Do you ever become so obsessed with something? So distracted that your daily living becomes influenced by your addiction?

I took a break from Aridni–I had to. My thoughts were too focused on net worth. And while money is an important topic, we cannot let it consume us. We can’t become this holiday’s Scrooge.

Stop to think. What is money to you?

Does money serve as a positive resource or an obsession?

Sometimes money does great things for us; sometimes money distracts us from the things that really matter. Can you spend a whole day without thinking of your net worth? Do your dreams, ideas, and inventions get blocked from your mind if you think there’s no money in your thought? Is it possible to be an enlightened millionaire? Would you do something for free, knowing that you could easily make a few bucks?

Do you want wealth or riches?

I know a couple that eats at fine restaurants every night. They drive expensive cars and travel the world with the highest class. …and they’re going to be working forever to maintain this style and consider retirement. When they aren’t traveling, they work all day and all night. They are rich.

This couple gets their riches by serving wealthy people. Wealthy people invest their money further and further through the labor of this rich couple. Wealthy people are willing to pay for temporary riches of the couple because in the end, the couple will have to seek new clients while the wealthy people will have profits without efforts.

What is money, anyway?

Money is only what you make it. We assign the dollar a value through society’s general acceptance; money, on its own, is worth nothing. The problem is that for must of us, the social acceptance of money holds no options. You can back out and say that these particular forms of exchange mean nothing to you, but then you lose.

This contract of money holds too many advantages for most of us to consider a surrender, of course. Money gives us the lifestyle we want and the image we want others to see. Image becomes especially frustrating for me at this time of year. I’m not buying expensive gifts like everyone else at my office. They’re all buying extras–newer iPods, fancy wines, media subscriptions and DVDs. If you want more money than you have today, you can purchase this money by pledging more of the money that you will have tomorrow.

On the flip side, one of my coworkers who buys fancy gifts is twice as old as me; she has no retirement savings of any sort. Money holds such strength that her decisions today will cause her to work far into old age.

What if I want more of this money? …because I DO!

I figure we have three ways of honestly making money:
1. selling our stuff
2. selling time
3. taking risks

You can guess what the first two topics represent. Sell your stuff–your heirlooms, your iPod, your house, your used appliances, and your garage sale junk. Sell your time–work for someone else for x dollars an hour.

But taking risks? That’s what Aridni is all about. Take risks by selling your money to investors, stocks, or bonds. Or possibly more powerful, find a way that your money can grow and raise more little dollar bills and coins–create a business. Your own business holds more leverage than selling your time or your stuff.

My only hope is that your business idea adds value to society, not destruction. I’m determined to find this avenue for myself, and I plan to ponder with you in the meantime.

I am always amazed by the amount of politics involved in business. Think of the businesses that your business can’t survive without. Now think for a moment of the businesses that can’t survive without yours.

Take the company or product that you rely the most on. Now imagine that they are completely gone. They vanished overnight and there is absolutely no trace of them whatsoever. Their service is no longer available and your running out of time before your shareholders, and more importantly your customers begin to notice.

I’m sure you’ve already figured out what I’m about to ask already, but here it is regardless… “WHAT DO YOU DO NOW????”

Anyone with an entrepreneur’s mindset can tell you what must be done. Whatever it takes. It is up to you to make things work. Find alternatives, but don’t just look at the former company’s competition, there are all kinds of solutions you could be looking at.

Is this something that you can afford to do yourself? While that’s not always a financially feasible option, imagine for a second the market control that you could potentially obtain. Being as we said this is a rather important aspect of your business, something that you really rely on, let’s assume the likely scenario that you are not quite able to afford this. So what’s the plan now?

How about your network? I’m talking about both your personal contacts and your business’s professional contacts. The event of a company with a valuable disappearing off of the map (although rare!!) would not only be devastating to you, but also to your competitors and your partners. It’s fair to assume that YOUR competition isn’t going to sit around. It’s all about results and numbers.

So before you let yourself drown while wallowing in your own self pity, come up with some sort of plan. Can you be the one who unites everyone? I talked about having your company take over the service, but that could be expensive to your business. That however doesn’t mean that your network as a whole can’t arrange something where everyone benefits. And if the new service is owned by people who rely on it, you no are no longer subject to the whims of some unreliable company.

Now I’m not saying that you should wait around until some company that’s making money suddenly decides to disband before you can take action. It’s all about networking and politics. Who can help you get ahead and at the same time you can help get ahead?

One quick example is my friend Shay over at Sparkplugged.net, he is able to help me out with my weak area, web design. And meanwhile I am able to help him out with technical aspects of his site. By trading knowledge we can both get ahead. And more importantly, trust is developed between the two of us.

Both of the web-pages for Aridni and Sparkplugged are hosted by the same company and even on the same server. If for some reason there was a problem with the hosting (it’s been great so far, knock on wood!) by having two of us, we wield more power if something should occur. Granted it’s not a whole lot more, but what if our network a good portion of the people from the host! That would be a fair amount of influence. (note: I’m really happy with my host but it’s a relevant example here where a network could help build a great alliance )

Now it would be just awful to be caught off guard and need the network that you don’t have built up yet. If somebody doesn’t know you, they certainly won’t be inclined to help you out. If you haven’t even gained trust from someone, they have little incentive to offer you favors. So get out there and start recruiting your allies! What kind of trades can you offer? Remember both sides must benefit!

No, you didn’t misread the title and technology does work for productive measures as well. But if you let it, you can seriously damage anything that resembles real work.

Here are a couple great ways that can help you to do less while giving you the psychological benefits as well as the physical appearance of working.

When you actually get into a project, wouldn’t it be great if there was some sort of an alarm or notification when you get a new email. You know just something to pull you out of the zone while demanding an immediate response.

Then once you have your email program open, perhaps then you could have a couple rss feeds that shoot right in. This demands immediate attention as well, those articles aren’t going to read themselves!! There could be a small to large number of precious time consuming links contained within or perhaps there are thoughts and ideas sparked that send you on a wild never ending goose chase. Don’t forget to check your stocks a couple times while you’re at it.

Later on down the road an hour or two you might get back to whatever you were supposed to have been working on.

The other option is to use technology to your advantage. Only use it when you can afford to. Turn off your email notifications, close your browser, and let’s get things done.

We have a lot of mixed ideas of what ‘real estate’ really is, yet I’m willing to bet that some avenue of real estate would suit you. In fact, I’m sure of it. Is it an empty lot that might appreciate or acres of farmland near a future metropolis? Is it a run-down house? Is real estate the site of a future Hilton, shopping center, or apartment complex? Figuring out the most successful avenue is tough.

Every person that defines success to me has engaged in some sort of real estate investing. If you’ve always thought about running your own business, real estate has to be a part of your thinking. In fact, you might find that real estate suddenly becomes the focus of your business idea.

In the state of Montana, the average income is $24,000. In one Montana community, the average home costs $280,000. An average person can’t afford a home? The thought makes me sick, yet it also makes me think, “Is there opportunity?”  I think that we can find ways to break into markets that hold money potentials without shelling our entire pay-checks to mortgages. Is that something you want?

Prepare your one-man battle plan

Open your closet, and dust off your many hats. If you want to win at real estate, you have to understand every level in your focus area or hire someone to do it for you. It’s silly to get a law degree just so you can understand the contracts. Yet have you ever considered getting your real estate license? I’m preparing to take the real estate exam and trust me, the info is anything but challenging. But saving around 5% on every real estate purchase might make sense.

Do you have much cash? You probably can’t operate like characters on “Flip that House”. How realistic is the image on these shows, anyway? The characters are willing to pay expensive subcontractors but not willing to break a nail.

You might not have cash to match flippers on TV. You do have that magical thing called sweat equity, though. Don’t just lead the battle; be the soldier. March in the front line, bark orders from atop your horse, and fight for yourself. An added benefit we’ve found in sweat equity? My husband loves to have endless excuses to use power tools.

Pick your target

At my office, we get a lot of rich men who want to invest their money in enormous projects like elaborate hotels and apartments around man made lakes. Our construction company builds these items along with stadium additions and any other commercial construction idea someone might have. Do you want to be my boss, making money by managing enormous developments? And yes, he is making far beyond the average Montana salary.

Instead of being the construction company, you could be the envisioner that wants construction companies to build results. The beginning of the project costs you money. Most of the money won’t be your own, though. You’ll borrow from banks and investors. Make money off of their money once your condos or storage units are built and generating revenues.

But don’t start big

A more financially reasonable idea is the small scale. Buy crumbled buildings, remodel them and sell or rent the spaces, “residential or commercial. Gain some experience in the small scale projects that can build up your credit and portfolio, then shoot for bigger if it’s your dream.

Know that success builds success

Deals are easier to make when you have past triumphs. And the best way to impress people is with your successes. If you own one hotel, you’re cool. If you own ten, holy cow! You can bet that people won’t question your authority on the hospitality industry.

The problem for most of us is that we don’t have any sort of real estate portfolio. It’s like we’re trying to get our first jobs out of college. How many interviews does that take? Make yourself look like an expert. Because I am 24 years old, most people feel uncomfortable with my ability to maintain any sort of real estate responsibility; they change their minds when I rattle off an accomplishment or two. Have they seen the map next to my computer? I’m filling it with gold stars that each represent a property in my growing empire.

Deception is okay

Contrary to my last point, you have to know when to present the aura of an expert. No one looks at me and thinks that I know how to wire a plug or build heating systems. It’s often advantageous to be underestimated. Real estate is predominately controlled by old men. Being young and female give me two edges. What advantages can you see in yourself?

If your neighbor was selling his shop and Donald Trump and I both expressed an interest, don’t you think your neighbor might want Trump’s business because a whole lot of $$ could be involved? At the same time, your neighbor might not want that property to turn into another Trump Tower so he rejects Trump and offers to me. I’m still some dumb blond girl fresh from college to him, but he doesn’t know my plans to build Katie Castle. Naive might just become your middle name.

Be curious

Finally, know that real estate involves risk. Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard that before. But don’t be afraid to check stuff out. Even when we aren’t looking for an investment project, I keep on looking. The last two purchases that I have made came from being curious. Keep your eyes open. Make sure other people keep their eyes open for you, too. If they can make money from you, they will keep on the lookout for you. Money is very powerful in this industry.