Confidence -
There are people in my life who drip of confidence. They supremely believe that they are qualified and capable in almost every situation. Over the years, I've gotten to know these kinds of people better and have been amazed at what I learned. They typically aren't any better than anyone else just more confident. Maybe I haven't met the right person to dispel this but it's my experience so far.

It reminds me of a study where school kids from different countries were tested. The Americans thought they did very well, the Japanese thought they did ok. When the test results were calculated the Japanese did significantly better than the American school kids. Is this really what we are teaching our kids??? Do they really need a trophy for 253rd place?

If one of my children do well, I brag about them and praise them. If they don't do well, I try to encourage them to try harder or practice more or give them advice. I certainly don't lie to them and say..."great job". Don't know about you, but my kids are way too smart to believe that kind of lie.

Recently my son, Griffin, graduated preschool. Yes, you heard me correctly...graduated preschool. I guess, the intense rigours of preschool demand a ceremony celebrating. You didn't beat any girls with blocks or run over the teacher's foot with your tricycle so you can graduate. Am I the only person who thinks it's crazy to graduate from preschool????

This false confidence thing that we breed in our children is wrong. When they go out into the real world and when they have a real boss, things will be tougher for them.

Over the weekend I had dinner with a friend of mine who is a die hard talk radio and Dave Ramsey fan. I told him my whole "Dave is half right routine". He wasn't convinced that Dave was 100% right either but he did say Dave recommends a book called "48 days to the work you love" by Dan Miller. So apparently Dave Ramsey realized that his plan wasn't complete just dealing with finances.

Your career affects people much more than they imagine. It affects who some of your friends are, it affects your family and it affects your attitude. When I've been in a tough work environment it's very difficult to keep from firing that same attitude at my family. Now that I work from home, they are my "co-workers" and I love them. During the summer the kids can interrupt me quite a few times but that happens in a regular work environment as well. Plus hugs aren't frowned upon when you work from home!

Latest Updates -
I've been working on my site, http://www.ComicBookGeeks.com lately. Although you can't tell from the front page of the site a lot of work has gone into it. We are trying to automate the statue area so that collectors can get an accurate value of their statues before buying or selling them. Making an automated price guide is tough...trust me on this one.

I've heard several people at my church, online, in my group of friends talking about Dave Ramsey. From one point of view I agree with him, spend less, you don't need a fancy car, cut back, budget your money, pay things off early. Those things make sense to me. I've done some of those things with success. I don't have a personal credit card only a debit card. I have very little debt. I have a rainy day fund. Those things are all good.

My issue with Dave Ramsey is that he doesn't talk about making more money, specifically automated money. Why not? Why not make more automated money. Don't exchange your precious time for a measly paycheck, automate your income. How?

Well, you can make a membership site about something you care about. Me and Jim Cockrum have one on eBay and one on how to make websites. I'm working on making ComicBookGeeks.com into a membership website as well. The money from memberships comes in whether I work or whether I play with my kids. 3 separate income streams from membership sites is my goal for this year.

Another thing you can do is to write an ebook. (an ebook is a book that is only in digital (pdf) format) So you can exchange the time to write the book for years and years of potential income. That is a great use of your time. Plus you don't have to get the approval of any editor to publish it. If you have a great idea and some writing skills you can accomplish this one.

A third way to make automated income is to build website that generate affiliate money. For example you could easily make a wordpress site about landscaping and be an affiliate for gardening supplies. An affiliate program typically earns 3 to 50% of the sale, so look for items where the affiliate payout is big. Once again you are exchanging a little time for years of potential income.

Be smart people don't mindlessly follow the crowd.