Being wealthy is a 360-degree project: top to bottom, inside out, social environment to home environment. When it’s mastered, it can lead to an inner peace. It’ll lead you to emit radiance and increase productivity. We can get caught up in our lives from time to time and need a little change to wake us up again.
With the implementation of some small adjustments, you can find yourself in lifted spirits. By making small changes on the outside, you’re likely to experience a change on the inside. It’s that simple.
1. Exfoliation: Bye-bye old cells. Hello, new ones! While your skin does naturally shed dead cells on its own, you could make an event of it. Once you scrub away those dead cells, you’ll find your skin smoother and refreshing. A cleanser with microbeads or sugar is optimal for exfoliation.
2. Smiling: So simple that it seems ridiculous. However, studies show that smiling can lift your mood. It makes sense because your body will attempt to product what you perpetuate. Better to have your body perpetuate happiness than sadness.
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If you’re not aware of how powerful branding can work for you, maybe’s Rihanna’s achievement can show you the possibilities. By building an attractive image and powerful brand, she is now able to command money for appearances that many might deem as unnecessary. According to Black Voices, the popular singer is now able to command over $100,000 for her appearance at Fashion Week. This occurs more often than you think, especially with celebrities, athletes, and influential people. However, you’re not able to do this without the right reputation at hand.
Once you’ve attained a loyal following, the “going gets good” as they say. After you’re actually able to afford things, you shouldn’t really have to as ironic as it sounds. Free designer clothing is an example of a perk. Another example is paid appearances. That’s why if you’re an influential person, you should figure out how to capitalize off your branding. It’s not wise to continue spending money for clothing, not consider paid appearances, and ignore corporate sponsorships and in-kind donations for event hosting. So, once you’ve made significant strides in your wealth journey, it will be time to live off your brand and not your personal money.
While Rihanna does rake in the largest amount of money for her appearance in Fashion Week, the following list indicates that she is not alone. As a matter of fact, she’s in good company with some other powerful industry names. Check out the list of paid celebrities below for inspiration:
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Defeat can suck. However, if you adopt the right attitude, that defeat will only impact you for a moment before you move forward with action. It is often said that you can judge one’s character by the way they accept defeat. Therefore, we’ll provide 5 ways to confront defeat with grace:
1. Accept it: It happened. So what? You have the power to let it impact you for days or for a few hours or not at all. It happens to everyone hundreds of times throughout their life.
2. Learn from it: Instead of looking at losing as a failure, accept it as a challenge to better your craft. Competition should not be about others but yourself. You can opt to use the defeat to better or lose yourself. It’s your choice.
3. Moving forward: Set your sights on a new goal. As rapper Jay Z would say, move “on to the next”. Create new challenges for yourself. If you experienced a big defeat, set your sights on smaller goals until you complete the bigger picture. However, any accomplished journey comes from small steps, so keep moving.
4. Emulate: How have your role models/ idols dealt with defeat? There are many successful ways to cope with it. Discover the ways in which someone that you admire chose to handle their defeat. It’s likely that their solution could work for you too.
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It has been a rocky period for the stock market. Investors are more cautious than ever with the companies that they chose to invest in hopes to keep their investments safe. They are more likely than ever to conduct their due diligence on a company before investing. Companies are aware of this, so there have been an increased amount of desperate companies putting lipstick on their pig.
All hope is not lost. One should make sure to thoroughly read any earnings reports on potential companies before making the final decision. Investopedia notes that there are common signs to identify red flags hidden in earnings report.
5 Red Flags in an Earnings Report:
1. Friday News Release: Some companies will look to post their earnings on a day when they suspected there would be the least attention. Those days would usually follow on a Friday afternoon or after hours, ideally before a holiday weekend. This would force their investor’s reactions to at least be delayed and possibly changed over the span of the weekend.
2. Obscure Communication: If companies fill their reports with vague wording, this may be a warning sign. Investopedia notes a few words/phrases that may reveal a coveted meaning: challenging, “pressured,” “slipping”, “stressed”, and “sees a great deal of pricing pressure.” Also be sure to look thoroughly read the bottom of a earnings report as it is highly likely that the company has hidden crucial information there.
3. Exaggerating the Good: It’s understandable that companies want to share good news with their shareholders. However, sometimes they can cross that fine line between sharing and shoving. If you notice print highlighted in bold or in the headlines, make sure you still take the time to read between the lines.
4. A Rise in Stock Buybacks: Buybacks do serve as good PR for a company, but you should pay close attention to the timing of their actions. If they do so around a bad earnings report, it may just be an attempt to distract its investors.
5. Countering the Bad News with Good: This is a common trick many companies will use to entice investors after bad news has been reported on their earnings. They will attempt to advertise a potential merger, large customer account, product launch, or experienced executive staff additions.
*Updated Bonus: Check Jermaine’s addition in the comment section for another great sign of a hyped earnings report.
While some companies may attempt to pull out all the stops to cover up bad earnings reports, investors can still get the information that they seek upon paying close attention to the reports. With these tips in mind, you’re better prepared. With knowledge comes power.
When we seek to make a change in our lives, we often think to change our inner state. Taking care of our psyche and health is indeed important. Also, changing your circle of influence is also important. Remember, your income is probably a reflection of your five closest friends. However, that’s not the focus of our post today. It’s about the Power of Context.
The Power of Context, a concept of author Malcolm Gladwell, states that a person is greatly influenced by their surroundings or environment. Since it’s mostly subconscious reactions, we’re not aware of our subtle adaptations to our environment. However, fascinating predictions can be made based upon it.
Checking Your Environment
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It’s important to stay in tune with the needs of your customers. Otherwise, you may end up with a situation like Essence Magazine. Apparently, the magazine targeted towards African American women has gotten so out of touch with its consumers that they’re canceling their subscriptions at record levels. So what has happened? There’s a post on the Essence website (page link no longer working) from an employee that gives the details:
Dear sisters,
Low level Essence staff members and interns are being forced to go on this website and post supportive comments about this issue and Essence Inc. in general. Since this issue came out Essence has been getting hundreds of calls from irate subscribers. There have been more canceled subscriptions in the last week or so than in last quarter put together. Senior management believes if they can have it look as if support for the cover is evenly split than they can stop the bleeding so to speak. They believe changing the perception is critical.
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by Minority Fortune
The financial institutions in this country and around the world have been operating as unstoppable legions for quite some time. Regulations within the industry took a giant leap backward when the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in 1998. True colors were exposed in the midst of the current economic crisis where banks boldly demanded public bailout funds whilst exercising private interest. Now Obama has stepped forth with a new banking plan that promises to check banks unregulated greed. However, will it really save the day?
The Good
Obama’s banking plan offers to return regulation to the banking industry. Within the plan contains measures to prevent institutions from risky trading practices and getting too big. Furthermore, Geithner seems to think that the measure is too progressive and isn’t too gung ho about it. That’s the first step in a positive direction!
The Bad
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It isn’t a crime if your earnings are low. However, if your credit is bad and you have no savings, then the last thing you should be doing is paying big businesses all of your money. Yet, this is exactly what happens often in hardly wealthy families. They never keep their money and spend all of their power away. As a parent, you have to have the best interest of your child in mind and serve as a good model for them. After all, we don’t want the Teddy Riley Effect happening to you.
• Designer Clothing: We’ve seen families abound with infants in expensive shoes and name brand clothing. Meanwhile, the family lives in a low-income area.
• Lavish Christmas Gifts: If you can’t afford it, then you can’t afford it. People will blow their checks tenfold to get their children dozens of gifts. Growing up in an extremely poor area, we saw with our own eyes how parents would gift their children items and money totaling over $500 per child. Not smart.
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