Agora ETR

Choosing the Best Possible Life By Mark Ford
1. What are you going to do?
2. With whom?
3. And where?

Spend More Time with This Destructive Person By Craig Ballantyne
Look for a comfort-destroyer mentor who can push your talent limits.

Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant
The key is to look for ways to help others… It might be making an introduction between two people who could benefit from knowing each other, sharing an interesting article, or offering to provide advice or feedback. If you choose a form of helping that you find enjoyable and meaningful, it might even boost your mood and energy

One Question for Success By Daniel Wong
What is one thing I can do right now to improve the situation?
You have a boring math teacher, or You had a nasty argument with your friend, or You think you’re underpaid.

6 Criteria for Your Success By Matt Smith
Can I clearly define the market and direct my advertising efforts to target the prospects with laser-like precision?
Does the idea solve a real problem?
Is it scalable?
Is there a special advantage I can leverage?
Does it fit within my core objectives?
Can I build an immediate feedback loop by defining and watching key numbers?

Truth and Lies about Creating Wealth By Mark Ford
– You’ll never get rich unless you understand some fundamentals about saving, spending, and investing.
– The single most important factor in avoiding the spending spiral that kills wealth is to stay in the house you have now. Nobody else that I know of has made this simple point. But I can tell you that it is true.
– Stock investing (or even bond investing) is an inadequate strategy for building wealth.
– The single most important factor in wealth-building is the size of your investible income. The No. 1 strategy is acquiring equity in a startup business.
– Investing in rental real estate is unique – it stands halfway between active income and passive income. Next to entrepreneurship, it provides the highest return you can get from any financial endeavor.
– The biggest mistake retirees make is giving up their active incomes.

How to Become a Master of What You Love (The James Altucher Show and Robert Greene)
The brain is designed to learn. We learn much better when we are emotionally engaged.
You want to think of your 20s as your apprenticeship, to learn skills, specially political social skills.
When you are 30, you connect the dots and to create your own your niche, using the 10,000 hours of combiing different skills.

How to Teach Your Kids About Money and Why We Lied to Our Kids By Mark Ford
Giving money to your children – at any age – can make them wasteful. It might make them dependent. It might weaken their ambition and strip away their self-confidence. And the expectation of getting money from you might even make them greedy.
We told them – in clear terms – they would “never inherit a nickel” from us. We said we intended to spend all our money or give it to charity before we died.
Rather than inheriting lump sums of money, the children inherit an interest in the family fund. The purpose of that fund is to help individual family members enrich their lives.
Children can borrow from the fund. But if they do, they must return the borrowed money with interest. They can use the money to start businesses or pursue education, but they can’t use it to buy sports cars or yachts. They also should help the fund grow in value. That way, when they die, it’s larger than it was – large enough to help their own children.
After your children have proven to you that they can take care of themselves, you can begin to discuss family wealth, including what they might one day inherit.
Consider putting a business or some income-producing assets into a legal structure that can operate as a family bank, making loans to them when merited.
Consider establishing a family charity (if you believe in charity).
Use the family bank and charity to teach your adult children what you have learned about managing wealth.

How To Make a Great Living By Not Charging For What You Do By Jason Leister
A Quick Drive Through Vendorland, Where the Property is Cheap and the Views are Obstructed
If you live in “Vendorland,” there are basically three things that matter. These are the only things that you get asked from potential clients:
Are you competent? How cheaply can you do the work? How fast can you do the work?

Here’s the Route to Get Out of Vendorland and Create More Success By Not Charging For What You Do
Instead of charging for what you do, you’re going to start charging for something else. You’re going to start charging for something your client actually cares about.
The secret is to realize that your client does care about what they get because of what you do.
Clients will pay more for what they value. Your job is to make sure they understand the role your service plays in delivering that value.

The Triumph of Contrarian Investing by Martin Weiss
First, I learned that the best time to buy anything — stocks, bonds, real estate — is when no one else wants it. Wait until people’s emotions are so powerful they forget the original reasons they started selling in the first place.
Second, gold can play a very special role in crises — especially monetary crises. Its behavior reflects more than just ordinary supply and demand forces, or even crowd behavior. It’s also a mirror of the madness of government.
Third, I learned that it’s a mistake to fly by the seat of your pants. Use a benchmark — an indicator you can rely on. Back then, we used the currency in circulation.
Fourth, the big pay-off from a crash is not just betting on the decline. It’s having the cash — and the courage — to buy the shares when they’ve reached a bottom and no one else wants to buy.
Fifth, don’t be fooled by old, supposedly “foolproof theories,” such as the theory that interest rates only go up with inflation. A lot of other things can cause interest rates to soar, such as bond ratings downgrades and the fear of defaults.
Sixth, Joe Kennedy’s missed opportunity to buy silver — at a dime and some pennies per ounce — is also something you should never forget. He himself wanted to buy silver. He was convinced. But it was too much to convince his advisers, and he missed a great opportunity.
To protect your wealth or to make real money, you have to be your own man. You have to be willing to ignore what everyone else is saying. Listen to their facts and opinions. Then draw your own conclusions — and once you’ve done that, don’t look back.

What Does It Really Take to Change Your Life? by Michael Masterson Journal
First, I had bottomed out emotionally. I had finally reached a point where I truly detested myself for not achieving what I felt was my potential.
Second, I made a decision to change completely – to go from being a C student to the top of my class.
Third, I recognized that I would have to change not just my work habits but the way I thought about myself. I would have to “become” the A student I wanted to be.
And last, but not least, I took action immediately. I didn’t wait till September to make the change. I started right away by preparing myself to succeed during my final months of high school.

Six Ways to Turn a “No” Into “Yes By John Forde
By focusing obsessively on how to make an idea smooth,” says marketing maven Seth Godin, “You can dramatically increase its velocity.”
– If your prospect says “It’s not for me…” Show the reader testimonials from people like him.
– If your prospect says, “I don’t have time to read your offer…” Find the hook. Open with a benefit or jump right into telling a story.
– If your prospect says, “It’s more than I’d like to spend…” Find services like yours that cost more and build a comparison. Sweeten the deal with better premiums. Put a value on the results of your service and compare them more closely to the cost.
– If your prospect says, “I don’t know who you are…” Try answering questions like these: Where do you do business and why? Who are your clients, especially your famous ones? Where did you get your training, learn your trade, and hone your craft? Give some success stories. Have you won awards or seals of approval?
– If your prospect says, “I’ve heard all this before…” Check out your competition. Compare offers and make yours stronger. Offer a stronger guarantee. Look for ways your product or service out-paces, out-builds, or out-races your competitor’s product or service.
– If your prospect says, “I’d rather take some time to think about it…” Small issue — layout. Bold colors like red and dark blue and bright yellow are more urgent than brown and orange and pastels.