A Chinese proverb says: “A journey of a million miles begins with a single step.”

There is more truth to this than most of us are aware of and this s why I’d like to focus my attention on the concept with this post today.

If I came to you and said: “I want you to get from 1 dollar to 1 million dollars by tomorrow.” Could you do it? Most likely not, unless you are Warren Buffet or Donald Trump, but even they may have a hard time only starting with 1 dollar.

As a result of the above thought, the majority of people decide that since there is no way to get from basically nothing to millionaire status they will not waste any time and effort to even try.

So let’s examine a way to make the concept more accpetable to the human mind. What do you think happenend if we change the amount and simply made the task to get from one dollar to two? Would that make it easier for you? Of course it would, but now I am sensing that we may have another issue.

Just like our mind doesn’t consider it possible to go from $1 to $ 1 million overnight, our ego is likeli to chime in and complain that one extra lousy dollar will NOT take you from poor to rich. Looking at that comparison out of context there is a valid point, but regular logic has no place when we are setting out on the journey from nothing to rich.

I don’t want to get into too much detail on this particular issue in this post, so I’ll simply say this. Look at the equation not as an absolute figure, but instead restate it in terms of growth accomplished:

Getting from $1 to $2 is actually double the amount, so we have a solid 100% growth here. Case closed.

For the rest of this post, I am going to ask you to suspend your disbelief until you have tried what I am about to tell you.

What if there was an easy way to get 100% growth for your money and what if that way required you to only make one small change in your thinking? You would try it, right?

So here is the easy task I have for you: Go and tune your intuition to finding money in any place you can !

Here’s what I mean: Write down the following sentence on a piece of paper and then read it out loud a few times to yourself

“I am now finding money wherever I go in an easy and relaxed way.”

This little statement will set in motion many things in your mind and trust me, while it may seem a little weird at first, you will suddenly and magically find small amounts of money in unlikely places.

Here’s what happened when I first followed this idea a few years ago. I went from $1 to about $5 in the matter of about a day because I started to see money everywhere. On the street there were pennies and nickels, in a pocket of pants that I no longer wear I found a dollar and in between my car seet cushions another one.

Of course, I understand that this is hardly a strategy to get rich from, but trust me the implications of whether you can pull this off or not are far reaching for your potential to attract more cashflow down the road.

So play along with me and most importantly have fun while you are doing it.

See you at the top…

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A few days ago I stumbled upon a statistic that showed how people with clear goals had a huge advantage over those that merely had vague wishes for their lives.

Especially in the area of attracting wealth, the main reason people fail to become rich is not a lack of finding the tools to get there, but rather the reason that drives them to get there in the first place. What is the compelling argument in your life that makes you want to be wealthy? Is there a reason for you to follow that path that is beyond the gratification money can bring, or do you derive all your energy from the power that wealth brings?

I suggest you get clear on the ‘Why’ question first before you tackle the part of ‘How’ you will get there. The Why is the 80% of the equation with the remaining 20% resting squarerly on the how part.

Take a piece of paper and write down 5 reasons that make you want to be rich, better yet, write down 5 reasons that will push you to committ to becoming rich and give as much detail on that paper for each argument.

The next step is easy, because so many people have done it before. While the reasons may not be totally original, they are likely to be unique to your life and the experience you wish to create for yourself and your family. Getting started on the ‘How’ part of it all is what this blog and many other resources are for.

Showing and exposing you to proven or new ways to get from where you are currently at to that million dollar mark without too much of a sweat. It won’t be just all fun and games, but I don’t work 16 hour days and neither should you.

Stay tuned for an announcement to all my readers in the next few days that will be of great value to you.

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I love to travel. The only thing about travelling that I like even more than taking the trip is planning a perfect getaway. So I decided to share with you in this post how you can put together a fantastic travel experience without breaking your piggy bank.

You don’t always have to plan ahead to find a good price

When I was a child, my parents always loved travelling. They were also very well organized and liked to book ahead for trips to get the best price. While that used to be good advice, often times it’s good to look at flight and hotel bookings seperately for this one.

When you take a flight, the rule of thumb says that the longer the flight the more advance purchase time you should allow to get a decent price. With most established carriers, that is the case, because if they can predict today how many seats they will have occupied on a specific date in the future it helps their load routings.

However, if you study the booking codes on airlines, you will see that sometimes it may pay to wait and use the strength of competitive pricing on major routes in your favor. Let’s assume you wish to fly from North America to Europe without a lot of hassle and you would like a good price and maybe collect points or miles from the carrier.

Here’s what I usually do: Use the Internet and find the booking codes for that carrier. They are usually in alphabetical order and the further near the end the letter ranks, the cheaper your seat will be. If you are somewhat flexible with your dates get a range of dates and find the price for your flight.

Next, find out if there is an alliance or code share with another airline on the same flight. For example, if you wanted to go from Vancouver to Frankfurt, you could booke the Lufthansa direct flight and spend maybe S1200,- in peak season, or if you knew that Air Canada also serves that route as a codeshare you may be able to get a booking with them on the same flight for $900,- .

In either case it always pays to look around.

Get to know the system before you book

Another thing you can do is find out if there are new flight routes being phased in, since those almost always give you more points AND lower rates to promote them for a few months.

And lastly, as far a flying goes, you should see if the airline you are focusing on give you points and how many ways you can use them to upgrade your travel experience on future trips. Going back to the Lufthansa example you get miles with their miles & more program which extends itself throughout the entire Star Alliance network. You can collect and redeem them for flights, hotel stays or rental car bookings with ALL major carriers.

If you have a choice of flying, make sure that you get points with them every time. That way, as you get towards collecting enough miles for an upgrade or a free flight, your status grows in the network and they will treat you like a star to keep you happy.

Since I became a Silver Member with them, they have upgraded me on long haul flight about 6 times in the past 2 years. Had I booked those flights on a regular ticket, it would have cost more than $20,000 alltogether.

The World of Hotels is at your fingertips…

With finding a great hotel at a reasonable price it’s a bit like with the stock market. If you follow the masses you will seldom be a happy traveller.

My rule of thumb is very simple:

I don’t typically look at hotels that have over 250 rooms (there are exceptions)

I stay away from the mass market chains

I don’t usually book via 3rd party websites (such as expedia or priceline)

I always do research in unusual places

One day a few years ago I stumbled upon a series of booklets published by the clothing maker Louis Vuitton. I got curious and bought the set. This turned out to be a great idea. Not only did I get 8 books on travel intelligence from a local viewpoints for all major European Cities, but it only cost me less than $90,- for them.

Subsequently I planned a wonderful 10 day trip to Paris, Germany and Athens with that knowledge and people where astonished at how I found the hotels I did.

For example, the untrained traveller will ask for a luxury hotel in Athens and end up with one of 2 things. Either a chain hotel of mediocre quality at an inflated price, or a true luxury hotel for a truly luxurious price. But what if I wanted a small luxury hotel in an unbeatable location for the price of a dinner for 2?

That’s where local knowledge and offbeat research help you get a great hotel room. one more tip I will share with you before I finish up this post:

Always do you research on the marketplace. The best deals on fabulous hotels are:

1) When few other people are travelling

2) During the soft launch, renovation or other special circumstances

For that reason, I am sunscribed to the newsletters of Four Seasons, Hyatt and Starwood, because they always inform their best customers and I have had mostly outstanding results from following the above rules for my travel.

I look forward to your feedback on this topic. Do if you have any comments, advise, or questions, just get in touch and join the conversation.

There’ll be more on the topic of travel and Lifestyle coming soon, so grab your RSS feed and stay tuned.

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I’ll be honest with you on this one - I never really enjoyed math in school. But every once in a while there was a class I loved. The story I have chose to share today is from one of those classes.

The inventor of the chess game was sent a courier from the king he invented it for. The courier asked him to appear at the king’s palace because the monarch had a question for him.

So, of course the guy went to see the king and as he kneeled before him was asked this question: “What is it that you want in exchange for inventing this formodable game for your king? I can give you a bag of gold or anything else you desire. What would you like.

So the guy thought about it for a few seconds and said to the king: Could I simply ask you for some rice instead of gold? I would like you to reward me with one grain for the first field on the chess board. Then put double that amount, two grains, on the second one and double that again on the 3rd and so on.

The king, who was very amused by this request and thought the man before him was a fool for asking for a couple handfuls of rice, quickly agreed and ordered his treasurer to pay the man as he asked for.

Here is where the magic of exponential growth comes in. If you take the 64 fields on a chess board, and multiply that out by grains of rice, I don’t think the king was able to have a palace left after paying up.

As I said before, I’m no math expert, but the final number of rice was so staggering that it outweighed the gold he could have asked for many many times.

The lessons from this story are wonderful:

1) Never dismiss a small number that is rapidly growing. What that means for you life is that unless you have a sqare zero to start with, just start with anything. Make your first penny and then set an intention to double it in a short timeframe.

2) Always calculate what people are asking you for before agreeing to pay a certain interest rate or anything else that grows quickly (like compound or credit card interest). It is often deceptive to look at the starting number before you have an idea about the final tally. This will help avoid predatory lending practises and put a new face on your credit card statement.

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Money loves speed.

It’s a fact of life and a law of the universe much like the law of attraction. If you ever had an idea on how to make something that could solve a problem or simply make our life easier and then didn’t act on it, this post is for you!

Almost every time I go to the supermarket I get an idea for a food item that I wish they carried. Like so many times before, I tell myself that there is nothing I can do to initiate or speed up the inclusion of a certain ware in the lineup of a food store chain and so I simply don’t do anything.

Of course I also have many moments when I come back to an aisle only to find that at my next visit the very thing I was thinking about is *magically* on the shelf in front of me. This of course was no coincidence, but more like someone else had the same thought and bothered doing something about it to get the ball rolling.

And here lies the issue and it’s solution at the same time: When you are wishing on improving the world or coming up with a million dollar idea, chances are the universe will NOT simply deposit that money in your bank account. It most likely will give you a number of ideas which could all lead you along the path of success and eventually to wealth.

So, next time you get an idea, don’t dismiss it, don’t delay it. Write it down and then allow the creative mind inside you to find ways to act on your hunches.

Oh, and one morw thing: Every idea is given to many people at the same time, which explains the supermarket phenomenon. So the faster you act, the better your chances to succeed.

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