Whew! What a year we have had as a country. 2008 will definitely be a pivotal year when we look back in history years from now.
It can be looked at as a year of financial disaster and devastation (housing, mortgage and credit crisis)…political change and hope (Barack Obama Elected President) … leadership sex exposes (John Edwards and Elliot Spitzer)…America’s transition year from a free market economy to a semi socialist economy (Corporate America Bailouts)…Stock Market Systemic Crash (401K Plans turning into 201 K Plans or 101 K Plans)…Jobs Lost (1.9 million + jobs gone)…Oil Economy Threatened (prices go from $147 a bbl to $37 a bbl in six months)…China Puts On A Great Olympic Show to the World…Michael Phelps wins 8 gold medals and brings a Las Vegas stripper home to meet mom for Thanksgiving dinner…in the midst of all this turmoil…a presidential candidate states, “the fundamentals of the American Economy are strong…what planet was he living on?”…Wall Street Greed gets Main Street people mad because they have been lied to by the highly paid CEOs…and then, you finish off the year with the Governor of Illnois being taped trying to sell a Senate position and Bernie Madoff Ponsi Scheme…where he duped Wall Street, the Rich and Famous and who knows how many other people (initial estimates are at $50 Billion).
Now, even though it may appear that I am trying to do my part in making sure history is written accurately, I am not. The truth of the matter is this…what are the “take aways” for you and me, as individuals ? and, what are we going to do about it to protect ourselves, as individuals? I don’t care what the history books write about this year 10 to 20 years from now. What I do care about is what am I going to do to protect myself, my family and my students from things that can and will hurt them.
I dedicate a special website at AskNateBrooks.com for people to ask questions where I focus on replying to questions submitted by dedicated entrepreneurs like yourself or people who are searching for a way to get themselves above all this financial crisis issues. Today, my goal is to simply help you figure out how to make some sense admist all this turmoil so that you can Learn the Lessons…Make New Decisions…so you can Get New Results.
Please feel free to call me at 512-748-4237, over the next few days, if you have sincere interest in changing your financial future with our Trade and Grow Rich Program. This is my real phone number and I am willing to help you build a financial wall around yourself and your family. Our focus at www.natebrooks.com is to mentor and coach people(novice and professional traders) to achieve success rather quickly.
Lessons Learned
Some of you have told me that I have a tendency to be verbose, at times. As stated earlier, I believe that books will be written about this 2008 pivotal year. However, as an individual, you need to ask yourself what lessons did you learn from all of last year and what are you truly going to differently this year? I will list just five things to help you discover some lessons that you could have learned that may just help you and your family to get to the next level…THIS YEAR…2009!
Stop Complaining – Unfortunately, bad things happen to good people. Everyone has their own problems and, they really don’t want to listen to your problems. Life is not fair and nobody said it was suppose to be fair…so just get over it. And, do something about it.. For example, I had a laptop that crashed and one week after buying a brand new one…someone stole that new laptop computer…the bad news is that someone stole my brand new laptop…the good news…is that I had everything backed up using the Carbonite Online Backup Software program…so after buying my second laptop, I was back in business, within a few hours of receiving the newly purchased laptop. So, you count your blessings and move on…that’s just life. Also, it doesn’t mean that people are bad…if they don’t care about the fact that someone stole your laptop computer…they can’t do anything about it…so don’t judge them harshly if they don’t care. Sometimes in life…it is just your turn to have some bad things happen to you…
Don’t Allow Yourself To Be A Victim – You need to take 100% responsibility for where you are in your life and for where you are not in your life. You are exactly where you are suppose to be in life based on the past decisions you have made up to this moment in life. Therefore, if you are broke, you need to look at the decisions YOU made to put yourself in that position… yes…I know…things are tough out there…this year, I have unfortunately for me had someone steal about $30,000 worth of stuff from me…I have a few tenants take advantage of me to the tune of about $10,000 dollars and a few other things…HOWEVER, here is the truth of the matter, if I had put a lock on the back gate of my home (which I now have done), it would not have easy for the people to steal from me…yes…it is not right for people to steal from you…but, if I had the lock on the gate, the robber most likely would have just moved on to pick an easier prey…so that’s my fault. Therefore, rather than allowing yourself to be a victim…and crying about the fact that you had to take a cut in pay or get a second job…you need to look at the fact that maybe if you had taken time to learn some additional skills, you can figure out another way to get out of the mess that you are in….ALL of US have to keep learning new skills, especially if things get tough…get yourself focused on learning new skills and take action to keep improving yourself so you can make the adjustments you need to make.
Don’t just sit there and let your 401K Plan evaporate into nothing…it has already become a 201 K Plan or a 101 K Plan in the last year – Let’s face the facts for a moment. How could this have happened to you or anyone for that matter? You have put your family’s financial future in the hands of someone ELSE…that’s how it happened. The reasons don’t matter…remember, you get to keep either the reasons or the results…you don’t get to keep both. YOU MUST TAKE 100% RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN FINANCES AND YOUR OWN FUTURE…PERIOD!
If this past year doesn’t get you off the couch so that you start learning what and how to do things with your own money, you need to have your head examined. Hopefully, you can hear this…many of these people on Wall Street, Corporate America, Financial Advisors, Hedge Funds, Banks and other Financial Institutions…ARE LYING TO YOU. They disguise themselves as experts and they count on the fact that you think this stuff is so hard to learn…that you must rely on them to tell you what to do…that is a bunch of “bunk”. There are few simple things that you can learn and do that can protect yourself from these incompent lying jerks, who are taking advantage of you.
The other day…while I was sitting in the hot tub at my gym, a guy I was talking to told me…I have already lost about 60% of the value of my investments…but, my stockbroker just told me to sit tight…because now is the time that everything should be turning around…so he told me that I should not worry if it drops another 10% or so because we have to be at or near the bottom and things should turn around…so I am sticking with the advice of my stockbroker. I shook my head in disbelief…I could NOT believe that a professional would be giving that kind of advice to a client (don’t worry about it if the price drops another 10% or so and just sit tight) and second, I could NOT believe that a sane person would continue following the advice of a person who has already NOT protected that person money.
The Bernie Madoff $50 Billion Dollar Scam has shown people two important things…the first being is that these “so called” experts have no problem LYING to you and STEALING your money…and the second being is that it “exposed” the “so called” experts who just took there clients money and invested their money with a Crook, who would steal your money (and these “so called” experts did this because they didn’t know what to do with your money so they put it with a crook, without doing the due diligence to protect your money).
Taking control of your finances is NOT as complex as these people have led you to believe…you can learn what and how you have to do things…but, YOU must believe that and then, take action…please take a few hours to invest in reading much of the free information on the www.natebrooks.com website…the information is solid and should help you understand that it is not as complicate as these jerks have made it out to be. If you have questions, pick up the phone and call me at 512-748-4237. I am in Central Time.
Focus on what you can do…not what is out of your control – You can take a couple hours to read the information on the site to educate yourself. I have given you a lot of meat for you to digest, rather than just hype. Yes, I want you to use my services and learn from my educational products…but, I also want to educate you along the way with lots of free information, not fluff, so you can feel confident and secure in what I am teaching you. I am not hiding behind some office…you have my real phone and I do answer my own phone when people call me. By the time people call me, they understand my style because they have had the opportunity to read lots of my free materials before they have called.
Anything is possible – Regardless of how you view the events of 2008, many of the events seemed unbelievable or impossible or improbable at the start. As the events unfolded, you have to NOW BELIEVE that anything is possible. Who would have believed that one guy could dupe all these influential people for all these years to the tune of $50 Billion Dollars…the largest fraud in history? Who would have believed that gas prices could be at $4.50 a gallon and then, just six months later down to $1.35 a gallon, and still looks like it could even go lower? Who would have believed that a hockey mom could be running for Vice President of the United States? Who would have believed that financial institutions like Bear Sterns and Indy Mac Bank woluld be out of business and that General Motors stock would be trading at 50 year lows at the end of this past year? Who would have believed that an African American man would be elected President of the United States?
All of these things DID happen…so the lesson for you to apply in your life is that Anything Is Possible…and that means anything is possible FOR YOU….in your life! I hope that you internalize those beliefs…and more importantly, I hope that you take actions in your life and attack life with the passion and vigor…that anything is possible FOR YOU. You can do it if you get out of your own way…start believing and taking positive actions to improve your life.
New Decisions…New Results!
Once you have taken the time to review this past year from a personal standpoint, you should have picked out a few more Lessons Learned for your ownself. Now, here’s the part that has to happen for you…you need to make New Decisions…if you want to Get New Results. I am not going to go into this whole New Years resolutions mumbo jumbo.
The bottom line for you, or anyone for that matter is this…if you want to get different results…you have got to make different decisions…you have got to “do the deal”…you have got to “do the disciplines”…you have to focus on disciplines of “being and doing” things the right way…you can’t be lazy…you have to pick yourself up off the couch and put yourself back on the court of life…you have to get in the game and start doing something…getting into action…stop being scared…go for possibility in your life…because anything is possible for those who believe and get into action and commit to themselves that they will make New Decisions and Get New Results!
Do you realize that you don’t have to settle for less? Do you realize that NOW is the best time to take advantage of learning the skills needed that can make your financially independent? Have you taken a moment to see the fear in people older than you…you know… the ones who still have to work at Walmart at age 72 or the ones working as waitperson’s at your local restaurants? Do you realize…it doesn’t have to be that way and that you can do something about it…right now?
Trading is the best “one person” business in the world. Go to www.natebrooks.com to start learning how to take control of your finances and your life. If you have any other questions, please feel free to submit your questions to www.asknatebrooks.com, I will be happy to provide you with the answers to your questions.
- Nate Brooks, Harvard MBA