With the permission of Brian Tracy International, I am delighted to feature another of Brian's articles on this blog.
The Four D's of Financial Success
By: Brian Tracy
Start From Nothing and Become Financially Independent
More than eighty percent of self-made millionaires in America began with nothing or in many cases, less than nothing. I can certainly relate to that because when I was growing up and right into my early 30s, I never had any extra money with which to start a fortune. It seemed to me that there was always enough, if not more than enough bills, to absorb every penny I earned. I was always in debt.
Be Ready for Your Opportunity
And even if a great business opportunity did come along, I wouldn't have been able to do anything with it. As I began studying financial success and self-made millionaires, I noticed that almost everyone around me was in pretty much the same boat. The idea of becoming really wealthy was a distant dream with very little possibility of coming true. You may be in the same situation, with more bills than money or assets.
Look at the Numbers
The statistics are a little scary. Of 100 people who reach retirement age, according to insurance industry statistics, only one will be wealthy. Four out of the hundred will be financially independent; fifteen will have some savings put aside. And the other 80 will be dependent on pensions, still working or broke - this after a lifetime of well-paid work in the most affluent society in human history. Now why does this happen?
Why People Retire Poor
There are two main reasons why people retire poor. First, they never decide to retire rich. They wish and hope and pray, but they never make a firm, unequivocal decision that they're going to do it. Second, even if they do decide to retire rich, they procrastinate until it's too late. They always have some good reason for putting it off.
Start With Desire and Decision
If you sincerely want to beat the odds, to achieve financial independence and retire wealthy, there are four critical steps that you must take, all starting with the letter D.
The first step is desire. You must want it badly enough to make an unshakable commitment and to be willing to make sacrifices. The second D is decision. You must make a decision right now to do whatever is necessary, to be willing to pay any price, go any distance, to achieve your goal.
Practice Determination and Discipline
The third D is determination, which is to keep at it until you succeed in spite of all the problems and obstacles you will experience. And the fourth D is discipline - the discipline to master yourself to develop the habits necessary for achieving financial independence.
Those are the four Ds. Desire, Decision, Determination and Discipline. And you can measure how successful you're going to be in the future by measuring how well you're doing in each of those on a scale of one to ten.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, make a decision, right now, that you are going to be financially independent, no matter what obstacles you face in the short term. Then write it down, make a plan and start to work on it every single day.
Second, resolve in advance that you will persist in the face of every setback or obstacle you face. You will never give up. You will keep on moving forward until you finally achieve your goal.
Imagine if you could become a millionaire today!
Your life would be easier and more fun. You could be taking more vacations, and spending the kind of time with your family that you really want.
If you're like me you want financial success, and you want to know the secrets of how all these millionaires made their money.
The 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires
I've spent years interviewing millionaires - to find out what their secret is, and how they made their money. In this CD I tell you the 21 most powerful success secrets of self-made millionaires.
My 60 minute CD will give you the skills you need to become a millionaire today.
Buy the 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires now at BrianTracy.com
Thanks Brian.
Just to emphasise - the 4Ds are Desire, Decision, Determination and Discipline
Desire - do you really want to be rich? It sounds obvious. Of course you do. But will you do what it takes? Are you familiar with The Secret - the film about the Law of Attraction and what you think about comes to be. The theory is that if you think about the problems of being poor, you will stay poor. If you think about being rich, you will be rich.
Decision - are you ready to make the decision to be rich? Are you prepared to put together a plan that will help you to identify opportunities for profit and then exploit them?
Determination - are you really ready to commit to the actions required? If it was easy, everyone would be rich so are you ready to push past the challenges and setbacks that will put off the less determined people.
Discipline - at the centre of taking the necessary actions is the effective use of your time and being disciplined about how you spend it.
This 21 Success Secrets is one of a collection of audio recordings made by Brian Tracy that is highly recommended and great value even if you don't need the whole series.
Brian Tracy 21 Great Ways Combination Pack