Life Changing Moments Worth Chasing After
February 10th, 2012 | Posted by Global InvestorsAt the beginning of this week, Mike wrote about life changing moments that he has experienced. It was a fun look at some of his accomplishments and defining moments. The changing moments ranged from finishing graduate school to getting married all the way to having kids. Since I’m still in my early-20s (24 is early 20s right?), I wanted to add my perspective here.
I didn’t just want to share my own life changing moments. I wanted to try something different. I’m going to look at life changing moments worth chasing after in your 20s:
Many bloggers like to claim that an education is overrated. I have to disagree with this for the simple fact that college is the best option for the majority of us (unless you’re running a million dollar business at 18) right after high school. What else do you plan on doing at 18 years old?
Finishing your education is a life changing moment because it provides you with a great sense of accomplishment. You were able to complete four years of study. You were able to stick it through. You were also able to survive all of the late night cram sessions and binge drinking weekends to actually make it out alright.
I highly recommend finishing your education in your 20s. You won’t regret it.
There’s nothing like starting your own business and making that first dollar on your own. You can go the traditional route of starting some sort of a service business or you can jump on board and start making money online. Either way it totally makes sense to try starting some sort of a side business while you have all of this energy and youthfulness on your side.
The best part is that you can start a business right now with no money. If you think that you need money to start a business, I have to let you know that you’re thinking is incorrect. With a few dollars, some time, and lots of ambition, you can easily start some sort of a side business in your 20s.
The toughest part with any business is just getting started. Once you start and get momentum on your side, anything can happen. There’s just so many opportunities out there in 2012 and moving forward.
I traveled over a dozen times in my life. In 2011 I finally ventured off to Europe on my own. This was easily one of the most life changing experiences of my life. It’s easy to go down to a party place with your buddies for a week and go wild. It’s another thing to go somewhere on your own and have to fend for yourself.
I showed up in Poland with no real plans. I had to find a place to stay, grab some food, and of course meet new friends somehow. Traveling alone was very humbling. I would totally advise any 20-something reading this to try traveling on your own at some point. It’s the best way to grow as a person and decide what you want to do next.
I’ve been told that getting married can be a pretty great thing. I don’t know much about the topic, but I’ll let you guys add your thoughts on this one.
Life changing experiences define who you are. It would be a shame to miss out on all of those great moments that are waiting for us.
Those are life changing moments that I recommend chasing after. You can have totally opposing thoughts on this topic. What did I miss? What are some of your most memorable life changing experiences?
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What Are Your Life Changing Moments?
February 7th, 2012 | Posted by Global Investors
I’m writing this post right before the birth of our 3rd child; Caleb. My wife is due in a few days and we just can’t wait until we get the signal that Caleb is ready to see the world for the first time. As we can’t wait any longer until we see his face, I’m thinking about my life changing moments. How many have I had? How did they change my life? When did I realize they really meant something to me?
Here are a few of my most important life changing moments:
This was definitely my first experience with money. Since the age of 13, I was working for my parents and making a few bucks. In a single day (right before Xmas), all my dreams, all my money and basically everything we had just disappeared. We lost our house, cars and lifestyle. We ended-up in a crappy rented house where my mom looked between the cracks in the couch to find a few pennies to buy milk. This is when I decided that I will make money and never miss anything in life ever again.
Man… she was beautiful. I still remember the sparkle in her eyes when I first met her. She was my girlfriend back then and became my one and only love. Since then, we have become more than boyfriend/girlfriend or husband & wife, we became best friends and soul mates. Life taught me how beautiful it is to love and being loved.
This is when I bound my friendship with my partner, Pete. For 40 days, we travelled throughout Europe with our backpacks. At no time were we separated. The guy, who used to be a simple school buddy, became my best friend, the godfather of our child and my partner. This experience not only founded our friendship, it also taught me to adapt to any kind of situation.
After an argument with my father, I decided to move with in my girlfriend in Montreal. We had no job, no money but a brand new car, a cool apartment and 10K on our credit cards. This was my first experience with balance transfer credit cards when I was trying to simply avoid having a late payment (while piling up ridiculous interest to be paid!). I’ve learned that my independence had no price. Until today, this is still true.
I just mentioned that my independence has no price, right? This is also why I ended-up quitting my first job after my first evaluation. After only 6 months, I decided that I would not continue working for someone who can’t appreciate me at my fair value. This is when I grew balls, once again, and find a great job.
My wedding was not a life changing moment because my wife was the prettiest woman on earth and we threw a hell of a party. It was a life changing moment because we “fired” half of our friends not so long afterwards. It was kind of weird, but we didn’t keep the same relationship with a group of friends. So we just decided to “clean-up” our friend list after our wedding just to keep the “real” friends.
Being a father at the age of 23 was an awesome experience. I became more responsible; got insured and bought my first house. William is my “little boy”, he is my source of pride as he is a killer soccer player ;-D.
2 years and 7 days after William birthday came my little clown; Amy. She is my clown because she is always ready to follow me in my quest to do stupidity and have fun! Amy is the incarnation of smiling and makes every day my most awesome day!
The 2 years when I did my MBA were the toughest in my life in general. It was rough to manage my new career, 2 babies at home (while my wife was working) + my MBA. During this rough time, I developed a true friendship with 2 of my MBA buddies which I continue to see 2 years after completing our classes. I’ve learned a lot from them and had a lot of fun too!
Oh Boy! Do you I really have to explain this one? If we hadn’t decided to create a corporation at that time and spend money on our company, I doubt we would be here today. I think that investing money in something is highly dependant on your degree of involvement. You can tell me that you are involved and blah blah blah and you didn’t have to spend money to get involved but trust me, there is nothing like borrowing 25K on your house to put it in a company to get you motivated!
The age of 28 was when I first hit the 6 figure mark. I finished my MBA and asked to work 4 days a week. This is when I understood the importance of taking care of myself, my wife and my family. I understood that money and my career were not the most important things. In fact, I realized that it wasn’t important at all. Do what you love and don’t be a slave to your job. This is what I learned by working 4 days a week. Another unexpected result: I’m way more productive by working less!
When you will read this post, my son will already be here (my wife is due on Feb 2nd) but I wrote this article on Jan 30th (to make sure that I don’t run out of posts while I’m at the hospital!). I don’t know how this new person in my life will change me and my family. I just know that he will. My first 2 kids taught me different things and I expect the same thing from Caleb. There is one thing I can tell you upfront: having kids is the true definition of living your life. They are by far the best things that ever happened to me.
All right! Now I feel completely naked! So tell me, what are your life changing moments? When and how you changed something in your life due to some event? In other words; what have you learned from life?
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Don?t ignore-go smart in life, find another way
February 6th, 2012 | Posted by Global InvestorsIf we say, that we are increasing or getting bigger in size with the time, is not at all wrong. We are improving our daily activities, changing our requirement and many more. But, with the increase in all such things it cannot be ignored that even the money or the prize of several things are also increasing. With the increase in prize, the expenses are also increasing. So, the common man is just left with few grand?s in his hands. Looking at this, the new initiative was taken by the scientist and research workers… View full post on Live News from PR-USA.net
RIP ? Rest in Poverty. The end of life time bomb
January 21st, 2012 | Posted by Global InvestorsA new report outlines how much it costs when you die in the UK
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The Face You Should Be Making Each Day of Your Life
January 18th, 2012 | Posted by Global InvestorsDo You know what this guy and I have in common?
Look carefully.
Yeah, I know, he’s cut… but that’s not what I’m talking about 
.
For those who don’t know him, it’s Tim Tebow, new quarterback star of the Denver Broncos. He came out of nowhere this season to lead the Broncos to the playoffs and even beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round (yeah, I know, they lost last weekend, but that’s not what I’m talking about either!)
You know what? I’m not a football fan.
In fact, I don’t know anything about football (besides that Peyton Manning was seriously injured and this is why the Colts missed the playoffs… so my partner says anyway ). So I don’t really know if Tim Tebow is a good player or not. I don’t know if he’s just lucky or not.
But I know one thing: I wake up with the same look in my face everyday!
Look carefully at the picture again and look at his eyes. Actually, let me do a zoom in for you:
Do you see what I see? Do you see this light in his eyes? Let’s look at a bigger close-up:
Nature’s fan will see it like this:
Others may see it like this:
And geeks like me will see it like this (it’s Merton’s magic in Final Fantasy III :
This is the look of someone who wants to win.
This is the look of someone who likes what he does.
This is the look of someone who’s looking for something better.
This is the look of someone who’s going to do whatever it takes to make his life fun.
And this is how I feel when I wake up in the morning!
I truly believe that we should all wake up at least 5 times a week with this look on our faces. You should want to get up and conquer the world and live the life you want. If this isn’t the case, there is something wrong with your life. And you know what? Life is too short to ignore this problem!
Where did I find the inspiration to look like William Wallace every morning?
Some people look at me and they just don’t get how and why I can do all these things without falling down. Many people have told me that I am heading directly towards a burnout. As if I light the candles with a blow torch… but I don’t believe in burnout. Not if you like what you do and do it with great passion.
And I think this is where the secret lies: within your passion.
I’m happy to wake up early because I love working-out while you sleep.
I’m happy to start my day while you are still in bed because it means that I spend time writing on my blogs.
I’m thrilled to start my day at work because I can’t wait to meet inspiring people.
I can’t wait to get back home to tell my lovely wife about my day and to play with the kids. I actually play with my kids 4 days out of 5 in average. Note this: playing with kids is the best way to stay young. And I also play with them because I lost the last 28 Yum Jr games we have played and I desperately want to win! Lol!
As you can see, there is not only one thing that makes me want to crush it every day of my life. I have plenty of motivations. On the other hand, someone could easily see the same day with the following perception:
I can’t believe I’m waking up while everybody else is still sleeping. But I’m afraid of getting fat so I have no other choice but to go to the gym.
I’m upset at people who take time to read the newspaper while I have to blog for an hour.
Then, I’ll have to bend over to some impossible requests from annoying clients.
And finally, I have to get back home, supervise my son’s homework and play boring games while I’m too tired to shoot myself.
See? Same day, 2 ways to see it. So the problem is not with your life. Tim Tebow didn’t become “the starting quarterback” by thinking what he sacrificed to get there sucked. Your life is just great. And Tebow just did what he had to do because he loves football with a great passion.
Now it’s up to you to make your day look like an amazing opportunity.
Remember; today is very unique: it’s your first and only chance to live it and it’s happening NOW!
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20 Life Changing Questions For 2012
December 24th, 2011 | Posted by Global Investors
Here’s a quick, short post right in the middle of the last sprint before Xmas. Annually at this time of the year, I sit back and think about what I have done so far and what is left to do for me to achieve happiness. I present you with my 20 life changing questions that you should ask yourself over the next 2 weeks:
Note: you may have a really good reason and this will help you appreciate your job even more
What the hell are you waiting for to change something if you answered no to the previous question???
That’s it! I’ll be on & off for the next 2 weeks (a guy has to take care of his family ) but I will have a $500 cash prize to giveaway tomorrow!
I wish you all a Merry Xmas and take a few minutes everyday to appreciate life.
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2 Terrible Mistakes I Made That Will Haunt You For The Rest of Your Life if You Don’t Wake Up
August 31st, 2011 | Posted by Global Investors
You probably didn’t notice but I was on vacation for the past 2 weeks and just came back to work this Monday. Those were real vacation as I left with my family for Virginia Beach. I did bring my laptop and BlackBerry but didn’t use them to work on my sites. I rarely do this but for 2 weeks, I barely answered my emails and comments on my blogs. Since I work with my brain all the time, I needed a time where I could shut it down completely and enjoy the small things of life such as a sand castle contest!
While I was getting some rest, I got stuck by a lightning: I’m making 2 terrible mistakes this year. I left my day-to-day tasks long enough to look at my online empire differently. I was shocked by the results of my reflexion. I’m sharing those 2 mistakes as you probably do them too. Regardless if you are doing it with your blog, your career, your sideline or simply in general, I’m sure you do at least one of those 2 major mistakes.
#1 I’m Getting Lazy
Don’t get me wrong, I work a lot. I work 4 days a week at my day job as a financial planner and 1 full day on my online empire. For the past 3 years, both my career and online are growing exponentially. I’ve managed to reach a 6 figure income at the age of 28 and I am now making 6 figure online too. The problem is exactly where my success is: it is becoming too easy.
If you ever hustle very hard for a long time and you have a great structure in your business or throughout your career, you will eventually be successful. This is exactly where you need to be very careful. Closing new deals at work became easier since many clients trust me now and refer me their good friends. Making money online has become easier too as my blog network is growing and I have a few niche websites earning money too.
But when everything is running smoothly and the money is coming in, most human being will tend to surf the wave instead of looking for the next big one. So I just noticed that I have been working on keeping my routine instead of bursting out of my comfort bubble to do some serious creation. I have tons of projects on paper that I didn’t start yet and tons of todo’s that have not been even looked at. I’m getting lazy because I feel that my business can keep growing without me working. Well this ain’t gonna happen! There is a reason why you are standing where you are right now and it is the sum of what you have done to get there. If you only keep doing what you do in your routine, you won’t grow anymore. Even worst, you might slow down and get engulfed by the next wave instead of surfing on it. This is exactly what happened to RIM (manufacturer of the Black Berry) while they ignore Apple and their iPhone to surf their small wave.
#2 I’m Getting Cocky
Hum… maybe I should rephrase that: I’m cocky and I’ve always been. But while a bit of cockiness is acceptable, being over-confident creates a feeling of completeness and you don’t see the urge of working harder. Worst; you start overlooking what you do thinking that you are just too good at it.
This is what I did when I first created my niche websites and started to hire VA’s and outsource a part of my work. Since I was making a lot of money, I thought that I could run multiple projects with little to not input from myself and everything would run perfectly. While I didn’t do any critical mistakes by overlooking what I did in 2011, I have realized during my vacation that I could have been much further if I had taken the time to sit down and analyzed what need to be done. I used to check and double check my strategies and carefully implement each element myself. More recently, I’ve put everything on the shelf to concentrate on writing my eBook. I thought I could do both writing and managing without looking too much at was is going on. After all, I’m an online genius and I just can’t fail… I was so wrong!
This is how I ended-up with running cash flow negative for the very first month of my company’s history. It’s not too bad as I realize my mistakes fast enough but it could have been catastrophic if I didn’t take those vacations at a perfect timing!
Look at others to understand what you do wrong
This lightning that enlighten my cavern was provoked by the reading of a blog that I know for a while but I hadn’t had the time to read recently: Budgeting in the fun stuff. Crystal, who runs this blogs among many others, started only 18 months ago and racked-up more than $7,000 in July. So while I was having my worst month, she was having her best one.
Crystal and I have 2 very different business models and we don’t always agree on the method of making money online (mind you, we are still friends ). However, I can tell you that we share many things in common such as a strong spirit, a taste for entrepreneurship, good writing skills combined with an unlimited creativity. So I was surprised but very proud of Crystal when I noticed how far she went since she started her online venture. This is when I read a few posts on her blogs about her recent success that I have realized that I was getting both lazy and cocky at the same time.
What’s next
The good news is that I am in a perfect timing to take everything back under control: I’m back from vacation and I’m on fire. I’m about to launch my first eBook from a series of 4 books about escaping the rat race and I have a complete plan to hire another VA (my main VA is on maternity leave). This fall will be a huge turning point for my company and I will share each of my steps with you in this crazy adventure!
I wonder if you ever been lazy or getting cocky after being successful at work, online or with your company? How did you wake up? Do you think that you are currently in this situation?
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Patricia Foulkrod: Abolishing Juvenile Life Without Parole in California
June 1st, 2011 | Posted by Global Investors Over 2,500 prisoners are serving juvenile life without parole in America. They were convicted at age 15, 16, 17, 18 — and they will die in prison regardless of how well they live their lives while incarcerated.
Read More…
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G. Roger Denson: Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life Plays Garden of Eden to the Family of Man
May 31st, 2011 | Posted by Global Investors Eminently lyrical and rapturous in the cinematic manifold that it kaleidoscopically brings into and out of focus onscreen with each turn of the Terrence Malick lens, Tree of Life is one of those singular cinematic milestones.
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More on Film
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Mike Ragogna: My Life Is Good: Chatting With Randy Newman
May 30th, 2011 | Posted by Global Investors
A Conversation with Randy Newman
Mike Ragogna: Randy, you have a new album, The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2., and I’m wondering why we’re not at volume ten by now.
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