Tag: Billion Dollar Ideas

Continuation from yesterday……….

STEP #2: Dismiss Any Notion of a Brilliant or a Perfect Idea

When people begin working on Step #1, one of their primary complaints I hear is that they can’t come up with 8-10 good ideas within a 30 minute time frame. They are missing the entire point.  In most cases people are pushing incredibly hard for that billion dollar idea or that perfect idea that would be easy to execute. They want it now.

I remember receiving an e-mail from Zack about this process when I originally shared this information on one of my blogs in 2012. Zack was angry. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that my idea generation process was absolute garbage and that after two weeks of practice he wasn’t able to come up with a single idea. After inquiring further into Zack’s issue it quickly became apparent that he was trying to come up with 8-10 great business ideas on a daily basis.

Something that is statistically impossible to do.

Please understand something very important. Not every single one of your ideas has to be perfect or even workable. They are also allowed to be crazy, out there, stupid, absurd, laughable, impossible, illegal, etc….. No matter how insane you believe your idea is, put it in your notepad. Worst case scenario, it will allow you to improve on your ideas, the best case, it will unify with one of your other ideas at a later time to create a spark otherwise impossible. And never forget, the world is full of billionaires and millionaires who were laughed at, ridiculed and dismissed as outright crazy. Don’t be afraid to join their company.

STEP #3:  Read, Read, Read and Then Read Some More….

Not only is it good for your overall intelligence, but it is also good for your wallet. As you read industry news, business articles, technology developments, various reports, research papers or whatever else you are interested in, you will be able to start putting things together in your mind in such a way that it will allow you to come up with A LOT of new ideas.

Take Bill Gates for example. While he clearly saw the computer revolution coming in the mid 1970’s, even dropping out of Harvard in order to take advantage of it, very few others saw what he did. Not only did most people think he was crazy, even IBM dismissed his vision for the future as utterly ridiculous. Yet, Bill Gates knew. He spent his formative years in Lakeside school playing with computers and by the time he was 18 he was one of the best programmers in the nation. From his vantage point he could clear see what the future held.

The same process applies to new idea generation. The more you know and in the wider range of fields, the better your ideas will become.  As often is the case, you will be able to connect the dots and see things that other people simply do not see.  While you might not have as much inside information as Bill Gates had, by having a deep pool of knowledge to draw from you will be ahead of 99.99% of the people out there.

Quick Note: Try to stay away from worthless entertainment such as gossip, celebrity news, novels, arguments and other similar writings.

PRACTICE #2: Try to structure your day or your current job in such a fashion that you are able to read as much as you possibly can. Make a conscious effort to increase your knowledge base and it will pay off 10X in the form of much better and much more profitable ideas.

To Be Continued Tomorrow ……(Why Am I Seeing This On  A Financial Website?)

The Shocking Truth Behind Coming Up With Brilliant Ideas Google

Let’s us now shift gears and take a look at what we need to do in order to start generating amazing business ideas.  The steps below are a compilation of what I have used over the last 10 years to develop business ideas that, in one way or another, have added millions to my overall net worth.  In other words, it has worked incredibly well for me and I know, for a fact, that it will work incredibly well for you.

STEP #1: Make Idea Generation a Daily Practice:  

As mention above, idea generation is related to muscle memory. And while your brain is technically not a muscle, its development patterns closely resemble those of other muscles within your body. The more you work on it, the more you study, the more you practice and the more you think, the sharper your brain will become.  In all areas that you concentrate on.  When it comes to developing your business ideas, while you don’t have to spend a lot of time on the process, a consistent 10-30 minute daily effort is necessary.

For instance, I typically allocate about 15-20 minutes out of my hectic schedule to this practice.  No matter what.  In fact, I have an entire routine developed around the process.  I typically grab a cup of coffee, disconnect from all of my devices, tune everything out and concentrate intensely on developing new ideas over a 20-30 minute period of time.  Yet, I am not just working on “new” business ideas.  I am developing all sorts of new ideas. They might be additional products or services for my existing businesses, various offers, investment opportunities, better marketing processes, new technologies, new partnership, etc…..The spectrum of new ideas is unlimited and should be treated that way.

Plus, the biggest bang for your buck will typically come from combining two “new” seemingly independent ideas into a blockbuster idea your would be unable to develop otherwise. You might have had one idea a few months ago and the more recent idea today. When combined, such ideas might explode into a bowl of fireworks or that extremely profitable business you have always dreamt of. Clearly illustrating, once again, why you should make this a daily practice.

It is also important to understand that it might take a little bit of time and effort on your part to get this process going.  In fact, if you have never done this before, you might find the practice incredibly difficult. Not being able to come up with any ideas at all in the first few days. That is normal. For as long as you dedicate your time and effort to this practice, do not despair, the ideas will come soon enough.  So much so, that within a few months you will be flooded with too many business ideas.

Personally, I make it a point to come up with 8-10 business ideas per day.  I typically do not end my daily idea generation sessions until I hit that point.  You should have the same attitude.  After a few weeks or months of practice coming up with 10 ideas per day shouldn’t be a problem at all. Not only that, as your idea generation muscle gets better, the quality of your ideas will go up as well.  Eventually it will become so easy that various ideas will literally fall from the sky.

Extra Tip: If at all possible I would highly recommend doing this “Daily Idea Practice” first thing in the morning or when your mind is at its freshest.

PRACTICE #1:

Get a notepad and a pen out. Take 30 minutes to write out 10 business ideas within your area of expertise or passion. Do not worry about the quality of your ideas at this juncture. They are allowed and encouraged to be a little insane.

How To Make Idea Generation A Daily Practice  Google

Continuation from yesterday……..In the late 1980’s Steve Ells started at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Shortly after graduating he moved to San Francisco to work as a line cook for Jeremiah Tower. It is there that he saw how popular Mexican food was on the West Coast.  In 1993, taking what he learned in San Francisco Steve had a big idea. He opened up his first Chipotle restaurant in Denver, Colorado in a former Dolly Madison Ice Cream Store near the University of Denver with an $85,000 loan from his father.  At the time Ells calculated that the store would need to sell approximately 107 burritos per day to be profitable.  By the end of the first month and to everyone’s surprise, the store was selling approximately 1,000 burritos a day. The second restaurant was opened in 1995 and the rest, as they say, is history.  Today, Chipotle is a public company with 1,600 stores, $3.6 Billion in sales and a $21 Billion market capitalization. With Steve Ells’s estimated net worth of well over $200 Million.

Not a bad idea if you ask me. Yet, the story above flies in the face of where many people believe big ideas come from.  Most people have a false impression of waking up with big idea or being randomly hit with a flash of brilliance that would eventually lead them toward their big breakthrough. An easy to execute business idea that would bring millions or billions within a relatively short span of time and without too much effort on their part. Unfortunately, it rarely works that way.  What’s worst, many believe that such brilliant ideas are reserved for a few lucky ones, the creative types or those destined to be rich.

Luckily for you, such a perception couldn’t be further from the truth.

Like anything else in life, successful idea creation is a process that can be learned, replicated and improved upon.   Just as bodybuilders build their muscles by constantly working out, one exercise and one workout at time, we must work on our idea generation muscle on a daily basis.  The formula is fairly easy and straight forward. The more we work on our idea generation capability on the daily basis, the more ideas we will come up with.  More importantly, the ideas we will generate after a certain amount of time will be exponentially better than the ones that we start with. And that can make all the difference between coming up with a $100,000 a year business and coming up with a $100 Million a year business.

It is also important to pause here one last time and to remind you that coming up with a great business idea is not enough. Coming up with a great business idea in the field that you are passionate about is the key. Remember, it is a 100% certainty that you will run into numerous problems as you begin to grow your business. Some of them will appear insurmountable.  The only thing that will get you through the rough times is your love and absolute passion for what you do. Nothing else will. And believe me, this tiny factor makes all the difference between success and failure.

Take the story of Dyson’s founder Sir James Dyson.  Prior to his first vacuum cleaner hitting the store shelves in 1993, he spent 15 years creating 5,126 failed versions of his vacuum cleaner before he made the one that worked.  Do you really believe he would have been able to preserver though 5,126 failures if he didn’t love vacuum cleaners or if he wasn’t passionate about inventing? That would be a foolish proposition.  The payoff?  A multi-billion dollar company known for its breakthrough technology and innovative designs.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…….(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

What You Ought To Know About Coming Up With Billion Dollar Ideas Google

Continuation from yesterday………

Reason #8:  Financing Is Readily Available

It has never been easier to obtain financing for your business and/or a startup.  With a multitude of options available (discussed later in the book) it simply becomes a matter of preference and a little bit of hard work when it comes to raising capital for your business. The saying “You need money to make money” is indeed accurate. Having multiple access points to capital makes it that much easier for you to succeed and to become wealthy.

Reason #9: Most Corporate Jobs Are A Dying Commodity That You Can’t Really On

While not entirely yet evident, having a good paying and a stable corporate job that can make you wealthy is going the way of the dinosaurs. Gone are the days when you can expect to have the same job for the rest your life.  Instead, today’s business environment is a fast paced zoo that oftentimes destroys jobs that you thought would be there forever. Tossing people out of the job market for ever longer periods of time. Without a warning and when they expect it the least. As a result, having a corporate job becomes just as risky, if not riskier, than starting your own business.

Reason #10:  Transform Your Life For The Best

Finally, it’s a perfect time to get wealthy because it’s going to change your life for the best.  Not only will you have more money to spend on your family and friends, but more importantly, you will have more time. Further, real wealth will allow you to structure the life of your dreams. Whatever it might be, every single desire will be available to you at the snap of your fingers.  More education, adventure, family time, charity work, etc… will be at your discretion once wealth is achieved.

As the points above clearly illustrate, the time for you to get wealthy is NOW.  There are no barriers and it has never been easier. The costs associated with starting a business are next to nothing while the total number of business opportunities is mind boggling.  With the worldwide economy offering a substantial amount of opportunity to anyone who wants it and with all types of information available at your fingerprints, there is no risk in trying. Finally, the freedom and happiness associated with getting wealthy will change your life for the best.

You can START NOW by coming up with a million or a billion dollar business idea. The next chapter will show you exactly how.

To Be Continued Tomorrow……(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Site?)

What You Ought To Know About Getting Rich Google

Continuation from yesterday…..

Reason #3:  An Ocean Of Money Is Available For The Taking

• Annual GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the USA: $16 Trillion
• Annual Worldwide GDP:  $72 Trillion (Estimated)

Just think about the numbers above.  The worldwide GDP offers all of us $72 Trillion for the taking. With $16 Trillion in the USA alone. If you are able to start a business and put your fingers on just a fraction of the tenth of one percent of that money, you will be making billions of dollars.  Simply put, there is an avalanche of money out there.  All you have to do is go get a big enough bucket and start filling it with money. Lots of money.

Reason #4:  Millions Of Opportunities To Become Wealthy.

The markets have never been so open. There are literally millions of different ways to get wealthy. From new technologies to restaurants, from improving old processes to foreign markets. Opportunities are beyond abound. No matter what industry or field of work you specialize in, chances are, there are plenty of opportunities to get wealthy in every single one of them.

Reason #5:  No Risk In Trying

What is the worst thing that might happen if you start a business and try to get wealthy?

Well, you can fail and file for bankruptcy.  That’s about as bad as it is going to get. Certainly you will have financial issues and other predicaments associated with your business failure, but you will still be alive. You will be well enough to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward.  It is a very well known fact that some of the most successful people in the world have gone through a number of failures only to have a spectacular success later on.  Pick up almost any biography and you will find it there.  As a result, the only real risk is in NOT trying.

Reason #6:  Support & Know How

It is no longer necessary to get an MBA in order to start a business and/or to get wealthy.  With proliferation of the Internet everyone has access to the same information. What used to take a few weeks can now be done within a few hours.  Plus, there are a number of companies offering personalized support, education and coaching when it comes to starting your own business.  The bottom line is, there are no barriers of entry and if you do need extra support, well, it is available as well.

Reason #7: Worldwide Markets Are Now Open For Business

You no longer have to be tied to your local markets.  There is no doubt that the Internet makes your online business automatically international, but it is much more than that.  For instance, you can always take a physical business that works very well in the USA and open the same type of a business in China. While not a guarantee recipe for a success, it illustrates just how easily the international arbitrage can now be done. For the most part, the world should be viewed as an opportunity playground. A place where you can get wealthy just about anywhere you wish.

To Be Continued Tomorrow……..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

The Secret Behind Why The “Time Is Right” To Get Filthy Rich  Google

10 Reasons Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Get Wealthy

Continuation from Friday…...Getting rich is not easy. Yet, the time to get rich has never been more perfect.

When I was growing up in the Soviet Union it was nearly impossible to get rich. Not by any Western standards and not by a long shot. It didn’t matter if you were highly educated or not, you were making the same amount of money as the person next to you. By law. For instance, my mother who was a Principal at a large music school and a drunken construction worker were making the same amount of money. Around 150 Rubles per month.  At that time and as a society, all opportunities were taken away from us. None of us had a future.

Today, for those of us who live in the Western world, the situation is quite different.  We are lucky enough to have the freedom to do anything and/or to be anyone.  Outside of our own imagination, there are literally no limits to what we can become. Still, for most of us, getting rich is nothing more than a pipe dream.

It shouldn’t be. Here are the 10 reasons as to why now is the perfect time to get wealthy.

Reason #1: No Barriers

Throughout much of the human history people were mostly kept in their socioeconomic class. Only a few lucky souls were able to do the impossible and get rich. Most often it was the adventurer or the explorer, the religions leader or the warrior who were able to break the mold or get lucky enough to escape their original status. The rest of the people were born, lived and died in their so called “born into” economic class.

That started to change about 300 years ago with the advent of the industrial revolution and the proliferation of new countries and ideals. Most notably, in the USA and the U.K.  As the time went on Western society has been successful in gradually removing ALL barriers associated with getting rich. In other words, if it is your sincere wish to get filthy stinking rich today, there is absolutely nothing that stands in your way.

To make things ever better, money tends to be blind. It doesn’t see your color, race or religion, it doesn’t care what country or what neighborhood you come from, it doesn’t care if you are a male or a female or what your sexual preferences are. The money doesn’t care who your parents are or what your education level is. If you are willing to work incredibly hard in order to become wealthy, none of the external factors above can stop you from making it a reality.

Reason #2:  The Cost Of Starting A Business Today Can Be As Low As ZERO

While some businesses require a substantial capital outlay, you can start others for nothing at all. For example, the cost of starting an Internet business today could be a big fat ZERO. I do advocate spending a little bit more if you decide to go that route, about $60-100 to be exact, but the reality remains. Some of the fastest growing and the most profitable businesses today could be started from your kitchen table and with zero capital investment.  Hundreds of Billionaires and tens of thousands of millionaires have done just that in the past 100 years. Now it’s your turn.

To be continued tomorrow…….(Why Am I Seeing This On  A Financial Website?)

Why Now Is The Perfect Time To Get Filthy Rich  Google

The Shocking Secret Corporations Do Not Want You To Know.
 Why Your 9-5 Is Killing You and Why You Need To Quit Your Job In Order To Save Your Life…….Like Yesterday.

Continuation from yesterday……I still remember my first corporate job. I was hired as a CFO assistant in a midsized company.  I was so excited. The pay was not that great, but I was working directly for the CFO of the company and doing stuff that the rest of the kids in my graduating class could only dream of.  I couldn’t wait to apply all of the skills that I have learned in the business school.

Unfortunately, I was young, naive and stupid. At that time I truly believed that I could change the company for the better. I believed that they would listen to my ideas and make suggested adjustments for the betterment of the company and its bottom line. I believed that by showing initiative, showing up early, leaving late and by making the CFO of the company look good I would eventually be rewarded with a higher salary or other perks.

It took about a year for the reality to set it. They didn’t care about any of the things above. All they wanted me to do was to follow corporate rules and regulations, mind my own business and do what I was paid to do. That was until the CFO of the company threw me under a bus for her shortcomings and I was promptly fired a year and a half into my job.  Looking back, I certainly deserved to be fired, if for no other reason than being too gullible and too committed for my own good.  I didn’t know the secret.

What secret?  Well, there is no easy way to swallow the bitter pill, so I am just going to come out and say it.

If you work for someone else and get a regular paycheck, you are a slave.

I know that many people will baulk at such a statement. After all, no one is beating you with a stick nor are there any shackles around your wrists. Yet, the shackles come in many different shapes and forms, even in the form of a Gold Rolex. Let’s take a closer look at some hard to ignore points to prove my assertion.

Do You Have To Ask For Permission?

Do you constantly seek supervisor permission to do anything? Things like going to visit your sick child in the hospital during business hours, taking an early lunch or even using a restroom. If so, I am sorry to tell you, but you are a slave.

Do You Have To Follow Rules & Regulations?

Is there a 100 page employee manual on your desk spelling out every little detail of what you can and cannot do? If so, I am sorry to tell you, but you are a slave.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

The Reasons Why You MUST Start Your Business Today Google