Corey Stokes

Two kinds of failure! What is stopping your success?

If you are not careful, one of the most important lessons of success may pass you by. Many people go from success to success not gaining any insight or growth from their experiences. With this type of success this person, Will never know how to succeed. It is better to try, and fail. So that you will learn in order to try again!

Over the weekend, my son and I made an attempt at building a box with dovetail joint! Knowing I could only hold my son’s attention no more than a few moments, I let him run the router. We carefully pushed each board through the router, until we were complete, making adjustments for the male and female ends of the joint. When the dust cleared (literally, because I forgot to turn the vacuum on), we had made our box. The dovetail joints however, were so out of alignment that we could not help but call the experience an epic failure. We tried again, and got a littler closer but we still did not get the joints successfully aligned. Eventually I lost his attention and he was on to other things. In this one session, although we didn’t make sour dovetail jointed box. We did learn how not to make it. Knowledge that we will use on our next attempt.

Even when writing this blog post. I must have rewritten it more than 5 times before I felt it was good enough to send out. Remember our successes build our confidence but, we learn from our mistakes. As you read and become familiar with the passage below, keep in mind that failure from trying will lead you to even greater success.

Passage from Robert Greene Mastery

Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and suck timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done. In fact, it is a curse to have everything go right on your first attempt. You will fail to question the element of luck, making you think that you have the golden touch. When you do inevitably fail, it will confuse and demoralize you past the point of learning. In any case, … you must act on your ideas as early as possible, exposing them to the public, a part of you even hoping that you’ll fail. You have everything to gain.”

What have you failed at lately? What was the outcome when you tried again?

Budgeting for Success

written by @CoreyLStokes
Since starting on this road trip to live a debt free life, I have kept my eye out for success stories and information that the average Joe (or Jane) and I could use to create a better and more prosperous life for ourselves. I recently came across an article, “Budgeting for Success”. Although many of us have the desire to be financially independent, or just want to get through the month without struggle. We also (often enough) cannot see our own road map to get there. This leaves us ill prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that are right in front of us.

Financial experts such as Kelvin Boston, and much recently Dave Ramsey and Susie Orman have laid out, in various formats and on many different platforms, strategies and plans that millions of people use as their road map. Former Football player Michael Jackson, as discussed in the “Budgeting for Success” article, has committed himself to such a plan and has made a world of difference in his life. With 78% of NFL players going bankrupt within two years after retirement, this former New Jersey Red Dogs Player (2000 and 2001) committed himself to a three-pronged strategy for success. In an interview with Black Enterprise he lays out his strategy to building his savings, living on a budget, and developing multiple streams of income. At the age of 42 Jackson is looking to expand on his business empire and further “diversify his income.”

It goes without saying, that if you want to live like everyone else you should expect to get the same results as everyone. If you, as Jackson suggests, stick to your budget, save, educate yourself, exercise self-control and surround yourself with trusted advisers, you too can set yourself up for long term success.

Do you have your road map?

What do you teach your children #AboutMoney?

written by @CoreyLStokes

Recently I asked, what lessons do we teach our children about money? The responses I received back all said, spend money wisely, save a portion of your income, and don’t spend more than you make. One friend said she teaches her children how to use “discretion when buying their wants”. But what do we teach our children when it comes to earning an income? I’ve heard often parents tell their children “when you earn money you can spend it on what you want.” But we never hear the question that most logically follows. The question that was most obvious for my children was “Daddy, how do I earn money?”

Dave Ramsey calls moments like these teachable moments. Moments, that you have the opportunity to teach your child a life lesson, rather than just giving them an answer. The first time my daughter asked me what can she do to earn money, my wife and I discussed giving her an allowance. The more we discussed however the less we liked the idea. Giving her money, didn’t teach her anything. We decided to give her, her first job. Teaching her that she needed to work to earn money. After all, isn’t that how the real world works!

For her first job, I gave her 5 tasks and paid her a commission of $1 per task to be completed by the end of the week. At the end of the week my wife and I had a weekly review to provide feedback so she could make corrections before payday. A process that work very well for her. As she got older however, she wanted to know how to make more money. I soon realized that I had a little Kidpreneur in the making on my hands, and she was ready for the next level of lessons.

When it comes to teaching your children about money, here are a few things I’ve learned:

1. Never let a teachable moment go by.

2. If you don’t know, you can’t teach!

3. Encouragement goes a long way.

It didn’t take long for my daughter to start brainstorming ideas and bringing them to me for my approval. She has come up with ideas from writing books to babysitting. At one point she joined her friends in starting a cookie business complete with inventory and payroll. A process she is still looking at duplicating on her own. I guess I can’t expect her to work for Dad and Mom Inc. forever.