Become a Millionaire....SLOWLY!

I saw this article in Money Magazine: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/moneymag/ontrack_millionaire/index.html. I was quite suprised on their advice on how to become a millionaire. It's probably because the person writing the article (as is true of most media) isn't speaking from experience and most likely isn't a millionaire.

I became a millionaire by doing almost the opposite. I didn't save much initially...invested in my business. I dont' have fancy degrees and I'm not working from someone else.

Is this really how most people do it? It seems way toooooo slow. I wanted to be a millionaire now...in my 30's (I actually hit it by 30), not wait until I'm 75.

There's far easier ways to generate wealth than following the slow plan to nowhere. Gosh, there's no guarantees you'd even live long enough to finally enjoy it based on this plan!

The Pursuit Of Happyness

So many of our colleagues were raving about this movie, John and I went to go see it on Christmas Eve. They were right...it was fabulous. Talk about moving! The movie portrayed how powerful people can be when they are willing to give 100% towards the achievement of their dreams. Chris Gardner could easily have allowed being broke, frustrated, homeless, etc. deter him from his ultimate success. It would have been easy to use his circumstances as excuses. He could have blamed others for his problems. He could have used a million reasons to play victim, to give up, to settle for less. He could have spent his life saying sorry to his son for all the things he wouldn't experience, have, be or do.

Instead, he chose to fight. He chose to give 1000% of himself in the pursuit of his dream. That is what separates the Top 3% of society from the rest. No matter what came his way, he looked past it to follow his heart and his dream.

This is an amazing movie that every child should watch...to see how much potential they have, how much they can accomplish. I love it when Chris Gardner says, "Because other people can't do they'll tell you you can't". It's true...people are eager to convince you of all the things you can't do in your life, but few will support you in achieving what you want (see my earlier blog entry: Friends, Family and Neighbors). Surrounding yourself with people who believe in you is definetly a plus...such as the stock broker who believed in Chris.

When I got started in business, I was willing to pay the price of success. I gave 110%. Even though I was completely in new territory, often felt like a helpless idiot and knew nothing about sales, marketing or how to run a business, I was coachable, willing to learn and, (and probably most importantly) willing to ask questions risking looking like an idiot. Whatever...sometimes you just have to reveal howlittle you know to learn from the top people. I was eager, driven and had a huge amount of passion. I shared iwth people my intentions, kept it professional and learned from the top. Everyday I offer people the opportunity to have my life...wealth, freedom and accomplishment and they come up with a million excuses - I don't have the money, I don't have the time, I don't think I could do, it will work for others but not for me. It's all a bunch of bull...the real reason is they aren't committed to being successful...they want to stay in their comfort zone of WANTING better results, but never taking the action.

Congratulations Chris Gardner...you deserve every bit of your success b/c you were willing to turn your circumstances into REASONS to move forward, rather than excuses to not too. There's such a valuable lesson in this movie for everyone.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Shannon, John, Pharaoh, Munchkie and Jay!

Wow! It's shocking that another year has past....where has the time gone! It's been a whirlwind year for John and I and we've done some amazing things. I'm grateful for this incredible life I'm living and for learning how to tap into my true potential to live a life that is extraordinary.

Here's a little re-cap. I've achieved some major goals I set for myself, including going to Africa, buying my first investment property, growing Animal Rescue Foundation and buying a new Bentley Continental GT. The year started off a bit slow as I was still battling with a severe back injury caused by who knows what (snowboarding? golfing? weight training?). Anyways, I had surgery in April and it went off without a hitch - I feel great! Now I"m back in the gym and having a great time. Really a testament to mind over matter and power of healing yourself. Dr. Joseph Murphy's the Power of Your Subconscious Mind helped me tremendously as well as works by Caroline Myss and Louise Hay.

We started off 2006 with a trip to Orlando. We had fun with friends and visited John's Brother and Mom. John went to Cancun in March (it's the first trip I've ever missed) for a Liberty Conference. He had a great time networking with all of our business associates and a fabulous training event.

In June we went to Africa for three weeks. (Check out the pictures) This was the trip of a lifetime and was one of the things on my list of 101 things I want to do before I...! We flew first class on Virgin (got to love them!). They had fold out beds, a bar and a massage in the first class cabin...not to mention the luxury of the lounge in Hethrow. In Africa we spent a week at Kwandwe in our own private home on the reserve. Everyone was fantastic, we saw hundreds of animals and our guide was amazing. It was one of the most relaxing trips I've taken. From there we went to the Palace of the Lost City in South Africa...talk about opulence! This is the grandest resort I've ever seen...truly a masterpiece. Then we travelled up to Zambia and Zimbabwe for a few days on the Zambia River at the Matetsi Water Lodge. This was a completely different environment...Zimbabwe is having significant political challenges so we got to experience the effects on the community and culture. The wildlife was great...especially the river cruise and seeing the hippos. The people in Africa were so open and accomodating. They genuinely cared about our experience and we felt very connected to the people and the country. I am so grateful for the opportunity to go there.

While in South Africa we attended our fourth Summit Conference. I was excited because a personal friend of mine was one of the speakers...she about the most extraordinary mortgage professional I know. Everyone at the conference was incredible, providing me with wealth building strategies that are allowing me to build my net worth while still enjoying life!

In August, LLI hosted the Summer Showdown training event and Birthday Bash. It was packed and I was honored to be one of the featured presenters (as was John). I love being on stage...that's for sure. Four years ago I was scared to death of speaking in front of people, who ever would have thought I'd be on stage in front of thousands of people helping them get results as entrepreneurs. We had a marvelous time and took time to enjoy dinner at Mastros with a few of our associates.

In October we spend a week on the big island of Hawaii. We helicoptered over the volcano and got to visit he Keck Observatory (Yes, actually got to go into it which noone ever gets to do) That was fantastic! It was a fantastic Liberty Conference with more than 2000 people in attendance. The resort was spectacular, weather perfect and just a wonderful time. We were excited to connect with so many of our friends and business associates.

My animal rescue work has been incredibly rewarding. Below is a picture of the little pup I have with me now. His name is Blitzen...he was going to be euthanized because of a deformed rear leg( the result of a break that healed wrong). I brought him home and found him a great new home. He'll go there on the 27th. I've helped save thousands of dogs and cats this year. To learn more about Animal Rescue Foundation go to www.adoptafriend.petfinder.com. I'm grateful for the business I'm in because it gives me the financial resources and time to contribute to my community and pursue things I'm passionate about.

Speaking of passions...I've developed a passion for real estate. I started working with a real estate mentor in September and am in the process of purchasing my first driving Maserati's and Bentleys and having a blast travelling all over the world. It's amazing how far we've come so fast. I attribute all our success to the community, products and support we have received from Liberty League International. When we first stumbled across the company we were broke, never saw each other and were struggling emotionally, personally and financially. The Beyond Freedom Program opened our eyes to our personal power and potential and gave us the tools to break free from the limitations in our life! John and I have worked together from home for the last four years and have had the time and money to enjoy life. We are eternally grateful!

We've also had the honor of watching many of the people who have gotten started with us in business achieve extraordinary things in the last year; financially and otherwise. We've watched marriages heal, families come back together, individuals transform from beaten down employees to powerful entrepreneurs. We are honors to help people get everything they want out of life and it's fantastic watching them get everything they want out of life.

As we approach 2007 the adventure continues. We're already headed to Cancun, Australia, New Zealand, Bora Bora and Tahiti in the upcoming months. In the fall, we'll slow it down and begin focusing on starting a family. We have lots of exciting things coming up that we'll share with you as the year progresses so stay tuned.

We wish you a fabulous and joyous holiday! Be sure to share with us how your year has been! I'm sure it's been fantastic!

V for Vendetta

John and I took some time last night to enjoy a movie in our theatre room. We watched V for Vendetta. A huge fan of the Matrix trilogy, I found V for Vendetta to be incredible! For anyone who is a free thinker...this is a must see! The movie is a powerful reminder that if we aren't continuously cognicent of our ability to think and create, we can become victims of fear instilled through media and governmental influence. As an entrepreneur, I am 100% about free thinking...creating my own path. I diligently choose to never watch the news, to stay away from media influences and to use my own brain to determine what is right and what is wrong...however opposing to conventional thought it may be.

There seems to be an incredible movement happening now. Along with this movie, Donald Trump's Book with Robert Kiosaki, Why We Want You To Be Rich, the movie The Secret, and many other movies along this line, are warning to not be suppressed by fear or conventional thought. They are exposing the effects of fear, scewed information, the bias of the press and media.

It will be awesome to watch this movement over the next few years as people's eyes are being opened to the oppression they have bought into and become aware of their true potential and abilities. And, it's absolutely great to be in a business in alignment with this exploding trend..the trend of empowering people!

What Does It Take To Be Rich?

I happened across this fabulous article in Money magazine. The writer travelled to various homes of wealthy individuals and asked them for their most powerful financial advice. Read what they said was the key to creating their personal wealth. Do you have what it takes to be rich?

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/21/pf/whatittakes_secrets1.moneymag/index.htm

Be Inspired

A friend of mine shared this with me...it was a great gift so now I'm sharing it with you.

http://www.212movie.com

Once you watch it, you can say "Wow, that was great" and never do anything different in your life.

Or, you can say, "Wow, that was great" and take it on to live an extraordinary life.

Auto-Pilot

I'm going to make a statement that is rather bold - Most people live their entire lives on auto-pilot. They keep living their life day by day, minute by minute operating from the preprogrammed way of being they have been accustomed to. They stop thinking and just run the same preprogrammed scripts over and over and over.

For example: I live in a gated community. Today, as I drove up the mountain to my community there was a backlog of cars and construction vehicles attempting to gain access to the community. I didn't feel like waiting so I grabbed my handy remote and opened the gate. The guy who was first in line figured it out after a minute or two with the keypad that the gate was actually open. He drove through. The arm went down and I pushed the button.

As the arm was going up, the vehicle in front of me, a US Postal Service truck approached the gate. She stopped immediately in front of the opengate, got out of her vehicle and went to the Postal Service open box. Literally...she pulled up to the open gate and stopped right in front of it as though she was seeing the gate was closed! I couldn't believe it...I thought I was seeing things! When she was done keying the Postal Service box to open the gate, she wisked around and was stunned the gate was magically completely open. It took her a minute to realize that she had gotten out of her truck in front of an already open gate. That's auto pilot.

I could spend hours typing up example after example.

This is why many people move through life constantly dealing with the same problems - they are operating on auto-pilot. They aren't even thinking anymore, just blindly and numbly passing through life, following the preset ideas, believes, actions and expectations. This woman expected the gate to be closed so acted as such. She wasn't even "open" (no pun intended) to the gate being open.

It had me think...where in my life am I just living out my already preset notions or expectations? Where in my life and I reactive simply based on how I've always reacted.

Seeing what I saw today I am 100% committed to being open to each experience newly so that I am present for each new opportunity that presents itself in my life. That is what separates people who achieve extraordinary levels of personal and professional success from those who live their life as though they are a caged hamster running on the wheel of life.

So Ridiculous

I was checking out Don Trump's blog this morning and one of his entries caught my eye:

Banning Tag
by Donald J. Trump

I know we're a lawsuit-happy society, but now I've heard everything.
Some schools throughout the country are forbidding kids to play games like "tag" - anything that has them running around - because the kids might get hurt on the playground. And if the kids get hurt, their parents might turn around and sue the school for endangering their children.

This is ridiculous. Kids have to be kids. They can't just sit at their desks all day with their hands folded, looking at the blackboard.

When they go out to recess, children have to be allowed to run around and relax. They have to be able to get all that excess energy out of their system or they aren't going to learn anything when they go back inside.

I can't believe schools are wasting their time even thinking about things like this. Forget the pushy parents. Forget the threat of lawsuits. Let the kids go out and play.

Is this the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard of? Kids have to be restricted out of fear of what their parents might do!!!!.

It's unfortunate that kids have to learn at an early age to blame everyone but themselves...we should be teaching personal resposibility, not blaming. What ever happened to, I fell because I ran and now I can choose whether I run again knowing I may fall? How will kids ever learn decision making abilities if they never get to experience consequences. Now they can't even have fun b/c the schools are afraid they'll be blamed and sued if they fall.