Leo Kanell

Category: top 1%

  • The Power of Belief

    The Power of Belief

    The last 6 months has been simply ludicrous in terms of the hoopla surrounding the 2016 presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and I think we can all agree that the results have been even more shocking. Even for those that supported Trump they were incredibly shocked at the results of the election on November 8th. That said and regardless of whether you support Trump or not there are some very important lessons to learn about the power of Belief.

    Be Unreasonable

    Whenever the media would ask Trump about the polls which showed he was losing substantially if he was worried or concerned his response would always be unreasonable in that he would not even entertain the thought, but would instead say things like we are doing very well in the polls or we’re going to win in Florida, Pennsylvania and make history.  Even the most ardent of Trump supporters had a tough time agreeing with those predictions because nearly all of the news and polling showed Trump losing nationally and in each of those states.  Due to the power of belief that Trump had in his mission to become president and the fact that he was completely unreasonable and nonobjective about his chances for winning there is no doubt that this connected with his voters in those rust belt states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    Feed the Belief

    Take an honest evaluation of your own belief in the goals and things you want to achieve with your life, when doubt creeps in to your mind or comes from those that love you and let’s be honest often times those that love us are the biggest naysayers and doubters of our goals and missions in life, so ask yourself do you entertain those doubts or are you unreasonable and do you feed your belief with consistently positive assertions that you WILL accomplish your goals?  The power of belief becomes powerful when each day we review our goals and write them down and continue throughout every day for weeks, months and years we feed in to those beliefs with constant positive affirmation and of course massive action towards those goals.  If you are a whiner, negative in any way or entertain doubt you will lose, if you refuse to give in to those doubts regardless of where they come from then success has a chance to enter your life!

  • Who are the top 1% in the US?

    Who are the top 1% in the US?

    So when we think of wealth (the top 1%)  in this country often we think of movie stars and professional athletes, sometimes we think of tech founders and often we think of wall street.  Wikipedia and government reports show that the top 1.5% of US households earn about $250,000 per year which according to many politicians is supposedly rich or on a path towards wealth.  So with that as the backdrop to the definition let’s jump in to what the top 1% of earners in the US are doing in order to earn that amount of income so as to join the well known 1%.

    An article from the Wall Street states this about the top 1%, “We know from other research that, by rough estimates, 90 out of 100 men and women reaching this income level are self-made with little to no inheritance.  Almost all have college degrees.  Men dominate the field, and almost all own or started their own business or work as an executive for a large business.”  So 90% of them are self made and almost all own or started their own business which of course is no surprise to me, often we think of celebrities and others well known in the media, but the vast majority of the top 1% of earners in this country are entrepreneurial business owners.

    In this world of value creation we are all compensated fairly or unfairly on how big of a problem we solve, for example:  if I’m hungry and go to a restaurant to find food, the restaurant employees may be compensated a small hourly wage because many people are able to solve that problem.  On the other hand if I need hernia surgery there are many fewer humans capable and instructed to be able to successfully perform such a surgery.  So if we want to join the top 1% then we need to be able to solve big problems.  The good news is that there are plenty of problems that you can solve without having to go to 8 to 10 years of college and another 4 years of 80 hour per week residency training.  In fact with the technology and spread of the internet it has never been easier to create a product or service that can be sold online to 1,000’s of potential customers and earn sufficient income to join the top 1% of earners in America.

    Bottom line if you wish to join the top 1% of earners in the US you need to create businesses that solve problems, those businesses can provide a product or service that solves problems, just to give you an idea of how easy it can be, a few years ago, in the early 2,000’s a guy was asked by his best friend who was getting married, to give a best man speech at his wedding celebration.  He had no idea what he was going to say, so he read some books and did a lot of thinking on the subject and gave an incredible speech.  Then he took everything he learned and put together an e-book for $19.99 and put it on a simple website.  He literally sold 1,000’s of that e-book, then he did one for the bride’s maids, mom’s, dad’s and others who had to give speeches at weddings, he did all of this with very little technical knowledge and even today continues to earn incredible money from this one e-book.  That one creation put him in the top 1% of earners.  So go and create!