The Challenges of Success

The biggest myth about success today is that there is an "easy way". The second most common myth is that "Success is hard and only special people can do it". The answer lies in understanding how success can be easy & hard and anyone can have it.

"If I win the lottery, I won't have any problems."

That's obviously WRONG. Problems don't go away when you pour money on them. Some problems, like hunger, might be reduced in severity (temporarily), but they don't go away if you don't solve the underlying cause that created the problem in the first place. We have all heard the stories about people who won a large lump sum of money through a lottery and went on to end up bankrupt (or worse).

Are we destined to be poor if we start out poor?

What we rarely hear about are the people who won the lottery and were responsible with their money.

A study of 576 lottery winners from 12 states included winners of sums ranging from $50,000 to millions. The data indicated that winners did not engage in lavish spending sprees and instead gave large amounts of their winnings to their children and their churches. The most common expenditures were for houses, automobiles and trips. It was found that overall, winners were well-adjusterd, secure and generally happy from the experience. [The study by H.Roy Kaplan was funded by a grant from the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies in White Plains, New York and report in The Journal of Gambling Studies].

Clearly a good number of lottery winners were able to overcome the problems associated with the added wealth. (This is good news for those of us who are working towards becoming a millionaire.)

It has been said (and I agree) that if all the wealth in the world was taken away from the current owners and distributed evenly to all the people of the world, it would be back in the hands of the same people in less than 5 years (certainly in less than 1 generation).

Why is that?

"Success", if you define it as more wealth or power or status, does not mean fewer problems... it just means dealing with different problems. Do you think Donald Trump does not have problems? Of course he does. He has had properties go bankrupt, he is on his third (?) marriage as I write this and I'm sure he is not an easy person to get along with if your ideas run counter to his (or at least that is my perception based on his TV show). And this isn't even counting the problems he must face on a daily basis as he runs his real estate empire. Most of us can only imagine how he handles those problems.

Imagine the problems you will face on the road to wealth....

If you can begin to think about the problems (or challenges, as I like to call them) you will face on the road to wealth, you can begin to solve them now, rather than later when they could be much harder to solve.

For example, I knew that I would need to own my own company if I was going to get to the levels of income and wealth that I wanted. [If you don't believe that the people who OWN the companies make substantially more than the people who WORK in the companies, send me an email explaining why at theshot92 [at] gmail [dot] com ... it would make for another whole blog article.]

What are you tackling dummy?

So far, these are the problems / challenges that I have run into or expect to tackle on my road to wealth...

• How do I create an LLC or Corporation?
  [Researched online. NewStartHomeBuyers LLC and Investanium, Inc. created 2009]
  
  
• Where will I get the funding I need for my real estate investments?
  [Joined CTREIA, found seminars about real estate, discovered "hard money lenders" in addition to the ability to tap into 401K funds.]
  
  
• What do I need to do regarding taxes? Accounting?
  [In the process of getting referrals for a business accountant and tax attorney. Purchased legal structure home study course at a real estate seminar.]
  
  
• How do I generate business for my real estate investments?
  [Attended seminars and multi-day bootcamps to gather proven systems from experienced investors.]

What challenges do you foresee on your road to success? How are you going to prepare to deal with them?

The challenges don't get smaller.

If anything, they get bigger and you must grow to meet them. You must step up emotionally and get out of your comfort zone. You must be coachable and seek out the knowledge that will allow you to overcome any obstacle placed in your path.

As the Star Trek saying goes...

Seek out [your] new life... Boldly go where no one [that you know] has gone before !

d.Mark "Dave" Wheeler