It all started with an email among friends, sharing a Yahoo Finance article on The World’s Youngest Billionaires and jokingly asking which of us would make the list first someday. We all find a little guilty pleasure in imagining ourselves in a billionaire’s shoes, don’t we?
Well after a little fun banter, leave it to Cory Boatright to steal all the fun by elevating the conversation:
Reply from From Cory Boatright
“Your net worth should not equal your self-worth. I believe I'm already a billionaire in my mind, heart and soul. Money is not a way to keep score anymore with people that care about making a difference in the world in spite of not having it to do it with.
Get clever... go ‘craft’ and do your thing. Innovate. Implement. Build a team. Vision cast. Do... ‘you’. Money is just another tool – albeit a powerful one. But it's not the reason that many of these entrepreneurs (on the billionaires list) set out to change the world or do something great. They simply found ways to solve challenges or create methods of leverage…”
The one that sticks out to me is this dude:
No. 21: John Arnold, Age: 38
Net Worth: $2.8 billion
John Arnold shocked the hedge fund world in May 2012 when he announced he was calling it a career at age 38. Arnold and his wife Laura, who are signatories of the Giving Pledge, plan to devote much of their time to philanthropy. The couple have already given away more than $1.2 billion.
Given away more than 1.2B? … now that's a method of ‘keeping score’ that I want to pursue.
Money is a magnifier. If you don't have it it sucks, but your character or values shouldn't be formed around it. It's just a driver, motivator a tool. When used wisely...nothing more.Making money is just an interesting ‘game’. It's a journey of ups and downs, but it's just a game. I believe you shouldn't be defined by it, but rather tested as how good of steward you are to respect it.
Cool article of young people doing big things though.
Wow! I don’t know about you, but when I read that, it really resonated with me at a core level. So much so, that I called Cory up to go even deeper in the discussion of all this.
By the way, if you don't already know Cory, you should. The guy’s started, run, or been directly involved with forty-something different companies ever since his early twenties (he’s only 36 today) – two of them ever proved to be worthwhile endeavors, while the other thirty-eight were “business therapy”.
After bringing in almost 4 million dollars in sales from the first company, he sold it and directed his passion to the world of real estate investing. Since then he’s made millions in short sales, loss mitigation and iPhone Apps (you heard me).
Below I’m sharing a recording of our full conversation following this email. Inside you’ll hear us discuss:
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What is money really, when it comes down to it?
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Net worth vs. self-worth
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Cool idea, but how does the struggling investor who’s not yet “made it” practically apply this to his life today?
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The fallacy of going after the money first
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Problems vs. Challenges vs. Opportunity (and why problems don’t really exist)
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Why money should never define you (and what should instead)
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The art of actually changing your mindset
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The magic of asking, “What can I do to help you better achieve your goals in the next 3-6 months?”
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Cory's 3 "M"s of success - mindset, mechanics and money (in that order)
But Consider Yourself Warned
Before you delve in head first…
Fair warning #1: This is a little longer than our usual lesson. Around half an hour actually. We tried to be as concise as possible, but once Cory gets on a roll, he can be like a mindset freight train. We considered trimming it down, but there's just too much good stuff...so we're leaving it intact.
Fair warning #2: While it wasn't our intent, you might just get a little religion on you when you listen. It wasn't even intentional – it's just a very frank, honest and personal conversation. Rest assured our intent is not to offend, but to be real. And 100% of this will apply to you regardless of your religion (or lack thereof). Either way, you'll get a lot out of this. But if you honestly can't stand us mentioning our faith as it relates to all this, then you'd best not listen.
Fair warning #3: This content is dangerous stuff. Meaning, if you take the time to listen and really process through it, it may well radically alter how you view your business, your life and the world around you. It may just mess you up...in some really good ways.
Havig Said That, Enjoy…
Recommended: If you want to listen in, but don’t want to be tied down to this web page for the next half hour, just download the MP3 in the Power Pack Tools for this lesson (Mogul Elite members) and put it on your iPod for your next morning walk.
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Start changing your beliefs about “problems” and the power they have over your life.
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First eliminate the word from your vocabulary.
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Every “problem” is now a “challenge” that you must rise to the occasion to tackle.
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And every challenge presents you with very tangible and specific opportunity for personal growth and success...to be creative, to add value to the world around you, and to receive value in return.
Cory Boatright
has started, run, or been directly involved with almost forty different companies since his early twenties. Many of them required good selling skills. That wasn’t a challenge for Cory. He has sold everything from Ginsu knives on eBay and Kirby vacuum cleaners door-to-door all the way to $50,000 high-end electronics online. Out of the forty-something companies, only two of them ever proved to be worthwhile endeavors. The other thirty-eight he decided to call “business therapy”. Interestingly enough, both of the successful companies harnessed the power of the Internet to make their profits. After bringing in almost 4 million dollars in sales from the first company, Cory sold it and directed his passion to the world of real estate investing. Now he runs Shortsaleology.com and has both successful students and certified Shortsaleology trainers that teach every type of real estate investing known to man-kind. Cory has an incredible team that helps people achieve all their dreams and his own. Cory considers the greatest lesson he's learned in life is "Remember... be a servant".