June 2009
"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain."
--Vivian Greene
"Sometimes our candle goes out, but is blown into flame by an encounter with another human being."
--Albert Schweitzer
"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."
--Winston Churchill
"Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first."
--Frederick B. Wilcox
We celebrate father's day this month. We felt impressed to share a story from the book, To A Child Love is Spelled T-I-M-E by Mac Anderson. It melted our hearts and feel certain it will melt yours. If you are a father, pay close attention to the message. You will be glad you took the time to read it.
In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half-windows. Brushing aside a wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward the light and began to carefully lift out one old photograph album after another. Eyes once bright but now dim searched longingly for the source that had drawn him here.
It began with the fond recollection of the love of his life, long gone, and somewhere in these albums was a photo of her he hoped to rediscover. Silent as a mouse, he patiently opened the long buried treasures and soon was lost in a sea of memories. Although his world had not stopped spinning when his wife left it, the past was more alive in his heart than his present aloneness.
Setting aside one of the dusty albums, he pulled from the box what appeared to be a journal from his grown sons childhood. He could not recall ever having seen it before, or that his son had ever kept a journal. "Why did Elizebeth always save the children's old junk?" he wondered, shaking his white head.
Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over a short reading, and his lips curved in an unconscious smile. Even his eyes brightened as he read the words that spoke clear and sweet to his soul. It was the voice of the little boy who had grown up far too fast in this very house, and whose voice had grown fainter and fainter over the years. In the utter silence of the attic, the words of a guileless six-year-old worked their magic and carried the old man back to a time almost totally forgotten.
Entry after entry stirred a sentimental hunger in his heart like the longing a gardener feels in the winter for the fragrance of spring flowers. But it was accompanied by the painful memory that his son's simple recollections of those days were far different from his own. But how different?
Reminded that he had kept a daily journal of his business activities over the years, he closed his son's journal and turned to leave, having forgotten the cherished photo that originally triggered his search. Hunched over to keep from bumping his head on the rafters, the old man stepped to the wooden stairway and made his descent, then headed down a carpeted stairway that led to the den.
Opening a glass cabinet door, he reached in and pulled out an old business journal. Turning, he sat down at his desk and placed the two journals beside each other. His was leather-bound and engraved neatly with his name in gold, while his son's was tattered and the name Jimmy had been nearly scuffed from its surface. He ran a long skinny finger over the letters, as though he could restore what had been worn away with time and use.
As he opened his journal, the old man's eyes fell upon an inscription that stood out because it was so brief in comparison to other days. In his own neat handwriting were these words:
Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn't catch a thing.
With a deep sigh and a shaking hand, he took Jimmy's journal and found the boy's entry for the same day, June 4. Large scrawling letters, pressed deeply into the paper, read:
Went fishing with my Dad. Best day of my life.
Never discount the time you spend with your children. It is priceless and you will never get it back.
Last month we went over the definition of "Financial IQ". Many of our readers requested to know what the five IQ's were. If you want to be a good investor or be a big business owner, it is imperative to learn these five financial IQ's. The financial intelligences are essential, and you won't learn them in school. They are as follows:
- Financial IQ #1: Making more money.
- Financial IQ #2: Protecting your money.
- Financial IQ #3: Budgeting your money.
- Financial IQ #4: Leveraging your money.
- Financial IQ #5: Improving your financial information.
Financial intelligence is the intelligence we use to solve our specific financial problems, and financial IQ measures, or quantifies, our results.
Let's take a look at Financial IQ #1 today. One of the reasons people lack financial IQ #1: making more money is because they want the money but not the process. What many people do not realize is that it's the process that makes them rich, not the money. One of the reasons many lottery winners or kids who inherit family wealth are soon broke is because they received the money, but didn't have to go through the process. As Jim Rohn so eloquently puts it, "If you receive a million dollars, you owe it to yourself to become a millionaire." Thinking like a millionaire is much different from receiving a million dollars. The process of learning through trial and error is where the education of "the process" comes from.
Not giving up is part of the process. Robert Kiyosaki states, "One of the toughest parts of my process was not quitting when I was depressed, not losing my temper when I was frustrated, and to continue to study when I wanted to run. He also said, "You can quit when you win, but never quit because you're losing."
Another reason many people fail in their process is they cannot live without instant gratification. The main reason Robert Kiyosaki mentions the low pay he received at the start of his life was to illustrate the importance of delayed gratification. Many will sacrifice a richer tomorrow for a few bucks today. He did not make much money in his twenties and thirties, but he makes millions today.
Emotional intelligence and control is also part of the process of obtaining wealth. In fact, when it comes to money, emotional intelligence is the most important intelligence of all. It is more important than academic or professional intelligence. For example, many people fail to chase after their dreams because of fear. If they start, they quit when they fail, and then they blame others when they should be taking responsibility for their failures.
One of the reasons people do not increase financial IQ #1 is because they stick with what they know. Instead of taking on a new challenge and learning, they play it safe. They do the same things over and over again and get the same result, day in and day out.
Helen Keller once said, "Life is a daring adventure. . . or nothing." One way to increase your financial IQ #1 is to look at life as a learning adventure. Intelligence is not about memorizing old answers and avoiding mistakes---behavior our school system defines as intelligent. True intelligence is about learning to solve problems in order to qualify to solve bigger problems. True intelligence is about the joy of learning rather than the fear of failing.
In order to grow wealthy, you must come to terms with the fact that problems will never go away. Each time you find a solution to a problem, a new one will pop up. The key is to realize that the process of solving those problems makes you rich. And once you start solving not only your own problems, but others' as well, then the sky is the limit. The more problems you solve, the richer you will become. There are trillions of ways to make more money because there are trillions of, if not infinite, problems to solve. The question is, which problems do you want to solve? Begin now to think about what problems you need to solve, engage those problems head-on, and the money will follow.
We'll talk about financial intelligence #2 next month-protecting your money.
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