blog.pudgandplum.com

Three years ago I became very active in trying to build a financial services business. I got my life insurance license (again) and began to help clients move money into safer tools to protect their investments. At the time, the stock market was booming again and people had quickly forgotten what happen just 5-6 years prior when the dot-com bust happened. I saw my mom lose over 30% of her retirement portfolio back then. She had an advisor that promised her things he never should’ve done and kept in her too many risky mutual funds. Back then, I knew better, but let her advisor do his thing without saying a word. I am still upset at myself till this day. She lost tens of thousands of dollars. Greatest thing is that I knew 3 years ago it was going to happen again and this time I took control and she hasn’t lost a penny since. Her gains have been modest, and compared to where she would’ve been if she left it with her old advisor, she is WAY ahead of the game.
A year after getting in to build my financial business, events took place within the family that really shook us up. I felt that a stable job was the place to go so we could help those in need through a rough time. The shake up made the family stronger and things have gotten back on track. Looking back, I thought I was doing the right thing. Making sacrifices and focusing on stability was to me, the right thing to do to get through it all.
A nagging feeling haunts me today. What if I continued to build the financial business and had not used the excuse of “helping out” because I was afraid I could fail? I had done so well in the beginning and loved what I did. I felt God had led me into it and it was exciting. I was helping people, and protecting them and now that 2 years have past, there are so many that have lost so much that I may have been able to protect. In some instances, I hear the losses have been over $100k many times more. Once again, I stepped away and kept my mouth shut even when I knew better. It was my mom’s situation all over again, but this time it was friends and acquaintances.
So I have decided to get back in the Game again and I am excited to see that there are so many changes for the better with protecting clients assets! The losses of the past are still here and REAL! I can’t bring back those losses for so many, but at least I can now direct them to safer pastures with returns that will stick and show them that it is time to take control of their money and start educating themselves. For many, its late in the game. The 4th quarter has arrived and its all or nothing. Desperation will open their minds better than before to understanding that they need to educated themselves and take a little risk.

As odd as this may sound, I know God was telling me to stick it out 2 years ago. It didn’t feel right going back to a job. Where I should be today is not where I am at. I am 2 years behind playing catch-up, but this time I am listening to every whisper God is telling me.

What is God telling you? Are you listening? I am!

FAITH AND ENDURANCE
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
James 1:2-4

Keep an eye on 2 new websites that I recently started work on. http://www.makeyourchurchwebsite.com and http://www.miyamotocreations.com.
As time goes on, the website for churches to make their own websites will be built to help offer tutorials on how to use Ewisoft and also how great it is to host with Bluehost.

In the mean time, I am going with stuff I love. Working back in the financial field selling insurance and educating my clients on how to protect their retirement portfolios.

Some think I am crazy, but it’s already been a blast!

Wow! It’s been a while since my last post. We’ve been so busy preparing for our Thailand mission trip to Zoe International Ministries’ Children’s home.

I can’t really explain what we experienced, but I put up a video page of all our activities and videos on our church website.

My sister told me about these things called the Amazon Kindle 2. If you get a chance, your should check it out. I really wish I had one of these on the long 23 hours of one way travel time to Thailand!
It would have really helped a lot to pass the time.

I’ve just realized I’ve been SO wrong. I once heard what I thought was one of the GREATEST sayings ever, “First Deserve, Then Desire”. After hearing that, I truly believed that before you should desire anything, you should first believe that you deserve it. It became a motto of mine that I used to teach others. When I was in control of peoples raises, I would use this phrase often to explain my position on who did or did not get raises. It was a motto of mine to get my employees to work harder, and it worked. By explaining that raises were given on what skills you had and their importance to the team, they knew they had to continuously be learning new things and getting faster at their jobs, or their worth would not increase and they would not get a raise. It worked very well in part because I was willing to teach them if they were really interested in gaining more knowledge. My common sense justification was, “Why should I give anyone a raise year after year if they were not getting more productive year after year?” That is where, “First Deserve, Then Desire.” came to be what was expected.

Recently though, something has changed…I still believe in the saying, but only partially. I heard the other week that the word “Desire” comes from the root definition meaning “of the father”, or in other words, God. If desire is truly given to us by God to motivate us, then to desire is good. It’s what we should be looking into ourselves for. I believe that each of us are driven by our desires, and the stronger our desires, the stronger our motivation to acquire our desires will become. In some cases, it’s called “Vision”, in others it becomes their purpose. Whatever the reason we have them, it’s what makes the human race develop.

What are your deepest desires? I suggest spending a little time today and write down ALL of your desires. Circle the top five desires and make a decision to focus on how you can achieve them. Most of my desires seem outrageous, even to me. But if I believe that God is all knowing and all powerful and that he gave me those desires, then I believe he also gave me the ability to acquire what I desire. I’ve seen truly unbelievable miracles happen in my life when I’ve focused on getting something in the past. It’s time to get myself in gear and go after the REALLY big desires of my life… Having desires that will help others live better lives, gives my life purpose. But here’s the coolest thing…if i strive to do great things that will help others live better lives and have less suffering, it doesn’t hurt anyone if I fail. All it can really do is make me wiser. I can’t “really” fail unless I die and can’t try again. As long as I am capable, I haven’t failed yet. A setback will only make the “next time” easier.

The big debate in our household has become, “How much risk should be taken?”. We are about to take on an adventure and it may be costly. The payoff could be huge, but it could also fail.

My position is: If we never take a big risk, we may never know what could have been. King David if the Bible (as a boy) ran out into the middle of a battle field with nothing more that 5 stones and a sling to fight a giant. He came back with the giants head. No one ever got ahead by leaps and bounds by playing it safe.

My wife’s position is: we took risks, we were very successful, but then we took more risks and it has drained us. No more risks…

We both live with the belief that God will always provide for us, no matter what, as long as we worship him, are doing his work, and being faithful in our giving of our money and our time. Lately though, times have gotten a little tougher for us.

I believe it’s to prepare us and educate us for what is to come. God will ALWAYS protect you with giving you knowledge so you can use wisdom when challenges come up. The thing is, in order to gain knowledge, you need to be taught. Most of our lessons in life are given to us through experiences. So sometimes the lessons are tough, which then means you will learn better and be better prepared.

So, we are moving ahead with our “risky” adventure. It could be a huge drain on what little savings we have left, and spiral us into a really rough time of hardship… and then what.

My feeling is, “So what? Let’s go for it!”. If we fail, we fail trying. I will never, ever be ashamed of saying we tried and we failed in that adventure. In the end we will have learned so much, that the chance of failing the second time around will get slimmer. The big question for me is…”What if we succeed?!?”.

We will never know if we can do it unless we try…When you were learning to walk, how many times did you fall down? Did you quit? Remember that every time you take a step. You failed a lot in the beginning to be able to walk…So why did you keep trying? Was it really a risk to take that first step, or was it the process that you needed to go through?

Can anyone truly be successful without taking those first few steps and falling down a few times? So why are you not trying?

Last winter, while sitting on the couch on a typically cold morning, I had an idea… An idea I thought could be worth millions…

This week, I’ve seen my idea being marketed all over the internet and even on infomercials! I told a few friends and co-workers about this idea and we saw a few versions of it made on the internet. When we saw it, I could not understand why it wasn’t being sold in stores and mass marketed, it really was a great idea!

Well…I guess the idea was good…really good!

I know marketing has 90% to do with how a product does. I knew my idea was good, and found out someone was already selling it, but not marketing it. Now, it’s being marketed well and millions are being made by someone other than me.

Do you have an idea? Wonder why it’s not in the mass market for everyone to buy? Maybe the product is just waiting for the right person to take advantage of an opportunity…

Think, research, act…

A simple but effective formula for the million dollar idea. All 3 parts are needed, but few ever do them completely which inevitably leads to failure.

I won’t let that happen again. Will you?

I read today that there is a guy in Europe saying that the UK’s pound could collapse with the deficit swelling. Apparently, he must be a respected individual with so many news presses printing the story. In my opinion, there really isn’t much difference with the currency issues the UK is having and compared to the US issues. Both countries are scrambling to do anything possible to prevent a major economic disaster (which is like trying to stop the Mississippi River with just your bare hands. The problem is just too big. The US Dollar is in a crisis possibly worse than the pound. It’s strength is consistently loosing it’s value, and the more we borrow or stimulate, the worse it will become.

Maybe someone can help answer this question for me regarding bailing out the auto industry. I realize that nearly 2 million people will lose their jobs if GM were to shut down and it would cause major problems everywhere. I agree that something should be done, if it makes sense. How does helping GM continue to make cars help if our economy is so bad that no one buys the cars that we help GM to continue to make? The simple laws of supply and demand will inevitably show itself real and either they will have to give the cars away free, or go bankrupt anyway with millions of cars in back stock.

I watched a great movie this week called “Facing the Giants“. It’s a movie about a high school football coach and everything around him is falling apart. He has a losing team with a bad attitude, he’s about to lose his job, he can’t get his wife pregnant (yes, it’s his fault), his car keeps breaking down, something in his house smells and he can’t find where it’s coming from, and he is making just enough to survive. With an change in perspective of what he is meant to do with his life, things turn around for him and he begins to have a HUGE affect on the people around him. Basically…my kind of uplifting movie.

Typically, I like the hardcore sci-fi stuff like The Matrix or Star Wars, but this was a movie that I really liked and it had no sci-fi special effects.

Some of the lessons it taught were great lessons on life in general. If you want a good movie to get you smiling in the beginning of the week, “Facing the Giants” is a good one to get.

So last night we voted in a new President of the United States. I myself was a McCain supporter from the beginning, but I am not as disappointed as I am eager to see if Obama holds to his promises and is as good as all those who voted for him think he will be. McCain went down in style, saying we are in a country where we can have a say as to who we want to lead us and we got a chance to do just that. Not only am proud to be an American, but I am also very grateful for rights and freedoms we have. My man didn’t win…so what. The majority wanted Obama, and we peacefully got a majorities choice into the White House. I hope I am wrong in thinking Obama’s policies could be hurtful in the future. Millions of others think his policies could be helpful, which is why I hope they voted for him. I didn’t think all of McCain’s policies would be great answers to our countries problems either, I just thought they were a little better than Obama’s.

So now, my personal belief is that all of us need to hope and pray that our new President moves quick to keep his promises, and that his “ideas” work for the better of our country. All our past President’s did what they thought was best for the country with what they could control. Some did a lot better than others. Even George Bush made decisions based on what he thought was best for our country. He’s human and he made mistakes. He is surrounded with smart advisors, and yet things didn’t work out as well as he wanted toward the end of his term. Hopefully Mr. Obama makes a lot less mistakes and things do make a difference for the better.

To Mr. Obama I’d like to say “Congratulations”. You put up a great campaign with a lot of promises for change. I am praying that your promises can be kept and that they end up being “right” for our country. I pray that you are wise in your decisions and that your cabinet truly serve the interest of the American people. I pray you have the strength to fight hard against the economic turmoil that has already begun to hurt so many Americans, and perservere. I pray you prove me wrong in thinking that McCain’s policies were better than your own for the good of everyone who lives with us in this great country.  You will undoubtedly make mistakes, you’re human. So I pray that if mistakes that are made, they are learned from and make better results for decisions made thereafter. You were not my pick at the poll yesterday, but it doesn’t mean I do not support you now that you have won. You have my full support as my new President and I am in your corner praying for the change you promised to turn our country around and that it can, in turn, help the rest or the world get back on track. You’ve taken a path to accept more burdens than anyone should have to handle. God Bless you, and good luck!

I came across this video on GodTube.com. I thought it was a great message for anyone who feel as though they have obstacles too big to overcome.

This weeks stock market has been crazy. If you have money in stocks, be warned. Know what companies you have your money in, and start studying their future goals and how they are adjusting to the economy changing. If they are not doing anything to prepare for the future, get out. Quickly…

Recently I went looking to see the current 100 ounce bars of silver were selling for by our top dealers. I came across a discovery that all the major dealers are completely out of stock! They’ve been out for months now! Also learned that although the price of silver is low compared to a few months ago, ebay traders are getting will above the going market price it should be. Why is this you ask? Well, there is some debate as to whether a “conspiracy” is going on to keep prices low and hide the fact there is a major shortage. Even the mints that produce the bars are closing some of their production facilities. No one is really coming forward to say there is a shortage, but the lack of inventory everywhere can really only mean one thing, there are no large supplies readily available. Once the mainstream public knows about this, prices are sure to skyrocket. If you get a chance, get some now. Prices won’t stay this low for very long.

This week, I’ve personally found there are the 4 parts in life that determine happiness. Over the last week, I’ve had a life changing revelation.

Decisions: First, I recognized that every moment in our lives requires us to make decisions. Every second of our day, we are making numerous decisions subconsciously and consciously. By you reading this, you’ve made a decision to continue reading the rest of this posting. Your continuing to read thereafter is another decision not to stop. Life is made up of the constant decisions you make every moment. Realizing this is the first step to taking control of your life and making it worth something.

Choices: We make decisions based on the choices we believe that are available to us. When someone says, “I have (or had) no choice, it’s a belief to them, not a fact. If you are sitting at a desk reading this, you have multiple choices you can make if you choose to explore your options. At this very moment you could stand, walk away, jump, turn off the computer, sing a song, continue reading, get something to eat, etc…  Your choices are abundant at any given moment. How many choices you see will all be based on the next item.

Focus: Your mind has an unlimited ability to create choices for you to make. What you choose to focus on at any given moment is what will determine the types of choices you will think that you have. If you’re hungry, obtaining food will undoubtedly pop up as an option for you. If you are under pressure to complete something, you may limit yourself as to how many choices you give yourself to get a task done. All of your focus will usually be due to the following.

Satisfaction: Your satisfaction in the moment will determine all of the above. For me, this was the key to everything. The 4 steps are cyclical, and therefore puts everything into a never ending system of realizing that you are first and foremost in charge of your life. Here is how it works for me:

1. In the beginning of my day, I choose to focus on how satisfied I am in life. I look around and Thank God for all the blessings I have around me and how fortunate I am. This in turn changes my focus for the day.
2. Now that I am in the mindset of how blessed I am, my focus turns to looking at everything that is great around me. (As you can imagine, I am already in a better mood)
3. With all the decisions I have to make for myself from the moment I wake up, my choices seem abundant and uplifting. I now see every choice available to me as a blessing.
4. At this point in the process, it doesn’t take much to satisfy me. Since I have such a newly revived sense of being blessed, my choices are much different than they used to be. I used to make choices based on trying to get never ending satisfaction, now I make more choices to satisfy others. This doesn’t mean I’ve become completely selfless. I am still a selfish human being, but it just seems that my mental state has become a lot less “me focused” now that I have a such an awareness of how grateful I am for what I have. Turn on the local news for a few moments, and it can really make you realize how much tragedy is going on for others around you, and things could be a lot worse.

Be grateful…

If you’ve ever volunteered, there’s no doubt you got something out of it. In some cases it may be obvious, in other cases the benefits may be hidden or dormant for a while until an opportunity to use the skills learned from your volunteer efforts come to pass. I believe that some of the best lessons can be learned through volunteering and giving of your time. There are times when you’ll be standing there scratching your head wondering why you’re doing the work for free and what benefit is all this headache you may be going through. Just remember to look back at all the benefits you are getting for being there. If you’re not volunteering anywhere, help someone when you get a chance. I strongly believe everything happens for a reason and is there to help you accomplish your purpose here on earth.

Can’t believe its been 5 weeks since my last post. So much has gone on! Oil prices are down and i just found out that there is a huge amount of Shale under my rental property. Under a special lease agreement, we are able to profit from natural gas to be extracted from under the property without any disruption to the tenants. Very Cool! Hopefully one day they can actually extract the shale to be used as an energy resource.

I’ve decided to take steps in learning web design with dreamweaver and graphic design with photoshop. This well probably keep me quite busy over the next few weeks, but give us good progress in designing nice websites. I’ve also learned how to post podcasts to itunes. Our church is now on itunes and so is are companies podcast’s. Exciting stuff for me. Still learning so much about what the internet has to offer.

Also learned a new program called gimp. It’s a free photoshop type program. Lot’s of power! So much to learn though.

Booked a vacation with my mom, sister, and wife. Should be a blast. Looking for more opportunities to take advantage that my wife speaks japanese and english and we have connections there to help us bring product over. Lots to learn about import and export as well.

If you like to learn while you read, but not be bored with academic textbook style reading, I suggest a book called “The One Minute Entrepreneur” by Ken Blanchard and Don Hutson. It’s a story with a lot of great lessons along the way. At the end of each chapter, the main points learned by the characters are highlighted. With so many great pointers about being a successful entreprenuer, and many quotes from some of the greatest business teachers, this was a book that I recommend for anyone who has their own business or would like to start one.

Remember, many times its the limitations of your “job” that will keep you poor. Only you can make the decision to do more with your life.

So my wife got me a really good book for my birthday and I came across a VERY enlightening comment this morning while reading it

“Happiness is a result of what you believe and what you do, not a result of what happens to you.”

If you come to really understand and study what this means to you in your life, you will see that your happiness depends 100% on you, and nothing else. If you are not happy in your life, start believing differently and doing things differently, and happiness can be yours.  Like the famous Apple Tag line says:

“Think Different”

There are a lot of business books out there that talk about how large companies neglect to adapt while the world that made them big changes around them. Change in our world is inevitable, and it’s up to people to adapt to it to survive. I am always amazed at how little companies rapidly get large because of their ability to change with the world around them. I highly recommend anyone thinking about entrepreneurship to read the book “If it ain’t broke, break it!”.

This week I am making a change in my life that some people would think I was crazy to do. In fact, I know MOST people would think it “unwise”. The fact of the matter is that the world is changing around me and I have been doing nothing but watching and resisting. Much like the big companies who fail to make necessary changes with their customers needs and end up bankrupt, that is where I felt I was headed. This pudgandplum blog was built to help me understand the world of blogging better and to help me change and grow a little more with technology. The next step for me has come to now focus harder on the website portion. I have been in companies that done changes that have negatively affected the lives of those around them. I see a storm ahead for the company I work for and count my blessings that there are clear warning signs that give me just enough time to protect myself and get out of the way of the turmoil.

I believe that the news we see and hear everyday are also giving warning signs of the years to come. There is a great possibility that our nation will have very hard times ahead economically, and people are ignoring the warnings. It’s like being told you’re standing in a building that will fall in an hour and even though you can see and hear the cracks forming in the walls, you stay to say that it’s not your problem, someone else better stop it from collapsing because your not leaving for safety because it’s not convenient right now. In the end, you will fall with the building around you. At that point you can try to blame everyone around you, but the fact will remain you ignored the warning.

If you are in a job that has bosses above you who have the ability to lay you off, you need to protect yourself. Find a second source of income that can sustain you if you lose your job. Don’t be foolish to think that you are indispensable. Everyone can be replaced, yes, everyone…  As much as people think they are too precious, they’re not. If the company gets sold or closes it’s doors, it then doesn’t really matter how valuable you “thought” you were.

Look at what’s going on around you. See change for what it is. Ask yourself how can you make lives easier for people, or is there a problem you are noticing that a product you create could make it easier for others in their everyday lives? Look at your company from the inside out and ask yourself what could be done better, or what is the company missing that you could do on your own? Open your eyes, then open your mind.

I remember reading somewhere that everyone has a million dollar idea, but most will never know it, or have the guts to implement it. Starting today, I will start working hard on what I think is my million dollar idea. Will you start on yours?

This week I had eye surgery done to remove some scar tissue that started to cover my pupil. One of the rules I had to follow was that I could not eat anything after midnight until the surgery was over. My surgery ended at about 2pm, so needless to say I was starving, but nauseous from the surgery and having a patch on my eye. At this point I was amazed at how easy we live our lives here in the US. When we are hungry, we eat. At anytime, we can go and get food practically anywhere. There are hundreds of thousands of people in Burma and China who are starving and can’t get to food right now due to natural disasters. Of course, there are those in other areas who never have food or clean water at their disposal either. So here I am complaining about feeling a little sick, and a sense of guilt overwhelms me. I guess I also end up getting a little worried about what I would do if I couldn’t afford to eat or had access to food. Scary.

With that being said, I have no words of wisdom other than to say, maybe each of us should really be aware and thankful of the blessings we have. (and it might not hurt to prepare in case we have not)

This is a good article on how any positive news about our economy could be just a mirage.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080510/economic_mirage.html

I’ve been on a business sales trip again this past week. This time to Houston and drove out for a day to Austin. While meeting with clients, one thing I noticed was that all the business owners had other marketable skills that equaled, if not exceeded their current business, in other industries. It blew me away to see all of these VERY successful  entrepreneurs working on the side in things that were (in some cases) totally unrelated to their primary “bread and butter” businesses. On most occassions, these side ventures were definitely multi-million dollar ideas if marketed right.

The spirit of entrepreneurship is in their blood. It keeps them looking for opportunities to enhance their business, and sometimes better “new” ideas pop-up instead that seem logical to pursue. Many people know of the Post-it creator who was trying to create the ultimate adhesive and instead ended up marketing a super weak sticky stuff that makes itself removable on paper. Brilliant!

The lesson we all need to learn from this is that we all need to open our eyes and diversify our skills and knowledge better to create opportunity for ourselves. Never settle and be comfortable where you are or opportunity will pass you by. Think about what other things you have skills or interests in that could change the world completely for the better. If you don’t move on it first, someone else will.