All Talk, No Action

It is amazing to me that knowledge can exist in two distinct forms:

1. Theoretical knowledge

2. Experiential knowledge

Of course, the world is chock full of theoretical knowledge. This is what they fill our heads with while we are in school. It is an avalanche of facts and figures about things that we may or may not care about. They are mostly true, but not contextually relevant. He have no frame of reference for why we should care about these things. 

Experiential knowledge is what we learn from doing. We gather information based on the feedback we gain from our experiences in the real world and formulate theories based on this feedback. These theories are incomplete as they are biased towards our own frame of reference and usually are tainted by emotions and prejudices. We may not have enough experience to put our results into the proper context, therefore we are prone to derive incorrect assumptions.

Learn then Apply

The best scenario is to learn the theories and apply them to the real world. Read a book about investing and then go and invest. Then you have the best of both worlds. You will be well equipped to make mostly good decisions from the theory, but you will need to get your hands dirty in order to truly understand the point of the theory. You must make a few mistakes and see a few ideas come to fruition in order to appreciate where the theory originated from and why it is the way it is.

Blindly doing without having done your homework ahead of time is going to teach you things, but trial and error is not the most efficient use of your time. If you learn from other peoples experience you can save yourself a lot of heartache and avoid the pitfalls that may arise in the process of trying and receiving real-world feedback.

Also, reading books and taking courses will give you knowledge but that knowledge is useless unless you apply it. There is no substitute for action. You need to actually do something in order to move forward. The whole “Law of attraction” philosophy is only as effective as your willingness to participate in the manifesting of your desires through massive action towards your goals. If you visualise a desire, the universe will appreciate it if you help out. As Dr. Phil once said:

“The universe don’t drive no parked cars”

So theory is like a roadmap. It shows you possibilities and the general direction to can take to get to where you want to go, but you still must actually drive there and take in the scenery as you go. You will have direct experience of the trip and will have made a mental “map” of the journey, but you also know how that route fits into the grander scale. You know that the alternate route exists even though you didn’t take that particular road, and you see why the first hand experience you had to avoid the scenic route, or bypass a particularly congested road.

My books, courses and articles are theory. They are a roadmap to financial success. You may read my books or take my course but they will be nothing but light reading if you don’t take action and try the methods outlined within. You need to actually do it. And my “theories” are just some of many that exist out there in the universe. There are many “roadmaps” to financial abundance, yet none are helpful at all unless you apply them. 

Reality vs. Ideas

In my own journey towards financial freedom I read hundreds, if not thousands, of books about wealth, investing, real estate, and economic theory. I could speak to anyone who was willing to listen for hours about money, finances and wealth building. I had a ton of theory but no practical experience. The issue there was twofold:

1. I did nothing. Therefore my knowledge was useless. And I went nowhere financially.

2. I didn’t REALLY understand or appreciate the profound nature of some of the ideas I had read about.

Example - Multiple Streams of Income

I read dozens of books, mostly by real estate guys, that spoke about multiple streams of income. It was an interesting idea, and it was easy to grasp the concept, but it seemed like something that other people did. It didn’t really make any sense to me at the time.

As I meandered down the winding path towards financial literacy and actual financial abundance, I slowly built up a few different streams of income; most were small but steady. As these streams of income grew I began to take them seriously. Over time, they became not just cool ideas, but real-world bank deposits. I saw the money coming into my bank account regularly and in larger and larger amounts. Then something crazy happened…

I lost my job. 

I was laid off from my cushy, well-paying job and was suddenly unemployed. This was the first time in 30 years of working that this ever happened to me. It was scary and upsetting at first. My wife and I sat down and went over our finances. As much as we did not like the sudden drop in our income, we realized that the money coming in from our investments and side hustles was making the situation a whole lot easier. We would not starve to death. Yes we were going to have to tighten our belts until I could find another job, but we were not desperate. In fact, we even considered that I may not even have to go back to work as I could possibly just focus on growing my investments and other businesses. 

This situation would spell disaster for many people who rely on JUST their salary to get by. By having multiple streams of income, I was able to make a bad situation tolerable. I was able to navigate a storm that could have otherwise been disastrous. 

The “concept” of multiple streams of income was just an interesting idea until I was able to receive the full impact of it in my own life. This “idea” now had a profound effect on my life. This was no longer theory, it was a magnificent reality. I had absolutely no way of knowing how significant and life changing this idea could be until I implemented it in my own life. The reality of multiple streams of income was a thousand times better than the concept ever was. 

So I encourage you to spend time learning as much as you can about money, investing, and financial freedom. We live in a world that is ruled by money and our well-being is intricately tied to our income level. I talk about this in my new book “We Can change the World - but there’s no money in it”. I encourage you to take in as much information as possible, but for a more tangible purpose..

YOUR LIFE.

Take action on what you learn. Be willing to make a few mistakes. Be patient enough to take it slowly. Your every day reality will change, and that will make your life change. You will really feel it. You will have a new perspective on things. 

Nothing beats the feeling of a real positive change in your real life. You can have that.

Learn..

Take action.

Repeat.

Happy investing.