresistible offer. A year later, sales had jumped to $24 million and he asked me if I thought we could eventually be a $100 million business. I remember telling him, "I'd be thrilled if we can keep sales as high as they are. My best guess is that we will get smaller next year, not bigger." But we did get bigger. And when we hit that $100 million target, I said, "Let's just be happy with this." Ten years later, our revenues topped $500 million and our profit margins had doubled too.

When K and I returned from Africa in 1977, we had a $400 car and about $300 in savings. Today, we live in two multimillion-dollar mansions, have tens of millions of dollars in the bank and brokerage accounts, and interests in businesses with a combined value of well more than $20 million.

So I know that you can be successful in life without thinking like a champion. I know it's possible to accomplish amazing things.

I'm telling you this in case you, too, are full of doubt and fear. I want you to know that you don't necessarily have to change your "attitude" to be a winner.

I tried to change. I read the books and studied the tapes. I shouted mantras while driving and yelled at myself in the mirror. I did it all, but it didn't change the way I felt. If I'd had to wait 'til my attitude changed, I'd be waiting still.

Instead, I found something different. I call it the Secret Path for the Timid. It is a low-key, back-door strategy that I believe will work for anyone who has a humble heart and a doubtful mind.

The success I have had came from two very simple ideas:

1. If I didn't have an abundance of natural talent, I could make up for it by working harder to acquire the skills and knowledge I needed.
2. If I didn't have the natural genius to come up with great ideas, I could find out what rich and successful people were doing and imitate exactly what they did.

When I took that job with African Business & Trade, for example, I spent hours every evening in the National Library, studying the subjects I was writing about. I never told my boss I was doing that extra work because I didn't want him to know how ignorant I was. I simply worked twice as many hours as the other writers. And slowly but surely, I began to know what I was talking about. Eventually, I was as good as any writer on the team.

When I started writing my first sales letter, I hadn't the faintest notion of how to do it. So I spent several weeknights and weekends reading every successful sales letter I could get my hands on. I copied lines that caught my eye. I made notes about how the sales pitches were structured. I studied how the offers were designed - the pricing, premiums and guarantees- that made those great sales letters so effective.

Gradually, I learned what I needed to know. The mysteries that had befuddled me as a beginner in business and marketing slowly became clear.

With each small success, my confidence grew. But it was not confidence in myself. It was confidence in the process of working hard and emulating success.

Years later, after I had built many businesses and acquired wealth, people began treating me like a champion. They assumed I had natural born talents they lacked.

Part of this was my fault. To motivate the people who worked for me, I put on the mask of a champion. I pretended to be undeterred by any problems and happy to take on any challenge.

I now believe I was wrong to do that. In an effort to motivate them, I was doing the opposite. I was unwittingly suggesting that to accomplish what I had accomplished they had to have my confidence and courage.

I should have told them the truth: that my accomplishments came slowly and painstakingly. The reality was that I was a natural born entrepreneurial dimwit. I should have admitted that and explained that my success was the result of mule-like hard work and monkey-like imitation.

The point of today's message is that I don't believe you need the mind of a champion to be successful in business. You need to do only two things: work harder than all those who are competing with you and imitate the actions of successful people you admire.

If you do that long enough you will have the success you yearn for. And as a bonus you will have acquired courage and confidence too.

The courage and confidence I have today was not achieved by mantras or mediation or self-imaging. It was all achieved by the persistent application of hard work and imitation. If you work hard and smart at anything long enough, you will know success. And with each small success, your mind and heart will grow incrementally braver and more confident.

Eventually, you will wear the mask of a champion. But when that happens, remember to take it off in front of those you love and care about.

How Bad Do You Want It?

My Surprise Mentors

Each summer I travel thousands of miles from home to a small conference center in the countryside of Lithuania. It's there that I meet my friend Simon Black and we spend four days with dozens of young men and women from all over the world at his BlackSmith Liberty and Entrepreneurship camp. While Simon and I are the instructors for the event, I leave feeling like the kids taught me as much as I taught them. And they have a big lesson for you today.

Craig Ballantyne

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."-- Dale Carnegie 

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By Craig Ballantyne

They came from all over the world. Fifty young adults from thirty-five countries, often traveling thousands of miles, pay their own way for an opportunity to better their future. Each accepted to our exclusive camp only after submitting impressive video applications demonstrating how they would add value to the world.
It amazed me how much effort the kids put in to get there. Two of the attendees were only 18 years old and yet they too paid their full fare to Lithuania. One was an American girl - the type you'd expect to be a typical entitled teenagers. And did I mention that she looked like a model? However, she didn't pay her way there by doing commercials or photoshoots. Her story is much more interesting than that.

This young woman from the mid-west saved her way there by working several manual labor jobs, many of them on farms. Once she had acquired enough capital, she bought herself a doublewide trailer and rented it out to her first tenants. It was with this entrepreneurial pluck that she was able to attend our camp over 4,700 miles from home. Others came from as far away as Bangladesh, Australia, and Uzbekistan.



Many of these kids had accomplished more - and traveled more extensively - by the age of 22 than I had by the age of 30. I was truly inspired by their boldness, and it brought me hope that there will be great leaders for the future.

"But," you might protest, "They're kids. They don't have any adult problems to deal with that can hold them back from traveling the world and going to your events."

And you're right. They are just "kids". Most of them didn't have adult problems (although two attendees did have young children at home). But as an adult, we must be mature enough to take personal responsibility for our problems. If you have something holding you back, then you, an adult that reads ETR, should know that you alone are personally responsible for where you are, and for where you are going, in life.

If you have problems that prevent you from traveling or attending seminars and events that will advance your career or education, then it is up to you to solve those problems, not to make excuses. That's what you'll do if you want it badly enough.

You see, everything in life simply comes down to how badly we want it. We all have obstacles. There are roadblocks on everyone's path to success. The simple fact is that some folks give up before they've exhausted all the ways to eliminate these obstacles. Many others, sadly, don't even bother trying at all.

But the bottom line that a responsible adult must accept is this...
It's you that got yourself into this mess, whatever this mess may be, and it's only you that can get you out of this mess. You can't rely on anyone else. You can't depend on the government to save you. You can't wish your way out of trouble. You can only take the high road, which is often the hard road.

The path to success, the road to riches, or whatever avenue it is that you seek does not promise an easy journey. However, it is often a simple journey.

In the Tough Mudder races that I've run, the event is simple. You just follow the path laid out for you. But it was not easy. There was always at least one, if not two or three sadistic hill climbs. If you've ever climbed a hill, and I'm sure you have, you know it's not complex. You just put one foot in front of the other. But it's remarkable how such a simple thing can be so hard.

Such is our journey in life, business, relationships, and self-improvement. The success stories of yesterday have left a well-worn path to the destination we seek. Unfortunately, it's up steep hills, through muddy swamps, over great barriers, and if you're doing a Tough Mudder, through obstacles booby-trapped with live wires, too.

If you want it badly enough you will not let these problems become an excuse. You don't quit from the frustration. You simply endure. You lean on others (you can't depend on them to be there, but if they are, accept their offer), you find a way to get to the top of that hill, and you find a way to clear the obstacles in the way of your success.

You keep going, and going, and going - when you want it bad enough. So...

• How badly do you want it?
• How badly do you want to change your circumstances?
• How badly do you want to achieve those goals that you've set on January 1st?
• How serious are you about getting outside of your comfort zone?
• How badly do you want to rid your life of the constant pain that comes with being unfulfilled?

There are few real limitations in our lives, few physical barriers that prevent us from at least trying to change. The obstacles are more often walls set up in our minds. We can just as easily make those walls fall down as we built them up.

It is we who tell ourselves what we can and cannot do. Sure, our spirits might get dampened by the news, the talking heads, those who are below average and hate to see us succeed. But we are adults. We are capable of rational thought. We can decide for ourselves what is possible and what is not. We don't need to leave the thinking and decisions about our life up to someone else.

On the other hand, for every one hundred naysayers, there is always a positive voice. There are great people out there that want to help you. They want to make it easier for you to accomplish your goals.

The kids that attended our BlackSmith Camp recognized this early in life. They looked around at what was in their schools, their communities, and even in their social circle, and they knew there had to be more. They also knew that there were others out there, just like them. And so, because they wanted it badly enough they found a way to get to a place where they could feel at home, even though it was thousands of miles away.

Fortunately for you, you don't have to travel halfway across the globe to find the same type of community that is happy to support you. Instead, you can find those people online, if you know where to find them. Luckily that's never been easier than it is today. There's never been more opportunity available to anyone in the world. It's all right at your fingertips, available to us in the comfort of our own homes.

So how badly do you want it? 

Enjoy The Design

What is it you’d like to experience?  Give yourself some room --Breathe into it. 

 

Remember, no one is repeatable.  Just as rare and unique as your own thumbprint is, the Universe knew what it was doing when it made you. 

 

You are made of the stuff of the Universe, the Spirit of the Universe, the Creativity Itself.  Allow that Creativity to move and rise up in your awareness.

 

What would it be like to live that life you truly desire?  As best you can, step into that life imaginally.  Walk around as the person who is living the life you imagine.  Like building a house step-by-step, we begin with drawings and we move forward systematically until completion. 

 

Spend some time today designing the mental blueprint of your ideal life.

 

Happy Harvesting

Nature herself does not distinguish between what seed it receives.  It grows whatever seed is planted; this is the way life works. 

 

Even though the universe is for our good and the Law of Life is for this ever-upward expansion and freedom, when you and I get focused on that which is smaller, contractive or little, the Universe can only grow for us that which we are planting.

 

Be mindful of the seeds you plant today, as they will become the crop you harvest.

 

Happy Harvesting