My Advice for a High School Student One Year Before Graduation
Dec. 29, 2011
Here are some guidelines from a man who has made a lot of money, written a lot of books, and who is more productive today than at any time in his life at age 69.
1. Make a business plan for your life. Your entire career is a business plan. You should make one early. This must cover the following:
How soon do you want to accomplish it?
How much are you willing to pay?
3. Never pay retail for anything with a price tag in triple digits. This especially includes college. //www.garynorth.com/public/372.cfm
4. Get into the job market immediately after graduation. If required, get a fast-food job, but if you do, learn everything about how to run it. Keep your eyes open. Do this with whatever job you get. If you can be mentored by someone who owns a business that makes $1,000,000+ a year, take that job.
5. Do not move into the first house you buy. Buy it as an investment. Use John Schaub’s approach. This will teach you how to buy. It will serve as your first step to a comfortable retirement. As Schaub’s former partner Jack Miller always said: “The best way to become a millionaire is to borrow a million dollars and have your renters pay it off.” He did this many times.
6. You can beat the competition if you do three things.
Complete the project ahead of time.
Do it for the price you agreed to.
7. Compound growth is the key to success.
Conclusion. These 7 seemingly simple steps are not intuitive. Your peers do not understand more than two, and they will probably violate all of them. This will give you a lifetime competitive advantage. This advantage will increase over time, due to compound growth.
The lifetime plan is crucial. It gives you a set of goals. It motivates you to stick with the program, to “stay the course,” as President Reagan used to say. It lets you know how well you are doing. You should refer back to it on a regular schedule. Write down how well you are doing. Identify weak areas. Work on these areas. Put these notes in a file or folder. Refer back to it on a fixed schedule.
From GaryNorth.com, here.