Category — Daily Rambling

Well today start my 365 day journey to wealth. Where I will be spending 365 days documenting what I do each day that moves me closer to wealth. The goal is not to become rich in one year, the goal is to take a least one step forward towards a wealthier life each day. That step might be large (like purchasing an investment) or it might be small (like reading a book or website).

Day #1 is the decision. If I want to take out 365 days of my life to take a step towards wealth then I have to decide to do that. You know the saying “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Really the journey of a thousand miles begins with the decision to make the journey. The step is only taken after the decision has been made.

Today is New Year’s Day. A day of hangovers, Berocca, and sitting around doing nothing. It is likely that I drank a little bit too much last night and thus I will probably wake up to the heat feeling sticky, thirsty, sick and have a large headache. Thus I will not spend a lot of the day focusing on creating wealth. I will spend the day hanging out with my friends and my wife. I might even go to the beach.

But today I will decide to take out 365 days of my life to take steps towards achieving wealth. I document this not to make money from my blog, but for my own benefit. If you read this and get something out of it then please leave comments. I look forward to seeing how far I have come in 365 days at the start of 2011.

Well another year has come and gone. 2010 is here (well it is in Australia anyway). So happy new year to everyone. I hope that this year is going to be the best year of your life.

I am really starting to learn to power of focus. A few things happened last year that really taught me how important it is to focus on doing a few things well, instead of trying to do a lot of things poorly.

My Internet Income

At the start of last year I had the goal to earn a full time income online. The only thing is I didn’t really have a goal of how I was going to do that. I tried all sort of things. Affiliate marketing, blogging, article marketing, twitter, email marketing, flipping websites etc etc. This lack of focus gave me little to no success and left me extremely discouraged and I ended up dropping all of my make money online schemes that I was working on. Now instead of making money online I am paying money.

Worrying About Money

Last year I learnt about the negative impact when you are focusing on the wrong thing. Not too long after we found out that Kelly was pregnant I started stressing about money. I couldn’t see how we were going to have enough money when the baby came, and we could barely pay our bills as it was. I would spend day and night worrying about money and how I was going to generate more income.

Then one night when I was at work within the space of half an hour I lost almost all of my vision. I had all these white spots in my vision and I couldn’t see a thing. I was FREAKING out, I had no idea what was going on. I went straight to the doctors and half an hour and a splitting headache later the doctor told me I had a migraine caused my stress. Focusing on the wrong thing can do a lot of harm to your body. Not only that but I know that when I worry about money the relationship I have with my wife is stressed also.

Financial Freedom

In the last three months of 2009, I discovered Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Retire Young, Retire Rich”. It was at that point that I decided that instead of focusing on getting a huge income I would focus on financial freedom and learning to become financially free. I spent months devouring books and I went through the entire Robert Kiyosaki series. I learnt so much about investing and financial freedom.

I set myself the goal of becoming financially free in just 5 years. I had no idea how I was going to achieve it, but I set the goal none the less. This focus and determination on becoming financially free changed me completely (my wife will testify to that) and it was with this focus that I can within a nits tit (a very small distance) from purchasing a positive cashflow property that could have done wonders for our cashflow and our bank account.

What Will You Focus On This Year?

Last year I spent a lot of time focusing on a whole bunch of different things. I had no sense of direction and no direct focus. Now I know that my goal is financial freedom in 5 year that is my focus. Everything I do will be to move towards that. I have also set 3 goals for the year

• To purchase 3 positive cashflow properties
• To make the cashflow from my debt = $0/month
• To make the passive income I earn online equal to my online expenses

Now I have the focus on very specific goals for 2010. I don’t have 20 goals, and my goals aren’t vague. They are very specific and they have a very specific timeline (12 months). This allows me to focus on achieving just these things and I believe that through focusing I will see a great increase in my financial situation.

Even if you don’t believe in ‘resolutions’ as such, almost everyone has goals for things they want to achieve when it comes to the new year. I have both. I have goals, that are realistic, that I want to achieve, and I have resolutions, which are near impossible but would be nice, to achieve. I am just going to write down my goals, and this year I am going to focus on achieving these 4 things.

To Buy 3 Positive Cashflow Properties

This year we almost bought a positive cashflow property. I have gotten good at finding positive cashflow properties that can make us a lot of money. This year all I need to do is find the capital to fund these great investments.

It was funny because in my mind I had the goal of purchasing 3 properties in 2010. Being married and everything I asked my wife “How many properties do you think we should aim to buy in 2010″, and I didn’t mention that I wanted to buy 3. You know what her answer was…you guessed it 3. She said exactly the same thing I was thinking. It is good to know we are on the same page.

Our first property we plan to purchase ourselves. We will either then use that property to pay off our personal debt, or we will use that property to leapfrog into our next two properties. We haven’t decided yet. When we run out of money/available credit, we will then seek Joint Venture partners to provide the credit and initial deposit. While we will find the deals and draw the potential out. We will win, and the Joint Venture partner will get a better return on their money than if they put it in the bank or in the stock market.

To Make The Cashflow From My Debt = $0/Month

Currently our debt is stripping $400/month from our cashflow. That is both interest and repayments. It is my goal this year to make the cashflow from my debt =$0.

One way to do that would be to pay off the full amount. Seeing as we owe $18,500 and I earn less than that, then paying off the whole amount might prove a little difficult (though I know it would be possible). The way I want to do it is this. Purchase a positive cashflow property that is run down. Spend a week or two doing it up, increase rents and get it revalued. Then draw out enough equity to completely pay off our personal loan while still keeping the property positive cashflow. The people who rent my property will then be paying for the debt I have. Thus my cashflow from my debt will be $0/month.

To Increase My Online Passive Income So That It Is Greater Than My Expenses (Including Internet)

Currently my total online expenses are about $80/month. My passive income online is $17/month. This year I want to increase my passive income so that is completely covers my expenses. This means it will not put a strain on my budget and I will have more freedom to work online without worrying about how I am going to pay my internet bill when it comes around.

The $17 I am earning is coming in from Aweber’s Affiliate Program. This year I plan to market that more (probably with a free ebook and some article marketing). I also currently have a sales funnel that I have created (but I don’t have any products to sell). So I plan on creating products for my sales funnel. Once the product is created all the marketing, selling and delivery is automatic and thus it becomes passive income.

To Be A Good Dad

This is by far the most important goal for me. I am having a little girl in February and I want to be a good dad for her. What exactly that entails I do not know, and how I measure the success of this goal I do not know (especially since my daughter won’t be able to tell me how I am going). But still, it is a goal none the less.

I look forward to reading this in a years time and seeing how I did in 2010. I know I will be a completely different person at the end of the year.

I recently had to turn down the purchase of a property because I did not have enough money for the down payment. I put a feeler out to some of my friends to see if they wanted to joint venture and I tried my very hardest to fund the property myself. Unfortunately I could not come up with the cash or with a joint venture partner. Thus I had to let a very good opportunity pass me by.

My motto for investing is this “The most important thing about investing is learning”. The more you learn the quicker you can make your money back if you lose it (or the more money you can earn). I ask my wife all the time

“What do I say is the most important thing about investing?”. And she says

“Oh, I always forget this one….wait it’s learning”

The other day I was thinking about how I could raise capital to purchase investment properties. I thought about getting a full time job. I could earn $40,000 per year. That’s about $3,000 per month after tax, and after rent I would be able to save about $1,500 per month. It would take me about 5 months to save the money I need for an investment property. But then I felt my inner voice say to me (or God say to me).

“What is the most important thing about investing? Learning. If you get a job the next time you need to raise capital for an investment all you will know how to do is get a job and work for it. It is more important to learn. So don’t get a full time job”.

Then I thought to myself “Dammit! That would so be the easy way out. Ok God I will try to find another way to raise capital.”

Then last night when me and my wife were having pillow talk. Yes we were talking while resting our heads on our pillows (don’t get any funny ideas), the idea of using Newspaper Ads and Flyers to attract investors came to me. You could place an ad in the newspaper, and put flyers in people’s letterboxes to see if anyone was interested in joint venturing. This idea scares the crap out of me, because it would be me trying to convince people I don’t know that I am a worthy investment. I can’t even convince my family and friends that they should invest their money with me, how am I going to convince other people.

Then the soft still voice comes into my head…”The most important part about investing is learning, by doing this you will be learning how to raise capital from people you don’t know. This will be a great learning experience even if you fail.”

So I think in 2010 I will definately send out some flyers and put some ads in the newspaper. This is just one of my ideas on how to raise capital so you can build wealth.

As 2009 is coming to a close I feel it is time to look back over the year and see the things that have been accomplished. All the hopes and dreams we had at the start of 2009 we can now see if we accomplished them. We can look at our old goals and perhaps edit them or reissue them for 2010. Most often we look back on our goals for 2009 and realise how stupid we were to make those goals. We realise we were so young and naive just 1 year ago, and then we go and make goals for 2010 that at the end of 2010 we will realise were stupid and naive.

I have come a long way in 2009, it has been a big year for me. I have learnt a lot about myself, and I have learnt a lot about finances. Prior to 2009 I spent a lot of time being fake. In the Christian circle often you feel like you need to uphold a certain standard so you can fit in (even if you only uphold that standard at Church on sundays). This year has been great because I have finally started to let my true self come out. It is definately still a work in progress and I think that will continue in 2010 but I am proud of myself.

Looking back on the goals I set at the start of the year I achieved the total sum of 0 of my goals. My goals were

• To make $100,000 in 2009 (I probably made about $15,000)
• To obtain 2009+ RSS Subscribers (I have 1,350 newsletter subscribers)
• Earn $1,000/month from my blog (My blog costs me $10/month to run)
• Earn $100/day affiliate marketing. (I made $100 total in 2009 from affiliate marketing)
• Buy a bread maker. (I did not buy a bread maker and I rarely eat bread)
• Start a Christian blog. (For some reason I don’t think people should listen to me when it comes to Christian doctrine, I am still working out exactly what I believe about what…I believe in God, I am just talking about the finer point of Christianity)

So I achieve 0 of my goals for 2009. So what the hell did I achieve?

• I’m About To Have A Baby

Me and my wife are pregnant with our first child and are due of the 24th Feb 2010. This is extremely exciting. It was funny because I was reading my journal and it said we had planned to have a baby at the start of 2011 (not 2010), I guess we scrapped that plan.

• I Moved House 4 Times

We moved house so many times I almost lost count. Now moving house is just like going to the movies. It is easy and it doesn’t cost much.

• I Set The Goal To Become Financially Free in 5 years

Setting a goal isn’t really an achievement. But this year I become more defined in what I wanted financially. Instead of simply seeking $100,000 per year in income my goal is now financial freedom. I want my passive income to cover my expenses so I only work if I want to. My goal is to achieve this in 5 years. Currently my passive income is $17/month…not quite there yet.

• I Almost Bought A Property

I was so close to buying a property that I could almost touch it. Unfortunately I couldn’t come up with the down payment in time and had to let it go. It was so close, but yet…so far. I learnt a lot from the experience though.

• I Read A Lot of Books

I pretty much devoured Robert Kiyosaki’s entire Rich Dad series. I am now working my way through the Rich Dad Advisory series. I read so much this year and I have learnt so much it has been incredible.

• I Discovered That The Most Important Part To Investing Is Learning

I discovered the most important part to investing is not making money it is learning to make money. Because more you learn about investing the quicker you can make your money back if you do lose it. I now know how to find positive cashflow properties, and that is a learned skill that will come in handy down the track.

• I Didn’t Let My Mum Convince Me That What I Really Need is A Full Time Job

Me and my wife lived with my mum for about 4 months this year. Our goal was to save some money for the baby. We saved about $1,000 and that’s all. My mum lives in a different train of thought than me and tried to convince me to get a full time job. She did a good job because she put an entrepreneurial spin on it “You should work for a business so you can learn how to run a business”…but I still believe I can become rich without a full time job and in 2010 I plan to prove it.

• I Kept My Impulse Buys To A Minimum

The only major impulse buy I can remember in buying my wife an Iphone. I am sure there were other impulse buys, but that was the biggest one.

• I Managed To Live Of The Smell of A Wet Rag

Me and my wife (God love her) managed to live off the smell of a wet rag (aka. Next to nothing). This has sucked, but it has been good for us too. We now know that we can survive off a teeny tiny wage. It also presents a good challenge for people who earn 3 times as much as us and say “I can’t afford to have a baby” or “I can’t afford to invest”. Can’t? Or don’t want to?

2009 was a good year. I am sure I will look back on this post at the end of 2010 and realise how much of a douche I sounded like but oh well. I hope your 2009 was good like mine. And I hope 2010 will be even better.

Christmas has just been and gone and it was great fun. I had a great time hanging out with family and meeting up with friends and exchanging gifts. One of the gifts I got from my wife was a 365 day journal. It is from my favourite stationary store (Kikki K). Instead of having dates each page simply has a number, from 1 all the way through to 365. One page for every day of the year.

As new years is approaching it is one of those times to think about the year ahead and ponder all the things you want to achieve. In 2010 we have 365 days. We can either use those days to make our lives better, or use them to make them worse. We can use those days to make ourselves richer, or use those days to make ourselves poorer.

I am a big fan of new years resolutions. I am a huge fan of setting huge goals that you know are almost impossible to achieve. I am a fan of the idea that you can start a fresh in the new year and create your life exactly how you want it.

The 365 Journal gave me the idea of doing “365 Days To Wealth” in 2010. The resolution is to do something everyday to move you towards becoming wealthy. That might be brainstorming business ideas, it might be doing some work for a friend and earning an extra couple of bucks to pay off that debt, it might be buying a property, it might be creating a product, it might be reading a finance book. The goal is that everyday you do at least one thing that will help you become wealthy.

So it is my resolution to document what I have done each day in moving towards becoming wealthy. I was going to document it in my journal but I really want to use it as my baby book. So instead I plan on documenting it on this blog.

I am finished with my days of trying to make money from blogging. That is painstakingly slow and I don’t have the willpower (or the creativity) to become successful in blogging. I am going to document this for my own personal reference. If other people happen to find it intriguing then so be it. If not, then I will have benefited from it anyway.

My financial goals for 2010 are:

• To Make The Cashflow From My Debt = $0/Month.
• To Purchase 3 Positive Cashflow Properties
• To Create A Passive Income Online That Covers The Costs of My Internet Usage (Including Business and Internet fees)

My 365 days to wealth will revolve around trying to make these 3 things happen. It will be an interesting journey for me and I am looking forward to it. I spend everyday thinking about finances anyway, so I may as well try to document it so that I can look back in years to come and see exactly where I was at (and how much of an idiot I was).

It is my goal to be financially free in just 5 years. Now as you may know this is not exactly the ‘norm’ , you don’t see a lot of people retiring before they reach 30. In fact most people these days can’t even afford to retire when they reach 65. Did you know that the greatest fear in America today is not terrorism, or nuclear war, it is running out of money before they die. That is the number one fear.

Financial freedom doesn’t just happen, you can’t really accidentally become financially free. You need to decide you want to become financially free and you need to have a plan to get you there. Most people fail to retire early and fail to become financially free because they are always trying to make more money, they think that money is going to make them rich. Really it is not the amount of money you have, but it is the cashflow you can generate.

The Figure

The first step towards becoming financially free is deciding how much passive income you require to actually be financially free. What is the total of all of your expenses? When you find that out then you can start setting a plan to reach that goal income.

For some reason I don’t feel comfortable sharing my goal income with everyone. Closer friends I would be happy to tell, but on my blog I am a bit weary to tell. Lets just say we could become financially free off the average wage of one person. We currently live very simple lives and don’t need a lot to survive. Once I become financially free, then I will have the time and freedom to focus on becoming rich.

What is your figure? How much passive income do you need before you can become financially free?

The Plan

My plan is basic. It is not set out in stone, and it doesn’t have all of the details mapped out. Basically I know where I am, I know where I want to be and I know the vehicle I am using to get there.

My plan is this:

Build businesses and then use those businesses to invest in real estate. The income from the real estate will fund my financial freedom.

I have worked out that I only need to own 8 bottom of the barrel properties in order to successfully become financially free. So my plan is for my wife and I to both work part time to pay the bills, and then I also work part time on building my business. When the business starts generating an income, then I will reinvest back into the business to grow it even more. Then when the business has enough income I will use that money as a deposit on real estate properties. I will buy as many as I can afford with the income I receive.

The start is the hardest part. As soon as my business starts generating some income and I buy my first property it will get easier. Instead of struggling to save money my first investment property will help fund my second, and then my second will help even more to fund the third and so on. It grows upon its self, the hardest part is getting the ball rolling.

The Business

This is where I am starting. I know enough to invest in real estate now but I don’t have the capital. So I am building a business so that I can get the capital to invest.

My business plan is very simple. I don’t have all the details yet, and I have decided exactly what my product is going to be, but the business model is tested and proven.

Basically the plan is to build an email subscriber list through Aweber. I have created a site, www.richacademy.com, and I am using this website to gather people’s name and email address. My goal is to earn $60,000 per year from my business, and this would be easy to do with a list of 60,000 people. So my goal over the next 5 years is to collect the contact details of 60,000 people.

I am marketing my list through article submission databases. I am starting with www.ezinearticles.com and then the articles that prove successful I will take to other article databases like www.articlesbase.com and www.goarticles.com. I have just started doing this and it has proven very successful. With just 100 articles (most which I have taken from the archives of my old blog Smarter Wealth) I am getting between 2-6 submissions per day. My goal is to write 1,000 articles, and by submitting them to multiple databases get my 60,000 subscribers within 5 years.

I will then make money by marketing products through my list. I already have one product which is an 8 week financial boot camp course. Everytime someone signs up for my newsletter they are redirected to my sales page. These sales cover my business expenses and it is passive income, the course runs by itself. The end goal is to create an online financial training membership site. I want to have memberships last about 6 months and charge a monthly fee. I have studied a lot about finance and I have spend over $10,000 on my financial education. I am also looking to team up with other people to create a joint venture for this membership site. But that is a little bit down the road. As my list grows, my income will grow.

The list is automatic. The articles I write automatically market my website, when people sign up for my list emails that I have already written are automatically sent out to my subscribers. Eventually the emails will automatically market my membership site, and will automatically market other products. It is a lot of work at the moment but eventually I plan for it to run without my input. My articles will all be written, so will my emails, my products will all be created, the marketing, sales and delivery of my products will all be automatic. Then I will have a lot of time to research property and to find great investments for my money.

Property

My goal is to invest in positive cashflow property. I want to pay a 5-20% deposit on each property I buy. After my deposit is paid I want the rent to completely cover my expenses, with a little bit left over. Each year rent will go up, as will the price of my property and I will be able to leverage the equity to buy more property. I need to own 8 properties outright in order to be financially free. But because I have a time limit of 5 years it will probably be easier for me to own 10-15 properties that I still have mortgages on but that generate a good passive income. By leveraging the banks money each year I will get richer, because rents will go up but my major cost (the mortgage repayments) will go down. So even when I am financially free and I stop working I will be getting richer each year.

What’s Your Plan?

That is my plan to be financially free in 5 years. What are your goals and your plans?

If you know me at all then you know that I always have crazy dreams and ambitions. When I was in high school I wanted to be married by the time I was 19, I got married at 20. I also wanted to have kids before I was 23, I will be having my first baby just after my 22nd birthday. Now I have the crazy dream/ambition to become financially free in 5 years. So I plan on being able to retire by the time I am 26.

Now that wouldn’t be so hard if I was earning upwards of $100,000 per year, but I’m not. It also would be easier if we didn’t have a baby on the way, but we do. In fact I plan to accomplish this starting of in $20,000 worth of consumer debt and earning a combined income of around $40,000 per year, before tax. Not a lot to start of with.

I know people who have earned upwards of $100,000 their entire lives (30+ working years) and are still not financially free. So what makes me think that I can do it, when so many other people have failed? Well let me explain why I think I will be capable of becoming financially free in just 5 years (by the time I am 26).

1. I Think In Terms of Cashflow Not Net Worth

A lot investors think in terms of net worth. They want to have a net worth of over $1,000,000 or if they buy shares for $10,000 then they want to sell them a week later for a profit, thus increasing their net worth. I on the other hand think in terms of cashflow. When I buy something, I don’t care if it goes up or down in value, I care about the cashflow it throws off.

If I buy a house and it generates me $30/week, then the value drops 20% I won’t care as long as it is still generating me $30/week. That is $30 per week that I don’t have to work hard to earn and that is money that I can live of, or that I can reinvest. I am not trying to ride the property market on the up and bail out before the down, I am trying to generate as much cashflow as possible.

I know this doesn’t sound like a huge difference, but a lot of people cannot become financially free because they are focusing on making money, instead of generating cashflow.

2. I Am Always Learning

You can pretty much always ask me “What book are you reading now” and I will have an answer about some book on money or real estate or shares that I am reading. You can also ask me “What have you been learning this week” and I will almost always have an answer for you. I am always applying myself and I am always learning more.

The more financially educated I become the richer I will become naturally. When you know better you do better and that creates better results.

I don’t have the financial education right now to become financially free immediately. But I have the next 5 years to be learning and learning, and all of that knowledge adds up and makes me smarter with money over time. So I know that I have the accumulated knowledge of 5 years of study ahead of me and I know that that knowledge will certainly help me to become financially free.

3. I Am Not Just Willing To Take Risk, I Want To Take Risk To Learn

A lot of people are too afraid to lose money that they never make any money. A true investor seeks to learn something from every deal they go into. I am not afraid of risk and I know that by taking risks and taking steps of faith you learn. As long as I learn from each risk that I take I will be able to make a lot of money in the long run.

If I go into a property deal and end up losing $50,000 then I will be a little upset, but I will be ok with that as long as I learn something. It might cost me $50,000 now, but that learning experience will likely make me millions in the future.

4. Having Financial Intelligence Attracts Money and People With Money

Having financial intelligence attracts money and people with money. I have maybe been studying money full on for 2-3 months and I am already attracting people with a lot of wealth, because I know what I am talking about. A lot of people have a lot of money but don’t know what to do with it. Some inherited it, some got lucky, so are just really good at their jobs, but most of them don’t know a thing about investing and having your money work for you.

Financial intelligence is the intelligence to use money to gain more freedom and happiness for yourself and others. This is generally done by making money work harder for you, so you can earn more and work less. I know how to find positively geared properties, most people don’t. I know how to leverage the banks money to increase your return on investment, most people don’t. I know the basics of tax law and how to earn more and pay less tax, legally, and most people don’t. I know how to make money work harder so you can work less, and people don’t know that.

Knowing what I know naturally attracts money. Everyone has fear and greed when it comes to money. My knowledge taps into their natural greed for more money (which is not always a bad thing) and reduces their fear of risk (because I am educated in what I am doing). So even though we only earn a combined income of $40,000 per year we can attract a lot more than that by my financial intelligence.

5. I Will Use Leverage

Leverage is basically doing less with more. I plan on using the leverage of other people’s money and other people’s time to make me rich. Starting out with other people’s money I will use the banks money to purchase my investments. I might put 10% down and the bank will pay the remaining 90%. My tenants will then pay all of my expenses and neither the bank, nor my tenants get any of the profit from the investment. I pay 10% and I get 100% of the profits. So if I put $10,000 down on a property worth $100,000 and the tenant pays my expenses. If that property goes up 5% I earn $5,000, which is 50%/year of my initial investment.

Leverage can significantly increase your return on investment and that is why I will be able to become financially free in 5 years, because I will use leverage to earn more with less.

6. I Love The Game

I really enjoy the game of money. I enjoy learning about money, I enjoy using money, I enjoy investing money. I enjoy business, corporations, investing, property, shares and anything else to do with money. Some people play poker as their game, some people play golf as their game. Money is my game, I love it and I want to win.

My love for the game pushes me to learn more and be better, it pushes me to practice and pushes me to be good at it. The love of the game will push me hard until I become financially free, then it will push me even harder to get better and better.

7. I Know My ‘Why’

I have sat down and talked to a few people about their investments. I always ask the question “Why do you want to invest?”. The funny thing is that most people do not have a clear answer to that question. I have a clear answer to my why and that clear answer directs my investment decisions. My why is:

So I can have as much free time as I want to spend with my family, and so that I can have a platform from which to speak into people’s lives.

I want to be financially free so I don’t have to work but I can spend time with my wife and Kids. I also want to have a lot of money because having a lot of money automatically makes people want to listen to you. If I was a billionaire you would want to hear what I had to say because everyone wants to be rich. By becoming rich I then have a platform to speak into people’s lives and to cause change for the better.

So they are my reasons why I believe I will become financially free in 5 years. If you don’t think I can do it, I don’t care, and don’t tell me why you think I will fail. If you want to encourage me in my goal then please leave comments.

If you are looking for the collection of the best movie speeches ever then you have come to the right place because in this post I have compiled a list of the top 15 inspirational movie speeches ever. If you know anything about me then you will know that I love the art of communication. I love reading and I absolutely love speeches. I will enjoy movies not because of their action and adventure but because of their speeches. Speeches have the power to move you emotionally and to even change the way you think of life.

There have been many great speeches in movies throughout movie history, some a lot better than others. I have compiled a list of what I believe to be the best movie speeches ever. All of these inspirational speeches from movies have some things in common. They are extremely moving, they are uplifting and they inspire the viewer to live life to their full potential (even if they do it indirectly). These speeches come out of their character’s moment of strength and out of the wisdom they have gained from their lives (although fictional). By watching these you will be moved and changed forever.

I have listed them in ascending order. With the greatest movie speeches of all time being placed furthest down the page. These are all great movie speeches and I believe that everyone will agree. Watch them and enjoy.

15. The Replacements – Pain Heals, Chicks Dig Scars and Glory Lasts Forever

The replacements is a great movie about a team of misfits who are hired to play while the regular football starts go on strike for more money. The speech is short and sweet and informal, which is exactly fitting for this movie. Great speech and a movie well worth watching.

14. Remember The Titans – A Lesson From The Dead

We all remember the remember the titans movie. It is awe inspiring, yet it contains humor and devastating drama. The story takes place at the time of integration of blacks and whites and this football team will have to deal with their colour issues if they ever want to win a game.

13. Dead Poets Society – Seize The Day

 

I have not seen this movie in a long time, but I was inspired by the fact that they could make a movie about poetry and it could still be interesting. Seize that day before it is too late.

12. Team America – Dicks F#@K Assholes – WARNING, LOTS OF SWEARING

 

Team America was a pretty controversial movie, and this speech is incredibly rude and strange. But yet it holds a great element of truth that we can all take home

11. Gladiator- My Name is Maximus

 

“My name is Maximus” – Damn I was I was as much of a man as this Gladiator was. The way he says it with such conviction is great to watch. Incredible movie.

10. Rocky Balboa – How Hard You Can Get Hit

 

Although Rocky does look like he has had a fair bit of plastic surgery he has a great story and gives a great speech all the same. It is amazing that the actor, Sylvestor Stallone, actually has a Rocky type story. He got hit, and he got hit hard, but he kept coming back for more. He wanted to be an actor, and no one would have ever hired someone that looks like he does and that talks out of the side of their mouth like he does. But he got hit and came back, true inspiration.

9. Lord of The Rings – It is Not This Day

 

Lord of the Rings is the ultimate trilogy. This speech is given by Aragon, the king, at the black gates of Mordor. He was willing to give his life so that Frodo could have precious time to destroy the ring.

8. 300 – Final Speech

 

Man I wish I had bodies like these guys do, and spirits like they do. They know what they want, they know what they have to do and they go for it. If you are a guy you will love the movie for the raw masculinity, and if you are a woman you will love this movie for the raw masculinity also.

7. The Miracle – Pre Game Speech

If it is based on a true story then it is all the more inspiring. This is the story of the Americans first victory over the Russians in Ice Hockey at the Olympics. They would not have achieved this without the genius of one coach, and they did achieve this and made history.

6. Independence Day – World Independence Day Speech

 

I watched independence day when I was a kid, but our TV was so blurry I couldn’t see what was happening. But I remembered it had a great speech. I watched it a second time JUST to see the speech. It is a good speech.

5. Armageddon – 14 Brave Souls Speech

Probably my favourite movie of all time, because it has everything in it – Action, Romance, Humour, Drama, Space. It is about the quest to destroy an asteroid heading towards earth (before it destroys the earth). It is extremely funny and emotional also. This speech is from the president of the united states as the astronauts are preparing to launch into space towards the asteroid.

4. Coach Carter – Our Deepest Fear Speech

 

Coach Carter is an incredible movie about a man who takes on coaching a basketball team in the trouble filled area of Richmond. This speach is from one of his students Timo Cruz who was almost killed working as a drug dealer. Inspiring speech and an incredibly inspiring movie.

3. Any Given Sunday – Al Pacino’s Speech

If I am completely honest with you I have never seen this movie. But I have watched this speech and I love it. An incredible speech and a great movie. Whoever wrote this is a genius.

2. Braveheart – Freedom

 

Obviously I was questioning putting this speech as number 1. It is based on a true story, it has an Australian in it (like me), it is based in Scotland (where my dad is from) and it is just an incredible speech of sacrifice for something higher than ourselves. But in the end I couldn’t justify putting it as the number 1 speech. Thus is comes in a close second for me in the running for the best movie speech of all time.

1. Lord of The Rings – The Tales That Mattered

 

It is expected that brave people like William Wallace make brave speeches to inspire those they lead. It is not expected that someone if relative insignificant, who is no great leader nor brave warrior, can make a speech so powerful that it brings you to tears and gives you goose bumps all over. This is definately the best inspirational movie speech of all time. Good work to the writers and the actors.

These are 15 great speeches, and I would say these are the 15 best inspirational speeches of all time. Over time more speeches will need to be added to this list, but these 15 speeches will remain great speeches that have touches the lives of thousands.

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Success is a big issue and something that a lot of people strive for and seek to obtain. Over the last few weeks I have been thinking a lot about success and what it means for me to be successful. The last year has been filled with failure after failure in my online business and it has left me with a sense of purposelessness and I definately do no feel successful.

When you are talking about success it is really important to note that there is no one definition of success. This is because every person you will ever meet has a different background, a different life and different hopes and aspirations for their future. Because of this difference success will be different depending on the person.

Lets look at an example. I am a Christian and a believer in God, therefore part of me being successful will involve serving God and bringing glory to him. I may do this through helping people, through preaching, through building a big business and giving money to the church or to orphanages, but ultimately a factor of my success will be my spirituality and how well I have served and honored God. Then on the other hand you may have a Muslim, who’s success will be partly defined by serving his or her God Allah. My definition of success will look different to the Muslim’s definition of success because we are serving different Gods.

I have also come to believe that success is not something that you have or achieve but it is a state of mind, or an emotion. If you look hard enough you will be able to find someone who at first appears to be extremely successful. They will have a great job, a fast car, a beautiful wife and lovely kids and who earns more money than they know what to do with, yet they are depressed and continually feel like they are insignificant and that they are a failure.

It is not the ‘stuff’ that defines your success but rather it is the feeling you have that defines whether or not you are successful. You can have no money and still feel successful because you may feel like you have contributed something great to the world. You may be overweight and underpaid and feel successful because you have a great relationship with your family and your friends and you love your life.

Success is not a collection of tangible goods, it is an emotion.

Let me demonstrate this further by asking you how do you know if you are successful? The only way of truely knowing you are successful is feeling that you are successful. If you feel you are successful then you are successful, and if you feel that you are not successful then ultimately when it comes to your life you are not successful.

If you read or listen to anyone’s definition of success or fulfillment you will find that everyone labels different things that your will require in order to be successful. I was just listening to Tony Robbins to a talk today and he said that there are 6 things that everyone looks for in their life to be successful. Those are Certainty, Uncertainty, Significant, Connection/Love, Growth and to Contribute Beyond Ourselves. I believe these all to be true, but 6 things is just too many to remember

Foundational Beliefs and Goals

Within every person are some foundational beliefs and goals that need to be met for that person to feel successful. For me one of my foundational beliefs and goals is to have a loving family, if I become a successful businessman or even have success in ministry and help a lot of people, if I don’t have a loving family I know that I will consider myself unsuccessful.

So in order to feel successful and be successful you need to meet your foundational beliefs and goals, because if you fail to meet them you will constantly feel unsuccessful.

Some people set their beliefs and goals too high and some people have just missed their opportunity to fulfill these foundational beliefs and goals. Tony Robbins talks about a 61 year old lady who so desired to have a loving family and children, but she has now be married twice and has no kids, and she can no longer meet that belief or goal.

In this case the only thing you can do is change your beliefs and goals so that they match up with what is realistic to achieve.

So you either need to meet your foundational beliefs and goals in order to feel successful, or you need to change them so they can be met.

Self Esteem

Another thing that you must have in order to be successful is self esteem. Remember how I said that success can only be defined by whether or not you feel successful? Well if you have little or no self esteem you will never feel good about yourself and thus will never feel successful.

Now I don’t know a lot about self esteem and feeling good about yourself so unfortunately I cannot go into a lot of detail, but what I do know is that your self esteem is your sole responsibility. No one else can determine my self esteem unless I let me. I determine my own self esteem by deciding how I feel about myself.

My Journey

The real reason I am discussing success is because I have been seriously thinking a lot about what I want to do with my life and what my next step should be. I did really well in High School, I went on to do 2 and a half years of bible college, at first I wanted to be a pastor but now the thought of doing that makes me feel yuk inside because of some bad experiences I have had. So I then thought that I would find success through making money online. Over the last 12 months I have been hoping to make money online but I have failed at all my attempts.

I am a strong believers in doing what you are passionate about and doing things purposefully. The truth of the matter is that I was trying to make money online to meet my own needs and to feel good about myself, but because I had no higher purpose I lost the passion for it and ultimately failed at it.

In my mind all I wanted to do was make money online and I wasn’t thinking about doing anything else, so when that failed I was left with nothing to do and no direction to head in. This rarely happens to me as I usually know what I want and am working towards getting it…but in this instance I didn’t know where I wanted to be so I had no way of going anywhere. 

So I have been thinking and talking to God, and I do my best thinking and talking to the Big Man in the shower, and the other day as I was in the shower talking to God I felt God ask me what I can contribute to the church that no one else can. My first thought was finances and God said instantly to me that anyone can create finance for the church and that he is God and if he needed finance he could get it. So he asked me what can I do that God himself cannot do and I immediately thought about communication and helping people.

God can talk to people through his bible and through speaking to them as they open up to him, but I have noticed in my life a lot of people who’s lives have been such that a long term connection with God has been near impossible. I have worked with boys who have had messed up families and even more messed up friends and a lifestyle that does everything it can to take them away from God. I have also experienced people who have been burnt by the church in some way and they left the church and left God.

I started getting a passion to help these two types of people. I want to help the people who’s lifestyle gets in the way of their desire to connect with God and people who have been burnt by the church, but who still love God and want to maintain a relationship with Him.

Before I decided that I wanted to go to bible college I originally wanted to go to university to study psychology. I have always had a fairly good understanding of people and I have always had an interest and desire in helping people.

I think it is extremely amusing that what I wanted to do before I was a Christian is now coming back around full circle. I am now seriously considering going to university and studying psychology so that I can train myself to help the people that I want to help.

I am going to take some time and decide for certain that this is what I want to do (because it is a good 4-6 years of studying that I am looking at doing), and if I begin studying then I will begin in March of 2010.

So it is an exciting time for me, and I would not have had this desire and this direction if I had not seriously thought about what success is and what success means to me.