Creativity and Success

Today we’ll cover the third element of the ABC’s approach: Creativity. It’s a fact that

three quarters of all self-made millionaires own one or more businesses.

Entrepreneurialism is the fast track to financial success, but it’s not for all people.

If you’re at all risk averse, you’re probably better off following the suggestions in the

Behaviors section of the book. That is: if you live relatively frugally (remember to

have some fun along the way) and put aside money for investments, after a normal

working life you can expect a comfortable retirement with something left over for

your kids.

For the entrepreneur that’s just not enough. He or she wants the challenge and thrill

of starting and running their own business. Their annual pay is virtually unlimited.

But it comes with risks. Most entrepreneurs have failed at least once. But instead of

retreating, have learned from their mistakes and applied the learning to their next

venture.

You don’t have to invent the next generation of smartphones or cure cancer to make

a million dollars. How about the 16 year-old necklace designer and her younger

sister selling $800,000 worth of jewelry per year? Or the 13 year old that bakes

chocolate farm animals, bringing in one million dollars a year in sales? Or the

environmentally concerned 12 year old who started a grassroots organization

lobbying big companies to act more responsibly toward the environment and built a

successful line of eco-friendly products.

Not sure about your entrepreneurial abilities? Check out the ABCs Entrepreneurial

Indicator (http://www.abcguys.com/our-books/the-abcs-of-making-money/free-

resources/) in the free resources section of our website (www.abcguys.com).

Following your passions and using your Creativity could be your ticket to financial

success.

Behaviors for Success

In the Behavior section of The ABCs we talk about the strategies for saving and

growing your money. For example, one of the biggest wealth robbers involves

carrying a balance on a credit card. The average American carries a balance of

$6,000 on their credit card. This is shocking and at that level, it is unlikely that you’ll

ever be debt free unless you take serious action, immediately. The problem is that

bank associated credit cards like Visa and Mastercard charge really high interest

rates; and the big box stores and department stores charge even more. Then, they

entice you into paying the minimum due – say $50 - which is their way of keeping

you on the hook for a very long time. Never, ever carry a balance on a credit card is

the best advice.

Insurance is another example. You always want to have coverage for your car, your

home, or a rental package if you’re a renter, health insurance if you live in the U.S.,

but don’t let anyone convince you that you need a policy with an investment

component like Whole Life or Cash Value. These are only appropriate in certain rare

tax strategies. So, keep your insurance and your investments separate.

Avoiding rip-offs is crucial. Just as important is understanding and controlling

where your money goes. Use some of the tools like the Daily Money Monitor

(http://www.abcguys.com/our-books/the-abcs-of-making-money/free-resources/)

available in the free resources section of our website to track how you spend your

money.

Once you have spending under control, you can concentrate on the fun things like

cutting down your cell phone bill or cutting back on your cable or satellite bills – if

you only tend to watch, say, 10 channels on an average week, why pay for 100?

There are lots of tips in our books, and on our website there’s a chart of savings and

how they add up over a 30 year period (http://www.abcguys.com/our-books/the-

abcs-of-making-money/savings-chart/). It’s easy to do and it’s all money back in

your pocket either for paying down debt, having fun or investing for the future.

Those are the Behaviors for success.

Attitudes for Success

Hi I’m Alan from The ABC Guys and while Denis is off on a speaking tour, I thought

I’d give you an overview of the ABC approach to financial success.

A stands for Attitude and I’ll explain the importance of that in just a moment. The

Behavior section is the second segment where we deal with the sorts of strategies

you want to use, and the pitfalls you want to avoid, in making financial gains. The

third segment, C, stands for Creativity and that’s about being an entrepreneur,

where you take your hobbies or passions and start to make money from them.

So why is your Attitude so important? A lot of people, deep down, don’t think they

can be successful whether it’s with money, or sports, or personal relationships. They

think that success is something that happens to other people and not to them. This

often has its roots in family history. Some people even think that they don’t deserve

to be successful. These limiting and self- sabotaging feelings are more common than

you might think and in the end, will all become self-fulfilling prophesies.

So, the first section of each of our books deals with this issue. We walk you through

various exercises to dig out these beliefs and change them.

Before we wrote our books we spoke with hundreds of self-made millionaires, and

the most common trait we found is that they are very positive; they know exactly

where they’re going and what they want to achieve. So, if you want to be successful,

you have to have a winning Attitude and know where it is you want to go.

Now, some people confuse this with another concept, which is that if you simply

believe in yourself, everything good will start to happen to you. Unfortunately, this

is only half the story. Just because you believe unreservedly in yourself, doesn’t

mean you’re going to win a talent contest, or a sports match, or that you’re going to

get rich. Winning a talent contest means you have to have a unique talent. Believing

in yourself is essential, but so is the talent. And, if you want to get rich, just believing

in yourself is not enough. You have to be willing to do the work. Sometimes, a lot of

work. Belief is not enough on its own. But, if you’re doing what you’re really

passionate about, then you’ll find it doesn’t really seem like work anyway.

So, find something really worth pursuing; make sure your beliefs support your

direction and go for it. That’s an Attitude destined for success.