The Fastest Way To Become A Millionaire
In “The One Minute Millionaire,” the authors tell us that you can get your first million faster (and surer) by following this simple three-step approach: Step 1. Create a “millionaire mindset,” they say, by developing self-confidence and allowing your burning desire for wealth to grow. I’ve talked a lot…
The Social Security Fiasco
In the middle of January, the General Accounting Office (the auditing arm of the U.S. government) said that by 2017 Social Security will start running annual deficits. This is no surprise to ETR readers. I warned you two years ago, and last year too, that the supposed Social Security “surplus”…
How Not To Start A Business — Even If You Are A Woman
Here are the “tools” More magazine provided to help its readers get started as entrepreneurs: * Consult with an attorney to make sure you set up the right legal structure. * Check with your municipal authority to make sure “they permit a venture like yours to work out of the…
Another Way To Get Your Name In Print — And Get Paid For It Too
In a recent Saturday edition of ETR (12-28-02), we gave you guidelines to help increase your chances of having your letters to the editor of your local newspaper published. After reading that article, Glen Strathy, a freelance writer, wrote in to suggest that you might want to write Op-Ed pieces…
The Benefits of Being Global
The U.S. is, without a doubt, the easiest place in the world to live. You can buy a new, oversized hot-water heater on New Year’s Day from Sears (I did this for an apartment building I owned in Chicago years ago), you can have a pizza delivered to your house…
It Pays To Help Your Competitors
Most books on the subject treat business as war. Your competitors are your enemy. Beating them out of market share is your goal. If you can get them to go out of business completely, you’ve triumphed. I don’t share that view. And I’ll tell you why. War is a terrible,…
How To Handle Irate Customers
Only after an angry customer believes that you understand his problem and sympathize with his plight will he be willing to believe that you really mean to help him. This is especially true if he’s been run through a customer-service drill that resulted in nothing happening. One way I’ve found…
Pay Attention To Your No. 1 Job
According to most “serial business builders,” bad hiring and firing decisions are among the most important mistakes entrepreneurs make. These include: 1. not spending the time and energy to recruit the very best employees 2. not paying close enough attention to an executive’s performance 3. waiting too long to…
Something To Ponder
Something to ponder: All your clients, customers, and employees have a hidden mission — and that is to reduce your profits to zero. It is a cynical thought, but it’s true. The moment you let up on the pressure to produce, sell, save, and improve, your bottom line will begin…
What to Expect from Stocks and Bonds
My friend and colleague Steve Sjuggerud recently studied 100 years of investing returns for 16 countries and found that stocks yielded an annualized gain of 9.2% a year in U.S. dollars, including dividends. U.S. stocks did a little better, returning 10.1% a year. Bonds, Steve says, brought in 4.4% globally…
When You Shouldn’t Fire Your Weakest Link
As an executive working for a business I didn’t own, I fired employees right and left. It was clear to me that my primary duty was to the business — and when someone working for me couldn’t cut the mustard and could be replaced rather quickly by someone better, I…
Promise #9 for the New Year: To Become Wiser by Reading ETR Every Day
You are a very busy person. And so I appreciate the fact that you take the time each morning to make reading ETR a priority. The single most productive thing I do each day is the work I do writing ETR. It’s energizing because it gets me thinking positively first…