Title: Reicher als die Geissens
Author: Alex Dusseldorf Fischer
Hello all,
today’s focus will be on a German author’s finance book, which I don’t believe was published in English, so I’ll do my best to tell and translate you the value that I took from this book.
The book is split into three parts as follows:
- Part 1 – Mindset & important knowledge as the business owner of your life, and is broken down into 23 chapters
- Part 2 – The tools as manager of your life, which is broken down into 20 chapters
- Part 3 – How to build your money machine, broken into 23 chapters.
If you read some of my past reviews, I think you will have caught a pattern to the structure of the chapters. Namely, that they start off with mind-set and your skills, before moving into the methods and tools you can build and use to build your earnings.
Since there is purpose behind this way of structuring a book with financial message, I will stick to this structure as well, in the hope that you understand the thinking behind it, and learn the way they intended us to learn from the book.
Part 1 core lessons:
- Does money make you happy? – The outcome of the interviews from professional athletes, and successful individuals actually revealed that not the achievement of the goal, but actually the journey towards the goal was what made them happy. Thus, 1) you shouldn’t set yourself a financial goal, but a goal to achieve a purpose, and 2) consider updating that goal when it was achieved
- Your mindset is an important factor – You can have the training and experience and support of many to undertake a project, but ultimately, whether something will work or fail will depend on whether your mindset is in the right place.
- What is courage? – A normal habit for us is to get things under control and stabilize, which ultimately then forms our circle of comfort. However, when we start off something, it will take us outside of our comfort zone. An area that is new and uncertain and unexplored. In order to build a new income stream for yourself, you will need to take on something new, that is outside of your comfort zone.
- What tricks does your mind play on you? – When you were taught values and lessons as you grew up, when you went to school and participated in extra curricular activities, and then went to college to study a degree and finally work, everywhere you would have interacted with people that tell and teach you different things. From these you would have set your own expectations of how things are, whenever someone asked for your opinion on those matters. However, many things you only learnt from being taught by word-of-mouth, not by physically experiencing them. This process has shaped your expectations……So, when you are now challenged to invest in shares, in bonds, in commodities, in properties or to start your own business, you may not have made such investments before, but because everyone else told you that it is hard, it scares you and stops you from trying. You haven’t even tried, and already you stop, saying it’s too risky. That’s where he brings in that you should be careful what expectations you set for yourself.
- Illusion of knowing everything – If you want to start something new, it is your internal desire to know everything you need to know, so you can be under control (and sleep at night). However, there’s simply too much for one single individual to know everything. That’s why we have people in multiple professions to work together as a team so we can make it work….. Therefore, understand from the start that you need to become an expert in the field you would like to expand, but you will still need other people’s help.
- Doing the same as everyone else – The message is that you should learn and study any new project you would take on before you actively become involved, so you can familiarize yourself before being caught in a bad investment. Thereby, avoid unnecessary and costly mistakes that you could have prevented had you invested some time before.
- Know your Purpose – In a study conducted amongst prominent students, some indicated that they wanted to work at high-paying jobs and few indicated that they would work to achieve their purpose. Those that had chosen to fulfil their purpose were mostly among the highest earners in their class later in life. They knew their purpose, and built a career that would fulfil their purpose. And, because that purpose gives them a sense of achievement, that drive brought more happiness.
“If you don’t know what you want, or why you want it, you won’t stay on the road to achieve it” – reason is you will always be distracted, but only truly remain on the path if your desire is strong.
- What is money, and why do most people not have any? – The key explanation here is that each of us has value to our society. When you deliver a service, you will be paid the amount that society values your services. Now, if that is the case, then the way to increase the money you have is to increase your worth to society, or, to pursue a profession where society values you services higher.
- How do you achieve your purpose? – If you have a true intention of achieving a goal, you would make a plan of what you would need to do to achieve it. Since financial goals may not be a direct road, it will often be necessary to achieve smaller objectives (missions) before you can achieve the ultimate goal. Thus, the message is that you need to build yourself a roadmap of what you need to get done for you to achieve your goal. This way, you keep the perspective of what you are doing at all times, and how all those will help you to get to where you’d like to be.
- Pareto Principle – Have you ever heard of the principle where 20% of what you do will bring you 80% returns, and where 80% of what you do only brings to 20% returns. Thus, there will always be some things that need to be done, which you feel are waste to your time since you spend too much time with it but it brings you less than other projects. Therefore, the suggestion is to either delegate/automate this project to someone else that works with you, so you may spend your time on other projects that will bring in more returns.
One way to find your purpose could be by following the following method:
- Split one page in two vertical sides
- On the left side, list all the things that you hate to do for your business, or business idea
- Reformulate the list of things you hate doing into a positive sentence
- Rewrite it so you find out what of that activity in particular you would enjoy doing
- Load it onto your phone and read it regularly
- Break down the list to identify those things that you like doing, and how it will help get you to your goal
- On wasting time, patience and stress – The proper way to build a strong and lasting money machine is to build a strong foundation (roots) and not try and reach it quicker than the rest.
- Learning cycle – The process is a never-ending cycle. Learn – Apply – Reflect – Repeat
- Am I a good investor in my life? – It may seem to you that some people get ahead in life quicker or better than you are. The way that this is possible is that they have taken active steps to consider 1) how best to spend their time, 2) how much time to spend on certain activities, 3) who they make time to connect with, 4) what can they do to become better educated, etc. and so build up their skillset to become better versions of themselves.
- Good time investment – Make a list of what you wish to achieve, then list how you will spend your time in the most efficient manner so you can achieve those goals. For the present moment, make a list of everything ou spend your time on, and then classify each activity as either an investment or expense. Investment = you can benefit financially in the future; Expense = you won’t derive a future benefit from this activity.
- Everything is action to reaction – Forget the fact that luck will get you what you want. The way you achieve goals is by taking decisive and calculated steps, and those actions will cause a reaction, that someone recognizes your actions and will react to that
- Becoming more charismatic – Make two lists, one of the people you like and one of the people you dislike. Write a reason how it came about to you dis/liking them, and whether you have a habit that you would like to get rid of, that you feel was holding you back.
- Building instructions for Money Machine – Take 10% of your monthly earnings and put them away into an account from which you don’t plan to make any withdrawal in the future. Gradually the pot will grow, as will temptation, but you mustn’t let it get the better of you.
- Parkinson Rule of Money – Your expenses will always eat away your income, regardless by how much your income rises. We tend to increase our expenses (redefined as needs) as we earn more income. Thus, to actively fight against this one should budget their expenses and clearly define whether those additional expenses are needs, or whether they only result in money flowing out.
- When we budget, we generally only budget for the upcoming expenses of the following few months, and not much further
- However, in your budget you should include upcoming expenses (such as car repairs, and replacement of certain electrical goods, etc.). This will ensure that you always save a fixed 10%, and not be tempted to use those reserves for unforeseen expenses.
- How do you become a true professional? – 1. Know the rules and laws, 2. Know how to utilize them effectively, and 3. Practice, practice, practice
- Something where most people remain stuck is with step 1 (theory), and don’t come around to implement what they learnt, or don’t practice regularly
- That is another matter that keeps people from achieving greater success
Part 2 core lessons:
- Personal toolkit – Everyone has their unique skills and talents. However, if you believe that achieving success will depend solely on your own skills, your wrong. We all have our own skills, but no one can have every skill. Therefore, to achieve truly significant things you need to know where you can get those other skills (ie. employ someone, consult someone, etc.) so that you can use their skills to get ahead.
- Know the basics of marketing and sales – No one can be truly successful if they aren’t able to sell in the first place.
- A problem exists only so long until you have asked the right question – When a problem arises, and we don’t ask the right question to get to the core of the problem, the problem will always remain present. Thus, for every problem, you must work to truly find the core, and then work to solve that problem.
- Be honest and authentic – Surround yourself with people you admire, and believe they are necessary to get you where you want to be. Learn from them. However, they will only be willing to work with you if they know the true you.
- Choose your partners carefully – When you want to achieve success in anything (not limited to business) you need to consider carefully who to let into your circle. If someone won’t be a good influence on you or your friends/colleagues, and could actually make you become less efficient, they may not be correct for you
- Importance of setting a goal – The goal is the first active step that you take in making a conscious decision that you want something greater in life, something that you feel will bring value to your life. The next steps would be to set underlying goals, missions and targets that you need to achieve, which all add up to get you to your goal.
- As important as it is to set a main goal, and the underlying targets, it is also crucial for you to keep perspective of the whole picture, so you will never be distracted from your route
- The power lies within you – Direct your time and effort/energy towards a goal that will bring you fulfilment, and retain that focus until it has materialized to existence
- The blind swimmer – If you direct your time and effort towards something that is too unrealistic and not for you, it is as if you will be swimming against the current of a river, it’s a waste of time. You need to redirect your focus, even if it’s hard.
- Strive for your goals with persistence, and with power of will
- The way you recognize that you are making progress, even when you hit failure after failure, is when you realize that the point where you failed is one step closer to success than the point before. Thus, you might be failing, but with every failure you came one step close to succeeding. Eventually you will have collected sufficient expertise and experience that you will know what the customers are/n’t looking for, and choose the right product for them from the start
- From chairs to machines – Time is our most valuable commodity. Money can be earned again and again, but time cannot be bought. Thus, you goal should not be to work for more money, but for more time.
- If you currently have a trade of building chairs, there’s only a certain amount of chairs you can manufacture p/day. The number of chairs you manufacture is directly equivalent to the amount of time you spend.
- If you want to have more time, but produce the same/more amount of chairs, define that as your problem.
- For that problem, find possible solutions, for example by having machines installed and take over some of the work.
- When machines take over that work, you now have the same amount of chairs being produced but you also have bought yourself more time.
- Thus, for everything you want to achieve, see it as a problem to be solved
- Machines could include:
- Books, videos, FAQ, Online course, Online channel, etc.
- The point is to create something once that will exist forever, bring you revenue for ever without having to spend additional time on that
- Why many ideas remain dreams – Dreams do NOT equal goals. Goals have action plans behind them, whereas dreams just remain in our visions without action plans.
- Things you can change in your life to make sure you achieve a goal include:
- Know your Purpose, and don’t become distracted
- Seek for role models, and be reminded that what you’re trying to achieve was achieved by someone else, who also had to go through different troubles in life
- Set active plans, and stick to them or refine them
- Having a supporting community that backs you up to achieve that goal
- Seek mentoring and coaching
- Things you can change in your life to make sure you achieve a goal include:
- Making mistakes – You cannot achieve anything in your life without making mistakes. As important it is to make mistakes, it is as important to learn from those mistakes and not make them again.
- Every person must find their own way in life. No one will necessarily go through the same path as someone else, which is acceptable, since we all learn differently
- Setting priorities – #1 – There are simply too many things happening around us on a daily basis. You don’t have enough time to get through everything. Thus, accept the fact from the start that you won’t be able to get through as many things as you would like to. #2 – Set priorities what is important for you to know, and everything else is ancillary
- Discipline – With discipline it is about getting the maximum out of someone. Thus, retaining focus and perspective, and don’t become distracted.
- Great power, great responsibility – If you wish to help others to achieve success, you first need to help yourself and achieve success yourself, so you can teach them more effectively
- How to go viral – If someone has attained value from you, and gained your trust, they would share it to their community, if they feel it could benefit someone they know. However, by send it to their community, they gain a higher status from their community, since others feel they gained value from them.
- Strategy and Tactic – Set your strategy/goal that you wish to achieve, and then develop tactics/plans that will bring you closer to the realization of that goal.
Part 3 core lessons:
- Sub-goals to achieving financial freedom – You become financially free when you have created machines that generate an income, which cover your expenses, and without having to work for it.
- Strive to follow these steps:
- Identify the most reasonable goals you should be working towards, and what plans you have in place in order to achieve them
- Set up your money magnet (ie. re-allocate 10%, and never use it)
- Know your expenses, and reduce those unnecessary ones that bring you nothing but bad debt
- Only once you have increased your income to an amount that covers all your costs should you consider increasing your expenses (ie. you know they will be covered by income, which you didn’t need to put in additional time for)
- Increase your income, and spend some additional time for creative tasks (ie. brainstorming, reading, researching, educating yourself), according to the Pareto Principle
- You shouldn’t ask yourself the question “How will you make more money”, but rather ask yourself “How can you make yourself more valuable”
- Find and follow your purpose
- Create and build your list of resources (books, courses, people, seminars, networking, etc.)
- Resources include knowledge, contacts, skills, monetary resources, other asset resources, contact to people with certain skills
- All of these will be necessary and helpful when you encounter a problem that you need to solve for when you want to achieve something new
- Thus, the purpose of the list is to become aware of the resources you have available to you, and identify what others you may need to work to get
- Create a list of all your strengths, even those skills that you don’t see as a skill, but others do (ie. language, presentation, video making, etc.)
- You may possess a skill that you don’t see as valuable, but someone else has set as valuable to them or their business
- Create a branch- /market niche list
- Increase your cash inflow
- People who want to get somewhere find a way. People who don’t look for a way have reasons.
- Increase your owner’s capital (ie. your assets)
- Money isn’t a good investment, because its purchasing power is eroded through inflation.
- Thus, build your asset portfolio in such a way that it can generate you consistent cash flow, which you can in turn use to cover your costs and build your asset portfolio further
- Enter or invest in reliable and valuable enterprises, where your investments will bring you a return
- Improve your credibility with finance institutions (ie. credit worthiness)
- Build a business, using good credit, and a good credit reputation
- Permanently invest in good assets
- If you want to be a magnet for money, you need to search for good investments
- Differentiate between material and immaterial investments
- Material investments are limited to content distribution, and thus earnings potential (ie. one home one income)
- Immaterial investments are not limited by the amount of earnings that can be generated from the asset (ie. one online course, multiple attendees, and more attendees can partake when the course is popular)
- Who wants to become a millionaire – Don’t ask yourself the question, how you will make more money. Ask yourself, what problem can you solve that many people will want solving.
- Building your power network – Classify the people in life as
- 1. Allies – people that have an interest in your well-being and help you advance
- 2. Symbiotes – People who see that you influence their lives in a positive manner
- 3. Neutral – You are not necessarily important to them, but you are still good to have around
- 4. Antagonist – People who would rather not have you in their life
Bottom line, start with the mind, work your way from the back to the front!
Summary:
If you are serious to get your finances under control, and improve your financial well-being, then this is a good book to guide you through the mental and physical steps you would need to take to get on and stay on the correct path. The book deserves 5/5