One thing is certain of the very few perfectly common threads that run through the daily actions of literally millions and more millions of Americans who work up to earning an average of 20,000 per week. The day that you defy everyone around you and have the nerve to believe you can make thousands per week, you make instant progress towards making it happen. Do you understand how critical, how instantaneously this power becomes yours when you do nothing more, or less, than grab it with all your heart and guts and simple belief?

Mathematically, every single step you take brings you at least one step closer. You cannot change the laws of physics. If you could, you would. You'd shut up and show us this very minute. Is this correct, or not? Can you decry or deny it? Hush up and do it. Do it at least enough to be able to say, "Hey, I tried three hundred times and only succeeded fourteen times." Because then we'll have even more proof of who and what you are, because we'll then know what is required to make it happen again, and then more often, don't we?

What high school or college teacher ever taught you how to get happy and wealthy in a big way?
How many? Here is your blueprint, your map for making this particular trip we call Life.

Follow the map and you'll follow your dreams. We can even tell in advance precisely how many of your dreams will come true in this life. Oh, yes. That's why I'm the only man in America to offer 100 times your money back. Try any one of my tiny shortcuts at least 100 times in any month OR in any year of your life. If you don't get life-changing, excellent results, I'll give you 100 times your money back. Thanks to people smarter than you and I put together, I possess hundreds and hundreds of the greatest, most powerful shortcuts and techniques in the world.

In 22 months, between live and radio shows, continuing to read a book or two per day, and doing an average of three hours per day in community and pro bono service, I've been fortunate enough to have created more than 4,150 documents in this time. As well, I've written perhaps a dozen gorgeous songs on several different instruments, continued to test-drive between one and three hundred new (and usually fun) computer programs each month.

These are just some of my many activities. Where do I find the time? Oh, that's easy.

Each day, just like a bank teller issued with so much money, I am issued a whopping number of resources. For starters, I have an incredible 1,440 individual minutes to do with as I wish.

About 7 of every one hundred people reach inside themselves, and reach up, pulling up to fourteen minutes of excellence out of every 1400 minutes they are issued. These seven of every one hundred generally earn at least 16 to 84 times what you do. Some are smarter, some are dumber, some look nicer, some don't, the only thing they all have in common is that they ask for what they want more than you do. They make it their business to devote at least one percent of their time, fourteen point four minutes per day, asking other people and organizations to give them what they want.
Every else is coming from somewhere not the horse's mouth; much, much closer to the other end.

Mathematically, it's so simple that even you can understand it. Intellectually, there is very little chance you can or will understand it. That's because the only true demonstration of intelligence is demonstration of whatever information you possess that you believes entitles you to be considered intelligence. Knowing something has value only as far as the knowledge is applied.

Let's put it simply. My mother, not for the first or last time, lied to me when she said that knowledge is power. Knowledge is not power. Look at all the super-intelligent people who are always at the end of the line. No, knowledge is not power, knowledge is potential power.

When does it become power? There you go, perhaps you are catching on. Ah, what's the use? As soon as you're done reading this, you are going to nod your head with determination, and say, "Yeah, that guy is really on target!" Within 24 hours you are expected to be back at your normal moronic level of effort.

That doesn't make you a moron, necessarily, only that your effort level is approximately that of a moron. If you wish to be considered as more than a moron by, let's say a visiting dignitary or rich relative, they only have one way to know if you're a moron or not. Who did you help today?

Who did you ask for help today? If you haven't committed one of these two activities today, you have definitely put forth a sufficient approximation of the moron's effort level to be justifiably viewed, well, as a moron; one without power. Knowledge is simply insufficient to produce results. Power is as knowledge does. Keep telling yourself this: Power is as knowledge does.

For those of you who have already given help to another today, or asked for help from another today, you are already on your way to living more of your life's dreams than literally dozens of your neighbors all added up together - at least those neighbors who are not either asking for or giving help.

The average person receives 2000 paychecks in a lifetime. That's just not much, is it, once you subtract all the necessary, often unanticipated expenses of life.

I'd like you to think about a young college kid, going around to spectators at a school football game, asking each person for a fifty-cent donation in order to fund a basketball team for the school. Approaching a very distinguished gentleman, he makes his pitch. The older man says, "What you're doing is great. Did you realize, however, that I am an alumnus of this school?" "Yes, sir," said the young man, "still and all, the school won't pay for the team, so we're asking each spectator today to donate fifty cents each so we can buy the equipment and uniforms we require." "Aren't certain courtesies extended to alumni of our institution?" asked the older gentleman. "Certainly, sir, I just don't see it necessarily applying to our raising money for a basketball team. May I ask you for a fifty-cent donation?" Pulling himself up to his fullest height, the alumnus asked, "Do you realize that I am a former President of the United States?" To which our brave student, all of 18 years of age, politely replied, "Of course I recognize you, Sir. That being said, may I ask you again for a fifty-cent donation?" The retired President promptly reached into his pocket, gave the student a dollar and told him to keep the change. "Oh, no, sir, that wouldn't be fair. We're only asking for fifty cents per person," as he gave two quarters back to the former U.S. President. The older gentleman continued. "Young man, I am firmly impressed not only by your sense of fair play but as well by your remarkable persistence. Tell me, what's your name." To which the student replied, "Calvin, sir. My name is Calvin Coolidge."

It's an interesting side note, pertinent to this story, that the young man did successfully raise enough money for a school basketball team, yet when he himself tried out for the team, he didn't make the cut. No favoritism shown there. So, he made the best of what resources he had, which in his case was his mind, and became the coach of that ultimately rather successful college basketball team. He both asked for help and gave his help. This is how he went from zero to hero, from a merely friendly neighbor to President of the United States.

While you surely knew that Calvin Coolidge became President, there's probably little else that most of us do in fact know about this interesting man. His Presidency had no great monuments to it, although he certainly did leave something vital behind. It was a statement he made towards the end of his life, containing the strongest adjective available in the English language.

He said,

"Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, for nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Education will not, for the world is filled with educated derelicts. Genius will not, for unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Determination and persistence alone are omnipotent."

Wow. "Omnipotent." A word normally reserved for referring to the Architect of the Universe, meaning "all powerful." When we consider that this word was used by a man who rarely used adjectives in his speech, AND when we consider that he raised himself from obscurity to win the most coveted and powerful position on the planet, we'd have to pretty foolish to diminish the life-changing potency of his words. Indeed, determination and persistence alone are omnipotent.

One tiny pebble at a time will ultimately build the largest castle on earth. Even the World Trade Center, whose twin towers loom higher than anything and everything within eyesight from their roofs, are made up of millions of tiny little pieces that were added just one at a time.

As for stock market investment, the only consistently successful approach that has ever been measured, observed, and enjoyed is the method whereby you take whatever amount you wish to invest, divide it amongst twenty or so of your best picks, and then forget about your investment, not even bothering to stress yourself checking the progress of a stock, for at least twenty years. At the end of the twenty years you'll find that sixteen of your stocks don't even exist anymore, or if they do, they're at rock bottom, while the remaining three or four will have earned you a fortune. From Percy Ross, who became famous as the millionaire with a newspaper column who invested another twenty years giving away all those millions, to the most successful non-institutional investors in our history, this method has proved itself through the ravages of time and market volatility. You can like it, or not, this method works consistently. Because you are using thousands of fewer steps than other, more 'conventional wisdom' approaches, it certainly qualifies as a major shortcut to an independent, pleasured retirement of greater solvency and financial freedom than getting there otherwise.

Those 2000 paychecks you receive in a life can contain little pebbles that grow into big boulders, or you can apply the omnipotence of determination and persistence to finding a way to get paid, on the side, part-time, for doing something you love. What that something is, well, that's for you to decide. The only certitude we have here is that your life is zipping by at high speed. The quality of your retirement is being determined by what you do this month, this week, this very day. You're urged to tap more into what you already possess, in order to provide yourself, long-term, with the freedom to do whatever you believe you were primarily placed on this earth for. Aren't you worth more effort?