September 29th, 2009

Happy 2 Year Anniversary

2 years ago, Carrie and I got married. Adam did such an awesome job putting together a fun summary video for us.
I’ve been meaning, for some time, to get it live on our site.
Our anniversary seemed like a perfect time to get it up, so I’m putting this live on the site.
(If you were at the wedding, you’re possibly in this video – and if you weren’t there, you can see how much fun we had.)
Enjoy!

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September 28th, 2009

Profitable Soda: “I Am A Money Magnet”

Last night, Carrie offered to make us (her sister Michelle and I) rum and coke.
This was to finish up the last of our rum (before we move out of our apartment.)
But we left last night’s soda (from the party) at my parent’s house.
So, Carrie went down to the soda machine to get a coke.

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September 27th, 2009

Happy Birthday News

Today is my 30th birthday.
Wow, the big 3 – 0
Actually, 30 has never been a big deal to me (as far as getting older or whatever).
But it is kind of a momentous occasion, and I wanted to do something momentous to mark the occasion…
So in addition to the party we had last night (Thanks everyone for attending! It was a great time!), I’ve started something rolling today which I hope will be fantastic and amazing going forward.

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September 23rd, 2009

Some of Us Have to Work

Be forewarned that much of this is a bit of a rant.

As Carrie and I get ready to embark on this world travel, and tell people about what we’re going to be doing for the next 3 months (the only portion of our travels we’ve planned so far), there is a phrase I hear voiced over and over that drives me a little nuts.

The phrase is this:

“Some of us have to work.”

That’s usually preceded by the phrase “Wow, that sounds rough.”

And then is followed by the equivalent of “Some of us have to work.”

It’s usually said with jealousy in mind, and most people say something along with it like, “One of these days you’ll get serious and actually start earning some real money in a real job.”

(I’ve heard variations of this in the past week from people I know well.)

I’m not here to compare how hard we work with other people.

I’m also willing to admit that some of our success has been that we’ve been in the right places at the right times.

Some call this luck.  And there’s some truth to that.

But I’ve also heard it said that luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

I also appreciate that Carrie and I have had a head start over other people in that we have strong, supportive families who have set us up for success in life.

Our families haven’t always understood what we’ve been doing, but they’ve been supportive.

But we have struggles too, which we’ve learned from and which we apply as lessons in our business and life.

Carrie’s dad died when she was 12.

At 20, I was $10,000 in credit card debt, lying to everyone I cared about at the time, and had a really nice car… which I was in debt for, and oh yah… it didn’t have a heater and frequently (like every day) died on the side of the road.  I got good at fixing that car with plastic grocery bags and plastic newspaper bags, because even though they melted easily, at least they were free.

And we still have what most people would consider to be some significant debt today.

We’ve just learned how to manage it, direct it, and ultimately, we are using debt to our advantage.

Anyway, I’m digressing a bit.

We have struggles like everyone else.

We work hard like everyone else (well, maybe not everyone else, but I won’t go there at the moment either).

1% of what we’ve built up to this point has been having good ideas.

99% of what we’re able to do now has been simple hard work that’s allowed us to get here.

ALL of what we’re able to do now has been because we’ve each spent the past 10 years (6 ½ years of it together), changing our thinking about:
-    what “work” is
-    what travel means
-    how to set and achieve goals
-    how to be of service to others
-    what we want to do in the world
-    how to generate income passively and residually
-    what’s important to us as individuals and as a couple
-     how to have open discussions about difficult topics like finances
-    etc. etc. etc.

Just to set the record straight, I’m working harder now than I ever have.

I’m spending more time on the computer, more time on the phone, and more time just getting things done than I can remember doing in my work life at any point in the past.

I easily work 60-70 hours/week, especially right now.

And, as long as we have an Internet connection, regardless of where we are in the world, I will continue to work hard.

I think I can safely say that Carrie will too.

Our businesses that we’ve built allow us to do that, because we’ve designed them so that we can work on them from anywhere in the world.

But it’s been difficult, and continues to have it’s challenges on a daily basis.

We work to learn what we need to, so that we can overcome those challenges and become everything we can for ourselves and for the world.

A friend, Patrick Shaw, said recently “The greatest reward in life is living up to the expectations you have of yourself.”

We continue to have higher and higher expectations of ourselves, and that’s what’s allowing us to embark on this journey which many people have told us would be “impossible” for them.

(They also said the same thing three years ago when we told them we were going to Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro – a 6 week travel which, when we came home, we were nearly $20,000 in debt from.  We went “too soon”, and did what many people think of as “impossible”.)

And so there are some people who use this phrase “some of us have to work” as a way to vent frustration in a socially acceptable way.

“Some of us have to work” comes across to me as an excuse for not taking action on creating the life of your dreams.

In our case, we want to travel the world.

Travel takes money.

Money that comes in while you’re doing something else i.e. travel (in our case) is called passive cash flow.

Money that comes in from something you’ve done in the past but are still being paid for is called residual cash flow.

We’ve worked very hard to learn everything we can about passive and residual cash flow.

We’ve built and supported multiple streams of cash flow since 2003.

Many of them still pay us, and we continue to build them, especially focusing on PPL in the last month and a half.

However, there have been many projects which have cost us more than they’ve paid back.
(That’s another topic for another day as well.)

I’m not here to judge anyone’s way of living their life.

I’m also not going to tell anyone how they should be earning income.

I personally believe that passive income allows you more freedom and flexibility to pursue whatever you want in life.

And I would believe that, because that has been my experience in life.

There is (without a doubt) value in physical labor, and value in taking part in a larger project, larger product, and in contributing to someone else’s vision.  (That’s a different tangent for a different time as well).

All I’m saying is that “some of us have to work” sounds like a judgment being passed on the way I’ve chosen to live my life, and the way Carrie and I have chosen to live our lives together.

If you see something that someone else has, it is possible that the reason you don’t have it is because you either don’t believe that you have the skills or knowledge to accomplish it, or simply haven’t taken action on the skills and knowledge you do have.

If you don’t have what you want, you’re either not doing the right things to get you there, or not doing the right things enough. (Okay, that will also lead to a different topic for a different time.)

I frequently (like several times a day) feel like I need to be taking more action on what I know, in order to be of service to more people and in order to get our income to the level I want it to be at.

(There are lots of different thoughts here in this mini-rant.)

For now, I’ll just say this.

Yes, our business allows us to work from anywhere.

Yes, that’s infinitely cool.

Yes, I consider myself very fortunate to have learned a lot of these lessons at a young age.

But learning these lessons has meant getting past a lot of obstacles.

One of those obstacles has been people (some of them close) who tell us things like:

• “You’re just a kid!  What do you know?” (When I was trying to share an Internet marketing concept with someone *for free* a couple of years ago.)
• “Well, I’m going to go back to my REAL job now.”  (Someone told me that after I shared information about PPL with them.)
• “What’s it like to be on permanent vacation?” (From a close relative – directed at Carrie)
• “Why don’t you go get a REAL job” (From someone whose opinion I actually respected before this comment.)
• “Wow.  You aren’t teaching any more?  And you’re building a business?  That’s a HUGE risk.  I mean, really, really, really risky.”  (3 really’s, from a close relative.)
• “You sure your business thingies aren’t going to fall apart while you’re traveling?” (From a close relative)

There are hundreds of comments we’ve received like this while attempting to share good information with people and/or attempting to include them in what we’re doing.

These comments may be well intentioned, but on the receiving end, they are obstacles.

Look, if you want to have passive/residual income, you will have to work at it daily like anything else.

You decide what you want to do:

• travel the world,
• stay home with your kids,
• give more to your church,
• etc.,

and then you work at it daily.  Regardless of what it is, passive income will make a difference in whatever you want in life.

Initially you can start with 30 minutes/day.

Our vehicles for passive cash flow have been, and will continue to be, Internet Marketing and PPL.

If you want to learn Internet Marketing, I teach what I know through www.ThreeMoneyMethods.com

If you want to work with us with PPL, go here to learn what we do.

If those aren’t your vehicles, go find vehicles that will work for you.

Just make sure that your vehicle has the ability to put you in the right place at the right time.

And if you see people who have what you want in life, chances are very good that you should be including them as “us” in your “some of us have to work” statement.

As for me, that little voice in the back of my head which tells me I should be accomplishing something is telling me I need to be doing something productive now.

After all, some of us do have to work…

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