As i was looking for additional sources of income i come across an interesting article on e-Zine articles talking about stock options trading. I am not an investor yet but am seriously considering trading as a secondary source of income. Then i come across this article. Am putting this article on my Grow Pinoy Blog because this can be a very potential area where we can grow our wealth source wisdom. Please write me your honest comment on this financial instrument. Enjoy reading this article.
Having a Secondary Income is No Longer a Choice
By Andy Poon
Due to the higher standard of living today, a secondary source of income is no longer a choice but a must. In the past, families used to only have one sole breadwinner who is normally the father of the house. But to many families today, having only one sole breadwinner is no longer enough. Both the parents need to come out to work because they require another pay check to help support the family.
Who does not want to have an extra source of income? But why are there still so many people who did not do it? That is because most people have the misconception that to have an extra source of income means they have to trade hours to make some pennies.
This may be true if it is 20 years ago. Today, having a secondary source of income does not require you to work for extra long hours or be at a specific location anymore.
With the power of Internet, you are now able to make some decent extra money anywhere you want with more than 100 ways available.
Meaning to say, you do not need to go get a job anymore for extra money. You don't even need to sell anything to anybody! Second job or selling some products after office hours may be a very quick solution to the problem for the short term but think about it.
You have already spent 8 hours in your job and the pay check you got from the job is already insufficient, what makes you think by working another job for another 5 hours will help you? If you are like most normal working class, you have only 5 hours (deducting 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, 2 hours of travelling and 1 hour of meal time) left to work on.
What I mean is do not keep doing the same thing and hoping it will solve your problem and expect different results because it won't. Do you want a short term solution to a long term problem? Or are you willing to use more time to learn something that can help solve the program for good?
During my search of a long term solution, I understand that I must first be able to search for an extra source of income for the long run and not a one time job or a contract deal for several months. And I also want to know if the extra source can eventually take over my main income.
If it does, that is something worth trying.
And because of the above 2 criteria, I chose to put some of my extra time into stock options trading.
The reasons are simple.
Firstly, I can start with a relatively low amount of start up capital. How small? I started with only $2, 000. Secondly, it offers me the flexibility to make money regardless of market conditions and directions (Of course, if you know how to). Thirdly, I use only less than half an hour to trade. Very little time commitment required.
Last but not least, to date, stock options trading is the only instrument that allows you to turn a losing trade into a winning one and still make a little money. These are just some of the reasons why I chose stock options trading compared to getting a second job.
Of course, it sounded very easy but all my achievements did not come easy. This comes from years of hard work and the lessons that I got from the market. So if you want to be investing your money in the stock market. Whether it is stocks, options or anything, you need to have a proven method that allows you to profit from it consistently.
If you are serious about finding an extra source of income and you really think stock options trading is for you, I urge you to visit my website now.
What you will see on the website will change the way you invest like it changes mine.
If you are in search for a real options strategy to add into your arsenal, then I recommend you my book, Huge Profits Options Trading with Simple Analysis.
This is a no nonsense or textbook strategy book. All the information presented in this book is about sharing with you how to study the market, when to enter and when to exit and take profits. Whether you are into stock or stock options trading, this book is for you.
Go to my website, http://www.buylowsellhightips.com/ to witness the extraordinary stock options trading ebook.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andy_Poon
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
10 Richest People in History
Success leaves clues. (Should i review my history, learn investigative research or study financial forensics?) :)
Tony Robbins said in his best selling book Unlimited Power, "If you want to achieve success, all you need to do is find a way to model those who have already succeeded."
Most people out of stubborn pride or sheer ignorance want to reinvent things that have already been done. If you want to be rich just look for people who are rich and consistently think, feel and act the way they do and you will inevitably become like them.
So for the sake of following such line of practice, i am borrowing an article representing the 10 Wealthiest People in history and how they started. Thanks to Alex (the original writer) and Wikipedia.
Here is the list of the 10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Fortunes.
1. John D. Rockefeller
Peak wealth: $318.3 billion (based on 2007 US dollar). Age at peak wealth: 74
As a young man, John Davison Rockefeller said that his two greatest ambitions were to make $100,000 and live to be 100. He died two months shy of his 98th birthday, but boy did he make good on the first goal.
Rockefeller wasn't born to a rich family. His father, William Avery "Big Bill" Rockefeller was a shiftless man who spent most of his times thinking up schemes to avoid actual work! Nevertheless, thanks to the guidance of his mom Eliza - a homemaker and devout Baptist - John D. grew up to be quite a hardworking man.
Rockefeller started out in business as a wholesale grocer and went on to found Standard Oil, which through shrewd business decisions and some say predatory and illegal practices, grew to be a gargantuan monopoly. At its peak, Standard Oil had about 90% of the market for refined oil (kerosene) in the United States (in the early days of Standard Oil, gasoline wasn't an important component of the oil industry - indeed, gasoline produced by the refineries were dumped in rivers because they were considered useless!)
In 1911, the US Supreme Court declared Standard Oil a monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered it to be broken up into 34 independent companies with different boards of directors. By that time, Rockefeller had long since retired from the company but still held a large percentage of shares. Ironically, the busting up of Standard Oil unlocked share values and his fortunes doubled overnight.
Rockefeller got his first job at 16 as a bookkeeper. In a move that portended his lifelong commitment to philanthropy, he tithed 10% of his income - from his first paycheck on - to charity. As his wealth grew, so did his charitable contributions. When he died in 1937, Rockefeller had given away half of his amassed fortune, and established philanthropic foundations to continue giving after his death.
2. Andrew Carnegie
Peak wealth: $298.3 billion. Age at peak wealth: 68
Andrew Carnegie immigrated as a young child to Pittsburgh from Scotland and began working at 13 years old as a bobbin boy in a textile mill. He changed spools of threads for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for a weekly wage of $2. At 16 years old, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy, and soon after was promoted to be a telegraph operator.
Carnegie became a personal assistant to Thomas Scott, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and learned the ins and outs of the railroad business. It was Carnegie who invented a brutally efficient way to clear the tracks after a railway accident: by burning the railroad car!
When he was 20, Carnegie mortgaged his mother's house and made his first gutsy investment of $500 for 10 shares of the Adams Express company - sort of the Fed Ex delivery company of the 1800s - and was handsomely rewarded. He then invested in a company making sleeping cars for the railway. By the time he was 30, Carnegie had expanded his investments to iron works, steamers, railroads, and oil well.
But the real money came from steel. In the late 1880s, Carnegie built his steel empire to become the world's largest manufacturer of steel rails, pig iron, and coke.
In 1901, at the age of 66, Carnegie retired by selling his shares to John Pierpont Morgan for more than $225 million (a large sum today and an astounding amount of money back then) in form of gold-bonds. When the bonds were delivered, a special vault had to be built to physically house them!
Carnegie was big proponent of philanthropy - in a famous 1889 essay "The Gospel of Wealth," he wrote that wealth should be distributed to promote welfare of other people and enrich society. True to his words, Carnegie gave away more than $350 million or almost 90% of his fortune.
Note: At the end of the Spanish American War, the United States bought the Philippines from Spain for $20 million. Carnegie was appalled at what he perceived to be an imperialist move and personally offered $20 million to the Philippines so it could buy its independence from the US (they didn't take him up on his offer).
3. Nicholas II of Russia
The last Russian Imperial family
Peak wealth: $253.5 billion. Age at peak wealth: 49
Nicholas II of Russia (born Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov) was the last Tsar of Russia. He ruled (badly) from 1894 until he was forced to abdicate in the Russian Revolution of 1917 by the Bolsheviks. His reign was marked with antisemitic pogroms, a crushing defeat by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War, revolutions, internal unrests their bloody suppressions, undue influence by the mystic Rasputin and World War I. A year after he was deposed, Nicholas and his entire family were executed by Lenin's order.
The life of the last tsar of Russia was filled with fascinating myths, legends, and history - and readers interested in it are encouraged to read more about Nicholas II and the Romanovs. Suffice it to say that Nicholas II became the third richest man in history the old fashioned way: he inherited his wealth.
4. William Henry Vanderbilt
Peak wealth: $231.6 billion. Age at peak wealth: 64
William Henry Vanderbilt had a pretty good start in life: he inherited nearly $100 million from his father, the railroad mogul Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt (if you want to read a rags to riches story, Cornelius' is pretty good - see below).
William Vanderbilt was groomed by his father to be a businessman (at times harshly - the imperious and domineering Cornelius liked to call his eldest son a "blockhead," "blatherskite," "sucker," and "good for nothing") and William turned out to be quite an able businessman. He expanded the family's railroad empire and thus the family fortune, finally earning his father's respect and friendship.
When William died in 1885, he was the richest man in the world.
5. Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII
Peak wealth: $210.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 50
Asaf Jah VII (whose given name was Osman Ali Khan Bahadur) was the last Nizam or ruler of the Princely State of Hyderabad and Berar, before it was invaded and annexed by India in 1948.
By most accounts, "His Exalted Highness" the Nizam of Hyderabad was a benevolent ruler who promoted education, science and development. He spent about one-tenth of his Principality's budget on education, and even made primary education compulsory and free for the poor. In his 37-year rule, Hyderabad witnessed the introduction of electricity, railways, roads, and other development projects.
In 1937, Asaf Jah VII was on the cover of Time Magazine, labeled as the richest man in the world.
6. Andrew W. Mellon
Peak wealth: $188.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 80
Andrew William Mellon was the son of a Pittsburgh banker Thomas Mellon (who founded the Mellon Bank). Andrew got his start early: he started a lumber company at the age of 17 and by the age of 27 had taken over his father's bank. He also got into oil, steel, shipbuilding, and construction business.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed the financier Mellon as the Secretary of the Treasury, where he served for 10 years (under three U.S. Presidents). At that post, Mellon increased federal revenue by decreasing the taxation rate and cutting federal spending.
7. Henry Ford
Peak wealth: $188.1 billion. Age at peak wealth: 57
If Henry Ford's father had his way, Henry would take over the family farm and become a farmer. But after the death of his beloved mother, Henry, who didn't particularly like farming, left home in 1879 at the age of 16 to work as an apprentice machinist.
At 28, Henry Ford became an engineer at Thomas Edison's company and started experimenting with gasoline engines (with Edison's approval). In 1896, at the age of 36, Ford started his first car company, the Detroit Automobile Company, which went bankrupt two years later.
Soon afterwards, he set up his second company, the Henry Ford Company. A year later, his partners hired Henry M. Leland to troubleshoot problems on the shop floor. Ford clashed almost immediately with Leland, and was forced out of the company bearing his name with only $900 cash. The Henry Ford Company was renamed Cadillac, and Ford went on to form his third car company, the "Ford & Malcomson" company ...
... and immediately got into trouble when he couldn't pay his suppliers, the Dodge brothers. Ford's partner, Alexander Malcomson was able to convince the Dodge brothers to invest in the company instead and the company was reincorporated as the Ford Motor Company. And a good thing they did because third time was the charm. The Ford Motor Company made Henry Ford a very rich man.
Henry Ford's name became synonymous with automobiles for good reasons: he introduced the Model T, the first inexpensive car for the masses. He also popularized the use of assembly lines in mass productions, high workers' wages to attract talent and discourage employee turnover, franchise model car dealerships, and even the 5-day workweek.
One interesting note about Henry Ford: he didn't believe in accountants. On one occasion, his son Edsel contracted the building of a new office building with much needed space for the Accounting division. When Henry asked what the space was for, Edsel acknowledged that it was for the accounting department. The very next day, when the accountants showed up for work, they found their office had been stripped - no desks, chairs, or telephones; even the carpeting was gone - and that Henry had fired them all. (Source: Edsel.com)
8. Marcus Licinius Crassus
Peak wealth: $169.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 62
Marcus Licinius Crassus (ca. 115 BC to 53 BC) is the earliest historical figure in this list. He was a Roman general and politician who defeated the slave revolt led by Spartacus.
If you think the rest of the businessmen on this list were ruthless - in reality they've got nothing on Crassus. The Roman general became wealthy when he bought the homes and belongings from the victims of Sulla's sacking of Rome (Crassus was one of Sulla's generals) for cheap. He then re-sold them at a princely profit. Crassus then expanded his wealth through the slave trade, silver mining, and real estate, especially by buying houses of those declared enemies of the state for next to nothing.
But it was Crassus' acquisition of burning houses that earned him his lasting notoriety. He maintained a troop of 500 skilled builders - and when a fire broke out in Rome (back then a frequent occurrence), he negotiated the sale of the burning properties and those nearby for cheap. Once he obtained the properties, he called upon his men to demolish the burning property and save the nearby buildings (that was the preferred technique of fighting fire during Roman times). He then rebuilt and leased back the property to the original owners! At one point, Crassus owned a large part of Rome and some wondered whether the fires might not have actually been his doing ...
Crassus was so greedy that when he died, his enemies had his head severed and molten gold poured into his mouth as a mark of his greed (Source).
9. Basil II
Peak wealth: $169.4 billion. Age at peak wealth: 67
Basil II (or Basil the Bulgarslayer) was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 976 to 1025. For historians, Basil II's reign represented the apex of the Middle Byzantine Empire - he expanded the territory of the empire by annexing Bulgaria, making it the largest and strongest it had ever been in nearly five centuries.
Basil had no heir, and within half a century of his death, the Byzantine Empire crumbled.
10. Cornelius Vanderbilt
Peak wealth: $167.4 billion. Age at peak wealth: 82
Cornelius Vanderbilt is a true rags-to-riches story: he quit school at the age of 11 (famously saying "If I had learned education, I would not have had time to learn anything else") to work on ferries in New York. By 16, persuaded his mom to loan him $100 for a boat to start his own ferry business carrying freight and passengers between Staten Island and Manhattan. He repaid the loan with an additional $1000 one year later. It's from this business operating ships that he got his nickname "Commodore" that stuck for the rest of his life, even after he started getting into the railroad business.
Vanderbilt was ruthless in business. He once wrote a short (and now famous) letter to Charles Morgan and C.K. Garrison of the Morgan & Garrison company. The two men manipulated his steamship company's stock in his absence and took it over. The letter read "Gentlemen: you have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow. I'll ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt." True to his words, two years later Vanderbilt forced them out of business by running a competing business.
Despite of their wealth - or perhaps because of it, the Vanderbilt family wasn't a happy one. The Commodore was constantly thinking of his will, which he called "that paper." He wanted the money to remain intact, and thus it must be handed down to a single heir. Indeed, he disowned all of his sons other than William (see above), believing that only William was ruthless enough in business to be capable of maintaining his empire.
__________
A note about the list: since it is based on the proportion of peak wealth to the national GDP in the country the individual lived in at the time they were alive, the list is dynamic: it changes as the GDP fluctuates, though it's rare to have a large shift in its composition.
I didn't come up with the idea for the list - the top 10 list presented here is but a small part of a larger list on Wikipedia. For the complete list, visit Wealthy Historical Figures 2008
__________
Now you know how they did it. Shouldn't it be your turn now to become at least a tenth of who they are? (Forget the unfavorable acts they did and focus on the positive ones for sustainability.) On another thought, you deserve to be rich and you will be if you are committed to be one.
Be wealthy in most if not all areas of your life.
Start living the life of your dreams.
GROW!
Radden
********************************
Primary Source:
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/07/09/10-richest-people-of-all-time-and-how-they-made-their-fortunes/
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealthy_historical_figures_2008
Tony Robbins said in his best selling book Unlimited Power, "If you want to achieve success, all you need to do is find a way to model those who have already succeeded."
Most people out of stubborn pride or sheer ignorance want to reinvent things that have already been done. If you want to be rich just look for people who are rich and consistently think, feel and act the way they do and you will inevitably become like them.
So for the sake of following such line of practice, i am borrowing an article representing the 10 Wealthiest People in history and how they started. Thanks to Alex (the original writer) and Wikipedia.
Here is the list of the 10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Fortunes.
1. John D. Rockefeller
Peak wealth: $318.3 billion (based on 2007 US dollar). Age at peak wealth: 74
As a young man, John Davison Rockefeller said that his two greatest ambitions were to make $100,000 and live to be 100. He died two months shy of his 98th birthday, but boy did he make good on the first goal.
Rockefeller wasn't born to a rich family. His father, William Avery "Big Bill" Rockefeller was a shiftless man who spent most of his times thinking up schemes to avoid actual work! Nevertheless, thanks to the guidance of his mom Eliza - a homemaker and devout Baptist - John D. grew up to be quite a hardworking man.
Rockefeller started out in business as a wholesale grocer and went on to found Standard Oil, which through shrewd business decisions and some say predatory and illegal practices, grew to be a gargantuan monopoly. At its peak, Standard Oil had about 90% of the market for refined oil (kerosene) in the United States (in the early days of Standard Oil, gasoline wasn't an important component of the oil industry - indeed, gasoline produced by the refineries were dumped in rivers because they were considered useless!)
In 1911, the US Supreme Court declared Standard Oil a monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered it to be broken up into 34 independent companies with different boards of directors. By that time, Rockefeller had long since retired from the company but still held a large percentage of shares. Ironically, the busting up of Standard Oil unlocked share values and his fortunes doubled overnight.
Rockefeller got his first job at 16 as a bookkeeper. In a move that portended his lifelong commitment to philanthropy, he tithed 10% of his income - from his first paycheck on - to charity. As his wealth grew, so did his charitable contributions. When he died in 1937, Rockefeller had given away half of his amassed fortune, and established philanthropic foundations to continue giving after his death.
2. Andrew Carnegie
Peak wealth: $298.3 billion. Age at peak wealth: 68
Andrew Carnegie immigrated as a young child to Pittsburgh from Scotland and began working at 13 years old as a bobbin boy in a textile mill. He changed spools of threads for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for a weekly wage of $2. At 16 years old, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy, and soon after was promoted to be a telegraph operator.
Carnegie became a personal assistant to Thomas Scott, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and learned the ins and outs of the railroad business. It was Carnegie who invented a brutally efficient way to clear the tracks after a railway accident: by burning the railroad car!
When he was 20, Carnegie mortgaged his mother's house and made his first gutsy investment of $500 for 10 shares of the Adams Express company - sort of the Fed Ex delivery company of the 1800s - and was handsomely rewarded. He then invested in a company making sleeping cars for the railway. By the time he was 30, Carnegie had expanded his investments to iron works, steamers, railroads, and oil well.
But the real money came from steel. In the late 1880s, Carnegie built his steel empire to become the world's largest manufacturer of steel rails, pig iron, and coke.
In 1901, at the age of 66, Carnegie retired by selling his shares to John Pierpont Morgan for more than $225 million (a large sum today and an astounding amount of money back then) in form of gold-bonds. When the bonds were delivered, a special vault had to be built to physically house them!
Carnegie was big proponent of philanthropy - in a famous 1889 essay "The Gospel of Wealth," he wrote that wealth should be distributed to promote welfare of other people and enrich society. True to his words, Carnegie gave away more than $350 million or almost 90% of his fortune.
Note: At the end of the Spanish American War, the United States bought the Philippines from Spain for $20 million. Carnegie was appalled at what he perceived to be an imperialist move and personally offered $20 million to the Philippines so it could buy its independence from the US (they didn't take him up on his offer).
3. Nicholas II of Russia
The last Russian Imperial family
Peak wealth: $253.5 billion. Age at peak wealth: 49
Nicholas II of Russia (born Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov) was the last Tsar of Russia. He ruled (badly) from 1894 until he was forced to abdicate in the Russian Revolution of 1917 by the Bolsheviks. His reign was marked with antisemitic pogroms, a crushing defeat by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War, revolutions, internal unrests their bloody suppressions, undue influence by the mystic Rasputin and World War I. A year after he was deposed, Nicholas and his entire family were executed by Lenin's order.
The life of the last tsar of Russia was filled with fascinating myths, legends, and history - and readers interested in it are encouraged to read more about Nicholas II and the Romanovs. Suffice it to say that Nicholas II became the third richest man in history the old fashioned way: he inherited his wealth.
4. William Henry Vanderbilt
Peak wealth: $231.6 billion. Age at peak wealth: 64
William Henry Vanderbilt had a pretty good start in life: he inherited nearly $100 million from his father, the railroad mogul Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt (if you want to read a rags to riches story, Cornelius' is pretty good - see below).
William Vanderbilt was groomed by his father to be a businessman (at times harshly - the imperious and domineering Cornelius liked to call his eldest son a "blockhead," "blatherskite," "sucker," and "good for nothing") and William turned out to be quite an able businessman. He expanded the family's railroad empire and thus the family fortune, finally earning his father's respect and friendship.
When William died in 1885, he was the richest man in the world.
5. Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII
Peak wealth: $210.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 50
Asaf Jah VII (whose given name was Osman Ali Khan Bahadur) was the last Nizam or ruler of the Princely State of Hyderabad and Berar, before it was invaded and annexed by India in 1948.
By most accounts, "His Exalted Highness" the Nizam of Hyderabad was a benevolent ruler who promoted education, science and development. He spent about one-tenth of his Principality's budget on education, and even made primary education compulsory and free for the poor. In his 37-year rule, Hyderabad witnessed the introduction of electricity, railways, roads, and other development projects.
In 1937, Asaf Jah VII was on the cover of Time Magazine, labeled as the richest man in the world.
6. Andrew W. Mellon
Peak wealth: $188.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 80
Andrew William Mellon was the son of a Pittsburgh banker Thomas Mellon (who founded the Mellon Bank). Andrew got his start early: he started a lumber company at the age of 17 and by the age of 27 had taken over his father's bank. He also got into oil, steel, shipbuilding, and construction business.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed the financier Mellon as the Secretary of the Treasury, where he served for 10 years (under three U.S. Presidents). At that post, Mellon increased federal revenue by decreasing the taxation rate and cutting federal spending.
7. Henry Ford
Peak wealth: $188.1 billion. Age at peak wealth: 57
If Henry Ford's father had his way, Henry would take over the family farm and become a farmer. But after the death of his beloved mother, Henry, who didn't particularly like farming, left home in 1879 at the age of 16 to work as an apprentice machinist.
At 28, Henry Ford became an engineer at Thomas Edison's company and started experimenting with gasoline engines (with Edison's approval). In 1896, at the age of 36, Ford started his first car company, the Detroit Automobile Company, which went bankrupt two years later.
Soon afterwards, he set up his second company, the Henry Ford Company. A year later, his partners hired Henry M. Leland to troubleshoot problems on the shop floor. Ford clashed almost immediately with Leland, and was forced out of the company bearing his name with only $900 cash. The Henry Ford Company was renamed Cadillac, and Ford went on to form his third car company, the "Ford & Malcomson" company ...
... and immediately got into trouble when he couldn't pay his suppliers, the Dodge brothers. Ford's partner, Alexander Malcomson was able to convince the Dodge brothers to invest in the company instead and the company was reincorporated as the Ford Motor Company. And a good thing they did because third time was the charm. The Ford Motor Company made Henry Ford a very rich man.
Henry Ford's name became synonymous with automobiles for good reasons: he introduced the Model T, the first inexpensive car for the masses. He also popularized the use of assembly lines in mass productions, high workers' wages to attract talent and discourage employee turnover, franchise model car dealerships, and even the 5-day workweek.
One interesting note about Henry Ford: he didn't believe in accountants. On one occasion, his son Edsel contracted the building of a new office building with much needed space for the Accounting division. When Henry asked what the space was for, Edsel acknowledged that it was for the accounting department. The very next day, when the accountants showed up for work, they found their office had been stripped - no desks, chairs, or telephones; even the carpeting was gone - and that Henry had fired them all. (Source: Edsel.com)
8. Marcus Licinius Crassus
Peak wealth: $169.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 62
Marcus Licinius Crassus (ca. 115 BC to 53 BC) is the earliest historical figure in this list. He was a Roman general and politician who defeated the slave revolt led by Spartacus.
If you think the rest of the businessmen on this list were ruthless - in reality they've got nothing on Crassus. The Roman general became wealthy when he bought the homes and belongings from the victims of Sulla's sacking of Rome (Crassus was one of Sulla's generals) for cheap. He then re-sold them at a princely profit. Crassus then expanded his wealth through the slave trade, silver mining, and real estate, especially by buying houses of those declared enemies of the state for next to nothing.
But it was Crassus' acquisition of burning houses that earned him his lasting notoriety. He maintained a troop of 500 skilled builders - and when a fire broke out in Rome (back then a frequent occurrence), he negotiated the sale of the burning properties and those nearby for cheap. Once he obtained the properties, he called upon his men to demolish the burning property and save the nearby buildings (that was the preferred technique of fighting fire during Roman times). He then rebuilt and leased back the property to the original owners! At one point, Crassus owned a large part of Rome and some wondered whether the fires might not have actually been his doing ...
Crassus was so greedy that when he died, his enemies had his head severed and molten gold poured into his mouth as a mark of his greed (Source).
9. Basil II
Peak wealth: $169.4 billion. Age at peak wealth: 67
Basil II (or Basil the Bulgarslayer) was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 976 to 1025. For historians, Basil II's reign represented the apex of the Middle Byzantine Empire - he expanded the territory of the empire by annexing Bulgaria, making it the largest and strongest it had ever been in nearly five centuries.
Basil had no heir, and within half a century of his death, the Byzantine Empire crumbled.
10. Cornelius Vanderbilt
Peak wealth: $167.4 billion. Age at peak wealth: 82
Cornelius Vanderbilt is a true rags-to-riches story: he quit school at the age of 11 (famously saying "If I had learned education, I would not have had time to learn anything else") to work on ferries in New York. By 16, persuaded his mom to loan him $100 for a boat to start his own ferry business carrying freight and passengers between Staten Island and Manhattan. He repaid the loan with an additional $1000 one year later. It's from this business operating ships that he got his nickname "Commodore" that stuck for the rest of his life, even after he started getting into the railroad business.
Vanderbilt was ruthless in business. He once wrote a short (and now famous) letter to Charles Morgan and C.K. Garrison of the Morgan & Garrison company. The two men manipulated his steamship company's stock in his absence and took it over. The letter read "Gentlemen: you have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow. I'll ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt." True to his words, two years later Vanderbilt forced them out of business by running a competing business.
Despite of their wealth - or perhaps because of it, the Vanderbilt family wasn't a happy one. The Commodore was constantly thinking of his will, which he called "that paper." He wanted the money to remain intact, and thus it must be handed down to a single heir. Indeed, he disowned all of his sons other than William (see above), believing that only William was ruthless enough in business to be capable of maintaining his empire.
__________
A note about the list: since it is based on the proportion of peak wealth to the national GDP in the country the individual lived in at the time they were alive, the list is dynamic: it changes as the GDP fluctuates, though it's rare to have a large shift in its composition.
I didn't come up with the idea for the list - the top 10 list presented here is but a small part of a larger list on Wikipedia. For the complete list, visit Wealthy Historical Figures 2008
__________
Now you know how they did it. Shouldn't it be your turn now to become at least a tenth of who they are? (Forget the unfavorable acts they did and focus on the positive ones for sustainability.) On another thought, you deserve to be rich and you will be if you are committed to be one.
Be wealthy in most if not all areas of your life.
Start living the life of your dreams.
GROW!
Radden
********************************
Primary Source:
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/07/09/10-richest-people-of-all-time-and-how-they-made-their-fortunes/
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealthy_historical_figures_2008
Mastery: The Higher Level of Success
The LEAP to Mastery
Mastery is what comes after success. It has been said that success is a double-edged sword. It can bring you down to failure again or it can lift you up to greater heights; it can intoxicate you or show you areas where you can sharpen you as a person. The result depends on your perception. However, if you take on the latter choice, it may be more challenging but a more fulfilling path to take.
The Seven Areas of CONSTANT Growth for an Extraordinary Life.
"Man is what he believes." Anton Chekhov
Day 3 of the Unleash the Power Within.
Mastery is what comes after success. It has been said that success is a double-edged sword. It can bring you down to failure again or it can lift you up to greater heights; it can intoxicate you or show you areas where you can sharpen you as a person. The result depends on your perception. However, if you take on the latter choice, it may be more challenging but a more fulfilling path to take.
Here are the insight details i want to share with you from the third day of this amazing program. There are just so much substance to take in...Swwossshhhhh! (a shower of refreshing water to the soul!) :)
The Seven Areas of CONSTANT Growth for an Extraordinary Life.
1. Physical Body
- Capacity to maximize your health, energy and vitality.
2. Emotions and Meaning
- A firm grasp of your emotions frees you to be proactive rather than reactive to the changes you face.
3. Relationships
- The quality of relationships reflects the Quality of Life.
- Three important realtionships to nurture: A) Self, B) Other people and C) Your Creator
4. Time
- The great equalizer.
- How you transform time to your reality creates the life you have.
5. Work/Career/Mission
- Work is an obligation.
- Career is an expression.
- Mission is your passion that takes you to flight.
6. Finances
- A significant tool to add spice and value to life.
7. Celebrate & Contribute: Spiritual Sense
- The source of fulfillment from sowing the right seeds.
To continue your path to mastery or greater success (or even just to sustain your journey to success), evaluate whether you have the
3 Pillars of Success.
1. Get Laser-focused, make it Compelling.
What (Clear)
Why (Compelling)
What (Clear)
Why (Compelling)
2. Get the Best Tools.
Correct Map - select a proven map. Success leaves clues - follow it.
Outstanding Mentor - choose those living the results you want and not just teaching it.
Correct Map - select a proven map. Success leaves clues - follow it.
Outstanding Mentor - choose those living the results you want and not just teaching it.
3. Get into Action
Values. What are your values? How do you prioritize them?
Beliefs. Replace limiting beliefs with EMPOWERING Beliefs.
Mastery by Modeling, Total Immersion and Spaced Repetition.
Start living the life of your dreams...You deserve it.
Values. What are your values? How do you prioritize them?
Beliefs. Replace limiting beliefs with EMPOWERING Beliefs.
Mastery by Modeling, Total Immersion and Spaced Repetition.
Start living the life of your dreams...You deserve it.
GROW!
Radden
Monday, September 7, 2009
Be Successful! Your Proven Success Strategy.
The Ultimate Success Formula
"We are not creatures of circumstance, we are creators of circumstance." - Benjamin Disraeli
Day 2 of the Unleash the Power Within. I re-learned a very valuable lesson that is very practical and applicable to ALL endeavors where you seek success. (Would you be doing something without planning to succeed? Apparently, when you do not deliberately exercise our power of choice and act, you are planning to fail.)
So allow me to share with you, the best insight i had from that day which may change your life forever, The Ultimate Success Formula.
"We are not creatures of circumstance, we are creators of circumstance." - Benjamin Disraeli
Day 2 of the Unleash the Power Within. I re-learned a very valuable lesson that is very practical and applicable to ALL endeavors where you seek success. (Would you be doing something without planning to succeed? Apparently, when you do not deliberately exercise our power of choice and act, you are planning to fail.)
So allow me to share with you, the best insight i had from that day which may change your life forever, The Ultimate Success Formula.
1. Know Your OUTCOME
- Clarity is Power!!!
- Be specific. (e.g. save $10,000 instead of save some money)
- Put a deadline. (e.g. save $10,000 in three months)
- Decide to achieve it. See and Think about it every single day.
2. Know Your Reasons "WHY"
- Why is it a must?
- Test question: Is the consequence of not accomplishing your outcome more painful than accomplishing it? If the answer is yes, you have a strong "Why". Otherwise, find another reason. (e.g. If i do not save $10,000 in three months we will lose our home, my family will sleep on the streets and we won't have anything decent to eat!)
3. Take MASSIVE Action
- Do something out of your comfort zone.
- Do it now.
- Do it consistently and regularly to realize your outcome.
4. Know What You Are GETTING
- Evaluate your progress.
- Are you getting nearer or farther?
- Are you going faster or slower?
5. CHANGE Your Approach
- If you do see progress in what you are doing change the way you do things until you see the result you want.
Here is something to reinforce what you learned:
Start living the life of your dreams.
Grow!
Radden :)
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Power Within: Unleashed
"There is always room in your life for thinking bigger, pushing limits and imagining the impossible." - Anthony Robbins
Today I realized a dream. I attended a seminar by my personal development "Idol" and World's No. 1 Success Coach, Anthony Robbins, LIVE! in Singapore. The seminar is entitled Unleash the Power Within.
I have attended great seminars from very good speakers but none came close to experiencing a program from the "rockstar" of the personal development world. Oh no, you would not get motivation from Tony. (You get motivation only from yourself.) The awesome value of his programs is that you learn and practice strategies on the spot supported by like-minded classmates which can give the immediate results you seek from improving your life.
Let me share with you the insights i gained from Day 1 of this 'Weekend Event for Creating Lasting Impact in my Life (and probably yours too.)
Today I realized a dream. I attended a seminar by my personal development "Idol" and World's No. 1 Success Coach, Anthony Robbins, LIVE! in Singapore. The seminar is entitled Unleash the Power Within.
I have attended great seminars from very good speakers but none came close to experiencing a program from the "rockstar" of the personal development world. Oh no, you would not get motivation from Tony. (You get motivation only from yourself.) The awesome value of his programs is that you learn and practice strategies on the spot supported by like-minded classmates which can give the immediate results you seek from improving your life.
Let me share with you the insights i gained from Day 1 of this 'Weekend Event for Creating Lasting Impact in my Life (and probably yours too.)
Warning:
the words you read here
may sound cliche
as they are not the substance of the lesson.
What brings these words to life
is the immediate application you do
to experience the WISDOM (Knowledge-In-Action) they contain
immediately and consistently.
Let us begin with FEAR:
- Fear stops action.
- The two primary fears are: 1) We're not enough. and 2) We won't be loved.
- To Grow you must face your fear.
- You do not fight fear, you dance with it.
- Fear exhausts itself if you go with it, or share its point of view, and...act anyway:)
The antidote to fear: FAITH
- Faith is the solution to all our problems with unknown solutions.
- Faith is a gift we receive at birth. Belief is learned.
The 3 elements of Practical Psychology:
- Fear stops us from moving forward. "What you are afraid of determines your limitations."
- The Meanings we associate to the things in our life controls our life. "Life is not about me; Life is about we."
- Human Needs make us do the things we do.
The Triad of Emotion.
- A pattern of Physiology (Motion creates emotion)
- A pattern of Focus ( What you focus on you will feel)
- A pattern of Language (Experience put in words changes its meaning)
There are 6 Fundamental Human Needs (1-4 Primal and 5-6 Spiritual)
- Certainty
- Uncertainty / Variety
- Significance
- Love & Connection
- Growth
- Contribution
Quotes for Desserts:
- Find a higher meaning and you improve your life.
- Psychology, not age, control your energy.
- Meaning is dictated by your state (feeling) and blueprint (beliefs, values, rules of life).
- All we want in life...is the feeling we get from the meaning we give.
- Meaning = Emotion = Life
- Pain is a symptom of the need to grow.
- With love time disappears; you disappear; and you need nothing else.
- Take back response-ability. Do more of what you want.
- Anything used grows/expands.
- Pride comes not from doing easy things but from hard things accomplished.
- If i can't, then i must.
Gratitude is a great antidote for anger.
My Main course: The Firewalk experience.
"I literally walked barefoot on a 12 feet bed of red-hot coals!" The best part of it is that it is just a life metaphor...Awesome reference for SUCCESS!
- With a powerful state, you can do anything despite of fear.
- You can condition yourself to beckon a powerful state at will (in a heartbeat!).
- When you stretch yourself, you begin to make your life extraordinary immediately!
- YES...., I CAN!
Just in case you forget everything else i wrote here, remember just this most important thing in this post: "Everything you need to succeed in your life is already within you ready for use."
Radden
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