The Value of Freedom

One way to measure the value of freedom is to look at what people are willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it. While it sometimes happens where someone who has freedom takes it for granted because of ignorance to its price, taking the time to look at history and even the present is evidence enough that freedom is not overrated. If anything, there's more of a danger of cheapening the concept, which is a tragedy in itself. Ignorance is also a poor excuse when information is available now more than ever.

There are many types of freedom as well as degrees of it. It's also important to realize that people may have a freedom but not use it to its full potential. With political freedom as an example, a person may have the right to vote but for whatever reason not use it. This is why some freedoms do have a responsibility side to them, including to honor the people who served and died for us to have it.

Economic freedom is an interesting concept in the United States that the more you learn about it, the more successful you can become financially. Through high school and college, I was never really taught how our economic system worked from a practical standpoint. Having an interest in business however, I've learned through books and experience that it's more beneficial to build a small business in the U.S. than be an employee.

The school system as a whole really doesn't teach a lot about our economic freedom, but children in other countries are taught how to make the best of our system of economics. This is why many people have been able to immigrate here with little capital and become successful business owners seemingly overnight. There's still work involved for them, but it also has a lot to do with how a person thinks. The great thing is the same economic rules apply to all citizens, and sometimes just the knowledge of a freedom will make you pursue it.

Spiritual and religious freedoms are extremely important as well. Something that's been incredibly interesting to me is researching the Christian history of our country, mainly because I got annoyed with all the people trying to suppress it for whatever reason. I didn't start going to church on a regular basis until I was 19 years old, and it honestly took me some time to discover the realities of what faith can really do.

After growing up in public schools and seeing a lot of teen depression and violence happen even in a rural area, I honestly believe that taking the majority of religious freedom out of schools has been a sad mistake. There has to be a better solutions where students can respect each other and still grow up with that freedom. I think part of the problem is that religious freedom has been treated in such a way where children get the message that it's not important to their school or their teachers. At best that's unintentional, but it's sad how that aspect is ignored when researchers try to analyze social problems in school systems.

Overall, a person's appreciation of freedom comes down to awareness and the willingness to make it part of their everyday life. It's important to educate yourself on your freedoms, and often it does require going out of your way. It's worth doing however, not just for yourself but to help future generations.

How to Escape the Rat Race

The main key to escaping the rat race is that your thought process determines how successful you become in life, including financially. This is why some lottery winners end up more in debt 5 years after they win than they were originally, and also why many millionaires could lose all the money they have and get it back within 5 years. If you want to change your financial circumstances long-term, it has to be from the inside-out.

Thinking like a wealthy person is not something that comes overnight. You have to work at it. If you want a great place to start, here are a few ideas that personally helped me:

1) Read Practical Financial and Business Books

These are not necessarily books you'll have suggested to you in high school or college, but they should be. A few authors to start with would be Dave Ramsey, Robert Kiyosaki, Dan Miller, John Maxwell, Napoleon Hill, and Og Mandino. In addition to this, it's helpful to know that millionaires read a lot more than the average adult-about 1 non-fiction book a month.

2) Develop a Plan

The majority of people out there who are living week-to-week and paycheck-to-paycheck are in that position because they don't have a long-term plan. Getting yourself out of debt (freeing up more of your money on a monthly basis) and building wealth does not just happen by accident. There are small changes and sacrifices you can make earlier in life that will pay off later, but you need to do it with focus and with purpose. Business books will not only show you how to make more money but to get more of your time back long-term, which is far more valuable.

3) Find Good Mentors

I can't stress the importance enough of having people in life that pull you forward instead of pull you down. You may find someone in your own career field that will help you learn, or it may be a group of people. What matters is that they challenge you in a good way and care about your future.

4) Do the Work

Success in life takes effort, and sometimes you end up getting pushed out of your comfort zone to really win in life. One of the biggest challenges I think is out there is this idea of the typical 40-hour work week and then people shut their mind down outside of that. Sometimes being successful just requires you to watch less TV and work on something outside your job that will help your future. Right now I work closer to 80 hours a week-40 for someone else and 40 for myself. The payoff to that is I'm doing what I love to do in both arenas and will have the ability to retiring younger compared to most people.

5) Do What You Enjoy

When you're doing something you don't like for the sake of money, it drains your energy and you're not as able to get as much done. When you find something in life that makes you look forward to getting up every day, in your mind it doesn't even seem like work. It may take you awhile to eventually get to that point, but it's worth pursuing.

I hope these tips have been helpful to you. Good luck and best wishes!

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business

Transitioning from a job to a home-based business does not always have to be a sudden event. For me personally, it was more of a process. There are questions you need to ask yourself along the way, but I don't want to give you the impression that you have to know everything about business before you can even start.

Most people are never taught how to run a business in high school or college, so there's a lot of learning and experience gained along the way. If you're considering starting your own business, these the beginning questions I believe you should think on before making any major decisions:

1) Are you willing to learn a new way of thinking?

Sometimes the traits that make you a great employee will frustrate you as a business owner. If you're a hard worker and are used to getting immediate financial feedback for your work, it may be difficult at first to visualize how results work in a business. The time and money you initially invest in a business may not show up in the form of results for months or even years later. You have the potential to make more money over your lifetime however, so for me the trade-off was well worth it.

Thing that will help with this issue are reading practical business books and getting around at least a few other people who have owned traditional and home-based businesses. Any advice you can gather ahead of time will help you avoid common mistakes and know what to expect.

2) Are you willing to take a personal risk?

You're going to have people tell you you're making a mistake, no matter how great your idea seems to you. My husband and I both worked day jobs as we were getting our businesses off the ground so we wouldn't go into debt to do them. This meant 16-18 hour days sometimes with people making fun of us the entire time. Those same people will tell you how "lucky" you are when your work pays off. Be prepared to put up with that at least to a certain extent.

You're also going to have supportive people in your life as well. Also, not everyone who is negative at first is bad. They just may care about you and not want you to get hurt. It may take some time for all of those relationships to settle out.

3) Do you at least have a general plan on how you're going to make the business work?

From a financial standpoint, it's better to start a home-based business part-time and work your way into it as it becomes stable. This can take as little as a few months to sometimes several years, according to the nature of the business.

I'm all in favor of people following their dreams, but I don't suggest they do it on credit. Your greatest assets with a home-based business are your creativity and your effort. I can tell you from experience that it's possible to create a business with less than $100 start-up capital. My first real business cost me $61 to start: $1 for a box of yard sale books and $60 in shipping supplies and postage. I made a profit of $100 because I seen a good opportunity. I just kept reinvesting my profit over and over again until I had developed a nice used book business with no debt. It was learning how to recognize the right things to buy that developed my business, not money.

If you're comfortable with beginning a business, I want to encourage you to do it. I think it's wonderful to have something to call your own that you can develop for you and your family. If you're not quite comfortable yet, keep reading and researching. Usually it only takes one great idea to get you started. Either way, just don't let fear rule your decision-making. It's better to do something you love and fail your way to success than it is to be silently miserable your whole working life. Whether it's a job or a business, you need to do what matters to you.

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