WING TIPS

If you have been following this offering for the past several months, you know that I have a new book out entitled The Flight to Excellence: Soaring to New Heights In Business and Life, which you can order from Amazon by clicking the link at the bottom of this letter.

Yes, I am biased, but I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a system to build a culture of excellence in your business and life that ultimately leads to success and wealth; however you choose to define it.

The book describes the P4 System, which I and others have used to navigate through the turbulence of life to get to some fantastic places. The first P is for Principles, the foundational P. You must have the right principles, or nothing else matters, and your principles must be aligned. So, what does alignment mean?

A Homonym

The word principle is a homonym which means it sounds the same and is spelled the same but can have different definitions. A principle can be your conduct or your ethical standard. It can also be a general law or fundamental truth, like gravity. You lay the foundation for a culture of excellence when your personal principles align with the principles of fundamental truth. Let’s use money as an example.

Some of the fundamental truths associated with money are:

1. The power of compound interest.
2. The Rule of 72, which is how fast your money will double at a given interest rate.
3. The fact that the average stock market return has been over 10% for the past 95 years.

If your principles are spending and consuming, they won’t align with the fundamental principles of money. If your principles are relative frugality, saving, and investing, you align with the fundamental principles of money, and you are pretty much guaranteed to be a millionaire.

Tax Auditor

Anne Scheiber was a small Jewish woman who lived in NYC. She worked for the IRS as a tax auditor and never made more than $4,000 a year. Anne was smart and worked hard but never received a promotion, most likely due to sexism and antisemitism. She learned the principles of money by auditing rich people’s tax returns. Anne was also frugal, living in the same one-bedroom apartment until the end of her life, and believed in saving and investing. When she passed in 1995, she had a portfolio valued at $22 million, or about $38 million today. Her principles around money were in alignment, and it made her a great philanthropist for women’s education.

Anne’s example demonstrates alignment around money, but the same principle applies to relationships, health, and wellness, indeed, every aspect of life. When your principles align with the fundamental principles of life, you build a strong culture of excellence which ultimately leads to success and wealth; however you choose to define it.

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‍A QUOTE TO CONSIDER

“With the right alignment, everything you want makes its way into your experience. You are the keeper of your own gate.”

-Esther Hicks