So let's talk about setting goals. Mr Schaef gave me some tips on setting goals that changed my life forever and I want to share those with you. We need to take a look into the future.
There are four things to consider in terms of attitude. One is how you feed the past. Best advice I can give you on that is treat the past as a school.
Let it teach you the mistakes you've made, the things that went wrong, the things that didn't work. Don't use the past as a burden to carry. And don't use the past as a club to beat yourself to death.
Past losses, past failures, past mistakes. But let the past be a school, tough school, maybe. We've all been through some tough stuff.
So if you feel good about the past, draw from it for experience and let it teach you. Then next is how you feel about the future. We've got to have the future well-designed.
The future is called the promise. And here's what we teach in our leadership series. The promise of the future can be an awesome force for your own future.
The promise of the future, designing the future. There's two ways to face the future. One is with apprehension, and the other is with anticipation.
I promise you, in my travels around the world, most people face the future with apprehension. And here's why. They don't have it well designed.
they've sort of left that up to someone else to fix. But here's the best way to face the future with anticipation. And you can you can face the future with anticipation if the future is clear, if the future is well designed.
And I would like to have you consider some thoughts with me that help me to really change my future by giving it some thought and some consideration. And here it is. In setting goals, it's very simple.
Number one, decide what you want. You just take a little time. You sit down and say, "What do I want?
What kind of skills do I want? What kind of income do I want for the future? Uh, what would I like?
Where would I like to go? Places I'd like to visit, uh, habits I'd like to acquire, skills I'd like to have. " You just take a little time to think about what you want.
economics, friendships, people you'd like to meet, places you'd like to go. You just take some time and then I suggest when you've thought about what you want for the future, make a list. Just jot it all down.
It's a really a very simple process. And then here's number three. Keep all the old list.
I'm telling you, this served me so well. Keeping my old list of goals. I look back now 10, 20 years ago at goals I set, lists I made, and I smile now because here's what I thought was so important, you know, 20 years ago.
Now, some of those things aren't even on my list. I've got a new list. I've grown.
I've changed. I've matured. But I give you that advice.
Decide what you want. Number two, write it down. Number three, keep the old lists.
And then here's number four. When you get something that's on one of these lists, check it off. Part of the fun of having a list is checking it off.
And then if you can add some drama to checking it off, see that's what really helps. I set a goal to go to Spain many, many years ago. And when I finally made my first trip to Spain, I had that journal with me that had that list in it.
And while I had my journal on my lap waiting for the wheels to touch down in Madrid, I waited until the wheels touched the runway and I checked it off. Just adding a little drama. So, part of the fun of having a list is checking it off.
Now, here's what's important about the list and designing your future. If the future gets clear, the price gets easier. Because you got to remember, for every promise, there's a price to pay.
Everybody's got to pay the price. Everybody's got to do the deal. Everybody's got to do the disciplines.
Everybody has to pay. But here's what I've discovered. If the promise is clear and powerful, the price is easy to pay.
The price is some classes. The price is a few books. The price is a few disciplines.
The price is finding something that'll make your life better, make you grow, make you change, make you develop. So the first part of the key is to design the promise. Then what is the price to pay?
I'm telling you, the price will be easy. Anybody in my audience can pay it. No matter where you are, where you come from, color doesn't matter, religion doesn't matter, where you grew up doesn't matter, circumstances don't matter.
I'm telling you, if you'll make the promise of the future clear for yourself, the things you want, the places you want to go, the things you want to have, the person you want to become, the skills you want, the homes you want, the future you want, the friends you want, all of the values of life that you could possibly want. If you'll make that clear, make those lists and be serious about it, I promise you it's an easy price to pay. Anybody can pay it.
And the best advice I can give you is if I can do it, you can do it. Farm boy from Idaho, raised in obscurity. I changed my life, turned it upside down, turned it all around, found economics, found future, found promise, and if I can do it, you can do it.
So, start setting your goals and see if you can't get a better excitement going for the things you want to accomplish for the future. Now, here's my third subject and that's called financial independence. Oh, by the way, before I get to financial independence, let me cover one more point.
One of the major reasons for setting goals is for what they make of you in achieving them. My teacher advised me when I first got started at age 25. He said, "Jim, why don't you set a goal to become a millionaire?
" He said, "It's got a nice ring to it, you know, enough zeros to impress your accountant. " And he said, "I'm here to help you. You're only 25 years old.
You've been to one year of college. You've got a beautiful family, every reason to do it. Why don't you set a goal to become a millionaire?
" And he said, "Here's why. " And I thought, he doesn't need to teach me why. Wouldn't it be nice to have a million dollars?
He said, 'N no, then you'll miss it. He said, ' Here's why. For what it will make of you to achieve it.
I'm telling you that statement changed my life. Set the kind of goals that will make something of you to achieve them. He said, 'Now once you become a millionaire, what's important is not the money.
I thought that's kind of strange teaching. He said, honest, it isn't important. and he said, "You could just give the money away.
" Now, I did better than that. I lost it all. By the time I was 31, I was a millionaire.
By the time I was 33, I was broke. And I'll tell you a little bit about that story later. But when I lost all my money, guess what?
I found out Mr Schae was right. What was valuable was not the money. What was valuable was what I became to earn the money.
the skills I had, the knowledge I had about the marketplace, the values that I had going for me, they were more valuable than the money. And here's an important statement to remember. It's not what you get that makes you valuable.
It's what you become. So, part of the key here is to set the kind of goals that will make something of you. Don't set them too low so that you don't have to grow and you don't have to read and you don't have to try and you don't have to stretch.
Don't set them too low. And then don't sell out. Don't go for something that's going to cost you your virtue or cost you your values or sell out your principles.
There's a good middle road here to follow. Goals that will inspire. Goals that will help you grow, change, develop, and become better than you are.
Okay. Now, let's talk about financial independence. How to become rich by 40, 35 if you're extra bright, much sooner if you find an opportunity like I did.
Let me show you how I did it. Financial independence. I like the phrase financial independence.
Some people are a little bit concerned about using the word becoming rich or becoming wealthy. And I can understand that. I struggled a little bit with this.
Is it okay to go for becoming rich? Go for becoming wealthy. And maybe that's a bit too strong a word or strong a term.
So here's what I've come up with that I think is comfortable for me. and that is how to become financially independent. I think it's every person's heritage here especially in America uh to become financially independent.
Now let me give you my definition of financial independence. Financial independence is the ability to live from the income of your own personal resources. Financial independence.
Now it depends on how you want to live. If you need 2 $3,000 a month, if you need four or 5,000 a month, if you need 10,000 a month, some people may need, you know, 100,000 a month. But whatever you would need to live, and you could earn that living from the income of your own personal resources, that's what I call financial freedom, financial independence.
And let me show you how to acquire it. If you start at age 15, between ages 15 and 35 is 20 years. And in my personal opinion, based on my own studies and my own experience, 20 years, in my opinion, is enough time to become financially independent.
If you're not, you don't live in the wrong country. Probably what's happened is you have the wrong plan. And it's easy to be a nice person with the wrong plan.
And I found that when I was 25 years old, I was broke at age 25. And I was a nice guy. You would have liked me.
But I'm telling you, my plans up until then, especially my financial plan, left me broke. I totally changed it the next 6 years. And I became financially independent.
So I know what I'm talking about. It is possible in a reasonable amount of time, 15 to 35, whatever, 20 years time, enough time. You can do it in much shorter period of time like I did if you want to, but this is a reasonable enough time.
But here's number one. First of all, you got to have the right philosophy. Philosophy is our ability to gather knowledge and sort through it and decide what's valuable to develop a philosophy about life, a philosophy about our health, a philosophy about our family relationships, a philosophy about economics.
And if you develop the right philosophy, that's what helps to set this sail so that in six years it takes you where you want to go instead of winding up like I did that first six years of my economics broke, no money, empty bank account. The right philosophy. Now, let me give you a couple of philosophies to consider.
Here's the first one. It's called the philosophy of the poor. And here it is.
Poor people usually spend their money and invest what's left. That's the philosophy of the poor. Now, here's the philosophy of the rich.
Rich people invest their money and spend what's left. And here's the startling answer. It really doesn't matter what the amount is.
What's most important is not the amount. What's really important is the philosophy. So I would ask you to adopt this philosophy of spending after you have invested.
Invest first then spend. And I've got a little formula that I'm going to share with you. Now what should a child do with a dollar?
I mean there's a lot of debate going on, I'm sure, across the country on what a child should do with a dollar. Here's one opinion. It's only a child and it's only a dollar.
What difference does it make? Well, in my opinion, it makes all the difference in the world. A person's economic future starts with a child with a dollar.
Somebody says, "Oh, no. You're only young once. Let him spend it all.
" Well, when would you hope that would stop. Somebody says, "Well, wait till he's 50 and broke like me and you know, and then he'll learn. " Well, no.
We don't want to wait that long. If I would have known earlier than age 25, I would have changed. In high school, if I if they would have had classes called wealth one, wealth two, I'd have taken both classes.
I would not have waited until age 25. So the earlier the better. So what should a child do with a dollar?
Here's the simple premise to begin with. Don't spend it all. And if a child wants to spend the whole dollar, you got to say, hey, don't spend it all.
You know, don't spend it all. They'll say, why not? It's my dollar.
I earned it. You say, I know you earned it, but don't spend it all. They'll still say, why not?
Say, let me show you why not. So you put them in your car, take them to the other side of town and show them where people live that spend the whole dollar. Just drive them around.
Kids learn best by visual. Just drive around and say, "Would you like to live here? " Kid says, "No.
" "Would you like to live like these people live? " Kid says, "No, no. " Then you can't spend the whole dollar.
So kids will get the message. So you know, take them to the other side of town, show them around, unless you already live there and then just show them around. Anyway, don't spend the whole dollar.
Now, let me give you my best view of what to do with a dollar. And I promise you, if you started at age 15, now if you're over 15, right? You still got plenty of time.
You still got 20 years. You know, if you're 30, you still got 20 years. I mean, you know, you still got plenty of time to start what I'm about to share with you.
What to do with a dollar. Here's my first bit of advice. Never spend more than 70 cents.
Never spend more than. 70 cents. Now, you got to pick some number.
And the number you pick is going to be determined by your philosophy. It's going to be determined by what you've been taught or your experience teaching yourself. When I first met my teacher, Mr Schae, I was at about 110% of each dollar.
You know, I'm down at budget finance hawking my furniture and my car one more time. And then I learned a whole better formula for financial independence. Number one, don't spend more than.
70 cents. Now, kids say to me, "Well, okay, what do I do with the other 30 cents? " And here's what I teach them.
10 cents for charity. Charity or church or helping people that can't help themselves. 10 cents to support worthy projects.
projects that you feel good about. 10 cents out of every dollar. It's called being generous with part of what you've taken out of society.
Now, in my opinion, nothing teaches us character better than generosity. No class, no teacher, no book teaches generos teaches character better than generosity. And the best time to start is when the amounts are small.
And I know if kids learn these lessons well, they'll give a dime out of a dollar, help people that can't help themselves, support worthy projects. Or if you belong to a church, they teach tithe, peace of that's very important now because when the amounts get larger, sometimes it's a little more difficult. You know, giving a h 100,000 out of a million, someone says, "Oh, if I had a million, I'd give 100,000.
" I'm not sure. That's a lot of money. So the time to start is when the amounts are small, 10 cents out of the dollar.
Okay, next 10 cents I call active capital. Active capital means do something to make a profit. Active capital.
Set aside a portion of your income. Wages are okay, but I'm telling you, wages will make you a living. Profits will make you a fortune.
So, set aside part of your income as capital called active capital. any kind of project you can possibly think of, you can possibly come up with. I'm going to write a new book, I think, for kids.
I think the title is going to be, "Of course, kids should pay taxes. " It's kind of an interesting title. In California, kids do pay taxes.
When a child walks into 7-Eleven, buys something that costs a dollar. The proprietor says, "Give me seven more pennies. " And the child says, "Hey, what's these seven pennies for?
" The proprietor says, "That's the taxes. " Kid says, "Well, hey, I'm only 8 years old. " proprietor says, "Congratulations.
You're my youngest taxpayer. Give me the money. " So, in California, where I live, kids do pay taxes.
Big question is, should they? And my book will answer that question. Of course, kids should pay taxes.
Nothing is for free. If you want to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk instead of in the mud, you got to pay the seven pennies. Nothing is free.
So, we all have to pay. So 10 cents out of your living, out of the money you earn, set aside for capital. Capital to try your best to show a profit.
And in my book, going to be all kinds of ways kids can make money, right? Two bicycles, one to ride and one to rent. I mean, you know, it doesn't take long to figure out some enterprise that'll start making a profit.
Then you must jot this down if you're taking notes. Profits are better than wages. One, you can't usually start wages until you're about 16, 15, 16.
But you can make a profit long before you're eligible to start earning wages. And then there's no limit to profits. And they can they can double and triple and quadruple.
You know, there's no limit. It's incredible how fast profits can grow. So profits are better than wages.
Wages make you a living. Profits make you a fortune. Now the third 10 cents is vitally important.
I call it passive capital. Capital you let somebody else use. A financial institution, stocks and bonds, mutual funds, whatever.
Let someone else use it. You furnish the money. They use it to make a profit, but they pay you for the use of it called interest.
And here's one of the things that'll make you financially independent fairly quickly, and that's called compound interest. And this is how you get it. Letting someone else use a portion of your money, your substance.
They show the profit. They pay you interest. And this passive capital, I'm telling you, over a sustained period of time, if you'll develop this little 10, 10, 10, and 70, especially starting at age 15, I'm telling you, by the time you're 35, you will be financially independent.
You'll have the ability to live from the income of your own resources. And then one more point on passive capital. There's a Bible philosophy.
I'm an amateur on the Bible, but there's a Bible philosophy that teaches the borrower is servant to the lender. And if you want to be in a powerful position as you grow older, finally when you become mature, maybe have your own business, things have worked out for you for the future, the position you always want to be in is the power position. And that's called the lender.
The lender is the power position. So if kids learn early enough and then you ask them what they'd like to be when they grow up, I'm telling you, once they understand, they'll say, "Well, one of the things I want to be is one of those lenders. " That's the power position, not the spender.
No, you'll be pied the rest of your life if you just become a spender. You got to become a lender. And I think this is one formulas to follow.
10 cents out of every dollar. Let someone else use it. Be the lender.
Power position. then try to show a profit. Can't we teach our children how to take a dollar, search the neighborhood, find a broken wagon, pay a dollar for it, bring it home, you know, clean it up, sand it until it's clean, paint it red till it shines, straighten out the wheels till they're true, take it back to the neighborhood, sell it for $5.
Anybody can do that. Now, does the child deserve $4 profit? And the answer is yes.
Society now has a mended wagon. And that's what America's all about. Finding something, touching it, making it better, making a profit, taking part of your resources, helping people who can't help themselves.
Let someone else use it to make a profit. Some projects require more capital than one person has. Exciting.
And then let them pay you for the use of it. Capital in the hands of the kids, capital in the hands of the people, enterprises that make a profit, enterprises that grow. It's the hope of our future.
So that little simple formula I hope will help you. Now one more key on financial independence and that is attitude. Attitude.
Here's number one I used to say I hate to pay my bills. My teacher straightened me out on that. He said let's see Mr Own what you hate to do is pay $100 on an account and reduce your liabilities and increase your assets.
I said well no not if you look at it that way. He said, 'Well, it all depends on how you look at it. So, wouldn't you love to pay your bills, reduce your liabilities, increase your assets?
You got to have that kind of attitude. I found out the same attitude about taxes. I used to say, "I hate to pay my taxes.
" And Mr Schae said, "Well, that's one way to live, but don't you understand taxes is how we care and feed the goose that lays the golden eggs. Wouldn't you want to do your share? " Someone says, "Yes, but the goose eats too much.
" Probably true, but hey, we all eat too much. We all need to go on a diet. Better a fat goose than no goose.
So I finally became a happy taxpayer. Now I think taxes are too high. So I'm working to get taxes lowered for our economic future.
But then whatever they turn out to be, I gladly pay do my part cuz that's what makes the whole system run. Each of us doing our part. Now I want these three subjects to be valuable for you.
I want them to have meaning for you. Uh, I want you someday to be financially independent. Uh, I want you to have the personal development so that you feel good about yourself.
And now I'd like to leave you with these four questions called questions to ponder. These questions were valuable for me and I want to make them valuable for you. Here's the first one.
Why? We all ask why we should work this hard. Why take that many classes?
Why go to school that many years? You know, why take the notes? Why read the books?
Why work that hard? Why put yourself through the push-ups and the disciplines? Why?
Good question. Why? Best answer to why, I think, is the second question.
Why not? Why not see how many books you can read, how many classes you can take, how many skills you can develop? Why not see how valuable you can become to the marketplace and to your friends and to your family?
Why not see what you can make of yourself? Why not see how far you can go, how much you can see, how much you can earn, how much you can share. Why not?
That's the heritage all of us have in America especially is to see what we can make out of our lives now that we've been given this extraordinary opportunity. Now, my third question I'd love to ask you in person, but since I can't do it in person, I want to ask it of all of you, but I want you to take it personally. And my third question is, why not you?
Why not you with good self-esteem? Why not you starting to change and setting goals? Why not you starting to make progress toward financial independence?
Uh, if I can do it, you can do it. I wish I had a lot more testimonials here today besides mine. A whole steady stream that would come by and tell you their story.
Someone who started with nothing, finally run a big enterprise. A mother who was on welfare, now she owns her own business. In addition to my story, I wish I had a lot more.
And if all of them told their story, guess how they would probably wind up their story? They'd probably say, "Just like me. " Why not you?
If we can read, you can read. If we can change, you can change. If we can figure it out, you can figure it out.
If we can turn it around, you can turn it around. There isn't anything you can't accomplish. That's what those testimonials would say.
And so, I want to say it to you personally. Why not you? You've got the brains.
You've got the the stamina. You've got the vitality. You've got the interest.
You've got your life ahead of you. You've got the future. You can do it.
If anybody can do it, you can do it. If one of us can do it, hey, we all can do it. And now here's my last question.
Why not now? This is a good time. What a good time to set your goals, work on yourself, work on your skills.
What a good time to get it together. What a good time to start this process. personal development, growing, changing, developing, having a good plan for your money and for your life and for your future.
Why not now? Then I wish you the best. I want all that I've gotten to be yours and much, much more.
God bless. Goodbye.
