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Today I found this old Daytimer that was 20 years old. I had these plastic inserts inside that were full of business cards. As an experiment, I decided to look everybody up. I went to Facebook. I went to LinkedIn. I could only find a tenth of the people I had business cards for. They might not be in the same field, but these were all the people I could still find. The rest were gone.
When I met a lot of these people I was an account executive. There was one person who used to intimidate me and the first thing that came up on her was a foreclosure last month. I did a Google search and she’s the only person with that name.
I noticed a trend and this is why history is so wonderful. This one guy, when I first met him, hustler was the word that came to mind. I researched him and he still has his same business and he works out of his house. He’s still doing his thing. Everyone that I looked up that is still doing what they were doing or something at a higher level had a high hustle factor.
Half of this group of people that I found that are still doing well are financial people. It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as you do it well. One of the things this mentor of mine told me was to pay cash for my toys and to only finance stuff I would have forever. When he told me that years ago, I did not understand that. I do understand now.
What I learned from this trip down memory lane was that all the people that were hustlers or really pushed it, those were the ones still in business. All of those nice people with the great credentials, their asses are gone. They’re out of business. I can’t find them.
On a sad note, quite a few people are dead. A lot of them are gone. It makes sense of course. One guy, he’s got to be 90 years old, but his company is still around. He’s at the same location. I think he owns the building.
One of the lessons I got out of this exercise is that you should never let anyone dissuade you from being a hustler. Hustlers are the people still in business 20 years later. They’re still living in the same house and have the same business addresses.
I urge you to read the letters Gary Halbert wrote to his son from prison. There are some serious business lessons in those letters. It’s free online. There are 25 of them. Take the information and put it to use.
Things are changing. This is what is happening. China recently over took the USA in car sales. That trend is not going to reverse itself. You’re going to see less people in the USA buy cars. The reason we have such a high purchase rate is there are a lot of people in families with four, five or six cars. There are also a lot of individuals that have two and three cars. That’s about to change dramatically because having a car is a very costly expenditure.
Another fact to consider is that we are going into a global economy. I’m going to set up a trip soon to establish some business ties. All of my information is saying, “Go east.” That’s where the money is. That’s where the money is going to be for decades. All of those economies are coming online.
There is a Google app that you can use where you point your phone at a foreign language and it translates the information into your language. It’s essentially data recognition software with a massive database. Books will be read around the world.
One of the things I want to do is expand the opportunity base. I am a nerd and I’m fucking proud of it because it is my nerd power that has gotten me where I am. Nerds like me are going to create fortunes they can pass on to their kids. That’s how a group of people can emerge from bullshit.
As a little nerdy kid, I was picked on for being smart. That is a dangerous to a culture. If you insult the folks who have the intellect to raise the group, you’re damning the group. That’s a problem. It’s changing, but peer pressure is powerful.
When I make that trip overseas to the Republic of Georgia or Hong Kong, I’m going to put out the information step by step of what I did and how I did it. There’s a reason I’m putting it out there. I’ve been saying this for a long time. We’re about to go through what Japan has been going through for two decades.
I feel like the future is the East. It’s because of emerging economies. Technology is making new things possible.
I’m talking to the black folks now. From 2009 to 2012, there weren’t that many folks on team G. I kept track and the ratio was like 90% white and 10% black. Now there are more black folks which is a wonderful thing.
The thing is everybody is a mutt. We have the same problems. When you travel around the world, it opens up your eyes a lot. Only 15% of people in the U.S. are passport holders. It’s one thing to see something on TV and quite a different experience when you see it in person.
One of the things that is happening these days is people are using the internet to build their own distribution center. Prince is a good example. He created iTunes and made more money from that then he did in the prior decade. When you’re in the owner’s seat, it is a different mindset. It’s a whole different thing.
You are better off creating businesses than relying on the stock market. You just are. If you can create a microbusiness that make you $500 to $1000 consistently a month, you are good. Say it takes you an hour a month to run that sucker, that is better than any fucking stock you can buy unless you just get in at the equity partner level.
Germany is a good example of the power of creating stuff. They are the strongest country in Europe. The reason is that they have a long history of making things and they’ve become very, very good at it. They are also very good at exporting. That’s why they have money.
Some of this shit is boring as fuck. A lot of it is producing things that people need. It is regular, run of the mill stuff.
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