Will It Change You?» money

August $50 giveaway

Ross — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:29:23 +0000

As the economic climate tightens, it’s natural to tighten our grasp on our own money and spending.

It’s very liberating to find a place where you can let go of money-related anxiety and trust that things will work out.

The concept of giving and receiving is not new, and one that has definite merit. It’s a concept that I believe in, and I’d really like to put my money where my mouth is.

I’m giving away cash!

For this reason, this month I’d like to invite you to be part of my $50 giveaway!
Here’s what I’m going to do:

I’m giving away $50 USD via paypal to 1 random visitor who follows the rules below.
I’m also giving away 1 free advertising spot on my sidebar for a month to a 2nd random visitor who follows the rules below (125 x 125 button, valued at $50 USD).

How to be a winner

Update: This competition is now closed, congratulations to the winners.
Why not take a minute to read through the comments below & add your own?

All you have to do to be part of this giveaway is to tell us about something good that has happened to you over the past month. It can be anything at all, big or small. Easy, right? Comment your tales of goodness in the comment section below, and I’ll select two people at random to give the rewards to at the end of August.

Questions!

Is this a gimmick? – Nope, I’m just giving stuff away, and I want to hear about good things that have happened to people. I’m hoping that you’ll also be able to read other people’s comments and be inspired.
If I comment 500 times will this give me 500 entries?! – No, nice try… You’re welcome to comment as many times as you like, but all of your comments will only amount to 1 entry per unique person.

Now that you know how to be a winner, here’s my challenge – why don’t you also give $50 away this month?? I’m not suggesting you spend it on yourself here or splurge stupidly, but why not just do something nice for someone else – buy someone dinner, or donate it at random…

Give it a shot! Give of yourself, and amazing things can happen in your life.
(NB – If you’re just visiting here, join in as a free subscriber.
Winners will be announced at the end of August 2009.)

Make money doing what you love – really?

Ross — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:03:39 +0000

credit: pfala

Make Money Doing What You Love

What a great concept, huh? If only it were that simple!

For many people, me included, doing what you love has more to do with getting away from the mindset of work and away from the money-generating world. Maybe you love going to the beach or watching the footy + beer and pizza.

Take me for example: I love to go hang out in coffee shops, reading books and drinking espresso’s as the hours tick by. Am I likely to be paid for this, despite the e-book’s I’ve bought that tell me I can? No sir. On the other hand, let’s say I enjoy blogging – is this something I can monetize and turn into a revenue stream? Sure.

So what I want to talk about today is not really how to take a vacation and make money at the same time, it’s more about “what can I do that I don’t mind spending time on, that can also bring me in some cash” a.k.a, “right now I loathe my job and it’s bleeding my soul dry!”

Years ago I was asked the question “if you could do anything at all and not worry about the money, what would you do?” I’ve revisited this question many times in my life, and to be honest it’s not such a bad exercise. We spend so much time working that it can become disheartening, mundane and soul-sucking to work simply for the sake of working. We are much more likely to pursue and achieve our work and money goals if it involves something we’re really passionate about or believe in, and at the very least have some degree of enjoyment!

The other day I read a post titled 101 Tips to Help You Make Money Doing What You Love, by Paul Piotrowski. It’s a great list – I’ll let you visit the site to check out the rest of the tips, but here’s a couple of my favourite:

Cut Out TV Time
Visualize Your Goals Daily
Compliment People
Learn to Listen
Be Humble
Be Original. Be Grateful. Be courageous.
Stop Being Negative – Stop justifying that you’re just being realistic.
Take Action
Stop Pretending to be a Victim
Do Something New
Never Stop Growing
Have Integrity
Model Successful People
Learn to Forgive – Stop wasting energy holding grudges.
Have Patience – Everything won’t come all at once.

These are some really great ground rules and things to think about as you set about making money doing things that don’t suck (ie, boring jobs!)

Personally, let me suggest that a change in mindset is really important. Realise that you can make money in other ways than you currently do, particularly if those methods are sucking the life out of you!

What next? Start thinking. What can you offer the world that doesn’t involve trudging down to an office cubicle?

To really give yourself a head start, I suggest you:

Check out Online Business School – a product I have bought & recommend,
Check out Brian Kim’s new book titled Pursue Your Passion.
Check out top online schools and see if your interests stack up with the available classes

Think and grow rich

Ross — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:30:14 +0000

credit: alex-s

The best seller “Think and Grow Rich” has been around for a looooong time. In fact, it was first published in 1937!

I finally bit the bullet and read think and grow rich for the first time just a few months ago. Everywhere I turned I seemed to hear about this book! It features time and time again as one of the highest regarded books on finance, money and personal growth on many websites, reviews and testimonies I’ve read.

The book itself sums up it’s contents well, describing how Napoleon Hill developed a simple but powerful 13-step formula to help you to:

identify your goals
master the secret of true and lasting success
obtain whatever you want in life
join the ranks of the super-successful

Sounds pretty exciting, right? I mean, are these things that you would want to happen in your own life? You’d think these claims were quite wild and unachievable, however Napoleon puts things into perspective in very real terms and backs his statements up with research, analogies and real-life examples.

There are many great chapters in this book, and it’s a book I’ve found myself going back to and re-reading. This is quite unusual for me – I don’t often find myself doing this with many other books in the same genre.

Here’s what Napoleon has to say on opportunity:

“There is but one dependable method of accumulating and legally holding riches, and that is by providing useful service.”

“Opportunity has spread its wares before you. Step up to the front, select what you want, create your plan, put the plan into action and follow through with persistence.”

~ Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich

If you just skimmed over those quotes, do yourself a favour and go back and read them again, slower this time! Words of wisdom lie within….

NB – If you’ve not read the book before, it can be found all over the place in online PDF format, click here for the free version.
- If you’re like me however and a PDF just doesn’t quite cut it, let me highly advise you to spend a few bucks and grab the actual book from Amazon.

Question: Are you taking advantage of opportunity?