Books2Wealth Interviews

From time to time I interview an author or thought leader for Books2Wealth. The interviews are then posted on the site. 

You will find interviews of Chris Camillo, author of Laughing at Wall Street; Daniel and Deborah Minteer, authors of Boiled Down Money Goo; James M. Strock, author of Serve to Lead; and John G. Miller, author of Outstanding! 

More will be posted soon. 

See the interviews on the Interview page at Books2Wealth.

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Things or Experiences - Which Makes Us Happier?

How often have you looked at that shiny new thing in a store or on line and thought about how happy it would make you to have it? Things are cool. They are new and intriguing. They capture our attention. They entertain us. They distract us, often from things we want to be distracted from. When we love someone one of the most common ways we convey that love is to give them things. (We call those gifts.)

I challenge you to consider however what is more likely to bring you lasting happiness - things or experiences. Our attics, basements and garages are full of the "things" we just had to have a few years ago. Our children's toys, new and shiny and exciting last Christmas are now stuffed at the bottom of a closet, largely ignored.

Things are not bad. We need some things and we benefit from many of them. They can make life easier (automobile), more productive (dishwasher) and expand our ability to interact with others (computer or smart phone). They also cost a lot of money, they have to be stored and serviced and maintained. In the end they lose their novelty, they wear out, they eventually disappear. Any happiness we get from things is fleeting.

Experiences on the other hand are forever. They connect us to other people, they build relationships, they are the fondest and most enduring memories.

The next time you think you need or want that new "thing" it is worth thinking about how important they really are. When you decide how to spend your limited discretionary dollars, consider what will do the most to bring you happiness and contentment - more things, or more experiences.

Experiences can be expensive. But in the end they may well be money better spent. 

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

One Man... One Day

In 1940 England faced its greatest challenge. The government crumbled as the Nazi war machine marched across Europe with little real resistance. 

One man was called upon to form a government that would lead the UK in this darkest hour - to save their nation. 

This one man, Winston Churchill, who had suffered many personal defeats, exemplified leadership as few others have in recent history. Faced with tremendous odds, he did more than any other one leader to hold together the forces of freedom and democracy and to save his country. 

There is a lot we can learn from Churchill as a leader, and especially from what he said and did beginning on that one faithful day, May 10, 1940, when he assumed power as Prime Minister, and led the United Kingdom to victory. 

You can hear his inspired speech made to his country that day and read more about Churchill's lessons in leadership in One Man, One Day, a post on James Strock's blog.  

Jim asks us all the question, what about You? How will you face your leadership challenges? 
Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Luck - How Important Is It?

How important is luck in achieving success? This is a common question. People often say that someone achieved success because they were lucky. How true is that? What role does luck really play?

This is a very difficult question to answer because we cannot know what would have happened in a given situation if the element of luck were not present. Here is what we do know about luck or good fortune:

People are born to wealth or are born with tremendous talents every day. Some of those people exploit that wealth or talent and accomplish great things. However it is also true that many people squander inherited wealth and fail to use their talent and even fail at life in general. Other people seem to have little luck; they are born in poverty and may appear to have little talent and yet they excel. Luck is certainly an advantage if it is exploited. If it is not it seems to do little good.

Most successful people acknowledge that luck plays a role. However almost all of them will tell you that luck alone did not get them where they are. They had to be prepared to take advantage of the luck that comes along. People with talent must work very hard to use that talent to achieve. Some will tell you that luck was a minor player in their success and that their discipline and hard work were the key factors.

Luck is like someone knocking on the door – it is a form of opportunity. Unless you are prepared to answer that knock and take advantage – to act on it – it may be of little consequence.

All people have bad luck now then then. All people have good luck now and then. Neither good nor bad luck decide the outcome. They only frame the circumstances we live in. How we react to opportunity or “luck” is far more important than the good or bad fortune that befalls us. This has been demonstrated so many times by those who fail despite good fortune and those who succeed in spite of bad fortune.

Luck happens. It comes to us in good and bad forms all the time. How we go about reacting to it and living our lives with good luck or in spite of bad luck is the most powerful determination of our success.

Do not let luck dictate your outcome. Be prepared to take advantage of good luck and to overcome the bad… in the end that has more to do with success than luck does.

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

4 Secrets to Financial Success

Michael Lewis posted a great article on Money Crashers recently - he called it 4 Secrets of Investment Success. 

The first thing to learn from this is the power of the word, "secret". People are always looking for the easy way to make money or build wealth. They are looking for the secrets. Surely all those rich and successful people know secrets that got them where they are.

Guess what? There are no secrets. We've discussed this on the blog here many times and I've addressed it in my many articles. Chasing secrets is a waste of time. People who are peddling secrets are looking to separate you from your money, they have no secrets because there are none. 

Lewis does not pretend to tell you everything that successful people do to gain success and wealth. He does outline four key things that are a foundation to financial success though. Nothing new here. This is just the way it is.

Four of the most powerful tools that successful people use are Action, Discipline, Knowledge and Persistence. These are golden. Lewis gives some good examples but for every one he suggests there are thousands more buried in the books and articles out there that tell us how people have achieved financial success. 

There are no success guarantees either. Beware of anyone who promises a guarantee for success. But there is no doubt that consistently applying these four tools for success will give anyone a big edge. You may well find success if you use them; you will be unlikely to find success if you do not. 

Read Lewis' article and then let us know what you think.

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

What is the Best System to Prioritize Your To Do List?

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, is a leading expert on time management and organization. He recently republished a blog article that addresses the A, B, C system of prioritizing a To Do List.

Allen is big on lists. He advises us to use lists of things to do and use them to keep ourselves organized and on task. He is not a fan, however, of the ABC prioritization system that is recommended by so many.

The ABC system is a method for prioritizing your To Do list based on the importance or urgency of the tasks. The highest priority items are labeled A, and then in decreasing importance B and C. Most often we are told that what must be done today is labeled A, what could be done today and is important enough to come after the A items are B, and the least important are C. This system has been around for decades. It was an essential part of the Day-Timer organization system used so widely in the 1970s and 1980s and still used by many today.

Allen believes this system is not helpful to most of us where other factors have a greater impact on what we do and when we do it. For example a project may be of high importance but requires a block of time to do. In that case you cannot do it first, you must schedule it into your day when there is time to do it. Other items may have a B lever of importance but because they take a little time they can be done first.

He also advises to group tasks based on similarity. He suggests you answer all emails at one time; answer phone calls during another time.

Allen also notes that what may have seemed most important at 8:00 AM comes in second or third to the urgent matters that arise all day long.

For all these reasons Allen suggests that you forego the ABC system and look over your list throughout the day and learn to rapidly sort it and do what is most important and fits best in the time allowed.

I am not so sure the two systems are actually mutually exclusive. I still use the ABC system to give some order to my list and to minimize some of the prioritization work that might come later in the day. It saves time. I also re-prioritize throughout the day as events and circumstances dictate. I agree with him that intervening events can derail the best of plan. I also agree that grouping some tasks can make a lot of sense and also be more efficient. As long as you keep the advantages of both approaches in mind throughout the day you can benefit from using both.

Take a look at Allen’s article and then tell us what you do and what you think works best. 

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Lessons from the Carnegie Library

In my little town there is a wonderful Carnegie Library. It is still one of the nicest buildings in town. During a 40 year period between 1883 and 1929 the Carnegie fortune built over 2500 libraries around the world, most of them in the US.  These libraries did exactly what Andrew Carnegie, the man who gave away hundreds of millions of dollars to build them, wanted. He wanted lasting good to come of his money. When the last Carnegie library was built over half of the libraries in the US were built in whole or in part with his money. 

As a teenager living in Seattle in the 1960s I spent many hours in a Carnegie library there. It opened hundreds of doors to me. I learned far more at Carnegie's library than I did during the same period in school. 

I do not know how many of these libraries are left. I hope that most of them are. They continue to provide sources of knowledge and entertainment to many people. 

Andrew Carnegie came to the US a very poor little boy. He became a steel magnate and became the richest man in the world. During the last decades of his life he busied himself with giving away most of that fortune. 

Happily Carnegie's legacy lives on in many ways. The institutions he founded and paid for still serve us. Perhaps as important the idea that the rich have a duty to use their wealth for the common good has not died. To name a few Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have given away hundreds of billions of dollars to help other people. 

Thank you Andrew Carnegie for your generosity and your foresight. I think that each time I walk into your library in my town. 

Such is what can be done with True Wealth.


Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com