How long is a lifetime? And, what do we do with it?

How long is a lifetime? And, what do we do with it?

I can remember my youth like it was yesterday. I had all of the time in the world. I am certain most everyone feels that way at that age. But, we grow up, get married, have kids, the kids grow up, we retire and life is wonderful. But, the reality finally sets in. We keep saying when the kids grow up that we will have our lives to ourselves. The problem is that they never do grow up. Their problems just get bigger. Our kids are all in their forties now and still share their problems with us. How thoughtful they are. We had problems at their ages, but seem to get through them on our own.

Both my wife (age 68) and I (age 63) came to a point in our lives, each of us at about sixtyish, when we realized how fast time was all of a sudden flying by. When we were younger, we thought we had all of the time in the world and would never grow old and die. Now, time seems to be flying by faster than it ever had when where younger.

A friend of ours recently went through a traumatic time in his life. It was shortly before his 70^th birthday when his wife noticed that he seemed down and quiet. Not normal behavior for him. She finally asked him what the problem was. He said that as he approached 70 that he all of a sudden realized that he was approaching the last decade of his life. Based on the actuaries of the average male’s life span in the United States of 72 to 73 for a male, he was right. He was approaching the last 10 years or less of his life.

It is time that you begin to appreciate every moment of your life, day by day, each and every day. Life is shorter than you think and now I am beginning to realize just how short life can be. Not in a depressed way. But, now I am living every day to the best of my availability as if it were my last. Every morning is the best and brightest that I have ever seen. That is the attitude you need to carry with you every single day regardless of your age.

Now let’s get started, right now. Whenever something happens to you that seems bad, start looking for the good in it. If you focus on the positive, your life will be better for it.

For example, I first learned of this attitude change from W. Clement Stone from his book.

So I began practicing this statement of mind adjustment. Whenever something bad would happen, I would look as deeply as possible for the positive. Well, it seemed to be working. But, I needed a real test. So, be careful what you wish for. After, about 6 months, I got a phone call from my company CPA. She said she wanted to come over and meet with my business partner. That afternoon, she stopped by to give us some particularly bad news about how we had been reporting our income to the IRS. Well, the first thing that came to my mind was what good could I find in this news?

Surprise! There really was good in this bad news. So, like Stone’s book suggested, I said to my self, “that’s good”. Then I repeated it out loud. My partner and my CPA were stunned. So, I explained to them that if we hadn’t learned this then, we might have kept doing what we were doing wrong until one day the IRS dropped in to tell us that we owed tens of thousands of dollars. We would have not been able to pay that amount and we might have been business.

And, let us never forget that what ever your bad news, there is someone with worse news. So, look for the good in every situation. And, never forget, “that’s good”.

"WANT VERSUS NEED" - IN THE SALES SUCCESS PROCESS

Here is a little pinch of an epiphany, but one that can definitely increase your overall sales performance success if you learn how to recognize and use it to your advantage; and, it might mean the difference between your sales volume and your competing sales people. How many things in your life have you bought something that you did not need to buy, but the driving force was that you "wanted" the product?

A "want" can be an extremely driving force in your purchasing decision process.
If it is strong enough, it will completely override whether you need the product or not. As a successful sales person, you need to be in tune to whether your prospect needs or wants your product. Once you determine that they really want a product, the sales experience will be much easier. You will simply play to their want. The "yes building" process will be focused on all of the reasons that "want" can be satisfied.

Generally, you will find the "want" desire is based on ego gratification, self-esteem, etc. In other words, it is about one upping the Jones'. When I had a boat in the Puget Sound, it was all about who had the most and tallest antennas on their boats. One person in our yacht club had so many antennas on his boat that I lost count and it only really made him the butt of our jokes. With my 40 year old son, it is all about who has the most horsepower and paid the most money for their car whether he will ever use that horse power or not. This can also be a sign of personal insecurity. Incidentally, I had just the antennas I needed to run my boat safely. :)

But, we are not here to search the souls of ours or other peoples insecurities. The real dilema is whether we are pushing our prospect into something they just want. Well let me say, if you don't sell them your product, that same "want" will take them next door to your competitor. So, yours should not have to be making a moral decision as to what is best for them, the prospect is ultimately responsible for their own decisions, right or wrong.

In the mid-nineties, my wife and I went into the local Toyota dealership to buy her a new Toyota Camry loaded. The car was loaded not us. Unfortunately, the so called sales person found us exactly the car she wanted, larger engine, metallic green with gold package, leather seats, etc. He never asked us for the sale. So, we walked away. After we got in our car, I asked my wife if she would have bought the car if the salesman had of asked for the sale. She said, "yes" and I agreed. Now we both had a strong sales background so we knew the process. We drove out of the lot next door to the Mercedes dealership and bought a car from a sales person that understood that we had the "want" all he had to do was find the right car and ask for the sale.

They "want" your product. Sell them what they want or they will buy it from your competitor; and, please do not forget to ask for the sale.

FOLLOW YOUR PASSION TO SUCCESS

This article was inspired by Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University. In it, he says the advice we’ve all heard a thousand times:

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” - Steve Jobs

If you really want to reach your full potential for SUCCESS, you must find your PASSION. And, it is probably the biggest and most important decision of our lives along with really falling in love with the right person and “not” falling in love with the “idea” of love. You have “got” to find what you love to do to obtain success and who you love as your life partner. But for now, let’s deal with your career.

In my youth, after leaving my hometown to find my own success, I read all of the books and listened to all of the tapes on finding your passion and success and they helped, but the real help came when I decided in my mid-twenties to seek out the best private vocational counselor I could find. Maybe that sounds Ho Hum, but the results where eye opening. Finding my passion to success was worth almost any price.

Not only did I go through a huge volume of tests and questionnaires, but I was also able to sit in sessions with my one on one vocational counselor when she would ask me questions like, “If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be and what would you be doing?”

But, sailing on a sailboat through out the South Sea Islands didn’t seem like it was going to make me a fortune or support my family. So, it was necessary to be pragmatic.

In the end she gave me a detailed list of what my aptitudes and interest really where. At the top of the list was “psychiatrist”, but then we discussed whether I really wanted to go through 8 years or more of education to obtain a doctorate. So, we still had to practical. Then, “psychologist”, but the answer was the same. Both of these were professions that without a doctorate you would never reach the success pinnacle.

Well we had to eliminate several others and got down to Human Relations Manager. Or, perhaps being the Vice President of a small company. At that moment I didn’t give a thought to why it was Vice President versus President of a company. None of these really sounded like they were going to help me make the kind of money that I would need to meet my long term success goals.

So, what do you think happened? I did what probably 99% of the population does. I took a JOB with a large corporation and at the end of nearly 5 years I realized this wasn’t for me. I had been transferred 5 times in 5 years, San Francisco to Houston to Philadelphia to Houston to Los Angeles and finally to San Diego. Now the reality really set in. What was I trained to do? The answer was, since I had been the general manager of a national collection agency with branches across the United States, I would open a collection agency. That’s what I knew and I knew I was good at it. And, I knew I could make good money doing it.

Not much money was needed, $8500 according to California State Law. So, my assistant manager at the branch that I was managing and myself decided we would strike out on our own and open a collection agency. It was what we knew. I had a car that was paid for, so I sold that and kept the one with a loan on it, and then I got a personal loan from my bank for a belated honeymoon with my wife, so I could raise my half, $4,250. First lesson here is banks only lend money to businesses that don’t need it, since I had originally gone to several banks to try to borrow the money to start a “new” business and was turned down by all of them.

And, all of a sudden, I was the President of my own company, small though it might have been at the time.

The next thing I knew, despite this not being my passion, we made the business a success and known through out the United States. We made a lot of money, had nice cars, a beautiful home overlooking Lake Washington, Seattle in the background and the Olympic Mountains behind that; and we had a 43 foot motor yacht to cruise the Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands and the inside straights of Canada.

But, then the frightening reality, I hated what I was doing. I didn’t look forward to getting up each morning and racing into the office and I hated the overwhelming stress that came with being the President of my own company . But, of course, now I was in my late forties so what was I going to do? The only practical thing was to continue going in to a job I hated and tough it out until retirement time. My life had flashed before my eyes and twenty five years had gone by, unfulfilled, unsatisfied and day by day.

The point is that this is what happens to most of us in life. We get rapped up in the day to day routine, the need to make enough money to pay our bills and raise our children and then all of a sudden, it is over. The children have grown and there we are.

The lesson should have come much earlier. In 1983, my wife, Susan, and I moved back to my hometown of Spokane, Washington. Routinely, I would run into people that I had known in high school. One day I wanted a quick lunch close to my office. So, I went into Denny’s and sat down at the counter. The waitress came up and gave me a menu and said she would be right back to take my order. But, upon first seeing her, I thought she looked familiar.

When she returned, I asked her where she went to high school, Lewis and Clark, then where she went to junior high school, Libby Junior High, and then elementary school, Alcott Elementary. Sure enough I had known her from the time I was in elementary school all the way through high school. And, now she was serving me at the counter of a Denny’s. Now, obviously, there is nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But, the real jewel of this lesson was, like me, she had gotten caught up in the rat race of day to day life. She had chosen to stay in Spokane, get a job and now 20 years had gone by and she was waitressing at Denny’s as she had lived day to day for her whole life with no goals and no passion.

This was not the first such meeting that I had. There were many more to follow. Of course, the physicians sons were now physicians and the department store owners kids now owned the department stores. But even those individuals had not discovered their passion. They just went where the path of least resistance lead them and for the most part that meant following in their parents footpaths.

I had essentially done the same thing, but I left Spokane after high school and had been introduced to a whole other world, one with goals, goal setting, big dreams, Zig Ziglar‘s, Brian Tracey‘s, etc. What I lacked was the single most important thing of all, finding my passion and following it.

Do not let this happen to you. Barbara Sher has some excellent books, DVDs, CDs and seminars on helping you to find your passion. Get your hands on everything that you can until one of them turns on that light bulb and you discover what that passion is and then do everything in your power to follow.

One example: You have a passion for ice skating and competing, but you are not quite good enough to make it professionally. Well, there are still alternatives. Go to work for the Ice Follies in some capacity that keeps you close to your passion. Take a position in sales with a manufactures ice skates. You get the idea.

SUCCESS DEALING WITH THE EXPECTATION GAP

My first mentor in the business world, Rusty Hampton, then the President and CEO of Grantree Furniture Rental, taught me something that I later considered one of my life’s epiphanies. He very was instrumental in helping guide me to success. There have been, I would say approximately two dozen or so real epiphanies throughout my life that I considered life changing and this lesson was one of them.

Rusty owned a furniture store in a small town of about 10 to 15,000 people. But in this small market, Rusty was named the furniture executive of the year based on the stores sales figures. He was able to sell more furniture per capita than any other member of the National Retail Furniture Association in that particular year.

This was no easy task, but the more I got to know Rusty, the more I realized how he could accomplish this feat and many more as time went on. My epiphany actually started when he told me a little story about when he owned that small furniture store. It was the slow season and a slow day, so he decided he would have one of his employees work in the storeroom/basement of the store. He took the employee down to the storeroom, which was a shambles and asked him to thoroughly clean and organize it even if it took all day.

At the end of the day Rusty accompanied the employee back down to the storeroom after the employee stated he had completed the job. Rusty was amazed at how the room didn’t seem to look much different than when he had sent the employee to clean and organize it. At first he was upset, but it was quitting time so he sent the employee home, which gave Rusty some time to organize his thoughts about what had happened that day. But, overall the day had not been a success.

Well the next day he accompanied the same employee to the same storeroom. This time he tried something new. The previous night he had written a list of exactly what he wanted done in the storeroom on the following day. He left the employee and the list in the storeroom and went back upstairs. Later that afternoon, the employee told Rusty that he had completed the cleaning and organizing of the storeroom. So, Rusty accompanied the employee back down to the storeroom. Sure enough, the room was absolutely perfectly clean and organized meeting with Rusty's expectations. Now that was overcoming adversity and turning it into a success.

So, what was the difference on that first and second day, the employee had a thorough idea of exactly was Rusty’s expectations for the room where. And, so we go through life believing that everyone whose doesn’t share our self-imposed, life learned expectations is simply not a failure in our eyes. When, in fact, each of us has a different set of expectations based on our personality, lives and experiences. Rusty’s employee didn’t do anything wrong. As a matter of fact, Rusty had to look back at himself and ask why he had not made his expectations more clear on the first day to obtain the success that he wanted.

Rusty subsequently told me, “Most problems between people are the result of gaps in expectations.”

Relationships with clients are no different. If you have what you believe is a satisfied client and one day you discover they are no longer doing business with you, it may well be that you have not met their expectations and yet they never let you know what their expectations where in the first place. In order to be a success in business, you need to find out exactly what your clients expectations really are and then exceed them. Of course, sometimes you may fully understand a client's expectations and still not fulfill them.

Most importantly:

Did your client specify exactly what their expectations were?

Did the person your client gave their expectations to thoroughly understand those expectations?

If both of the above were met, your mutual goal should be to obtain both of your expectations.

If your client fails to give you thorough expectations, you will surely fail at meeting them and end up with a disillusioned client who may go elsewhere without even giving you the opportunity to meet those expectations.

The following is a real, cute story exemplifying the importance of a business relationship and expectations. I had a client that told me in my initial meeting with him that his expectation each Christmas was a large bottle of quality Vodka. We had a wonderful relationship for many years. But, one year we were giving all of our clients a somewhat expensive gift, certainly much more than a bottle of Vodka. So, quite by accident, the bottle of Vodka slipped my mind. Well in January, we still had not received a any business from this client, so I gave him a call. Cutting to the chase, he stated since he didn't get his bottle of Vodka, we would never be receiving any business from him again. He kept his promise. We never received business from him again. Who would have really thought that our business relationship was really based on one bottle of Vodka? I obviously did not have a clear understanding of the importance of his ultimate expectation.

It’s only through clear communications that the gaps in expectations can be eliminated. Think of some areas where you might be experiencing gaps in expectations. The most important thing is to identify the gaps and then begin thinking about ways to eliminate them. Remember that you can't be a success at closing all of the expectation gaps. Your expectations must me reasonable with the person with whom you are working.

Having said all of the above, you still need to accept or move away from people who simply do not have the ability to live up any level of expectation that would be acceptable to you. These people can be the biggest level of frustration of all. If they are not a fit, it is time they left, or, you learn to live within their expectations. Who says your expectations are the right ones anyway?

Success of the Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SUCCESS BUT YOU SHOULD READ IT CAREFULLY. IF THE ABOVE LINK DOES NOT MAKE YOU ACCEPT THE NEED FOR SECURE BORDERS, MAYBE YOU ARE BEYOND ALL HELP.

The partnership was signed onto by United States President Bush, Mexico President Fox and Canada Prime Minister Martin in 2005. Cutting to the chase, it is really all about creating another Europian Union, only this would be the North American Union. The ultimate goal is to eradicate the borders between the three countries.

A brief quote from the joint statement given by the three countries follows:

"In a rapidly changing world, we must develop new avenues of cooperation that will make our open societies safer and more secure, our businesses more competitive, and our economies more resilient.

Our Partnership will accomplish these objectives through a trilateral effort to increase the security, prosperity, and quality of life of our citizens. This work will be based on the principle that our security and prosperity are mutually dependent and complementary, and will reflect our shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic values and institutions. Also, it will help consolidate our action into a North American framework to confront security and economic challenges, and promote the full potential of our people, addressing disparities and increasing opportunities for all."

I clearly do not see how that will be an advantage to the United States on any level. We need to secure the borders now, build the fence now, enforce the current laws that we already have and give the Border Patrol whatever they need to do their job, now. If our government can't enforce the laws that we already have on the books, how was the proposed "Amnesty Bill" going to make things better.

Thank goodness the people of the United States spoke up resoundingly and did not let Congress and President Bush take away our sovereignty. Okay, yes I voted for him, but I had no idea where he was really headed.And, what was the option, voting for John Kerry, some option. That would have been tantamount to putting the fox in the hen house.

And, yes, I have an United States flag flying in the front of our home.

I will address the war on terriorism on another day when I am more composed. I can only deal with one horrendous issue at a time, first illegal immigration and then the war on terriorism next.

"What say you?"

HOW KISS HELPED TO CATAPULT MY SUCCESS

No, not Gene Simmons of KISS musical fame, although I do enjoy his TV reality show. Yes, Gene does epitomize success, but he is still the wrong KISS.

I mean KISS: Keep It Simple, Salesperson 6 audio cassettes by Fred Herman.

In 1976 I discovered the KISS audio tapes in Success Magazine and bought them. There were 6 tapes and each side was 30 minutes and covered a different aspect of sales, i.e., getting appointments by phone, overcoming objections, etc. I listened to them everyday in my car and I was driving hours daily. I probably listened to each side of each tape at least a dozen times, if not more.

My rate of setting appointments made by phone went from 1 or 2 out 10 phone calls to 6 or 7 appointments out of 10 phone calls. My closing ratio shot up over 80 percent. Using all of the wonderful information in the tapes literally changed my life. I have been in business now for 37 years and done nothing but grow. If you can get a hold of these tapes anywhere, buy them. Fred has tons of awesome stories to support his teachings.

An example of one story was about a fellow who went from business to business selling commercial wrap around towels in a dispenser for lavatories. He carried a large piece of cotton and a 2x4 on all of his presentations. He would hand the 2x4 to his potential customer and have them rub it on their faces. Then he would hand them the piece of cotton and said, "which would you prefer your customers use in your lavatories?"

In yet another example, a salesman for a major automobile windshield manufacturer would go into his presentation with a piece of the latest shatter proof glass that his company had invented and he would also carry a hammer. During his presentation, he would lay the glass on the potential client's desk and hit it with the hammer noting that the glass had not shattered. Well that first year of shatter proof glass, that salesman was number one in his company. The executives of the company sat him down to find out how he had completely outstripped all of their other sales people in sales of windshields. After hearing his story, they proceeded to issue hammers and glass to every sales person in the company.

The following year, the same salesman completely outstripped the rest of the sale people again. The executive brought him in to their offices to find out how he did it. He stated' "this year I decided to try a little something different. I handed the hammer to my potential client and had them strike the piece of glass." And, with the potential client completely involved in the process, he made more sales. The lesson for success in this story is that sometimes it can be the smallest thing that moves you closer to success.
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THE REAL ROAD TO SUCCESS

Now, how to discover the real road to SUCCESS. But, every website you look at is a scheme to get your money not offering anything tangible at the end. None of them offer a real opportunity to ever reach long lasting success. Most of these websites offers are nothing more than MLM and promises. But success is not free as they would like to lead you to believe.

You have to work at becoming a real success. Why not start with your education? Why would becoming a success be any different than becoming a physician, attorney, or any other career. You need to know where to get that education in order to succeed.

The first recommendation is to graduate from college if at all possible. The mere fact that you have a diploma will open doors that would not otherwise be available to you. There is only one problem. Probably, not one single professor has ever been in the real business world. They are academics. Oh, you will have lots of theory, but now you are faced with the reality that you are full of theory. But how will you apply all of that theory in the real, practical world of life, whether it is business or personal.

At about 27, I started my first business. It was hell. I could hardly eat. I was overwhelmed with anxiety. I immediately had to start generating enough revenue to pay my bills.

My saving Grace happened to be a close friend who was the number one stock broker at a nationwide brokerage firm. That first Christmas of being self employed he gave me a gift certificate to Success Magazine (successmagazine.com). At first, I didn’t give it much thought. Then my first issue came and I discovered I couldn't put it down.

But this was only the beginning. In reality, this just opened a huge set of golden doors to all of the things that were available to help me start my own journey to success.

My personal favorites have always been audio books and DVDs. I am a terrible reader but love the audio/visual side aids for training. The real beauty of audio books on CD is that you can listen to them in your car over and over again. But audio books and DVDs by themselves would never have been enough.

When you boil it all down there are probably 10 to 15 books, audio books and DVDs that will literally change your life. Not one of which am I going to introduce to you to as a “secret”. I am going to introduce you to my personal favorites and tell you why they are my favorites. But I am also going to do it in my favorite way. Ever open a 400 page book and it looks overwhelming? Me too, especially since I am a poor reader. I truly believe that a huge number of books are written by authors who are trying to impress their peers, particularly college text books; so, there are an abundant amount of words, big words.

How many times have you said to yourself, "that was a great short read"? If the majority of authors of a self-help books can't tell you everything you will need to know in that book for it to have been effective, they should be able to do it in less than 250 pages, preferably less than 200 pages. As evidence, I offer the author, Og Mandino. He has written dozens of books, none of which are over 200 pages. Cut out all of the words and cut to the chase. I love a good self-help book that uses bullet points with some good short detail on why these bullet points are so key to that book.

Let's start with these:

1. The Richest Man in Babylon - Charles Classon - I like to start here because this book is so inspirational and a short fast read packed with a awesomely inspiring story. This will help stimulate your inner self to a higher elevation while filling you with all of the basics of becoming successful. www.eBeegle.com

2. Law of Success - Napoleon Hill - For shear volume of how to, 1060 plus pages, this is the next step. Napoleon Hill will give you, in detail, everything known to man kind about becoming successful. These are the gritty details incredibly well presented. My son had read this 1060 plus page book 3 times by the time he was 18. He now owns his own company and is a multi-millionaire. And, yes be also graduated from college. But, he will be the first to say that what I am saying to you now is what I said to him and was the real reason (not a “secret“) for his success.
www.eBeegle.com

Law of Success is my only exception to my rule of brevity since it is really about the equivalent to 10 or 12 books rolled into one book.

3. The Strangest Secret in the World - Og Mandino is a story in his own right. You won’t find his books, several dozen, in the business, sales, motivational, etc., section of your favorite book store. You will find an entire rack of these books in the inspiration/religion section. But, my favorite is still this book that is timeless. All of his books are short, insightful and inspirational and they are all timeless.
www.eBeegle.com

The following is a list of sources for success that I highly recommend:

W. Clement Stone - Author, Brian Tracy - Author, Jeffrey Gitomer - Author, Stephen Covey - Author, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale - Author and
Zig Ziglar - Author

You owe it to yourself to see Zig in person at one of his live performances or purchase one of his many DVDs. We all need that extra shot of motivation and inspiration from time to time. Zig will charges your batteries.

Helpful Hint: If it is or was written by a college professor, do not buy it. Unless, they have proven themselves to be a success off campus. We deal in the real world. All of the above can be found at MY FAVORITES to the left.

NAPOLEON HILL'S SUCCESS - THE REST OF THE STORY

And now, as Paul Harvey would say, “here is the rest of the story”.

What sent Napoleon Hill, a journalist, in the early 1900‘s, on his path to becoming an American Icon in success, motivation, inspiration, etc.?

In 1908, Andrew Carnegie commissioned, at no pay, Napoleon Hill, to interview more than 500 high achievers and wealthy individuals. Carnegie could help Hill gain access to these individuals because of his contacts and circle of friends. Carnegie wanted Hill to find out the common threads of their success. Hill devoted the next 20 years of his life finding those common denominators.

Hill and Carnegie finally completed that work and it was published 20 years after it had begun, in 1928, after Carnegie's death, in Hill's book, Law of Success, and in 1937, Think and Grow Rich. Think and Grow Rich has not been out of print since it was first published. It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

And now, “you know the rest of the story”.

So, if you haven't read one or either of these books, let's get going.

The Single Most Important Thing in Your Life in Obtaining SUCCESS

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"I could do anything in life, if only I knew what it was." - Barbara Scher

Unfortunately, I was 62 before I found my professional work PASSION. You need not wait that long. I love Barbara Sher. Her books and her live performances and DVDs are awesome to say the least. If you can find your passion at work, it will follow you home. Now, wouldn't that be wonderful, personal happiness and fulfillment at work and at home.

I have been self-employed since I was 32 years old. Okay, I made a lot of money, owned a motor yacht, 3 beautiful homes in Kirkland, Washington, San Diego, California and Scottsdale, Arizona. Sounds like a dream come true. Well it is not. Especially, if you are doing something that you do not enjoy and do not have a passion. Trust me on this, if there is one thing in life that you absolutely positively have to get right, it is finding your true passion.

The best source that I have found, so far, is Barbara Sher. Don't put this off until tomorrow, because the next thing you know your life will have zipped by and you will have been miserable. Do it now.

Law of Success is 1072 pages long and worth every page.

If you haven't read this book and are interested in success in life and in money, you have to read all 1072 pages of this classic. With my direction, my son had read it 3 times by the time he was 18. Now, he is a multi-millionaire several times over at 46 years old. I could write a book on all of the advantages of reading this book. Instead, why not read it yourself. I am in a state of shock by the low number of reviews on this classic.