Last night, the musician screamed into his microphone, “45 seconds until the new year. Have you made your resolution?”

Did you spend any time reflecting on ways that you wanted to be better this year? Given 45 seconds, I didn’t come up with a foolproof improvement plan. Lucky for me, I have a database of favorite Aridni articles that I often look to for inspiration:

What does it really take to make money? This article guides you in defining and reaching your financial desires

Is it better to let your dreams die or do a poor job? Todd’s had an idea for about a year… but he lacks skill. What does he do? What do you do?

No longer the bride today I celebrated my one-year anniversary this summer and found a finance partner to boot for - I discovered a 5-step plan to seeking goals and reaching objectives.

Are you climbing to the top when there is no top? Before you can get somewhere tomorrow, you have to think of where you are today. Examine the corporate ladder at your office.

Make your success move from the polls to the ballot Women are starting new businesses twice as fast as men. Three success secrets revealed–

One month to impress Define your image in one month, step by step.

Today on Aridni we are going to introduce you to one of the key members of Aridni. We’ll be focusing on Todd.

Todd is currently attending the University of Montana in Missoula working towards a double major to receive degrees in Business Marketing and Business Management. Along the way Todd is also working towards a minor in Media Arts.

Todd has always had an entrepreneurial mind and business sense almost came second nature to him. Perhaps it is because as a child, he took on more ventures than most people even consider in their lives. Some were more successful, while others failed completely. Even though he is young, getting involved and passionate as a child continued as he aged and he now easily can adapt to changes in atmospheres and markets.

This article is hard to write about myself in the third person, so with that I’ll completely switch perspective if you don’t mind and talk about myself in the first person.

I have been focusing my attention on projects and businesses quite a bit. The best way to retain knowledge is to actually use it and then teach it. You can read a thousand articles about investing, but does that make you a better investor?

In theory yes, but it’s too bad that we live in a reality where this is not always the case. Yes, you want to know everything you can, especially when it comes to your fiscal matters. But there is a point where you have to say, “Okay, I have read through these articles, or books, or whatever, and now it is time to put that information to use.”

(Continue reading this article…)

The strongest values of a successful person may surprise you—the thing that matters most isn’t the amount of stuff or the abundance of wealth associated to their names. A truly successful person knows what her money can buy, yet she’s capable of passing up on most of the cluttersome stuff.

These people don’t focus their time on having the latest fashion or gizmos. Their focus lies somewhere else. Their greatest values are:
1. personal integrity: successful people believe in themselves, and they don’t surrender to the ideas that others think they should hold. They stand true to themselves. They stand truthful to others.
2. discovery: they’ll keep on learning—not only from texts, but from life. Trying something new seems natural. Attending lectures, cultural events, and fundraisers seem natural and intriguing. They go at it with an open mind.
3. relationships: a successful person isn’t out there on his or her own. These people have a strong support system of friends and family. They encourage successful people to grow, and friends and family make successful people laugh. On the flip, friends and family are also there when her life’s not as rosy.

We write about money, talk about money, and think about money on Aridni. You have to remember your reason for this cash focus—security, pleasure, freedom, opportunity. Yeah, every successful person seeks out more money. But don’t lose everything else in exchange for money. Follow these morals to gain some sense of pride in your achievement. It’s a support system capable of taking you anywhere.

Now despite the negative sounding title, that doesn’t imply that the actual message of this article is going to be so. In fact, it’s simply cut off to abruptly. Instead of using this as a definitive statement or as it’s written above as a pointed question with apparently with some sort of hidden message, instead take it as incomplete.

Right now if I opened up an operating room (all legal issues aside for the purpose of this example =P ) it would only be a matter of time before I realized, “Hey! I don’t know anything about surgery!”

It would be unethical for me to book people in and begin cutting them up without the proper training and a complete understanding of what I am doing. So from this point I have two options to complete my sentence.

Have you ever considered that you are not good enough…

Yet? – Taking this route would mean training, studying, and practice. In the example above we’re going to be doing some serious time to get through med school and becoming certified. Many times it could be something much simpler. Reading some material before a meeting, organizing your thoughts, researching some potential investments, or otherwise teaching yourself something new could be all it takes.

But someone else is? – In the business of operating on people, I am not qualified in any means. I haven’t been trained, certified, or for that matter have the slightest clue what I would be doing with that scalpel. Now what If I went out and found some young doctor who is still trying to pay off his student loans and would love to come operate at my place. I’m sure that he would do a heck of a lot better of a job operating than I would!

Of course most new companies can’t afford to hire specialists and me saying “GO HIRE DOCTORS!” isn’t really helping anybody’s cause. (aside from the doctors that is!) But I’m sure you know of someone who is better at a particular task than you are. Can you ask them for advice? Note that you’re not asking them to complete the project, but simply for their input. Of course this doesn’t always work out so well, as in the case of my operating room example! “Hey Mark, its Todd here. If I was performing an apadextrodomy and I nick the bi-lateral vein and blood is shooting everywhere, what would I do?”

As you can see there it would make sense to not get in over your head, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be ambitious and strive to make you big ideas turn into something real!

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go meet with a programmer who is better at it than I am.

A lot of people look at financial websites and scoff, figuring we have nothing but dollar signs in our eyes. Is that scenario really the case? How do you feel about the thought of having more money than you need? Are you thrilled? Are you disgusted?

To me, the idea of accumulating more money than I need today means that I can do more and give more in the future. What about you? If you told someone, “My goal is to be wealthy,” do you have a reason? What would people think of your goal?

A lot of finance blogs talk about ways to cheat the system. I used to love to read a particular blog… then the author found a way to register for an online banking account multiple times with his same information. He thought he struck gold; every time he registered for a new account, he got a $50 gift card to his favorite store. Ideas like this, and it’s no wonder people scoff. At Aridni, we don’t believe in these strategies. If you want to make money, we think you should find a way that enriches people.

Todd and I grew up in a mining town. The city started off as an underground mining hayday. Then the mine owners found a way to extract minerals at less expense and more profit—strip mining. Strip mines continue to operate today, and the northern half of the town looks uglier than sin. I can barely stand to look to the north. Todd and I have seen what greed can do, how it can damage a society and stain our environment.

If you feel good about your money behaviors, then earning more money can enhance your feelings and spread a positive experience to others. Is it wrong to want to be a wealthy person? I don’t know—how are you getting that wealth?

As human beings, I think we hold a natural ability for intelligence. Yet by going to work every day for someone else, the ability to express and explore some of that intelligence becomes hindered. Do you ever feel like a yes man? You think of these great ideas to multiple productivity or cut back expenses… yet the ideas are so radically different than current methods that everyone laughs at you. The method your boss implements works just fine—why would they switch?

You eventually become conditioned to speak up only when you’re told to speak up. Part of your ambition starts to die. Didn’t education challenge us to do otherwise? To question theories and procedures? When you step into the workplace, I think you often make the choice to settle for a potential that’s less than what you are capable of achieving, which is always easier than taking a risk.

What if the boss were you?

In order to survive, you cannot be a yes man and be self-employed. So if you’re tired of being scoffed at, why not become the boss of your own ideas? You’d be able to utilize the intellectual capabilities within you to further your business and ideally, your profits. I’ve read a lot about companies that devote a specific amount of time each year to job development and training. Other companies give employees time to tinker with their own ideas during a specific portion of the week. I think that these environments motivate an employee. Unfortunately, I doubt that you (like me) have snagged such a situation.

I truly believe that the ultimate form of satisfaction may very well come from self-employment. Know any self-employed person who says, “Damn, I miss working in bureaucracy!”? E-mail me immediately if you find such a person because I’m not sure if they exist.

A self-employed person isn’t letting her fears overpower her. The boss isn’t altering her priorities or her satisfaction in the day.

Being self-employed—how to start

You can read gobs of personal finance and wealth books—I did that. You can major in business—I did that. But you know what? None of those experiences taught me how to foster the start-up skills. Nowhere did I learn how to build an idea.

Most of us aren’t in a situation that would allow us to quit our jobs and start anew. The key is ease. I recently wrote about my goal to add $400 to my monthly income–$400 that I earn working for myself. If you don’t know what type of business you want to run, just as I don’t, I think that a financial goal is the only other way to start thinking about how to get going.

I used to listen to people tell stories about missing the beach, so I’d share a memory of when I was on the beach. Now I’m thinking—what can I do to bring the beach to Montana? I don’t mean to literally scoop the shore up… but could I invent a product or opportunity to bring the beach or memories of the beach? My mind starts to buzz, and I forget about my houseguests.

The truth is that I know I can obtain that $400/month. I’ll be sharing ideas—the ideas missed in books and class—that show how to foster that million-dollar idea.

You can’t pretend to be content working from 9 to 5 and letting your ideas be the topic of scoffers. This situation isn’t the life experience that you desire. It’s easier to pretend that your situation is acceptable so that you can avoid the challenge of charging at the situation you really want for yourself. You can have whatever you want. You wouldn’t be reading Aridni if you didn’t want something more. Now is the time to give in to desires, not the fears.