1. Know Thyself

In this course we’ll go through some basics that go back to Napoleon Hill’s teaching in Think and Grow Rich (a book that is required reading for anyone that I consult). This course will help you define your goals, fix in your mind exactly what you want your life to look like and make a commitment to getting there no matter what

Who are you?
What do you want from life?
What is your ideal life (4 Hour Work Week)?
If you had $1,000,000 in the bank what would you do next?
Set your goals, personal, monetary, business and networking.

First ask yourself `Who are YOU?’ just like the caterpillar said to Alice in Wonderland.

This is the first step in knowing yourself and a step probably over half the population has never taken. Stand in front of a mirror if possible, or just close your eyes and envision yourself. Be very honest. What are you good points and where are you lacking? Evaluate all of these characteristics, traits and abilities that you have and come to a realistic understanding of yourself. Know where you should change as well as knowing which parts of you are great. You’ll use these great parts, talents, abilities and areas of expertise later on to find the most fulfilling possible life’s work to go into.

What do you really want from life? Have you ever asked yourself that question bluntly? Most people are scared to really dig deep and figure out what they want from life more than anything because ‘what if it never happens’. People are mortified by the ‘what ifs’ and the threat of future disappointment… in reality though the biggest what if to be afraid of is the ‘what if I never take a chance’.

So before we get started, before I teach you how to truly escape the 9 to 5, to start your own profitable business be it online or off and how to reach your goals every time, you have to ask yourself: What is it I want from life?

I’ll give you an example from my own life:

I want to live a life where I can travel wherever I want whenever I want. I want to see everything this beautiful Earth has to offer. I want to never, ever have to worry about where my next paycheck will come from. I want to have more than enough money because money can’t by happiness but it can buy a great deal of freedom. I want to be able to live a highly mobile lifestyle without a typical job, office or mortgage to hold me down.

Now you’d take this paragraph you’ve written, your life’s mission, your purpose and turn it into definable goals. Again I’ll use my goals as an example:

I want to live a life where I can travel wherever I want whenever I want = not having a typical 9 to 5 job, not having to be tied down via not having enough money or having job responsibilities to answer to. If I had a family (which I don’t) it would mean me making sure my kids and partner had the same mindset and where just as flexible.
I want to never, ever have to worry about where my next paycheck will come from = This means I have to create my own streams of income, some active, some passive. If one fails the others are there to carry me through in the lifestyle I want to live. This means diversifying my investments, thinking before I spend and ultimately growing enough streams of income that if I ‘quit’ doing what I was doing be it self employment, my business or entrepreneurship I’d still be set for life money wise.
I want to have more than enough money = This means setting monetary goals for yourself every month, every quarter and every year. My first goal is to make $10,000 gross, then $10,000 net, then $40,000 gross and finally $40,000 net per month. I also have a goal of being a multi-millionaire before I am thirty.

Have you ever read the book The 4 Hour Work Week? If not its a great book to get and that will get you pumped as you continue through Start Up School. It’s available on iTunes too which makes it easy to consume as you drive or do chores around the house. The gist of the book is finding a way to live a lifestyle that only incurs 4 hours of work per week. The chances that your start up will only need that much is slim, but if you start with that goal in mind I’m sure you can make it. So now figure out how much work you want to spend on your business, your blog etc each week ideally. At first, you may work way more, but eventually you’ll get there. So set it in stone ahead of time.

My personal goal? Working 2-4 hours a day at my ‘businesses’ during the regular 5 day work week. I love what I do so blogging and other things like speaking etc. can take up more time. I’m talking about work work, like checking in with employees etc. If you don’t mind working 6 hours a day, or if you only want to work 4 hours per week… be sure to get an idea of how much you want to work and stick with it when the going gets tough. This will help you decide later on what to let go and what to keep up as you pursue your monetary goals.

Working 100 hours a week and bringing in 2k isn’t necessarily worth it. Its 20 bucks an hour. But working 10 hours a week and bringing in 1k is great because your averaging 100 bucks an hour.

*Set your ideal work week in your head now*

The million dollar challenge.

If you had $1,000,000 in the bank right now what would you do for the rest of the year? Answer this honestly, its important. Don’t say “feed orphans in Haiti” unless you really would. Be very honest with yourself, this is the best way to know thyself. If the answer is “take a year long cruise” okay, or “build a doggy daycare” great, or maybe “spend all my time with my family” also awesome. Later we’ll use your truest desires in niche selection so just keep this in your head for now.

Alright, now go back over this with a piece of paper and a pen. Write down the answers to each question and believe them with all your heart. If you do this and review these ideas weekly you can reach whatever it is you set your mind too. Promise. It is very important to write these down and to reference these goals at each major turn in your life. Its totally okay also to change the goals as you grow and your life changes. But just be sure to stick to reviewing them always. The rest of Start Up School will follow along this ‘map’ you set for yourself. Firstly you figured out where you were and then you figured out where you want to be. Now all we need to do is find the path to that goal… and that’s the fun part!

Action steps:

write them down

commit them to your heart