Chapter 1

DEVELOPING YOUR FINANCIAL BLUEPRINT

I expect to spend the rest of my life in the future, so I want to be reasonably sure what kind of future it is going to be. That is my reason for planning.

Charles Kettering

Industrialist

1950

OBJECTIVE

TURN DREAMS INTO REALITIES.

There are three strategies we were never taught in school:

* how to run a successful marriage

* how to raise successful children

* how to build wealth successfully

The purpose of this book is to show you how to overcome the third of these educational gaps -- how to build your wealth quickly and easily by making your financial decisions correctly and with confidence.

Everyone with self-earned wealth will tell you that money is not complicated. The confusing trade terms, buzz words, and complex explanations that are thrown around by investment counselors and financial people are not necessary. They just muddy the waters and sometimes hide the fact that the so-called experts don't really know what they're talking about.

In the course of my life, I have discovered a success principle that has enabled me to accumulate tens of millions of dollars while maintaining a constant state of happiness, emotional balance, and zest for life.

Strategy #2

ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN ANY AREA OF LIFE BY IDENTIFYING THE OPTIMUM STRATEGIES AND REPEATING THEM UNTIL THEY BECOME HABITS.

Success with money, family, relationships, health, and careers is the ability to reach your personal objectives in the shortest time, with the least effort, and with the fewest mistakes. The goals you set for yourself and the strategies you choose become your blueprint or plan.

Strategies are like recipes: choose the right ingredients, mix them in the correct proportions, and you'll always produce the same predictable result: in this case, financial success. The success strategies for managing money and building wealth are called Money Strategies.

As you learn to use Money Strategies as a part of your day-to-day life, financial frustration and failure will become a thing of the past. Why, then, do so many people find it so difficult to accumulate wealth and, more importantly, to enjoy the journey?. There are two reasons: not being clear about what they are after and not knowing the strategies for achieving it.

The starting point in any plan is where you are right now. Where you are is where you are. Your first objective is to accept yourself and your current status as an O.K. place to be without making excuses as to why you don't know more or aren't doing better. Excuses become the limiters that turn realistic dreams into idle wishes. Lack of action and the lack of a willingness to change are almost the only things in life that create frustration and depression.

When it comes to excuses for not taking financial control, I hear them again and again:

"I can't even balance my checkbook."

"I'm too old."

"I'm too broke."

"I can't get my husband (or wife) to listen."

"I don't want much."

"I'm too young."

"I'm too tired."

"I'm too dumb about money."

"I'm too busy."

"I'm too scared."

Excuses do not produce results. You can find unlimited excuses for failure, but no one ever makes an excuse for success.

Now figure out where you want to be -- your goals in life -- and write them down. Your written plan sets the tone, speed, and most importantly the direction for your life. If you've ever attended a rousing motivational lecture, you were probably struck by the spirit, humor, and drive, but walked out of the room thinking, "Now, what the hell am I supposed to do?" Enthusiasm, but no direction.

Direction can turn the power of a light bulb into a laser beam. Lasers are nothing more than sharply focused light. Lasers have the power to cut through steel and destroy missiles in space. Same light as the light bulb -- just focused and directed. Clearly establishing objectives and choosing your direction will turn the power of your mind into the laser beam it was meant to be, drawing to you the opportunities, people, and knowledge you will need, allowing you to cut through the obstacles along your success path.

Power to accomplish also lies in knowing how to compress time -- to do in one year what it takes everyone else ten years to accomplish. The strategies in this book are powerful time compressors.

Success also requires an understanding and use of the Momentum Principle.

Strategy #3

SUCCESS REQUIRES FIRST EXPENDING TEN UNITS OF EFFORT TO PRODUCE ONE UNIT OF RESULTS. YOUR MOMENTUM WILL THEN PRODUCE TEN UNITS OF RESULTS WITH EACH UNIT OF EFFORT.

Direction and control begin with a written plan spelled out in two parts. Part A lists "dreams" -- what you are after both financially and personally. Part B lists your "strategies" -- the specific financial and personal road map that will take you from where you are to where you want to be. By clearly defining your direction, and by adopting the correct money and attitude strategies for control, you will automatically establish the shortest possible route.

When I was 18, I sat down with a pad of paper and, without totally realizing what I was doing, wrote an action blueprint for my life. I called it my dreams list. The exercise will do the same for you, clearly defining at one time and in one place your goals, dreams, objectives, and even your fantasies. Choose a totally quiet spot where you will not be interrupted. At the top of the pad of paper write the following:

DREAMS LIST

If I had unlimited...

TIME

TALENT

MONEY

ABILITY

SELF-CONFIDENCE

SUPPORT FROM FAMILY

Here's what I'd do...

Relax and let the ideas pour from both your conscious and subconscious. Don't evaluate your potential for achieving each item you write. What you will write will excite you, motivate you, inspire you, make you laugh, and, most of all, define desires and dreams that all too often are ready to surface but are held back by the complexities of daily living. Write it all down no matter how silly it seems, no matter what it costs. The ideas will come slowly at first, gaining speed as you leave behind the realities and limits in your life.

My first list was 181 dreams long, of which 175 have already become reality. Since that time I've added dozens of others, as you will probably find yourself doing.

All of us at any age have dreams, and the first step of turning dreams into reality is to get those dreams out in front of you where you can see and feel them.

Having taught my students this dreams list strategy for over 12 years, I have seen some truly wonderful things happen that might never have occurred otherwise.

A 66-year-old Ph.D. spent his birthday hang gliding with me off the huge sand dunes at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

A 14-year-old boy started his own successful business.

A 45-year-old, recently separated housewife with no previous sense of adventure rappeled straight down a 200-foot cliff, then rode a zip line 60 feet in the air, 300 yards across a valley at 40 miles per hour hanging from only wrist straps, resulting in more self-confidence in two days than she had achieved in her entire lifetime.

Through the dreams list strategy a 35-year-old mother swam and played with dolphins at Kings Dominion Park in Virginia, a dream she had had since she was a child.

A 28-year-old European immigrant, who barely spoke English, built a $5-million fortune in five years starting with a $6-an-hour job. I will never forget the tears of joy in his eyes as he sat in my office in Orlando telling me the story of his success and the part my strategies had played in his life.

Once you have made your list with no limits, choose those objectives that are the most important to you. Some will be individual objectives, others will include and require the support of your family. Encourage your spouse and children, if you have them, to create their own lists.

After you define your dreams, the things you want to do, places you want to go, what you want to be and accomplish, the next logical step is to build your road map -- your strategies list. The rest of the chapters will show you all of the safe alternatives for creating the wealth to live out your dreams.

Copyright © 1988, 1991, 1995 by Charles J. Givens