Education Archives - Isucceedbook.com

success principles: 9 financial tips from the man himself, Warren Buffet

Apr 102013

Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes

My son turns five in just a little over a month.

A few years ago he could barely walk and now he’s challenging my authority. How times have changed.

Soon, as he begins to better understand numbers and, more importantly, money, his real education will begin.

As he’ll attend a Japanese elementary school, his English learning is my responsibility and we’ve already got him enrolled in a Karate Dojo to teach him how to protect himself, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

One of the things I am keenly aware of is the importance of educating him financially, especially from a young age.

The sad truth is that so many adults get into financial trouble, in business as well as in their personal lives, because of bad decisions. Decisions that to a large extent can be avoided.

The problem is that financial problems don’t just stay financial, but manifest themselves in our daily lives. They affect how we talk, how we think, how we interact with our family and I don’t believe I’m out of line when I say that somewhere in the realm of 70% of problems in a marriage are in some way linked to money.

Now for most of my life I thought I understood money, I was wrong.

Five years ago I made the decision to educate myself on the financial markets it really opened my eyes.

So much so now that I have made it a mission of mine to help educate others in the form of the FFS, the Financial Future Seminar, as some of you may already be aware.

As a result of making finance important in my life I read pretty much everything I can get my hands on when it comes to money, just like success and marketing.

Just yesterday I came across an article by the world’s most successful investor, Warren Buffet, in which he talked about his new TV show for kids (Secret Millionaires Club) to help teach them financial education (something Robert Kiyosaki also strongly believes in).

In it he mentioned just a few of the lessons that children would be taught over the series.

Reading them I realized that a whole lot of people I know would benefit from learning these lessons so here I am. Let’s quickly go over the lessons and then I’ll share some insights afterwards.

The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself.
The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.
Learn from your mistakes, and the mistakes of others.
Great partnerships make any job easier.
Fail to plan, plan to fail.
With business as in life, get to know people before you judge them.
Learn not to spend more than you have.
Save for the unexpected.
It’s never too early to start.

Some of these are pretty self-explanatory, but it’s amazing how easily we forget them.

For some reason, people are happy to fork over anywhere between $40,000 and $100,000 for college education, but not $2000 for a 3-day workshop with a living legend.

In fact, once people leave school people feel their education is over, but there’s a reason the final ceremony at college is called a “commencement” ceremony, because it’s really just the beginning of our education.

Let’s face it, whether we choose to study or not, life will teach us many lessons.

That’s why I spend, on average, $100 a month to purchase new books, audio lectures or DVD trainings (I usually have to save up for these) because I know that my success largely depends on who I become as a person, from studying then doing.

Education also directly links into the third lesson on the list which may be the most valuable.

Our mentors, whether they are in books or in person, are people who have “been there, done that.”

So when they share their mistakes with us, we should take notes…copious notes.

Naturally, we’ll make our own mistakes along the way no matter whose plan we follow, but mentors can help us sidestep some major land mines.

Knowing what NOT to do can often prove even more valuable than what to do.

I realize my son is only four, but often times what we learn at a young age is the foundation upon everything else is built.

School will take care of subjects such as Japanese, science and PE.

Money, love, success and life are up to us (my wife and I) though.

So many parents leave education up to the school system, but I think back to the words of my mentor, Jim Rohn, when he said, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

One day my son will have to choose his own path, but till that time I’m going to do my darndest to help him see the value of learning.

Wish me luck.

Adrian Shepherd

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success principles: 14 things you did not and will not learn in school

Expert Perspective

Dec 052012

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

School is all about learning…

You learn in the classroom; parabolas, historic battles, grammatical errors, foreign languages, jumping jacks, formulas, music notes, paint brushes…and all those other wonderful things we spent years learning.

But when the bell rings another type of learning begins. You’ve got friendships, bullies, liars, gravity, punctuality, negotiation, and food are all things we learn on the playground.

Classroom learning is basically theory except for the arts and PE.

Playground learning is all about enjoyment but with a dash of reality. It’s there we learn both how much fun life can be and how dangerous it is from time to time. It’s nearly always on the playground that kids learn about broken legs and arms. It’s also where side-deals are done and relationships are born.

One of my joys, when I have the time to do it, is watching my son play with his friends outside before his daycare begins.

Each day, without fail, at least one kid is crying, a few are messing around, some are making noise while others are running around with reckless abandonment. It’s quite a scene to watch over a 100 kids run around a relatively small area without bumping into each other especially because they haven’t really learned from the bumps and bruises of life.

It really is quite amazing.

Unfortunately, in spite of attending school for 12 years on top of attending kindergarten, many kids don’t learn some of the most important lessons in life.

A while back I came across a fabulous list that I think every parent should share with their kids.

It made its rounds many years ago and has been attributed to Bill Gates but that turned out to be a hoax.

I thank whoever wrote it for their insight into today’s kids as it sums things up nicely.

Today we have feel-good, politically correct teachings which have created an entire generation of kids with no concept of reality and as a result it sets them up for failure in the real world.

Here are 14 Rules every kid (and adult) should learn:

Life is not fair – get used to it!
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes; learn from them.
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic.
You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12). If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t see one of your peers at room temperature lately.
Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school’s a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.

While these rules were written for kids today, I think many of us can learn a thing or two from them.

My personal favorite is number 5.

I do believe that more kids could learn a great deal from earning an honest wage. And in fact, many of the people who earn minimum wage are critical to our way of life.

Sadly there are many people who think along the lines of “Well, if this is all they pay…” and proceed to do the bare minimum day in and day out.

What they forget is that just because you’re getting paid pittance doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. However, if that’s the attitude they have, that’s what they’ll always get.

We are not entitled to positions, promotions, salary increases…these we must earn.

How is this done? Easy, by proving to our superiors that we are too valuable to stay where we are.

By working harder than our coworkers.

By studying more than our coworkers.

By becoming better than our coworkers.

To put it another way, self-improvement.

As I talked about in my previous post, a world-class education can be had for free for anyone who wants it thanks to libraries and the Internet. But that’s up to the us.

And if you got to the bottom of this post (most people don’t) then I’m sure you’re someone who will.

Adrian Shepherd

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success principles: so what if you’re not an expert, use Henry Ford’s secret to success

Expert Perspective

Dec 032012

Reading time: 6 – 10 minutes

$3.46 million…

That’s what the winner paid this year for one lunch with the legendary investor Warren Buffett (all proceeds go to charity).

Why would anyone pay that kind of money?

Sure, it’s for a good cause but the main reason is someone felt it was worth it.

Unfortunately, very few of us have that kind of money just lying around.

Thankfully, we don’t need to.

All you need is $20 and some time.

I’m of course talking about books but not just any books. Many successful people have taken the time to share their ideas to mastery on pretty much every subject available.

Heck, you don’t even need the $20 if you have a decent library nearby.

Just the other day I watched a video about students protesting the price increases for British universities. I feel for them but one sign caught my eye – “Education is a right, not a privilege.” I wholeheartedly agree with the statement but not in the manner in which it was used.

We all have a right to a good education, but not one at university if you don’t have the money.

Colleges are universities aren’t charities, they’re businesses.

If anyone wants a quality education I doubt people could find a better one than at a public library.

At college kids drink, party, mess around and somehow manage to squeeze time in to do some studying…4 years later and a sizable amount of money and time invested, they graduate.

But is it really worth it?

Personally, I believe that the college system worked when the Internet wasn’t around, when information was a premium.

Today anyone with an iPhone has access to more information than my entire high school did.

Any decent-size library has more books than you would ever need to learn anything. The only question is whether you’ll read them..and then, more important, whether you’ll apply what you learn.

You may recall one of my parents’ friends doing just that, in case you forgot the story you can read it here.

The point is you don’t need to be rich to learn the secrets of the rich. And you don’t need to spend a fortune to learn everything you need to succeed in any business venture.

Everything’s already out there just waiting to be found, the only question is, “Are you going to look for it?” which brings me to what I believe was Henry Ford’s #1 success secret.

Many years ago, Henry Ford was involved in a libel suit with the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune had called Ford a fool, and Ford took exception to this and said in effect, “Prove it.”

The Tribune asked him scores of simple questions such as “Who was Benedict Arnold?” and “When was the Revolutionary War fought?” Ford, who had little formal education, got question after question wrong and became quite exasperated with the whole thing. Finally he said, “I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I could find a man in five minutes who does.”

And there lies the secret: finding the right person.

You don’t need to have all the answers. Henry Ford didn’t…but he knew who to ask.

Now we all know who to ask: Google.

But I get it, when you go to the library or bookstore (I go with Amazon), it’s hard to know where to start. There are just so many books to choose from and picking the wrong one can be quite frustrating.

So here a short list of books to pick up if you’re serious about success:

Small Business Marketing: Guerrilla Marketing
Inspiration: Talent Is Never Enough
Business Management: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Financial Literacy: Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Success: Unlimited Power
Business Systems: The Ultimate Sales Machine
Business Relationships: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Persuasion: Influence
Negotiation: Start with No
Sales: How to Master the Art of Selling
Self-Esteem: The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
Pricing: How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors
Business Creation: Keys to the Vault
Marriage: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

For those who learn better via audio or video, and are willing to invest a little bit more money, there are programs with substantial more material available.

Rather than tell you which programs I recommend let me just throw out some people and then let you do your own research.

Marketing: Frank Kern, Dan Kennedy
Business Systems: Brian Tracy
Time Management: David Allen
Small Business Marketing: Joe Polish
Motivation: Brendon Burchard, Wayne Dyer
Success: Tony Robbins
JV Partnerships: Sohail Khan
Mindset: Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn

If you’d like to hear my comments on their materials just PM on FB.

Education is a right. And that right is staring us in our face every time we stand in front of a library.

Untapped knowledge at its finest.

The only question is whether we will use Henry Ford’s secret or keep on walking.

The choice is ours.

Adrian Shepherd

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success principles: I’ve got good news and bad news for all you students out there (and that means all of us)

Expert Perspective

Jul 232012

Reading time: 6 – 10 minutes

Students just can’t get a break, can they?

Just when you think you’re done, they suck you back in.

For years, students can’t wait to graduate school thinking life will be so much easier when they are free to make their own choices.

Well, I’ve got good news…and bad for all you students out there. And by students I mean, each and everyone of us.

That’s right, we are, and forever will be, students of life.

It starts with school where we don’t have much choice what we want to study. But once we leave school, education is up to us. We can choose to go further, hence the phrase “continued education” or we can say “To heck with this” and go along our merry way.

Those choosing the later, soon find our how tough the world can be. That’s what happened to my father who ended up taking extra classes to make up the difference.

In spite of this, after he’d been in the garment industry for about 10 years he was given his walking papers as he didn’t have a college degree meaning he was one of the first to go.

With limited options he chose to take a job in the Philippines at a time when the world was a very different place. Thankfully it worked out for us but it wasn’t far from easy.

Me? I never gave college a second thought. To me and many in my generation, it was pretty much a given that I would go to college and the same holds true today.

What I didn’t know, and what most kids I know, don’t know is what to study.

Sure, we may have a vague idea of what we’d like to do, but very rarely do we know how we are going to become that except in the cases of a specialized subject like medicine.

Here’s the good news: Today there’s no shortage of schools and we can pretty much choose where we want to study and what we want to study.

There’s more. On top of our choice of schools, we have the Internet which has helped us gain access to more information than ever before thought possible.

We can find our which teachers are the best, what classes to avoid, what tricks each school has and so much more all with the click of a few keys.

Here’s the bad news. Most near everyone has access to education that means the competition got a whole lot steeper. And thanks to the Internet, our competition is no longer limited to the stores in your neighborhood, today we have to compete with people halfway across the earth.

In a previous post I talked about the challenges we face today and how we can better prepare ourselves and our children for them.

I stated that we must see the future and then work backwards choosing subjects that will give us the best chance to succeed. One client of mine said that this would be a mistake as we can’t all be bankers and lawyers and by letting people pursue their passion, we will be able to build a better world.

Now I would like to state that I do think we should pursue our passion but that does not mean college is always the right investment for you.

Some colleges today cost upward of $100,000 for 4 years. But would that money be spent better elsewhere?

Language is a great example.

Which do you think would work out better for someone who wants to master a language?

4 years in the classroom
4 years in the country

It’s not even a contest. Sure you could be one of the lucky few who just so happens to have the most amazing teacher in your school but how does that compare to spending 4 years, 24/7 in the country of the language you want to study.

Enrolling in a language school there and with the added practice of being able to use what you learn everywhere after school and you’ll pretty much be fluent.

I learned to speak decent Japanese having spent only a year here and a year and a bit back in the US but I shudder to think how good I would have been had I just spent 4 years here. I’d be insanely good.

What if your passion is dance? Sure you can major in dance in many schools in the US but if you want to make a career out of it then you’re better off attending a professional dance school where you’ll be competing against the best.

The point here is that college is a serious investment of both

Time
Money

And when you’re spending a good chunk of change on anything we want to get a good return on our investment. Philosophy major – tell your kid to go to the library and study from the greats and at the end of 4 years, with a thesis in hand, you’ll hand them over a check that can buy them a new car and the down-payment on a condominium. Sounds like a good deal to me. Same goes for history.

Or better yet, they could use the money to travel and explore their options. To learn about the world firsthand.

Personally, I’ve spent 5 years and somewhere in the realm of $100,000 on books, audio CD and DVDs. And what an investment it has turned out to be; I’m a changed man with so much to offer that I didn’t have 5 short years ago. And even better, I can pass on what I’ve learned to my son. All the material I’ve accumulated I will pass on to him and advice him on how to get the most from it.

I started at 32, he’ll be starting at 7 and will get one heck of a head-start.

College has become ubiquitous and as such it has lost its luster. Attending college won’t give students the umph over their competition as most of them have attended college as well.

There are good reasons to attend college, and there are good schools but we need to ask ourselves if it’s the right choice for what we want in the future.

Consider adding qualifications, not college degrees. Study from the best in the world, not your average teacher. Live in Spain to learn Spanish, rather than taking a few classes at your local college.

In life, we have to learn to play the odds.

Sit down and think what you want to accomplish then figure out the best way you can achieve that. Don’t just go to college because everyone else is…if it’s the right choice for you, then do it.

Today we have choices. We have specialty schools. We have seminars and we have access to the best minds in the world in numerous forms. Learn to take advantage of them.

As Jim Rohn, my mentor, once said, “Standard education gets you standard results.”

Don’t accept standard. Choose the less beaten path and go for incredible.

Adrian Shepherd

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success principles: it’s up to us to change the world, no one else

Expert Perspective

Jul 162012

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

Who knew?

Life as a child, for many people, is a cakewalk.

Go to school, hang out with friends, play computer games, eat, sleep and have a whole lot of fun. Oh, and maybe a little homework.

College is, for lack of a better word, freedom. Free to choose for the first time. What time should I go to bed? Who should I ask out? What should I study? How should I spend my evening? What part-time job should I get? Lots of questions and lots of time to think about them.

And then, before you know it, we’re all grown up.

Work, responsibility, money, marriage, family…you know the drill.

Blink again, and you’re wondering where it all went. Years have flown by.

Me, I’m 38 years…young, and have loved every minute of it (even the tough times).

The thing is, most of us are so busy focused on our lives and getting it right that we don’t have the time, the energy or even the desire to try and change the world.

But one thing is for sure, change is coming our way. It always is.

The only question is whether we will be part of it, or whether we will just let it happen to us.

I think that rather than pass the buck on to someone else that I should make things happen.

I realize that I can only do so much but there’s no telling what two or three people can do together. That’s the power of synergy.

So what can we do?

I believe that the key to our better future is our children. After all, they will be in charge sooner than we think.

The best thing we can do is help our children to be better prepared for the world that they will have to live in…and that all starts with education.

Being an educator myself I am VERY passionate about education and agree with my mentor, Jim Rohn, that “Life change does not begin with inspiration. Life change begins with education.”

I hope that the posts I write, the videos I make and the podcasts I record all help you with your continuing education.

Enjoy today’s podcast.

Adrian Shepherd

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success principles: is university still a good investment in 2012?

Expert Perspective

Mar 142012

Reading time: 7 – 12 minutes

“Investment” is a word that has powerful emotions attached to it.

For many the word “investment” is synonymous with gambling so they associate the feeling of fear. For others when they hear the word they simply turn off, as they believe it’s too complicated. And for some it means money which excites them.

The same word, three very different feelings; fear, complex and excitement.

To me, investment can be any one of those three. For most of my life, I associated the feeling of it being too complex for me and felt it was better left for the experts.

Today I have a very different feeling toward the word. One of both excitement and skepticism.

In the end, whether we are talking about shopping or investing we essentially are looking for the same thing – a good deal.

That’s all investing is – a deal.

Over the past 30 years what has been a good deal has changed. First it was stocks with the emergence of the .com companies and then it was housing but today it’s not as clear cut. In fact, many people are wondering just where they should invest their money.

But one thing that hasn’t changed for years is that university is a good investment.

So much so that each year millions of students the world over head off to university in order to prepare for work.

But as of late I am beginning to wonder if university is really such a good investment.

And I say this from the standpoint of an educator.

I was a teacher for over 20 years and am now a success coach as well as an author and a lecturer. I think it’s safe to say that my world revolves around education in one form or another.

Whether I address English, time management, marketing, success, or finance – it’s all education.

I used to think going to university was a no brainer but today it’s not quite that simple.

I will admit that in today’s world not having a degree or some sort of certification can be detrimental for people looking for work but is it really a good investment considering the costs involved today? Let’s take a look.

Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, Cambridge, Cal Tech are considered by most as some of the best universities in the world and most people would agree that graduating from such a prestigious university will pretty much guarantee your success in life. But it’s not always the case.

I decided to do an informal survey of my friends and clients and came up with some interesting results.

When asked if their children were to attend the best universities in the land how would they feel? Not surprisingly, nearly everyone said they would be so proud of their children.

But when asked a follow-up question it’s wasn’t quite as clear cut. I asked them, “What if you children decided to study philosophy, art history or dance at those institutions?” Suddenly people’s answers weren’t quite as positive. Some replied with a quizzical look, “Philosophy?”

Same university, but different feeling.

Why? Because people know the difficulty of getting work in such fields. Let’s be real – what job are you qualified to do with a degree in philosophy? I could come up with only one viable option – teach.

Now I’m not knocking philosophy…I enjoy studying the works of Socrates and Aristotle as their ideas are timeless and powerful. But to spend anywhere between $40,000 and $150,000 at university to study a subject that you could learn almost as well, if not better, simply by visiting your local library each day for a few years.

No pressure, no tests, no wasted time.

Just you and some books.

Wouldn’t the money be better used as a down payment on a house, or invested in a safe company that pays dividend rather than a degree that will not give you much of an advantage in the market place?

After all, that is the reason we go to university. For most people it’s not because they really want to continue studying but because they believe that it will give them a leg up in finding work.

And that’s what university is supposed to do…prepare us for work. But what if there is no work?

Just look at what’s happening all over the world. People with degrees, smart people…and no work to be found.

Of course there are always jobs to be had, but some people refuse to take them out of pride saying something like, “I went to so-and-so university, why would I work there?”

Universities gladly welcome students with open arms, happy to see their enrollment up each year but don’t universities have a responsibility to tell their students about the truth that’s out there.

The system has worked for years, when our economies were growing, jobs grew on trees. But in many of the first world nations of the world today the economies have taken a turn for the worse.

Economies are contracting and the jobs are being exported to countries that can do the work cheaper and faster.

The result – more unemployment. So students go to school longer, paying larger bills, in hopes of finding a job.

A lady I met recently told me she had gotten a graduate degree in English but was working in a supermarket. $60,000 tuition plus living costs and whatnot for 6 years translates into somewhere in the realm of $80,000…and yet, she’s working in a supermarket.

Something’s not right.

Attending a university does give you an advantage over those who don’t but today more and more people have one meaning it only gives you an advantage of 5% of other applicants. On top of your university you must consider your field of study carefully. Some will be to your advantage, others a severe disadvantage.

Your choice in university will determine your opportunities in the market place to a certain extent but your choice in major is even more critical.

And most important of all, there’s you.

University is just teachers teaching various subjects, what we do with what we learn is the key element.

The lesson is this – decide carefully what you want to be then figure out your best course of action, university is a big investment that doesn’t always pay off.

So if university isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, what do I think is a good investment?

That’s easy – invest in yourself.

There are fabulous seminars conducted by some of the best minds in the business – they might not be cheap, but they are good.

DVDs and audio programs are readily available on every subject matter – find the best among them by asking around on forums or facebook, buy them and then study them. Most can be had for under a few hundred dollars. An incredible investment that so few invest in.

Books are probably the cheapest, most valuable resource we have today. And you don’t even have a spend a cent.

A trip to the library will give you access to the greatest leaders in every field; Churchill, Gates, Buffet, Kennedy, Socrates, Einstein, Bell, Lincoln and the list goes on and on.

FREE.

But instead we choose to send our kids to universities – sometimes taking out huge loans to do so…

Me, I spend around $1,000 a year on books, audio lectures, DVDs and other educational products. And the best thing about them – I can read them over and over and over again. I can hand them down to my son and, in turn, he his children.

A degree is mine and while I can share what I’ve learnt, I can’t capture everything. Many of us throw away the books we had in university simply because many of them aren’t worth keeping.

Do you have yours? I sure don’t.

But I have kept every one of the books I chose to buy to better myself.

I loved university and think it’s a great experience to learn about yourself and life but I’m just not convinced it’s what it used to be simply because the world has changed. Only you can decide if it’s right for you and your dreams.

Or maybe I’m crazy? What do you think?

Adrian Shepherd

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success principles: who would want to listen to me?

Expert Perspective

Feb 292012

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Friends and family…they’re irreplaceable.

They are there for us when we need them and always willing to lend a helping hand.

That said, they are often the biggest killers of dreams.

They are the first to tell us that something won’t work and all the reasons why we should just give up.

And many times, they’re right.

Dreams can be seductive. We imagine ourselves being rich and famous doing what we love when in actual fact, the chances of that happening are often slim to none.

But there is a chance.

And that’s all someone needs if you are willing to give it all you’ve got.

When I first decided to write a book on success, one friend poured some cold water on my vision of my future, by saying, “There’s no way you’ll be successful.”

Another friend of mine told me that I was “wasting my time” and that I should “get serious” about working my business.

It was hard to hear those things, but I never wavered.

Why?

Because I was given a second chance at life and believed that I had a message to share with people.

What was that message? That’s not quite as easy to answer because it’s evolved over time.

For years all I wanted to help others master English, because I could see just what a powerful tool it was and would be moving forward.

But when I sat down and looked at my life 5 years ago, I didn’t like what I saw. I loved the relationships I’d built and the work I did, but I realized that it wasn’t going to get me where I wanted to go.

It was because of that that I started looking for opportunities…and it wasn’t long till I found one.

That “opportunity” turned out to be, for lack of a better word, a nightmare.

And yet, it was thanks to that experience that I began studying.

I started with business but that soon morphed into the more general field of success and began to learn from the likes of Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar and Jim Rohn, that dealt more with the mental side of success.

When I made success a study, everything changed. My thoughts, my attitude, my philosophy…I was hooked.

So my message then evolved from teaching English to using English to teach ideas and principles that could help transform people’s lives regardless of their field of expertise.

Around the same time that I started studying success I felt that I should also start studying investing if I ever wanted to be wealthy.

I would spend 2 hours a day on success and 15 minutes on investing…but now it’s just the opposite.

Two hours of my day now goes to reading newsletters and listening to interviews to understand how I can protect myself from what is coming and how to benefit from it.

And now here I am, just a few days away from my first official financial seminar.

Later this year, I’ll be opening it up to the general pubic and doing it in both English and Japanese.

So just what is my message today?

To be successful in the 21st century there are four areas we should focus on:

English
Computers
Success
Financial education

Notice that I said the word “should” because one could still be very successful without any of them, but I like to play the odds and I feel that these give people the best chance to succeed even in the most trying of times.

But who am I? And why should anyone listen to me?

I’m not a self-help guru, I’m not a financial adviser with millions in the bank and I’m no computer genius -what I am is someone who cares.

It’s my greatest asset and also my greatest weakness but I choose to believe the former.

And it’s because I care that I feel I must share what I’ve learned.

I do believe, with all my heart, that the information and ideas I have gathered can change peoples’ lives.

That’s why I taught, that’s why I wrote my book, iSucceed, it’s why I write this blog, it’s why I’m doing my financial seminar and it’s why I’ll be creating a 4-day seminar later this year.

Who knew?

Me, an English teacher who majored in psychology but focused on Japanese, is now a financial success guy.

It just goes to show you – we can be anything we want to be. All it takes a little bit of time and a whole lot of heart.

People often say to themselves, “Who would want to listen to me?”

My answer to that is, you’d be surprised.

People are always looking for ideas. Ideas to have better marriages, deeper relationships, better sales, less stress,a slimmer body, more time, bigger bank accounts – the list is endless.

If you can help people with a problem, then get out there and start sharing it.

For years I wondered what I wanted to do with my life…now I know.

It took me 37 years, a tsunami, a failed business and a whole host of other experiences along the way to get me to where I am today.

And it is my sincere hope that the messages and ideas that I share with you(here and in any of my materials) help you live a more successful life.

Adrian Shepherd

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success principles: how to survive and thrive in these turbulent times

Expert Perspective

Feb 272012

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Take a good look around.

The world is undergoing incredible change.

And not all for the better. Sadly, unemployment is a real killer.

My family and I met a nice lady just the other day who had graduated with a master’s from a local university mastering in English.

I asked her what the job market was like for a woman in her position.

“Not good” she said, “I’m working as a cashier at a supermarket.”

What’s ironic about this is I have a client who I met last year and although she’s only 17, she has exactly the same job.

That’s an investment of upward of $60,000 to end up with a job that requires no degree whatsoever.

I wish I could say this was the exception to the rule but more and more people today are finding themselves out of work.

And it seems to be the case everywhere.

Young people, educated people, experienced people are all running into the same problem – there just aren’t enough jobs.

More and more jobs are getting sent overseas to places such as China and India.

Good news for those countries but for places like Japan and the US, it’s a nightmare.

As such today I thought I’d talk about how people can prepare for, and deal with situations like these because let’s face it, these things happen.

Economies go up…and then they go down.

People like to think that booms in stock markets or housing will never burst…but history has taught us otherwise.

That’s just the nature of how things work.

In university, most students do what’s necessary.

A few excel, some do well, most get by (that was me btw), and a few miss the mark.

But that’s no longer enough. Competition is high so you have to set yourself apart in every which way you can.

One simple way to do that is the unpaid internship route.

As a business owner I can tell you firsthand that nothing gets my attention faster than hearing someone will work for free. So many people just want to know how much they’ll get paid.

While money is most certainly appreciated in return for hard work, there are a few things even more valuable than money especially when you are starting out.

Training
Contacts
Knowledge

The key is finding someone who will help you grow as an individual and not simply take advantage of you.

But that’s not hard in this day and age. We’ve got tools such as LinkedIn and Facebook which will allow you to get the message out quickly that you’re looking to improve yourself in the field of your choice and see if anyone bites.

Maybe a friend of a friend. Or a contact you made a few months back will be able to point you in the right direction.

And trust me, training and knowing the right people are often times many times more valuable than the money you’ll earn at a job.

Another thing people can do, and you’ve heard me say this before, is study.

Your classmates or colleagues are studying what’s required but there’s no rule that prevents you from setting yourself apart from your competition by picking up a few new skills.

There’s that place with lots of books…what’s it called again…right, the library. Many of seem to have forgotten just how powerful books can be what with all the technology we have around but you could pick up any number of skills; marketing, sales, communication, negotiation or more in-depth knowledge of your field.

Back in the 60s my mother told me that jobs were everywhere. Quit and you’d find a better one the next week.

Going to college used to ensure that a job would better much be waiting for us upon graduation.

There used to be a time when you got life-time employment.

Those days are here and gone.

Today it’s a whole new ball game. It’s hard to get a job and if you’re lucky enough to get one it’s either perform or you’re out.

It all comes back to one thing – us.

How much do we really want it? For years, I wondered about my life. Did I want to become a pilot? Should I become a businessman? I honestly had no idea.

But 5 years ago my vision became clearer and clearer. And since that time I’ve put my heart and soul into achieving that vision.

I’m part-way there. This year I’m implementing phase 2 and with any luck the next 3 years will determine the rest of my life.

I trust you’re working on your dreams, too.

It doesn’t take much, but it does take hard work.

Get started today and blow your competition away tomorrow.

Adrian Shepherd

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success mistakes: it’s not the school that matters but the teachers and the student

success mistakes

Jan 092012

Reading time: 6 – 10 minutes

The suit does not make the man.

I always loved that saying.

A suit is simply made of cloth. It has no special powers. It won’t make you run fast, jump any higher or work any better.

That said, one should never underestimate its value.

A suit has the power to influence others and it instills confidence in the person wearing it.

Did you know that the BBC requires all its radio announcers to wear tuxedos? On the radio.

The tux will never be seen but it is heard.

That being said, a tux can’t do it alone. The speaker must be good to begin with.

All the tux does is help amplify their power.

Along those same lines I have learnt one inevitable truth when it comes to education: that the school does not make the student.

I was lucky.

I attended an International School from the age of 8 to 18. It is something that most definitely shaped who I am today. In fact, it is one of the things that I wish to be able to give my son.

But what was the best thing I got from my time there?

Was it my International Baccalaureate classes (otherwise known as IB, or in simple English, advanced classes)? No.

Was it the facilities? No, though I did love having a swimming pool and nice classrooms.

Was it the teachers? While I did have some good teachers, I would have to say, “No.”

So what was it?

It was the students. I met kids from all over the world and was forced to deal with globalization on a daily basis, albeit in my native tongue.

My friends are my true treasure from school and I believe many people would agree with me.

Many people have a big misconception about schools, especially parents and kids.

Most parents try hard to get their kids into a good school (and I’m the same) but the problem is that most parents stop once their kids are in. That’s a BIG mistake.

Parents need to understand that they share the blame for their child’s growth or lack of it.

Parents help prepare children for the following day at school, or they don’t.

Those parents who help teach their children good study habits, help their children with their homework and teach them above and beyond what is in the textbooks amplify their children’s success by a factor of 3.

Then there’s the teachers.

Just because a child gets into a good school is no guarantee that the teachers they will get will be any good, or sometimes more importantly, be a good match.

Teachers have different styles. I may have talked about this before but in my high school my math grades were as followed.

Grade 9 – A+
Grade 10 – A+ & A-
Grade 11 – B-
Grade 12 – A+

Notice anything? What happened in the 11th grade? Was I sick? No. Was I overloaded? Nope.

The only difference was I just couldn’t understand my teacher.

I did have a few great teachers. Peg Keeney (8th grade English ) and Mr. Morton (11th grade history) are the two that I’ll always remember.

They taught me lessons that I carry with me today.

I also had a handful of awful teachers. Arrogance, baised (negatively), sexist and unwilling to admit they had made a mistake were just a few of the flaws I came across in some teachers.

But that’s the way it goes. In many ways, it’s like a roll of a dice. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

So many parents and kids don’t get that the school/college we attend is a small fraction of who we become.

I’d say, 5% is the school. Teachers do play a larger roll, I’d say somewhere up to around 30%.

So what makes up the rest?

Parents, at 25%, because they lay the foundation by teaching their children morals, disciplines, language, habits and a whole lot more.

And then 40% is the kid themselves.

With that said, I am a believer in that we are masters of our fate. As such, even if we don’t have good teachers, or a good school, or even good parents…we can still succeed.

To use a poker analogy; it’s not the hand that’s dealt that matters, it’s how you play it.

Speaking as a parent, I believe it’s up to my wife and I to help prepare our son mentally, emotionally and physically for life.

That means helping find the right TEACHERS for him.

There’s not much I can do about the teachers he has at school, but I can help find him teachers outside of class in the form of extra classes or study material.

I’ve slowly amassed a huge collection of resources that will become part of his studies as he grows up.

Once he’s old enough instead of pocket money I intend to create a reward system – he can earn more money by studying my book, audio lecture or DVD of my choice and then discussing it with me later.

With any luck, by the time he graduates high school he’ll know more about management, communication, marketing, time management, wealth and success than anyone around him.

That combined with what he learns at school will serve him well in life.

In fact, what he learns at home should help enhance his results at school.

In the end, it’s a win-win situation. He’ll make money to spend (which kids LOVE) and my wife and I will help him succeed (which parents want).

If there was one thing I wish I could help get across to others is that education is the key to success and education is up to us; that it is our responsibility to go in search of good teachers and then put what we learn into action.

One of my favorite about success is this. Three women are sitting around talking about their son’s college life.

The first mother says, “My son’s going to Harvard and it’s costing me a fortune.” The second mother says, “Well, my son’s going to Yale and it’s costing me a fortune.” The third mother says, “My son’s working at a gas station.”

Upon hearing this the first two mothers almost fall out of their chairs.

Then the third mother adds, “And he’s making a fortune.”

In the end, it’s what we make of what we have. Not what we study or where we study.

Forget the school; find the right teachers and take the right actions.

Adrian Shepherd

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success principles: who cares what it costs?

Expert Perspective

Dec 072011

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

When I lived in Thailand back in the late 80s I spent a lot of my time negotiating.

Taking a taxi home – I had to negotiate the price. Picking up some Thai crafts for my relatives – I had to negotiate the price. Picking some knick-knacks up at the Sunday Market – I had to negotiate the price.

I did it. My friends did it. Everyone did it. It was a way of life.

Today if you visit Bangkok you are greeted with a city split in two. (1) the wave of the future with high-end stores, luxury hotels, exotic restaurants and mega shopping malls and (2), small little shops selling shirts, jeans, bags, silverware, paintings, models and much more.

Each year I pop over there to visit my mother who lives in Pattaya which in many ways is a small Bangkok and each year I am amazed at all the changes. New hotels keep popping up. Gucci, Fendi, Channel and others are all there.

And there are always new products being sold at the stalls scattered around town.

All and all it’s a lot of fun, I must admit.

So having grown up in an environment where negotiating was essential I slowly learned the actual cost of things.

I knew which shops were rip-offs and which fairly priced their goods. As my friends and I were in high school we didn’t have much extra money to throw around as none of us could really work so we had to make our money last and did whatever it took to keep our costs down (much like any teenager I suppose).

A lot of trial and error taught me what was good value and what wasn’t worth it.

In places like America and Japan we can trust much of the quality of the shirts we buy at places like The Gap or Victoria Secret and if you’re not happy with a purchase you can just take it back.

That just isn’t the case in some other countries.

I’ve had shoes literally fall apart on me in 5 days.

I’ve had shirts that looked worn after only a few washes.

I’ve had my share of successes and failures when it comes to buying stuff from vendors all over the world.

In the end I’ve learned one very important lesson – that it’s not what something costs that matters. It’s how much it’s worth. Let me explain.

If I told you that I had a stamp worth $10,000, would you be willing to buy it for $1,000? Sounds like a great deal, right? Not necessarily so.

Sure the stamp could be worth $10,000, but the question is whether someone will actually pay that price for it. If you buy it for $1,000 and then can’t sell it – what’s it worth? A stamp, just one you paid a lot for. That $1,000 stamp would have as much value as any other regular stamp until the day you actually sell it.

But what if you could turn around and sell that same stamp for $100,000. Then you’d pocket a cool 90G. It’s the same stamp, just two very different scenarios.

What is the cost of going to Disneyland with the entire family? $80 each…so that’s $320 plus food and drinks. We’re looking at a potential $400 day.

But what if that day turns out to be something you never forget. You wash away your troubles, your children give you the biggest hug you’ve ever received and they talk about it for months afterwards. Not to mention all the photos you took there. What’s that worth? Surely $400 is a small price to pay for all that. Maybe Mastercard got it right – priceless.

It’s true what they say, there are somethings you just can’t put a price on.

Personally I’m big into education. I have a collection that is growing by the day. I purchase 4-6 books a month (who would have ever thought?!), buy an audio or dvd lecture series a few times a year and now estimate that I have spent somewhere in the realm of $20,000 on my own education (on books, CDs and DVDs focused on business and success) in the past 5 years. And that doesn’t include all the time I’ve put in to study it all.

Now that’s a lot of money. But I believe that it is a small price to pay because I believe that all that stuff, my investment, will pay off nicely in the coming years.

I’ve dabbled in the stock market, my wife and I have built a new house and we are investing in precious metals.

In time I believe wholeheartedly all these investments will transform my life. They are already starting to and I believe that within the next four years it will only accelerate.

Now I know that times are challenging but what I do know is that price is just a challenge. When we find something we really want it’s amazing how often people are able to find the money.

You could borrow it, pick up an extra job, sell some valuables, whatever. When we find something that’s too good to pass up, we pounce.

Don’t let price deter you. Cheap things are cheap for a reason.

I will never buy cheap shoes again – because they’re just not worth it.

I won’t invest in anything resembling a pyramid scheme – because no matter how you spin them, they’re just not worth it.

Look for things of value.

I pay a lot to my mentors and teachers because I want to get the best information. At the same time, I know people who try to skimp on hiring experts and instead take advice from their coworker who always has a new tip. We all know how that ends.

I encourage all of you to buy on value. Buy things that will last. Hire teachers and experts that know their stuff. Be willing to invest in your better future.

Who cares how much something costs? Ask what is it worth?

Adrian Shepherd

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