#Success In #MONEY

I was 31 years old or so. I had just finished my BSME in MECHANICAL Engineering a year or so ago, and I had been around the world Surfing and performing music for 6 months trying to be a rock Star in 14 countries. I was getting gigs with a simple demo I had saved money and purchased studio TIME and hired musicians, and paid a producer out of money I earned. It was my second EP. It was perhaps a little better in many ways than my first EP, but very different in style and level of talent. It was further from singer/songwriter and closer to Rockband. The songs were more thought out, but still had a long way to go but were still more pop oriented than ROCK, but I didn't make the investment in a real consultant, because I didn't value or trust what those people would do for me. The best part was that No one helped me do it. It was all RAW entrepreneurial self-built talent. I earned every bit of my results. I first learned how to play the guitar, and then how to sing, and then how to play and sing, and more. I've learned how to surf. I've been living a great life, but not acknowledging all my accomplishments. I was self-employed and working as a 1099 contractor by age 25. I had the freedom to leave work if I wanted to and go surfing during a hurricane swell. Kenny Norton on nantucket busted my balls IF I left the jobsite a mess with my tools everywhere, but still kept me employed.

Everything I've ever pursued, i've finished, for the most part. I pursued surfing, and got good at it. I put the TIME in. I pursued having a great body, and got down to 5.2% body fat at 25. It was a shitload of ridiculous work, and although It was a lot of work, it taught me how much work is required for that level of success in anything I wanted.

When I was 18, I thought you could be ARNOLD by going to the gym 3 days a week and eating pasta and drinking soda, so I did it religiously and ate tons of pizza, pasta and soda. It was cheap and all I could afford. I thought I could become a rock star by picking up the guitar and playing 2 bars from sweet child of mine introduction without playing the whole song through to the end with a real band. I played regularly those two bars for every guitar player I could find, and everyone in a band, and tried to audition for every band out there with a little practice amp and no voice at all to speak of. I couldn't sing, and I didn't know the difference between Pentatonic or diatonic. I thought a major chord was the same as a minor chord and the two could be interchangeable no matter which key I was in. I couldn't even tell you how to stay in the same key. I really had no real training or education to speak of in developing my skills or talent and didn't understand any of it. But I was able to get decent grades in school. What a waste, when being a rock star was my dream. I don't want to discount all the surfing, traveling, building skills or everything else i've earned, but it's #lackofFocus that has caused me to miss out on my real dream. Is it too late? perhaps not, but as close as I might be, I now want more money than that $100 I can make every night performing music.

I was 22, and knew I wouldn't graduate school because of financial problems, so I set out to run the Boston Marathon in college when I felt like I had nothing left in my life to live for. I thought I could do it by running for 3-8 miles a week 2-3x a week. Wrong again! Although I didn't get a number to run the Marathon, I still finished it. I had a friend of mine in my Fraternity PHI GAMMA PI, Eddie Moussouris who trained me. Second generation American. In shape, great communicator, and Great role model and was president of his Fraternity. He was a handsome guy, a stocky guy and for whatever reasons, he respected me and wanted to help me. So he did; every step of the way. I have some amazing friends.

What are the major characteristics of a person that makes them president-quality where other people like Hilary Clinton fail? Hilary failed in becoming president for one reason; most people felt like they couldn't trust her. There was too much junk on her and the junk outweighed the success. just being a woman or advocate for women is not enough. Why did most people vote for TRUMP? It was that element of Knowledge and experience and validity of his statements. There was a lot of truth to what he says. You might not like the demeanor or style, but the value is still there. The results are there to back it up. He had multiple published best selling books with some simple executable concepts, many of which I follow, and he went from $9 billion in debt to being back in the black. He had studied at a very reputable Business school, WHARTON. Regardless of the details, had had built multiple buildings with his name on it, so there were at least a lot of people or some kind of success behind his results, and most people valued those facts. This article or post isn't about TRUMP or HILARY or anything like that, but instead about the simple mistakes I've made due to a lack of #FOCUS. I want to talk about some of those mistakes and the state of mind and thoughts that got me into those mistakes. Although I've made a lot of mistakes, i've had more success in my life than I think the average person has had.

I remember being rolled up like a ball in the middle of my dorm room or the room of my fraternity house multiple times in college and wanting to wilt away and die because of mistakes i've made and the relative perception i had of myself and some simple failures. One of which was my first year in college when I chose not to wear a condom with a girl I wanted no part of but she begged me not to wear a condom and then later got me to go to the clinic to prove she wasn't pregnant after telling me she was. I'll never forget the relief when the Nurse asked me why we were there in a room separate from the girl and when I told her that the girl had told me she was pregnant, and I wanted to do the right thing, she had told me: "She's not pregnant", and she's got you here to try to get your blood tested to try to get you to marry her. The commitment to myself and always wearing a condom every TIME was now stronger than ever. I no longer trust ugly girls, or fat girls, or girls that weren't at least star Alpha performers. I would never again just have sex with a girl I didn't care about or wasn't fully attracted to. Whenever I went to a bar, I found the hottest girl and approached her. I knew I didn't want the worst and it was TIME to work. It was not easy! I made it a habit! Where's the hottest girl? I'm going to walk up to her and her friends and say hello! I wish I had committed to this in highschool. Girls are more fun! If I had to guess, this approach actually got me laid and introduced myself to some great girls I still love and respect to this day. I can't tell you how many times I got looked at like an ugly grinch or troll. I can't tell you how bad and motivated and humble it made me feel. I knew I had a lot of work to do to attract the quality of girls I was interested in. I wanted to be a rock star and models were who I wanted to surround myself by, but I still hadn't figured out where to find them or how to score them. Most times, there is at least one model in a room who is attracted to me if i'm in a room full of models. I've been with girls that were hot enough to be victoria secret model but didn't have the drive or confidence and eventually became fat married junk with bullshit kids.

I had instantly made a life changing decision. I always wear a condom and I'm a huge advocate for this simple process. I come from a big family and know for a fact that my life would have been much simpler if my parents only had me as a child. My father didn't want a lot of kids, but was a very hard worker, and my mom was not! My mom had a big heart, and i'll never forget all the times she saved my ass. But all she ever wanted to do with her life, like many girls was find a tall handsome guy, get married and have a shitload of kids. She got her wish, and my father did the right thing and supported her dream. My dreams were different because my father was a violent impatient and intolerant guy outside of loving my mother. He was honest and loved my mother more than he loved me and he told me this when I was 8 years old. The same year he beat me when my sister pushed me out of the way and tried to jump in the shower when I was first in the bathroom. When I was 10 he had changed a little bit and put me in private school. I got the education I needed an support I needed to move on in school, but it wasn't enough for me. I needed a lot more love and attention and support that he didn't have TIME or money to give me because he had too many kids and couldn't figure it all out. He still had the work ethic though. He knew he had to do a lot of things he didn't want to do so that he could support his ridiculously large family. AGAIN; it was NOT what I wanted. But my mom was happy and always sitting around procrastinating laundry, decent dinner and all those things that GREAT moms are supposed to do. If I wanted my laundry done at ten years old, I had to do it myself, because my mother refused to do it correctly. She folded clothes inside out if they didn't go in the wash right side out. She washed Reds with whites ruining my fathers Nice ties and so much more. She wanted to be a house wife but she had no desire to be a great house wife and earn those HUNRED dollar bills my father put in her hand every month. Like many girls, she wanted the money and the big family and the tall handsome guy but didn't want to do the work. Then when she wanted to walk away from her family and switch directions into owning her own business in being a funeral director my father supported her, as she again, didn't want to cook dinner properly or do the laundry. She got a 4.0 but only because she sacrificed her family life which eventually effected my father hanging around other dudes. Where did all the money go? where did all her TIME go? What was she doing all day? napping and watching soap operas in stead of cleaning the house. Sitting on the phone instead of helping me with my homework. Sitting on the phone AGAIN when she should have been stopping the kids from arguing over what they were watching on TV. The quality of your family their success is proportional to the TIME you invest in it.

I remember being 12 years old and seeing Guns N Roses and Sweet child of mine with Slash plugging in and playing a great tune on MTV before MTV became POP dominated Reality tv. The c-suite executives should have been fired.

Fast forward to finishing my #college degree; I was now 31 and GNR was still my favorite Rock Band. I drank a little and Captain Morgan and Coke was my preferred drink and I could easily drink 2-3 in 1 hour before realizing if I didn't switch to water or at least BEER, I would end up on my ass sloppy drunk. Most times I had the discipline and self awareness to recognize what I had to do and just do it. I was able to keep these #badhabits to a minimum and I did it predominately on a Friday or saturday night but very seldom both. I was in #workmode and had the #discipline to go to the #gymeveryday for most of the year. I was #healthy and in shape by average standards. I was about #7PERCENTbodyfat, and I still wanted to be ARNOLD SWARTZENEGGAR, AXL ROSE, SLASH, EINSTEIN and everyone else that was FAMOUS, yet couldn't figure out how to #justdoit or just #getitdone. I was attracting relatively attractive girls for girlfriends, but I still had to be the one to make the first move and I was ok with this at the TIME. Just having a girlfriend was enough. I never wanted to be married. I had already lived through that stage in my life where Love was all I felt I needed. I hadn't received enough love by 25 or 30 for sex or #LOVE to be enough in my life. I still needed more love. I didn't love Myself enough and I didn't even know how or the first step, yet I had the work ethic and the discipline to attack one problem at a TIME and get it done and achieve completion. I had reached that stage where I could finish what I started and that was a lot for me considering what I had come from. No one had ever really taken me aside and told me to be an ALPHA or what it took to be successful. Sure I had been told that you have to win by lots of people, and just as many people had told me that you don't have to win to be happy. I had been told that you don't need money to be successful. I had received lots of great information and lots of conflicting information that told me the exact opposite. One thing I knew was definitely true and that was If I don't make health a priority, I would end up like my parents; fat middle class and unemployed by 50 if not by 40. My father had set a great example for me in work ethic and also by starting his own business. I watched him struggle to make it happen and then 10 years later reach a little success and went to work for him and still couldn't get Along with the same guy he's always been. Much smarter than me, yet too impatient to learn proper communication skills. This isn't about my Dad though, yet he was a big help in my life for many things and concepts. He always gave me great advice yet the advice was vague and ambiguous and unexecutable. Advice like "don't try to cut a tree down with a sledgehammer" or "don't try to walk through walls; find the door" which are great concepts, but this type of philosophical advice doesn't get the job done and it doesn't produce material results. Unfortunately, my Dad knew what I wanted to be and achieve in my life, but he didn't know how to help me do it and he was still focused more on himself and his own goals and making a healthy living, but still missed some of the biggest concepts most successful people understand. At the end of the day, the biggest skill a successful person needs to have is #SelfAwareness and the ability to focus on your #strengths.

I was recently consulting with my Sister #DorothyStover who has a Masters in Business Administration in MARKETING, and I asked her to review my Marketing in general from my online #BRAND Strategy all the way through to my #Website , #Conversions and #strategy.

The goal of this post is to communicate to you where you should be focusing your TIME if money is a problem for you and if success is a priority. Bottom line; you've had success in the things you've considered priority up to this point in your own life. where you have chosen to focus your TIME is where you've had success. Perhaps that is watching TV. You've done it successfully and it's TIME to progress to more important things that take priority. You've been successful perhaps in having kids. You've been successful perhaps in buying a Nice house or keeping your #job. Where you have not been successful is rising to Upper level management or owning your own business successfully. We can all start and run a business of our own, but it takes a lot of work and knowledge and experience to do everything ourselves if we don't master this one most important concept and that is #SALES or conversions on your Strengths. So When you want to make money, you need to stop focusing on all these things that you're not strong in, and find other people to delegate those action steps to; But again, that costs money. If you want great people to do those action steps for you, and do them well; you need a lot of money. No one works for free.

Lots of Business owners and #BADMANAGERS make claims that there's not good help out there and that they can't find good help when they should be focused learning more about sales and building a budget for #GREATHELP .

You see, back when I was trying to be a rock star and it was all I wanted, I had never studied business, yet I was trying to study #business. At that point I had only studied engineering and #music. #Engineering is only a small section of a successful #OPERATIONS strategy, but won't make you the money that successful C-Suite executives understand. If you want to make money or have money, Sales should be at the top of your list.

Before you decide to commit to anything related to OPERATIONS, you should be looking at a Marketing plan for your NEW proposed business and all that related stuff to market research and YOU relative to that market. This is Marketing and it's not at all OPERATIONS. Going to college? That's OPERATIONS, not MARKETING. Before you compile a business plan with all types of

Successful #Csuite executives focus on Strengths, and that is what makes them successful. They're not investing their TIME in developing all their weaknesses or worrying about #RISK. Sales are conversions, and most of us don't properly acknowledge all our strengths and we're constantly trying to reinvent the wheel and develop ourselves in something we're WEAK in. This is one of the most TIME consuming Mistakes anyone could ever make in Business.

If you're trying to make money, you need to stop focusing on your OPERATIONS strategy and product development, or service development, and start focusing on your marketing strategy which includes starting with your BRAND and a proper #SWOT Analysis, and my sister Dorothy does this very well. For those people who have never studied business, I talk a lot about all these concepts on my linkedin and I have article after article about Business, Operations, Marketing, strategy, money, Investments and more.

One of the first things she looked at was my #OFFER or product Service offering and how I was #Advertising it, and a large part of a successful advertising strategy is the way you #communicate the Value of your Offer and the #Features and #Benefits of that offer, and how you #Deliver on the #contract you're proposing.

You can't deliver on a contract you don't have.

My father gave me a great piece of advice when I went to get my first job in engineering, which again was vague and ambiguous. He told me there are three rules in getting a job: "get the job, get the job, get the job". This is terrible philosophical advice, but the point is easy to understand. For a person in Marketing, or business, this is the same as getting the contract. Before you worry about delivering on a contract, you must get the contract first. Before you can negotiate on a contract (another skill any successful person has: Negotiation). But before you can even negotiate a contract, you must find a hot lead. Before you find a hot lead, you have to go through a bunch of COLD LEADS. Life in Marketing doesn't have to be this complicated though, because there are lots of hot leads out there for lots of great products. Which one do YOU want to sell? Why are you a great fit to sell that product? if you're not a high quality person, don't try to sell BMWs, people won't take you seriously, and definitely don't try to sell Ferraris or lambourginis. Sell what you've done to get one maybe, but not the car itself.

A lot has happened to me over the last 20 years, and if I had to do it all over again, I would have gone right into a sales position in highschool. I feel bad for those people that want money but are still working in some kind of operations oriented job as a Barista or in a restaurant or cook, house painter, or carpenter. People who want and love money should be studying money, and that is either a career in marketing or finance. You dream job might be CEO, but I know that my uncle BOB Flanagan was CFO before he became CEO, and a Cost accountant before becoming CFO, and before becoming a cost accountant, he had to have a humble attitude and do whatever was asked and constantly and consistently go the extra mile and do so much more than his company delegated to him. He had to prove himself by doing a ridiculously unprecedented amount of work. Most people are not willing to do the amount of work he's done in his career. That's why he was successful. Very important concept. He wasn't that guy saying everyone is wrong and none of it is my fault. Actually, he made it his Business to change all the challenges and recognize the challenges and the solutions, and execute on them.

However, you can't even get a LEAD, until you've fully evaluated exactly what your offer is and who your target market is. If you're trying to sell me candy, you'll fail every TIME, because I like the 5 star #entree and I never even get to the #dessert! Everyone is different.