How to Become an Entrepreneur?

How to become an entrepreneur? It is one of the most exciting professions in the world. It is most exciting but also most risky for the people who have it.

You become an entrepreneur when you start your own company. However, we can’t define the process from start to finish because you must take many more actions before you start your company to become an entrepreneur.

So, how to become an entrepreneur?

In the following 87 points, I will share some advices, thoughts and action steps that you need to take if you want to become an entrepreneur.

And here is how to become an entrepreneur.

1. Be Unique

You must be different from the rest of the world if you want to become an entrepreneur. It means you’l need to see the world with the different eyes. You’l need to see opportunities where everyone else sees problems. Your company will be unique to the rate of how much you are unique.

2. Think Differently

If you are unique you’l probably think differently from the rest of the world. You’l need to find different ways to solve the same problems. That’s the difference between entrepreneurs and the rest of the world.

3. Think About Great Ideas

How to Become an Entrepreneur?

Successful entrepreneurs have great ideas that are unique, different and useful for the potential customers. If you want to build a company with a large business potential energy and become an entrepreneur you must to think about great ideas, not average one.

4. Dream About Changing a World

Each great idea can change the world. Look at Apple and Steve Jobs that really change the look of the world that we know from the past. If you want to become asuccessful entrepreneur, you’l need to dream. Dream about impossible things, because there is nothing impossible.

5. Follow Your Passion

If you want to become an entrepreneur, you’l need to include your passion into your business. It is your personal feelings and emotion that make you feel a positive affinity about something that you do. You’l need it for your company.

6. Think About the Biggest Problems

The world will always have problems that’re not solved until today. Find the biggest one that you can solve and transfer them into your company. That’s a way to become an entrepreneur.

7. Think About the Biggest Needs

On the market, there are also needs. You’l need to find the biggest one and incorporate the possible ways of satisfying that needs into your business.

8. Think About The Best Solutions about Problems and Needs

Each problem needs a solution that will satisfy some of the biggest needs on the market. Make the best solutions of the existing problems and needs on the market.

9. Think About What Makes You Happy

If you become an entrepreneur, it doesn’t mean that you need to be unhappy. You are at the first place in your company. Think about what make you happy and try to incorporate that into your business model.

10. Don’t Forget About Your Personal Targets

You are the human being before, and after you become an entrepreneur. You must think about your personal targets that need to be accomplished when you become an entrepreneur.

11. Start Networking

You’l need as much as more networks for your company. You cannot start your business without your networks that can launch you to the success.

12. Start Listening

Listening becomes one of the most important business functions today. You need to listen if you want to know about the problems and needs of your customer. That’s a very useful informations that you can incorporate into your company.

13. Find Your Unique Personality

How to Become an Entrepreneur?

Your unique personality is something that will differentiate you from the rest of the entrepreneurs, and in the same time will differentiate your company from the rest of the companies.

14. Learn from Successful

If you want to become an entrepreneur, you must start to learn from the successful people.

15. Read Books from Successful Entrepreneurs

There are plenty of books from successful entrepreneurs who can give you the knowledge that you need to become a successful entrepreneur.

16. Read a Lot

You need to read a lot, because it is the only way always to increase yourknowledge, and in such a way your business potential energy.

17. Read Blogs About Entrepreneurship

There are plenty of blogs about entrepreneurship that you can read on the everyday basis to increase your knowledge, to find some useful ideas or some new technologies.

18. Be Disciplined

If you want to become an entrepreneur forget about indiscipline.

19. Believe in Your Abilities

How you can expect your customers to believe in you or your company if you didn’t believe in your own abilities?

20. Increase Your Self-confidence

If you believe in your abilities that you can become an entrepreneur you will have enough self-confidence for such a type of job. If you didn’t have, start finding the ways to increase your self-confidence right now.

21. Find Your Best Inspirations

What inspires you? Your inspirations will lead your company in the future.

22. Stop dreaming, Start Doing Something

It’s time to stop with dreaming and sleeping. Peoples that only dreamed can’t become entrepreneurs. Because of that start doing now.

23. Don’t Rely on Coincidences

Coincidences are not the rules in entrepreneurship. Don’t rely on them in your business.

24. Be Great for Something

If you want to become an entrepreneur, you’l need to be great in something. You need to be better than everyone else. Are you?

25. Develop Your Greatness

If you think that you are not so excellent to start your company now, start with developing your greatness.

26. Just Do It Better Than Everyone Else

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You’l need just to do it better.

27. Start With Your Prototype

It’s time to make your first prototype of your products or services.

28. Try Yourself on the Market

Maybe your prototypes of products and services are the best in the world, but you are not the judge. The market and customers are judges about that.

29. Implement the Feedback From the Market into Your Product and Service

Why you are trying yourself with a market if you don’t implement the feedback from the market in the form of improvement of your products and services or your overall future business?

30. Make Your Products and Services Easy Understandable

You cannot expect that you will sell your products and services if they are not clear for your potential customers. Make them to be easy understandable.

31. Brand Your Business

What about your business name, or logo? Make something really recognizable.

32. What About Your Own Risk?

Think about your own risk. How much risk could you tolerate?

33. Don’t Forget to Talk About It Constantly

You want to become an entrepreneur, start talking about your passion, about your future business, about problems that it will solve.

34. What’s Your Vision?

How are you see the future of your company? Where it will be after five or ten years.

35. The Strategy

You need a strategy if you want your vision to become reality.

36. Clear Business Model

How to Become an Entrepreneur?

Draw your business model on piece of paper. You can see the connections between the most important business elements.

37. Plan Your Path to Success

You know where are you now, and you know where want you to be after five or ten years. Next you need to connect the dots. You need to draw your trajectory to your vision. That’s your plan.

38. Prepare Yourself for the Next 5 Years

You must prepare yourself for the next five years.

39. Write a Business Plan

The business plan will be your path to success. Everything that you make until here you need to transfer in a great business plan.

40. Define SMART Goals

When you set up your business goals check are they SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, realistic and Time-Limited).

41. Be Realistic When You Plan Your Business

Don’t lie yourself with your business plan. Make it as real as possible. When needed, realign it to be in correlation with the reality.

42. Ask for Help if You Need It When You Plan Your Business

Sometimes you can’t make all the predictions, analysis and calculations in your business plan. If you need a help do not hesitate to get the help.

43. The Best Plan is When You Include Answers from Potential Customers

Ensure that your business plan has incorporated the answers from your potential customers. It is important because your company will serve them.

44. Keep Your Plan as Simple as Possible

It is more important that you, and your employees understand your plan than the complexity and the rules from the schools.

45. Use Bullet Points in Your Plan

The best business plan that I’ve been seen is bullet point’s business plans. It’s because the bullet points are the simplest form that ensures implementation of the plan itself.

46. Do Not Forget About Responsibilities

On the other hand, bullet points need clear responsibilities for implementation. Don’t forget to include them on each point.

47. Clearly Define the Delegation Process

Delegation will be important part of your future business. The best time is to define the delegation process now.

48. You Are Not Alone

How to Become an Entrepreneur?

You must understand that you are not the one-man show. You are not alone.

49. You Can’t Survive Alone

If you want to be a one-man show, you need to understand that you will decrease your possibilities to become an entrepreneur.

50. Recruit Smart

You need to make a process that will recruit the best possible employees for your business. They are your future business potential energy.

51. Motivate Smart

Employees need to be motivated to if you want to get the best from them.

52. Lead Smart

You are the leader. Your job will be to lead.

53. You Can’t Please Everybody

Understand that you can’t please everybody. If you want to please everybody, you will lose some bigger part of your business potential energy.

54. Now, What’s Your Target Market?

Clearly define your target market if you want to give the best from you to satisfy them.

55. Always be Close to Your Target Market

You’l need always be on the places where are your target customers. Listen to them, educate them, help them…

56. Don’t Forget to Ask Questions

Ask questions. Ask a lot of questions.

57. Let’s Your Focus Be Always on Your Customer

Your customers are your bosses if you want to become an entrepreneur. You need to focus on them as something primary for you.

58. Create Value

You will sell the value not only your products and services.

59. Start Shipping the Value

The value is not about you. It’s about your potential customers. Because of that start with shipping now.

60. Make a Really Irresistible Offer

Irresistible offer is something that can’t be resisted, something that will provide long-term success of your business. Try to make really irresistible offer.

61. Always Research

If you want to become an entrepreneur, you’l need always researched everything around your business.

62. Observe Everything Around You

You as a future entrepreneur will need to be a good observer.

63. Evaluate but Also Finish Evaluations

Your job if you become an entrepreneur will be to evaluate, but don’t let your evaluation to last forever. They need to be finished, and the results from them implemented into your business.

64. Always Ask Why, What, Who, When and How

The crucial questions that you’l need always to ask if you become an entrepreneur are why, what, who, when and how about everything around your business.

65. Don’t Forget About Your Strengths and Weakness

Always try to improve your strengths and in the same time eliminates all of your weakness.

66. But, Also Look into Possibilities and Threats

You need to look outside of your company. There are possibilities and threats.

67. Always Search for Referrals

Referrals can increase your business potential energy drastically. Because of that, you need always to search for referrals.

68. Use Smart Marketing, Not Expensive Marketing

You’l need to be a smart marketer, not a marketer that only will spend money without results.

69. Always Try to Inject Virality in Your Marketing Weapons

Your marketing weapons need virality in them if you want to be seen from as much as possible potential customers.

70. Let’s All Your Marketing Weapons Communicate Your Value

Always check your marketing weapons to see if there is clearly communicated the value that your business offer.

71. Decide Quickly, But Relaying on Quality Information

Your decisions need to be based on the right information, in right time and at the right place.

72. Always be Transparent

Transparency will make your business much stronger than you think.

73. Be Patient, Entrepreneurship is not Quick Rich Strategy

You’l need to be patient. Entrepreneurs are patient. They know that success is not an overnight success.

74. Prepare Yourself for the Worse Scenarios

You need to know that statistically more businesses didn’t succeed. It means that more people don’t become entrepreneurs. You’l need to prepare yourself for the worse scenario with your business.

75. Have Your Plan B

Successful entrepreneur always had a plan B in the pocket.

76. Probably, You’l Need to Sacrifice Your Lifestyle

To be an entrepreneur can ask from you to sacrifice some or in some cases the whole your lifestyle.

77. Develop Plan About Repeating Purchases

Successful businesses rely on repeating customers. You’l need to develop a clear plan to ensure repeating purchases.

78. Think Twice Before You Start

Wait, for the moment, and think again before you start.

79. Think About Outsourcing

You can increase your productivity if you include outsourcing as a part of your business model.

80. Be Positive, Even if You Loose

Never be negative, even if you lose. If you lose the battle, that didn’t mean that you lose a war.

81. Start Blogging for Your Business

Blogging is one of the most powerful ways to share a word about your business. Why you are not using it?

82. Educate, don’t Sell

When you blog about your business, don’t try to sell, educate.

83. Don’t be Boring in Your Business Blog

Escape the philosophy of that well known boring corporate blogs.

84. Escape Me, Me and Me Syndrome

As you learn from the previous advices in this post, you are not alone. It’s not about you or your business. It is more about your customers.

85. Permanently Eliminate Problem Causes When You Solve the Problems

If you want to eliminate repeating occurrences of the same problems, you’l need to eliminate the problem causes immediately after you solve the problem.

86. Eliminate All Your Obstacles to Success

You will have many obstacles on your path to become an entrepreneur. Always try to eliminate them.

87. Good Luck, You’l Need It

Entrepreneurs... What are They??? Visionaries OR Opportunists

There are entrepreneurs that are visionaries, but also there are entrepreneurs that are opportunists. Who of them will be more successful entrepreneurs?

In the theory, there is too much different thinking’s about is it better entrepreneurs to be opportunists or not. Certainly, one of the entrepreneurial characteristics is finding different opportunities, but remember that these opportunities should be used. Why would somebody seek to find an opportunity if he does not use it? More on this you can read in Entrepreneurial Success Factors.

Because of that, in this post I would like briefly to make a distinction between entrepreneurs who are opportunists and visionaries.

Entrepreneur Opportunist

What is an entrepreneur opportunist? I like to start with defining or profiling entrepreneurs who are opportunists.

Let’s see first what is opportunism. In Wikipedia the definition about opportunism is:

Opportunism is the conscious policy and practice of taking selfish advantage of circumstances, with little regard for principles.

Some better definition is given in the Oxford Dictionary where it is stated that:

Opportunism is the practice of looking for and using opportunities to gain an advantage for oneself, without considering if this is fair or right.

According to these definitions we can conclude that:

Entrepreneur opportunist is person who seeks opportunities to selfish utilize them without fair or right behavior.

At first it seems that for entrepreneurs this is good, because they are persons who has a business that exists on the market which is a battle where ethics and moral in this fight is not used.

Entrepreneur opportunist look for opportunities where nobody previously has found something, and they don’t think about correctness or rightness of that seeking. They do not think if it would be really successful.

The reason why opportunistic entrepreneurs  that opportunity is improving only their own lives and nobody else’s life.

Entrepreneur Visionaries

Let’s see what are entrepreneurs visionary? First a visionary is a person with vision or power to look in the future and who know what will happen in that future. Secondly, visionaries see possibilities, not by making something different from everyone else but making exactly that same thing. However, the difference is that they are doing that same thing differently from everyone else.

Entrepreneurs visionary are people who follow what’s happening around them and simply find hot opportunities in which they enter. They are willing to take action about that opportunity. All of that opportunities is the same opportunities in which too many people entering in the same time. But, only one is better than all other – Visionaries.

They do not start a business in the opportunity that they find only to improve their own lives. They start a business to improve lives of their customer, and if they succeed in this improvement, they will also improve their own lives. I’ve already written about How to Make Business Life Much Easier.

Difference Between Entrepreneur Visionary and Opportunist

• Opportunists are only opportunity seekers, while entrepreneur visionaries are persons who recognizes the real opportunity. Therefore, opportunist often ends with the eternal seeking the possibility that will never find, while visionary quickly finds and uses that opportunity.
• Entrepreneur opportunist is selfish and it only requires an opportunity for their own success, while entrepreneur visionary is considering the possibility through the prism of a potential customer, i.e. how to improve the lives of the potential customer. And of course, improving the lives of the potential customer will improve their own lives.

So just follow what happens in your environment. Find a place where everyone is included, but look through the prism of potential customers and their problems. Solve that problems better, faster and better than everyone else and success will be guaranteed.

Factors Of Success - A Must For All Aspiring Entrepreneurs

What are the critical factors that can make an entrepreneur to become a successful?
This is a subject of research and analysis of many professionals and institutions. It is very possible that we cannot  expect to have an person with all characteristics that make them successful. But, the combination of the most important factors can help you to build and manage successful business.
You can read these factors that can make you successful small business owner, but if you want 87 tips and advise about becoming an entrepreneur you can read it in the How to Become an Entrepreneur.

15 Entrepreneurial Success Factors

The most critical and most important factors that can make an entrepreneur to become a successful are:

1. Willingness to take action. This is the first and most important factor for each potential and current entrepreneur. All other factors presented below, won’t have importance if he or she didn’t take a real action.
2. Knowledge. They must have superior knowledge about business issues for business that they start.
3. Creativity. They must have creativity to be unique and continuously improves business.
4. Skills. Each entrepreneur and each business need different entrepreneurial skills that in some cases can be crucial for business success.
5. Intelligence. They must be intelligent to manage all possible situations and to solve the hardest problems that will be a constant in business life.
6. Patience. They must be patient and to continue after losing the first battle, because the war is not finished. It’s only the beginning.
7. Persistence. Persistence simply is a refusal to give up from something, or ability to keep your actions against your personal feelings that you’re not ready for such actions. Feelings and motivation didn’t produce results, but the action is something that will produce it.
8. Teamwork. Nobody can achieve anything alone so this is true also for an entrepreneur because they’re not a “Superman”. They must be team players for their and business success.
9. Calculated risk. This is truly one of the most important questions: did they take the risk? Yes, each business startup is in some level risky. However, more important is how a successful entrepreneur takes a risk? The wordcalculated risk is the most appropriate word for this feature.
10. Self-Confidence. Self-confidence is a really important and key factor. I think that nobody would be an entrepreneur if don’t have self-confidence that he knows how to start and manage their own business.
11. Experience. Sometimes experience is in category not must have as a factor, but it is something that will increase business potential energy. They must employ all present and previous experience they had into the business.
12. Talent. Talent is something inborn in an entrepreneur. Sometimes talent can be replaced with knowledge.
13. Honesty. Honesty is important in every case, but sometimes honesty, being real can be the biggest enemy of an entrepreneur in some complex conditions.
14. Connections. More connection the more possibilities for building a successful business.
15. Luck. Luck is a psychological factor. Some people can say that they don’t have a luck. And indeed there are some “lucky people” who just accidentally found the right place at the right time. However, it is a small percentage and cannot be included as a serious factor for success.

Why The Number One is most Important Factor?

First, all the factors listed without a willingness to take action represent a potential of an entrepreneur. Actually, this is the business potential energy stored in them that can and should be converted into kinetic energy, which will perform the job. More about business potential energy you’ll be able to read at:

• What is Business potential energy?
• The concept of business potential energy?
• 10 Basic Business Elements with Business Potential Energy
• Entrepreneurial Skills – Source for Business Potential Energy

All factors are important, but none of these factors will make them to be a successful if they don’t take appropriate action. For example, the knowledge and creativity can’t help you to become a successful if you don’t make the first step to start your business.

I know many people who have the knowledge and creativity, are skillful and intelligent, and persistent and patient… But these people are not entrepreneurs, they are working for another company or public services. They’re not entrepreneurs not because they’ve lack of knowledge or are not intelligent or don’t possess other characteristics of the factors for success, but because it didn’t make the first step, action to become entrepreneurs.

Therefore, in that hierarchical structure of decisive factors for success (the picture at the beginning) as the first feature or as the foundation for the success I put theability to take the action.

What Would be the Profile of a Successful Entrepreneur?

Profile of an Entrepreneur – Superman would be:

Ready to take actions build upon a knowledge and creativitywhile combining the skills and intelligence, and is patient and persistent, have the ability to work in teams, take risks, but not insane risk and have self-confidence and experience, while it’shonest, sometimes they are lucky, and they have greatconnections that can help doing business.

Anyway, all factors or characteristics are important because they’ll increase business potential energy of entrepreneurs, and thus the overall business potential energy.

10 Simple Steps To Financial Security Before 30

Being financially secure enough to enjoy your life in retirement is the last thing on the minds of those under 30. After all, with the stress of all the expensive "firsts" that often come about during this period, like purchasing a car, buying a house and starting a family, it's hard to even think about saving for the future. However, working toward financial security need not be an exercise in self-deprivation, as many people assume. Attaining this goal even has some immediate benefits, as financial insecurity can become a serious source of stress - something 20-somethings have enough of already.

So can you achieve long-term financial security without sacrificing your short-term goals? Read on for 10 tips on how to do just that.

1. Have Fun
Enjoy yourself while you are young - you will have plenty of time to be miserable when you are older. Living a successful, enjoyable and happy life is about achieving a proper balance between time with family and friends and between work and leisure time. Striking a proper balance between your life today and your future is also important. Financially, we can't live as if today was our last day. We have to decide between what we spend today versus what we spend in the future. Finding the correct balance is an important first step toward achieving financial security.

2. Recognize Your Most Important Financial Asset: Yourself
Your skills, knowledge and experience are the biggest asset you have. The value of your future earnings will dwarf any savings or investments you might have for most of your career. Your job and future career is the most important factor in achieving financial independence and security. For those just entering the work force, future career opportunities are as bright as they've ever been. The large number of retiring baby boomers is expected to create labor shortages. There will be room for advancement as companies scramble to fill the positions held by these aging baby boomers. Those who are in a position to take advantage of these opportunities will benefit the most.

Look at yourself as a financial asset. Investing in yourself will pay off in the future. Increase your value through hard work, continual upgrading of skills and knowledge, and making smart career choices. Efforts to improve your career can have a far bigger impact on your financial security than tightening your belt and trying to save more. (To learn more, see Should You Head Back To Business School?)

3. Become a Planner, Not a Saver
Research has shown that those who plan for the future end up with more wealth than those who do not. Successful people are goal oriented: they set goals and develop a plan to achieve them. For example, if you set a goal to pay off your student loans in two years, you'll have a better chance of achieving this goal than you would if you merely said you wanted to pay off your student loans, but failed to set a timetable.

Become a planner. Set goals and develop an action plan to reach them. Even the process of writing down some goals will help you to achieve them. Being goal oriented and following a plan means taking control of your life. It is an important step toward improving your financial independence and security.

4. Set Short-Term Goals - Long-Term Goals Will Take Care of Themselves
Life holds many uncertainties - and a lot can change between now and 30 years into the future. As such, the prospect of planning far into the future is a daunting task and in many ways, it's often an exercise in futility for young investors.

Rather than setting long-term goals, set a series of small short-term goals. These goals could be a simple as trying to pay off credit card debt or student loans in a matter of months. Maybe your goal is to contribute to your company's pension plan with a set salary reduction contribution each month. Setting short-term goals that will help you to advance in your career is important in helping you get ahead. Remember, these short-term goals should be measurable and precise. You can't win a race if there's no finish line.

As you achieve your short-term goals, set other short-term goals. Maybe you want to buy a house, earn a promotion at work or buy a new car. The constant setting and achieving of short-term goals will ensure that you reach your longer-term goals. If your goal is to be worth a million dollars by age 40, you cannot achieve this without first achieving smaller goals like having #10,000, #50,000 or #500,000.

5. Planning For Retirement: Fuggetaboutit?
Just out of school, retirement planning is the last thing on your mind. So, if you have to for now, just fuggetaboutit. If you follow the other tips, you will not only be more financially secure and prepared in the short term, but you will also be financially prepared for the distant future as well.

However, if you take a few steps now to start saving, like setting up automatic monthly contributions to a retirement plan like an employer-sponsored 401(k) or your own Roth IRA, compounding will work in your favor, which makes reaching your goal much easier.

If you implement this pay yourself first ideal, you won't have to worry about how much you're contributing; the most important thing is to develop the habit of saving. The rest will take care of itself. You can increase your contributions when your income rises or when you've achieved more of your short-term financial goals. (To learn why starting now can save you thousands later, see Understanding The Time Value Of Money, Compound Your Way to Retirement and Delay In Saving Raises Payments Later On.)

6. Make Sure Your Lifestyle Costs Lag Your Income Growth
Many new graduates find that in the first couple years of working they have excess cash flow. Still used to their more frugal student spending habits, it is easy to make more money than they need. Rather than using excess income to buy new toys and live a more luxurious lifestyle, this excess could be put toward reducing debt or adding to savings. As you advance in your career and attain greater responsibility, your salary should increase. If the cost of your lifestyle lags your income growth, you will always have excess cash flow that can be put toward paying down debt, making investments, saving for a home, or achieving any other financial goals you may have.

Where many people get into trouble is that they feel entitled to a standard of living that exceeds what they can afford. However, if you keep your standard of living below what you earn, you won't have to cut back to accumulate money; instead, you will naturally have excess cash flow because you earn more than you need to live on. In addition, keep in mind that trying to keep up with the Joneses is always a recipe for financial failure. For all you know, you may make more than the Joneses, who may be funding their lavish lifestyle with debt anyway.

The good life should be a reward for your hard work, good fortune and successful planning, not something that you are entitled to. Once you have established a certain lifestyle, it is psychologically difficult to lower it. It is very easy to raise it.

7. Become Financially Literate
Making money is one thing; saving it and making it grow is another. Financial management and investing are lifelong endeavors. Making sound financial and investment decisions is important for achieving your financial goals. The more knowledgeable and experienced you are in financial matters, the fewer mistakes you will make.

Research has shown that people who are financially literate end up with more wealth than those who are not. There is a strong monetary incentive for becoming financially sophisticated. Taking the time and effort to become knowledgeable in the areas of personal finance and investing will pay off throughout your life.

8. Seize the Opportunities: Take Calculated Risks
Taking calculated risks when you are young can be a prudent decision in the long run. You might make mistakes along the way, but remember, mistakes are the lessons of wisdom. You often learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. Also, when you are young, you can recover faster from financial mistakes, and you have many years to recover. (Keep on reading about this in Retirement Savings Tips For 18- To 24-Year-Olds and Retirement Savings Tips For 25- To 34-Year-Olds.)

Examples of calculated risks might include moving to a new city with more job opportunities, going back to school for additional training or taking a new job at a different company for less pay but more upside potential. Starting a new company, working for a small startup company, or investing in high risk/high return stocks, is easier to do when you're young. Younger people can afford to take risk, and the same opportunities might not be available later in life. As people get older and assume more family responsibilities like paying off the mortgage or saving for the kids' education, many are forced to play it safe and are unable to capitalize on riskier opportunities that present themselves.

Taking calculated risks when you can afford to do so is necessary to get ahead financially. Playing it safe might be the bigger mistake in the long run.

9. Borrow Money For Investments - Never to Finance a Lifestyle
As mentioned before with the Joneses, you should never borrow to finance a lifestyle you cannot afford. Using credit for a life you feel entitled to is a losing proposition when it comes to building wealth. The constant borrowing will assure that there is no money available for investing, and the added interest expense of borrowing further increases the cost of the lifestyle.
Borrowing money should be used only for investing - where your gain will outrun your borrowing costs. This might mean investing in the literal sense (for stocks, bonds, etc.) or it might mean investing in yourself for your education, extra training, to start a business or to buy a house. In these cases, borrowing can provide the leverage you need to a reach your financial goals faster. Borrowing to meet short-term desires is counterproductive. (To learn about your borrowing options, see Different Needs, Different Loans.)

10. Take Advantage of Financial Freebies
Not many things in life are free. If you belong to a company pension plan, take the free money it offers and make sure that you contribute at least up to the maximum of what your company will match.

You can also look for (legal) ways to take advantage of tax laws. For example, contributing to an individual retirement account (IRA) will result in a tax savings - in effect, the government is giving you free money to provide an incentive to contribute. There is also an incentive to invest in stocks because of favorable tax treatment on capital gains and dividend income.

Conclusion
Achieving financial independence is a goal most people strive for. It is not necessarily easy, but it is achievable if you understand your priorities, set achievable goals and take the proper steps toward reaching them.

Eight Keys to Financial Security

Key 1: Invest in yourself
Your own earning power -- rooted in your education and job skills -- is the most valuable asset you'll ever own, and it can't be wiped out in a market crash. Keep your earning power growing through continuous education, training and personal development. If you work in a field prone to periodic layoffs or falling earnings, think about a career change, especially if there's something else you've always dreamed of doing.

Consider this: A #30,000 pay hike can be viewed as an annual return on a capital investment, like earning a continuous yield of 6% on #500,000 of savings. You know how hard it is to save up #500,000. Maybe that #30,000 boost in salary is easier to achieve.

Key 2: Protect yourself and your loved ones
Before you acquire any financial assets, make sure you have enough insurance against life's big risks -- serious illness, disability and early death. Most people, young families in particular, are woefully underinsured, especially for disability. When an emergency arises, you and your family will never regret having "wasted" all those annual premiums on insurance you "don't need."

Key 3: Borrow sparingly
Use credit only to purchase things of lasting value: a home, education, maybe a car. Pay cash for everything else such as clothing, travel, entertainment and furniture. . Do you know anyone who got into big financial trouble because they didn't borrow enough money? I don't.

Key 4: Pay yourself first
If you feel you never have any money "left over" for investing after you pay all your bills, try reversing the bill-paying process. Make the first check you write each month a deposit to your mutual fund, money market or brokerage account. Then pay all your regular monthly bills. If you're having trouble paying that last bill, trim your discretionary spending -- but keep paying yourself first.

Key 5: Don't go for the home run
In investing, as in baseball, those who swing for the fences do hit the occasional home run. But they strike out a lot too, and their lifetime batting average -- average annual total return -- suffers accordingly. So shy away from highly volatile stocks, Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), buying on margin and commodity trading. Don't try to time markets, because no one does it consistently well. Use dollar-cost averaging to invest regularly in markets good, bad and lackluster. Have the patience to wait out the occasional (and inevitable) bear markets.

Key 6: Diversify, diversify, diversify
When tech stocks were flying high in the late '90s, safer investments like bonds, CDs and less-volatile blue-chip stocks were derided as sissy stuff. Diversification was considered boring. But successful investors have always known that any one class of assets -- stocks, real estate, bonds, cash -- will have its day in the doghouse and its day in the sun. That's why you've got to own all of them, in a mix that's right for your age, income, family responsibilities and tolerance for risk.

Key 7: Live simply today for a more comfortable tomorrow
Deferred gratification is no fun, but it's the only way I know to fund your long-term goals -- college for your kids or grandkids, that vacation home you've always wanted, early retirement, a generous bequest to your alma mater. Take a close look at your current lifestyle, and if you see a lot of spending that is dispensable, consider it found money for the bigger dreams in your life (see The Invisible Rich).

Key 8: Give generously to create a better world
Your own financial security depends far more than you may think on the financial, physical and spiritual health of others in your community, our nation, our world. When you share your good fortune by donating your money, time and talent to charity, you help create a stronger economy and a healthier, safer world.

So give generously to education, your church, social-service agencies, the arts, medical research -- whatever you value most. It feels wonderful, it's the ultimate in enlightened self-interest and it's the right thing to do