Is it crypto? A SPAC? NFTs? How about lucidmotors.com?
Nope. None of the above, although they are all interesting.
How about the S&P 500? Or your favorite fiduciary investment advisor? Or maybe your local bank or credit union?
Imagine having $1,000 to invest in building wealth.
Imagine taking that $1,000 and “investing” it “wisely” in real estate, the stock market, or worse yet, the bank. Your precious $1,000 might earn you $30 to $100 a year. And 10% would be considered a high-risk, high-end return, doubling your cash every 7 years, unless the market corrected 50%, like it always does.
You could go for the 3% return to avoid the big corrections, but then your investment doubles every 24 years. (Google the Rule of 72.)
You could go for the 3% return to avoid the big corrections, but then your investment doubles every 24 years. (Google the Rule of 72.)
But are any of these the greatest investment opportunity of the year? NOOOOO. NONE. NUNCA.
Are you and your $1,000 really only worth $100 a year? No. That is ridiculous. You are worth far more, like 10x more. You are worth at least a 100% annual return … 3% is for those blind lemmings marching off the cliff.
You ARE worth it. Your body. Your mind. Your soul. Your goals. Your vision. Your skills. Your mojo. Your passion.
The return investment on YOU is the hottest investment of the year. Bet on you. The returns can be gobsmacking.
What do you need to get a 10–30x annual return on your money?
1. You need a GOAL.
2. You need a success plan.
3. You need an income opportunity with exponential growth.
4. You need a community of champions … people who want you to succeed.
If you have those four things, you can get a 100% annual return on your investment. Maybe even 1,000%.
What do you invest in? Good question.
Aha Moments. Invest in being present to conversations, with others or just by listening to others who turn red lights into green lights in your mind and heart. Breakthroughs or Aha moments of clarity will allow you to launch into action with confidence like you've never had before.
Champions. Invest in even one person who champions you. They celebrate your brilliance. They celebrate your courage and your vision. They run the race with you, either virtually or actually. They lift you up when you are down and shower you with confetti when you are up.
Coaches. Or actually, ONE coach – one talented person who has the insight and courage to ask you questions that you will not ask yourself … or if you do, you will not answer them. A talented coach knows the questions to ask, not from a book, but from the moments they are totally present to YOU. And a courageous coach holds the space for you to answer the questions candidly, whether you feel like it or not. Coaches call out the truth. And the truth will set you free.
Skills and Distinctions. Skills do matter. But for the most part, your skills will get better with spaced repetition vs. someone telling you how to do it. Distinctions are priceless. If you drive a car, you have a few distinctions that will get you from point A to point B without crashing. If you are a Formula One racer, you have hundreds of distinctions for piloting that rocket ship within inches of disaster at 200 mph. You and I have perhaps 2–3 distinctions for snow: cold, wet, and white. Eskimos have 17. Why? Because snow is their life. They depend on it to survive.
These investments can easily pay you 100 to 1,000% annual returns. Think about it. If you earn $1,000 a month now, what do you need to learn, who do you need to become, how do you need to see the world, yourself, and your opportunity to double your income? Do you realize that if you invested $1,000 and only increased your income $80 a month, you would have created a 100% ROI? If you doubled your income, 1,000% ROI. It is crazy upside.
So pull all your cash out of all your investments, borrow all you can, and go ALL IN. Buy any and all programs you can find. If someone is selling a $5,000 program, BUY IT. A $10,000 program, buy two of them! A $50,000 program … put a second mortgage on your home and buy that one too! GO, GO, GO!
Especially if any of those programs get you into some cool person’s “inner circle” or give you the impression that you will get personal service or get to hang out with the famous people. That is all worth a fortune! NOT!
STOP. DON’T. JUST SAY NO.
Here is perhaps a not-so-obvious truth. The formula that gets you a 100% return on investment is not the same formula that coaches, seminar producers, and online marketers use to suck all the money out of the room.
Here is your formula: 5% of your annual opportunity income invested per year. For example, if you earn $12,000 a year now in your opportunity, a sound investment is $600 in a program or series of programs to gain your Aha moments. $50,000 a year … $2,500. $1,000,000 a year … $50,000.
Why so little? Well, here is a distinction for you. It took, let’s say, 30–50 years for you to establish your beliefs, self-esteem, perspectives, and skills (or lack thereof). You are not going to change 10x and reinvent them in one year. It is a process.
What is far more important in change than the money you invest is time multiplied by consistent actions. It takes spaced repetition to build strength, to develop new habits, and to gain momentum. Coaching and programs help, but they are NOT the heavy lifting. You are.
Think of the process like a homeopathy medicine. A pinch or drop goes a long way. The whole bottle drowns out the process.
The formula for coaches, gurus, and online marketers to price programs has nothing to do with what is appropriate for you. If it did, whatever they were selling would be priced at 5% of your income.
Their formula is designed to super-suck all the money out of the room … at just the right moment of hysteria. I promise you there is no thought given to your ROI or the failure rate or the marriage-on-the-rocks rate because someone lost their mind and threw a small fortune at a neon-lit landing page.
What if the program seems too good of value to be true … a real irresistible price point? For example, a free seminar or a $29 all-day workshop. Well, you may just find yourself in an all-day pitch fest. And you can be assured these marketers are more skilled at getting you to say yes than you are at saying no.
How do I know this? Because I have made a 45-year career out of investing in my own personal growth … to date, over $300,000 in coaches and programs that were designed to assault my way of thinking, to inspire my soul, to throw gas on my fires, and most of all, to lead me right through some awe-inspiring Aha moments. MY ROI? 1,000x.
I am also a coach, seminar leader, and online marketer. I know the game. The question prior to launching a new offering is always: how can we maximize our income? It is never, how can we maximize our clients’ ROI?
So, beware my friends the “hysteria marketplace.” It is your responsibility to invest wisely. It is your responsibility to maximize your ROI. It is your responsibility to succeed. Everyone is looking out for themselves. Make sure you do the same.
P.S. My blogs are, for me, a conversation. I rant for a bit and then … if so inspired, you respond. Your comments close the loop of conversation. They let me know I was heard. They let me know I contributed something … or not. I encourage you to close the loop … or open a new one and say something.
Carmela
March 24, 2022
I’m re-reading your blog (I’d read it a couple months ago)…and I like it even better the second time. It is, as all your writings are, so clear spoken…so authentic…so memorable (especially after a second and third reading). I am more grateful than I can tell you, Richard, for your ideas and your expression of them. Thank you!