MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom (91 page)

11. What actions can you take today to start investing like the .001%?

Step 7: Just Do It, Enjoy It, and Share It!

1. Your Hidden Asset:

a. Have you connected to the truth that the future is a magnificent place?

b. It will be filled with exciting challenges. Opportunities and problems are always there, but are you clear that there is a wave of technology that is going to continue to innovate and empower us as individuals and enhance the quality of life for human beings all over the earth?

2. Have you given yourself the ultimate gift—the commitment to be wealthy now, not someday in the future—by appreciating and developing the daily habit of priming your appreciation of what you already have and building on that success?

3. Would you trade expectation for appreciation? And have you committed to a life of progress?
Progress equals happiness. Life is about growing and giving.

4. Have you figured out what you’re here to serve and what the higher purpose is for your life? Have you begun to think about your legacy?

5. Have you decided to convert your pocket change into massive change in the world? If so,
go to
www.swipeout.com
now, take one minute, and start the process of saving lives while you enjoy your own.

6. Are you embodying the truth that makes you wealthy in this moment: the secret to living is giving?

This is a quick overview checklist for maximizing the pages you’ve read. If there’s anything you’ve missed, give yourself the gift of going back and absorbing it and also remember,
repetition is the mother of skill. Action is where all your power is found.

So, my dear friend, come here and know that you’re not alone. You can tap into your own resources, or I’ve also made a ton of support resources available here as well: the website, the app, Stronghold, Lifetime Income, and America’s Best 401k. But whatever you do, make sure you take action and make sure that the people guiding you have your best interests in mind. Finding the right fiduciary is the place to start. The right one can help you create or refine your plan.

This list is not everything; it’s just a great checklist to trigger you to keep growing and keep implementing. Remember that
knowledge is not power, execution is.
Just make a little bit of progress each day or each week, and before you know it, your path to financial freedom will be realized.

I look forward to meeting you in person someday soon. Until then, step up, keep moving forward, master the game, and live with passion.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When I sat down to make note of all the individuals for whom I am so grateful, I was completely overwhelmed. I had just finished writing a 600-plus-page book! But acknowledging everyone who had helped get me here still stood as a daunting task. Where would I ever begin? Sitting here, this undertaking feels most like something you would see at the end of a movie: hundreds of names scrolling and key scenes flashing in tribute to the superstars. So many people have played so many roles to get me to this deeply fulfilling moment.

As I review the 4-year journey—and, frankly, the 30 years that led me here—I see the faces and feel the grace of so many extraordinary individuals. I won’t be able to acknowledge them all, but I’d like to start close to home with the people who have touched my life most deeply.

First, my family. Of course, this begins with the love of my life, my magnificent wife, Bonnie Pearl—my Sage. “My girl.” She’s the never-ending source of the joy and happiness in my life. I feel that SHE is the ultimate reward for the “good karma” that has come from serving tens of millions of people over the decades. She tells me she was born to love me, and all I can say is that God has truly blessed me with the love of this beautiful soul. To her parents, Bill and Sharon—Mom and Dad—thank you for creating and raising this amazing woman. You have provided me with the greatest gift of my life: your daughter, the greatest source of love I’ve ever known or could ever even imagine. Thank you for all the love you poured into her, and for loving me as your own. You both live lives of such real true contribution, and you both inspire me every single day. My dear brother-in-law Scotty (who is really my brother) for his warrior-like courage and his constant focus on raising standards and making sure that we’re able to reach out and serve more souls. And to each of my four children, Jairek, Josh, Jolie, and Tyler, who in every stage in my life have brought me inspiration, love, and a reason to be more. I also give thanks to the grace of our creator. And for my passionately intense mother, who imparted extraordinary standards, and the four fathers who each impacted my life uniquely. To my brother and sister, Marcus and Tara, and all of my extended family, I love you.

To my core team at Robbins Research International that allows me each day the privilege to explore, integrate, constantly create, test, and retest new insights, tools, strategies, and pathways to improving the quality of people’s lives worldwide. To Sam Georges and Yogesh Babla—my confidants who look out for me and all of our companies while I’m traveling the globe. To my dear friends and protectors Mike Melio and “General Jay” Garrity. To Shari, Rich, Marc, Brook, Terri, and all the rest of our amazing, loyal, and mission-driven executive staff. To my outstanding creative team—especially the remarkable manager and creative partner Diane Adcock—you are amazing, and our bright light Katie Austin, I love you. To all personnel at San Diego HQ and far beyond who work with me every day across departments at RRI and all our partners that make up the Anthony Robbins Companies. Thank you to each of you for all that you do in our quest to constantly work to create breakthroughs for people in their business, finances, health, emotions, time management, and personal relationships. We are here together to change lives. We are called to rise up. We drive Financial, Business, and ultimately Human Elevation. We are catalysts of the spirit—this is the gift we are all made for. I feel so fortunate to work with you as we help make a difference in people’s lives all over the world! Extra special thanks to our volunteer staff and all of our crew—and especially our road warriors, who travel the earth making everything happen behind the scenes. Our events could not happen without you, and our entire team is grateful for the gifts you give. Also thanks to all the wives and husbands who loan out their family to us as we span the globe and to Joseph McLendon III, Scott Harris, Joe Williams, Michael Burnett, Richard and Veronica Tan, and Salim for providing the leverage to touch even more lives worldwide.

My life has been powerfully shaped by deep friendships with four brilliant men. To my dear friend and brother Paul Tudor Jones, I thank you for more than 21 years of being a role model of how to find your way to victory no matter how big the challenge! The only thing greater than Paul’s legendary trading ability is the depth of his love and generosity. He is a soul driven completely to make a difference in the world; and he does every day. To Peter Guber, who has been one of my dearest friends in life, and a creative force of nature whose generosity also knows no limits. Peter, you constantly inspire me to see what’s possible! Thank you for all the laughter, your coaching, your love, and the privilege to be your friend throughout the decades. To Marc Benioff, my brother on the path. Your amazing mind, you unconquerable heart, your constant innovation in business, and your remarkable philanthropic efforts excite me and millions of others entrusted to uphold the standard you’ve set so successfully and continue to sustain at
Salesforce.com
. I’m proud to partner with you in changing lives. I love you, man. To Steve Wynn, thank you for your love and for being an impeccable, brilliant creator that nothing on earth can stop! You truly are a genius, and yet so humble. You’re always looking out for those you love. The way you take a vision and turn it into reality excites everyone around you. To be your friend is such a gift. Each day I spend with you is another day I am inspired to take my game to another level.

Through my events and appearances, I am afforded the opportunity to meet hundreds of thousands of people each year who have touched my life. But this book, at its core, was uniquely shaped by a group of more than 50 extraordinary souls whose insights and strategies have touched me and all those who will read these pages. To those who shared their time and life’s work in our interview sessions, I am eternally grateful. To Ray Dalio, for the unique gift you gave in this book by providing the average investor with an “all-seasons” investment approach based on the insights of the genius of your famous “All Weather” strategy. Ray gave us the gift of a simplified system that creates what, at least historically, has provided investors the smoothest possible ride over the long-term financial path. The value of Ray’s “secret sauce” is beyond measure, but just one reflection of his inherent generosity.

To Jack Bogle, for investing 64 years of his life and having a relentless focus on what’s right for the investor: your commitment to create index funds has changed investing as we know it for everyone in the world. Thank you for giving me four hours in what proved to be one of the most raw, honest, and insightful interviews that I’ve had the privilege to participate in. To T. Boone Pickens, for being the absolute epitome of honest American individualism and cowboy courage. To Kyle Bass, for showing us all that massive rewards do not require massive risks. To Sir John Templeton, bless his soul, for the many decades he inspired me with his insights that in times of “maximum pessimism” we are offered our greatest opportunities. To Marc Faber, for his always-innovative investing advice and, most of all, his exuberance. To the fearless Carl Icahn, for his unbridled boldness, courage, and passion—for challenging the status quo and bringing extraordinary returns for your investors. To Mary Callahan Erdoes, the trillion-dollar woman from J.P. Morgan, for being such an extraordinary example of the power of servant leadership, and for modeling how we can all be extraordinary in business and yet still so connected to what really matters most.

To all the extraordinary, insightful academics and businessmen and businesswomen. From Nobel laureates like Robert Schiller and Harry Markowitz to Dan Ariely (MIT) and the tandem of Shlomo Benartzi and Richard Thaler, whose Save More Tomorrow allows individuals to get around the cognitive and emotional limitations that most human beings find themselves entrapped by. To Dr. David Babbel, your focus on lifetime income and your living example helped shape a big part of this book. Burton Malkiel, you are a treasure to this country. Your original focus on indexing set the stage for a world of financial choice, and your straight talk is a bright spot in a sometimes dark and murky financial world. To Alicia Munnell (Boston College), Teresa Ghilarducci (New School), Dr. Jeffrey Brown, and Dr. David Babbel (Wharton): thank you for your astute insights into our retirement system—you are revolutionaries. To Steve Forbes and to Harvard professor and former secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, for giving us two hours of extraordinary and lively debate—showing us all an “across-the-aisle” look at how we got here and what America needs to do to turn things around. To David Swensen—the rock star of institutional investing—for opening Yale’s sacred doors and allowing me to share in his extraordinarily effective investment approach, but, more importantly, for standing as a shining example of how our labor is a reflection of our love. His work is a gift and his constant personal focus on what he can give touches me to this day.

To Warren Buffett, for forging the way for us all. Thank you for being such a straight shooter. While I would have loved to have spent more time with you, the brief meeting we shared on the
Today
show struck a chord deep within. When the Oracle of Omaha says that indexing is the way, it leaves very little room for argument!

To Elliot Weissbluth, for his willingness to take on this challenge far before the subject was ever breached. You’ve worked to bring true transparency and conflict-free advice to the wealthy, and now you shoulder a crusade to democratize opportunities for the average individual investor regardless of his or her economic capabilities. Elliot is a real example of integrity, courage, and intrinsic commitment to do what is right. Thank you for your partnership.

Thanks to all those who provided interviews, or who gave of their time at my Platinum Partnership Wealth Events, and for those who have shared your insights over the years and who have served as examples of what is possible—you all inspire me, and your wisdom is echoed in these pages in so many different ways.

Thanks and gratitude to my dear friend John Paul DeJoria (who once lived out of his car, too!). Thanks to the maverick Marc Cuban, to Charles Schwab, Sara Blakely, Reid Hoffman, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Feeney, Evan Williams, Peter Lynch, Ray Chambers, David Walker, Eddie Lampert, Tony Hsieh, Tony Tan, Michael Milken, Mark Hart, Mitch Kaplan, Luca Padulli, Harry Dent, Robert Prechter, Michael O’Higgins, Jim Rodgers, James Grant, Eric Sprout, Mike Novogratz, Stanley Druckenmiller, George Soros, Sir Roger Douglass, Domingo Cavallo, Daniel Cloud, Geoffrey Batt, Joshua Copper Ramo, Russel Napier, Emad Mostaque, Dr. Donny Epstein, Tom Zgainer, and, of course, Ajay Gupta! Special thanks to Adam Davidson, Alex Blumberg, and Helen Olin for the insightful views of what is unjust and what can be done with the crazy, connected, and volatile financial world that now dominates all our lives.

My deepest thanks to my partners at Simon & Schuster, who moved heaven and earth to meet this insane timeline. I was so committed to getting this book out, and the size of it grew geometrically as I interviewed more and more of the world’s greatest financial minds. First to Jonathan Karp, president and publisher, for his vision and willingness to support me on this endeavor, and for spearheading the Simon & Schuster team that helped us edit and publish this beast in record time—we must have broken some kind of record. And it could only have been done with the help of the editors: Ben Loehnen and Phil Bashe.