Step 6. The first step

I started this journey in the look for 2 slippery mysteries of life:

1. What do successful people do?
2. What is the source of thought?

“I am poor and I can’t do anything about it” it’s something that 99% of the global population is thinking.
In this series of lessons, I’m going to prove to you that you can do something about it and you should do something about it. And do it fast because time is flying and time is the most important resource that you have and that you will ever have.

Everything that I’m describing in this book is something that I have done in my real life. It is a memoir of my life. I hope this will help you and guide you through the treacherous roads of something called life.

Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It means teaching them to behave as they do not behave.

John Ruskin

This is an “Owner’s Manual” for any human being. I’m going to show you how to rewrite the code so that you create THE program that changes your life. To live the life you really wanted to live. To live life at max revs. Keep reading, then return. You finished the book, then return.

There are many plans in life. There are shopping plans. There are travel plans. There are: how to pass my exam plans. How to launch a business plan. How to expand globally plans. How to sell my house plan. How to retire plan.

But there is also A LIFE PLAN.

You will see that YOU can CHANGE YOUR LIFE-PLAN!

I’m also going to start showing how you can CHANGE YOUR HEALTH PLAN.

I’m going to show you how to develop your lifestyle plan.

It’s all a matter of perspective and wisdom. Nothing else.

You just have to admit that someone, some time ago, ( aka. the environment) sold you a BAD LIFE PLAN, and now, change gears towards an AMAZING LIFE PLAN.

The lessons shown in this book are coming from research from hundreds of successful people, who have DEVELOPED THEIR AMAZING LIFE PLAN.

Learn from them!

So that you can also have AN AMAZING LIFE PLAN.

No one can know too much.

A book not read, hurts you much more than a book that you read.

A book that you don’t read, doesn’t transform your life. A book that you read, only asks for a piece of your valuable time on this planet. And maybe has a price tag attached to it. But that price tag is infinitesimal compared to the knowledge that you gain from reading such a book.

We’re taught that Knowledge is POWER.

Knowledge is NOT POWER!

An educated individual is not enlightened. An educated individual without self-awareness means someone that gathered a lot of information.

If knowledge would have been power, librarians would be the billionaires of the world. Because they have around them all kinds of knowledge, all the knowledge that everyone has EVER, in the recorded history – 6500 years – collected, doesn’t make them automatically billionaires.

Lesson: Knowledge is POTENTIAL POWER.

Knowledge has to be properly organized and then intelligently focused, through self-awareness and personal development, to a specific point/purpose/goal/desire.

I’m going to show you how to START LEARNING KNOWLEDGE, something (synonyms – object, thing, article, commodity, existence) that I TEACH in this book, and MIX IT with “POTENTIAL” so that IT BECOMES REALITY!

I’m going to show you HOW TO INTELLIGENTLY DIRECT it toward whatever end do you want.

Lesson: Luck doesn’t exist! “Luck” is created!

Voltaire said:

We invented the word luck to express the known effect of unknown causes.

Or tell yourself a lie, but after reading this series, you’ll realise that you’re really lucky all of a sudden 😉

Arnold Schwarzenegger said:

“Work (as in – put in the effort) and advertise!”

Legend for this Book V2:

As you will notice, I’m HIGHLIGHTING only the words that are truly important. It is recommended that you review that entire sentence/paragraph for a total understanding. Most of the text in these series of posts are a story, a filling, a bridge so that I guide you over the trenches, by showing familiar stories, by showing life happenings, so that you understand the lessons that I’m teaching. It is the light at the end of the tunnel. It is the rope that gets you out of the well. It is the stair that gets you out of that burning apartment.

There are 2 kinds of people in this world:

• People who read one book and forget about it.
• People who, after growing and developing maturity, they revert back to a book, maybe even multiple times, to understand the fullest expression that a writer painted in words. 

Quotes are from famous people so that you see evidence that what I’m digesting here is true.

Lesson: Never trust/believe/hold truth a source of information that hasn’t been filtered meticulously through your mind filter!

This is a very powerful series. Maybe the most powerful series that you have ever encountered or that you may encounter. 

Be naive enough to believe what I say, for just 30 days, and you will be on your way, to a new life.

Earl Shoaff

Lesson: Success is 5% strategy and 95% mindset.

Most people spend 95% of their time on strategy, and only 5%, if any at all, on mindset.

Become self educated

Standard education will get you standard results. If you want standard, if you want average, then you should stop reading this book. It will be a waste of your time.

If you want something better than the standard, you have to become self-educated. So I went to work on my library.

I now have an amazing set of knowledge and wisdom, gathered from hundreds of books, videos, articles, reports and so on.

Lesson: Repetition is the mother of skill. 

If you could have seen my bank account at the time when I started writing this book, you would have known I needed lots of that kind of repetition.

Ideas in some books have made major changes in my life. As I look back now, those books were worth billions, and I bought them for pennies.

The start of my story

I always wanted and thought that it would be cool to start and have my own company. Be my own boss. So I had a book in my house – that my friend Bogdan read – The Lean Startup.

I admit I haven’t read a book since I was in high school, learning to pass exams, and reading about Greek mythology.

All of a sudden, I started reading that book. And it was a new experience. It was an interesting experience. 

• Why? 

Because I left the comfort zone, the daily routines. It was a weird thing for me. A happening.

I went into an ‘unknown’ part of my life.

Soon after I finished the book, I was told that I should read new book – Hooked by Nir Eyal.

In this book, the author explains how we are ‘hooked’ to our phones, to our apps, to our daily routines. He reveals how successful companies create products people can’t put down.

This was a revelation for me! I asked myself:

• What studies do Facebook and Microsoft do, in order to gain so much market?
• How are they keeping their users so successful?
• Why are they buying so many small startups?
• How can the CEOs of the most powerful companies in the world ( Amazon, Apple, Facebook ) talk at a Congressional hearing with such a straight and cold face? If you haven’t seen the videos, I do recommend that you review them, their reactions, and how they twist or avoid the most basic answers that the Congressmen are asking.

I was so intrigued about how the ‘rich and powerful’ make their wealth, that I started researching them, in a deep way, to understand their thought process and their actions.

I have discovered this TV Show – Undercover Billionaire – on YouTube.

The goal of the show?

To see if a self-made billionaire can create a million-dollar company from nothing, in less than 90 days.

He had just a bit of cash on hand, the clothes on his back, and a normal, random, car.

After a careful analysis of that person and that behavior, I draw one conclusion: He thinks differently compared to ‘normal’ people.

Now you might ask, but what do you mean ‘normal people’? We are all normal people!

Well, yes and no. Depends on how you see it. It’s all a mindset.

“Normal people” (Label), the Hurd, the 99%, the poor, the misfortunate are people who are working for money. Who are working hard for their money. People who have responsibilities, people who have routines. People who have a job. Sounds familiar? At least to some extent maybe? If so, keep reading, this is becoming more and more interesting.

So the billionaire guy was not spending his money on junk, besides what he needs to meet his primordial needs – basic food, basic sleep, basic shower, a car that gets him up from point A to point B.

What does this mean?

He is focused on his goal. He knew that his goal would bring him the highest satisfaction long-term. That goal brings him his biggest joy and happiness.

Close your eyes and imagine being a billionaire, owning multiple properties, helicopters, yachts, and so on. And then, all of a sudden, to eat instant soups and snacks, in a crappy old car. He even slept in his car, until he made his first money, to pay rent for a place. And he wasn’t that fussed about it.

He ended up putting together a team, he made some money by using some tricks and eventually got his restaurant business evaluated at around $700.000. So he didn’t actually reach his million-dollar company, but heck, he was quite close. 

Anyway moving on.

After that TV Show, I discovered somehow ( emphasis on somehow! – remember my first goal? My biggest desire? ) the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki. And what I have discovered in his book, has confirmed my initial beliefs. 

The rich are learning completely different things in schools, in order to carry over their parent’s empires. Their education is different from…other parts of the “world”.

He explains his view on the world, having 2 dads – his biological dad – the poor dad – and his rich dad  – his best friend’s dad.

After carefully reading everything, I was even more fascinated about this ‘new/rich world’ where the rich and powerful live in.

I have discovered many of Robert’s books and I have read most of them, in less than a month. Due to the fact that COVID-19 hit and our team and activities have been reduced at my job. We started working from home. The important thing that happened: I got out of the daily routine!

As a reflection for the first 2 months in this journey, here are all the books that I have read or listened, that gave me this inspiration:

• The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
• Hooked – Nir Eyal
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad’s: Increase your financial IQ – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad’s: Before you quit your job – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant: Guide to Financial Freedom – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad’s Advisors: Own Your Own Corporation: Why the Rich Own Their Own Companies and Everyone Else Works For Them – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad’s: Guide to becoming rich – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad’s: Guide to Investing – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad’s: Conspiracy of the rich – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• The Richest Man In Babylon – George S. Clason
• Fake money, Fake Teachers, Fake Assets – Robert T. Kiyosaki

After listening to all of these people’s teachings, all their experiences I started to change my mindset. I started to understand what they were teaching.

While I was just about to end the last book Fake money, Fake Teachers, Fake Assets, a very intriguing word or pair of words made me curious – when Robert was asking the following question: Are you a chicken or are you an eagle?

I must admit, I wasn’t sure what he meant with that question. I thought I did, but the real answer was at a totally different altitude.

And then, he mentioned in his book, very briefly, the words: transcendental meditation.

I stopped reading the book and went to research what is Transcendental Meditation – or TM.

( Back then, I had no idea what meditation was. It was an abstract thing, somewhere stored the back of my head. )

Enjoy life,

Ionut Furnea