Build Power

My future islander, it’s time for you to understand something here.

You live in a world where you have to do one thing to survive.

And within it, many things.

Do you know what you have to do?

Build power.

“What did you just say Evan?”

That’s right, build power!

Let me explain.

In everything that you do, you must have leverage.

Because people are literally out to get you and hunt you down.

They tell you that they’ll help you (in most cases), but the next thing that you know, they try to set you up for failure!

Like, what the heck is that?!

Talk about trust at its finest, NOT!

Have you ever dealt with that in which someone just told you something and they didn’t even do it and they didn’t follow through?!

Aside from politicians of course.

Well, that’s life on the mainland.

A bunch of people who think that it’s fine to lie and deceive.

And that enough is reason alone to have to take control of every situation that you are in.

Every negotiation, every interview, every social encounter, and your entire world.

Because these snakes disguised as munchkins will come up and snatch everything that you have at the frst chance that they get.

And a lion doesn’t succumb to a snake!

“Ok Evan so great, we know that we need to build power. But, how do we do it?”

I’ve said it once, twice, three times a lady and I’ll say it again.

Believe in yourself that you will do it and that nothing will stop you from doing it.

Please, do not let anyone else tell you to not do it.

They’re a snake ready to poison you with venom.

Next, you must develop resounding confidence in yourself in that you will know all of the questions and answers to every situation and that you won’t be fooled by anybody.

This starts with researching and practicing what you know, what you don’t know, what you need to know, and what you want to know.

If you don’t know something, it’s time to do your homework.

You must find the knowledge and you must go into your given situation and practice what could be correct and what could be incorrect and see what comes out.

That will answer the question “What do I do here? Do I do this or do I do that?”

Because when it’s time to step up to the plate, you have GOT to know everything that there is to know.

No imperfections.

No mistakes.

One mistake or imperfection and you lose the game.

Maybe not the war, but the game for sure.

The enemy will see your lack of confidence and will eat you up alive.

They will see you flinching when you don’t know and they will see the mistake when you don’t realize that you are making it.

But when you know everything AND you act on it, you are the most powerful man, woman, team, organization etc. in the room.

And everyone will be scared of you when it is time to face off against you.

In short, having the correct knowledge and then executing on that knowledge is the golden ticket to the island.

If one of those two things are missing, game over.

I’ll say it again,

If one of those two things are missing, GAME OVER!

Now, let’s start out with an assessment.

What You’ve Gotta Do Now
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If you’re someone right out of college and you have debt with no job, simply put, you need to get a job right now and I know that you know already.

The very first job available to you, even if you absolutely hate it.

That debt must be the first thing that you tackle.

End of discussion.

The next thing that you must do is when you are not working at your job, you must be going into your cave and develop real world skills that will provide value to people.

These skills include copywriting, programming, sales, customer service and the list goes on and on, but those four would definitely serve as the first step.

Guaranteed.

I would heavily recommend going through Zed Shaw’s “Learn Python the Hard Way” for learning Python, which is a programming language that handles large amounts of data and it happens to be one of the most if not the most in demand programming language in the job market today.

Mastering this skill, combined with your degree, can lead you into the door with numerous tech companies like Google and Microsoft who can pay you a rather high salary that can efficiently begin you debt payoff.

Please note though, that if your degree is not in computer sciences or engineering, you will have a harder time breaking into these companies even with the skill, but it is still not impossible.

You can do it.

Just trust step 1.

And for your debt payoff, what you must do is not invest in anything and once you cover your necessary living expenses and your emergency fund, PAY OFF THE DEBT!

That means no trips, no movies, no lounging by the pool, etc.

Work, learn and earn and pay off the debt until it is completely paid off.

That’s the model for the debt payoff.

If you are an 18 year old who doesn’t know what he wants to do, but you have no debt, you are in the RIGHT place at the RIGHT time!
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I can guarantee you that you will have control over everything in your life once you finish reading “Build Power.”

I am assuming that you are in college right now and lucky enough to not have any debt.

You have probably been told to just pick a major and that you’ll be set up for life once you finish your degree.

That is wrong.

Please dismiss that thought immediately.

Congratulations, you are now ahead of 95% of college students in the world, just like that.

Really.

Now, you have already read through the part with the skills in demand.

My young islander friend, at 18, I want you to do yourself a BIG favor 🙂

Learn them.

And start today.

In whatever way you can, legally.

If you stick with college and you develop them over however long you are there and you master them, you will be the most in-demand job seeker in the world.
Guaranteed, money back guarantee, plus interest returned on the money!
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Another thing, you should definitely read a book called “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham.

This is the same book that Warren Buffett read to learn how to invest.

And you are one year ahead of him if you read that book, particularly chapters 8 and 20.

And don’t just think that investing is just stocks and bonds, but everything that you do from managing your time, what you should be learning, what you should wear everyday and the list goes on and on and on.

You will find out the rest as you grow older, but that book will give you the foundation to making the correct choices in your life, both financially and personally.

Read that book, particularly chapters 8 and 20.

Believe me, you will not regret it.

And if you are in a major that you don’t like or feel that you “have to do because you’re parents told you and not because I want to,” here’s what you should do after thoroughly researching which majors fit your likings and what the market will pay for:

Switch majors immediately.

You’ll be glad that you did.

And if you are 18 and not in college without any debt, you are in even more luck because this blog post will give you everything that you need to know and do in order to have the most solid foundation for your future.

Really.

Are you ready?

Here it comes!

HERE IT IS!
First, know that you have a clean slate.

And that’s a good thing.

You haven’t written nor done anything to suggest where you should be.

You could go anywhere you want in life with no problem.

In other words, you have the power of decision.

“You’ve got the power!”

With this power of decision, you must ask yourself “What do I want to do in life? What do I want to do?”

And because you are not in college, you are not guilty of not knowing the answer.

Because in college, you should DEFINITELY know that answer before going in, otherwise, you won’t maximize it and you’ll be in for a really rough ride!

So because you know and will take action on that basis, you are ahead of 99% of all college students AND all college graduates.

Really really.

And here is the other thing that you should know.

Unless you are getting a full ride scholarship, in which case you SHOULD go to college, you do not have to go to college at this time.

Let me explain:

College is an investment.

It should be approached with the same level of care and research just like with any other investment.
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You should have a projected return on investment based on what majors you are interested in along with the current and future state of the job market, the potential connections, how you would utilize extracurricular activities, and the career services department, which is by far the most under utilized resource in college.

And if that return on investment does not look as good as other potential resources, you should not go.

“What else is there?” you might be asking.

A lot.

For starters, there’s an online business. Now I haven’t made money online yet myself as I have just started on my venture, but for someone in your position, I can safely say that it’s the best option to try out since there is little startup cost, definitely not beyond $1000 at the initial stages, you don’t have to go into debt to do it, and you can start ASAP. And an important note here:

You will be creating your own EXPERIENCE!

Meaning: You will an asset that if you need to go get a job, you can articulate yourself as being an entrepreneur and have demonstrated business acumen, which even most college grads do NOT have and you do, putting you in a prime position to articulate your value to a company.

And the best part is that if you start this before college, you will literally have unlimited leverage in any job interview since because a large number of millennials have student loan debt, they will not be able to start any type of business nor invest in anything.

To prove it to you, here’s what the research suggests.

According to research from Gallup, 2 million college graduates have testified that they have delayed starting a business because of student loan debt.

And when you have those payments, you lose time.

And time is money.
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You, my future 18 year old islander, will not have that problem.

And get this as well, if you decide to go to college AND you have a successful business, you are guaranteed to be hired.

Guaranteed.

At the minimum.

With the exception of medicine and law, you can pick any industry you want and everyone will take you. And that’s according to A LOT of recruiters for many companies in marketing, engineering, and software.

Because many do start businesses, but very few press on and conquer.

Many reasons because of real-life scenarios that are beyond control.

But, you’re not going to have most of them as a result of reading and comprehending this post.

Another thing that you can do is instead of university, go to the trades instead.

That space, I can guarantee you, from plumbers to welders to electricians or anything that is a real world skill, you could make just as much as any average college graduate without debt and going in pretty much right away, because for welders, to my knowledge they only need 9 months of training at an accredited institute, which can be attained from your local community college, and the salary can go up to six figures.

On top of that, because there is such a big demand for these skills and really low supply, you have the world to you there.

It’s literally your own space once you become experienced and you are an authority.

Seriously!

Now of course, if you want to be the CEO of Goldman Sachs, that route is not an option for you.

You must go to college.

And you have to get into a top 5 institution for your graduate program in order to have a shot at that.

But assuming that is not you, please don’t make that decision now, keep reading.

The third way that you can do is to go into real estate, with the intent on going on to real estate investing.

Let me explain this.

Real estate is never going away.

It is a product that will always be in demand and people are always going to need.

However, very few people can sell good high quality real estate.

And that calls for becoming a real estate agent.

At this position, your potential and ambition are the only things that will limit what you will make.

Really.

If you are still not convinced, I know of three resources that can prove that to you.

The first resource for real estate investing is an accredited educational entity like a university or community college or a local real estate school because legally, they must provide you with the correct and accurate education on the topic or otherwise, they would lose their accreditation.

So you know what you are getting is 100% true.

The second resource is a website called biggerpockets.com, which is the largest real estate investing social network on the planet.

They have numerous investors that will assist you and provide you the most in-depth opinion and facts about what it takes to be a real estate investor and further your studies into the subject in addition to the networking involved.

But, worst case scenario, if you experience everyone of these things and you discover what you like and it necessitates going to college, you will already have numerous experiences in the real world, which is what employers REALLY look for in employees, even above the GPA in a lot of cases (that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a high GPA though; you should), and you’ll have a focus on what you want and to just go into college and crush it!

Because I can tell you this even without research, 99% of college students do not know what they want out of life.

That’s a fact.

They go in without any focus and they just let it drift away or choose the wrong vocation without the correct research.

YOU, if you go to college, will be in a different boat than everybody else.

You’ll already have what employers are looking for, you’ll know business, how to deal with people, what you want out of college, you’ll already have networked with professionals in your desired field and acquired experience in it, AND, I’ll promote him here, with help of my coach Brian Robben and a little handy dandy book named How to College, if you execute on it, you will have success in college if you go.
Guaranteed.

Above all, you will have leverage in the situation.

Not the system leveraging you.
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And you have to know that.

It’s not trying to beat the system, but to GAME the system.

Make the correct moves and you’ll come out on top (I pat you on the back).
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If you’re a professional, you must know THIS:

You are in the tournament.

Whether you know it or not, your power is a necessity.
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You must constantly demonstrate that you are the best and learn about various things that can propel what you are doing.

You must be the alpha in the room all of the time.

No goofing around with your coworkers if you are doing that.

That will NEVER get you where you need to be, at least in most cases!

In fact, if this is possible for you, you should have lunch elsewhere away from your coworkers and with someone either in management to get to know them or a potential client to sell them on a product that you or your company is selling.

Only eat with coworkers IF it is a viable networking opportunity for you to get closer to what you desire.

Hopefully, this will put you at their top of mind and make everyone else that you are competing against rather insignificant to the eyes of your superior, which you will one day soon become 🙂

And like many successful professionals in the working world, keep your head down, do everything that you say that you will do, provide value to the organization that you are working for or your customers and you should be golden.

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

You will go far my future islander.

And that goes for everyone reading this.

You can be the Showman, but don’t let it get in the way of your topline AND bottomline.

Don’t unnecessarily open your mouth when you should be working.

Only talk if it is the only way to accomplish your task.

Otherwise, zip it.

And zip it good.

And no one can blame you for a thing.

And if you deliver results, you will have power given right to you.

Then and there.

Guaranteed.

And on top of that, you’ll be extremely respected and thought of as a leader.

A true leader.

S​omeone who does what he says.

Hence, you have power.

Now get that power my future islander.

This is Chief Islander Evan signing off.