Friday, September 16, 2016

7 Nuggets for Entrepreneurs

7 Nuggets for Entrepreneurs

Why have you surrendered your dreams so you can live a mundane life?


1.      What we lack is faith not knowledge.
2.      Creation is the highest form of achievement.
3.      Everything becomes easy when you are inspired.
4.      Learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.
5.      Don’t ask for easy life ask for an exhilarating journey.
6.      The safest route to the life of your dreams is the entrepreneur’s route.
7.      Security today is only found in voracious learning and high quality thinking.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets.          

Be blessed and be a blessing to others
Carlos Fontana
Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."
"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Robbing our own children

Robbing the children

Yes, our society is robbing from our children. We are compromising the future of our children by leaving them an astronomical debt burden. The debt inheritance is a topic for another day. Today I will focus on robbing our children by overprotecting them, preventing them from the necessary struggles so they can achieve their own victories. We are not helping our children by overprotecting them, be it from physical scratch to hurting their feelings. Life will hit them hard if they do not learn to deal with things while under our parenting and guidance. The difficulties that come while we are growing up must be accepted as ways to get us ready to live a real life, a fulfilling life. Ultimately, difficulties come to prepare us for our final dwelling place, a place of total freedom. Here are 10 things I learned from my parents, formally uneducated but wise parents, specially my dad that served me well to deal with carrying my cross through life. Have you reflected on your life to come up with a similar list? Do you have a list for the things you are passing on to your children? What is your legacy going to be?


1.      Discipline. It is a lot easier not to discipline our children when they are young but there is a high price for them to pay later in life. If we don’t do it while they are young the world will do it later, and it can have lifelong consequences. Warriors are not born, they are made. Have you ever encountered a warrior without self-disciple? Good luck finding one.

2.      Hard work. Learn to work from a very young age. Chose the hard life early on and life will get easier and easier. Work habits must be instilled very early in life. Work becomes joy when it is directed towards worthy goals and dreams. We are robbing our children from their goals and dreams if we do not teach them to start working while they are young.

3.      Respect for others. Be nice to everyone. It does not cost you a dime and the rewards are incredible. When you respect everyone as a child of God you will start earning their trust.

4.      Respect for money. Those that don’t respect little money will not respect big money. If you don’t care about one cent you will not care for one million. What really matters is what you do with what is left. Be a great steward of money and money will multiply as a powerful tool to help you do lots of good with it.

5.      Early rise. There is something powerful about rising early, breathing that fresh morning air. Get to bed early to get enough rest.

6.      Health. Never skimp on good meals. Health is not the place to be stingy.

7.      Friends. Choose your friends wisely. Hang around people that challenge you to make you better.

8.      Planning. Life is unpredictable and fragile. Uncertainty is certain. We might as well expect the unexpected and deal with it head on.

9.      Courage. Courage is the currency of warriors. Courage is necessary for the achievement of anything worthy of securing. Go where other don’t dare to go. If you just follow the crowd, do what they do, you get what they get, not much.

10.  Sacrifice. Sacrifice is not a bad thing. Sacrifice leads to the production of sacred things. Always be ready to help those in need. Encourage them to endure their treacherous journeys. We all have our cross to carry. Understand the circumstances that led you to your cross. Don’t whine about it. Your greatness will come from your struggles. Blessed are those who carry their burdens and the burdens of others by sharing all burdens with Christ who makes all things possible. 



Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets.          

Be blessed and be a blessing to others
Carlos Fontana
Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."
"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."


Friday, September 2, 2016

When the ends don’t meet

When the ends don’t meet
Why the ends are no longer meeting? Here is a healthy dose of brutal reality. People are taxed until death, living a lot longer, and the government loves you for that. Government officials are laughing all the way to their banks. You have heard the saying that two things are certain, death and taxes; it is truer today than ever before.

1.      Increased Taxation. Since 1913 when the government got the power to tax citizens directly, there has been a dramatic increase in the number and level of taxation. Income tax (federal, state, local), property tax, sales tax, gas tax, energy tax, communication tax, tax, tax, tax, …, and a lot more tax. When is it enough? Never. Thank God there is an end to life; there is no end to taxation. There is death tax too. As president Reagan used to say - there we go again! Change is needed, but before it happens, the government by the elite for the elite, that are taxing their people to death, must be dethroned.

2.      Inflation. The hidden tax. Governments love inflation. Government prints more fake money to keep more people in poverty. No wonder people are struggling. In the last 15 years real wages real wages for Americans have gone down 8% while the cost of staying alive went up 43%. Imagine losing half of your purchasing ability in just half a generation. Our president just used another executive order to give the military a 1.7% pay increase. The military raise is lower than the private sector raise for the fourth consecutive year. Then, feels he is entitled to an 18% increase in his pay for perpetuity!

3.      Debt and Interest. When the ends don’t meet, banks have a solution for you. Debt is now the modern, voluntary form of slavery. Imagine the average person slaving away working extra time, extra jobs, to service the debt. Instant gratification ends up costing your freedom.

4.      Increased Life Expectancy and More Unhealthy Care. Technology is helping people live longer. No wonder the government wants to control the healthcare industry as well. It is a monster industry. The government is telling us that they know best how to care for us. If you buy into that you definitely believe a crooked female politician ought to become our next president.

5.      Social Insecurity and No Pension. Social security and pensions were never created to be relied totally upon.  Yet, the majorities of people believes and are relying upon them. Government then created 401Ks and other retirement plans so we can manage the money for them. Not so bad idea if you are the government and the banks.

6.      Re-tire!  Retirement was created in the industrial age to convince people to get into doing unpleasant jobs in exchange for a promise of being taking care of in their golden years. The industrial age is gone, and with it goes the retirement promise. Get used to the idea of never re-tiring. Learn to do something you love, get good at it, and do it until the day you die; that way you will not have to get tired again! Get into creative leisure and you will love what you become.


7.      Solution - Entrepreneurship. Security is no longer where it used to be. Security used to be found in a safe and secure job (where are they?), with great benefits, with a great company that is loyal to its employees (got pink slip?). Now is the time to wake up and smell, and drink, the coffee. Count on no one. Invest in yourself. You are the best asset. Build the right kind of assets that generate the right kind of income. Drastic global economic changes are coming. As an entrepreneur you will be prepared to deal with the new reality. Despite all the above, the burdens placed upon them, Americans are the greatest people on earth. Americans refuse to give up. They continue to be inventive, tenacious, and ingenious to build enterprises that benefit the world. Americans are who they are and do what they do because the nation was created to be the greatest nation, a land guided by Godly principles where anyone with a dream can achieve what they set their minds and hearts to achieve, despite the hardships placed on them by their own government. And that my dear reader is the chief reason why so many foreign people want to come to America. America is a place where one can temporarily suspend reality, dream big and still believe that things are possible and our Creator is on our side.


When ends don’t meet we become negatively stretched and stressed and energy is wasted. When ends meet we tolerate life and settle for the mundane. When ends overlap we become strong and free to pursue something much greater than ourselves.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets.          

Be blessed and be a blessing to others
Carlos Fontana
Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."
"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."