Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The Gentle Genius: Brian Tracy
Certain ability transcends time. People like Warren Buffett, Bette Midler, Morgan Freeman, Neil Young and Robert De Niro seem to get better with age. In the world of finance, a high intensity, high energy approach has dominated the game lately. Yelling while describing the hottest stock or coolest new investment seems to be what’s in. Despite this, there will always be a place for the legends and one of those legends is the gentle genius, Brian Tracy. I have been following Brian for over a year now and I am amazed by his style, prowess, and intellect. Brian doesn’t speak about confusing topics and he doesn’t come off as if he is in another world. He is smooth, elegant and easy to understand. He speaks to topics that help people achieve simple greatness. His thoughts on personal finance are what I will focus on today. In this post, I will describe what I like and don’t like about Brian Tracy. If you haven’t heard of him, I definitely think you should pay attention. Brian is one of the best at what he does.
Bio
Born: January 5th, 1944, Vancouver, British Columbia
Occupations: CEO, Chairman, Award-winning author
Brian started from humble beginnings to a working-class family who struggled to get by. He decided to break free, so he dropped out of school and began working manual labor until his 20’s. When he turned 20 he decided to travel and got in his car and went around North America. He then boarded a ship to England and traveled throughout Europe via bicycle. He traveled for eight years going through the Sahara Desert, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and then settling in Thailand for 2 years. During his lifetime he has been said to have traveled to over 80 different countries.
Brian practices and preaches his “No Excuses” philosophy, meaning he believes he is in charge of his destiny. His award-winning book of the same name has helped countless people realize their potential. He has authored over 60 books and has read over 6000 in his lifetime. He has spoken in front of hundreds of thousands of people on various topics including sales, finance, self-improvement, motivation, and growth.
What I like
There is so much I love about Brian Tracy. His main focus when it comes to better finances is improving one’s own outlook on money and the way you interact with it. I agree wholeheartedly with this as I also believe that how you view money will ultimately dictate how you spend it. Brian believes that much of our problems with money arise with our lack of self-discipline and inability to delay gratification. The concept of saving money is essentially the ultimate delayed gratification and to achieve financial freedom one must practice it. Brian believes heavily in frugality, of which I am a fan. It is through delayed gratification and frugality that saving money becomes a painless habit.
Other things I like about Brian Tracy:
1) Delay or defer important buying decisions
Brian believes that you should delay as long as possible important buying decisions. His reasoning is that by delaying you will make a better choice and in turn get a better price. Also by delaying you will learn to live without things that you may think you need. Over time you may realize that you don’t need it at all and end up saving by not buying it out of impulse. I have seen this in my life many times and practice it often.
2) Parkinson’s Law
This theory is that for most people, expenses rise to meet income and then surpass it. What that means is that no matter what you make you will always spend as much and sometimes even more. Brian believes it is all of our duties to break Parkinson’s Law in order to achieve financial freedom. You must obtain a set standard of living and not allow your expenses to rise with your income. It is because of this practice that you have people making well over 100K a year who are in massive debt, while others who make less than 40K a year retire happily with well over a million dollars. I fully agree as I have seen it many times in my life. Always live below your means and you will be wealthy indeed.
3) Long-Term Savings and Investing
Brian is a huge advocate of opening a long-term investment account that remains untouched. He calls this a “Special account for financial accumulation.” This account will automatically withdraw money from your bank account into it and be left alone to grow over time. He states that if putting away 10-15% of your money is tough to start, begin with 1-2%. Increase that amount as you get more comfortable and then soon enough you will be at the desired 10-15% range. You will learn to live off the rest instead of spending everything and not having anything left over to save. I have in the past called this money and account “Bye-Bye Money,” meaning say bye to it because it is gone, dead to you. This is the only way to retire comfortably, something Brian and I both agree on.
4) Pay Yourself First
Brian believes vehemently in paying yourself first. He believes that by taking money off the top of your paycheck and saving it before you can spend it, you promote frugal living. I am with Brian on this one as it is the “tax” you implement on your own paycheck that is solely for your financial future that will allow you to learn to live with less money. Soon, instead of trying to find ways to save extra money at the end of the month, you are learning to live with less. Frugality is essential to leading a healthy and wealthy lifestyle and is something Brian is all for.
What I Don’t Like
There is very little I don’t like about Brian Tracy. His calmness and soothing voice seem to relax me every time I listen to him. One thing that I think is less productive is that often time’s motivational speakers take a grandiose approach to solving problems. What I mean by that is that they often neglect the extremely tough situations that someone might be in. For instance, there are sometimes in people’s lives where a speech won’t solve a problem, like health issues or extreme poverty. Despite that, I do believe that Brian is of great value to anyone willing to listen to him.
My Grade – A
The “Pay Yourself First” method has been around for years. Living below your means has been as well. These are tried and tested theories that have stood the test of time and it is the Gurus like Brian Tracy that still fill out auditoriums with people eager to learn his secrets. It is no secret as he will describe. Self-discipline, frugality, forethought, and self-denial are the ways to financial freedom. Brian believes they will make you much happier in the end. I believe this too, one-hundred percent!
Thanks for reading my post today about one of my idols, Brian Tracy. Tune in tomorrow as I describe another Financial Icon as Guru Week at Budget Boss rolls on. If you wish to chat shoot me a message at joe@budgetboss.ca. Have a great day friends!
Brian Tracy Quotes:
“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”
“Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.”
“Your greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your time.”
Email – joe@budgetboss.ca
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