'Tis Better to Give

Wow! How has it already been over two months since I last posted to this blog? I gotta apologize to all of you, my faithful fans and followers, for my absence from these airwaves. It just goes to show you how your time--and mind--can be monopolized when you trade hours for dollars, working for someone else instead of pursuing your passion. But I'll take a stab at jump-starting the Prosperity Convoy here now.

Although I haven't been blogging lately, I have been taking other actions to bolster both my business and my determination to find success with it. I had some time at home (a 10-day vacation surrounding Thanksgiving week!), so I had the opportunity to attend a meeting of my MLM vehicle of choice, chat with my upline sponsor some, and give out some free samples of the product to family and friends. (Remember, I'm not advertising that product and company in this space in order to let you find the product and/or company that ignites your passion.) But most significant for me was reading a book that reinforced how much better the direct sales industry is for its members than the corporate world is for its employees.

"Chicken Soup for the Network Marketer's Soul"*, by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Bill Hyman is a compilation of essays (and a couple of poems and cartoons as well) by individuals who overcame tremendous adversities to find success in--and because of--network marketing companies and the people in them. Each essay is preceded by an inspirational quote as well.

Let me point out that none of the essayists wrote that their journey to success was easy or quick. And I'm not trying to tell you that yours would be, either. But as evidenced time and time again in the book, the people involved in the industry truly want each other succeed, and will do what they can to help make that a reality. Ask yourself, do you really find that in the corporate world? Every story in the book made me want to be a part of that caring, helping culture, but one essay really caught my eye.

In her story titled, "Pay It Forward" (starting on page 252), Jan Ruhe tells how she used to work hard in her MLM in order to seek recognition for her accomplishments, her high sales volumes and the number of people she brought into the company. Then one day she realized that, despite her achievements, she hadn't found any satisfaction from them. Not being recognized at a big company event devastated her, so she decided that she had to change herself, but didn't know how. Her answer came in ten words from her mentor, Jim Rohn,

"Be so busy giving recognition that you don't need it."

From that point on she became the one applauding others for their achievements, rather than seeking recognition herself. It made a huge difference for her, and her business.

Now, I didn't start my business as a means to find any recognition myself, so I never saw myself in the light that Jan Ruhe did initially. My aim with my business and this blog is to help others (including YOU!) find financial freedom. But Jan's story pointed out one thing that I was missing in my plan: joyfully recognizing the successes--and honest efforts, even if the successes are minimal--of others. And I'll tell you, even from my still minimal experience with the MLM world, I see that quality in everyone involved. I have never encountered it so universally embraced by everyone in the "traditional" companies which have so graciously employed me.

All of this is why I'm so enamored of the direct sales/multi-level marketing (MLM)/network marketing business model and advocating it within the Prosperity Convoy. I'm sure once you leave any pre-conceived notions about the industry behind and do your own research (beyond googling MLM companies and reading the posts by doubters calling them all scams), you'll find that it is truly the best way for the "average person" to build passive income and personal wealth. (Did you know that Amway has created more millionaires in this country than any other company? That's not the company I'm with, but that's just a little tidbit that may change your thinking a bit.) And hey, why not let reading "Chicken Soup for the Network Marketer's Soul" be one of the parts of your research?

I'm still looking for the first (and second, and third, and so on) person who wants to join me in the Convoy and head up the on-ramp to the road to prosperity. I promise you it won't necessarily be easy, or quick, but the end results can far exceed your wildest dreams. And we'll have fun heading there together. You'll meet many, many people who also want you to succeed and will help you get there. And the most pleasure you'll get from the whole trip is from helping others reach their goals.

Thank you for taking the time to explore your future with me. I look forward to taking that exploration to the next step with you, when I'll see you on the road to prosperity.


* Chicken Soup for the Network Marketer's Soul
(c) 2008, John T. Canfield and Hansen and Hansen LLC
Published by Health Communications, Inc.
3201 S.W. 15th Street
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442-8190

Pass Beyond the Wall

I'm woven in a fantasy, I can't believe the things I see.
The path that I have chosen now has led me to a wall.
And with each passing day I feel a little more like something dear was lost.
It rises now before me,
A dark and silent barrier between all I am
And all that I would ever want to be.
It's just a travesty, towering,
Marking off the boundaries my spirit would erase.

To pass beyond is what I seek, I fear that I may be too weak.
And those are few who've seen it through to glimpse the other side.
The promised land is waiting like a maiden that is soon to be a bride.
The moment is a masterpiece,
The weight of indecision's in the air, standing there,
The symbol and the sum of all that's me.
It's just a travesty, towering,
Blocking out the light and blinding me,
I want to see.

Gold and diamonds cast a spell,
It's not for me, I know it well.
The riches that I seek are waiting on the other side.
There's more than I can measure in the treasure of the love that I can find.
And though it's always been with me,
I must tear down the wall and let it be
All I am, and all that I was ever meant to be, in harmony,
Shining true, and smiling back at all who wait to cross,
There is no loss.

"The Wall", by Kansas, is one of my favorite songs. I have to admit, though, that what drew me to it at first was the music--the tune, the instrumentation, its dramatic sound, and how well Steve Walsh sings it. It was a while before I really contemplated and comprehended the lyrics, but when I did, I found that I liked the song even more. Because it is a very thinly-veiled metaphor for how probably most of us feel as we struggle through this thing called life. And it's especially true for those of us trying to buck the system, trying to take control of our lives instead of falling in lock-step with the masses heading off to jobs every day.

You may have noticed that my posts here have been few and far between lately. Yep, that's because of my wall rising before me. A few of the "bricks" in my wall are:

• As a trainer for my company, I usually have students with me on the road, so it is difficult to find time to sneak out my laptop and fire off a quick essay.
• I'm a fairly slow writer; it takes me a while to come up with the phrasing I want to get my message across the way I think is best. So there's no such thing as "firing off a quick essay" for me.
• My laptop is about five years old now, and has periods when it's r-e-a-l-l-l-l-l-y s-l-o-o-o-o-o-w.
• And, of course, after long hours on the job, more enjoyable diversions such as TV and computer games often seem in order, instead of engaging my mind and composing coherent blog posts or taking on activities to grow my business.

I'm sure you have your own personal wall rising before you, keeping you from attaining your goals, too. But if to pass beyond is what we seek, we must not be too weak. We must be strong enough to do whatever it takes to tear down that wall and glimpse the other side. That's why "The Wall" is the Prosperity Convoy's anthem; to remind us to recognize the walls before us, and the rewards on the other side.

Let me remind you of my purpose for starting up "Trucker John's Prosperity Convoy". It's not for me, I know it well (as the song says). I want to free you from the lock-step of the masses. Not just so you can be a maverick, but because you'll (likely) never find financial freedom by trudging off to a job every day, working for someone else, making them rich. And the way that I can free you from that is by making sure you know that you do have options beyond being an employee. By inspiring you to explore those options. And by exploring those options with you. It's so much more fun to do things together, in harmony.

So are you ready to tear down your wall and become all that you were ever meant to be? To smile back at all who wait to cross? Jump on the Convoy, and I'll see you on the road to Prosperity.

Thank you for reading this today. As always, I welcome--and encourage--your feedback about my posts and the Prosperity Convoy. What's in your own personal wall? And what can we do to tear it down?

Whither the Job Creators?

We've been hearing the term "job creators" used a lot in the news lately. Those of you who know me and see my postings on Facebook may have an inkling about how I feel about that term. But I'm not invoking it here for any political purpose. Instead, we can take a lesson from it in terms of improving our financial futures.

The country's leaders are debating whether increasing taxes on the wealthy is a valid means to reduce the nation's deficit, or an "attack on the job creators." Here in the Prosperity Convoy, we don't care about all that. As entrepreneurs and seekers of passive income, we want to find--and even be--"opportunity creators".

As you know, the path to financial freedom is not comprised solely of a job. Well, maybe it is if you're a fund manager on Wall Street, but in the grand scheme of things, relatively few of us are. So we need something to supplement--and, eventually, replace--our income from a job. And, of course, that something is passive income.

As a regular reader of this blog, you know that the best way to earn passive income for most people is as an independent representative in a network marketing, a.k.a. multi-level marketing ("MLM"), a.k.a. direct sales, company. By becoming an independent rep, you've created your own job. You didn't need to rely on some "job creator" to graciously create a position for you out of the goodness of his heart. You created your own position by taking advantage of an opportunity that one of your good friends presented to you. And you can return the favor by paying it forward and presenting that opportunity to your friends. Ta-da! You've become an opportunity creator.

If you want to find financial freedom, or just some extra cash to make your life a little easier, seek out the opportunity creators around you. Then become one.  We don't need to worry about "job creators" in our convoy.

Imagine

Imagine that everyone in this country was savvy in financial education and knew that working a J.O.B. was not the path to financial freedom.

Imagine then that everyone (well, all adults having attained the legal age for signing contracts, anyway) picked a network marketing company to represent, the one that fit their preferences best.

Imagine further that even more products and services were available as direct sales opportunities to fill the demand by potential representatives.

I can see that if the above were true:

• we all would expect, support, and encourage our family and friends to market their products or services to us,
• we all would seek out the products and services we need from among our family and friends,
• each of us could be living at least comfortably, depending on how much effort we put into our chosen MLM, and
• we all would have more hope for the future, because we would know we were building passive income streams.

Of course, we still would need people to work jobs. This country still needs to manufacture goods and provide products and services that require on-site contact. Police, fire, and health care services, as examples, cannot be provided in a network marketing structure (although insurance can). Even the network marketing companies themselves need to employ staff to run their infrastructure. The need for en employment base is never going to go away. But if everyone did have that MLM in their portfolio, at least as a part-time supplement to their employment income, we would all be more financially secure.

This is just a short treatise on this "Imagine" scenario, but can you see the point I'm trying to make? Can you think of even more benefits of such a situation? Do you see any "flies in the ointment"? What do you think?

Thanks for pondering today's lesson. I'll see you on the road to prosperity real soon.

When You Come to the Fork in the Road, Take It

Today's post will be a fairly quick update of how things are going in the Convoy, rather than a financial education lesson. Remember, I promised to use this blog to do both. Anyway, on to today's developments.


Whoa! I just had a lunch meeting that blew my mind! I went in expecting to learn more about--and sign up for--one network marketing company, but found out about another that looks even better! I'm not going to name either company here, because that's best done in another forum. I don't want to use this blog to promote any specific company or companies. But please take from this story that it's good to be flexible and to evaluate opportunities as they arise. Don't just select one course of action, put your blinders on, and charge forward with no view of the possibly changing landscape ahead.

Now, once you do select a course of action, it is best to commit to that course and give it your all in order to build your business. Don't try to build more than one business at a time. I'm able to switch gears at this point because I hadn't committed to my original choice of network marketing company just yet. As I stated earlier, I was just going to sign up today.

Well, it looks like I digressed with a little business lesson there, after all. OK, not a bad thing. But let's get back to my story.

As I mentioned up top, I went to a lunch meeting today to get started with one company. I met with my sponsor and her sponsor, a.k.a. the first two people in my immediate upline. To protect the innocent, let's just call them "Jill" and "Tim", respectively. (Any other Home Improvement fans out there?) Anyway, as I sat down and we got started, Tim said, "I have some news". I thought maybe that the company had some new, exciting products or compensation plan details. Instead, Tim told me that he had been introduced to another, new company (and its product) and had left company number one. Not that he no longer believed in company number one--it's still a very exciting opportunity with terrific products--but it is easier and quicker to make money with the new company. Which is the point, after all, right?

For the rest of the lunch, Tim filled me in with the nutshell version of the new company's product and plan. Jill has already also joined Tim's downline, and I like what I've learned so much that I'll be following suit. Timing is everything, and for once I have some. The company is holding an informational meeting tonight, so I'll be able to get the full scoop and sign up right away.

So that's my story of today's surprising development. It's still the road to prosperity, but I'll be taking a different lane from here.

In a further development, you can now find the Convoy on Facebook. Just look up and "Like" Trucker John's Prosperity Convoy on there for another way to follow along as we work our way up through the gears. (Thanks, P.J. for the tip to create the page.)

Thanks for checking in today. I'm very excited about this new opportunity, and expect good things from it. And remember, I'm doing this because I want to help you build passive income to secure your financial future. A convoy's not a convoy with only one vehicle. So if you're ready to leave an uncertain future behind, start your engines and drop me a line. I'll see you on the road to prosperity.

*** EVENING UPDATE ***
I just returned from the information meeting for this new business opportunity, and it's even better then it seemed this afternoon. Both the product and the business opportunity. I'm all signed up and ready to get going. So stay tuned for updates on the Convoy's progress in this new business.

Get Real

So far in this blog I've been touting Network/Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) as the preferred method for creating passive income. It's still true that it is the preferred method--well, I prefer it because of relatively low entry cost and little risk--but it most certainly is not the only one. Today I want to discuss another potentially lucrative passive income stream, and that is real estate.

A few years back, right before the housing bubble blew up in everybody's faces--good timing, right?--I was trying my hand at investing in real estate. I had read the Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad books and latched on to his success with real estate as a means to build income and wealth. But I didn't study his methods fully and went at it the wrong way.

Real estate investors, in a nutshell, employ two methods for generating their income: flipping, and buy-and-hold. In flipping, the investor basically acts as a dealer. He locates properties he can buy cheaply, and sells them to another investor or an end-user for a higher price. He may or may not invest in some improvements to the properties. Flipping can be quite profitable, but it does not generate passive income, which is what we're looking for in the Prosperity Convoy. In order to make more income, the flipper needs to be out buying and selling more properties. If he doesn't do that work, he gets no income.

The buy-and-hold investor, on the other hand, buys properties with the intention of holding onto it and generating income from renting it to tenants. Her focus on obtaining such properties is the cash flow they will generate; in other words, the amount of monthly income (rent or lease payments) above expenses. The cash flow from the sum of the properties in her real estate portfolio is her passive income. Once the properties are in hand and tenants in place, she can sit back and enjoy the income (assuming she has enough properties to throw off enough income to support her lifestyle). Oh, and she will have a good property management company taking care of her properties to further make that income passive, to keep her from working for that income.

Back when I was dabbling in real estate, most of my focus was on the quick-hit, big strike--flipping. I forgot about (or was too impatient for) Kiyosaki's focus on building passive income. And in those days I also met and befriended many other real estate investors, many of whom like flipping as their modus operandi. And flipping, as I mentioned earlier, can provide quite the pretty penny; some of my flipper friends are doing pretty well at it. The downside is the need to keep churning the business to earn that penny.

Buy-and-hold has its downside, too, and that is tenants. Bad tenants can be the bane of the landlord's existence, for just too many reasons for me to go into here. And let's not forget about vacancy periods, during which the landlord has no tenants occupying--and paying for--the property. No tenants, no passive income. Active outgo is more like it in that case.

Tenants and vacancies are major reasons why I prefer Network Marketing to real estate. But if they don't deter you (and you have a good property management company), buy-and-hold real estate can be a tremendous passive income stream. And if you enjoy the hunt for cheap, distressed properties, flipping may be for you. But for flippers and buy-and-holders both, you may consider adding an MLM income stream to your portfolio.

Consider what the added passive income from a good MLM can do for your real estate business. First and foremost, it can provide much more cash with which you can buy more and more properties. Secondly, if you're going the landlord route, you can introduce your tenants to the opportunity, improving their lives and their ability to pay you if they join up.

Obviously, you're not limited to any one passive income stream. The Convoy's emphasis is for you to find the one you like and to give it all you've got to build that passive income. Once you get that one up and running (supporting your lifestyle), then you can add another if you so desire. Multiple streams of passive income are a beautiful thing.

So that's my nutshell take on real estate investing. The way the market is these days, an investor can do quite well. Good properties can be found CHEAP in some markets, making good monthly cash flow quite possible, if not probable. If you decide to pursue real estate, or already do, I wish you well. Just remember to focus on that passive income.

Thanks for looking in today. Let me know what you think about all this. And I'll see you on the road to prosperity.

Independence Day

As I'm writing this on July 4, I want to wish you a very happy celebration of the United States' independence from English rule. What a better day also to wish for you a happy financial independence day, that day when your passive income surpasses your expenses. When that day arrives, you'll be able to say goodbye to the daily grind of a J-O-B and live life on your own terms and schedule. (If you love your job and want to keep doing it, then good for you. Keep at it and use your extra income for a better lifestyle and good works.) I'm not going to include a new lesson in this post; instead I want to reiterate why I write and publish this blog in the first place.

First and foremost, it's because I want you to reach financial freedom. When I learned all that I did about financial education, my eyes were opened wide. I realized just how ignorant I had been to the world of personal finance, and how we all completely miss this information by going through the normal routines of daily life. That is, main-stream, "conventional" wisdom about personal finance is 180 degrees opposite what we really need to do to build a secure financial future. So it's like when you find a new restaurant that blows your mind, or see a movie that pushes all the right buttons for you, you just have to share that information with all your family and friends. For me, when I realized what the truth was about finances, I had to share it.

You know, what I'm "teaching" you here is really very simple and obvious, once you open your mind to it. The hard part is making the leap to open your mind and discard the conventional wisdom you've been taught all your life, "Go to school, get a good job, save for retirement." And then it's hard to take action to put yourself on this new road, for fear of what your family and friends--who are still stuck with the conventional wisdom--will say about it. But don't worry about them; you need to do what's right for your future. And guess what: you can start to educate them about building passive income, and bring them right along with you on the road to prosperity.

So please share this information with everyone you care about. As the Alan Parsons Project song Turn It Up says, "If there's something you've found you believe in, then the message must get through." Point them to this blog, buy them the Rich Dad books (or lend them your copies after you've bought and read them), and invite them to join your MLM downline. But make sure you're doing it for them, because you care for them as you do. There's an adage in business that if you help people (your customers, in the usual business sense) get what they want, then you'll get what you want. So make it about those people you care about, your "customers", and the universe will see fit to reward you in kind.

Happy Independence Day once again. Thank you for lending me your eyes (and hopefully an engaged mind, as well). I look forward to celebrating your financial independence day with you.

The Social Network

Previously on Trucker John's Prosperity Convoy, I told you that in order to secure ample retirement income for yourself, you need to build passive income. And your best bet is through Network Marketing, a.k.a. Multi-Level Marketing. In this episode, I'm going to tell you just what Network Marketing is, what it is not, and how it can be even better than you ever would hope.

Let me start with what Network Marketing is not. (As an aside here, I'm going to use the abbreviation "MLM" for Multi-Level Marketing from here on out in this post instead of typing out either whole name for this business form.) It is NOT a pyramid scheme, as many would have you believe. Well, OK, the good, legitimate MLM companies are not, though I'm sure there are some bad, illegitimate ones that may well be pyramid schemes.

In a true pyramid scheme, the operator takes the money ponied up by the people entering the bottom of the pyramid to pay off the people at the top. Think of Bernie Madoff's modus operandi for the prime example. A legitimate MLM sells products and/or services to generate the income that gets distributed to its representatives. If nobody buys the products, nobody gets paid. It's as simple as that. But what exactly is an MLM, and why do people think they are pyramid schemes?

The business model of an MLM is to have independent representatives ("reps") make up its sales force, rather than hiring a sales staff and paying advertising costs, and so forth. The reps go out among their family, friends, and people they meet and sell not only the MLM parent company's products, but the MLM rep opportunity as well. (That's where the confusion with a "pyramid scheme" comes in.) The MLM then pays the rep commissions on her sales. But to reward the reps for bringing in more reps (and, it follows, more sales), the MLM also pays each rep commissions on the sales made by the reps she brought in, as well as those made by the reps her reps brought in, and so on down the line. With no limits on the amount of customers a rep can sell to, and no limit on the number of reps she can bring into her "downline" those commissions can add up to a healthy income. But a good MLM can be much, much more for its reps.

Besides providing the goods or services to sell, a good MLM will also provide all of the training, marketing materials, and support a rep will need. It will foster a culture of community, in which each member of the MLM, from the people working at the parent company down through reps at all levels, truly wants each rep to succeed, and will help out to make that happen.

So consider that business model, and compare it to that of a "traditional" company. In the traditional company, you have a CEO on top, then layers of "lesser" employees below, with each successive layer wider than the one above. Sound like a pyramid to you? And do the employees at each level truly want the other employees to succeed, other than to do their jobs well so the company can profit and they can keep their jobs? And can employees at these types of companies give themselves raises by going out and finding more customers and more employees? In the immortal words of Al Borland, I don't think so, Tim.

Those are the MLM pros and cons in a nutshell. Oh wait, I didn't give any cons. Let me add them here:

• Individual results may vary
• The rep's results are a direct result of his/her efforts
• It may take some time to build up a customer base and downline sufficient to provide a healthy income stream
• You do have to sell some products in order to succeed
• There is usually a "buy-in" cost to become a rep, and it may seem a little steep to the newcomer (but in the long run, if the rep is successful, it will seem like peanuts).

That's all I can think of as far as cons go. Not too terrible, eh, if you find an MLM whose products and opportunity excite you.

Speaking of which, I have found that MLM that excites me, but I'm not going to promote it on this site. (If you are one of my friends, you may be hearing from me soon, though.) Many excellent MLMs do exist "out there", and I urge you to do some research to find the one that best suits your interests. The model really does work; I know a few successful MLM reps personally--and know of many others--who don't have to work "real" jobs because their MLM income is enough to give them financial freedom. And many hugely successful people say that if they had to start over from broke, they'd start out in an MLM. Donald Trump is one who comes to mind. (No matter what you think of him as personally or politically, you gotta' admit he knows business.)

So there you have Part 2 of how to build a secure financial future. Thanks once again for taking a peek at what I have to say. Comments are welcome and encouraged, as always. I can't wait to see you along side me on the road to prosperity.

Unconventional Wisdom

How many of you have heard the advice, "Go to school, get a good job, work hard, and save for retirement"? OK, the whole room then.

Now, those with your hands up (which is all of you), how many believe that advice to be gospel and are following it diligently? OK, only a few hands went down. The rest of you can put yours down now, too. That's all the questioning for now.

So we see that the conventional wisdom for financial security in retirement is to work hard at a job for 40-plus years, and regularly put away some cash in some sort of an account to grow until you're ready to use it. Sounds good, because you're planning for your future. Nothing wrong with that. But if you want to have a financially free retirement, without cutting way back on your lifestyle, that just doesn't add up. Let's do the math.

Say you work for 40 years and save 10% of your income (more than likely 10% of your take-home pay, or your net pay after taxes and deductions) every paycheck. It doesn't take a genius to calculate that you've saved enough to live for four years at your average income from those 40 years. Don't you want to have a longer retirement and at a better lifestyle than that?

"But," you say, "I'll have fewer expenses when I retire. No more gas and wear and tear on the car for a daily commute; my house will be paid off so no more mortgage payment", and so on, and so on. "Also", you add, "my retirement account will be growing, thanks to compound interest and good investments. So I'll have much more money in there."

All right, consider these questions and, more importantly, their answers:

1. What interest rate are banks paying these days? Um, maybe a whole percent.
2. What's the current inflation rate? Somewhat higher than one percent.
3. Is there any historical precedent of the stock market losing a large chunk of its value in no time at all? Oh yeah, a few, including real recently.

Still feeling good about that nest egg's chances to provide for a retirement lifestyle of which you're certainly going to be deserving after 40 years of hard work?

Before I continue, let me point out that it is a good idea during your working years regularly to sock away some cash for retirement. Who wants to retire with an empty bank account, after all? But the retirement account cannot be your sole source of support during your golden years. It must only be one part of your plan. Especially since, now that you're free to get out and see the country and the world as you please, you want to be able to afford such junkets. So what else can/should you do to secure your financial future?

Passive Income

It's as simple as that. If you want plenty of income to support a full retirement, then during your working years you must invest time and some money to build streams of passive income that will continue working even as you no longer do. Imagine waking up on the first day after you've called it a career and knowing that you're still going to have "paychecks" coming in, the rewards of your efforts of years past to build those passive income streams.

OK, I guess I'd better define "Passive Income" for those of you who may not know the term yet. Passive income, sometimes also called residual income, is that income you earn over and over again as a result of work you did once. For example, an author writes a book once, and over time continues to receive royalties from the sales of the book. Or a musician records an album once, then receives royalties from that album's sales over the years. Or a salesperson sells a product or service to a customer once, then continues to receive commissions on the sale as the customer uses--and pays for--the product or service every month. This last example is likely your best bet for building your own passive income, unless you have mad writing, musical, or acting skills you can take to those endeavors. And let me also point out that, if done correctly, building a passive income stream or two may enable you to retire much sooner than you thought possible. Would you have a problem with that?

So now, I'm sure, you want to know how and where you can get in on this passive income gravy train so you can start securing a more-than-comfortable retirement for yourself. The answer may (or may not, depending on how many of my previous posts on this blog that you've read) surprise you: it's in a business form known as Network Marketing, or Multi-Level Marketing.

Taking a cue from television season-ending cliffhangers, I'm going to end this entry right here in order to keep it from getting too lengthy. Be sure to read the follow-up entry, "The Social Network", which I'm going to get right to work on and post ASAP.

Thanks for reading this entry all the way through, and I hope I'm proving to be a valuable resource to you. Please give me some feedback (Input! Need Input!) in the form of a Comment (below), and I'll see you in the Convoy on the road to prosperity.

Ramping Up

Let me tell you, the vehicle that I'll soon be driving on the road to prosperity is making me excited! The more I learn about it and experience it, the more incredible the opportunity becomes! The earning potential is almost limitless. But, and even more important to me, the potential for sharing that vehicle with others--you--is limitless.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an entry titled, "Why, Oh Why?". As you recall from that essay, my Why for creating this blog is to help those of you out there who may be struggling financially to find the path to prosperity. Whether that struggle is a minor annoyance ("How do we find the extra money to send Junior to the right camp this summer?") or a full-blown catastrophe ("OMG! We don't have the rent money!"), I hope my writings here will help you find your path to leave that struggle behind you.

For today's assignment, then, I ask you to consider your Why:

• What is it that would cause you to leave your comfort zone and embark on a new path to financial freedom?
• Or the opposite side: What is it that makes your life comfortable enough to stay the course?

Feel free--empowered, even--to share your Why as a Comment to this post. You can remain anonymous if you'd like; I'm just curious about the Whys out there.

That's it for today. Just a short & sweet update and, I hope, something to get you thinking about your situation. Thanks for peeking in, and I look forward to sharing the road to prosperity with you.

Take It Easy

You know, I've been thinking the last couple of days. I know that probably amazes you, too. But what I've been thinking about is the difference between doing things the easy way versus the hard way. (Thinking for me = the hard way.) And I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to starting and running your own business versus being an employee, the conventional wisdom has it backwards.

Many people (if not most) consider being an employee (that is, having a J.O.B.--we remember what that stands for, right?) a lot easier than striking out on your own to earn a living. Just getting up in the morning, getting dressed, driving to the workplace, punching the clock, and performing the duties assigned to you by someone else has got to be far less taxing than all the morning routine above plus:

• Opening the building (if you have a physical location),
• finding customers/clients,
• sourcing the products/materials you sell,
• taking care of the company financials,
• hiring/training/retaining employees,
• buying & managing office supplies,
• keeping your computer system(s) in working order,
• worrying, Worrying, WORRYING about the business day and night,
• and much, much more.

Seems logical to me that the employee route is indeed the easy way to go through life. But from what I have learned--and am learning lately--about financial education and entrepreneurship, I contend that the reverse is actually true.

Yes, it is very true that business owners do have a lot more on their plate, many more balls in the air...pick your favorite cliche about being overloaded and apply it to business owners. But being business owners, they ostensibly are working in businesses that they are passionate about. And I'm sure they are passionate about the potential result of building successful businesses: passive income that provides financial freedom for themselves and their families. And those passions make all of the headaches of running a business well worth the while.

I've had several different jobs in very differing fields in my work life so far, including my current one as a long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. (I never in a million years would have conceived that I would have gotten into that.) And I've also run a few businesses on the side. Let me tell you, any time I spent working my own businesses was much more enjoyable than any time I spent working under someone else's employ. Even when my own businesses were a struggle, just the fact that I was calling the shots and doing what I wanted and loved doing made it so much better. 

An old saying goes, "If you love what you do for a living, you'll never work a day in your life." Now, if you have a job (working for someone else) that you just love, congratulations! Especially if it's one that benefits society as a whole, or makes life better for just a few people. More power to ya'! But let me ask you, does it offer you financial security? Do you derive income from it when you're not working? If the answer to those questions is "no", then does that really seem like the easy way?

Of course, I'm talking about the "easy" way to financial freedom, not necessarily the easy way to get through each work day. (But again, I contend that if you have a passion for what you're doing, then getting through a work day full of hassle after hassle is still easier than slogging through a slow day at a job you're not passionate about.) And isn't that what work life is all about, building your "nest egg" for your retirement years?

By the way, a couple of clarifications before I continue. First, when I say, "the easy way" to financial freedom, I do not mean to imply that it does not take considerable effort and diligence to build a secure financial future. It does indeed. But done correctly--choosing the right business and putting the necessary effort into it--business ownership is almost a guarantee to financial freedom.

Second, by "business owners", I mean people who build businesses that generate passive income streams, not those who just create jobs for themselves that won't pay them when they're not working it.

Business owners know that their nest egg will be better--more lucrative--if it's comprised of one or more passive income streams rather than a lump sum of cash in a retirement account somewhere throwing off meager interest. Except for a very small proportion of the employee base in this country--and the world, for that matter--working a job will not build the kind or size of nest egg that will provide a more-than-comfortable retirement, especially in today's economy.

So I ask you, which is the "easy" way and which is the "hard" way to build a secure financial future? Punching the clock at someone else's company, working hard to make them rich while you try to squirrel away enough cash for a hopefully comfortable retirement? Or building passive income streams that will continue indefinitely and possibly grow to a level to allow you to retire far earlier than you could by working a job?

I know which one I'm going to pursue, and I truly want you to secure your financial future, too. Really, I do! That's why I am committed to passing along all this critical financial education information in this blog, and invite you to join the Convoy. It'll be much more meaningful to compare notes and share success stories as we travel the road to prosperity together.

Thank you for reading today's post. Don't forget that this blog has a Comments feature, and that I do want to hear from you. Are you ready to jump on the on-ramp to the road to prosperity? Anything I wrote that you need clarification about? Anything at all, please drop me a note. I look forward to sharing space in the Convoy with you.

Switching Gears

OK, OK, I know that twice now I've promised a discourse on Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), a.k.a. Network Marketing. But I'm going to put that on hold for a little while. It's too soon in the "course" I'm "teaching" here to focus on a "how". But I'll just tell you to toss aside any preconceived notions you have about MLM companies, because they're (the preconceived notions, that is) just wrong. Let each company and its plan stand on its own merits--and some have pretty amazing merits--as you check them out. Instead, here I need to build the foundation and framework of your financial education first. And I also promised to use this blog to update you on the Prosperity Convoy's progress. So let's start with that.

First, when I say, "The Prosperity Convoy", I'm referring to me and the cadre of readers who decide that they (you?) too are ready to leave their (your?) old way of thinking behind and learn what it really takes to find prosperity. I want to hear from my readers (you?) to find out who's climbing on board, ready to take the steps to secure their (your?) financial futures. Let me know if I'm bringing you valuable information--or if I'm failing in the attempt. Please share your own personal progress report if you're taking steps to secure your financial future, if you need any help, or what information you'd like me to write about. Now here's my personal progress report.

When I was home last week, I went to a meeting to gather information about the vehicle I'm going to use to power my convoy. Let me tell you, it has me totally stoked...geeked...excited about what's ahead for me and my family. And for you, if you join the convoy. I won't go into detail about it here, because that's best done in another setting. But it's with a company that really supports its members and wants them to succeed.

Another step I took was to re-familiarize myself with one of my "mentors" (via reading his books), Robert Kiyosaki. My own financial education started when I found a copy of one of his books, "Retire Young, Retire Rich". Being that it was a free copy, and the title sounded like something that interested me, I grabbed it. That book opened my eyes in regards to the tectonic shift in thinking that is necessary to find financial freedom. I had to learn more. So I started watching the free book rack for more Kiyosaki books. "Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant" and "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" soon followed (in my timeline, anyway), and I was hooked. I even started buying more Kiyosaki books, as well as more personal finance books by other authors. But I digress. What's relevant to today's discussion is that last week I found a new Kiyosaki book, "Unfair Advantage, The Power of Financial Education". I bought it and brought it with me on my current month-long tour of duty on my truck.

"Unfair Advantage", which has a sub-subtitle of, "What Schools Will NEVER Teach You About Money", reminded me of many concepts I had learned from the earlier books but let slip out of my memory while life intervened. Those reminders have re-energized my resolve to put myself on the on-ramp to financial freedom and to spread the word. Believe me, I'm totally serious about this subject and desperately want to make sure you come along to prosperity, too, whether by joining my convoy or by finding your own path to financial education. (But if you come along with me, we'll work together.) Now, back to a little bit of financial ed.

First and foremost, read the Kiyosaki books. You can find them--and more--at RichDad.com. You may not like his writing style, or appreciate his bluntness, but get past that and understand and embrace the message he delivers. And that message--highly simplified here--is to shift your thinking about money from the point of view of an employee, to that of a business owner and investor.

The employee works for--and pays taxes on--earned income, the income with the highest tax rate. He only earns income while working, trading hours for money. The business owner and investor, however, can earn income any hour of the day, whether she's actively working the business or not, because she has her money working for her. That kind of income is called passive income, or sometimes residual income. Done right, passive income can FAR outstrip anything you can earn from a paycheck. So the aim of the Prosperity Convoy is to build passive income streams that will make "working for the man" unnecessary.

That's enough for tonight, as I've got to return to the "real" world and get myself to bed, since I have to get up early to go deliver my current freight. Please, please, please let me know how you like (or don't like) this blog, and what else you want to learn about taking the on-ramp to the road to prosperity. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy day to read this. I hope it will be some value to you, and I'll see you on the aforementioned road to prosperity.

Why, Oh Why?

Last time ("Just Over Broke") I promised to discuss Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) companies in this installment. However, I want to introduce another concept that is important for successful people first. I'll get back to MLMs next time for sure.

Whenever you decide whether or not to do something, I'm sure you first ask yourself, "Why should I do this?" Well, probably not for auto-response actions, such as breathing or ducking out of the way of a baseball rocketing your way; those responses are (hopefully) already hard-wired into your system. But for actions that require a conscious decision, you need to answer that question, one way or the other. A critical juncture for asking, "Why" is as you decide upon your career's course.

It's easy to answer the question, "Why do I work?" with, "To earn money to support myself." That's the basic human need. But make sure you take it to the next level and ask yourself, "Why do I work for someone else?" and, "Why would I start my own business?"

People who start and run their own businesses (a.k.a. the self-employed and entrepreneurs) have asked those last two questions and found their "Why", their reason to follow they course they have chosen. They have found that their Why overrides the risks, uncertainties, and extra work inherent in "hanging their shingle."

One successful woman I know likes to travel. The freedom to set her own schedule, and the income she earns from her own successful businesses allow her to see the country and the world. Travelling is her Why for running her own businesses, instead of working for someone else.

My Why for wanting to run my own business is a desire to be able to donate money to worthy causes that need financial help. Dave Ramsey, the personal finance "Act Your Wage" guru, says that it's a moral imperative for the good (moral, law-abiding) people to make as much money as possible to use it for good, so the criminals don't get it and use it for their nefarious purposes. That struck a chord with me, so that has become my Why. And, ever since I took to the road as a truck driver, my second Why is to get off the road, back home with my family, and resume my "normal" life.

Actually, I have a third Why, too. I know a lot of people are having a hard time financially in our current economy. Perhaps you're one of them. Because of my study of personal finance and entrepreneurship, I know the solution, and I want to help out. You are a worthy cause, too! (Though I'll donate this information instead of cash--I'm not to that point yet.) That's my Why for writing this blog.

So what's your Why?

• Do you need a little extra cash each month to ease the bills burden?
• Do you have a favorite charity you'd like to help out?
• Do you have children that will one day be going to college, and the escalating cost of that scares you?
• Do you want to get out and see the world?
• Do you just hate your job and want to be able to leave it all behind?

Whatever it is, if it's stronger than your Why for working a JOB (and the supposed security that provides), just drop me a note and we'll work together to get you a spot in the Prosperity Convoy.

Thanks for reading today. I look forward to seeing you on the road to prosperity.

P.S., Please give me some feedback in the form of a Comment below. Do you like this blog? Is the information I'm presenting: Helpful? Clear? Intriguing? Pure dreck? And if you like it, be sure to sign up as a Follower over there on the right side of the page. Thanks much!

Just Over Broke

I must confess, those "secrets" I mentioned in my introduction to this blog ("Start Your Engines") are not really secrets at all. If you go to the Personal Finance and Small Business section(s) of any well-stocked bookstore, you'll find oodles of books laying out all the information you need to prosper. I particularly like (and recommend) authors such as Ric Edelman, Robert Kiyosaki, and Dave Ramsey, just to name a few. I've gleaned the information I provide in this blog from their books, and those of other authors as well. So what I'm providing here is not new or revolutionary. It just may be to you, though.

Though not secret, personal finance information is not being taught in our schools. Most people who want to get a handle on their finances and learn how to become financially successful need to go looking for the information. And most people don't know enough (or don't care, or are too un-motivated) to go looking. So I'm making it my crusade to get you to know, care, and get motivated to get on the road to financial security.

The first--and probably most important--thing to realize about becoming financially secure is that most people will never get there by being an employee. Think about it: companies hire the people who will do the work they need done and pay them as little as possible. Then they charge as much as they can ("as much as the market will bear") for their products and services. So if you're an employee, you're getting paid the least your company can pay, but when you go out to buy the things you need, you're being charged as much as the sellers can get. Not a good formula for socking away the ol' nest egg. Especially in this day and age in which companies are cutting way back but everything is getting more and more expensive. That's why "JOB" is really an acronym for, "Just Over Broke".

The people who do become financially secure, financially independent, or--dare we say it?--wealthy are those who own businesses. Gazillionaire J. Paul Getty once said, "I'd rather have one percent of the efforts of 100 people than 100% of my own efforts." He also said, "To build wealth today, you must be in your own business." The wealthy have learned to leverage other people's time and efforts instead of their own to earn their income. If you're an employee, that's what your employer is doing with you, leveraging your time to build wealth for the company's shareholders. When you own a business, you earn passive income as the business hums along while you're doing something else.

Of course, starting a business can cost gobs and gobs of money, depending on the business. And that's a deal breaker for most people right there. Fortunately, a business model exists that allows people to get in for only a modest investment and grow a business to secure their financial futures. Not only that, it allows them to help others to do the same. The problem is most people--the ones who are "just over broke"--have preconceived ideas about this model and immediately tune out to its amazing possibilities. But the people who "get it" and are making it work for them can cite a well-known saying: "Those of you who say it can't be done are in the way of those of us doing it."

Can you guess what this mysterious and wondrous business model is? That's right, it's what's known in the business world as "Multi-Level Marketing", or MLM. In my next installment, I'll discuss MLMs in more detail, present the preconceived arguments against them, and refudiate--er, refute--each argument in turn. But for now, I hope you've learned that the road to financial independence does not follow the "employee" route. You've got to be a business owner to earn enough to secure your future. And I'm here to help you do that.

Thanks for reading and learning today. Please contribute your comments and questions, and I'll see you on the road to wealth.

Start Your Engines

A few years back--in a previous life before circumstances led me to earn my commercial driver's license (CDL) and head out as an over-the-road truck driver to earn my living--I immersed myself into financial education, learning the "secrets" of the wealthy. These secrets covered topics about making money, keeping money, and what to do with it once you made it and kept it. At that time, I tried to follow those secrets, but in my eagerness did them wrong and failed miserably. (Hence my trucking career.) Now that I've had time to reflect on those failures (and believe me, on this job you have lots of time for reflection), I'm ready to give it another go. But this time, it's not about me. It's about YOU!

You see, the more I learned during my financial education, and then thought about it in the intervening years, the more convinced I became that all this information should not be kept secret. Everyone needs to know all this stuff so we all can start up the road to prosperity. So I'm making it my job, my quest, my responsibility to build a convoy of as many people as possible who want (and/or need) to ease their financial burdens and get rolling on that road.

In this blog I'm going to present that information you need to know and chronicle the convoy's progress. I invite you to be a regular contributor via the comments feature of the blog. Ask questions and give us updates about what you're doing to improve your financial future and how it's coming along.

Now a couple of caveats about me and this blog:

• I don't claim to be an expert in finances and wealth-building. I'm just a regular guy who has read quite a bit about it, recognizes its importance, and has a passion to spread the word. I can't guarantee that the information I give you will lead to your own personal prosperity. That will depend on your own efforts.
• I can't promise any kind of regular schedule in posting to this blog. With my trucking job come very irregular periods of enough down time to compose coherent essays. But I'll post when I can, because I do want us all to succeed, and sooner is always better.

Thanks for checking out the Prosperity Convoy. I do hope you'll start up your engine and join us on the on ramp to the road to financial security.