Posts by Mark Morgan Ford
Become Wealthier by Investing in Real Estate
If you haven’t already begun investing in real estate, I’d like you to consider doing so today. If you are a budding real-estate tycoon, resolve to add to your empire this year. I love real estate. In the 10 or 12 years I’ve been actively investing in it, it has given me much-better-than-the-stock-market ROIs, the…
Read MoreBecome Wealthier by Investing Smarter
“Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.” – W.H. Auden Let’s assume you get the 10% raise (at least) that you resolved to get yesterday. And let’s say, just to keep the numbers round, that it amounts to $10,000. Here’s what you should do with it. 1. Set aside the portion of…
Read MoreResolution: Increase Your Income
Let’s start with some simple arithmetic. Joe Ordinary is 25 years old, makes $28,000 a year, and gets ordinary 3% to 4% yearly increases. Over a 40-year career, he makes approximately $2.3 million. Elwood ETR is not satisfied with ordinary. He follows the advice he gets here every morning and averages a 6% increase in…
Read MoreYour First and Most Important Resolution
This year, we are going to promise ourselves that we will accomplish something important in each area of our lives. And we’re going to make every one of those accomplishments significant. Something that will make us happy. Something we can be proud of. Something so ambitious that right now it may seem improbable. Be brave…
Read MoreCountdown to the New Year: 2 More Working Days
“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands.” – Rainer Maria Rilke Last week, if you did what I suggested, you made a list of every…
Read MoreCountdown to the New Year
“Each age has deemed the new-born year / The fittest time for festal cheer.” – Sir Walter Scott Yesterday, you took a stab at the one or two resolutions you ignored this year. Today, you are going to spend at least an hour moving ahead on those tasks. Remember, you need to put in only…
Read MoreCountdown to the New Year: Four More Working Days
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” – The Bible (Hebrews 13.2) Christmas is over. We’re closing in on the end of 2002 and almost ready to make our New Year’s resolutions for the coming year. In other words, it’s “last-chance” time — your last chance to do something…
Read MoreThe Perfect Life
“Let age, not envy, draw wrinkles on thy cheeks.” – Sir Thomas Browne (A Letter to a Friend, 1690) I know a successful young executive who has accomplished more in less than 40 years than most people achieve in their lifetimes. He is rich. He is accomplished. He has a beautiful home and family. Yet,…
Read MoreExpect Change and Plan For It
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” – Pablo Picasso Once a business has more than seven or eight employees, it can benefit from some sort of formal planning. When…
Read MoreHow Much Should a CEO Make?
“Greed’s worst point is its ingratitude.” – Seneca (Letters to Lucilius, first century) When I first read the statistic quoted above, I accepted it without thinking. Then my brother questioned it and I realized it was one of those trumped-up pieces of data meant to score a point. What is a typical salary today? According…
Read MoreDale Carnegie’s 10 Rules for Getting People To Like You
“The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?” – Dale Carnegie I’ve told you about my Dale Carnegie experience — how by taking…
Read MoreHow to Hire and Keep the Best Employees
“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.” – Larry Bossidy Which of the following actions will give you the greatest success in hiring employees “for life”? * finding out how interested the candidate is…
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