It takes $$ to make $$.......right?

I've often heard the expression:

"IT takes money to make money."

Many times the context of this statement is the excuse I'm hearing from a person for his not being rich. It also tells me he has no ambition of becoming rich.

Well - I wholeheartedly disagree. President Lincoln also has something to say about that:

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." Abraham Lincoln

Not making any sense?

First of all: what does it mean to be RICH?

I'll often say that there's a difference between being broke and poor. Broke is temporary and poor is forever.

I find myself broke quite frequently. But I know I'm not poor. I'm rich. Mostly it's a decision of attitude.

No not an attitude of "I'm rich, so I'm going to buy a brand new Nissan Titan and make $600/mo payments." Not an attitude of look at what I drive, where I live, what I wear and you'll know I'm rich attitude.

It's an attitude of: "I may be broke right now, but I'm RICH! Got my hot wife, my beautiful kids, a place to live, a car to drive." It's a "count your many blessings" kind of attitude.

Now, back to the theory of it taking money to make money. Again, that's the EXCUSE. I've talked to a lot of RICH people. Often times their stories are similar. They didn't start with a bunch of money and get rich. They started with their labor.

The money was a fruit of their labor.

I met a man that was a very simple, country bumpkin man. He wasn't college educated. I don't know if he was even highschool educated. But he had integrity and he worked hard. He owned a very succesful roofing company with his brother.

I asked him how he got started.

With a big grin and chuckle he said: "You wanna know the truth?"

"Of course" I replied.......

"I read the package at Lowe's."

NO JOKE! After working for McDonald's for years, Sam East read the back of the package of shingles at Lowe's store on how to replace his mother's roof. Their agreement was she would buy the air compressor and nailers he needed to do the job plus the materials.

Sam and his brother then went on to build a multi-million dollar roofing company.

Does it take money to make money? Yes. The question is where does it come from?

But you don't have to start with money to make money. You have to start with desire. Survive on determination. Starve with perserverence. Hope for success. Pray that you make it!

The 2008 model

I suppose the other thing that is keeping me busy is us having our 4 kids, with the new addition the 2008 model. Maverick was born on August 1st. After a misprint in the paper we're considering changing the spelling of his name to Mavric.

Aspen was on the front page of the local paper because she's so darn cute. This was her first day of school.

Check out the photo gallery. Easiest thing to do is scroll to the last photo and work your way backwards. Even the local newspaper photographer agreed that our kids were the cutest.
http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=AA&Date=20080820&Category=CASSELLELEMENTARY&ArtNo=808200801&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1

Still Alive & Treading Water

Ok so I fizzled out on this blog thing. It's harder than it looks.

Where have I been for the last couple of months. Working. I've worked like crazy this past summer in the garage with Joseph. It seems to be paying off.

We finally turned the profitable corner in July. We did nearly double our best month ever to date in July of 2008. I still wonder if it was a fluke. So, I temper myself with a short-term goal of 3 months of profitability and then I'll feel like we're making progress.

August seemed dead and felt as if we'd be right back where we started. August ended up being our second best month to date second to July.

Our systems our improving. We're becoming more efficient. Starting a new business is very challenging. For the first 18 months we we're taking a slow and steady nose dive. It's relief to see things turn the corner and start heading in the right direction.

It's much like learning how to waterski. When someone first learns to waterski, the task seems impossible those first few attempts. You hang on to the ski rope, the boat roars with a hefty pull. You're trying desperately to hang on, get your body out of the water, and keep your balance all at the same time....and most importantly, keep from drowning as you muscle your way to freedom on top of that water.

Once you do finally get there, it's incredible. Standing on top of water. Carving turns and jumping the wake. You go from being stuck and barely keeping your head above water with those big clunky skis and the life jacket chocking your neck, to incredible freedom.

I don't know that we're on top of the water carving turns and jumping the wake just yet. But I can feel ourselves rising out of the water and getting ourselves closer to our goals.

I wish everyone the best and hope to see them do the same.

Politics and Religion

I was a Romney supporter early. He has a proven track record as a BIG problem solver. The guy exemplifies success. Put his Resume against any other candidate and the contest is over.

But, the political machine chewed Mitt Romney up and spit him back out. He was too perfect for some, his full head of hair neatly combed, his chiseled jaw line, his ideal physical shape for his age, the guy had movie star looks and literally a wealth of experience at solving big problems. But he saw the writing on the wall and bowed out gracefully.

The mainstream pounded Romney on his mormon faith. Asking questions about polygamy of his great grandfathers from a century ago, blacks holding the priesthood and any other skeleton they could dig up on the church. He answered with grace, and never faltered in his faith. They wanted him to deny his faith, to force him into distancing himself from the church so that they could create weakness in his principles.

Why?

If a man turns his back on his faith, then couldn't he just as likely turn his back on his country?

It amazes me to see the parallels that Romney and Obama face. Obama's father was married to 3 women at one time. Not so much as a polygamist, he just never bothered to divorce the previous woman. Now Obama faces the same challenges Romney faced regarding his affiliation with his church.......

Only, the hate that you hear from Obama's pastors doesn't seem to be the message of the Mormon Elders. And now Obama finds himself having to resign himself from his church affiliation for political expediency.

IS that really the kind of person we want leading our country? What are his principles? What foundation does Obama place himself? He offers a message of hope and change, but what changes is he proposing? What changes and what big problems has he proven that he can solve?

My 1st Motorcycle

As many may know I grew up fascinated with motorcycles. As a kid, I would find it so exciting just to find the tracks of off-road motorcycles that our neighbors left.

Just like many kids, we'd put cards in the spokes of our wheels and follow the paths and trails that the neighbors dirtbikes would leave.

The jumps were just never the same on a bicycle as they would have been on a motorcycle.

Early in the career of my father he used to ride a moped to work. It was exactly like the one pictured above. It's called a Honda Hobbit. His was a 1978 model.

The moped sat in our barn for years. We'd get it out and push ourselves down the hill and enjoy the bounce of the suspension as we'd lug the big heavy bicycle around. Pedaling back up the hill was a chore so we limited our use of the dormant machine.

I got to an age where I really wanted that moped to run. So I bothered my father enough to work on it and try and get it to run again. It had sat so long that the gas was old, and the carb was clogged with dirt.

We worked on it and took it all apart.

When we finally got it back together, the only thing that prevented it from running was not having the key. I guess that as us children would play with it, we didn't do a good job of not losing the key.

We tried to get a replacement key from the dealer. No luck. We searched the dirt floor of the barn with no luck. I spent hours on end looking for that key.

Finally, one day, as I was walking down to the barn to search for that key, I paused for a moment and remembered something from Sunday School and rattled off a quick prayer to find that key.

To my surprise, I then proceeded to walk directly to that key behind the snowplow for the tractor. A place that I would have sworn I'd gone over with a fine toothed comb previously.

It's a memory that will never leave me. I could show you almost the exact spot I said that prayer in my parents back yard nearly twenty years ago.

SO of course I immediately took the key to the moped and to my utter disappointment, it wouldn't start! I started praying again.

After another carb job, we finally got it running.

I'll never forget that first ride either, and I could tell show you the exact spot I twisted the grip and experienced my first powered two wheel flight! The two spots couldn't be more than a hundred yards from each other.

Inspiration

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=3398915

I like it when people don't dwell on their disadvantages and focus on what they can achieve.

Our Dream HOUSE!

With our number 4 kid soon to arrive late this summer, Missy and I are really working towards upgrading to our dream home. Hopefully after next tax season it will become financially prudent to make the required monthly payment.

Until then, we can stay focused on our dream home by making this photo of our dream house our desktop photo.

"Missyboo, I luv you. We gonna wurk real hard to git us dis har home!"