The Business of Life is the Acquisition of Memories
We all want to live the fullest life possible. Let’s spend a few minutes learning how.
Standing the test of time
When I developed the course Achieving Your Dreams: A Complete Guide for Anyone to Live Their Best Life in 2019, my goal was to help others determine all they want in life and develop a plan to do that. It really is that simple. Periodically, I like to highlight other resources that support that effort. Today is one of those times where I go off script just a bit. Read on to learn more!
I felt confident that the principles I built the course on were solid and that anyone who took the course would benefit. Not only was I confident, but I knew the principles were solid, as I had lived by them for over 35 years by that time. They had survived the test of time, the most important determinant of any accomplishment in life. Since that time, I’ve continued to test the principles with excellent results. Depending upon where one is in life when one takes the course, in any of its forms, they will find they benefit. Anyone can learn important life lessons that will improve their lives. Why? So we can achieve our dreams and live our best life!
Leaving it all on the field
A good friend of mine, who is very successful at achieving his dream and living his best life, recently recommended a book to me. At first, I was a bit turned off by the title, but because I have so much respect for my friend, and he and I think alike anyway, I decided to buy it and read it. I’m glad I did! The purpose of this week’s post is to highlight that book and describe how it can be beneficial to you.
Diane and I recently returned from visiting my daughter in Germany (to see all the Christmas Markets!) and the flight from Frankfurt to Dallas was over 10 hours. I had time to read the book in one sitting, something I very much enjoy but don’t often have the opportunity to do. The name of the book is Die with Zero, Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins. While I occasionally like to poke fun at the term “experience“ (as in “How was your experience buying screws or how was your experience making a checking account withdrawal), which is all the rage nowadays, it’s the experience of living life to the fullest that is the theme of the book. Whether we want to admit it or not, this is what we all are pursuing.
I highly recommend buying and reading this book, and I will provide a link at the end of this post to help you do so. It will help you tremendously as you set your life compass and plan to live the most fulfilling life possible. Essentially, the author advocates leaving it all on the field, a concept I teach during the course. Leaving it all on the field is a term used in sports that means we give 100% of our effort, holding nothing back in our quest to succeed. Giving our full effort to any endeavor ensures we live our best life and don’t experience regret later.
The title of this post comes directly from the book, so I want to give full credit to Bill Perkins right up front. I encourage you to purchase the book because reading and following the principles outlined by Mr. Perkins will help you live your best life and is supportive of the concepts I teach at Afterburner Success Partners. I’ll highlight a few important points and terms to whet your appetite, and then I’ll make a few comments at the end where I’d like to, should I have written the book, “supplement” Mr. Perkin’s advice with a few concepts of my own. What is especially exciting to me is that reading this book reinforces what I am teaching at Afterburner Success Partners and aligns very well with the most successful self-improvement thought leaders of our day. So, buy and read the book, take the ASP course, and get on the path to living your life exactly how you want to!
Maybe dying with zero does not really mean dying with zero
There are two important points from the book that I would like to highlight right up front:
While the book's title is Die with Zero, the author does not advocate for passing this life with zero dollars. Like all of us, he recognizes this is impossible. As you read the book, you will understand his logic.
In the first pages of the book, in the Author’s Notes section, Mr. Perkins notes that the book is not for everyone, and it is most beneficial to those who have ample money, time, and good health to enjoy life to the fullest. He notes that those struggling to make ends meet are just not able to enjoy the benefits he eschews. I say good for him for acknowledging this, and there is still a lot of value in reading the book, which is why I recommend it, no matter your current station in life. However, I’m sure many of my readers don’t fit into that category, which is why I developed the course and Afterburner Success Partners to get you to the point in life where you can enjoy life to the fullest. So, if you don’t have all the money or time to enjoy life’s experience to the fullest now, go ahead and read Bill Perkins’s book. Then, immediately sign up for the course and read my book when it comes out.
Terms and concepts that may be new to you
What I’d like to do now is point out a few terms and concepts from Die with Zero that may be new to you and could be educational to you:
Consumption smoothing: Flattening our spending based upon the peaks and valleys of our income, as opposed to adjusting our spending on enjoyable experiences based on variable income.
Life energy: All the hours you are alive to do things. Life energy is the sum of the three things you need to enjoy your life to the fullest: Health, free time, and money.
Memory dividend: Essentially the value of an experience that will last a lifetime. An experience can be relived and enjoyed throughout your life, as opposed to trading life experiences for material possessions. Your life is the sum of your experiences. This is a key point, and in a moment of crisis, people quickly realize that material things can be replaced and memories are priceless. Mr. Perkins goes on to note that tech companies such as Google and Facebook are monetizing this concept. When was the last time you received a “memory photo” on your smartphone?
Invest in experiences: This is the gist of the book, that life experiences are rich and full and what life is all about.
Experience points: A numerical value assigned to life experiences. Rich experiences bring many points, small pleasures only a few. In either case, experience points can be tracked and graphed to either plan for or measure your success in living your best life (Note 1).
Return on experience: A play on the term return on equity that supports the author’s philosophy of experiences being more important than money or things.
Risk of inaction: This is just a huge concept that I fully embrace. I liken it to the terms “No decision is really a decision to do nothing” or “it just was not meant to be,” and it refers to missed opportunities that may not present themselves again. Inaction on important things we should be doing in life occurs daily and often goes unnoticed. I can point to several examples in the lives of those I know closely of the negative, lifetime effect (or consequences) of the right action not taken at the right time. Think about this one for a moment. Has not making a decision and letting an opportunity slip away from you hurt you? Would you even be able to recognize if it had? This could be one of those “Aha!” moments that we need to learn from
So that’s just a few of the interesting terms and concepts you can expect to gain from reading this wonderful book.
I might add a few things…
One of the things that upsets me in our great country today is that it seems that people with differing opinions cannot discuss, learn, and even enjoy hearing other’s thoughts and feelings. Everything is political; you are either one or the other, and that’s all your choices are. As I like to mention, we can learn from anyone if we open our minds to it. So, because we are different people, I have a few thoughts or values that either differ from Mr. Perkins’s, perhaps reflect our different upbringing or life experiences or he may have just chosen to be silent on.
Let me point those out, and you can be the judge. I mention them here because as you take the course, one of the things I advocate is living a very full life, just as Mr. Perkins does. However, I also think there are other important things in life besides our own individual pleasure, and that’s what I want to discuss here. I’m not saying Mr. Perkins may or may not believe as I do with these things; I’m just saying that while I very much support what he says in his book, I think there is just more to a life well lived than he outlines in his book. Here are my thoughts:
One of the concepts Mr. Perkins discusses is not taking money to the grave with you but using it for good while you are still alive. This could be giving to your children or a favorite charity. Who could argue with those concepts? Well, actually, I might have more to say on this in a bit. What I would like to add is that giving should include tithing. Tithing is not a popular concept in a lot of circles, but I happen to believe that our faith is ultimately the most important thing in our lives and the lives of others. Advancing the Kingdom of God through the support of His church is extremely important.
I’m not quite fully on board with the term consumption smoothing. This sounds wonderful in concept. Life for today and tomorrow will take care of itself. This is a bit out of the norm for established financial advice. Yes, some people can expect to make more over time as they progress in their careers. This is not the case for a lot of people who are stuck in dead-end careers. Living beyond your means to experience enjoyment today may come back to harm you later. Dave Ramsey would never advocate this, and I don’t think your financial advisor would either. I happen to believe delayed gratification is a key to lifetime success, and you will hear me mention it often. Will you still be able to add experience points later? Perhaps. What I think about are the unexpected events that could hurt. These include events such as COVID, recession (or even depression!), or world events beyond our control that could negatively affect us if we are not on stable financial footing.
Regarding giving money away to your children or others. Now, this one is going to get me in trouble. Guaranteed someone is not going to like it. So, what I’m going to say is what I believe, and that’s that. We are all free to have our own opinions. The reason I believe what I’m going to state is that I’ve seen it played out repeatedly and not in a positive manner. Here we go. Basically, I believe in the concept of teaching a person to fish, as opposed to giving a person a fish for a meal. Let me explain. The concept of “teaching a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime” is often associated with the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. This means that it is more beneficial to a person to learn to fish and provide for themselves for the rest of their lives instead of getting a meal that will satisfy for only a short time. In the Bible, Matthew 4:16-25 recounts Jesus’ walking along the Sea of Galilee. Seeing two fishermen casting their nets, he stated to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” In both cases, the important lesson is playing the long game, seeing the bigger picture, and not just satisfying the moment.
When you save and invest your money, you expect to get a positive return from it so you can enjoy or otherwise use it for good later. I believe the best thing we can do for others is invest our time and talents to help them improve themselves. So they can invest their time and talents to help others. This is what I refer to as exponential growth. It’s the growth we all want to experience. The fact is that some people and organizations just cannot, due to maturity or other factors, or will not use money that is given to them for good. Sometimes, often, the money is squandered, and the person or organization is worse off in the long run. Don’t believe me? It’s reported that as many as 70% of lottery winners are broke within a few years. How about government “investments” in things such as green energy or other social programs? How would you say that is working out for you? I don’t say these things to disparage anyone, just to make the point that oftentimes, giving money away is not in the best interest of anyone. Helping someone learn and grow is for a lifetime. Think about that for a minute and see what conclusion you come to.
So that’s it for this week. What a book! What powerful lessons!
What’s in it for Me
By taking this course, I am going to show you how to achieve your dreams and live your best life. It’s really that simple. And if you choose to die with zero, well, then that’s up to you.
Call to Action
Sign up for the next available course. Ensure you are signed up for the email list. Forward this email to your friends and family. Consider your dreams. Are they big dreams? Good! Are they achievable? Well, let’s not make that decision just yet because, as we’ve discussed, when you take tangible action to achieve your dreams, you can often exceed them. Sign up for the next available course today!
Recommended Resources
Besides the Die with Zero book (Note 1), there are two others I want you to buy and read this week. Both are by younger authors who achieved success early in their careers. They were part of the FIRE movement, which we will learn about later. The first book is Atomic Habits by James Clear. (Note 2). This has been on the best-selling list for as long as I can remember. Also, sign up to receive his blogs ( https://jamesclear.com/ ). The second book is Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier (Note 3). Grant will outline a step-by-step guide to achieving financial success early in life. There’s a little caveat here…Like Die with Zero, this is not for everyone, certainly not for me, as I advocate building wealth slowly. However, there are a lot of good lessons in the book that make it worthwhile to purchase, read, and add to your library. Sign up for his emails at https://grantsabatier.com
Up Next
The priority matrix.
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
Die with Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins. https://amzn.to/41RkD87
Atomic Habits by James Clear. https://amzn.to/4eOsC9w
Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier. https://amzn.to/4898WuN