How to Become Financially Successful

To increase the odds of making the right choices to becoming successful, you don’t have to invent a new thought process and lifestyle. All you need to do is copy how successful people think, how they play the game of life, and how they are different from the average person. Logically, if you learn to think like successful people, you will do the things successful people do, and you too most likely will be a success. Believe it or not, the first thing most successful people do is decide where they’re going then they head in that direction. Not timidly and full of fear, but with passion and gusto.

Ten key points to help you on the road are as follows:

Set long-term goals. Without knowing where you want to go, how in the world can you get there? Your initial goals shouldn’t be in ways to make the most money. They should revolve around what you’re most passionate about. Don’t open a car dealership if you love plants. Open up a nursery. Duh!

1. Focus on those goals and put real energy into achieving them. Half-baked efforts usually will lead to half-baked results or, more likely, no results at all.
2. Plan a strategy. Map out the direction you plan on taking to achieve your goals. Keep in mind your strategy may change as conditions change including your level of experience and education. This is not a blood oath between you and a piece of paper; it’s a map to lead you in the direction you want to go.
3. If you need extra training, get it. Don’t be making a bunch of excuses about how hard it’s going to be or you don’t have time. Between the internet, the library, and successful people you will meet, you can learn everything you need to know. That is, if you really want to learn. (Yep, there are people like that.).
4. Don’t procrastinate. Start today and always keep your eye on the goal. Forget about the get-rich-quick plan. You’re going to have to put work into achieving your goal. Even a thief has to put hard work into his or her goal of achieving a perfect heist. After the heist, the thief then has to worry about being caught. Talk about stress.
5. Set out to win. If you’re investing in a business, don’t worry about competition because winning in spite of any competition is part of what you have considered in your strategy. Don’t waste your time considering how you might fail as this thinking often becomes a self-fulfilled prophesy.
6. Think for yourself. If you tend to follow the herd, reflect on the fact that most people in the herd aren’t financially successful.
7. Take calculated risks. Remember, everything is a risk so go ahead take risks. I know, that’s scary, but overcoming this fear is important to your success.
8. Be smart about your time. Working hard does no good, if you don’t work right. Invest your time wisely; it’s your most important asset. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American worker over 25 watches 2.6 hours of television a day. That’s 949 hours a year or equivalent to about 24 forty-hour workweeks. If you consider the average month as having four weeks, that’s 6 months. That’s a lot of time better spent on your goals rather than improving somebody’s ratings.
9. Be passionate about your life and how you live it. Passionate people are exciting to be around and often have opportunities presented to them that the Caspar Milquetoasts never enjoy.
10. In the name of the finance gods, pay off your debts and quit borrowing. Stop with the ‘I’ve got to have it now’ thinking and teach your kids to do the same thing. If it’s really worth having, it’s worth waiting for.
11. Have fun. Play hard. Let’s face it; you’ve only one life as the person you are, so spend some of it having fun. You will discover the more passionate you are about life in general, the more fun you’ll have.

Let me conclude by giving you some wise words of advice from John D. Rockefeller Senior, a man who was not born into loads of money, but certainly mastered the skills of making it:

"The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my servant and not make myself a slave to the money…" (John D. Rockefeller Senior, 1904)