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1. Building A Story Brand

By Donald Miller

2. Summary

- Marketing and branding isn't only for product that is exchanged for money, it's for you as well.

  • The average brain daydreams 30% of the time. To shift this is to tell a magnificent story.

    • Build a Character: Talking about your product and what you sell.​

    • Conflict: The problem you are here to solve.

    • Guide the "Hero": The brand and the leader. Guide the consumer in how to use your product and guide into buying.

    • Hero: The customer. Everyone wants to be a hero, so don't have instant conflict.

    • Plan: Keep simple, straight forward, & not complicated.

    • Call to Action: What and how are the consumer going to buy your product. Why do they NEED your product? 

    • Vision: How their life will change if they do or don't buy it. 

  • Examples of good Story Tellers: 

    • Donald Trump: Guiding the People into believing their opinions were being heard​. (Hillary Clinton: Being the Hero)

    • Chik-Fil-A: High in Moral and Ethics, makes people feel good about buying a sandwich by making it very easy and efficient for people to purchase.

    • In all my businesses I try to always guide people opposed to being the hero, because when you try to be the hero you end up looking like a douche. For example the people who market with pornstars and rub in your face how much money they have... Don't be a fool that falls for that  

3. External Problem

- Physical Problem

  • The Tangible problem at hand that needs to be solved. 

    • This is the real life situation that needs to be taken care of or at least changed to make it better. Telling Real Situations that could happen.

- The Story of Survival

  • ​Your brain listens to things that help you survive, so be interesting. Be relatable to how you can guide someone to success.​

    • Talk about how someone can make more money, healthier to survive longer, or how to love better. This is interesting.​

    • Example: The bomb that is blown up in the beginning of all movies, Hunger that people encounter, Lasers destroying things.

    • In all my businesses I try to help people all across the board. Whether you want to think so or not, those are my intentions. Hint.. this website. 

4. Internal Problem 

- Emotional Problem

  • The Feeling someone needs to feel satisfied by the conflict and you are here to help them accomplish that satisfaction.

    • Like Yoda guiding Luke into becoming a Jedi. Like Chik-Fil-A being fast food which are usually a gross and snobby environment, but them taking care of the restaurants and giving above and beyond experiences.​

    • For me, I see this as a form of manipulation which works for a lot of salesman, for example when a salesman for a security home system came over and asked "how would you feel if you didn't get a security system in your home and someone came in and threatened your family", which might have worked for a lot of people to scare them, but I told him to F%&$ off to say the least and got my own security system from amazon. But if you go against the norm of a negative emotional situation and make it positive, you will always win the customer. Just like customer service, if you genuinely care about the problem and see as they see it, you will be remembered.  

5. Philosophical Problem

- Morality & Ethics of the Problem to be Solved

  • Charities, Recyclables, Economically safe products, Employee Satisfaction, Not putting money first concepts are all ways to accomplish this.

    • Business Examples: Good Vs. Evil in movies are exciting because you want the Good to always win. Same goes for companies doing good things, but usually mean they will be more expensive as a reaction, thus making it hard for normal customers to not purchase. Hell if we were all rich, wouldn't we all buy organic and buy local? I would at least. 

    • I don't start any business with the intention to make money, I do however try to solve all the problems listed above to even try to validate the idea and see if people would like it. I try to make things my own and find flaws in existing companies and try to make them better for the consumer. Money is just a wonderful side effect when accomplishing this. Something that I would want to use.  

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1. Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000

By Pete Blackshaw

2. Summary

- Running a Business in Today's Consumer Driven World

  • Consumers are everything to a business, so satisfy them.

    • 1. Trust: Being Credible is huge in this over saturated market.

    • 2. Authenticity: Being Real and Sincere to all consumers reminds them that you are human as well.

    • 3. Transparency: Being Honest and Being Vulnerable is how you can achieve all the above. Living with the responsibilities of owning your own business and success has to happen.  

    • 4. Listening: People wanting to be heard. Just Listen.

    • 5. Responsiveness: Customer Service Responding quickly. This is huge because communication is very important. People are scared of being scammed, so always be professional.

    • 6. Affirmation: Customer Reviews are important to learn how to adapt.

  • Examples of good Businesses that have performed this for me: 

    • Cabela's is an amazing store in the fact that they always go above and beyond to help me dial in my equipment even if I have bought nothing there. Sometimes spending 3 hours getting free lessons. 

    • Costco gives me amazing service and make me feel like I am at a country club or hotel with the amazing interaction they give to me, beside calling me mam all the time when they approach me, LOL. Refunds are amazingly very simple as well.

3. Credibility

- Consumer Generated Media (CGM)

  • These are the reviews you receive or give, blogs that you are mentioned in or interact in (include social media sites), and just everything that helps the consumers be heard.

    • This can be beneficial or harmful for many reasons. With today's technology it is so easy for the consumer to be heard, so try to please everyone that purchases your product and if you don't learn how to problem solve the negative situation and fix it so it doesn't stem to anything further. 

- Purchase Cycles

  • These are the personality types of a consumer after releasing a product

    • ​​Pre-Shoppers: Wanting to be among the first to purchase. Brand Ambassadors: Rave about the good. Detractors: Try to dissect every part of your product but are looking for only the bad. Gatherers: Trying to find information about your product. Loiters: Window shoppers that don't actually purchase. Free Loiters: The Window Shoppers that have a lot to say about the product without even purchasing it. Imposters & Megaphoneys: are the hired and paid reviews of the product.

- Reach

  • The People that know about your product, Review your product, and follow your product.

    • Today you can sponsor posts on all platforms, set up an account and be everywhere on people's blogs and social media, be on google as well and Pay per click campaigns. The easiest Reach nowadays is the Internet. Learn it to be more successful.

4. Consumer Affairs

- Sales

  • The Product development, the legality of the sales and product you are trying to sell, the Market of which your product is based in, Human Resource development for employees and staff, Your packaging and Design and how the consumer receives your product is huge.

    • I buy Apple products because I like the sleek design and the simplicity. 

- Responding

  • Responding to consumer complaints quickly through email, answering phones, or in person, however you do it, make it important. 

    • Just even as much as informing the customer to why the issue could have happened is a good step in not making the matters worse. From experience though, there are people out in this world that just want free shit and to get under your skin. Learn how to deal with them as they could be a pest to your business and hurt.​

- Fill Unmet Needs

  • Always be listening, shift to consumer media, walk the talk, empower people, start conversations, think beyond loyalty, rethink the way we build it, protect it, and nurture it. Adapting to people's needs is a make it or break it in today's society. 

    • Learning the new platforms and third party services is hard, but worth it most of the time. If you can learn where the trend is going and follow it, you will last for a lot longer as if you didn't. You can use all the billion dollar companies out there to learn what they have adapted and what they have kept the same due to the mission statement or recipe.​

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

- Negative Keywords

  • Buy Negative Keywords related to your product and give information about how you are better or how you can solve that problem that people are searching.

    • Business Examples: A Course on Safety and Sanitation for knowledge on outbreaks going on currently. For example buy a keyword phrase "E Coli outbreak" when there is a new outbreak in the market but you buy it for your information business about how you can prevent outbreaks or how to avoid. Or a better example is a hand sanitizer company who buys "Alcohol poisoning with hand sanitizer" and shows that the hand sanitizer they are selling has a fraction of alcohol compared to other competitors so that's why they should buy that hand sanitizer.

- Where People Blog

  • Find where people blog and start the conversation there. Find your demographic and blog where they blog on the internet.

- Be Everywhere

  • Build Content that is interesting. 

    • Seeing some of the shit that is on the internet these days is hilarious, but worth studying. To be interesting these days you have to conform to what is popular. Be relevant and change as people change in the world. ​

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1. Unlimited Power 

By Tony Robbins

2. Summary

- In Reality, there is no such thing as failures, just learning experiences.

  • The way you can consciously change how your mind processes failures, can't change difficult situations. Seeing failures as only opportunities is the best way to overcome them and become successful. 

    • Not being scared of failure is how you can take educated risks to momentum your success.​​

  • Emulating success is a good way to perpetuate yourself to the greatest with only starting out. 

    • This is huge amongst the life coaches and you hear the quote multiple times by Pablo Picasso, "Good Artists copy, Great Artists Steal" meaning that to get above your competition start with what has worked for them and make it better, in your own way. 

    • I can't tell you how many times I have heard this in books, webinars, or programs I have taken, saying that if all the successful people in this world are recommending this, then do it!

  • People read your body language and make predictions of who you are.

    • This goes back to the ole' you have 30 seconds to impress someone and most of that judgment is from how you look and communicate with your body.​

  • Examples of good Failure learners, Emulators, and Body language talkers: 

    • The Author himself, Tony Robbins is wonderful at all three. All leaders you have ever known are typically really good at all three. Steve Jobs making other people's ideas extraordinary like with Steve Wozniak and revolutionizing them. Also, I love the example of how Steve Jobs "failed" by getting pushed out by Apple which actually stemmed Steve to make Pixar and other great inventions before being asked to come back to Apple.  

3. Emulating Success

- Copy a Successful Person

  • If you want to be competitive, always know how the successful people in your career are doing things first. 

    • Extract what is going well for them, and make it better with your own personality. 

    • Let's use my website for example, I have read books, listened to summaries of books, listened to audiobooks, but yet I never re-read any of them, I just reflect on my Notes (What I am sharing with you) to remember what the book was about and most importantly how I can use within my own life and put into action. I made this website better in my own eyes because it cuts out the bs and gives you straight starting points instead of false get rich quick schemes.  

- Practice, Envision, Reality

  • When you can visualize how people do things and actually believe you are there, you won't be intimidated in real life when you have to do those things that successful people people, by re-playing what it looks like in your head first

    • The best examples I can give to you on how I have done this very well in my life is while playing sports and lifting. I remember when I was playing baseball in college and before every game our coach would make us get in our stretching circle and close our eyes and would go through scenarios of our at bats, in the game we were about to play. He would tell us the count, what pitch is coming, and  actually helped envision the baseball being pitched and hitting it.

- Thinking of also how those successful people have failed and learning from that is also very important.

  • Learning what "not" to do is one of the most beneficial observation traits anyone can endure. 

    • In my own life this was huge with the restaurant life. Restaurants do fail more than most other businesses because most of the time the location is shit or poor ownership. My friend owned a dive bar growing up that was let's just say... very divey, but also very profitable. I inherited all the things that worked out like being loyal to customers, being fun, and having fun, also singing karaoke 7 days a week. What I learned that didn't work was when you train staff like ass, you get ass employees. If you store food in the cooler wrong or keep the kitchen dirty, it will reflect your business and city regulation citations. If you drank too much at your own bar, people will notice.     ​

4. Body Language

- Deep Breaths with Stress

  • Controlling your breathes can relax you when you are feeling anxiety, nervousness, and stress. 

    • Before big speeches I remember to practice my breathes, because I remember always forgetting to breathe when giving speeches. I would slow down just a fraction so I could keep calm giving presentations in front of hundreds or tens of people. 

- Open your Chest, Smile, and Remember to have good posture.

  • Your confidence within yourself can radiate throughout your appearance. Showing your chest shows confidence that you are somewhat vulnerable to the person your talking to. Confidence can be sexy and professional.

    • I challenge you to smile at everyone one day and see how many people smile back. You will feel weird like I do most of the time, but when someone smiles back, it gives you a good feeling that you made someone happy. Trust me, its better than keeping your head down in life. I also know that salesman have ruined this for us by fake smiling to everyone to try to sell something, but do it out of the kindness of your heart. It might lead to your next girlfriend, business partner, etc. like it has done for me.​

- Listening with your Eyes

  • Engagement and genuine listening is very important with people respecting you and wanting to interact with you. 

    • If you follow all of these steps, you will learn something from everyone. From the dumbest of people to the smartest of people if you just listen. You can learn also from what not to do... remember that.​

5. Communication Preferences

- Audio listeners

  • Vocal Communication is when you like to hear people talk and like talking.

    • I personally like to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, and comedians in the car or when I'm working out (Because I'm weird I've been told I guess)

- Visual listeners

  • Written and Video communication is when you prefer to see things visually to communicate with emails, Video webinars, and/or physical books.

    • I like reading actual books mainly just at night only because it takes me a while to wake up and I'm a night owl, but I love watching videos to learn everything because you can learn so much more effectively. ​

- Touch listeners

  • Kinesthetic lovers feel connected through touch.

    • People that always touch your shoulders when talking to you, shake your hand multiple times, etc. typically feel more engaged with the person with physical touching. I personally don't like this method, but it is very effective when becoming a leader.​

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1. The 4-Hour Workweek 

By Timothy Ferriss

2. Summary

- Attaining the lifestyle you want by being more productive and automating your income streams

  • The book is based on writing your own rules and hiring people to do things that drag you down.

    • I like this book because it helps you figure out the alternative way of of having a clear head when doing so much. Hiring a person to do the things that I hate doing or that is so time consuming is so important to my sanity.

  • Step outside your comfort zone

    • You always here from mentors that you will never be successful feeling comfortable, and damn that is the truth. You think all self made entrepreneurs have felt comfortable through their journey? I highly doubt it unless they have daddy funds or a safety net given to them. 

  • Be Effective, not efficient: Don't do everything right, just do the right thing.

  • Time is money and you need to do things to give you more of it.​

    • Having multiple streams of income is important so that you aren't relying on one source your entire life. That is also including your retirement funds​. 

  • Examples of good Effective leaders

    • Some of the greatest figures have simplified their life so well they even wear the same color outfits every single day so that they didn't have to think about what they wore and knew that they were confident in already. For example: Obama, Steve Jobs, Carrie Donovan, Johnny Cash, Albert Einstein to name the few.

3. New Rich

- Time

  • If you feel like you don't have any time, find out a way to delegate it to someone that can do it for you. Thinking smarter, not harder. Be aware of time thieves and avoid them and those things to the fullest. ​

    • I personally hate doing the laundry, I can do everything else immaculately but for some reason laundry is so hard for me to keep up on, so I higher

- Taking Action Now

  • Excuses will be the death to everyone's success and just knowing how to start things and taking action now is key to your own success.

    • The best examples I can give to you on how I have done this very well in my life is while playing sports and lifting. I remember when I was playing baseball in college and before every game our coach would make us get in our stretching circle and close our eyes and would go through scenarios of our at bats, in the game we were about to play. He would tell us the count, what pitch is coming, and  actually helped envision the baseball being pitched and hitting it.

- Re-Writing the rule Book

  • Things work differently for everyone. Learn what works best for you and commit 100%.

    • In my own life I understood that that having a kid and a wife that I both love very much made it very difficult, being that today for some reason everyone seems to hint to "forget" those because they will cherish your hard work, while in reality that doesn't work for me. That is why in fact I have only made above average income my entire life and I am super proud of myself because I can stay balanced that way.     ​

4. Be Effective, not Efficient

- Productivity

  • Do the right things at the right times/ Time at work is the easiest metric of productivity, but it doesn't mean they give the best work. 

    • Hell, speaking of restaurants, I can run a successful restaurant being at the business for 4 hours a day. That being, I work my ass off for those 4 hours, but I can get it done. Don't fall for the modern stamp. 

- 80/20 rule

  • Being efficient can be done with unimportant things and important things as well. Being effective is using your time to only do the important things. 20 percent of the work produces 80 percent of the results. 

    • This is why the book is so appealing, because it pretty much says that you can cut your 40 hour a week job to 8 hours a week, leaving you a lot of time to mess around. That being said, I feel like this is saying don't waste your time on stupid things you could hire someone else to do beside yourself so you can make sales and make money instead.​

- Getting Rid of Distractions

  • Emails are a huge distraction to a lot of business owners as it is the main form of spam and BS connections. Have a secretary for example filter through all of these emails, so that the ones that will make you money are your main focus. 

    • While I am small, I look at every single email and phone call. Most recently, since making more money, I have been hiring someone to filter through all my meetings and sales interviews and this has honestly helped me so much that I have been happier throughout my daily life.​

5. Residual Income

- Business that always makes Money

  • When your asleep your business is making you money, when your on vacation your business is making you money, hell when even golfing your business is making you money.

    • This is way easier said than done, but once you achieve this it is an amazing feeling, even if it is $20 a week. 

- Validation

  • Knowing if there is a need for your business by asking real life people if they would buy it. Find real answers to if your idea would make money before spending your savings on it.

    • This is where you can use the wonderful platforms of modern society. Go on facebook and ask random people if they would buy your idea. Go on google ad-words and make a fake profile and see if people actually visit it. Go on the streets and see if random real people would actually buy it. ​

- Professionalism

  • Act like one and be picky about your customers. Some problem customers just aren't worth your stress. Go Premium, make a big promise, and keep it. 

    • This is how you can run a business headache free. If everything is in place than you can start saying no to customers that just plain out suck ass. They are everywhere and yes they will give someone else their business, but they are bossy and will take your valuable time away from you, the time you could be making money elsewhere.

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1. The 4-Hour Body 

By Timothy Ferriss

2. Summary

- Attaining your ideal body can be a lot more simple than you think. By avoiding white carbs & drink calories and eating a lot of protein, legumes, & lentils, you can base your diet very efficiently.

- Breakfast should contain a lot of protein and fats like turkey bacon, eggs, and cottage cheese.    

- Eat 1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon a day (Saigon) to control glycemic levels from carbs.

3. Working out and Losing Weight

- Limited Workouts

  • Minimal workout for maximum results. Harajoku Moment (Sorry for my spelling) is the point when you know you have to change something and doing the most effective dose while not overdoing your workouts. Minimum Effort. 

- Losing Weight

  • Russian Kettle Bell Swings: 3 sets of 5 deadlifts. Touch exact spot on ground, then pendulum movements. Accum protocol method= squats with barbell over your head.     ​

4. Sex Drive

- Increase Lobito

  • Change positions and pressure during sex. This will increase LH cholesterol and testosterone before bed.  

5. Sleep and Improvements

- REM sleep and Cold Showers

  • Fill bathtub full of ice or cold showers, fill bathtub full of ice or cold showers before bed.

  • 2 hours of REM can be done with 4.6 hours of core sleep and 3 20 minute naps.

- Increase sprint and vertical

  • Sprint= Pose method, lean forward when running, make contact with the balls of your feet, bend your knees, 90 strides per minute per leg is ideal. 

  • Vertical= Start with hands over head (Shoulders contribute almost 20% of the jump height) the faster you pull yourself in a half squat the bigger vertical.

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1. SAM WALTON: Made in America

By Sam Walton & John Huey

2. Summary

- This book is about the most successful business man in the United States and how he accomplished Wal-Mart's Success.

  • Value of hard work.

    • Blatantly copying the good idea of others.​

    • The Great Depression work Values and how his parents made it through, including himself as he had to work.

    • Customers first and helping people afford things.

    • Competition only made his business stronger. Learn how.

    • Celebrate success and learn from the failures. Knowing when.

    • Employees into associates and finally valuing them.

    • Giving back to the community.

  • - Examples that I can remember: 

    • Sam Walton grew up in the Great Depression and had to learn the value of hard work while helping out his parents and seeing his dad and mom work their asses off. 

    • He would travel around to different countries to measure aisle length, observe successful traits like saving money on shelving, and checkouts at front only, learning to appreciate the employees and customers, and even observing cheers that brought good team bonding. 

    • Sam Walton always wanted to invest in the associates children's education so that they could be successful managers of Walmart after graduating. 

3. Value of Hard Work

- Always learn how to Make Extra Money

  • Excuses will always keep you from your success. Just go out and do something and work hard at it. Sam Walton talks about getting his first job at eight years old and working his ass off.

    • You are riddled with how you can avoid this on social media and get rich quick schemes all the time in sponsored posts. This is why I am telling you the hard truth and telling you how it is.

    • Even if someone gets rich with a pyramid scheme or can travel and work, they are guaranteed working their ass off and always learning themselves.

    • If your responsible enough with a million dollars, you will be respected enough as well.  

- Do your Research

  • ​Play close attention to competition and always be above the curve. Don't be scared of change.​

    • For me, I actually get more nervous if something doesn't change, because I am always expecting something to and am prepared with options one two and three. Be prepared for all outcomes and learn from every part.

- Putting in the Effort

  • The Sooner you identify what it takes to start a business, work as a self-employer, and fail at a younger age. The more you will be prepared for when you are older and it is harder to snap back from failure.

    • ​Have I mentioned I have failed almost 3 Restaurants just starting out my career, joined pyramid schemes myself, and even get fat & dumped.

    • I thrive on humbleness and not being scared of your roots is actually a way more exciting journey than saying I started a social media platform one day and bam, billionaire. 

    • Failing actually makes me know I am destined to be an entrepreneur while it can bore others and mainly scare most.  

4. Blatantly Copy 

- Sales Tactics

  • Having cashiers only up front and minimal amounts. This is great with saving money by employing less throughout the store. Also, saving money on using metal shelves to keep prices competitive and displaying discounted goods was a huge part of Wal-Mart's success. 

    • Wal-Mart's stores goals back in 1955 were 6% profit margins. Everything listed above were all someone else's idea made better by Sam Walton. 

    • Purchasing power and buying in bulk was also a huge role in successful competitive prices.

- Wal-Mart Cheer

  • This activity visibility boosted worker morale. He stole this from a store in 1975.

    • Some presidents watched this first hand and probably observed a wonderful team bonding when accomplished.

    • I have personally witnessed this when I worked at a Hotel and it actually works well with getting everyone on the same page and excited to do excellent at every pre shift meeting.

- Observing Competition

  • Phil, a manager next to a K-mart started to run display shelving "role back" discounts that was a huge success. The huge displays grabbed peoples attention. Price Matching strategy made it always impossible for other companies to even compete and were known to be the most affordable brand out there.

    • Observing Competition for me is very helpful, because it simply identifies the validity of the product and I can just tweak it up to make it better. This is how I stay successful in all my industries. ​

    • Observing Competition also makes its easier to stay relevant in the fast changing market.

    • Understand what others are doing quick to learn how you can adopt it yourself. For example how Wal-Mart didn't follow the Amazon trend until it was too late. Whoops.

5. Customers, Employees, and Community.

- Customer Satisfaction

  • Free Ice Cream, 24/7 Hours Open, Affordable, Free Parking, Known to even recommend other stores if the customer was not satisfied at there's.

    • Honestly, these are all memorable and is why you can find me occasionally buying something from Wal-Mart.

    • Also, I like the Recommending other stores because it makes them seem not selfish for all the business and I have experienced this when not satisfied myself.

- Employees

  • Eventually after a trip to England in 1971 he came back and started the "associate" program which was a philosophical approach of starting a partnership with the staff and even offered stock options and cash back bonuses to them as a benefit of working there. 

    • Cha-ching. I think that employee benefits is huge with employing these days because there is so much competition and a bit saturated. I remember the most about past employees benefits than I do my salary. ​

- Community

  • Sam Walton has awarded 70 college scholarships per year (when this book was written) for employees children. He also says that Wal-Mart saves the community 10 percent and gives communities jobs and a lot of them.

    • Building a good relationship with the community is huge with brick and mortar businesses because it's not like you can just pack up and move that easy if you make a bad impact somewhere.

    • Regulars at any business is such a huge dent with the overall business that they should be your target to continue their business with you. 

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1. A Wealth of Common Sense

By Ben Carlson

2. Summary

- This book's purpose is to put investing into reality without the fluff.

  • Remember that the house almost and most of the time always win and once again if you don't have a butt ton of money, it will make it impossible to "follow the herd" and make money.

    • Don't Invest the same way as big institutions. Big institutions have a lot of purchasing power and can even lower the fees associated with trading. 

    • Also, big institutions have employees that work full time on their portfolios at all times, unlike most normal people.

    • The Yale Model

    • Knowing what not to do

    • High Reward, High Risk

    • Know your Personality before investing.

  • Damn, ain't this the truth. I like the subtext on the Cover though saying that "Why simplicity trumps complexity in any investment plan". Simplifying things is usually always the best plan.   

3. Unfair Advantage & Emotions

- "Yale Model"

  • David Swensen is the Chief investment officer for Yale. He is very successful with 14% gains. Yale gets so much money from grants and donations they can receive cheaper management fees and also can be established as a non-profit.

    • Well Farts, what is in it for me than, lets continue.

- What Not to DO, and What Not to Expect

  • ​Don't Expect the Get Rich Fast scheme, this isn't real. Don't follow the herd, and don't be overconfident. This could save you 3-4% in investments.​

    • Even doctors agree with me. Also, Ben Carlson went to Yale for his undergrad so he might actually know what he is talking about. Smart people are either telling you that the get rich fast scheme is BS or the ones running one. Think about it...

- Being Emotionally Aware

  • How our emotions influence our actions and the people around us can even apply with investing. Invest in things that you truly understand.

    • Listen to the man. I have invested in a lot of stupid shit in the past just because I heard about it on either social media or the friend and got really excited to invest in it, that it usually was a flop right after the buzz dropped. Remember bit coin? 

4. Taking Risks for High Rewards

- Rewards

  • Risks are always attached to rewards. There will be a bumpy ride if you're hunting big rewards. Nothing's FREE, otherwise we would all be successful.

    • Once again, aim for the stars, but be persistent to truly succeed. Having patients and knowing the "common sense" model is a helpful way to always be prepared for other options.

- Stocks, Bonds, and Cash Return Examples

  • Stocks average return from 1928-2013: Stock= 6.5%, Bonds= 1.9%, and Cash=0.5%.

    • This might not be much of a surprise to you, but the truth is investing returns pennies if all you have is pennies to begin with. My recommendation is to invest when you have money or at least invest what you are okay with losing to learn how the market works.​

- Diverse Portfolio and Commitment

  • Theory is that if one goes down, the others will go up and support your loss. If you do it right. Fidelity Investments revealed that the best investments are the ones that are forgotten.

    • Good Ole' Benjamin Franklin was a master in investing and really understood what compounding interest was. A good example of this was when he gave Boston and Philadelphia 1000 pounds with the stipulations of both cities had to invest the money compounding by 5% yearly and couldn't touch it for 100 years than to only be able to spend three quarters of it on city improvement projects which was about 3/4 of 657,506 and had to invest the 1/4 in the same way.

    • Compounding interest is huge when thinking about investing.  

5. Personality Investments

- Knowing your Personality

  • Take a Personality Quiz to better understand yourself. What are your core investment values and what is your personal long-term goals?.

    • Everyone is different and that is what you should be aware of when investing. I want different things than you do, so be aware of that. Don't just think that cause you want money, you will get it.

- Investment Plan

  • Are you a risk taker or do you want to hold on to investments? Stick to this throughout your journey so that you will never be uncertain. Put this on paper and reflect every time you invest. 

    • I am aware when I am a risk taker and when I am a invest and hold investor. I believe you can do both as long as you are aware of what you are doing.​

- Stay Calm and Composed

  • Change your personality in the investment game to become successful. Understand what your getting yourself into and know that there are risks involved always. 

    • Don't invest money that you truly need and that would really piss you off because now your bankrupt overnight. 

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1. The One-Page Financial Plan

By Carl Richards

2. Summary

- This book is about budgeting and investing.

  • Budgeting is hard, but everyone has to learn how to do it to get ahead in this world. Investing in your future and thinking about money is crucial.

    • Simple way to do both.

3. Why Money is Important to You, What are your goals, and how can you fine tune to reach them?

- You need to figure out how you value money and understand that everyone is different just like when you go to the doctors, so figure that out about yourself first. Are you really living according to your values?

  • Fine-tune your financial goals and values when unpredictable things happen in life and think of plan A, B, and C. Goals aren't set in stone. Goals an be for yourself, for your loved ones, but remember they can change.

    • Learn to Save and practice every time you get money.

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4. Make a Balance Sheet and Track 

- Your current financial situation, know your money.

  • Figuring out your assets and liabilities. Complete a T-Shape balance sheet where you write down your assets on the left side and your liabilities on the right.

    • Assets: Investments and savings​

    • Liabilities: Mortgage and debts

  • Knowing where you stand can help you save more, and pay debts off quicker.

  • Track your money and learn where you can save. Spend Less

5. Paying off Debts, Saving, and Invest like a scientist. 

- Pay off debts as a form of investment. Pay off the loans with the highest interest rate first so that you are not throwing away money. 

  • Before you invest in something, study that something like a scientist. No single stock is going to be your golden ticket, spread your risk over as many sectors as possible. Your portfolio should be in both big and small companies. 

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1. Money: Master the Game

By Tony Robbins

2. Summary

- Turn a Small nest Egg into a mountain of cash.

  • Anyone can reach financial freedom if they're dedicated, willing to save and ready to follow some steps.

    • Diversify your investments

    • Seek advice you can trust

    • Be prepared for different financial "seasons"

    • Get yourself insured

  • ULTIMATE GOAL: Spending your money the way you want.

    • THE THREE BUCKETS: Where you need to concentrate your investments​

      • First Bucket: Security Bucket. Most secure investments like bonds. Low risk, low reward.​

      • Second Bucket: Growth Bucket. A little riskier like equities, meaning stocks, and shares. Need to sit on these investments. Medium risk, Medium reward.

      • Last Bucket: Dream bucket. This bucket helps improve your lifestyle. put some profits of other buckets into this one. 

    • KEEP THE BUCKETS BALANCED

3. Compounding your Money

- Exercising your money is doing stuff with the money you make, Lazy money is letting it sit in the bank. 

  • Retirements like Pension and retirement funds will not always help you out. You have to prepare yourself for the future and always keep your finances in mind. 

  • COMPOUNDING: means letting your money develop year after year, by allowing interest to build up.

    • Benjamin Franklin gave $1,000 in 1790 for Boston and Philadelphia. They could not touch it for 100 years. in 1890 the amount was worth $6.5 Mil.

  •  ​Invest monthly, even if it's not a lot. It's like climbing a Mountain mentioned in the book... at first it's hard and you won't seem to be getting anywhere, but when you reach the top, you'll suddenly realize why you worked so hard.

4. Freedom Funds

- What is your financial goals? How much money do you think you could have to feel completely free from financial stress? Be Realistic.

  • Goal 1: Generate enough money from investments to cover basic bills, living costs.

  • Goal 2: Generate enough to cover living costs + fun things like clothing or entertainment.

  • Goal 3: Generate enough for financial independence. Just off compounding interest. 

    • Average american adult spends $34,688, so freedom funds would have to be $640,000.​

  • Goal 4: Don't make money to FREE you from work, but to improve your lifestyle.

  • Goal 5: Absolute Financial Freedom is when you can spend money on anything you want at any time!

5. Guide your Path

- People overestimate what they can accomplish in a year, but underestimate what they can accomplish in a decade. Make sure you are true to yourself when guiding your path.

  • Self-doubt will happen and might distract you. 

  • Short-term thinking: Don't be impatient. 

  • Lesson your tax burden and make sure you are writing things off. 

  • Follow smart investors to guide your path, always learn from people who have succeeded before you. Don't invest money you need.

    • Ray Dalio (Bridgewater Associates) ALL SEASON ALLOCATION.​

      • The market will change, just like seasons. Be aware of this.​

        • Put 7.5 % of your assets in gold.​

        • Put 7.5 % in commodities. Both good investments.

        • Put 30% in stocks definitely in high growth

        • & Put 55 % in US bonds.

        • Convert some savings in annuities where an insurance company guarantees future payments in exchange for immediate payments.

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1. Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

By Tren Griffin

2. Summary

- Charlie Munger is the legendary investor and financial partner of Warren Buffett. He is the vice-president of Berkshire Hathaway, and has done quite well investing.

  • The four simple ideas that help keep an eye on long term opportunities.

    •  First, treat owning a share as ownership in a business. Value the companies you invest in.

    • Second, buy discount to give yourself a margin of safety. The difference between the current market price and its intrinsic value... future cash flow. Buy at bargain prices.

    • Third, stay on the right side of the market. The bargain prices happen when you can spot mispriced assets and recognize emotions of "Mr. Market.

    • Fourth, remain unemotional when selecting investment opportunities. Don't invest because of your mood.

    • Stay Cool and rational. 

3. "Mr. Market"

- The belief that the market is as emotional as humans are, so know when the market is emotionally sad or happy can be a turn for your success. 

  • Take advantage of bargain prices so that you can create a margin of safety.

4. Investing with a System

- Simple investing techniques is how Berkshire Hathaway has been so successful. They focus on simplicity and builds off what you already know.

  • THE GRAHAM VALUE INVESTING SYSTEM, Benjamin Graham.

    • Invest only in things that you understand. ​

    • Three Baskets

      • In​ Baskets

        • Holding worthwhile potential investments & is small​

      • Out Baskets

        • Uninteresting opportunities ​

      • Too Tough Baskets

        • Holds Opportunities that look great but are currently outside competence.​

    • PATIENCE

    • Great investing requires realistic approaches and don't need to hit a homerun every time. 

5. Follow Wisdom, Courage, and Cultivate Patience

- Mental Models across a range of disciplines. Psychology, history, math, physics, philosophy, and biology all have wisdom that stems from each discipline's unique way of seeing the world

  • Examining behavior and spot similarities. 

  • How do they structure knowledge.

  • Don't abandon the assets ties to the product, understand why it happened.

    • Keep an independent mind and know when to split from the pack.​

    • Take risks with courage because you are Brave.

    • Be patient to prevent paying higher taxes, fees, and expenses by moving around your investments to much. Sit and wait.

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1. The power of now

By Eckhart Tolle

2. Summary

- Do not focus on the past or the future... Live in the present and try to separate yourself from the over-thinking mind. You need pain to survive and most pain is through experiences you have had.

  • The Ego stops you from being happy, so seperate yourself from your mind and focus on your body. When you separate yourself from your ego (mind) you will separate yourself from pain.

3. Focus on the Present Moment and Surrender

- The only moment fully available to us is NOW... not what has happened or what hasn't happened (Regret, Reminiscing, Planning, or Worrying) are all things we can't control.

  • Things happen only in a continuous stream of present moments.

  • Stop clinging to the past and stop fearing the future. 

  • Someone who doesn't live in the present tend to feed off problems, while someone who lives in the present are more calm and peaceful which is experienced as a threat.

  • Relationships: Strong opposites cannot exist in close proximity. Like a candle in the darkness, the darkness disappears. Like water on fire, the flame extinguishes.

  • Living in the present though will help you stop judging others, criticizing, or trying to change your partner, and instead see him or her as an independent person. 

  • When living in the present moment, you see problems only as individual, manageable situations that you can solve, one by one. Become Effective.

4. Observe the Mind without Judgment or Pain

- Ego: a part of your mind that controls your thoughts and behavior without you noticing.

- Separate yourself from your Mind/ Ego and Focus on your Body. Since you can't alter the past or the future, you constantly worry about things you can't possibly change... that leads to pain and anxiety.

  • Your body knows what is best for you, and listen to your body...

    • "Your body is a temple". Jesus spoke of his body missing from the grave and that his body ascended with him to heaven.

    • Buddha's six-year abstinence, when he separated his mind from his body he didn't feel more at peace, he found enlightenment when he felt at one with his body not his mind.  

  • When you overreact in a conversation, this is because of your ego. Your ego is hard to observe. Your Ego always tries to gain control over your behavior and thinking. When two egos come in contact, drama ensues. 

  • The Ego wants to control and be destructive, it knows no limits,it will bring you much suffering.  

- The Mind is your "Ego" and the Ego causes you pain by thinking about what you should have been or could have been and living for only what the future holds. 

- Pain is a self-created inner resistance to external things that you cannot change.

  • You experience pain when you are unsatisfied, but powerless to fix it. This can make you feel emotional and Negative.

  • Feeling pain however will happen, as a defense mechanism to help survive, grow, and strengthen. Be aware if pain happens for an extended period of time, it will start identifying who you are and just accepting the pain will actually make you afraid to let the pain go because you will feel like your putting your identity at risk.

  • Being that pain is mostly self-created, you can do something about it. 

  • If your body wants something, listen to it. Accept your thoughts not as bad or as good, just smile at them. If you want to observe your mind, ask yourself "What will my next thought be?"... It takes a while for your next thought to arrive. Through observing you have created a gap in flow of thinking.

5. Exist in a State of Permanent Alertness

- Active Waiting. When you're aware that something important or serious could happen at any moment, all of your focus is on the NOW. No time to daydream, plan, or remember, these are all distractions from the now.

  • When you are Actively waiting you focus on your body, thus becoming more alert to your surroundings. 

    • Jesus said to his disciples "Be like a servant waiting for the return of the master" Since they didn't know when the master would come, they become in a permanent alert state of waiting so that they don't miss the return of the master.​

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1. Fail Fast, fail often

By ryan babineaux and John krumboltz

2. Summary

- Explains that unhappiness is due to fear of failure and encouraging people to go outside their comfort zone to achieve happiness.

  • In order to have fun, take risks and embrace failure.

3. Bored with the same life?

- People fear that if they don't plan enough they will fail. When we are suppose to say "action" we say "not yet".

  • Start doing small things to see small results

  • Stop waiting for things to get better, go create something that's better.

  • Award yourself before going to do something.

4. Failing leads to success and Appreciating your Journey will help you Understand how.

- Encourage failure and remember quantity not quality. Quality never improves life because they don't even know what to improve. Comedians go to small acts first before their big tour because they want to see what jokes work first.

  • Be a beginner and embrace it. Fearing failure almost results in failure.

  • Just like a promotion or asking someone out at a bar, just try and step outside your comfort zone.

  • Reclaim your curiosity like when you were a child. Innocent curiosity brings upon ideas. Schooling sucks it up and adults get even worse. 

  • Spirituality, art, and creativity just like Steve Jobs with Apple.

5. Thinking big and acting small

- Have ambitious goals, but don't bite off ore than you can chew. See small progress, a step at a time.

  • Don't jump into a career without weighing out the options, just like someone you date before you commit officially. 

    • Try something out first.

    • Don't label yourself, or else you will limit yourself.

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