A commonsense approach to creating a fabulous future.

“The art of commonsense is applying the best wisdom we know today based on all of our yesterdays.” ~ Wilfred Peterson.

Game of Thrones is over. Whether you watched it or not, you may have heard about the foreboding phrase “winter is coming.” The motto in a deeper, metaphorical sense means there are good (calm) and dark (stormy) periods in our lives and even if things are good right now (summer), we must always be ready for a dark period when events turn against us (winter). It is similar to the saying, “by failing to prepare; you are preparing to fail.”

We live in a hyper-connected, always-on world where the internet has allowed more people more access to more information than ever before. People can look up answers to any question, which gives them the illusion of knowledge. Unfortunately, for many, the path to creating a beautiful life is still elusive. People are working in the wrong areas of their life to find success.

We have been there and done that. With two college degrees, we thought that we could create a beautiful life by just working hard in the corporate world. Instead, we were stuck playing the corporate game of snakes and chutes while climbing the corporate ladder. We were looking for success and working hard in all the wrong areas. Majority of people around us (9 out of 10) were doing the same - sacrificing their life for a paycheck. We were A-players stuck in a B-game.

At the back of our minds, we knew we were engineered for success and created for greatness. We believed in the quote by Henry David Thoreau that goes, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

Then, it happened to us. Serendipity struck like it always does - unexpected. It was not random because we had big dreams and were looking for ways to get ahead. We did not know how to get ahead in life. Our vision for our life was clear to us - to live an abundant life on our terms and not sacrifice our entire life chasing a paycheck.

We were fortunate to have connected with our mentors, who coached us to create a great future for ourselves and live a life filled with hope and dreams. We have become life long students of success and are blessed to have mentors who continue to guide us and bring the best out of us.

Human life is different from animal life because we have the choice to lead a successful life and a significant life rather than a life of survival. A successful life is selfish in a way and it is what the majority of people seek. It is the pursuit of one's success and it is different for different people but can be measured by the degrees to acquire, occupations to pursue, money to accumulate and money to spend. Then there is a significant life one can pursue which is helping others succeed. To maximize your human life, there is no doubt that one has to become successful but got to turn the corner and elevate your life to a life of significance. That is a life well lived. Think about all the truly successful people you admire - they are the ones who have made a huge impact in this world, not the ones who lived for their own good.

Through our family backgrounds and environment, we only knew about pursuing success for our own good but when we learned from our mentors about the life of significance we turned a new corner in our life.

To live a life of significance you need health, relationships, laughter, purpose, time, money, and financial security. Maslow's hierarchy of five basic categories of needs are physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. If you are only able to take care of your needs then you will never be able to have the time, money and the energy to impact the world.

We were young professionals in our 20s when we began our journey to live a life of significance. Our first main goal was financial independence because we were spending way too much time worrying about money, making money and taking care of our own needs. We wanted to stop being a slave to money so we could pursue a life of significance.

The following thoughts are focused on young professionals who are starting out in their life. However, these apply to everyone, no matter where you are in life and how old you are. 

The following are the simple, commonsensical things we learned and applied to create a fabulous life of significance:

1. Define your dreams and goals - write them down.

Where are you headed? What is your North Star? Metaphorically speaking, your North Star is your mission statement. It's not a goal you want to achieve but a direction for your life you need to follow. Knowing your North Star will help you declutter your life and make informed decisions every day. You will shed your fears and gain confidence in your ability to fulfill your vision as you work on making it crystal clear.

Our North Star is "To live and empower people to live a zestful, authentic and fulfilling life." We want to put people before profits and add value to others. When you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.

Also, get your priorities straight. Your values determine your priorities. Your values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live and work. Your values determine the right vertical alignment, which will guide you in making the right choices. We have observed that people who are genuinely successful live a value-driven life with proper vertical alignment - God, family, job/business, self.

Create a dream board. Collect pictures and writings of things you want out of life. Make a collage of them and stick it on the board. Hang the dream board where you can see every day. A dream with a date becomes a goal. Writing goals increases the odds of making your dreams a reality. According to Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University in California, found through a study that you become 42% more likely to achieve your goals and dreams, simply by writing them down on a regular basis. This has to do with how our brains work. We have a left brain (logical part) and then the right brain (creative part). Then there is the part that connects the two hemispheres called corpus callosum which acts as a conduit for electrical signals (information super-highway) between the two parts and to every fiber, cell, and bone in our body which creates a consciousness to transform our thoughts into reality. So, when you just think of your dreams and goals, you are just using the creative part (right brain). But when you think and write you will engage your left brain also and more importantly send signals to every cell of your body a signal to create a consciousness that says “I really mean it. I’m serious. These are the things that matter to me. It’s my life.” It opens your subconscious to “seeing” opportunities that simply can’t be observed only by thinking about your dreams and goals and set forth the law of attraction to work in your life - you will begin to attract information, ideas, circumstances, opportunities, and people to make them a reality. Carry a copy of your written goals in your purse/wallet. Read your goals at least once a day.

Write down your goals and dreams in these five key areas of your life:

Physical (Health)

Spiritual (Mind)

Vocation (Career)

Time and Money (Freedom)

Relationships (Love)

We were fortunate to have learned about the power of dreams, power of written goals and finding mentors who believed in us and in our dreams. That was the X-factor that is missing in people's lives.

2. Develop a Growth Mindset - your best days are ahead of you.

Are your best years behind or ahead of you? Life is all about growing and becoming. Get rid of self-limiting beliefs about yourself. You are nowhere near your potential at any point in your life. You have to believe that the best is yet to come.

A big vision requires you to learn, fail, change, and grow. Socrates said, "Secret to change – focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building on the new." Don't be afraid of failure as it is the training ground for confidence. Failure does not mean you should quit or give up. F.A.I.L only means “First Attempt In Learning.” Developing an attitude of gratitude and giving thanks in all things gives you the right perspective to handle setbacks in life.

You can master anything when you put your mind to it. Mastery leads to success. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, Outliers, talks about the 10,000 hours principle. The principle holds that 10,000 hours of "deliberate practice" are needed to become world-class in any field. Gladwell contends that early access to getting 10,000 hours of practice allowed the Beatles, Bill Gates and others to become successful in their areas.

That's 8 hours a day for five years or 4 hours a day for ten years. If you look at the time it takes for someone to be a business leader (CEO) or a professional athlete, it takes at least 5-10 years of focused and dedicated work in that field. So, mastery is a matter of practice. 

3. Learn to make significant decisions - your life depends on it.

There are many inconsequential decisions that we make daily, and then there are times we need to make decisions that turn out to be life-changing. They say one makes about 5-7 significant decisions in their life, like choosing a college degree, career, life partner, and where to live.

To make these significant decisions, you need to have a framework or a mental model. There is no one-size-fits-all model, but one thing is for sure -- you will not have all the information you need to support your decision.

One such model is the regret minimization framework made famous by Jeff Bezos, who had to decide to launch Amazon. He had a cozy Wall Street job, so why take a huge risk with a start-up?

As Jeff Bezos puts it:

"I knew that when I was 80, I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a huge deal. I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried."

You have one life to live. The price of regret is much worse than the price for success. Think beyond the moment, past your fears, fast forward to a point in the future and look back to get a perspective.

We have found that most people's ambitions center around money, but their regrets center around time. So, don't make decisions based just on how much money you can make, base it also on what you want out of life, so when you look back, you don’t have any regrets.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

4. Don't fall for the passion trap - seek to develop your passion.

We were all told a lie. We were told to find our passion as if it was something out there that will come to us, something that is waiting to be discovered. Have you found it yet? Are you still waiting?

“Find your passion” is bad advice, say Yale-NUS and Stanford psychologists. It's not something to be discovered. You have to develop your passion by deliberately trying different things. You can open the doorways of success by being open-minded, falling in love with learning, and being determined to succeed.

You may like what you are doing right now, and it may even be well paying. However, is that your passion? Does what you currently do, depletes you or energizes you? When you do something because you have to, it will drain you, but if you do something out of love, it will energize you. It goes with the saying, do what you love, love what you do.

You can never be successful in something you are just doing for a paycheck. It would help if you were passionate about it. You will know when you find your purpose. Author Mark Twain once said that the two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you figure out why. Have you figured out the purpose of your life yet?

Here are three things you need to do to discover and develop your passion:

 a> Have an open mind - be open to learning new things as you never know what is out there you can be passionate about

b> Discover - you can discover it while working for a paycheck or working in a field of interest or by sheer coincidence/fate

c> Develop - you need to work hard to master your craft and “find” your passion

5. Don't blow your 20s - it can set up your entire life.

No matter how old you are, ten years from now, make sure you can say that you chose your life, you didn’t settle for it. Too many people in their 20s make critical mistakes in planning their life and career. Youth is the most valuable attribute for planning a successful future. Alongside living for the moment and smelling the roses, we encourage young people to be pragmatic in finances and start getting their financial house in order. While living in the moment, have a parallel track of moving forward financially.

Human beings have the most energy, from 14 to 30 years of age. That's the time to work the hardest to set up your life and prepare for the storms in the future. Don't waste time with YOLO (You Live Only Once)/FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) attitude. Delay your gratification and embrace JOMO (Joy of Missing Out). Work hard to create multiple streams of income, meet with new people, and increase your awareness. Laying a proper financial, spiritual, and physical foundation can set you up for your entire life. With a pay now, play later attitude, you can fully leverage your 20s to set up your whole life. Understand the difference between pleasure and happiness. Both are required but need to be proportionate. Pleasure is short-lived; happiness is long-lived. Happiness is not derived from your (past) achievements; it is derived from achieving. It is derived from the pursuit. PURSUIT is happiness. The reward for man's/woman's dedication to success is not one gets from it but what one becomes through it.

Both YOLO and FOMO place a high priority on living in the moment instead of planning for the future. This trend plays out on social media, but spills over into all areas of life, making it harder to picture your future selves. When you are 25, it is tough to see yourself as gray-haired and retired. This future feels even more distant to those in the YOLO and FOMO mindset. Retirement age is not about age but entirely about money. You can retire when you want if you have the money.

So, what can a 20 or 30-something do now to plan for tomorrow? Here are three simple steps to take so that a FOMO and YOLO mentality does not jeopardize retirement: live below your means, save for the future, build asset-based multiple streams of income.

If you pay the price in your 20s, you will never have to work for money beyond your 40s -- money will work for you. If you blow your 20s, you will be a slave to money for the rest of your life.

6. Invest your time - don't waste it.

“I don’t have time” is the grown-up version of “My dog ate my homework.”

Everyone has 24 hours. So, how come only some are successful, and most are not? Don't waste your spare time. Put it to good use, and you will separate yourself from the average. As simple as that.

Imagine if you could invest 4 hours per day instead of spending it. That's what separates successful from the average. If you schedule your priorities properly, you will be able to enjoy your life and at the same time work on creating a great future for yourself.

What are you doing with those 4 hours now? Here are some quotes that are our favorites:

"A person who stays late in the office is not a hard-working person. Instead, he does not know how to manage work within the stipulated time. He is inefficient and incompetent in his work. The interest of a client is important; so is your family." - Former President of India, Late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

“Love your job (work), not your company. You never know when the company will stop loving you.” - Former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything." - Billionaire, Warren Buffet

Have you noticed that time flies; it does not run. Any amount of money cannot buy time, and you can never rollback time. Use your time wisely. Rome was not built in a day, but it was built every day. Use your time wisely. Your future depends on it.

7. Develop a Destination Mindset - become vehicle-agnostic.

We can't drive our car from our home in the Philadelphia area to Bermuda. However, I can drive my car to the airport and take a plane or drive to the cruise terminal and take a ship to Bermuda. I choose the vehicle based on the destination, how fast, and safely I want to arrive.

Unfortunately, people don't apply the same logic when it comes to planning their goals in life. They seem to pick one vehicle (job/occupation) to reach their destination (dreams). I’m not sure how true it is, but I've heard millionaires have an average of seven streams of income. The point is, they have much more than one stream (vehicle) of income.

We did not hate our jobs but as soon as we became aware that we needed multiple sources (vehicles) of income to reach our financial goals (destination) we began exploring options create another source of income outside of our job income. Even a luxury car has a spare tire. How about you? Do you have a spare income in case you lose your job or primary source of income? How long can you maintain your current level of lifestyle if you lost your primary source of income?

Don't get hung up on your educational background or your current work. Focus on where you want to go in life. Let that dictate what you do. Don't be afraid of what you need to change to get to your destination. If you are only dependent on a paycheck from a job, odds are you are not going to make it financially. You need to create multiple sources of income (multiple vehicles) to reach your goals (destination).

Multiple streams of income (financial vehicles) generate "Plenty of Money" and create "Peace of Mind". We call it POM POM. 

8. Increase your self-image - Invest in yourself; no one else will.

Self-image (self-worth/self-esteem/self-concept) is an internal measure that you place on yourself. It is the way you see yourself and think about yourself in every area of your life. To change the results in your life you have to change your inner programming. 

The only part of the body that really matters is the brain, and all the other parts support how it functions. Almost every part of your body can be replaced with artificial parts, but you can't replace the brain. Your income can never surpass your self-image. So, if you want to make more money, you will have to increase your self-image.

Most people spend way too much time, money, and energy neck-down on such things as clothing, eating, drinking, physical exercise, looks, and shoes.

Most people don't even invest a portion of the time, money, time energy in their brain. Just like working the muscles improves your physical strength, you need to work your mental muscles to improve your mental strength. Unfortunately, people allow a barrage of wrong information flow into their minds from various sources -- TV, social media, internet, and broke people. Remember that Good Stuff in means Good Stuff Out just like Garbage In is Garbage Out. 

Don't let your brain be a trash can for information. Declutter your mind and consciously put good stuff in it. Improve your self-image, confidence, and mental strength by reading books, listening to podcasts, attending seminars, being around like-minded people, and listening to your mentors. What percentage of income do you spend on self-improvement? Invest at least 3-5% of your income on self-improvement. 

It is not a question whether you can afford to invest in yourself; you cannot afford not to. The reason is very simple. Your income is proportional to your self-image.

Up to 85% of the world’s population experience low self-esteem. People with higher self-worth have a higher income. People with lower self-worth make less income even though they have the same or better cognitive ability. We were making less many than others for similar work. That was not because of our abilities but because of our self-esteem. We are thankful for the mentorship program that provided an ecosystem to improve our self-image which resulted in increasing our income from our jobs and business.

Investment in your personal growth is an investment that pays the biggest dividends.

9. Become financial literate - stop being a slave to money

Financial literacy involves the proficiency of economic principles and concepts such as financial planning, compound interest, managing debt, effective savings techniques, and the time-value of money. The lack of financial literacy may lead to making poor financial choices that can have negative consequences on the financial well-being of an individual.

There are three types of education - Scholastic, Professional, and Financial. People are focused on getting an education to get a job and a paycheck. Unfortunately, the lack of financial knowledge has serious consequences. Lack of financial literacy has reached a crisis level. Evidence is glaring from the subprime mortgage crisis, student loan debt, credit card debt, lack of retirement savings.

Want to fix this?

1.    Know your unconscious beliefs about money which shape your financial future. These are often partial truths learned in childhood, passed down from generation to generation, which create unconscious beliefs. They determine our income, net worth, credit card, and other debt, financial behavior.

2.    Understand the effect of income tax, insurance, inflation, and Interest. People EARN net income but SPEND gross income. If someone says, they make $50,000 a year from their job they are referring to gross income. Net income is what remains after you subtract income tax and other deductions from the gross income, which can be about 30%. So, the net (take-home) income is $35,000. Unfortunately, people think they make $50,000 a year and spend and live at that level. Buying a car is not just about making a monthly payment, but also paying the monthly insurance premiums, buying gas, paying for tolls, and maintenance. It's the total cost of ownership. When you work a job and get a 2% raise, you did not get ahead. You barely kept up because of inflation. When you get a credit card or have a savings account, it's good to know how much interest you are paying or earning. Understanding these four simple "I"s will help you create a great financial future and have peace of mind.

3.    How much money do you need for retirement? It all depends on when you want to retire and how well you want to retire. It will help you evaluate what you are doing currently to what you should be doing to prepare for retirement.

4.    Learn about active income vs. passive income. Active income is when you trade your time for money. You are paid only once for your work. Passive income is when you do the work once, but you get paid over and over again for that one-time effort. For example, like the money, you make from your investments, rental properties, businesses, or intellectual property. George RR Martin earns $15 million a year for selling the rights to Game of Thrones TV show to HBO. Typical passive income sources are front-loaded with active work, for which you are paid a small amount, while the bulk of the income comes later. Passive income does not mean zero work. Its lot of hard work but it is one-time work after which your income is no longer tied to the hours you work. Most people work hard increasing their active income by getting a new skill set, changing jobs, working hard on getting a promotion or, spend way too much energy and time on cutting corners. The real secret to a stress-free financial future is to replace your active income with passive income. Would you like to make - $5000 a month active income or $5000 a month passive income?

5.     Understand the difference between rich vs. wealthy. Everyone wants to be rich – want to buy a big home, drive beautiful cars, and take luxury vacations — nothing wrong in making or spending lots of money. The problem is that you have to earn money again to spend again. The rich might have lots of money, but they also have expenses, or they might have a high-paying job, but the loss of a job will stop the earning. Money goes out of their expense column. They often buy a bigger house or a new car, which results in long-term debt and more hard work. Nothing is left to go into the asset column. Wealthy, don’t worry about money. Wealthy folks generate income from their assets, whereas the rich have to earn income from their effort. Wealth is the number of days you can survive without physically working and still maintain your standard of living. Can you sustain your existence without working for money? For example, if your monthly expenses are $5,000, and you have $20,000 in savings, your wealth is approximately four months or 120 days. However, if your expenses are $5, 000 and you have investments that provide $5,000 a month, you are infinitely wealthy. Wealth is measured in time, not dollars. When your passive income becomes higher than your expenses, you become wealthy. You may not be as “money rich” as others, but now you are “time rich.” Instead of trading time for money, now you can use that time to create other sources of passive income.

Start with Active Income, Build Up Passive Income on the side

●       Earn active income in your job, live below your means and save money

●       Build an asset-based income as a side hustle

Lots of people want to be rich, but financially intelligent people want to become wealthy. Initially, all your income will be active. Be smart to build your passive income on the side to eventually become financially independent — and that takes a strong financial education that allows you to build cash-flowing businesses and assets.

10. Be Patient - success takes time.

People change jobs many times and even change careers during their lifetime. Experts say people change about 11 jobs in their lifetime and change 3-7 careers. That number may increase due to the pace at which the employment landscape is changing due to automation, artificial intelligence, and other technological advancements.

How do you succeed in this fast-paced world where change is the only constant? You have to find something you can enjoy doing and at the same time, create financial stability.

Success takes time and hard work. It usually takes about 10-20 years to succeed in a business or to become CEO of a large company. For example, it took Sundar Pichai about 15-20 years of work in the industry to become the CEO of Google.

Not everyone can become a CEO of a company, and it may not be the right goal for everyone, but if you want to reach the highest levels of success, you need to pick something you can work hard at for 10-20 years. That is what it takes to create fame, wealth, and legacy.

11. Power of Spoken Words - take authority of your life.

People live at the level they speak. If you speak negative, you undermine your success. Your words have the power of life and death. Speak what you want and don't speak things that you don’t want. If you say, “I can’t afford it” and repeat it regularly, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, if you say, “How can I afford it?”, then your mind will gather information, create circumstances, and connect you with people who can help you afford it. Become aware of your vocabulary and remove words that create doubt in your mind. Get rid of words such as “I can’t,” “I am not good at,” “I will never have” and replace it positive words. Become your speech therapist. Also, be wary of people who are negative and use negative language. To create a great future, you have to first speak about it. What you speak is what you get.

12. Seek and Earn Mentorship - GPS for your life.

If there is any shortcut to success in life, finding a 360-degree mentor probably is the best shortcut.

People are not afraid of paying the price but are fearful of paying the wrong price. Imagine working hard for 10-20-30-40 years in something you thought would help you get the life you want and then not liking the results. That's too much time wasted.

How do you know what to do, how much to do, and when to do to get the results you want. You have to find someone who is living your "10/10" life and seek their mentorship. It's not easy to find them and then get that kind of mentorship. You have to earn the trust and then the mentorship.

You cannot learn success from people who are not successful. Broke people cannot teach broke people how to be wealthy. Best way to learn about success is from people who already have the success you are seeking. So, finding mentors is a vital part of creating a great future.

There are three kinds of people in the world:

a>   Who can help you

b>   Who can hurt you

c>    Who doesn’t make a difference

You have to hang out with the first kind deliberately. However, it's not easy to find them. Network and associate with people who are growing in life and who are further ahead of you. It is easy to hang around people who make you feel good all the time, but you are not going to grow and maximize your potential.

Your well-meaning friends and family may not be able to help you grow as they are more concerned about your feelings than telling you the truth. Do you like where you are in life? If you do, then you don't need to change anything. If not, choose your association wisely because your income, work ethic, and mindset is the average of five people you hang around the most.

You need to find mentors who can identify your potential, see where you can be, and coach you to get there. If you are lost, they act like your North Star until you find your bearings. The surest way to get to your destination is to get directions from a GPS. Similarly, the surest way to reach your potential is through coaching and mentorship. There is only half-truth in the saying, “Experience is a great teacher.” The other half is “as long as it is someone else's.” That’s what a mentor provides - wisdom.

CONCLUSION:

 Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other people's opinions drown out your own inner voice and most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. ~ Steve Jobs

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! ~ Hunter S. Thompson

The spider monkey lives in the trees of the tropical jungles of South America, have hook-like, narrow and thumbless hands and tiny brains. To catch spider monkeys, hunters in South America walk through the forest and drop heavy containers on the ground. These containers have very a narrow top and a wider bottom. Inside the containers, the hunters drop nuts that these monkeys like. Monkeys come down from trees stick their hands in the container to grab the nuts. Once they grab the nut at the bottom, their fist is too large to remove it through the narrow opening. Also, the container is too heavy for them to carry. So instead of letting go of the nut, the monkeys sit there until the hunters come back, pick them up, and throw them in a bag. Spider monkeys are not prepared to let go of a small nut to gain their freedom. You have to let go of small things in life to get the big things. Are you holding on to small things?

Gallup poll found that Ninety percent of workers worldwide admit to hating their jobs and their bosses. But, we did not hate our jobs or our bosses. We just did not like what we had to do to work our jobs – the commute, a boss, office politics, yearly reviews, and above all, fear of losing it someday. We had to let go of the security of a job to plan for big things in our life.

The Latin phrase "memento mori" ("Remember you have to die"), used to be whispered into the ear of victorious Roman generals during their parade of triumph, to remind them that all earthly success is fleeting. After a major military victory, the triumphant military generals were paraded through the streets to the roars of the masses. The general was idolized, viewed as divine by his troops and the public alike. However, riding in the same chariot, standing just behind the worshipped general, was a slave. The slave’s sole responsibility for the entirety of the procession was to whisper in the general’s ear continuously, “Respice post te. Hominem te esse memento. Memento mori!” “Look behind. Remember thou art mortal. Remember, you must die!”

No one escapes life, alive. That’s one universal truth and commonality between kings or peasants, rich or poor, brilliant or stupid. Everyone dies. Some try not to think about it, but for others, the certainty of death is kept at the forefront of thought. Why? So that they might really live. The point of this reminder isn’t to be morbid or promote fear but to inspire, motivate, and clarify. 

The Stoics used Memento Mori to invigorate life and to create priority and meaning. They treated each day as a gift and reminded themselves always to not waste any time in the day on the trivial and vain.

You have one life to live. Are you going in the direction of your dreams? Do you have a plan? You are never going to be 100% ready, and it's never going to be just the right time, but that’s the point. It means every moment is also the right moment. If you want something, you have to go after it. Decide to live a life of adventure. Don't live a settled-for life. If you are breathing, your best days are ahead of you. Your past cannot be changed, but you can start creating a glorious future by following the above twelve commonsense things.

Actionable advice: Purpose of education is not to solely acquire knowledge. Purpose of education is to learn and take action. The above twelve commonsense approaches are not to only educate you but also to encourage you to take action - to make changes necessary to reach your fullest potential. We wish you the best.

Nanda & Sangeetha Sringari

About the Authors:

Nanda & Sangeetha are successful entrepreneurs, mentors, and professional speakers. While still working in the IT industry in their 20s, they co-founded an e-commerce and leadership development company. They worked hard to become financially independent in their 30s to fulfill their dream of living their values instead of chasing a corporate career. While building a successful business, they raised three beautiful children. They have been invited to speak at more than 60 conferences across the United States, Canada, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, and India. Speaking from their own experience, they inspire audiences to find their purpose in life, follow their dreams, and not sacrifice their entire life for a paycheck. They are focused on empowering people to become successful entrepreneurs and are champions of freedom.

They leverage a proven mentorship platform to coach people to maximize their potential, create asset-based income, and become financially independent at a young age. They have a multi-step vetting process to select people to mentor. They are human catalysts who can ignite purpose and passion in anyone who has a burning desire to succeed.