So yesterday while I was enjoying a wonderful Father’s Day with my wife and daughters, I had a chance to catch the some of the back 9 of the U.S. Open Golf Championship on T.V.

If you didn’t get a chance to see it, you can surely read about it on any sports website. I won’t tell the whole story here as this is not ESPN.com! However, Tiger Woods who is arguably the best golfer ever to play the game proved why he is over the last 72 holes.

Even though being an internet marketer and a professional golfer are completely different careers, there is a great deal we can learn from and be motivated by in Tiger Woods. As affiliates, it is easy to listen to the negative people in your life or even your friends who tell you that something you’re trying to achieve is impossible. Look how many times Tiger has been completely out of a tournament going into the final round, and somehow defied the odds to come back for the win.

Here’s an example more pertinent to the real world though. Let’s say you only have $750 in your checking account today, no real assets, and a shitty rent payment every month. Is it truly impossible that you couldn’t be a millionaire in 3 years? No it isn’t! Do you think that the kids who started Youtube in their garage were balling out with Bentley’s and Rolex’s while they were developing the idea?

Here is a quote Tiger made several years ago:

“One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people’s expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about it.”
– Tiger Woods

Tiger was also once asked what his biggest challenge was, and this was his reply,

“That’s simple, to become a better person tomorrow.”

Tiger shows the same type of success traits on the golf course that many successful entrepreneurs have. He believes in his skills, and he puts 110% into everything he does in his trade. Tiger Woods who is a bazillionaire and could sleep in every day, retire, never practice again, and still continue winning majors, still wakes up every day at 5:00 AM to get on the putting green.

Tiger Woods is where he is at in the golf world today because of his relentless strive for excellence and passion for being the best in the world at what he does. There are very few people on this earth with the mental toughness and focus of Tiger Woods. Likewise there are not as many people as humble as Woods once they achieve success.

Everybody, even the PGA Pro’s want to golf as good as Tiger, but how many people actually work as hard as he does every day of every month throughout their life? The same goes in affiliate marketing. Everybody wants millions of dollars and to have 5 and 6 figure checks showing up each month, but how many of us are actually doing what it takes to EARN this type of affiliate income?

If you’re not quite where you want to be in your professional or even personal life right now, take a look at Tiger Woods approach to life and his career. None of us our going to be the Tiger Woods of our selected niche’s or markets over the next week, but you have to start somewhere.

Commit to make one change or do one thing different in your business this week. And lastly, if YOU don’t believe in your heart that you can be the best in the world at something, unfortunately you never will be.

Make it a great week!

For the longest time while I was learning the ropes and getting started in affiliate marketing, I always wanted a Black American Express card. I used to want the card for different reasons though, more so just to be able to say I had one. If you know anything about black American Express cards, then you know that they don’t just hand them out to everyone.

Now days however, the reason I wanted a black card is for the kick ass benefits involved with being a card holder. These are just a few:

• Dedicated 24 hour concierge service & travel agent.
• Free flight upgrades.
• Access to a whole list exclusive airline clubs throughout airports all over the world.
• Complimentary companion airline tickets 4 times a year.
• Hotel and car rental complimentary upgrades.

They’re are some other nice perks made available to members, but the ones above are the ones that entice me the most. Never in my life have I received a credit card that was packaged like the black card is. I will give American Express credit (no pun intended). They want the black cards to be percieved as the most elite card in the world, and the way they package them and treat you on the phone does just that.

Right on the box the card came in it says “With a level of service and degree of personal attention few people ever experience.”

The only downside to getting a centurion card is the up front fees as well as the annual fee. Not to mention that you have to spend $250K a year on the card to stay in the program. As a business getting to this level is not hard. For us it’s actually pretty easy with all the trade shows and international travel. To spend that kind of money personally though……..well, that could be fun.

Anyhow this is supposed to be the Monday Motivational post, so keep this in mind. Less than 10 years ago I was driving an ambulance making less than $30K a year. As far as website building skills or technical knowledge, I am still not very smart at it! The one thing I do have however is a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, and a tremendous drive to be successful in everything I do.

So to all the haters who thought I was chasing a pipe dream trying to “make money online” back in the day, this post’s for you………bitches!

The one principal I have always believed in is that you only have one chance to make big things happen in your life. Where you are at in life right now is not a dress rehearsal for something bigger to come later! The time to make things happen is right now.

So many people get stuck in the rut of saying, “Someday I will make it happen”, or “Someday I will do this or that”………. Well, what are you waiting for? Whether it be in business, or even something in your personal life, why wait?

Procrastination is the worst habit in the world and can essentially destroy your dreams and future if you allow it to. What if Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook) was lazy a few years ago and thought to himself, “Someday I am going to develop this new website and idea”, or if the founders of YouTube just put their fancy new website up, but then never worked to develop it or make it better?

Often times the problem isn’t even procrastination, it’s that people don’t dream big enough, or simply can’t envision big things happening in their lives.

Put yourself in the founders of these sites shoes back when they were literally nothing:

YouTube.com April 2005

Google January 1999

PokerStars October 2001

Many can argue that these people were just in the right place at the right time, but the fact of the matter is that they put themselves in that place! Sure, everyone wants to make millions of dollars and be ultra successful, but how many people actually put themselves in a position where this is even a possibility?

I am fortunate to know many people that have become extremely successful in business. And one trait all of these people have in common is that they do not procrastinate when it comes to making big things happen.

Right now we are at the beginning of a new month, and even better, the summer has finally arrived for those of us here in the States. If you are procrastinating about something, why not make a point to make this summer your best one ever. Let’s face it, none of us are getting any younger. Dream Big and make even bigger things happen in your life right now!

Make It A Great Week!

Throughout my career in the internet marketing industry, I have been fortunate enough to surround myself with other successful people. Many of these people are truly bonafide millionaires. I would not be where I am at today had I not learned from mentors and made sure that the people I associate with were also extremely successful. So tonight I was thinking about some of the lessons I have taken in from these people, and I figured I would share them here.

Although I have learned a ton from people much more successful than me, below are 5 things I have learned from being friends with people who are literally worth millions of dollars (aka certified ballers).

1. It’s better to have small equity in several things than big equity in one thing - This really comes down to diversification. You should never put all your eggs in one basket. The key to building wealth is being able to absorb the losses or failures with the big successes. If you’re diversified, one failure should never hurt your overall business.

2. Never spend your own money when there is venture capital or investors waiting in the wings - All the true millionaires I know have at one point leveraged other peoples money or utilized venture capital at some point to build their wealth. Think about it for a second, it makes sense. And it makes even more sense as an investor or VC when you can simply leverage your money on a great idea to give you a nice return for doing no work.

3. Surround yourself with, or hire other brilliant people who can make money for you - Very few of the multi-millionaires I know have done it as a one man show. Most have hired other successful people and simply pay them a salary or a % to make more money for themselves. If you’re “working for the man”, and generating a ton of revenue, then you may understand what I am talking about unfortunately. Most millionaires also are literally making money while they sleep courtesy of someone else’s work.

4. Leverage your existing money to make you more money - There is a truth to the saying that your first million is the hardest. Once you have millions of dollars you can diversify and spread it out to make you even more money. Hence you become one of the people in #2 making money while doing nothing, and growing your wealth just because you have the money to invest.

5. More Money, More Problems - Having multiple streams of income and businesses really creates a lot of chaos in your life. Although it may sound like fun to have your hands in multiple things, every day is a new day of dealing with “issues”. Although the money is great, living this type of lifestyle will never be a 9-5 job. If you want to be a millionaire you have to be willing to put in the hours and deal with all the daily annoyances that comes along with running multiple businesses.

I realize many people reading this blog are entrepreneurs and have ambitions to make millions someday. So these are just some of the real life observations I have seen from people that do make millions. Emulate it!