About a mile away, a dollar bill is lying on a sidewalk.

Would you get in your car right now and go pick it up?

Probably not.  And yet, at the same time, there are thousands of people who will drive 5 miles out of their way to save $.05 per gallon on their next tank of gas.  Mathematically, there’s no difference.

This illustrates a very simple concept that — if you understand it — will save you HUGE amounts of time and money….and will allow you to earn a huge income in the process.

In fact, since we’re talking about money lying on sidewalks, let me give you another example, one that you probably have heard of.

Have you ever heard the old joke about how much money that Bill Gates makes?  Imagine Bill Gates were walking along the sidewalk and saw a $1,000 bill lying on the ground.  If he had to stop earning money long enough to bend over, pick up the bill, and put it in his pocket…..he’d be better off just leaving it lying there.

It’s basically just a fun way to point out that, at one point, Bill Gates’s net worth was actually worth more than $1,000 every few seconds.

Whether that particular claim is true or not, one thing IS true:  both of these examples illustrate a concept that most people have never heard of.  It’s called “opportunity cost”.

What is “opportunity cost”?  It’s the value of what you give up by not doing one thing in order to do something else.

I’ll give you an example that might assist you in understanding what I mean.

Years ago, I used to mow my own lawn.  Why?  Because that’s what I’d always done.  We had a lawn-mower and it seemed silly to pay someone to mow my lawn when I had a perfectly good lawnmower myself.  Besides….all my neighbors mowed their lawns on Saturday morning.  Everything in my environment pointed to the idea of me mowing my own lawn.

A little while after I got involved in the home business industry, I got a different perspective.  It went something like this:

1.  It takes me about 3 hours to mow my lawn, run the weed-eater and then cleaning up.
2.  It takes me about 3 hours to earn $1,000 in my home business.
3.  Hiring someone to mow my yard will cost me about $70.
4.  Doing it myself will save me $70….but it would COST me $1,000 in lost income.

Read that #4 again.  That’s what I mean by “opportunity cost”.  Sure, I can mow my own yard and save $70.  But what does it cost me to do that?  In my case, it costs me the ability to earn $1,000 or more in my business.

Opportunity cost is not something new.  It’s actually a common concept taught in any economics class.  But it’s not something that is taught in most American schools.  Nor do parents always pass it along to their kids.  But, if you understand this, you can absolutely get RICH.

Why?  Because getting ahead financially is all about engaging in high-value activities and delegating low-value activities.  If you can earn $1,000 for your family in just three hours…..why on earth would you spend those same 3 hours doing something that pays you far less?  The opportunity cost is much too high.

Here’s another example:  how much does your JOB cost you?

Most people — when they think about their job — they view it as a source of income.  But, what’s the opportunity cost of your job?  In other words, how much money do you LOSE every day by choosing to spend 8 hours working for someone else?

Moms are good at spotting this problem in their own lives.  A mom can often look at the income at her job AND the money she pays out for child-care and immediately thinks:

“Why on earth am I doing this?  If I do the math…..by the time I pay the daycare, the gas, the wear-and-tear on the car, the cup of coffee in the morning, grabbing a sandwich at lunch, the snack in the afternoon,….my dry-cleaning, etc………I’m only bringing home $20 per day in personal net income.  I could work from home AND be with my children all day and earn WAY more than $600 per month.

Read that again.  That’s someone who understands the concept of “opportunity cost”.

Here are some other examples for those of you who are already IN the home business industry.

• What is the opportunity cost involved when you choose to learn how to design your own webpages instead of spending that time putting prospects in front of your company’s presentation?  (Designing websites is not an income-producing activity; putting prospects in front of presentations IS.)
• What is the opportunity cost involved when you work in a company where you earn $20 commissions instead of spending that same time, energy, and effort in a business that pays you $1,000 commissions?
• What is the opportunity cost involved when you go to a 40-hour week job that pays you $4,000 per month…..when you could spend that same time earning more much more?

No one can answer these questions for you.  But, when I understood the concept of “opportunity cost”, I started making a LOT  more money.  I quit my job.  I stopped mowing my own lawn.  And I was able to earn a multiple six-figure income in less than 3 hours a day and spend the rest of my time living the lifestyle of my dreams.

So, the question is:  what low-value activities are you engaged in that you can delegate elsewhere?  What high-value activities can you start spending MORE time on?

If I can assist with these questions, feel free to post your questions or comments below!

Tony Rush
http://www.tonyrush.com

The opening line of Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” is “It was the best of times and the worst of times….”

That’s how I feel about our economy right now.

On a conference call recently, I made the following comment:

“We make our own economy.  There’s just as much money out there as there ever has been.  Your life is a result of your mindset, actions and decisions.”

In another conversation about Mike Dillard’s new product, The Elevation Group, I’ve recommended that people wake up and realize a simple truth:

“What we’re going through right now is not just another recession.  This isn’t just a slump that we’re going to work out way out of.  The US dollar is in decline.  And it’s time for Americans to wake up and realize that hyperinflation in America is not only possible but it’s likely.”

If you look at those two statements, they might seem like a paradox.  In fact, a couple of people have heard me make both statements and they’ve asked me, “Tony, which is it?”  Because it sounds contradictory to them.

So, let me clarify what I mean and how that second statement doesn’t negate the first one.

I DO believe that our lives are the result of how we choose to think.  That the quality of our lives is a result of the quality of our thinking.  I believe that our thoughts, beliefs, expectations, decisions and actions are the “ingredients” that make up our lives.  And we create our lives every hour of every day by the decisions we make. Call it “law of attraction” if you want to.  Call it “law of the harvest”.  Call it whatever you want, but it’s a law of sorts.  We create our own lives.

At the same time — and this is what has confused some people — the fact remains that this “law” — whatever we want to call it — is not the only factor working in our lives. To use an extreme example, anyone who’s read “Man’s Search For Meaning” would agree that Victor Frankl did an amazing job of maintaining a positive mindset in the horrible circumstances of Nazi imprisonment.  But — and this is my point, so don’t miss it — he was still in a Nazi prison camp.

Now, I don’t mean that to say that Frankl’s attitude and mindset was unrelated to the fact that he survived the ordeal.  In fact, quite the opposite.  My point is that he didn’t stick his head in the sand and say, “I’m not in prison, I’m not in prison, I’m not in prison.”  He simply looked around and said, “This is the environment I’m in.  And I have a choice about how to deal with it.”

This is how I feel about our current economy.

Only a fool would say, “Our economy is the same as it’s always been.”  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that food prices have gone up dramatically….that the value of the US dollar is dropping like a rock…..and that the economy is steadily getting worse, not better.  It’s obvious for anyone who wants to observe it.

So, to borrow from Frankl’s experience, let’s call this economy our “prison camp”.

It is what it is.

The question is, within this framework what are you going to do about it?  THAT is the opportunity for us to choose our thinking, our decisions and our actions.  That’s what we have control over.

Some people prefer to say, “No, I don’t want to hear anything negative.  I don’t believe in negativity.  I just want to focus on the positive”.

Well, if someone is in the  group, here’s my message for them:  Grow up.  There are weeds growing in the garden.  It’s not enough to stand around and say, “There are no weeds, there are no weeds, there are no weeds.”  If you want to have a healthy garden, sooner or later you’re going to have to acknowledge that — YES — there are weeds in the garden.  And you’re going to have to figure out how to deal with them.

So, I don’t see a paradox.

YES, I believe that we have the ability to create our lives by our thoughts, decisions and actions.
And YES, I also believe that the economy is in a precarious position that will make the Great Depression look like child’s play.

And it’s IN this situation, that we have a great opportunity!  Sure, it’s frightening….but it’s also exciting.

Did you know that there were more millionaires created during The Great Depression than in the 20 years prior?

Did you know that the Empire State Building was built during the Great Depression?  And the Golden Gate Bridge?

I believe you and I are facing even GREAT opportunities right now.  And it will come from

1. Understanding that it’s still our thoughts, decisions and actions that create our opportunities
2. Being informed about what’s going on and not ignoring it or sticking our heads in the sand
3. Finding out what informed, wealthy people are doing in this economy so that you can model their behavior

I honestly believe that anyone who’s reading this blog has the opportunity to become VERY RICH in the next few years, even if you don’t have a lot of money right now.  Because it’s not about how much money you have….it’s about getting into position so that — when the s&$% hits the fan — you’re not caught with your pants down and wondering what to do.

Not you.

You’ve got a plan.
You read the books.
You got informed.
You made some preparations.
You weren’t lazy.
You didn’t stick your head in the sand and say, “This isn’t happening.  This isn’t happening”.

That’s what Jessica and I have been doing:  getting into position.  And even though we’re running late compared to a lot of people, I think we’re still ahead of 90% of the population.

I’ll close with this.  If you want some recommendations on what I think you can do right now to start getting into position, here’s my top three tips:

1. Get a membership in The Elevation Group. If you’ve been to the financial section of Barnes & Noble, you already know that the information there is either outdated or useless in this economy.  Some of the information is not just bad, it’s dangerous.  The Elevation Group is a resource website that Mike has put together so that the “average person” can find out what’s really happening in our economy, how to prepare for the possibilities, and how to make a ton of money in what we call “The Greatest Wealth Transfer In The History of the World”.
2. Start buying some silver. Physical silver.  Not silver stocks.  Actual silver coins.  American Silver Eagles are good.  So are Canadian Maples.  Buy bullion coins, not “collectibles”.  (Collectibles are great but, if you’re hedging against inflation or looking to protect your assets, bullion coins will let you buy more silver for your dollar.)At the time of this writing, silver is still only around $30 an ounce.  Anyone can afford to buy an ounce or two of silver every week.  You’ll be glad you did.  Silver is actually more rare than gold and — as the dollar continues to plummet — putting your money into silver is the best way to protect your assets and watch them grow.  (Note:  I’m not a financial counselor.  Due your own research.  I’m just telling you what I would do.)
3. Buy a book called “Emergency:  This Book Will Save Your Life” by Neil Strauss. The reason this book was helpful to me was NOT because it was written by a guy who knows all about a possible economic crash.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  When he started writing this book, he knew NOTHING.  So, this book is an opportunity to “look-over-his-shoulder” as Neil goes through the whole process himself, learning about the economy, learning what possibilities could occur in a economic crisis, etc.  This book also includes non-economic preparation.  Think about it:  if the dollar crashes, the banks are closed.  If the banks are closed, there will be a run on the grocery stores.  If there’s a run on the grocery stores, you’d better have a plan.  Emergency is very easy to read, even funny at times, but will leave you with a very clear perspective about your ability to not only survive but to prosper in times of crisis.

Bottom line:  there has never been a time when “self-reliance” is more important than it is right now.

We live in times of uncertainty.  So, it’s important that you understand how to control your thinking….don’t follow the knee-jerk reactions of the “herd”…..and start thinking for yourself.  If you do that and you get informed, you’re in the top 1% of people who can get very RICH in the next few years.

As always, please leave your comments or questions below.  Also, please use the link/buttons provide to share this with others!

Hey guys.

If you’re marketing a product, service or opportunity online, you may have already heard some news about how the FTC is changing the rules. It’s true — they are. And it’s a good idea for you to be familiar with the changes.

(By the way, I am not a lawyer and this should not be considered legal advice. Be responsible for your own business, look at the data and know for yourself what you should do.

With that disclaimer out of the way, here’s the scoop:

In the past, it was completely permissible to show testimonials of your product, service or opportunity and share with the general public what kind of results someone got as a result of using the product or being involved with the opportunity, provided that you offered some sort of disclaimer that you weren’t “guaranteeing” that everyone would have the same result.

In other words, as long as you smacked a line at the bottom of the website saying something like “Results may vary from individual to individual”, you were in the clear.

That was yesterday. That’s history. Today, the rules are totally different.

Here’s what one FTC lawyer had to say:

“…The most significant change to the revised guides is the deletion of the “safe harbor” that has long allowed advertisers to use testimonials who reported specific successful experiences with an advertised product or service as long as the advertiser included a disclaimer such as “Results not typical.” Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.”

Let’s put that into plain English.

Let’s say you’re in network marketing and you have someone new in your business. Let’s call her Fanny. Fanny starts following the system EXACTLY as it’s taught…works the business with integrity and consistency and — lo and behold! — she winds up creating a $20,000 per month income in her first 6 months.

Then let’s say that Fanny writes you a testimonial that says, “I got started in XYZ International six months ago and now I’m making $20,000 per month.” And she’s got the check stubs to prove it.

So far, so good, right?

Well, up until the FTC changed the rules, you could just put a disclaimer on that page that says something like “Results may vary and are based on the time, energy and commitment you invest in your business” type of disclaimer you’ve seen 100s of times.

But here’s the key phrase that the FTC has added to the mix: “required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect”.

What that means is that — if you’ve got someone in your company making $20k per month and you want to display that testimonial on your website, you would ALSO have to disclose the amount of money that the average person earns in your company.

Stop. Wait a second.

You and I both know what the “average” person earns in any business. Zero or close to it. Why? Because “average” people are never successful. That’s why they’re called “average”.

They don’t follow the system.
They don’t do the work.
They don’t attend the events.
They don’t go to the training calls.
And they quit before you can say the phrase “you’re responsible for your own results”.

What does the average person in YOUR company earn? $100 a year? More? Less? Whatever it is, you can be damn sure it’s nowhere close to Fanny’s results. Because Fanny is someone who’s choosing to be very UNaverage in her life.

Wait, there’s more.

The FTC lawyer went on to say:

“The FTC also said that it believes that it is “likely” that testimonials that present the specific experiences of a product user (e.g., the number of pounds or inches lost) will be viewed as claiming that those experiences are typical of what consumers will generally experience.”

Did you get that? Read it again: “testimonials…will be viewed as claiming that those experiences are typical…”

What that means is that — if you put a testimonial on your site of someone who makes $20k in a month….then the FTC says you’re claiming that the typical consumer should expect to earn $20k/month. Substitute any number in that sentence with any other number and it will also be true.

And this is true for non-financial testimonials, too.

Do you sell a weight loss product and say that someone lost 20 pounds? Then the FTC says that you’re claiming that everyone will lose 20 pounds.
Do you have a testimonial on your site from someone who used a miracle fruit juice and their cancer was cured? Then the FTC says that anyone with cancer should expect to be cured using your product. (The FDA will get involved in that one, too.)

In short, if you use testimonials with specific results AT ALL….then you’re affected by this change in the rules If you want to continue to use those types of testimonials, you can’t just say “individual results may vary”. You have to say “Individual results may vary. The average person experiences ______.”

It’s my understanding, though, that not all testimonials will be affected so seriously. If someone is just expressing how happy they are that they use a product…they like the way it tastes….they’ve joined a business they’re excited about…..they’re a satisfied customer, those are probably okay.

It’s only when you’re offering a testimonial where someone is talking about a specific result of some kind.

So, what should you do with all this?

You should COMPLY, by God!

Seriously…I’ve been tracking this conversation for a long time and it’s amazing how many people are investing their energy into trying to figure out how to “get around” the FTC…or how to outsmart the FTC….or how to shortcut the system so they can still offer wild testimonials and not be affected by the changes.

Let me give you a word of advice: your energy is far better invested into some other income-producing activity. The best thing you can do on this issue is to simply play by the rules. Because, if you ignore it and get a phone call or letter from the FTC…I promise you will comply or lose.

Here’s the good news…

I’ve not used testimonials in my marketing in YEARS. And it hasn’t kept me from making a ton of money in my business.

Why?

Because, while testimonials are a great form of “social proof”….testimonials are not the only thing that matters when someone is looking at an offer. In fact, it’s arguable that they’re not even in the top three reasons why people choose to raise their hand and ask for more information….or just outright buy right in the moment.

People are more attracted to your product, service or opportunity because of WHO YOU ARE BEING in your marketing than in how many testimonials you can pile up.

I know one thing for sure: the people who get started with me in my business don’t get started because I show them a bunch of people who are making multiple six-figure incomes in their first 6-12 months. They’re getting started with me because:

A. They want what I’m selling
B. They can see themselves easily duplicating what I do to earn a great income
C. They can clearly see a path from where they ARE to where they WANT TO BE.

It’s not rocket science. Testimonials are great. But they’re not the “be-all, end-all” of marketing.

So, my advice: don’t use testimonials with specific results. Feel free to use all the testimonials you want about how happy people are with the decisions they’ve made.

Tony Rush

P.S. One other thing: in times of change like these, plenty of people will not comply and will be out of the game. Another bunch of people will have talked themselves into the belief that “they can’t make money if they can’t use testimonials” and they’ll just quit altogether. Either way, there will be fewer people out there marketing or marketing correctly.

People who take the approach I’ve described in the latter part of this article will be in a GREAT position to rack up some serious cash in the coming months. Be one of them. There’s never been a better time to earn the kind of income you deserve!

“In times of change, the LEARNERS will inherit the earth….while the LEARNED will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” — Eric Hoffer

All this talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”… A billion dollars… A hundred billion dollars…Eight hundred billion dollars…One TRILLION dollars…

These numbers are so big, they’re meaningless. One way to put it into perspective is to actually SEE the amount of money we’re talking about. Let’s take it slow.

We’ll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them; slightly fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

Now, a PACKET of one hundred of these $100 bills is only about a 1/2″ thick. But it’s $10,000. You can squeeze into a pants pocket and it’s enough to have a shamefully good time for about a week. Here’s $10,000:

Believe it or not, this next little pile is a whopping $1,000,000. Doesn’t look like much, does it? Well, a million dollars is actually just 100 packets like the one above. You could fit it into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

Now, if you thought the million dollars looked unimpressive….$100 Million dollars is a little more respectable. It will fit neatly on a standard pallet:

Now…a BILLION dollars is quite a lot of money. It’s basically 1,000 Million. So, if you had ten of those pallets, you’d have one billion dollars:

Now, let’s look at a TRILLION dollars. That’s a number we’ve been hearing a lot about lately.

What is a trillion dollars? It’s basically one million million. It’s 1,000 billion. It’s a one followed by twelve zeros. You ready for this? It’s pretty surprising. Check it out, ladies and gentlemen: I give you $1 Trillion:

Did you notice that the pallets in that picture are DOUBLE-stacked? And how tiny the man looks over on the left? Next time you hear someone throwing around the word “trillion” like it’s pocket change, think about this picture. Especially if it’s the government talking about how much money they want to spend.

Before you pass this along to your friends, let me offer you a personal thought… Do you remember that picture of the $1,000,000? The 100 packets of $10,000 that you could fit inside a grocery bag?

You can earn that within the next TWO years. Seriously. And it’s not nearly as difficult as what you would imagine.

Heck, here’s a really BAD example that would still work: did you know that if you had a single product that paid you $1,000 that you would only need 1,000 customers to earn that million dollars? Only one-thousand customers! That’s nothing! Think about how many millions of people are buying and selling stuff online every day. A great many of them are spending thousands of dollars.

In fact, I have a friend named Frank who recently sold over 2,000 copies of a little product he put together…..and he sold them for $2,000 each. He didn’t get to keep all the money but he kept over half of it! And he did it in less than a week. That’s a $2,000,000 income.

And to be honest, that’s not even the simplest way to earn a seven-figure income. It would be far easier to sell FEWER products and then offer those satisfied customers the opportunity to buy more products. Or more expensive products. You could make the same money with a fraction of the work!

In fact, here’s a formula for creating a 7-figure income in 2 years:

1. Plug into a market-tested system that is already creating millionaires. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel….it’s far smarter to just do what’s already proven to work. This is the SINGLE concept that I used to earn $15,000 in my first month in a home business…and reached $40,000 per month in my first year. If I can do it anyone can. You just need to have a system that has already proven to create millionaires.

2. You have to be committed or you might as well not even get started. If you’re the kind of person who jumps from deal to deal and business to business every few weeks…STOP IT. You’ll never get rich jumping around. The biggest part of becoming wealthy is adopting a success mindset. We have products and masterminding that will assist you in installing this mindset in record time.

3. You will become like the people you spend your time with. Our mastermind team is chock-full of people just like me who didn’t graduate from college….don’t have a marketing degree….but who have earned over $1,000,000 by working from home with no employees, no product inventory and no hassles.

4. And, finally, you have to be marketing a product that offers HUGE value in the marketplace…and that will pay you what you deserve when someone chooses to buy it. Forget nickel-and-dime commissions. Forget earning 6% on someone’s long-distance bill. Or $10 on selling someone a nutritional product. The REAL key to success in this industry is to market something that has such value for the prospect that they will want to own it the moment they find out about it. They can go from complete IGNORANCE of the product to wanting to own it in less than 30 minutes of knowing about it. Something that people WANT but that is totally different from what everyone else is selling.

When you’ve got a product like that, people will line up and BEG to buy it from you. And you can pocket some huge profits while changing someone’s life in the process.

If you’d like to find out more about a business that can give you a multiple six-figure income in your first 6-12 months, visit me online at http://www.tonyrush.com and I’ll be glad to show you EXACTLY what I did to create wealth from home. (No MLM, no products to stock, no chasing friends and family).

Talk to you soon!

Hardly a day (hour?) goes by when you don’t run across someone online, in-person or on the TV who’s talking about how tough it is to make money in this economy.

And it seems the culprits are the usual suspects: the talking heads on TV. People who get paid — not to think — but to read.

Let me give you a tip: don’t buy into the rhetoric of the media. If you pay attention to them, they’ll have you thinking that there’s no money and that no one has anything to spend.

Which is complete BS. In fact, consider just a few random thoughts from the last couple of weeks…

• I just flew to and from Los Angeles first-class and it was completely full. People who paid nearly twice the ticket price for the privilege of being treated better than cattle, to have a wider seat and to get drinks and snacks without begging.
• I was in the Apple store last week and it was wall-to-wall people. All of them buying or looking to buy iPods, iPhones, iMacs, laptops, software, headphones or computer monitors.
• I recently talked with a 13-year-old kid who made $24,000 in four days by marketing on the internet. (I kid you not. His dad is freaked.) Evidently he didn’t buy into the doom-and-gloom.
• A quick glance at the Clickbank directory shows that there are thousands of dollars being spent every day on products that anyone here is smart enough to put together
• If there’s a Whole Foods near you, go there in the evening and see if you can count the number of people who go out of their way to come to that store to buy stuff that costs way more than a less-healthy version at Wal-Mart.
• There’s a guy in NYC who’s making a fairly good income by selling GARBAGE as art. Don’t ask. But, know this: if you want an acrylic cube full of stuff that he’s picked up after a Yankees game or after the NY Eve party in Times Square, it’ll cost you $100.

And the list goes on and on.

Now, obviously there really are economic issues right now and it’s not my point to try to say there’s not.

But anyone who’s been paying attention for the last 20 years knows that the news isn’t about journalism any more…it’s about editorializing, speculating and giving opinions.

And there’s a big difference in factually reporting economic problems (which is true) and
telling the public that no one wants to spend any moeny (which is NOT true).

Heck, have you noticed that some of the most famous “news commentators” are actually comedians? (Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, etc.)

Here’s the FACT:

No matter WHAT the economy is doing, there’s always a group at the bottom end of the market who knows exactly how many pennies a carrot costs. They have a “give me a penny off” discount philosopy and they invest most of their mental energy into thinking about ways to “save” money….not in way os thinking about “increasing their income”.

It’s difficult to make it financially working in that kind of market. Further, those people are usually extremely negative and have a tendency to bring you down by constantly focusing on what something is NOT rather than on focusing on what something IS. (Some of you will understand what I’m saying).

On the other end of the market are people who want quality and beauty and efficiency and positivity and value. And they’re willing to pay for it. They don’t care how many pennies a carrot cost. They just want to make sure they’re grown organically in a special greenhouse where a gardener comes in and sings opera to them every two hours. And they don’t give a damn what it costs. They just want the carrots.

Not only is that the kind of person you want to market to…but that’s also the person you want to spend your time with. Not so that you can be extravagant with money (although there’s nothing wrong with that, either)….but because you rise above all the gray, dull, negative energy of people who spend all their time worrying about whether they’re getting ripped off for a nickel.

At the end of the day, this economy is about the same thing it was about 3, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 years ago: opportunity mixed with difficulty. It’s simply money moving from one group of people to another. The trick is to find out where the money is going and get in front of it.

And stop watching the news. It’ll rot your brain. It’s full of people who make less than $100,000 per year to read words on a screen and to pretend they have a clue what they’re talking about.

Screw ‘em. Go make some money and forget anything you’ve ever heard them say.

People afford what they CHOOSE to afford. And when you spend your time offering great products and opportunities to people who are focused on expansion (not shrinking), then making money is a piece of cake.