I know & like Dave Ramsey.
[audio:https://www.jonathannation.com/jon0006no-dr.mp3][mp3 – 13:22]
First learned of him while I was in high school & got to know him enough in 2004 that he would recognised me in a crowed in 2005, though not today. I hope his new book, EntraLeadership, is a huge success. Today he is on his book tour, in our home area, broadcasting from outside his office & celebrating being a New York Times Bestseller. At the party is free food, music, book signings, giveaways. The type of thing I enjoy, but things have changed & I could not bring myself to go.
My mother is a wise woman, growing up she focused on training each of her children how each should go by having custom rules based on the tendencies of that child. My natural tendency is to do more & more, thus the rule was that I could not have more then 3 activities (soccer, scouts, band, church, etc) at one time. At least one of my siblings had a minimum, for that child would not do any outside activities. Our parents also had veto power over activities & sometimes forced a particular activity on us.
This helped me learn about myself, or at least helped in the process.
Nearly 11 months ago my world changed.
I once interviewed Andrew Peterson, as a part of Artist Insider. He is a musician who learned enough about business to have his own company. This is something that most artist are not interested in all, so I was fascinated with what would cause him to do so when so many others would not.
The answer Andrew gave was the birth of his children. I did not understand this until recently. For Andrew it was motivation to learn about business, for me it is focusing my resources, especially my time. Looking back, this was a lesson my mother was attempting to teach me for years. It took the birth of my first two children & more to really get me back to it.
In the Last Few Months
This has been building. I would often think back on episodes of StartingCube, from How to Succeed to How To Change, What to do Next & Overcoming Adversity, and many more. I thought about Good To Great & the hegehog concept.
Then two key posts of my own:
The first is a process of setting priorities, the second – how I currently think of life in terms of producing & investing, consumption, and relaxation, all things we all need.
The big thing, the big reason why I decided not to head to Financial Peace Plaza today is that it does not fit with the main focus I have right now. I need more production & investing. I need more focused consumption.
Long term I will continue to help people solving public problems with private solutions.
I need to learn more about building businesses, meet more people, and improve my abilities and results as an investor. Today, was a step in self discipline of saying no to a good thing to spend time working towards something great.
If you want more, listen to the mp3, or check out the links. Cube25 [How to Succeed] & Paint The Picture are two great places to start.
