Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success: Discovering Your Gift and the Way to Life's Riches (15 page)

In the famous words of Billy Dee Williams in the classic 1975 film
Mahogany
: “Success is
nothing
without someone you love to share it with.” Our success cannot exist when we don't have the time, space, and energy to share it with our loved ones. Treat your home and family as a SACRED priority, and make sure everyone understands what that means. Make sure that every visitor to your home knows the rules of your house, and respects the place that you call home. Don't allow anyone to just come up in your house and violate the peace and serenity that you have created for you and your family.

Your home is also about creating a space that becomes your sanctuary. When I got my first significant check, a friend came over to my house and told me I needed to hire a feng shui expert. Now, I'm just a regular country boy from Cleveland, and I certainly didn't know what feng shui was nor was I too keen about having anything called feng up in my house.

But once I learned that feng shui was a technique for aligning your environment with your life's priorities, I was open to it. I invited experts into my home to show me and my wife new color patterns that were supposed to encourage peace and prosperity. They showed us specific ways to arrange the furniture to invite in positive energy and attract wealth. Now, I don't know if all that feng shui really worked (I had my pastor come in and bless the house just in case!), but having every aspect of our space in order made a huge difference in truly making our house a home.

Here are some specific ways to create quality family time:

        
1.
   
Carve out dedicated family time.

        
2.
   
Schedule time with your significant other.

        
3.
   
Create fun time with the kids.

        
4.
   
Pray and stay together.

        
5.
   
Work on your “Honey, do . . .” list.

        
6.
   
Consider hiring help.

I am committed to exercising every day at 3:45 a.m., regardless of whether I am at home or on the road. Why? Because my vision demands it. My daily schedule includes hosting
The Steve Harvey Morning Show
from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., producing and starring on
The Steve Harvey Show
from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and after that I'm back home to take on my husbandly and fatherly duties. Even if I was ten years younger, there's no way I could manage a demanding schedule such as mine without the
energy
and
endurance
I get from working out.

Here's a typical Steve Harvey schedule:

 

At the end of the day, your health is your wealth. We have to put the time in to align our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. We get one body to do our work here on Earth, so we have to be serious about getting our rest, eating well, and staying fit. Find out what works for you and get about the business of giving your temple the energy it will need to work your gift and fulfill your purpose. If you are slacking on your health, here are a few tips to get you moving in the right direction:

        
•
     
Make sure you schedule (and keep!) your annual checkups.

        
•
     
Take the time for some kind of physical activity every day, even if you have to start out with just twenty minutes.

        
•
     
Choose a healthy diet that will give you the greatest amount of energy and strength for your lifestyle.

        
•
     
Cut out any excessive alcohol from your diet.

        
•
     
Drink plenty of water.

I'm not a doctor, but I know that your health is just as much a part of your wealth as the digits in your bank account. Give your body what it needs so that you can have the life you want.

My goal here is not to prescribe a certain belief system or to make you feel guilty about skipping your worship services more often than you attend. But I would encourage you to find a way to surrender to your spirit on a daily basis, whether that's through prayer, meditation, finding a house of worship, or connecting with a small group of like-minded folks. Whatever will help you to remember that there is a bigger picture and a greater purpose for your life, get attuned to that vehicle for your spirit and keep that connection going.

Stress and the pressures of our high-powered lives have the capacity to significantly damage our health and our well-being if we aren't paying attention. If you feel yourself veering into a dangerous emotional place that is beyond talking it out with a friend or a trusted spiritual leader, do not, and I repeat DO NOT, be too proud to check in with a mental health professional. Regardless of your race, gender, or economic status, we can't afford not to take our mental health seriously if we want to fully enjoy our success and peace and happiness with our loved ones.

Whether you are a recent graduate just starting out or you have multiple businesses with your name on them, we can all be more diligent and proactive about our finances. Those steps can be as small as eating out less often or as big as refinancing your home. Successful people know how to use their money wisely today and set themselves up powerfully for the future.

A few years ago, right after Marjorie and I got married, I got hit with a tax bill to the tune of $20 million. I woke up to the nightmare of discovering that my accountant hadn't filed my taxes in nearly six years. Here I was with the woman of my dreams, and I was facing a financial hole so deep that it was going to take me a minimum of twelve years to climb out of.

I came clean with Marjorie, and I started working hard. I took every speaking engagement, book signing, and in-person appearance I could find. I literally lived at the airport, but I wanted to show my wife that I was serious about getting our financial house in order. After signing a strategic deal to sell the Steve Harvey Radio Network, I was blessed to pay off that bill in half the time. That experience taught me that I never want to have a financial cloud like that hanging over my life ever again.

Financial health is about looking at your entire financial picture. Here are some areas to consider:

        
•
     
Do you know the difference between good debt (for example, purchasing a home or condo or investing in your child's education) versus bad debt (for example, carrying big balances on high-interest credit cards)?

        
•
     
What can you do to cut down on your bad debt and increase the payments for your good debt?

        
•
     
Are you willing to track your spending habits to see where you can cut back?

        
•
     
Are you putting enough away for your retirement or your child's college fund?

        
•
     
What can you do to improve your credit score?

        
•
     
Can you pay off your credit card with the highest interest rate?

        
•
     
Can you get you a lower interest rate on any of your cards?

All of these factors determine how healthy your finances are. Here are five things that every success-oriented person must have for a solid financial foundation.

        
1.
   
CREATE A MONTHLY BUDGET
.
Developing a budget (and sticking to it!) is essential for creating financial accountability for you and your family.

        
2.
   
OPEN A CHECKING AND A SAVINGS ACCOUNT
.
Successful people know how to conduct their business aboveboard. Find a bank that you trust and start creating your financial future.

        
3.
   
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE
.
Whether it's five dollars a week or 10 percent of your paycheck, whatever you can comfortably do, invest in your life and your future by saving NOW.

        
4.
   
FILE YOUR TAXES
.
It's simple: Pay your taxes each year, on time. Uncle Sam has no regard for your social status. (Just ask any celebrity who thought they could get away with not paying taxes!)

        
5.
   
INVEST IN YOUR CHILD'S FINANCIAL LITERACY
.
Talk with your children NOW about the importance of budgeting, saving, and investing.

Once you have the basics covered, you can consider the following:

        
•
     
HIRING A FINANCIAL PROFESSIONAL
.
When you reach that tipping point where you need extra help to file your taxes or diversify your portfolio, it is time to consider hiring a bookkeeper, accountant, or financial planner. If you decide to hire a professional, make sure that you have an open relationship where you can check in about your finances at any time. At the end of the day, it is
your
money!

        
•
     
CREATING MULTIPLE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
.
Look into ways to spread out your eggs in multiple baskets.

Remember, your finances, like your health and your home, are only as successful as your investment of time, energy, and excellence make them.

M
y mother was a Sunday school teacher. I lost count of the number of lessons she taught me by the time I was twenty years old. At fifty-seven, if I tried to recall them all it would be another book. One of the things she would always say to me was, “God blesses you to become a blesser.” Spiritually, I understood that, but let's take it out of the spiritual realm. I want to show you why being a blessing to someone else is one of the most important principles of success.

One of the things I discovered early on is that the more people you help become successful, the more successful you become. When you share your blessings with someone else, you are fulfilling your purpose in this world as a human being. We are all here to help one another. When you receive a measure of success, on whatever level it is, it's your obligation to teach that or share that with someone else. What I have seen with very successful people is that the more they give, the more God puts them in position to continue to give more. This is a principle that escapes far too many people. It is not enough to have a big house on a hill and not show anyone else how to get a big house on the hill. Then you're up there by yourself and that's no fun.

From the time we were children we had to learn this lesson: You can't play hopscotch by yourself. You can't jump rope by yourself. You can't play hide-and-go-seek by yourself. All the games we played as kids were more fun when shared with others. It's always better when you share the experience with someone else. Don't lose the concept that you learned in childhood now that you are an adult and want to get into the money aspect of your life. Don't lose that simple principle of sharing. Don't stop playing together now.

I love the game of golf, but you can't learn how to play golf and then go out and play it by yourself every day. Golf is a great game where you get to enjoy camaraderie, engage in competition, spend time with family and friends, and enjoy some of the most beautifully landscaped places that you will ever see. That's what makes golf amazing to me. It's better on the course with somebody else in my cart. I can turn to one of my buddies and ask him to take a picture of me. It is important that you share your success and enjoyment with someone in your life. What good is it to see beautiful scenery if there's no one to see it with you? Every great moment in life is better when shared.