No Radio For Twelve Years

This week ... a rant of sorts.

There's this classic story... that we'll summarize for you here:

Benjamin Franklin received a letter from the mayor of a small town for some money to purchase a new bell for the town square. Benjamin sent the money with a note suggesting they skip the bell and instead buy books for the town library. Libraries have answers, bells make noise.

Sound advice we think.

Most people we run into don't seem to spend any time trying to acquire the "know-how" they need to get anything their heart desires.

The attention span of the masses seems to be shortening faster than Justin Beiber can Tweet.

How many people do you know that really STUDY anything? Most people don't apply themselves to acquiring the "know-how" to anything that can make a difference in their lives.

We just got off the phone with an extremely successful dentist who runs an amazing practice on the west side of Toronto.

Although he's earning a huge income and his net worth is growing rapidly he is constantly looking to acquire new information. He travels to conferences, invests in information, talks to people, pays for consultations, gathers new material, tests new processes, asks thoughtful questions, reflects on ideas ... it's no wonder he has so much wealth in his life.

It seems to us, that in everything we've ever tried, we've moved from being pretty horrible at it, to being somewhat competent, to being very competent... not perfect and not the best, but pretty darn good. Getting good at anything takes some effort.

This applies to investing in real estate, to building websites, to writing and starting businesses.

And an important part of this process involves getting through a LOT of information in a big hurry ... and regularly.

We recently shared elsewhere that I went through a period of 12 years without listening to the radio in my car. 12 years.

Sounds funny as I type that. 12 years of driving and no radio. And even when others are in the car with me, including my amazing wife, there's no radio ... I just leave it off Can't stand it.

Over the last 12 years I can count on two hands the number of times I turned it on in hopes of catching a traffic update.  I don't even know what station to turn to to listen to a Maple Leaf's game and I'm a huge fan.

Why?

I've been using that time to digest information. I've been listening to audio programs in my car for 12 years. Buying information from all sorts of places and listening to it.

It's only been in the last three months, with my kids getting older, that I can't trick them into thinking I can't turn my audios off. They have revolted and taught me how to work the radio. And only now do I know that Katy Perry is a big deal in pop music and her song "Fireworks" is actually kinda catchy.

Nick is the same ... he's got audio interviews and programs scattered all over his car. It's like a library on wheels.

But before you think we're crazy I can report that we both have healthy music libraries on our iPods. Everything from Milli Vanilli ... "Girl, you know it's true...", to Technotronic's "Pump up the jam, pump it up....", to AC/DC, Black Eyed Peas, KISS, Jack Johnson, Michael Buble, U2, Bon Jovi, Andrea Bocelli, Sinatra, Coldplay, ABBA, Madonna, Lady Gaga even Celine Dion and Josh Groban made it on there.

Looking back on that list of music makes me think that we may actually be crazy Wow ... ABBA?

But the latest hits on the radio?

We've only figured that out recently because we started using iTunes and it has a handy little list updated by the second.

When I was teaching myself about Search Engine Optimization, for example, I studied at least an hour a day, every day, for eight full months. I listened to recorded material and bought books and reports of all sorts.

When we decided to figure out Direct Response Marketing we bought books, attended conferences, spent tens of thousands of dollars on our education and studied.

We've spent at least ten times or more on our education AFTER University and College was over.

You don't even want to know how much we spent on Real Estate education ... wow. But has it paid off? In spades.

We're told all the time, regularly, by all sorts of people ... that they do not have the time to read all the information and listen to all the material they've purchased or subscribed to.

Hogwash.

Here's the thing...

Time is the great equalizer.

You can always get more money.

By you'll never get more time.

Start figuring out how to use yours better.

As another birthday passes it's become crystal clear, yet again, that time is the most precious resource of all.

If you want MORE ... you've got to make yourself MORE VALUABLE.

The information is right in front of all of us. It's a very democratic situation.

When we're reading the latest economic updates, real estate trends, direct marketing principles and others are chatting on-and-on-and-on about how the world is set up against them or how the Bieber boy-man shouldn't have the success he does ... that's their choice.

When someone tells us they don't have enough time to attend a free class but then update their FaceBook status on their mobile phone right in front of us .... we twinge. We don't say anything, but we twinge.

The other day I was in a men's washroom and someone was taking MULTIPLE calls in their stall.  Incredible.

If that's not a sign of poor time management I'm not sure what is.

Look, we're not experts and we haven't accomplished the most in the world but we get stuff done. A lot of stuff. We're learning and applying and testing.

It seems to us, that success in every business, depends on making the time to master a few critical activities.

And the person who dedicates themselves to studying and applying themselves to those always ends up with the more wealth ... wealth in money, wealth in freedom, wealth in family.

Until next time ... Your Life. Your Terms.