Humans have been the dominant species on our Earth for many thousands of years. We know humans have been the dominant species, but how did they become the dominant species? How have Homo Sapiens become supreme over other species?

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, examines the following fact: one hundred thousand years ago, there were six species of humans.

Today, there is just one species of humans: Homo Sapiens.

How did Homo Sapiens succeed in lasting throughout time? Why did Homo Sapiens go from groups of hunter-gathers to living in cities and nations? What makes Homo Sapiens unique to the animal kingdom?

Sapiens looks to answer these questions and more.

The rest of this post includes a summary of Sapiens, takeaways from Sapiens, and a reading recommendation for you.

Book Summary of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

In Sapiens, we get a brief history of humankind.

Sapiens is broken up into four sections:

1. Cognitive Revolution
2. Agricultural Revolution
3. Unification of Humankind
4. Scientific Revolution

The first section examines what Harari calls the “Cognitive Revolution”. The Cognitive Revolution describes the time period where humans’ brains developed and humans could now make tools and become more efficient in their work.

The second section examines the Agricultural Revolution. Many of us know what occurred during this time period: humans went mainly hunting and gathering for their food to growing crops, domesticating various animals, and becoming sedentary.

The third section is called “The Unification of Humankind”. In this section, Harari looks at the social structures which have been put in place to unify humankind. Some of these structures include religion and nations. Here, Harari introduces his concept of the “Imagined Myth”.

Finally, in the final section, called “Scientific Revolution”, Harari looks at the recent past and talks about economic constructs, such as communism or capitalism, technological developments, and how the industrial revolution transformed the world once again.

At the end of Sapiens, Harari tries to answer a few deep questions:

• Have we become happier as history has unfolded?
• With technological development and increases in efficiency of housing and food production, have we become happier?
• If we wanted to, could we break free from the influence of our ancestors?

There are many other questions Harari poses for the reader to think about. It will be interesting in the future as we continue to evolve.

Why Homo Sapiens Dominate: The Concept of the “Imagined Myth”

In Sapiens, Harari introduces and discusses the concept of the “Imagined Myth”.

Harari argues the concept of the “Imagined Myth” has been instrumental to the unification of humankind.

His argument, essentially, is because humans are able to be creative and think of things that are not rooted in reality, they have became more successful, speaking from an evolutionary standpoint.

Different imagined myths throughout history have included things like religion, money, government, nations, cities, sports teams, companies, and the list goes on.

Think about it for a second, what makes a nation a nation?

It’s the common belief that all the people who reside in that nation believe the nation exists. It is only because a group of individuals believe in the imagined concept of a nation that we have nations.

Humans are the only species in the world where you can have two strangers who become friends because they share a nationality, a religion, or are fans of the same sports team.

Takeaways from Sapiens

With every book you read, it is a must to have takeaways and actionable items to implement in life.

After reading Sapiens, my main takeaway was most of our society is made up and imagined.

There are so many things which are just imaginary and in our mind. While we need to follow the rules and constructs in place, we shouldn’t get stressed over these imaginary things (i.e. nations, sports, religions, etc.)

Our Recommendation for Sapiens

Sapiens is a fantastic book, which both touched on history, but also human psychology.

To understand where we are today, it’s important to understand where we came from. Sapiens is a fantastic resource for learning where we came from, and is very thought provoking and challenging when thinking about where humans go next.

Unbeatable Mind, by Mark Divine, was highly recommended by a friend who read it a while back. I have to say, it not only lived up to all expectations, but CRUSHED them straight over the Green Monster (left field fence of Fenway Park, a baseball reference). Unbeatable Mind combines the characteristics instilled in Navy SEALS with the spiritual embrace of a Tibetan Monk.

Summary of Unbeatable Mind

One major point of Unbeatable Mind is defining your purpose.  Defining your purpose can be accomplished by asking yourself the tough questions and visualizing the human being you want to become while focusing on your impact on the world. Defining your purpose is a DEEP, soul finding exercise, and makes you ask if you have a burning fire for what you are doing with your life.

This is challenging, but essential for understanding why you are on this earth.  We are all unique, we are all who we are today by an infinite amount of choices, feelings, and experiences. Our main goal is to help other members who are looking for self improvement, whether this be financially, for their health, or for their well being.

Mark Divine was a Navy SEAL and describes the SEAL Training experience. Divine addresses what the SEALS are known for – MENTAL TOUGHNESS. In the first phase of training, the third week is called “Hell Week”. The new SEALS are put through brutal and difficult operational training on little sleep; it is a test of mental toughness, physical ability, critical thinking, teamwork, attitude, etc. On average only 1 out of 4 students make it through “Hell Week”, which is universally known as one of the most difficult military entrance programs.

“When a man is beaten, tormented, and defeated… He is ready to learn something.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Speaking of mental toughness, here is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time from Facing the Giants… if you ever think you can’t do something, just try your best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sUKoKQlEC4

Mental Performance Strategies

Unbeatable Mind gives various strategies for improving mental toughness and mental performance. Mediation and breathing are keys to calming and focusing the mind. One exercise that Divine advocates, and something I have actively practiced since college, is Box Breathing.  It is a simple breathing pattern that consists of a 1-1-1-1 ratio.

Box Breathing

Box breathing is performed as follows:

1. Exhale completely
2. Inhale deep into your lungs for 5 seconds
3. Hold the breath in for 5 seconds
4. Exhale for 5 seconds
5. Hold breath for 5 second
6. Repeat

This slows down your breathing, which is integral to reducing stress, and focuses your thoughts. SERIOUSLY, if you’ve read this far! Give it a try now!

11 Secrets of Mental Success

In addition to the various exercises Divine presents for us to improve our mental abilities, Divine gives 11 secrets to success, which I’ve listed below.  These secrets fit with the principals taught throughout the book.

1. Live an examined life, and embrace sacred silence.
2. Know your ONE thing, your purpose, passion, and principles.
3. Connect all your small actions to these.
4. Develop mental and emotional control: Master the Big Four of Mental Toughness and Emotional Resiliency
5. Challenge yourself to find your 20X, and improve daily.
6. Turn to others in service, and develop a winning team.
7. Align to win in all three spheres of I, We, and It.
8. Select SMART-FITS targets.
9. Employ KISS “good enough” planning.
10. Take massive action, and then fail forward fast.
11. Never, ever quit.

Our Recommendation for Unbeatable Mind

What I enjoyed most about Unbeatable Mind is how Divine  talks about his life experiences and gives actionable steps for us to increase and improve our mental toughness and mental performance. We are all different, but may as well stand on the shoulders of giants. I highly recommend Unbeatable Mind to anyone looking to increase their personal performance! Mental toughness is a highly underrated trait and skill; be the one who has it and succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development , because success is something you attract by being the person you become. – Hal Elrod

Readers: have you found your one thing, purpose, or destiny?  What do you love doing?  What’s your passion?

Why does strategic thinking seem so tough sometimes? Why are some scenarios very scary to deal with, especially when there’s a need to be decisive? Is there a decision making framework which we could tap into to help in these situations?

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, by Chip and Dan Heath, is all about improving your decision making.

In Decisive, you will learn about the villains and common pitfalls many people struggle with in making decisions, and a framework to enable better decision making.

Being able to make good decisions is a great skill to have. Decision making is a key component to becoming better as a person, making more money, and climbing the corporate ladder.

Are you looking to become a better decision maker? Would you like to make better choices in life and work?

The rest of this post includes a summary of Decisive, takeaways from Decisive, and a reading recommendation for you.

“A remarkable aspect of your mental life is that are rarely stumped”. – Daniel Kahneman

Book Summary of Decisive

Decisive is a book all about decision making. In the first part of Decisive, the authors talk about the four villains of decision making. After discussing these villains of decision making, the authors provide a decision making framework to make better decisions.

As discussed in Decisive, there are four villains of decision making:

• Narrow Framing
  • People naturally view a problem as “this or that”
• The Confirmation Bias
  • People naturally will seek information that support their beliefs and this tends to warp their understanding and perspective
• Short-Term Emotion
  • People are influenced by emotions that will fade over time
• Overconfidence
  • People generally will have too much faith in their predictions

To overcome these four villains, the authors discuss the W.R.A.P framework for better decision making. The W.R.A.P. framework is as follows:

• W = Widen Your Options
• R = Reality Test Your Assumptions
• A = Attain Distance Before Deciding
• P = Prepare to Be Wrong

Below, let’s go into each of these in further detail.

Widen Your Options

The first thing to do when looking to become a better decision maker is to widen your options. If you are tasked with making a decision, it is important to think about all of the possibilities, rather than be closed minded.

When looking to make a decision, people should consider more than one option, and adopt a “this and that” mindset.

When studying companies, only 29% of organizations considered more than one alternative (versus 30% of teenagers). Often our options are more plentiful than we think.

Considering opportunity cost can help you avoid a narrow frame (what am I giving up by going down this path?).

A few strategies to widen your options include:

• The “Vanishing Options Test”
  • What if your options disappeared? What would you do then?
• Ladder up
  • For example, a swimsuit firm looked at sharks to develop technology to build a high performing swimsuit
• If you feel stuck, look for someone else who has solved your problem
  • No need to reinvent the wheel!

When you consider multiple options simultaneously, you learn the “shape” of the problem. By widening your options, you can understand the problem better, and be more unique and original with your solution.

Reality Test Your Assumptions

After widening your options, the second strategy for making better choices is reality testing your assumptions.

To reality test your assumptions, you can do the following:

• Consider the opposite
  • Considering the opposite can help you understand the problem more fully.
• Spark constructive disagreement within our organizations
  • Ask “What would have to be true for this option to be the very best choice?”
• Test your assumptions with deliberate mistakes
  • An example in the book was a women who went out on a date with a guy who wasn’t her “type”. She ended up marrying the guy!
• Ooch – run small experiments to test your theories.
  • Rather than jumping head first, dip a toe in.

Some other ways you can reality test your assumptions is looking to figure out the average and base case of a scenario.

For finding the average and base rate of a situation, it’s important to be rational and think critically.

If you can’t find the “base rates” for your decision, ask an expert. Experts are good at estimating base rates, but bad at predicting.

To gather the best information, zoom in and zoom out. Consider both the minute details and the big picture.

By reality testing your assumptions, you’ll be in a better spot to make a good decision.

Attain Distance before Deciding

After reality testing your assumptions, it can be best practice to take a step back and attain distance before making a final decision.

Fleeting emotions tempt us to make decision that are bad in the long term. For example, sales people are trained to prey on customers’ emotions.

To attain distance before deciding on a major decision, you can do the following:

• Use the 10/10/10 strategy
  • How will I feel in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years about this situation?
• Ask yourself: “What would I tell my best friend to do in the same situation?”
• Examine your core priorities and principles. Look at your long-term emotional values, goals, aspirations.
  • What kind of person do you want to be?
  • What kind of organization do you want to build?
  • The goal isn’t to eliminate emotions, but to honor the emotions that count.

Our decisions are often altered by 2 subtle short-term emotions: mere exposure, we like what’s familiar, and loss aversion, losses are more painful than gains.

A study showed students wouldn’t sell a mug for $7 when they wouldn’t pay more than $3 for it.

After distancing yourself from the problem, you can gain a better perspective on the situation.

Prepare to Be Wrong

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to predict the future. When making a decision, realize that you may be wrong.

And this is okay.

For thinking about what could happen, remember the future is not a “point”, but a range of possibilities.

One great strategy when looking to make a decision is using the concept of bookends. Consider the best case and worst case scenarios (in the book, these are called the pre-parade and pre-mortem scenarios):

• Examine the pre-mortem scenario: “It’s a year from now. Our decision has failed utterly. Why?”
• Examine the pre-parade scenario: “It’s a year from now. We’re heroes. Will we be ready for success?”.

By bookending, anticipating and preparing for both adversity and success, we stack the deck in favor of our decisions.

After making a decision, to make sure we don’t compound on bad decisions, it’s important to create tripwires.

Creating tripwires is asking the question, “If we aren’t successful by this future date, we will kill the project.”

Tripwires help since we tend to escalate our attachment to a project that is going poorly. Many powerful tripwires are triggered by patterns rather than dates, metrics, or budgets.

With these 4 decision making strategies, we can make better decisions in our life, work and career.

Takeaways from Decisive

With every book you read, it is a must to have takeaways and actionable items to implement in life.

For Decisive, the two main takeaways which stuck with me over time have been the bookending method, and using the 10/10/10 strategy.

Many people, including myself, look at the worst case scenario when thinking about something outside of our control and comfort zone.

However, this is just one case in a range of possibilities.

After thinking about the worst case scenario, it’s important to also think about the best case scenario, and realize the end result will probably land somewhere in the middle.

With the second takeaway, by applying the 10/10/10 strategy, I’ve been more strategic with my daily purchases and expenses.

A lot of times, I’ll be craving some snack. Then, I’ll think that in 10 minutes, or 10 months, I won’t even remember my craving, and I’ll be fine.

This helps me save money and stay healthy.

There are many amazing takeaways in Decisive, and I highly recommend this book.

Our Recommendation for Decisive

Making good decisions is so critical for success in this world. By making better choices in your life and work, you can avoid headache and reach your goals.

Decisive is a fantastic book which will challenge your thinking and mindset. Through learning about making better choices, you can open your mind to all of the fantastic possibilities of the world.

Readers: do you use a strategy for decision making? Do you fall victim to the villians ever?

Are you interested in making more money? Do you want to become rich? Are you interested in learning how to get rich?

How to Get Rich, by Felix Dennis, is a no nonsense summary of how Felix Dennis, founder of Maxim magazine, got rich. Dennis takes us through the ups and downs of his business life and personal life, and also gives his opinion on how to get rich (not just rich, like really, really rich).

Dennis started out in the United Kingdom in the late 60’s, and worked his way to riches by owning his own publishing business. In addition to the main publishing business, he was a partner in many other deals and opportunities which helped grow his wealth.

In the beginning of the book, he states he is worth somewhere between $400 million and $900 million pre-tax. However, because much of his wealth is illiquid, he didn’t really know (or care; he was rather old at the time of writing How to Get Rich, and didn’t care about much except the pleasures of life at his stage in life.)

How to Get Rich is not a self help book, as Dennis states multiple times, but outlines and discusses many principles, virtues, and lessons on how to get rich.

The rest of this post includes a summary of How to Get Rich, takeaways from How to Get Rich, and a reading recommendation for you.

I’m concerned that the fear of failing, in the eyes of the world, is the biggest impediment to amassing wealth. – Felix Dennis

Book Summary of How to Get Rich

How to Get Rich discusses various topics one needs to be aware of when looking to become rich.

These topics include, but are not limited to:

• ideas
• luck
• ownership
• negotiating
• delegation
• focus
• self-belief

Below are some main takeaways from each of these skills for becoming rich from How to Get Rich.

The Importance of Executing Your Ideas

Ideas are worthless without action. 

Dennis discusses the importance of executing your ideas numerous times throughout the book.

Some remarkable quotes from the book include:

• “The follow-through, the execution, is a thousand times more important than a “great idea”.”
• “It is how ideas are implemented that counts in the long run.”
• “Ideas don’t make you rich. Correct execution of ideas does.”

Essentially, without an action oriented mindset, you will not be able to become rich. If brainstorming and coming up with ideas is all you do, then you will not be successful with your business.

The Role of Luck in Becoming Rich

What makes How to Get Rich great is how Dennis discusses his successes and his failures.

When he is discussing the topic of luck, he talks about how he ended up in the hospital due to his drug use.

What was lucky about the situation is that he insisted on going to his cottage and since he was not in New York City, he was able to be diagnosed quickly and accurately in a smaller hospital. This allowed him to turn his life around and continue to make more money.

This event was certainly lucky; Dennis could have died from this event.

When building, growing, and owning a business, there are many events and outcomes which can be influenced by luck.

If you want to become rich, you will have to have luck on your side.

Why Ownership is Important When Looking to Become Rich

If your goal is to become rich, Dennis argues ownership of a business is critical.

Working for other people, as an analyst or a manager, will rarely lead to extreme wealth.

When owning a business, you tap into a different wealth building equation. With a business, you are increasing your wealth by both receiving the cash flows from the business, but also own a valuable asset.

If you are working for someone else, all you get is your salary or hourly wage (which is inevitably tied to the hours you work).

Some interesting quotes from How to Get Rich about ownership include:

• Cash flow management is the most important thing in a small business.
• Managers rarely become rich.
• “To become rich, you must be an owner, and you must try to own it all.”
• Ownership is the only thing that counts.
• “Delegation and promotion is a way to get rich.”
• “Build a program of carefully tailored delegation and well-deserved promotion. This will create an atmosphere of loyalty, efficiency, and camaraderie that feeds upon itself.”

Why Delegation is the Key to Maximizing Your Businesses’ Potential

Each person only has 24 hours in a day. There is only so much time for learning, work and executing on your ideas.

If you want to scale your business, and scale your wealth, hiring others to help you will be critical.

Working with other talented individuals can help you grow your business, and allow you to get more done over time.

Delegation of tasks will free you up to think more strategically, and focus on what really matters for your business.

Some remarkable quotes from How to Get Rich on delegating include:

• “Talent is the key to sustained growth, and growth is the key to early wealth.”
• “Identify it, hire it, nurture it, reward it, protect it, and when the time comes, fire it.”

The Importance of Focus on Your Path to Building a Business

Focus is one of the most important skills to cultivate if you want to experience growth in your life.

While it seems like multitasking is a great way to get ahead, being able to focus and be consistent with your actions over time will be much more beneficial.

What’s the most critical item to get done today? Can other things wait?

Focusing in on the one thing that is necessary for success today will allow you to move forward over time and grow your business.

Why You Need to Believe in Yourself for Success

Do you believe you can achieve your goals? How’s your mindset? Do you believe you can do whatever you put your mind to?

Believing in yourself is incredibly important when trying to get out of your comfort zone, building a business, and growing as a person.

When looking to become rich and wealthy over time, self-belief is incredibly important.

Through affirmations and mindset work, you can trick your brain into believing whatever you want.

Here are some remarkable quotes from How to Get Rich on self-belief:

• “Belief in yourself and faith in your project can move mountains. But not if you insist on trying to scale the mountain by an impossible route which has already failed.”
• “Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it.”
• “Without self-belief nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible.”

All of these great tips were very interesting and thought provoking in How to Get Rich.

Takeaways from How to Get Rich

With every book you read, it is a must to have takeaways and actionable items to implement in life.

There are many amazing takeaways from How to Get Rich, but two main takeaways stick out:

• Owning a business will help you become rich faster than holding a regular job (if done right)
• Focusing in on one thing at a time is so important for getting things done.

Similar to the book, The Millionaire Fastlane, building and owning a businesses can result in the rapid creation of wealth over time.

There is a lot of risk in starting and owning your own business. However, done right, you can grow your riches through both the cash flow of the business, and the asset value of the business.

The second takeaway is the importance of focus in life. There is only so much bandwidth you have to do work, so the best strategy for success is to determine what matters for you in this moment and do it to the fullest.

Multitasking and trying to do too much at once will not lead to success as a business owner.

How to Get Rich is a fantastic book about business, life and getting rich, and I definitely am thankful I read it.

“The world is full of money. Some of it has my name on it. All I have to do is collect it.” – Felix Dennis

Our Recommendation for How to Get Rich

How to Get Rich is extremely insightful in giving tips on how to get ridiculously wealthy.

With a combination of story telling, tips and raw details, How to Get Rich is an entertaining and informative book for people interested in business.

Whether you are interested in entrepreneurship, have started a business, or already have a built business which is successful, you will get something out of How to Get Rich.

Readers: do you enjoy books on entrepreneurship? Are you interested in running your own company?

Make no mistake, statistics is hard.

Many people use statistics informally in their lives daily. Sometimes, these people use statistics without understanding it fully.

Maybe you are someone who works in with data and statistics, and don’t have the concepts and assumptions nailed down.

Would your job be easier if you knew these concepts? Would it be valuable if you had simple explanations and stories for why different statistical concepts make sense?

What if you could learn to think statistically, and apply the concepts of statistics appropriately?

Thinking Statistically, by Uri Bram, teaches you to think like a statistician and understand at a high level some of the big concepts of statistics.

Thinking Statistically looks to help you understand three powerful concepts of statistics using every day language and examples.

Far from a textbook, Thinking Statistically is an easy and enjoyable read which will lead towards success when using statistics in your daily life.

The rest of this post includes a summary of Thinking Statistically, takeaways from Thinking Statistically, and a reading recommendation for you.

“The sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians… and I’m not kidding.” – Hal Varian, Chief Economist of Google

Book Summary of Thinking Statistically

Thinking Statistically teaches you to think like a statistician without worrying about the formal statistical techniques.

Thinking Statistically discusses three main concepts. The best part of the book is it does so without using equations or scary math. Instead of equations (which the author purposely stays away from), every day language and stories are used to discuss these concepts.

Staying away from the details helps make this book more digestible for the average reader.

Concepts and abstractions can be useful. You don’t always need to know the details backing them up.

There are three concepts which Thinking Statistically touches on:

• Selection Bias
• Endogenity
• Bayes’ Theorem

Let’s go into more detail on each of these statistical concepts.

Thinking Statistically about Selection Bias

Selection bias is everywhere, and creeps up on us whenever we take a non-random sample and act if it were random.

Some data is so sneaky that it biases itself. Whether or not a particular piece of data arrives in your final sample is dependent on the value that datum would’ve taken.

One of the examples in Thinking Statistically was how selection bias caused pollsters to miss-call President Truman’s re-election.

In 1948, the polls were taken over the phone. Guess who had phones in the 40’s? The rich Republican leaning people – not the Democrats. As a result, all the polls thought the Republican candidate was the most popular candidate.

This was far from the truth – President Truman won re-election with ease.

Thinking Statistically about Endogenity

Endogenity problems occur whenever the supposedly-random error term turns out to be correlated with a variable in your model, or with one that should’ve been in your model, but wasn’t.

For example, most models will take the form Y = X + intercept + random error term.

Essentially, if you are looking to model a certain event or probability, you want to include all relevant variables in your model. If you don’t include all relevant variables, you could have some issues with prediction.

One of the examples in Thinking Statistically on endogenity is how college GPA is completely useless as a measure of a student’s ability.

Many of us think college GPA can be expressed as a function of effort and ability. Though, one factor we are leaving out is the difficulty of the coursework for a given student.

If you leave out the difficulty of courses taken, you expose yourself to endogenity problems.

Thinking Statistically about Bayes’ Theorem

Bayes’ Theorem describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event.

For example, if cancer is related to age, then, using Bayes’ theorem, a person’s age can be used to more accurately assess the probability that they have cancer, compared to the assessment of the probability of cancer made without knowledge of the person’s age.

Thinking Statistically didn’t do the best job of explaining Bayes’ Theorem, but the thoughts presented in the book were good enough for everyday uses.

Takeaways from Thinking Statistically

With every book you read, it is a must to have takeaways and actionable items to implement in life.

The main takeaway from Thinking Statistically is be careful when:

• presenting data
• making assumptions on a population of data
• thinking about what could explain a certain event.

There is so much data around us. With so much data, there will also be a lot of noise. Removing that noise, and understanding the trend will be step one of getting to the details, and step two will be applying these statistical concepts to understand more fully the problem.

Turn on the news and you will here various statistics on different studies occurring down at your local university.

Just make sure to be careful when looking at a study or some research. You can lie with statistics very easily…

By understanding the data, understanding the assumptions and models, and thinking statistically, you will be able to more accurately understand complex situations.

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli

Our Recommendation for Thinking Statistically

Thinking Statistically is less than 100 pages long, and is a quick read. Thinking Statistically is also quite enjoyable, as the author has a number of silly comments scattered throughout the book. In addition, there are some pictures, and various  stories to back up real life events where people made false judgments when working with data.

Thinking Statistically is fine book for increasing your understanding about statistics, and the concepts and theories of selection bias, endogenity and Bayes’ Theorem.

If you are looking to learn more about statistics, definitely check out Thinking Statistically.

Readers: do you use statistics on a daily basis? Do you follow the concepts above in your thought processes?

“Do you have everything?” Mom would ask as we took our backpack full of clothes, toothbrush, books, game-boys, music, tools, homework, and anything else you could imagine for a four hour car ride to our farm in Wisconsin.  As all of six of us plus the dog got into our Plymouth Chrysler mini-van. There were two choices: the fast “94” route or the scenic route… Of course mom wanted to go the scenic route;  the scenic route had amazing views, beautiful farmland, and guess what… cows…

Seth’s opening analogy is comparable with the beauty of the scenic route lost on us kids. Imagine driving through perfect farmlands, seeing the most beautiful black and white Holstein cows.  Soon after seeing these cows in groves, you became desensitized to these amazing creatures.   Then you see something totally different, your eyes focus on it, it is completely remarkable.  A PURPLE COW.  It is unique, remarkable, one of a kind…. until you see more of them, and more of them, and more of them.  At what point does the purple cow become lost in the sea of the familiar?

Summary of Purple Cow

Purple Cow by Seth Godin is about marketing.  The purple cow is a simple, yet impossible to define concept.  It is about standing out in a world where consumers have seen everything, but in a way that provides value to the customer.   In essence, the purple  cow is about making your brand, product, service, image, etc. remarkable.

Websters defines remarkable as “worthy of being or likely to be noticed especially as being uncommon or extraordinary.”

“In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing.  In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.” – Seth Godin

So if we know what remarkable is what is it’s opposite:  Common, average, familiar, inferior, normal, ordinary, regular, similar, standard…. you get the point.  Average isn’t so bad?  If there are 85 people in a bar, and Bill Gates is one of them, the average net worth of each individual is $1 billion dollars.

“There are three lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Though according to Godin, the opposite of remarkable is none of these.  It is actually something that is very good.  WHATTTT? Have you ever been on an airline and they get you where you wanted to go and they did it safely? Did you tell anyone?  What would make this flight remarkable?  Something horrible beyond belief, right? (screaming triplets next to you, crash landing in the pacific, forgetting your phone charger…) Or something unbelievable, such as an upgrade to first class because they liked your shoes, served free champagne because it was your birthday, or gave you free tickets because they liked your jokes…

There are three camels: a papa camel, a mama camel, and a baby camel.  Papa camel has 2 humps, mama camel has 1 hump, and baby camel has no humps.  What did they name the baby camel?

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So… what are possible solutions? How do we create a Purple Cow?

It’s obvious…. create a product/service/design that STANDS out from the competition.

To help your creative juices flow, check out some examples of purple cows.

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Readers: what examples of Purple Cows have you seen?  Do you believe in Purple Cows?

P.S.  The baby camel’s name is Humphrey. 🙂

What would life be like if you could easily make money online with webinars? How nice would life be? What if you had access to money on demand?

Everyone these days is trying to get rich.

People want money, and want it now. Many people turn to blogs, a brick and mortar business, or trading their time for money by selling their services.

One under-utilized medium of getting information and products to your customers is webinars. Surprisingly, webinars are both more effective and have all the benefits of a blog or traditional business.

What would you do if you could have money on demand through webinars?

Money on Demand, by Steven and Corinna Essa, shares with us 16 ways to build wealth online through webinars. Creating a profitable webinar is possible with the right formula and strategy, and webinars can be very lucrative.

Make no mistake, creating webinars and selling a premium product can be hard work. However, building a profitable webinar business could be your ticket to the creation of the online business of your dreams.

The rest of this post includes a summary of Money on Demand, takeaways from Money on Demand, and a reading recommendation for you.

Book Summary of Money on Demand

Money on Demand shares 16 ways to build wealth through webinars.

The 16 ways include, but are not limited to:

• Using your knowledge and expertise to provide high value content for your viewers
• Partnering with other experts and facilitating the webinar for their viewers
• Selling and promoting other people’s products – making money through affiliate marketing or licensing
• Interviewing experts and using their fame to get exposure for you and your brand
• Producing webinars for businesses and securing contracts to produce recurring income for your services
• Securing advertising on your webinars

Money on Demand goes into detail for each of these profitable webinar strategies, and provides a webinar blueprint.

Webinars are incredibly powerful for marketers and entrepreneurs. When looking to make a sale, you need to earn the trust of your customers.

Why Webinars Are Such a Powerful Marketing Tool for Online Businesses

People attend a 60-minute webinar because they have a hunger to learn about the topic covered.

A webinar allows you to present to hundreds, or even thousands – of people at a time from anywhere in the world. In addition, the typical conversion rate of a webinar is 10% (compared to blogs and sales pages which typically convert at 1%).

This means, if those 100 people show up, statistically speaking, 10 people will convert (purchase) on your product.

People like webinars because they are interactive, are personal, and packed with information.

With a webinar, you are engaging in a one on one chat with your viewers – you are the expert, teacher, and leader of the presentation.

This is one advantage over blogs or text-only web pages: by allowing your viewers to see your face, your brand and product is more personal. People want to buy from people!

“Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying ‘Make me feel important’. Never forget that message when working with people.” – Mary Kay Ash

Finally, with all web business, webinars are cheap to produce, satisfy the law of effection, and are able to scale. Securing a domain can be as cheap as $4 a month, and once set up, thousands of people can view your video and enter your sales funnel.

For a few hours of your time, you can produce a series of videos and content and let it sit on your website. In exchange for an email address, you will deliver high quality content and generate leads for your business and product.

How to Produce a Successful and Profitable Webinar

Producing and creating a successful and profitable webinar is possible with the following strategy.

Most webinars are structured in the following way: provide value for two-thirds of the presentation, and shift to selling for the last one-third.

If you have a 60 minute webinar, this would be broken down into 40 minutes of high value education, and 20 minutes of selling. At the end, you could finish with a question and answer session. This last section is important as you can nurture the hot prospects by defeating objections to why they should buy.

For webinar software, screen capture can be done through a service like Screencast-o-Matic or Open Broadcast Software (OBS).

For hosting your webinar, you could stream on Facebook, YouTube, or on a meeting software such as Webinar Jam, Zoom or GoToMeeting.

Now that we have talked at a high level about producing profitable webinars, let’s get into the details of what should be included in your webinar.

Steps to Create a Webinar to Sell Your Products and Services

Creating a webinar can seem a little intimidating.

However, your webinar can be great through the proper preparation and strategy. Money on Demand provides us with a very solid webinar creation strategy.

Below is a high level summary for producing a successful webinar:

• Coming up with a great introduction
• Structuring the content in 3, 5, or 7 steps
• Illustrating the steps with stories and case studies
• Introducing your product or service

Let’s get into a more detailed discussion on each of these webinar sections.

Creating a Great Introduction for a Successful Webinar

When starting your webinar, you want to capture the attention of your viewers. You want your viewers to get EXCITED about your product, service or information.

The first ten or fifteen minutes of a webinar are very important.

Make sure the introduction covers the following topics:

• Identify the webinar’s intended audience
• Describe who you are and why you’re sharing this information
  • Answer the question “Why should I listen to you?” Include as much evidence as you can that you have experience in the field. Show how you’ve achieved significant results yourself as a result of implementing the strategy that is about to be revealed in the webinar.
  • This will establish that much-needed trust. Trust is a vital component for closing sales. As I always say, “nothing sells more than proof.”
• Explain why the audience will benefit from this webinar.
  • To ensure the audience stays engaged throughout the whole presentation, make sure you whet their appetite with what’s about to come.

By creating a great introduction for your webinar, you will start creating the necessary trust and authority for your presentation.

Structure the content in 3, 5, or 7 steps

The next step after the introduction in your webinar is to structure your content in 3, 5, or 7 steps.

If you are presenting on weight loss, this could be the “7 steps to lose that stubborn body fat”.

It’s important that the content flows well, so the viewer feels you’re taking them from point A (not knowing anything or knowing very little about the topic) to point B (having a clear understanding of how they can achieve the results promised in the title)

These steps should provide the viewer great value and information, and further build trust towards your brand and expertise.

Illustrate the steps with stories and case studies

When going through the various steps of content in your webinar, you will want to illustrate the steps with stories and case studies.

Try to include in each step a story or case study to illustrate each point made.

For example, talk about how your client, Lucy, identified that her bad habits were the cause of her lack of results. Once she started applying your strategies, she found success.

The more you include stories and case studies, the easier it will be for your audience to digest the information and remain engaged. Too often, presenters treat webinars as tutorials or lectures, which is the fastest way to lose your audience’s interest.

Introduce your product or service at the end of your webinar

After the information, you can transition to introducing your product or service.

To transition smoothly from the content to the selling, it’s important to announce you’re about to offer an opportunity for people to go further, faster.

Say: “I’ve delivered priceless information to you, right? But if you haven’t followed this system before it could be a little overwhelming, right? Is it okay if I share with you how you can achieve your weight loss goals the fast and easy way?”

By following this structure, you will connect with your intended audience, establish yourself as the expert, and promote your product effectively.

After the webinar, you will want to follow up with email marketing and additional sales procedures to keep your viewers and leads warm.

Monetizing for Your Profitable Webinar Business

If you are an expert in a subject, sharing your knowledge and expertise can be the product.

Once you produce one webinar, you can continue to produce other informative webinars and establish yourself as an expert in the field. This is similar to other content based online businesses, where your content is the product.

One-on-One coaching is an easy way to monetize free content and webinars. You are the expert and can help people with your expertise. Coaching can be structured in 30 minute one-on-one sessions, premium group classes, or email coaching.

Online courses, eBooks, or physical products can be used to monetize your webinar as well.

At the end of the presentation, the goal of your webinar is to establish trust and authority, and show your viewers the potential of your product, service and methods.

Takeaways from Money on Demand

With every book you read, it is a must to have takeaways and actionable items to implement in life.

For Money on Demand, there are two main takeaways:

1. Video and webinar sales pitches convert on average 10% vs. 1% for blogs and traditional pages.
2. Webinars aren’t that difficult to produce and are personal, interactive, and just as informative as an e-book, blog, or online course.

With these two takeaways, the next step is brainstorming which subjects you have expertise in to produce a high converting webinars.

Once you have a target audience and a topic, you can draft an introduction and outline of the content, and start promoting your event.

What’s great about the Money on Demand webinar method, you don’t need to have a product to sell. You could come up with the product afterwards, offer coaching, or produce more webinars!

Money on Demand shows us it is possible tap into the world of making webinars to make sales, and is very inspiring with some of the stories included.

“Having the world’s best idea will do you no good unless you act on it. People who want milk shouldn’t sit on a stool in the middle of the field in hopes that a cow will back up to them.” – Curtis Grant

Our Recommendation for Money on Demand

Money on Demand is packed with actionable steps on how to make money online while utilizing the power of the internet and webinars. Webinars aren’t new – but with an abundance of blogs and written content on the internet, webinars will continue to become a bigger part of sales and marketing in the future.

Most get rich online books are full of fluff and contain few actionable steps.

Money on Demand is far from a book full of fluff.

Getting in front of a camera isn’t for everyone, but there are numerous other ways you can utilize webinars to build wealth. Promoting, marketing, and setting up webinars are alternative routes. Of course, if you are an expert, you can produce and promote your own product or coaching.

Webinars convert higher than traditional web pages and will give your sales pitch a personal touch. Learn about the power of webinars with Money on Demand.

Would you be interested in doing webinars to build wealth online? What topic are you an expert in? Would you be willing to get on camera and share your knowledge and help others?

Have you ever been down to your last fifty dollars? You didn’t know where to go? Were you energized by the fact you had no where to go but up? What you experienced was the power of broke…

The Power of Broke is a book about how being broke, on a tight budget, and hungry for success can be motivating, exhilarating, and a catalyst for great success. The Power of Broke is a story book profiling a number of successful entrepreneurs who didn’t have large amounts of funding starting off.

I was drawn to reading The Power of Broke because I’ve seen Daymond John on the popular TV Show Shark Tank and wanted to learn more about his story. In addition, I’m constantly looking to surround myself with the ideas of successful business owners and entrepreneurs. There is no better way than to read about them in books!

When your back is up against the wall, your bank account is empty, and creativity and passion are the only resources you can afford, success is your only option.

Summary of The Power of Broke

Daymond John has been practicing the power of broke ever since he was a teenager in Queens. With a $40 budget, Daymond started selling t-shirts to his friends out of the back of his van. Desperation breeds innovation – Daymond put his creative ways to work, growing his company over the years into the billion dollar brand FUBU. Each and every day, Daymond John wakes up and says to himself, “Rise and Grind!”

The SHARK Points of Business

Daymond John wrote The Power of Broke to tell the world it doesn’t require million dollar funding to build a brand and be successful in business. Essentially, to be successful as an entrepreneur, you must apply the SHARK Points of business:

• Set a Goal
  • Where are you headed? What’s on tap for the next year? Think about what’s possible. Think about what’s in reach. Write it down.
• Homework, Do Yours
  • You have to know your stuff in the market you are. You have to identify what the customers want and need to be successful.
• Adore What You Do
  • It comes down to passion. You have to love what you are doing. If you don’t, then it’s empty.
• Remember, You are The Brand
  • It all starts with how you carry yourself, what you put out into the world, the way you interact with your audience, your customers, the marketplace. It’s on you. Just you.
• Keep Swimming
  • Don’t give up, don’t give in.

When you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain.

The Power of Broke Confirmed

The Power of Broke discusses the stories of a number of entrepreneurs who came up from nothing and applied the SHARK Points. The people profiled are from many different industries – music, social media, fashion, food, internet marketing, extreme sports, and consulting:

• Steve Aoki – Musician, DJ, Record Producer, Music Executive
  •  Maxed out 10 different credit cards totaling $90,000 to fund a record.
• Rob Dyrdek – Skateboarder, Producer, Reality Show Star
  • When he was 11, he didn’t have the money to enter a skateboarding contest, so cut a deal: if he recruited 10 others to enter, he would get in for free. He did it and continued to turn heads with his brand.
• Gigi Butler – Entrepreneur, Cupcake Boss
  • Started a cupcake business with just $33 to her name and grew it to a company with $35 Million in annual sales.
• Jay Abraham – Executive, Consultant, Public Speaker, Direct-Marketing Guru
  • In the 1970’s, Jay Abraham started by delivering 8-track tapes to various stores in a $500 beat-up van. Soon after, he bought a small company out of bankruptcy, applied some silly sales techniques (deals which resulted in negative 45 cents for the initial sale) and built it into a $60 million dollar company.
• Tim Ferriss – Author, Motivational Speaker, Entrepreneur, Angel Investor
  • Many of you know Tim Ferriss from his books (The 4-Hour Workweek), but many of you don’t know he was working for a non-profit and driving his mom’s hand-me-down minivan before finally landing his book deal!
• Ryan Deiss – Entrepreneur, Digital Marketer, Consultant
  • Created many online businesses in college and nearly got wiped out when he lost track of his products. He overdraft $250,000 and had to figure out how to pay his debt. He paid off his debt, but then owed another $250,000 in taxes to the Government! In 3 days, he utilized the power of broke and got it done!
• Mark Burnett – Television Producer, Bestselling Author
  • Mark Burnett came to the United States from the U.K. and working at an insurance company and selling t-shirts in his spare time in L.A. As his t-shirt business grew, so did his dream to adventure. He set up races and contests for extreme people and this set the stage for the show, Survivor. Now, after almost 20 years, he is the producer of many top action and contest TV shows.

I loved reading about all of these people’s stories. It was truly eye opening and inspiring.

“The meaning of life is the process. The meaning of life is in the conversations we’re having right now, and you can have the same conversation with a waiter or a janitor or an executive at a top company. It’s all in the process, and in my case it’s in my commitment to add value anytime I interact with anybody. If you can get that in alignment, find a way to help someone else while you help yourself, then everything else flows.” – Jay Abraham

My Takeaways and Action Steps

With all books, I look to have a couple takeaways and action steps to apply in my life.

In Jay Abraham’s passage above, he talks about finding a way to help someone while you can help yourself. I completely understand his point and want to be able to provide value to many people. I’ve already started this by creating this blog and sharing my personal experiences. I’m also very happy that over 20 people have downloaded our free debt destruction tool in the past week!

Property #2

Reading The Power of Broke pushed me this the weekend to think outside the box and look to expand my horizons. I’ve been watching the real estate market for some time now and have a goal in 2017 to buy another property. I did it over the weekend! Property #2!!

I had my offer accepted on a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom place. The house needs some cosmetic upgrades to the bedrooms and living room. This will be a large undertaking over the next 3 months. I’m going to look to rent out  my current house which will bring the following tasks: finding renters, applying for rental license, and cleaning and fixing up the house and yard to get it ready. Then once I close on the other house, I’m going to paint, clean, and redo the floors of the new house! I’m excited and ready for the high stress period coming up.

UPDATE: I ended up not going through with the house due to foundation issues.

Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Our Recommendation for The Power of Broke

If you are looking to start a business and are looking for ideas, pick up a copy of The Power of Broke. You don’t need capital to start a business – Daymond John proves that by featuring numerous successful people who started with less than $1,000 in the bank. Get after it! Apply the SHARK principles: set a goal, homework (do yours), adore what you do, remember you are a brand, and keep swimming, and you will be on your way to success.

I’m very glad I read The Power of Broke. Even if you aren’t interested in business or entrepreneurship, reading about the stories of various people we read about is always interesting. For example, I didn’t know much about Tim Ferriss before reading The Power of Broke. I am glad I now know a little more of his story to success. All the stories energized me to get to work! RISE AND GRIND!!

Innovation happens from the bottom up, not the top down.

If you have been broke, did your motivation and results soar? Is frugality a psychological trick which forces us to save? Would you purposely stress yourself out to become success?

Real estate is a great investment class, and with property pricing booming, it might make sense to see if real estate investing is for you.

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, is consumable, practical and gets you motivated to go out and try to find deals in the real estate market!

Why do I like real estate as an asset class? Real estate is:

• Accessible – Anyone can buy it
• Appreciable – Can increase in value over time
• Leverageable – You can buy on margin and borrow against equity
• Rentable – Cash flow baby!
• Improvable – Through sweat equity or contracting out
• Deductible/Depreciable/Deferrable – Amazing tax benefits

I’m an investor. I’m building financial wealth. Is today the day I find an opportunity and make a deal?

Summary of The Millionaire Real Estate Investor

Like most personal finance books, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor starts out by touching on the “personal” side of personal finance. Keller goes into a number of common myths which most “non-investors” believe as facts. One example of this is investing is complicated and I’m not smart enough to do it. As many of you reading this probably know, investing can be simple if you learn a set of rules and have a system to identify good deals. Investing is a learn-able skill.

Next, Keller gets into his tips on how to become a Millionaire Real Estate Investor. He has a four step framework for real estate investors to master:

• First, a real estate investor must “Think a Million”
  • If you want to be a Millionaire Real Estate Investor, you must think and dream big.
  • In this section, Keller talks about getting into the investing mindset by emphasizing growing your net worth, defining your why you want to invest and become financially wealthy, and think about taking action.
• Next, a real estate investor must “Buy a Million”
  • This isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. To be a successful investor, you need to be smart about your purchases. By purchasing at below market prices and having all your criteria met, you can start making money from day 1.
    • “You make money when you buy, not when you sell”
  • This sounds easy, but it will take a consistent effort to understand the values of the properties in your target location, understand the cost of any repairs or problems with the prospects, and make purchases which will make your renters happy.

“You make money when you buy, not when you sell”

• Next, a real estate investor must “Own a Million”
  • Once you have “bought a million”, it’s time to pay off the debt and build equity in the properties using the cash flow generated.
  • Keller goes through tips on building your network of contractors, property managers, accountants, lawyers, etc. in this section.
    • Ask the two questions with everyone you meet:
      • “Who do you know that I should know?”
      • “What would you do if you were me?”
• Finally, a real estate investor must “Receive a Million”
  • At the end of the day, you will be at the top of the mountain and be able to “receive a million” in passive income. That is the goal, to be able to sit back and let the rents come in while your property management company does the work for you!

Meaningful Quotes from The Millionaire Real Estate Investor

Here are some meaningful quotes and insights from The Millionaire Real Estate Investor:

• Life is too big to think small. If you want to lead a big life, your thinking has to lead the way.
• “Deals aren’t found. Opportunities are found. Deals are made.” – Dyches Boddiford
• Be an investor, not a collector, a speculator, or an observer.
  • Investing requires action. Successful investing requires the right action. Investors take action, minimize risk, and buy based on investment value.
• Your criteria should be based on the following factors: price range, discount, cash flow, and appreciation potential.
• Be a shopper, not a buyer.
  • Be skeptical.
• Learning has four stages: understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and power.
  • Understanding means you are aware of something; you get it mentally.
  • Knowledge means you have studied it and see how you could do it.
  • Wisdom means you have experienced it and know it works.
  • Power means it has become a part of you and you do it habitually. You are now unconsciously competent.
• Negotiate everything! (Price, financing costs, closing costs, possession date, etc.)
• Make associating with talent your number one priority.
  • This is similar to what Felix Dennis talked about in his book, How to Get Rich (book review).
• Get creative with your financing: lease-option, seller financing, wrap, etc.

Action Steps and Takeaways

As with all books I read, I want to be able to takeaway a few points and apply them in my life. Takeaway one is to start building my network of real estate professionals. I’m going to reach out to the agent I used when I purchased my house to chat about his thoughts.

Next, I want to define my criteria for a property: a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom property with a decent lot perhaps? Finally, I want to get in tune with the market in the location I determine most fruitful. The neighborhood near my house would be fantastic to get another place, but the inventory is very tight right now (only 3 houses under $400k in a 3 mile radius circle).

Opportunities are out there, I just need to find them!

Focus, driven by motivation, supported by knowledge and skill causes one to take action without a thought about not succeeding. Never underestimate the power of purpose and focus.

Our Recommendation for The Millionaire Real Estate Investor

I could write 10,000 words on my notes, thoughts, and findings from this book. Keller has given me a framework to work through when looking to invest in my next property.

My next steps after reading The Millionaire Real Estate Investor is to define my criteria, start scouting the market to determine the value of properties in my cross hairs, and finally start networking with other real estate professionals and agents. I recommend The Millionaire Real Estate Investor to anyone looking to build financial wealth using real estate. You won’t regret it.

Readers: Do you currently invest in real estate? Do you want to in the future? What would you recommend I do? Are there any other real estate books which would be beneficial for me to read?

 Are You Happy?

Take a minute. Assess where you are in life. Do you feel happy, or even remotely ok with your life? Is your job not the right fit? Could your relationships be better?

What if the issue isn’t your relationships or your job, but how you’re spending your money?

Two professors, Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, set out to find what truly brings joy and happiness with money. Their book, Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending is the result of their journey.

Happy Money covers five principles the researchers found to spend money in a more fulfilling way. The best part is you can start today. You don’t need to be Warren Buffet to use these principles, or even in a higher income bracket. They are scientifically validated  actionable principles that everyone can use.

Summary of Happy Money

This is a review of the five principles outlined in Happy Money and some actionable advice you can begin using right away for a happier and more fulfilling life. At the end, I will give an overall rating based on the quality of the advice and how actionable the advice it is.

Principle #1: Buying Experiences

When it comes to happiness, what do you think generates more happiness per dollar spent: material possessions or experiences? The professors argue buying experiences is one way people begin enjoying their lives more.

Instead of looking at bigger houses or nicer cars, the professors argue buying experiences is the way to go. From what their data showed, experiences such as travel, going out with friends, and going to events generated the highest forms of happiness. This still proved true even if the individuals in the study thoroughly enjoyed their purchases. Think of a person who loves cars buying a Porsche or Ferrari. Of course they will get a huge boost in happiness because it’s a possession they enjoy owning. Even when controlling for those individuals, the professors found experiences still showed to be the best happiness per dollar spent.

What You Can Do:

Fortunately, this is a fairly simple and straightforward concept. When deciding on how much you want to spend on your next big material purchase, take a minute and pause. Ask yourself, is there anything or anyone I would rather do or see? Have I wanted to travel with someone or go somewhere new? The professors argue those purchases would yield a far more enriching life, than buying the latest BMW or having the biggest house on the lot.

Principle #2: Make it a Treat

    “An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.” – Criss Jami

The quote above pretty much sums up the next principle. If human beings overindulge ourselves, the things we love end up hurting us. The professors argue the same point for your spending patterns as well. If you consume too many things you like too frequently, then the treats that once gave you joy end up making you feel worse off.

The professors argue the key to this principle is balance. By restricting yourself the access to some of the things you love even just a little bit can help you savor the experience more.

What You Can Do:

    Personally, I found this point pretty intuitive and incredibly easy to implement in one’s life. For example, I love sushi. I mean, I love sushi. That being said, I know what can happen if you eat too much or too often. That’s right, stomach aches for days. The stomach pains are almost worth it, but I have noticed times where I would eat sushi just because it’s available and not savor the experience. Applying this principle helped me realize my treat was becoming an expectation and not the savory experience that gave me joy.

What I did to balance it out is now I only consume sushi once a month. If I do any more than that, it loses its appeal. A question I have for you is, what did you overindulge on? What’s no longer a treat you’re glad to spend money on?

Principle #3: Buying Time

This principle is a fun one. It really makes you question why you want money in the first place. The professors found the Gross National Happiness Index. This index measures the overall happiness for specific countries. After a few hours of digging in the article and the data, the professors saw some peculiar findings.

In the United States, people’s happiness typically doubled when they increased their overall income by $10,000. For example, people making $40,000 per year were measured at twice as happy than people making $30,000 per year. However, according to the professors, there is a stopping point. After around $70,000 the relationship between in income and perceived happiness begins to diminish. This means every increase after $70,000 gross income, the person doesn’t receive as big of a boost of happiness.

Let that sink in for a minute. Every $10,000 dollar increase typically doubled a person’s happiness until $70,000. Then, people only got small bursts of overall happiness for every increase in their income. When I read this I was a little flabbergasted. If the six figure salaries of people were only getting them so much happiness, what were they missing?

The professors say time. In their research, they noted many of the people with higher incomes were actually becoming unhappier because they worked more than ever, but felt they had no time. However, the professors had a counter-intuitive suggestion to get more time back in the day.

What Can You Do:

    The professors argue that giving time is a great way to remind yourself how many hours you have in a day. When the participants of the study were asked to devote a half hour to another person for the sake of simply giving them the time of day something interesting occurred. The participants started feeling like they truly had more time in the day, than what they felt previously. By donating time to other individuals the professors saw people filling in some gaps where money was thought to make them happy.

The simple act of donating a half hour gave the perception of having more time. I definitely, thought this concept made a lot of sense. Plenty of people have felt like they have more money when they donate, why would time be different?

Principle #4: Buy Now Consume Later

This principle is a little counterintuitive. The professors stated their participants reported a higher level of happiness when they purchased an item and then waited to consume it. The underlying assumption they tested was to see if the “hype” built with waiting would make the experience of using the item more fulfilling. When the participants were left to their own devices, they would day-dream about what they ordered. Even the thought was enough to get them through the day, and the item hadn’t even been delivered yet.  When they looked at the data it was the opposite of what happens with credit cards.

People typically use credit cards to buy now and pay later. Credit card companies have played on the immediate gratification impulse within human beings for decades. In the book, the VP of Visa admits to manipulating that impulse within human behavior. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself, which is covered in other posts.

What Can You Do:

For future purposes, you can try ordering something way ahead of time to give you the ample chance to build the “hype” around it. In one case, I ordered a video game called Persona 5  ahead of time to test the principle. If I am being honest, this principle didn’t really stick for me.

I felt next to no increase in happiness while waiting for the game. In fact, I almost forgot I ordered it. Now, this may not be the case for other people, and I would hate to take a good experiment for other people to test on their own time. The overall principle makes sense with an effort to delay gratification, but I personally did not get much out of it.

Principle #5: Invest in Others

This principle is golden. By far one of the best chapters of the book and one of the best principles to act upon. Much like buying time, the professors found the more people gave and invested in other people in their lives, the happier and more fulfilled they were. Now, this seems pretty cliche, but this principle does have its place. The experiment they ran to test this assumption was pretty cool.

They had a graduate student standing on a street corner outside of a Starbucks. The graduate student would hand people a note with a couple bucks in it. The letter said they had to either spend the couple bucks on themselves or on another person. Typically the vast majority of the participants spent the money at Starbucks. The graduate student followed up with them afterwards and recorded their overall happiness. The results?

The study showed even spending as little as a couple bucks can give a boost in overall happiness. When the professors looked at the data, the people who ended up spending the money on someone else were significantly happier than the ones who spent in on themselves. This shows you don’t need to be Warren Buffet or a money mogul to boost your overall satisfaction in life.

What Can You Do:

The action the professors suggest is keep it simple. Even paying for someone else’s coffee counts as investing in others. Even the smallest act can give you a much needed boost in overall happiness and satisfaction in life. In order to apply this principle, I bought a friend of mine lunch. Before meeting up I wasn’t in the greatest of moods. The work day wasn’t going as well as I thought it would be, some family issues arose, but as soon as I offered to pay for lunch I noticed something.

Not only did my friend express her gratitude, but simply changing my frame of reference from myself to the other person was enough to change my general outlook on the day. It was a great lesson in simplicity because sometimes all you need to do is get outside yourself and do something kind for another person.

Overall Grade:

I would say overall Happy Money is a 4 out of 5. All the principles are very actionable and for the most part I had no problem with applying them. The only one that didn’t stick as well was pay now, consume later. The point makes sense, but applying it didn’t help me feel any happier, nor did it give me a benefit by waiting to play the video game.

That being said, Happy Money overall is very actionable and simple to use. The authors really put a lot of time, effort, and planning into how they apply the principles. Happy Money itself is also a decent read for non fiction fans. Since reading Happy Money, I’ve been applying the principles to create and sustain a healthier view of spending.

My questions for you are, what principle do you want to practice? How will you practice the principle?