The 7 Pillars The Glue e Book Final Version

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUILD WEALTH
THE
7 PILLARS
+
THE GLUE
THE FASTEST AND SUREST WAY FOR YOU TO SUCCEED
BY DIOGO MARQUES
DIOGO MARQUES THE 7 PILLARS + THE GLUE
1
2
THE 7
PILLARS +
THE GLUE
Te Ultimate Guide
to Build Wealth
DIOGO MARQUES
A BYU Digital Book

Published by BYU Digital
Cascais, Portugal
3
Copyright © 2019 by Diogo Marques

Introduction Copyright © 2019 by Diogo Marques
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form
BYU DIGITAL Paperbacks are registered trademarks of BYU

Digital, Ltd.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases,

please contact BYU DIGITAL Special Sales:
+351.935.621.639 or info@byudigital.com
Designed by Diogo Marques
Manufactured in Portugal
ISBN-13: 978-1-79477-850-4
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Dedicated to my daughter Sara
May this book be a beacon in your Life, so that in your journey, for every
time you get stuck along the way, you will know what to do about it and keep
going.
Now to the good stuf.
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CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................................11
Chapter 0: Overwhelm
0.1 What is overwhelm.......................................................23

0.2 How to solve being overwhelmed..................................32
0.3 Chapter Summary.........................................................63
Chapter 1: Pillar#1: Health
1.0 Introduction.................................................................66
1.1 How to develop a stronger mind...................................68
1.2 How to develop a stronger body...................................89
1.3 Chapter Summary.......................................................100
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Chapter 2: Pillar#2: Social
2.0 Introduction...............................................................102
2.1 How to become your stronger version.........................104
2.2 Improve you human psychology understanding..........114
2.3 How to understand and improve your social network. 125
2.4 Chapter Summary.......................................................151
Chapter 3: Pillar#3: Wealth + Te Glue
3.0 Introduction...............................................................153
3.1 Teory vs Practice.......................................................156
3.2 Money and Sales.........................................................162
3.3 Value, Needs, Ethics and Emotion..............................164
3.4 Summary....................................................................176
3.5 Te Wealth-Triangle. Part I: Your Skill
Introduction...............................................................178
Your Skill....................................................................183
Summary....................................................................215
3.6 Te Wealth-Triangle. Part II: Your Business
Introduction...............................................................217
Your Business(+Te Glue)..........................................217
Summary....................................................................366
3.7 Te Wealth-Triangle. Part III: Your Investments
Introduction..............................................................368
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Your Investments........................................................371
Summary....................................................................378
Chapter 4: Pillar#4: Knowledge
4.1 How to improve your knowledge................................379

4.2 Chapter Summary.......................................................392
Chapter 5: Pillar#5: Time
5.1 How to optimize your time efectively........................393

5.2 Chapter Summary.......................................................401
Chapter 6: Pillar#5: Other
6.1 How to improve your weaknesses..............................403

6.2 Chapter Summary......................................................407
Chapter 7: Pillar#7: Habits
7.1 How to improve your daily habits efectively..............409

7.2 Chapter Summary.......................................................423
Conclusion
8.1 Final Remarks............................................................425
Recommendations
9.1 Recommended Books.................................................431

9.1 Recommended Courses...............................................432
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Appendices
Appendix A ........................................................................433
Appendix B ........................................................................433
Appendix C ........................................................................433
Business Enquiries
Business Enquiries ..............................................................434
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INTRODUCTION
H
ello friend! First and foremost: Who am I and why should
you care? My name is Diogo Marques and I am an
Entrepreneur from Portugal. More specifcally I am a
professional salesman and make a living as an Insurance agent. I wrote
this book to help you move forward in your endeavors.
Troughout my career I've sold:
• Cookies door-to-door, ice-creams on boats, vacuum-cleaners,

energy contracts in the worst and most violent neighborhoods
you can imagine, luxury real-estate and insurance.
• I sold Event-services to Fortune 500 companies, recurring digital

marketing and consulting services to millionaires, and raised
millions for Private Equity Real Estate Funds.
• I had a successful event company that I later sold to a larger

competitor, a 4 location retail bakery chain that fopped, a
vending company that I quit, a tech startup that the other co-
founding partner quit and numerous other ventures that went
belly up.
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Being an Entrepreneur is the toughest suit you will wear in your Life's
path. Why wear it in the frst place, you might ask? Because done right
your entrepreneurial eforts can pay of big time and give you the Life
you are dreaming about.
And like anything worthwhile pursuing, you will take a beating until you
get it right.
As I went through my journey I made money and also went bankrupt

several times. One day I didn't have $60 bucks for gas for my truck. Tis
wasn't the frst time, nor the last that I would lose all my money. In fact
this happened several times. Tis time I was -$160.000 in the hole. I
wasn't just broke, I was morbidly obese (5'6 with 270 pounds) and
without any people around me I could count on.
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Figure 1 – Te check I wrote to myself. Where it all started.
As I got home, depressed to the bone, something hit me. For some reason
I had an urge to pull out my check-book, and so I did. I wrote down a
check for $60M, and dated it for 5 years. It was like someone else inside
me, was taking over and using my hand to write this check. It was the
weirdest feeling. After this one, I then wrote down another one to
complete the total $160M sum.
After I did this, and as I kept looking at these, it felt right. Te depression
level went down and for some reason, some peace started to kick in. Even
though nothing on the outside had changed, I had changed. I was
diferent.
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Soon afterwards as I was still contemplating what just happened, I made

this realization: “Tere must be people at this exact time that are able to
do this, right? Tis is not that unreal” - I thought. “Tis is very real and
there are in fact people that can actually do this without even breaking a
sweat. So your thought process must be wrong”.
“Who are these people, what to they do and how can I do the same?”
Finding the answer to this question became more than an obsession to

me, it became my Life's mission. I had to accomplish this and much
more.
“When the Student is ready, the Master will appear” - ancient proverb
As I went through this research process, I became a vacuum cleaner for

books, interviews and anything related that I found meaningful to answer
the check question. It didn't take long until I came up with the list of the
most powerful people in the world and started reaching out to them.
Billionaires, millionaires, top performing athletes, top networkers,

doctors, engineers. Anyone that was incredibly successful in their feld, I
wanted to talk with them. And so I did. Most of them I cold-called to
death and dropped in by their ofces uninvited, so I could just talk to
them and get answers. I didn't need handouts, I just wanted to have a
better understanding on how to move forward with my own Life. You'll
fnd out more about these remarkable people throughout the course of
this book. Some I interviewed personally and you can watch these
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interviews at my YouTube Channel here: Te Greatest Investors Podcast
After having many conversations with these people, I started noticing a

common pattern in all of them. All these high-achievers did things in a
very similar way between them. And this pattern kept coming, over and
over again.
“Tis can't be a coincidence as they are so many and from such a variety
of felds.” - I thought to myself.
So I started to jot down these patterns and eventually found myself

structuring the whole pattern in this book. Since there was no name for
this I decided to call it: Te 7 Pillars + the Glue.
Te 7 Pillars + the Glue, as we will further call it, isn't just about having
more money. It is about having a better health, having top tier people as
your best friends and having peace of mind and warmth around you. It is
about having a better understanding of the world, about who you are as
an individual and how you can get to where you want to go.
If you go down this route, you are going to need all the help you can get,
specially from people that can actually help you, because they did it
themselves.
What I am about to share with you in this book will help you a lot. It is
continuing to help me, and would have helped me avoid so many hits in
the ribs earlier on and not waste so much time.
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As you learn about the 7 Pillars + the Glue you will see it all comes from
experience and not hyped theory. I am a practical person and give almost
no attention to theorists if any. You either are doing it or you aren't.
Tat's how I think.
Troughout your journey you will face lots of traps: people will misguide
you, you will make lots of bad decisions and get bit a lot because of it.
And you have to own it. As you keep going, you will learn this is a trial-
and-error process and that you must be ready to face a great deal of pain.
It's a fght, nothing else. A fght for your own Life and you need to
become aware of this.
So how does Te 7 pillars + Te Glue come into play?
Let me ask you: If you had to go on a fght for your Life with all sorts of
enemies, wouldn't it be better if you had an experienced guy right beside
you? Someone already with scars in his face and armed to the teeth? Me
too.
So, In order for you to move forward, you need to understand that it is
the right actions that will help you get through in your journey, nothing
else. With this book, you will gain a better understanding of what lies
ahead, and use this strategy so you can defeat your challenges and keep
going.
As I was writing this book, I eventually came to the conclusion that it

would be best to separate this information in two books:
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1. Structure. Tis is the book you are reading, and is about the
required framework that you must be aware of, so you can
structure your journey in an efective way.
2. Sales: Te second book in this series is called How to sell door-to-

door like a Boss
You can get it here: https://byudigital.com/book2 .It is all about

sales in a very detailed-oriented way so you can use it. It is what I
do on a consistent basis as a door-to-door salesman.
All of what I am about to share with you right now, comes from me
doing it, and the results I got, nothing else. I have never had a job, and
have always lived on commissions, so when I am sharing this with you, it
is because this is exactly what I use, nothing else. Tis all comes from
practical knowledge that does work. Why? Because I live of it. If I don't
sell I don't eat. And I have been doing this for a very long time. I don't
know how to do anything else but this.
You will start learning that It really doesn't matter where you are right
now. It's about knowing what you need to do, and do it, so you get out
of your situation. No one can take this knowledge from you. But you
have to do this yourself because “Te cavalry aint' comin' ”...
Te better your understanding is on: who you are, where you are, why
you are there and how can you move forward, the higher the likelihood
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of you actually getting there.
If you have something in your Life you are willing to die for, you have to
give it your all - you owe that much to yourself. Without even knowing
if you are going to get it or not, just go for it. Tat said, from my
perspective, If anything you fnd is useful and helps you in your journey,
why wouldn't you use it as tool?
Tis book took me four years to write: probably because I am dyslexic,

probably because it actually took me a while to fgure this out. In reality,
it took me a very long time to fgure this out. You will learn by
experience that this is much harder to achieve than most have you
believe. Tere are a lot of moving parts to this and some of them you will
fnd very hard to turn in your favor.
After condensing all these ideas in a single framework - better organized

and structured - I started to be able to use it better, and as a result, things
started to workout much better.
Where you are right now, if you start using the 7 Pillars + Te Glue, you
will also start to see things working much better for you, because you will
see the steps with more clarity. But you have to stick to this framework
no matter what, and that is not easy to do.
By no means this implies that you will get what you want in a neat and
timely manner. Life doesn't work like that, it's a lot messier. Tings
happen along the way and you have to deal with them.
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But think about it like this: if you went to a fght for your Life we just
described, but this time you were armed with knowledge of war tactics, a
strategy, a shield, a sword and countless hours of practice behind you,
would your chances improve when you faced your enemy? What do you
think?
Tis book will help you become better at this, as long as you keep an
open mind and get ready to question what you are doing without EGO
barriers.
Billionaire Carlos Slim said: “When you look at a problem, it starts going
away”.
True, but a better way of saying this would be: “Accurately Identify the
problems you have in your Life, address them until you solve them, and
make sure they remain solved.” Although longer and not so “catchy”, I
like this one better as it is more specifc.
Tis book's goal is to help you solve the problems you are facing from a
practical stand point. I will do that by providing you an efective
problem-solving framework, so you can apply it to whatever is causing
you pain. It is my wish that you learn something useful and use it in your
own Life, so you can improve your current circumstances, like I
improved mine.
Knowledge backed by experience is an intangible asset, no one can take

that away from you. Life won't get easier, but if you improve your
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technique, and keep an open mind, it becomes easier to deal with it.
A disclaimer:
Tis book is not for people looking for easy fxes. Tere is no quick easy
fx anything.
Tis is actually very hard to do, and few are willing to do it as you will
learn. I've gone through not having money to pay rent, eat and essentially
live. Having to look in the eyes of my 2 year old daughter, and being a
bum without me even wanting to be in that position, but I still managed
to get there anyway. Tis is serious stuf, and a tough road lies ahead of
you. But if you are that determined and really want to solve the problems
in your Life, it is time to start doing things diferently.
Anything in Life worth pursuing, has a ton of work required to attain it,
no way around this. So if you are looking for easy fxes, this defnitely not
for you.
I wrote this book as an extension of the Advising Accelerator Program I

have online, so it could help people that already have made a decision to
solve their problems, and that are relentlessly looking for a way out, but
without good results. Tis is a model to use and implement without any
BS or runarounds. Tis is straight practical knowledge - validated from
my own Life and from the most successful people on this planet – and
that you can use immediately.
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End of disclaimer.
It is up to you to commit or not. Te responsibility for your own Life

starts and ends with you. If you are not where you want to be, do
something about it. It's your fault and no one else's. You are the one
behind the wheel of your Life. You are the one driving, and if you got
yourself to a wrong street, you need to get back on the right one. Tis is
where this powerful framework comes in. It shows you exactly what you
have to do. It's your personal GPS.
Some additional thoughts and fnal information:
Troughout this book I’ll share with you a bit of my story as well, how I
discovered this framework, and what I have learned by using it. Te
reason why, is that I want you to see it is real and it works. I believe that
credible people talk from a diferent stance because they know what they
are talking about - you do that by proving it, nothing else. Tat's what I
will show you throughout this book, so you can see how efective this
framework is.
Keep in mind that you gain time by learning from other people’s
experiences, so you can avoid their mistakes and do some of the stuf they
did, that worked. It doesn't mean you won't fail, you will. But at least
you can avoid some and do more of the stuf you see that works. I hope
you can avoid mine at all costs, as they cost me so many years, money,
relationships and caused so much pain.
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So when you look at it, this is a win-win for you: you either learn from
my failures or learn from my successes - either way you learn and gain
time in the process. From both ends, you are set and safe, as I will be
guiding you through what I did that worked, so you can do it too.
An important note: throughout your reading, you will fnd examples and
results I got from my eforts as an Entrepreneur. Some I did well, some I
did poorly.
Nonetheless I described them here to the best of my ability, and in a

practical way, so that this information can help you have a better
understanding of things.
If for any reason, you still need me to further clarify any of these
experiments, so you can do them for yourself, send me an email at:
info@byudigital.com with your questions. I'll be more than happy to
help you further. I am a practical guy, so I like practical people.
Tat said, go big or go home. It's up to you.
If you are still with me and without further ado, let’s begin.
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CHAPTER 0
Overwhelm
Part 1: What is overwhelm?
H
ave you ever seen that show the Hoarders? Hoarders are
people that have lots of stuf laying around. Too much
stuf. Waaaay to much stuf. And for some reason, they
keep getting more and more, without getting rid of any of it. Tis stuf
keeps piling and piling, to a point they essentially bury themselves alive in
what ends up becoming a monumental trash bin.
Trow in some additional psychological issues in there, and you

essentially have a recipe for a disaster...and stuf for a TV show.
At face value, the main issue these people seem to have, is that they don’t
get rid of anything for some reason, because they think they need it. In
the show, producers send a psychoanalyst to talk to them, to fgure stuf
out and try to help. But as soon as the lady doctor tries talking them out
of getting rid of anything, even just a tiny object, you will see them start
getting all stressed out and aggravated.
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Apparently, they just want to keep all that stuf around. In their minds
they need it for some reason. Tis is how it appears at frst sight. But
obviously, there is something causing this. An underlying model of
thinking they are stuck to.
So what is it? What and where is the problem?
It turns out that, in the hopes of fulflling a need, and solving a problem
they have, they keep getting more and more stuf to solve it. Tey get
emotionally attached to it, as they perceive it to be providing them two
fold:
1. Te solution to their problem.
2. Te feeling they expect to get from it.
So by having this object with them, as a potential problem solver, it

brings them comfort. Tey reject the thought of getting rid of this stuf,
because essentially it would be bringing them pain, as they would be
doing themselves wrong. Tey would be losing a part of themselves, as
they became so emotionally attached to the idea that this stuf is the
solution. And this solution will give them the feeling they expect to get -
pleasure, when they solve the problem they are trying to tackle.
Ok, so what is this problem they are trying to solve?
While we don't know each of these people personally, we do know the

common cause: it is usually a traumatic event they experienced:
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• a loss of a child
• loss of control - something they faced and felt they didn't have
the necessary tools to defend themselves.
...and a myriad of other reasons in this same line of thought.
Whatever happened, they have now become paranoid about it.
But they also have come to a point they know and realize they don't seem
to be able to solve their problem. Teir Life is a mess. And all the stuf
they have around them, is essentially part of an unfnished project or
various projects. All attempts to try and fx the problem. End result?
Tey keep doing this process over and over until they fall prey to it. In
some extreme cases, they actually end up dying buried in their own stuf.
Literally buried alive. All by their own doing.
How does this relate to you and I?
Ok, so this is awful. How does this relate to us?
Although hoarders are extreme cases, the bottom line you will get by
analyzing them, is that they essentially start something and don't ever
seem to fnish it.
I brought this up to show you, through other people's lives, the feeling
we all experience at times, when trying to do something and are not
being able to do so. Tis when this feeling of overwhelm kicks in.
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So what is overwhelm?
Overwhelm is a psychological distress issue. It is a pain signal you get

from your brain, when you are trying to solve something immediately -
because you have to, but you don't know how and you still have to
succeed at it, so you get frustrated because you don't know how to move
forward, but you have to immediately.
It is a clear indication of a problem you are facing, and your mind is

telling you exactly that. Tis comes from lack of knowledge and
experience solving this particular problem. Otherwise, if you did know
how to do it, and needed to do it immediately, you would just do it,
right?
As human beings we have a pain and pleasure mechanism. Tese are

indicators from your brain of the possibility of survival or death facing a
situation. Obviously your brain wants to get you away from pain as much
as possible, and lead you towards pleasure.
Where this gets screwed up, is that your brain will at times guide you
towards immediate pleasure (notice the word immediate), because what
you are trying to solve is causing you too much pain. But in reality, if you
did solve the problem you are facing, you would be much better of, for
the long run. So apparently, you would need to go through this unreal
immediate pain, in order to get to long-term pleasure afterwards. And
this is where your brain messes up big-time.
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To take you away from pain, your brain tells you to do something that
gives you immediate pleasure, but what you are doing is essentially
postponing and ignoring something that really needs to be solved right
away. Most common solution: avoidance.
Examples of this are:
• Trowing stuf inside of a drawer instead of organizing it.
• Go out to lunch earlier instead of fnishing what you were doing.
• Getting yourself a cup of cofee instead of making the important

phone call right away.
• Watching a movie or wondering of on YouTube, instead of going

out knocking on doors to deliver resumés...
Even worse examples of this are:
• Alcohol, Drugs and Masturbation
Everytime you scroll through Instagram, see your likes on you Facebook
posts, wander of watching YouTube videos, play computer games,
masturbate to porn, go out to smoke, drink a Coke or take a bite of a
juicy hamburger, your body releases a very powerful neurochemical called
dopamine.
Dopamine is the pleasure chemical in your body. When released you feel
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pleasure. You feel the reward...but you didn't do anything useful or

healthy.
Nonetheless, the reward circuit of your brain recognizes this pattern and
starts creating a habit where you want more of it. It “needs” more
pleasure. As you keep doing it more and more, you start developing this
habit, the resistance level of your body to get the same amount of
pleasure with this “fx” increases, and you tend to need more and more of
it. Tis is a classic sign of addiction.
Alcohol, Drugs and Masturbation are even more serious, because they
provoke enormous adrenaline/dopamine spikes, that harm your brain
big time.
Tis is how your brain “solves” being overwhelmed, by procrastinating

and getting you addicted on short-term pleasure. Ten points for
evolution!...Not!
You get the picture....Out of sight, out of mind....Out of immediate pain.

Addicted to short-term gratifcation.
So what is procrastinating?
Procrastinating is you not doing what you should to solve a problem,

because your brain perceives doing it as too much pain.
So your brain's faulty process in this situation is:
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Are you overwhelmed? Tis causes pain so let's procrastinate and look for
short-term pleasure.
As this pattern repeats itself, you will get stuck in Life in the same spot.
No progress, because you are not doing what you know you should be
doing, in order to get you out of the present circumstances. And you are
not doing it, because you don't know how. And since you logically
conclude you need to do it, but you don't know how, this causes
psychological pain, and your brain makes you do activities that do
absolutely nothing in your favor for the long run.
It's an un-ending cycle!
Hoarders are an extreme case, but the underlying theme is very similar.
You want to solve a problem, you buy a tool. You don't know how to use
the tool, but you get attached to it, as you perceive it to be something
that can solve your problem. It's your friend! You don't know how to use
it, but you still keep it, just in case.
Since you are not using it, you are procrastinating. Te problem is still
there, so your brain get in this dysfunctional state: unhappy because you
have not fxed it, but out-of-sight, out-of-mind because you don't know
how to deal with it, so you don't want to see it.
Several iterations of this model will lead you to buy more stuf as the next
tool IS the tool. “Tis is the one!” - you say. “Tis is the one that is going
to solve the problem”. But you don't know how to use it. So... another
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one to the warehouse.
Keep doing this and your Life will be a mess. A recipe for disaster. Like a
land flled with unfnished houses. Lots of projects started without
completion. A Ghost town. Eventually you will get old. Real old. You
will start noticing younger people passing you by: doctors, engineers,
hedge fund managers, all of them much younger than you.
And one day it will hit you: “What have I done with my Life? So much
potential, so much empty unfulflled promises, and the end result of what
I did? Nothing. What is it exactly I have to show for? Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.”
See, a cluttered mind extends to a cluttered room. A cluttered Life from a

cluttered person throwing and conveying dysfunction all around. Te
problem is still there to be fxed, and nothing will change for the better
until it does get fxed.
Is there a solution?
Ok, so we are getting a little bit dark here and this book is just starting. I
do that sometimes, I get a little dark. I just want you to realize how
serious this is. You really have to solve the problem. Solving that, you will
put your Life together again. You will be able to stand up and keep
moving towards where you want to go. Not solving it, you will stay in a
situation you don't want to. It's up to you!
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So, now that we are on the same track, let's focus on the solution: how to
solve the problem. We will go through this together.
What I have found is extremely powerful, it has worked out for me very
well, and it most defnitely will work out for you too: I call it the GPT
framework.
Tis is the framework that will help you solve your overwhelming
problems. You can call it whatever you want, I just happen to think it is a
cool sounding name. I like cool people, I like cool stuf. And since I have
a terrible rote-memory, I also call cool names to stuf so I can remember
them.
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Part 2: How to solve being overwhelmed
Introducing the GPT: Te Problem solving Framework
Doctors, Engineers, Entrepreneurs... are all people prone to problem-

solving - it's within their nature. It's how they think. How they are wired.
Teir mission in Life, is to untangle knots in their own felds: fnding

vaccines, inventing new software, machines, and so on. Stuf that solves a
particular problem.
As an Entrepreneur, you have to be like this too - a problem solver. You

have to be willing to go out of your way to try to solve a particular
problem, whatever it is. I've been like this since I can remember, obsessed
to my core from toddler to get to the bottom of things. To understand
how things work: Puzzles, Math, Physics, Business, People.
I just can't help it for some reason: you give me a box, and after a while
you will fnd it dismantled, as this deep inner desire to understand how it
works starts to take over, and I start breaking it apart to the last piece.
In both Medical and Engineering schools, students are taught to think

like this too - to be problem solvers. It's cool they teach them to be like
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this in school. It's cool they are essentially being taught to think for
themselves, so they can untangle knots in their felds.
Tis all sounds fne and dandy, but there is an itsy bitsy issue here with
school:
Life is not in a controlled environment like in school. You won't get a

grade and then move on.
Your Life is not inside of a test tube in a lab. Tere are many many
variables out of your power to control, and you still have to deal with
them anyway. Your Life - the whole thing, it is like a movie that keeps
playing to the end, and there is no stop button - only when you die. So in
the time you have, you will either solve the problems you are
experiencing or not.
Tis is how it is. How things work. No way around it.
Look at your problems as a puzzle!
And there I was... broke...again. Tis time? $250,000 down the drain.
I was furious...REALLY upset.
“What is it that am I missing? How can I be in this position again, when

not only I promised myself I wouldn't, but when I actually tried so hard
not to be here again?”
Tis thought kept me up at night and got me aggravated: being in the
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position I sworn to my bone I would never be again, and yet here I

was...back in the hole...once more...
...Until one day it hit me: “What if this is like a machine? What if this
works like a machine? A system or a puzzle? Te ones you like solving so
much?”
“Well...I used to be good at solving puzzles, so let's approach this like

one: A puzzle, a very special one. “
If this was the case, a piece was obviously missing, because the machine
was not working. And it was painfully clear that I didn't know what this
piece was or how it looked like.
So this presented a challenge: I knew I was missing something important,

but I didn't know what it was. So I became obsessed with fnding this
missing piece. “What is it that I am missing? “ was my main question.
Use Te GPT Framework
In order to solve being overwhelmed, and how I solve any problem

nowadays, is to use what I call the GPT framework. I have been talking
about.
GPT stands for: Goal, Project, Task.
I came up with this idea after noticing I felt overwhelmed everytime I

encountered certain situations that I needed to solve immediately. Since I
34
am prone to fnding patterns, I started to notice them: my brain would

send out this exact same signal, everytime I experienced these exact same
situations. So I asked the question: “What do all these situations have in
common?”
I noticed I would get like this when I was:
• Trying to solve something immediately, because I had to.
• I didn't know how to do it, but I had to immediately.
So everytime I felt like this, I started to pause, recognized I was feeling

overwhelmed and asked these two questions:
1. “What would make you feel un-overwhelmed right now?”
I would then be blunt and answer: “Completing this book”
2. “Out of this whole thing, is there any part I can complete right
now?”
I would look at it and be honest: “I can fnish the frst chapter.
It's almost done”.
Tis line of thought forces you to do two things:
1. Pause, ask and see where the problem is.
2. Further subdivide it in smaller manageable chunks: you will reach
35
a point as you will see that one of these, you can actually
complete within one day.
As I started doing this, I noticed the overwhelming feeling kept

disappearing every time I approached things this way. I felt I was moving
forward and not being stuck anymore.
How do you eat an elephant?...One bite at a time.
Te general idea with the GPT framework is to keep moving. Remember

this word: movement. Here, movement implies progress:
• If you are not moving, you are stuck.
• If you are stuck and you want to keep moving, you will get
overwhelmed.
• If you feel overwhelmed, this means you are trying to do too

much. Much more than you can handle, so you need to further
subdivide what needs to be done in smaller manageable chunks
and tackle them...one bite at a time...so you can keep moving.
It's like eating a stake in a whole bite – this makes no sense - you need to
cut it in smaller portions, right? Same thing here.
Memorize these three diferent concepts and what they address, as they
will bring clarity to your problem-solving ability:
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1. Goal.
A Goal is your fnish line. Te whole problem solved. Te

elephant.
“I want to have $1.2M in my bank account by December 31 st

this year.”
2. Project.
A Goal is comprised of several Projects.
“We will attain this goal by opening four new stores. Each
one bringing $500.000 in Annual Revenue, netting 5% a
month. At a sum of $100.000 per month ($500k x 5% x 4 =
$100K), we will get to $1.2M in 12 months.($100K x 12 =
$1.2M)”
So for this specifc Goal, at a frst glance, there are 4 main

Projects to complete: 4 new stores to open.
3. Task.
A Project is comprised of several Tasks.
Te unique aspect of a Task is that it can be solved within one

day and no more.
If it takes you more than one day, it is a Project, not a Task.
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For our store example, you would need to:
1. choose a location
2. contact a local real estate broker
3. have the broker get you a location
4. sign the leases
and so on...
Whenever you feel overwhelmed, it means you are tackling a Project as a

Task. Since this is impossible, your brain immediately sends you a
distress signal, that leads you feeling overwhelmed almost immediately:
you are trying to solve a situation out of one go, when it will take you
much more than that, and your brain knows this, so you start getting
stressed out. And unless you recognize this, you will soon fnd yourself
procrastinating once again.
So to solve this, everytime you come to the realization the “Task” at hand
is too big for you to chew in one day, you “transform” it into a Project.
And as a Project, you then list the further required Tasks involved to
complete it.
A good example would be number three from the previous list: “have a
broker get you a location”. Tis could take days if not weeks. Most likely
there will be owners that kill the lease due to a number of factors, the
38
broker might go rogue on you and stop answering your calls...there are a
myriad of situations here that can make this step take much longer than
one day to solve...so: it is not a Task, it is a Project.
Still with me? So GPT means: Goal, Project, Task. And in order to
un-overwhelm yourself, you turn the overwhelming “Task” into a
Project, and further list down the required Tasks under this newly
found Project that needs to be solved.
In the frst iteration of your Goal, it is most likely that you will only be
able to see the 30,000 bird's eye view...the general overall picture. But it's
only when you start executing each step, that you will start noticing
much more unanticipated details...some previously listed as Tasks when
in fact are Projects – and this is normal: you will get a better
understanding of the whole thing, only when you actually start executing
it.
Don't kick yourself in the butt too much: how could have you
anticipated everything right from the start? You are not God Almighty,
this is part of the process. You just have to deal with it as you go.
Tis is why wealthy people are focused. All the ones I met are like this,
they are problem solvers. Even the ones that are not focused, they have
focused people around them. Tey know they have to keep with the
process until completion, as it will require lots of iterations. So they have
people like this around them to make sure the situation gets solved.
39
Same thing for you: stuf happens. Realize this is a given, so in order to
succeed at any endeavor, you need to keep at it and understand you will
be uncovering new things along the journey to complete the Goal. Not
all of them will go in your favor, so you need to stay focused.
Tis is why the man that chases two rabbits catches none...and the guy
that focuses on one, usually gets it. Care to guess why? Tat's right:
FOCUS!
Use the overwhelming feeling to your advantage
Troughout your work towards attaining your Goal, you will experience
this overwhelming feeling at certain points...and this is great - embrace it.
Why? Because you just have encountered a problem. Te overwhelming
feeling is indicating that to you, like a compass. When you feel this, stop
what you are doing for a bit. Ask yourself and be precise in the answer:
“Why am I feeling overwhelmed?. What is it that I don't know?”. Be
honest. No one is in the room, just you. When you answer, you have just
identifed the problem that is making you feel like that.
Why is this so great?
A problem is a gem trapped inside a puzzle. You solve the puzzle, you get
the gem. And by tackling this problem, you will then start to come up
with a proposed solution.
By keep testing this proposed solution and by getting feedback from its
40
results, you will keep improving your hypothesis, and eventually you will
fnd something that works. Ten you will have a tool to solve the
problem. After that, you won't feel overwhelmed anymore, because you
know how to solve it. It's impossible to be stressed about that situation
again, because you now know how to address it - this is progress. You
have just become better at what you do.
Now, how do you solve the problem?
To solve the problem you use the GPT framework. After you've
identifed the problem, you proceed by subdividing it in smaller chunks.
Tinking in this way, you will get yourself on the right track, because you
are moving forward. Even if it means failing forward. Remember that it is
all about movement.
So keep using this pause and recognize approach as you progress down
the line, subdivide the problem even further by writing down the Tasks
you were missing and then proceed to tackle them with a proposed
solution.
Tis is why the GPT framework is so efective, even when solving

complicated problems, because you keep breaking them down into
smaller parts.
In summary, these are the main three steps :
1. Recognizing – Tis is the frst step. You feel overwhelmed here.
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Tis is an indication of a problem you have. You start by asking a

specifc question to identify what is the cause. Essentially you are
recognizing:
1. It exists.
2. Tat you need to look at it as a whole.
3. Tat you need to face it in order to solve it (even without

having an answer at this point).
At this stage you don't jump immediately on a todo list. You only
recognize you have a problem and see it as is. Te more honest
and clear you are about it, the more specifc you can be. Te more
specifc and detailed you are, the better the answers your brain
can come up with.
Let's say you have a pile of unorganized stuf on your desk. It is

causing you mental pain and making you feel overwhelmed. So to
solve this, you start by recognizing it, but at this stage you don't
do anything. You are just acknowledging it and deciding you are
going to act on it now. You say to yourself as a starting point: “I
feel overwhelmed because I have a pile of unorganized stuf on
my desk. Tis needs to be solved”.
2. Categorizing – Tis second step is proceeding to categorize the

problem in diferent areas - diferent components that the
42
problem is made of.
Tese areas, these components - let's call them buckets - are all
part of the same machine, aka the problem, but work
independently.
Here, you are decomposing a larger system in smaller parts. So

you need to categorize these items, and then insert them in these
buckets.
In the case of our cluttered desk example, these are: IT

stuf(cables, peripherals...), business cards, ofce supplies (pens,
paper, staplers...).
3. Implementing – Tis third and fnal step is called the

implementation stage.
It comes in two parts:
1. Teory-Solution
Here you come up with a theory-solution to solve each of

these chunks and then proceed to implement it..
Tis theory is the end answer/hypothesis to solve a

specifc question you ask. Te more specifc the question
the better.
Einstein famously said: “If I had a difcult problem to
43
solve and just one hour to do it, I would spend 55

minutes describing it, and 5 minutes solving it”.
Te validity of this approach is the fact that, the frst part

of solving a problem is problem-defning - describing the
problem in the best accurate way you can - essentially
asking very focused and specifc questions. Questions for
which you have no answers at this point. Don't be
discouraged if you don't have answers for this yet. You
just need to fnd them.
How do you fnd the answers?
At this stage, you want to look for feedback from

believable people that can help you get clear on your
thought-process. Tey either have done it themselves
successfully, or they might have a part of the overall
solution, given their line of work. Either way its helpful.
Tis is why you can only listen to people that know what
they are talking about, because they have done it
themselves. Tey are the only ones that can provide you
valid insight, so you can come up with a better plan to
solve your particular problem.
Also keep in mind that you are not asking them what to
do. You are just looking to understand how they think
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when approaching these types of situations. Essentially

you are having them stress-test your theory from their
perspectives, so you can see where the holes are and then
do something about it.
Let's say you actually knew an organized person. You

would get in contact with her and ask how would she
organize a disorganized desk. You don't need her to clean
your desk as you would never learn this way. You don't
want her telling you what to do. You just want her
explaining you, how she thinks about this particular
problem. Since she is efective at solving it, she is a
credible person, so her opinion is valid.
By listening to what she has to say, you increase your

chances of understanding how to declutter your desk.
Tis way you can apply it not only to your desk, but to
other areas of your Life, where you are facing similar
problems.
So, there is more value to you, understanding her thought

process to solve this particular situation.
By understanding how she thinks about this, you can

come up with your theory-solution and proceed to the
next phase.
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2. Action-phase
Tis second part is the action-phase.
After you come up with your theory-solution, and have a degree

of validation from credible people, you proceed to apply it for a
certain period of time to see if it works.
▪ If it does, you have just succeeded. Congrats! And you

then proceed to the next one.
▪ If not, you need to go back. You need to acquire more

knowledge, ask more specifc questions, and get feedback
from the credible people group. Listen to them. Most
likely you missed something they said, or the situation
requires their approach from a diferent angle. You then
come up with a new hypothesis and then apply your test
solution again.
Using this way of solving problems, and by keeping at them on a

consistent basis - focusing your undivided energy on just one chunk at a
time, you will eventually knock one down.
By keep knocking down each of these chunks you identifed - you will
eventually solve them all. No more chunks to solve? Problem solved.
Going back to our cluttered desk, this is how we are going to solve it:
46
1. Recognizing: You feel overwhelmed everytime you look at your

desk - you have had enough. You don't know how to organize it,
but you want to do it right now. Tis forces you to move.
2. Categorizing: You then proceed to categorize the main problem.

You notice all this stuf has diferent categories:
1. business cards, 2. paperwork, 3. IT stuf, 4. stuf you don't

need that can go to the trash.
3. Implementing:
• Teory-Solution:
You don't know how to solve this yet, but you ask a specifc
question: “How can I organize my desk?”
“When Te Student Is Ready, Te Master Will Appear” - Buda
You go online and end up discovering YouTube Videos from the

most organized people on the planet. Taking a close look at their
tips on how to organize a desk or a similar situation, you noticed
common similarities between them:
◦ For them, something that is organized, means that

everything in that category is together.
◦ Tey don't have lots of similar items from each category,
47
only the amount they need.
After concluding these are the guiding principles for your goal,
your plan is to:
◦ Get bags for each of these categories and throw related

stuf in there. Te trash goes away.
◦ You keep just one item of each category (only the ones
you use regularly), and get a small ofce drawer with no
more than four divisions so you can put all the remaining
supplies there. You label each division so you'll know
what's inside. And you'll make a rule of not having more
than fve items per category (e.g. fve black markers),
inside each division. If you have more, you throw them to
the trash.
• Action-Phase:
◦ You proceed to get one bag for business cards, one for
paperwork, one for IT stuf, one for everything else that will
go to the trash. You throw stuf from each category to each
bag and all other stuf to the trash-bag.
◦ You choose fve items from each category and put them in
each of the four correspondent divisions in your ofce
drawer. You label each division.
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By maintaining this model you will keep your desk clean. Problem
solved.
So your Goal was to clean and organize your desk by the end of today.
Organizing each item type by category was a Project.
Putting stuf in bags and getting rid of trash was a Task.
By completing all Tasks, you completed each Project. And by completing

each Project you completed your Goal.
End result? Clean desk. Goal attained.
Now, cleaning your desk is one thing. Taking care of your whole Life is a
diferent ball-park. Nevertheless the approach is the same: you see where
you are overwhelmed and then proceed to address it with the GPT
framework.
So, now that we have this problem solving framework under our tool
belts, let's test this out again, by taking it a step further. Let's apply this
against itself: So we can actually solve the overwhelm factor.
Tis is our goal: “I want to stop feeling overwhelmed in any situation, so

that everytime I experience it, I know how to deal with it”.
How? We will do that by identifying all situations this feeling occurs.

Tat way, every time you get this feeling, you identify which one is it
from the list.
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As you recall, the frst step in solving a problem is by frst recognizing it

exists and then proceeding to identify its main components in an
overview fashion. I have found overwhelm has six main components that
trigger it:
• Lack of clarity
As we have just seen, if you are tackling a Project as a Task, you

will soon fnd yourself stressed out.
Tis is because you are approaching an activity as something to

complete immediately, when in reality it will take you more than
that. You are looking at a Project as a Task, when it is a Project: A
Project has several Tasks, a Task is something you can do right
now.
You are getting stressed out because you are not seeing all the
Tasks, so you need to stop and say: Tis is a Project, what are the
Tasks?
Have you ever heard the expression “Writers block?” Writers

experience this when they are facing a blank sheet of paper. Tey
want to write, but they don't know where to start. Tey want to
fre, but they don't know where to aim.
Te solution for this, is to keep subdividing the book into smaller

chunks until they get to one that they can act right now - a
50
smaller section they can write immediately. By completing a small

section they can move on to the next one. A good idea would be
to start with the contents table and organizing it as follows:
1. Problem(Introduction)
2. Solution(further subdivision of this solution section in its

components. Keep feeling overwhelmed? Create more sub-
sections)
3. Conclusion(Answer the initial problem by summarizing the

solution shown throughout the book).
As a writer you will feel overwhelmed if you want to write a

whole chapter at once. If instead you focus on structuring the
book frst, you will now have the book sections. You then keep
dividing each section in subsections and then proceed to
complete each one. One at a time. Get the idea?
Tis way is impossible to feel overwhelmed if you are clear on the

subsection you need to write, and when it is not too big to chew
as you can do it immediately. If it is still too big, keep
subdividing it. Tis is how you solve the “writer's block”. It's
about movement, remember?. And you are able to move if you
keep subdividing it. Tis way you can take one step forward.
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• Perfection
Perfection is a killer. Unless you learn how to deal with it, it will
keep your Life at halt, cemented to the ground where you
presently are, without moving.
Have you ever heard any master guitar player? I love hearing one
of those cool heavy-metal dudes or the spanish famenco ones.
Tey excel at the instrument, playing those solos super fast and
accurate, and it all sounds great.
You hear their audience say: “Tis guy has a perfect playing. He's
fawless”.
It sure looks and sounds that way, doesn't it?
Well, here's my question for you: “Do you think it was perfect for
them?”
Let's analyze this a bit: if someone is that accurate in their

playing, to the point they become nearly fawless, this means they
practice a lot. Tey have countless hours of practice behind that
performance, all devoted to perfect their playing. Repetition,
right? Otherwise, how could they get there? Would you agree?
What their audience might fail to realize, is that they are hearing
version 19.869 plus of that piece to say the least. And knowing a
thing or two about obsessed people(care to guess why?), I can tell
52
you that if you asked them, they would point out all the mistakes
they did in the piece you and I just heard and considered to be
“perfect”.
See, it sounds “perfect” for us, but not for them, because they
know the piece better. Tey are more aware of the details as they
are sharper listeners. So it sounds perfect to their audience, but
not so much to the one that has dedicated hours on end to get to
that point.
Good enough for your standards?
But they also know that after a certain point, they are ready to
show us the piece as it meets their standards. Tey do that,
knowing full well, they can still improve. Nonetheless, they let
that perfection go and start playing it for their audience.
Now, let me ask you something: if they got stuck on the: “I'm
only going to show this to people when it is perfect”, do you
think you and I would ever hear any of these gifted players?
Probably not, right?
It's not that they are not interested in providing quality

playing...they are. But there is a point where it is good enough to
start showing, and they have learned to have this “balance” in
their Lives. Good enough for their standards even thought they
can do better.
53
Te point I am conveying here is that, you need to start looking

at what you are doing and get it to completion even if it is not
perfect. You just put it out there, get it moving, then keep
improving it. You have to lose your perfectionist side as it will do
you more harm than good. Remember that the solution for
overwhelm is movement: one step at a time, but on a consistent
basis.
So what is the solution for “perfection”?
“It's good for now”. It meets your standards. Tat's what you say
to yourself as you keep going. You will address getting to “God
Status” at the second and following iterations.
I will give you an example: A door-to-door salesman needs a

script, so he can present the product to people when meeting
them face-to-face. If you decide you want to do 500 doors today,
but you don't know what to say, as you go to the frst building,
the overwhelming feeling starts kicking in: you don't know the
script.
If you fnd yourself procrastinating, this means you haven't

addressed your script. You either didn't write it, memorized it, or
you are thinking it needs to be “perfect” before you go knocking
on doors because it needs to work. But If you have doubts about
if it is going to work, and you don't test it at all, you won't
54
improve, because you will lack feedback to improve.
Te solution for this is to start with what you have and keep
improving it from the feedback you will hear. Jot down the main
ideas you perceive will be benefcial to them, fgure out answers to
some of the main objections you are expecting to hear, and just
go for it. Do a trial in a small neighborhood. Do ten houses or
businesses and see how it goes. Remember that you are looking to
get feedback. Tis will help you move forward and improve your
script.
Doing this is much better than doing nothing. Remember that

movement is the solution. Start from the ground up, do a test-
run, get feedback and then keep improving it. You will feel better
when you have something you can use. Closing prospects will
come as a consequence, because you kept improving your pitch.
But you couldn't possibly get to this unless you started from the
beginning.
Tere is no pain here, it just looks like it, but it is not real. Te
worst thing it can happen is you not closing anyone. Take notes
of the common objections you are hearing, and address them in
your next presentation. Either way it is a win-win for you. You
either close them, or you learn. Perfection's consequence is
standing still, Moving forward implies results. Which one would
you rather have? Broke or money in your pocket?
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• Out-of-Sight, Out-of-mind
Tis is another serious one. You decided to do something, you

started it but you didn't complete it. Why? Because you forgot
about it. Out-of-Sight, Out-of-mind will get you to stay in the
same place by forgetfulness. Tere is no movement.
Te solution for this, is to start having less things to do. Less stuf
to do is your focus to solve this one. It will be impossible for you
to keep moving, if your Life is a never ending todo list. Focus
only on the most urgent and important things of your plan. No
more than three daily things. And you don't do anything else
until you complete these. Otherwise your Life will be a mess. I'll
give you my own example. Since I was broke again, my main
focus was doing sales everyday. So door-to-door knocking and
networking was how I spent the majority of my day. Since I am
also very disorganized, I gave myself one hour everyday to see
where I was regarding lawsuits, fnes, taxes and that type of stuf.
To solve the Out-of-Sight, Out-of-mind problem, you need to

stick to the activities you set-out to do and make sure you get
them to completion.
Out-of-sight, Out-of-mind works against you, if you don't have

the list of things you have to do in front of you. A daily routine, a
structured schedule: hour chunks. And you need to see your
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schedule everyday: a written paper, a Google calendar

reminder...anything. Just use something that you can see everyday
and has what you need to do there. Otherwise, you will forget
about it. 16.00? What do I need to be doing at 16.00? See what I
mean?
• Do it all
Tis one has so many things to address, that you will have an
entire chapter on this subject later on in this book. For now, you
will need to understand that you can't do everything well on your
own. Tere is just not enough time.
Te do it all thing will cause you stress and will get you to
become overwhelmed, because as soon as you start trying to do
everything by yourself “well” (notice the word well), your mind
will start to panic. It is just too much weight to carry on your
own and your brain knows it.
To stop being overwhelmed, we already covered that the major

distinction to make, that is an absolute requirement to solve the
overwhelming feeling, is you understanding that the solution is
about movement.
How can you move if you carry too much weight? Learn to let it
go. Let go of the bag of bricks. Tere is only so much weight you
can carry on your own.
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You will then be able to start walking, and as you do, the
overwhelming feeling will start to disappear.
You might be asking: “How do I do that? What do I let go?” I

know this is very important and that is why we are covering this
topic in much more depth later on in this book. For now, just
keep this in mind: Tere is only so much weight you can carry,
and you will need to let some of it go.
• Too much thinking
Tis one might sound a bit counter-intuitive, but it is the one of

this list that has afected me the most. A good example is when
selling door-to-door: if you fnd yourself about thinking where to
go next, you will see yourself stop doing the work - it is a form of
procrastination. You need to be executing and not thinking about
it anymore. Te best way to solve this that I found, is to decide
the day before where are you going the next day. Tat way when
you get to 9.00 and start banging on doors, you are not thinking
about it anymore, you are executing the plan. It's a mindset like
this: “Now it's this side of the street” And you do it. “What's
next?” “Now it's this side of the street” And you do it. Te less
you think here, the better. It's execution time, nothing else.
When I am door-knocking, I refuse to stop to think. It's weird
but it works.
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• Not defning a limit
Tis is also another one that gets overachievers overwhelmed

pretty quickly: not defning limits. When you map out your day,
besides defning where to go, you need to defne how many doors
you are knocking before you do it. Otherwise it's like you are
going out to run, but not pre-defning the track you are doing or
the time that you will be running. You need to stop eventually,
otherwise it is like telling your body: “I am going to subject you
to pain and not tell you when we will be stopping” - Te
overwhelming feeling will start almost immediately.
I feel much better when I defne a number than to leave it open.

Something like: 100 doors a day. As you are doing it, you
approach it in this fashion: 20 done, pause. 80 more to go. 50
done, pause. 50 more to go. 100 doors done.
What doesn't work is something like: I am going to do 500

doors. And when starting, having all this pressure to do it. You
say: I am going to do one. After that you say, I am going to do
another one. Step-by-step. See what I mean?
Do it in chunks. It works better.
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Ninja Technique: Use Te Negative Approach
Looking things from the negative angle works very well as a solution for
solving problems. Tis is a very powerful approach and you should
defnitely take advantage of it.
In my brief stay at engineering-school, I had a class called digital circuit

design. Te whole point of the class was to solve a boolean algebra
equation (computer logic: zero or one, yes or no answers) and then
implementing it using actual circuit components.
Where this all comes together was addressing it with the KISS strategy
(Keep It Simple Silly), the cheaper you could implement the circuit, the
better – essentially simplifying the circuit to the minimum parts possible.
To do this, one of the techniques was to use what I call the Negative
Approach.
Te general idea with the Negative Approach is to apply reverse logic to

the expression at hand, see if further elements can be crossed out, and still
get the same result. Tis was very efective in simplifying circuit designs,
because when the whole expression was being seen from the not to angle,
you could in many instances cross out several components, by
rearranging the circuit.
Applying this to real Life is a sound principle because it helps you remove
unwanted options. Let's look into this.
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We usually say something like: “I want to achieve this”, “I want to be

successful at this” or “I want that”. By using the Negative Approach, you
instead state what you don't want to achieve and why. You are essentially
saying: “I don't want this” and justifying it with the main reason. Doing
this, will bring you clarity on how to proceed further.
A good example would be a box with 3 color shaped blocks: blue, red and
green. Te conventional way is to straight out say: “I want the green
because, (and then state the reason)”.
Using the Negating Approach you say something like: “I don't want the
blue because (something), and I don't want the red because (something)”.
Tis means you only have the green left. If you had any uncertainty in
your process, you are now much more clear on your decision, because
you forced yourself to justify why you don't want the other ones.
Since there are no more colors left, this leaves you with this only option.
And since you have just justifed it, you are now more certain on the
reasons why you want it.
Here are a couple of further examples in the form of negative questions:
1. What is it that you don't want in your house? Why?
2. Where don't you want to be next week? Why?
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3. Which people you don't want them around you anymore?

Why?
4. How much money you don't want to just have? Why?
5. How much weight is inadmissible for you to have? Why?
So remember, if you are facing uncertainty in a decision, and you want a

diferent perspective, use this technique as an additional help. Ask it from
the Negative Approach and justify it why. Tis will help you a great deal
to make your decision, and you will be at peace with yourself on why you
made that decision. You crossed everything else and justifed it, so it only
leaves you with one option. Tat's is your best assessment to proceed.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
I n this chapter we went through what is overwhelm and how to fx it

with the GPT method.
We realized that recognizing where you are feeling overwhelmed is a very

good thing, and you can use it as a starting point, because it identifes
where you have a problem. And has you solve a problem you will move
ahead.
A problem is a gem - it is a challenge keeping you from getting what you

want. So, your focus must be on the solution, not the problem.
When facing a problem, we covered that your brain gets you

overwhelmed. Te default solution is to procrastinate and this leads
nowhere. Te better solution for this is fnding a way to move forward.
For you to do this, we covered that you need to:
1. Pause
2. State: “I am overwhelmed. What's causing this?” Proceed to

check the list of the six main causes of overwhelm, identify which
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one or combination, is it.
3. Ten focus on coming up with a solution for the problem. A

solution comes after you ask a specifc question. You are trying to
be very clear and specifc in defning this challenge. Te problem
in front of you.
To fx the problem, we introduced the GPT method.
GPT stands for: Goals, Projects, Tasks.
A Goal is divided in Projects. Projects are divided into Tasks. A

Task is something you can do today.
To solve any problem we do it in three steps:
1. Recognizing
2. Categorizing
3. Implementing
1. Teory-Solution
1. During the development of your theory, you come up

with your best option and have it tested from credible
people.
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2. Action-Phase
1. During the implementation, you get feedback from

reality. Tis is critical for you to understand the
shortcomings of your hypothesis.
1. If you are successful at your frst try, the problem

is solved.
2. If not, you need to go back and improve the

hypothesis.
Since this step is reality-prone, you want to look

for consistency. “Everytime I do this, I get this
result” Tis serves as an indicator of a change you
need to test next time you face a similar situation,
so you can see what the outcome is.
Now that you have this powerful problem-solving tool under your tool
belt, we will continue to use it, but in your whole Life.
We will address your whole Life's problems, using the division model of
the GPT framework in what I call: Te 7 Pillars + the Glue. Tese are all
the sections that compose your Life and what makes the whole thing stick
together.
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CHAPTER 1
Pillar #1: Health
Introduction
T
he frst pillar of your Life is called Health. Obviously, if you
didn't have enough of it, you would be dead by now. What
might not be that evident, is that your Health pillar has two
main components:
1. Mind
2. Body
Each of these is diferent and has diferent requirements, but both work
in conjunction to your overall Health:
• Mind: If you have a headache from an argument and feel

unmotivated, you are probably not in the best state of mind to go
out running right now, right?
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• Body: If you are in fact motivated to go out and run today, but
you have a severe colic, most likely it is not the best day to do it
either, right?
Tese examples seem obvious, but you will be surprised how often we
forget these.
• If you are tired, you need to rest, not take a pill.
• If you get headaches when you are with a certain person, you
need to get rid of him, not keep meeting him.
Doing things in the same way and expecting diferent results is the
defnition of insanity. Ignoring it won't fx the problem either, as we
already addressed how procrastinating and its diferent variants leads
nowhere.
So to be healthy in both mind and body, you need to have a healthy

environment, both biologically (mind and body) and socially.
Tese are the main components of your health, and you need to be aware
of what's going on with them at all times - if your health is not in order,
mind and/or body, you won't be able to do anything, even if you want
to.
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Part 1: How to develop a stronger mind
You must make a point of treating your mind like a beautiful garden,
cutting of weeds and sources that only have the ability to upset and
destroy it. You must go out of your way to ensure you only have
positivity, Sun and clean sources of energy around you. Tese will
energize you, fll you up and help your mind grow. You will feel better.
Te quality of your surroundings and thoughts, will dictate the quality of

your health. No way around it.
But in order to do this, and using our GPT framework, we frst need to
identify the sources of problems, so you can then do something about
them:
• Overwhelming feeling
We already addressed this one in the beginning of this book.

Overwhelming causes anxiety. To try and get rid of anxiety, your
body tries to focus on activities that bring short-term pleasure
(procrastination). It essentially looks for the out-of-sight, out-of-
mind strategy to calm you down. Tis is not a good strategy as we
already covered.
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You now know what to do. As soon as you identify it, you now
have a tool to solve this.
• Sadness
Sadness is a weakness of your personality, usually a byproduct of

being overwhelmed. You don't know what to do...how to solve it,
so you get sad and depressed. Stress and Depression are
byproducts of elevated cortisol levels. Cortisol is a body hormone
that is released when you are not ok. Too much of it in your body
is very bad. Medical studies have shown that in order for a brain
to be healthy and working properly, cortisol levels need to be low.
So, how are we going to do this?
To have a healthy brain, you need to reprogram it. How?
Te human mind is a very bizarre computer, as you can actually

program it into doing what you want it to do, even if you don't
feel like it. As you learn how to do this, you can actually address
how you feel and get yourself under control.
Don't believe me? Let's go through an exercise together.
On a scale of one to fve, how do you feel psychologically right

now? one being crap and fve being the most positive person alive,
laughing all the time and getting ready to take on the world?
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Most people would be in the middle to low area. What about

you? Be honest.
Now, let me ask you this: why in the world, would someone like
to be depressed and shoot themselves in the head all the time? Are
you a masochist? Do you really want to end your Life today?
When you were born, did you set out to kill yourself right out of
the get go? Of course not.
Does anyone actually look forward feeling like crap all the time?
Obviously not. Tis is nonsensical. So, we have to fnd out what
is causing this, why are you feeling this way, so we can solve it.
Here are two typical reasons:
1. You are either not getting what you want, or you are
feeling stuck in a situation you didn’t expect to happen. Tis
is having a negative impact in your Life, because you now
have to deal with it. Tis situation is forcing you to deal with
circumstances in a way that is not in line with who you are
and all this is getting you upset:
▪ Your business went under. You are out of money.
And now you have a line of very “happy” suppliers
calling you every day: “Pay me my money” is the most
heard words in your day. You just want to sleep and
not face Life
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2. You are in an environment that it is not how you want it to

be. Or even worse, you are not aware of it. One way or the
other, this environment is feeding you negative junk all the
time, all coming from people you don't want to be around
with, and all this is making you ill. You want to get out of it,
but don't know how.
▪ Crappy jobs, bad relationships are examples of this. It
makes sense to leave, but current circumstances need
to be addressed frst (money, kids...)
Tis is horrible, and situations you don't want to be experiencing,

but they do happen and you do have to deal with them anyway.
But here’s the thing: You can actually control this to a certain
degree. How?
Because to the extent of the things you can do on your own, you
have 100% control of them from your end. You can do them by
yourself: you can push a button, you can wake up, you can talk
with someone. See what I mean? Actions you can control,
without any degree of dependence from anyone else.
And to show you that this is possible, to actually change your

mood on demand, do this simple exercise with me:
Play your favorite and happiest song right now. Seriously, do it...I
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mean it. Te one that always makes you feel great. Do it right
now.
And while you are at it, clap your hands vigorously and sing it out
loud if you know the lyrics. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a
great singing voice. Just do it. I’ll do this with you:
One of my favorite happy songs is “Tong Song” by Sisqo. It
makes me feel happy. I like the rhythm, the bass, the girls, and I
feel like dancing whenever I hear this song. It makes me feel
better.
How about you? What's your favorite song? Whatever it is, just
play it and sing it out loud right now.
Did you do it? How do you feel? Do you feel better? You do,
don’t you?
At least for a couple of minutes, I bet you actually forgot the

depression and the whole usual negative “shtick” didn’t you? I
know you did, because this works.
Tis works because with this exercise you increase the Seratonin
and Dopamin production levels in your brain. Seratonin and
Dopamin are neurotransmitters. Tese are very powerful
chemicals that regulate several important functions and processes
in your mind and body.
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Medical studies have proven scientifcally, that whenever your

brain has increased levels of Seratonin and Dopamin, Cortisol
levels go down. In this situation, your brain is more able to
provide solutions to problems you are experiencing, because it is
not sufering. You feel better, so you are in a better mood to solve
problems. And all this coming from listening to positive music.
Go fgure.
So now you feel alive, pumped and happy. Fully energized and
ready to take on the world. Good for you. Is this the solution for
everything? No, but would you agree it is a good place to start?
You have to start somewhere right? So you might as well start
from the beginning with a calm mindset: training yourself to feel
positive is the frst step.
Do you know what I do everyday? Two things:
◦ I watch a couple of motivational photos I saved on my

desktop (money, jets, a nice car, a nice house)
◦ I have my headphones with me all the time, and only play my

happy list to keep me positive throughout the day. Every time
I wake up, I put on my happy song. Before a meeting with a
prospective client, I do the same. Tis puts me in a better
state.
It doesn't matter the situation I am in. But it helps getting me in
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a better state. All you need is your phone, headphones and a song.
Tis is how you will improve your brain function in this area: by
training yourself to remove anxiety from your day.
And as a direct consequence of doing this regularly, you will

increase your outcome for the better. Anxiety goes down, you feel
better, you exude more confdence and everyone around you feels
it. It's a subconscious thing - people's subconscious brain picks up
on these signals and reacts accordingly - it's a survival mechanism.
Confdent people act as leaders. And by defnition, leaders are

people that know the way out. Since most people are looking for
a way out of their problems, they gravitate towards the leader that
has the answer they need. Te lizard ancestor brain part is telling
people subconsciously to trust you. All this because you are acting
confdent with low if any anxiety levels.
If you go meet a client in this state - fully pumped and you

conveying trust - do you know what usually happens? Tat’s
right, you actually increase the chances of getting a sale. Tis
happens a lot.
See, selling is about the transfer of trust - the client has to trust
you. Tey are putting their trust in you, because they believe you
are the right person to solve their problem and remove their pain.
When you are at a peak state, fully energized and sharp in your
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logic, and they are in pain with a low positive level, they will tend
to lean towards you, because you will start leading the way. You
will see them start deferring to you decisions on the project. You
feel great, you exude confdence, you smile, you show you are
sharp, they feel it. And the weaker state usually tends to fold
towards the stronger one. Tey want to feel like you. Te weird
part is that this happens on a subconscious level, in split seconds
when they see you, and keeps going as they talk with you.
Of course there are probably more things in your Life happening,

and a couple of motivational pics and a playlist won’t solve the
whole thing for you. But ask yourself this question: “Can this
help in anyway, in your whole day? Can it bring you a positive
contribution, even if a tiny one?”
Sure it can, and it will. When you are smiling and singing, you
are not thinking about killing yourself and other self-destructing
behaviors. You are not irritated, not in a bad mood, there is no
shouting, no headaches. You feel positive, happy, you smile, show
your teeth and exude confdence. If you feel better, it's unlikely
you want to kill yourself, right?
And since this is something you can do on your own and have
100% control of it, use it - it's your personal weapon. Look at it
like a a fashlight in the dark. At least for now you have light to
help you see. And if it helps you even for a tiny bit, it is already a
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good thing. You will feel better about yourself, and have a more
positive mind in your approach towards solving what needs to be
solved in your Life.
Te other important factor that starts kicking in is habit. You

brain is used to do things in a certain way. If you keep doing this
on a regular basis - keep watching your motivational pics, hearing
happy songs - at the same time everyday, you will start being like
this the majority of your time, because you get used to it.
So from now on, implement this strategy and keep doing it to

develop this habit. It will improve your brain function and help
you make better decisions towards where you want to go.
Keep feeling positive, as the other version never ends well - it is a

never ending down-spiral. I am telling you this because I have
experienced both. Trust me when I tell you this: train yourself to
be calm and positive everyday. Tis will help you tremendously in
your Life.
A note on Motivational Speakers out there:
Although medical studies have shown that training yourself to be

positive, will have a great impact in your brain, body and overall
health - you also a need a plan you can act on.
Motivation wears of at the shower. Tis is why I have an issue
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with motivational speakers. It's a bit like a drug: it gets you

feeling great and motivated when you hear them, but it will wear
of quickly, because you need a plan, so you can act on it.
What will get you out of where you are right now is action that
works - plain and simple. It is you being successful in the
activities that can get you there. Tis is what will solve your
problems.
Motivation is just starting the engine and keeping you going. By

itself is not enough. You need a place to go to and be specifc on
how you are going to get there. Motivation doesn't provide you
this.
Troughout this book we will develop a plan together so you can

execute and start moving forward. For now, just have this in
mind as we move along. Develop this habit of being positive and
motivated, but understand its limitations.
• EGO
Tis is a big one. I’ve seen more talented people waste their entire
Life's because of this false belief than any other. Te following
statements:
“I am too good for this job”
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“What will people think of me if I’m seen starting over doing

this?”
“I am always right”
All these statements are false, and will keep you from getting what
you want in Life - here's why:
Te Market is the strongest force alive. I can't beat it, you can't
beat it, the wealthiest person alive can't beat it, no one
can...alone. People only think about themselves - it is only about
them, not you. People pay for what they want, not what you
want. Tey could care less if you are struggling to make ends meet
or being evicted today because you couldn’t make this month's
rent. People are self-centered, and think about one thing and one
thing only: themselves.
As soon as you realize this, you will understand you need to have
a diferent approach to Life. You'll start seeing people diferently.
It’s not to say you will need to be a people pleaser because they
have your money - I didn’t say that. What you have to realize is
that they are trying to solve a problem: their problem, not yours.
If you fnd yourself in a situation where you failed and are lacking
resources to be where you want in the future, you might need to
adjust things.
So, you need to put yourself in a position where you can in fact
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solve their problem, even if you have to start doing something

that is much lower in skill than what you can do.
As an example: let's say you are broke and in a job interview.

Tey are ofering you a job as a janitor. You have to say yes, take
the job. You have to show humility to the situation and
understand that you don't have anything else right now. If you
act EGO they will pick this up from your body language signs
and you will lose.
“Who are you to come across as someone that is much better than
them? Much better than that?” Tat's how they will see you.
Dude, you don’t have any money right now. And you are going
to go all EGO? Out of all the resumés you sent, this was the only
job interview you had in months. MONTHS!
What will that EGO thing get you? I'll help you with this: going
home empty handed. Tat's what you will get.
Tey'll choose someone else over you and you will stay in the
same place stuck with the same problem forever...you and your
EGO.
Let's say you are in a poker's game: you lose one hand, you lose
another, then another... You can't lose any more hands. Get a
job. Seriously. Stay connected. Ten look to improve from that.
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It's a start, not an end. Remember what we talked about before.

It's about movement.
Tis is the part that broke EGO driven people don't get:
movement.
See, just because you lost it all and you are starting over, it doesn’t
mean you can’t still fx your Life and turn it back around again -
you can fip it back up. But you have to start somewhere, and the
“somewhere” part is from the beginning. Tis is the part that
EGO driven people don't get - you need to start from the
beginning - and EGO will keep you from starting. You were
wrong, you failed. Get over it. Be humble. Start again. Build it
from the ground up.
You need to accept that you drove your Life into a situation that
is not working. Te person interviewing you, doesn’t give a crap
about that or you. Tey only care about themselves and the
problem they have - you are either in or out. So, start there, then
keep looking. At least you are starting with something.
Tink of it like this: you are solving an immediate problem, but

you are still working on your long-term entrepreneurial
endeavors. See what I mean? You haven't quit. It’s how you look
at it. It's a temporary setback and all you are doing is acting
accordingly to solve it. It's not an end situation.
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Get rid of EGO. Seriously. Don’t be a bum. Get a job or some

sort of temporary activity to solve or at least help your current
money problems, and keep working on your dreams at the same
time. Put in the hours, it will pay of.
For now, no one else needs to know about your long-term plans.
You are there to clean the foors. Go for it. Tat's it. At least for
now it is a help. A starting point.
And trust me when I tell you this, every single piece of help you
get along your journey, will be precious Life Blood. Not many
people will open doors for you – so be grateful for the ones that
do. And make sure you keep them around you (birthdays, be
correct with them). You'll never know when Life turns around
and then it will be them needing you at some point. Keeping
these relationships alive is critical. Tese are your allies, and you
need good people around you.
• Toxicity
You can be toxic to yourself by your own way of being. But if you
are reading this, chances are, you want to improve yourself and
your current circumstances. You already understand you are
doing something that is not working, and you want to fx it, but
you lack knowledge on how to do it.
So, essentially, you are looking for information to help you move
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forward. Kudus to you! Tis is a good starting point.
Tat said, if your heart is in fact in the right place, one very
powerful strategy to use (besides brain reprogramming, which is
what we are doing in this book) is using the Negative Approach
we previously covered.
So, to address toxicity and have a healthy nontoxic Life, you frst
start by removing unwanted stuf, negating its presence: you are
simplifying the “circuit” using the opposite logic. Ok, so what
can you remove?
Te two main ones are:
◦ News
News have their own agendas and contribute nothing to

the world. Tey are absolutely worthless.
Te recurring theme is: death, disease, the rich are getting

richer, this guy won the lottery, this famous actress has
this amazing Life and your sucks, take this pill because
you feel like crap, and all sorts of more meaningless
nonsense.
I know what you are saying: “Ok, but how can I stay in
touch with the world?” Dude, two words: “Google
News”. Choose the topics you are interested in, and get
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the feed on your mobile device. No drama, no

commercials, no crap, just the news. For me it's
Economics, Real Estate, Technology, Politics to a certain
extent, and some personalities I like learning more from.
◦ People
Tis is another big one. If you have people in your Life

where the majority of your interactions result in you
feeling like crap, causing you headaches, and you end up
feeling worse, why in the world do you keep seeing them?
Why do you keep picking up the phone and answering
their calls? Are you their trash-bin? Why are you still
around these people? Why do you let them bring garbage
and trash into your Life?
See what I mean? It's your Life. You choose who you let
in your Life and be around you.
You should make a point of ONLY having people that are

problem solvers around you and bring nothing but good
energy and a good vibe to your day. Get the other ones
of your Life.
I know what you are saying: What about if I can't do that

right now?
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If you are in a position where you can't yet remove all

these people from your Life, due to some circumstances...
usually family or money related...make a mental note and
your personal objective to get them out as soon as you
can. Te less interactions you have with these
dysfunctional people the better.
I promise you: if you don't have negative people around,

and keep only positive people by your side, your Life will
become A LOT easier.
How can you feel like crap, if you only have people that
keep lifting you up and only bring positivity, sunshine
and rainbows? See what I mean?
I take this very seriously. I deleted the majority of contacts

from my Life and my phone doesn't have more than 30
people there. I even removed my own parents, as they are
dysfunctional people. I don't want them around my
family. Specially my daughter. ONLY GOOD PEOPLE!
Te quality of your Social Life is dictated by the quality of

your connections. And it's not just people with money
and more resources:
▪ It's the woman that cleans your house, that has a

good vibe, and a second set of keys if one day you
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happen to forget yours.
▪ It's about the owner of the kindergarden school

that you can call if you are running a bit late to
pick up your kid.
▪ It's the lawyer that gets you out of trouble.
▪ It's the accountant that solves your issues.
You get the point.
I just want you to realize that in order to have a clean

mind and a positive day, a major part of it is by getting
rid of toxic information and dysfunctional people,
making a priority of only having interactions with positive
people.
How could you have a bad day if you only have problem-
solvers around you? See what I mean?
Make a point of improving this part in your Life. You will

see it change for the better as you improve this.
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Meditation. A powerful exercise for your mind
We just covered some typical negative points, so now I want to address a

super powerful tool: meditation.
Meditation is the singular most important thing you can do to develop

your brain power - I kid you not.
Essentially, it is a breathing exercise. You stay alone in a room, sit upright

with both your legs crossed Buda type, have your palms facing up on
your knees, close your eyes and focus on black. No thoughts, only
breathing. You just focus on black. Focus on nothing. No thoughts.
Nothing. Undisturbed. You just breathe and clear your mind.
In the beginning, your mind will start racing all over the place, so you
just say to yourself: “Tink about nothing”. Breathe in, breathe out.
Tis usually lasts 20-30m. You will naturally wake up by yourself and feel
A LOT Better. More clear...peaceful.
Medical studies have shown the following benefts for people who
meditate on a regular basis:
• Teir heart-rates are better.
• Teir breathing and sleeping patterns are much better.
• Teir decision-making processes are much more accurate.
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• Teir cortisol levels are much lower.
• Teir Seratonin, GABA, DHEA and Endorphin levels are much

higher.
Reason why is because:
• Tey are coming from a peaceful place.
• Teir mind is not stressed.
• Tey are centered and not allowing themselves to get stressed out.
Brain scans have shown this process calms down the amygdala section
(your fght-or-fight brain section), and stimulates the activity in the
subconscious section of the brain (your more insightful brain part:
“Should I do this, should I not do this”).
Doing meditation on a regular basis provides you peace of mind. Peace

comes from a place of clarity. Clarity is a byproduct of certainty.
Certainty is the trust you get as a result of solution implementation: the
solution you came up with to solve a specifc question that worked.
So, the more clear you are in your goal setting and the questions you ask,
the better quality answers you can come up with, because of your
specifcity. All this is helped by meditation.
If you do more research on this topic, particularly transcendental-
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meditation, you will fnd that the overwhelming majority of the Forbes
100 billionaires do it.
Now, let me ask you: Why do you think that is?
Make this a daily habit. You'll thank me later.
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Part 2: How to develop a stronger body
If there is one thing at this point in time that I am a billionaire, it is my

body - I kid you not.
To give you a perspective why:
• I am an ironman athlete with 5'6 and 120 pounds. I exercise and

run regularly.
• I have not been to a doctor for more than 10 years.
• I don't remember the last time I was sick, not even with so much
as the fu.
But this was not always the story. I used to be 270 pounds with several
physical and mental health issues at one point. But In my quest to
become the best version of myself and get to where I wanted to be health
wise, I just started to go at it relentlessly. Looking back, I think this is one
of the main reasons I succeeded - I just kept at it. Read on, as I will show
you how I did it:
I learned that in order to get your body in shape, your mind must be
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working like I shared with you - this is the frst step as it all starts here. I
frmly believe that unless your mind is working properly, this won't work
as everything else will start breaking apart. You need to keep your
motivation and act on a clear plan so you can subject your body to this
dramatic change on a consistent basis. Otherwise it won't work and you'll
quit. Here's why:
• Tere were times in my Life, that my fnancial Pillar wasn't

working, so I didn't have the motivation to go out running. It
was one of my favorite things to do but I just didn't feel like
doing it.
• But when I was happier, even though the rest of the stuf still
wasn't doing that well, I had my mind stronger, so I went out
running that day and loved it.
It's clearly a mindset thing!
Just make a note of this. Tis way you can have a better understanding of
what is really required to get in shape. It has a lot more going on than
just a simple diet plan and some pushups. Don't believe the hype! It's
more about mental power than anything else.
I hear so much wrong information being told about diets and meals...It's
just not right. And having gone through this successfully, I can spot when
people know what they are talking about and when they are not.
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So, how did I do it?
Well, I used the GPT framework across the board:
1. I found someone I could model and applied what they were

doing.
2. When issues arose, I asked the most specifc questions regarding

the problem, and then look for someone that had the answer.
3. I then proceeded to apply it. If it worked, great. If not, I kept

looking.
Tis got me from 270 pounds to a 120 pound Marathon fnisher under
3H30. I don't take any pills, I sleep well and forgot the last time I went
to the doctor.
Tis is what I do everyday regarding food and exercise:
• Eating
I Wake up at 5.00 am and exercise. Next is meal time. I eat once

a day only. I do a Ketogenic diet with Prolonged Fasting(23H):
Macros: 85% fat, 10% proteins, 5% net-carbs – contents:
◦ 150g of raw spinach + 50g of red pepper on a plate.
◦ 300ml of soup made from: 1 whole red pepper, 300g of

spinach, one whole caulifower, 1 turnip, a pinch of sea salt,
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black pepper, garlic and cinnamon. Apple Cider Vinegar,

Olive Oil and fltered water.
◦ half of sliced turnip fried in olive oil. (My version of french

fries).
◦ 1 cow stake or 1 water-canned sardines fried burger (1 water-

canned sardines, 2 whole eggs, 3 tablespoons of golden
linseed powder). It looks like a giant pancake...lol.
◦ 2 fried scrambled eggs (in olive oil).
◦ 50 grams of stevia chocolate + 1 egg + olive oil. Looks like a

chocolate mousse. It's my dessert.
◦ 1 glass of water
◦ 1 cup of plain cofee
◦ No more cofee after 12.00. Troughout the day I only drink

water every no again.
• Exercising
◦ I do 1 muscle group a day: 3 sets of 8-10 reps. You will fnd

lots of tutorials out there.
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• Cardio
◦ 2-3 times a week: 10-30km each session - Running or cycling.

I do this and weightlifting before eating. Sometimes I do one
day 30 km and the others 10 km. Less distance, but faster.
• Cold Showers
◦ You can read about this online as well. Medical Studies have
shown that this helps your body heal, activates your
metabolism and puts you in your “warrior” state. You will
get more defense mechanisms against diseases and common
viruses, and get mentally stronger as well. In addition it
lowers your utility bill.
Feeding yourself like this, costs you $3.35 a day, you pay almost no gas
bill, no medical bills, and are ensuring the health of a titan. How is that
sounding so far?
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A healthy framework of thought:
Te Small Commitments and improvements framework
• Small Commitments – in order to get to where I am today in the

health department, I used what I call the Small Commitments
framework. Tis is applicable to lots of areas in Life as well as you
are about to see. Let me explain:
People jump at a diet without allowing their bodies to get used to

it. It won't take long until their bodies start rejecting it. Tey will
soon go back to where they were or even worse. Losing weight
just doesn't work like that. You have to do small commitments
and healthier substitutions. In this way you are not removing
anything, you are substituting. E.g: Water instead of Coke, Salad
instead of Potatoes. You remove something, but add a substitute.
Tis is what I did when I decided to start eating better. I made

small commitments everyday with a substitution, so I could stick
to it:
▪ No coke today, only water. And I did that for a week.
▪ No rice today, only salad, and I did that for another week.
▪ No cake today, only something else. And I did that for

another week.
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After a while you are no longer eating bad stuf, you are eating
much healthier. And you gave your body enough time to adjust
to its substitute. Tis worked out very well for me.
• Small Improvements – Tis is another big one. You can't lift a

gozzillion number pounds from the get go. It's small
improvements everyday:
It's 5 pounds, keep practicing, then it's 10 pounds, keep

practicing, then 20 pounds and so on. Muscle building, running
is the same thing. I frst started walking, than walking a little
faster, then running. When I started running I set out goals:
today we will run until the Lighthouse. Next time would be:
today we will run until the car lot after the Lighthouse...and so
on.
Little time took, when I noticed I was running half-marathons

easily. So I applied for an ofcial one and completed it. After that
I started looking into running a full marathon. I used the same
approach in trainings. When I started doing marathons easily, I
applied to one and fnished it. After that I started to look for
Ironman.
It's the same process all over again: a never ending cycle of
improvement. But the underlying factor is this Small
Improvements Idea. You will get where you want to be in time,
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but not at your frst try. It all starts with the frst step, but as long
as you are consistent at improving it, you will be surprised where
you will end up.
I can tell you that when I started doing this regularly, it all soon
started to sink in that it wouldn't be easy, or fast. And this is a
very important lesson we can all apply in pretty much everything
in Life: People are very biased towards the immediate thing. Tey
want immediate and maximum gratifcation for the minimum
efort, but Life just doesn't work like that.
Success is a process, not an event: So you should slap yourself

across your forehead every time you are faced with something that
looks like an immediate thing. It's a test.
Anything that “looks like simple and quick” is a test. It is a test to

see if your determination in pursuing your Life's goals can be
sidetracked and get you of-course.
Tis has proven to be right in my entrepreneurial ventures time

and time again. It doesn't matter if it is in the health department
or the fnancial one: It's how you approach things. Te quick
thing leads to failure, the long-term approach is much more
sound than anything else. Notice how your answers are so much
diferent when you are looking at the long-term view instead of
the short-term.
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So next time you are faced with uncertainty regarding a path to

take, just ask yourself this question: Will I be doing this for the
next 50 years?
Tis will force you to answer according to the future you desire.
You will then look at your present situation and see what doesn't
belong in your future.
Tat said, it doesn't mean that some of the stuf you are doing
now is unnecessary. I took several odd jobs to support my
entrepreneurial ventures. None of them were in line with my
overall 50 year Life plan, but I needed to eat and pay rent. I was
working on improvements. Remember this: small-improvements.
• Consistency – It took me 3 years to get from 270 pounds to 120

pounds and completing the Marathon 4 times under 3H30. Tis
was only possible by being committed, consistent, and by
executing a plan that was revised over and over when stuf wasn't
working. By doings this way and with the proper adjustments to
the plan when needed, was what allowed me to be successful in
this endeavor. I stayed consistent at it and did it until completion.
Using this approach is what got me where I am today: Healthy as a duck:
• I don't crash after lunch anymore.
• I don't have any signifcant body changes throughout the day.
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• I sleep well.
• I remain stable throughout the dat..
I don't have plans to be a professional athlete. I do it because I enjoy it.
But regarding my Life-plan, at least for me at this point, this is one less
thing to worry about.
Ninja trick: Confrming the obvious by not doing what you already
found that works.
I can tell you that, when I don't meditate, when I don't take cold
showers, and not do the stuf I just shared with you, I start feeling like
crap again, almost immediately.
I confrmed the obvious and concluded that in order to stay healthy you
need to keep doing these habits, as they will ensure you keep your mind
and body like this, otherwise you will start going back again.
Te important lesson from this, the takeaway - like anything you achieve
- is essentially two things you need to remember:
• Solve it
• Maintain it
It doesn't matter if it is cleaning your room or staying healthy. You did it!
Congrats! But then you need to maintain it. And to do this you need to
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keep doing the same activities that got you there in the frst place: no
exceptions here, no way around it. It needs to become a habit that you do
everyday.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this chapter we went through the main two sections in your Health
Pillar. Tese are:
1. Mind
2. Body
We covered some of the common brain dysfunctions like EGO, do-it-all,

sadness and how to fx them.
We covered that you need a clear and motivated mind, to be calm and
positive. Tis comes from controlling yourself and your environment.
Meditation plays a huge role here.
Same thing for your body: we covered how eating properly and exercising
regularly will help you tremendously, as all this works together part of a
larger system.
We also addressed the importance of having the right habits and

maintaining them. By doing this, you will be able to summon much
more energy to do what you need to do, as you will feel much better,
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both mentally and physically.
Remember that an Entrepreneur is a top-athlete: If your mind and body

are performing better, you will increase your chances of doing better -
one is a byproduct of the other – it is inevitable.
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CHAPTER 2
Pillar #2: Social
Introduction
T
his is a huge one. Te most common mistake people make
(myself included), is ignoring it, and when day realizing this
simple and obvious fact: your relationships will dictate your
outcome. You will only be able to get where you want to go - especially
out of tough situations - when you have the right people around. Tese
are the ones that will open the right doors for you. Case and point.
If you can take anything from this chapter is what I have just said: Your
relationships will dictate your fnancial outcome. No way around this
other than solving it.
With this concept in mind, let's solve it then.
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Tere are two diferent sections we will cover here:
1. How to become your stronger version
2. How to improve your human psychology understanding
3. How to improve your social network
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Part 1: How to become your stronger version
Promise me this: from now on, you will see yourself and start acting as
the Boss. Your own Boss. You are the Number One in the World. Te
force to be reckoned with. Te President. Te One everyone looks up to
and respects. Te Champ. Te Alpha.
How does this sound to you? How does this make you feel?
It sounds and feels great doesn't it?
Why do you need to start behaving this way you ask? Here's why:
If you are choosing to fght for your own Life by refusing to stay down,
you are already in a position you understand you need to take charge of
it. You need to get up, step up, face the bully and kick his ass. You are
not deferring for someone else to do it for you. You are doing it yourself
instead.
By doing this, and acting in this way, you instantly become the Boss,
even if you lose. Why? Because you understand that your future is in
your hands and not anyone else's. Te buck starts and stops with you.
You are taking responsibility for your actions, and making sure everyday
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you fght the bullies that are in your way. Tis is the way of the Alpha.
Tis is the way of the Leader.
To do this, you will soon realize you need to act much diferently than
regular people. You will need to behave and carry yourself in a very
diferent manner. Soon, your Alpha version will start to pop out. You will
start to carry yourself in a certain way, and you will see people reacting to
it. What are they reacting to? Confdence. You are conveying confdence.
Tis yields trust and commands instant respect on a subconscious level.
Te Alpha is the Leader and People are looking out for their survival. Life
is hard and it throws challenges at people they need to solve so they can
endure. But here is the line of separation between people:
• Some will rather fgure it out and take care of themselves.
• Some would rather have someone else fgure it out and be taken
care of.
Tis is the main distinction between true Entrepreneurs and most people:
Entrepreneurs fght their way out, most people quit and let Entrepreneurs
take care of them.
So people end up following leaders, because leaders ensure their survival.

Entrepreneurs are leaders, and leaders lead the way.
Tis all starts with confdence, that's what separates people: the small
chance of making it, because “I am going to do it anyway” - or the 100%
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chance of remaining in mediocrity, because “I am staying here”. You can

choose either one, so it is up to you.
But by deciding to act, you are saying no to mediocrity and making a

decision to fght your way through, even though you will get beat to
your knees more often than not. Here is where you will spend most of
your time until you win: You fail, you keep getting up. You fail once
again, you keep getting up. You fail once more...and you keep getting up.
Tis is the process: You are failing your way forward.
To go through this process, this requires you knowing exactly what you
want, and why it is so important for you to get it. Tis will allow you to
remain focused on keep punching the bully until you knock him out.
People will see this confdence in you. Tey will see this fre. When you
portray yourself as a confdent person (no matter where you are in Life,
even if you are broke...) - the way you talk, how you react, how you carry
yourself - you will see people's behavior change when dealing with you, as
they feel this.
Confdence attracts confdence either by partners or followers. Te

reverse is never true. I can guarantee you that no person will ever comply,
unless you portray and convey your message across, as a confdent person.
People will respect you, because they see confdence in you. If not, they
won't.
So, from now on, this will be your new personna, your 2.0 version - Te
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one we will work on. Tis is your frst step moving forward socially, as
quality people tend to gravitate to people like this. Confdence is a clear
indication of knowing where to go. Knowing and acting where to go,
means of survival – you are showing the way. Everyone wants to survive,
so if they don't know how, if they don't see the way, they will defer
decisions to the one that does. Tey will defer it to you.
So, to begin this process, you frst have to start by understanding yourself.
Understanding yourself
Who are you, really? What is your personality super-power? What is your
weakness? Do you know?
All of us have a super-power and a super-weakness - you have one too. If

you are not aware of this, you need to start paying more attention,
because the better you know yourself, the stronger you will become.
Here are some typical personality powers and weaknesses:
• If you are creative, this means new ideas come easy. But the
byproduct of this is that you might struggle with structure:
missing dates, not seeing important steps in projects and these
types of situations that hit you.
• If you are very analytical, you can see details. You are very able to
put structure in place for a project to work, but you probably
struggle with fnding new ideas. You get too buried in details that
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probably are not that meaningful to the general overall picture.

So you struggle to fnd a way out.
• If you are aggressive in nature, this means you want to get things
done. You put in the hours, no matter how many. Te problem is
that you are also impatient. Tis means you either ignore other
important stuf or postpone it. Tis usually doesn't end well.
• If you are social in nature, this means you focus on people. And
people like being around you. It's easy for you to get people to
like you, because you are a good listener. Te problem you have is
that, because you usually tend to put others frst, you end up
forgetting about yourself and your own projects.
Tese are just some examples as the list is much longer. For now,
understand that all personality types have strengths and weaknesses, and
all struggle with their weaknesses because one comes with the other: If
you are strong in a certain aspect that also means you are weaker in
another. So you have to fgure out who you are frst. Tis is the frst step.
Find out where you are strong, so you can then start working on
improving it even further...but on the other hand, acknowledge where
you are weak, so you can fnd a way of solving it as well. By doing this,
you will become much stronger because you will know where to focus.
It's a bit like an athlete: If you are a runner, this is your strength, so you
work on running faster. But if you also have weak hamstrings, you need
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to work on getting more muscle there. Te combination makes you a

more powerful runner. Same thing with your personality type. In both
cases, you work to improve both ends.
“Know Yourself” – said billionaire George Soros
Who is the Alpha
Contrary to common psychology profling out there, the Alpha's

aggression isn't always obvious. Depending on the previously listed
personality combinations, this will show up diferently. Alpha is about
having more confdence, so each personality-type will take a step forward,
but using their personality's strengths. For instance, in a situation where a
salesperson and a client are about to sign a contract:
• People that are aggressive by default are more obvious, and you
will feel them being directly aggressive to get the client to sign the
contract.
• People that are social are not directly aggressive, but they are very
sharp reading people by default - much more than other
personality types. If their whole agenda is to get the contract
signed as well, you won't feel direct aggression from them like in
the previous type, but they will manipulate you to death until you
sign it.
One pushes through by directly showing aggressiveness, the other uses
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covert niceness to get the same result. Same thing for all personality type
combinations. All want the same result, but use a diferent set of skills.
Understand your personality-type, because this will help you gain clarity
of your strengths and weaknesses. Tis is very powerful because you will
become aware of yourself. And as you do, you will become a better
fghter. You'll know where you need to improve.
Get a benchmark to close-follow
Te next step in improving yourself is a fnding your benchmark:

someone successful that you admire, so you can model their strengths.
To be the person you want to become, you have to become your 2.0
version with the traits this other person has, and this requires
improvement on your end. But you can only improve when you see
someone that is already there, so you can model their path by
comparison. You need to see where to improve so you can do it as well.
By doing this and then by taking a look at yourself side-by-side with your
role-model, you will notice what you need to work on from your end.
Tis is why the benchmark is so important. Ten, it is a matter of
practicing and being consistent at it:
• If he smiles much more and you don't, start doing that.
• If he has a deeper tonality, start practicing this way of speaking.
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• If he dresses sharper, start using clothes like that.
And so on...
I know what you might be saying: “Am I losing myself by copying this
other person?” No. Here's why:
You are you no matter what you do. Te only thing you are doing is
improving your own persona. When you look better, when people
understand your words better, when you look and sound more confdent,
people will start looking at you diferently, and you will feel that from
them. Tey are not saying: “He is copying that other person”, “He is
fake”. In fact, they will perceive you as a confdent person, and will
address you diferently - that's the whole purpose. You'll start noticing
this as you make these improvements...like I did.
So the frst step is you acknowledging who you are (strengths and
weaknesses), and improve these. You then need a benchmark so you can
model their behavior and incorporate it as your own.
For example: If you look at great salespeople, I mean the really great ones,
you will notice similarities: they have a confdent posture, heads up,
shoulders back, they walk diferently, smile a lot, have great tonalities,
and they portray this great confdent persona when addressing anyone or
any audience. Tey are pros, they hold their ground. Watch great
warriors, business leaders, or great salesman. All of them act like this. Tis
is how you need to act as well.
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If you are still not there, you need to work on this. How? By practicing.
No way around it.
Your brain and body work like a machine. If it is that imperative for your
survival, both will work in conjunction to get you there. But you can't
get there without practicing for a certain period - at least 60 days straight.
Only then you will get used to this new persona, as this behavior will
become natural. Tis will be your new you, even without you thinking
about it.
Te diva
While pumping up your confdence, and focusing on becoming the

leader is one thing, the dark side of this is the diva...All the divas of this
world. Let's address this concept:
You are starting out broke, you know you are broke but you are fghting
your way out, heads on with your bullies, so you can win.
Divas are a dysfunction of this. Tey are also broke, but they are not
fghting their bullies. Instead, because they are weak and insecure, they
bully everyone else around them to gain power.
What they really want is everyone to take care of them, but because they
are not providing anything, since they are so self-centered, they are broke.
But still, it's about them, the glorifed broke diva, with nothing to show
for. Tis my friend, is the defnition of a bum (man or woman), not a
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Boss. And you should stay away from these people.
Te diference between a Boss and a Diva? Humility. Both are broke, but
one chooses to step up, be brave and address their bullies, the other
bullies everyone else just to feel better.
Te One thing
Remember this distinction: Te only diference between a true

Entrepreneur and everyone else is his willingness to stand up, directly face
his problems, and keep punching their bullies until he knocks them out.
Start doing this everyday, and you will start seeing your Life change. You
are making sure you are solving your problems, and not letting them
keep you from getting what you want.
Tis is the way of the true Alpha. And you won't see an Alpha being a
wimp, whining or complaining. He just keeps getting up and keeps
getting up. He is either going to win or die trying.
Tis is how you have to start acting if you truly want to win: step up and
face the challenge, or stay down and die. It's up to you. Which one
would you rather have?
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2. How to improve your human psychology

understanding
Getting yourself to your improved Alpha self is the frst part of this.
Te second, is how you actually interact and communicate with people.

Tis is a critical step you need to improve, so you can start getting things
going your way.
You need to realize that, in order for you to control your interactions
with people - so you can increase the chances of your outcome - you need
to immensely improve your social IQ. Tis is the heart of the matter:
Start learning human psychology. Topics like: people's personality types,

basics of negotiations, body language, spotting liars, dealing with people's
objections.
Study and practice all these matters, and you will improve your
understanding of people. You will have a better understanding of what's
really going on in your interactions with people.
In my book: How to sell door-to-door like a Boss I go through this topic
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extensively, so make sure you get it here. It will help you in your sales
endeavors.
For now just make a note: the most valuable skill you can master bar
none, is learning how to deal with people - focus on this. People have
what you want and you will get it by interacting with them successfully.
If you want to have things going your way, you will need to know how to
navigate through people's talk. Don't believe me? Let me ask you this:
• You are the world's greatest accountant. If the person looking to

hire one doesn't like you, how are you going to get the job?
• You are the greatest investor of all time. How are you going to
raise capital if the investors don't like you?
You might say to yourself: “I'm the greatest at this.” Sure you are...but
they still don't like you, and you still didn't get what you wanted. What
are you going to do now? Are you going all EGO and stand still like the
diva's throwing dysfunction every way around you, or are you willing to
be humble, understand you need to make some changes about what you
are doing, so you can then get the job? It's up to you, Your Life...your
decisions.
Tere is no way around this. If you are not at good dealing with people,
your are screwed. You won't get what you want. It's that simple.
Improving your social skills is the single most important thing you can do
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for your Life. And it is not just me saying it. All successful people I've
spoken to, said this exact same thing to me. ALL OF THEM!
I have been in situations where my likelihood was dependent on that one

paycheck, I've dealt with very violent people in very violent situations,
and came out successful. I gave this a heavy thought process, and I am
pretty sure I got out of all these, because of the skills I've been developing
as a door-to-door salesman. I'm still not where I want to be, but I stay
humble as a student of this craft, because I've seen and experienced the
results frsthand, just from me practicing this.
You will start noticing this as well, after a while. You will start reading
people faster, having better answers to what they say, because you will
have a better understanding of who is in front of you and this is critical.
I've seen lots of situations where people underestimated the person in

front of them and it did not go well. On the other hand, when you
understand who is in front of you, you can make better decisions on what
to do. All these comes back to your understanding of people.
So by making a point of becoming better at this, you will improve your

social IQ Kung-Fu. It won't matter to you if it is a serial-killer in a cab or
a billionaire in a private equity deal. You will understand their
personality-types faster, and you will know the best way to communicate
with them.
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How do you get better at this? It's like everything: by practicing - lots of
it.
Best way to learn is from doing activities where you can improve these
skills. Teory can open your mind, but only practice will get you there.
Activities like:
• selling door-to-door
• selling over the phone
• speaking in public
• dealing with people in heated arguments
• sending direct marketing pieces to people (salesmanship in print)
All these will help you tremendously. Focus on this and you will already
be a mile away from the majority of people - that is a promise. See, most
people are cowards, they are wusses. Tey don't have the balls to go out
and do this. Tey would rather stay at home feeling sorry for themselves
than go directly to a business owner uninvited, and have him sign the
contract.
Say no to mediocrity, become a student of Sales. Take it seriously. Learn

to sell. You will separate yourself from mediocrity and start walking
towards greatness.
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I can honestly tell you that if I died today, the one thing that instantly
gets me a smile, are all the memories I have when I sold energy contracts
door-to-door in the most violent ghettos here. To this day, it is the best
business experience I had bar none. It didn't pay anything special, but the
knowledge I got out of it, is worth billions to me - I kid you not. Take
time to research the majority of the Forbes 100 billionaires. Tey talk
about selling door-to-door as the most important experience they ever
had.
Trust me on this: If one day you fnd yourself struggling fnancially, go

fnd a job with a company the needs door-to-door salespeople - It's easy
in, fast to start working. Tey are looking for anyone really, so it would
be easy-entry for you.
And if for some reason in the interview, the whole thing starts sounding
sketchy, and you get suspicious about them about the whole environment
there, don't worry, it is. It's a sketchy situation, they are sketchy people,
these are sketchy environments. In fact they are con-artists to say the
least. But don't worry: just do it and go for it. You will learn a ton and
have fun.
Most likely you will meet people that have been doing it for a while, and
you will also notice how sharp they are when communicating with other
people. Te best salespeople usually come from these places. Tey are very
sharp, incredibly manipulative, know how to handle people situations,
and this goes a very long way. Learn from them, you'll thank me later.
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Tis is how you will learn how to sell, close and negotiate: not from
staying at home, reading about it and buying an overpriced course, but
by actually going out there and doing it yourself. Courses help, and
should buy them all, but you will only learn if you actually go out and do
it.
When selling door-to-door, you will soon fnd yourself throwing them
everything but the kitchen sink to try to get the contract signed. And if
you are in rough neighborhoods, you are actually in harm's-way, so it
won't take long until you get sharper at this for survival reasons: reading
body language, micro-expressions, all their objections and hidden
violence signs. Tink about it: they can actually harm you, and you are in
the hood, so you have no choice but to get better at this for survival
reasons, as your Life is actually at stake. In addition, you are actually
getting paid if they sign. So they either sign or you get shot...ahaha. Isn't
that fun?
You'll hear every objection under the sun, you will see and experience all
sorts of funny situations involving guns, drugs, naked girls, violence...and
the crazy part is, the next door this starts all over again. It's like a comedy
movie.
Troughout the experience, you'll hear a bunch of no's and eventually

you will nail some yeses. When you do get these yeses, you will get out of
there with a smile on your face. You just won, you nailed it, you are the
Boss. And your brain will keep these great memories recorded as great
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experiences. Tese will make you happy, even when later on you might
be facing not so good periods in your Life. So everytime you need a boost
in spirit, you will look back and recall these wonderful experiences as very
positive things you did, specially for your confdence building.
If I asked you: “What did you do today?” Your two possible answers
could be:
“I stayed at home feeling sorry for myself”.
or
“I went to the roughest neighborhood in the country, knocked on 200

doors and sold $500 bucks of energy contracts”.
Which one would you be talking about when looking back at your Life
and what you went through? See what I mean?
Live your Life to the fullest. Tese experiences are invaluable and will
teach you a ton. Improve your Social IQ. Learn these skills as this will
give you an enormous leg-up regarding everyone else, and will also make
you feel alive - which is the whole point - contrary to most people.
People are getting too closed nowadays, they are weak. Tey bury their
foreheads in their cell-phones, and don't look at people anymore. Tey
are horrible at communicating, and their social-skills are next to 0. Tey
are wimps. Is that who you want to be?
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• You see teenagers breaking up with their boyfriends by texting
• You see families having meals with the father, mother and son,
each one with a tablet or phone. Tey don't have conversations
anymore.
• You see people getting nervous about picking up the phone to

talk with someone.
• You see Human Resources emails without a name of an actual

person there.
• You see people down the street not even looking front. Tey carry
themselves with their heads down looking at their phones.
When I see this, I just think to myself: what's wrong with you? Go talk to
another human being. Look them in the eye and have a conversation.
I see this all the time, as I keep earning my living as a door-to-door

salesman. See the discrepancy?
On one hand you are focusing on becoming a better communicator, so

you can sell more. On the other, you see all these people that would just
fail miserably, because they don't know how to communicate. Tey go
through Life sleepwalking, what's the point in that?
Tese people close themselves in a bubble and are missing out on the one
thing that can actually get them to where they want to go: Human
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Connections.
Figure 2 – Business is done by relationships
I said it before and I will say it again: people are your most valuable
resource. Tey are the ones that will unlock the doors for you. But you
can't get anything from them unless you connect with them efectively.
When you have weak social skills, this won't go well in your favor. It just
won't happen. In person or online, people have to connect with you in
some way, so you can get a new door open for you: either by selling a
program, getting a job, getting a grant, getting a discount on a product,
getting your supplier to hold your bill for an extra 30 days...all this
happens, because the other person connects with you. Tey connect
because of your social skills, nothing else. Ignoring this is essentially
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shooting yourself in the head as you are killing your only shot of having a
better future. To move forward, the other person needs to say yes to you.
How's this going to happen if they don't connect with you?
Obviously the more you learn how to deal with people the better:
learning psychology, negotiations and body-language reading, all I
mentioned earlier helps. Tis is why I am such a big proponent of
learning psychology, as you will have tools to deal with arguments and
have them turn in your favor. It doesn't mean you will win all the time,
but it gets you an advantage. Especially when they are lying to you. You
will start noticing this much faster ad fnd a way to manipulate them in
your favor:
“I'm sick, I don't think I can meet you today and pay you. I am at the
Hospital” .
“I understand John, I just parked the car next to yours and am right
outside your house. I'll be up in 1 minute.”
See what I mean?
And obviously you need to think about this a lot, strategize and improve
your actions based on what happened so you can do better next time in
similar interactions. Learning comes from practice – that's it. By
implementing theory in real Life situations.
Practice closes everyday. Try to fnd new ways to poke the logic and then
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come up with new answers that turn the negotiation in your favor. Te
more you do this, the more efective you will be at negotiating. You will
be able to send curve balls at them, they weren't expecting. You will look
and sound sharp. In reality what you did was practice everyday, which is
something people don't do. And obviously you are not like most people.
So it all comes down to your choice: you either choose to stay weak
dealing with people, and close opportunities that could help you move
forward or, you decide you want to become stronger at this, and increase
the likelihood of getting what you want, so you start practicing. Which
one will it be?
If you choose to move forward by deciding to increase your social skills,

the next question would be: “Ok, I want this, but I need help as I don't
know how to do it well”. Tis is where knowledge and practice comes
into play: Personality Types, Body-Language, Dealing with Objections,
Dealing with Ofenses. You can master this by learning the groundwork
and by practicing in your daily life. Tat's what I do everyday and how I
keep working to get better. Tis is how you can do it as well.
If you want to learn more about this, get my other book: How to sell
door-to-door like a Boss at https://byudigital.com/book2 .I go through
this topic extensively and share some of my ground-breaking fndings,
that I've learned by selling door-to-door.
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Part 3: How to improve your social network
Becoming aware of who you are and improving yourself from the social
IQ perspective are two stepping stones to this. Te last one is improving
your social network, improving the quality of the people you have around
you: who are they, what do they do, and what impact are they having in
your everyday life. In only one question: who are you with on a regular
basis?
Your Social Pillar has a double efect on both your Health and Financial
Life, and we at times forget all about this. Te quality of your Life is
heavily dictated by the people you have around you. Addressing your
current social network status - quality, bad or lack of – is the key to solve
this. Let's go through the why:
Economies are made of businesses. Businesses are made of people. People

do business with other people, because they know and trust them: they
buy from each other, partner, make introductions, do favors, marry, and
much more. You and I are in the People Business. It all comes down to
your List of People. Te People you know and know you as well.
As we have seen, People are the ones that will open doors for you given
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their resources, so you can get what you want. And they look for you to
do the same for them. Te sooner you realize this the better, as it will
increase the likelihood of your survival. So in order to improve your
circumstances, you need to improve your social network - it needs to be
more healthy.
To solve this, you have to approach the Social Pillar, as a never ending
process of building and keeping meaningful relationships. People are your
most valuable asset, but for them to be so, they must know and trust you.
Te way to do this is by you maintaining good standing terms on a
regular basis with them - no way around this.
Te version where the one person by himself will accomplish the world
alone is fawed. I have made the mistake of thinking I could be just by
myself and accomplish the world...and so I failed.
I was born and raised in a bad environment (both parents and

surroundings), so I tended to keep to myself as I could not relate to
anyone around. If this is you, obviously you have a point of doing this.
Who in their right mind would want to be around a bunch of
dysfunctional people everyday? It's understandable. But the solution is
not closing yourself to people, it is fnding a way to get better
connections. Question is: how?
If you are in fact in this situation you need to address this, as these people
will pull you down. Tey will get the worst out of you, and will
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jeopardize your chances of having a better Life...the Life you want. I

cannot emphasize this enough: Get rid of people and situations that can
clearly harm your chances of having a better future. Dysfunctional broke
people only complain and feel happy when bring everyone down to their
level. Tey don't want to be alone in their misery, so they don't want to
see you succeed.
On the other hand, quality people do the exact opposite, they will pull
you up. Tey will help you get up on your feet and keep going. Tey
were successful, they know it is hard, so they want to help. Tey
understand that the world revolves around being successful: they will
give you useful information, assistant jobs, making meaningful
introductions and hire your services if you are a company. Tey make
you feel better about yourself when you are around them because they
also have a good vibe. Te opposite is never true.
So, which one would you rather be: poor and miserable or wealthy and
happy?
But to have this happen, you have to keep searching for these meaningful
relationships. Find these people, reach out to them, and make sure you
keep them around, in good standing terms, so you can keep moving
forward. You create a bond when you meet them, and strengthen it as
you keep the relationship.
Tis my promise to you: surround yourself with these like-minded people
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and you will become stronger because your network will grow. Tey will
see the best in you and help you get more powerful as they have more
resources. Do this, make it your priority. Go outside of your current
surroundings and look for these people. You can be confdent in what I
am telling you: they will enjoy being around you, and you will enjoy
being around them as well. So your focus is to fnd them.
When Hard Times come
Te other critical part of the Social Pillar, is when hard times come.
Tere will be tough times in your Life where you will face challenges -
this is inevitable - and you will come to the conclusion that the only way
out, is by someone else opening a door for you: buying something from
you, introducing you to someone else, getting you work or a job, and so
on. Hard-times is a stress-test on your network, and the result you will
get is a direct consequence of what you have up until that point:
• If you had previously built trust with them before, it would make
your Life much easier now: why wouldn't they help you in this
situation, by opening a door or making a meaningful
introduction, if they trusted you?
• On the other hand, if you didn't develop any meaningful

relationships with these people, you are now in trouble: they
don't know you that well. Tis means your chances of getting of
the hook are slim to none.
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It all comes down to your answer to this question: If you were being
stress-tested today - because you had just lost your company, job,
position or similar fnancial asset - which people you were absolutely
sure you could count on for help?
If you don't have a list of at least 10 people, you are in trouble. Tis
means your social network is weak. You might even know people that do
have the ability to give you an opportunity, but they don't know you that
well, so they don't count.
Tis would have worked much better in your favor, if you had been
consistent at keeping these people around you. Business opportunities
arise and Money changes hands because of Trust. But you can't possibly
have this happen, unless you have a healthy social network. So it is an
absolute must from this day forth that your social network starts
improving. You will do that by keeping in touch on a regular basis:
newsletters, lunches, dinners, weekly meetings to keep your current
network, and by structuring your day so you can meet new people,
bringing them to your existing network.
Birds of the same feather, fock together
Confdent people hang around confdent people. Top-athletes hang

around top-athletes, heads of large private equity groups hang around
Fortune 100 people, Presidents and so on. Confdence attracts
confdence. First prize winners spend their days around frst prize
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winners. Success breathes success.
Why in the world would top tier people spend their days around broke
and dysfunctional people in a random cofee-shop? What's the point to
that? You won't see that at all, they got rid of them.
So, to improve your social surroundings, start looking at it like this:
• Get rid of people you don't want anymore in your Life
• Look forward to get the best quality people as your new buddies
and make sure you keep them.
Let's look at an example:
You need a lawyer to solve a problem you are having. You don't know
any lawyers, so you sent a couple of emails through some websites with
your request, made a couple of phone-calls and got hooked up with a
crappy one - you don't know anyone else, this was the only one within
your budget that answered. But this guy is horrible: every time you get
on the phone with him, you cringe, as this dude is a dysfunctional person
and gives you nothing but headaches.
Now let me ask you this:
Wouldn't your Life be much better, if you were speaking with a nicer
lawyer with a more positive vibe, and that also knew what he was doing?
You would, wouldn't you?
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So on one side, you have a dysfunctional person that gives you nothing
but headaches, but on the other, there is this cool professional with a
positive vibe, that guides you throughout the whole process: he is a
problem solver - a contact to keep.
Now, from his point of view, he also liked having you as a client: you
paid him on time, you have a good vibe as well, so it's a win-win for both
sides.
He solved your problem, you are a good client, and he likes having cool
clients. Tis a good connection, a connection to keep for both of you.
So which lawyer would you rather have: Te douche or the cool-dude?
Te quality of your social network is a deal-breaker in your Life, as the

quality of your Life is dictated by the quality connections you have:
• Te Investment Banker that sees potential in you, gave you his

personal phone number, next time you have a deal. He answers
your phone calls when you have questions regarding business and
gives you advice.
• Te Insurance Agent that liked your resumé. He went out of his

way to get you in the Insurance Business pulling strings to get
you in the Industry. Why? Because he likes you, sees the potential
and someone that can help him.
• Te Kindergarden owner that keeps the school open when you
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are arriving late. You made a phone call, he knows and likes you,
he doesn't charge you more.
• Te Lawyer that solves your legal problems and doesn't throw

sand in your eyes. He takes care of that stuf for you.
• Te Computer programmer that is struggling with sales but can

build anything. He likes you, so he starts programming a whole
thing from scratch, because he believes in the project - he is not
charging you anything. He believes your words, so he partners
with you in your startup endeavor.
On and on...
Increase the quality of your social network and maintain it, and your Life
will improve as a byproduct, from the Financial and Health Pillar stand
point.
All these people are problem-solvers and will help solve your problems:
they will improve your Life, as long as your are sending out a good
positive vibe to their lives as well. And not just words: you are actually
doing things that make their lives better as well. You solve them
problems. If it is working for both, the relationship will endure. See this
as a two ended view: theirs and yours.
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Te three tiers in your social network
To build your social network, there are three layers of people you need to
have in it:
1. Higher-tier
2. Same-tier
3. Lower-tier
Higher-Tier
Higher-Tier are the top people in their felds: Fortune 100 Billionaires,
Presidents, Actors, Singers, Top-Salespeople and Marketers, Olympic
Athletes, Nobel Prize Winners...you get the picture: these are the crème
de la crème: the top people in their industries.
Tese are people with heavy resources and with even more quality
connections: they are very powerful. Tey have the knowledge and the
resources you are missing. Tey got to where you want to be, so you have
to make a point of having these people as your new buddies.
Obviously, if you are not playing at their level yet, you need to up your
game. If they are real-estate developers doing $1 Billion dollar deals - and
you are brand new - there is obviously a big gap there. To be around
them, you must bring in value to them - something that helps - so it
makes sense from their perspective as well. I'll give you an example:
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At one point I started to reach out to the top real estate developers here in
Portugal. I wasn't in their level yet, but I could sell. Tey could see that,
so the connection made sense. See what I mean? Tey had projects, I
could sell them. Tis worked from both ends.
Tis is the key-point: they must see value from this proposed connection
with you and not just a “give what you got and you will gain nothing
from me” - this is a no-no. You are either hiring them, or providing them
a service. Very rarely there will be an instance when they just get
interested in you and buy you lunch. It's not to stay that this doesn't
happen, because it does happen, and I had this happen to me, but this is
very rare.
Look for what you can do for them, so that the connection makes sense
from their perspective. Tis is the best approach. Tey can see right
through you, and won't mind if you are at a lower level, because they see
you have skills to help them. If you start producing results on a consistent
basis, and show them you are that determined, they will start taking you
more seriously. In time you will grow successful, because you are proving
to be trustworthy, and as you are cementing trust, they will award you
larger projects.
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Same-Tier
Tese are people at the same level as you. Tey can be in the same
industry or a diferent one, but they share your line of thought, have
similar resources as you and you both get along as well.
In my brief stay in Engineering School, these were the students I hung

around the most. We respected each other, put in the hours and devoted
time getting things done. Look to be around them. Tese people don't
know more than you, but they share your line of thought and understand
you. Here, there is a bond as well.
A students hang around A+ students, but the following is also true: A+

students also hang around A+ students.
Tey can also be in diferent industries from yours: lawyers, real estate
developers, architects, accountants, but have this pull towards your line of
thinking. Tey came to the same conclusions and have similar knowledge
although they might be in diferent felds.
Tere is a connection between you and them. Tis connection makes

sense because of the exchange of services and/or knowledge. You might
be a lawyer specialized in real-estate, your colleague might be a real-estate
syndicator, there is a win-win there. Both are at the same tier level but
have a diferent type of knowledge.
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Lower-Tier
Tese are the people that want to get to where you are. A good example is
how Higher-Tier people look at you: you are not there yet, but they see
the potential in you. Te great ones will pull you up: this help can come
in a form of advice, opening other connections, or even some sort of
temporary job as an assistant. I had all these three happen for me at
diferent times.
With Lower-Tier people, you are doing the same: helping them with
what you know. Tey don't have the same resources as you, so obviously
you can't hang around them often, as they are not in the same bracket.
But you are going to help the ones you see worth the time.
I'll give you an example:
Te lady that cleans my house was struggling with weight problems, as

she was very obese. For me it, getting in shape wasn't a big deal anymore.
It was a given, since I got there and kept in shape for a very long time
now: I ran marathons and was training for Ironman....I just got over it. It
wasn't an issue for me anymore...But obviously for her, it was a diferent
story - it was a major issue. She saw my weight change and one day, she
bluntly reached out and asked if I could help her. I saw she seemed
committed, so we sat down and I explained what she needed to do. And
she did it.
Tis is what you are doing with Lower-Tier people. You are choosing
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some and helping them. What you know today, that got you the good
things you have - even if if you consider few, make a point of helping
people that do need your advice when they reach out. It might be
something you actually are undervaluing, but it is very powerful to people
that are struggling with it, because they don't know how to do it.
It really doesn't matter where you are right now. Don't believe in the: “I
don't have anything to ofer” proposition - this is simple not true. You do
have something to ofer. It's just that sometimes, you actually need
someone to come to you and ask. Only then you start realizing it. Tis is
critical for your understanding from their point of view..
Take time to have this one sink in. Take time to fgure out how can you
actually help people get what they want, from what you actually know
how to do well. I can tell you that if you do this for people you deem
worthwhile, it will come back to you many fold. Tey will have this
unconscious need to retribute and give back something of value to you. It
might not be immediate, but the majority of them will, because the seed
was planted in their minds.
We have already come to an understanding that being successful is not an

event, it is a process - a hard grueling one. Successful people that built it
from the ground up, know this. Tey know it well. Tey understand that
Entrepreneurs need guidance - lots of it.
So when younger Entrepreneurs reach out, successful people look
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forward to it. It's like they are giving advice to their younger selves. Tey
understand that when Entrepreneurs have their thought-processes clearer,
they gain a better understanding of things, a better grasp on how it
works, and as a result, their Financial Pillar starts working out better.
A better business does more sales, keeps more money and keeps growing.
As a byproduct, the founders get access to more money and resources,
and are able to increase their companies even further: getting more
suppliers, hiring more people and so on.
End result of a better thought process: work is awarded to suppliers, jobs

are created, and Economies grow.
Tis is all interconnected. Successful people want to see you succeed,

because they know it helps the Economy. How?
If you are successful, you keep your company, people keep their jobs and
your suppliers keep doing business with you. You increase people's
spending power. And since a person's spending is another person's
income, this is how you help the Economy.
In the end, you are actually helping these older Entrepreneurs that gave
you their advice, because of the butterfy efect. Why wouldn't you
mention them as being a big part of your success? I am already writing
about them here. See what I mean?
One of the best ones, was when I met Portugal's wealthiest business
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person. He just happened to be sitting on a garden bench. I went there,

presented myself and we started talking.
Here is this person in front of me that was the founder and owner of the
largest publicly traded company in Portugal, with a yearly passive income
as dividends of €160,000,000. Tis was the exact same amount I had
written myself a check to, when I decided I wanted a better Life. How
about that for a coincidence? Would you listen to his words? Tat is what
I did.
Two diferent worlds, two diferent people, and here they meet face to
face. Here he is right in front of you, the one person that has the
knowledge and track record you lack. What is your question? What is it
that you are going to ask him? Remember the gun to the head strategy?
Focused questions. I had a bunch of questions. He answered all of them.
Here is what he told me, that I will not forget:
• Sales must be consistent everyday like a straight-line.
• Every step along the way must be sustainable. If you have €1 you
don't invest it all, you invest €0.10. If you are wrong and you lose
it, you still don't get buried and lose all you have. If you have
€100 Million, same thing. You invest €10M. So the thing to look
for is: what is it that you are going to invest your money that is
not too big for you to chew, no matter the level you are?
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Like I told you: pearls of wisdom.
I had the privilege of experiencing many other encounters like this:
• Top-Tier-lawyers that took me out to lunch.
• Wall-street tycoons that took time to answer all my questions.
From all these, I made a promise I still keep to this day, and will continue
to do so in the future: if one day my Life turns around and I am in a
position like them, I will do my very best to help younger Entrepreneurs
that reach out as well, so they can have a better understanding of what
lies ahead and make better decisions for their futures.
So, Higher, Same and Lower Tier People - all these are critical to be in
your social network. But how can you increase your network? What's the
plan?
How to improve your social network
Now that you have the overall view of the social network and how
important it is to make it strong, you need to know how to address this,
so you can solve it.
Making new relationships
Tis is what I did: I decided to focus frst on connecting with the most
powerful people on this planet - both worldwide and local: Investment
Bankers, Real Estate developers, Business Tycoons, Lawyers, Presidents
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and so on. I wanted to be in their positions, so I needed to fnd a way

there. What did I do? 3 things:
1. Started a Podcast
I made a List of the Fortune 100 people, Real Estate key

players and business tycoons all over the world and
reached out to all of them. Te general idea was to
interview them, ask the questions that I wanted to know,
and publish the interview.
Tey were promoting their companies/organizations and

the public was learning from the interview. Tis is value
for them because they are interested in promotion, and it
is value for people listening because they can learn from
their advice.
On the other hand, I was raising from obscurity town and

learning from what they were telling me - if I reached out
again, I was no longer a stranger. It's not that that we are
best buddies now, but further contacts would be much
easier as we connected before. I broke the initial barrier
and was making a point of keeping the door open.
To get to these people I was sending emails, cold-calling,

connecting on LinkedIn, becoming a member of local
powerful organizations, and pretty much doing what I
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could, to be around them on a consistent basis (notice the

word consistent).
After a while, the podcast interviews started to grow and

my new “buddy list” as well. I had direct phone numbers
of millionaires and billionaires, and my social connections
started to improve. Further interview requests with more
people, would be easier as they could see the work I had
done before.
Do the same. Start your podcast, about something you

like. Use my strategy:
1. Make a list of people you want as guests.
2. Reach out. Not all of them will answer but some

will.
3. Do the interview.
4. Publish it and make sure they know you published

it.
5. Keep them in your regular newsletter.
Tis will do wonders for you.
2. Started attending local high net-worth clubs (Real estate, Opus
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Dei and Rotary)
Real estate groups, Opus Dei and Rotary clubs usually

have wealthy people there - and all these people have
powerful connections. It makes sense to do it. You go
there once a week and they start to get to know you.
Tis works, and it is not just from now. Historically you

will fnd that people like Henry Ford, Tomas Edison and
lots more, all did this. Tey understood well the power of
networking in these types of groups.
Find local chapters, email them, call them, join, but keep
showing up. When they start to trust you, they will start
opening up more and you will start having more doors
open.
3. Joined a Political Party
Although this would be a social network group like the

previous strategy, I separated this from the previous one,
because it fts in a category of its own: getting into Politics
is the number one way to get you connected to powerful
individuals, heads of large organizations and Institutional
Capital. If you analyze very wealthy people's LinkedIn
accounts, you will see more often than not, that they have
ties with the Government.
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Tey do this to get attention to their businesses. By

keeping these relationships in place, that is exactly what
they get.
Now let me ask you: Why do you think that is? Is it

because they are geniuses and the world started to bow to
them, OR...is it because they rub elbows with these
people on a regular basis and start building trust?
Get it? Tey understand the power of developing a strong

social network with these people. Tey are all over the
place in the Government. So if you run into a knot, you
are increasing your chances of untangling it, because of
the people you know and the resources they have access
to.
A good example of this is when Government positions

changes from elections: People that run large state
organizations get fred - this happens a lot. Te new ones
essentially say: “Tis guy is not one of us, so let's fre him
and get one of us there”. Like it or not, It's how it works:
It's “Politics”.
Since this is bound to happen, what about the guy that

was just fred because of “Politics”? What now? How will
he earn his living?
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People in this situation make phone calls to their buddy

list, and get a new job in another organization - usually
very quickly. Why? Because they are so brilliant? No.
Because they know key people. Tis comes from standing
relationships. Not because they are the best bean-counter
in the world.
Tink about this for a second: Wouldn't you be better of,

if anytime you were put against the wall, where you just
lost your CEO job, you would just make a couple of
phone calls and get a new job in another company, in a
matter of days? Yes or No?
Tat's right. Join a political party.
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Keeping relationships
After gaining contact, it is of major importance to keep in touch with

your new connections, otherwise it was all for nothing. You must keep
these people around you on a “speed dial”. How?
Besides the local groups you go on a weekly basis, create a newsletter and
keep sending regular emails to this list of people: once or twice a week.
Tis way you can keep in touch on a regular basis and your contact list
doesn't get cold again. Are all these new connections you made, super hot
connections? No. But let me ask you: if an opportunity comes by and
you reach out again, will it be easier? All this from breaking the ice and
maintaining contact. So they key here is:
1. Getting new meaningful people in your network on a regular

basis.
2. Keeping them in your circle, by developing trust with them. You

do that by providing them value (sending out articles, a book of
the day...), sending birthday wishes, and going to events held by
them. It's important to them, and they see you went there.
Tey'll make a note. Bonds will start to get stronger.
3. Repeat the process
Keep doing this. You will see your Life start to change. Trust me on this
one.
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Killing good relationships
If on one hand you are working on building your social infuence, on the
other you must realize the importance of keeping these bonds. Tis is in
direct relationship with you staying in touch and being seen as a credible
person.
If you have a track record of killing good relationships, usually because of

money matters, or being unappreciative for something important
someone did for you, you are harming yourself pretty badly. People know
people, someone is someone else's brother, cousin and friend. If you keep
killing relationships, you will eventually start having more closed doors
on you, right from the get go . Tis is not good at all.
• Are all people high-quality?Are all relationships worthwhile

keeping? No.
• Do relationships break due to disagreements? Sure.
But in all other cases, you need to make a must, of not hurting
relationships with people that opened doors for you in the past. Keep
them around even if your Life changes and you move on.
Some older Entrepreneur gave you a job when you needed, you now have
a better opportunity, that's fne, but don't kill the relationship. Make a
point of keeping in good terms with him. You'll never know when Life
turns around again, and you actually might need him again, or you
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actually be surprised that he will need you instead because something

happened. Remember that he helped you.
People that open doors for you are the people you need to have around.
So you must make your best eforts to be in good standing terms with
them.
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Te 3 most important letters in business social-relationships: OPR
Tis concept of social network leads you to conclude the following: as

people, we all have strengths and weaknesses. You and I both have strong
and weak points. At the same time, all of us are working to get to a better
situation. Since both propositions are right, the logical conclusion is that
we all have resources the other person needs and needs for other people's
resources. Tis brings us to the most important concept in business: OPR
OPR stands for: Other People's Resources. Tis can come in many ways:
Other people's money, other people's car's, other people's knowledge,

other people's connections...you get the point.
Te relevance of this, is that given your current resources, you are most
likely going to face a challenge where the solution resides in using this
strategy so you can solve your problem. I'll give you an example:
You need a job, one guy is a Uber partner: he has an available car and
needs a driver. You don't have money to get your own car but you need
to work so you can eat. See? Other people's resources: In this case you are
using his car to solve your problem. He is using you to solve his problem.
You drive for him, he pays you in return.
Here's another example:
Someone needs a job, and talks with a friend that knows someone that is
looking for a person with their qualifcations. He makes the introduction,
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they hit it of, his friend gets the job. See? Other Peoples Resources. In
this specifc case, relationships.
Like I said, Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. For every situation you
encounter, there is a way around it. People have what you need, so your
main focus must be to develop a healthy social network around you, so
you can have your business fourish. We already addressed this. I am
restating this again, as this is so important here.
Keep this OPR concept in mind as we move along, because you will need
it to solve problems.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this pillar we covered the importance of social relationships in your

Life.
You have to build your network so you can get more resources. People
have what you want, so they are your greatest resource ad where your
focus must be.
To get this working for you, we went through the three most important
aspects to cover:
1. You and developing in to your best version
2. Understanding your social network and the three tiers that

compose it
3. Developing a strategy to create these new bonds and keep them in

good standing terms
By improving your social-skills, you are increasing your Social IQ. You
will become a better communicator, and increase the chances of having
things going your way, when in negotiations with other people.
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By creating new bonds and making an efort to stay in good standing

terms with them, you are improving your social network. You are
dramatically improving your chances of survival, as people connect with
people. And people help people they trust. When Life hits you, and it
will, your chances of succeeding will improve, if you have a powerful
network around you. Te reverse is very unlikely and a disaster waiting to
happen.
I cannot stress nor emphasize this more: Develop your social skills, and
increase your social network. Tis is a must for your survival.
Te last point we covered was the OPR concept. By looking at it like this,
you will start approaching your network diferently. When you lack a
specifc resource you will be able to use this approach as a way to fnd out
the best people that have what you need.
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CHAPTER 3
Pillar #3: Wealth
Introduction
W
ealth is where most people struggle. And people struggle
because they don't understand how money works. Money
works in a very diferent way than most people would
want it to be, and that is why they don't have it. I will tell you why:
Most people have this bias towards the easy-fx, the one thing they can do
to solve their issue right away - the quick-thing, the surest-and-fastest
way. What is it they can do the fastest, so pain will be minimum or
avoided altogether, and get the maximum result. Tis maximum result
must come immediately. Not tomorrow...but right now.
Tis is what people want, and Marketeers bank on this all the time.
You'll see and hear expressions like these: “Make 7 fgures in one
month”, “Te best stock to buy”, “Surest and fastest way to success”.
“Lose weight under 30 days”, “Learn Ad copy in just one hour”, and
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many more idiotic understatements like these.
Let's get back to intelligent conversations: when you see or hear stuf like
this, take caution because it is a trick, it's a mirage. Anything implying a
nature that involves the words: quick, fast and easy, is a test of your
judgement of lack thereof. Te main reason for it, is that anything
worthwhile is hard, specially building wealth. It is not something that
straightforward, and most defnitely not quick...at all.
I will be the news bearer for you and get this out of the way: there is no
quick get it anything - in any of the 7 pillars – it is a hard grueling
process. You need to fgure out lots of stuf, and then actually have it
work for you: It is a process, not an event. And this is where people fail -
they can't fathom the idea, that they would have to submit themselves
and endure to a 30 or more year labor, to get to the result - they just want
it now!
Marketeers know this, so in order to sell, they advertise the “quick fast
and easy wonder solution”. Tey are appealing to an easy-fx to a wanted
solution, by reducing the time involved, like a “short-cut”, so people buy
into it.
Tink about it: if it was that “quick and easy” why do you think
successful people that have been doing it for the last 10, 20, 50 years or
more, are still working on it, to improve the process? Wasn't it quick to
begin with? Mmmm...
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From an analytical point of view, you'll fnd that the end result of what
needs to happen, is actually pretty simple, in the case of money matters
it's just getting paid...but the implementation side of it is actually very
hard, since there are a lot of moving parts that go into it. In this chapter
we will go through all of them, so you can get a better understanding of
the road that lies ahead.
We will approach this process in two fold:
• Firstly on a macro level - so you can get a better overall picture of

it, a 30,000 bird's eye view of the whole thing.
• Secondly on a micro-level - we will then go deep, so you can see

the micro-connections. All this ends up in a simple daily
schedule. And although this is simple, you'll fnd that the
majority of people just doesn't do it. We will get to this in a bit.
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Part 1: Teory vs Practice
Tink and Grow Rich?...Tink again...
I would like to get you on the right approach to getting wealth. Tis is a
deal-breaker to get money in your pocket or not. To prove it to you, I'll
give you two real life examples right now.
If you haven't already, you must read the book “Tink and Grow Rich”
by Napoleon Hill. Tis is the world's number one book on wealth
creation, and has been referenced by an astonishing amount of business
people throughout time, as the go-to resource to get to the Life of your
dreams.
Te book lays down a set of principles that Hill noticed by observation.

Hill spent lots of time around wealthy people and started seeing common
patterns. He then wrote these principles down and condensed this
information in his book.
Te book is said to have helped a very large number of people from its
release until today, and it's still counting. “Tink and Grow Rich” is a
timeless best-seller.
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Tere are thousands of testimonials from credible people there: all vowing
to this book as the number one reference to build a better Life. One of
them, was one of the wealthiest businessmen in the world in his time, the
late Insurance Tycoon W. Clement Stone. We will get to him in a bit.
“Tink and Grow Rich” is a very good book, I enjoyed reading it. And I
defnitely recommend you reading it as well.
It clears up your mind by removing limiting beliefs in your present Life,

and helps you think towards about the future Life you want. It opens up
your thought-process to new and larger possibilities.
Sounds wonderful, right? And it is. Tat said, let's go deeper into this.
Here's the kicker: Napoleon Hill, the book's author ended up broke.
BROKE.
Say that again? Tat's right. B-R-O-K-E.
Te number one author on wealth creation, the one that got to the hearts
and minds of millions of people, backed up by testimonials from the
wealthiest elite throughout time, ended up broke. And this is not a joke,
you can check for yourself if you want. Remarkably as it might sound,
this in fact a true story.
Hill was later saved by one of his readers, W. Clement Stone, that I
mentioned earlier. Stone sponsored Hill's foundation so he could keep
doing his thing, by providing teachings and conferences to people about
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his fndings.
Now how could this be?
How could someone take one book to the letter and become one of the
wealthiest people alive, and the very own book's writer, the one that put
the whole thing together, with so many hours of research and thought
process into it, just didn't seem to get it?
Here's why:
Notice the words as the key to all this mystery is in the title: “Tink and
Grow Rich”. Notice the word think.
Although a big proponent of the book, obviously Stone didn't take it to

the letter, as he would end up like Hill. Stone took it with a grain of salt
and that made all the diference.
T e itty bitty word change Clement would have done if this was his
book, would be: “Act and Grow Rich”. Tis was the main diference
between both of them.
Notice how these two titles imply such diferent approaches:
1. Tink and Grow Rich
2. Act and Grow Rich
One is about the thought process of it, an analytical point of view.
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Te other is about getting things done, an actionable point of view.
Two diferent approaches, two diferent results. One led to wealth, the
other to broke town.
Actually Stone did in fact write a book. Tere is an audio version you can
fnd online that he reads himself. It' s called “Te success system that
never fails”.
If you read his book, or hear him talk, you will immediately notice the
major diference between both: Stone was clearly action oriented. Hill
was a philosopher.
One was pure theory, not a person of action. Stone was the action
person. He understood that Hill's framework was correct, but it needed
to be implemented on a consistent basis. Tis was the major distinction
between both: Action or lack thereof. And of course, both their lives
ended up as a byproduct of the actions each of them took. All this based
on the distinction of this one word – think vs act: Hill thought about it,
Stone acted on it. Stone ended up wealthy, Hill didn't.
Now, do you need to think, strategize and redo your approach to Life?
Obviously.
Do you need to give it a heavy thought process so you can do better? Of

course.
Obviously you can't shoot then aim - It doesn't work like that. But the
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bottom line is: at the end of the day, money comes from you getting it
from someone else, from the actions you take on this matter, and not by
just reading and philosophizing about it. Direct action to get it now, and
fguring out ways of getting more and keeping it, is how you get wealthy.
Tis is what Stone did: He learned frst by studying Hill's framework, but
he then focused his energy on applying these concepts in real Life - he
focused on action. He learned how to sell, developed his technique, got
better as a result of practicing it, and started getting better and better
results. Essentially he focused on increasing sales.
Over time, Stone built a large salesforce to replicate is selling methods,

and ended up creating an enormous portfolio of insurance clients. He
became one of the wealthiest people alive not by thinking about it only,
but as a byproduct of his actions. He made his Life mission to sell and
increase his sales. In the end that's exactly what he achieved. Act and
Grow Rich!
And this is exactly what stops most people. Tey get stopped by
themselves to do what they should: sell. Doing it everyday on a consistent
basis, and going through the grueling process. Tis is where it all starts
and ends. Tey just want the easy-fx, without doing the work.
Tis is why we are starting from the main key point: selling. Selling is the
number one diferentiator from people that have money from the ones
that don't: wealthy people have a lot of money as a result of sales, poor
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people have almost none.
So in order to further address this, let's go deeper on what is money, what

is a sale and how both are interconnected.
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Part 2: Money and Sales
What is money?
Money is a number - that's it. It is a number shown in a form of a piece

of paper, a coin, a number in your bank account. It has absolutely no
emotion or attachment of any kind to anybody. You need to see it for
what it is, and remove any sort of emotions from it: it has no life, it's just
a number. It doesn't matter if you face self-doubt, or you are the most
confdent person alive. Money is a number. $1. $100 billion. $1
trillion...A number. Just...a...number.
If you recall 2nd grade Math, a number can grow by addition or shrink
by subtraction. And since money is a number, the only way your money's
number can grow, is if you actually do something to get it larger. And
this something to get it larger, is for you to do on a consistent basis just
one word: sales. Tere is absolutely no way around this, like it or not. So,
let's dig in on what this word Sales means.
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What is Sales?
A sale is an exchange from a product or a service for money. Mary is

hungry, she goes to John's Bakery and buys breakfast. She gives John
money and John provides her what she asked - money changes hands.
Some person needed a haircut, he paid for it. Someone lives inside a
house, she pays rent to live there. In all these cases a sale was made.
How do Sales and Money connect?
So, money goes from one person to another as a result of a sale. You sell
something to someone, they give you money. Tey sell something to you,
you give them money - that's it. Tis is what a sale that involves money
is. You buy something, you pay for it. Tey buy something from you they
pay you for it. Money is the currency for this, the medium of exchange.
Money is everywhere, and there is no shortage of it either. Look around

you: money is literally everywhere. Your money, the money you want to
buy the Life you want, is inside other people's wallets and bank accounts.
So in order for you to get wealthy, it is your job to fnd a way to get this
money in your pocket on a consistent basis, so you can start winning and
stop whining.
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Part 3: Value, Needs, Ethics and Emotion
Te Value Fallacy
If having money is a byproduct of you having delivered a product or

service to someone else, the next intelligent question you might be asking
would be: what product or service can you provide people so that this
exchange can occur in your favor? Good question.
Often times you will hear those self-proclaimed gurus out there, with
words like these: “Provide value to people and you will get money as a
byproduct” or a more elaborate version of this: “Te more value you can
provide people, the more money you will have as a result”. Bullshit! Care
to know why?
• What is the value that McDonald's provides people? Tink about

it: grease, salt, sugar and a heart condition? It's processed food
flled with crap you don't need that harms your health.
• What is the value in tobacco companies? What value can possibly

come out of an addictive product like tobacco to enhance your
Life?
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See the fallacy? It's the word “value” as the main keyword for you to
focus on - when choosing a product or service to deliver people - that is
incorrect.
None of these mentioned companies provide any value to you, at

all...none. You don't need them as they harm your body and shorten
your Life expectancy. You will be perfectly fne without them. From
them, the so called “value” you will get, is a set of: heart conditions,
diabetes, addictions and breathing problems. How is that for “value”?
But these are billion dollar companies and they consistently make an
incredible amount of sales, so what's wrong with this picture?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. What you need to see - the major

realization to make - is that you need to give people what they want, not
what you think they want that is of value to them, because they are the
ones paying.
So when choosing a product or service to provide people, the keyword for

you to change in your thought process is: value vs providing people what
they want - even if provides them no value whatsoever.
People buy what they want even though it might not be good for them.
And you can't go against this, because they are the ones with the money.
It is all about what they want, not what you want. Tey are the ones
deciding, not you. If you go against this, you will go broke.
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Your needs vs their needs
Tis is the second major distinction you need to make, before you decide
on what is it you are going to be providing: your needs as a customer,
might not be in line with your potential customers needs. Tey might be
willing to pay for diferent stuf than you.
I'll give you an example:
I'm an ironman athlete. I lift weights, run, do cycling, swim. I read a lot,
eat healthy, and have not been sick for more than 10 years, not even so
much with a small fu. I give no money to McDonald's, tobacco
companies, hospitals, health insurance or restaurants, as I don't eat out. I
eat once a day at 5.00 at home and spend $0 in any of these industries
throughout the day.
So, let me ask you this: if I am healthy and heavily invest in learning and
experimenting so I can improve my Life, how am I in any way, losing this
so called “value” these billion dollar businesses are providing? See what I
mean?
I don't need them as I am not a customer of these companies. I need a

diferent set of products and services such as healthy food products,
books, and some sporting goods.
But the fact that I don't need the other ones, and they won't see a dime
from me, it doesn't mean the majority of people don't pay for these
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services or products, knowing full well that they are no good.
Most people are not like you and me. In fact if you take a look,
McDonald's and Tobacco companies are billion dollar industries and
have been billion dollar industries for a very long time. Tis is a clear sign
that people want them around, so they keep giving them money. People
buy these products, have been buying these products, and will keep
buying these products. Tey are not being forced to do so, they are
choosing to do so.
On the other hand, Entrepreneurs are people looking to improve

themselves. Tey heavily invest in knowledge to improve their perception
of the world so they can clear the path ahead. Tey start removing what's
not good, and opening up to stuf that is better for them: better habits,
food, exercise, books, mentors and so on.
As a result of going through this process, they naturally start growing

apart from the majority of people. But as they do, they also start getting
this bias when connecting with their audience: Tey want to provide
what's best for them, even if they don't want it. And this presents a
problem when wanting to do sales: since they are diferent, they start
getting in their own way.
To solve this, you need to remove yourself from what you think people
want, not based on you, but on what people in fact are willing to pay for.
Not everyone is an Entrepreneur. Not everyone is like you. You have to
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understand your audience, even if they are not like you. Tis is the only
way you can sell them what you have. Know your audience even if you
are not part of them.
Remember that just because you read a lot or do the ironman, it doesn't
mean your client does. Your money is in their pockets, so they come frst.
Understand what they want, so you can handle their objections better,
and get paid.
Stop having ethics
You might think this is counter-intuitive, but it's how reality works. You
become wiser when you understand that you need to improve your
understanding of reality, even if some of your fndings seem questionable
at face value. Just ask yourself: “Is this true?” If you fnd it is, you need to
adjust your actions based not on what you would like it to be, but on
what it really is. In this way you are removing wishful thinking from
reality.
Further examples of this bias can be found in “conventional wisdom”.

Ever heard the expression: “Don't sell something you wouldn't use
yourself?”, because you need to love the product? Well... let's look into
this:
• You work for a manure factory: Do you use and love manure? Is
it the taste and smell you love?
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• You work for a pharmaceutical company: the pregnancy pill they

sell has a high chance of causing strokes to teens - and you have
seen this happen as a researcher. Now let me ask you: As a
mother, would you get your teenage girl on the same pill? No? So
why don't you get a job somewhere else?
In all the above cases, if you sell this product for a living and/or have
been part of these companies for a while, this makes you a hypocrite,
cynical and a liar. You are getting paid to sell or develop a product you
don't even use, just for the sake of money. And when people ask you
about the product, you either don't comment or you say it's great.
• Are your ethics questionable? Yes.
• Are you wrong? No.
You are part of the Economy when you get paid to do something. You
don't get to decide what's best for people, even if as an Entrepreneur you
know it's wrong. Te nice guy doesn't fnish frst or last. He will die
because he will starve to death.
But this is not talked about at all. It wouldn't be popular if people said
that as an Entrepreneur you need to be a hypocrite, cynical and a liar for
a living. But to come to this understanding, you need to dig in. You need
to understand how your industry works. How reality works.
And this is why successful people, the ones that have been doing this for a
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very long time, are successful. Tey go deep in their felds and get to the
core of things. Tey study reality and adjust to it. Tey now know how
the process works. It took them a lifetime of study, experimentation and
conclusions, so they started to progress. Teir thought-process is much
more aligned with reality now. Tis is why they get sound results on a
consistent basis. Tey understand this process works like a machine. It is
a system, and they now have a better understanding of the whole process.
Tis is also why there is no quick-easy-fx-anything and the surface-level

information won't get you anywhere. Being successful at any feld is a
lifetime of learning and fguring this stuf out. Even if the conclusions
you fnd, are not “ethical”.
I'll give you an example: Billionaire Warren Bufett has this welcoming
nice persona built into his presentation. Te nice guy: smiley, inviting
person, everyone likes him. He gives these nice presentations, these pep-
talks about being the best human being to others, your very best version
of self.
He says: “Have people look up to you, as they will see the best version of
themselves in you”. Tis is the motivational speech for achievers. Saying
that in order for you to become the person you admire the most, you
have to start doing those traits so you can become like that: honesty,
altruism...the full package. Te straight-shooter.
But on the other hand he got Goldman Sachs out of the hole, he owns a
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very large portion of Coke, McDonald's and a bunch of other companies

that produce sugar related products.
Now, let me ask you: how is that in anyway being the best human to
others, if you are fnancing banks than bankrupted the Economy and
products that harm people? Where is the straight-shooter here? See what I
mean?
But he is not wrong. He is right. Spot on. He made a fortune throughout

his Life and has been in the top ranks on a consistent basis. Tis takes
skill and a clear understanding of reality, on how things work, ethics or
no ethics. To get ahead, you should do the exact same thing, if it makes
sense from a business perspective. In the end it is all about money,
getting money from people in your pocket. Bufet understands this well
and he is very successful.
Goldman-Sachs is an enormous and very efective salesforce. Coke,

McDonald's and Candy Industries are the backbone of the Economy. He
understands people want them around, so he gets out of their way. He
just focuses on buying businesses that are already working, and banks on
the process.
Business is not about providing value to people - forget about that - it is

not about caring. Tis is just said to get you all warm and fuzzy on the
inside. Business is about giving people what they want even if it provides
them no value whatsoever. You will just be better of not being the judge
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or jury about it, and accept reality as it is. Focus on getting paid, be like
Bufett, not like those idiot bankrupted hippies. None of them can pay
the rent this month. I think Warren got that covered.
Now if it is something that in fact provides value to people, even better.

Let's say you teach a student how to do Math and pass the exam. Tat's
cool, you provided value. He passed the exam because of your training
and his practice based on your teachings. You got paid as a tutor. In this
instance you did provide value.
On the other hand if you sell drugs, people will also pay you for it. You
provided no value, but you gave them what they wanted and got paid in
return.
In both cases, money got to your bank account as a result, because in

both instances you gave people what they wanted. You might question
some ethics that go along with this, but don't dwell on it for too long,
because it's reality. It's how it is: people buy what they want to buy, not
what you think (even though you might be right) they should buy.
Still don't believe me? Go watch the Fortune 500 companies list and look
for a math tutoring guy there. Wait for it...wait for it...Tat's right: there
is none! Wait a second, wasn't this all about providing value?
Still with me? Like I said, money is a number, and you get money by
giving people what they want: value or no value. So, it really doesn't
matter to money as a number, if you rob people, kill for hire, sell porn,
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drugs, health insurance, derivatives, education books, cofee, food, legal

services, medical services, vacuum cleaners or energy contracts. It's a
number on a piece of paper and you get it by providing people what they
want. Te more you do it, the more money you will get.
So the key to this is your decision: what are you going to sell? Tis is
where you focus must be.
Remove emotions from doing business
So far we have established that, in order to get ahead in the Financial

Pillar, you should make it your top priority getting money every single
day like clockwork. Days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into
months...years. Either you get it, or you don't. It's about getting paid
everyday. But to do that, you need to pick a product or service to sell.
And like I said, you should not care or become emotionally attached
about your prospect clients either, if it is good for them or not. Tat is
their choice not yours.
If the end result of your conficting emotions keeps you from getting
paid, if you let a sale slide, that is on you, because the most important
thing, is you getting paid today in return for what you are providing. If
you fail, you won't get paid and you can't pay the rent. End of story.
To be efective at selling, addressing emotions is key. You should have

none when dealing with people. You should be disagreeable, aggressive
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and base your case on pure logic. Te only thing that matters is you
getting paid, so you need to become better at negotiations. Start
becoming aware that people will lie to you, because people are liars by
default. Tere are no good people - there is no such thing. Conventional
wisdom is never right. People are motivated by self-interest and wouldn't
hesitate to kill you if their Lives where at stake. Don't believe the nice
talk for a second - people are horrible. When the shit hits the fan, they
think about themselves and act on their survival, not yours.
People lie all the time, and they will lie to you in negotiations, because
they are not blunt even if they appear to be. Tey are hiding something,
so they will try and sell you into the: “I am not doing this today John”.
“Not the best time”. “I need to talk with my spouse”. “I need to think
about it”...and on and on.
Now let me ask you: a guy enters a car lot. “I'm just looking” he says to
the salesperson. Oh really? Why even go to the parking lot in the frst
place? Was he looking to get a sandwich instead?
• If the car-salesperson is any good, he will address this. He will

talk with the client, and focus on uncovering what he wants, with
the sole agenda of having him sign a contract on the spot.
• If he is bad at his job, he is going to buy into this line of crap, and
let the prospect walk away. He just lost the sale and didn't get
paid.
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Who keeps the money?In the frst case, the car-salesperson gets to pay
rent. In the last one, who keeps the money? Tat's right...the lying
prospective client. See what I mean, or are you still bound by ethics?
People will say no to you all the time, that they don't have the money
and all these lies, but when you take some time to think about this, you
will see people buy all sorts of meaningless stuf all the time: Large TV
sets, vacations, nights-out, souvenirs, drugs, tobacco...
You are a door-to-door salesperson who gets people on lower electricity

bills, and you see all this stuf inside their houses. You present your
product to lower their utility bill, so they can save money, to “improve
their lives”, to “provide them value”... and all of a sudden they need to
think about it? Seriously? What is it that they need to think about: frst
learning how to talk reverse-Polish instead?
People are responsible for their actions and their lives, not you. You must
look at it like it is: Money is all around you, and in abundance. All you
need to realize is that your money is in the wrong hands: theirs. And It is
your job everyday to get their money in your pocket, and make sure you
keep it. Tis is how you will get wealthy, his is how it works, this is how
money works. It comes out of someone else's pocket into other person's
pocket in exchange for something. Tey choose if it is of value to them,
you deliver it. No emotion, no ethics in it.
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SUMMARY
In the previous section, we covered the Wealth Pillar from a 30,000

bird's eye view. We covered:
• Te diferences between theory and practice
• How Sales and Money work together
• Te fawed concept of value
• Why you must know your audience, so you can understand what
they need
• Based on that, why you must know the product you are
providing
• Why you must fgure out a way of delivering the product

consistently
• Why keep increasing your skills dealing with people is critical

here
It is important to have a good overview of any challenge, but the
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solutions reside in the details. So in order for you to get clearer, in the
next section we will go in more detail, so you can better understand how
this process works. Te heart to all this is a concept called the Wealth-
Triangle.
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Te Wealth-Triangle
Part 1: You and Your Skill
Introduction
“In order for you to act, you need to know how and where to act on“ -
Anonymous
N ow that you understand what are the requirements to get wealth,

it is time to start getting to practice.
I've found from my real Life encounters with very successful people, that
there are three points needed to be addressed in order for you to excel in
the Finance Pillar. Some call it the Wealth - Triangle, some don't call it
anything, but all real players I've met do these three – all of them. I just
happen to think it is a cool name so you can remember it, especially if
you are dyslexic like me.
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Figure 3 – Te Wealth-Triangle
Tese are:
1. You and your skill. Essentially what you bring to the

marketplace and getting paid for on a daily basis. If you are a
salesman, you are using your skill to sell everyday.
2. Your business. Tis is an extension of what you do and has an

embedded amplifcation factor of your skill. If you are a salesman,
under this chapter you would train a team to sell for you. Tey
are amplifying your skill by implementation. Tey are selling for
you, using your knowledge. It is a business because you don't
have to be there, they are doing it for you. All you are doing is
focusing on growing it. You do that by implementing systems
that run without you.
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3. You investments. (Consolidation/cement process) Here, you put

money to work only and are making sure you have your money
bringing in more money back. It's dollar for higher dollar
relationship, with nothing more done on your end besides
putting money in.
All these three must be bringing a positive return on your money. If these
are working, you are in a good place. If one of these is missing, you will
be experiencing problems as the triangle structure will fold. As an
example:
• If you are not aware of your skill-set, it will be harder for you to
enter the marketplace and be paid for something you can do.
Even worse if you are actually bad at what you do. Te end result
of both is pretty much in the same ball-park: fnancial mediocrity.
• If your business is not working, you will have a tough time having
money coming in and be sustainable.
• If you don't have investments, this means you are too dependent
on your business. If along the line it starts to fail, you won't have
a way to ofset it with an unrelated source of passive income that
can protect you.
Tese are the three main components of the Wealth-Triangle – the ones
you need to focus on building. To do this, you need to start from the
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beginning:
1. Build your skill and implement it in the marketplace. When it is

working, move on to number 2.
2. Train a team to do it for you. When it is working, you can now

focus on number 3.
3. Make investments.
I'll give you an example of this put to practice. While back, an older
Millionaire Entrepreneur, took me under his wing for a couple of months
as a mentor. I worked there for a while and saw this same pattern. Here's
his Wealth-Triangle:
1. Skill: He is a master-salesman. He started out selling door-to-

door and is very sharp dealing with people.
2. Business: He has a salesforce selling door-to-door for him using

his methods.
3. Investment: He has a real-estate investment fund.
Put into practice, this is how he uses time in his day:
• He keeps reading a lot, and keeps improving his skills.
• He teaches his salesforce everyday so they can perform better.

Teir performance brings in more money for him.
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• He then uses this money with his partner, to do real estate

developments and acquisitions. Tey did so many of these, that
they had their own real estate investment fund created. Teir
investment fund has then further grown by investor's capital
coming in.
So:
1. Learn sales.
2. Get a salesforce to sell a product.
3. Use this money to invest in real estate.
In a nutshell this is his Wealth-Triangle. He was able to sell the product

himself, he trained a team to do it, and then got a team to do the bean-
counting activities. Te core to all this? His ability to sell and deal with
people.
In the next part we will address in detail each one of these three Wealth-
Triangle parts.
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1.
You and Your Skill
In order to keep going, you need to understand who you are and why
you are doing what you are doing. If not, the line will break and you will
quit. It all starts and ends with you, so you need to be clear on this
matter. Tis is what allow you to continue to push forward throw hard
times. Let's continue:
If I just put a gun to your head right now, what would be your response
to the following question: “Who are you and what do you do?”
I was asked this same question (without the gun) by a venture capitalist
once, when presenting a startup, and I couldn't answer. He was testing
me for focus and broke. And since I wasn't focused (and I was broke), I
wasn't able to answer him, so I didn't get the investment. Although I
failed that day, this concept stayed with me, as it is so powerful.
Whenever you are stressing out about important decisions, the gun to
your head strategy is a great way of thinking about things, because it
forces you to make a decision on the spot, leaving everything else behind
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that is not that important. It doesn't matter if later on you change things,
but for now, since you are on the spot, you have to decide. You are
essentially forcing yourself to stay focused on one thing. Te one thing
that matters the most.
So when asked: what's your skill, what is it that you will be proving to
the Marketplace? You have to answer immediately. Not tomorrow, not in
a second, I mean right now. Tis is not easy to do, but when you get it, it
will make your Life easier, as you will have a skill to focus on.
Everytime you feel you are getting of-track, just put yourself on the same
spot by asking the gun to the head question, so you can keep going.
You'll then know what you are, what you are not, and why you are doing
what you are doing.
So...once again: Who are you? Who are you really?
Are you an architect? Are you a guitar-player? Are you a salesman?
What is your super-power? Me? I am a salesman.
What about you? Still struggling? Let's dig into this:
• Some people fnd it much sooner than others.
• Other people need to go through lots of industries and job-

related activities until they fnd it.
• Some people never fnd it.
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For most people that do fnd it, most common answer? Tey say they
keep coming back to it, over and over again for some reason. Tere is a
pull inside.
You have a pull inside you as well. Tink about this for a bit, you know
this: it is something you keep going back to, over and over when no one
is stressing you out on your daily Life. It is something that whenever you
do it, time fies without you even noticing it. Tat's your thing. Take
some alone time for this, because you really need to fnd it. If you found
it great. Now you have a place to start.
But what about if you haven't fgured this out yet, if you don't know?
How can you solve this then? If this is you, you are not the only one. A
lot of people struggle with this, and the end result is that their fnancial
life is a mess because of it. Tey will fnd themselves in their late thirties
without a career and little to no money in their bank-accounts as a result.
Te problem is that they start a bunch of careers to end them

immediately as soon as it starts getting tough. Tey just don't stick to it
because it's either not their thing, they don't love it or they lack the
proper support, especially a strategy so they can keep going. Te fnal nail
in the cofn is their lack of focus. Tey don't have the habit of saying no
to everything else but just one thing, so they lose focus. If they kept at it,
they would fnd a way around the challenges ahead, and they would
endure. Since they don't, they quit and look for something else. So they
keep going back to square one...but older, and with their bank-accounts
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at 0 or negative.
So if put to the gun test, they wouldn't know how to answer these sharp
and blunt questions, even if their backs were against the wall and this is a
problem.
I used to be like this, until I found my way out of it. If this is you, I have
some good news, as we can actually solve this together. So, without any
further ado, let's address this.
You will fnd that the answer...the clue to solve all of this, is in your past.
Looking at what you have done so far will give you the answer. You will
fall within two categories: specialist or generalist.
How to fnd your skill: A word on Specialists vs Generalists
Ever heard of Michael Jordan? you know: the Great Basketball player,
PhD Physicist, Nobel Prize in Medicine, President of the United States
of America, and the Inventor of the Rocket Launcher?
Tis sounds ludicrous, right? But do you get the point here?
You know him for being the greatest basketball player that ever lived -
that’s it. He focused on becoming the best at it and he accomplished it.
And he did it by making sure he outworked everyone around him on just
one thing. Tis is the key diference between the greats from the
mediocre ones. Te great ones developed their skill, nothing else. You
will soon see that this way of doing things is a super-power.
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Tere is not enough time in your Life to become great at lots of things.
And has you have just seen, it doesn't seem to make much sense either.
Te jack of all trades is a master of none. And the one that chooses to
master one skill, gets it. You get the point.
You need to realign your Life's activities so you can become a master at
what you choose to do, your one thing. As you keep at it, you will
become good. Keep going even further and you will have a shot of
becoming great. Tis gets you out of the dabblers and the newbies group,
aka, mediocre/broke land. You will fnd that the more you do it, the
more things you will start seeing you need to improve. As you keep
working on these, you are moving forward.
Eventually something wonderful will happen: congrats, you are now the
Champ! And you did this by two fold:
• Default, from the weak ones. Tey just quit.
• Kicking the ass of the current Champ, because you kept

improving your skill.
If you keep doing this, people will start following you. Te reason why, is
because you are demonstrating that you actually know what you are
doing by the results you are getting. You become a fgure of authority.
Tey want to be like you. You lead the way.
Tey key to all this? Your determination and work to keep improving
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your skill!
Te main guy or gal in any industry didn't get there by being a dabbler.
Trust me when I tell you this: they did it by focusing, devoting time,
energy and dollars to become champs. Tat's how anyone wins at
something. No way around it: understand that top players are where they
are, because they went at it relentlessly with all they had, and for a very
long period of time. Tey stayed in the same industry, and outperformed
their peers.
People that are truly great at something, keep working on improving

their skills everyday. Tat's all they do, and everything else in their Life
starts getting in place as a result.
So, if you are starting out, you frst need to frst pick your mountain, as it
is literally impossible to climb two hills at the same time. Choose one,
and give it all you've got. And to make sure you even have a shot of
becoming the champ, you will need to have better results than the
current one.
Now answer this question: how in the world could you possibly do this
without working on your skill and leaving everything else behind?
It will take everything from you. Te work a boxer has to put in to beat
the current champ is not a “do it on a side thing”. Tey are truly
committed to their efort.
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As you keep going, you will have to be like this, and keep putting in
serious efort, because there are people out there, fghting for the same
thing as you, and they are giving all they have as well, because they want
to win too.
• If you go half-assed, you will get crushed by them. Case and point
- they will kick your ass.
• If you focus on results you will have a shot.
A word from Mike Tyson, the greatest heavy-weight boxer of all time:
“Everyone is a champ until I punch them in the teeth”.
Knowing well what your skill is, and making a point of improving it
everyday, will make you a master at it. Tis will separate you from most
people. Remember this.
So ask yourself this question:
“What is the one thing you can do yourself today, and keep doing it
for the next 50 years, that can get you closer to where you want to go?
And by doing it, everything else will either become unimportant or
irrelevant, because everything that is in fact important and relevant
will get in place?”
I'll give you an example: let's say John started out as an insurance
salesman. He didn't have any college education or money, and came
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across the Insurance Industry. He understood that there was no way out
for him other than selling insurance. To sell he needed to become better
at dealing with people, because he was shy.
He decided to improve, so he started practicing. As he kept crafting his

skills, that's exactly what started happening: he started to become better,
so he started to sell more.
As he now had more sales, he now had more money, so he started to get
people in. He trained a salesforce on what he knew how to do very well,
and the size of his company grew in result.
As his team was delivering results, because of his training, his insurance
portfolio kept growing. Tis allowed him to then hire backend people
(bean-counters). Since he was good dealing with people - because of his
practice - his company kept growing as he was able to keep people there.
As this process kept going stronger, he eventually had so many resources

at his disposal, that he then created his own Insurance Company,
becoming one of the wealthiest people on Earth.
What was John's main determination? Improving his sales skills. Tis was
the story of tycoons like W. Clement Stone, Randall Baskin and several
others. Tis can also be your story - in any endeavor - if you choose to
hone your skill.
Figure this one out, and you are on your way.
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Te solution? Stop being a generalist
W. Clement Stone focused on becoming a specialist in sales. As time

went by, he had so many sales, he was able to put himself in a position to
have his own Insurance company. All this from specializing on honing
one skill.
So, a specialist is someone that has dedicated his or her Life mastering a
specifc line of knowledge. If this knowledge is in line with the future
you want, you are on track.
A good example of a specialist, is a gastroenterologist specialized in

Crohn's disease. Tis is a medical doctor with a super narrow focus,
solving a specifc problem in their feld of expertise. It's not that she just
focused on one part of the body, she actually went even further and
focused on a specifc disease of that specifc part of the body.
If she is that focused, she devoted time thinking about it, researching,
doing experiments and publishing scientifc articles on that topic. She
gained inside knowledge few people have and became really good at it. So
chances are, she will potentially get paid signifcantly by drug companies,
because of her specifc knowledge. If they are coming up with a new drug
to solve this disease, and if it is a very complicated one to solve like
Crohn's, who are they going to listen to? See what I mean? Tey need her
knowledge. She already has years on it, countless hours of thought
process and experiments in it. She is an authority in that feld by her
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sheer dedication and focused energy.
Now, let's look at another type of doctor, more of a general practitioner

with no speciality - he takes on everybody.
Now let me ask you: do you think the same drug company is going to
consult this guy on the Crohn's disease matter? What do you think? Hell
no. Tey need a specialist. Tis guy is a generalist and has no meaningful
knowledge on that specifc subject. He doesn't have the specifc
knowledge to help them come up with a better drug for that specifc
problem, or any specifc problem for that matter. He knows a bit about
“everything”(whatever that means) and not a lot of a specifc subject.
And this is the main issue with knowledge from generalists vs specialists:
a generalist is trumped by a specialist every time, doesn't matter what the
feld is.
• Are generalists idiots? No.
• Are specialists geniuses? No.
It's how both groups approach Life where the main diference lies:
• Specialists think that if they focus, they will solve the problem,
and they are right. Tey say no to everything else but what they
focus on, so they keep at it until they get it. Teir issue is that
sometimes they focus on the wrong thing - so they don't get
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anywhere meaningful to their Life's. Tey don't have a high

overall vision in Life. But for the most part, when they commit to
something they want, and it is in line with the overall scheme of
things of a better Life, they usually get it.
• Generalists on the other hand, usually are much better with the
overall vision. But they wreck themselves on daily activities. Tey
think they will survive by being the jack of all trades, spreading
bets on diferent horses. You'll often hear them say: “If this
doesn't work, I better do this as well. It is best to spread bets
between diferent horses”. Do a little bit of this, do a little bit of
that...they have to know everything, shoot everywhere...but in
reality, they know nothing, they don't get anywhere. Jack of all
trades? Master none - they are incompetent.
Ever heard that expression: “Never put all your eggs in one
basket?” Wrong. You do have to put all your eggs in one basket.
You just need to take care of it and watch it grow.
A generalist so-called knowledge is skim-level-type stuf. As soon

as you start getting deeper on a line of thought, they will start
losing power, because they just don't know. And they don't know
because they don't go deep on anything. How could they? Tey
are scattered all over the place.
To solve a problem, you need to go through several iterations. You need
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to go deep on a matter. You need to specialize, and this is the byproduct

of laser-guided focus. A specialist with the right goal, gets to the bottom
of things because of their focus. Generalists can't do this. As a result,
when working on the right goal, specialists get what they want and
generalists don't. From the Marketplace's perspective, one has value, and
the other one is expendable.
Tis is the result of listening to the conventional wisdom “don't put all
your eggs in one basket”: becoming broke. 1% of the population is
wealthy, 99% is struggling. Where do you think conventional wisdom
comes from? Do you honestly think wealthy people listen to most people?
Be careful who you listen to, because you will end up like them.
A good example of generalists and specialists track-records is if you look

at LinkedIn Profles. You can immediately spot successful people from
unsuccessful ones. Want to know how? Here's how:
• If someone had a multitude of careers, they spent 1 year here, 1

year there and looking at their interests, their profle suggests
going all over the place (I do bitcoin, I am an entrepreneur,
mentor, lawyer, investor...), that just means one thing: they are
broke. 100% sure of this.
• On the other hand, if you see someone that just worked at one or
two companies and looking at their track record, it says 20+ years
in it, and they have a big position (Founder or CEO) I already
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know they have done pretty well in the industry. Why? Tey were
focused, and they focused on accomplishing the right vision, the
big one, so they got it. Otherwise, how could they have supported
themselves for the last 20 years?
It's usually something like: John Smith, CEO at X company for

20 years. Sometimes they don't even have a picture there in their
profles, as they are so busy. And when you look at their
company, it's a publicly listed one. Tey started it from scratch,
and made it a giant one. Tis is the result of being focused on the
right thing. When I am adding new connections on LinkedIn,
these people are on the top of my priority list.
See the diference between both profles?
One knows a lot about a specifc topic, the other knows a bit on lots of
topics. Lots of focused knowledge vs broad and weak general knowledge.
Te focused one rejects knowing about lots of things, and focuses his
energy on learning a lot about a specifc matter. Tat's how he wins.
You might be thinking: But how can one endure if he only knows about
a specifc topic? 99% of the Market won't be served by him, right?
Wrong.
You might say that a gastroenterologist can't save a person with a heart
condition or a lung condition. Well, let me ask you this question: Do you
think a generalist can save both? Or even better, if any of the matters are
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complicated issues, do you think a generalist can help either? He is

incompetent. He is useless.
In both cases, a generalist would refer each patient to a specialist, and the
gastroenterologist, although a specialist, would only take a look at
patients in his realm, referring the other patients to other specialized
doctors. Te opposite would never be true: A specialist would not refer a
lung patient, or any other specifc situation to a generalist doctor.
Lesson to all this? You can't be everything to everybody, but you can be a
lot for a specifc group of people.
See, contrary to what you might think, there is nothing wrong with you
just knowing about a specifc topic, but there is everything wrong with
you trying to know everything about everything. You can't possibly be:
1. A Medical Doctor
2. An Entrepreneur
3. A Website Designer
...And honestly expect any person that is actually an expert in any of

these felds, to take you seriously.
An experienced person in any of these felds, by looking at a profle like

this, would immediately spot this is a jack-of-all-trades profle. He would
smell mediocrity on the spot.
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If he is a website designer working at Google, and has done nothing but

that for the last 10 years, do you think he actually knows what he is
doing? Tis is a specialist.
If someone remotely suggests that is a website designer too, part-

time...just on weekends, oh and by the way also a mentor, public speaker,
an investor, do this and that, and a bunch of other unrelated activities -
this is a dabbler...a generalist, a broke person.
Let's involve money into this: If a company is looking to hire a top

computer programmer to develop a piece of software for their best client,
between both, who do you think they will take more seriously?
Remember this: the Market doesn't award generalists. In time of need,

companies will hire the specialist. Te experienced one that knows a ton
about it, that has years of experience doing it.
Tis is the one that can solve the problem, so he gets paid. If they have
another important problem that requires a diferent set of skills, they will
hire another specialist. He will also get paid. In both cases, the generalist
loses. How could he possibly beat any of these experts? So both specialists
get the job, the generalist goes home empty handed and that is the end of
the story. Both specialists get the job, the generalist stays broke.
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How to stop being a generalist and become a specialist?
If you are in fact a generalist, this means most likely you are now
presently struggling fnancially, so you need to address this. I will
guarantee you that the way for you to get out of your present situation, is
for you to frst focus on becoming a specialist: getting clear on who you
are and what your skill is the frst challenge for you to overcome.
Tere are other important steps to address afterwards, but for now, the
frst one to solve is focusing on honing one skill only. Te one skill you
will craft for the rest of your Life. Te one skill that can put your Life
together again. Tis is your starting point.
You are probably thinking, this is easier said than done, and you are
right, but I will show you how I did it. I will show you how my Life
started to get back on track again, once I started to adopt this mentality. I
had serious conversations with very successful people, and as a result, a
better way of doing things became clearer to me. Tese people weren't
speaking with each other, but they were pointing out the exact same
thing, so this meant they were seeing it. It was obvious to them, but not
to me: I was trying to do too much, shooting everywhere, to see if it
stuck. Tis line of action got me broke and it was clear to them.
Lack of focus will lead you to waste time, energy and valuable resources.
So I started to learn to let go. Letting go of everything but the one thing
that could get me out of my current circumstances. Te starting point to
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all this was frst being clear on what my skill was. If I would get known
for something, what would it be? What would be my superpower? What
is your superpower?
Strange as it may sound, it started to work. Te more I started to let go,

the more energy I had to focus on the one thing that could start getting
me moving forward. And the more I did it, the better solutions I found
to keep moving forward, and so the results started to come in. In
hindsight, it all makes sense right now, but it wasn't that apparent to me
back then. I will prove this to you right now with an example:
One of the most successful Entrepreneurs here in Portugal, has a bar

nearby where I live. He uses it as his ofce to conduct his business.
I was so frustrated, that one day I just went there uninvited, just to get
answers from him.
“I don't want your money, I just need to know what is it that I am doing
wrong. I am sick of this: ten minutes, that's all.”
People around him had these stupid smirks on their faces, but he didn't.
He took me seriously, looked at them with this fulminating look, they
shooshed and we sat down away from all of them.
He asked me: “What's wrong?” and I told him my whole story under fve
minutes.
Here is a quick summary of that encounter for you - the fve main things
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he told me that I will never forget:
1. “I can't tell you what to do. It is your Life”.
2. “You can do everything, just not everything at once”.
3. “If you are unfocused like me, you need to have focused people
around you, so you can see how they approach things. You will
make better decisions”.
4. “Be humble and let go of EGO”.
...And has I was leaving while he was getting ready for his next meeting,
he looked back, and said:
5. “If you focus, you are going to win”.
...and then kept going to his meeting.
As I left, his words kept ringing in the back of my mind as something

urgent to address. He was seeing things I wasn't, based on his experience
- steps I was missing. Since I was struggling, and he was successful, I
reckoned that if I focused on solving this information input from him
frst, I would be much better of than if I didn't. So this became my frst
assignment. I knew I needed to solve this, just didn't know how: “Focus?
Ok, but on what?”
I was broke, so I needed money immediately. To get paid immediately,
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that meant I needed to do something for people immediately so I could

get paid immediately. But I didn't have a product to sell.
Ask yourself this question: “What is it that you need to do right now so
you can get paid right now?” - this was a major problem for me. I now
know who I am and my focus in Life, but back then I didn't. I wanted to
be successful no matter what the cost was, but I didn't have a focus. My
Life had become a mess due to my choices until that point. Tese choices
came out of lack of clarity. Lack of clarity means that you don't know
where you are aiming, or lack a proper plan to follow. You might have all
the passion and talent in the world, but you need to know who you are,
where you are going, how you are going to get there and achieve daily
results in accordance.
Your Life is the sum of all your daily results. Te inner beast inside you
needs to know where to go. It is not a thinker, it is a doer. So you need to
focus all that energy on the one thing than can get you where you want to
be. When you are trying, Life will throw a bunch of random variables at
you that can easily get you of-course. So it is pretty easy to lose sight of
the target if you have uncertainty from your end – especially if you are
not clear on your role in the Economy.
You can't shoot frst, aim second and hope to hit the target - wealthy
people know this. Tey know they get stuf done because they focus all
their attention and resources on getting the project at hand done. Saying
no to everything else is a superpower, a learned one, and they do it well.
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Tey are successful, because they keep at it until they solve it - this is how
they move forward.
When looking at a possible investment in a startup, venture capitalists

test this out on younger Entrepreneurs - they must see they can deliver,
so their money is not at risk. Tis is why earlier on that investor asked me
that question: “Who are you and what do you do? What's your role in all
this?”. He also “smelled” the problem.
So, coming back to our question: “What is it that you need to do right
now so you can get paid right now?”
To answer this question, it all starts with you knowing exactly what your
skill is before even thinking about moving forward.
Strange as it sounds, all of them usually told me they could see I was a
passionate person. Passion is a good sign, it breathes potential. But it
wasn't solving my problem.
“Ok great! So I am passionate and have potential, but I am broke. I don't

need a pat on the back dude, I need money!”. Te problem here was
clearly a lack of understanding of what my superpower was, and sticking
to it. So I tried to see if there was something in the past that when I did
it, I was usually successful.
I asked myself this question: “what is it that I need to focus on...that I

have a passion for, and when I needed to use it, I was usually successful?”
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Ten it hit me: “Sales!”
• Selling door-to-door in ghettos, I was very successful.
• Cold-calling for several businesses I was successful.
• Promoting the YouTube channel, I was able to get a ton of

worldwide guests, some of them billionaires.
• In the street I approached that billionaire and we started talking.
• In several other encounters, I was usually able to persuade people

to give me jobs, sign contracts on the spot and do work together.
Sales, sales, sales...
It soon became clear that all these successful people saw me as a salesman,
a promoter - I just wasn't aware of this. I wasn't aware that this part of
me was being seen as a power from these people's point of view, I just
thought it was normal. Apparently I wasn't paying enough attention to it.
Te Marketplace can either make you wealthy or broke. Te key to all

this is the feedback it is giving you on your approach. If you understand
that you can't beat it, your only way to be awarded by it, is to frst start
by listening to it with an open mind. Listen to qualifed people, look for
common patterns you are getting from them. When you start getting
consistent feedback, and your current approach is not working, it is time
to look at your line of thought and change it if you have to, even if in the
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beginning it doesn't sound that intuitive. Remember to keep an open

mind.
You are doing this because you are seeing yourself from the Marketplace's
point of view. Since my frustration led me to approach successful people
in my need for answers, and I kept asking them the same questions, I was
in fact getting the same feedback...I just wasn't listening.
At that point they were the Marketplace, they were the customers. Tey
bought everytime I suggested to promote activities that involved them.
Tis is how I fgured this would be my way to pass to the other side: my
way to wealthy land. I had a higher degree of certainty on this line of
thinking, because the Marketplace was validating this line of thought.
Keep in mind that you are not asking people to tell you what to do. You
are coming up with educated assumptions and testing them out in the
real world. It's like a computer programmer: they come up with an
algorithm and load it. If the compiler throws in an error, they go back
and fx it. It is not telling him what to do, it is just showing him an error
in his logic. Same thing in Life: if you have an error, you look where the
error is. Go to the Marketplace so you can see it from their eyes. You
correct it and keep moving forward. It's about movement, remember?
All these people were seeing me as a salesman, a promoter. I wasn't used

to approach Life like this, but since this line of thought was being
validated, I decided to keep doing it. I just said to myself: “Let's turn on
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the afterburners on this activity. Let's do more of it, to see if I start

getting better results from it. From now on, let's just focus on sales only”.
As I started to change my Life approach towards becoming a better

salesman, I also looked for other salesman that were successful in the
feld. “What's the story with the best salesman in the world?” - I asked.
Cars, Real Estate, Insurance, it didn't matter to me. All it mattered, was
fnding out common denominators in this group. And to my surprise, all
of them bar none, had very similar pasts. Tey spent the frst half of their
Lives all over the place as generalists, and then they became specialists.
Tat's when I knew I was on to something. It wasn't just successful
people pointing towards the same line of thought anymore, I was now
seeing it with my own eyes: successful salespeople had similar
backgrounds to mine. I was making progress!
If all of them had similar pasts, that also meant there was a good chance
they went through similar ordeals. If they became successful, that also
meant they found a similar solution – a similar approach.
So if I wanted to succeed as well, I needed to focus on the same solution,

so I could be on the same path. I stopped everything else and just
committed on becoming the best salesman. I stopped being a generalist
and focused on becoming a specialist.
“History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes” - said billionaire Jim Rogers.
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Darkness Before Dawn
Here is the kicker: People that started out as generalists have brains wired
to be salespeople. if this is you, if you started out this way, you are like
this too. Why? Because you are creative in nature. And creative people
lack structure – it is their weakness. You are strong at coming up with
new ideas, but weak at following through. One comes with the other.
Te strengths come with the weaknesses.
Tis means that if you use your creativity to sell only one product, and
focus on following through, saying no to everything else, your creativity
will help you fnd ways around your challenges. You just have to force
yourself to stick to it and learn to say no to everything else.
By using this way of approaching Life, because you don't have anything
else to fall-back on (you are broke remember?), your natural conclusion
will be that you need to sell, this is your only way out. You need to get
paid, so you need to bring results. To do that, you will immediately see
the need to eliminate distractions and focus on only one thing. Te most
important one. If you focus on only one product, you will soon start
seeing people's reactions and objections in your interactions. But because
you are focused on getting the sale and holding ground with your
product, you will look for a way around these objections, which are the
only thing keeping your from getting the sale. As a result you will:
• Focus on increasing your social-skills, so you will become better
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dealing with people and counter their objections.
• Focus on learning more about the product, so you will become an

expert on it.
If you do this, it won't take long until you become a professional

salesperson on that product. You will soon know how to sell it efectively,
because you are improving your sales-skills and your product knowledge
out of sheer necessity. You will keep improving your pitch and your
answers to people's objections. To a point you will start winning more
than losing. Why? Because you focused.
At this point, this is when the Marketplace can REALLY start benefting
from your eforts. You become an authority because you can deliver: you
are no longer a generalist. You are a salesperson, a specialized one. You
will see your peers start asking you questions, you will see people in the
company opening more doors for you, just because you are a better
salesperson.
Te Marketplace awards this, because business revolves around sales.

Businesses stay alive because they have sales. Salespeople are the blood-
force of the business world, because they are the ones that bring in sales.
Tey are the hunters.
So, generalists, when they fgure out that they are in fact salespeople, and
commit on becoming specialists, the very best at it, they are only missing
one fnal step in their specialist journey: To remain focused throughout
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until the end. Doing the work daily. Challenges will inevitably arise, so
they need to say no to everything else and focus on overcoming the next
challenge. You are a salesperson remember? If you are getting defeated,
you need to improve your sales boxing skills. Tis is how you will win.
Just like Rocky when fghting the challenger in each movie - he didn't
quit and started a new career - he practiced relentlessly, improving his
skills, developing new techniques, so he could defeat the opponent. Tis
is how you will become better, by keeping at it. You know who you are,
and what your skill is, so there is no other choice but to move forward.
To do that you need to improve your skills and do the daily work.
So, if you started out as a generalist, you need to now focus on

developing your sales and marketing skills. Tese are intangible skills no
one can take away from you - It's a brain thing. Te value is of the
charts, because if you put yourself in a position, where you can at will
increase both deal fow, and your chances of closing people, this will
make you very efective as a salesperson. You will start getting what you
want out of your encounters with people and getting money in your
pocket.
Tis is the solution for a generalist, to become a specialist in sales and

marketing on one product only. Tis is how I solved my problem, and
how you will solve yours. We will address the product in the following
chapters.
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“Focus on solving the challenge ahead, not starting something new. Ten
you will be successful.” said Billionaire Aliko Dangote.
A not so obvious truth
If in fact you started out as a generalist and are now making the transition
to a sales specialist, you might fnd yourself in a weird position and say:
“I am not that good in sales”.
“I am not good at speaking in public”.
“I get nervous when addressing people” .
All these are normal. Tis happens, because you are not aware of your
power.
What you will soon realize is that when you do become aware and start
practicing, you will make much faster progress than most people. It was
there all the time, you just didn't notice it.
Trust the process. Believe in what I am telling you, even if it doesn't seem
obvious in the beginning. You'll understand what I mean, once you start
getting results.
So, this is the skill you need to master, even if you presently suck at it.
And you have to work at it from both angles: sales and marketing. Tese
are diferent parts of the same beast.
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Tis is the path I have chosen and dedicated my Life to. If this is you,
and you are just starting to believe, you need to start saying this to
yourself: “I want to become the best salesperson of all time. I take this
very seriously and practice everyday.” Do this, and you will see your Life
start to change.
An important note for salespeople
If you do choose to become a professional salesperson, it doesn't mean

you don't need to practice. You will need to...a lot. I mention this
because I see this happening over and over and I want to make this point
clear for you. Often times you will hear those idiot gurus out there saying
stuf like this: “Everyone is a salesperson. At some point or another you
had to convince someone to do something” Oh really? At some point or
another you had to run. Does this make you an olympic champion?
See, most people that restart their careers as salespeople, are essentially
looking for a job, but since they weren't able to fnd anything else -
because of their age, lack of connections or marketable skills - they end
up “landing” in a sales job like Real Estate or Insurance.
So, it's not only that they don't like what they are doing, they are looking
at it as a job. For them is to just do the minimum required, so they don't
take time to practice. Why? Because they don't like what they are doing.
In order to sell, these people wing it in the hopes of succeeding. But

obviously they will get poor results compared with the person that takes
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time improving their sales-skills. Tis other type keep practicing

relentlessly everyday, so they start getting more consistent results. If you
don't love what you are doing, you will get beaten by someone that does.
It's how things work. So, you will see the frst group of people quit very
early.
Sales is brutal. You live on commissions. Unless you perform, you won't
get paid. So...obviously you need to practice and have a system in place
that works, so you can do your thing. All this comes from practicing and
focusing on getting around your challenges.
If you are a runner, does it mean you don't need to practice? Hell no.
You need to improve yourself as a runner, so you can do better than your
peers. Olympic athletes, no matter what their specialty is, train like
madman. Tey want to be the best, so they give it their all.
If your specialty is selling, why wouldn't you practice like an olympic

athlete? Do you want to be mediocre like the quitters, or do you want to
be the champ?
Remember what we have been addressing over and over throughout this
book: there is no easy-quick-fx anything. If you want anything, you need
to go at it with all you have - no way around this. Be great at what you
do. Nothing else will get you there.
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How to remain focused as a specialist? Rejection, Rejection, Rejection
As you refocus your Life as a professional salesperson, you will by direct

consequence, close the generalist chapter in your Life. To close this deal
you will fnd a last challenge you will need to face: remaining focused on
improving your skill, and be consistent at doing it everyday and saying no
to everything else.
So, how do you do this? How do you remain focused and consistent?
You don't spend any time dwelling on anything other than selling. Te
shiny object syndrome as no place here.
In order to be great at something, it means you don't know about

something else, nor care about it, because you spend your time doing one
thing right. Since we already covered that you can do extremely well as a
salesperson, and you can sell other people's products, this means you now
have time to focus on only one activity: selling the product and
outperforming your peers. For this to happen, you need to reject
everything else that comes your way. What I mean is:
Instead of using time to focus on other projects because they look like a
great idea, your new approach when facing these situations is to just say
no. Starting things and quitting shortly after, will lead nowhere. You
need to fnd a way around your challenges, only then you will be
successful. Ten you can keep going.
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You now focus ALL your time selling just one product, and making sure
you become the best at it. Commit making this work. I promise you that
difculties will arise and you will need to fgure a way around them. If
you are able to do so, you will start to become successful and all the rest
will start to disappear.
If you are just focusing on sales, and as money starts coming in, you can
then hire people, you can then get access to more resources, you will gain
more credibility, and all these will help you expand your business and
move to where you want to go.
But remember that this is only possible if you focus on what you can do
best: sell...and reject everything else.
Remember these following words:
Focus on one thing, persist until you get it, and reject everything else
until you do.
By doing this, you will see your Life start getting back on track.
So, whatever your super-power is, you need to make sure you become
world-class at it. No matter what it is, there is no way around this. If you
want to persevere in any endeavor, you need to become great at it. You
need to make sure you become the very best at it.
• Look at NBA basketball players: Tey are getting paid extremely

well to do something they would do for free.
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• Look at a guitar player: Tey keep at it hours on end to improve

their technique.
Let me ask you, how can you improve your skill if you don't spend the
majority of your time working on it like them?
Do you honestly think the top player in your industry is playing around?
While you are resting, your competitor is putting in the hours to kick
your ass. Tis is how you have to look at it:
• How can the basketball-player beat his pears if he doesn't make

sure he out-practices them all?
• How can the guitar player play the music fawlessly without
practice?
No room for dabblers here. You either are going to do this or not.
If you are in, you better make sure you work your butt of to become the
very-best in your industry, otherwise you will stay in mediocrity land.
Let me ask you this: What is the point of being mediocre?
Are you looking to stay in Broke Land or become wealthy?
Be great, nothing else pays.
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SUMMARY
In this section we covered the importance of knowing what your skill is.
You fnd it if you look at your track-record and interests. When you do,
you need to improve it everyday.
You will stop being a generalist and start moving forward by specializing
on your skill. You will sell one product only and say no to sell anything
else. You will remain focused by rejection, and do the daily work
everyday.
Remember these three steps:
1. Sharpen your sword - Develop your sales and marketing skills

everyday. Keep improving these so you can become the champ.
Tis is under your control. You learn by practicing - just like
weightlifting.
2. Beat the Champ - Make sure you outperform the best of your
peers. To win, a runner must fnish frst, ahead of the
competition. In business, you need to know the numbers of your
top guy or gal so you can beat their numbers. Tis requires focus.
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Success leaves clues. Focus on your main competitor. Model what

they did frst and then try to surpass him. If most people are
doing $2,000 a month and one salesperson is doing $10,000 a
day, you must model what they are doing and then try to get to a
higher number.
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Te Wealth-Triangle
Part 2: Your Business (Te 7 Pieces)
Introduction
I
n the last section we uncovered your skill. Knowing who you are
and what skill you bring to the marketplace is the frst step. Te
second step is deciding on what you will be providing. When you
fnd that you are a salesman, by defnition it means you need a product to
sell. In this section we will cover how to pick a product and how to
develop a sustainable business around it. But frst let's talk about some
business concepts. So, what is a business?
A business is a system with the sole purpose of providing people what

they need in exchange for their money. Let's assume you have a store: a
client comes in, gets what he wants and pays you in return. And to stay at
foat, the business must be getting more money coming in than going
out. In a nutshell, this is what business is: it is a system where people give
it money in exchange for what it is providing.
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As a system, a business is composed of seven integrated pieces that make

it work. Tese seven pieces are:
1. Customer
2. You
3. IKIGAI (the connection between you and the product you are
selling)
4. Product
5. System of deliverance (the connection between the product and

the customer)
6. Money (ofense/defense: Attack to get more, defense to keep

more)
7. Current Resources and Situation (assessing where you are socially

and fnancially)
All these pieces must be working properly in order for the business to
function. If any of these is not working or it is functioning but at a very
low level, the business will fail.
In the following pages we will go through each one of these, so you will
see what I mean.
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Piece #1: Customer
Introduction
T he frst piece to the business is the customer. In this section we will

address your customer-base and how you can serve them.
You will learn important principles on what and what not to do. Tis is
an integral piece to your survival, because money will come from here, so
you need to understand how this works.
Tis piece is divided into two sections:
• Te Marketplace
• Who is your audience
Read this carefully. Take time to let this one sink in, as it is not
something that straight forward.
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Part 1: Te Marketplace
What is the Marketplace?
Te Marketplace or the Market is a word used to name people when they

are buying something. All people around you are the Market. Anytime
there is an exchange between parties, the one that buys is part of the
Market.
Te Market buys things because it needs them. It doesn’t care if you are
passionate or didn’t sleep, if you don’t have enough money, or have a
family you are not being able to take care of. Te only thing the Market
cares about is itself and its best interest: “I’m hungry, I’m sick, I need
make-up, I need to sleep, I, I, I… So, demand, demand, demand.
How can you serve it?
Te only way to serve it and stay in business, is by providing the

Marketplace what it needs, making sure you:
1. Get paid in return now and
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2. Keep more money than it costs you to provide it.
So in order for you to get ahead in your money game, your framework as
an Entrepreneur, must be the other way around than most people:
Supply, supply, supply:
• While people keep looking at YouTube and Instagram videos,

you keep making them.
• While People keep spending time at a cofee-shop, you keep

providing them cofee.
See what I mean? You supply, they consume, they pay you. Tat's the
whole point. You get paid because you give them what they want so they
give you their attention and money. And from the operational side of
your business, it must be sustainable. You have to ensure that by keeping
more than it costs you to deliver. In simple terms, this is what the Market
is and how the process works.
Te Market is the most brutal force you have ever met, and you have to
serve it. Te Economy revolves around money, and you only have
money, when you are getting paid. So you have to fgure out a way to
serve the Market. It can reward you immensely if you serve it or will get
you broke if you don't and you will lose everything. Tis is the only rule
you need to remind yourself regarding the Market: It is about them, not
you.
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A note for stubborn people: it is impossible, I will repeat: it is literally

impossible to go against the Market - you will lose. Nobody cares about
you. Get over it and learn how to deal with it. People only care about
themselves. You have to care about yourself, and learn how this process
works. And the frst step is you acknowledging this. Embrace this, as this
is the frst step to start moving forward.
Just like that philosopher said: “the world can be your oyster” and then
you can get what you want. Remember this mindset as you move forward
in your Entrepreneurial journey: First them, then you. Let's keep going.
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Part 2: Who is your Audience
Revisiting the Social Pillar: How the Social Pillar plays a vital role in
the Marketplace
As soon as you realize that you need to give the Market what it wants, the
next logical question would be: what to serve it an how?
To understand how to solve a problem, we covered that we frst need to

understand its components. We already addressed what the Marketplace
is and how strong it is. So if you need to serve it in order to survive, but
you can't beat the Marketplace, how are you going to win?
With that in mind, let's look at the Marketplace even further. Let's use
our subdivision logic from the GPT framework.
Te Marketplace is not one entity: it is made of people, lots of people.

Everyone around you make up the Marketplace. A lot of times, I think
people see the Marketplace as a whole and forget that it is John, Susan,
Raquel, Stuart and countless others with issues to solve. It will be much
easier for you, when you see your Marketplace as Raquel other than a
faceless entity. To be more specifc, your Marketplace is a group of people
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like Raquel.
As we have already covered, you can't be everything to everyone, so you

have to pick a specifc Market and double down your eforts on getting
more people like Raquel: Math tutoring, Restaurants, Barber-shops,
whatever it is, pick one. I'll say this again: You need to pick ONLY one.
Your only focus is presenting your product to an enough large volume of
people like Raquel. Te more you do it, the more you will get to know
her, and what makes her tick. Tis is important because it will allow you
to improve your product presentation, so you can be more efective in
your sales process and close more people efectively.
Where is Raquel?
In the previous section we covered that you need to know where you are
aiming, so you can craft your plan. Tis makes you job easier, because
you know the details. You are choosing Raquel because she has money to
aford your product. So your job is to fnd more like her. To do that, you
need answers for the following questions:
1. Where does she live?
2. What does she do for a living?
3. What is her age?
4. What is her income?
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Knowing this, will allow you to know your niche and get a better focus
on ways to get more ideal clients like her. I'll give you an example:
Let's say you sell golf products. Answer these questions to profle Raquel.
1. Where does she live?
2. What does she do for a living?
3. What is her age?
4. What is her income?
Tis is what you need to do so you can get clear on your ideal type of
client. Otherwise it's like trying to sell fsh to people that only eat meat.
How in the world do you expect to succeed?
Why would Raquel buy from you? Become the go-to person in the
industry
After you fnd Raquel, you will soon realize that it will be easier for you
to get more clients like her, when you become a fgure of authority in
that specifc niche. Everybody wants the expert to solve their problem,
not the noob. Trust is key.
Tere was this dentist in Portugal that was the wealthiest people's dentist.
None of them went to another dentist besides him. He was the fgure of
authority in that niche: wealthy people that needed dental work. Tey
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only went there, so he charged big bucks for it.
Remember that Business is done by relationships. Economies are made of

businesses. Businesses are a bunch of people working together to deliver a
product or a service to other people. And the Business gets money
because, Raquel trusted you and your company would perform, so she
gave you her money. Te exchange occurred because a bond was created,
and all bonds are based on trust. Tink about this for a second:
• Would you go eat at a restaurant if you didn't trust the food

would be any good?
• Would you go have a haircut at a saloon that had a history of

messing people's hair?
• Would you go have math tutoring with someone that didn't

know anything about it?
See what I mean?
So why would people give you money, unless they knew what you stand
for, and they were sure you would perform? When your audience gets to
know you as a fgure of authority in that specifc niche, they lower their
resistance level and start trusting you.
Trust is critical in business. You are in the People Business. Tis is why
the Social Pillar is so critical for your success. You are developing a social
network of people that represent your client-base. But this will only be
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true if they see you as a fgure of authority.
And to keep growing your business, you need to do two things:
1. Keep growing your social network on a consistent basis, and
2. Maintain the existing one, so they don't forget about you. Tey
will start referring you to their connections, once they see you are
trustworthy.
And by keep focusing on building yourself as the fgure of authority in

that group, they will perceive you as the go-to person to solve that
specifc problem:
• John? Oh he is great, he has 60 barber-shop locations. Tey are

great.
• Mary? Oh she is super-nice, she has this cool online store where
you can get this hip lipstick.
Tis is what needs to be happening for you. People talking about you and
spreading the word between them about what you do, what you stand for
and how you served them. People will use your services because they
know you and trust it will solve what they want.
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Staying connected vs the alternative: Get yourself known
But people like Raquel can't possibly even consider your services as a
consultant, unless they know you frst: this is why Marketing is so
important. You have to make sure they know you for something. Having
other people besides you talking about your business is one of the best
ways to get advertising for your business. It's not only that you need to
skill-up and become a fgure of authority, you also have to work on
getting yourself known out there. People need to see you on a consistent
basis, otherwise you will stay broke, because you lack clients.
It doesn't work being alone and staying disconnected from people. Tis
will only lead you staying in one place: broke. Tat thought of the
eremite, the lonely genius dude that comes up with a all-wonder solution,
out of the blue that makes zillions of dollars, is seriously fawed. If you
think like this, you are going to lose.
People connect and buy from whom they relate to and trust. And trust
gets built over time, not overnight. It is a process that takes time to build,
and it all comes down to your daily habits. How many people did you
make new connections this week? How many people do you have around
you on a consistent basis? See what I mean?
If you take time to analyze some very large companies business models, in
particular the ones that are in the B2B area, you will fnd that they have
long term contracts with each other: they have standing relationships in
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place for a very long time. Tey go to lunch regularly, they probably
know each other's families by now.
If you are the new guy and send this company's CEO an email to get
them as a client, he doesn't know you. He doesn't trust you. You might
be better than anyone else, but all he knows is the other dude that has
been his best buddy for the last 10 years. How are you going to win
here? See what I mean? Social Pillar.
So, to address the Marketplace, we have just fgured out that we need to
address trust with your client-base and work on a plan to maintain and
increase it. People with quality relationships get doors opened for them.
People without relationships end up broke. Even if they are very capable.
So in order to solve this one, you have to start building trust in your
business social network, and keep working on these relationships. To do
that, you need to build your client-list. Tis is what is called a customer
base: Raquel and a group of people like Raquel. Tese are the people that
are going to buy from you. Who is Raquel, what does she do, age,
demographics and on. You then need to keep in touch with your
customer-base, as they are the ones that are going to support you as long
as you keep giving them what they want.
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SUMMARY
In this piece we talked about the Marketplace as a whole and its needs.
Te world revolves around itself, not you, so you need to fgure out a way
of serving the Market, or you will go broke.
To solve this, we talked about focusing on a specifc segment of the whole

Market, and get to know them, so you can have better results. To do this,
you need to know who your ideal client is, your Raquel, so you can look
for more people like her. Te more you can accurately describe Raquel's
demographics, the better. We also covered that business is done by two
things:
• People knowing you - No one will buy from you unless they
know you.
• Trust - Business is done by trust. You need to develop yourself as

a fgure of authority, and stand in good terms regarding trust with
your target audience.
Having these two in your favor, you will be in a much better position,
because you know who you are selling to, and where they are. On their
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end, they trust you, because they know what you stand for and see you as
the one to solve their problem. Makes no sense to drop someone if they
keep solving their problem, so maintaining yourself on good terms with
your audience is key.
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Piece #2: You
Healthy Mind and Body
W
e covered in the Health Pillar earlier on, that in order for
your You section to be working, it is required that you
improve yourself with the correct health habits: mind and
body.
Business is a blood-sport, make no mistake about it. It is not for the

faint-hearted or dabblers. If you are truly committed to have your
business working, if you really feel it inside that you have to strike out on
your own and be successful, you must see it for what it is: a battle.
And to win a battle you must bring in your A-game, nothing else.
Getting yourself in shape, getting your mind clean and sharper in
decision making, all these will help you do better. All this will help you
get stronger. Te battle does not get easier, you just become better at it,
like a warrior that practices his skill to improve everyday.
Remember this as you move forward in your journey, as the Health Pillar
plays a huge role here:
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1. You will get hit emotionally, by confronting bad-decisions and

having to deal with the results from them.
2. You will get tested for endurance, by having to keep doing the
tasks needed to get done, over and over again.
3. You will get tested for organization, by having to work thin

budgets, keeping track of all sorts of important dates, and making
sure you do not stray away from your daily todo list, because of
unforseen circumstances you will also have to deal with.
All this takes a severe toll on you. And your best defense for this is to
keep getting stronger both physically and mentally. Tis will help you
push through.
Make it your daily priority to become healthier, both mind and body.
Te byproduct of this, will provide you the much needed energy and
focus, to do what you have to do every day.
Tis is the fuel that will be available to you everyday, so you can put in
the hours and efort in building your business. Tis will be absolutely
critical to your success.
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Piece #3: IKIGAI
aka Te Glue: Passion+Focus+Consistency
Introduction
E
arlier on we addressed your skill, and how knowing who you
are and what you do is critical, so you don't get side-tracked
when difculties arise. You need to be clear that:
• You skill is what starts your business.
• Your business is a system that amplifes what you know how to

do well.
Here we are addressing what I call the Glue, which is the second part that
get this to work. Te Glue connects your skill to the product and
Marketplace.
In it by itself the Glue would be a whole chapter as you can apply it to

any of the pillars described. Nonetheless I decided to include it here in
the Wealth Pillar, as it is inserted in a more practical application...I am a
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practical guy...I also believe it to be more benefcial to you, as you will get
a better understanding on how it works. Let's dig in:
Te Glue is composed of three main sections:
1. Passion
2. Focus
3. Consistency
All these come together as a result of a core fundamental concept called

the IKIGAI.
Te IKIGAI is a special piece to all this and a Pseudo-Pillar to your whole

Life:
• It shows you your inner compass in Life.
• It connects you with the product you are providing to the

Marketplace.
Te end result from this is your better understanding of the following:
• From your end, you will be willing to provide more or less energy
into it, given your level of IKIGAI. If you love it, you will do
more of it, if you don't you will do less of it, or quit.
• From the Marketplace's end, it will be willing to pay you more or
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less, given its interest in the product and/or you.
Here is where most Entrepreneurs fail, they either:
• Try to invent something that the Market doesn't want.
• Tey quit too soon or lack the resources to complete it.
• Tey are doing something that it is not in line with who they are,
so they lack the passion to keep going and so they will quit.
Tis brings us to this piece we are talking about. Te one thing that
connects everything - fnding your IKIGAI.
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1.
IKIGAI
You would be surprised how the majority of most complicated things

have very simple underlying principles at their core. Simple truths that we
often ignore or choose to, as we don't think they are that important, but
they are. Nevertheless, we get sidetracked as an end result, and get lost
along the way. Tis demands answers to a couple of simple questions:
• Is it easy to get rich? No it isn't.
• Are the principles behind it simple? Yes they are.
So something along the line fails, right? Yes, and here's why:
Like we have previously seen, business is a system where someone gets

something she needs and pays for it to the business owner. Tat is it.
And in order for the business to stay at foat:
1. It must charge more than what it costs it.
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2. Te clients must keep coming back.
3. A team must be there to take care of the daily operations.
4. Te business owner must keep working on building the business

to increase it.
5. Te business must keep enduring, ideally forever even without

the owner being present on a day to day basis.
Sounds simple right? Tis is Alice in Wonderland story!
You are probably thinking: I already know this. Tell me something I

don't know. Obviously! Keep reading.
When you are in business for yourself, issues will arise because this fve
step line gets broken along the way. Some you can fx, some you
conclude you can't. So you either change the model in the existing
business, or close shop and go to a diferent line of business altogether.
People that are looking to start their frst business, thinking it will be an
easy ride, are in for some serious beating - seriously. Life will throw a
monkey wrench in your dreams and it is up to you to get it out, put the
engine working again and keep going. Or...stay down and get stomped.
Acknowledge this or not, but Life will beat you down to your knees and
keep you there if you let it - it's up to you to accept it or not.
But to think you are going to dabble your way up to the top doing things
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half-assed in any industry, and actually believing you have a shot of

coming out on top, is some seriously fawed thinking. You will get
crushed by people that are dead serious about it.
I made my choice a long time ago by refusing to stay down. I'm either
going to win or die trying, that is my motto. Either way, I want to
become the very best at what I do. What are you going to do?
What I have noticed, from talking with so many Entrepreneurs - from

Billionaires down to people struggling month to month, are a set of core
principles in a form of an exercise that I want to share with you. I believe
this is where it all starts...and ends. If you solve this one, it will make it
easier for you. I can promise you this though: once you get this right, the
next steps will be so much easier. Not easy, but easier.
Warning: Tis is not an easy exercise. You will need some alone time.
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GOT IKIGAI?
Figure 4 – Te IKIGAI
Here is how it works: Tere is a Japanese word called the IKIGAI which
means the reason for being. It essentially subdivides your core and
connects you with the Market.
If you go online and look it up, you will fnd that the original system has
another section. I don't agree with that one because it is wrong, but I will
leave that open to discussion for another day. For now, I will show you
my own version of this, as I believe it to be much more accurate and
straight to the point. Let's dig in:
Te IKIGAI is composed of three circles that are interconnected. Te

interconnection is your core, your inner alignment with yourself, your
IKIGAI.
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1. Te First circle represents the Market. Te Market Needs. If you

are in Economics it is called the Demand. What the Market is
willing to pay for.
2. Te Second circle represents what you are good at. Some skill you
have. Coming back to Economics, this skill is what you Supply.
What the Market will pay you for.
3. Te Tird circle represents your passion. What you love doing,

even without getting paid for.
Te interconnection of these circles is called the IKIGAI, which is your

CORE.
When is your IKIGAI aligned?
Your IKIGAI is aligned, when you are doing something you love
everyday, when you are very good at, and when the Market is paying you
for it.
If what you want out of Life in the Financial Pillar is aligned with your
IKIGAI, you are happy. You are aligned.
What about when your IKIGAI is not aligned?
In my conversations with so many successful and unsuccessful people, I

kept analyzing this in their behavior while we were talking. Without
telling them, I noticed that very rarely you will fnd someone where each
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of these circles is aligned and in sync.
What I mean is: very rarely people are doing what they love, they are
great at it, and the Market pays an enormous amount of money for it.
Perfection altogether.
I am not saying it doesn't happen, because it does happen. Te most

successful ones are the ones that are more in sync. Tey are happy.
What I am saying is that, from all my encounters, the overwhelming

majority of people have a misalignment of sort.
Some examples of this are:
1. You love doing something, but you discovered that later in Life.
Te Market needs it, but you are not yet very good at it, so the
Market rejects you. Tis gets you unhappy. You have to get paid
for doing something you don't like because you need to eat.
2. You love doing something and you are great at it, but the Market
doesn't need it.
It's a hobby. Te Market doesn't need it and this gets you

unhappy. You have to get paid for doing something else you
don't like because you need to eat.
3. You started to hate doing something, to a point you don't want

to do it anymore.
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You are great at it, the Market needs and pays you for it, but you
just don't want to do it anymore. You know you have to fnd
something else. Te risk here is that you are starting over. To get
paid, you have to do something the Market needs. What are you
going to do? You need to keep getting money because you need
to eat. How are you going to do the transition?
See what I mean?
As a human being you will evolve, it is bound to happen. Your thought

process evolves and you become sharper at decision-making. And as you
become sharper, you will be more critical on where you are and evaluate
the daily decisions you made that got you where you are. You will come
to the conclusion you need to go to a diferent direction, so you will set
diferent goals. When you decide on those specifc goals for your Life,
and by analyzing your present circumstances, you will naturally need to
do changes and start acting diferently. It is bound to happen.
Te frustration and unhappiness you will experience, will come from the
fact that, where you are right now is not in line with who you are and
where you need to be. You want to be in a diferent situation, but present
circumstances might be keeping you from being where you want to be.
You love your dreams, you hate your present circumstances.
Nonetheless, you have to deal with the circumstances you created, that
got you where you are right now. Your design resulted in a situation you
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have to solve, and most likely it is not aligned with your true self.
Tis obviously causes lots of pain, overwhelm and frustration: you are
stuck. You need to get out of this. You need to fnd a way, to get back on
the right path. Te path that is inline with your true self. Your IKIGAI.
And this is the main downfall of people. Tey don't know how to get out
of the situation they created, so they get frustrated. Here I see two types
of people:
• ones that blame everyone else and
• ones that own it, by taking responsibility.
It's easy to play the blame game and not take responsibility for your own
actions. As an Entrepreneur, your future is in your hands. You get out of
it what you put in, so you need to take full responsibility for your
decisions. Acknowledge where you are and do something about it, so you
can get back on track.
Fear not, when there is a will there is a way. We will fnd a solution
together, that is the main purpose of this book. Tis is why I wrote it as I
went through this as well and found an answer. We will fnd an answer
together for you too. So let's continue:
When I started to learn how to improve my Financial Life, by reading,

having alone time, watching successful people's interviews, and then
testing it all out, I started to look to the people that were around me
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(clients, so-called friends, and suppliers), and one day I just said to
myself: “who the hell are these people, and why in the world am I here
with them? What have I done with my Life?”
So, what did I do? I sold the company, deleted all their contacts, put the
website down and started again.
Tis was not what I wanted anymore. It was causing me much more pain
and a complete misalignment with myself. I was only doing it for the
money. I didn't want to be around those people anymore. I changed, and
I knew it. I knew what I wanted, I had a new focus... But to get there I
needed a new plan.
When you reach a point in your Life when you say to yourself: “What
have I done with my Life?” and you do not even have a plan to get there,
that is when you have to start writing your stuf down. You plan. Writing
your plan down. Tat is your new focus.
See, the source of people's unhappiness is that they are doing something
for money they don't really like doing, but because they evolved and have
become aware, they are now frustrated. Tey want to be doing what they
love, but present circumstances are keeping them to do so. Essentially
they conclude they have experience doing something they hate.
And since they are not where they want to be, this frustration feeling
keeps growing. Tey are now diferent people because they have evolved.
So, now they are misaligned and are aware of it. If they don't do anything
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about it, this will only get worse and lead to more frustration.
I have found people that just threw in the towel, they quit. Tey don't
want to start over, so they keep doing what they hate, just for survival
reasons.
Tis approach doesn't work because they are denying the passion factor.
People around you will start picking up the subconscious micro-signals
you send out, without you even knowing, because your frustration is
breathing out of your pores. Tis is a time-bomb waiting to explode and
it usually doesn't end well.
Has human beings, we have this inner desire to become better. You
should become obsessed about becoming the very best version of you can
be. But by becoming better, your approach to Life changes. You will start
doing things diferently since you are acting from a more experienced
level approach. Your main goal is to get to where you want to be, so you
will see yourself trying diferent hypothesis until you fnd one that works
and then you stick to it.
Ok, so how do you align your IKIGAI?
Te whole point of the IKIGAI is to help you align yourself with a

happier Life: doing something you love, you are good at it and getting
paid by the Marketplace because it needs it.
Already having approached your past generalist Life, you will now focus
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on becoming a specialist in sales - this is what you are ofering the

Market. It also takes care of the frst part of the IKIGAI – Te Market.
By keep practicing and becoming better at your skills, you address the
second section of the IKIGAI – Te Skill.
So this just leaves the Passion section of the IKIGAI to solve, in this
specifc case, would be the Industry you want to get in, which in turn, as
a result will give you the product to provide to the Marketplace.
What industry you might ask? It is not a logical decision, it is a love

decision. It is something that for some reason, you keep coming back to.
Over and over again. Forget about outside pressures, forget about
everyone. Forget about everything. Just like before: gun to your head
right now:
Question #1: “You have your day of today and can watch YouTube
videos on any matter: tell me what you want to see right now? Tree
topics:”
Question #2: “Which famous people you fnd yourself watching more
videos on? List at least ten:”
Take your time to think about this. Remember, there is a pull inside. You
keep gravitating around this.
I will help you with my own example:
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Question#1: Finance, Sales and Marketing.
Question#2: Peter Lynch, Warren Bufett, Howard Marks, Ray Dalio,

George Soros, Steve Schwarzman, Henry Kravis, Josh Altman, Frank
Kern, Corey Rudl, Jordan Belford, Grant Cardone, Ben Feldman.
If you take time to look any of these people, you will fnd that they are in
the Finance sector an others in Sales and Marketing.
So, by combining these, in regards to the product, what to sell then?
For me I chose the Insurance Industry where I sell Life Insurance

products. For you, you can choose whatever you want, as long as you
know the answer to this question frsthand:
1. Does this industry have a solid track record of getting people

where you want to be in Life?
After knowing this, what industry do you love and you will be going to?
Be honest and answer.
Tis is where the IKIGAI kicks in and will help you keep going when
things start to get tough. And trust me when I tell you this: they will.
Using this framework, you are solving the IKIGAI. By also learning
about the industry behind the product, you will be able to see if what you
will be doing can get you where you want to be in the future.
Know where you are getting yourself into, before you get into it, because
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you will need to stick to it. Tis way you won't be expecting outlier
results when you already know the results the majority of people in that
industry have.
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2.
Focus and Clarity
When you get clear on who you are, what your skill is, your passion, and
what product you are going to sell, you are now sticking to a route,
closing yourself to everything else. Knowing this, you must be prepared
for the fact that you will be facing challenges. Since you are sticking to
your route, and by defnition a challenge is something stopping you from
achieving your goal, you will need to solve it in order to keep going.
To solve a challenge, you have already learned about the GPT framework
tool earlier in this book. We will now revisit this concept again, focused
on your wealth goals, to help you with some typical issues.
We already covered that your brain can provide you better answers, but
you need to frst ask accurate questions so it can then look for accurate
answers. All these come when you are focused. You decide you want
something, you focus on fnding the solution. Clarity comes as a result of
clear answers, because you asked specifc questions. So you have to pay
attention to how you are phrasing your questions. A good example to
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start of with, is how people usually address getting paid.
Te Making Money Fallacy
You usually hear: making money, making money. Let's stop and think
about this for a minute: unless you are a bank, or counterfeiting, you are
not making money... ever. You are getting money. And you are getting
money from someone in exchange for something. Get it? Tere is no
making money anything. You are not making money. You are getting it
from someone because of some activity you did.
A payment is an exchange. Someone gave someone else a product or

performed a service, and got paid in return. To get money, you need
someone to give it to you.
So, the question you need to address is: Why would they give you their
money right now? See what I mean?
Te answer is the product or service you provide that they require.
Are you providing food? Are you a lawyer? Do you have a car dealership?
Are you a medical doctor?
Your focus must be: Who is the one person that is going to give you
money today? What is his name? What is his email? What is his phone
number?
See what I mean? People that do need what you are providing. You need
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to get in front of these people, because these are the ones that will pay
you. You give them what they want and make sure you get paid in return.
Pay attention to the wording you are using when problem-solving. Your
brain starts acting accordingly to your wording and will provide you with
actionable plans. It does not work on uncertainty, as it starts to produce
that overwhelming feeling we already addressed, so you must be specifc
and use the correct wording - this helps you get clarity. Tat way your
brain can come up with better answers for you.
You are probably wondering: if it's getting money and not making
money, why do you have the title in this book written that way? Good
question.
Te reason why is that this expression is so generalized nowadays, that

became the common keyword combination people type in Google when
doing searches. Becoming wealthy is the “Making Money” niche. You
will hear this a lot from wealthy people. Tey also know this distinction,
but they use this wording for the same reasons. So next time you hear:
“make money” and this actually comes from a wealthy individual, you
will know the reasons they are using these wordings.
So to be clear, you will be using “making money” as a general expression

regarding online matters, but the correct wording for clarity purposes is
“getting money”.
Remember this as it is so critical to make this distinction.
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To further help you with this, let's go through some common statements
people say, that lead to nowhere. If you fnd yourself saying any of these,
or a variation of these, you need to address the statements you are using
and be more clear, so your brain can fgure out better answers for you.
Here we go:
Question: How much money do you want?
Answer:
• a) A lot of money
• b) $100,000 a month
• c) $160 billion in 5 years
Option a) A lot of money
A lot of money is not specifc nor it says when do you want to get it. We
already covered that your brain can in fact craft a solution for you, but
needs clarity.
Example: I want to buy a brand new Black Rolls-Royce Phantom by 10 th

of December this year. See? Tis is specifc.
If you say: I want a car.
Will any car do? Is it ok to get it in 10 years from now?
See, this answer: “A lot of money” doesn't work. Although it is
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understandable that when you state answers like this, you are in fact
saying: “I just want to have a better life, with much more money coming
in than what I have. Get me out of here now.” Tis is understandable,
but it just doesn't work.
Your brain needs specifcs, it needs clarity. So, in order to fx this, you
frst need to come up with a number and a date. Tat way, your brain can
start crafting a plan, that will in turn lead to actions for you to start
taking right away.
If you still feel overwhelmed by having to write down a number and a

date, that also means you want more - that is fne. But you need to start
somewhere and get to somewhere frst. When this happens, and to me it
happens a lot, at this point I further subdivide the main goal in what I
call Phases. Phase I: x amount, Phase II: x plus amount and so on. So if
you feel overwhelmed at this stage, do this:
Tis frst number is Phase I of your plan. You'll come up with a larger
number on Phase II, and an even larger number on Phase III of your
plan.
Something like: frst let's get to $3,000 a month, which covers your living
expenses, and then work on the second stage of your plan, which is to get
to $5,000 a month. Later on $10,000, later on $100,000, later on $1
billion a day. See what I mean?
Remember the Incremental Steps mentioned in the Health Pillar. It is the
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same thing here: you are subdividing your overall plan into things you
can act now. Tis way, the overwhelming feeling disappears because this
is something you can do immediately and complete it. You can do
something today inline with what you want in the future. Tat way you
are not postponing an important activity for a later date.
With this approach, you are helping your brain craft better answers for
you. Tis will help it give you specifc steps, even though you are a high-
achiever and want more in the future. Understand that you have to take
the frst step and not get stuck on just looking at the end destination.Tis
line of thinking gets you focused on one step at a time. You start from
the beginning and can act now.
So for the frst phase of your plan, just start with a number that is
attainable for now, that covers your monthly expenses. We will get to the
trillionaire stage later on.
Option b) $100,000 a month
option b) $100,000 a month is attainable but does not specify when. You
are saying you want to be getting $100,000 a month but not when. Tis
is more specifc but you need a deadline, otherwise it will be a mirage.
By defning a timeline, you crop this down into year by year basis
objective, monthly objectives, weekly objectives and daily objectives.
When you are at your daily goal, the question now becomes what do you
need to do to get paid $3,333.33 everyday on a consistent basis until you
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get there. Which product can you write proposals on, what is the price
point, which people are you presenting this product to, so that you can
close $3,333.33 everyday. See what I mean? Te more specifc you get,
the better your brain can help you.
Option c) $160 billion in 5 years
option c) is the ultimate goal. To become the wealthiest person alive. At

the time of this writing, the only one that got to this number in net
worth was Jef Bezos, Amazon's Founder. It took him 30 years. How are
you going to achieve this in 5?
I've learned that for each dollar amount you set out to achieve, you then
put it under the subdivision: years, months, weeks, days, hours. If it turns
out to a number too high for you right now, you need to further
subdivide this in what we already covered as the Phases Plan. Tat way,
you can act now and not get stuck. Remember that this is about
movement: something you can accomplish today that is in line with your
future self. Not something you are postponing for tomorrow. Because
tomorrow, you will be facing the same problem as today.
So, does this mean you can't get there? No. Sure you can. And you
should defnitely try. But let me ask you this: if you decrease this amount
by a bit just for now, would that still solve your fnancial problems and
still be able to provide you the Life you want? Most likely, right?
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You are not changing your goals, just your approach so you can move
forward today. You want to get what you want, and that's fne. But to do
that you have to move forward today. It's about movement, and you can
only move if you are not stuck. Get it? It is about starting right now and
keep moving. It's about consistent movement. And you must keep the
momentum going.
So what is your fnancial goal?
Now that you know you need daily movement, this means you need to
have a number to attain everyday on a consistent basis. What is your
number?
When stating out, you frst need to defne the immediate problem you
are facing. Let's say you have a total monthly overhead of $3,000. Your
frst challenge is to cover your living expenses and then look to further
develop your Financial Pillar on Phase II, Phase III and so on. For now,
this matter needs to be addressed. Tis is your frst problem to solve. Let's
address it then:
Phase I: cover monthly expenses
1. Defne the $ amount you want: $3,000
2. Defne the time-goal you want it to happen: 30 days
3. Subdivide your time-goal into years, months, weeks, days, hours:
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◦ Yearly goal: $36.000
◦ Monthly goal: $3,000. ($36,000 / 12 = $3,000)
You have exactly 30 days to have $3,000 with you to pay for
your monthly overhead.
◦ Daily goal: $100. ($3,000 / 30 days = $100). You have a

$100 daily problem. How are you going to get paid $100
everyday for the next 30 days?
◦ Hourly goal: You have 24 hours in a day: $100 / 24 hours =

$4.17 an hour.
To solve your problem, you need to be receiving $4.17 every

hour or use your time for activities that can put you in a position,
to get paid $100 in this time span.
You might be asking: “Ok, But I don't work 24H/day, I can only
do so much”
True. Tere are online alternatives we will address later on, but
for now let's start with the more traditional model, where
someone works let's say 8 hours everyday.
We established that you need to receive $4.17 every hour or use

your time for activities that can put you in a position to get paid
$100 in this time span. If you work 8 hours, it means this
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amount increases. $100 / 8 hours = $12.5.
So during your 8 hour work-day, everyday without weekends,

you need to either get $12.5 every hour, or do some activities
during some hours, that put you in a position where you will
receive the $100 in your daily hour schedule.
4. Decide on the product you are providing and its price point
In order to defne the activities needed, you frst need to have a

product or service to sell, so you can get paid this amount. Tis
needs to be something that when do it today, you can actually get
paid this today. So by consequence, you need to make sure that
this product has a benchmark of producing these results.
Otherwise it is like trying to hit 200 miles an hour with a tractor.
You are still driving, but not in the right vehicle.
In addition, when stating a certain dollar amount in a given time-

frame, you also need to know what is called the multiplication
factor. Let's take for instance $1,000,000 in your pocket every
day, like clockwork.
Since we established that someone is paying you this amount in

exchange for a product or service you provided, what type of
people are buying this product, what is the product you are
providing, and what is the dollar amount that are you selling it?
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◦ Is it a widget that costs $10 and you are selling 100,000 a day
to python programmers?
◦ Is it a $10,000 coaching program you are selling online to

100 people? A specifc audience looking for this information
product?
◦ Is it a $1,000,000 house you are selling to one high net worth

individual?
In all these three instances, to get the same result, the

multiplication factor comes into play. Price times the amount of
paying customers:
◦ $10 product x 100,000 people
◦ $10,000 product x 100 people
◦ $1,000,000 product x 1 person
Look at your dollar objective, and see what you are selling, from
this angle. Tis will make it clearer for you, regarding what you
will be up against.
Coming back to our $3,000 monthly overhead challenge, and

you have a gun to your head, where if you don't meet this
month's rent you will be evicted, you have exactly 30 days to
accomplish this.
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Let's pick the house example, and round up the price to $1.2M,
just to get rounded numbers. In this scenario you are a real estate
agent, you have your own brokerage, and you charge a 3%
commission.
Te question now is: how many of these houses did you have to
write proposals on, how long did it take you on showings, and
how long did it take until you got paid your commission?
Let's make this simple and say that it took you one year to sell the
house and you got paid your 3% commission on the $1.2M
house-sale. You now have $36,000 in your bank account ($1.2M
x 3% = $36,000).
Tis puts you in a position, where essentially you have all your
year's overhead expenses covered right? ($36.000 / 12 months =
$3,000). Only one problem: it took you one year.
Now let's look at a diferent scenario: Here you focus on selling

the widget. Tis widget costs $10. You have some digital
marketing skills and market the widget efectively. You sell $100
worth of widgets every day for 30 days as a result of your ad
campaigns. In both cases, the monthly result ends up being the
same, but the time it takes you to get paid is diferent. So now I
ask you this question:
Which one would you rather have? $36,000 in one year's time or
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$100 everyday?
Tis is a typical problem with people. Studies have shown that

human beings when facing this dilemma, are more prone to
choose the $36,000 in one year option. Te fast perceived
gratifcation by the larger number, overlooking the daily stability.
Tey perceive to be much better to get a bulk sum of $36.000 in
the future, than to sell every day $100, which leads to the exact
same result. People see that it will involve more work and pain to
do it everyday for 30 days straight, so they reject the idea. Te
preferred alternative is to just get it now with minimum to no
efort involved. Tat is why people spend money in the lottery.
Tey are idiots, and that is why they are broke.
What you will fnd is that, the overwhelming majority of Fortune

500 companies, have an average product selling point below
$100, and they have sales everyday - which is the exact opposite
way of thinking. Tey have stability of sales just like that
billionaire told me. Tey are not looking for genius moves, they
are looking for consistency.
And this is a key factor that separates wealthy people that built it
from scratch, from poor people. It's either winning by a small
step everyday, or death from a thousand small cuts. You don't feel
them in the beginning, but you will bleed to death in the end.
Waiting one year to make $36,000 is insane. You are in the
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beginning of the year. How are you going to pay rent until
December?
Knowing this, you need to decide on a product that you can get
paid today. We will address the product in detail the following
chapter. For now you just need to be aware that whatever you
choose, it needs to be inline with who you are and a proven
solution that can solve your problem.
Remember that there are no perfect products, and you need to go

through hell in order to get to where you want to go with the
product you choose to stick to. Te trick here is for you to focus
on something you can do to get paid this amount today. And
since there are no easy alternatives, whatever you choose, it needs
to be aligned with your IKIGAI, or you will easily quit when you
start feeling the pressure of failure.
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3.
Consistency (Keep doing it) D-O-N-'-T Q-U-I-T
Determining your IKIGAI will point the end destination and help you
stick to your guns. Challenges will inevitably come, so you will use Focus
and Clarity to come up with solutions to your problems.
Te next crucial aspect to all this, is consistency: the self-discipline to do

the activities required to get you there.
Consistency is a deal-breaker. Tere is no substitute for discipline. Lots of

people with talent fail, because they don't develop the habit of discipline.
Tey are not consistent, so they get inconsistent results.
You might be creative and have found a solution, but the plan must still
be executed. If it requires you to do 50 calls and a bunch of follow ups
everyday, that is what you need to do. You might the brain smarts, you
might have it all fgured out. You reckon it is the solution to your
problem, but it still needs to be executed. And this is where people fail.
Tis is where Hill failed and Stone succeeded: consistent action.
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Depending on your resources, you might not be the one required to do it

at some point, but if you are stuck with little to no resources, guess what:
you have to. You have to be the one doing it at this point.
Getting wealthy is not easy. You have to be consistent doing what you see
that needs to be done. It's grueling work, but that is what in the end will
get you results. Remember Stone and Hill: Action vs Teory.
No way around this: to start moving, you frst have to dig yourself out of
the hole. And that my friend won't happen if you stop digging. No one
will come to the rescue for you, unless they want something back. Tat's
how the world works.
Tis is also the reason I see so many wealthy families that just inherited
money, and are now going broke - they don't have what you and I do,
they are not hustlers. Guess what: they need to get themselves out of the
hole too. Money is the great equalizer, it doesn't matter if you were born
with it or without it. What separates both groups is consistent action to
get money in your pocket.
Tis is how you can overcome your challenges: by being consistent and
implementing the things that can get you out of there, focusing on the
work required: 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. 1% ideas, 99%
execution.
Two guys are studying for a Math exam. One has the discipline of doing
exercises on a regular basis for a month. Te other one just studies the
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night before.
When both get to the exam the guy with discipline has a better grade.
Why? Because he had the discipline to study everyday. Te smarter one
can get away with this, one time or another, but he will soon fnd out
that in Life, in order to get ahead fnancially is much harder than a school
exam, if he has to build it on his own.
Te little ant that spent all summer gathering resources to go through

winter and the rabbit that just set-out to “enjoy Life” and “I'll deal with it
later”...Guess what happened? Te ant won, the rabbit starved to death.
Do what you need to do everyday and grind your teeth. It will highly
increase your chances to get you there.
Te gun to your head again: You need to be aware if you are being
consistent everyday or not. Let's say that you, as a door-to-door salesman,
decide to do 60 businesses a day. If you do 10, how in the world do you
expect to get any results? If it is 60, it's 60 not 10. If you fnd it takes
much more time, than anticipated, do less, but do that number everyday.
Tis is how you make sure you are being consistent with your plan.
And here is where a great deal of people fail. As soon as it starts getting
hard, people quit.
I failed at this many times until I realized that it was only when I started
being consistent at something, that it started to produce results on a
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consistent basis. Te main key-points to address here are:
• Knowing what you want, be clear on it and stick to it.
We already addressed that you can't be everything to everybody.

Tat said, it also means you have to be something to someone.
Stick to it, even if you have to change the strategy: it doesn't
mean you are quitting on your dreams. You just found a way that
doesn't work, so you are changing your approach, not your
dream.
Clarity will help you move forward because you will be able to see
the steps better. Tis can only happen with lots of efort on your
part trying to attain it. As you do, you will gain precious feedback
that can help you improve your decisions on what to do. Tis is
clarity put to work as a result of your assumptions being put to
the test.
• Learning to say no to everything else in order to be consistent

at something.
By doing less of everything else, you will have more energy to

focus on solving the challenges that will inevitably arise, and that
you will need to address in order to move forward. A good
example would be an uber driver: you decide you want to make
$100 a day. On average you will fnd it takes you 12-15 hours a
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day to get there.
Let me ask you: if you keep stopping throughout the day to do all
sorts of stuf that do not yield any money, how can you do $100
everyday on a consistent basis? Learn to say no. Tis will spare
more time for you to increase the chances of getting what you
want, because you will have more energy to focus.
Be consistent at what you are doing: don't let your Life be a pile of
unfnished crap. You'll look back and see you didn't fnish anything you
started.
Deliver something to the world and make sure it is working. Commit to

something by knowing what you want, be clear and consistent, and learn
to say no to everything else. Tis is will help you tremendously.
A side note for Entrepreneurs:
Entrepreneurs by their nature are problem solvers, so they fnd solutions.

Tis comes out of a place of creativity. But this is also a form of hidden
procrastination. At some point after doing your research, you have to tell
your brain to stop: “Brain, buddy? Tank you for all these new ideas, but
now it is time to implement them. Please shut up and let's get to work”.
No more ideas for now. Repetition, repetition, repetition. It's time to

execute your plan.
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SUMMARY
In the frst of the IKIGAI, we defned that you will stop being a generalist
and become a specialist in sales and marketing. You will keep improving
your skill to take your technique even further. Your focus is to become
the very best in the world at what you do.
We also looked at the importance of you accepting that challenges will

come, and in order to keep going you will need to solve them. To do this,
your passion will be tested, but if your IKIGAI is aligned, it is a matter of
fnding an answer and implementing it. You will need to focus and be
clear on asking specifc questions, so you can then come up with
solutions. When you do, it is implementation time and this requires
consistency. Following through with the plan is a deal-breaker.
Financially speaking you also need to be clear on the fnancial goal you
want. You need to:
• Defne the dollar amount you want
• Defne the time-goal you want it to happen.
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• Subdivide your time-goal into years, months, weeks, days, hours

so you will know what you have to do right now
• Decide the product you are providing and its price point
• Defne the daily actions needed to get there
• Assess your present resources
• Act on it on a consistent basis
Tis line of thinking glues everything together, because you decide what
you want, but then use clarity to setup an actionable plan so you can
execute. Your future's results are based on today's actions, not
tomorrow's wishful thinking. But you can only act when you know
where you want to go. To do this, you need to have clarity on what you
are doing and do it on a consistent basis. And then it is just doing it.
Te last and fnal part of all this framework, is the product you are
selling. We will address this in the following section.
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Piece #4: Product
Introduction
I
n order to do business and get paid, you have to deliver something
in return. People exchange money for something that solves their
problem. You will stay in business if the operations are sustainable,
and if what you are providing is aligned with you. Business is already too
hard. You will keep getting hit, so unless you enjoy it, you will at some
point quit. Up until this point, we covered your skill, your passion, and
how the Marketplace works.
In this chapter we will devote our full attention to help you choose the
product you will be selling, which is the last part of this.
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Tere are three very important points we will address here:
1. Type of Product/Service
2. Making your choice
3. Te Benchmark
Let's begin.
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1.
Type of product/Service
From the last piece, by understanding who you are and your inner
alignment with the Marketplace as a salesperson, you will inexorably fnd
yourself asking this question: What can you sell?
And it must be something that is:
• Within your circle of competence.
• You like doing it.
• Te Market is willing to pay you for.
• Te industry benchmark can get you to the Billionaire club.
Whatever it is, it will be either one of two things: a product or a service.

Let's look at both.
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1.
Service
A service is a form of business where you get paid by performing a job:

either of intellectual kind or from grunt physical work.
• A Medical Doctor provides advise for money.
• A roofng contractor will get your roof done.
Te economical side of the service comes in two forms:
1. Job
2. Consulting/Advising
Job
Although people use the word job as a general word that involves work, I
use it specifcally here as a specifc job. Here's an example:
• John works for an accounting frm. He is an employee. He stays

there a number of hours a day and gets paid a fxed wage.
Te overwhelming majority of people have jobs: they get paid by being

employed just like John. Teir job takes the majority of their day.
What they don't realize is that they are a service provider and have one
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client only. Teir income is being severely capped, because they are
required to commit much more time than needed to do it. Tis is
lowering what they make per day, and are putting themselves at the
mercy of their employer. Tis is what Economists refer to as high
consumer-concentration. Essentially they have only one client, if they get
fred, they lose the income.
If they saw it from this approach, the next obvious step would be to get
more clients, so they could increase their revenue, and lower risk of
income dependency from only one source.
But people that live based on a wage don't do it, because of the “stability
of a job” whatever that means. Te only “stability” you could possibly get
in a job, is if you worked for the Government, or some sort of entity that
is very unlikely to go bankrupt. But in most cases, this is another piece of
splendid “advice” from conventional wisdom. Moving on, this is where
the next term comes into play.
Consulting/Advising
• Susan is a housekeeper for hire. She comes in once a week and

cleans the house. She gets paid $50 a pop.
Susan is self-employed. She gets paid by performing the work herself, but
she is not employed by a company. Susan is an independent contractor, a
consultant. She is not an employee, but not a company either. She has a
couple of clients that pay her to clean their houses.
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Her job also takes the majority of her day, because she is the one doing all
the work, but she doesn't have one client only. If one “fres her” she has
more and can also get more. Although her revenue is also capped by the
amount of clients she can do the job for, she is not at the mercy of one,
which is a sound thing. Tis is what Economists refer to as low
consumer-concentration.
Tis is the major diference between employees and consultants:

consultants do the same type of work, but carry more clients.
Te issue with being a consultant, is that there are only so many people
you can serve on your own. Your income also gets capped, since there are
only so many hours in a day and so many people you can do the job for
on your own. Tese people are specialists, and usually have this break in
their head that keeps them from growing: “I am the only one that can do
this”, so they say. Tis is a common expression you will hear from these
people. And this is also some very fawed thinking.
Te upgraded version of this would be:
• A team - having a team around them replicating this work, even if

at a lower 80% success output. Te upside of this, is that this
consultant could have an asset with much more revenue coming
in. She would be replicating her way of doing things by getting
people doing it for her. A team of people would deliver her results
and the other upside, is that she could keep growing the business
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and get out of it. She would just be the helmsman and get paid
from the combined result of her team.
2.
Product
A product is something that is delivered to the client: A puf-cake, a

laptop, a watch. It is pre-made and independent of the creator in the
sales-process. It needs a vehicle to be delivered, like a store in case of the
puf-cake for instance, and as long as it can be replicated (opening more
stores selling the same puf-cake for instance), it has the potential to be
served to an even larger audience. As long as the economics keep making
sense, this looks good.
Te product avenue is another stepping-stone most Entrepreneurs fail.

Tey try to come up with something out of the blue, without even
knowing if it is something people want or not. Tey get themselves
buried in getting the thing to market, to later fnd out they won't make
one sale.
If your choice is to start with a product, you have to start the other way
around: Find what people want, go where they are and then provide it.
People need lots of stuf, and you just can't be everything to everybody -
we have talked about this, that is just impossible. So you need to focus on
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a niche. A single audience that buys your product.
I once met a Millionaire Entrepreneur that provided the cheapest tablet

covers. He got in contact with a large chain of brick-and-mortar
computer stores in the country, and had them carry the product - that is
it.
Te thing was produced in China because he wanted to make sure it was

the cheapest. So, as long as the chain-stores kept carrying the product,
when people went there to get the cheapest tablet cover, they would buy
his. Not because he was Steve Jobs, not because he was a genius, although
he was an intelligent dude. It is just that people went to those stores
looking to buy the cheapest tablet cover, and his happened to be there.
Another version of this would be an info-product - by using the power of

the Internet, a specialist could serve many more by providing a course on
that topic.
From the previous category, Susan would be explaining to her audience

her techniques to clean houses, her favorite products and so on, and get
paid in return by her audience and brand products. She would only need
to record her info-product once and just focus on promotion. Tis way,
she would be creating an asset that would pay her. Consulting work is
called done-for-you services, this is called do-it-for-many services. You
come up with an information product, you get it on a website and people
pay to use it.
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2.
Making your choice
Now that you know your two options, you need to make a choice. How
are you going to supply the Marketplace? Is it a product or a service?
You are making your choice based on what you love doing and what you
also need for your fnancial path. Tis will ensure you can survive and
eventually prosper. Either route has to:
1. Have the maximum fnancial output possible.
2. Must be inline with your passion.
3. Must solve your problem. You know this, because you know the
benchmark.
Service Route
If you choose the service route, this means people are buying your
services, because you know how to do something very well. Let's say you
work in the Insurance Industry, and you consistently outrank everyone
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else in results and are able to close people much faster. It won't take long
for your colleagues to start asking you questions on how you are doing it.
Tis is a clear market need. You can either service one-to-one where you
get paid to show them how, or you can service one-to-many like a
seminar or an online course that people can buy to learn to do what you
know how.
Product Route
if you choose to go with the product route, you will either:
1. Sell your own product.
2. Sell someone else's product.
1. Selling your own product: A word on Startups and creating the

next Billion dollar thingie
Entrepreneurs want the ultimate fnancial goal for their eforts: to become
Billionaires. And they usually want to get there by creating the next
unicorn: the next Facebook thingie.
Te problem with this approach is that it brings a lot of uncertainty that

you will have to deal with, and there is only so much time and other
resources you have available in a day and in your whole Life, so you can
have a chance of being successful.
Don't get me wrong: nothing wrong with trying to go the innovator way.
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If this is you, go for it - it is just not for me. I would rather invest in a
startup later on when I have more resources, than start my own as a main
source of income. At least at this time it is how I am doing things.
2. Selling someone else's product
Te cool thing about business, is that you don't need to invent anything
new: you can sell existing products. All you are doing is focusing on
increasing sales.
If the product has a long-standing history, if there are several people in

that industry doing well, and there is no apparent reason this industry
will be going away anytime soon, this is a very good sign. Tis removes
the uncertainty factor from the Marketplace accepting the idea and
doubts about keeping your business at foat in the future.
Using this line of thought, you are doing things diferently from the
startup mentality. You are essentially stating:
“Let's sell something the Marketplace is already buying, and get to the
Billionaire club just by focusing on increasing sales”.
Business is by itself already too complicated with a large factor of

uncertainty issues, that can throw you of-track very easily. Wrong
country, wrong time, wrong team, lack of resources, a bunch of
unforseen circumstances...All these can easily keep you from moving
forward. And you want to be wealthy, not stay in broke land. Remember
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that this is about movement.
So, in this line of thinking, all you are focusing on is selling more and
better than most people. Tis is a sound and intelligent approach
successful Entrepreneurs take. You just have to make sure this product
can get you to the Billionaire club so you can get the most bang for your
buck - and by buck I mean your eforts. In the next section we will
address exactly that. Knowing the product benchmark.
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3.
Te Benchmark
It is foolish to think you can accomplish much better results from the
industry average, if your competition is industry statistics with a
signifcant sample behind it. If you don't know much about a certain
industry and you are expecting results that are outliers from the industry
average right out of the get go, you are in for some serious beating.
Unless you know the industry well, and you have a solid track record of
consistent results above anyone else in that industry, it is most likely your
results will fall within the mean. Numbers don't lie. It's best for you to
accept it so you can deal with it in your overall Life's plan. Based on that
you can then decide if you want to get in that industry or not.
A good example is the Insurance Business Sector I have been addressing

since I am in it. Tere are several studies published out there, that
thoroughly analyze this industry as it is so old: how many people are
registered advisors, the most common insurance policy being sold, how
many years these agents have been in business, their ages, demographics,
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average income and so on.
Tis is great, because it provides you an existing benchmark of that

industry, before you get into it. And right out of the get go, you can have
a solid degree of certainty of what you will be expecting, without any false
hopes based on wrong and wishful information.
It is not to say that you can't beat the averages. You can, but you can´t
jump from noob to great in a split second. Tere is a learning process in
between, flled with trials and tribulations. And all this takes time.
An important point here is that these studies also show the industry's top
players, so as an Entrepreneur, and as a book-worm trying to learn and
improve to the best of your ability, you should make a point of meeting
these people and study them, so you can learn what are they doing. See
what I mean? You can get there, but you need to know what the average
dudes are doing and what the top-performers are doing as well, so you
can model the strategy of the best ones and avoid the average ones
strategy altogether.
Nevertheless, both groups have been doing this for a while. You will hear
common denominators in each group as you talk with these people. You
will then make your assessments regarding the strategy to implement for
your business.
Keep in mind that the solution you are choosing must be in line with
what you want in the future, but still needs to ft as a solution for your
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current fnancial needs.
We will address your resources and current needs later on.
My choice?
At one point I was stuck in my career. I was trying to get in the Financial
sector as a specialist, as I re-discovered this obsession for it. Looking back
it was always there, I just didn't do anything about it before. But now, I
was determined to do something about it and so I went all in.
As I started to go at it, I was immediately faced with this enormous

barrier to enter the Marketplace and a dilemma:
• If I presented myself as a specialist, like a fnancial analyst, I

would be seen as incompetent, since I didn't have a Financial
Degree or experience as an analyst. Tey would look at people
with the same age as me or even younger, and they already were
up in the ranks in investment banks, probably had hedge funds
and/or private equity frms of their own.
• But if I presented myself as a salesman, this would be a

completely diferent story. People would see that I sold across a
multitude of industries, some very successfully. So they would
now see me as someone with valuable marketable skills for them.
I could sell, so I could help them. All I needed was a product: to
sell their product. And this is what happened.
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One day, I got a call from an Insurance Company, a very large one. Tey
looked at my resumé and were interested. I told them my story, they
laughed and agreed to proceed with me.
Te company sponsored my license, they paid all the additional fees, and
so I got my foot in the Insurance Industry. Back on track in the Financial
Sector again...this time, I was selling insurance products.
What I like about this line of business, is that the products have a
continuity model built in. As long as the clients keep paying the
premiums, you keep getting paid. Tis is the original passive-income
model and something that attracted me heavily.
Te frst products I sold door-to-door initially on other industries, where

a one-of thing. Tis means that after you complete a sale, you are
starting all-over from scratch. I don't like that in a door-to-door sales
model. Making a living selling door-to-door is already hard enough, so all
the help you get makes your Life easier.
Insurance is diferent. Te more you do it, and as long as clients stay with
you, the more your income portfolio starts compounding. You are
building an asset that generates income for you, and there are lots of
successful people in this industry.
Going even further, you can even acquire other agent's portfolios - you
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are essentially buying income. Agents, Brokers and Insurance Companies

do this.
What sealed the deal for me, was the fact that, as long as I kept meeting
the minimum metrics, they would paid a stable income for the frst 4
years until the accumulated commission income got to a point I could
start living of it. Obviously I wasn't looking for the minimums, quite the
contrary, but that was good to know.
In addition, they also assign you a mentor - someone with ffteen years
in, that can help you navigate through the typical pitfalls.
So to summarize the situation: minimum income for four years, fnance

sector, selling door-to-door, recurring passive portfolio income, no
middle-man, experienced mentor for daily support, back-ofce support,
and an industry that has a benchmark of Billionaires in it.
It looked good, so I went all in.
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SUMMARY
In the Product Piece we addressed what is your ofer to the Market. If it

is a product or a service:
• A service entails either a job or consultant work with all the

advantages and limitations both have.
• A product has a diferent approach, and must abide to a specifc

criteria in order to keep working.
We addressed the benchmark so you can see the industry's results in any
of the previous endeavors and the importance of you knowing full well
that industry so you can navigate better.
In the next section we will address the system of deliverance, so you can
get the product in front of the audience that is going to buy it.
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Piece #5:
System of Deliverance
Introduction
A
t this point, you should now have a clear understanding of your
role in the Marketplace and the product you are selling. In this
section, where focusing on the system of deliverance: the
process of getting this product to your audience. How you are going to
do it.
Tere are four main components here:
1. Store Mentality
2. Sales Funnel
3. Optimizing conversion
4. Benchmark and Consistency
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In the following pages we will address these components. Read on as this

is one of the most important parts in this book.
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1.
Te Store Mentality
Figure 5 – Te Store Mentality
Time is money, time is money
Ever heard this expression before? Time is money? You probably have.
Pretty much everyone, broke or rich says this.
But let me ask you: do you really understand its meaning? I mean, really
understand it? Be honest.
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You might, but I'll be blunt with you...I sure didn't... until I got broke
once again. Trough my lack of understanding on how this process
TRULLY works, I was failing again...until one day it hit me: ITS A
STORE MENTALITY!
I was going through a grocery shop and watched all these people getting
their groceries from those many shelves inside, and one-by-one, they were
going to those many cash registers there to pay. All this was happening
under this one location every hour, everyday day, like clockwork.
Tis company had a ton of stores in a ton of key locations - so each hour
of the day, every single day...they where getting getting money from
people, from every single store...and I wasn't. Te owner was very
wealthy...and I was very broke. Tis was the main diference:
• Tey were getting money everyday,
...and I was spending money everyday.
• Tey were getting wealthier...
...and I was getting poorer.
TIME is money see?
Time IS money!
Every hour, minute, second, you are either doing:
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...What the Wealthy do:
▪ Getting paid
▪ Investing in new assets to get more money coming in (in

their case, building more stores)
...What the poor do:
▪ Not getting paid
▪ Spending on stuf that buries themselves deeper
Time is MONEY!
How much is your time worth by the hour at this point in your Life?
Understanding this, is what truly separates the haves from the have nots:
every single second in your Life must be monetized – the activities you
do, must be monetized.
While...
...One person is consistently getting paid by:
• Keep creating more stores to increase their business
• Getting more salespeople
• Advertising more
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...Focusing on getting it, not on spending it...
...Te other, is either not doing anything or just giving them money:
• Spending time at a cofee shop, sleeping, watching TV, going out

to restaurants
...Focusing on spending, not on getting it. Tey are pretty much

doing everything but focusing on getting paid every hour, everyday.
So,
• One uses time to get money – Time worth goes up
• Te other wastes time to lose money – Time worth is

worthless
It's the Store Mentality: One has it, one doesn't.
To get you even more clear on this Store Mentality, I'll drive you
through an existing model. Let's go through Walmart: the highest
Revenue generating business on Planet Earth, at the time of this writing.
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Got Billions anyone?
Figure 6 – Walmart Yearly Revenue
Walmart is essentially a bunch of brick-and-mortar stores, that sell a wide

variety of stuf at the cheapest prices – Tis is their ofer to the public:
Wide selection, lowest prices, located everywhere.
Although they have online stores now, at its core, Walmart is real estate
property, with shelves, products, cash registers and employees to take care
of the operations. People go there, get the products and give them
money.
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Looking at the above graph, they pretty much do $486 Billion of sales a
year. Tis means they have revenue of $1.33 Billion a day ($486/365 =
$1.33 Billion). If you divide that by an hour, they do $55.47 Million an
Hour. To be even more accurate, we would further divide this number by
the timespan each store is open to the public. Tat's how much
Walmart's time is worth: $55.47 Million an Hour.
How about yours? How much money did you get in the last hour?What
did you do in the last hour?
Congratulations! Unless you are selling, or have systems in place that

bring you sales every hour and every minute of it on a consistent basis,
you are broke. And you will continue to stay broke, and end up broke,
until you understand the Store Mentality.
Everything you do with your Life must be around monetizing your time
by selling and getting money in your pocket. Tis is what will get you out
of broke-town.
Tis is what hit me when I was at that store: Te Store Mentality.
What you think about, what you implement, the people you meet, your
results, everything is about selling. And unless you are successful driving
this number up, you will stay broke because you have absolutely no
utility to the world - you are useless. And this is why most people are
broke. Other people don't give them money: Tey don't need them.
Tey don't have any use for them.
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• Am I being harsh? Yes.
• But ask yourself this: Am I lying?
Still with me? Let's keep going...
...Now: How do you get to that sales number like Walmart?
Let's continue our analysis: has of October 2017, they had 11,703 stores.
Tis means, that on average, each store brings in a daily revenue of about
$113,646 ($1.33 Billion/11,703 = $113,646). If you divide that by an
hour, each store brings in $4,735 / Hour if each one was open to the
public 24h, 7 days of the week.So, every hour, one store gets almost
$4,735 from all people that go there. All this happens under one hour.
Obviously, this number would be diferent across the day, since they are
open within a certain timespan. And obviously there are busier periods of
the day.
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Figure 7 – Walmart average price point
Look at the graph above:
Te average dollar amount spent on Walmart by customers is around

$55. Tis means they have on average 86 paying people per hour, every
day there ($4,735 / $55 per person = 86 people).
So, to answer the question: How can you get to a result like this?
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Te key is thinking in reverse: What do you have to do today, to have 86

people paying you $4,735 / Hour, every single hour, every single day, like
clockwork?
What kind of store will you open, which products you will have there,
where you will be located, why would they come to you, how are you
going to keep opening more stores on a sustainable basis, how can you
endure for the future...so that the public gives you $4,735 / Hour
everyday?
And most importantly: how much money are you keeping after the sale
of these products, after paying the tax-man, suppliers and people that
work at these stores?
Joe Broke vs Walmart. One doesn't have money, one has a lot of it.
Te diference? Te Store Mentality!
Let's keep going:
Te frst Walmart store opened July 2nd, 1962. At the time of writing
this book they have 11,703 stores, so it took them 57 years to get where
they are today.
57 years to go from $0 to $486 Billion a year!
Tey opened a store, then another one, and then another one, and kept
doing this. As they got bigger, store openings became faster and faster as
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they had more resources to do it (people and money). And throughout

their journey they also improved their processes, as they became more
experienced and better at it.
Today they keep increasing, not so much by opening new stores, but by
acquiring other businesses or looking into diferent strategies like online
commerce. See? Increasing sales and proft margins.
Tis is where all their focus is. Tis is the Store Mentality in action.
You have to ingrain this in your head so you can succeed in your fnancial
pillar: the Store Mentality:
• Your store, where the exchange from product to money happens,

that puts money in your pocket and keeps it there.
• Your store, where this happens every hour, everyday like

clockwork, with no interruptions.
Tis is what will get you out of broke-town: Te Store Mentality.
Can you get to the gigantic dollar output of a store like Walmart,
Amazon or Facebook? Probably not. Probably you can. Maybe. Maybe
not. I don't know. No one does. It's up to you to try.
What I do know, is that you can have a business that produces a

consistent output for you. And this is what you have to start focusing on:
having something, an asset that brings in money for you every hour like
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clockwork, that keeps more money than goes out.
Tis process must be happening consistently, everyday like clockwork.

Tis is what will get you out of broke town.
You need to realize this: It doesn't matter to the Market if you are
exhausted or dead: Life keeps going and people will keep paying money
for what they want. It's about them, not you. So you need to put a
system in place where this is happening on a consistent basis for you.
Your Store, otherwise you will stay broke. What's the point in that?
So, what's your store?
Getting this framework in your head is one thing –
..this gets you focused, you start valuing your time, and
this gets your mind right, so you can start tackling your challenge
– but actually getting it to work for you successfully...is a completely

diferent beast.
To address this, we must fnd the answer to the two most important key
points in business:
1. Go where your people are and give them what they want.
2. Find a way to stay there
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1.
Go where your people are and give them what they want.
Tink about this statement for a bit:
You go where the relevant people are in your line of business - your
audience...
...and then give them what they want. You make sure they pay you, and
then deliver what they want. Tis statement forces you to do two things:
1. Pick your audience – Te more accurately you can actually

describe your ideal client the better. It's your Raquel, we covered
previously.
2. Get them to buy the product or use your service – Tis comes
immediately after the previous point. When you understand your
customer, you know what ails them. Te solution is your service,
or product. You know what Raquel wants. Since you can't be
everything to everybody, you need to focus on people that need
your product: reduce employee expenses, a new car, a new house
near the beach, golf equipment to improve their game...
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2.
Find a way to stay there
Finding your audience and getting them a product or service is not

enough...Why?
...Because you need to fnd a way to stay there.
Tere are people out there working everyday to get to the same things.
Some will succeed, some will not. It's how things are.
To “stay there”, in a position where your product or service is being

delivered and you are getting paid for it, you need a barrier to keep
people from replicating what you are doing.
Remember what we spoke earlier regarding 0 sum games: it is not a

binary thing, it just needs to be difcult enough so that it deters the
majority of people from competing with you. So what type of barriers
then? Here are some examples:
1. Relationships with key people that have power to keep new ones
from coming in. Tis can be either gatekeepers or a client-base.
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As long as you are in good terms with them, new competitors

won't be able to move forward as the existing key-people trust
you and are in good terms with you. It's benefcial for them,
so they don't have the need to change the status-quo. Tey
will keep blocking new ones from coming in and take your
place.
2. Your product is the cheapest and it is being sold in a large chain

of stores.
If you make sure you have margins, as you grow sales you can
keep negotiating with your suppliers. Teir interest is that
they will see a potential to make more money. Your interest is
to make better margins and increase barriers for new
competitors. If they try to get their products in the same
stores, they won't be able to keep them there, because they
won't make a proft.
3. Patents, licenses, and legal documents
Tis is another form of impediment: legal paperwork.

Examples of these are:
◦ If you are registered with the SEC, or are a licensed

whatever type profession to work in your line of business
◦ If you have a patent on your product or procedure
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◦ if you have an exclusivity-agreement under contract
All these mean a competitor has to go through the same

process in order to compete with you. Not everyone will,
because either their determination, their passion for it, and/or
current resources might keep them from doing it.
Ok, so how are we going to do this?
We already know you need a store that delivers products or services to

people, so you can get paid. Te following are the types of stores available
(some more apparent than others):
Option#1: Sell one-to-one
In this model you contact and close prospects one-by-one· selling door-
to-door or cold-calling are good examples: you are the store. Here you go
to people instead of them coming to you.
Advantages
• Very efective - You go directly to a client and ask for the sale.
Tey sign on the spot.
• Almost no overhead – If you are broke or have little to no

resources, start here. All you are doing is walking straight to a
door, do your presentation and get paid. Te most you are
spending is time and gas, if you are driving.
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Te better salesperson you become, the more efective you will be

at closing a prospect. By using the right strategies to be in front of
the ideal type of clients, you will increase the chances of
converting more meetings in dollars.
Disadvantages
• Daily number - Although this model is very direct and efective,

there are only so many doors you can do alone.
• Dealing with rest and consistency - Tere will be days you will
need to stop - You will be exhausted at some point. How these
stops infuence your daily metrics, is a key point to address. It's
reality, so if you are underperforming, you need to fnd a way to
solve this. Either by targeting higher ticket clients, or some other
strategy.
• Marketing – You can be the greatest salesman in the world, but if

you don't have qualifed leads to meet with, you are screwed. You
need to fnd a way of having daily leads so you can do your job.
Ask for referrals from clients you just closed, create ads, send
direct-marketing pieces. All these will help.
Is is scalable?
Yes. Te key here is to grow a sales-force. People replicating your

methods so they can contact more prospects on a daily basis. If you are
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the top-salesperson, it is unlikely that they will outperform you. But you
must be ok with them working at a 70-80% of the desired output. It's a
large number and there are more benefts of this strategy:
• Tey will beat you as a single person because they are so many.
• As a group they will solve the business problem of the energy

limitations of a single individual. You can rotate rests between
them and keep the sales rolling like clockwork.
Industry examples
Insurance, Energy and Gas Contracts, Fire-Alarms, Pest-Control, Water-

Purifers, Vacuum-Cleaners, Religion, Encyclopedias...
Tese are all examples of direct sales. Either door-to-door, cold-calling,

direct-marketing and/or a combination of these. Tis is the Life I chose as
my main source of Income.
Option#2: Sell one-to-many: Te Brick-and-mortar example
Tis is where you centralize your store and clients go there instead of the
other way around. Tere are several avenues inside this sell one-to-many:
• Websites
• Seminars
• Brick-and-mortar stores
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Although some of the following are not applicable, to each of these three
mentioned, given their own particularities(specially the online-world),
use these as guiding principles from the brick-and-mortar store example.
Advantages
• Centralization: Tey come to you instead of you coming to them.
• Higher closing-ratio: With the exception of websites, pretty much

all the ofine world clients, they either:
◦ already bought: seminars being a good example
◦ already decided to buy: Brick-and-mortar stores are a good

example. People need groceries, that's why they are going
there.
Disadvantages
• wrong location: if you choose one location and lock in the lease
or actually purchased the real estate, you better make sure it is a
good location for what you are doing. Otherwise you have just
committed fnancial suicide.
Tis is why you hear that common expression: Location, location,

location. Tey want to make sure they put the store in a place
that can address volume and hence solve this question of
optimizing output.
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• wrong product and terms: if you have products that are not
selling, you can fx this, but better make sure you do it and
quickly...or else...
• fxed expenses right out of the gate: by locking in a lease or a

mortgage, by hiring people, by leasing or acquiring equipment,
you are locking in expenses right from the get go. All this is paid
from the sales. If you don't have any because of any of the
previous points ( location and or/product), you are in trouble.
Industry examples
• Walmart type stores, cofee, clothes and jewelry-shops...
So what type of store should you pursue? Sell-to-one or sell-to-many?
Insurance and discount-stores are all examples of industries in each of

these categories, that individually, have daily (yes...daily) revenues in the
billions. And all are diferent types of “stores”.
You must choose a mountain to climb. A mountain you will fght

everyday to get to the top. So before you decide, and if you are starting
from the beginning, just ask yourself these three questions:
1. Given your current resources TODAY, how can you proceed?

Will it be a product or a service? (Sell one-to-one, or one-to-
many?).
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2. Can this strategy get you to your goal on a daily basis? (Be honest
based on data not on assumptions).
3. Will you keep doing it for the next 50 years? (Be honest based on
what you feel inside).
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2.
Te Sales-Funnel
You now know that you need to have your store open on a consistent
basis so that your time starts becoming worth more money. Tis will be
either by you:
• Being the store
or
• Having a store
And you are choosing how you are going to proceed, based on:
• Your current resources (money and people)
• Current needs you have to address (such as a minimum income

required).
• IKIGAI
You then need a product to sell. Not necessarily your product as we
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already covered, but just one that is already selling. So all you are doing,
is focusing your daily energy and eforts on accomplishing one thing:
making more sales of the product you chose.
Te next aspect for you to focus your attention on, is what is called the
sales-funnel.
What is a sales-funnel?
We already addressed that you need a goal to get to. Financially speaking,
you want to get to a specifc dollar number within a specifc timeline.
After defning your goal and in what time period you want to attain it,
the next step is the reverse-engineering sub-division process: how much is
that fnancial goal in years, months, weeks, days, hours. Let's defne one
fnancial goal right now:
• Financial goal: $12.6M
• Time-frame: 5 years
• Goal / Year: $2.52M ($12.6M / 5 years = $2.52M / Year)
• Goal / Month: $210K ($2.52M / 12 months = $210K / Month)
• Goal / Week: $52.5K ($210K / 4 weeks = $52.5K)
• Goal / Day: $6,904.11( $2.52M / 365 days = $6,904.11)
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You then need to defne the type of product, price point and number of
units to be sold in one day:
• Type of product: Life Insurance
• Product price point: $2,500.00
• Number of required policies to be sold a day: 3 ($2,500.00 x 3 =

$7.5K)
$7.5K is the closest above number to our goal.
As soon as you realize how much you need to sell today, and continue to
do so for this fve-year timeline, you are now faced with fnding your
Market: your Raquel. You will need to sell to Raquel and people like her
on a consistent basis. So three questions need to be answered:
• Who are the customers for this product
• Where are they
• How many of them you need to present the product to, so you
can close this dollar amount everyday
Who are the customers for this?
In my specifc case, this is the typical client:
• business owner with revenues of at least $5M a year
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or
• high-profle lawyers(M&A, Private Equity people)
Where are they?
• Regarding location, since I live in Cascais, Portugal, I try to focus

my attention on a 40 mile radius(64.37 Km) max, to fnd these
people. Tis decision is based on knowing where you live. In my
case, Tis radius includes three locations:
1. Cascais – Where lots of wealthy people live.
2. Sintra and outside periphery – Close to the highway there are

lots of industrial complexes with $5M companies.
3. Lisbon – Tis city is the capital. High profle business-people

and lawyers work there.
How many people do you need to present your product everyday?
In order to answer this question there is an important key distinction

here to make. You will often hear the expression: business is a numbers
game, it is a numbers game. Well, incomplete. Why? Because they need
to be qualifed frst, only then is about volume.
If you use your day to visit a bunch of random unqualifed people, you
might end up with 0 sales or with $200 worth of premiums, which is way
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of target from what we've defned. But if you only visit your specifc
demographics, this is a complete diferent story.
Earlier on you defned a target audience in the qualifcation process. Tis

is where your focus must be: fnding more people like your ideal client.
Only then it is about volume, because you are addressing qualifed
people.
As a door-to-door salesman, and if you are starting out, there will be two
distinct phases you will go through:
Phase I: crapshoot - no clients, or next to it.
Here you will need to visit much more people. You will need to use more
time, because you don't have any clients yet.
Phase II: referral base – warm leads
Out of 10 people you see in one day on Phase I, let's say you close 4 or 5.
You need to make sure you ask them for referrals, so you can have
potentially qualifed people to visit next. Tis way you are graduating the
next ones, from complete cold to warm leads. Te whole point is having
your time best spent with people that already know your are coming and
have shown interest in the product. As you meet them, you do the same
and ask for referrals. Tat way you graduate out of Phase I to Phase II
where you are using your time more efectively.
A couple notes on closing business: you are not going to close everyone.
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If you hear anyone tell you otherwise, they are lying. Otherwise, every
single person that tells you this would be the richest person in the world.
But you can become great at it. When you are in front of them, this is
when your sales training kicks in (develop your skill everyday,
remember?). If you are working on becoming a better salesperson
everyday, you will be able to present better and close them more
efectively.
So all that is left now, is knowing if they ft the sales-criteria so you can
close them. A sale is made when the following is true:
1. Te prospect has the fnancial wherewithal
2. Te prospect is the Alpha
3. Tere is a pain point
4. Tey trust you
5. Tey trust the product (it will solve their problem)
6. Tey trust the company
All these must be in place in order for you to get them to sign the
contract. If any of these fails, you will fail. If you fail, you will lose time.
Some examples:
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• You get in contact with the business owner, and he has you meet
with the company's CFO(not the owner). You fnd he is a
disorganized fellow and you cringe. You might even have
$50,000 worth of premiums there, but it will take months to get
the thing signed because he keeps postponing his mess.
• You have a meeting with the company owner, and he might also
have $50,000 worth of premiums, but if your Insurance company
fnds delinquencies and refuses to back the policy, the deal just
went sour.
Time is of essence, and something you just can't waste, so you need to
address how you use it efectively in these situations. Remember that the
bottom line is, you having the dollar amount you defned in signed
policies today, not tomorrow.
So, to make a sale and completing your objective today, someone needs
to become your customer today - and not all of them will. Tis means
you will need to make much more presentations of the product than the
actual sales you will make. If you are in front of qualifed people you are
already increasing your odds. Tat said, things can still go wrong, so
remember this: You will need to make much more presentations on a
daily basis than the ones you will close. Keep this in mind.
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Figure 8 – Te Sales-Funnel
And this is where the sales-funnel concept comes in. It is essentially an

illustration of the sales-cycle: the point from getting a complete stranger
to your business into a paying customer.
It is named funnel because it is one: It is larger on top, and straighter in

the bottom. It is a graphical representation of the three main chunks
people that come across your business fall into. It is addressing the total
number of people that you presented your product, the ones that paid,
how much it cost you to get them, and the time it took for this to
happen.
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• Te frst and top section of the funnel is the group of people that
have not engaged with your business yet. Tey don't know about
you or your business.
I call this the red group. Tis group has much more people than
the last group.
• Te second section of the funnel is the group of people from the

red group that have engaged with your or your business, but have
not bought yet.
I call this the yellow group. Tis is a special group because in

several industries, you will be focusing your energy on getting
them back and then buy. More about this in a bit.
• Te third and fnal section of the funnel, is the group of people

out of the yellow group, that have engaged with you and your
business and then bought.
I call this the green group.
So, from beginning to end of the sales-funnel, your daily mindset should
be: you are starting of broke and focusing on getting paid today, the
daily number you defned as your objective. In our defned case, you start
your day with $0 and end-up with $7,500 worth of signed premiums. So,
how many red-people did you need to see today to get to this number in
signed policies?
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Do you have a reference?
An important aspect to address here is the reality in your numbers: Are

you coming up with this hypothetical number out of the blue, or have
you been in a situation like this that worked before?
By being objective in your answer, you are looking to replicate a situation

that you already had a good result from, making sure it wasn't just a
fuke. You are essentially looking to do more of it.
When starting out as an Insurance agent, I already had experience selling

door-to-door - that wasn't my problem at all, since I enjoyed the face-to-
face thing. But I was struggling to fnd the right clients to be in front of,
this was in fact a problem.
Initially I thought about doing this with local businesses, as they seem to
be good candidates. Te owners were probably there, and most likely they
would be interested in reducing expenses. I could take care of that, and
then push in the Life policy which was my whole agenda.
One day, I noticed a medium-sized restaurant and went in. Te

restaurant owner was there, we talked, and he signed $3,000 worth of
premiums, with no installment plan. As I left, I was in awe. I went there
at 10H00, the meeting took 30m and I still had the rest of the day to sell.
So obviously, I had enough time to complete the daily $7,500 goal. It
didn't look farfetched that for one salesman. Te problem was that I
didn't fnd more people like him throughout the rest of the day, so I
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made 0 sales after that one.
In the beginning I was being inconsistent, not because of choice, not

because I wasn't aware of it, but because I lacked a consistent source of
qualifed leads. Tis was my problem. Tis what was in front of me,
keeping me from being successful, so I started to focus on the solution, a
way around it. “How can I get a consistent fow of qualifed leads to meet
everyday, and get $7,500 worth of policies signed on a regular basis?”
Obviously, diferent business lines have their own particularities, so

business owners will need to address each of the sales-funnel sections
diferently, as each will require more or less attention from them, given
the type of business they are in.
A brick-and-mortar store, a door-to-door salesperson and an internet

marketer will have diferent challenges given their system of deliverance.
Nevertheless, this is the heart of the beast: having a consistent qualifed
lead-fow. Tis must be working, in order for you to succeed fnancially –
there is no way around it.
Tis is why I addressed Marketing and Sales in the earlier chapters:

marketing brings you leads, sales/closing is about getting the contract
signed. You cannot market if there is no product to sell, and you cannot
sell if you don't have qualifed leads to sell to. Even if you are the best
salesman in the world.
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A note on price points and volume
Regarding pricing points, it really doesn't matter if it is a high-ticket sale

or a low one. If the lead is qualifed, they will have the fnancial
wherewithal, so the deal with go through. Te main point here is
qualifed lead volume, and not just having one client like this a year.
• Walmart sales cycle is very fast. Te products are cheap, they have
a ton of locations, millions of people go there, and they make
billions in sales.
• A Real Estate Agency sales cycle is very long. Houses are

expensive. But the big Agencies have a ton of locations, a ton of
agents, and they also make billions in sales.
In both cases, each company makes billions. Both have diferent sales-
cycles, but make sales everyday. If Walmart only had one location, they
would be struggling with margins, as their strategy is the I am the
cheapest one. On the other hand, a Real Estate Agency if they were at
one location only, they would also be struggling. Tey wouldn't have
enough volume, so they would be at the mercy of one or a handful of
sales that would happen within a couple of months.
Tis is where volume we addressed earlier on, fnally comes into play.
Successful Businesses in both these industries, solved their problem by
volume: they have lots of qualifed leads everyday. Tey are having stable
sales, so they can make more accurate decisions on what to do next.
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How to have a consistent and qualifed leads everyday?
If you are not getting qualifed leads everyday, and on volume, it is not a
business, even if you want it too. So you really have to solve this. How?
In the beginning I was struggling, because I didn't know where to go, so I

did a couple of experiments, to see what worked better.
Te Insurance company had lots of products to sell, and wanted agents to

pursue that line of thought. From experience I already knew, this is a
recipe for disaster, so I didn't want to go that route, as you can't be
everything to everybody. So I asked my mentor:
“From all these if I can stick to just one, which has the best potential?” - I
asked.
“Life Insurance, It is more stable. Tere is a lower turnover from clients” -

He replied.
So I decided to follow this route. Te problem I initially found was that,

whenever I approached clients, they were turned of by the idea, but if I
started the presentation in regards to reduce their company expenses and
then presented the Life Insurance after this frst part was taken care of,
they would do it.
Tis model was proving efective, because it was being consistent, so I

stayed with it. In short, I would be using as an entry point “reducing
their company expenses” on existing insurance policies (multi-risk, work
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accidents, company vehicles), and later on in the process, I would get the
owners to do what I really wanted for my portfolio: Life Insurance.
Having personally seen this strategy work on a consistent basis, and

knowing I was becoming a better salesman from practicing, I just needed
to focus on getting more qualifed leads. Lots of them, so I could meet
them on a regular basis.
Tese are some of the strategies I used:
• Email contact>Get Meeting>Get Contract signed.
Each prospect potential in annual premiums: $50,000
Since I was looking to get to $5M+ business-owners, I got a list of

these. In Portugal, business magazines and banks publish this list
free online, so this was the easy part. All I did was download this
fle.
Next step would be to contact business-owners directly. For this I

used LinkedIn. Use keywords like: “X company CEO” or “X
company Founder”. If you fnd the person, add him or her the
invitation. No need to personalize the invitation, just click the
button. Some of them will accept, some will not. Te ones that
do, and have their direct email there, contact them. But don't
bulk email to everyone at once - send one at a time. It is more
time consuming, but it will get you better results. Tey will see
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you took time to send them an individual email. Tis brings up

more respect and more replies. Tis is the email I used:
....................................................
Hi <First Name>
We have our contact from LinkedIn.
I want to help you reduce your yearly insurance premiums, and

improve your coverages.
Do you have time for a cup of cofee?
Regards,
Diogo Marques
Sales Consultant
MAPFRE | Insurance
Av. 25 de Abril A2
mobile: +351.935.621.639
euseguros@euseguros.pt
www.euseguros.pt
....................................................
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Notice how straight to the point and how triggered the email is:
• I call them by their frst name, so it shows personalization

and confdence. John, Susan, Mary, all of them
millionaires, all of them just like you, although you are
broke. Tey perceive you, how you address them. And
you address them by their frst name. Tis shows
confdence and calmness.
• I immediately state where do we know each other.

“...LinkedIn”. Tis puts their resistance level lower,
because they know they accepted the invitation.
• Next, I am blunt on my elevator pitch. In one sentence, I

tell them how I want to help them: “reduce costs, improve
coverages”.
• Next I ask an open-ended question. Something that they

will almost inevitably will say yes: “Do you have time for a
cup of cofee?” Tink about this, they are not saying yes to
you. Tey are saying yes to themselves, because pretty
much everyone on this planet drinks cofee, so of course
they have time to drink a cup of cofee. As they do it
everyday. But then they refocus this on you and your
openness and confdence by contacting them, and while
they are drinking a cup of cofee, you are reducing their
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expenses.
• In the mail signature, notice you are showing who you

work for. Te company is very large, so this brings more
credibility to your contact. Tey know you are just
making the connection between them and your company.
• Direct-marketing>get calls>send quote>close
Each prospect potential in annual premiums: $200-400
Direct-marketing or mailings, is salesmanship in print. You are

sending out a mail piece and looking to get leads from it. I didn't
have much money to begin with, but I made a point of using
almost all of it for marketing. I am writing down the results of
these frst pieces I made, so you can look at them as a starting
point for your sales career:
◦ Te frst mail piece I sent was a 8-page long-form sales-letter

with a reply envelope. I was looking to get a feel for what
people needed regarding insurance policies. I sent out 162
mailings to my earlier Iberdrola Energy clients. It took me
one month to write, print and product. I cost me $500, I got
0 replies. Main issue I think? Trying to sell too many
products.
◦ Te second mail piece I sent was an A6 fyer (105mm ×
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148mm). Te main objective was for people to ask me for car

insurance quotes. Contrary to the frst mail piece, this time I
would be focused on one product only. In addition, I used
one of those fyers you see stuck on windshield wipers - where
people advertise “they will buy your car on the spot” - as a
control piece. My idea was to just change it for people to ask
for insurance quotes for their vehicle instead. I did it myself,
printed and cut out 2,000 pieces. I needed to buy a new toner
that cost me $25. I searched online for people that did this
line of work, found a couple of them and paid one $60 to do
this. Out of the 2,000 mailings, I got 4 replies and one person
that bought.
▪ Conversion rate: 1 / 2000 = 0.0005%
▪ Total premium paid: $325
▪ Total commission: $325(premium) x 8.33%(commission)

= $27
▪ Total cost: $85
▪ Result: Loss of $58
Although a loss, it was a win for me, because I got 4 replies

and out of these, I actually closed someone on the phone
without even meeting her. Tis same person did more repeat
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sales with me. She did both her car and her other daughter
car as well. In addition, she passed referrals. So essentially I
lost money if only looking at the frst transaction, but overall
I actually made money because or repeat sales with the same
client. Regarding the other deals, I lost them because:
▪ Te Insurance company had a worse price than others on

two of them.
▪ One prospect just imported a car and the documentation

didn't go through.
▪ One sent an email asking for a quote, but didn't send the
vehicle data.
Nonetheless all this looked promising to me. I just needed to

get more replies. Remember that you are acquiring a
customer. You do well by them, they will stay and keep
bringing in more revenue. Tat said, to have this car direct
marketing piece work for the frst time, I only needed two
more to be at a proft, so I kept at it. Sometimes I did the
distribution myself, others I hired someone else to do it.
Nevertheless I made a point of sending a batch of these once a
month.
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• Online-marketing>get emails>send quote>close by phone
In it by itself, online marketing would be an entirely separate

book as it has so much to cover. For the purpose of this chapter, I
just want to summarize you the whole idea to this: when you are
marketing online, you are building yourself as a fgure of
authority in a specifc niche.
You are building an audience, with the sole purpose of getting

qualifed leads, that in the end buy from you.
Once again: with online marketing - you are marketing yourself

and what you provide to an audience.
Tey want to solve a problem, and you are showing yourself as

the person that knows how to solve that problem. You are
building trust. Keep this in mind.
I had experience building websites from my previous ventures,

and since I was starting over, I created a new one to build my
social presence, but just for Portugal. I wanted to be known as the
go-to guy for Life Insurance matters. So I started to write content
around Life Insurance with the goal of building people's
perception on me being a fgure of authority on the subject.
Te whole idea to this, is to build an audience of qualifed people.

You must remember this at every point: you want their frst and
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last name, e-mail and other demographical data relevant to what

you ofer. You are getting contacts from people that become your
clients, so you need to know who they are, what they do, and
why they got in contact.
if they see it, and if they are interested, they will keep coming
back, because they see you are doing something that can help
them. You keep providing them content that helps them move
forward to solve their problem (regular e-mails, videos, a
podcast...), and make sure you are keeping in touch and
presenting relevant ofers.
You will get trafc either organically (getting your website ranked
on Google Search Results) or by paid ads on social media.
I optimized the website for SEO, installed all sorts of metrics to

see how people were interacting with the website and started
advertising. I didn't focus too much on organic search in the
beginning, because this is something that takes time. You still do
it, but don't count on it soon. It takes time to rank on the frst
page organically on Google search results.
I used Facebook ads, Google ads and LinkedIn Ads to target the
demographics I addressed earlier on. Te whole idea was to use
the posts as sales letters, so that people would ask for a quote.
If they left without putting in their email addresses, they would
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get re-marketed with new ads, to come back to the website.
Te ones that flled in the form, I contacted to see if I got them to

become paying customers. Tey would still get a weekly
newsletter from me, if they bought or not.
When you are doing this, you are building an audience. I knew it
would take time, so I kept at it.
It made sense to leverage the Internet, because I only needed to

set this up once. I was using my time throughout the day to do
door-to-door, and at the same time, the Internet was working for
me as my salesforce. Just remember that you need to test a lot
regarding the ads and remain consistent delivering your content.
You set-up your website once, but you need to keep testing the
ads and provide new content.
Facebook was the frst one to bring in two leads. One of them,
was for a Life Insurance policy of $2,500, out of one $30
Facebook ad. Tis was showing promise! Since I started doing
this while I was writing this book, I didn't have more data to
share with you.
Te thing to keep in mind about Facebook and other platforms

like YouTube (owned by Google) is that you narrow down your
audience to the people interested in what you provide. Tey
already have all this demographical data. Your only job is to target
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your potential audience that is already there and expressed an

interest in the matter with content that they see useful to them. If
you are efective in engaging with them, the needle moves.
Obviously this is a big understatement, because it takes a lot of

time to fgure this stuf out. But I think when you keep the end in
mind, this process becomes clearer.
So, while you are building this, and at any stage, just remember:
you are creating content to build a following of people interested
in what you deliver. You want their contacts (name, email,
another relevant information you need from them) and in the
end having them buy from you.
• Asking for referrals>call to set appointments>go to

appointments>close
When I was selling energy contracts door-to-door, although I did

well on the sales part, I got my butt-kicked out of the business,
because I didn't fnd more qualifed people to meet. Life will
sometimes show you a better way of doing things, and you will
see this when interacting in diferent situations.
After Iberdrola, and before the Insurance Industry where I am

today, I worked at Kirby as salesman for a while. It was there that
I found how they did things to address the deal-fow problem.
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When salespeople go to meetings to do the demonstration, they

deliver a referral-sheet to the client and ask them to write down
ten leads for them to meet next. Tey appeal to the “I live on this,
can you help me out?”. Most referrals are bad, but some are
qualifed.
After the demonstration, the salesperson then delivers this

referral-sheet to a small call center (usually three or four people)
at the Kirby ofce, and they call all these people to set the next
appointments.
Kirby has been in business using this referral-model for hundreds

of years, so I took this from that experience. Everytime I now go
to a meeting and I close someone, I ask them for referrals.
One thing to keep in mind regarding referrals is that, they do

that, if they see you as someone that can help the people they
know. It's not about you, it's about what you can do for them.
But you can't just go there to the new meeting without qualifying
them frst. Te best referrals I got, were people where the one that
gave the referral, called them frst about you. You call them
afterwards, quality them with relevant questions to your product
and then set the appointment, if you see they are a good ft.
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• Re-selling to the same client-base
One thing I learned from the Insurance business, is to take

advantage of the situations that are already working. If you close a
client, if you keep doing right by him, and the relationship is
being kept in good terms, you can then approach them later on to
sell more stuf. Teir trust factor in you is now higher, so their
resistance level is lower.
Besides visiting them from time-to-time, I maintain my clients

close by using a mail-provider like GetResponse, with a weekly
newsletter, pre-set personalized emails for birthdays, and typical
festivities (Christmas, Easter, Valentines day).
Tis way I am keeping in touch and the relationship doesn't go

cold again - this is the frst part to this line of thought. If they
remember you, and need something regarding Insurance, they are
going to get in contact with you. If you fnd a product that is a
good ft for them, you can pick up the phone again, and sell it. It
will be easier.
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3.
Optimizing Conversion
Now that you have a couple of strategies validated by the Market, you
need to focus on improving your conversion rate. Te conversion rate we
are referring to, is the number of sales divided by the number of sales
presentations. It doesn't matter if it is a door-to-door presentation, a
direct-marketing mailing or an online ad.
To do any optimization you need a reference point. Tat way you will
know if you are below, at or above standards in that specifc segment.
Tis is called control.
Let's optimize our conversions:
• door-to-door presentation
1. Keep practicing everyday your skills as a salesperson.
2. Keep improving your pitch from the feedback you are getting
from previous presentations.
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3. Ask for referrals so you can improve your time spent at

meetings.
4. Try to maintain the same number of door-to-door visits you

do everyday, so you can have a consistent number you can
draw conclusions from.
• direct-mailing
1. Focus on selling one product per piece.
2. Use a control piece to model.
3. Try diferent areas for distribution.
4. Try adjusting your piece contents and get conclusions by A/B

Testing. Let's say you have 10,000 pieces. You do 5,000 with
version 1 and 5,000 with version 2 of the fyer. When
prospects send you an email to call them, you can ask them a
specifc thing about the fyer. You will then know if it was
version A or B. Te one that had more replies, and on a
specifc location, you do more of it.
• Online ads
1. Facebook and Google are so powerful today, that you can see
pretty much every metric regarding the ad performance. Te
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bottom line is for you to remember that you are placing an ad to

sell something. Keep adjusting the ad, the ofer and the sales
process. Watch how people interact with your site, with tools like
using heat maps. Keep seeing what is happening so you can get
more confdent in your conclusions.
An example
To go through our sales-funnel example, let's say you have a brick-and-

mortar store sale, and sell a toy for $200 and your net proft margin is
$100. Tis $100 is the money you keep after paying everything. How
many people did you have to show the toy today in order to have one
sold? Tis answer will get us to the yellow and red section as we reverse
engineer it, by number count:
...If it is a physical location, most likely you had people going by the
store, pick it up and not buying it.
...If it is online, most likely you had people come to the site and not
complete the purchase.
No business has a 100% conversion ratio. If you hear otherwise don't

believe it, it's just hype. Otherwise all business owners would be
gozzillionaires.
In whatever the case, you need to know the industry's benchmark for
these conversion numbers and the behavior of the audience - so you can
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address the main issue, which is to sell at least one a day. And you need
this result to happen consistently in order to solve the challenge.
Te best way for you to know if you are on track, is to create a simple
excel spreadsheet with 3 columns: pro-forma(what you want to be
happening), reality(what did happen), benchmark(what is happening in
your industry). Tis will keep you focused in being better than the
competition(you will know if your numbers outperform the benchmark)
and on the other hand you can make educated decisions, regarding what
is happening versus what you need to have happening. You can then be
confdent about this, because you are basing your conclusions on data,
not on a whim.
Tat said, we need to know our conversion numbers to get people from
red to yellow and from yellow to green. Let's dig in:
Let's say one person bought the toy today. Te one who bought was out
of a group of 4 that watched it at the store. So the conversion from
yellow to green was 25% (1/4 = 25%).
And out of the 4 people that watched it at the store, they came out of a
group of 8 that called the store initially - to know if the product available,
so 50% (4/8=50%).
Tis means that out of 8 people, 50% actually went to the store, and out
of these, 25% bought. So you have a 12.5% conversion ratio across the
board. Out of 8 prospects, or leads (same thing), 1 bought (1/8 =
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12.5%).
Te next question is: How did you get these 8 people there? How much
did it cost you to get them to look at your toy in the frst place?
• Did you run a Facebook ad or a Google ad?
• Did you use ofine direct marketing like a postcard or some other
source of direct mail advertising?
• Did you use all of these?
• What was your total spent budget?
Let's say you used a Facebook ad to get people to come down to your
brick-and-mortar store as the objective.
Te ad cost you $100 a month and you did it for 2 months - so you spent
a total of $200 until you got a frst sale.
We are only interested in people that bought - so out of $200 you got 8
people that called in, and one bought.
Your customer acquisition cost if all 8 people bought would be $25

($200/8 = $25). But since only one bought - unless you used your $200
budget efectively - the rest of the money went down the drain $200-$25
= $175.
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How to use your marketing budget efectively by remarketing
I mentioned earlier that the yellow section is where most businesses need
to focus more of their time - this is where the remarketing process kicks-
in. Remarketing, retargeting, following-up, all mean the same thing: it is
the process of going after people that are in the yellow zone to get them
to buy. Te overwhelming majority of the money is in this group.
Remember this so you will know where to focus.
If this is the case and you still have $175, you need to go after the people
that didn't complete the purchase with this budget, and make sure you
know the costs of getting them back as well. Tis way you are improving
your conversion rate because your objective is to have more people to buy
that already interacted with your product. Tis is cheaper than to acquire
a new customer.
Te majority of people don't buy at the frst go at it - It's consumer-

behavior. If this is true, you need to have an efective process of following
up, so you can then convert them as paying customers in between a
certain period of time.
To do this, use a couple more ads as follow-up ads, so you can then have
a part of this yellow group come back and buy, after going through your
followup strategy.
Remember that you are measuring this process, every step of the way, so
you can have a better understanding of their behavior. Only then you can
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increase the dollar spend, based on the data. You can only do this, when
you are confdent on the numbers you are seeing. Otherwise you are just
spending money without knowing what you are doing based on data.
Let's continue with our example: previously you got one customer, but
during the 2-month period, you had more ads remarketing yellow
people, and it got you one other paying customer from this group.
Only showing one ad with no remarketing, you needed to pay $200 to

get one person to pay you $200 for the doll during the 2-month period.
It didn't look good.
But with remarketing, using more ads as follow-up, you were able to get
another client from the remaining 8 people group. Now we are cooking:
with the same ad spend, out of $200, you got $400 in your pocket. Tat
is a 2X return on your investment. Stock Market anyone?
See? Tis is the sole purpose of Marketing dollars: getting your money
back plus some on a consistent basis. No other investment vehicle can do
the same. But you need to practice this in order to start having these
results.
How to make better informed decisions on your marketing spend
You should look at facts, not talk. Everytime you hear marketers, talking
so easily about: “Do Facebook ads, $5 a day”, “Create a landing page...”,
yeah right. Sure. Now, for you folks out there talking about this so easily,
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please answer this question: “Show me your consistent results in this feld
for the last 5 years”. Why is everyone so silent all of the sudden?
See, it's easy to talk on surface level, not so easy when you actually do this
for a living and you actually have to bring results. You know this takes
much more work than it looks. Tere is a heavy trial-and-error process,
until you get it right, but it is well worth it. You just need to keep at it on
a consistent basis and look at the numbers.
When you are starting out, you don't have enough data to make accurate
decisions, but if you keep doing this, you will start noticing patterns.
Consumer-behavior patterns in relation to your ad and marketing spend.
You will then start to get a clearer understanding of the costs, profts and
typical timelines for purchases. How much it costs you to convert one
person that didn't know about you, into an actual paying customer, and
within what timeline. What is the conversion fgure and what is the
typical timing it happens.
To know this, there must be a consistent factor in the sales-funnel -

looking at the numbers for the last year for instance, you will then arrive
at a framework like this: We spent $200 every month on Facebook ads,
got x amount of calls everyday, and got 2 paying customers every two
weeks. Our conversion factor from Ad to sales, including remarketing
strategies, based on this data was x%. Tese are the numbers for this year:
number of red, yellow and green group leads/clients.
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After you get this, after you get a clear understanding of what is
happening in your business sales-funnel, when you know your conversion
factor based on numbers and get more confdent on the pattern, you can
then proceed to scale it. Essentially you are applying a multiplication
factor to the situation that seems to be stable in occurrence. And you are
basing this decision on data not on clueless assumptions and wishful
thinking.
Te more confdent you get in your assessments, the better decisions you
can make regarding your advertising spend. Tis way you can keep
increasing your pipeline sustainably and make more sales as a result,
insuring margins.
An important side-note: A not so obvious sales-funnel you need to

now
Up until now, we have been looking at sales-funnels to get clients, but

you can use this logic to get suppliers as well.
Ever you ever tried to get a lawyer? A car-mechanic? An accountant?
I want to address this as a “bonus” because the sales-funnel mentality and

its conversion factor is everywhere, not just business. Whenever you need
anything, it inexorably goes through a sales-funnel. I am addressing this,
because it will be benefcial when you look at it from this angle. You will
get less frustrated as you will see it for what it is: volume. Here is an
example:
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You are trying to get some person to repair your dishwasher:
1. Red Group: Contact all authorized repair shops.
2. Yellow Group: Some will answer, some not, some will give you
horrible quotes, some will give you acceptable ones.
3. Green Group: You choose the best quote.
See? Like the toy-shop, this is the same situation here, it's just that you
are the client in this case.
As you go about and look to get the person to repair your dishwasher,
you already know that some will answer, some won't. Some will send you
a couple of quotes, and you will end up choosing the best one.
Car mechanics, lawyers, new employees...See it for what it is - a sales-

funnel, qualifed a number's game - so you don't get that frustrated.
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4.
Benchmark and Consistency
If you have a sales-funnel that is being consistent, and is in fact producing

results, congratulations: you have a store up and running.
Te next step is to compare it to the industry benchmark, and see if it is

underperforming or doing better. It's a bit like school: all your colleagues
scored an A on the test and you had a B+. You passed as well, but you
underperformed compared to your peers.
Here, in order to become the industry leader, you have to make sure you
outperform them. To do that you need to know the industry's
numbers(both average and top performers).
• If you work as a door-to-door salesman, you need to know how

many policies and which dollar amount, the top guy or gal is
producing every week.
• If you are running ads, you need to know the current conversions
of the top players (dollar spent, policies sold).
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To win you need to outperform the best performer. To do that you need
to know what they are doing. Te whole point here is being able to be
consistent at producing results. At the time of writing this book, this is
where I fnd I spend most of my time at.
Remember that: your clients are out there, and you need to fnd a way to
be in front of enough of them so you can have consistent results.
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SUMMARY
In the System of Deliverance we talked about 5 key elements:
1. Store Mentality – how comparing your daily money making

activities to an actual store will give you the right mindset
2. Sales Funnel – how you need to address getting complete

strangers to buying customers
3. Optimizing Output – how having a clear vision that the sales

process must be faster and margins must be improved, will help
you have a healthier business from a sustainable perspective
4. Benchmark and Consistency – how being consistent doing the

right activities, by having a reference number to get to everyday,
will in the end trump everything else. You are focusing your
undivided attention in obtaining a certain number everyday. To
do this, you need to know the industry's benchmark so you can
understand if you are under at or above it.
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Piece #6:
Money
Introduction
W
e have seen earlier on in this book that money is a
number, and serves as a medium of exchange for the
deliverance of a product or service. Your business should
be an asset that works without the use of your time. Te money part of it
has two sides to it you need to address:
1. Getting it
2. Keeping it
It sounds obvious, but it is how it is: on one side you focus on getting it,
and on the other you optimize the operations to keep most of it. Tat's
all it is. But having this working on a consistent basis is much harder to
do than it looks.
Let's take a look at this.
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1.
Getting it. Playing the Ofense
Te getting it part is implementing your plan to increase the business -

increasing Revenue. You do that by implementing a strategy where you
are able to hit your daily metrics regularly. As you are getting more
consistent on attaining an initial number, you keep working to increase
this number. Using the previous salesforce example, you will do this by:
1. Increasing deal-fow of more qualifed leads (marketing strategy).
2. Improving what your salesforce say (sales-script).
3. Improving their ability to close more deals (objection-handling).
As a company you are able to increase your sales if you focus on:
1. Getting more sales people.
2. Training them properly.
3. Making sure they have leads to meet everyday.
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By doing this, you are building a system that replicates what you do, but
on a larger scale. Tat way you can get out of selling door-to-door and
work on building the business with a team in place.
Selling door-to-door is not an easy game, but then again, no game is easy.
What is a fact is that, one person is limited by the number of people he
can see on a daily basis and his ability to stay consistent doing the work
everyday.
Knowing this, from the company's perspective, it is about keep growing

their salesforce so they can get to the billion-dollar dollar mark.
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2.
Keeping it. Playing the Defense:
Optimize operations, by minimizing spending
To have this going, you need bean-counters there. People that take care
of the daily administrative stuf and that type of related stuf. But you can
only get these people when you have resources. And this will only happen
when you have enough sales to support it. Bean counters don't usually go
with the “commission only basis”. Tey work on a fxed wage. Having
said that, they are still important to have around, as they will ensure, the
operations will be optimized and with tax-forms and that type of stuf
updated – this is their power.
But before even thinking about hiring people, there are things you can do
for yourself. Tese are invaluable in order for you to get a better
understanding of what you are doing.
Ever seen that show Shark Tank or Dragon's Den?
Startup founders do their pitch and afterwards, the investors start poking
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their shtick with important questions to see if they know their business.
Te most important questions relate to their business numbers. Knowing
their numbers.
Tey want to see if the founders know their business from a numbers
perspective.
• If they do, it shows credibility even if the business is not so good.

Tey will be able to say why.
• If they don't it's a dead man walking end of presentation.
Why is that?
Well, how could you possibly make decisions regarding money... specially
investor's money, not your own, if you don't even know how much is
coming in, how much is going out, how much do you need and what
systems you have in place to take care of this?
Here is where Business is a number's game, and you need to know the
numbers of your game.
• If you do, good for you.
• If not, it is time to start knowing this.
How can you know your numbers?
Good question. You know your numbers by categorizing every single
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thing that contributes to money coming in and the same for every single
dollar that goes out.
Create an Excel Spreadsheet with three columns:
• One with what you want
• One with reality
• One with the Industry's benchmark
Ten create lines with the sales assets and one with the expenses:
Sales assets:
• Door to Door activities
• Cold-calls
• Direct-marketing send outs
• Online Advertising
1. LinkedIn
2. Facebook
3. Google Ads
4. Facebook Ads
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5. Email-Marketing
Expenses:
• Ad Spend
• Gas
• Telephone
• Internet
• Direct-mail spend
Tis way you will know if your operations are being efective or not, by
seeing the results you are having and then comparing them to your pro-
forma and the current benchmark.
Tis way you will be in a position to answer these questions:
• “what does it cost you to acquire a customer, what's the long time
value of a customer, what annual percentage leaves?”
• “How many new prospects on average are needed to get you to

your required closes?”
Knowing your numbers well, will help you make better decisions to stop
bleedings and to increase your business. You are making decisions backed
up by data and not on wishful thinking. Te more accurate you are with
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your numbers, the more confdent you will be in your decisions for the
future.
Tis is what separates pros from amateurs. Pros know their numbers.
• If you are a bean-counter, you will have no trouble with this.
• If you are more sales oriented, you will struggle with this a bit.
I am horrible with details, but I don't get myself of the hook that easily.
If you are like this, use Google drive. Create a simple spreadsheet there
and do like I suggested. Make sure you fll in the daily results everyday.
It's not perfect, but it is better than nothing. Which one would you
rather have?
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SUMMARY
In the Money-piece, we addressed 2 main components:
1. Getting it – here your focus is to get it, and increase your earning
power.
2. Keeping it – here your focus is not to lose it. You focus on

squeezing every dollar it gets in your pocket, so you can lose as
little as possible.
In both cases you need measurements so you can be on track. No matter

which business you have, you need to address this. Te more efective you
are, the better of you will be.
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Piece #7:
Current Resources and situation
S
o you read a couple of books, even several maybe, you watched
lots of interviews, did some courses and even went so far as to
actually implement what you learned. Here is something you
need to address that is not talked about much. Your current resources
and situation (time, money, people).
Tere are several books on wealth creation, passive income and all sorts of
wonderful stuf - you should read them all. All will open your mind and
show you better ways of doing things - this is fne. But the key here is not
the lack of understanding of things in theory. It is you actually being able
to implement this successfully in real Life, given your current resources.
Do you think I don't understand that passive income is much better than
having to change time for money? And that Real Estate is the time tested
vehicle for wealth creation? Or that business is done by having leads and
lots of relationships?
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Tis is why the majority of theses books are flled with lots of big
understatements. Just because you understand it in theory, it doesn't
mean you will actually be able to accomplish it. Te reason why is that
your current situation might be keeping you from moving forward, even
though you know exactly where you want to go and what needs to be
happening.
It took me a while to acknowledge this but know I am aware. From your

end you really need to embrace this as well: theory vs practice. I've been
mentioning this throughout the book, but this is really important to
understand: the challenge is not in the theory. It is in the implementation
and having it actually work. If you are in fact focused more on action
than on theory, you need to understand that there are factors you won't
be able to control, even if you are more action oriented.
Tis is why you must be focused on delivering, because until you actually
get it done, it will take a lot from you and you will have to sustain lots of
losses and deals going sour.
So everytime you hear stories that sound easy, remember what we have
also been addressing throughout this book: anything that looks easy it is a
test, so you should take it with a grain of salt.
I'll give you an example of this: Tere was this lawyer that was frustrated
with his career and got together with investment bankers. Together they
founded an Investment frm. Today they run one of the largest Private
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Equity company in the world.
As you hear his story, it doesn't sound that hard to do the same thing.
From his words, he made a couple of cold-calls, got together with his
founding partners, made a couple of other phone calls and raised millions
to start investing. What a wonderful story. What a pile of BS and
understatements.
I am telling you this, because I actually tried it for two years straight. I
tried to raise $160 million using similar strategies: I wrote an extensive
and detailed business plan, I contacted fnancial analysts, statisticians and
salespeople, so they could be co-founders with me, and I knocked on
every single door I could think of (shark tank investors, family ofces,
high net worth people, banks, hedge funds and so many more). It didn't
work and I lost all my money carrying me forward through monthly
expenses. I believed I could do it as well, using the same model, so I tried
super-hard, and still ended up failing.
Am I incompetent? Are they so much better than me? Are the people you
look up to, so much better than you? No. Tey have their merit and you
should defnitely recognize it, but there is more to it than meets the eye.
So where is the problem?
Te problem is that, just because they could pull it of, it doesn't mean
that given your present circumstances, you can do it as well: timing,
location, people, are all big factors that play a huge role here. Te “right
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people” might not be available, because they live in another country, they
have other stuf going on right now, or you might not actually even meet
the right people.
• Should you not take responsibility? Of course not. Your future is

in your hands. You get out of it, what you put in.
• Should you follow through with your dreams? Obviously.
• Should you believe in yourself like a Titan? Of course.
Te buck starts and stops with you. But are you actually going to achieve
what you want in your Lifetime? No one knows. All you can do is try
your best and learn from your mistakes.
I'm bringing this up to clear up any hype and BS you might hear from
those fake motivation gurus out there. Life is hard, there are outside
factors you don't have any control of, and getting you up excited without
a plan will lead you nowhere. All you can do is control yourself, know
what you want and be consistent in executing your daily plan.
You want to be a Billionaire? Great. What's the plan? How are you going
to do that today? See what I mean?
Tis is another reason why you must be clear on what you want, because
this is not easy at all. In order to get there, given your present
circumstances, you might need to do much more work than the other
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guy that did it. You might need to do a larger number of adjustments
until you actually implement something that does work and get to the
same destination you are aiming for.
Do I still believe I can raise $160M? Sure. Even $160 Billion. Even $1
Trillion. I just learned I needed to change my strategy to get there. I
made this decision and become confdent in it, because that the feedback
I was getting was consistent across the board from enough believable
people. I listened to what they had to say and made the necessary
adjustments.
It is a matter of time, and you don't have a way of knowing how long will
it take you to get there. Tat's why you need to keep focused, so you can
readjusting and keep at it. If something is not working, you must get out
of it. Take what's best from it and move on.
So as an Entrepreneur while doing your thing, you need to take some

precautions. Addressing your current resources and situation means that
you need to address your living expenses frst and make sure they are
really solved. If it is a job you have to do for a while, suck it up and do it.
Just make sure you keep working on your business while you are doing it.
Is it sounding hard? Well, guess what: it is. Life doesn't come easy. Tis is
one step at a time. Tis is why you really need to know what you want,
otherwise you will just quit. One step at a time, then you can address
moving a step forward. Using the wise words from one of my mentors in
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one heated argument we had once: “You can't start from the end. You
need to start from the beginning, than you keep developing your track
record.”
Te HM Efect
Te one thing I've learned from one Billionaire I talked to that

completely threw me of, was what I now call the HM efect, named after
him. Te HM is a concept where every step you take has a percentage
success multiplied to it. People often suggest that you do A+B+C =
Success. You do this, this and this and you will be successful. But this is
wrong, it is fawed thinking.
It is not a 100% or 0% thing. Words like “Always” and “Never” are

wrong and you should not use them.
What I've learned is a diferent approach: you need to understand that
you can only control what you do, but you can't control the Butterfy
Efect: some random event that caused a set of circumstances that either
harmed or helped you.
E.g: You called a prospect client, she accepted to receive you the next day
and sign a contract with your company. You went to the meeting, she
didn't show up. You just learned she was in a car accident and died. You
were counting on that money to pay your rent this month. Tough luck!
Your day just went sour.
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Now let me ask you: How is it that this situation was 100% under your
control? See what I mean?
So Instead of thinking about things in Life like: A + B + C = Success, a

better way to look at it is:
Ax + By + Cz = Success, your outcome being in direct proportion of the

success factor of each step, given the amount of work you put in, your
present circumstances and resources and the butterfy efect taken in
consideration.
Now, does a huge amount of work equals success? No.
Does just luck equate to success? No.
Does work + luck equals a good combination? Yes.
Just realize that you will need some brute-force to get there. Life will
throw some monkey-wrenches in your plan. Unforeseen circumstances
will happen and these can go both ways and your results will be dictated
by all this.
In a diferent reality, coming back to our meeting, what was needed to

ofset this issue, was more scheduled meetings instead of just one. See
what I mean? Tat way if by any unforeseen circumstances one of them
got cancelled, you would still have more to go to.
Tis is why consistency plays such a big role here: As long as you keep at
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it, and by “keeping at it” I mean doing the work needed to be done,
gaining feedback, rethinking the plan and implementing again, you will
start having odds tend in your favor, as you will start to come up with
more efcient ways to hit the home run. In this specifc case having a
large deal-fow of qualifed meetings would have done the trick. You
couldn't control that she died, but you could have tried to make more
meetings.
Tis is why focus is a superpower and you need to develop it. Focus on
getting a ton of meeting every day, so you can close more deals, not
spending your time dabbling into several ventures because your frst
business is not doing well.
Tis is why every time I hear or read about some Entrepreneur that is
going all over the place with countless businesses, I already know they are
failing, as this is a recipe for disaster. Successful Entrepreneurs are
focused. Tey are like this because they know Business is way too hard to
dabble. You either are committed to do one thing very well or not. If you
are in fact committed, truly committed, you better make sure you
become the very best at it, go at it with everything you got, otherwise the
champ will beat the living crap at you.
You just glossed over it, and he has been at it for years and years. In the
ring, who do you think is going to win? Are you that delusional? Stay
focused, stay committed in solving the challenge in front of you. One at a
time. Tis is your only way to the top.
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SUMMARY
In this piece we addressed how you can accurately defne what you need
to do, based on where you are right now. It's nonsensical to go for
something it is too big for you right now. Reason why is that you have to
do something today. You can get to whatever dream you have, but you
need to start where you are right now regarding resourced and address the
most urgent problems at hand.
We are trying to avoid a dreamer that procrastinates. Instead you need to

solve your current problems, keep improving your circumstances and
then get to your dreams. Step by step, that's how you move forward, not
by wishful thinking. Remember the motto of this book: Be practical, not
a theorist.
Te other aspect we covered is the uncertain factor that you will be

facing. You can't control the world, but you can control what you do.
Take responsibility for what you do, but understand that you will be
facing situations you did not anticipate.
We covered that in order for you to fnd a way, you won't be able to do it
unless you stay focused and learning to say no to everything else.
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Otherwise you will keep quitting and never actually getting ahead in
anything.
Masters become masters at one thing. Tis is why they succeed and in
order for you to have a chance of succeeding, you need to align your
actions with this line of thought.
FOCUS is a super-power. Remember that.
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Te Wealth-Triangle
Part 3: Your Investments
Introduction
W
e have now come to the third part of the Wealth-
Triangle: here you use money that comes out of your
business to invest in other ventures. Tis way this money
can bring even more money for you, increasing your dollar per hour
value. But instead of going all over the place (we are focused now,
remember?), you are only going to invest in two things:
1. Your own Business.
2. Real Estate.
Tis step is necessary in order for you to avoid getting buried again. We
have seen how you can't be dependent on only one store, or you being
the only cab driver or the master door-to-door salesperson. You need to
have several stores in the frst case, several drivers or rent several cars in
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the second example, and have a salesforce team to do the work for you in
the last example. Only when you have this step working, you can then
use the excess profts to invest.
Ok, so where can you invest excess profts?
Tere are many ways. We will only focus on two here:
1. Your own Business: expansion by acquisition.
2. Buying real estate income properties.
In the following pages we will cover both.
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Part 1.
Your own Business: expansion by acquisition.
Here you are acquiring other competitors, so you can further increase
your sales number, besides the sales you are already doing. A good
example would be an Insurance Company acquiring another one. Tey
have a ton of clients paying premiums and the model is based on
continuity. So to acquire another Insurance Company, makes them
much more powerful because they now have much more income than
before.
But you can start doing this at a lower level: Agents and Brokers buy
other agent's portfolios all the time - you can do the same. If one guy has
a $100K portfolio at an annual 10% premium, he is getting paid $10K a
year from it. Tis means you can go to him, ofer a multiple of the annual
premium and get his portfolio. Do 10 of these, and you already have a
$1M portfolio.
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Notable M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) in the past 12 months of

2018
• Acquirer: CVA. Value: $69 Billion. Acquired: Aetna
• Acquirer: AXA. Value: $15.3 Billion. Acquired: XL Group
• Acquirer: AIG. Value: $69 Billion. Acquired: Validus
Te thing about this model that attracts me the most, is that your own
Insurance Company will will help you with the due-diligence procedures,
as they are also interested in this - that way you wouldn't mess up by
doing this yourself only. Tey will look for the portfolio composition
(Life%, Non-Life%) and for any delinquencies and payment issues there
from the clients. Tey will then assess what the portfolio is worth and tell
you. You then make an ofer to the agent, pay him, both of you sign the
paperwork and have the Insurance Company take care of the rest. After
that your income will get bigger.
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Part 2.
Buying real estate income properties.
Real Estate is a time tested vehicle. You'll hear this expression a lot, but it
is true. People need a house to live in and will continue to need a house
to live in the future. Looking at it from the investment side, the whole
idea is to have a bunch of people paying you rent, because you own the
house they live in. Te more houses you have, the more rents you will
have every month. Tis is the simple overview.
You might be saying: “But aren't we getting unfocused if are doing

another activity besides the main one?” No. Te plan is to keep you
focused on your main business, but use the budgeted proceedings from it
to invest in Real Estate. You don't do anything, you just put money to
work with a team - it's like a purchase. You are fnancing the whole thing,
and they do all the work. Done right, you are insuring you buying more
income. Tat's what you are essentially doing.
Tere are many avenues in Real Estate investing: wholesaling, fipping,

notes and much more. Here we will only focus on cash-fow properties.
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Ok, so where do I make my frst real estate Investments?
Te general ideal is to buy a building with a bunch of tenants in it and

their rent minus the debt service would serve as an income source for
you. You usually pay a property manager to take care of all the plumbing
complaints, rent defaults, collecting and on. You only get the monthly
income.
If you serve as a promoter of the investment, the correct term syndicator,

you can structure the investment to high net worth people and have them
enter the partnership. Tis way you would not use that much capital of
your own, as they would take care of this, and you would charge a fee for
getting the whole thing together.
In time, you would focus on increasing your portfolio, and to make it

more tax efcient and easier for investors to get in, you could setup an
investment fund. In my entrepreneurial ventures I've seen hotel tycoons
do this, my personal mentor did it as well, and all sorts of business people
across a multitude of industries. Tis would be your approach. Let's go
through this example:
A building has 50 tenants. Ten stories high, with 5 units each.
Each tenant pays on average $600 as rent.
Total monthly income of the building? $30.000 (50 x $600 = $30.000).
Each unit costs $100.000, so the total purchase price for the building
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would be: $5.000.000 (50 x $100.000 = $5M).
At $360.000 of gross income ($30.000 x 12), this means this property is

generating a 7.2% return ($360k / $5M = 7.2%). Tat is if you bought
it 100% cash down, but almost no one does this. Instead, you would
approach a bank and ask for a loan on the property. To acquire this
building banks require on average 25% down payment as equity. Te
expression is 75% LTV (Loan to Value. 100% - 25% = 75%).
Tis means you would need to come up with $1.25M ($5M x 25% =
$1.25M), and the bank would loan out the rest at a certain interest rate.
Presently, a fxed interest rate is at 2.074%, so this means that, with a
loan amount of $3.75M ($5M - $1.25 = $3.75M), and a loan term of
30 years, you would be looking at a $14K monthly payment as debt
service.
Given that this asset with 50 tenants is paying $30.000 a month, and as
long you make sure they are paying, otherwise you would have a non-
performing-asset, you are now looking at a $16.000 as monthly income
minus the property manager fee, bank and legal fees of setting the deal.
All needed to close this deal is to come up with $1.25M as equity. Te

best option would be to approach people with $250k each. 5 investors
would solve he problem ($1.25M / $250K = 5). Each investor would
receive: $38,400 a year ($16,000 x 12 months / 5 investors = $38,400).
Percentage wise each one would be looking at a 15.36% on their money
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($38,400 / $250K = 15.36%). So from using bank leverage, you bump

the returns on the property from 7.2% to 15.36%.
So, without doing anything else, an investor would be getting a 15.36%

on their $250.000. Current bank CD's (certifcates of deposit) are
yielding around 1%. Te highest I found at the time of this writing, was a
60 month CD at an APY (Annual Percentage Yield) of 2.25%.
You are generating a solid 15.36% with the same money. Investors are
getting $3,200 a month as rental income from your plan. ($250.000 x
15.36% / 12 = $3,200).
But before you even think about approaching investors, you need to have
a track record of doing this yourself, otherwise you won't see a dime from
them. I have interviewed a ton of real estate investors and people around
this sector, and every time I heard the expression: “Find the deal and the
money will follow”, I knew they were lying. No one, I repeat: No one
will trust you with their money unless they trust you know what you are
doing. Zero. Remember the experienced one versus the noob? Which one
would you trust, especially with your money?
So to get to a deal like this funded by investors, you need to establish

yourself frst so you can gain credibility. How?
You do it on your own frst. Remember that this part of the Wealth-
Triangle is about dollar for dollar. You already have an income source
business, so you can fund it yourself. How you ask? Like everything, by
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starting small.
So your frst project is to fnd a crappy house, fx it and sell it. You are
going to make a ton of mistakes but these are invaluable to build your
credibility. After you get that one done, buy another and then another
and keep doing the same. Ten try to buy a couple of houses where you
rent them instead of selling. In time, go after a whole building yourself.
In the US, Multifamily Apartment Buildings is the way to go in some
states. Here in Portugal, since laws are tenant favorable, this means the
better alternative for this avenue is Ofce Buildings with 10 - 15 year
long term leases.
After doing this for a while you can then approach investors, because
instead of the: “How many deals have you done?” reply: “0”, your
conversation will be something like this: “I have done 35 deals, bought
this 16 unit building located on this street, and now gathered $500.000
of my own money to acquire this one. I need an extra $1.000.000 to
complete the purchase. Of this amount $700.000 are already committed
from other investors and bank loans have already been approved. Final
date is Friday, this is what you will get. Are you in?”
Let me ask you: Do you think, NOW they will take you a little bit more
seriously?
Tis is what I mean by building your reputation and track record. Like
my mentor said: You have to start from the beginning - same thing here.
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You understand the big boy's deals, but you need to start with your own
frst and then graduate to larger ones.
So, here in both Business-Acquisitions and Real-Estate Investments, all

you are doing is putting money to work. Your only focus is to keep
increasing sales.
When you are in a position that you can have people work for you, have
them do this work. Tis way you can keep improving your fnancial path
by using other people's time and resources. Tis will allow you to grow
faster.
To summarize what you are doing:
1. Skill: keep improving your sales-skills everyday.
2. Business: Create a business around your skill. Teach people to do

the same so they can bring in more sales for you.
3. Investments: Further grow your business by acquisitions and

investments in Real-Estate.
In my specifc case my plan is selling Life Insurance all day, and the
money that comes from it, goes to fund Portfolio Acquisitions and Real-
Estate Investments.
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SUMMARY
In this chapter we addressed the other part of your day as business-person

where you are investing the proceedings from your main activity in
business acquisitions and real estate income properties. I have never met
one business person that did not do this, not one. So this is something
you need to focus on when you get to this level.
In time you can bring in investors because by this time you are able to
keep yourself sustainable as your main income activity is working. And
since you already have made investments on your own, people will take
you more seriously than if you just approached them as a noob without
even having a main source of income for yourself. Te frst one works,
this latter one, as I learned the hard-way, doesn't.
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Chapter 4:
Pillar #4: Knowledge
How to improve your knowledge
I
have never met one successful person, not one, that wasn't
educating himself and sharpening their skills all the time. Not one.
Seriously. Millionaires and Billionaires are vacuum cleaners for
information and lab-scientists for trials and errors. Tey do this, because
they know they don't know, so they have a clear understanding that they
need to learn how to improve their decision-making capabilities. Tey do
that by leveraging other people's knowledge and experience, and then
proceed by doing their own trials-end-errors, and so do you.
See, an Entrepreneur is someone that understands he is the ultimate

responsible for his own Life. Your Life is what you make of it, your
Future is in your hands, and it is up to you to improve your present
circumstances, so you can get to where you want to be. No one else is
going to move a straw for you. Te cavalry is not going to come and save
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you. It's on you.
By having this approach to Life, the next logical conclusion, is that you
don't have the necessary knowledge to move forward. You want to get
there, but you don't know how, so you have to learn. How do you do
that? You do that by learning from other people. By leveraging their own
experiences and then applying them in your Life.
Tis doesn't become easier, you just become better at it. What's in your
favor is that you can leverage other people's experiences so you can make
better decisions in what you are doing, so you can save time. Tey already
lived theirs and went through it, so you use this knowledge. Tis is not
like school, here you actually have to cheat, it's a requirement. You have
to learn from other people so you can craft your solution.
Tese are some ways you can improve yourself as an Entrepreneur and
human being.:
1. Read Biographies.
2. Watch Interviews.
3. Read Books on History and the specifc knowledge you are

looking for (psychology, sales, marketing, whatever rocks your
boat).
4. Watch Documentaries.
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5. Reverse-Engineering other people's businesses.
6. Have in-person meetings with successful people so you can ask

them your specifc questions.
In order to use this in your favor, you need to do two things:
1. Learn the Teory
2. Implement it into Practice
We already talked about this several times, but I cannot stress this
enough: you need to implement your plan. You need to get the theory
into practice. Otherwise you are talking from the stance of not knowing,
and not moving, that is what most people do. Tey read about it, talk
about it, but don't act enough on it. Remember Hill and Stone.
If you focus on action, by doing it instead of just theorizing about it, you
will move. Even if you fail, you are failing forward. You will see you
missed lots of things you could not possibly have anticipated unless
someone with more experience had told you about it.
But by doing it, you learn. Tis is the way to do it: you learn from people
that have the knowledge you don't, but then you put it all to practice, so
you can then gain feedback from the results and get your own
conclusions.
Tis experience will help shape your decision-making abilities, because
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you will learn frst hand what works and what doesn't.
Life keeps going whether you solve your problems or not. And as you
work towards achieving your goals - because you fnd unacceptable
staying where you are right now - you will obviously need to do
something. You need to fnd a solution.
But these answers can only come from people that have done it before.
Tey know how to do it, because they have done it themselves - they are
credible. Tis logic is bullet-proof, with no way around it.
So you must fnd these people and hit them up to get the questions you
need answers for. Tese people are not in abundance so you have to look
them up.
In the social chapter we went through some strategies on how you can
accomplish this - this must be an absolute must for you. You have to
know how, so you can learn how to move forward. Staying where you are
is causing much more pain, so you really have to solve this.
From my experience, I can tell you that the most profound conversations
I ever had, were from the three billionaires I personally talked to, and a
couple of multi-millionaires I had the pleasure of also spending time
with. I found peace of mind, felt centered, didn't want it to end, and just
listened to those pearls of wisdom.
I can tell you that from all these successful people I had the pleasure of
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talking to, one common thing that I have learned from all of them, is
that you have to look at Life as a trial and error process, not a all or
nothing thing. Here is what I mean: you are going to fail a lot. Like it or
not, that is a given. So your best approach to Life is knowing that you are
going to fail forward right from the beginning.
Tis must be your approach to things: failing forward based on action.

Failing in a way that you try the best hypothesis that you come up with,
but do not get buried in the process. Tat is what all of them do. Tey
fail more than most people, they learn from it, and keep moving forward,
but they make sure they don't get buried.
Essentially you are trying to fgure out a way to move forward, out of the
hole, so you come up with an hypothesis. And in your hypothesis
development, you must state a ponderation factor into it: “I believe that
there is a 90% chance of this happening. Why?” and then you have to
answer this why. Is it because you already went through this and came
out successful under similar circumstances? Why do you believe it to be
accurate? Not just on theory but based on practice?
By doing this, for each hypothesis you come up with, you will start being
a bit more careful in your assumptions. You don't assume or hard
conclude anything from the beginning, you need to test it. You make
educated guesses knowing full well you might be wrong. You then fnd
the most credible people to stress-test your hypothesis and see it from
their angle. Only then your hypothesis has a better chance of being a
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successful conclusion. Tis is a much better process than just assuming

something from the stance of not knowing, and going all in blind.
Tink about it: if you were right all the time, if that would be the case for
all your decisions, that meant you would be today where you wanted to
be, and in most cases that is not what happens. So this means you acted
on wrong information in the past. You believed it to be right but you we
weren't. Otherwise, If you were in fact right, you wouldn't be in this
situation today.
So be careful every time you assume something. Tis is a major

distinction between poor people and wealthy people:
• Poor people think they know what they are talking about.
• Billionaires read more than anyone else on the planet. Tey keep
educating themselves, looking for answers. Me? I know nothing.
So, from now on, every time you state something, ask yourself: “Why do
you think you know this? Is it because a believable person told you so and
validated this idea? Is it because every time you encountered similar
circumstances you were successful? Why do you think you can succeed in
this situation? What is making you believe so?”.
Tis is what I mean by all or nothing. Always is a dangerous word. All the
billionaires I've talked to, bar none have this approach. Tey proceed,
and are in fact fast decision-makers, but they take their time to assess the
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situation frst.
And really, there are only three criteria to use, when facing any decision
making process:
1. I believe there is a x% of this happening, because of y.
2. I might be wrong.
3. How can I test this in a way that doesn't bury me?
In addition, you should make a point of gathering feedback from the

most intelligent and experienced people you have access to, so they can
stress-test your hypothesis. You are not asking them what to do, just
having them see the problem from their angle, and stress-test your theory.
For every hypothesis you come up with, you will do better if you can
present it to people that are at the same level as you or higher, and have
more experience and/or a diferent personality type. Tey will point out
stuf you don't see. Tis is what is needed so you can make better
decisions:
• If you are creative and the other person is very analytical, he is

going to see details you are missing.
• If you are very analytical, you probably need to hear a creative

person's view. It is easier for them to come up with ideas that can
point you towards the right direction.
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See the point? You are not acting from a place of insecurity, you are
fnding people with a diferent skill-set that can see pitfalls in your case.
Tis way you improve the probability of success of your hypothesis. I will
give you a real example:
I once invested in four retail bakeries. Some of them would be located in

shopping-malls. Each shopping mall presented me with a 500 page
document for the lease. I am Aggressive and Creative. Tis means my
weakness is impatience and the analytical part. From experience I already
know I am going to miss details, I just suck at it. Add assault to
aggravation, I am also dyslexic, so detail-oriented people were defnitely
required in this project. Tis way I would reduce chances of getting bit.
At that point I was the one with the money and I didn't want it at risk.
What did I do? I found a super analytically oriented lawyer, specialized in
these types of leases, and also found a super analytically oriented surveyor,
to go through the technical parts. I send them both the contracts to read,
and let them do their thing.
I kid you not, it took them one month each to go throw the whole thing.
One month. Remarkable! And you can't rush these people. You really
can't. Tey just don't work like that. Tey excel in their detail analysis,
and need their time alone undisturbed, to go through the whole
thing...several times.
End result? Tey produced a report where both concluded, from their
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independent and diferent skill-set approaches, the pro's and con's of

moving forward with the leases. Since I am the trigger-edgy impatient
dude, horrible with details, they had to explain this to me super slowly,
like I was a 6-year old child with learning disabilities. After hearing them
both, I concluded not to invest and walked away.
Had I not listened to these people, I am pretty sure today, I would be in

legal battles from here to Mars with these fne Shopping Mall people.
So, get people that have the skills you lack, and with diferent
personalities that complement your weaknesses, so you can avoid getting
bit. Tat way, when you come up with a hypothesis, you can have them
stress-test it and increase the likelihood of getting you to the successful
destination.
Although this was a service I paid for, you can use this same approach in
pretty much every single decision-making process. It does not guarantee
you success, but it highly increases the likelihood of you succeeding.
You see this combination in business partnerships all the time. One
partner is more all-over the place, but great dealing with people. Te
other one is more closed to people, but much better on bean-counting
activities. Each one has a diferent set of skills, but both combined are
much more powerful solving problems, than one individually.
Tey are aligned with a common goal they want to overcome, so their
hypothesis is a combination of both points of view. If both get along well
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they will listen to each other. Te overall answer to the problem they face
has a higher likelihood of being correct, because EGO is out of the way.
Tey are just interested in improving the hypothesis by using the
strengths from each point of view.
Te other side of this “equation” are the: self-help gurus, business-coaches

and scholars. Tese you will fnd in abundance. People that don't know
what they are talking about, because they have never done it, but for
some odd reason they think they know what they are talking about, and
they are more than happy to “give you” their “accredited” advice, in
return for money. Usually lots of it.
Heed my warning:
You will only take advice from people that do know what they are talking
about, because they have the track record to back it up.
John built a billion-dollar company from scratch. It took him 50 years.

He has 1,500 employees and has clients all around the globe. Do you
think he knows a thing or two regarding money-making and how to run
a billion-dollar company? What do you think?
What about Susan that never made more than $100.000 gross sales in a
business. She ran her business to the ground, due to lack of sales and
processes to keep margins. She is now a business-coach.
Business-coaches are usually people that failed in their frst business like
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Susan. After that, they read a couple of books, attended a couple of

seminars, talked with some people, and now out of the blue, they now
think they are in a position to get paid because their “unique knowledge”
in business.
Tey will tell you their “sound advice” will give you millions, but they
don't really have the results to back it up. It's just book knowledge, not
actual results. Most business-coaches are broke, and will continue to stay
broke because they are delusional.
You need to identify when you are having a conversation with someone
like this. Tey are presenting their framework as the model to success,
but if you take a look under the hood, their own engine is not working.
Tink about this for a second: just because you know the rules of chess, it
doesn't make you a grand-master automatically, does it? It just means you
know the rules of the game. Grand-Masters become champs not just
because they are talented and know the rules of the game, but because
they are experienced. Tey have won lots of games. Tey know how to
play better than most people. Tey have technique, backed up by
experience.
Tey are focused, dedicated, go to tournaments and start winning. Tey

key to all this? Practice. So let me ask you: If you are in front of a Grand-
Master, both of you know chess theory, but who do you think will win?
He will beat the living crap out of you. Why? Because of the practice, not
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the theory.
Be humble. Remember: B-E H-U-M-B-L-E.
You become good at something by practicing, and become great by keep

doing it and practicing even more. People that have been running billion
dollar companies that they personally started from the ground up, are
very skilled. Tey are Grand-Masters. Tey didn't get there by night and
most defnitely not by just reading a couple of books. Tey have been
doing this for years and years.
Tey difer from those delusional “gurus” and “business coaches” out
there, because they know they don't know. Tey know they don't have
all the answers. But they know how to get it to work, because they have
gone through a tremendous amount of trials and errors to get it right.
NOW they are successful! Get it? Because they have been doing this for
so long. Tey keep an open mind, but they know what they are talking
about.
Remember this next time someone is willing to give you advice on any
matter.
Ask yourself: Why does this person think he knows this? Someone told
him so? Does he run a successful company? Does he have billions in his
checking's account? Or he his just delusional and doesn't really know
what he is talking about?”
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So next time you have someone like this in front of you, just call them
out in front of everybody, put them on the spot, and ask them out right
to show you their bank account balance, before any further regurgitation
and any business advice. If they have money, they won't have any
problem showing it to you, right? Tey would be proud of that fact,
right? You'll understand what I mean when you see the expressions on
their faces reacting to your comment. Just avoid these people altogether.
Te most valuable advice I got, came from Billionaires and Millionaires

that took time to sit with me, with some of them actually taking me out
to lunch, out of their own initiative.
Valuable advice can ONLY come from credible people!
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this chapter we went through the importance of knowledge.Your

understanding of the world and how to move forward successfully, will
come as a result of your better understanding of it. Tis starts from
improving the theory, but then putting it all to practice.
Out of your experiences you will gain feedback. From this feedback you
will be able to regroup and take another set of actions based on what you
learned from it. By repeating this process you will eventually fnd a better
way to do things and achieve results.
But to learn how to move forward you need valid input. Most often than
not, you will fnd yourself looking for answers. Remember that these
cannot come from people that don't know how to do it. Valid answers
can only come from people that know how to do it, because they did it
themselves.
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Chapter 5:
Pillar #5: Time
How to optimize your time efectively
T ime is a very special pillar. I've decided to include it here, because it

is the one thing you won't get back or change.
• You can lose all your money, and still get it back.
• You can be sick and regain your health.
• You can lose friends and get new ones.
What you can't get back, is time.
Your Time is very precious, because your Life is on the clock. You need
to become aware of this. Everyday is one less day you have alive. You are
going to die one of these days and everyday is one more step closer to the
end. So you need to know what you want out of Life and work everyday
to getting yourself there. Don't spend your Life doing things you hate,
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just because you didn't take time to reassess your present situation and do
something about it.
• Are things are easy? No.
• Will there be points in your Life you will have to do stuf you
hate just to keep at foat? Yes.
• Can you do something about changing your present situation?

Most defnitely.
But thinking about it is one thing, the other is actually doing it and
achieving it. When you fgure out what you need to do, you need to
understand that you just can't waste your precious Time on stuf that
doesn't matter. You are trying to fx your Life. Your LIFE not someone
else's.
So you must classify your to do's for the day as Urgent and Important
and do them. If you have this approach, you will move forward towards
what you want.
But the caveat is that by doing this, it also means you don't have time to
do anything else: pointless meetings, going to cofee-shops wondering
about stuf, going to get groceries instead of having them delivered to
your home for just a couple of more bucks, and on and on.
It's your Life, it's your choices.
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Your Life is the sum of the everyday actions you do. You can't complain
as the buck stops with you. Everyday we are dying, every single second is
one you don't have anymore, so you have to start getting yourself
straight, and realize you are not going to be here forever.
What do you want? Really. What do you want in your Health, what do
you want in your Financial Life, who do you like to hang around with?
Make your choices. Use every single second available to go get it. It's your
time not other people's.
Ok...So this is the doom and gloom introduction. Te kick in the nuts.
Te wake-up call.
Now that I have your attention, let's focus on your business. Te things
you need to address so you can take the most out of it.
HOW?
You will do this by leveraging and outsourcings things, so that you can
move forward more efciently.
Tis aspect of the 7 Pillars is the main diference between rich and poor
people: efective leverage and time management.
Smart business people and investors realize that they have the same time
as you and anyone else's, so they focus on being more productive. Tey
focus on getting more done in the same time-span.
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Tey seem to fnd a way to generate billions in revenue a day. Compare

that to the poor people that has $0. Do you think there is a diference in
the day of both these people?What do you think?
Let's take a look at a one-stop-shop business and a billion-dollar revenue

company.
Obviously the one guy shop is not going to make the cut to the
billionaires club, but the 1,000 stores owned by the rich person solves
this problem.
Tis is where the multiplier efect comes into place.
So what is the multiplier efect?
Earlier on we talked about Walmart and how massive it is. Where the
multiplier efect comes into place is that, they essentially have one store
and create similar ones in diferent places. Tey are multiplying the
success of one store across many. Teir total revenue comes in as a sum-
of-parts from all the stores they have.
Although obvious, this is a very important aspect of business you need to

pay attention to: scale. Tey built one store, then another, then another
one and so on. Each one contributes to the overall Revenue and margins.
So, as an Entrepreneur you have to look at a business-model that you can

implement this multiplying efect, otherwise you will stay small. And
staying small in business is a serious no-no. Tere is absolutely no way, I
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repeat: NO WAY to persevere in any business by staying small, that is

just impossible.
Te only way to persevere is to keep growing, because you will fght for
more inches of market-share and not get taken down by competition,
which are in the same game as you and trying to do the same. You will
lose clients or fnd yourself in a situation you need to stop because you
are exhausted, but if you stop you don't get paid, because you don't have
resources to do it for you.
So, if growth is the answer, how can you do this?
Good examples are:
1. Te use of the Internet. Essentially you can be in front of a very

large audience and present your product. Since you can create
digital assets to do the selling for you, this is a very powerful
concept, because it amplifes your reach and gives you the ability
to get paid in your sleep.
2. A large number of stores. Although capital intensive, it still

follows the same type of model. You are replicating a proven
model you have in a store and getting more stores running to
increase your sales. Tere are workers there ensuring the business
is working.
3. Building a salesforce. You get people to replicate your sales-
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methods so you can leverage their results as a group.
Essentially you need to be the helmsman only. Te idea person that

points to the right direction.
It goes without saying that this is easier said then done. Nevertheless you
need to have this happening for you in some shape or form.
In my particular case I chose to create a course around what I am already

doing on a daily basis to reach a larger audience interested in learning
how to sell.
At the same time, ofine I was looking to increase my salesforce so I

could get people replicating the results I was getting as a salesperson, and
bring more revenue as a byproduct.
I was building credibility, increasing my social infuence and improving

sales a result. All this around my one focus in Life: to be a better
salesman.
Remember to choose a mountain to climb. You won't have enough time

in Life to do everything, so you really have to choose. Choose a mountain
to climb and defend it like hell. Tis way you are focusing your energy on
improving your core skills and you will be more likely to get what you are
trying to achieve. By building systems to generate more revenue,
independent from you, you will be able to leverage time in your favor.
Will a master salesman close more people than the average dude in his
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organization? Obviously. Ben Feldman did $1.5 Billion in Life Insurance

in his career. At one point he was doing $100M a year in Life Insurance.
It was him and a team of 10 bean-counters.
But let me ask you this: Can a team of 350,000 people all across the
globe achieve more sales in a day than a Master salesman?
You have to realize that people working under you, will produce from an
individual perspective a lower output. You need to accept this. But the
overall plan is about getting scale and consistency from them. One store
does better than another one. One sales-rep will do better than another
one. But the owner has 1,000 stores. Te Insurance Company has
350,000 people working there. See what I mean?
Keep in mind that this is a work in progress. It is unlikely that you will
get this at your frst shot, just keep that in mind as you go. Te idea is for
you to get the most buck for your time even if in the beginning you are
doing stuf you know it is less than ideal given your current resources and
situation. As long as you are aware of the necessary changes that need to
be implemented, that's fne for now. It's a starting point. Keep going, and
stay focused on the steps. When you eventually have the resources, make
your move.
It's a bit like getting ahead of yourself, it doesn't work because you need
to start from the beginning. Do that, but understand the necessary
improvements needed to be made so you can be in that future position,
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having assets working for you, and time properly levered. For now you
need to start with what you have.
Te marathon runner vs the short distance runner
One hard truth you need to realize is that accomplishing your goals,
especially if they are meaningful ones, most likely it will take much more
time than you anticipated. Probably there is nothing wrong with your
plan, it will just take more time. So you need to take this into
consideration when doing something. Tinking like this as helped me
tremendously. Remember what I already addressed before: anything
quick is a test. Don't be a short runner, be the marathon runner: Look
for the long-term. You will make diferent decisions if you are working
towards the long run. Your brain crafts more sound decisions.
So when making a decision regarding how you will be spending your

time, just ask yourself before accepting the proposed meeting or place to
go: “Is this in anyway going to improve my overall circumstances
regarding the 7 pillars? If yes, go. If not refuse.
Most successful people I've met have people go to them instead of the
other way around. Why do you think that is?
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this chapter we addressed the importance of your awareness of time,

we talked about scale and that the business you are in must have that.
Te whole idea of a business is to have an asset working for you, so that it

is independent from you actually being there, and still being able to
provide you the results you want.
In order for you to have that, you need to implement it, but given
current circumstances you might not be able to do it at the present time.
It's just something you need to be aware that it has to become a reality in
order for you to persevere in business.
You start from the beginning, keeping the end in mind. When you do
have the necessary resources, you then upgrade your business so you can
leverage time and get one step closer.
Te last key-point is the time it will actually take you to get to where you
want, versus the time it initially looked as it would take. You must be
aware of this, so you can do something about it.
Lastly we covered that long-term decisions are much more sound than
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short ones. You are deciding for your best future, and eliminating
anything else that is not important and inline with what you want.
Obviously if you are struggling right now, you might have to do stuf that
is unrelated to your successful future, so just look at it as temporary and
not permanent.
Make sure every hour of your time is used in accordance to your daily
goals. Tat way you know you are being more efective with your time.
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Chapter 6:
Pillar #6: Other
How to Improve your weaknesses
I
address this pillar as Other. It is a diferent story for every
personality type, but the underlying principle is the same. It all
comes together as one pillar that you need to be aware of and act on
because it is your weakest part.
In the chapter Social, we talked about the diferent personality types.

Each one having strong and weak points. We learned that in order to be a
certain way, it means you are not another way, because the strengths
come with the weaknesses. Nothing's wrong with you, it's just how you
are. You just need to be aware of it, so you can do something about it.
So the path to your personal improvement starts by you frst

acknowledging where you are strong and weak so you can then improve
both.
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Why is this a pillar you might ask?
Good question. Here's why with my own example:
I am aggressive and creative by nature. Tese are my strongest points.
Tis means I have no problem working 20 hours straight, knocking on

every door on the block to make sales, and I come up with new ideas
every time I face a challenge.
It all comes natural to me, but it doesn't mean I am doing the right work,
or that the ideas are any good. It just means it's my default state.
My downfall is that I lack structure. I miss important dates and details

and I have trouble getting everything done because of having so many
ideas.
Since I have been bitten so many times because of this, I decided not to
be in this position again, so I started to act on this issue to get it under
control.
So my Other is disorganization. What do I do everyday to get the thing

under control?
• I focus on doing the one activity that can get me results and make
sure I follow through. If it is making 60 business visits door-to-
door, I count them. I make sure I am doing what I set out to do.
• I have one hour a day to get the house in order and make sure my
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“defense” processes are actually being followed through.
• For important dates I use Google Calendar reminders.
• In order to not get buried in tons of unfnished projects, I choose

to refuse everything but the main plan I am presently
doing...even if the ideas look good I still reject them. Focus by
elimination, that's what I call it.
Tis solves my disorganization problems. But this is my pillar. Yours

might be diferent.
A very structured and analytical person, will most likely struggle with
creativity. Everything is nice and neat but they are missing a vision, a
project to do their thing...to get their lives moving further. So their Other
pillar is creativity and they need to address it.
I've seen people that have a terrible low-paying job but they are super-
structured...control-freaks to the inch. But deep inside they know they
are not in a good situation, even though what they are doing is under
control. See? Tey are missing a better vision they could execute on. Tey
don't see it because they are so detail-oriented.
On the other hand, a person that lacks aggressiveness, might not put in
all the work required to get things done...they might not address
bullies...they might not fght out loud in front of everyone for what they
believe in. If they are not standing up for themselves, where does this
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leave this person with? Better or worse?
Tere are tons of variations here, but the underlying theme is the same:
making sure you are addressing your weaknesses so you can improve your
Life.
Tis is what I call Other. You must know what yours is, what's your
Other, so you can get it under control too.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this chapter we addressed that in order for you to get better you need
to address your strengths and weaknesses. Knowing who you are is very
powerful, because you can then do something about it. You don't have to
be upset because you are not detailed-oriented. You just need a system to
solve the problem so you don't harm your Life because you are weak at
this.
On the other hand, because you are creative it doesn't mean you don't
practice even further to be much more creative. It's about improvement
on both ends: your strengths and your weaknesses.
EGO will keep you from admitting who you truly are. Humility,
Confdence and common sense will show you a better way:
Find out who you are and embrace it. Understand your strengths and
your weaknesses so you can address them and improve. It's all about you
reaching your end-goal:
• It doesn't matter what your weaknesses are, if you implement an

efective system to solve them.
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• It doesn't matter if you are a very powerful creator. You still need
to become even more powerful. Te number one in the world.
Tat's what you should be striving for.
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Chapter 7:
Pillar #7: Habits
How to Improve your daily habits efectively
I
t should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: habits will make
or break you. I'll say it again: habits will make or break you - this is
a fact.
And I don't know what you are or who you think you are, but the one
with better work-ethics will outperform the genius person with the most
potential on the planet any day of the week.
What I've learned throughout my entrepreneurial endeavors is that it all

comes down to this: HABITS. Everything we talked about regarding
health, social, business and all that, it all comes down to what you
actually do about it everyday.
Your overall success or lack thereof, comes from the results you get on
what you do everyday.
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• If you do something today and it works, you have succeeded.
• If you do something today and you failed, you've...failed.
• If you don't do anything about what you know needs to be done,

you are standing still, so guess what:...you've failed.
See, you succeeded today because you achieved something today in

accordance to your plan.
• But in order for you to succeed at anything, you frst need to

know where you want to go – this is what you want.
• After that, you need a plan on how you are going to get there -
Tis plan comes from your experience: either by doing it, and/or
by modeling other people that have made it before.
• From the end to the beginning, you will need to reverse engineer
the required steps to get it done today, so you can get to the end
destination. You will then need to break this down in: Years,
months, weeks, days, hours.
After that, when you see what needs to be done today, it's execution time.
And you can't stray away an inch from it, unless something is not
working. If this is the case, you need to go back to the plan and test a
new hypothesis.
Doing this will give you the answer to the most important question in
410
Life:
What do you need to do right now, and do it everyday on a consistent

basis, so that by doing it, you will get to your end-goal?
Looking at it this way you will come to the conclusion that:
• Te Life you want tomorrow, is the successful result of what you

do today.
• Te Life you have today is the result of everything you did until
today, successes and failures.
See what I mean?
So, in order to accomplish your goal in a specifc area that you want, you
need to defne the timeline you want to achieve it and then subdivide it
into the required daily to-do's.
Say for instance you defne a goal you want to accomplish in fve years
time: you have to be efective in subdividing it into years, months, weeks,
days and hours.
By doing this, you are being objective: getting down to what you actually
need to do. You are gaining clarity on the daily activities that have to be
done and the results needed from these, so you can be successful today.
Not tomorrow, not the next day, I mean today. All the “todays”
combined are the steps towards your future. Te future you want.
411
So to get this clear:
• A successful Life is a consistent repetition of successful days as

these keep piling up. A successful day is a day where you achieve
what you set out to do that is in line with your overall plan.
• On the other hand, if you keep postponing or if you fail daily

metrics these will also pile up into a future you probably don't
want.
Now, do we have less than good days at times? Yes.
Are there days you don't even want to crawl out of bed?Yes.
But in order to be successful in any of your pursuits, the vast majority of

your days must be successes in accordance to your vision. Tis is forward
movement.
I've already said when I asked successful Entrepreneurs about daily

activities, they all told me the same thing: “Results must be a straight
line. I don't look for genius moves. I look for consistent wins everyday”.
See the pattern? Consistency of results. Everyday like clockwork. Grunt

work. Grind work. Moving forward one step at a time, securing each one,
is how the most brilliant minds achieve things: billionaires, athletes, all
came to the same conclusion in their felds: daily successes everyday like
clockwork.
412
Obviously, it takes time for you to fgure this stuf out, and having
successful results “everyday like clockwork” doesn't come to you out of
the blue. You will experience lots of frustration when doing something,
lots of failing and THEN you succeed.
I am just to explaining you that your days must have metrics. You need
to set these up. Tis is the important part to understand. Your activities
are being put on the spot against the required metrics you set out to
achieve.
Tis way you will be able to understand what is happening and then do
something about it:
• If you are failing, you need to take it down a notch, or change the
approach.
• if you are succeeding, you can take it up a notch.
Te key here is something you achieve everyday on a consistent basis so

you can assess what to do next. Tis is vital because either failure or
success will provide you this information.
It's like a weightlifter: you can lift something today, but you train to get
to a certain heavier weight you can lift. When you are comfortable, you
get it up a notch and repeat the process - this is an improvement. So
when you master a step and secure it, you work to get to the next step on
top of it and so on.
413
Accept that there will be a heavy trial-and-error process involved. You'll

fail more often than not. Successful people failed more than most! Tey
know this well and they embrace failure as part of their plan.
Remember that if you are trying and failing, this means you are
implementing something - you are moving. From it, you are getting
precious feedback that is required for you to adjust course and go at it
again with an improved line of thought.
What you can't do is not try because this implies an end, as not trying
means standing still. And by defnition, If you need to get somewhere,
you need to move towards it. If you stay still you are not going to go
anywhere - it's how things are.
Te more you try, and as long as you are absorbing the results from the
experience, the better understanding you will get from it. Tis way you
are improving your approach to solve the problem from the feedback you
are getting. Your thought process becomes better...You'll see the next step
better and be more competent to solve it. One by one you keep going,
securing each step and then moving on to the next one.
“I want to get paid $100 everyday”. After you solve this, and get this
result on a consistent basis, your next objective could be: “I want to get
paid $200 a day” then $100.000 then $1 Billion. See what I mean?
What you can't do is go from $0 to $1 Billion without going through

these necessary steps and making sure you are securing each one.
414
Otherwise this is just fawed thinking, it's the quick bias thing again.
Remember what we addressed before: anything quick is a test.
What happens a lot is that as you are doing this, your plan might look
fne on paper, but as soon as you start implementing it, you will soon
realize it will take you much more time than anticipated and there are
other aspects you didn't anticipate. Tis is normal, you just need to
account for it.
I can tell you that this is one of the main reasons people quit on their
endeavors. Tis is why you need to know what you want, otherwise as
soon as you start feeling the pressure you will quit. Nothing comes easy
in Life. Nothing. 0. So you have to choose your battle and keep punching
your challenger in their teeth until you win.
In the words of the 8-time Mr. Olympia champion Ronnie Coleman:

“Everybody wants to be the Champ, but nobody wants to lift these damn
heavy weights”.
Look closely to the next picture. Tis is a representation of our Lives in

each pillar:
1. Where you are from 1-10 (Everything you did until today).
2. What you do everyday (What you will do today).
3. What you want ( Where you want to be tomorrow).
415
Figure 8 – You need to accurately describe where you are in each pillar
from 1-10
Since it all comes down to what you do everyday, and all the 7 pillars are
embedded in your everyday Life, you must see it as daily steps.
Until Today Today Tomorrow
Where you are What you do What you want
Figure 9 – Illustration on where you are right now and how what you do
today will get you to a certain tomorrow depending on your success.
416
So, what you have today is the sum result of all the activities you did
until today. And to head into the direction you want, you need to
perform the activities today that will get you there tomorrow. And you
need to do them today. Postponing is forbidden.
Obviously if you are heading in a direction you have never been before,
you need to execute a plan. To do that, you will most likely come up
with an initial hypothesis that you have to test. You will have some initial
expectations based on that initial plan and you will soon fnd out what
the market is telling you regarding your approach: what is working, what
is not working and what is the main reason it is not working. You really
have to fnd a way around it.
You might ask: how long do you stick to something, a certain strategy,
until you stop, regroup and take another action? Tis is a perfect
example of a question for which there is no answer: 1 day, 3 months, 5
phone calls, 500 doors to knock everyday...these are all assumptions that
need further testing. What can help you move forward, is when you have
consistent feedback from credible sources on the topic, this is your best
approach to this.
A good example is you sending a resumé directly to the owners of the

companies. Tese are people you admire, and are recognized experts in
their own felds. If all of them answer you back saying you have no
experience, this is credible information. You are looking to get feedback
and you are getting it from serious credible people with experience in
417
their feld. Tey are telling you the same thing: “You have no experience”.
What does this tell you?
So in this specifc case, you start by acknowledging: “I have no

experience”. And you keep building your plan based on that assumption.
You can be confdent on it with a high degree of certainty, because you
are getting feedback from credible sources. Remember our problem-
solving approach: we frst identify where the problem is and then craft a
solution to solve it. Tis is why feedback from these credible people is so
important, because it will give you a higher degree of certainty on where
the problem is, so you can then craft a better possible solution to solve it.
You are trying to get to somewhere you have never been. Since you don't
know by experience how to get there, you will need to frst acknowledge
it right from the get go. In this way you can have a better understanding
of the limitations of your line of thought, as the feedback you will get by
doing your plan will provide you a clearer insight.
Another good example would be you promising yourself to make 500

phone calls a day, but soon realizing that you can only do about 50 and
get a serious headache after 6 hours. After a week of doing this everyday
and understanding the reality of how many phone calls you actually did a
day, you will soon understand that in order to do the 500 phone calls a
day, you will need to bring in more people, as you are being unable to do
more than 50 even if you want to.
418
But you can't possibly guess this right from the beginning, until you
actually try it for a period of time on your own and on a consistent basis,
so you can then say how many calls you can actually make every day. Tis
is super-powerful: making sure you track your daily results based on your
own experience, and realizing what can actually be done, since you tried
over a period of time. Only after getting this precious feedback, you can
do something about it based on what you now know to be true or that
has a high probability to be right.
Most people don't do this. Don't be like most people because they don't
get anywhere: they just go out and wing it. Be a professional at what you
do.
If you fnd hard to track what you do everyday, get one hour of your day
just for flling out stuf. Trust me when I tell you this: when you start
seeing the patterns of the results you are getting versus with what you
want, you will have clarity to come up with a new plan to improve the
situation. But you can't possibly do this unless you see what is
happening.
So to get anywhere in Life you need to:
• Know what you want in each of the pillars and within what time
frame.
• Assess where you are right now.
419
• Divide your goals into projects and tasks (years, months, weeks,
days).
• Compare what you accomplished today to what you wanted to

accomplish. If it is being consistent you know if your pro-forma is
too much for you right now, or too little.
• Your tomorrow is a consequence of your today's results.
PROFORMA REALITY
Figure 10 – What you want to achieve today vs what you actually

achieved today
A practical example:
As I was developing my Insurance business, and by already being aware

about focus, It became clear I needed to stick to a daily schedule.
Since my major problem, was the lack of qualifed leads, I needed to

make sure the activities that I was doing were focused on getting more.
LinkedIn was proving to be a reliable source to get new meetings to go
to. But these took more time to close as they were larger companies. So I
420
needed to do daily work to get contracts signed and avoid being

dependent on these larger clients.. Below you will fnd my daily schedule.
05.00 – Wake up, read book, exercise.
06.00 – Motivation, bath, write article/book.
07.00 – Practice sales-script + objection-handling
08.00 – Get daughter to school.
09.00 – Door-To-Door. Must meet daily objective. Days with scheduled

appointments, override.
12.30 – Make social media content, send 100 emails to Business-Owners.

Rest a bit if tired.
14.00 – Door-To-Door. Must meet daily objective. Days with scheduled

appointments, override.
18.00 – Networking Events or send 100 emails to Business-Owners.
20.00 – Organization.Type in daily expenses and what was accomplished.
21.00 – Be with daughter.
22.00 – Read book.
23.00 – Stop.
I am sharing this with you, because however you choose to setup your
421
day, you need to see it. It is easy to get sidetracked and lose sight of your
day. I need to keep seeing it. Tat way I look at time and see where I am.
Te other factor you will notice is the right column. Some parts I use
brain power to think, others, it's just execution. One of the things I've
learned by selling door-to-door is that whenever you are knocking on
doors, if you have your brain in the way analyzing things too much, you
will lose. If before starting, you decide you are doing that whole building,
that is what you are doing. End of story. I am using the same strategy
here. From this time to this time I am doing 100 emails. Tat's it. I put
on my music playlist and just do it.
So, to get ahead in your Financial Pillar, you need to come to the
realization that this all comes down to your daily habits. What you are
doing on an everyday basis and who you surround yourself with.
You can't get rich by thinking only, you need to act. Your actions will be
more efective with time, and you will have better results as you improve.
422
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this pillar we addressed the importance of achieving you daily to do

lists and having them small so you can keep track of what you are doing.
Tis is a make or break factor in your overall scheme of things.
To be successful in any of your endeavors, you have to focus your energy

in accomplishing the required steps day by day. You do that by:
1. Completing the tasks you assigned yourself to do, and
2. Comparing the results you got against your initial pro-forma

metric. If you are way of, you will need to re-adjust your plan so
you can still head in the same direction. Feedback from credible
sources will help you regroup with a better solution.
Mountain climbers focus on each step and this is how you should focus
as well. Teir way works much better, as they are focusing on something
they can do right now: one step.
We also addressed the importance of readjustments regarding what you

want and what you are actually achieving. Tis comes from measuring
what you are doing, and understanding what you can actually do
423
everyday on a consistent basis. One person doesn't do 500 phone-calls in

a day, but ten people can. It's an approach thing.
Repetition is in line with brute-forcing. When your line of thought is

correct and you are doing the one activity you defned to get there, you
are knocking down the door. Te monkey-wrench factor odds against
you, will be less and less, because you are more and more focused on the
main action, which is to knock the door down. Tis is done by
repetition. If the plan is working, keep doing it until the door goes down.
If it is not working, go back and revise the plan. Tis is how you can
improve your chances of succeeding.
424
CONCLUSION
A
nd there you have it. Now you know about the 7 Pillars + Te
Glue, the GPT framework and how it can help you solve your
problems.
By having a powerful tool like this you will be in a better position to

address your current situation without losing sight of the overall scheme
of things.
Tis was my whole point: to help you gain clarity on the main key areas
in your Life you need to address, so you can do something about them
and succeed.
Remember that as soon as you see what needs to be done, it has to be

done: action, not theory will get you there. Remember Hill and Stone's
story and how they ended up so diferently.
As you keep doing this process you will become better at it, and you will
see your results improve as a direct consequence. Tis is why it is so
critical to remain focused. You won't be able to do everything in Life -
there is no time. You have to pick one thing and work to become the best
at it. To solve this, we addressed the strategy of focusing by elimination.
425
To stay focused you need to align yourself with who you really are, so
you can endure the beating that is coming your way.
In Part 1, we talked about how to solve being overwhelmed using the

GPT framework.
Whenever you feel this “psychological pain”, you stop, recognize you are
feeling like this, and Identify where you are overwhelmed by categorizing
it in one of the overwhelming buckets.
You then address the problem, by asking a clear sand pecifc question.
You focus on fnding the answer by modeling what other person did that
solved it.
In Life challenges will inevitably arise, and you need to solve them so you
can keep going. To solve this you need to look for people in your
industry that solved your problem and model their solution. Clarity and
Focus are key in fnding the answers.
When you do fnd the answers you need to keep being consistent doing
the process, so you can have consistent results, until you get what you
want.
In Part 2, we talked about Te 7 pillars + the Glue, which is essentially

applying the GPT framework to your whole Life.
Te Glue is what makes it all stick together: It is divided in Passion,

Focus, Clarity and Consistency. Tis is your inner compass in Life that
keeps everything together and dictates where you want to go.
426
Te 7 pillars are:
1. Health – To improve your health, you need to take care of your body
and your mind.
2. Social – Te social component is an overlooked part, and one of the

most important ones. To improved it, you need to:
1. Start being around higher-tiered people.
2. Make sure you keep them around.
3. Wealth – You improve your Wealth-Pillar with the Glue by:
1. Understanding who you are regarding your personality.
2. Stop being a Generalist and become a specialist. Focus on

becoming a better salesman by practicing.
3. You will then need to choose a product to sell based on:
1. Your passion.
2. Tat has a proven benchmark to get you the results you want.
4. After that you need to get to your Market Audience and sell it
there. To do that you need to:
1. Know their demographics
2. Be consistent with your sales process ( the store-mentality).
5. You then turn your process into a business where you have people
427
replicating what you are doing
1. You train a sales-team to amplify sales
2. Hire bean-counters to keep the whole operations organized
6. When the business is more stable, hire a team and do

investments:
1. Business-Acquisitions
2. Real-Estate Investments
4. Knowledge – Improving your Knowledge
1. Reading and testing it out in the real-world will increase your

understanding of the world around you, yourself and you can
move forward. Remember that knowledge is only validated when
it is working.
5. Time – Improving where you invest your Time
1. You need to be aware of how you are using your time as the clock
will keep ticking until you die. If something is that important to
you, you need to stop wasting time on activities that are not in
line with where you want to be, so you can then use this time
efectively to address what you want to solve.
2. Leverage other people's time and resources, so you can be more

efective with your time. Remember that even Ben Feldman that
428
did the selling himself, still had a team of 10 people backing him
up with the day-to-day operations.
6. Other – Your weakest part
1. Understanding who you are will show you your strengths and
your weaknesses. You need to fnd a way to solve your weaknesses
so you don't keep getting hit by the same time of problems.
7. Habits – Where it all starts and ends
1. What you do everyday is what will move you towards your future
self. If you do things that are in line with what you want, this will
put you on a better path than the alternative. Remember that
your future is the sum of your everyday's results until that date.
So to conclude the 7 Pillars + Te Glue, it is now up to you to:
1. Write them down and where you are in each of them.
2. Describe exactly what you want and within each time frame you
want it, using your Phases approach.
3. To do this you need to be aligned with your true self. Tis comes
from the Glue (IKIGAI).
4. Ten subdivide the timeline. Describe exactly what needs to

happen on a yearly, monthly, weekly, daily and hourly basis, so
you know what needs to be done today.
5. As you defne what needs to happen everyday, you write it down
429
in your pro-forma column. When you fnish your day you write
down your results and compare them with you needed to have
happened. If you come up short on a consistent basis, you need to
fgure out why and how you can work around it.
6. To solve the problems you face in each pillar, remember to apply

the GPT problem solving framework so you can fgure out a way
around it. Tis clears out overwhelm from the picture and gets
you focused on the solution.
7. By remaining focused and keep doing the work on a consistent

basis, you will be able to make more accurate decisions.
Tis is not an easy process, but it is very efective. Learn it, use it to your
advantage and share your successes with the world. Te world needs
Entrepreneurs. Te world needs you. Now go be successful.
Be great, nothing else pays.
Diogo Marques
430
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
If you would like to learn more about sales, make sure you check out my
other book in this series: How to sell door-to-door like a Boss at
https://byudigital.com/book2 I go through this topic extensively and
share some of my ground-breaking fndings, that I learned by selling
door-to-door.
431
RECOMMENDED COURSES
Make sure you visit my website: https://mycapitaliqacademy.com where
you can buy the entire course on this.
It covers the 7 pillars + the Glue in depth, Marketing, Sales, Closing and
much more, so you can develop your entrepreneurial ventures.
Visit the website here: https://mycapitaliqacademy.com
432
APPENDICES
Appendix A Your 7 Pillars + Te Glue Sheet
Appendix B Your Glue(IKIGAI) Sheet
Appendix C Your Daily Metrics Sheet
To get access, send an email to info@byudigital.com
433
BUSINESS ENQUIRIES
Diogo Marques is a professional Insurance Salesman based in Portugal.
He spends his days selling door-to-door to business owners and has a

lifetime mission to make $2.0 Billion in Life Insurance Premiums.
Before Insurance he sold: cookies door-to-door, ice-creams on boats,

vacuum-cleaners, energy contracts in the worst and most violent
neighborhoods you can imagine, luxury real-estate, event-services to
Fortune 500 companies, sales consulting services to millionaires, and
raised millions for Private Equity Real Estate Funds.
He had a successful events management company that later sold to a

larger competitor, a 4 location retail bakery chain that fopped, a vending
company that he quit, a tech startup that the other co-founding partner
quit and numerous other ventures that went belly up.
He writes books to help Entrepreneurs with Sales and Marketing.
For more details please contact:

BYU DIGITAL GROUP
+351.935.621.639
info@byudigital.com
www.byudigital.com
434
435
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUILD WEALTH
BIOGRAPHY
Diogo Mar ues is a professional Insurance Salesman based in Portugal.
He spends his days selling door-to-door to business owners and has a

lifetime mission to make $2.0 Billion in Life Insurance Premiums.
Before Insurance he sold: cookies door-to-door, ice-creams on boats,

vacuum-cleaners, energy contracts in the worst and most violent
neighborhoods you can imagine, luxury real-estate, event-services to
Fortune 500 companies, sales consulting services to millionaires, and
raised millions for Private E uity Real Estate Funds.
He had a successful events management company that later sold to a

larger competitor, a 4 location retail bakery chain that lopped, a
vending company that he uit, a tech startup that the other co-founding
partner uit and numerous other ventures that went belly up.
He writes books to help Entrepreneurs with Sales and Marketing.
TESTIMONIALS
"As a Swiss Company, uality and Innovation is part of our values.
On behalf of the company, I’d like to truly thank you for the excellent
services you provided us." - Jean-Diego von Allmen, Victorinox
"(…)Your lexibility, customization, level of excellence and superior

service re uirements are the characteristics that we cherish the most."
- Gonçalo Santos, Ritz-Carlton
BYU DIGITAL
PAPERBACK
BY DIOGO MARQUES

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THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUILD WEALTH

A BYU Digital Book

Copyright © 2019 by Diogo Marques

BYU DIGITAL Paperbacks are registered trademarks of BYU

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases,

Designed by Diogo Marques

Dedicated to my daughter Sara

Now to the good stuf.

0.1 What is overwhelm.......................................................23

0.3 Chapter Summary.........................................................63

Chapter 1: Pillar#1: Health

Chapter 2: Pillar#2: Social

Chapter 3: Pillar#3: Wealth + Te Glue

Chapter 4: Pillar#4: Knowledge

4.1 How to improve your knowledge................................379

Chapter 5: Pillar#5: Time

5.1 How to optimize your time efectively........................393

Chapter 6: Pillar#5: Other

6.1 How to improve your weaknesses..............................403

Chapter 7: Pillar#7: Habits

7.1 How to improve your daily habits efectively..............409

8.1 Final Remarks............................................................425

9.1 Recommended Books.................................................431

Business Enquiries ..............................................................434

Troughout my career I've sold:

• Cookies door-to-door, ice-creams on boats, vacuum-cleaners,

• I sold Event-services to Fortune 500 companies, recurring digital

• I had a successful event company that I later sold to a larger

As I went through my journey I made money and also went bankrupt

Figure 1 – Te check I wrote to myself. Where it all started.

Soon afterwards as I was still contemplating what just happened, I made

Finding the answer to this question became more than an obsession to

As I went through this research process, I became a vacuum cleaner for

Billionaires, millionaires, top performing athletes, top networkers,

interviews at my YouTube Channel here: Te Greatest Investors Podcast

After having many conversations with these people, I started noticing a

So I started to jot down these patterns and eventually found myself

So how does Te 7 pillars + Te Glue come into play?

As I was writing this book, I eventually came to the conclusion that it

2. Sales: Te second book in this series is called How to sell door-to-

You can get it here: https://byudigital.com/book2 .It is all about

of you actually getting there.

Tis book took me four years to write: probably because I am dyslexic,

After condensing all these ideas in a single framework - better organized

Knowledge backed by experience is an intangible asset, no one can take

I wrote this book as an extension of the Advising Accelerator Program I

It is up to you to commit or not. Te responsibility for your own Life

Some additional thoughts and fnal information:

Nonetheless I described them here to the best of my ability, and in a

Tat said, go big or go home. It's up to you.

Trow in some additional psychological issues in there, and you

So what is it? What and where is the problem?

1. Te solution to their problem.

2. Te feeling they expect to get from it.

So by having this object with them, as a potential problem solver, it

Ok, so what is this problem they are trying to solve?

While we don't know each of these people personally, we do know the

...and a myriad of other reasons in this same line of thought.

Whatever happened, they have now become paranoid about it.

How does this relate to you and I?

Ok, so this is awful. How does this relate to us?

Overwhelm is a psychological distress issue. It is a pain signal you get

It is a clear indication of a problem you are facing, and your mind is